Discussion

At 700 AM CDT (1200 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Two was located near latitude 28.6 North, longitude 85.6 West. The depression is moving toward the northwest near 3 mph (6 km/h). A slow northwestward motion is expected during the next day or so, followed by a turn toward the west-northwest or west. On the forecast track, the depression will move near or along the northern Gulf coast during the next several days.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual strengthening is forecast, and the depression is expected to become a tropical storm later today.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1006 mb (29.71 inches).

Watches and Warnings

CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY:

None.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for, * Ochlockonee River to the MS/AL border

A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, in this case in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Additional tropical storm watches or warnings will likely be required over the next day or two.

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

Land Hazards

Key messages for Tropical Depression Two can be found in the Tropical Cyclone Discussion under AWIPS header MIATCDAT2 and WMO header WTNT42 KNHC.

WIND: Tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area by tonight into Tuesday.

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

Indian Pass to Chassahowitzka, FL, 1 to 3 ft MS/AL Border to AL/FL Border, 1 to 3 ft Mobile Bay, 1 to 3 ft

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

For a complete depiction of areas at risk of storm surge inundation, please see the National Weather Service Peak Storm Surge Graphic, available at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?peakSurge.

RAINFALL: The tropical depression is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches with locally higher totals around 6 inches through Friday along the Gulf Coast and adjacent inland locations from western Florida to the Middle Texas Coast, including southern portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This rainfall may produce areas of flash flooding, especially in urban areas.

For a complete depiction of forecast rainfall associated with Tropical Depression Two, please see the National Weather Service Storm Total Rainfall Graphic available at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?rainqpf and the Flash Flood Risk graphic at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?ero.

SURF: Swells generated by the depression are affecting portions of the Gulf coast of Florida and are likely to spread westward during the week. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Please consult products from your local weather office.

A depiction of rip current risk for the United States can be found at: hurricanes.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?ripCurrents

State Attorney R.J. Larizza said Charles Legault pleaded no contest in May of this year to several charges, including making, possessing, throwing, projecting or discharging a destructive device resulting in bodily harm or property damage; carrying a concealed firearm during the commission of a felony; armed trafficking in meth; possession of meth with intent to sell; and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Legault was pulled over on Mosely Avenue by a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office deputy on April 5, 2024, and body camera video shows the deputy first smelling marijuana and then asking Legault if he could search the truck.

Seconds later, the deputy finds what he believes are drugs and drug paraphernalia.

RELATED: Man charged with possessing explosives following traffic stop that rushed Putnam County deputy to hospital

Legault, then, is asked to get out of the truck. He is searched and then told to stand at the front of his truck while the deputy searches the rest of the vehicle.

The deputy finds a handgun on the seat and more drugs. About 8 minutes and 45 seconds into the video, the chemical pipe bomb explodes in the deputy’s face as he continues to search for drugs.

The deputy struggles to breathe but manages to call for backup and place Legault into handcuffs.

The deputy’s uniform can be seen covered in a white chemical powder as he takes off his body armor. The deputy was taken to the hospital and treated for respiratory injuries.

Investigators later learned the PVC pipe bomb was filled with chlorine and brake fluid.

The bomb squad was called to the scene to clear the area of any other explosives.

Detectives later learned the defendant had intentionally assembled the device and was also armed with a suppressor, loaded magazines, and ammunition. In addition, a large amount of methamphetamine was found in Legault’s vehicle.

The next day, deputies raided Lagault’s house. They did not find any other bombs, but did discover more illegal drugs.

“The defendant is a very dangerous individual who will be off our streets for a long time,” Larizza said about the case. “It is a troubling reality that there are people out there who engage in such activities. Our communities are safe with his absence from the streets!”

The state average rose 19 cents per gallon early in the week before easing slightly over the weekend. Friday’s average of $3.96 per gallon was the highest daily average since early June. Sunday’s state average was $3.94 per gallon — up 12 cents from a week earlier, 26 cents from a month earlier and 84 cents from a year ago.

“Geopolitical tensions can create volatility in energy markets, and that’s exactly what drivers saw last week,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman for AAA — The Auto Club Group. “While prices eased slightly by the weekend, motorists are still paying significantly more than they were just a month ago. Drivers should expect prices to remain sensitive to developments overseas and fluctuations in the oil market.”

Market context

• U.S. crude oil prices have surged nearly 20 percent over the past two weeks, including a 16 percent increase last week.
• Oil settled at $82.49 per barrel on Friday, up from $71.41 a week earlier.

Regional averages (metro markets)

• Most expensive: West Palm Beach–Boca Raton, $4.10; Fort Lauderdale, $4.00; Naples, $4.00.
• Least expensive: Panama City, $3.70; Pensacola, $3.74; Crestview–Fort Walton Beach, $3.76.

How to conserve gasoline

• Combine errands to limit driving time.
• Drive conservatively; avoid aggressive acceleration and speeding.
• Remove excess weight; every 100 pounds can reduce fuel economy 1–2 percent.
• Shop for the best local prices using the free AAA mobile app.
• Pay with cash where retailers offer lower per‑gallon prices than credit cards.

AAA resources

• Find state and local averages at GasPrices.AAA.com.
• Use AAA’s Gas Cost Calculator to estimate trip fuel costs.
• Members who enroll in Shell’s Fuel Rewards program can save 30 cents per gallon on their first fill-up and 5 cents per gallon on subsequent trips.
• For vehicle maintenance to improve fuel economy, visit AAA.com/AutoRepair.

AAA updates fuel price averages daily at GasPrices.AAA.com using credit card transactions and direct feeds in cooperation with the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. All averages reflect a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.

And the concern is that it will escalate even further.

Osamah Khalil, an expert on the Middle East and foreign policy, joined us on The Morning show to discuss the fact that it’s not just a fight over the control of a waterway.

The big questions are whether there will be a wider regional conflict and whether there is a way out for either side.

A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a video statement that the maritime ban against Saudi Arabia will be effective immediately, describing it as an “equation of ‘an eye for an eye.’”

There were few details, but the deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab al-Mandeb strait will be closed in response to what he called Saudi Arabia's "unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years.”

Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the gateway to the Red Sea through which around 12% of the world's trade usually passes. A fourth of global container trade transits through the 32-kilometer (20-mile)-wide strait to and from the Suez Canal.

The Houthis earlier demonstrated their ability to disrupt shipping there when they targeted ships for months over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with over 100 vessels attacked. It is unclear whether the Houthis will resume that level of attack against neighboring Saudi Arabia.

There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia. The kingdom already faced pressure as it uses its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which remains in the grip that Iran imposed shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. The Saudis have been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through the pipeline.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition against the Houthis and imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen in 2015. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A truce was reached in 2022.

That truce has been threatened in recent days after the Houthis said the Saudis struck the Sanaa airport in an attempt to affect a flight carrying Houthi leaders back from Iran, where they attended the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The plane landed safely at another airport.

The Houthis then launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in the most significant confrontation in years.

By allowing a direct international flight to land without the approval of the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis sought to establish a new reality in which they could independently make decisions over Yemen’s airspace, experts told the AP.

“We affirm the right of our great people to respond to the blockade with a blockade,” Saree emphasized on Monday, adding that Houthis are prepared to confront “any foolish act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy ... with a comprehensive and decisive escalation."

The Houthis are a crucial part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

The rebels have had a large stockpile of drones, but several Houthi members previously told the AP that the stockpile is running low after its attacks during the Israel-Hamas war. The Iran war has further impeded the flow of weapons, said the members, who at the time spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. and Israel responded to the Houthis' earlier attacks on shipping with a punishing air campaign across Houthi-held areas in Yemen until a deal that saw the rebels stop their assaults.

Disrupting transit through the Bab al-Mandeb forces shipping firms to route vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, significantly increasing costs.

The deaths were recorded out of the 2,344 cases confirmed as of Saturday, the health ministry said.

The Ebola outbreak that was declared in eastern Congo on May 15 is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. The Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak is less common than others that cause Ebola disease, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be transmitted to people from wild animals. It spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease is rare but severe and often fatal.

The surge in deaths comes as safety fears have restricted the response in the worst-affected province of Ituri. A total of five provinces have been affected, all in the eastern region where rebel violence is rampant.

At least 12 attacks — mostly fueled by skepticism and rumors — have been recorded against health facilities and teams since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, authorities said Saturday. Many health workers meanwhile have walked off their jobs as they protest lack of payment.

At least 36 health workers infected with the virus have died.

The World Health Organization last week expressed concerns that 80% of new Ebola cases were emerging from unknown chains of transmission, a sign the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track despite an expanding response.

In the more than two months since the outbreak started, it recorded an average increase of about 272 cases and 111 deaths per week, according to data from Congo’s Health Ministry. The data also show that the weekly increases accelerated over time, particularly in July, when both reported cases and deaths rose more rapidly than in the earlier weeks.

The ministry's latest update said in its latest update that 724 patients are currently in isolation and in hospitals, and that it is intensifying response efforts in affected health zones.

“Patient care and support capacities are consolidating, with 22 new recoveries recorded in 24 hours,” the ministry said.

U.S. gas prices jumped to an average of $4 a gallon again Monday, and benchmark Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel, further fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

The Latest:

Tate brothers to appear in Miami court. UK wants them extradited

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Miami on Monday after they were arrested to face rape and sex trafficking charges in the United Kingdom.

Their attorney Joseph McBride said the charges are “filth and slander” and that he’s confident the extradition request would be denied.

He also said he believed the arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Justice Department, without input from leadership. But the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.

The Tates’ social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities.

▶ Read more

Gulf nations warn of incoming Iranian fire

Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens Monday afternoon to warn of a possible Iranian fire, while Kuwait said its air defenses were responding to incoming Iranian missiles and drones. No damage was immediately reported in either country.

Senators want answers on ICE policies

Dozens of Democratic senators and Maine’s Independent Sen. Angus King want more details on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s vetting practices and vehicle pursuit policies following more deaths in ICE shootings.

In a letter spearheaded by King and sent to the Department of Homeland Security, the senators listed new measures to increase accountability at the agency tasked with carrying out immigration enforcement.

They said ICE should immediately start wearing uniforms or vests that clearly identify them as “ICE” instead of the more generic “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.”

The senators also want to know whether ICE considers records of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits. In Maine, the AP reported that the ICE officer who opened fire and killed a man from Colombia had a history of violent behavior detailed in family court records.

As student loan defaults surge, Trump is making borrowers pay more

Defaults are reaching record levels as borrowers struggle to pay.

The numbers have spiked since payments came due again following a lengthy pause intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, around 9.5 million people — 1 in 5 federal student loan borrowers — are in default, meaning their wages or Social Security payments could be garnished. The Trump administration has held off on such involuntary collections for now.

And still another wave of defaults could be coming. The Trump administration eliminated the most generous income-driven repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, as part of its overhaul of the federal student loan system. Millions who had been enrolled in SAVE now must pay more each month.

▶ Read more

Yemen’s Houthis announce a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia

A Houthi military spokesperson described the embargo on Monday, effective immediately, as an “eye for an eye” response.

Attacks by the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen last week damaged Sanaa International Airport and Abha airport in Saudi Arabia, threatening a truce that began in 2022.

Imposing an embargo could put new pressure on Saudi Arabia, which is sending oil through pipes to the Red Sea as a way of avoiding the chokehold in the Strait of Hormuz.

Houthis attacked more than 100 ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. It’s unclear whether the Houthis will keep up that level of attack now against Saudi Arabia.

US launches ninth night of Iran strikes

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Monday’s strikes targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.”

Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes. Since the war began on Feb. 28, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.

The U.S. military said the latest service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” Trump said. “And we did that in honor” of the soldiers killed.

Another vessel is ablaze in the strait as Iran targets tankers

As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.

The route around Oman has been the one the U.S. military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control. The Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.

US bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed and Tehran retaliates

The United States targeted Iran with a new round of airstrikes early Monday after announcing the death of another American service member, hitting areas around a city believed to house underground missile bases. Iran responded by attacking Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait.

Step by step, the U.S. and Iran have inched closer to all-out war. Last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people.

Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above $90 a barrel, further fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict. An average gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. rose to $4, putting more pressure on American wallets ahead of midterm elections this fall.

▶ Read more

The general fund budget is $2,026,502,015, a 1.1% increase from the prior year, or $22,583,868. For the second year in a row, the proposal does not draw from reserves, city documents show.

“The only reason for the rise is because we made a promise to do right by our first responders three years ago and we continue to keep that promise,” Deegan said in his budget address. He also said every spending decision is aimed at “making Jacksonville more affordable” and delivering measurable returns for taxpayers.

Key figures and priorities

• General fund: $2,026,502,015.
• Public safety allocation: $1,073,743,908 (about 53% of the general fund). That includes $673,613,389 for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and $400,130,519 for Jacksonville Fire and Rescue.
• Budget growth: 1.1% over last year (+$22.6 million).
• No reserve draw and no increase in non-public-safety city staffing.
• People investments: $148,271,055.
• Other expenses (including interlocal agreements, pension obligations and debt service): $502,886,873.
• FY26-27 Capital Improvement Plan: $586,110,854; five-year CIP: $1,227,913,805.

Infrastructure and capital projects

The budget increases funding for street and drainage work and other long‑deferred projects. Notable capital allocations include:

• Road resurfacing: $35,947,180 (a $13.2 million increase).
• Septic tank phaseout: $25,000,000 (a $16 million increase).
• Stormwater and drainage projects: $25,000,000.
• New and repaired sidewalks: $12,000,000.
• Museum of Science and History improvements: $27,000,000.
• Riverfront Plaza: $25,000,000.
• UF Health capital improvements: $24,000,000.

Deegan said the city has paved more miles in the last three years than in any comparable period over the last decade and argued the upgrades are necessary to avoid higher costs later from deferred maintenance.

Public safety and prevention

Public safety remains the top spending priority. The mayor’s proposal continues multi-year investments in pay and pensions for police and fire personnel and funds equipment, training and technology, he said. Deegan touted gains in recruitment and retention and credited local officials with reductions in homicides and gang activity.

The budget also preserves and expands prevention and community programs, including juvenile diversion, crisis response and outreach teams. Deegan emphasized that prevention — from after-school programs to mental health crisis intervention — reduces more costly emergency responses down the line.

Health, housing and social services

The proposal includes $56 million for UF Health indigent care and $7.7 million for direct health services. Housing and homelessness programs receive continued local support, with $6.3 million allocated for affordable housing initiatives and $4.7 million for homelessness programs.

Deegan noted the budget increases funding for programs shown to produce returns — for example, a city auditor’s review that the Healthlink Jax program produced nearly a five‑to‑one savings.

Fiscal health and ratings

City officials cited strong credit ratings and outside reviews to underscore fiscal discipline. Fitch upgraded Jacksonville two notches to double-A-plus last year; S&P Global and KBRA reaffirmed double-A ratings. The Government Finance Officers Association recognized the budget’s quality, officials said, and the mayor argued higher credit ratings lower borrowing costs for taxpayers.

Revenue

The budget relies on growth in property tax revenue, which is projected to increase about 6% because of rising values and new properties. Major revenue items listed in budget materials include:

• Property taxes: $1,291,662,837.
• JEA contribution: $151,481,319.
• State-shared revenue: $225,952,033.
• Utility service tax: $122,854,579.
• All other revenue: $234,551,247.

Next steps

Deegan said the budget reflects partnership with City Council and noted the administration is honoring a council request for a $10 million allocation for strategic planning priorities. The proposal will move through council hearings and committee review in the coming weeks before final adoption.

“Your money will build a safer, healthier and more affordable Jacksonville,” Deegan said. “That is the city you have earned. That is the city we will deliver.”

For decades, college has been presented as the primary path to success. But thousands of high-paying, in-demand careers are available through skilled trades, often with less student debt and faster paths to employment.

Trade Up aims to highlight those opportunities by showcasing local success stories, providing information about training programs and apprenticeships, and connecting job seekers with employers who are actively hiring.

From electricians and plumbers to HVAC technicians, welders, construction managers, linemen, and advanced manufacturing professionals, skilled trades are helping build Jacksonville’s future.

As our region continues to grow, the demand for qualified workers has never been greater.

Through on-air stories, digital content, community partnerships, and special events, Trade Up will:

• Highlight careers in the skilled trades.
• Showcase local companies and organizations training the next generation of workers.
• Connect viewers with apprenticeship and certification programs.
• Provide resources for students, career changers, veterans, and job seekers.
• Help employers find the talent they need to keep Northeast Florida growing.

Whether you’re a high school student exploring career options, a parent looking for information, or an adult considering a career change, Trade Up is here to help you discover opportunities that can lead to stable, meaningful, and well-paying careers.

Jacksonville is growing. The jobs are here. The opportunities are real.

It’s time to Trade Up.

Follow News4JAX in the weeks ahead as we spotlight the people, programs, and professions building the future of Northeast Florida.

We’ll be introducing viewers and readers to local students starting their journeys, employers investing in talent, and community leaders creating new pathways to economic opportunity.

This includes the partnership’s debut story: A behind-the-scenes tour of the WareWorks facility with founder Chris Ware.

Meet WareWorks

Launching alongside the initiative is News4JAX’s partnership with WareWorks, a Jacksonville-based workforce development organization dedicated to helping people discover careers in the skilled trades.

RELATED | From Venus Swimwear HQ to a new skilled trades hub: WareWorks opens doors for those looking to ‘Trade Up’

WareWorks was created by founder Chris Ware, chairman of Ware Capital, who grew The Ware Group from a single HVAC supply operation into a regional company with more than 40 locations.

WareWorks’ mission, he said, is focused on helping to build the next generation of skilled trades professionals through collaboration with community partners.

WareWorks, led by CEO Karen Bowling, serves as a central hub for individuals exploring trade careers by connecting them with apprenticeship programs, technical schools, employers and industry resources.

Rather than replacing existing training programs, WareWorks helps people navigate the many opportunities already available throughout Northeast Florida.

The organization believes students and families should understand that a successful career doesn’t always require a traditional four-year college degree.

“There are trade schools, there are companies that have apprenticeships, there are colleges,” WareWorks founder Chris Ware explained. “What WareWorks provides is a place where people can understand which trades are available, what certifications they need and how to begin their journey.”

Ware also believes career conversations should start well before graduation.

“It’s so clear that the path could be presented to the ninth-grade student and their parent,” Ware said. “Show them the opportunity that’s waiting after high school.”

For many skilled trades, that opportunity can begin immediately after graduation.

According to Ware, young adults entering apprenticeship programs can quickly begin earning competitive wages with benefits while gaining valuable experience. As their skills grow, so does their earning potential and opportunities for advancement.

Bowling is a longtime Jacksonville leader whose career includes serving as Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Jacksonville and as the University of North Florida’s first Vice President of Jobs, where she built partnerships aligning employer needs with student career pathways. Bowling also co-founded Solantic Urgent Care and previously worked as a journalist and TV news anchor.

Click here for more information surrounding WareWorks.

Other strategies

In addition to Trade Up, leaders announced two additional efforts designed to remove barriers and create clearer pathways into skilled trades:

• A partnership with the national Be Pro Be Proud movement to bring a state-of-the-art mobile “Try-A-Trade” experience to North Florida, giving youth and adults hands-on simulations to explore dozens of trades.
• The debut of the WareWorks Career Pathway Platform, an online resource connecting students, parents, educators and job seekers with training programs, opportunities and crystal-clear career pathways throughout the skilled trades ecosystem. Here’s a short video demonstrating the best way to utilize the website:

Together, organizers say, the initiatives represent a commitment to changing perceptions and increasing awareness of high-demand, high-wage skilled trades careers in the region.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, coming off its first losing week in the last three and just its third since the end of March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 122 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Nvidia added 1.9% and helped the market recover some of its losses, swinging back upward after serving as the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 Friday. Sandisk climbed 6.7% after tumbling 29% last week.

Such stocks have been under pressure for weeks on worries that their prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI. On one hand, companies are making billions of dollars in revenue as customers pour money into AI chips and data centers. But all that spending may fizzle out if AI doesn’t produce as much profit and productivity as promised.

Wall Street may get some hints on that soon as some of the biggest spenders on AI report their latest quarterly results. On Wednesday, Alphabet will tell investors how much it made during the spring and give updates on its AI efforts.

All kinds of companies, including outside of tech, are under pressure to report strong growth in profit for the spring. They will need to in order to justify the big moves their stock prices have made. Indexes are near their records, even with the recent shakiness because for AI stocks.

AMC Entertainment rose 11.6% after the movie-theater operator reported stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said that some of its theaters in Los Angeles and other cities ran “The Odyssey” for more than 85 straight hours from Thursday through Sunday to meet demand.

Domino’s Pizza climbed 4.2% after delivering stronger revenue for the spring than expected. CEO Russell Weiner said the company saw growth in orders for both its carryout and delivery businesses, even with the broad industry continuing “to face pressure on consumer demand.”

Much of that pressure is coming from still-high inflation, thanks in large part to high gasoline prices. Inflation last month was not as bad as economists expected, but it could be set to reaccelerate if oil prices keep rising.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil had dropped below $72 early this month, roughly back to where it was before the war with Iran began. But it’s been jumping as fighting continues in the Middle East.

On Monday, the price swung sharply between roughly $86 and $91. It was most recently at $87.76, down 0.4%.

Worries about expensive oil and high inflation have sent Treasury yields higher in the bond market, which threaten to slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked up to 4.56% from 4.55% late Friday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran. Higher yields have already sent the average 30-year mortgage rate to its highest level in nearly a year.

In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked lower in Europe.

The moves were sharper in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi fell 4.5%. It’s been at the center of the huge swings for AI stocks because it’s dominated by two tech companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

___

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

The Tates are being held in federal detention following their arrest on Saturday. In the coming weeks, a U.S. district judge will consider whether they meet the conditions for extradition.

An attorney for the brothers, Joseph McBride, blasted the latest charges as “filth and slander.” On Sunday, McBride said he was confident the extradition request would be denied.

Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new victims and were brought after authorities received evidence from Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England. The allegations, spanning 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

The brothers are already charged with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other alleged victims in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

Their lawyer said in a statement Saturday that he believed the arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Justice Department without input from leadership.

But the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.

The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Their social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities.

The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the Romanian case hasn't gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Last year, they were allowed to leave Romania and flew to Florida.

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Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed.

The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold “key talks” Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis, after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war.

Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia.

Days of street protests in favor of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy's move.

Ukraine hits another Russian oil depot

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over 400 Ukrainian drones were sent toward the Russian capital from late Sunday until early Monday, with most downed far from the city and 85 intercepted near it.

Moscow regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said 10 people were wounded by Ukrainian drones, while several residential buildings and civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged.

The attack started a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Moscow, according to Yevgeniya Khrustaleva, the head of the Domodedovo area of the Moscow region.

The Astra news outlet reported the assault also caused a fire at an oil depot in Podolsk, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Moscow, but there was no official confirmation of the strike.

Ukrainian forces hit logistics facilities and an oil depot in the Moscow region, Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv's forces hit two vessels belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet transporting sanctioned oil and four dry cargo ships in the Black Sea.

A drone struck a passenger bus in Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, killing five people — four women and a boy — and injuring 23 others, according to acting Gov. Alexander Shuvayev.

It was not possible to independently verify either side's claims.

Ukraine’s long-range drone technology has evolved during the war, posing a problem for Russia, whose huge land mass is hard to protect fully. Kyiv’s forces have aimed especially at Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages and embarrassing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In May, the Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 1,054 Ukrainian drones in a 24-hour period.

Russia uses ballistic missiles more frequently

As Kyiv pleads with foreign partners to supply it with sophisticated interceptors that can counter Russian ballistic missiles, which are much harder to stop than drones or cruise missiles, Moscow’s forces have sought to take advantage of the weaknesses in Ukraine’s air defenses.

Ballistic missiles fly faster than the speed of sound and can reach Kyiv in minutes, giving air defenses little time to react and civilians to reach shelter.

Russia has stepped up its use of ballistic missiles recently. Ukrainian officials said Sunday that Moscow's bombardment killed at least six people and wounded dozens.

“Russian forces have launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine thus far in July than Russia reportedly produces each month,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday.

“Russia appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles,” it noted.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired two missiles and 94 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight. It said air defenses jammed or intercepted 81 drones, while nine drones and a missile caused damage at nine locations.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday its forces struck fuel tanks in the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa overnight.

A Russian strike on Pavlohrad in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region injured 13 people, according to military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha. Eleven people were hospitalized, including a 13-year-old girl, he added.

A cargo ship attack killed 10 sailors off Odesa

Ukraine’s Sea Ports Authority said a cargo vessel under the flag of the West African country of Guinea Bissau was hit by Russian forces on Sunday shortly after it left the port of Odesa, killing 10 of its crew, including five sailors from Syria. Eight people were rescued from the ship, which was carrying Ukrainian corn, it added.

Syria’s General Authority for Borders and Customs said it “strongly condemns the repeated attacks targeting commercial vessels with Syrian sailors and crews aboard in Ukrainian ports and nearby maritime areas in the Black Sea, and the resulting deaths and injuries among Syrian sailors.”

The Syrian statement did not mention Russia. Moscow has built relations with the new Syrian government since former President Bashar Assad was ousted in December 2024 in a rebel offensive led by now-interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

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AP reporter Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.

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

The school said Monday the decision was tied to investigations into former football coach Sherrone Moore's relationship with his executive assistant and a probe into the athletic department's culture.

Manuel led a department behind this year's men's basketball title and a football program that won the 2023 national championship, but that wasn't enough for him to keep his job.

Manuel fired Moore following a law firm's investigation into a relationship he had with a subordinate, and the school later chose to widen the look into the department; a law firm was paid about $12 million to do the work.

Manuel previously spoke to Moore and the woman about their relationship, both denied it was inappropriate and he went through their school-issued cellphones and email accounts unable to find anything that would allow him to fire Moore for cause, people familiar with the situation previously told The Associated Press.

The 58-year-old Manuel, who played football for the Wolverines under the late Bo Schembechler and was on the track team, was hired to lead the department on Jan. 29, 2016. He signed a contract extension at Michigan in 2024 that was set to run through June 2030.

He led a department with an annual budget of about $250 million, 29 teams, 950-plus athletes and about 400 staff members.

“Every day, I am thankful to work at this great institution and to represent Michigan Athletics," Manuel said in December 2024.

The Wolverines won the national championship in football under former coach Jim Harbaugh as a sign-stealing scandal loomed over the program and Moore's tenure.

They won it all in men's basketball earlier this year with coach Dusty May, who later left to lead the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Michigan also won men's and women's gymnastics national titles under Manuel.

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame gave Manuel the John L. Toner Award in 2024, honoring him for demonstrating superior administrative abilities and dedication to college athletics, especially football.

He represented Michigan and the Big Ten as member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee and was chair during the 2004 season when the 12-team playoff format kicked off.

Manuel, who is from New Orleans, previously served as athletic director at UConn and Buffalo after working in Michigan's athletic department in various roles from 1996 to 2005.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Burnham used his inaugural speech as prime minister to renew his theme of decentralizing power as he promised to end street sleeping by homeless people. He said he would deliver a “circuit breaker” for a system he says has taken wrong turns since the 1980s when many public services were privatized.

“We will change politics to make it more collaborative, more about problem-solving than point-scoring,” he said. “We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land so that they can do more and in doing more, build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again.”

After weeks as leader-in-waiting, Burnham officially became prime minister during a meeting with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, where the monarch asked him to form a government.

He succeeded Keir Starmer, who stepped down just two years after winning a landslide election victory, on a day when Britain’s political turbulence gave way, at least temporarily, to smooth choreography.

Buckingham Palace has released a photo of the king and Burnham shaking hands. The ceremony known as “kissing hands” marks the transfer of power, but didn't actually involve any hand kissing.

Burnham said he was “acutely conscious” of the revolving door he was walking through at 10 Downing Street.

“This a moment for reflection and new resolution,” he said. “It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge. Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again, and that is our challenge to make politics work, to make it work better.”

Burnham became the seventh U.K. prime minister since 2016 in a now well-rehearsed handover after replacing Starmer as leader of the center-left governing Labour Party on Friday. Starmer announced last month he would resign after missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Just over an hour earlier, Starmer made a short farewell speech in the same place outside the prime minister’s residence, saying “my work is done.”

The outgoing leader said Britain is now “stronger and fairer than it was two years ago,” when he took office.

“I go with good grace, I go with a smile and I go proud of everything that we have achieved,” Starmer said before heading to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to the king. It was an offer “His Majesty was graciously pleased to accept,” the palace said in a statement.

Changing leaders in mid-term

Britain’s parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national poll doesn’t have to be held until 2029, though Burnham can call one sooner if he wants.

Burnham was the only candidate in a contest to become the party’s new leader, securing nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Burnham will confront many of the same struggles as his predecessor: a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living crisis, overstretched public services, concerns about migration and foreign affairs that include wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The new leader pledges a new style of politics

The former mayor of Greater Manchester previously pledged to make politics “less toxic,” improve living standards across the country and “bring back the hope we have all been missing.”

Critics and supporters alike will be clamoring for details of how Burnham plans to fulfill his pledges when he announces parts of a 10-year plan on Tuesday.

“Fundamentally, it only will work if you can generate significant economic growth, because it’s the lack of growth that’s really holding the country back,” said Joshi Herrmann, who has followed Burnham’s career as founder of Manchester news site The Mill.

Attention will quickly turn to who Burnham will appoint to his Cabinet. He's expected to make changes to Starmer’s top team, especially to the biggest jobs of Treasury chief, foreign secretary and home secretary.

Burnham has praised Starmer’s achievements, saying he would “build on the foundation laid” by his predecessor.

Starmer became Labour leader in 2020 after one of the party's worst election defeats, and led it to a landslide victory four years later. But he was soon defeated by the challenges of governing.

At his final Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament on Wednesday, Starmer defended his government’s record on the international stage — especially its support for Ukraine — and its domestic policy achievements. He mentioned stronger protections for working people, a reduction in child poverty, a law designed to stop official cover-ups after tragedies, and higher defense spending.

“In six and a half years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country and won a landslide general election victory in 2024,” Starmer said in his final remarks before leaving Downing St, hand-in-hand with his wife Victoria.

“Since then, it has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country as prime minister. I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago.”

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Associated Press journalist Brian Melley, in London, contributed.

The affable Burnham returned to Parliament in June by winning a risky special election and was sworn in as a member on July 12, hours after the unpopular Starmer announced his resignation to end a tenure of just two years in office.

Starmer traveled the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace on Monday to formally tell King Charles III that he was resigning and Charles accepted, Buckingham Palace said.

The 56-year-old Burnham then arrived at the palace and accepted the invitation by Charles to form a government in a moment known as “kissing hands.”

Here is the latest:

Zelenskyy will have phone call with Burnham later Monday

Congratulating Burnham, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that he was “looking forward to our conversation later today,” adding that the “foundation of our bilateral relations is stronger than ever, and we will continue to make each other stronger.”

Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, who stood down earlier, was a high-profile supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia. He said he had provided the country with “political, defense, and values-based support.”

Burnham, who has very little foreign policy experience, has said he will continue to provide Ukraine with the support it needs.

Burnham says his father doesn’t know he is prime minister because of Alzheimer’s

In an interview with The Times published Sunday, Burnham revealed that his father’s illness meant he was not aware his son is taking the nation’s top job.

“That’s a sadness because he would be (proud),” Burnham was quoted as saying. “It’s a family achievement … although he doesn’t know it, it still makes me feel that we’ve kind of done something together.”

He added that he recently visited his dad in his care home, alongside his two brothers and his mother. Burnham’s father Roy was a longtime Labour supporter and was a big influence in setting him on the path to politics, according to the article.

Markets unfazed by orderly change in British prime minister

Financial markets, however, will assess Andy Burnham’s actions over the coming weeks and months to see if there is a marked change in economic direction.

There is growing speculation that Burnham will appoint the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, rather than Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. Many in the markets appear to have been spooked by the prospect of Miliband at the Treasury.

Any unease would likely be felt in the bond markets, where investors are already charging the U.K. higher interest rates than its peers for borrowing purposes. The U.K.’s public finances remain fragile and there’s not much room for higher spending unless Burnham raises taxes. However, Labour was elected on a manifesto pledge that it would not raise the key revenue-raising taxes, such as income tax.

Cabinet choices to reveal much about Burnham government

With Burnham now installed as prime minister, attention turns to his choices for Cabinet, particularly the key post of Treasury chief.

The appointment will be pivotal because the head of the Treasury Department, formally known as chancellor of the exchequer, controls tax and spending decisions.

Burnham’s choice will give clues about his plans as he faces the immense task of kickstarting a sluggish economy so that growing companies and increased output boost government revenue without raising taxes.

The decision has been considered finely balanced between Ed Miliband, the outgoing energy secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the current home secretary.

While Miliband comes from the party’s left wing, Mahmoud is seen as more conservative and has the advantage of being something of a blank slate in terms of economic positions, allowing Burnham to fully take the lead on the economy.

The other top jobs are defense secretary, foreign secretary and home secretary, who controls immigration and policing.

Burnham says UK support for Ukraine is solid

Burnham says his first calls to foreign leaders will be to U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

Burnham has spent a decade as mayor of Greater Manchester and has little experience of international affairs.

A big question is how he will get along with Trump, the unpredictable leader of the U.K.’s closest ally.

Burnham says he wants to reassure Ukraine that “I will be with him 100%” and “Britain’s support is steadfast, it is resolute.”

The prime minister faces facts

One of the most solemn moments of Burnham’s first day will be the realization that he has the power to launch Britain’s nuclear missiles.

That will become clear when the U.K.’s top civil servant asks him to write “last resort letters” to the captains of the country’s four nuclear-armed submarines telling them what to do if the civilian leadership is wiped out by a nuclear attack.

It is a duty unique to Britain, where there is no “nuclear football,” the briefcase containing targeting data and launch codes that accompanies U.S. presidents wherever they go.

The letters are placed on each submarine inside safes that are to be opened only if their captains are certain Britain’s civilian leaders are dead.

The letters are destroyed unread when a new prime minister takes office. But it is believed there are four options: retaliate, don’t retaliate, use your own judgment, or put your weapons under the command of the U.S. or Australia.

Burnham outlines his policy priorities

In his first speech as prime minister, Burnham sketched out some of his priorities, though he offered no details and said he would set out some of the measures on Tuesday.

Burnham said he would decentralize power and help make essentials affordable again under the cost of living squeeze.

Burnham said he would back British industry and “reindustrialize Britain.”

He pledged to bring the welfare bill down and build more social housing, as well as be more supportive of the underfunded education system.

He also vowed to “end rough sleeping in this country,” referring to homeless people sleeping in the open.

EU chief congratulates Burnham

European Council President Antonio Costa congratulated Burnham on his new job.

“In the last two years EU-UK relations gained a new, positive momentum. I look forward to continuing to further deepen our cooperation for the benefit of our citizens and businesses, he said in a message on X.

“The United Kingdom and the European Union are stronger together,” he added.

The U.K. left the European Union after a referendum a decade ago.

Clap for the leader

Prime Minister Andy Burnham entered Downing Street regaled by the applause traditional for a new leader.

The first time a prime minister walks through the uber-polished door of 10 Downing St., household staff and civil servants by custom line the entrance and clap for the new leader and his senior team.

It is Burnham’s introduction to the people he will live and work with, most of whom served his predecessor only a few hours earlier.

Burnham gives first speech as UK prime minister

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says politicians “need to be better” in his first speech as Britain’s leader.

He is promising to deliver a “circuit breaker” for a system he says has taken wrong turns since the 1980s.

Burnham spoke outside 10 Downing St. minutes after he was formally asked to form a government by King Charles III.

In a break with tradition, Burnham ditched using a lectern, speaking in front of two microphones outside the famous shiny black door of the prime minister’s residence.

Prime ministers typically speak from a lectern clad with the royal crest that features a lion and a unicorn, the national animals, respectively, of England and Scotland.

Burnham wasn't even in Parliament a month ago

In order to challenge Starmer for the Labour Party’s leadership position, Burnham had to take a big political gamble.

He first had to win a seat in Parliament and then amass the necessary support to launch a bid to topple Starmer.

As internal pressure mounted in May for Starmer to resign, Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker for the seat of Makerfield near Manchester, stepped down, triggering a special election.

It was no shoe-in.

The anti-immigration Reform UK party had recently devastated Labour in local elections in the area, which had led to calls for Starmer’s resignation.

The bet paid off for Burnham, who is well-known and popular in the area, and he breezed to victory when the votes were tallied June 19.

Dozens of Labour lawmakers cheered as he was sworn in June 22.

Starmer ultimately stepped down and Burnham faced no opposition in running to become party leader.

Burnham, known as a casual dresser, opts for formal attire

Dark T-shirts and dark jeans are typically part of the work uniform for Burnham, who is seen as a more relaxed and natural communicator compared to the buttoned-up Starmer.

But he changed out of his usual casual wear on Monday, donning a dark suit, white dress shirt and blue tie as he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to get the formal go-ahead to become prime minister.

Andy Burnham is Britain’s new prime minister

Andy Burnham has formally accepted an invitation from King Charles III to form a government.

Buckingham Palace has released a photo of the two men shaking hands. The ceremony known as “kissing hands” marks the transfer of power from former leader Keir Starmer to Burnham.

Burnham replaced Starmer as leader of the center-left governing Labour Party last week.

Why there is a change of prime minister without a general election

Burnham was chosen as Labour Party leader by 379 fellow lawmakers after Starmer said he was resigning. Because Labour holds a majority in government, its leader also becomes the U.K. prime minister.

Under Britain’s parliamentary democracy system, governing parties can change leaders midterm, with the winner becoming prime minister without the need for a general election. Prime ministers can be replaced if one has resigned as leader of their party, or been forced out by a leadership challenge.

It’s not unusual for British prime ministers to come to power without a broad election. In fact, four of the six British prime ministers in the past decade took the top job by winning internal party leadership contests to replace their predecessors, not by public vote.

Andy Burnham arrives at Buckingham Palace

Andy Burnham has arrived at Buckingham Palace to be appointed Britain’s new prime minister.

Burnham is set to meet King Charles III, who will ask him to form a government.

It comes soon after Keir Starmer went to the palace and formally resigned.

The king’s role harkens back to a time when the monarch exercised supreme power and chose a prime minister to run the government.

Today, the king has no political power, but the monarch still officially offers the job to the leader of the party that can command a majority in the House of Commons.

Starmer leaves Buckingham Palace

Starmer and his family left the palace privately.

While he was seen arriving in a chauffeured black car, helicopter footage did not show Starmer leaving.

Changing of the guard outside and in

The change of British leadership happening inside Buckingham Palace coincided with the changing of the guard outside.

With King Charles III accepting Starmer’s resignation as prime minister in the Chinese drawing room, the guards who protect the palace were changing shift.

The heavily choreographed ceremony draws thousands of tourists several days a week.

A military band in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats marched from the palace to be replaced by a fresh detachment.

The economy is the first item on the agenda

One of the biggest challenges facing Britain’s new prime minister is finding a way to kickstart the U.K.’s sluggish economy so that growing companies and increased output boost government revenue without raising taxes.

It’s a problem that has bedeviled every prime minister since the financial crisis of 2008. And their failure to solve it is part of the reason that Burnham is the U.K.’s eighth prime minister in the past 16 years.

The British economy has grown an average of less than 1.5% annually since 2009, compared with an annual average of 3% in the 15 years before the financial crisis.

While devising his economic plan, Burnham will be constrained by promises to reduce government debt, which now equals more than 95% of gross domestic product, the highest since the early 1960s, while not raising taxes on working people.

King accepts Starmer’s resignation at palace

King Charles III has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Buckingham Palace said.

Starmer was accompanied by his wife, Victoria.

The palace said the king “was graciously pleased to accept” Starmer’s resignation.

Andy Burnham will soon head to the palace to get the king’s assent to become the next prime minister.

Starmer offering resignation to the king

Starmer is meeting with King Charles in the Chinese drawing room at Buckingham Palace.

His teenage children are expected to join Starmer and his wife, Victoria.

Starmer says Burnham has his full support

In his final speech as prime minister, Starmer thanked the British people “for the opportunity to serve.”

“As I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success,” he said. “He has my full support.”

“For all the focus on individuals, politics will always be a team sport, and the changes we’ve delivered for our country and our party belong to everyone who has fought for them,” Starmer said.

He ended by saying, “I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything that we have achieved.”

The latest attacks again showed how, step by step, the U.S. and Iran have inched closer to all-out war. Last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people.

The escalation in fighting has pushed oil prices higher in recent weeks. Benchmark Brent crude traded Monday above $86 a barrel and regular gasoline in the U.S. climbed to an average of $4 a gallon, keeping pressure on Americans' wallets ahead of midterm elections this fall.

The U.S. military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “And we did that in honor of” the soldiers killed, he said.

US launches ninth night of Iran strikes

The U.S. military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes early Monday, now into their ninth straight night. Central Command said it targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.”

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that the American strikes killed at least one person around Tabriz, a northwestern city about 520 kilometers (325 miles) from the capital, Tehran. Tabriz is believed to host underground missile bases run by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

U.S. strikes likely also hit Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan province, Sirik and Jask in Hormozgan province and Konarak and Chahbahar in Sistan and Baluchistan province, IRNA reported.

As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.

The route around Oman has been the one the U.S. military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control. The Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.

Tehran has retaliated by hitting U.S.-allied countries throughout the Middle East. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens Monday morning, while Kuwait said its air defense were firing at an incoming Iranian barrage.

The Strait of Hormuz remains key to the conflict

A new pressure point could emerge for world energy markets as Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced on Monday a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in response for an attack on Sanaa International Airport last week. With the Strait of Hormuz blocked up, Saudi Arabia has been relying on a pipeline to get oil out through the Red Sea.

Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies were shipped before the war. Recent attacks suggest the U.S. military is carrying out that plan.

The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday said it had redirected six ships and disabled one since then.

The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. is still open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real.”

“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy — if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations — that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said. “That’s not where we are tonight, unfortunately.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei hours later acknowledged that “proposals conveyed through mediators have been communicated to us,” but he declined to elaborate on their substance.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister who helped elect the country's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, acknowledged in an essay published Monday by Foreign Affairs that the interim "deal could never survive such dissonance” over the Strait of Hormuz.

“As the current conflict makes clear, Washington cannot eliminate the Iranian government,” Zarif wrote. “Only diplomacy, a new peace agreement, and a new security framework produced by regional states and for regional states will allow the United States to turn its attention elsewhere.”

However, Zarif did warn the country's theocracy that “if Iran repeatedly threatens maritime traffic, it could turn much of the world against it.”

Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes. Since the war began on Feb. 28, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.

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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

According to motor club federation AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now back to $4. The average price a year ago was $3.14 a gallon.

The price is a national average, meaning drivers in some states have been paying well over $4 a gallon for a while now, while others pay less. Prices vary between states due to factors ranging from nearby supply to differing tax rates.

People around the world are also dealing with high gas prices as a result of the war.

Gas prices first went over $4 a gallon on average at the end of March. They dipped below that in mid-June and continued to fall as crude oil prices eased when the U.S. and Iran reached an interim deal. Even then, President Donald Trump expressed frustration that gas prices weren’t falling as quickly as oil prices.

Affordability is likely to be a key issue for voters in the U.S. midterm elections, and higher gas and oil prices can help push up prices for groceries and other goods.

Oil prices have climbed again in recent days as the U.S. and Iran move closer to resuming an all-out war.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell slightly by Monday morning trading in the U.S. — down $1.64 to $86.46 per barrel. But that's still much higher than prewar levels, when crude was going for close to $70 a barrel. Meanwhile, benchmark U.S. crude dropped $1.87 to $79.91 per barrel.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, the center of Tropical Depression Two was about 110 miles south of Panama City, Florida.

Surface observations and data from the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters indicate that maximum sustained winds neared 35 mph with higher gusts.

The minimum central pressure based on surface observations is 1006 mb (29.71 inches).

Tropical Depression Two is moving toward the north-northwest around 3 mph. Continued slow northwestward or north-northwestward motion is expected today, followed by a turn toward the west.

The system could bring tropical storm conditions to portions of the Florida Panhandle, where a Tropical Storm Watch is in effect.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Ochlockonee River to the Mississippi/Alabama border.

Aside from isolated showers and storms early this week due to the wind flow around the system pushing tropical moisture over us, additional impacts are not expected for our area.

This is due to the system’s westerly movement, which will keep the highest rainfall totals across the Panhandle and northern Gulf Coast.

But just as they move in to capture them, one of the football-size birds, with bright-orange bills and long legs, scampers into a coastal salt pond. The other briefly takes to the air, sending the team running across the mile-and-a-half-long (2.4-kilometer-long) beach in pursuit.

“There is a problem. They can fly,” Alan Kneidel, a senior conservation biologist with the environmental group Manomet Conservation Sciences, said as he watched the team go after the chicks.

Eventually, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists tracked down both birds. They bundled them each into white pillow cases and gingerly carried them to a sand dune where body measurements were taken and bands clipped onto their long, peach-colored legs.

Birds starting to recover

The banding in the 787-acre (318-hectare) Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge is part of a nationwide effort to restore the oystercatcher's population along the coasts of the Americas. The birds were largely wiped out in New England by the turn of the 20th century due to hunting and egg collecting but their numbers are rising.

About $10 million was raised over a decade and 35 coastal organizations in 16 states joined in the effort. Much of the campaign focused on educating beachgoers about the presence of the quirky birds known for their piercing calls and habit of using their razor sharp bills to crack open oysters and mussels. Measures were also implemented to protect their ground nesting sites from predators and pets on beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes or tide wrack deposits.

From 2008 to 2023, oystercatcher numbers increased by 45% along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Their recovery is especially significant, given a 2023 study found that most shorebird populations in North America were declining.

“It's amazing and it's a great conservation success story,” said Maureen Durkin, a federal wildlife biologist who led the banding effort and works at the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

“It does really demonstrate how much you can accomplish when there is a dedicated group of partners that can come together and identify the needs of the species and implement conservation actions,” she said, adding that it also showed conserving imperiled species “is not easy and takes a sustained and committed effort.”

Targeting threats

Kneidel said a critical part of the conservation plan was determining that “chick survival was the big thing driving the declines.” Then, individually-tailored plans were drawn up from organizations in the American Oystercatcher Working Group, which was led by Manomet's Shiloh Schulte, a conservation biologist and field scientist who died last year in a helicopter crash in Alaska while on a mission to protect shorebirds. His initial aerial survey showed their numbers had declined by double-digits.

“At one site, it might be recreational disturbance, at another site it might be predators, at another site it might be sea level rise or loss of dune structure that’s causing overwash events that are causing nest failure,” Kneidel said as he walked along the rocky Moonstone Beach, the sky filled with squeaking, least terns.

On Martha’s Vineyard, a low-lying fence with chicken wire is installed seasonally at the entrance of a key breeding site for oystercatchers and other seabirds and shorebirds, which has kept skunks and raccoons that eat their eggs off the beach. Colorful signs have also been installed educating the public about oystercatchers.

Focused attention on oystercatchers

The birds also benefit from federal protections given to piping plovers, a threatened shorebird that nests in some of the same areas. During the nesting season of piping plovers, vehicles and dogs are limited or banned near beach nesting sites.

“With a little bit of focused effort and attention on this really charismatic bird, you can teach the public how to share the shore,” said Luanne Johnson, a wildlife biologist who founded the nonprofit BiodiversityWorks, one of the groups working on the oystercatcher's recovery. The island was the first place to have nesting oystercatchers in Massachusetts when they began to recover and has seen the numbers of breeding pairs increase 77% since 2009.

In South Carolina, nearly 30 breeding sites are roped off to protect nesting habitat. Georgia and North Carolina also rope off breeding sites along with trapping and euthanizing predators like foxes, raccoons and coyotes during breeding season.

“If you focus conservation efforts on a species, especially before it becomes endangered to the point that you’re considering listing, you can actually sort of head off trouble at the pass,” said Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist with Audubon North Carolina, adding the state's breeding pairs have increased nearly 20% to 403. Some birds, like Dark Green 06 and Yellow 25, were banded as far back as 2004 and have become minor celebrities.

Ted Simons, a retired emeritus professor at North Carolina State University who began studying the birds on North Carolina’s Outer Banks in 1995, said their recovery was a testament to the species' resilience. He noted American oystercatchers have been found nesting on rooftops in the United States and other oystercatcher species in Europe are nesting in pastures and eating worms. One pair, he recalled, was found nesting in a bus station pothole in Iceland.

“If these were really highly specialized birds that needed an exact prescription for survival, that would have been harder,” Simons said. “But what we found is that these birds are incredibly adaptive.”

Climate change, weakened protections pose dangers

Despite their strong recovery, threats remain.

Chief among the dangers is climate change that has led to rising seas and erosion washing out oystercatcher nests. That has prompted states such as Georgia to build elevated nesting platforms of oystershells for the birds and use dredged material from shipping channels to create and maintain nesting islands. Along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, Audubon is replenishing shell rakes — beds of old oyster shells where the oystercatchers nest.

“ Climate change, sea level rise, it’s a big challenge not only for oystercatchers but for all kinds of interests on the coast,” Addison said. “There’s going to be loss of habitat due to sea level rise so we have to make sure that we do what we can to provide the habitat that we can so they can get through this next bottleneck.”

There are also concerns that changes this month to the Endangered Species Act could impact nesting sites, especially where state protections are weak. Environmental groups, which sued Tuesday to block the changes, fear breeding grounds could be disturbed by everything from vehicle traffic to unchecked development.

The changes would allow oil and gas drilling, mining, logging and other development on critical wildlife habitats so long as the animals themselves aren’t killed or injured. Environmentalists warned the move could cause some species to go extinct by opening the door to habitat destruction.

“It's a direct attack on the protections that have allowed many of these shorebird species to recover,” Kneidel said.

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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.

Throngs of fans will greet them as they travel from near Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s official residence, to Cibeles Square.

A ceremony with the players will then be held at the square, where previous Spanish national teams and their supporters have traditionally gathered to celebrate.

Spain walked off with the trophy at Sunday's final after defeating now-dethroned champion Argentina 1-0 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was only the second time — after a 2010 victory in South Africa — that Spain won the title.

The Spanish capital erupted into celebrations after the final whistle, with thousands of supporters pouring into the streets from bars and restaurants, many draped in Spanish flags or wearing the team's colors.

Crowds packed Madrid's Puerta de Sol and other major squares — singing, dancing and setting off flares while car horns blared throughout the capital.

Many celebrated Sunday’s victory long into the wee hours of Monday morning.

“I’m very happy. I’ve slept three or four hours, but for the team, I’ll do whatever it takes,” said 19 year-old Victor Álvarez early Monday.

The World Cup title, combined with the Women’s World Cup won by Spain in 2023, makes the European nation the first to hold both the men’s and women’s titles simultaneously.

Celebrations were dampened, however, after local authorities reported that a 13-year old in Salamanca, northwest of Madrid, had died after a fountain he had climbed onto with friends to celebrate had collapsed.

For many young Spanish supporters, the triumph is their first time witnessing the men's team lift the trophy — and the national delirium that has followed.

Ahead of the team's return, supporters waited in Madrid's Barajas airport ready to greet them in an arrivals hall, many donning the team's jerseys and waving Spanish flags.

Groups of supporters also began securing their spots near Cibeles Square late Monday morning, bringing umbrellas to protect against the sun and temperatures that are expected to climb to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The convoy gathered at the Maxwell House lot at 750 E. Bay Street before pulling out at 3 p.m. and riding through the Eastside, Historic Springfield, Rail Yard, and Brooklyn neighborhoods, carrying a unified message of unity, peace, and change in honor of lives lost to violence.

The ride was organized by MOBB JEEP — Making Others Be Better is a Jacksonville-based Jeep organization that uses the Jeep community as a platform for fellowship, outreach, and positive action.

How It Started: One Grandmother, One Loss, One Ride

The Stop the Violence Jeep Ride traces its roots to Detroit, where a woman named Monica lost her granddaughter to domestic violence. Determined to turn her grief into action, she organized a ride with her local Jeep crew through the streets of Detroit, and a movement was born.

Organizer Linda Marsh — known in the community as “Big Mama” said the story of how the ride began is inseparable from why Jacksonville showed up Sunday.

“The originator, her name was Monica,” Marsh said. “She lost her granddaughter to domestic violence, and she started this ride out within her Jeep crew. They rode around Detroit, and they did the nationwide ride out last year; that was the first year. And we invited other Jeep clubs, and we had an awesome turnout. So this year, round two, we are doing another ride out, invited the other Jeep clubs, and just looking forward to making our presence felt and known here in Jax.”

Marsh said she hopes events like this raise awareness and spur real advocacy to stop the violence locally.

“We’re a vast variety of people, brown and white and all different shades of people, different backgrounds, but we have this one thing in common,” Marsh said. “We’re here unified, standing against violence. And that’s the message that we hope to bring: that we’re one, and we’re here to stop the violence.”

For many participants, the message was deeply personal.

MOBB JEEP member Mercedes Hill said she lost her cousin Tony to violence on Father’s Day, just one week before last year’s ride.

“When we did our ride last year, a week before that I lost a cousin Tony on Father’s Day, and so that was very hard for me at that time,” Hill said. “It’s made it all the more meaningful to be out here with my group to ride, because now I’m bringing awareness to my cousin and our family.”

Fellow member Craig Nelson said he joined the ride to honor his cousin, who was killed in Miami ten years ago.

“Unfortunately, I have been affected by violence,” Nelson said. “I had a cousin who actually lived in Miami that was killed 10 years ago. And I’m doing it for him.”

A Message Beyond the Ride

Co-founder Marvin Simpson said he hopes the visibility of the convoy inspires people who may be struggling to find a different path.

“Hopefully people see the Jeeps and get a little inspired,” Simpson said. “Always try to keep a positive attitude, and if you need, we’re on social media. They can always hit us up, and we can have a talk. There are other ways versus going the wrong route.”

Hill’s fellow rider Marcella Hamilton echoed that message of hope.

“No matter what socioeconomic place you come from, you can survive and get through things,” Hamilton said. “You have to first stop all of the violence, stop thinking negatively, and just do things that will increase positivity in your life.”

What’s Next

MOBB JEEP is approaching its fifth anniversary next week and is actively looking for new members to join the organization.

For more information or to connect with the group, follow them on Instagram at @MOBBJEEPJAX and @BIGMAMA2K22.

Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old when the siblings were killed on Jan. 24, 2023.

Clancy, now 36, threw herself out a window after killing the children and was paralyzed in the fall. She is being held at a state hospital.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The trial is expected to explore the complicated and rare phenomenon of postpartum psychosis, which afflicts a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after giving birth. Clancy's lawyers — and her husband — say she was not responsible for her actions.

Prosecutors say the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

On the day it happened, Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, asked her husband, Patrick Clancy, to go out for takeout food and pick up something at the pharmacy. Then, she used exercise bands to strangle her children in the family’s home in Duxbury, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Boston.

Eighteen jurors, including six alternates, are expected to be chosen over several days. The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, doesn’t dispute that she killed the children but plans to raise an insanity defense.

“This whole case is an extreme tragedy,” he said.

Clancy and her husband filed lawsuits earlier this year accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor for her for a “severe postpartum psychiatric condition.”

Lindsay Clancy’s lawsuit detailed how she was depressed, having trouble sleeping and repeatedly hearing voices urging her to harm her children and herself. She spent several days at a psychiatric hospital just weeks before the killings.

“Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do. She recognized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals. She took the medication prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to her providers. She told them the medications were making her worse,” the lawsuit said.

On the day of the killings, Clancy said she heard voices saying, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.”

Both sides have Clancy's husband on their list of witnesses. He has said in interviews that he forgives his wife.

In a post on GoFundMe several days after the killings, Patrick Clancy wrote that the “shock and pain is excruciating and relentless,” but he urged the public to see Lindsay Clancy as he did before the killings.

“The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring toward everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace,” it said.

“Cancel the deal hunt. We’ve got you covered,” the page states with links to laptops, desktops, computer accessories and calculators.

Representing the Florida Retail Federation, Amanda Bevis credited lawmakers with making the sales tax holiday a permanent fixture in state law.

“That allows retailers to plan ahead, not only in their sales, but in their marketing and promotions,” Bevis said.

The discount holiday, first offered as a seven-day period in 1998 when sales taxes were lifted on only certain clothing valued $50 or less, was firmly put into state statutes last year as a recurring event to run throughout August.

Previously, the discount period was annually approved at varying lengths from three to 14-days, and some years, most recently 2009, the holiday wasn’t offered.

For this year, lawmakers moved the discount dates to July 20 through Aug. 20.

The retail lobbying organization credits the change of dates with helping consumers facing affordability issues tie in the state holiday with annual back-to-school discounts offered by businesses.

“Now they can combine what offers are in retail stores with the additional tax savings made available through the tax holiday,” Bevis said.

During the upcoming holiday, sales taxes will be lifted on select clothes priced $100 or less, school supplies $50 or less, learning aids $30 or less, and personal computers and accessories priced $1,500 or less.

Legislative staff this year didn’t estimate the savings when the tax package was introduced in the regular session and later revived and approved in the special session in May.

In 2025, with the same discount benchmarks, legislative economists projected the savings would hit around $217 million.

The next tax holiday offered under the tax package (HB 7031E) is on hunting, fishing and camping equipment, beginning Sept. 1 and continuing until the end of the year.

Legislative staff projected that discount period will cut revenue to the state by $31.2 million and local governments collectively by $8.8 million.

July 20-Aug. 20 back-to-school “holiday” savings:

Exempt clothing valued at $100 or less:

• Aerobic and fitness clothing
• Aprons and clothing shields
• Athletic supporters
• Backpacks and book bags
• Bandanas
• Baseball cleats
• Bathing suits, caps, and cover-ups
• Belts
• Bibs
• Blouses
• Non ski or fishing boots
• Bowling shoes
• Bras
• Cleated and spiked shoes
• Coats
• Coin purses
• Dresses
• Fanny packs
• Graduation caps and gowns
• Gym suits and uniforms
• Hosiery and pantyhose (including support hosiery)
• Hunting vests
• Jackets
• Jeans
• Lab coats
• Leggings, tights, and leg warmers
• Leotards
• Lingerie
• Martial arts attire
• Raincoats, rain hats, and ponchos
• Scout uniforms
• Shoe inserts and insoles
• Shorts
• Ski suits (snow)
• Skirts
• Slippers
• Slips
• Socks
• Suits, slacks, and jackets
• Sweaters

Exempt computers and computer-related accessories valued $1,500 or less:

• Cables (for computers)
• Calculators
• Central processing units (CPU)
• Compact disk drives
• Computers for noncommercial home or personal use - Desktop - Laptop - Tablet
• Computer batteries
• Computer towers consisting of a central processing unit, random-access memory, and a storage drive
• Data storage
• Docking stations (for computers)
• Electronic book readers
• Hard drives
• Headphones (including “earbuds”)
• Ink cartridges (for computer printers)
• Keyboards (for computers)
• Mice (mouse devices)
• Microphones (for computers)
• Modems
• Monitors (except devices that include a television tuner)
• Motherboards
• Personal digital assistant devices (except cellular telephones)
• Port replicators
• Printer cartridges
• Printers (including “all-in-one” moldels)
• RAM (random access memory)
• Routers
• Scanners
• Software (nonrecreational) - Antivirus - Database - Educational - Financial - Word processing
• Speakers (for computers)
• Storage drives (for computers)
• Tablets
• Web camera

The “holiday” doesn’t cover:

• Briefcases, suitcases, or garment bags
• Watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, and handkerchiefs
• Skis, swim fins, roller blades, and skates
• Clothing items with a sales price of more than $100
• Any school supply item with a sales price of more than $50
• Books that are not otherwise exempt
• Computers and computer-related accessories with a sales price of more than $1,500
• Cellular telephones, video game consoles, digital media receivers, or devices that are not primarily designed to process data
• Computers and computer-related accessories purchased for commercial purposes
• Rentals of any eligible items
• Repairs or alterations of any eligible items
• Sales of any eligible items within a theme park or entertainment complex, public lodging establishment, or airport

*Source: Florida Department of Revenue.

Police said they were called around 8:45 p.m. to Buffalo Avenue after reports that a man had been shot.

Officers found a man in his early 20s with multiple gunshot wounds, and he was taken to a local hospital by his girlfriend. Police said he was shot eight times in the side, hand, lower back and thigh, but his injuries were not life-threatening.

Investigators said the man was at the Buffalo Food Store on Buffalo Avenue when two men, who were with a woman that the victim knows, came up to the victim and shot at him.

The shooters ran off and have not been caught.

Detectives with the Robbery and Violent Crime Unit were actively interviewing witnesses, canvassing for surveillance video, and following up on investigative leads.

The community’s assistance is critical in this investigation. Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500, email JSOCRIMETIPS@JAXSHERIFF.ORG , or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.

The police action came after thousands of demonstrators tried to breach security barricades surrounding the protest site in central New Delhi, marking one of the most serious confrontations in the movement’s campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Despite the crackdown, many protesters continued marching toward Parliament in small groups.

Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Saurav Das accused authorities of “brutally cracking down” on “peaceful protesters.” Delhi Police said the march had not been authorized and that restrictions were needed to maintain law and order around Parliament during the monsoon session, which began Monday.

The crowd at Jantar Mantar, a designated site for protests just a few kilometers (miles) from Parliament, included students, professionals and families with young children. As the day progressed, the gathering spilled beyond the protest site, with demonstrators filling surrounding streets and roads.

Many carried backpacks with water and food, expecting a long day. Others waved Indian flags as chants against the education minister and Modi rippled through the growing crowd.

A satirical movement grows into a youth-led campaign

The Cockroach Janta Party emerged in May, after the Supreme Court chief justice compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches” during an unrelated hearing. Supporters embraced the remark, turning it into a satirical movement that has attracted millions of followers on social media.

The movement has gained momentum after repeated leaks of high-stakes entrance exams for medical colleges and government jobs sparked public anger. It drew wider attention after police forcibly moved hunger-striking activist Sonam Wangchuk to the hospital on Saturday.

Protesters calling themselves “cockroaches” have camped at Jantar Mantar for the past month, with members of several student groups joining Wangchuk’s hunger strike. Thousands of supporters have also turned out at universities and rallies in other cities. They are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, reforms to the examination system and compensation for the families of students who died by suicide following paper leaks.

Government outreach emerges amid a tense standoff

Senior leaders in Modi’s government have taken a hard line against the movement. Pradhan has accused the protesters of acting against the nation, while other ministers have acknowledged students’ concerns but insisted there is no need for talks or negotiations with the movement.

Though that appeared to shift Monday, when representatives of the movement held talks with Health Minister J.P. Nadda. It was the first apparent sign of government outreach to protest leaders, who sought to bring their demands directly to lawmakers, prompting authorities to tighten security around the complex.

CJP spokesperson Das, who met Nadda, said he presented the protesters’ demands, including the immediate resignation or removal of the education minister.

Separately, activist Wangchuk appealed for permission to temporarily leave the hospital and join the march.

In a handwritten note, he also said he would end his nearly three-week hunger strike only if the government took responsibility for failures in the education system and exam paper leaks, or if protesters were allowed to reach Parliament and lawmakers pledged to raise the issues in both Houses.

Protests pose a challenge to Modi’s government

The protests have become a rare public challenge to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in its third term, drawing support from opposition parties, rights activists and some Bollywood celebrities. Protesters say space for dissent has shrunk under Modi, whose government has been criticized for suppressing public protests by jailing activists and, in some cases, using forceful police crackdowns.

Jyoti Rajput, a yoga teacher, said she joined the protests because “this rotten system refuses to take action.”

“It cannot see the pain of students, and that’s why so many people have joined this movement,” she said.

For many others the campaign has expanded into a broader protest over government accountability. Some said they were driven by frustration with what they see as a lack of transparency and responsiveness from elected leaders.

Sneha Eppili, a 26-year-old protester, said she joined the demonstration because she believes the government has a responsibility to answer their questions.

“I voted for this government, so I think it’s accountable to answer our questions. That’s the basic human right that I deserve,” she said.

Police said they were called to West 35th Street, across the street from the park, around 9 p.m. and found the boy with a gunshot wound to his left leg.

Paramedics took him to the hospital for treatment, but JSO did not indicate the extent of his injuries.

Investigators said they learned a group of juveniles had gathered at the park Sunday night when a dispute broke out. It’s unclear what sparked the argument, but some of the kids left and then came back to confront the other group of juveniles.

That’s when the gun was fired, and the boy was hit in the leg.

Police said the suspected shooter is believed to be a young man, possibly in his late teens, who ran off north on Moncrief Road after the shooting.

Crime Scene detectives recovered multiple casings at the scene of the incident. Investigators said there are no indications that the shooting was gang-related, and they do not believe there is any threat to the community.

Anyone with any information about the shooting is asked to contact JSO at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS, or leave an online tip at JSOCrimetips@Jaxsheriff.org.

Troopers said a 38-year-old driver from Ponte Vedra Beach was headed north on A1A just before 5:30 p.m. when, for unknown reasons, he crossed the center line into the southbound lane, where his SUV collided head-on with another SUV.

The 20-year-old driver of the SUV that was headed south died in the crash, and his two passengers, ages 21 and 20, suffered serious injuries. All three men are from Clay County, according to the report.

St. Johns County District 4 Commissioner Krista Joseph told News4JAX that the stretch of A1A where the crash happened can be dangerous, pointing to drivers passing when they get impatient.

“People are not patient enough to stay behind the car that’s going the speed limit, and they’ll a lot of times pass over the double yellow line,” Joseph said. “I’m not sure what caused this accident … but it’s just so sad to hear people were killed.”

Joseph also said the county has repeatedly asked FDOT to lower the speed limit in the area as new development brings more traffic.

“FDOT … we have been asking over and over again to reduce the speed limit … because all the new houses that have been built have caused more traffic,” she said, adding that the decision ultimately rests with the state.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans owe about $1.25 trillion in credit card debt, while total household debt has climbed to a record $18.8 trillion.

Credit card delinquency rates also remain elevated, a sign that many families are struggling to keep up with payments.

For Shanika Hampton, the debt started after an unexpected layoff.

“I was making the minimum payments, but with credit card debt and interest, the minimum payment isn’t really much, especially if you’re still using the card,” Hampton said. “You’re accumulating that interest.”

She compared the experience to trying to stay afloat while constantly falling behind.

Hampton said she wasn’t using credit cards for luxury purchases. Instead, she relied on them to cover necessities after losing her job.

“I was buying necessities, like real deal emergencies,” she said. “It started out small. Maybe a $25 grocery order. But once you realize you’ve really fallen behind, you end up using credit cards for real emergencies… groceries, gas, even bigger purchases.”

Today, Hampton has paid off about $9,000 in credit card debt over the past year and a half with the help of nonprofit credit counseling agency Money Management International. The agency consolidated her debt into one monthly payment and negotiated lower interest rates with her creditors.

She still has about $5,000 left to pay.

“They’ll negotiate the interest rates down, and they also negotiate a monthly payment that is doable,” Hampton said.

Certified financial planner George Pakounis with Burns Estate Planning and Wealth Advisors said inflation is only part of the reason Americans are falling deeper into debt.

“We live in a FOMO, fear of missing out, society,” Pakounis said. “Credit cards bridge that gap of, ‘If I can’t do it, what can it allow me to do?’”

He said the convenience of credit cards has also made consumers less aware of how much they’re spending.

“We’re not as conscious of how we buy things anymore,” he said.

Pakounis said while rising grocery prices and other living expenses are forcing some families to rely on credit cards, using them to make ends meet is only a temporary fix.

“Supplementing with a credit card is still a Band-Aid,” he said. “I think it comes down to priorities. What is more important? Is it more important that I have this Netflix subscription or the bread that I want? I’m not saying that’s a fair choice, but those are the decisions many families are facing.”

Instead of focusing only on making larger payments, Pakounis said consumers should first understand exactly where their money is going.

“The issue is those minimums will keep you in debt potentially forever if you don’t pay attention to it,” he said. “Take a step back. Look at where your money’s going. Look at how much you’re spending so you can create a strategy for paying it off.”

He recommends three steps for anyone trying to eliminate credit card debt:

• Track every dollar you spend.
• Create a payoff plan, whether that’s paying off the highest-interest balance first or starting with the smallest balance to build momentum.
• Once you’re out of debt, stick with those same spending habits to avoid falling back into the cycle.

Pakounis also said people shouldn’t ignore savings altogether. If someone has an extra $500 each month, he recommends putting most of it toward high-interest credit card debt while setting aside a small emergency fund.

“Maybe put $300 or $400 toward the debt and save $100,” he said. “That way, when the next emergency comes up, you don’t have to put it right back on the credit card.”

Financial counselors say people who are overwhelmed by debt should seek help sooner rather than later.

Many nonprofit credit counseling agencies offer free or low-cost budgeting assistance, debt management plans and creditor negotiations that can help borrowers lower interest rates and consolidate payments before their debt spirals further out of control.

Iran and some of the world’s most intractable conflicts will be high in the agenda of the annual talks held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and hosted by the Philippines, the 11-nation bloc’s current chair.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among the attendees. Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, has been invited to attend a Friday ceremony commemorating a 1976 nonaggression treaty of ASEAN, but will not be participating in the ASEAN meetings attended by Lavrov and Rubio.

Rubio and Lavrov have not announced any plans to meet each other or Sybiha while they are in Manila.

Iran war is among ASEAN's top concerns

Southeast Asia, a bustling region of more than 680 million people, relies heavily on Middle East oil and gas and was severely hit by the global supply and price shocks sparked by the Iran war. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a national energy emergency in March to ensure the availability of fuel, food and other basic goods and prevent hoarding and profiteering.

ASEAN foreign ministers will first meet among themselves on Tuesday to discuss the renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran and threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where roughly 20% of global oil supplies transited before the war.

“We underscored the importance of maintaining regional peace, stability and prosperity, upholding international law … including the need for a complete and immediate cessation of hostilities across all fronts in the Middle East,” the ministers said in a draft statement of concern, which was seen by The Associated Press.

“We acknowledged the further implications of the continued tensions in the Middle East on regional trade, energy and food security, including energy markets and supply chains, agricultural production," said the statement, which will be made public after their meeting.

The ministers “called for the restoration of the safe, unimpeded and continuous transit passage of vessels and aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Rubio meeting with ASEAN and Quad envoys

Rubio’s attendance in the ASEAN meetings was apparently aimed at dispelling concerns that the war in the Middle East would deter the U.S. from focusing on the Indo-Pacific, especially China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea and its pressure on Taiwan.

“The secretary’s visit advances a clear U.S. priority: a free and open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security and prosperity for the region and for the American people,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said in Washington.

Rubio is also expected to meet member of the Quad, which consists of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia, and is seen as a major component of the American strategy to counter China. It has been repeatedly criticized by Beijing as a U.S. scheme to contain its growing influence.

Myanmar's civil war and the South China Sea are among regional disputes

The foreign ministers have been under growing pressure to do more to help resolve the conflicts in their own region, primarily the civil war in Myanmar and the disputes in the South China Sea.

Since Myanmar's army wrested power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, more than 8,100 people have been killed and nearly 22,500 remained in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights-monitoring group.

A five-point peace plan issued by ASEAN leaders in 2021 has failed to end the violence, mainly due to non-compliance by its military-backed government. The bloc has banned the country’s leaders and foreign minister from attending its top-level meetings, including this week’s meetings in Manila.

In a bid to break the impasse, the foreign ministers, led by the Philippine' Theresa Lazaro, met their Myanmar counterpart for the first time in five years this month in Bangkok, where they renewed calls for an end to the violence and renewed efforts to foster dialogue.

Rights groups criticized the meeting, saying it effectively abandoned the bloc’s ban on engaging the country’s senior officials and rewarded the generals without extracting any concession.

“It was not and should not be mischaracterized as an abandonment of the five-point consensus,” Lazaro said, referring to the peace plan. “The path to peace can only be obtained through resolute diplomacy with all parties to the conflict.”

The ministers will meet Wang Yi in Manila to discuss the status of negotiations between China and the regional bloc on a proposed pact called a “code of conduct,” which aims to prevent territorial disputes in the South China Sea from spiraling out of control.

The territorial standoffs involve China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, but confrontations in the disputed waters have particularly spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years.

By the early afternoon, highs are expected to reach the mid-90s, but high humidity will make it feel more like 100 to 105 degrees in many neighborhoods.

Residents planning outdoor activities should take frequent breaks, drink plenty of water, and avoid prolonged exposure during the hottest part of the afternoon.

As the afternoon sea breeze develops, scattered thunderstorms are expected to become more numerous.

While not everyone will see rain, storms that do form could become briefly strong, producing torrential downpours, frequent cloud-to-ground lightning, wind gusts between 30 and 40 mph, and reduced visibility for motorists.

The heaviest rain may cause temporary street flooding in poor drainage areas before moving out quickly.

Most storms are expected to diminish after sunset, leaving behind warm and muggy conditions overnight.

Tropical Depression Two

Tropical Depression Two has officially formed over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, marking the Atlantic’s second tropical cyclone of the 2026 hurricane season.

Forecasters expect the system to strengthen into Tropical Storm Bertha while it tracks slowly along the northern Gulf Coast over the next couple of days.

Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for portions of the Florida Panhandle as residents prepare for heavy rain, gusty winds, and localized flooding.

The funeral will be officiated by the Rev. Al Sharpton, with a call to justice delivered by the family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney. Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, said they would use the occasion to celebrate the life of their son, who she described as a “bright light” and a “sensitive soul.”

“He would not want us to be sitting around crying and eating, and so what we’re gonna do is kind of have a party to celebrate him,” she said last week.

Wells’ death has captured national attention, galvanizing Black leaders and touching off fraught discussions of racial tension and mistrust of law enforcement in the Deep South.

The teenager, who was Black, had traveled by boat to Horn Island, a popular Fourth of July destination, with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening, officials said. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has said Wells’ friends are cooperating with the investigation, which remains ongoing. He said that initial interviews suggested Wells chose to stay on the island and that his friends believed he would get a ride with someone else.

But the still-unknown circumstances leading to Wells’ disappearance have fueled rampant online speculation, along with questions from his parents about why he was left behind.

Crump has said that another witness reported Wells planned to leave on the boat with his friends, contradicting the sheriff’s statement. He also alleged that messages appeared to have been deleted from the phone, which was found with Wells’ friends, along with his keys.

The attorney, who is leading his own investigation into the death, said he would work alongside the local prosecutor to inspect the device. The prosecutor agreed last week to present the results of the investigation to a grand jury once it is completed, Crump said.

“Our lived experiences tell us that we must question everything, everybody’s role, law enforcement’s role,” Crump said. “That is the lived experience as Black people in America.”

Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, played wide receiver on the football team at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, and had aspirations of playing at a high-level Division I program.

“He was very sociable with everyone, didn’t meet a stranger,” his coach, Les George, told WAPT-TV. “He would pop up at my office and come sit on the couch just to hang out and talk.”

His death has drawn support from high-profile members of the Black community. Actor and producer Tyler Perry is helping pay for Wells’ funeral. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is helping pay for his independent autopsy, and filmmaker Spike Lee attended a news conference last week in support of Wells’ family.

In a joint statement last week, members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for an independent and transparent investigation into Wells' death, adding that “too many questions remain unanswered.”

“We hope the outpouring of concern and support from people across the country in recent days brings them some comfort in the days ahead,” they added.

The fine, the biggest ever imposed for breaches of the 27-nation European Union's Digital Services Act, comes just months after another online retailer, Temu, was fined 200 million euros for similar breaches. Last year, Brussels issued a $120 million penalty for Elon Musk’s social media site X.

“The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online — it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement.

“Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action,” she added.

In a comment emailed to The Associated Press, AliExpress said that since the DSA came into force the company “has been, and continues to be, firmly committed to meeting our obligations and we have invested substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection.”

It said it disagreed with the "disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made. We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options.”

The fine was for conduct by the company until at least June 2025, when the commission issued a preliminary ruling that found AliExpress was not doing enough to tackle the sale of illegal products under the DSA, and when it accepted commitments by AliExpress to improve its systems.

The commission said that AliExpress now has until Oct. 20 to submit an action plan setting out measures to “remedy the breach of its obligations to assess and mitigate systemic risks.”

The Digital Services Act is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans’ fundamental rights like privacy and free speech.

Monday’s announcement in Brussels also comes less than three weeks after AliExpress' operator, Chinese tech giant Alibaba, said it will pay $600 million to resolve a dispute with the U.S. government over allegations that the Hangzhou-based firm sold and imported illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment into the U.S.

Video replays showed several players involved in a scuffle, including Argentina defender Leandro Paredes, who appeared to shove Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat. When Spain substitute Gavi jumped in to intervene, Paredes pushed him to the ground.

Other players and Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni rushed in to deescalate the situation.

It wasn’t clear whether any of the players involved would be punished. FIFA didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Spain needed extra time to win Sunday’s final 1-0 after Argentina was reduced to 10 men when Enzo Fernandez was sent off with a second yellow card.

The Argentina players stood facing their fans, with their backs to the podium, when Spain’s squad lifted the trophy.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

In the summer months, those twin imperatives can make parents anxious. How long should kids be out? How do I know they're OK? What should I avoid?

Human-caused climate change is making heat waves longer, stronger and more widespread. Much of the U.S. sweltered last week under a heat dome.

That shift makes questions about keeping babies safe more pressing, said Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician with Rady Children's Health in Orange, California.

“We talk about drowning and choking with toddlers, and now we’re starting to add in heat,” she said. “It’s become something that’s more commonplace as a potential injury.”

Here is why children are more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, and some do's and don’ts to keep them safe:

Regulating body temperature is a challenge

Children sweat less than adults and have a higher metabolism that makes them hot faster. In extreme heat, their higher surface area-to-mass ratio increases heat absorption.

Kids also tend to spend more time outdoors.

On hot days, parents need to be vigilant about the signs of heat illness. A lack of tears or regular wet diapers could indicate your baby is dehydrated. Parents should feed infants in smaller quantities more frequently to make sure they are getting enough fluid.

Though not necessarily signs of illness, fatigue and flushed skin likely mean your child needs a break to cool off. Williamson said increased irritability could also indicate your child is too hot.

Tips for keeping them safe

Avoid going out during the hottest parts of the day, dress kids in loose, light-colored clothing, apply sunscreen and make sure they are getting enough fluids. Water-rich fruits such as watermelon and strawberries are great snacks in the heat.

“If you’re hot, your baby sure is going to be hot,” said Dr. Debra Langlois, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

Langlois said parents and other caregivers should limit the amount of time infants and toddlers are outside in hot weather, but she doesn’t advise remaining strictly indoors at any point.

Don't put blankets or other covers on a stroller

That advice seems counterintuitive. After all, doesn't it make sense to shield children from the sun?

But blankets and other coverings, even thin ones, prevent air from circulating and trap heat that can raise the temperature in the stroller. Instead, use a canopy for shade.

Williamson also advises parents to check metal parts that can heat up and burn children.

Don't leave kids in the car

Even in the shade and with open windows, car temperatures can rise dramatically in a short amount of time. In 2025, 31 children died of heat stroke in vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The agency recommends caregivers leave a purse or other personal item in the back seat, write a note or place a stuffed animal on the passenger seat to ensure they don't forget a child inside.

If you return to a parked car with your baby on a hot day, ensure the metal parts of the car seat are also not too hot. For extra comfort, use a sun shade to keep the interior cooler and turn on the air conditioning in advance.

To cool a hot car, experts recommend opening the windows for 10 to 20 seconds while running the air conditioning.

The Arizona governorship is a top takeover opportunity for Republicans in a midterm environment where voters historically have punished the party occupying the White House. The eventual winner, along with his or her statewide political organization, could play an important role in the 2028 presidential campaign, as Arizona is once again expected to be a critical battleground.

Of the seven Democratic governors in states Donald Trump carried in 2024 as the Republican presidential nominee, only two are up for reelection in 2026, and only Hobbs is expected to face a competitive general election.

Two Arizona congressmen and two businessmen are vying for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Five-term U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is a former chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Eight-term U.S. Rep. David Schweikert is giving up his competitive swing district seat after narrowly prevailing against strong Democratic challenges in the last three elections. Businessmen Ken Miceli and Scott Neely have backgrounds in the construction industry.

Biggs has a key endorsement from Trump. The president had already endorsed another candidate, billionaire housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson, but he issued an additional endorsement for Biggs shortly after he entered the race in early 2025. Taylor Robson dropped out of the race in February. Trump has been known to occasionally endorse more than one candidate for the same race. Recently, he endorsed both candidates in the primary runoff for South Carolina governor.

In the race to replace Schweikert in the 1st Congressional District, the Republican field features state Rep. Joseph Chaplik, sportscaster and former Arizona Cardinals placekicker Jay Feely and technology and telecommunications executive John Trobough. Feely briefly ran in the 5th Congressional District, but Trump endorsed another candidate and nudged Feely to run in another district or for a different office. Feely switched to the 1st District, and Trump endorsed him and former state party chair Gina Swoboda for the nomination. Swoboda later dropped out to run for secretary of state.

The Democratic primary includes two candidates from the 2024 primary for this same seat: former state Rep. Amish Shah and former local news anchor Marlene Galán-Woods. Shah won the nomination two years ago, while Galán-Woods finished third out of six candidates. Shah received 48% of the vote against Schweikert in the general election. Publisher Rick McCartney and entrepreneur Jonathan Treble round out the Democratic field.

The 1st Congressional District is just northeast of Phoenix and includes Scottsdale. It is contained entirely within Maricopa County. Schweikert received 51.9% and 50.4% of the vote in his 2024 and 2022 reelection bids, respectively. In the 2024 presidential race, Trump received about 51% of the vote, compared with about 48% for then-Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Another Republican-held seat that is key to Democratic hopes of retaking the U.S. House is in the 6th Congressional District, where Rep. Juan Ciscomani seeks a third term. He and his Democratic opponent, Marine Corps veteran JoAnna Mendoza, are unopposed in their primaries.

In the state Legislature, all 30 state Senate seats and all 60 state House seats are up for election. Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers. Democrats have not controlled the state Senate since 1992 or the state House since 1966, the last time the party controlled the governorship and both chambers simultaneously.

Maricopa County is by far the most populous and most influential of the state’s 15 counties in both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries. It is home to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa and contributed about 61% of the vote in the 2024 presidential general election. Pima County was a distant second with about 15% of the vote.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 10 p.m. ET in almost all of the state. No results will be released before 11 p.m. ET. Most of Arizona does not observe daylight saving time. The Navajo Nation is an exception, and polls there close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, state school superintendent, state Corporation Commission, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Registered Democrats and Republicans may vote only in their own parties’ primaries. Independents may vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

How many voters are there?

As of July, there were about 4.3 million registered voters in Arizona, including about 1.5 million Republicans, about 1.2 million Democrats and about 1.5 million voters not registered with any party.

How many people actually vote?

About 596,000 Democratic primary votes and about 831,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2022 primaries for governor.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

Arizona conducts elections predominantly by mail. About 93% of the Democratic primary vote and about 79% of the Republican primary vote in the 2022 state primaries was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Thursday, about 755,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, roughly 335,000 from Democrats and 347,000 from Republicans

When are early and absentee votes released?

Arizona counties tend to release all or almost all of their results from early in-person voting, as well as a significant amount of results from mail voting, in the first vote update of the night, usually before any in-person Election Day votes are reported.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 11:02 p.m. ET, or 2 minutes after the state allowed votes to be released. About half of the total votes cast had been counted by 11:05 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at about 5:35 a.m. ET with about 83% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

In Arizona, recounts are automatic if the vote margin is 0.5% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 105 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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

At about 8:20 p.m. on Saturday, a 68-year-old woman from St. Augustine was turning left onto State Road 16 eastbound from the Stratton Boulevard intersection.

According to the report from the Florida Highway Patrol, she pulled out in front of the deputy, who was traveling west on State Road 16 in the left lane.

The front of the deputy’s SUV hit the driver’s side of the woman’s SUV, which spun out into the left turn lane of SR 16 eastbound. The deputy’s SUV crossed all eastbound lanes and hit a stop sign.

The sheriff’s office said the 30-year-old deputy was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the other vehicle died at the scene.

The driver who died was reportedly wearing a seat belt, while the deputy was not, according to FHP, which is investigating the crash.

Stratton Boulevard on State Road 16 was closed in all directions after the crash. It fully reopened at about 2 a.m. on Sunday.

St. Johns County Commissioner Clay Murphy, who spent 26 years as a Florida Highway Patrol trooper before entering public office, told News4JAX the intersection has been a growing concern as new commercial development brings more traffic to that curve.

“There’s been some commercial businesses come in there that’s caused a little bit more traffic,” Murphy said. “It is in a curve. There are some things to look at.”

Murphy said the Florida Department of Transportation has been focused on reducing dangerous cross-traffic situations like the one that occurred Saturday night — though he acknowledged the proposed road design changes have not been universally welcomed.

“I know that DOT has been working really hard to change the design of roads so that the number of cross-traffic situations like this is reduced,” Murphy said. “I know that there’s been a lot of public pushback when it comes to the designs that they’re looking to try to make our roads a little bit safer. So we’re really looking forward to the process working through and seeing if we can make our roads a little safer.”

Murphy also extended condolences to the victims and their families.

“I just want to extend my deepest condolences,” he said. “It’s never a good thing. And we’re just praying for the families.”

The Defense Department said in a statement that 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were killed in Jordan, where they were supporting a U.S. mission against the Islamic State group. It’s unclear how they were killed.

On Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said two service members were killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The U.S. military has said the total number of deaths in the war with Iran is 17.

The deaths reflect the complicated reality that American soldiers don’t need to be on the ground in Iran for there to be lethal risks in a conflict that involves drones, missiles and airplanes. American forces are arrayed across the Middle East, making other nations targets of Iran as the fighting has escalated after a breakdown in peace talks.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

First fatalities came soon after the war started

Shortly after the war began on Feb. 28, an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait killed six American soldiers. The soldiers were part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa who were working at a shipping container-style building that had no defenses.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded during a March 1 attack by Iran on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting U.S. military operations against Iran crashed in Iraq. The aircraft was in “friendly” airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft took place, according to U.S. Central Command.

On Monday, the U.S. military said a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued.

Drones and missiles still claiming lives

The latest U.S. military death from the conflict was on Saturday in northern Iraq when an American service member in northern Iraq was killed during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. A second service member was wounded and was receiving medical treatment for a minor injury.

The military said it was withholding additional information until 24 hours after families had been notified.

The deaths in the war are not limited to Americans.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

People working on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also perished in the conflict.

The development highlighted challenges faced by Chinese AI models in serving a growing user base at home and abroad at a time the U.S.-China tech race is heating up.

Chinese open-source, lower-cost advanced AI models, including DeepSeek’s latest V4, have been moving fast in gaining global attention. In early 2025, DeepSeek shook world markets and helped China to be recognized as a serious competitor to the U.S., where Chinese frontier AI models are largely open source, meaning they are made accessible for people to examine and build upon.

“Kimi K3 has received far more love than we expected,” Moonshot AI, which is Beijing-based, wrote in a X post late on Sunday. “Over the past 48 hours, demand has pushed close to the limits of our current capacity.”

Moonshot said that it’s prioritizing existing subscribers and would be temporarily pausing new ones. “We’re adding capacity as fast as we can and will reopen new subscription spots in batches," it added. The AI startup also posted a similar message on Chinese social media.

K3’s public rollout late last week, aiming at challenging more advanced AI models by Anthropic,OpenAI and others, has rattled U.S. rivals. At 2.8 trillion parameters, a measurement of an AI model’s capabilities, it's deemed as the world’s largest open-source AI model.

“New model releases generally trigger massive interest, which can strain existing compute infrastructure,” said Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia. “This does show Moonshot AI does not have sufficient compute chips to serve the current surge in demand.”

Su said that the key reason was more likely due to Moonshot not fully anticipating the surge in K3’s popularity. K3 is “very demanding” in terms of compute requirements, he said, making compute allocation challenging and expensive.

By measure of front-end coding capability, a metric for AI models’ performances, Kimi K3 topped the chart of the major advanced AI models in rankings on Arena — an AI model evaluation platform — after its public release.

K3’s release has also put pressure on stocks of American technology titans on worries that more affordable Chinese AI models may undercut the pricing power and demand at the U.S. AI companies, even as U.S.-led restrictions have already barred China from accessing some of the world’s advanced technologies, including the most cutting-edge chips.

K3 is one of the latest new Chinese AI models coming out that have drawn strong global reactions.

Over the weekend, China’s Alibaba also previewed its latest Qwen3.8 Max AI model, which the tech giant said had 2.4 trillion parameters as one of the world’s most powerful models and was second only to Anthropic’s Fable 5. Last month, Chinese startup Zhipu, or Z.ai, also rolled out its GLM-5.2 model, which saw rapid adoption across the world.

Smart's trial was one of the first in the nation to be broadcast live on television from start to finish. She was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry.

The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. Though Smart denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and was sentenced to life without parole.

Her petition for habeas corpus relief was filed in January. It seeks to overturn her conviction over what her lawyers claim were several constitutional violations.

Smart, 58, will be allowed to attend the hearing remotely from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.

Smart's lawyers say transcripts of recordings during trial were inaccurate

Smart's lawyers argue that prosecutors misled the jury by providing them with inaccurate transcripts of surreptitiously recorded conversations of Smart that included words that were not audible on the recordings.

Among the words they claim weren’t audible but in the transcript were the word “killed” in the sentence “you had your husband killed,” the word “busted” in the sentence “I’m gonna be busted” and the word “murder” in the sentence “this would have been the perfect murder.”

“Modern science confirms what common sense has always told us: when people are handed a script, they inevitably hear the words they are shown,” Smart’s attorney, Matthew Zernhelt, said in a statement earlier this year. “Jurors were not evaluating the recordings independently — they were being directed toward a conclusion, and that direction decided the verdict.”

Smart's lawyers also argued that the verdict was tainted by the media attention and due to faulty instructions to the jury. They argued jurors were told they must find that Smart acted with premeditation, and were not told they must consider only evidence presented at trial.

They also argued the trial court gave her a mandatory life sentence without parole for being an accomplice to first-degree murder, despite New Hampshire not mandating that sentence for the charge.

Lawyers for the state say Smart's petition should be dismissed

Lawyers for the state asked the judge to dismiss the petition, saying nearly all of the claims are barred because they already were raised on appeal and resolved by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, or could have been raised on appeal with the court but were not.

They noted that during Smart's trial, the defense only expressed concern that the recording transcripts allegedly failed to account for the “doubling” of voices when two people speak at once. The judge instructed jurors that if the tapes differed from what they were reading, they should use what they heard, instead. The state Supreme Court noted that Smart's lawyers did not make any “particularized showing of inaccuracies in the transcripts relative to the recordings or how she may have been prejudiced” by them.

Smart's team hasn't proven other claims, such as ineffective assistance of counsel and having the case argued in New York, rather than in New Hampshire, the lawyers for the state said.

Smart's legal options are limited. She has unsuccessfully sought a sentence reduction hearing several times with an elected state council in New Hampshire that approves contracts and appointees to the courts and state agencies. She appealed one rejection to the state Supreme Court, which dismissed her petition in 2023.

Her latest petition was filed after New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte rejected her request last year to put the matter before the council again. Ayotte said she reviewed the case and decided it was not deserving of a hearing.

Smart took full responsibility for husband's death in video

In 2024, Smart took full responsibility for her husband’s death. She said in a video she spent years deflecting blame “almost as if it was a coping mechanism.”

Smart’s trial was a media circus and one of America’s first high-profile cases about a sexual affair between a school employee and a student. The student, William Flynn, testified that Smart told him she needed her husband killed because she feared she would lose everything if they divorced and that she threatened to break up with him if he didn’t kill her husband. Flynn and three other teens cooperated with prosecutors and all have since been released.

Flynn and 17-year-old Patrick Randall entered the Smarts’ Derry condominium and forced Gregory Smart to his knees in the foyer. As Randall held a knife to the man’s throat, Flynn fired a hollow-point bullet into his head. Both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced to 28 years to life. They were granted parole in 2015. Two other teenagers served prison sentences and have been released.

The case inspired Joyce Maynard’s 1992 book “To Die For” and the 1995 film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo talked to The Associated Press about how his office handles its work and reaches its headline-making conclusions.

Why the cause of death is not always the most obvious option

Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023 and initial reports speculated that he had drowned.

Two months after his death, Ukpo's office determined the main cause of his death was acute toxicity of the surgical anesthetic ketamine and that drowning was a secondary cause.

Some advocates for ketamine, which is increasingly used to treat depression and chronic pain, said drowning should have been deemed the primary cause.

Ukpo said his staffers considered how anyone could drown in a hot tub and concluded Perry would have been able to climb out safely if he hadn't been incapacitated by the drug.

“But for the ketamine, would he have been out of it and unable to rescue himself?” Ukpo said. “That’s why ketamine is the cause of death primarily, and then the drowning contributed.”

Why ‘overdose’ never appears in an autopsy report

“A medical examiner never certifies a death as an overdose. If you look at death certificates, you’ll never see ‘methamphetamine overdose.’” Ukpo said.

“It’s just part of the culture and understanding about how drugs kill people. People can understand ‘overdose,’ but any level of methamphetamine can kill somebody. When you say overdose, it suggests that there’s an appropriate amount that someone can take. This one overdid it,” he said.

“That’s never the message that we give.”

Why toxicology reports take so long

Autopsies are generally performed and initial conclusions reached soon after a body is found, but a report revealing cause of death can take months if a toxicology test is required.

“We want to make sure that we get it right,” Ukpo said. “When someone dies, the blood specimens are different than when you’re at the hospital, so they’re harder to handle. And we also have to have certainty. In the hospital if you do a urine drug test, they tell you within a few hours. And that’s because they’re OK if it’s wrong. They’ll treat you because the treatment for cocaine, it doesn’t hurt. We’ll just assume it’s cocaine and that’s fine. But for us, it’s cause of death and has implications. And so it does take months to come back.”

In some cases, toxicology tests are needed to understand what substance may have killed the person. In others, they're more of a check to assure conclusions are correct.

When the autopsy was performed on Rivas Hernandez, who had been dead for months when her body was found, it was fairly clear she had been stabbed.

“We knew very early on what was going on, particularly defects in the clothing and on the body itself,” Ukpo said. “It’s then we have to do toxicology as due diligence to make sure drugs didn’t also play a role in the death.”

Alcohol was found in her system, but it was produced postmortem.

“When someone dies, the bacteria can then change the glucose into alcohol. And so therefore you have a presence of alcohol, which would appear that it was real, but it was actually produced by a bacteria,” he said. “There are also other interference things that can make things look like they’re positive at the beginning, but then at the later stage are negative. We do confirmation testing.”

The autopsy performed on the dismembered body found in a Tesla in the Hollywood Hills had been sealed by a court order in the investigation that led to murder charges for singer D4vd. Dr. Odey Ukpo's comment with the report was his most pointed effort yet to emphasize his office’s independence from police and prosecutors, as well as his desire to make as much death information public as soon as possible.

D4vd, who has pleaded not guilty, this week faces a crucial preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for a trial. Ukpo's agency, which determined Rivas Hernandez died from stab wounds, plays a major role, as it has in other prominent cases, including following the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry and the killings of director Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer Michele Singer Reiner.

Ukpo, 46, sat for a recent interview with The Associated Press in the building where he performed autopsies for nearly a decade before getting the head role in 2023. He has always welcomed the celebrity cases that Los Angeles brings, saying the scrutiny they receive and the likelihood of misinformation spreading are strong incentives to do careful, irrefutable work. And they provide an opportunity to show what his office does and what kind of dangers the community may face.

“I should be able to anticipate the strongest arguments or the most interesting questions by the work that I’ve done,” he said. “If I haven’t, then something’s missing.”

“Life is complicated, but death is simple,” Ukpo said.

The medical examiner pushes back on police secrecy

Ukpo doesn't believe sealing autopsy reports helps police investigations, including in the killing of Celeste.

“That goes completely against our mission,” he said. “It’s so important for us to release the information that she did not die from something natural, she did not die from drugs, she was stabbed. And then we start to look back at what made her vulnerable to be in that situation.”

A court-ordered security hold still seals the Reiner autopsies. Authorities said immediately after their deaths that they had been stabbed by their son, who has pleaded not guilty, but little information has followed. Ukpo said he would discuss the findings — if he was allowed.

“The Reiners’ case is one that’s straightforward,” he said. “It’s unclear to me what sort of information we have that would ruin the case.”

Sometimes there is no good reason for secrecy, he said.

“People say: ‘Why would they get the information out there? Because then the case is just going to go awry.’ But awry? How? What information?” he said, adding: “The killer knows what they did.”

The LA County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that security holds “are rarely requested and are carefully reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether temporarily withholding the autopsy report is necessary to preserve sensitive investigative information.” It said the reports can contain details “that only the person responsible would know,” meaning detectives can use that knowledge to assess the credibility of witness statements and uncover false confessions.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which handled the D4vd and Reiner cases, did not respond to a request for comment, and the district attorney's office declined comment.

A change to his title underscores Ukpo's independence

Ukpo was appointed chief medical examiner-coroner in 2023, becoming the agency's first Black leader since it was founded in 1850. His staff responds to about 13,000 sudden, unexpected and premature deaths per year.

The “coroner” part of his title was dropped soon after his appointment and Ukpo supported that change, saying a coroner is usually an elected official — often also the county sheriff — but not a doctor.

“'Coroner' just kind of confused our purpose and suggested that we were within a law enforcement agency,” Ukpo said. “It’s so important to establish our independence.”

Andrew Bernstein, a longtime New York criminal defense attorney who is not involved in any of Ukpo’s cases, said “buddy-buddy” relationships can easily develop between medical examiners and law enforcement.

“They’re dealing with the cops all the time,” he said. “They’re using the same language.”

That relationship can hurt a prosecutor's case, he said, because “jurors pick up on that all the time” and may perceive a testifying medical examiner as biased.

But, Bernstein said, “you don’t want so much independence” that the medical examiner makes decisions regardless of the wants and needs of police and prosecutors.

“You don’t want a rock star chief medical examiner,” he said.

How he decided to make autopsies his life’s work

At age 6, Ukpo — who grew up in Anaheim not far from Disneyland — had wanted to be a homicide detective.

But when he met his family physician, he “thought it was really cool how he would work with his hands, do dirty work, work with blood” but “could be very professional in his office, in a suit, in a tie.”

“There you go, that’s the formula for a forensic pathologist,” he said.

Very few medical students want to make autopsies their life's work. He said with a laugh that declaring his intentions “made for interesting medical school interviews.”

His education included stints at Loyola University in Chicago, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and with the medical examiner in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Celebrity autopsies hold meaning beyond LA County

Ukpo performed autopsies on rapper Mac Miller, actor Tommy Lister Jr., and model and actor Kim Porter, the former longtime partner of Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Perry died within months of Ukpo getting the top job, and his office determined the primary cause of death was acute ketamine toxicity.

“Matthew Perry was really an important one to notify people that ketamine is not harmless,” he said.

He said this and all his work is driven by his desire to first and foremost serve the public.

“What I’m trying to shift during my leadership here is to try to focus on community first,” he said. “Death doesn’t just happen for the family, for the individual. When a death happens, it reverberates.”

Now they'll take on another streaking AL East team as the race for postseason spots begins to simmer.

The Red Sox completed a sweep of division-leading Tampa Bay on Sunday, extending their run to 13 games without a loss. The franchise record is 15 straight wins in 1946. Boston will have a chance to break that this week against a Baltimore team that arrives at Fenway Park on a seven-game winning streak of its own.

With the Aug. 3 trade deadline drawing ever closer, teams on the bubble between buying and selling might make their decisions based on what happens over the next week or so. The Red Sox (50-48) have crept above .500 and now occupy the American League's third wild card. Cleveland, which holds the second wild card, is only a game ahead of Boston.

Seattle is a game behind the Red Sox, and then it's another game back to the Orioles, who took three in a row in Houston. That sweep knocked the Astros to 4 1/2 games behind a playoff spot.

The good news for Houston is that it has more than one path to the postseason. The Astros are actually closer (four games) to the lead in the AL West than they are to a wild card.

Detroit is in a similar spot, and plenty of teams around the league will be watching how the Tigers approach the deadline with star pitcher Tarik Skubal. Detroit is 4 1/2 games out of a wild card, but also just 6 1/2 behind the AL Central-leading White Sox.

Trivia time

The American League beat the National League 4-0 on Tuesday night, and Cody Bellinger became the fourth member of the New York Yankees to win All-Star MVP honors. Who were the other three? (Hint: The All-Star MVP debuted in 1962.)

Performance of the week

Hunter Goodman homered three times in Colorado's 9-6 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday. It was the second three-homer game for him in under a month. He also did it at Minnesota on June 27.

He's the first player in Rockies history — which includes plenty of homers — to hit three twice in the same season.

Comeback of the week

Arizona beat St. Louis 8-7 in 10 innings Sunday in a game the Diamondbacks trailed 7-0 in the sixth inning.

The Cardinals allowed two bases-loaded walks during Arizona's three-run sixth. Geraldo Perdomo hit a two-run inside-the-park home run an inning later. A two-run homer by Nolan Arenado tied it in the eighth.

Then St. Louis blundered its way to a scoreless top of the 10th. With men on first and third and nobody out, Jordan Walker hit a broken bat flare to Perdomo at shortstop, who charged the ball and caught it on the fly. Bryan Torres, apparently worried about the ball hitting the ground in front of Walker, was too far off first and got doubled off.

Max Kepler's hit in the bottom of the 10th won it. Arizona's win probability in the sixth was as low as 1.5% according to Baseball Savant. That makes the Diamondbacks' playoff chances — 27.4% according to FanGraphs — seem promising by comparison. Arizona is a half-game behind the Cardinals for the National League's final wild card.

Trivia answer

Giancarlo Stanton in 2022, Mariano Rivera in 2013 and Derek Jeter in 2000.

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

That’s according to a new study by home care agency 24 Hour Caregivers, which compared the best overall retirement conditions in all 50 states.

The study analyzed air quality, life expectancy, violent crime, environmental quality, Medicaid spending, the proportion of residents aged 65 and older, and nursing home quality across every state.

Each factor was given equal importance before the results were combined into an index score out of 100.

With all of the Snowbirds who come down to Florida, you might be surprised to learn the Sunshine State didn’t crack the top 10 for the best states to retire, according to the study.

Florida came in at No. 14 with a life expectancy average of 77.9 years, Medicaid spending at $4,948 per enrollee and the fourth-highest percentage of population aged 65 or older (21.8%).

Georgia, on the other hand, ranked ninth among the worst states for retirees, despite a stronger natural-environment rank of 20. The study found that nursing home quality placed 45th, Medicaid spending is just $5,015 per enrollee, and only 15.8% of residents are aged 65 or older.

After Hawaii, most of the rest of the top 10 states for retirees are in the New England area, according to the study:

1. Hawaii
2. Rhode Island
3. New Hampshire
4. Massachusetts
5. Maine
6. Vermont
7. Connecticut
8. New York
9. Minnesota
10. New Jersey

“What stands out about Hawaii is that it ranks first despite comparatively low Medicaid spending, because its life expectancy, natural environment and nursing home quality are all exceptionally strong,” said Allen Tahir, founder and CEO of 24 Hour Caregivers.

On the other hand, a majority of the worst 10 states for retirees, including Georgia, are in the South (ranked worst to best):

1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Louisiana
4. Nevada
5. Arkansas
6. Tennessee
7. Illinois
8. Alabama
9. Georgia
10. New Mexico

“Weaker nursing home quality and lower Medicaid spending often appear alongside poor health or safety outcomes,” Tahir said of the bottom 10. “When several of those factors overlap, families may face fewer good care options and more pressure when support is eventually needed.”

According to the study, 24 Hour Caregivers’ home state of California ranked No. 30 overall.

Methodology & sources:

24 Hour Caregivers compared all 50 US states using seven factors linked to retirement:

• Air quality: Average AQI in 2023, sourced from World Population Review using EPA data. Lower scores were considered better.
• Life expectancy: Life expectancy at birth in 2022, sourced from the CDC and National Center for Health Statistics. Higher figures were considered better.
• Violent crime: Violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024, sourced from USAFacts using FBI data. Lower rates were considered better.
• Natural environment: The 2025 U.S. News Natural Environment ranking, sourced from U.S. News & World Report. A lower rank was considered better.
• Medicaid spending: Annual spending per full-benefit enrollee in FY2023, sourced from KFF State Health Facts. Higher spending was treated as a stronger safety net.
• Population aged 65 and older: The share of each state’s population aged 65-plus in 2024, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. Higher percentages were treated as more retiree-friendly.
• Nursing home quality: The U.S. News nursing home quality ranking, sourced from U.S. News & World Report. A lower rank was considered better.

Cleaner air, lower crime and stronger U.S. News rankings were treated as better results. Higher life expectancy, Medicaid spending and 65-plus population figures were also scored more positively.

Each state was ranked from best to worst for every factor. The seven rankings were then weighted equally and combined to create the final order.

The results were converted into an index score out of 100, with a higher score representing better overall conditions for retirement.

The Public Opinion Research Lab at the University of North Florida surveyed 848 likely midterm voters from July 8–17.

Initially, 61% said they supported a proposed state constitutional amendment that would begin phasing out some homestead property taxes.

But when voters were told about the budget impact, they decisively rejected the proposal.

After respondents were told estimates indicate its passage could create a roughly $11.8 billion municipal budget shortfall over two years, support fell to 45%, and opposition rose to 47%.

“These numbers show how important the final ballot language will be in determining the outcome of this amendment,” said Sean Freeder, faculty director of the UNF Public Opinion Research Lab.

On other issues, Floridians were split about the general increase in use of artificial intelligence over the past year — 49% supported it and 49% opposed it — but opposed building AI data centers near them: 28% said they would support building a data center in their area and 68% opposed it.

The poll also found Republican Byron Donalds leading Democrat David Jolly by five points and Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody holding double‑digit advantages in paired matchups.

When respondents were asked to choose between Donalds and Jolly as the next Florida governor, 46% said they would vote for Donalds and 41% for Jolly; 6% were undecided.

In U.S. Senate matchups, Moody led Alexander Vindman 50% to 40% and led Angie Nixon 50% to 42%.

President Donald Trump’s overall job approval in the poll was 48%, with 51% disapproving; 46% said they strongly disapproved. Respondents rated Trump’s speech, personality and demeanor less favorably: 39% approved and 60% disapproved.

The UNF PORL poll used a mixed‑mode design of telephone interviews and web surveys and weighted results by education, party registration, age, race and ethnicity, sex and geography. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. For full crosstabs and methodology, visit unf.edu/coas/porl.

The supersized tournament delivered thrilling action on the field, with upsets, dramatic comebacks, spectacular goals and standout performances by the biggest stars of the game.

It also generated controversy, from political tensions surrounding Iran’s participation to criticism against innovations such as hydration breaks, which were unpopular among many fans.

Here are some key takeaways from the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

More teams, more drama

A newly expanded 48-team format raised concerns about lopsided matches and a lack of jeopardy in the group stage.

Tell that to Cape Verde, Congo and even Curaçao, which all made history and won new fans.

Cape Verde held eventual champion Spain to a draw in its opening game, advanced to the round of 32 and gave Argentina a scare before losing 3-2 in extra time in a World Cup classic. Cape Verde's goalkeeper Vozinha became a breakout star at the age of 40, gaining millions of followers on social media.

Congo also advanced beyond the group stage and pushed England before eventually losing, while Curaçao was still in with a chance of making the knockouts going into its final group match.

FIFA opened its door to more teams and they proved they could compete on soccer's biggest stage. Nonetheless, it was top-ranked nations Argentina, Spain, France and England — all former champions — that made it to the final four.

The big stars delivered

The race for the golden boot became a who's who of the world's top players with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham firing on all cylinders.

Mbappé led the way with 10 goals in the tournament and a record 22 career World Cup goals. Messi had eight at this World Cup and 21 in total.

Cristiano Ronaldo couldn't lead Portugal to success in what he said was his last World Cup, while Spain's teenage sensation Lamine Yamal — the star of the Euros two years ago — had to work his way into the tournament after overcoming injury.

Big tech, big complaints

Video reviews known as VAR were at the center of a number of contentious decisions, ruling out huge goals for Germany, Croatia and Egypt.

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan launched a furious tirade after Argentina staged a spectacular comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in the round of 16.

“We have suffered injustice,” he said after Egypt had a goal overturned when the score was still 1-0.

Fitted with sensors, the high-tech ball in use at the tournament cost Croatia a dramatic late equalizer against Portugal in the round of 32 when it detected the slightest of touches from Igor Mantanovic and ruled Josko Gvardiol's goal offside.

“All these decisions take the joy out of football,” said Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić, who has since stepped down.

Exorbitant ticket prices, but fans still turned up

There were concerns going into the tournament that FIFA's introduction of dynamic pricing would make game tickets unaffordable for average fans. Some critics accused FIFA of a “monumental betrayal."

Official ticket prices on general sale ranged from $140 to $2,735 for group stage matches and up to $8,680 for the final, far beyond the prices at the previous World Cup in Qatar in 2022. After criticism FIFA said it would offer a selection of $60 tickets for every game to the 48 national federations participating.

FIFA's resale market place allowed sellers to list tickets for massively more than face value, including ones for the final for just under $2.3 million. FIFA didn't control resale pricing, but took a cut from sales.

For all the criticism, fans still turned up in big numbers, even for games that didn’t feature marquee teams or players.

After a shaky start when there were empty seats for the game between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, stadium after stadium reported full houses.

Many foreign visitors were impressed by the hospitality they experienced in the U.S.

Hydration breaks a turnoff

FIFA’s new hydration breaks midway through each half — a novelty for this World Cup — prompted loud jeers from fans inside the stadium, while former players were also critical.

"We’re in America, right? So, it’s like it is a timeout,” former Ireland international Roy Keane said on The Overlap podcast.

The breaks were introduced to help players deal with the summer heat, but FIFA stipulated they would occur regardless of the weather, venue or location.

Coaches used them like timeouts to pass on in-game tactical instructions. Broadcasters, meanwhile, used them as an opportunity to take commercial breaks.

It is unclear whether FIFA will implement hydration breaks at future World Cups, but the English Football Association said they were unlikely to be in place for the 2028 European Championship, co-hosted by England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Iran participated despite the war

It’s not unusual for politics and sport to intertwine at the World Cup. This time the biggest political tensions surrounded the national team of Iran.

The war in the Middle East raised doubts about whether the Iranian team would show up at all. It did, but only after moving its base camp from Arizona to Mexico.

Its participation was overshadowed by visa issues, with the U.S. refusing visas to several members of Iran's delegation. The Iranians also complained about travel restrictions, including having to leave the U.S. immediately after each match.

When Iran was eliminated at the group stage, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made his feelings clear. “I’m just glad they’re done and they’re not coming back,” he said.

Trump's role in focus

While the Trump administration’s travel restrictions on a series of countries prevented some fans from traveling to the U.S., there were no reports of the aggressive immigration enforcement that some human rights groups had feared could take place around World Cup stadiums.

Besides the final, Trump didn't attend any World Cup games. However, his relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino came into sharp focus when U.S. striker Folarin Balogun's one game ban for a red card was suspended ahead of the team's round of 16 game against Belgium.

Trump said he had called Infantino to ask for the decision to be reviewed before FIFA made Balogun eligible to play. FIFA insisted its disciplinary bodies acted independently, but the incident raised question about political interference.

Ultimately, the decision didn't help the U.S. as it lost 4-1 to Belgium.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Popillia japonica, or Japanese beetle, is a familiar pest in the United States, where it arrived more than a century ago.

But it is a relative newcomer to the European continent, first detected near Milan’s Malpensa airport in 2014. In Italy, it has already swarmed through the northeastern regions of Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, where it appeared last year in terraced vineyards above the town of Donnas.

“We’re seeing the popillia steadily advance from terrace to terrace across our historic vineyards," said Luciano Zoppo Ronzero, a winemaker who produces Nebbiolo from the terraced vines. “We’re now about the 10th terrace and can already see the popillia attacks. This means they’re consuming and gradually moving up the mountain.”

With no natural predators and an appetite covering over 300 plants and trees, the Japanese beetle has made the European Union's list of priority pests, meaning that efforts must be made to contain and eradicate outbreaks.

The beetle is already entrenched in Italy, Switzerland and Germany, where the focus is on managing and containing expansion, while the population levels in France and Spain still allow hopes of eradication, said Daniela Lupi, an entomologist at the University of Milan.

The Japanese beetle is voracious and travels en masse as it feeds. Adult beetles also hitch a ride on trains, cars and airplanes. After spending summer months feasting, the beetles mate and their larvae feed on grasses until reaching maturity, and launch the cycle anew.

The Coldiretti agricultural lobby says the pest poses a major threat to agriculture as it makes its way through the Po River Valley, Italy’s breadbasket. But damage so far has been hard to quantify because often the beetle’s pattern of eating away the pulp of leaves weakens the plant, lowering production, without necessarily killing healthy plants.

“In some areas, the beetle has destroyed the harvest,’’ said Lorenzo Bazzana, the head of economic affairs at Coldiretti. The larvae, known as grubs, also feed on grass roots, damaging lawns, golf courses and playing fields.

Zoppo Ronzero is concerned for both his historic terraced vineyards, carved into the mountainside and stabilized by centuries-old drystone walls, and for his production. By defoliating the vines, the beetles expose grape clusters to the sun while severely reducing the plants’ ability to photosynthesize.

“What scares me is the fact that in the end the grapes don’t ripen. If the grapes don’t ripen, it means we’re not bringing home a splendid harvest, as we had hoped, but something unusable,” Ronzero said.

The best hope for eradicating the pests is attacking the larvae, according to Bazzana. The beetles were recently detected near Verona’s Valerio Catullo airport, and experts are experimenting by introducing a microscopic parasite in the surrounding area to attack the grubs.

Pheromone traps are also widely used, while the wine producers in Donnas are relying on pesticide treatments, even though the effectiveness is short-lived and labor-intensive on the steep terrain.

“If we don’t counter it, the population will continue to rise and so there will be strong damage to the fruits plants, to the grasses, to the ornamental plants,” Lupi, the entomologist, said. “There are no problems for the human population, because they are not so dangerous, but the production is really, really lowered.”

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Associated Press writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

After starting out as a teacher, she went back to school — and took out more loans — in hopes of landing a higher-paying job in the chemical processing industry. It never materialized, and then came Hurricane Harvey, a job loss and a car breakdown. By 2022, she was so broke she filed for bankruptcy.

She found work at a Texas prison and was rebuilding her life, saving up for weight-loss surgery, when this spring she heard from a credit-monitoring service. The student loans she thought had been discharged in bankruptcy had ballooned to $94,298 with interest, and she had to start making payments. She was in default.

“I absolutely broke down,” said Dreahn, 40.

Across the country, the number of borrowers with defaulted student loans jumped by more than 4.2 million from April 2025 to March 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis. The surge includes many who went off track in 2024, when loan payments started coming due again after a pandemic-era freeze.

Hundreds of thousands more are months behind on payments, and another surge in defaults could be on the way. Millions of borrowers are facing higher monthly payments as the government dismantles its most affordable income-driven repayment option, the SAVE plan, one of several changes the Education Department says are intended to simplify a fragmented system.

Borrowers enter default after missing payments for nine months, and the consequences can upend lives. It hurts credit ratings and can lead to the debt being sent to collections.

“I am seeing despair and outrage and despondency and just a very wide mix of pretty extreme emotions, the likes of which I have not seen before,” said Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice and the author of “The Student Loan Scam.”

The federal government can garnish wages and Social Security payments from borrowers in default, but the Trump administration in January walked back plans to begin collections on their loans. A Moody’s Analytics report this spring said garnishments are likely to begin within the next year, warning of “an additional headwind in an increasingly fragile economy.”

Taking out student loans was all too easy

Dreahn enrolled at Texas Woman’s University in 2004 as the first in her family to go to college. She cobbled together jobs, babysitting and working at a call center and an automotive shop. But she still needed to borrow heavily.

“There was one point where they were like, ‘If you don’t come up with the money, we’re dropping you from your classes,’” said Dreahn, who earned a degree in history with an emphasis on education and social studies. “And it was, ‘OK, what do I need to sign?’”

She said no one explained what taking out loans truly meant.

“You just kind of trust these advisers and trust these financial aid people that this is what you’re supposed to do,” Dreahn said.

While teaching, she took out more student loans to earn a pair of associate degrees from a public community college in Texas. She received a job offer at a chemical refinery, but it was rescinded because she was over the weight limit for the company’s safety equipment.

She filed for bankruptcy in 2022 in hopes that it would “erase everything.” She checked her online credit report afterward. For each student loan, the report read: “Nice! You’ve paid off 100% of this loan.” The message is sometimes shared with borrowers when student loans are consolidated or transferred to new companies — even when the person still owes money.

Student loans are rarely discharged in bankruptcy. Borrowers must prove the loans pose an “undue hardship.” The process is cumbersome, and few qualify, advocates say.

But Dreahn didn’t know any of that.

“I was so relieved, like, ‘OK, now I can start life over,’” she said. “'I can save some money.'”

She started working last year as a supervisor at a prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of Houston, and was living in an RV park to save money when she received the default notice.

“I just feel like, where is that light at the end of the tunnel now that I thought I had?” Dreahn said.

The wave of defaults started after the pandemic

As a pandemic relief measure, the federal government allowed borrowers to suspend student loan payments until 2023, and President Joe Biden's administration then provided a one-year grace period. That ended in fall 2024, allowing loans to enter into default after nine months of missed payments.

A surge in defaults followed, and today around 9.5 million borrowers — over 1 in 5 — are in default, including those whose loans were well past due before the pandemic, according to the AP analysis. The previous record for borrowers in default had been 8 million in December 2019.

There are also 870,000 borrowers with loans between 181 and 270 days late, on the edge of default, according to federal data.

Meanwhile, 33% of borrowers at for-profit schools nationally were at least 90 days late on payments, more than twice the rate of borrowers at public schools, additional federal data shows.

Most private colleges that offer traditional degrees are nonprofit. For-profit colleges generally offer career-focused degrees and credentials and often serve students of color. Career Education Colleges and Universities, an association of private trade schools, has created a task force to reach out to students about the importance of loan repayment, said Jason Altmire, the group's president and CEO.

“We take it seriously,” he said.

Borrowers struggle to make sense of changes

Some borrowers are so overwhelmed by their debt and changes to the federal student loan system that they’ve stopped paying.

Barbara Howaniec, a 63-year-old psychiatric nurse practitioner from Auburn, Maine, already has defaulted. She borrowed around $62,000 for her master’s degree from New York University, graduating in 2001. But after two decades of payments, she still owes around $67,000 with interest. She had put her loans in deferment for short stints while her children were young, unaware that interest would continue to accumulate.

Howaniec had hoped to have her loan forgiven after 25 years under an income-based repayment plan. But then came a letter saying the repayment schedule had changed and she owed 355 more payments. By the time she finished paying, she would be 91.

She made call after call, but she said the advice varied by whoever picked up the phone. Last year, as she paid for her own children’s college, she quit paying her own loans.

“I had already paid what I had borrowed. I’m like, no, I’m not going to pay anymore,” Howaniec said. As a self-employed person, she said she doesn’t have to worry about the government garnishing her wages.

Shannon Khan, a 46-year-old mental health worker from Webster, Texas, hasn’t paid her student loan for two months as she investigates her options.

She did not have to pay anything while enrolled in SAVE, but she was moved last fall to another income-driven repayment plan, with a required monthly payment of $847. She thought she was close to having her remaining balance forgiven, but she recently learned her payment will jump to $1,683 a month — an amount her loan servicer said she will need to pay for nearly a decade.

She has spent hours on the phone trying to get answers.

“It’s just a bunch of chaos and confusion,” Khan said.

Some hunt pathways out of default

Dreahn had never been entirely clear how much she was borrowing when she was a student. As an adult, the process remained opaque. She had multiple loans transferred to different loan servicers. And then her loans were deferred when she went back to school.

“It’s a huge, huge mess,” Dreahn said. “It’s almost like it just gets sold off and you’re just lost in the system somewhere until you figure out that, 'Oh, they want $700 this month. What?'”

Now in default, she hopes she might one day qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It requires borrowers to make 10 years of payments while working at a nonprofit or for the government.

“I’m trying to figure out: One, how I’m going to make it work. And two, what do I give up?" Dreahn said. "How do I manage buying groceries as well as making sure the bills are covered and this payment never gets missed?”

Lately, she thinks back on the chemical processing plant job she almost got.

“That was a six-figure career that I lost due to my weight,” she said, her voice breaking. “The money that I’m trying to save now that was going to be for surgery is going to be paid to student loans instead.”

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Associated Press reporter Adriana Morga contributed to this report.

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

In most places, cash is king. But in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, having too much is gumming up the machinery of daily life. The Palestinian banking system has more Israeli shekels than it can manage. As a result, paper money has gotten harder for residents to spend and for businesses to put into their accounts.

The excess liquidity stems from a conflict between the Bank of Israel and the Palestinian Monetary Authority, which oversees Palestinian banks and financial institutions. Israel limits the amount of physical currency it takes back from the West Bank. Palestinian officials say the cap has not kept pace with growth and is one mechanism used to keep the territory in a state of economic crisis.

Unlike in Gaza, where years of an almost total blockade have caused cash shortages, banks in the West Bank are running out of vault space to store stacks of shekels. With Bank of Israel refusing to accept more notes and coins, commercial banks can’t convert the money into electronic balances to pay suppliers or process transfers on behalf of their customers.

“The banks have been shackled” in their ability to deal with the crisis, Mohammad Manasra, the deputy governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “What is being practiced in the West Bank is economic warfare.”

More cash enters the West Bank than Israel allows out

Central banks in most countries take back cash from commercial banks and credit them electronically so they can settle payments and meet customers’ needs. But in the occupied West Bank — where Palestinians have no say over monetary policies guiding the shekel — the economy runs differently.

The territory has relied predominantly on the Israeli shekel for decades and depends on Israel to facilitate trade, collect taxes and process payments for imported goods under agreements dating to the 1990s. A surfeit of cash accumulates because the Palestinian economy runs almost exclusively on physical currency, and more enters from Israel than can exit.

Why? Employers in Israel and its settlements pay Palestinian laborers in cash, and Palestinian citizens of Israel often purchase goods like cigarettes and fuel in the West Bank, bringing in even more shekels. As more cash flows in, the surplus trapped inside Palestinian banks grows, neither earning interest nor getting turned into loans, investments and bill payments.

Israel's cash transfer limit from the West Bank's banking system is 18 billion shekels ($5.9 billion) a year. Banks now accumulate an estimated 30 billion shekels a year, said Moayad Afaneh, an economist who has advised the Palestinian Authority.

In the past, Israeli officials expressed reluctance to accept more, citing concerns that returned money could be linked to laundering, tax evasion or terrorism.

Bank of Israel said in a statement that it follows the current government's policy on how many shekels to accept but that fewer Palestinians have worked in Israel since the war in Gaza started, thereby reducing the cash entering the West Bank.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich 's office did not respond to requests for comment but in September 2025 Smotrich threatened to “use all of the tools” at his disposal to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, including “economic strangulation.”

Palestinians say Israel limits taking shekel as economic leverage

Israel has imposed a series of measures that have hobbled the West Bank’s economy since Hamas-led militants attacked in October 2023, starting the war in Gaza.

It revoked most work permits for Palestinians who used to work in Israel, cutting off a major source of income in the occupied territory. It has withheld tax and customs revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which in turn has been unable to fully pay public sector workers — including teachers and hospital staff — for more than a year.

With growing needs for vault space, banks are having to pay to store and insure cash they're unable to offload. They're accepting less from businesses and households, which in turn have to find alternative ways to store cash safely.

The excess shekel problem is “directly affecting the government’s ability and the private sector’s capacity to continue providing services to major industrial sectors and the Palestinian people,” Manasra said.

As an example, he noted most of the West Bank’s fuel and electricity is imported from Israel or purchased from Israeli utilities. When banks have too much of their assets tied up as physical cash, they don't have the funds when their clients — like the Palestinian Authority or West Bank cities — need to transfer payments to import fuel, water and electricity.

Fears of looting by Israeli soldiers conducting increasingly common home raids have made the problem worse, Afaneh, the economist, said. Palestinians are depositing more into banks because they fear soldiers will confiscate it, claiming suspiciously large sums could be used for illicit purposes or terrorism.

Having too much cash on hand also hurts the banks' bottom lines because they can't lend out money like most banks, which today do so electronically. A 2022 International Monetary Fund study estimated excess cash reduced Palestinian banks’ profits by about 20%, a figure Afaneh said is likely much higher today.

Cash-based businesses in the West Bank have money but can't pay suppliers

Inside the Ramallah headquarters of the Al-Huda Group, cigarette smoke and tea steam drift through an office where clerks feed banknotes into machines that spit out neat stacks of counted bills. The company operates filling stations, convenience, grocery and home improvement stores, car washes and other businesses that collect tens of millions of shekels each month.

Stockpiles of money that cash-based businesses can’t deposit because the banks are full has made routine operations and transactions more difficult and expensive, said Hussni Jaber, the executive manager of the Al-Huda Group.

To make electronic payments to Palestinian and foreign suppliers, for example, some businesses have resorted to taking out loans or buying other currencies while also paying more to keep their overabundance of cash on hand safely stored, Jaber said.

When they can't pay their suppliers, some gas stations have to stop filling their pumps. The Palestinian Authority in a statement pointed to the issue when gas stations temporarily closed on Saturday.

Last month, a number of gas station owners coordinated a 30-minute strike across the West Bank, including the 22 operated by Al-Huda, to draw attention to the cash crisis. It has done little to prompt a response.

With their earnings stuck outside the traditional banking system, business leaders fear the cash glut will eventually prevent West Bank companies from being able to import fuel, food and medical supplies from Israel or elsewhere abroad, Jaber said.

“All sectors will collapse if the cash problem is not resolved," he said.

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Imad Isseid contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.

This year, 66 men and 40 women attended the three-day competition in Hayward that ended Saturday. They represented 16 states and nine countries.

Competitors take their gear seriously with custom-built chain saws, carefully sharpened axes and single buck saws that can cost upwards of $400 just to sharpen.

Karolina Urbanová from the Czech Republic set world records in two events. She earned first place in the Women's Underhand Chop, cutting through 11" (27.9 centimeters) of white pine in 21.28 seconds. She also came in first in the Women's Standing Chop, cutting through 9” (22.8 centimeters) of white pine in 19.38 seconds.

Meredith Ingbretson of Hayward set a world record in the Women's Boom Run, sprinting across the water and back over eight red cedar logs in 13.78 seconds.

While women have been competing since the inaugural competition in 1960, the events they participate in have expanded significantly, organizers said. They started just competing in log-rolling, and now participate in more than 20 timber sports events.

“When I started chopping I was chopping with the men," said Nancy Zalewski, a competitor for 27 years who has trained others, including fellow participant Kate Witkowski.

The tradition of competition among lumberjacks began in the 1890s, according to the organization. The competition is held in the Lumberjack Bowl on the shores of Lake Hayward. In the past, the area had been a holding pond for log drives down the Namekagon River.

The lumberjack theme is ever-present with children in lumberjack socks, flannels and suspenders, and brands handing out blow-up axes and toy chain saws. Outside the competition bowl, there are wood-carving demonstrations, log-rolling practice for kids, live music, food trucks and axe-themed events.

“The culture of it I think is really wonderful," Witkowski said. "I don’t know any other sports where the athletes support each other like we do here because it’s such a niche sport and because the gear is so hard to come by that we’re all just trying to get better.”

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Schmidt is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

——

Associated Press reporter Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.

Zambada’s sentencing in Brooklyn federal court is the culmination of the U.S. government’s yearslong fight to bring the long-elusive Sinaloa cartel co-founder to justice. He was arrested in 2024 after he said he was kidnapped in Mexico and flown to Texas.

Zambada ordered torture and plotted murders as he and co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán grew the Sinaloa cartel into the world’s largest drug trafficking organization and flooded the U.S. with tons of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs, prosecutors said.

Zambada was seen as the cartel’s strategist and dealmaker and was more involved in its day-to-day operations than the flamboyant Guzmán, who was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Zambada pleaded guilty in August 2025 after prosecutors said they wouldn’t seek the death penalty. Speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, he apologized “to everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.”

The 76-year-old Zambada has asked that he serve his sentence at a prison hospital. Zambada “contends with a complex of age-related health issues” and “will need ongoing access to medical care,” defense lawyer Frank Perez said in a sentencing memo.

Federal prosecutors asked Judge Brian M. Cogan to consider “the serious ongoing security risks” Zambada poses, arguing that some facilities “may not be appropriate for the security concerns posed.”

Judges often make recommendations about where inmates should serve time, but it’s up to the federal Bureau of Prisons to decide.

Zambada “was one of the most—if not the most—prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. “It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude” of his crimes and the scale of the “corruption, violence, and other harm he spread throughout Mexico, the United States, and the world.”

Along with a life sentence, he also faces $15 billion in financial penalties, which prosecutors said reflected proceeds from the cartel's crimes under his leadership.

Zambada pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging culpability for 85 underlying crimes. From 1980 until last year, he and his cartel were responsible for transporting at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine, “most of which went to the United States,” he said upon pleading guilty.

He acknowledged the scope of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and smuggling the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border. He said the cartel raked in hundreds of millions of dollars a year and admitted that people working for him paid hefty bribes to Mexican officials “so they could operate freely.”

Months before his arrest, prosecutors said, Zambada ordered the murder of his nephew Eliseo Imperial Castro, also known as “Cheyo Antrax,” after learning that Castro was claiming to be collecting debts for Zambada and pocketing the money without Zambada’s permission.

In 2023, at least three people were killed in retaliatory violence that Zambada directed after a large cache of fentanyl pills, methamphetamine and cocaine was stolen from the cartel, prosecutors said.

Zambada’s arrest came after, according to his lawyer, he was beaten, tied up, abducted and driven to a private plane by one of Guzmán’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López. Their arrests touched off deadly fighting in Sinaloa that pitted Zambada's loyalists against backers of Guzmán’s sons, dubbed the Chapitos, or “little Chapos.”

In arguing to have Zambada sent to a prison hospital, Perez sought to contrast Zambada’s guilty plea and Guzmán's decision to go to trial — an 11-week ordeal that involved closing down the Brooklyn Bridge to shuttle him to and from court and jail.

“Mr. Zambada’s unequivocal acceptance of responsibility has been a defining feature of his conduct since his involuntary arrival in the United States,” Perez wrote.

“For Mr. Zambada to end up not only with the same life sentence as Mr. Guzman, but also in the same draconian Supermax prison, would fail to account in any way for the fact that he took the right path in resolving the charges against him,” Perez argued.

Now, with the National Hurricane Center monitoring a system in the Gulf that carries a 30% chance of tropical development through Sunday, a local attorney says homeowners and renters across Northeast Florida need to act before the next storm arrives, not after.

“Most people do not think about their legal rights until after the damage is already done,” said Gene Nichols, an attorney with Nichols and Pina in Jacksonville.

Nichols says the first and most important step any homeowner can take right now has nothing to do with sandbags or shutters.

“The best thing that you can do as a homeowner from a legal standpoint is make sure, one, you’ve got your homeowner’s coverage and that it’s up to date,” Nichols said.

He says key things to look for in your policy include whether it covers the full replacement cost of your home, what your deductible is before coverage kicks in, and whether it covers additional living expenses if a storm forces you out of your home temporarily.

Nichols says one of the most common and costly mistakes he sees is homeowners waiting until after a storm to open that policy for the first time.

“You have to check your policy and make sure it covers what you want, or up your policy in case you need it,” he said. “Because while you may go an entire year and you didn’t even have a branch drop, it was worth every penny that you paid insurance in case this happens to be the year.”

Nichols says the next step is documentation. Before any storm moves in, walk your property and record a video of its current condition. And if a storm does hit, document the damage immediately after as well. That before and after footage, he says, becomes your evidence when you file an insurance claim.

What first-time homeowners need to know

That lesson is already hitting close to home for a Jacksonville couple. Olivia and Jon became first-time homeowners and had a tree destroy their house before they ever had the chance to move in. A GoFundMe campaign organized by a friend has raised nearly $2,000 toward their insurance deductible and repair costs.

Nichols says their situation raises a legal question many storm victims never think to ask.

“It’s going to be a question of whether or not there’s any liability on the prior homeowner, or whether it’s going to be an insurance issue,” he said. “The sad thing about it, of course, is they hadn’t even moved in yet.”

He says cases like theirs underscore why understanding your policy before signing closing documents is critical.

“Hopefully they’ve got an insurance company who is going to step up and do the right thing,” Nichols said.

And for anyone worried their coverage will fall short, he offered this.

“No insurance is going to cover all of your losses, but you do everything that you can to make sure you have a policy that is going to cover as much as you possibly can.”

For renters dealing with a broken air conditioner during this week’s dangerous heat, Nichols says your landlord’s legal deadline to respond may depend less on state law and more on what you signed.

“Unfortunately, most renters are in the position of fix it on your own,” he said. “Have documentation. Do not call your friend to come fix your AC. Call a company, call a reputable company, or call a licensed and insured company. And then if your landlord is unwilling to do something about it, number one, you have AC, and then number two, you end up calling a lawyer to go after the landlord.”

He says renters should not assume their landlord has a state mandated deadline to act.

“Any requirement for a landlord to respond appropriately is going to be based upon the lease agreement,” Nichols said.

His advice is to read that lease now, document every call and text with your landlord, and keep every receipt for any repairs you pay for out of pocket.

What’s forming in the Gulf

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a surface low in the northeastern Gulf that carries a 30% chance of tropical development through Sunday. If it develops, it would become the second named Atlantic tropical storm of the 2026 season. The next name on the list is Bertha.

Meteorologists at News4JAX say a dry pocket of air is limiting storm development across much of Northeast Florida today, but interior portions of Southeast Georgia and parts of North Central Florida could still see scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Heat index values are expected to peak between 100 and 107 degrees.

Residents are urged to stay hydrated, limit outdoor activity during peak heat hours, and monitor updates on the Gulf system through the weekend.

How to help

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Olivia and Jon cover their insurance deductible and out-of-pocket repair costs.

The two-way superstar received a lubricant injection just before the All-Star break last week and had been expected to pitch Wednesday in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

Ohtani, however, still didn’t feel 100% while playing catch this weekend, so he and the Dodgers decided not to even test the knee with a bullpen session.

The four-time MVP hasn't pitched since July 3, when he threw a season-high 110 pitches over six innings in a no-decision against San Diego. Now, it's unclear when he'll return to the mound.

“I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday before his team split a day-night doubleheader with the New York Yankees. “It's not going to be a day-to-day thing.”

Roberts reiterated that Ohtani feels no knee pain when hitting. The slugger went 2 for 5 with two RBIs and a run during an 8-2 victory in the opener Sunday, and was back in the leadoff spot as the designated hitter for the nightcap.

“We just want to continue to give it the best chance to kind of get in a good spot,” Roberts said. “As he said, as we feel, it’s the pitching and the torque on landing on that leg. That kind of gets it upset. So I think that hitting doesn’t do that. So I think that for us, we’re trying to give it as much time as possible.”

Ohtani went 1 for 4 with an infield single in the nightcap and struck out with two runners aboard in the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss. He also threw in the outfield between games and ended a long day at Yankee Stadium feeling fine.

“Overall, I think a good day for Shohei,” Roberts said.

The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers have the best record in the majors at 63-37 and an 11 1/2-game lead in the NL West. Roberts indicated that's playing into the team's approach with Ohtani, who skipped the All-Star Game last Tuesday in Philadelphia to treat and rest his balky knee.

The right-hander has been dealing with the ailment for more than a month. He had an outing cut short against Pittsburgh on June 11 because of inflammation in the knee.

“I think for us, it’s more like we’ve done many times over, erring on the side of caution,” Roberts explained. ”A lot of it is where we’re at and how we put ourselves in a good spot in the sense of, could he probably do it? Sure. But right now the benefits don’t seem to outweigh the cost of this time in the season. So I think that we still have plenty of time to kind of get him in a good spot.”

Roberts said he's sure Ohtani will return to the mound this year.

"If it’s two weeks or three weeks then that’s kind of why we’re trying to do this, so we don’t have to worry about it throughout the end of the season,” Roberts said.

Emmet Sheehan had been expected to start during the Yankees series, but his next outing was pushed back to Monday night in Philadelphia.

Los Angeles is off Thursday this week and Monday next week, providing some short-term flexibility in the rotation while left-hander Blake Snell works his way back from an injury.

Snell, sidelined since his season debut on May 9 because of loose bodies in his left elbow, made a rehab start Saturday for Triple-A Oklahoma City and threw 32 pitches in 1 1/3 innings. He’s expected to pitch again Friday and will need to get up to about five innings and 75 pitches in the minors before returning to the big league rotation, Roberts said.

“I think that once we moved Emmet, the rotation can keep going forward without Shohei for the time being. I can’t speak for how long that’s going to be,” Roberts said.

“He was on the schedule when we broke for the All-Star break and then it was more of the training staff talking to him about, `Hey, coming out of the break, how does Wednesday look? How do you feel? If you don’t feel 100%, we have the opportunity to kick the can,'" Roberts added. "I think it’s more driven by the organization saying, hey, if you’re not 100% right, we don’t have to do this.”

Ohtani is batting .290 with 22 homers, 60 RBIs and a .938 OPS. He is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 85 2/3 innings over 14 starts on the mound and has won his past six decisions.

“When he does swing the bat, it’s the back knee versus the land knee where you’re kind of driving off of it to create torque when you pitch,” Roberts said. "And so there’s no feeling of any sensation or any reason why we feel he's got to stop hitting.”

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AP freelance writer Larry Fleisher contributed to this report.

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

Logano snapped a 45-race winless streak Sunday night with a dominant victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the first points race at the 0.625-mile track in 30 years.

After Logano wrapped up a lengthy on-track burnout, Denny Hamlin approached him and dabbed him up out of respect. Hamlin spent the second part of the race doing everything he could to catch Logano, but it proved fruitless.

The No. 22 Ford was too dominant. Logano led 323 of 450 laps.

“It’s wildly, wildly impressive what he did,” Hamlin said. “I thought it was a really impressive drive from him, how he maneuvered through (lapped) traffic and did everything we know Joey to do.”

It was Logano's 38th career Cup win, and his first since May 2025 at Texas.

The 36-year-old Logano also extended his streak of winning at least one race to 15 consecutive seasons, the longest among active drivers. The late Kyle Busch holds the record, winning in 19 straight seasons (2005-2023).

"A win anywhere at this point would have sounded great, but coming here and doing it at North Wilkesboro is awesome,” Logano said.

Hamlin finished second, followed by Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Shane Van Gisbergen.

It was a huge win for Logano, who entered the race outside of the top 16 in the Chase for the playoffs. He's now inside the cutline in 15th place.

“I feel like I know exactly what I need to go fast around this place,” said Logano, who won the 2024 All-Star race here in dominant fashion. “I knew coming this weekend that we’ve got to capitalize on the points.”

The track, built in 1947, sat mostly dormant for a quarter of a century following its last points race in on Sept. 29, 1996.

Speedway Motorsports undertook the monumental task of refurbishing it, including clearing the weeds and trees growing up through the middle of the racetrack. NWS hosted the All-Star race from 2023-25.

In-Season Challenge to be settled next week

Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland have reached the finals of the $1 million NASCAR In-Season Challenge. Blaney defeated Christopher Bell head-to-head in the semifinals on Sunday night, while Gilliland topped Chase Elliott.

The champion will be decided next Sunday in Indianapolis at the Brickyard 400 with the driver finishing higher in the race awarded the $1 million prize.

Bowman takes out Reddick while entering the pits

Tyler Reddick got caught up a wreck on lap 184 when Alex Bowman cut him off as he was attempting to go from the top row down into pit row, spinning out the No. 45.

Bowman told his crew chief, “I thought I had hole but maybe I didn’t.”

A tough night for pole-sitter Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney, who won last week at Atlanta, was set to start on the pole based on metrics after qualifying was rained out on Saturday. Instead, he was forced to start the race at the rear of the field after his No. 12 Ford Mustang had a power steering pump issue.

Things only got worst for the 2023 Cup Series champion after he received a speeding penalty on pit row on lap 365, dropping him out of the top five and costing him 15 positions.

Up next

The Cup Series heads to Indianapolis next week for the Brickyard 400. Bubba Wallace captured his first crown jewel event last year after Austin Cindric blew a tire.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

Step by step, the U.S. and Iran have inched closer to all-out war as last month's interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people, while benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above $90 a barrel, further fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

The U.S. military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “And we did that in honor of the” soldiers killed, he said.

US launches ninth night of Iran strikes

Earlier, the military said its strikes targeted Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday's killing of troops in Jordan. One service member was missing after that attack, and the military's new statement said “unidentified remains” were found Sunday and were being examined. Since the war began, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.

The renewed exchanges of fire, now in their second week, have seen the U.S. target bridges and electrical facilities in Iran.

The U.S. military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes early Monday, now into their ninth straight night. Central Command said it targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.”

There was no immediate word from Iran on any casualties or damage from the attacks. Iranian state media reported explosions being heard in southern and northwestern Iran.

As the strikes began, a ship caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz near the coastline of Oman, the British military said. It was unclear what sparked the blaze off Oman, which has been a route the U.S. military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran's control. The Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.

Tehran has retaliated by hitting U.S.-allied countries throughout the Middle East.

Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait again activated air defenses for incoming Iranian drones and missiles. Early Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain issued a warning saying “Iran may seek to target unspecified locations in central Manama,” the capital, without elaborating.

Iran says a nuclear site under construction was hit

Footage released Sunday by the U.S. military appeared to show strikes carried out by fighter jets and by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the sea. One target site appeared to be in a valley of a mountainous region. The Guard often has missile bases and other military equipment tucked into mountain ranges.

Iran’s atomic energy agency said U.S. strikes targeted the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in the southwest, state television reported.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the Darkhovin nuclear plant site showed earth clearing but little construction as of July 9. Iran did not previously announce it as being targeted.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site, in the “very early stages of construction,” contained no nuclear material when the U.N. watchdog last visited.

Jordan and nearly every Gulf Arab state have been targeted

Jordan's military said it shot down several Iranian missiles. The country hosts major U.S. bases and relies on U.S. air-defense systems. The missiles did not cause casualties or damage, according to Jordan's military.

Israel's military said Iranian missiles launched toward the Jordanian port city of Aqaba just across the border could spill over, warning Israelis to expect the first air-raid sirens in weeks.

Eilat, the Israeli city that neighbors Aqaba, cited security officials as saying two interceptors were launched from its outskirts to prevent the fall of debris.

During the latest fighting, Iran has focused attacks on U.S.-allied Arab states rather than Israel, which launched the war with the U.S. on Feb. 28.

Kuwait said one of its power and water desalination plants was attacked for the second time in two days, causing fires. Its Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the power grid remains stable. In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination.

International humanitarian law generally protects civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants from attack, but such sites can lose protections if used for military purposes. In such cases, attacks must be proportionate and minimize civilian harm.

The Strait of Hormuz remains key to the conflict

Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, which saw one-fifth of global oil supplies transit before the war. Recent attacks suggest the U.S. military is carrying out that plan.

The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday said it had redirected six ships and disabled one since then.

The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including Iran's nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. is still open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real.”

“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy — if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations — that’ll be a very positive development," Rubio said. “That’s not where we are tonight, unfortunately.”

Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes.

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Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Finley from Washington. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Washington and Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo contributed.

The quick change in the landscape of the race came on a weekend when party committees across the state began choosing delegates for a nominating convention that will meet July 25 to select a new candidate to face Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Between Saturday and Sunday. Troy Jackson’s campaign touted they had secured hundreds of delegates who had promised to back him at the convention, including all of their preferred delegates for Maine's most populous county, Cumberland.

His strength caused an exodus.

Maine's Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, withdrew Sunday morning, saying Democrats didn't have “a day to waste in unifying" around the goal of defeating Collins.

Nirav Shah, former director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, dropped out and endorsed Jackson in the early evening. He was quickly followed by Dan Kleban, the co-founder of Maine Beer Company, and Jordan Wood, both of whom also endorsed Jackson.

With all of his most formidable opponents out, Jackson looked tough to beat at next weekend's convention.

The Democrats have been scrambling to pick a new candidate after Platner, who won the Democratic primary, then withdrew from the race this month. Platner had electrified some progressives, but his campaign collapsed after several women complained about his behavior, including one former girlfriend who accused him of sexual assault. Platner denied the allegation.

Our Revolution, a progressive organization founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that had originally backed Platner, threw its support behind Jackson.

Jackson, 58, was a logger before he became a politician. He was elected to the state legislature in 2002 and ultimately became the president of Maine's senate. He left office in 2024 due to term limits.

Jackson unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic nominee for governor earlier this year with Platner's backing, but wasn't successful.

Cody Bellinger had an early RBI single and the Yankees won for only the second time in their past 11 home games, preventing a three-game sweep by their old October rivals in the Dodgers' first visit to the Bronx since winning the 2024 World Series.

After a rainout Saturday night, the Dodgers took the opener 8-2 as Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed a four-hitter for his first regular-season complete game in 66 major league starts.

Hours later, it was seven pitchers from a fresh Los Angeles relief corps who quieted the Yankees' scuffling lineup in a bullpen game for the Dodgers. New York failed to score in the fifth after loading the bases with nobody out and stranded 11 runners overall.

But the Yankees also found success with a bullpen game as Ryan Yarbrough, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick combined to hold the Dodgers scoreless on three hits through seven innings before pinch-hitter Tommy Edman homered on Fernando Cruz's second pitch leading off the eighth, tying it 1-all.

It was Edman's second homer this season and the third pinch-hit shot of his career. The previous one came on July 10, 2021, with St. Louis at the Chicago Cubs.

Following consecutive one-out walks, closer David Bednar (4-3) entered and struck out Shohei Ohtani before Chisholm ranged from second base into shallow right field to make a wobbly catch of Andy Pages' inning-ending popup.

With one out in the bottom half, Chisholm drove a 1-0 fastball from Evan Phillips (0-1) the other way to left-center for his 14th home run.

Bednar worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth, retiring Edman on a game-ending popup with his 32nd pitch of the night.

Paul Goldschmidt doubled off Dodgers opener Will Klein with two outs in the first and scored on Bellinger's single.

Dodgers rookie catcher Eliezer Alfonzo singled in the third for his first major league hit.

Up next

Dodgers: RHP Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81 ERA) pitches Monday night at Philadelphia in the opener of a three-game series between National League pennant contenders.

Yankees: LHP Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.15 ERA) starts Monday night at home against Pittsburgh All-Star RHP Braxton Ashcraft (9-3, 3.49).

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

The 46-year-old woman and her 24-year-old son were found stranded on Balaloho Island, one of the small inhabited islands in Selayar, , by fishermen, officials said.

More than 200 rescuers aboard vessels were joined by Indonesian troops, police, fishermen and residents, said Andi Sultan, head of emergency response in Makassar.

“Rescue teams also faced extremely harsh weather conditions, including waves as high as 2–3 meters and strong winds,” Sultan said.

Search and rescue team retrieved five survivors on Saturday evening, including a 7-year-old girl, who were clinging to a fish trap.

At least one person was confirmed dead.

The KM Nurul Salsa, which was carrying 78 passengers and crew, experienced engine failure and sank Wednesday about 43 nautical miles (79 kilometers) from the port in the Selayar Islands, in South Sulawesi Province.

Passenger boats are a common form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. Lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding frequently result in accidents.

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Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.

And when it was over, Spain walked off with the trophy. Messi simply walked off in tears.

Spain is back atop the soccer world for a second time, after Ferran Torres’ first goal of this year's World Cup — unquestionably the goal of his life — gave his country a 1-0 win over now-dethroned champion Argentina in the final on Sunday.

“It was a goal scored by 47 million people,” Torres said, referring to Spain’s population.

Maybe not by them — but certainly for them.

The goal came with Argentina down to 10 men after Enzo Fernandez was sent off late in regulation following a reckless tackle. Tempers flared then, and flared again after the final whistle with Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni and players from both sides engaging in what appeared to be some pushing and shoving.

In the end, Spain denied Messi a second straight title in what he has indicated was his final World Cup match. Torres, a second-half substitute, pounced on a bouncing ball in the box and used his left foot to bury a shot just under the crossbar in the 106th minute.

From there, the airtight defense that dominated opponents throughout the tournament came through one final time. Spain — which also won the title in 2010 — allowed only one goal in eight matches in this World Cup run, setting a record for fewest goals allowed by a champion.

“I feel pride, to be honest,” said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, who at 65 is now the oldest man to lead a team to a World Cup title. "Accompanying them on this journey is an honor.”

Spain gets a World Cup 1st

This title, combined with the Women's World Cup won by Spain in 2023, makes the European nation the first to hold both the men’s and women’s titles simultaneously. And in the streets of Madrid — probably many other places in Spain as well — countless people spilled into the streets, celebrating Sunday's victory long into the wee hours of Monday morning.

The score indicates this match was close, but only one team was in command.

Spain took the game’s first 20 shots on goal before Argentina — desperate for an equalizer — got its first attempt off in the second half of extra time. Spain took nine of the game’s first 10 corner kicks, and only a World Cup final-record 12 saves by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez gave the 2022 champions a shot at going back-to-back.

“Dibu was nothing short of exceptional,” de la Fuente said, referring to Argentina's keeper by his nickname.

Spain is now unbeaten in its last 38 matches — 29 wins, nine draws — and is the outright holder of the longest such streak by any European men's team ever. Italy went 37 matches (28 wins, nine draws) from October 2018 through September 2021, before Spain ended that streak.

And for the last two-plus years, nobody has beaten Spain. Not even Messi. An Argentina team that was the kings of the late-game rally in this tournament had no answer this time.

“We lost the game, and we accept that,” Scaloni said. “That doesn’t mean that we will forget everything we’ve done so far, so I’d like to thank my people, my players and the country. I can tell them that we played our hearts out.”

Spain survives a late push

Messi took a corner kick with about four minutes left before the final whistle and the ball took a fortunate skip toward substitute Giuliano Simeone — who sent it high and over the crossbar, holding his head in disbelief afterward.

“When you have Messi on the other side, well, you are nervous,” Torres said. "At the end of the day, we always depended on us. We always come up with our football, and we showed it again.”

After the post-match scuffles, they also paid tribute to the former champions. Spain's players lined up to form an honor guard of sorts for Argentina's squad to walk through on its way to the stage for the runner-up medals from President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“I think now I'm in a cloud,” said Spain midfielder Rodri, the Golden Ball winner as the tournament's best player.

Argentina was forced to finish the match down a man after Fernandez was sent off in second-half stoppage time after getting his second yellow card. Fernandez was whistled for a collision that sent Spain defender Pau Cubarsi cartwheeling into the air, and the card came out immediately.

Defense led Spain to a title

It was the 104th and last match of the biggest World Cup ever, a 48-team event that played out over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Because there were more matches than any previous World Cup, it was no surprise that there were more goals than all other editions — more than 300, nearly three per match.

Except, of course, when Spain was involved. Spain's plan was simple and flawless: Hold the ball as much as possible, denying opponents any hint of chances.

It worked, all the way to the end.

Messi is 39 and the math certainly suggests that the Inter Miami star is at the end of his international career. There have been hints — such as Messi himself declaring that a home World Cup qualifying match against Venezuela last year would be his final competitive contest for Argentina on his nation’s soil.

“I experienced a lot of things on this pitch, good and not so good,” Messi said that night. “I’ll take the good with me.”

He retired from the national team after losing a Copa America final to Chile — in the same stadium he played in Sunday — a decade ago, then came back a few weeks later after changing his mind.

Good thing he did, because in that decade he went from superstar to absolute icon.

There was the World Cup title in 2022. There were two Copa America titles, the first in 2021 and the second in 2024. He won Argentina’s player of the year award 16 times in a span of 19 years, first winning it as a teenager and continuing to win it all the way into his late 30s.

He's a legend within the game and on all corners of the globe. But Spain was better Sunday.

“I spoke to my players, and they said: ‘Look, we’ve won everything, coach. We’ve won everything,'” de la Fuente said. “And that is beautiful.”

A final unlike any other

The spectacle was not limited to simply soccer.

Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira were all part of a halftime show that also featured Burna Boy, Jason Sudeikis in character as “Ted Lasso” and even some of the Muppets. Jennifer Hudson, Post Malone and Tom Cruise had roles in the closing ceremony, which actually preceded the match.

A slew of actors, athletes and other celebrities were there: Spain’s Javier Bardem left happy, Luciana Barroso Damon — the wife of actor Matt Damon — probably did not, considering she was wearing the colors of her native Argentina.

They all came to see a show. So did 80,000 other people, not to mention perhaps as many as 2 billion watching around the globe.

Spain didn't disappoint. No team has won back-to-back men's World Cups since Brazil in 1958 and 1962, and Spain kept Argentina from pulling off that repeat.

“As I told the lads before the game, we have to go for the game, we need to face them, we have to look to their eyes and say we want this game,” Rodri said. “And then, life gives you the World Cup or not.”

Spain took it instead.

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This story was updated to remove quotes mistakenly attributed to Lionel Messi that were actually Lionel Scaloni.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Spain was absolutely dominant in terms of possession and shot attempts. Lionel Messi and Argentina found a way to hang on and force extra time — but barely.

And in the opening moment of the second 15-minute period of extra time, Torres pounced on a bouncing ball in the box and used his left foot to bury a shot just under the crossbar and into the back of the net.

Messi weeps

Tears rolled down Lionel Messi’s cheeks as he turned toward Argentina fans after receiving his World Cup runner-up medal.

After shaking hands with President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Messi stood in front of thousands of Argentina fans still in the stands.

Trump keeps himself in the victory shot as Spain celebrates

President Trump helped hand the World Cup trophy to Spain players assembled for their victory photo, and then remained directly at their side as they jumped up and down in celebration.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino walked alongside Trump to deliver the award and then moved out of view of cameras. Trump hung closer, smiling as the team hoisted the trophy.

Trump takes the field for awards ceremony

President Trump walked onto the pitch with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and stood on a platform to hand out awards.

Alongside Trump were Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who also helped distribute awards.

Trump shook hands with players and congratulated them as they walked across the platform.

Goal scorer Ferran Torres says victory was for all of Spain

“I just want to lift that Cup and press it really hard. This is a dream of 47 million people who were on this pitch today, so I think we all deserved this and we broke our back,” Torres said.

Spain coach: ‘We are world champions’

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente is already looking to the future.

“We are world champions. I am very proud, very happy for my players,” de la Fuente said through an interpreter. “We closed a very important chapter. ... This team has a long way to go. We are already thinking what is coming next.”

Messi and Yamal embrace

Shortly after the match ended, Argentina star Lionel Messi was sitting on the field as Spain players celebrated. He then got up when 19-year-old Spain forward Lamine Yamal approached him and they shared a handshake and a hug.

Fans in Buenos Aires are upbeat and defiant after loss

Argentine fans in Buenos Aires remained upbeat even after their team’s loss to Spain in the World Cup final. Crowds at the Obelisk in the Argentine capital set off fireworks and flares. Drivers honked their horns with defiant enthusiasm and people waved Argentine flags.

A tense match spills over into Spain’s celebration

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was held back by a Spain player while appearing to shout at someone moments after the final whistle. Leandro Paredes also shoved Spain’s Eric García and Gavi, and Nicolas Otamendi exchanged words with a few Spanish players, including Rodri.

Argentina fans dejected as they leave stadium

Argentina fans are streaming out of the stadium with looks of genuine shock and dejection as Spain fans dressed in red remain in the stands dancing, cheering and waving flags.

Ferran Torres delivers Spain’s winning goal in extra time

Spain dominated the match with its ball-control offense but couldn’t find the breakthrough goal until the 106th minute. Spain won its second World Cup title.

The loss may be the end of Argentina star Lionel Messi’s World Cup career. The 39-year-old maestro could do little to influence the match as Spain’s defense smothered him most of the day, or simply kept the ball away from his feet.

FINAL: Spain 1, Argentina 0

Spain has won its second World Cup. La Roja also won the title in 2010. This time, Spain denied Lionel Messi and Argentina a second consecutive championship.

Spain finally breaks the deadlock

Spain’s Ferran Torres smashed the ball past Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez for his first goal of the World Cup to make it 1-0 in the 106th minute. Nico Williams had kept a long cross in play when he headed the ball toward Torres in front of the goal. It was Spain’s 20th shot of the match.

Torres was a substitute in the 62nd minute by coach Luis de la Fuente.

Spain 1, Argentina 0

Ferran Torres scores in the 106th minute.

Argentina and Spain reach the midway point of extra time

The World Cup final has 15 more minutes of extra time, plus however much stoppage time after that, before Spain and Argentina go to penalty kicks to decide the championship if neither team scores. Spain still has the edge with 11 players to 10, and has 19 shots to Argentina’s zero, but it remains goalless.

Extra time substitutions

Spain sent in Martín Zubimendi for Rodri and Eric García for Aymeric Laporte in the 99th minute.

Argentina subbed defender Marcos Senesi for Julián Álvarez in the 102nd, playing more defensively while down to 10 men. Spain would want to avoid a penalty shootout after dominating most of the game.

Spain goal nullified by a foul

It looked like Spain had scored in extra time, when Nico Williams finally put the ball into Argentina’s net. But the referee ruled that Mikel Merino stepped on one of Nicolás Otamendi’s feet prior to the goal, prompting a foul call.

Fourth scoreless World Cup final at 90-minute mark

Three previous World Cup finals were scoreless after 90 minutes of regulation time: Brazil against Italy in 1994, Spain against the Netherlands in 2010 and Germany against Argentina in 2014. Only the 1994 final remained scoreless after extra time, and Brazil won the penalty shootout.

Extra time at the World Cup

Argentina and Spain are scoreless after regulation. Spain has been the dominant side but has yet to find its way past Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

Now comes two 15-minute periods of extra time. If the game is still undecided, it will go to penalty kicks.

Argentina won the 2022 World Cup on penalty kicks against France. Spain’s 2010 title came on a goal in the 116th minute. Argentina is down to 10 players after a late red card to Enzo Fernández.

Argentina down to 10 after Fernández red card

Argentina was down to 10 men after Enzo Fernández was shown a yellow card in stoppage time, his second of the game. That means an automatic red card and ejection. Fernández had scored the tying goal in Argentina’s semifinal win over England.

Time is running out

Spain and Argentina have reached stoppage time in the World Cup final that remains scoreless. There are four minutes on the board. If neither team scores, there will be 30 minutes of extra time in two 15-minute increments.

Frustration yellow card for Argentina

Midfielder Enzo Fernández was upset that he didn’t get a foul call and was booked for dissent with the referee.

Oyarzabal exits soon after missed chance

Spain’s leading World Cup scorer was subbed out after a missed opportunity.

Coach Luis de la Fuente took out Mikel Oyarzabal a few minutes after Oyarzabal made a nice pass to Fabián Ruiz inside Argentina’s box but then stopped running. Had Oyarzabal followed his pass, Ruiz had laid it off for what would have been a good scoring opportunity.

Oyarzabal scored from the penalty spot against France in the semifinals, his fifth goal of the tournament.

Spain’s subs include Merino

Spain putting Nico Williams and Mikel Merino into the game adds some potential scoring punch. Merino has scored two late go-ahead goals in this tournament.

Williams is on for midfielder Álex Baena, and Merino is on for midfielder Dani Olmo.

Argentina makes final substitutions after break

After a series of corner kicks for Spain, Rodrigo De Paul got a header on net, only to be denied by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez in the 67th minute. The second-half hydration break followed with the score still 0-0.

After the break, Argentina forward Giuliano Simeone exited for defender Rodrigo De Paul and defender Facundo Medina was subbed out for defender Cristian Romero in 70th minute.

Spain makes its first changes in 62nd minute

Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored in the semifinal against France, has been replaced by Ferran Torres. And Fabián Ruiz came out for Pedri. The chess match is taking shape as the teams try to break a scoreless draw. Argentina has yet to take a shot.

Argentina continues making moves

Another sub for Argentina in the 58th minute. Defender Nahuel Molina is on for defender Gonzalo Montiel. That’s the third of five substitutions available to coach Lionel Scaloni and it comes as Spain continues to press the attack in Argentina’s end.

Another Argentina yellow card

Leandro Paredes, who just came on at the start of the second half, was shown a yellow card in the 52nd minute. It came after a testy confrontation and a shove on Spain’s Dani Olmo while a Spain player was down on the field.

Not much offense

There were just three total shots in the first half. That’s the fewest in the first half of a World Cup final since records are available dating to 1966, according to Opta. Argentina became the second team with no shots in the opening half of a World Cup final since the records started, after France in 2022.

Another change for Argentina

Midfielder Leandro Paredes is on for forward Nico González to start the second half. That’s two subs now for Argentina. It has three left.

Second half begins

The second half of the World Cup final has begun after a break of a little over 27 minutes. Argentina and Spain remain scoreless.

Halftime adjustments?

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has some halftime adjustments he could make after Spain controlled roughly 65% of the possession and had three shots on net and another scoring chance.

Giving Nicolás Tagliafico some help might be a good start after the defender struggled to stay in front of and contain Lamine Yamal, the 19-year-old who many think will eventually supplant Lionel Messi as the world’s best player. Argentina has zero shots of any kind, so generating more offense is also on the docket.

Spain’s coach isn’t worried about long halftime

The longer-than-usual halftime came up at Spain’s news conference on Friday. Coach Luis de la Fuente brought up how he talked to players and staff about all the peculiarities of the tournament and how they would not be affected.

“Everyone’s proud of being here,” de la Fuente said. “Everything that we consider to be strange or odd nowadays — hydration breaks, this 30-minute halftime — maybe within 30 years will become normality. Maybe football is developing that way. We don’t know. It is what it is. This is the situation we have. We need to adapt, and we need to accept those things that you cannot change. We can’t change that, so we’ll have to enjoy it.”

Is this the last time we’ll hear ‘Dai Dai’?

The song from Shakira and Burna Boy has played before all 104 kickoffs at the World Cup. The duo, who also performed at the opening ceremony in Mexico, performed it live during the halftime show.

BTS, Bieber and Ted Lasso appear at halftime

Played in by an homage to Norway’s rowing tradition, BTS performed “Dynamite.” Up next, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt in character as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard hyped up Justin Bieber, who sang “Everything Hallelujah” with an acoustic guitar.

Madonna leads off halftime show

The first halftime show at a World Cup final started with Madonna flanked by former Brazil stars Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.

They gave way to a rendition of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” performed by several Muppets and an orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Scoreless at halftime

Spain has controlled the ball and the tempo, and has put the clamps on Argentina and Lionel Messi. The 39-year-old star has had few creative chances on the ball.

Argentina may feel lucky to not be down a goal. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez made two saves for Argentina. Spain’s Lamine Yamal had the best chance for a goal in the opening minutes.

Argentina has already made a substitution, with Nicolás Otamendi coming on for defender Lisandro Martínez just before halftime.

Argentina’s Lisandro Martínez exits late in the first half

Minutes after getting a yellow card, Lisandro Martínez is out of the game because of an injury. Argentina made the substitution late in the first half, bringing in experienced defender Nicolas Otamendi.

Argentina’s Martínez gets the first yellow card

Argentina’s Lisandro Martínez received the game’s first yellow card for a late tackle of Mikel Oyarzabal near midfield in the 41st minute.

Argentina fans come alive

With Argentina in the attacking half of the field for one of just a few times so far, its fans started singing again. The joy was short-lived, as Spain quickly recovered and went the other way.

Matt Damon at the World Cup final after big ‘Odyssey’ weekend

Matt Damon was in the stadium on a weekend when his film “The Odyssey” opened with a colossal global box office total of $264.1 million.

He was with his wife Luciana Damon, who was clad in the colors of her native Argentina.

Will Ferrell, Pharrell Williams, Mick Jagger and Adrien Brody were among the other stars in the crowd.

Hydration time

The match reached the first-half hydration break past the 23-minute mark, with no goals from Argentina or Spain. The Argentina fans who were loud and rambunctious before the game have been quieted a bit by Spain controlling much of the possession and having two corner kicks. Lionel Messi has touched the ball just six times.

Spain dominates the first 15-plus minutes

With the exception of a few plays, Spain is dominating. Lionel Messi got taken down and took a free kick for Argentina, but this has been the Lamine Yamal show early on. The 19-year-old budding star put a shot on goal and created another scoring chance.

Trump gets a close look at the World Cup trophy

The World Cup trophy was shown to President Donald Trump as he watched the game in a suite. Video footage showed Trump smiling and patting the gold trophy as someone held it up to him.

It’s not his first time seeing the trophy. FIFA president Gianni Infantino brought it to the Oval Office during a White House visit last year.

Argentina fans applaud big save

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez turning aside Spain’s Lamine Yamal in the fifth minute happened right in front of the biggest contingent of Argentina fans, who make up at least 70% of the crowd. The back-and-forth cheering and singing from Argentina and Spain fans has stopped only for yells and groans for fouls and that save.

Spanish Brass and Maria Becerra perform national anthems

Spanish Brass, a horn quintet that has played since 1989, performed the Spanish national anthem, known as “La Marcha Real.”

Argentine pop singer Maria Becerra sang her nation’s anthem with a loud sing-along accompaniment from the audience.

Other than the opening ceremonies in each host country, the national anthems before kickoff have been piped in, with players and fans supplying the lyrics. For the final, the anthems went live.

The World Cup final has started

The match is underway. Argentina and 39-year-old Lionel Messi are facing Spain and 19-year-old Lamine Yamal to decide the World Cup champion.

Robbie Williams and Tom Cruise bring the pregame pomp

British pop singer Robbie Williams performed his World Cup-themed anthem “Desire,” wearing a blue bedazzled track suit. He was joined by Pussycat Dolls member Nicole Scherzinger and Italian singer Laura Pausini.

Tom Cruise followed them with a speech. He wore a polo shirt and jeans.

“Today only two teams remain, España! y Argentina!” Cruise said. “Let us celebrate a tournament that brought the world together."

Fans dash across highways to get to World Cup final

World Cup fans were strongly urged not to walk to MetLife Stadium. Some did it anyway.

Videos being widely shared on social media showed groups of fans dashing across a multi-lane highway in between speeding cars near the venue in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The stadium is located across the Hudson River from Manhattan in a marshland known as the Meadowlands that is largely inaccessible to pedestrians.

World Cup organizers advised those attending matches not to attempt walking to the stadium. Fans were told to use mass transit, including special shuttle buses and trains.

Why children escort the players onto the field

You’ve seen them at every match. They walk onto the field before the game, often holding hands with some of the biggest stars in the sport like Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Spain’s Lamine Yamal.

The tradition has been an official part of the World Cup since 2002 when FIFA partnered with UNICEF to promote children’s rights to healthy recreation and quality education.

When the program was launched, FIFA said the children on the pitch are supposed to remind soccer enthusiasts they have a major role to play in building the world for future generations.

The children at the matches in the U.S. were chosen through a partnership between sponsor Quaker Oats and Common Goal, a collective of soccer-based community organizations across the country.

Trump booed at the end of the anthem

President Donald Trump was shown on video screens at the stadium, prompting boos from fans in attendance. Trump appeared at the end of the U.S. national anthem.

Jennifer Hudson sings the US national anthem

Jennifer Hudson sang the U.S. national anthem. The Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner wore a white suit with red, white and blue trim. She stood in front of a bank of flags of the world, singing a cappella at first before she was joined by a brass band.

Ticket prices drop in final hours

Tickets to the World Cup final, which were selling for tens of thousands of dollars, dropped to as low as $2,334.50 in the hours before the game on FIFA’s resale site. FIFA still had list price tickets on sale the morning of the game for $10,990.

Spain is favored to win

Argentina is the defending champion and has Lionel Messi, but Spain is the favorite to lift the World Cup trophy at -165. That means bettors would have to risk $165 to win $100. Anyone who likes Argentina to win in regulation time can get it at 5-2 odds.

President Trump is expected to present the World Cup trophy to the winner

The U.S. president this week called the 2026 World Cup “the most successful sports even, maybe in the history of the world,” heading into its final weekend.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose country was co-host of the tournament with the U.S. and Canada, said she will also attend the final at Trump’s invitation.

Sheinbaum did not attend the World Cup’s opening match in Mexico City, when her national team beat South Africa 2-0. Instead, she gave her ticket to a young Indigenous woman.

Spain’s King Felipe VI is also expected to attend. Argentine President Javier Milei said he won’t attend because of superstition, and will watch the match from home.

Loud cheers for Spain — and louder for Argentina

Players are on the field for pregame warmups, and it’s clear who has the crowd advantage. Spain got loud applause when La Roja got introduced. Then it was thunderous applause when Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates ran out of the tunnel. Most of the lower bowl is full with more than a half-hour till kickoff.

Trump wants the World Cup back in the US soon

Donald Trump has a message for FIFA President Gianni Infantino: Bring the World Cup back to the U.S.

“I had a great idea for Gianni: You have to do two countries. Announce us again next time, and then announce another country after that. It’ll take out some of the anger and the shock,” Trump said on Fox Sports. “I think it’s a great idea. Based on the numbers, we will be requesting it again immediately. ... We have to do this again, and we have to do it while I’m around. You hear that, Gianni?”

Trump flies over the stadium

The presidential helicopter, Marine One, flew over the stadium hosting the World Cup final, heralding the arrival of President Donald Trump.

The flyover of MetLife Stadium occurred roughly an hour before kickoff. Trump was given 10 tickets to the match by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

No changes to Spain lineup

Spain made no changes to its starting lineup for the final, sticking with the squad that beat France in the semifinals. That includes 19-year-old Lamine Yamal.

Unai Simón is in goal behind defenders Pedro Porro, Aymeric Laporte, Pau Cubarsí and Marc Cucurella. In midfield are Fabián Ruiz, Álex Baena and Rodri. At forward are Yamal, Mikel Oyarzabal and Dani Olmo.

As the ball bounces: The final match could be a kick in the grass

The field for the final at the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey is grass with synthetic fibers stitched in to reduce the risk of divots and tears. It has drawn mixed reviews from players through the first seven tournament games played there.

Stadium staff has had nearly two weeks to get it in the best condition possible for Sunday’s final. Neither Spain nor Argentina have played on it yet.

Teams in previous matches have said the field plays fast, but also called it hard and rigid and could be good for teams, like Spain, who like to possess the ball.

Some liked it better when it got wet. The area around the stadium was notably pelted by rain storms on Saturday.

Argentina’s lineup features three changes for final

Argentina’s lineup for the final features Emiliano Martínez in goal behind defenders Gonzalo Montiel, Cristian Romero, Lisandro Martínez and Nicolás Tagliafico; midfielders Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister and Nico González; and forwards Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez.

The changes from the semifinal win over England are Montiel for Nahuel Molina on the back line and De Paul for Giuliano Simeone and Gonzales for Leandro Paredes in midfield.

Trump says it’s ‘hard to bet against Messi’

In an interview with Fox, President Donald Trump was asked to predict a winner between Spain and Argentina. He hedged on that, but seemed enamored with Argentina star Lionel Messi.

“I would say it’s hard to bet against Messi,” Trump said, noting Messi’s assist on Argentina’s winning goal in the semifinal against England.

“The pass was exactly perfect,” Trump said. “I won’t pick sides … It’s just hard to bet against Messi.”

Spain embraces its ‘And why not?’ motto

Entering the World Cup final against Argentina, Spain’s soccer federation has released motivational videos on social media promoting the motto “¿Y por qué no?” -- “And why not?”

The phrase refers to the answer given by defender Aymeric Laporte after a reporter asked him during the 2022 World Cup whether Spain could win the tournament.

The federation released a video with players who helped Spain win the World Cup in 2010 all saying the phrase repeatedly. Another video mentions the motto while showing people wearing Spain’s jersey around New York to the beat of the song “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

New Jersey governor has no plans to meet with Trump

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said she does not expect to meet with President Donald Trump during the World Cup final. But she stressed that officials have a “really great” plan to get the Republican president in and out of MetLife Stadium with as little disruption to fans as possible.

“It’s like the wedding is here after you’ve had family in town for a week,” she said about the anticipation for the game. “We’re excited, but also looking forward to some peace when they leave.”

Sherrill said she’s rooting for Argentina and even she tried her hand at Spanish, saying it’s better than it was a few months ago but that it needed more work.

“Or something like that,” the governor said in English after tripping through her Spanish.

Former Spain player Capdevila allowed into US to watch the final

Former Spain defender Joan Capdevila has made it to the United States to watch the World Cup final after being denied authorization to travel a decade after playing in an exhibition game in Iran.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an email to The Associated Press that it received a request to allow Capdevila into the country. It said it reviewed the request and Capdevila arrived in the U.S. on Sunday.

Capdevila had addressed President Donald Trump in a social media post, saying his application for visa-free entry was denied. He also sent a message to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and tagged the Spanish government’s ministry of sport in his post.

In 2010, Capdevila helped Spain win its only World Cup title, starting in the final against the Netherlands. He was also part of the team that won the 2008 European Championship.

Hundreds gather at Buenos Aires fan fest

As rain fell in Buenos Aires at midday, hundreds of Argentines gathered ahead of the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain.

At the FIFA Fan Festival in Plaza Francisco Seeber, songs by Argentine pop groups Bandana and Miranda! played over loudspeakers. Fans waved Argentine flags, painted their faces in the nation’s blue and white colors, and lined up early to secure a spot in front of the giant screen that will broadcast the match.

“People are happy. It’s raining, but people are here together; with friends, with strangers, with foreigners,” said Franco Pavalo, 21.

Shin Truong, 20, said the final carries greater significance because it’s expected to be the last World Cup appearance for 39-year-old Lionel Messi.

“He’s mythical,” Truong said. “We couldn’t ask for anything more from him.”

Fans in Spain gather around big screens and inside Madrid arena

Big screens have been set up across Spanish cities for the World Cup final, with 20,000 people expected at the one installed at Plaza Colon in Madrid. About 15,000 fans were expected at the Madrid Rio location.

Similar viewing areas were set up in Barcelona and other cities. Fans in Madrid will also be able to watch the match at the Movistar Arena, where some 15,000 people were expected. Tickets were sold out in advance.

Excitement builds in Buenos Aires

Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, was at a near standstill Sunday morning.

Streets were adorned with blue-and-white flags. Cars were honking, announcing the arrival of the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain. Businesses were closed, as were museums, theaters and cinemas. Bars opened early.

It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but fans gathered in the chilly wind and rain in parks and plazas around the city. Street vendors blew plastic horns and hawked jerseys and umbrellas with the name of superstar Lionel Messi.

Americans are still tuning into the World Cup despite the US team’s elimination

Even after the Americans were eliminated in the round of 16 against Belgium, viewership has remained strong in the U.S.

The match between England and Mexico was the most-watched World Cup game not involving the U.S. broadcast in English in the country’s history, according to Fox. The network said an average of more than 21.7 million tuned in to watch England’s 3-2 victory in Mexico City on July 5.

The 2022 World Cup final — which was in Qatar — was viewed by a then-record 16.7 million.

Storms reduce choking hazards for players and fans

Meteorologists say the thunderstorms that passed through the New Jersey area should clear out the smoke from Canadian wildfires that left a haze over the Northeast U.S. for several days.

While experts say there could be some lingering smoke to make things a bit hazy Sunday, it will likely be faint and not cause the poor air quality warnings issued in recent days.

Temperatures are forecast to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), with light breezes and low humidity for the start of the final.

The World Cup final will be played on turf with mixed reviews. Rain might help

Players and coaches have fielded a lot of questions about the pitch in East Rutherford, New Jersey, before and after World Cup games there. Opinions have varied.

Brazil’s Vinicius Junior was not a fan. France coach Didier Deschamps called it special — and not in a good way. Norway’s Ståle Solbakken was asked several times about the surface before coaching his first game on it and came away more pleased about it than he expected.

While entirely different than the turf surface at the stadium that has been maligned by NFL players, the grass field with synthetic fibers stitched in to reduce the risk of divots and tears has drawn mixed reviews through the first seven games of the tournament there. After a nearly two-week break for staff to get it in the best condition possible, the most important game takes place there Sunday when Argentina and Spain meet in the final.

Neither team has played at the Meadowlands stadium yet, adding another element of uncertainty to the matchup.

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Lionel Messi once held baby Lamine Yamal in his arms. Now they will battle for the World Cup title

Almost two decades ago, photographer Joan Monfort didn’t think much of his photo shoot of a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a cute baby boy in a plastic bathtub. Not until the remarkable twist of fate became clear years later, when that infant blossomed into Lamine Yamal.

Now those images of the long-haired Messi, his hands covered in soap suds as if anointing Yamal as soccer’s Next Big Thing, have become the most talked about — and gawked about — in the runup to Sunday’s World Cup final, when Messi’s Argentina will play Yamal’s Spain for the biggest trophy in the sport.

“I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explanations,” Monfort told The Associated Press from his home in Barcelona on Friday.

Monfort, who works as a freelance photojournalist for the AP, took the photos in 2007 as part of a charity calendar produced by local newspaper Sport and UNICEF.

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Biggest World Cup also means biggest pot of prize money

The tournament grew from 32 teams to 48 for the 2026 World Cup and the prize money hit record amounts as well.

FIFA says the winner of the Argentina-Spain final will receive $51 million. That’s up from the $42 million paid to Argentina for winning the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

The runner-up will get $34 million.

The total prize pool for the tournament staged in the United States, Mexico and Canada is $871 million, up from $440 million in 2022.

All 48 teams were guaranteed at least $12.5 million.

Messi and Argentina will face Yamal and Spain for the title

The best offense. The best defense.

The World Cup final will be a clash of styles. Lionel Messi — the most prolific goal scorer in the tournament’s history — and defending champion Argentina will take on Spain’s defensive juggernaut on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Spain beat France in one semifinal on Tuesday; Argentina, the comeback king of this tournament, rallied to beat England 2-1 in the other semifinal on Wednesday.

Argentina is seeking its fourth title and is looking to become the first back-to-back World Cup champion since Brazil pulled off the feat in 1958 and 1962. Spain is looking for its second title, after winning in 2010.

Something will have to give on Sunday, when the biggest World Cup ever — a 48-team, 104-match extravaganza spread out over the U.S., Canada and Mexico — comes to an end.

It’s not Finalissima. It’s going to be better.

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This story was updated to remove a quote mistakenly attributed to Lionel Messi that was actually coach Lionel Scaloni.

French police rounded up thousands of Jews over two days in July 1942, wresting children from their mothers’ arms and dispatching everyone to Nazi death camps. At a time of rising antisemitism, France honors those victims every year as it tries to keep their memory alive.

France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population and has seen a surge in antisemitic acts, including threats, vandalism and physical violence, following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

A plaque in Paris honoring a couple and their daughter who saved a 13-year-old child during the roundup and were recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations was vandalized ahead of the ceremony, French authorities said.

“To attack the Righteous is to desecrate the entire universe," said Alice Rufo, a deputy defense minister. "The plaque will be restored. Their memory remains undiminished. In the face of antisemitism, in all its forms, the Republic will not yield an inch.”

Following the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, the country was ruled by a government commonly known as Vichy France, which collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Vel d’Hiv derives from the name of the Winter Velodrome that many of the detainees were confined in before they were deported to concentration and extermination camps. On July 16 and 17, 1942, more than 4,500 police officers were mobilized and dozens of buses requisitioned. It was the largest roundup of Jews carried out in France during World War II. Arrests continued until July 20. A total of 13,152 people were deported, a third of them children.

It took France’s leadership 50 years after World War II to officially acknowledge the state’s involvement in the Holocaust, when then-President Jacques Chirac apologized for the French authorities’ role in the Vel d’Hiv raids.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino got some serious air time over the course of the 2026 World Cup, the tournament's most far-flung edition ever. He crisscrossed North America for matches, meetings and other appearances during the competition, which took place in three countries, 16 cities and four time zones, and ended with Sunday's final in New Jersey.

To track his travels, The Associated Press analyzed flight logs for a private business jet used by Infantino in recent years, along with photos taken by AP photographers and images posted on Instagram by FIFA and the head of world soccer's governing body himself. The analysis shows that by the time Spain defeated Argentina for the world title, he flew far enough to circle the planet almost 2 1/2 times.

Access to a Gulfstream G650 jet from the fleet of the Qatari government made Infantino's prodigious jet-setting possible. The aircraft is operated by the private charter division of Qatar Airways, a World Cup sponsor.

Since a June 9 flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City ahead of the tournament's opening match, the aircraft averaged more than one flight a day and on multiple days made more than three, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

Along with attending matches, Infantino’s itinerary included stops in New York for an interview on Fox & Friends and in Miami for a FIFA summit attended by representatives from the organization’s 211 member associations. He also flew to Doha to attend the funeral of Qatar’s former emir before returning to the U.S. in time for the World Cup semifinals.

FIFA did not respond to an emailed request for comment about Infantino’s travel schedule and arrangements.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers racked up by the person overseeing the 39-day tournament that featured a record 104 matches spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the largest geographic footprint in World Cup history.

44 matches

The number of World Cup matches Infantino attended during the tournament, according to AP's analysis. He was at a World Cup game on 31 of the tournament’s 34 match days but managed to squeeze in two matches on some days.

One of the two match days he missed was spent in Miami for the FIFA Executive Football Summits. FlightAware showed the Gulfstream originally was scheduled to fly from New Jersey to Miami in time for Saturday's third-place match between England and France but never took off. Thunderstorms caused flight delays at New York City area airports on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

16 stadiums

Infantino saw at least one match at all 16 World Cup venues. Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, where he attended five games, is the venue he visited the most.

13

The number of days Infantino attended two matches, often at stadiums located hundreds of miles apart.

21 airports

The Gulfstream mostly used the host cities' main international airports during the tournament but sometimes relied on smaller general and business aviation airports, including Atlanta's Fulton County Executive Airport and Miami's Opa Locka Executive Airport.

23

The number of international border crossings the jet made within North America through the semifinals.

115 flight hours

The flight time the Gulfstream amassed during the tournament, not including repositioning flights and 29 hours of travel for the funeral in Qatar, equals nearly five full days in the air and would be enough for a commercial plane traveling at typical cruising speed to fly from New York to Los Angeles 20 times.

5 hours and 44 minutes

Excluding the journey to Qatar, the flight that took the longest lasted 344 minutes and went from Miami to Seattle, where Infantino attended the Belgium-Egypt match on June 15. The flight time is the same length as three full World Cup matches from kickoff to final whistle.

28 minutes

The shortest flight time, excluding repositioning flights, was a 28-minute hop from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6 — about the length of a network TV sitcom like “Friends” with commercials. Infantino attended the United States-Belgium match in Seattle that day before watching Switzerland face Colombia in Vancouver the following day.

59,281 miles (95,403 kilometers)

The distance the jet traveled during the tournament, excluding the journey to Qatar and back for the funeral, according to the AP analysis. That's more than round-trip flights between New York and Singapore, Los Angeles and Doha, Qatar, and London and the Australian city of Perth combined.

5,772 miles (9,289 kilometers)

The most miles covered in a single day’s itinerary were flown on June 26, which started with a morning trip from Miami to Dallas. From there, the plane went to Seattle, where Infantino attended the Egypt-Iran match. The final leg departed Seattle late that night and landed the next morning in Miami. Infantino watched Colombia face Portugal there.

50%

FIFA has pledged to reduce carbon emissions from the World Cup and related activities by half by 2030 and has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. The organization’s 2026 World Cup sustainability and human rights strategy says it is committed to addressing climate change.

Climate researchers and environmental groups have argued that the expanded, three-country tournament was likely to produce the most atmosphere-polluting greenhouse gases of any World Cup emissions and be the most carbon-intensive World Cup ever because of the extensive air travel required for teams, fans and officials.

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Associated Press journalist Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Switzerland contributed to this report.

Atlanta also will receive Ryan Nembhard from Dallas and the Thunder will be getting three heavily protected second-round draft picks. The NBA signed off on the trade Sunday.

The trade allows the Thunder to shed the salary needed to get below the second apron, gives the Hawks another top defender in Dort and gives the Mavericks a third No. 1 overall pick — the most currently on one roster in the NBA. Risacher will be joining 2011 top pick Kyrie Irving and 2025 top pick Cooper Flagg in Dallas.

Dort averaged 11.6 points over his first seven seasons, all with the Thunder. Risacher — a runner-up for rookie of the year in 2024-25 — averaged 11.1 points in two seasons with Atlanta and Nembhard averaged 6.6 points for Dallas as a rookie this past season.

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

“It turned out we were a soccer country, and I think it’s going to remain,” Trump said Friday at a FIFA reception at Trump Tower in New York City. “This has really brought the world together.”

For the White House, Sunday’s match was the culmination of well over a year of navigating a litany of logistical challenges alongside co-hosts Canada and Mexico for what would be the biggest World Cup in history. It had to balance the Trump administration’s hard-line migration policies that barred fans from some World Cup qualifier countries from entry into the United States.

Spain won the tournament with a 1-0 victory over defending champion Argentina.

After Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented them with the trophy, Trump stood alongside the team as they jumped up and down and gold confetti shot out of a cannon.

Later, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said he took pride in the country's success as a host, adding that “all over the world, people have come and they love our country.” He described the final as a close and exciting match, praising Spain for a dominant performance.

He arrived at Sunday's final with a flyover in the presidential helicopter, Marine One. Before the game even kicked off, Trump was already proposing another U.S. bid to host the tournament, sending a nudge to Infantino.

“I had a great idea for Gianni: You have to do two countries. Announce us again next time, and then announce another country after that. It’ll take out some of the anger and the shock,” Trump said on Fox Sports. “Based on the numbers, we will be requesting it again immediately.”

The president declined to pick sides in the final but said it would be difficult to beat Argentine superstar Lionel Messi. Trump got a close look at the World Cup trophy when it was presented to him at his box seat during the first half. Video footage showed the president smiling and patting the gold trophy as it was held up to him. Also in the box were first lady Melania Trump and Infantino, among others.

Soccer fans enjoy US culture despite warnings

The White House faced warnings from human rights groups, and the tournament confronted backlash over high ticket prices. For months, Trump flirted with the idea of moving games out of cities that did not cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and in the weeks before the tournament’s start, local authorities sparred with FIFA over high transit costs, heightening tensions even more.

As the first games were preparing to begin, the administration continued to find itself under global scrutiny for its visa decisions, such as denying entry to a referee from Somalia who had won accolades for his officiating. The pressure increased after Trump launched a war with Iran, leaving the administration to grapple with an Iranian team whose fans and some supporting personnel were barred from the U.S, and that ultimately was based across the border in Tijuana.

But the broader story of the World Cup eventually shifted. Social media was flooded with tales of soccer fans from around the world enjoying the treats and traditions of the U.S., from beer to ranch dressing. Some fears about the Trump administration that circulated beforehand, such as the threat of immigration enforcement raids near the games, never materialized.

“One of the things that we talked about beforehand was, if we’re talking about what happened on the pitch, then we’ve done our job,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I think it’s even better than that. We’re not just talking about only the incredible, athletic feats on the pitch, but we’re talking about all these incredible, incredible cultural moments.”

Still, Trump did create controversy with a phone call he made to Infantino earlier this month in which he asked for a review of a controversial referee call in Team USA’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The referee gave a red card to U.S. star forward Folarin Balogun, meaning he wouldn’t be able to play in the subsequent match against Belgium.

Trump says he simply asked Infantino, who has cozied up to the U.S. president and faced backlash for doing so, to review the call. FIFA then reversed the call, and Trump told Infantino at the FIFA reception on Friday that “you made another great decision, if you think about it," because it allowed the U.S. to keep a key player on the field even though the team lost the match to Belgium 4-1.

Giuliani said the administration had a “duty” to ask questions and raise concerns about the officiating process, which drew scrutiny because of the use of video review and slow-motion replay to issue the red card. He noted that the Trump administration invested billions in federal funding to ensure that the World Cup was “not just a safe and secure event, not just where we welcomed the world, but an event that was filled with integrity.”

More global sporting events coming to the US

The Trump administration was under considerable pressure to pull off a successful World Cup tournament because the U.S. will soon host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The U.S. is also largely expected to be awarded the 2031 Women’s World Cup, although Giuliani said in the AP interview that part of getting those hosting duties will be “ensuring that, in fact, women and only women will play in that 2031 Women’s World Cup” — an allusion to the Trump administration’s fierce opposition to transgender women participating in women’s sports.

The U.S. faced broader tensions with its World Cup co-hosts of Canada and Mexico. Trump announced stiff tariffs on both countries in his return to the White House, and he has chosen not to renew a trade pact among the three countries, setting up a new period of negotiations.

On Friday, Trump threatened to tariff Canada over its wildfires, which have hurt air quality in parts of the U.S., including northern New Jersey where the World Cup final is being held. He joked on Friday that FIFA should choose the U.S. for the World Cup soon again, and “this time, we’ll leave Mexico and Canada out.”

Still, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attended the final at Trump’s request, in a sign that soccer can overcome some geopolitical tensions.

Trump, as is generally customary for heads of state hosting the tournament, presented the trophy to the eventual winner. But he didn't tip his hand beforehand about whether he had a preferred team.

Spain is a known irritant to Trump, with its reticence to meet NATO defense spending goals and its refusal to let the U.S. launch strikes against Iran from its bases. Meanwhile, Argentine President Javier Milei is a favorite of the Trump administration, with the U.S. president going as far as to threaten to cut aid to the country if Milei’s coalition didn’t prevail in legislative elections.

Spain’s King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the game, although Milei — citing superstition — stayed home.

___ See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

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Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.

Shortly after winning the World Cup title Sunday, the Spaniards claimed all three individual player awards, keeping Messi from leaving with any more personal hardware.

Rodri won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, Unai Simón won the Golden Glove for the top performance by a goalkeeper, and Pau Cubarsí won the Best Young Player Award, beating out fellow 19-year-old teammate Lamine Yamal.

Messi was hoping to win a record-extending third Golden Ball, adding to his 2014 and 2022 honors. He’s already the only player to win the award multiple times since it was first given in 1978, and sparking Argentina’s run to a second straight final at age 39 gave him a strong case for another.

But the award went to Rodri for captaining Spain's run to its second World Cup title after the Manchester City midfielder struggled early after returning in May 2025 from knee surgery that sidelined him eight months.

“For me, it’s been a very tough time. I just want the new generation to see my example as an opportunity to that if you go down, you can rise again,” he said. “This is my philosophy my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong. But always the positive.”

Rodri had no goals or assists in the tournament, but he was critical to Spain’s possession-heavy style of play. He completed more passes than anyone (753) with 94% accuracy. He was involved in 1,803 plays, according to FIFA stats, nearly 200 more than anyone else in this World Cup.

“I heard that at the beginning of the tournament I wasn’t able to play, now that I recovered my shape. I tried not to listen too much,” Rodri said on the eve of the final. “I’ve always been confident of myself. I think one of the big parts of my game is trying to replicate this accuracy in terms of passing and being very safe with the ball.”

Rodri became just the 11th man to win the World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d’Or — the biggest individual award in soccer, awarded for soccer's player of the year, which he won in 2024 when Spain won the European title.

FIFA says the Golden Ball was awarded to the best player in the tournament based on a ranking compiled by the FIFA Technical Study Group. Messi won the Silver Ball and Mbappé the Bronze Ball.

Simón set a record with his seven shutouts in the tournament, allowing just one goal in eight games. Cubarsí, the Barcelona defender, helped anchor Spain's record-setting defensive effort and had the most completed passes in the final.

Cubarsí and Yamal became the first teenagers to start for the winning team in the World Cup final since Mbappé was also 19 when France won the 2018 title. He won that young player award that year.

Mbappé totaled 10 goals and four assists this time for a France team that finished fourth. Messi ended up with eight goals and four assists after going without a goal or an assist Sunday for the first time in his last 12 World Cup games.

The Golden Boot is one of the few things Messi has never won in his storied career, but he went into the final weekend with the lead. Both Messi and Mbappé had eight goals through the semifinals, but Messi owned the tiebreaker with one more assist.

Mbappé then scored two goals and had an assist Saturday in France’s 6-4 loss to England in the third-place game, making him the first player with 10 goals in a World Cup since Germany great Gerd Müller had 10 in 1970. Mbappé has 22 career World Cup goals, one better than Messi for the tournament record.

Messi only had one attempt Sunday that momentarily appeared dangerous, a bending left-footed shot in the 115th minute that landed on top of the net. He came into the game with a chance to become the first Golden Boot winner to play for the champion since Ronaldo scored eight goals when Brazil won the title in 2002.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

We will see a partly to mostly cloudy sky on Monday with temperatures in the low to mid 90s. Showers and storms will remain in the forecast on Monday due to the wind flow around Tropical Depression Two in the Gulf.

While the system will be west of our area, a southerly wind will bring tropical moisture into the region.

For the latest information on Tropical Depression Two click here.

Scattered showers and storms will be possible at any point in the day. Heavy rain, frequent lightning and gusty wind will be possible in any storm.

Make sure to keep an eye to the sky and storms could develop rapidly. Activity will eventually dissipate later in the evening.

The disturbance will continue to move away from the region early this week. The highest rainfall totals will be west of I-75. Regardless, sea breeze interaction and a surge in tropical moisture will keep showers and storms in the forecast. t

Highs early next week will be in the low 90s.

For more information on the potential tropical development head here.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects improvement across our area. Several areas have been downgraded to a moderate and severe drought which reflects the rainfall we saw over the past week.

While we are still in a deficit, rainfall will once again lead to more improvement in the next outlook.

TONIGHT: Partly Cloudy. An Isolated Storm Early. Low 77.

MONDAY: Partly to Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 94, Low 77.

TUESDAY: Partly to Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 94, Low 78.

WEDNESDAY: Partly Cloudy. An Isolated Storm is Possible. High 95, Low 78.

THURSDAY: Partly Cloudy. An Isolated Storm is Possible. High 96, Low 78.

FRIDAY: Partly to Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain & Storms. High 95, Low 77.

As of 8:00 p.m. Sunday, the center of Tropical Depression Two was about 180 miles south-southeast of Panama City, Florida.

Surface observations and data from the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters indicate that maximum sustained winds neared 30 mph with higher gusts.

The minimum central pressure based on surface observations is 1008 mb (29.77 inches).

Tropical Depression Two is moving toward the north-northwest near 1 mph. Continued slow northwestward or north-northwestward motion is expected during the next day or two, followed by a turn toward the west.

The system could bring tropical storm conditions to portions of the Florida Panhandle, where a Tropical Storm Watch has been issued.

Aside from isolated showers and storms early this week due to the wind flow around the system pushing tropical moisture over us, additional impacts are not expected for our area.

This is due to the system’s westerly movement, which will keep the highest rainfall totals across the Panhandle and northern Gulf Coast.

Shohei Ohtani hit an RBI double in the third inning and an RBI single in the eighth, when the Dodgers sent 11 batters to the plate and broke it open with five runs charged to Yankees reliever Jake Bird.

Teoscar Hernández had an RBI double, Tommy Edman delivered a two-run single and Freddie Freeman added a sacrifice fly to go with his RBI single that knocked in Ohtani with two outs in the third.

Edman scored three times from the No. 9 spot in the batting order. Andy Pages blooped an RBI double that chased Cam Schlittler (9-6), who struck out eight and walked none but needed 98 pitches to get through 4 1/3 innings.

After a rainout Saturday night, an efficient Yamamoto (10-6) easily outpitched Schlittler in a marquee matchup of All-Stars. The 2025 World Series MVP struck out seven and walked none, throwing 69 of his 102 pitches for strikes in becoming the 11th major leaguer to toss a complete game this season.

The right-hander pitched two complete games in the postseason last year, a three-hitter against Milwaukee in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series and a four-hitter against Toronto in Game 2 of the World Series.

The previous pitcher to throw a nine-inning complete game against the Yankees in the regular season was Miami right-hander Sandy Alcantara in August 2023.

New York has been outscored 65-24 while losing nine of its last 10 home games.

Los Angeles has won the first two games in a highly anticipated three-game set, its first visit to the Bronx since winning the 2024 World Series. The two-time defending champion Dodgers improved to a major league-best 63-36 while New York (54-44) dropped to 18-21 without captain Aaron Judge, who is sidelined by a fractured rib.

Yamamoto retired his first nine batters on 28 pitches before Trent Grisham homered into the second deck in right field on a 2-0 fastball leading off the fourth.

Anthony Volpe had an RBI single in the eighth after Jazz Chisholm Jr. was gifted a leadoff double when Pages lost his flyball to center in the sun.

New York also lost two popups in the sun that dropped untouched.

Between games, the Yankees optioned Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled right-hander Kervin Castro.

Up next

In the nightcap, Los Angeles scheduled RHP Will Klein as the opener in a bullpen game. LHP Ryan Yarbrough was set to be the opener for New York.

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

The show at what's otherwise known as MetLife Stadium, outside New York, was an attempt to bring Super Bowl vibes to the World Cup, but the 11-minute performance was considerably more packed than the usual one-headliner, 13-minute American football counterpart. Each headliner here spent about two minutes performing.

Madonna opened the show with her 2000 dance-pop hit “Music,” joined by star Brazilian soccer players of yesteryear, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. It started with an apparently prerecorded piece in a roller rink before she rode into the stadium on a dune buggy, singing, “Music, makes the people come together.”

Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel led an orchestra through the White Stripes’ sports anthem “Seven Nation Army,” while the Muppets house band — including drummer Animal in lieu of Meg White — provided furry shakes in the background.

K-pop sensations BTS took to the field in variations of red and black moments later singing “Dynamite” following a nod to Norway's Viking row.

Promoting the upcoming season of “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, in character, pumped up Justin Bieber, who changed the tempo with “Everything Hallelujah,” performed with an acoustic guitar and a casual feel.

“Alright young man, let’s go! It’s your big shot!” Sudeikis said to Bieber. “Go out there, don’t be nervous, nobody’s watching.”

Shakira and Burna Boy followed with their official World Cup anthem “Dai Dai,” heard before all 104 kickoffs during this tournament. The Colombian superstar was barefoot, wearing a dress of yellow and pink feathers and surrounded by similarly clad dancers — including a group of children — before the Afrobeats icon joined her in the song whose refrain is an Italian version of “Let's go!”

Shakira has virtually made a genre out of World Cup songs, including 2010's “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).”

The show wrapped with the PS22 Chorus of elementary-school students from Staten Island, backed by Dudamel and joined by Chris Martin — the Coldplay singer who curated the performance — along with Shakira and many more Muppets and “Sesame Street” characters, including Kermit, Miss Piggy, Count von Count and Cookie Monster.

Dudamel and about 40 musicians — about half from the New York Philharmonic and half from Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra — were on the field, though their music was prerecorded Wednesday at the Manhattan Center.

Afterward, Javier Bardem was among the Spanish fans at the stadium celebrating their home country's second World Cup win. Bardem danced and pumped his fist as he celebrated the win.

Other stars at the game included Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner, and Matt Damon, who was having a big weekend with the epic opening of “The Odyssey.” He was with his wife, Luciana Barroso Damon, who wore the colors of her native Argentina.

Jennifer Hudson, Post Malone and Tom Cruise opened with closing ceremony

Jennifer Hudson, Robbie Williams and others performed a slew of anthems, Post Malone brought an old hit and a new tune and Tom Cruise gave an earnest hype-'em-up speech in the pre-match closing ceremony.

British singer and former Take That member Williams performed his FIFA anthem “Desire,” wearing a blue bedazzled track suit. He was joined by Pussycat Dolls member Nicole Scherzinger and Italian singer Laura Pausini in blue spangled gowns. Williams had released the song a year ago but dropped a new version with the two women earlier in the week.

The streamer IShowSpeed took the field first to perform his World Cup-themed song “Champions,” atop an image of the Empire State Building. Next was Post Malone, who walked on to the New York/New Jersey Stadium pitch covered with a tarp showing the New York skyline. He sung a brand new song, “Chrome Heartbreaker,” and was joined by Swae Lee to perform their 2018 duet “Sunflower” on a hexagon-heavy stage in the center of the field.

Cruise, who was also part of the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony, followed them with a speech delivered in polo shirt and jeans.

“Today only two teams remain: España!” Cruise said, pausing for cheers before adding, “y Argentina!”

“Let us celebrate a tournament that brought the world together,” he said.

Most of the national anthems were piped in during the tournament, but they were performed live on Sunday. EGOT winner and talk show host Jennifer Hudson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Wearing a white suit with red, white and blue trim, she stood in front of a bank of flags of the world, singing a cappella before being joined by a brass band.

Spanish Brass played Spain's instrumental “La Marcha Real,” followed by Argentina’s “Himno Nacional Argentino,” sung by pop star María Becerra, clad in a flowing dress reminiscent of the Argentine flag.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Born Sunday, Alec Neel Vance joins older siblings Ewan, 9; Vivek, 6; and Mirabel, 4.

Vance announced the birth on social media with a statement signed by him and his wife.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning. Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” the statement said.

They thanked doctors and staff at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and with the White House medical team.

The Republican vice president’s growing family is in keeping with his passionate advocacy for Americans to have more children. He has also suggested that the 2025 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was his friend, factored into the decision to have another child.

Vance, a former U.S. Marine, repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates in America as he launched his political career in 2021 with a bid for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. As vice president, he said in Washington at the 2025 March for Life anti-abortion rally, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

The vice president, who’s 41, has been accompanied on overseas trips by Usha Vance, 40, and their children, with the kids often pajama-clad as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.

Usha Vance, the daughter of immigrants from India, had already been the subject of some public fascination because of her husband. Her pregnancy, which was announced in January, amplified that spotlight since it is rare for occupants of the United States’ highest public offices to add to their families while serving.

The last time a sitting vice president became a new father was in the 1800s.

Schuyler Colfax and his second wife, Ellen Wade, had a son, Schuyler Colfax III, in 1870 when Colfax was serving as vice president, according to the White House Historical Association. Decades before that, John C. Calhoun and his wife, Floride Bonneau, had a son, William, in 1829 when Calhoun was vice president, the association said.

The newest addition to Vance’s family was part of a recent mini baby boom among top members of President Donald Trump’s administration. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, recently gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had her second child with her husband, Nicholas Riccio, in May.

Usha Vance recently came under scrutiny after The New York Times’ fashion critic called attention to the stomach-hugging, coral maternity dress she wore for a Father’s Day episode of “Storytime with the Second Lady,” a video podcast she launched during the pregnancy.

The Times wrote that the attention that Vance, Miller and Leavitt had put on their pregnancies offered “an image of idealized womanhood that gives literal shape to the pronatalist movement,” which encourages couples to have as many children as possible to counter declining birth rates.

The second lady responded on social media, writing, “Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks! In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and a good story with your kids on Storytime with the Second Lady.” She later shared the receipt for the dress, and her husband applauded her frugality.

“She bought a $50 dress for $8.75. America: meet your next director of the federal budget!” the vice president wrote on social media.

JD Vance has said it was Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, telling them that she wished she’d had more than two children with her husband before he was assassinated last September in Utah that led him and the second lady to decide to grow their family. Usha Vance, a former attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, concurred — in part.

“It was very powerful, what (Erika) said about her own family, and certainly very moving to both of us. I think I had already started to open my mind to the possibility,” Usha Vance said during a joint interview with her husband for “CBS Sunday Morning” that aired in June. “I wouldn’t say that this was, for me in any way, the decisive factor. But it came in the middle of a conversation that we were already having.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Vice President JD Vance at https://apnews.com/hub/jd-vance.

Tiny particles in the air can cause a range of short-term and chronic health issues, experts say.

Wildfire smoke can settle over cities for days — like the recent blanket over parts of the U.S. from burning fires in Canada, which has created hazardous air for millions of people across multiple states.

Health officials advise people to stay indoors — and to take steps to keep the air in your home clean.

How to safely run your AC

If you have central air conditioning, it should clean the air in your home.

Make sure filters are replaced on schedule and are of the highest level of filtration your system can handle. Filters rated MERV 13 or higher are ideal. Set the air to recirculate and close any vents that pull air from outside if you can. The University of Oregon's Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice recommends running the system's fan through the entire smoke event, not just when cooling.

If you buy a portable air filter, look for a HEPA air filter or one that says it traps small particles of pollution. Ensure it does not generate ozone, another harmful air pollutant.

If you can only afford one portable air filter, use it to create a “clean room” in your house where you can spend most of your time.

“The basic message is that something is better than nothing,” said Amy Kalkbrenner, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The science behind DIY air filters

There’s good evidence that DIY filters made by duct-taping furnace air filters to a box fan work.

They’re simple, relatively affordable and scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency have found they are just as good at removing fine particles of pollution from the air as a small commercial air purifier.

“The good news is they really work,” said Kalkbrenner.

All you need to have to make one is: four 20-by-20-inch (50.8-by-50.8-centimeters) furnace air filters rated MERV 13 or higher, a box fan, cardboard and duct tape. The EPA's website shows how you can modify the design to only use one or two filters. The fan should blow out, and the arrows on the filters should point in. Make sure everything is taped up airtight.

Using your window AC and cooling your air safely

Many window air conditioners, mini-split heat exchangers and portable air conditioners don’t have the filters needed to remove fine pollution particles. But heat can also be dangerous.

“When smoke and heat occur together, the impacts on your health are even greater than when they occur by themselves,” said Jess Downey, a researcher at the University of Oregon’s Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice

Downey said the ideal scenario is running the AC unit and using an air purifier or a DIY box fan filter to clean the air. Make sure your AC is well-sealed in your window frame, she added.

Make sure the window units are set to recirculate air. Portable units with a single hose should be used sparingly, according to the University of Oregon wildfire smoke center.

If you don't have AC, any reprieve from hot, smoky air is important. Head to the library, shopping mall or other space with clean, cool air.

Ways to seal up a home to keep hazardous air out

Whether it's a towel, some tape, or something else — plug areas where air could enter from outside.

“Being from Chicago, I think you can liken it to trying to keep the cold air out,” said Dr. Khalilah Gates, a lung doctor with Northwestern Medicine. “Any areas in which air can come in, consider sealing up those areas to reduce the amount that's coming into the home.”

When smoke levels are high, experts recommend avoiding anything that burns — candles, fireplaces, even gas stoves — so plan ahead with some meal prep.

How wildfire smoke affects the body

Exposure to wildfire smoke can lead to shortness of breath, chest tightness, headaches, and a burning sensation in the nose and eyes.

“When you ever start to feel those symptoms and they’re not severe, it’s important to acknowledge, ‘Oh, my body is responding to this. I need to move away from it. I need to move inside,'” Gates said.

If you're wheezing, can't catch your breath or are in distress, get to the emergency room immediately, she said.

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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.

McIlroy was never part of the conversation at British Open — except for his critical comments of how Bryson DeChambeau handled a rules violation — and one last bogey gave him a 71 on Sunday to finish in a tie for 40th at Royal Birkdale.

A year ago, when he won the Masters to complete his life goal of the career Grand Slam, he struggled to find the next mountain and never contended. This year, he had a chance Sunday afternoon at the PGA Championship but otherwise was middle of the pack.

“This season feels very similar to last season,” McIlroy said. “Obviously won the first major of the year, fell off a little bit after that. But still, any time you win a major in a year, you have to be pleased about that.”

McIlroy, who took three weeks off the Masters, said he hasn't taken time to celebrate winning his second green jacket. His daughter has a month before school starts and he plans to enjoy the rest of the summer holiday before returning to the PGA Tour postseason.

McIlroy has set a few targets, adding majors to the six he already has won with an eye on the most historic venues. Next year, the U.S. Open is at Pebble Beach and the British Open is at St. Andrews.

“Can't wait,” he said.

In the meantime, he has his eyes on two tour titles — the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai. He only has to reach the Tour Championship in Atlanta for a shot at a fourth FedEx Cup title. In Europe, Patrick Reed is leading the Race to Dubai.

“Try to play hard until the end of the season, and then try to win one or both of those,” he said.

Conduct warning for MacIntyre

Robert MacIntyre and Jon Rahm had something in common at this British Open. Both were issued a conduct warning for slamming clubs, and both said the policy won't change who they are.

MacIntyre, who closed with a 71, slammed his driver into the turf after a poor tee shot on the 16th. Rahm got his warning Friday for flinging his club after a bad tee shot on the 15th.

“I expect to get a few of them in my career. Yeah, I run hot. So be it,” MacIntyre said most unapologetically. "I try and toe the line, but when you feel you’re playing a golf course that you can hit it pretty much anywhere and there’s no real punishment and then you do hit one slightly off line and you get the biggest punishment you can possibly get, it’s just a sore one.

“Again, I’m going to react aggressively at times — part of my DNA.”

MacIntyre was spoken to at the Masters for swearing, and for extending his middle finger toward the water on the par-5 15th in the first round, leading to a quadruple bogey.

Rahm said after his warning: "I’m definitely more intense and passionate than a lot of the players out here, especially at work. ... If I try to alter who I am too much, it might cost me a little bit on the course. But certainly shouldn’t have moments like the one on 15. I get it.”

Lucas Herbert falls short in his Masters bid

Lucas Herbert had the 36-hole lead at the British Open, and he was still in range of a victory Sunday when he birdied the 10th hole to reach 8-under-par, two shots behind.

That was his last birdie. He closed with another 71 to tie for sixth.

Most critical, though, was his bogey on the par-5 17th hole. His drive went so far to the left that he hit a provisional ball in case his wasn't found. He gouged it out to the right rough, went into a greenside bunker and failed to get up-and-down.

A par-par finish would have put him in a tie for fourth, and the top four at the British Open earn a spot in the Masters. Herbert has played the Masters only in 2022, getting in from his lone PGA Tour victory the previous fall at the Bermuda Championship. And then he went to LIV Golf.

Not all was lost. His top 10 gets him into the British Open next year at St. Andrews.

“The best Open to play,” said Herbert, who had 62 on Friday to tie the major record. “Yeah, I can't be too upset. This is my best finish in a major. I genuinely contended. There's a lot to take away from that. I've learned so much this week.”

The downside?

“It's annoying that we’re 12 months away from the next major I’m going to play,” he said.

Jon Rahm was mad and he took it out on his glove

Rahm began the final round of the British Open six shots out of the lead and needed a good start to stand any chance of winning. So imagine Rahm’s dismay when his drive at the first hole flew way right and out of bounds.

After reloading and hitting another tee shot, the Spaniard — clearly unhappy — reacted by removing his glove and pulling it so hard that it tore in two as he walked down the fairway.

He made double-bogey 6 for the second straight day at No. 1 and wound up shooting 74 to finish on level par and tied for 46th.

Divots

Call this the “Shootout at the OK (State) Corral.” Rickie Fowler played with Eugenio Chacarra, both alumni of Oklahoma State and both wearing bright orange shirts. Fowler shot 66 and Chacarra had a 69 in his British Open debut. ... Among those who booked their tee times at St. Andrews next year from finishing in the top 10 were Casey Jarvis of South Africa and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark. ... Tommy Fleetwood was the only player to break par all four rounds.

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

The deaths reflect the complicated reality that American boots don’t need to be on the ground for there to be lethal risks in a conflict that involves drones, missiles and airplanes. American forces are arrayed across the Middle East, making other nations targets of Iran as the fighting has escalated after a breakdown in peace talks.

President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

First fatalities came soon after the war started

Shortly after the war began on Feb. 28, an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait killed six American soldiers. The soldiers were part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa who were working at a shipping container-style building that had no defenses.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded during a March 1 attack by Iran on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting U.S. military operations against Iran crashed in Iraq. The aircraft was in “friendly” airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft took place, according to U.S. Central Command.

On Monday, the U.S. military said a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued.

Drones and missiles still claiming lives

On Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said two service members were killed in Jordan on Friday while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. A third service member was missing after that attack, and the military said Sunday that “unidentified remains” were found and were being examined.

The latest U.S. military death from the conflict was on Saturday in northern Iraq when an American service member in northern Iraq was killed during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. A second service member was wounded and was receiving medical treatment for a minor injury.

The military said it was withholding additional information, including the names of the deceased, until 24 hours after families had been notified.

The deaths in the war are not limited to Americans.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

People working on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also perished in the conflict.

———

Associated Press writer Ben Finley in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story first moved July 18, 2026. It was updated July 19, 2026, with a 17th U.S. death.

But the film itself, which brought in more than $260 million worldwide during its opening weekend and has received raves from many critics, left her unsatisfied.

“I want to celebrate the fact that so many more people are aware of 'The Odyssey' and were brought back to the poem,” she told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, I had the sense that Christopher Nolan was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem.”

One of the year's most anticipated releases, “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as the returning warrior Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope, and Tom Holland as their son, Telemachus. Reviewers have praised the acting and the narrative drive, the grand scale of a movie shot entirely on IMAX film and how it weds the sensibilities of ancient Greece and the modern world, at least as Nolan perceives it.

The divide between scholars and critics seems in part a matter of whether the balance should tilt toward Nolan or Homer. Wilson and fellow translator Daniel Mendelsohn both expressed admiration for Nolan's cinematic flair and ambition, what Mendelsohn calls his “great visual panache.” Both speculated that his desire to make a “Christopher Nolan” movie led to unfortunate decisions.

Mendelsohn is an author, critic and translator and his assessment appeared Friday in The New York Review of Books, where he is an editor-at-large.

Mendelsohn had previously defended Nolan's controversial decision to cast a Black actor, Lupita Nyong’o, as Helen of Troy, calling it a worthy way to “provoke, challenge and discomfit how we think about beauty and identity.” But he faulted the director for giving us an Odysseus with “no cleverness, no humor, no wily charm.” One of the Western canon's formative tricksters has been transformed, he contended, into the kind of haunted protagonist featured in such previous Nolan movies as “Oppenheimer” and “Memento.”

“This tormented, guilt-ridden Odysseus, stripped of humor and wit, seductiveness and cleverness, is a sibling of Memento’s anguished amnesiac, of Batman, of Oppenheimer, men tormented by pasts they wrestle with in different ways,” wrote Mendelsohn, whose “Odyssey” translation came out in 2025. “Nolan has merely remade Homer’s hero in his own image.”

Author Gareth Hinds, whose graphic novel adaptation of “The Odyssey” has also received a sales bump from the movie, had a response similar to Mendelsohn's about Nolan's interpretation of Odysseus. The “wily trickster and smooth talker” is now an “everyman who appears to be honorable, except in select situations which then continue to haunt him.” For Hinds, Nolan's film raises the question of how much you can change a story's main character before the story itself is changed entirely.

“That’s one of many interesting things Nolan has left us to ponder,” says Hinds, who credits the director for creating a “powerful film.”

Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said she didn't want to come across as a “snobby,” nitpicking expert at odds with any deviation from the original text. But she questioned a range of omissions and other choices, from the absence on screen of the Gods Zeus and Poseidon (Athena is played by Zendaya ) to the “incoherent” messaging that condemns both war and physical cowardice. She found Penelope's role so thinned out that it endangered “any possibility of believing in this marriage.” Wilson also that thought parts of the movie, notably the scenes with Odysseus' dog, Argos, “catered towards modern sentimentality.”

“Everybody's a sucker for a dog,” she said.

A spokesperson for Nolan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wilson declined to offer a grade or ranking for the movie, but said she would recommend it for others, as long as they see it in a theater.

“It was fun to be there with my kids. I didn’t feel it was pulling teeth to engage with it,” she said. “If you can see it on a big screen you should absolutely go.”

For a 39-year-old from New Zealand, the son of an All Blacks rugby star who once only dreamed of having a card on any tour, this was no time to back down.

“I did say to my caddie Dean (Smith) that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I'd live with the consequences if I stuffed it up,” Fox said.

It turned out to be the stuff of major champions.

The drive was powerful and pure. The 9-iron from 175 yards looked good in the air and even better on the ground when it settled 12 feet below the hole. The birdie putt was the biggest of his life.

Fox closed with four birdies over his last six holes — and one bogey that felt equally important — for a 2-under 68 and a one-shot victory over hard-luck Cameron Young for his first major title.

This was pure theater to cap off a week of so much drama — three record-tying rounds of 62, Bryson DeChambeau's animated protest over a two-shot penalty, Tommy Fleetwood thrilling and teasing his hometown crowd to massive ovations on every hole.

Four players had a share of the lead at some point in the final round. Young was atop the leaderboard for two hours without hitting a shot anywhere but the range because he finished his astonishing 6-under 64 as the last few groups were on the front nine.

Young was on the range when he heard the massive roar and knew it was over. He bowed his head, lifted his driver and tapped the ground before packing up when Fox made his final birdie.

“Everyone practices on the green — you've got a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open. It's not like that in real life. It's not a very comfortable feeling,” Fox said. “It's certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.”

He thrust those powerful arms into the air and was on the phone with his family moments later and was heard telling them, "You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?”

His name will go on the base of that shiny claret jug along with another Kiwi, Bob Charles, who won the British Open in 1963. Michael Campbell is the other New Zealand man to win a major at Pinehurst No. 2 in the 2005 U.S. Open.

Fox's sterling moment brought more disappointment for Young. The American also finished one shot behind in the British Open at St. Andrews four years ago, and he had a Sunday lead on the front nine at the Masters until Rory McIlroy overtook him.

“I gave it everything I had all the way through,” Young said when he finished. He declined interviews when Fox ended the 154th Open.

Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader who was never planning to be at the Open until his wife gave birth to their daughter earlier than expected, lost a two-shot lead and didn't make birdie over the last 12 holes to finish two shots behind.

“I just couldn’t find them today. Just didn’t have my best stuff,” Burns said. “Given the circumstances, I’m very pleased with the week. I’m looking forward to being home.”

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler somehow managed to stick around until the end, getting two bad bounces that cost him momentum, then getting one big break for a most improbable birdie. He closed with a 67 and shared fourth with Fleetwood, who fell back early but delivered a birdie-birdie finish for a 68.

Missing from all drama, remarkably, was DeChambeau. He lost a golf ball and made triple bogey on the 11th hole and didn't make a birdie until he was well out of contention. That two-shot penalty he received Friday for improving the path of his swing wasn't an issue at the end. DeChambeau shot a 72 and tied for 14th.

Fox won for the 10th time worldwide, his biggest title before Sunday coming at the BMW PGA Championship in 2023. He is the oldest first-time major champion since Henrik Stenson was 40 at Royal Troon 10 years ago.

Fox finished at 10-under 270, got his hands on the jug and heard those magic words when he was introduced as the “Champion Golfer of the Year.”

“I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt on 18. Look, it is a dream come true,” Fox said. “Looking at that trophy now, it’s the first time I’ve seen it up close. So it’s pretty amazing.”

Young was flawless until the final hole, his tee shot finding a pot bunker. He tried to open the face of a 6-iron but caught it thin and it smacked into the vetted wall and into the rough. He hit the next shot into a greenside bunker and nearly holed it for par. The bogey put him at 9-under 271.

Burns was losing ground quickly on the front nine with three straight bogeys, none more damaging than a pitch to the reachable par-4 fifth hole that went over the back of the green.

Si Woo Kim emerged as the leader going to the back nine until he made bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes, and he fell out of contention for good with a pair of late bogeys that added to a 40 on the back nine for 72.

That left Young at the top of the leaderboard, waiting to see if anyone could match him.

Fox's hopes took a nasty turn on the par-3 15th when his tee shot caromed off the side of a bunker and settled next to the lip, leaving him no stance and no shot. He smartly played away from the back pin to the fairway, chipped from 45 yards away to 6 feet and made bogey.

It was as big as any shot he hit until the last.

“To get that up-and-down really kept the momentum going,” Fox said. “I felt a whole lot better walking off that green making bogey that way than probably even if I’d have made par.”

Fox was a late bloomer, a European tour rookie at age 30 and a PGA Tour rookie when he was 37. His goal when he started was to have a tour card. Now he's a major champion.

“I said to my team last night at dinner, if you'd have given me my career up until yesterday when I turned pro, I'd have jumped at that,” Fox said, speaking with the claret jug at his side. “I don't know what to think now.”

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

Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement — named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

He was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.

Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.

His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.

Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara's release would prompt insistence that Pérez also be set free.

Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake struck on Saturday at 9:24 p.m., with its epicenter located 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) west-southwest of the city of Sicaya in Huancayo province. It was 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) deep.

Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute said in a statement the total number of missing is still unknown. Several buildings collapsed or suffered structural damage, including the historic “Santiago de León” church and former convent in Chongos Bajo, which was built in 1565 and designated as national heritage site for being a 16th century “architectural gem.”

Luis Vásquez, head of the local civil defense office, told journalists that the use of rustic adobe materials in construction in that Andean area “has contributed to the greater impact and damage."

Earthquakes are frequent in Peru, which is located in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

Images broadcast by local media captured the anguish of victims’ relatives in one of the hardest-hit areas, the agricultural region of Chongos Bajo, where residents huddled under blankets outside severely damaged homes. Animals were also seen under the rubble.

“My home has been destroyed,” Hermenegilda Guamalato told a local radio station as she sought a place to stay with her three children in the neighboring province of Huayucachi.

In 2007, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the province of Pisco in the Ica region, killing nearly 600 people.

Just a stone’s throw away on the 18th green, Ryan Fox had holed a 12-foot birdie putt to win the British Open.

There’d be no playoff for Young.

No chance to end his wait for a first major championship title.

The American bowed his head, swung his driver gently over his shoulder then back onto the ground, and trudged off.

Some 2½ hours earlier, Young had been on that 18th hole himself, getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker — he actually nearly holed it — to salvage bogey and shoot 64 for what would remain the lowest score of the final round.

Then came the long, agonizing wait to discover whether his 9-under 271 total would be enough to win.

Young had some food, cleared out his locker — “for efficiency’s sake,” he said — and spent some time in the players’ lounge.

By 6 p.m., he was practicing on the putting green.

And around half an hour later, the spectators in the huge grandstands lining one of the most famous walks in golf gave him the bad news.

Add Birkdale to the 29-year-old Young's close calls at the majors, following a runner-up finish at the British Open in 2022 — he made eagle on the final hole to be one stroke back from Cameron Smith at St. Andrews — and a tie for third at the Masters this year after sharing the 54-hole lead.

Now up to No. 4 in the world, the widespread belief in golfing circles is that Young's time will come. That's because he has risen to elite company this year with wins at The Players Championship in March and the Cadillac Championship at Doral, in front of President Donald Trump, a couple of months later.

Young says his score ‘could have been 60’

Speaking after his round, Young said he thought 10-under par would have a “decent chance” of victory.

So it proved.

And he would have got there — or maybe better — had he not found a fairway bunker on No. 18 after choosing to hit driver. He barely got out of the sand with his second shot that struck the top of the bunker wall and spilled out 20 yards forward, and went on to scramble bogey.

A par there would have seen him match the lowest final-round score in a major.

A birdie? Well, that would have won him the whole thing.

“It could have been 60,” Young said of his round that included a front-nine 29.

“I played a great round of golf,” he added, “and I did it in a really good way.”

Young's thoughts after Fox completed victory are a mystery because he declined to talk to the media.

He surely will regret his 3-over 73 on Saturday that came after two 67s and dropped him to a tie for 20th overnight.

“I had a chance to win with not everything I’ve got,” he said. “So I think that’s a good takeaway.”

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

All he could think about Sunday when he finished were the bounces that didn't go his way.

Scheffler managed to stay in the game until the very end and capitalized on a huge break — which followed another unfortunate bounce — with a birdie on the par-5 17th hole. Needing birdie to have any chance of a playoff, he missed a putt from off the green, missed the par putt that followed and settled for a 3-under 67 to tie for fourth behind Ryan Fox.

“I guess it just wasn't my week,” said Scheffler, who had top 4-finishes in three of the four majors.

Scheffler, who began the final round six shots out of the lead, quickly made up ground with three birdies in five holes — as many birdies as he had made in the previous two rounds combined. And when he holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 12th, he was at 8 under and closing.

And then he was chasing after a few frustrating bounces.

His tee shot right of the fairway on the 13th headed for the wispy grass but wound up in a deep hole, leaving him no chance but to advance it about 5 feet. Scheffler did well to make an 8-foot putt to escape with bogey.

Scheffler thought his drive was ideal on the par-5 14th until it bounced just enough to the left to catch a pot bunker, leaving him no shot at the green. A potential birdie turned into par.

“That stuff hurts,” he said. "My ball on 13 goes into that hole. It wasn’t my best tee shot, but it was a time where I needed to be aggressive, and I saw some good stuff happening with guys that hit the ball over there the last few days, and it didn’t happen for me today. Just those little bounces.

“My ball on 14 I think is in the fairway, I come up there, it’s in the pot bunker,” he said. “Little stuff like that over the course of the week tends to add up.”

His frustration boiled over on the par-5 17th when his tee shot moving left-to-right looked as though it would kick into the fairway leaving him a shot at the green. But it bounced left and stayed in the rough in front of a steep mound.

“WHY?” Scheffler screamed at himself. “Why does this happen?”

Welcome to links golf, which he conquered a year ago at Royal Portrush.

Remarkably, the bad bounce led to birdie. He tried to go over the mound and the ball went so far to the left that he figured it was never to be found, He hit a provisional for a lost ball, and that wasn't much better, And then luck seemed to finally show up.

The entire area near a massive hospitality structure was deemed a temporary immovable obstruction. Spectators said they saw the ball disappear into gorse and rough. A security guard and NBC reporter John Wood began searching.

But once a golf ball has been identified going into the TIO, it does not have to be found.

“We tried to figure it out. I said: ‘If I find it, does that help me? Can I drop it since that would be about 50 yards closer to the hole?'” Scheffler said about his conversation with the rules official. “He said, ‘Yes, you can then use that spot, but you might have to go to the other side of the TIO.’ I didn’t know exactly where that would be, and that’s not a great angle coming across there. So I decided to drop the search.”

Scheffler received a free drop 94 yards away on a baked, dusty lie. He hit wedge to 10 feet and made birdie.

The hope didn't last long, and he walked off the 18th green knowing he would not get his hands on the claret jug he won last year, and it would be eight-plus months before the next major.

“I felt like this was a week I played a lot better than my score,” Scheffler said. “Thirteen and 14 really hurt, not being able to advance the ball. I feel good that I could compete when things weren't going my way.”

Padraig Harrington remains the last player to win back-to-back in the British Open, in 2007 and 2008. It's the longest such stretch in the majors. And now it falls to Fox near year at St. Andrews.

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

McGregor said he also suffered meniscus damage in the fight on July 11 that lasted 1:09, comparing it to an injury he suffered in the opposite leg against Holloway in 2013.

“Update: It was acl and meniscus,” McGregor wrote in a post on X Sunday. “It is the same injury as the first Holloway fight, only this time the opposite leg. Quite shocking.”

McGregor's return to the octagon for the first time in five years came to an abrupt end when he landed awkwardly trying to land a kick in the opening seconds against Holloway. The 38-year-old tried to continue, but the fight was called when he fell to the canvas twice more.

McGregor had surgery last week and said he is walking without crutches. He is hopeful of returning to the octagon in 2027.

“I returned to competition within 9 months to fight Diego Brandao back then,” he wrote. “With today’s regenerative medicine advancements and improved training methods it is well within my realm to return by next summer.”

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The MV Barima was sailing from the capital, Georgetown, along the North Atlantic coast to Port Kaituma, said Guyanese Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who is leading the government’s response.

Phillips said the group that had been rescued included 41 men, 11 women and 15 children. He did not say whether authorities feared the missing passengers were dead or not. Helicopters, planes and fishing vessels are scanning a 1,000-square-mile area in search efforts.

The MV Barima departed shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday and ran into trouble shortly before midnight, officials said. A distress call was received at 11:01 p.m. (0301 GMT), which prompted a search and rescue operation involving state and private boats, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said on Facebook.

Authorities said the vessel, which makes weekly trips to the largely Indigenous communities near Venezuela, capsized near the Pomeroon River.

Edghill said the vessel was fitted with 250 life jackets, two rigid life rafts and six inflatable life rafts. He denied claims that it could have capsized because it was overloaded with passengers or cargo.

"It had to do with the tide,” the minister said, referencing statements from rescued passengers.

Antonelli saw off a challenge from Charles Leclerc to get back to winning ways at the Belgian Grand Prix after reliability issues had allowed Russell to whittle down his lead in recent weeks. Russell was left fuming in a gravel trap at his Mercedes car's shortcomings.

Antonelli started on pole but lost the lead to Leclerc when a virtual safety car slowdown allowed the Ferrari driver to save time during his pit stop.

Antonelli sped back past Leclerc with 10 laps remaining and cruised from there to his sixth win of the season — and his F1 career — and first since last month's Monaco Grand Prix. It gives him a 45-point overall lead after recent reliability problems and keeps the 19-year-old firmly on target to become F1's youngest-ever champion.

“The momentum has always been there despite what happened in the previous races, and that’s why you just need to take one weekend at a time, because you never know what can happen,” Antonelli said. “With these new cars, new regs, there’s so much going on and so much unpredictable.”

With six wins, Antonelli is now joint-second all time among Italian F1 drivers, behind only Alberto Ascari, a 13-time Grand Prix winner and two-time champion in the early 1950s. In a marker-pen message on a champagne bottle, Antonelli dedicated the win to his father, former sportscar racer Marco Antonelli, whose birthday was on Saturday.

Leclerc strong again

Leclerc was second after avoiding a penalty for a collision which damaged Oscar Piastri's McLaren, and Max Verstappen was third after briefly taking, then losing, the lead from Antonelli on a hectic opening lap.

The Italian stretched his standings lead after Russell was left stuck in the gravel on the first lap after he was pushed into a spin by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli went into the race with a 25-point lead over Russell after recent reliability issues for the Italian had cut his advantage. That has now nearly doubled. Antonelli will leave Belgium with a 45-point gap over Hamilton, who moved up to second, and is 50 ahead of Russell.

In a sign of tension at Mercedes after a heavy blow to his title chances, Russell seemed to blame his car, rather than Hamilton, for the incident. Russell said the incident wouldn't have happened if his car hadn't lost speed on the straight into the corner, dropping him behind Hamilton. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff suggested it was a software problem affecting multiple cars with Mercedes engines.

Hamilton not at fault after crew member struck

Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari after an eventful race including a five-second penalty for colliding with Russell, verbal spats with Ferrari over strategy and car setups over the radio, and knocking over a Ferrari mechanic as his car started to leave the pits.

Hamilton immediately asked after the team member’s health and was told he was OK. A post-race inquiry by the stewards found Hamilton was “in no respect at fault” and fined Ferrari 30,000 euros ($34,300), with 10,000 euros of that suspended for a year.

Oscar Piastri was fifth for McLaren and Isack Hadjar was a strong sixth for Red Bull despite starting at the back of the field because of a penalty.

Lando Norris started 13th for McLaren thanks to a grid penalty but sliced through the field and even briefly led the race when others pitted. A pit stop delay dropped him back but he still finished seventh.

Gabriel Bortoleto placed eighth for Audi, Arvid Lindblad ninth for Racing Bulls and Alpine's Franco Colapinto took the final point in 10th.

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Nolan flexed his singular box-office might with a global debut unlike any other. Few filmmakers alive could pull off a starry, big-budget adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. But in a Hollywood where intellectual property rights rule most hits, Nolan turned one of the world’s oldest works of literature into an unlikely summer blockbuster.

The Universal production was no small gamble on Nolan, coming off the 2023 best picture-winning “Oppenheimer.” With a production budget of $250 million, it’s among the most expensive R-rated movies ever made. Universal is spending some $125 million to market it.

But no behind-the-camera name turns out audiences more than Nolan's. So great was the hype on “The Odyssey” that IMAX put tickets on sale for some 70 mm showtimes a full year in advance. To satisfy the extraordinary demand for Nolan's preferred format, IMAX 70 mm, some theaters added midnight and 3 a.m. screenings — and sold them out.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the palpable excitement in theaters this weekend,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic distribution for Universal. “Nolan has crafted an epic adventure. It’s on a scale that audiences have responded to extraordinarily well.”

IMAX drives ticket sales

Billed as Nolan’s first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras, the format drove a huge slice of ticket sales. That included $29.6 million domestically on IMAX and $51.8 million globally, leading to the company's best weekend ever. IMAX is dedicating its screens entirely to “The Odyssey” for three weeks. Though only 41 IMAX screens can screen “The Odyssey” in 70 mm, they accounted for $6.3 million in ticket sales.

“The IMAX of it all helped turn it from not only a blockbuster, but a global cultural event,” said Rich Gelfond, chief executive of IMAX. “We have tickets on sale for week five in some theaters and some of them have already sold out.”

Since the pandemic, Nolan has been at the forefront of reviving cinemas. His “Tenet” was one of the first big releases to wade back into theaters in 2020. Three years later, “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” combined to create arguably the movies’ signature moment of the decade. “Oppenheimer” ultimately grossed $975 million worldwide.

“The Odyssey” arrived in theaters during Hollywood’s best summer since 2019. Ticket sales are running 10.4% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. The industry is expecting the first $10 billion year at the domestic box office since the pandemic.

Universal sees ‘The Odyssey’ playing into the fall

The only question for “The Odyssey” will be how front-loaded it is, given that many moviegoers have had this weekend circled for months. The film faced no new-release competition over the weekend, and it won’t next weekend, either.

Gelfond said that presales for the movie's second weekend would rank among their 10 best presales, proof that many moviegoers are waiting to see the film in their preferred format. IMAX 70mm screenings, he said, are largely sold out for the next month, except for some front row seats.

“Christopher Nolan and Tom Cruise may be the two most high-profile ambassadors for the big-screen experience,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak. “Nolan is a director who’s a star as much as any movie star in front of the camera.”

The audience for “The Odyssey” was notably male, accounting for 59% of tickets sold. But Orr said moviegoers were otherwise “ridiculously broad,” playing across demographics and geography.

“It’s delivering for a 17-year-old dude and it’s delivering for a female that’s 55 and up,” said Orr. “It points to what I’m convinced will be a very long, very successful run throughout not only the rest of the summer but into the fall, too.”

The next movie to pose any competition, ironically, also stars Tom Holland and Zendaya: Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31.

Casting controversy has no apparent effect

“The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and features Holland as his son, Telemachus; Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Zendaya as Athena; Robert Pattinson as the suitor Antinous and Charlize Theron as the sea nymph Calypso.

Nolan’s casting of “The Odyssey,” including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen and Elliot Page as a soldier, was controversial to some conservative commentators. Elon Musk called Nolan a “coward” over Nyong’o’s casting.

But that criticism had little to no effect on “The Odyssey” becoming one of the big-screen cultural events of the year. Reviews (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) are among the best of Nolan’s career. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

PG-rated films followed in the wake of “The Odyssey.” The Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana” landed in a distant second place with $19 million in its third weekend. Following its disappointing $43 million launch, the live-action remake slid 56% on its second weekend. In two weeks it collected $178 million worldwide, a poor result for a film that cost $250 million to make.

“Moana” was trailed by Universal's “Minions & Monsters” and Disney's “Toy Story 5,” both of which grossed about $15 million.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “The Odyssey,” $124.5 million.

2. “Moana,” $19 million.

3. “Minions & Monsters,” $14.8 million.

4. “Toy Story 5,” $14.8 million.

5. “Evil Dead Burn,” $5 million.

6. “The Invite,” $3.9 million.

7. “Young Washington,” $3.7 million.

8. “Obsession,” $2.5 million.

9. “Supergirl,” $1.5 million.

10. “Disclosure Day,” $1.5 million.

Vingegaard fell about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) from the end of the 184-kilometer (114-mile) trek, which ended with a big climb. His Visma–Lease a Bike team said in a statement posted on X that he sustained a fractured collarbone, which will require surgery in the coming days, and multiple abrasions.

“I’m really sad to see Jonas crash out. Without him the Tour will not be the same,” Pogacar said. “We go back a long way.”

Belgian rider Evenepoel withstood two attacks from Del Toro in the last 800 meters and then beat Pogacar in a dash to the line for his first stage win of this year's race and third overall on the Tour. Del Toro finished a few seconds behind them in third.

“It’s amazing, I’m literally trembling from emotions,” Evenepoel said. “You have to understand, I’m racing with the best rider ever and he’s been doing a hell of a climb. For me it’s a big step forward that I can follow this pace.”

Vinegaard's retirement means that Evenepoel climbed to second overall, five minutes behind four-time Tour champion Pogacar, with the 22-year-old Mexican Del Toro 5:58 back from Pogacar in third place.

Barring mishap, a fifth Tour crown looks inevitable for Pogacar, who has won four stages so far in this year's race.

Only Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault have won the overall Tour five times.

Vingegaard crashes before final climb

Sunday's trek featured one Category 1 (the second-hardest category) up Col de la Croisette and concluded with a HC climb (the hardest category) up Plateau de Solaison in the French Alps — an 11-kilometer slog with a punishing 9% gradient.

It was a special stage for the 19-year-old rising French star Paul Seixas, whose grandparents' house was about 15 kilometers from the finish. Seixas credits his grandfather, José Manuel Seixas, for introducing him to cycling when he was a youngster. Seixas finished fourth and is fourth in the standings, 6:23 behind Pogacar.

A lead group of nine riders, including Olympic mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock and American Quinn Simmons, headed up the sharp 4.7 kilometers of Col de la Croisette, with Simmons moving ahead.

Shortly after Vingegaard's crash, which saw the Danish rider tumble close to a roadside kerb after losing control of his front wheel, riders reached the Solaison ascent.

Pogacar caught Simmons with just under 5 kilometers remaining, with Del Toro and Evenepoel the only ones able to stick with him.

“I just kept my momentum and tried to go as hard as possible to the finish line,” said Evenepoel, who said his win will silence detractors who said he could not climb well. “On hard mountains like this, it’s really hard to beat guys like Tadej.”

Monday is the second rest day of the race, which concludes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 26.

Tuesday's 16th stage is an individual time trial and offers Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, a good chance for another stage win.

“We have a good rest day and then a beautiful day on Tuesday where I will try to go again for a stage win," Evenepoel said. "It’s amazing that I find my best legs for this Tour.”

He won the Tour time trial last year with a stunning ride.

Doping checks

Pogacar and Vingegaard were woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning by officials carrying out unannounced anti-doping tests.

Pogacar said his test was carried out at 5 a.m. and that Vingegaard’s was at 2 a.m.

The Slovenian star suggested fatigue may have led to his rival crashing.

“Me, I had a control (test) at 5 in the morning (and) Jonas did a control at 2 in the morning,” Pogacar said in a post-race interview on French television. “So you never know, maybe this was also the consequences of one bad sleep.”

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, entrusts testing to the Swiss-based International Testing Agency.

Trust needed rebuilding

Cycling’s reputation was heavily damaged when American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles (1999-2005) after confessing in 2013 to having used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

Two years later, a 227-page report detailed cycling’s historic culture of drug use and investigated alleged mismanagement by the UCI.

The year-long probe was ordered by the governing body’s new leadership in a bid to rebuild trust in cycling as a clean sport. ___

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The Marlins selected Sasaki out of Stanford in the eighth round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft last week, but the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks also selected him in the first round of the Nippon Professional Baseball draft.

The difficult decision had Sasaki fighting back tears during a news conference in his hometown on Sunday.

“More than anyone else, I believe I understand my own limitations and how much I still need to improve,” Sasaki said. “Even if this path ultimately turns out to be the wrong choice, I do not want to live with regret. Rather than defining my life by whether I succeed or fail, I want to define it by whether I had the courage to take on a challenge. With that belief in mind, I ultimately decided to pursue this path."

Sasaki played under Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani’s father, Toru, and is Japan's all-time high school home run leader with 140. He made waves out of high school, opting out of the Nippon league's draft to play at Stanford.

The 21-year-old first baseman played two seasons at Stanford, hitting .262 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs as a sophomore last year.

“I went back and forth on this decision until the very end," Sasaki said. "Ever since I chose to attend Stanford, I have always had a strong desire to challenge myself in the United States. In the end, that desire won out. I felt that I wanted to see how far I could go by challenging myself in America, and that feeling became stronger than anything else.”

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In the 22 previous World Cup men's finals (which would include the 1950 match between Uruguay and Brazil that technically wasn’t a final, but decided who won the World Cup), the winning team has averaged 2.6 goals in the title matchup. The losing team has averaged 1.1 goals.

The two most recent World Cup finals have been offensive slugfests, with a combined 12 goals. France beat Croatia 4-2 in 2018, while Argentina and France tied 3-3 in 2022 (before Argentina prevailed in a penalty shootout).

Teams scoring at least two goals have won the World Cup title 17 times; there have been eight instances of a team scoring at least two goals in the final and still falling short.

There have been three 1-0 wins: West Germany over Argentina in 1990, Spain over Netherlands in 2010 and Germany over Argentina in 2014. And there was one 0-0 tie in a final; Brazil wound up winning over Italy in a penalty shootout the 1994 final, which had been the only one played on U.S. soil before now.

Scaloni looking to join elite club

If Argentina wins Sunday, Lionel Scaloni — who led the team’s push to the 2022 title — would be just the second person to coach two World Cup championship clubs.

Italy went back-to-back as World Cup champions in 1934 and 1938, with both those clubs coached by Vittorio Pozzo.

Nobody else has two titles as a coach. There are three men — Brazil’s Mário Zagallo, West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and France’s Didier Deschamps — to have won World Cups as both a player and a coach.

Messi matters

When he takes the field Sunday, Argentina star Lionel Messi will be the oldest field player to appear in a World Cup final.

Messi is 39. Sweden’s Gunnar Gren was 37 when he played against Brazil in the 1958 final.

The only player older than Messi to play in a final was Italy goalkeeper Dino Zoff — who was 40 when his club beat West Germany for the 1982 crown. But among field players, Messi will stand alone as the oldest after Sunday.

Messi is also in position to join Brazil’s Cafu as the only person to play in three World Cup men’s finals. And since Cafu was a reserve in one of his appearances, Messi would be the first to start the title game on three occasions.

For Spain, youth may be served. Experience may, too.

Youth may be served by Spain in this World Cup final. And if La Roja prevails, experience would also have paid off.

It’s an interesting mix.

Spain is slated to have two teenagers — Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí, a pair of 19-year-olds — play Sunday against Argentina in the World Cup final, and no team has ever had more than one teen in the lineup and won the title.

So, that's the power of youth.

Here’s the flip side of that: If Spain wins, coach Luis de la Fuente — who is 65 — would become the oldest World Cup-winning sideline boss, passing Vicente del Bosque, who was 59 when Spain won its first title in 2010.

For the record, teenagers enter Sunday unbeaten in World Cup finals, according to FIFA, which says only three have ever played in soccer’s biggest game. Pelé was 17 when he helped Brazil win the final over Sweden in 1958, Giuseppe Bergomi was 18 when Italy beat West Germany in 1982, and Kylian Mbappé was 19 when France beat Croatia in 2018.

Spain seeking record streak

Spain is 28-0-9 in its last 37 matches, which has tied Italy for the longest unbeaten run by a European men’s national team.

Italy also went 28-0-9 from October 2018 through September 2021 — before losing to Spain 2-1 on Oct. 6, 2021 in Milan.

Argentina has a streak worth noting as well. It has won seven consecutive World Cup matches, tied with Italy for the second-longest such run in men's tournament history. Only Brazil, which won 11 straight spanning 2002 and 2006, has a longer World Cup winning streak.

Argentina-Spain history

The game is just the second head-to-head meeting in a World Cup between Argentina and Spain. Argentina won 2-1 in the 1966 group stage.

Across all competitions and friendlies, the sides have played 14 times. Each has won six times and they tied twice.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Moscow has in recent weeks stepped up its use of ballistic missiles as it seeks to choke off Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities deep inside Russia that have caused critical fuel shortages affecting both the military and the civilian population.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriots, the most effective means of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, potentially bolstering Kyiv’s defenses. However, the details and timeline remain unclear, and full production could take years.

The latest attack on Kyiv began at around 1:30 a.m. and continued for several hours, with explosions echoing across the city.

Russia launched 41 missiles and 125 drones across Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said most of the missiles had targeted the capital.

Later Sunday, a Russian attack on a postal facility near Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv killed three people and wounded at least 20, according to the regional administration.

Russian guided bombs also hit the cities of Kherson and Sumy, local authorities and Ukraine’s emergency service reported, with each of the strikes leaving at least one person dead.

Ballistic missile strikes are becoming more frequent

The strikes on Kyiv sparked fires in five districts, damaging residential buildings, office and industrial sites, a dormitory and vehicles, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Viktoria Shejko, 32, was taking shelter in the corridor of her apartment block with her seven children and husband when they heard the loud explosions.

“When the alarm started, we checked that there were ballistics, then went into the corridor. Then it started exploding one missile after another,” she said.

The strain of constant bombardment is “very difficult psychologically,” she said. “It used to be once a week or even more rarely, but now if not every day, then every other day.”

Rescuers pulled four people from a burning home in the Sviatoshynskyi district, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district, they rushed to save residents from a three-story building on fire. One person was found dead. Firefighters also responded to blazes in the Solomyanskyi, Desnianskyi and Dnipro districts.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the attack on Kyiv targeted sites linked to the Ukrainian military — including plants producing Flamingo drones and parts for Neptune guided missiles, as well as a postal terminal used for storing dual-use goods and assembling drones, robotic systems and electronic warfare equipment.

Oil tankers hit at key terminal off Russia's coast

Separately, a strike on two oil tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) ‌terminal off Russia’s Black Sea halted oil loadings at the site, the CPC said Sunday.

The attack on the ASIA and NISSOS tankers in the port of Novorossiysk sparked a fire aboard the ASIA, which was extinguished. The company did not say who was responsible for the attack. It added there were no casualties or oil spills, and the tankers — sailing under the flags of Liberia and the Marshall respectively — remained afloat.

Both Russia and Ukraine have sharply ramped up strikes on ships in the Black and Azov seas over the past week. Ukraine's strikes on oil tankers there are part of its efforts to cut fuel supplies to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Kyiv also says it targets Russia's so-called shadow fleet, which ships oil in violation of international sanctions over the Kremlin's invasion of its neighbor.

Kyiv has for months been targeting Russia's oil industry, which it says both directly fuels Moscow's war effort and funds it through export revenues, triggering acute fuel shortages in a country that is one of the world's top oil producers.

The CPC is a 940-mile (1,510-kilometer) oil pipeline ​connecting Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil ​deposits ⁠with Novorossiysk, where the oil is loaded and shipped by tanker to world markets. The pipeline accounts for about 80% of oil-rich Kazakhstan's crude exports, with the Russian government and Russian state oil firms holding a combined 31% stake in the enterprise.

Russia's energy sector under attack

Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that Ukrainian units struck more energy infrastructure in Russian territory.

He said units of Ukraine’s Security Service agency struck three oil depots in the Stavropol region, while a separate unit of the army hit another fuel-related facility in the same region. Three Russian tankers were also struck in the Black Sea, he said.

Stavropol Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov earlier referenced Ukrainian drone attacks igniting fires at “industrial facilities” in two locations within the region. He did not specify what the facilities were, but said nobody was hurt.

Russian news outlet Astra on Sunday reported that three oil depots may be burning in Stavropol, based on its analysis of photos and videos sent in by locals after the attack.

Russian air defense systems shot down 140 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions, annexed Crimea, and the Black and Azov seas overnight into Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry reported. It did not say how many were launched or reached their targets.

In Russia's Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian drones struck four apartment buildings, setting off a fire and injuring one person, according to local Gov. Alexander Khinshtein.

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The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this past Wednesday, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking the removal of an individual whose name is withheld from the single-page document posted on the court’s website.

The chief judge of the five-member court, Joan Ericksen, said in a written response to the petition that a hearing was held on Thursday during which the court had “questions about the nexus that the government alleges between the actions of the respondent and the specific sections and subsections it invokes with respect to those actions.

“The answers persuaded the Court that the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration,” wrote Ericksen, a federal judge in Minnesota.

She directed the Justice Department to provide more information by Wednesday.

The court's authorities emerged from the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which permits the attorney general to file under seal applications for the deportation of a suspected “alien terrorist.” If an application is granted, the court must hold a public hearing at which the government has the burden to prove that the individual satisfies that definition. Applications must be approved by the attorney general or deputy attorney general.

Federal law says that an individual could qualify as an “alien terrorist” by, among other factors, having “engaged in a terrorist activity,” endorsing or espousing terrorist activities and by belonging to a political or social group that encourages terrorist activity.

The court has been dormant since its creation, having received — until last week — no applications and conducting no hearings, according to a summary posted on the Federal Judicial Center website. It is comprised of five judges selected by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Trump administration has moved aggressively over the last year to carry out deportations, including invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to remove Venezuelan migrants who officials accuse of being part of a terrorist gang. During a hearing in that case last year, the Washington judge presiding over it, James Boasberg, indicated that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be the natural forum to consider a request for deportation on national security grounds.

“In fact, Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,” he said. “So if there's a national security concern with having these hearings...you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”

The petition was first reported by Court Watch, an independent news site.

The outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has infected 72 people, according to health officials. Two people have died. The first death was announced Friday, and the second was announced Saturday.

“We are heartbroken to learn that another New Yorker has lost their life to Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side. Our deepest condolences are with their loved ones as they grieve,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said in a statement.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of severe pneumonia caused by a type of bacteria that thrives in warm, stagnant water. Health officials have focused on testing cooling towers that are part of air conditioning systems for large buildings. Property owners have been ordered to drain and disinfect towers where there has been a positive test result.

Health officials did not pinpoint a source for the current outbreak but said there has been a sustained decline in new cases. They said that indicates the source of exposure to Legionella bacteria has likely been eliminated.

Legionnaires’ disease is treatable but 10% of people will die due to complications from the illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during an outbreak in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.

Russell was trying to retake fourth place from Lewis Hamilton around the outside when the Ferrari driver clipped his rear wheel and sent him spinning into the gravel trap, putting him out of the race on the first lap.

In an expletive-filled message to Mercedes over the radio, Russell directed the blame at the car, not Hamilton, saying it was “unacceptable” he'd had a dramatic loss of speed on the previous straight, dropping him from third to fifth behind Hamilton.

“It was a new problem but it wasn’t only on George’s side. Instead, it affected all the Mercedes engines, some more, some less, and Kimi (Antonelli) too," Wolff told Sky Sport Germany, suggesting a software problem was to blame.

"We have an engine that’s incredibly strong, a car that is fast but simply not stable enough and we need to get on top of that because we’re losing valuable points in the constructors’ championship.”

Wolff added: “We just need to try to make the best possible equipment available for him. That’s not just a fast car and a good engine but something that holds up and gives him confidence in the car again.”

Antonelli went on to win the race, doubling his advantage over Russell to 50 points. Russell is now third in the standings, five points behind Hamilton, who got a five-second penalty for causing their collision.

“Car crossed over right in front of me,” Hamilton said, adding he'd lacked front-end grip to avoid the collision because he was following another car closely.

Russell has been struggling to match Antonelli's pace in recent races and, even before Sunday's race, had suggested an issue with the Mercedes car may be holding him back after he lost out in straight-line speed to Antonelli in qualifying.

Russell told Sky Sports he had “no words at the moment” after the incident, when asked about the impact on the title race.

“The incident shouldn’t have happened if I had the speed down the straight,” he said.

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The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — offers a rare detailed accounting of a key demographic that sits at the very center of some of the nation’s most divisive political debates.

Here are five takeaways from the AP-NORC survey:

Jewish adults have complicated views about Israel and the war in Gaza

Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical.

About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways.

While about 8 in 10 of those with a religious affiliation say Israel’s immediate military response to Hamas’ attack on October 7 was “justified,” only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. Among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation, only about half saw Israel's immediate response as justifiable. Now, only about 2 in 10 say the ongoing military operations are acceptable.

About one-quarter of Jewish adults with a religious association believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some major human rights organizations and a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations. That accusation has been vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. Roughly 4 in 10 Jewish adults without a religious affiliation say Israel has committed genocide.

Many Jewish adults feel unsafe in the United States

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

About one-third of Jewish adults in the survey say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. today, while about one-third feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe.

A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

The survey points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States’ close alliance with Israel and the war in Gaza. The poll found that Jewish adults who feel a close emotional tie to Israel are particularly likely to feel unsafe in the country today.

Most American Jews don’t feel politicians are supporting Jewish people

Few Jewish adults believe that President Donald Trump — or the Democratic or Republican parties — are doing a good job supporting Jewish people in the U.S.

Only about 2 in 10 Jewish adults say Trump supports Jewish people in this country “extremely” or “very” well. That’s similar to the slight share who find the Republican Party and the Democratic Party highly supportive, but Jewish adults are more likely to say the Democratic Party is at least “somewhat” supportive.

Americans overall are more likely than Jewish adults to see Trump as “extremely” or “very” supportive of Jewish people in the United States. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump is highly supportive of Jewish people, compared to about 2 in 10 Jewish adults.

The poll also found most Jewish adults have negative views of Trump. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to about 3 in 10 who have a favorable view.

Jewish adults are divided over whether protesting Israel is a form of antisemitism

Protests around events conducted in support of Israel became more common following the backlash over Israel’s military action in Gaza.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel responded with a yearslong counterattack that killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the territory's Hamas-run government. Its casualty figures are viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations but don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.

The poll found that about half of Jewish adults say protesting an event that is supportive of Israel is not a form of antisemitism, but roughly 4 in 10 say it is. About 1 in 10 are uncertain.

Jewish adults are more unified in deeming some actions as definitively antisemitic. The overwhelming majority say vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses because of Israel’s actions is antisemitism. The same goes for denying the reality or scope of the Holocaust, putting responsibility for Israel’s actions on Jewish people in the United States or saying Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.

Support for Israel is less of a priority for younger Jewish adults

Support for Israel is a key component of the religious identity of many older Jewish adults in the United States, but younger Jewish adults appear less likely to prioritize it.

About half of older religious Jewish adults — those 45 and older — say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jewish adults emphasize support for Israel.

Younger Jewish adults are more likely to prioritize other forms of connection, like celebrating Jewish holidays. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults under 45 say celebrating Jewish holidays is at least “very” important to their Jewish identity, compared to about half of older Jewish adults.

Although the family in northwest Nigeria has struggled with economic hardship, their situation deteriorated after February, when her husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran.

“When she was diagnosed the second time, even though I suspected it, I was sad and angry because I knew why,” Aminu said in the living area of their unvarnished two-bedroom house in the quiet town of Kware, Sokoto, as ash from the coal stove billowed into the room. “Times are tough, and the food is not consistent.”

Children relapsing into malnutrition has become an increasingly common occurrence in the state and across northern Nigeria, according to local health and aid workers, who cite knock-on effects from the Iran war.

Northern Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest regions, is already under pressure from an insurgency crisis. Now, the conflict in the Middle East has worsened food security for millions of people living in poverty, especially children.

At the same time, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s vast economic reforms sparked high inflation after fuel subsidies were removed three years ago and the currency was devalued. A World Bank technical report this week stated that 139 million Nigerians are now poor or vulnerable to poverty.

If the war in the Middle East continues, up to 23.4 million additional children could fall into monetary poverty — meaning a lack of income or consumption — by the end of the year, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said in a report this week. It warned that at least 80% would be in Africa and Asia.

“Children are paying the price for the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including children far beyond the region,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “The longer this continues, the worse the consequences will be.”

Dangers ahead for children

Amid the Iran war, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed before the war — sent a ripple effect across the world. A worldwide fuel shock drove up the prices of everything from gas and groceries to fertilizer and airline tickets.

In Nigeria, fuel pump prices jumped from 800 naira ($0.58) per liter in February to 1,400 naira ($1.02) in April, with a knock-on effect on the prices of food and necessities.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been trying to force Iran to fully reopen the route for months, turning to everything from airstrikes and naval blockades to negotiations and threats.

In Sokoto, where the soaring prices have brought more hardship for families, health workers told The Associated Press that they've been seeing more children returned to health facilities this year after falling back into malnutrition.

At a hospital in Sokoto, records shared with AP show nearly 40 children previously treated for malnutrition since February are currently under treatment again, in addition to those not documented.

“I am worried and sometimes angry about the increasing numbers we are seeing,” said health worker Halimah Muhammad.

Beyond current realities, soaring prices and economic hardship mean that children in poor households are more likely to be stunted in the long term, UNICEF's Russell said in an interview with the AP as she was visiting Sokoto this week.

“Their development will be compromised. They are less likely to stay in school because their parents are under so much financial stress. So the long-term implications for children are absolutely terrible,” said Russell.

The war has also affected fertilizer supplies and prices, threatening the planting season and worsening the fate of mostly farming communities in northern Nigeria who have struggled to access their farmlands amid a deadly conflict with armed groups.

“I wake up every morning unhappy, seeing I can no longer provide for my family,” said Shehu, Maryam's husband. “Then, 2,000 naira could buy you a nutritious meal for the whole family. Now, you need 5,000 naira to buy what 2,000 naira would buy.”

Most of their meals are pap, a kind of corn pudding, and rice. “There is no way to feed the children,” he said.

‘I wish she were excited and full of life’

People in northwest Nigeria are caught between regular attacks by bandit groups who specialize in kidnapping for ransom and Islamist militants who have been expanding their territory. The Iran war, analysts say, compounds the impact.

“This distant war offers no relief for the north’s vulnerable,” Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory, said.

Larai Malami, a 35-year-old mother of 10, gave birth to her last child in December, but the infant has already been diagnosed with malnutrition twice.

Her family has been struggling after her husband lost his job as a motorcycle rider and crossed the border into neighboring Niger to look for work.

Malami worries about the fuel price because it keeps the price of food high and her husband away. “I worry that the child might never be fully well,” she said.

That is a sentiment shared by Aminu, too. “I wish she were excited and full of life,” she said.

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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its affiliated groups have spent close to $30 million backing Stevens — their largest investment ever in a single race — as they seek to defeat progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed in the Aug. 4 primary.

Stevens has largely avoided discussing the organization directly, even as its spending has reshaped the race. Asked twice about AIPAC during a July campaign stop in West Michigan, she responded for more than 800 words without mentioning the group a single time. Israel came up only once, when she said she “wanted to see the U.S. and Israel working together to rebuild Gaza.”

“Anyone who supported me is supporting me because of my dedication to the people of Michigan, and the things that I have done for Michiganders,” Stevens told The Associated Press when asked whether she welcomed AIPAC’s support.

The exchange illustrates how politically fraught AIPAC has become in Democratic politics as the war in Gaza has divided the party over U.S. support for Israel. AIPAC works to elect lawmakers who support its mission of strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and advancing policies it says enhance the security of both countries.

AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment. The organization’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, declined to comment.

The issue carries particular weight in Michigan, home to the nation’s largest Arab American population. Beyond Michigan, El-Sayed’s progressive allies are framing the race as a broader test of whether grassroots organizing can overcome unprecedented outside spending.

“One of the laws of nature in politics is whoever spends the most money wins,” said New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed in Michigan this weekend.

“It is an opportunity to show that things other than money can win in America.”

Stevens has spent $1 million on advertising. Her backers have spent $50 million

The four-term congresswoman raised half of what El-Sayed did in the latest fundraising period until June 30. Her team said in a statement that the campaign “is raising the resources we need to win this race.”

She spent only $12,000 of her own campaign funds on advertising through early July, before bumping it up to close to $1 million, according to AdImpact. Outside organizations, meanwhile, have poured close to $50 million into boosting her candidacy. One of them, A Stronger Michigan, has spent roughly $12 million without disclosing its donors.

El-Sayed has made AIPAC and the tens of millions of dollars spent to support Stevens a centerpiece of his campaign. He and his allies have accused Stevens as being a mouthpiece for her large donors.

“She is nothing more than an employee of these billionaires,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also campaigning with El-Sayed this weekend at rallies in Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Stevens has said she supports “comprehensive campaign finance reform.”

Most voters are unlikely to realize many of the ads blanketing Michigan’s airwaves are funded by AIPAC. They never mention Israel, instead highlighting Stevens’ work on manufacturing and featuring former President Barack Obama.

“AIPAC never runs on AIPAC. They never even talk about Israel and Palestine,” said former Rep. Andy Levin, whom Stevens defeated in a 2022 Democratic primary after redistricting. AIPAC spent millions opposing Levin, who is Jewish. “If you’re just a voter and you see a million ads, you don’t know who paid for it.”

A stark divide on Israel in a state with large Muslim and Jewish populations

The surge of spending from AIPAC comes as the Democratic candidates have taken sharply different positions on Israel’s war in Gaza.

While Stevens is not Jewish, she has long been one of Congress’ most outspoken supporters of Israel. She has described herself as a “proud pro-Israel Democrat” and once said during a Hanukkah celebration that “Israel comes to me in my dreams.”

Stevens has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During a recent debate, she said he “has not made us safer, has not brought us closer to peace, and he’s endangered Jews here in America and around the world.”

El-Sayed has embraced the contrast. The son of Egyptian immigrants, he has called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” described the Israeli government as “evil,” and repeatedly argued that AIPAC’s influence distorts Democratic politics.

“The reason that we’ve seen this war fought is because of the impact of AIPAC in our politics,” El-Sayed said during a recent debate.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. It has since waged on for over 1,000 days. Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in its retaliatory offensive, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator. He recently addressed questions about whether his faith would hurt his electability in the battleground state.

“When they raise questions about my ‘electability,’ they are usually pointing to the most obvious thing about me that makes me ‘different’ — that’s my name and my Muslim faith,” he wrote in an email to supporters. “Faith, to me, isn’t just about an identity. It’s about the choices that I make every single day about how I live my life.”

El-Sayed has spent about $3.2 million from his own campaign account on advertising, with around $1 million in outside spending. His campaign has instead emphasized grassroots organizing, saying it has recruited more than 10,000 volunteers statewide.

Asked how many volunteers Stevens has, her campaign said it has “hundreds across Michigan.”

“This election will come down to the many versus the money,” El-Sayed wrote.

The Democratic divide is occurring beyond Michigan

Once-firm support for Israel has eroded within parts of the Democratic Party in the fallout from the war in Gaza. As divisions over Israel have deepened, criticism of AIPAC has intensified.

Earlier this week, 103 House Democrats voted unsuccessfully to block $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, the clearest sign yet of the party’s divide. Among them was New York Rep. Pat Ryan, who had previously voted to send aid to Israel and accepted support from AIPAC.

“I expect groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don’t want their support,” Ryan said on social media, later adding that he was returning the money.

The tension also played out in 2024. In Michigan's Senate race, Democratic activists pressured now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin to take a harder line on Israel’s war in Gaza. Slotkin, who is Jewish, had already distanced herself from AIPAC years earlier. She ultimately defeated Republican Mike Rogers by fewer than 20,000 votes.

Rogers is running for Senate again this year, and is unopposed in the GOP primary.

While the issue still remains divisive for Democrats, some question whether it will ultimately shape how most primary voters cast their ballots, with concerns such as the economy carrying greater weight.

“It’s not that Democratic primary voters love AIPAC. They obviously don’t,” said Michigan political strategist Adrian Hemond. “But this doesn’t even register as an issue that’s influencing voting behavior for the overwhelming majority of primary voters.”

U.S. Rep. David Schweikert says those uncompromising tactics are a losing recipe in Arizona, where Republicans have watched their power erode as voters rejected nominees seen as too extreme.

After decades coexisting in the fractious Arizona Republican Party, Biggs and Schweikert are on a collision course in Tuesday's primary for governor. The race has become a clash of competing visions for reviving the once-dominant GOP to take on Katie Hobbs, the most vulnerable Democratic governor in the country.

Biggs, endorsed by Trump and backed by Turning Point Action, built his political career as a skilled Republican infighter, but he's never faced a tough campaign against a Democrat. Schweikert, meanwhile, is trying to resurrect a version of the party that is becoming increasingly anachronistic.

“Biggs lives in a district where if he were a turtle running as a Republican, you’re going to win it,” said Kathleen Dunbar, 75, a former member of the Tucson City Council who plans to vote for Schweikert on Election Day. “Schweikert lives in a district that’s very much like the state of Arizona, where he has to win the independents. And he’s done it eight times in the last 16 years.”

Republicans have struggled in Arizona

Biggs' biggest asset is his alliance with Trump. But Trump’s endorsement is a double-edged sword in Arizona.

No Republican has lost a statewide primary here with Trump’s backing. But since 2018, only one of them, former Gov. Doug Ducey, has managed to win a statewide general election. As a result, in a state where registered Democrats are outnumbered by both Republicans and independents, the Democratic Party holds both Senate seats and the top three state offices.

In 2022, a Trump-backed slate of Republicans — led by former local news anchor Kari Lake as the party's nominee for governor — refused to moderate their message in the general election, convinced that a fired-up MAGA base would propel them to victory. They lost.

Biggs rejects comparisons to Lake, and he's been sanding down the edges of his no-compromise persona.

After backing Trump's push to block the 2020 election certification, Biggs now refuses to say whether Biden's win was legitimate. He's also talking up examples of working across the aisle.

Biggs voter Kathy Babits, 71, a retired occupational therapist from Scottsdale, said she wasn't swayed by Schweikert's warning that Biggs is too toxic for a general electorate.

“As long as people get behind him and as long as things don't change too much, I'm in favor," Babits said.

The primary reflects a changing Republican Party

Biggs and Schweikert are both fiscal conservatives from neighboring districts in Phoenix's suburban East Valley, the two whitest and wealthiest districts in Arizona.

On style, however, they're starkly different.

Biggs brags about having a direct line to Trump. He built a national profile in the House as a bulwark against compromise with Democrats, playing a key role in taking down Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy and joining an unsuccessful rebellion against his successor, Mike Johnson.

He has taken hard-line, sometimes lonely stances against government spending. He was one of a handful of House members to vote against economic stimulus early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a state legislator even proposed eliminating the state's Medicaid program.

He has thrived in the younger, rapidly growing, family-oriented suburbs on the sprawling fringes of metro Phoenix.

“I like his style and his policies and his mannerisms,” said Don Dobie, a Biggs supporter from Scottsdale. “And he looks like a trustworthy guy.”

Schweikert, meanwhile, has not been photographed with Trump. Though he's been a reliable supporter of Trump's priorities and avoids publicly criticizing him, he's strived to cultivate a public image as a budget wonk obsessed with the federal deficit.

He has persevered among the genteel, country club set in one of the nation's most highly educated congressional districts. He managed to hold onto his House seat even as many of the wealthy, highly educated Republicans in his district abandoned the party under Trump.

Schweikert needs voters like Jeff Clark, a retired telecommunications engineer from Scottsdale who has been dismayed by his party's embrace of Trump.

“Once they say they’re Trump-sponsored and everything, I’m sorry, it’s just not going to work,” Clark said.

But Clark sat out the gubernatorial race, declining to vote for anyone because he's convinced Biggs has a lock on the nomination and didn't see Schweikert “do much of anything for anybody” in Congress.

Republicans are struggling in Arizona because they aren't aggressive enough in pushing Trump's priorities, like the SAVE America election bill, said Michael LoBello, a 79-year-old retiree from Scottsdale. He voted for Biggs.

“Stand up for the people,” LoBello said. “Just stand up for us. They’re forgetting who they represent, and that’s the people.”

Crowded primary for a battleground House district

Both parties have hotly contested primaries for Schweikert's House district, which is a top battleground in the fight for a congressional majority.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has controversially thrown its support behind Marlene Galán-Woods, a former television news anchor who used to be a Republican. Her late husband, Grant Woods, was the Republican attorney general in the 1990s and later became a vocal Trump critic.

Woods' chief opponent, Amish Shah, is an emergency medicine doctor and former state legislator who was the party's nominee in 2024 but lost narrowly to Schweikert.

“I like his background in medicine,” said Jeff Cohen of Cave Creek, 69, an attorney who voted for Shah. “And he actually came to my door and I met him. It made a difference. Old-style politics.”

On the Republican side, former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely has Trump's endorsement. He's been dogged by criticism for living outside the district — he lives in Biggs' district and originally was running there until Trump endorsed a rival.

Feely faces Joseph Chaplik, a former state legislator popular with many of the party's grassroots activists, and businessman John Trobough.

The disturbance that has a 80% chance for development will eventually push away from the region early next week. The highest rainfall totals will be west of I-75. Regardless, sea breeze interaction will keep showers and storms in the forecast early next week.

Highs early next week will be in the low 90s.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects improvement across our area. Several areas have been downgraded to a moderate and severe drought which reflects the rainfall we saw over the past week.

While we are still in a deficit, rainfall will once again lead to more improvement in the next outlook.

The brothers were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service on a sealed warrant, agency spokesperson Brady McCarron told The Associated Press, placing the United States at the center of an international legal saga that has stretched from Romania to Britain.

Britain is seeking their extradition on rape and trafficking charges

British prosecutors announced Saturday that they were seeking the brothers’ extradition on charges alleging they raped and trafficked women between 2010 and 2017.

The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the Romanian case hasn't gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Last year, they were allowed to leave Romania and flew to Florida on a private jet.

The brothers are expected to appear in Miami’s federal court early next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.

The pending charges in the United Kingdom accused the brothers of abusing women in an area north of London, where they grew up. Their lawyers had said they denied the allegations.

Joseph McBride, an attorney representing the Tate brothers, said in a phone interview Saturday evening that he has not been able to speak with his clients but called the new charges out of the U.K. “filth and slander” intended to derail defamation lawsuits filed by the brothers in the U.S.

“They’re pulling out all the stops to make sure these guys never get their day in court,” McBride said.

“We are confident that once a competent judge sees the facts, and once the Department of Justice confronts this egregious abuse of its own authority, Andrew and Tristan Tate will walk free. America does not do Britain’s political dirty work."

Tate has been banned from social media platforms for hate speech

Andrew Tate, 39, first reached a mainstream audience as a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother” in 2016. He was removed from the show when a video surfaced that appeared to show Tate assaulting a woman. He and his brother Tristan Tate, 38, are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Andrew Tate has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for violating hate speech guidelines. His most widely condemned rhetoric includes comments that women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for their attacks, graphic descriptions of how he might attack women and criticisms of people who seek treatment for mental illness.

The Tate brothers have consistently denied allegations of abuse and human trafficking, claiming that violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

In a statement Saturday, the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Services said that in addition to the charges publicly announced against the brothers in 2025, involving alleged crimes against three women, it was bringing a total of 38 new charges related to "four further victims.”

Both brothers are accused of rape and human trafficking. Andrew Tate faces an additional charge of profiting from prostitution, and 19 charges “for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography,” according to U.K. authorities.

“There is no place for male violence against women and girls, and we will continue to work tirelessly to support victims and investigate all reports made to us,” said Karena Thomas, an assistant chief constable of the Bedfordshire Police, which investigated the case.

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Associated Press writer Savannah Peters in Santa Fe, New Mexico contributed to this report.

Still, warnings of unhealthy air remained in effect Saturday across a wide swath of the United States, and President Donald Trump continued to lay blame on Canada for the smoke crossing the border.

Trump, who planned to attend the cup final, threatened to impose tariffs in response, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized that as unacceptable and shortsighted.

At MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup final is scheduled to take place, the sky was the same thick, soupy gray it has been for days, even after a drenching thunderstorm prompted warnings of flash flooding and forced the Spanish national team to suspend its last outdoor training session ahead of the clash with Argentina.

After the rain cleared, Netherlands tourists Joost Timpers and his two sons were among fans taking photos outside the open-air venue, which has been renamed the New York/New Jersey Stadium for the matches.

They did not have tickets to the final but biked more than an hour from their hotel just to see the arena up close. Timpers said he was certain players and fans will fare just fine even if conditions do not improve.

“We’re not experts in air quality, of course, but we are experiencing the quality now,” he said. “I didn’t experience anything different from cycling in the Netherlands or anywhere else.”

Storms will help clear the air

Saturday's storm front will largely move the smoke out of the Northeast before the final between Spain and Argentina, said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.

“There could be some lingering smoke that would make things hazy, but very faint,” Roys said. “In terms of the thickest smoke, the smoke that has really been eye-popping and leads to poor air quality, that is not expected across New York City or much of the Northeast.”

WFLA-TV Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli, in Tampa, Florida, echoed Roys, saying the storm front would “sweep the atmosphere clean,” leaving only a thin smoke that World Cup spectators may still smell in the air.

The air quality index shows an improvement from unhealthy air for sensitive groups on Saturday to “moderate” air quality Sunday in East Rutherford, which means little to no health risk for the general public.

“It won't be dangerous anymore,” Berardelli said. “It's going to be dramatically better.”

The smoke could still cause issues for people who are sensitive to particulate matter, and they should check the air quality index particularly in the morning, said Rob Shackelford, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel app and weather.com.

Air quality at the field is measured every 10 minutes, said David Lu, CEO and co-founder of Clarity Movement, an environmental technology company providing air quality monitoring services. In the past two days, the readings have swung between the level where the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups and the level where it's very unhealthy, Lu said. He said Saturday afternoon he expects to see improvement in the readings within hours because of the rain.

Temperatures are forecast to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), with light breezes and low humidity for the start of the final.

“You couldn’t have asked for much better weather for the World Cup,” Berardelli added.

Both Roys and Berardelli expect the heavier smoke Sunday to be concentrated closer to the fires, hanging over parts of the Midwest and the Great Lakes region.

Trump talks of new tariffs on Canada

The president made no mention of the World Cup final but said on his social media platform, “We are holding Canada responsible.” He added that the U.S. “is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the topic of U.S. officials complaining about smoke from during a news conference Thursday. Carney said climate change is the responsibility of everyone, including the United States.

Ford said Canada has contributed to fighting fires in the U.S. and offered assistance when Georgia was hit by a hurricane in 2024 because “that’s what neighbors do.” Ford called the rhetoric “absolutely unacceptable” when Canada is “trying to get through this.”

There are hundreds of active fires in Canada

Wildfires have been igniting across Canada and northern Minnesota this month. Berardelli said they are burning longer and faster because of climate change. The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System showed hundreds of active fires Saturday. Environment Canada issued air quality warnings across the country and into the Northwest Territories.

The fires prompted evacuations, including in Nova Scotia where there's a large fire that local and provincial crews have been fighting since Wednesday, and in northwestern Ontario, where ​some of the most intense fires are burning.

In Ontario, nearly 200 wildfires have already scorched more land than all of last year’s fires. In Thunder Bay, Ontario, Fire Chief Dave Tarini said this fire season is unprecedented in his more than 35 years as a firefighter.

In British Columbia, about 100 fires are burning, a huge jump from the 20 firefighters were facing Wednesday. The BC Wildfire Service says the fires are largely the result of 4,000 lightning strikes that hit the province Friday.

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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writer Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed.

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The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a one-line statement that Ouyang Weimin was being investigated by it and the National Commission of Supervision, without offering more details.

According to state media China Daily, Ouyang began his career and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1986. He spent much of his earlier career at the People’s Bank of China, it said.

Ouyang served as the vice-governor of Guangdong, an economic powerhouse near Hong Kong, and was appointed as the president and deputy party secretary of the China Development Bank in 2019, China Daily reported. He stepped down as president in 2023, it added.

The China Development Bank, founded in 1994, is a state-funded and state-owned development finance institution. According to its website, it is directly overseen by the State Council and its work aims to support China's economic development in key industries and underdeveloped sectors.

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping's rule, China has run an anti-corruption campaign that also saw officials and military generals being targeted. Critics say the drive has been used partly to remove Xi’s political rivals.

This is the Gion Matsuri festival, born more than 1,000 years ago as a ritual to ward off epidemics and celebrated in the former imperial city of Kyoto throughout July.

“I am conscious of them when I’m riding on top,” Horikawa said. “When we’re assembling it as well, but I think the main time is when I’m riding on it.”

The parades — accompanied by dances, music and song — draw large crowds and tourists every year. The biggest floats can weigh up to 12 tons. Yet behind the festive atmosphere lies a tradition rooted in the worship of deities and rituals of protection.

“Those performances are not meant primarily for the entertainment of people,” said Fabio Rambelli, a religious studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “They are offerings to the gods.”

A festival that has layers of religious history

The Gion Matsuri originated in the late 9th century as a ritual to appease spirits believed to cause epidemics and to pray for protection from disease. It takes its name from Kyoto’s Gion District and “matsuri,” the Japanese word for festival.

At the heart of the celebration is Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine, a Shinto site whose principal deity has long been revered as a protector against calamities. But the shrine’s history also reflects centuries of interaction between Shinto and Buddhism in Japan.

“Until about 150 years ago it was a Buddhist temple,” Rambelli said. “That’s part of the religious changes that have taken place in Japan.”

Back then, the sanctuary’s main deity was Gozu Tennō, an ox-headed figure believed to have the power either to spread epidemics or to avert them.

“It was a kind of syncretic deity — probably of Indian origin — with connections to Korea and local folklore,” Rambelli said. “A lot of gods in Japan are a mixture of different traditions.”

Early versions of the Gion Matsuri involved that deity, Rambelli said.

To show evil forces and spirits that their god would confront them, devotees carried him around the city in processions that resembled those seen throughout Kyoto today.

A shrine's turn from Buddhism helps shape today's Shinto practices

Japan’s government separated the two traditions of Shinto and Buddhism in 1868 during the Meiji era, effectively bringing Shinto shrines under state control and placing the emperor at the center of the new order.

“Because the emperor was the direct descendant of the goddess of the sun, they purified the whole system creating what now we see as Shinto,” said Andrea De Antoni, professor of anthropology and religious studies at the University of Kyoto.

De Antoni said a strong anti-Buddhist movement followed. Temples, mandalas and statues were burned and destroyed.

Shinto was formally separated from the state after World War II, but its traditions still reflect a broader history of religious and cultural influences.

“It is an institutionalized religion that revolves around ideas of deities called kami and different spirits,” De Antoni said.

“Kami shares its rules with general ideas of animism that can be found throughout the world, but there are a lot of similarities with certain parts of Southeast Asia and with the Pacific,” he added.

Ancient traditions bring communities together

Japanese festivals often serve as ways for deities to be brought into the streets for sacred or ritual purposes while also bringing communities together in celebration.

“This is the festival of all the people in the neighborhood,” said Jacques Garrigues, a Frenchman who has lived in Kyoto for three decades and who attended the Gion Matsuri procession with his son on Friday.

“We also come together through a certain sense of religion, although the religious significance is not the same as in France,” he added.

Among the traditions preserved by the Gion Matsuri is the choosing of a boy as a sacred messenger to the gods. During the parade, the selected boy is seen sitting on one of the floats, his feet never touching the ground.

Some key participants spend months getting ready for the celebrations. Different neighborhoods prepare their floats with great care and dedication, with many people trusting the floats will drive away evil spirits.

Atsushi Matono is responsible for erecting the shingi, a sacred tree placed at the top of one of the floats —the holiest part of the structure, to which a deity is believed to descend.

Like Horikawa, he describes feeling a sacred presence.

“I always carry out my work with great care and respect,” Matono said. “Feeling the presence of the gods.”

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Hernández reported from Beijing.

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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.