ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a notice published Monday and revealed first by The Associated Press.

The devices known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are normal patrol gloves until an officer presses a button to activate its electrical mode. They must be applied directly to someone’s skin to produce a voltage that causes pain, which is intended to gain compliance from people who are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.

New York AG says she is ‘outraged' by plan

The size of the purchase suggests ICE plans to give the device to most or all of its officers. The gloves have been used by local departments more often in jails than in the streets, where ICE officers have increasingly used force to extract people from cars and faced protests over their actions carrying out President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

“We are outraged,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday, where she warned that ICE officers who misuse the gloves in her state could face criminal and civil consequences.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, issued a statement that did not mention the product specifically or explain why it had been chosen.

“ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” the statement said. “Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards.”

Lawsuit alleges shocks from gloves contributed to man's death

While the devices are marketed as nonlethal and safe for the heart, a pending lawsuit alleges a 43-year-old man died in 2024 after he was shocked 27 times with the gloves and 13 more times by a Taser at a jail in Richmond, Kentucky. An internal investigation found two of the glove shocks lasted 45 and 99 seconds apiece — far more than the manufacturer’s recommended 15-second limit.

“These actions not only inflicted unnecessary pain but also heightened the risk of serious health complications,” the investigation by the Madison County Detention Center found, according to court documents.

An Associated Press review found two other lawsuits alleging injuries from the gloves, including a man with heart problems who was shocked at a Las Vegas trade show and a defendant who said he was laughed at after he was unnecessarily shocked in court. Both cases have been dismissed.

Several Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Maxwell Frost and Delia Ramirez, said on social media that ICE did not need another weapon.

“This won’t make anyone safer and in fact just gives ICE another dangerous tool to target citizens and immigrants alike,” Jayapal wrote on X.

Former ICE leader, law professor worry gloves will be misused

The manufacturer warns the devices should not be used against some populations that ICE agents routinely encounter: the elderly, small children, pregnant women and the severely handicapped. The device's user manual also warns it should not be used in response to verbal defiance, or for punishment, torture or horseplay.

“It's too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn't pose a threat," former ICE acting director John Sandweg said Wednesday in an interview on MS NOW.

The maker of the Taser recently phased out its drive-stun feature, a similar pain compliance tool that had been misused by some officers.

Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University who has written about police use-of-force and issues in federal law enforcement operations, agreed the gloves raised concerns about officers using disproportionate force.

“One concern I would have is if ICE agents have this at their immediate disposal, will they use it more than they should? Will they jump over lesser force that could be appropriate and successful to attain compliance and instead use this first?" he said.

The notice published in a DHS database indicated the solicitation for a no-bid contract to purchase the gloves could be released as early as Friday, and the contract would last through March 31, 2027. The founder of Compliant Technologies LLC, which manufactures the gloves, declined comment.

___

Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report.

Discussion

At 900 PM GMT (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Cristobal was located near latitude 37.2 North, longitude 41.0 West. Cristobal is moving toward the east near 21 mph (33 km/h). A turn toward the east-northeast and a slower forward motion is expected tonight.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts. Slow weakening is forecast, and Cristobal is forecast to dissipate on Thursday.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles (130 km) from the center.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1008 mb (29.77 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to hold the role. She was a press aide during Trump's first term and has been one of the most visible advocates of his “Make America Great Again” movement. Trump did not outline any plans for who might replace her.

Meanwhile, Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted did not scare him.

He downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

Here's the latest:

Officials say US forces on track to complete Iraq pullout by Sept. 30

The U.S. military is on track to pull all of its forces out of Iraq by the end of September, officials said Wednesday, marking the end of a presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein.

Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down the much smaller U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State group.

U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a presence in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28.

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Federal civil rights agency moves to drop subpoena action against Nike in DEI-related investigation

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is dropping the subpoena enforcement action, saying the sportswear giant has complied with requests for information as part of an investigation into its diversity and inclusion policies.

The EEOC filed the motion to dismiss in Missouri federal court Wednesday, seven months after asking the court to order Nike to fully comply with the subpoena. In its court filing, the EEOC said that between March and August, Nike provided “information and documents responsive to the subpoena,” leaving “no remaining controversy” for the court to resolve.

An EEOC spokesperson said the agency is “pleased the company complied without a court order after the filing of our subpoena enforcement action,” but declined to provide more details. Nike declined to comment.

Nike is one of the highest-profile companies targeted by EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas’ campaign against corporate diversity and inclusion policies, which the Trump administration claims discriminate against white men and others.

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Republicans see Minnesota fraud scandal as a chance to go on offense in a blue state

It has been 20 years since a Republican won a statewide race there. But some in the party think a fraud scandal that has engulfed state government will be their ticket back to relevance.

Their enthusiasm was buoyed by Tuesday’s primary, which saw former sportscaster Michele Tafoya win the Senate nomination and state House speaker Lisa Demuth win the primary for governor. Both women defeated rivals seen by some GOP strategists as too extreme for Minnesota’s left-of-center electorate.

Republicans are mostly playing defense as they look to hold on to their narrow congressional majorities. President Donald Trump is unpopular, and voters have a negative view of the state of the economy and the country’s direction.

Most of the competitive Senate seats on the ballot this fall are held by Republicans and in states Trump won by healthy margins in 2024, such as Texas and Iowa. Minnesota presents one of the GOP’s few opportunities to go on offense.

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Law firm with ties to Trump administration declines offer to represent migrant children

A small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration declined a $150 million federal contract it was offered to represent migrant children traveling alone to the U.S., authorities said, raising long-term questions about who would represent them.

The administration announced plans last week to award the contract to Houston-based Burke Law Group, which has little experience in immigration. The contract offer came as the administration ramps up its mass deportation campaign and after it let a key contract with nearly 100 providers working with immigrant children around the country expire at the end of July with no replacement.

Unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody are being temporarily represented by another group, but it is unclear how things will shake out after its contract expires in December. A Wednesday statement from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the contracts, offered no insight into why Burke declined the offer.

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US critical of Israeli defense minister’s comments on keeping troops in southern Lebanon

The Trump administration says Israel Katz’s comments that Israel will not withdraw from certain areas are inconsistent with a framework deal agreed to by Israel and Lebanon.

A State Department official reaffirmed Wednesday that the U.S. “expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the framework they agreed to,” which does not include a long-term or permanent Israeli presence in the south.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said a permanent Israeli “military presence in South Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the framework or the long-term peace and security of both states.”

Earlier Wednesday Katz said Israel would not withdraw from certain of its current positions: “Under no circumstances do we retreat.”

— Matthew Lee

2 people died in military helicopter crash near Fort Hood, officials say

An Army Apache helicopter crashed in a central Texas field on Wednesday, killing both people on board and sparking a wildfire that forced several homes to be evacuated, officials said.

Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesperson for the Bell County Sheriff’s office confirmed that both occupants died.

No cause of the crash was immediately announced. Fort Hood’s criminal investigation division was leading the investigation, Coleman said.

The helicopter did not hit any homes or other structures when it crashed, Coleman said.

“Our immediate priority is securing the site and supporting the initial response efforts,” said Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, acting commanding general. “Our thoughts are with the crew and their families as we await further information.”

Interior Department holds third oil lease sale in Gulf of Mexico

The Trump administration conducted another lease sale Wednesday for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixteen companies submitted 69 bids totaling nearly $100 million.

The sale was the third in the past year under Trump’s big tax and spending law adopted by congressional Republicans.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the sale underscores the administration’s commitment to “an active offshore energy strategy” and continues a tradition of offshore drilling helping to power transportation, manufacturing and small businesses.

An oil industry lobbying group hailed the sale as a “vote of confidence in American energy.”

Environmental groups denounced it as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry, which is already pulling in windfall profits due to the war in Iran.

US strikes targeting Houthis killed 153 civilians in Yemen last year, Pentagon review says

A Pentagon review has found that U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians.

The unclassified assessment was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea as well as Israel. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The report comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties by military campaigns under the Trump administration, including a strike on an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war that killed up to 168 people.

Hegseth pushes Latin American nations to leave ICC

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging Latin American countries not to recognize the International Criminal Court as the U.S. military targets alleged drug traffickers in the region.

Speaking at a gathering in Panama of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, Hegseth argued that those efforts “are 100% lawful under the laws of armed conflict.” He faces questions at home about the legality of carrying out deadly strikes on small boats accused of trafficking drugs.

It’s not clear from Hegseth’s remarks what, if anything, the ICC has done to stymie U.S. operations in the region. He encouraged the nearly 20 countries assembled “to leave the ICC and reject their attempts to rob your governments and your courts of your sovereignty.”

The Trump administration is pushing a campaign to “dismantle” the world tribunal in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Leavitt calls the decision to depart the White House ‘bittersweet’

Leavitt recently returned to work after taking a short leave following the birth in May of her second child, Viviana.

She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt said in a social media post.

Leavitt leaving job as White House press secretary

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the administration at the end of the month, Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, who served Trump as a press aide during his first term in the White House, has been one of the most visible advocates of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The Republican president described her as one of his “most trusted aides” in a social media post announcing her departure.

He said Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect! Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

Lawsuit seeks to stop Trump from making money off early access to his posts on US policy

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges that Trump’s deal with his media company to post first on his Truth Social platform violates the Constitution.

The suit brought by two media groups comes after Truth Social started charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month for a new service allowing early access to the president’s posts so they can trade off them.

Truth Social says the lawsuit is an attempt by left wing activists to silence the president.

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The duel over the National Guard in DC has entered its second year

The latest volley was a letter coming from the Justice Department to the district council challenging their view that the use of the military is unnecessary because crime was already falling.

That letter counters letters the council sent last month to governors who have troops in town supporting Trump’s 2025 surge. The June letter asked governors to bring their people home, citing $3 million a day costs and the lack of a crime emergency.

Wednesday’s missive disputed that: “D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.”

The president activated the guard and pulled in federal law enforcement with a crime emergency declaration on Aug. 11, 2025. The deployment was recently extended until January 2029 and will cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

Trump-supporting pastor warns immigration enforcement risks Latino vote

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is warning Republicans that deporting vulnerable people who don’t have a criminal record could lose them the Latino vote in the midterm elections.

Rodriguez is a conservative pastor from California and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

In an op-ed for the Christian Post on Wednesday, he said that not everyone the administration is arresting and deporting is a criminal. Many, he said, are “construction workers, healthcare professionals and Sunday school teachers who have been rooted in this country for 20 years or more.”

“This does not mean open borders,” he said. “It means the mechanisms of enforcement must be proportional, just, and morally defensible.”

Rodriguez said there is “still time to course correct.”

“When indiscriminate enforcement becomes the story, it hands the moral high ground to the progressive Left and confirms their most damaging narrative about the Right.”

Forget left vs. center

Primary results in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut have reiterated that Democratic voters are hungry for change, even as they remain divided over the party’s ideological future.

Progressives secured a major victory in Minnesota but fell short in Wisconsin, while a longtime Connecticut congressman was ousted by a younger challenger.

The results followed similar outcomes this year in places such as Michigan that showed an appetite for turnover that cuts across the party’s ideological divisions.

They also highlighted the growing influence of younger voters, who have been particularly drawn to progressive candidates.

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US resumes leadership role in anti-abortion group abandoned during Biden administration

The Trump administration says it will resume a leadership role in an international bloc opposed to abortion that had been established in Trump’s first term but then abandoned by President Joe Biden.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday the U.S. would serve as the “secretariat” for the Geneva Consensus Declaration. The Geneva consensus was created in 2020 with great fanfare from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “to secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

Critics, however, saw it as a way for the U.S. to further push Trump administration goals to limit family planning initiatives and ban abortion.

Participation in Geneva Consensus was one of the first Trump administration actions rescinded by Biden when he took office in early 2021.

Wisconsin gubernatorial primary winner David Crowley ties opponent to Trump

The winner of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race for governor immediately tied his Republican opponent to President Trump in his first public comments since his razor-thin victory.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told supporters Wednesday he intends to build a broad coalition to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany, who’s voted 100% in line with Trump.

“The biggest difference between me and the congressman is I’m loyal to the people of Wisconsin. I’m not loyal to MAGA,” Crowley said referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Francesca Hong, a the democratic socialist Crowley narrowly defeated.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement.

Sen. Tim Scott says he voted for Sen. Darline Graham and endorses her in runoff

Scott, who also serves as chair of the chamber’s political arm, said on social media Wednesday morning that he’d voted for Darline Graham in Tuesday’s special Republican Senate primary.

Graham has been serving in an interim role since her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death last month. Scott called his fellow South Carolinian “a conservative stalwart” who “represents our beloved state with class, humility, and dignity.”

Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will go head to head in an Aug. 25 GOP runoff. The winner of that contest faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

Rubio sets up task force to combat ‘birth tourism’ as Trump fights birthright citizenship

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the creation of a State Department task force to combat “birth tourism,” a Trump administration phrase for foreign women coming to the United States with the intention of giving birth to a child on U.S. soil in order to secure their child’s American citizenship.

Trump and his administration have fought unsuccessfully in courts to end “birthright citizenship,” which gives U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Despite those legal setbacks, Trump has continued the fight to end the practice.

In a social media post Wednesday, Rubio said the new task force would “review the activity of visa holders, dismantle illegal birth tourism networks, and put an end to this heinous abuse of our nation’s laws.”

He said that since the task force was created last month, it had already taken action to revoke the visas of more than 600 people suspected of being involved in birth tourism schemes.

Many details about what happened remain unknown

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren’t announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm’s way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn’t fully revealed what took place.

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn’t have been aboard.

Inflation paused, but higher costs remain an issue for Americans

U.S. inflation slowed last month and a measure of underlying price pressures also cooled, suggesting higher oil and gas prices from the Iran war are only having a limited impact on broader costs in the economy.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But inflation is still higher than before the Iran war began in February, when it was 2.4%. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Fed — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade.

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Trump’s vaccine order hands some MAHA voters a win. It also gives Democrats an attack line

President Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

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Progressive Democrats get another win in Minnesota US Senate primary

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday in the latest victory for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment.

Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The outcome was another sign of progressive energy among Democratic primary voters. It comes a week after Abdul El-Sayed won a bitter and divisive primary in Michigan that fired up the left and fueled anxiety among party leaders that Democrats will alienate moderate swing voters.

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Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted didn’t scare him.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

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• AUGUST HEAT: Temps will be running a few degrees above average
• FRIDAY: 10%-20% chance of rain
• ACTIVE TROPICS: New development expected

FORECAST

AUGUST HEAT

In typical August form, we’ll be running hot over the next two weeks. Today was our second 100° day so far this year, and we will tally up more in the days ahead.

SMALL SHOT AT RAIN FRIDAY

On Friday, a small disturbance will move overhead, and this could stir up a shower or two, but San Antonio’s rain chances will stay around 10%-20%.

ACTIVE ATLANTIC

The tropics are staying more active than the weather around Texas! Two disturbances have developed in the Atlantic, one which could become a tropical depression soon. Currently, it’s forecast to move west, reaching the windward islands by the weekend. It’s still too early to tell where it will move beyond that.

In the northern Atlantic, Tropical Storm Cristobal has become official. This storm formed over open ocean and is not expected to impact any land before it dies out by midday Thursday.

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

• WATCH LIVE: Doppler Radar
• Hourly and 10-Day Forecast
• Download FREE KSAT Weather Authority App: Up-to-date forecast information and livestreams from trusted local meteorologists.
• KSAT Connect: Share your weather photos.

After announcing three national TV games Tuesday, including an NBA Finals rematch on Christmas Day, the league said San Antonio will also be a larger part of its holiday-related programming.

2026 NBA Cup highlights

Last season, the Knicks captured the NBA Cup title by defeating the Spurs — a matchup between two squads few envisioned would be the last two standing in the NBA Finals six months later. New York and San Antonio will duel once more Christmas Day live on ABC and KSAT 12.

San Antonio will be in Group C during the fourth annual NBA Cup this fall alongside the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings. Each team in the group will play four games — one against each Group C opponent.

NBA Cup Group Play games will be held on seven different dates throughout the fall: Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Nov. 24, Nov. 25 and Nov. 27. Below are the Spurs’ Group C matchups (all times are Central):

• Friday, Nov. 6: San Antonio at Sacramento, 9 p.m.
• Friday, Nov. 13: Golden State at San Antonio, 8:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Nov. 25: San Antonio at Portland, 9 p.m.
• Friday, Nov. 27: Los Angeles at San Antonio, 8:30 p.m.

ESPN said Wednesday that the Spurs-Trail Blazers game will air on the network as a part of a triple-header on the day before Thanksgiving. The Lakers-Spurs game will be the second game of a Black Friday doubleheader on Amazon Prime Video.

The NBA Cup quarterfinal (Dec. 4-5) and semifinal rounds (Dec. 8 and/or Dec. 9) will be held in the days leading up to the championship game. The NBA Cup title game will take place Dec. 11 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

All NBA Cup quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games will air exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

Across the pond and back in the United States

The league also announced tipoff times for San Antonio’s international games against the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Spurs are scheduled to face the New Orleans Pelicans, a fellow Southwest Division opponent, for two games: one in Paris, France (Jan. 14, 2027) and another in Manchester, England (Jan. 17, 2027).

The Paris game will tip off at 1 p.m. Central while the Manchester game will start at approximately 9:30 a.m. San Antonio time. Both games will air on Amazon Prime Video.

Nearly one month later, on Feb. 15, 2027, NBC Sports will air four games as a part of its new Presidents Day quadruple-header coverage.

One of the games between San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat in Miami will air at 4 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.

National TV exposure then vs. now

Last August, the NBA announced 22 Spurs regular season games were designated for national television coverage across ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.

Through Wednesday afternoon’s NBA announcements, the Spurs already have eight of their 82 regular season games set for national television:

• Four on Amazon Prime Video
• Two on NBC/Peacock
• One on ABC
• One on ESPN

The league said it will unveil the full 2026-27 regular season schedules for the Spurs and the rest of the NBA on Thursday.

More sports coverage on KSAT:

• Boerne heads to Little League World Series after judge dissolves temporary restraining order
• Mitch Johnson, Brian Wright make cameo on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’
• Spurs schedule sneak peek: San Antonio to face Thunder on Opening Night, Knicks on Christmas Day

The videos were released after the criminal charges filed against Michael, Anthony and Carlos Barrientes Vela were resolved in court earlier this year.

“The law enforcement really just failed that night,” said Barrientes Vela during a wide-reaching interview with KSAT Investigates. ”They failed my sons. They failed me, and they failed every community member that’s ever been in that kind of position.”

A medical call turns volatile

San Antonio Police Department officers were dispatched around 9:30 p.m. on April 29, 2024, to an auto dealership at 1252 Bandera Road after paramedics responding to a medical emergency requested assistance.

As paramedics treated a woman in an apartment at the back of the dealership, which Michelle Barrientes Vela’s husband operates, “bystanders that were there started to get violent,” an SAPD incident report shows.

Michelle Barrientes Vela pushed back on that narrative and denied that anyone at the apartment was violent toward paramedics.

Body camera footage shows SAPD officers respond to the car lot with their lights and sirens on before getting out of their vehicles and sprinting inside the living unit.

Michelle Barrientes Vela is seen on camera attempting to calm down her son Michael Barrientes Vela, 24, whose girlfriend was being treated by paramedics a few feet away.

“He was just emotionally upset and had a right to express his emotions,” said Michelle Barrientes Vela, who told KSAT she was surprised to see SAPD officers rush into the living area of the property.

“You have no warrant. You have no probable cause,” said Michelle Barrientes Vela. ”There’s no crime occurring. But yet here you are entering private property.”

While the woman in medical distress was wheeled out of the living unit on a stretcher crying, Michael Barrientes Vela consoled her and said he was going with her to the hospital.

An officer agreed that Michael Barrientes Vela was going to go with the woman.

Moments later, however, tensions escalated after a paramedic told Michael Barrientes Vela he could not ride in the ambulance. The paramedic then asked Michael if he and the woman “took anything,” referring to “opiates.”

Anthony Barrientes Vela then stepped between officers. His brother, Michael, then told officers, “Do not touch me.”

The footage shows Michael moving toward the ambulance as two officers tackle him to the ground.

Carlos, who held a terrier-mix dog, and Anthony were also taken to the ground. The brothers and officers screamed expletives at one another, the footage shows.

An officer then shot Michael Barrientes Vela with a stun gun as he lay on the ground.

As Anthony continued to argue with an officer, his father told Anthony he was making things worse.

Three officers were injured during the melee, including SAPD officer Andrew Davis. Davis’ shoulder was dislocated, the footage shows.

Both Michelle Barrientes Vela and her husband are shown in the body camera footage instructing their sons to cool off.

“I think that, yeah, if I hadn’t been there, I’d be burying my sons. There’s no doubt about it. And I’m trying as a mother because sure I’m a police officer, but I’m a mother. I was there as a mother that night with my sons,” said Michelle Barrientes Vela. “What I saw in front of me was movements of struggle to just survive, just survive. They crossed the line with my sons. That was an emotion, and they abused their authority with my boys.”

She shared with KSAT cell phone video recorded at the scene showing then-SAPD officer Henry Hathaway lifting Michael off the ground while handcuffed and then dropping him off screen.

Michael Barrientes Vela suffered a broken hand during the incident, his mother confirmed to KSAT.

“And then boom, drops him. He is not a threat. There is no way he can come to the officer. He is handcuffed,” said Michelle Barrientes Vela. “It’ll always be there. Everything that transpired that night will never be erased from my mind, and it sure in hell is never going to be erased from my sons’ minds.”

SAPD officials this week confirmed Hathaway left employment with the agency in May 2025.

He is one of several officers named in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the brothers against SAPD and the San Antonio Fire Department last September.

SAPD officials did not respond to a request from KSAT about Hathaway’s actions that night.

City officials previously told KSAT, “The City believes there is no merit to the lawsuit and will vigorously defend its position in court.”

Body camera video recorded by Hathaway was not included in the footage released to KSAT by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office earlier this year.

KSAT could find no record that any officer who responded to the call was disciplined, even after body camera footage showed one of them referring to Carlos Barrientes Vela as a “fat piece of s---.”

Brothers avoid felony assault conviction

All three brothers were charged with felony assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest and interference with public duties.

SAPD also charged Anthony Barrientes Vela with unlawful carry of a weapon after a small handgun was found in his pocket.

Records show that charge, however, was rejected by a magistrate judge hours later.

The brothers appeared in court last year as part of an unsuccessful effort to have Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales’ office removed from prosecuting their cases.

Attorneys for the trio argued that past comments made by Gonzales about Michelle Barrientes Vela were a violation of due process.

In late April, two years to the day since the brothers were arrested, Michael Barrientes Vela was convicted by a jury of resisting arrest but not for the more serious charge of assaulting a peace officer.

He was given 180 days in jail, which was suspended for a year, court records show.

A week later, in early May, Anthony and Carlos Barrientes Vela pleaded no contest to resisting arrest and were given deferred adjudication and six months of probation each.

The duo was also not convicted of felony assault of a peace officer.

Asked about Gonzales, Michelle Barrientes Vela told KSAT this week, “I think the community realized who he is now. It is unfortunate because I would have hoped that we would have had a great district attorney, regardless of party affiliation, that was going to be there to seek justice, not convictions.”

Gonzales did not respond to a request seeking comment from KSAT on Wednesday.

Michelle Barrientes Vela served as Bexar County Precinct 2 Constable from January 2017 to October 2019.

She left office weeks after publicly announcing plans to run for Bexar County sheriff.

The announcement triggered the state’s “resign-to-run” law, which prevents certain elected officials from staying in office if they have publicly announced plans to seek a higher office.

Michelle Barrientes Vela was convicted in 2022 of felony tampering with records after investigators said she mishandled security fees collected at a West Side park and created handwritten cash logs related to the collection of those fees in an effort to impact the criminal investigation.

The convictions were reversed by an appeals court in 2024, and the ex-Precinct 2 constable was formally acquitted of all charges early last year after the state’s highest criminal appeals court declined to review the case.

Michelle Barrientes Vela then ran for the Texas House of Representatives District 125, but she lost in the Democratic runoff in May.

She told KSAT this week that much of her time is now being spent operating the nonprofit Justice Impact Institute.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

The child, who has a congenital heart issue, was born via a surrogate, McKenna West, of Alaska, who had traveled to Texas after she said the child’s biological parents had tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy, something the child’s biological parents deny.

“Our clients’ child was born earlier this morning and he is now receiving medical care provided by a team of pediatric experts,” Lee Budner said in a statement to The Texas Tribune, speaking for his clients Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, the biological parents of the baby. “McKenna West’s baseless attempts to intervene in the child’s medical care have been soundly rejected by the courts.”

Gilkar and Ahmed are at the hospital with the baby, who they say is not named Gabriel, despite Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and West calling the baby by that name.

The couple’s attorney said the baby is receiving medical care and accused West and Paxton of turning a family tragedy into “political theater.”

“Our clients’ only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with him,” Budner said.

The baby West was carrying was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome at 20 weeks of pregnancy. West asked a Dallas court to recognize her parental right as the birth mother to intervene in medical treatment for the baby.

On Tuesday, Paxton announced he was intervening on behalf of West, alleging Gilkar and Ahmed refused to consent to life-saving surgery for the heart issue — Budner did not address this in his statement — and were trying to bring the child back to California before he was born.

On Tuesday, a Dallas judge ordered that the child be given life-saving treatment upon birth and that the child must remain in Texas.

In a separate order, the judge also granted the birth parents’ request that prevents West from making any medical decision for the child and representing herself as a the child’s mother, reinforcing the couple’s rights as the parents.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Aug. 25.

Lincoln Wilson, West’s attorney, told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday that West does not have access to the baby.

Wilson said West began her surrogacy journey when she matched with Gilkar and Ahmed through Connecticut-based Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists, LLC. West got along well with Gilkar and Ahmed, although there were a few minor bumps along the way with reimbursement payments, Wilson said.

Their relationship deteriorated after the couple forced West to get an abortion following the baby’s heart condition diagnosis, Wilson said.

“She described it as fear because basically she was going to be asked to do something to the child that she carried that was fundamentally offensive to her, and she couldn’t imagine ending the life of the child that she carried inside her,” Wilson said.

The parents’ legal team denied that Gilkar and Ahmed forced her to have an abortion.

According to Wilson, West said her brother guided her through the dispute and suggested he could adopt the baby if she did not want to go through with an abortion. With this knowledge West decided to carry the baby to term, Wilson said.

But, Gilkar and Ahmed’s attorneys say that the couple had already decided to see the pregnancy through to delivery.

A California trial court has already established that the couple are the rightful parents of the child West was carrying as a surrogate. An appellate court rejected West’s request to stop the trial court judgment from taking effect.

West is seeking legal protection in Texas because the state’s family law recognizes anyone who gives birth in Texas as the legal mother of that child.

Despite the California rulings and the Dallas judge’s Tuesday ruling, Wilson still argues that West “is lawfully the parent because she gave birth to this child that she carries in Texas, then she should control custody as well.”

Reporter Joshua Fechter contributed to this story.

Agents with DPS’ Criminal Investigations Division arrived Wednesday morning at the offices of Calfas Law Group, which is located in the 100 block of Broadway near East Houston Street.

In a statement, a DPS spokesperson told KSAT that Calfas, 56, is facing solicitation of prostitution and human trafficking charges.

A Bexar County judge signed the warrant before DPS arrived, two sources told KSAT.

DPS said its investigation is ongoing.

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.

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The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as it scrambles to respond to the disaster and civil society as it pushes to provide aid to the most affected communities.

De la Espriella said Wednesday evening that at least 265 people died in the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the country's west on Monday. The president said nearly 500 people were reported missing, though civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,100. In total, more than 25,800 families were impacted, de la Espriella said.

“Our efforts are focused on the disappeared,” he told journalists in Colombia's capital.

Teams continued to pick through the rubble in the hardest-hit cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Quibdo, as time ticked away for victims to be found — and rescued — alive. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for retrieving survivors, though that threshold can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.

On Wednesday afternoon, Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, told reporters that rescue teams continue to find signs of people alive under the rubble and are racing to save them.

“The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said. “Every minute is vital.”

Survival takes many forms in hard-hit areas

In Pereira, rescuers pulled Daniela Largo alive from the rubble late Tuesday, capping a complex 12-hour rescue in which crews carved a small opening in the debris to free her pinned arm and a doctor administered IV fluids to stabilize her. Wrapped in a blue blanket, the young woman was carried to an ambulance as firefighters embraced and onlookers cheered.

Another moment was marked by mourning, as a man was pulled from a building in the same city, lifeless and covered in a white blanket.

Across the coffee-growing region, among the areas worst affected by the quake, authorities have converted sports arenas, schools and other public buildings into shelters for thousands of displaced Colombians. In Pereira and Cali, families have been sleeping in parks — some fearing aftershocks or the collapse of their damaged homes, others without homes to return to.

Colombia’s geological service has documented 130 aftershocks since the quake.

“We have the most important things: a roof over our heads, food, water and, in my case, medical care,” said Edith Penagos, 48, who was staying with her teenage son in one of the white tents set up in a Pereira park.

Rodrigo León Loya, a seismologist and geosciences professor at the University of the Andes, said the probability of an earthquake of a similar magnitude occurring in the same area is low but he would not rule out more seismic activity.

“Let’s remember that Colombia is full of active fault lines,” he said. “The question isn’t whether it can happen again. The question is rather when an earthquake of similar magnitude will occur at another of Colombia’s seismic sources.”

Aid groups provide humanitarian relief

In many areas, including the epicenter of the quake, Choco, the official response to the disaster has been complicated by the ongoing crises of deep poverty and civil warfare that has created waves of forced displacement for decades. The true impact of the earthquake in the jungled northwest remained largely unknown because cell service has been lost and many of the likely affected communities are remote, accessible only by river.

“This earthquake compounds an already severe humanitarian situation, and there is a need for increased support for the humanitarian response,” said Giovanni Rizzo, Colombia director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Many aid organizations were already on the ground in Choco supporting a 2016 peace accord between the government and leftist rebels, and responding to violence in the region involving other armed groups that has persisted since then.

Those humanitarian workers were able to quickly pivot to disaster relief, said María José Torres, the U.N. resident coordinator in Colombia.

“We have a presence on the ground. Therefore, our ability to be there, present with the people, I think, has increased exponentially,” Torres said in a statement Tuesday.

Regional partners promise to help

At the same time, aid from other countries and nonprofits abroad continued to roll in.

The State Department posted on its website that disaster response teams started to arrive in Colombia on Monday. The U.S. has also offered over $15 million in aid.

Mexico, meanwhile, said it had sent two military aircraft carrying 19.5 tons of nonperishable food and 19 members of Mexican security forces to Pereira, and it plans to send another 39 tons of aid in the coming days. A further 255 military specialists and 20 dogs are on standby to be sent to Colombia if needed.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered to send two planes loaded with 100 tons of aid.

On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV thanked those contributing to recovery efforts and said he is praying for those killed, injured or otherwise affected by the earthquake.

“I want to express my solidarity with my Colombian sisters and brothers who have suffered the effects of the recent earthquake,” he said.

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia, and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Gabriela Aoun in San Diego and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed.

The 41-year-old man fatally shot himself after stabbing his wife and child at their in-home daycare in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis, police said.

All six other children who were at Brown Bear Childcare were not physically harmed, authorities said. Another parent called police after witnessing the attack in the home's basement while dropping off a child, Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said.

“There’s no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call,” Johnson said at a news conference.

“This is a tragic day and horrific scene for little children to witness, if they did witness this,” Johnson later added.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — In the U.S., the national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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More than three hours after the killings, Burnsville Chief Matt Smith said officers were called to a home in his community, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Hopkins, where they found a woman who had been fatally stabbed. He said investigators believe the two tragedies are linked, and that the man had been living at the home of the “close family relative.”

No names were released. Johnson said no clear motive had been determined yet and there was no history of police calls to the Hopkins address.

Johnson said it will take time for authorities to determine the timeline between the killings in Hopkins and Burnsville.

Amanda Marx, a nurse who lives across the street, didn’t realize anything was wrong until she noticed police officers trying to break down the home’s front door.

She said officers moved behind the house before reappearing and calling for crime scene tape. Later, several young children emerged — one being carried by an officer.

The brown, two-story house has a mural on the garage door of a tree-lined lake and a moose. Photos on the daycare’s Facebook page show kids playing with toys inside and in the backyard, with colorful decorations and artwork on the walls.

Marx said she and her 7-year-old son always referred to it as the “garage house” due to the colorful mural. The longtime resident said she’d never met the home’s owners and was unaware they were running Brown Bear Childcare out of the home. She didn’t recall any prior disturbances.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to explain to my 7-year-old why there’s crime scene tape on our deck,” she said.

Records show the daycare has been licensed by the state since 2019 and has a capacity of 10 children. It was found to be in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Johnson said killings are a “rarity” in Hopkins and that his officers were shaken by the scene they found inside the home.

“I could see on the look on their faces that this was one of those ones that you’ll remember for your entire career, if not life,” Johnson said.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Oxbow Development Group, the real estate development arm of Pearl owner Silver Ventures, has submitted plans to the city for 10 new retail buildings on either side of Avenue A.

Along with completely new builds, the firm is seeking permission to demolish a vacant industrial building at 250 E. Grayson St., which is designated a historic landmark in the city’s registry.

The building that once housed a bike shop at 300 E. Grayson will also be demolished.

Read more of this story at the San Antonio Business Journal website.

Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.

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Such refuge was probably never more welcome than on the heels of this past summer.

It was just over a month ago that Kelce exchanged vows with Taylor Swift in a star-studded wedding that tied together one of the best tight ends in NFL history with the biggest pop star on the planet. At the intimate gathering in cavernous Madison Square Garden, Adam Sandler served as the surprise officiant, Stevie Nicks performed to a crowd of sports and entertainment icons, and fans lined the New York City sidewalks outside the historic venue hoping to catch a glimpse of it all.

“The wedding was the best night of my life,” Kelce said Wednesday, speaking for the first time at camp. “I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and had fun with us. That's about all I got for that night. It was a crazy night.”

The guest list included actors Bradley Cooper, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Grant and Ethan Hawke; models Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss; comic Chris Rock; film director Steven Spielberg; and plenty of NFL players, including retired quarterback Tom Brady and several of Kelce's teammates with the Chiefs, like his best friend and quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

The Swift-Kelce relationship began with his failed attempt at giving her a friendship bracelet at a concert. Kelce invited Swift to watch him play at Arrowhead Stadium, she took him up on the offer, and the rest of their courtship has been a celebrity fairy tale.

Right down to the nuptials at Madison Square Garden, which has always captured Kelce's imagination, and where Swift has played to plenty of sold-out shows; she also turned up there to watch the Knicks play the Spurs in the NBA Finals in June.

“I always told myself I'd go for a playoff game when the Knicks were rocking, and my wife went when I was stuck in minicamp,” Kelce said with a wry smile. “It was kind of cool to live out my childhood dream to be in that venue. I can't thank the owners of MSG enough for allowing us the opportunity to do that, knowing we wanted a private event.”

Besides the wedding, Kelce has been busy pursuing several business opportunities since the end of last season, including his decision to buy a small share of David Blitzer's stake in his hometown Cleveland Guardians.

That puts him into rivalry territory with Mahomes, who owns his own small stake in the Kansas City Royals.

Yet on the field, the quarterback and tight end continue in lockstep, and never has it been more important for them to lift each other up. Mahomes is coming off a season-ending knee injury that required surgery in December, and Kelce is trying to prove that at age 36 — he turns 37 in October — he can still get it done in a young man's game.

“I still got a lot of love for this game. I still think I can go out and play at a high level,” Kelce said. “I want to go out there and prove to myself that I can play at a better level than last year. I think that's the biggest thing for me.”

There are few things that Kelce has not accomplished over 13 seasons on an NFL field. He's won three Super Bowl rings, was voted first-team All-Pro four times, and he has been invited to the Pro Bowl each of the last 11 seasons.

He contemplated retirement prior to last year, but the fact that Kansas City had just been blown out by Philadelphia did not sit well with him. So, Kelce came back for another go-round, catching 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns while playing in every game — numbers that would represent a career year for most tight ends.

The Chiefs scuffled to a 6-11 finish, though. And if Kelce wasn't going out on a Super Bowl loss, he certainly wasn't quitting after a season like that.

“The fact that we didn't make the playoffs,” he said, “I moved on pretty quick.”

He moved onto wedding planning, to be sure. But also into preparing for the upcoming season, which most believe will be his last, one way or another. Kelce was ever-present throughout the offseason, whether it was voluntary workouts or mandatory minicamp, and he has been a constant source of energy during the hot, humid practices that are the hallmark of training camp.

“This is always going to be my sanctuary. I think St. Joe has a special place in my heart,” Kelce said. “You need to have these days. You need to have this time of grinding with the guys, being around them all day, starting to create that chemistry and standard for how we are going to do things. This year it's ramped up even more.

“I think that's a big thing,” Kelce added, “just enjoy these moments with these guys I've built this culture with.”

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

Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama.

In ankle cuffs and wearing a red T-shirt, Beirich made her initial court appearance for a bond hearing in Riverside, California, Wednesday afternoon. She did not enter a plea and U.S. Magistrate Judge David T. Bristow ordered her to surrender her passport and appear in court in Alabama within two weeks.

The judge released Beirich on her own recognizance after prosecutors declined to file a request for detention. Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, said in court that Beirich is a “highly, highly responsible, pro-social and trustworthy” member of society with no criminal history.

Outside the courthouse, Proctor said his client is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated.

“She has dedicated her life to fighting the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, extremists. And for all of that life’s work, we’re all safer. We’re all better as a community," he told The Associated Press. “It is not just ironic, but terrible, that for this work she’s been indicted by the current Department of Justice.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the new charges at a news briefing in Washington, but did not name Beirich. CNN was first to report on the charges against Beirich.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Our investigators and the U.S. Attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

An SPLC spokesperson said the case against it and Beirich “will not shake our resolve.”

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2023, more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to people who infiltrated or were associated with violent extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment says “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources," including KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations. The SPLC employee was in a romantic relationship with a source who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the law center, the indictment alleges

Proctor said Beirich “won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations.”

____

Kunzelman reported from Washington and Chandler from Montgomery, Ala. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision" in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down. She recently returned to the White House podium after the birth of her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May. She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt wrote.

Trump did not outline plans for who might replace her in the high-profile role. He said in a social media post of his own that her decision to leave is one “I totally understand and respect!” and indicated she would continue to play a role in his orbit.

“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” the president wrote.

Leavitt worked as a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing the general election to incumbent Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.

During Trump’s first term in office, Leavitt worked as an aide in the White House press office. She then became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Leavitt briefed from the White House press room less frequently than some of her recent predecessors. Trump, who regularly engages with reporters during White House events and during his travels, primarily deployed Leavitt to Fox News and other conservative news outlets to trumpet his agenda and take shots at Democrats and the mainstream media.

Trump’s first-term press secretaries included Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who were known for quarreling with reporters. Another, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing. Her successor, Kayleigh McEnany, often lectured the news media during her appearances in the press briefing room.

The grand jury, which had been meeting in secret, returned the indictment on July 20, and it was unsealed Wednesday, when 32-year-old Nick Reiner entered a not guilty plea.

Rob Reiner, a director, actor and Hollywood luminary, and his wife, a photographer and producer, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested within hours and charged two days later.

The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.

Lying in wait means a suspect waited for or hid from victims in order to ambush them, and as an allegation it's meant to show premeditation. A finding that he was lying in wait along with a murder conviction would make Reiner eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said they haven't decided whether to seek it.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

Unsealed indictment gives few new details in secrecy-shrouded case

The unsealed indictment reveals few new details in a case that has been shrouded in secrecy. It does not explain how or why Reiner was lying in wait. It also includes an allegation that he used a knife in the killing, but authorities have said previously that the couple was stabbed.

Prosecutors have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides.

The Los Angeles County chief medical examiner told The Associated Press he would like to make their autopsy reports public, but a court order has prevented him from doing so.

Indictment released as Nick Reiner seeks trust funds

The indictment comes as Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense.

Reiner said in a court petition that the trustees who oversee the funds have denied them to him without legal justification. The money was to have gone to Nick Reiner even if his parents were alive, legal filings say. The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but trustees would not share the exact amount.

“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue,” the petition says.

He is seeking to hire back high-profile criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson, who initially represented him before Reiner’s siblings would no longer agree to fund his defense and a public defender took over.

A hearing on the petition is set for next week.

The LA County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Reiner, declined to comment on the indictment.

Grand jury process happens in secret

California prosecutors can charge a defendant and take the case through a preliminary hearing — a sort of trial in miniature where evidence is publicly aired and a judge decides whether it should be sent to trial — as recently happened with singer D4vd.

Or they can use a grand jury to go through the process in secret. They can also publicly file charges and later seek a secret grand jury indictment, essentially creating a new version of the case, as happened here and in the Los Angeles prosecution of Harvey Weinstein.

Rob Reiner had prolific career as actor and director

Rob Reiner began as an actor, starring in the TV sitcom, “All in the Family,” as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law to a much more conservative and bigoted Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor. Reiner won two Emmy Awards for the role, and last month got a posthumous Emmy nomination for his work as a guest star on “The Bear.”

He became a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally…” during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

Nick Reiner was the second of the three children they had together. He and his father co-wrote the script for the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” which was partly based on the son’s teenage struggles with addiction and homelessness.

His older brother Jake Reiner wrote in April that the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it was “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a home in Geneva, Indiana, during Tuesday's storms, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office said. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn’t reach them. Officials in Portage, Indiana, were investigating whether the severe weather played a role in a reported house explosion that killed a person.

Lightning struck a prison complex southwest of Cleveland on Tuesday, injuring 16 incarcerated people who were hospitalized, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. DeWine said four remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, including one with severe injuries.

Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area all the way to western Pennsylvania. Three tornadoes in counties south of Chicago were confirmed by the National Weather Service.

Flood warnings on Wednesday stretched from northern Illinois to eastern Indiana, and there were flash flood watches from Indiana to parts of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, the weather service said.

“Severe thunderstorm and heavy rainfall threats continue across the Plains, Midwest, Ohio Valley, and central Appalachians the next couple of days,” it said.

People had to be rescued from rising floodwaters

Authorities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania reported numerous water rescues. DeWine sent 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to help in two counties east of Columbus and he said dozens of local departments also responded to help, including from West Virginia.

Floodwaters barged into Kaitlyn Rodgers’ home in Crooksville, Ohio, early Tuesday morning, reaching knee deep as it stranded her and her husband and four children. With the currents too strong to make it out themselves, they were rescued by firefighters in a boat in the predawn darkness.

“Water just started pouring into the house,” she said. “Because of my house being very old, when the water was coming up I was very worried about the electric outlets that were on the floor, because there was water literally coming out of them, so I was afraid that my children were going to get shocked.”

In Athens County, Ohio, nearly 300 people called 911 for help on Tuesday, including 42 involving vehicles stuck in floods, with more calls Wednesday as high waters flowed toward the Ohio River, said the emergency management director, Teresa Fouts-Imler.

DeWine surveyed the hardest hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday and called the extent of the flooding “stunning.”

“These communities have been hit exceedingly hard in an historic way,” DeWine said during an afternoon news conference from Perry County. “They’ve been hit before with water challenges, but this is certainly the worst.”

The storms pummeled a wide swath of the Midwest

More than 650,000 customers were without power Wednesday afternoon in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to poweroutage.us.

Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power was still surveying the damage but had already identified more than 100 broken poles, some 650 downed wire spans and another 85 entangled with trees. About 76,000 of its customers remained without power, even after crews had restored electricity for 135,000, it said Wednesday.

To give Ohio's capital city time to grapple with power outages and cleanup, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther declared an emergency Wednesday.

Heavy rains and high winds damaged homes and inundated neighborhoods

Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area and across the state line in Indiana showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.

“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. “We’re built for snow. We’re built for cold. We’re not built for this.”

Jenkins, 54, was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.

Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.

Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line wind events that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.

“Total devastation. No roof,” said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. “Stupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It’s disappeared.”

Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.

ABC News reported a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in western Colombia killed at least 224 people as of Tuesday.

San Antonio has about 9,000 residents of Colombian descent, according to Neilsberg Research. KSAT spoke to some people from Colombia who came for lunch at El Punto Colombiano, a Colombian restaurant.

Edgar Pineros said he has been watching the news closely while reaching out to family.

“It is very heartbreaking … because the damages are massive,” Pineros said.

He said his relatives do not live in the hardest-hit areas — they mainly live in Bogotá, around 250 miles from the epicenter. He urged people to pray for those affected.

“They are very poor and they need assistance as soon as possible,” he said. “There are others who are still missing.”

Angelica Estupinan said she has family and friends across Colombia, including in heavily affected areas like Cali, the country’s second-most populous city. KSAT translated her interview from Spanish to English.

“It’s really distressing, and it’s sad,” she said, adding that communicating has been difficult.

The quake damaged dozens of health centers, community centers and roads, according to reports.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department announced the Trump administration would pledge $15.5 million that would go toward “emergency shelter, food, protection, and earthquake assessments,” according to ABC News.

Read also:

• As search for thousands of missing pushes on, Colombia earthquake tests new president

The crowds brought lawn chairs and umbrellas as they eagerly awaited the celestial spectacle, which began early in the evening. As the sky darkened, gradually at first and then quickly, people broke into applause and cheered. It was the country's first total solar eclipse in more than a century.

“It’s simply impossible to imagine,” Rosa Celiberti, a language teacher who watched from Medinaceli, a Roman-era hilltop town in northeast Spain, said with tears in her eyes. “No matter how many photos or videos you’ve seen, nothing comes even close to what it actually feels like."

Across a wide band of northern and central Spain and Portugal, millions of people enjoyed some of mainland Europe's best views of the eclipse. It also passed over slivers of Greenland and Iceland.

Totality — when the moon completely covers the sun’s light — was expected to last less than 2½ minutes, reaching its maximum duration off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it got to a small patch of Portugal and then to Spain, just before sunset, totality dwindled to a minute or so. The total eclipse then ended over the Mediterranean.

The eclipse was expected to draw at least a half-million additional visitors, Spanish authorities said. Demand for hotel rooms along the path of totality, including in the northern cities of A Coruña, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, soared.

Rural areas prepared for an influx of visitors

The event unfolded against the backdrop of scorching summer temperatures and wildfires, and Spanish officials rolled out a large public safety campaign.

Temperatures across much of Spain climbed above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in many areas where the eclipse was observed. Some 350 official viewing sites were set up across the sparsely populated interior, and more than 33,500 law enforcement officers were deployed to observation areas and access points, the Interior Ministry said.

Only weeks ago, the most destructive wildfire in Spanish history devoured 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Ávila, in central Spain. Several smaller wildfires remain active elsewhere in southern and central parts of the country.

Despite clouds, sky watchers in Iceland witnessed darkness

In Reykjavik, clouds did not prevent hundreds of people from gathering in bright raincoats in front of the landmark Hallgrímskirkja church as the skies darkened.

With rain falling, the disk of the sun was barely perceptible and then, suddenly, the lights went out. Only the glow of phones held aloft could be seen.

The crowd cheered the darkness as it rained harder and roared even louder when the first light returned. They did not wait to watch the remainder of the partial eclipse and quickly cleared out of the square.

Eclipse glasses sold fast

Special eclipse glasses were essential for safe viewing, even if only a sliver of the sun remained visible. The glasses are made with special filters that block solar radiation that can damage the eyes.

For months, supermarkets, department stores, museums and planetariums across Spain had sold or distributed the glasses, with many pharmacies running out of stock ahead of Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening in downtown Madrid, a long line formed outside a photo shop where a sign read, “We carry eclipse glasses.”

One woman emerged triumphantly and reassured those waiting: “He has boxes and boxes of them!”

A ship circles waters near Greenland hoping to catch a glimpse

Sverre Rud, captain of the MS Spitsbergen, was circling the waters of Rypefjord in eastern Greenland trying to make sure he was perfectly positioned for his 126 passengers to view the spectacle. All day, people came up to Rud to ask if he had nailed the right spot, with no clouds.

“I will do my best," Rud said. “I will pull out my superman powers."

The eclipse may have been startling for the passengers, who had been experiencing 24 hours of daylight on a 17-day cruise in locations mostly north of the Arctic Circle.

Suddenly, for two minutes it was dark.

Even so, the mood on the polar ship had been pure anticipation.

“Everyone is very enthusiastic,” Rud said. “When we were down for breakfast earlier, it was almost like a little bit of a Christmas Eve feeling here."

Hotel costs skyrocketed in Spain and Iceland

Rooms in Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, averaged more than $1,000 for Wednesday night as Icelanders prepared for their first total solar eclipse since 1954 and the first visible from the capital since 1433.

Prices were roughly double 2025 rates, according to data group Lighthouse Intelligence. Many tourists made bookings years in advance. But cloudy skies prevailed across much of the island.

Authorities expected up to 20,000 additional overseas visitors during an already busy peak tourist period. Iceland is home to fewer than 400,000 people.

The 70-room Hotel Keflavík in the Reykjanesbaer municipality was fully booked, with guests hoping to see around one minute and 45 seconds of totality.

“Eclipse time, of course, has been very demanding, and many people came to us early, like last year,” said Steinþór Jónsson, the hotel's owner and manager.

Jónsson said he had seen nothing like it since 1986, the year the hotel opened, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit in Reykjavík.

“When I opened the hotel, we had Reagan and Gorbachev meeting. It was very hectic here,” he said with a smile. “Besides Reagan and Gorbachev, the eclipse is the biggest.”

Sun mostly obscured in Britain

Across Britain, where the sun was more than 90% obscured, people flocked to hilltop parks and anywhere with an open view of the sky to see the best eclipse since 1999.

In Greenwich Park, with views of the River Thames and central London, the sky turned an eerie gray as a sliver of light sat atop the moon like a hat.

Veronica Orozco popped open a bottle of champagne to share with neighbors as she witnessed the second eclipse of her life.

“I was in Venezuela and I was young and I thought that the sun would not come back. My dad said, ‘It is science, of course it will come back,’” she recalled. “Now sitting here at the age of 41, it is still magical.”

Aja Lilit, who turned 24 on Tuesday, said the eclipse was like a “birthday present from the universe.”

She said the rare event made her think of how small she was at a “cosmic level.”

___

Associated Press journalists Teresa Medrano in Madrid; Danica Kirka and Brian Melley in London; Marco Di Marco in Reykjavik, Iceland; and James Brooks in Snæfellsnes, Iceland, contributed.

David Wayne Lamb is charged with misdemeanor terroristic threat of family. Court records show an active warrant has been issued for his arrest, and he is listed as a fugitive.

The new charge stems from an alleged incident on Aug. 7, 2024, involving another woman.

KSAT obtained the San Antonio Police Department report from that case. According to the report, Lamb allegedly harassed the woman and sent text messages threatening to shoot up locations where he knew she would be.

SAPD told KSAT the case was submitted to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office for review in 2024. The case was not filed at that time.

During that period, Lamb was arrested in 2025 in connection with the felony strangulation case involving Claudia Romero.

Romero told police Lamb attacked and strangled her in November. The case was dismissed by the DA’s Office in July.

When KSAT first reported Romero’s story, Lamb’s name was not included because he was no longer facing a criminal charge in that case.

Now, court records show Lamb is facing the new misdemeanor charge stemming from the 2024 incident.

Court records also show protective orders have been issued against Lamb involving three different women.

KSAT asked the DA’s Office why the 2024 case was not filed when SAPD submitted it for review.

In an email, the DA’s Office said, “The case is pending in their office and are unable to provide further comments or details at this time.”

Lamb remains wanted on the active warrant.

The new charge raises questions about why the 2024 case was not filed before the alleged attack on Romero in November 2025.

KSAT will continue following the case.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, there is help for you. KSAT has a list of resources on its Domestic Violence webpage, which also explains how to identify different types of abuse.

If it’s an emergency, text or call 911. For wrap-around services including the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services at (210) 733-8810.

You can also contact the Bexar County Family Justice Center, which also provides wrap-around services at (210) 631-0100.

Read also:

• ‘The DA failed me’: Bexar County woman questions dismissal of felony domestic violence case against ex-boyfriend

Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesman for the Bell County Sheriff’s office confirmed that both occupants died.

A military official tells the Associated Press that the crashed Apache was out on a routine training flight when it went down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a developing situation.

No cause of the crash was immediately announced. Fort Hood’s criminal investigation division was leading the crash investigation, Coleman said.

Fort Hood is a massive base with 214,968 acres (336 square miles) that is used to train and deploy heavy forces. The Army says the rolling, arid terrain around the base provides an ideal training ground.

In November 2015, four soldiers were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise. And nine Fort Hood soldiers died in 2016 when a rain-swollen creek swept their vehicle into rushing waters.

The helicopter did not hit any homes or other structures when it crashed, Coleman said.

“You could tell it was a violent crash,” Coleman said. Photographs from the scene showed firefighters walking around a charred field as plumes of dark smoke rose from flames still burning in the wreckage.

“Our immediate priority is securing the site and supporting the initial response efforts,” said Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, acting commanding general. "Our thoughts are with the crew and their families as we await further information.”

The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter has been a key part of the military’s fleet since the first versions were deployed in 1984. The Apache crew sits behind each other with the pilot in the rear and the co-pilot gunner in the front position.

___

AP writers Konstantin Toropin and Josh Funk contributed reporting.

Doué’s 61st-minute strike after running onto Ousmane Dembélé's pass was initially ruled out for offside, only for the goal to be awarded following a video review.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s powerfully struck opener in the 20th was canceled out by a volley from Brian Madjo, a 17-year-old striker making his competitive debut for Villa days after getting approval to play following a dispute with FIFA over his registration.

It’s the first of a possible six trophies this season for PSG, which became the first team to win back-to-back Super Cup titles since Real Madrid (2016 and ’17).

The Super Cup is an annual early-season match between the most recent winners of the Champions League (PSG) and Europa League (Villa).

Referee was the Somali official barred from World Cup

The game in Salzburg, Austria, was refereed by Omar Artan, the Somali who was barred by the United States from officiating at the World Cup days before the start of FIFA’s tournament because of vetting concerns. U.S. officials claimed Artan had connections to terror organizations, though without providing proof.

UEFA responded by picking Artan — a referee judged the best in Africa last season — to take charge of the Super Cup in a powerplay by European soccer’s governing body amid its increasing disconnect with FIFA.

That disharmony has increased since, with UEFA leading the campaign to oust Gianni Infantino from the FIFA presidency over his recent — aborted — plan to sell an interest in the World Cup.

Artan was the first non-European referee to take charge of the Super Cup.

Another season, another trophy for PSG

After winning five titles last season, PSG is back on the trophy trail already — and could pick up a second in the 2026-27 campaign when it takes on Lens in the Trophée des Champions on Sunday. That's a match between last season's league and cup winners in France.

Doué was one of the PSG players who only returned to training on Monday following the World Cup, but he was handed a start by coach Luis Enrique and proved to be the matchwinner.

The 21-year-old forward ran through unchallenged after latching onto Dembélé's pass behind the Villa defense and curled a left-foot shot into the far corner. The offside flag was then raised but a check by the VAR showed that Villa right back Matty Cash was keeping Doué onside.

Artan awarded the goal after the review and Doué punched the air in delight.

Kvaratskhelia was PSG's standout player of the first half and his goal was mesmeric as he cut in from the left and lashed a fierce, rising shot inside the near post.

Teenager Madjo causes havoc

Remember the name: Brian Madjo.

It was quite the debut by the powerfully built teenager who was born in north London, has played three friendly matches for Luxembourg, and now has decided to represent England.

Madjo joined Villa from French club Metz in January but FIFA blocked his registration because its transfer rules limit international moves by players under the age of 18. Villa appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and it was upheld last week, allowing him to make his club debut as the youngest player to feature in a Super Cup.

He caused havoc at times for PSG's elite center-half duo of Willian Pacho and Marquinhos and could have scored two or three goals before finally getting on the scoresheet by meeting John McGinn's cross with a volley into the roof of the net.

Moments earlier, Madjo had bundled past Pacho and hit the post with a shot.

It was a fourth straight loss in the Super Cup for Villa manager Unai Emery, whose other losses came with Sevilla (twice) and Villarreal.

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

In January, major grain traders withdrew from the soy moratorium, which helped slash deforestation over its nearly two decades in effect, after top soy-producing states passed bills revoking tax benefits for participating companies.

Brazil is the world’s largest soybean producer, accounting for about 40% of global output. Much of the crop is grown in central and northern states that include parts of the Amazon biome, such as Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, plays a critical role in regulating the climate far beyond South America. Scientists warn that forest loss could accelerate global warming and disrupt agriculture as far away as the U.S. Midwest and parts of Europe.

The South American country produced 171.5 million metric tons of soybeans in the 2024-25 season, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. China was the top destination for exports, according to Brazil’s official trade data.

Launched in 2006 as a response to pressure from environmental groups and international buyers, the moratorium was a voluntary commitment rather than law. Major soy traders agreed — and the Brazilian government later endorsed — a ban on purchasing soy grown on Amazon land cleared after July 2008.

But soy producers long argued that the moratorium hurt business because it was stricter than Brazilian environmental law. Under national rules, farmers in the Amazon must preserve 80% of their land and may legally clear the remaining 20%, while the moratorium bans any deforestation, even when permitted by law.

The soy moratorium helped reduce deforestation in risk areas by 35% in the first decade since it became effective in 2006 without hurting productivity, according to a study published July in the journal Science. The end of the pact could drive up to 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of deforestation in the next decade and leave an area the size of Portugal vulnerable to legal deforestation, the study said.

After reaching record levels in the 1990s and 2000s, deforestation declined until former President Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019–2022 term, widely criticized for weakening environmental protections. Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, deforestation has fallen again, reaching its lowest levels in a decade.

Greenpeace Brazil legal coordinator Angela Barbarulo called the court’s recognition of the moratorium’s constitutionality “enormously important,” but said the ruling was undercut by its endorsement of state laws that penalize farmers and companies that adopt environmental standards beyond those required by law.

“There is an apparent contradiction between recognizing the environmental importance of the soy moratorium while simultaneously validating state laws that can weaken its effectiveness,” she said. “When it comes to protecting the Amazon, we should not allow state legislation to create loopholes or incentives that undermine environmental commitments built collectively.”

The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries, or ABIOVE, said the Supreme Court ruling ends years of legal uncertainty and validates voluntary sustainability commitments adopted by traders. However, the group referred to the moratorium in the past tense, suggesting Wednesday’s decision is unlikely to revive the pact.

ABIOVE also said it hoped the ruling would “open a new phase of dialogue among different parts of the supply chain, with a focus on legal certainty, competitiveness and sustainability.”

The Mato Grosso Soy Producers Association, which opposed the moratorium, said in a statement that the ruling reinforced the authority of state governments to push back against private-sector measures that impose environmental restrictions beyond those required by law. It also pledged to continue fighting any future agreements that recreate the moratorium’s restrictions.

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

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% for its first gain since setting its all-time high on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 21 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence technology business helped lead the way after strong profit reports bolstered hopes they can continue to deliver big-enough growth to justify the huge gains their prices have made.

Super Micro Computer, which sells servers and other equipment, jumped 19% after reporting earnings per share for the latest quarter that were 84% higher than analysts expected. It also gave forecasts for upcoming profit and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations.

CoreWeave, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, leaped 19.3% after reporting better revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, along with a milder loss. CEO Michael Intrator said demand is accelerating from customers as big businesses adopt AI.

CoreWeave gives its customers access to AI chips from Nvidia, and Nvidia climbed 3%. It was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

It’s a return to strength for AI stocks, which have been veering on a roller-coaster ride. After surging to records, AI stocks came under pressure on worries that they shot too high. Investors wanted to see big spenders on AI prove their investments are yielding enough in profits and productivity to make them worth it. That in turn could lead to continued demand for chips and other AI infrastructure.

Wall Street also got some support from easing yields in the bond market. Treasury yields fell after a report showed that U.S. consumers paid prices for gasoline, groceries and other costs of living last month that were 3.4% higher than a year earlier.

That’s higher than anyone would like, but it’s not as bad as June’s 3.5% inflation rate.

The deceleration could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to hold off on hikes to interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would do so by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow and forcing a slowdown in the economy. Higher interest rates also would undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The Fed’s members are notably split about whether they should have already begun hiking interest rates. But Wednesday’s update on inflation pushed traders to pull back on bets the Fed will hike its main interest rate at its next meeting in September.

Traders are betting on a 40% chance of it, down from the coin flip’s chance seen the day before, according to data from CME Group.

That helped pull the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 4.68% from 4.70% late Tuesday. It, though, still remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran, which sent oil prices and worries about inflation spiking.

Oil prices swung between modest gains and losses Wednesday, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude added 0.1% to $88.98.

Higher yields have already pulled long-term mortgage rates to their highest levels in a year. That’s hurting the housing industry, and losses for homebuilders on Wednesday helped keep the market in check.

D.R. Horton fell 3.3%, and PulteGroup lost 2.5%. Builders FirstSource, which sells countertops and other building materials, dropped 3.6%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.30 points to 7,748.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 21.58 to 53,770.27, and the Nasdaq composite gained 143.04 to 26,588.49.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a mixed showing in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3.7% for one of the world’s bigger gains. It’s been at the center of the jarring swings for AI stocks because it’s dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

___

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

The lawsuit alleges the service offering paying customers sneak peeks of his posts about U.S. policy on war, tariffs and other issues violates the Constitution and that official announcements should be made available to everyone at the same time. The new subscription service rolled out earlier this month is charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month to trade off the market-moving posts before others.

“A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a plaintiff in the case along with news outlet The Intercept.

Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology, said selling fast access to traders is common in its industry, and that the plaintiffs are just trying to silence the president.

“Information from President Trump is disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs," it said in a statement, using the acronym for the fast access service. "Now, left wing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponize the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders.”

The early access service comes as the publicly traded Trump Media loses hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter and its stock has dropped below $10 from $62 shortly after going public two years ago.

The plaintiffs allege the service violates two parts of the Constitution — the First Amendment right to access a president's comments on equal terms with other members of the press and public and the Fifth Amendment prohibitions on charging unreasonable conditions for government benefits.

The lawsuit asks that Trump Media be forced to end the new paid service, called Truth API, which offers access milliseconds faster.

Trump Media also benefits separately from a deal with Trump that gives its Truth Social six hours of exclusive access to his posts before he can distribute them elsewhere. The plaintiffs appeared to take aim at that, too, asking the court to stop him from “posting official government information exclusively” on his own site.

Trump is the largest shareholder of Trump Media, owning more than 40% of its shares through a trust.

Even before the new API service was started earlier this month, ethics watchdogs criticized Trump's posting on Truth Social as a brash attempt to profit off the presidency, similar to other money-making venture s, including ones related to cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, the president filed a required annual financial disclosure report that showed he took in more than a $1 billion last year from new crypto businesses that his administration regulates.

Among other moves since he was reelected, Trump's digital finance company, World Liberty Financial, got a $500 million investment from a company tied to the government of the United Arab Emirates and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of special souvenir Trump meme coins to his fans and possible federal favor seekers, including a billionaire fighting a federal lawsuit that was later paused, then settled.

In addition to the president, the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York names his deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino and his executive assistant Natalie J. Harp as defendants.

Reservoirs have rebounded, but the fight over water isn’t over in Corpus Christi. The City Council has ordered a public referendum on a citizen-led petition that would sharply increase the price of water for industrial facilities during drought.

The proposal is expected to face a litany of legal challenges before November’s election. It would add millions of dollars in fees to the region’s largest water users, including ExxonMobil, Occidental Chemical and Valero, the next time reservoir levels are below 30 percent full, like they were for 29 months until early August. Community and environmental groups gathered nearly 13,000 signatures of registered voters to get their proposal on the ballot.

“This was a lot of signatures,” said Corpus Christi Mayor Pro-tem Kaylynn Paxson at the City Council meeting Tuesday evening. “This is something that doesn’t happen every day. I am very proud and amazed to say that this actually took place.”

The 6-2 vote to call a special election on the referendum followed years of growing tensions between the public in Corpus Christi and the industrial giants that consume enormous amounts of water. As the region’s main reservoirs fell from 30 percent full in March of 2024 to less than eight percent full in May of this year, residents clamored for authorities to curtail water consumption at refineries and chemical plants.

Activists began to circulate the petition for the referendum, called the Fair Water Amendment, this year as Corpus Christi came perilously close to running out of water. Dozens of volunteers for a local organization called For the Greater Good along with paid canvassers from Texas Campaign for the Environment spent months gathering signatures.

“Something that seemed impossible gave me hope in our democracy,” said Miriam Guerra-Rachidy, a member of For the Greater Good, in comments to the City Council on Tuesday. “It gave me hope in believing that the people can make a difference.” The region no longer faces an imminent threat of disaster after a rainy spring and summer replenished its main reservoir system, currently 42 percent full.

The Fair Water Amendment would implement a 70 percent water rate increase for Corpus Christi’s largest industrial water users when reservoirs dip below 30 percent capacity. It would implement an increase of 140 percent when reservoirs dip below 20 percent, and a 280 percent increase if the city declares a water emergency.

Even advocates for the proposal expect to face lawsuits from industry groups in coming months.

“It’s gonna be challenged, no doubt,” said Sylvia Campos, a City Council member who campaigned for the amendment. “That’s the nature of the beast.”

Several parts of the proposed amendment will be easy to challenge, said Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni. The proposal requires rate increases for industrial complexes that buy their water directly from the city as well as those that buy their water from intermediaries like water districts or towns. Corpus Christi supplies water to its entire seven-county region, including more than 20 other cities and towns.

“They don’t report to me or this City Council. They’re whole and separate entities, so we can’t set their rates for them,” Zanoni told the City Council Tuesday. “You don’t have the authority to do that.”

The city’s direct industrial customers could also contest the proposed drought surcharge at the state’s Public Utility Commission, where they are already fighting the city’s current water rate and demanding an $80 million refund.

In approving the ballot measure Tuesday, Corpus Christi City Council rejected the advice of its own legal counsel, who recommended officials block the referendum under an obscure state law that bans municipal charter amendments related to climate change. If the City Council passed an ordinance that labeled the Fair Water Amendment as related to climate change, it wouldn’t be allowed on the ballot without approval from the state Legislature, Interim City Attorney Buck Brice wrote in a city memo.

But council member Gil Hernandez, who disagreed with levying the surcharge on large industrial water users, said he did not think the Fair Water Amendment could be categorized as “climate change” related.

“It’s too much of a stretch,” Hernandez said. “Even though I disagree with the contents of the amendment. I’m not going to do acrobatic acts to try and make this climate change.”

For Isabel Araiza, organizer of the petition drive and a founder of For the Greater Good, Tuesday’s vote was the climax of a yearslong organizing campaign. She said the fear and severity of this year’s water crisis energized the community to take action. With the proposal on November’s ballot, Araiza said organizers will launch a new campaign of education and awareness before the election. “Civic engagement is flourishing and it’s beautiful,” said Araiza, a local college professor. “The powerful industry [doesn’t] want people to recognize their power, and people are recognizing their power.”

Neena Satija of the Texas Newsroom contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Valero has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Photographer will be an engaging visual storyteller, responsible for shooting and editing news content under tight deadlines for broadcast and digital platforms. This position demands an individual who can work independently as well as alongside reporters and other team members to create impactful stories that resonate with our audience. Our ideal candidate is a proactive, motivated professional with a knack for innovative storytelling and a dedication to excellence in news production.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Operate cameras and editing equipment to produce high-quality video and audio for news broadcasts and digital platforms.
• Engage with the community to capture news stories, demonstrating a connection to the stories and the people they affect.
• Utilize creative editing and graphics to enhance storytelling, ensuring content is modern, clean, and distraction-free.
• Serve as a field producer & photographer on location, collaborating with the news team to plan and execute coverage.
• Identify opportunities for digital video content, including vertical video for social media, OTT, and website.
• Manage a complex shooting and editing schedule to meet deadlines ahead of time.
• Ensure brand consistency through the use of graphics, clean visuals, and on-screen text that align with our guidelines and storytelling needs.
• Act as a problem solver in the field, resolving technical issues under pressure and contributing to the team’s success under deadline constraints.
• Other related duties as assigned.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 2 years of professional news photography experience, showcasing exceptional non-linear editing, lighting, and production skills.
• Proficiency with ENG/SNG operations, and capable of operating microwave trucks. Satellite truck experience is a plus.
• A strong understanding of computer/IT workflows and File Transfer Protocols.
• Demonstrated capability in innovative storytelling, with a preference for NPPA-style reporting.
• Ability to work independently and make decisive judgments in the field.
• Strong news judgment and digital media savvy.
• Ability to lift and carry up to 50 lbs. of gear and shoulder an ENG camera for extended periods.
• Willingness to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as required, as well as be on-call for breaking news and travel for assignments.
• A collaborative attitude and excellent communication skills to work effectively with management, colleagues, and community members.
• A valid driver’s license and a clean driving record.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Broadcast Journalism/Production degree.
• Advanced proficiency with Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Cloud products, and creatively inclined to explore new technologies.
• Previous recognition for high performance in news gathering and news production.

Interested candidates, please submit your resume and cover letter detailing your relevant experience to jefoster@ksat.com.

KSAT12

1408 N St Mary’s

San Antonio, TX 78215

KSAT 12 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, KSAT 12 will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

The Republican president has struggled to connect with voters on the economy as elevated inflation and Americans' feelings of uncertainty have overshadowed the stock market gains he often cites along with a low national unemployment rate.

Just before Trump arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday to speak at a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner at a golf club his family owns in Rancho Palos Verdes, authorities revealed that a California man who was carrying ammunition and had a gun in his car had been arrested Sunday at the golf course. The man appeared to have been monitoring security preparations.

On Wednesday, Trump will discuss the economy during an event at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in an AP-NORC poll conducted in late July. In the same poll, most Americans, 69%, characterized the state of the economy as “poor,” and many said the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and gas was a “major” source of stress in their lives.

Trump’s overall approval rating is at 33%, slightly below where he stood at this point in his first term.

Trump is likely to take aim at Democratic Gov. Newsom

During the trip, Trump is likely to throw barbs at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat eyed as a likely candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028. Newsom has become one of the president’s highest-profile opponents.

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said the president plans to “draw a sharp contrast between his commonsense agenda and the radical policies of Democrats like Gavin Newsom," touting his own efforts to cut taxes, reduce fraud in government programs, and crack down on immigration and crime.

California was one of Trump's first domestic stops after returning to office in January 2025. He surveyed the aftermath of wildfires that had wiped out whole neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, left thousands of people homeless and killed more than two dozen.

Newsom greeted Trump at the airport on that trip, and they chatted amiably and gestured toward cooperation despite a bitter history. But the comity did not last. Six months later, Newsom argued in a speech that “democracy is under assault” by Trump after the president sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles without Newsom's consent. This came after protests following a series of immigration raids by federal authorities.

Trump routinely mocks Newsom and refers to the governor using a derogatory nickname, while Newsom taunts the president with frequent social media posts.

The Democrat's press office put out a statement Tuesday saying that Trump was traveling to California not to help survivors of the wildfires but to raise money and attack the state with lies.

“More than anything, we’d like the President to keep the promise he made on January 24, 2025: to 'take care of Los Angeles,'" Newsom said. “18 months later, survivors are still waiting. And while you’re here, Mr. President, welcome to the world’s fourth-largest economy — growing faster than Texas and Florida combined. Enjoy your stay.”

“Trump treats California like his personal political punching bag — right up until he needs someone to write a check,” California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks said in a statement. “He may hit up a few billionaire donors who bankroll his political operation, but the people of California have already made it clear: they want nothing to do with his chaos and corruption.”

Housing prices are a big issue at Trump's second stop: Nevada

Nevada, where Trump will be on Wednesday, is led by a Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, who faces Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford in a battle for reelection in November. The contest is considered one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country.

The Nevada State Democratic Party is putting up billboard signs about Trump’s visit that tie him to Lombardo and higher costs. The state is grappling with a shortage of affordable housing, exploding energy demand from artificial intelligence data centers and federal cuts to key state programs.

Trump has tried for several months to sell voters on his income tax cuts and claims of a manufacturing renaissance. But interest rates are high, a gallon of gasoline costs more because of the Iran war, tariffs are still reshaping the economy and, by the White House’s own estimates, there is a national shortage of housing.

The president called his own housing bill a “yawn,” and past speeches advertised by the White House as being about the economy, including one he delivered at a General Motors facility in Michigan last week, gave way to Trumpian weaves about his political enemies and construction projects in the nation's capital.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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Eds: This story first moved Aug. 4, 2026. It was retransmitted Aug. 12, 2026, to delete a duplicated ‘to’ in the headline.

Their enthusiasm was buoyed by Tuesday’s primary, which saw former sportscaster Michele Tafoya win the Senate nomination and state House speaker Lisa Demuth win the primary for governor. Both women defeated rivals seen by some GOP strategists as too extreme for Minnesota’s left-of-center electorate.

And the newly minted GOP ticket wasted no time before hammering Democrats over the fraud. Dozens of people have been convicted of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars meant to provide food, shelter, healthcare and childcare to people in need.

“We have seen now what all of these years of single-party rule has done to this state,” Tafoya said Wednesday. “And it is mobilizing voters in a way that I think is new and refreshing and exciting. And that’s what we’re going to tap into.”

Republicans are mostly playing defense as they look to hold onto their narrow House and Senate majorities. President Donald Trump is unpopular, and voters have a negative view of the state of the economy and the country’s direction.

In the fight for Senate control, most of the competitive seats on the ballot this fall are held by Republicans and in states that Trump won by healthy margins in 2024, such as Texas and Iowa. Minnesota presents one of the GOP's few opportunities to go on offense.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee, is emerging from a contentious and expensive primary, and as the state’s No. 2 Democrat, Republicans think she’s uniquely vulnerable to attacks over fraud. Demuth faces Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has easily won other statewide races.

Republicans see an opening in Minnesota

Minnesota isn’t as blue as the GOP’s two-decade losing streak suggests.

Republicans have come close to winning in the recent past — Trump lost the state by just 1.5 points in 2016. The Legislature is nearly evenly divided, with 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans; the state House is tied and has a Republican speaker under a power-sharing agreement between the parties.

“The Republican party has just really struggled to field good candidates, to run strong campaigns, and as a result, it’s withered,” Amy Frederiksen, a Republican strategist and former minority leader in the state Senate, said in an interview before the primary.

Frederiksen said backlash to the fraud scandal gives Republican candidates a chance to reach new people. Republicans say the state's Democratic leaders should have caught the fraud, which unfolded over years as organizations with state contracts to provide social services stole hundreds of millions of dollars through various means, including faking clients and billing for services that were never provided.

Amid the outcry, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz dropped his reelection campaign.

“There’s an opening for Republicans to make the case that even though Tim Walz isn’t running for re-election, it's not enough to just replace Tim Walz with another Democrat,” said Brian McClung, who was deputy chief of staff for former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the last Republican to win a statewide race in Minnesota.

Still, winning GOP converts will be hard. On top of the headwinds Republicans face nationally, in Minnesota they will also face Democrats galvanized by last winter's immigration operation in the Minneapolis metro area. Citing fraud, Trump surged federal agents into the city for an aggressive enforcement push that led to tense and deadly confrontations.

The GOP is pinning its hopes on Michele Tafoya

Tafoya has caught the attention of Republicans in Washington, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee supported her early.

A well known sportscaster who reported from the sidelines of NFL games for years, she has a profile separate from politics and doesn’t have a lengthy voting record that Democrats can mine for ammunition to use against her.

She supports abortion rights up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, a position that put her out of step with many GOP primary voters but could help neutralize a potent Democratic line of attack.

Democrats immediately previewed their plan to beat her — they will link her to Trump.

“We are not about to give Donald Trump another loyal soldier like Michele Tafoya to take his orders and do his bidding,” Flanagan said in her victory speech Tuesday night.

Flanagan has suggested Republicans are disingenuous to focus on fraud in Minnesota when she says Trump has used the presidency to enrich himself.

“They’re going to have to answer for that corruption,” she told reporters at a campaign event last weekend.

Here’s the scoop:

🏆Prize: $100 gift card (hello, tacos, BBQ, school snacks… all of the above)

🔞Who can enter: Must be 18 or older

⏱️Sweepstakes opens: Friday, August 14 at 10:00 a.m.

🛑Sweepstakes closes: Friday, August 21 at 9:00 a.m.

When do we find out who wins?

The potential winner will be announced LIVE on Texas Eats NOW on Friday, August 21, 2026 during the show between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. So if you enter, make sure you’re watching — you might be announced as the winner! Click here for Official Rules & Regulations.

Big thanks to our sponsor, Firstmark Credit Union, for making this tasty giveaway possible.

If the entry form does not populate below, please refresh your screen. For additional needs, please reach out to insiders@ksat.com .

Proceeds from online donations and ticket sales collected during the “Unidos por Los Nuestros,” or “United for Our Own,” concert will address both immediate and longterm needs, including rebuilding homes, repairing schools and community spaces, supporting children and providing mental health support, among other initiatives.

“Uniting for a common cause — taking action and helping fellow human beings facing hardship — is a duty we all share,” said Anthony, a multiple Grammy Award winner whose nonprofit Maestro Cares Foundation will administer the funds along with the Univision Foundation.

Proceeds from the concert will support the nonprofit groups All Hands and Hearts, CARE, Global Empowerment Mission, Techo and World Central Kitchen.

The concert was expanded after Monday's disaster in Colombia

The event was initially created to benefit Venezuela after 7.2- and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes rocked northern areas of the country just 39 seconds apart on June 24, killing at least 6,300 people. Those plans changed Monday, when western parts of Colombia also experienced a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake, spurring event organizers to include the neighboring country.

Authorities and residents are just beginning to understand the devastation in Colombia, where at least 181 people were killed and more than 2,500 injured, but researchers there have called it the country's worst quake this century.

For Venezuela, the fundraiser comes at a crucial time as public and media attention fades on a humanitarian crisis that will last years, said Rodner Figueroa, co-founder and vice president of the I Love Venezuela Foundation, which channels resources to nonprofits working in Venezuela and is a Global Empowerment Mission partner.

“The biggest challenge right now is to keep the moment alive,” said Figueroa. “The need in Venezuela continues to be at a scale that is unbelievable.”

Tens of thousands of displaced survivors there need housing, clean water and sanitation, and ongoing medical attention. More than six weeks later, people are still searching for missing friends and relatives, often without any official help.

Performers from across Latin America rally to the cause

The benefit concert will take place Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. ET at Miami’s Kaseya Center and will be shown live on Univision, ViX, WAPA and TelevisaUnivision radio stations, iHeartLatino and Venevision Play in Venezuela.

Viewers can donate by scanning on-screen QR codes, texting UNIDOS to 707070 or visiting univision.org during the broadcast.

Additional music acts include Piso 21, Gente de Zona, Elena Rose, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Ricardo Montaner, Mau y Ricky, Olga Tañón and others. The performers span Latin genres, from salsa and reggaeton to pop, and join from across Latin America, including Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Dozens of Latin television personalities, journalists and other celebrities will help host the event, including Don Francisco, longtime host of the TV show “ Sábado Gigante ” and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

“We have all witnessed the devastation that has affected our communities at some point — we have seen it happen time and again in many of our countries and across the globe,” said Anthony, who also advocated and raised funds after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. “The need is immense."

Some Colombian artists committed to the fundraiser well before they knew an earthquake would soon affect their own homeland. The Urbano Latino musician Feid, born in Medellín, has been reaching out to his more than 14 million Instagram followers this week to support aid groups there.

Latin music also shares a special connection with Cali, Colombia, one of the hardest-hit cities and a globally recognized hub for Salsa music and dance.

“Unidos por Los Nuestros” is being organized by Cárdenas Marketing Network, Maestro Cares Foundation, TelevisaUnivision and PIMIENTO Entertainment.

Additional benefits are also planned

Other musicians are also mobilizing relief efforts. The Venezuelan band Rawayana founded Fundación El After shortly following the disaster to support impacted young people. Shakira and other Colombian musicians, including Karol G, Ryan Castro and J. Balvin, rallied support for Colombia on Monday through social media. Metallica’s foundation donated $100,000 for Venezuela to humanitarian organization Direct Relief.

Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel will host a benefit concert for earthquake recovery Aug. 23 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, his last performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic before he joins the New York Philharmonic.

Proceeds from Dudamel's “A Concert for Venezuela” will benefit recovery funds of the United Nations Development Programme and the CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. Beck, Natalia Lafourcade, and Carlos Vives will join Dudamel.

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

KSAT12 San Antonio is looking for a Digital Content Marketer. As KSAT12’s Digital Content Marketer, you’ll be the driving creative force behind San Antonio’s most trusted news brand. This isn’t a behind-the-scenes role. You’ll ideate, shoot, edit, and publish content that reaches real audiences every single day — across breaking news, weather, special investigations, live events, and branded campaigns. If you live on social, obsess over trends, and know exactly why some content pops and other content dies, we want to meet you.

What you’ll own

• Concept, shoot, and edit short-form videos and graphics for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and OTT platforms — from breaking news coverage to branded campaigns.
• Monitor platform trends in real time and translate them into content strategies that grow reach and engagement across all KSAT12 social channels.
• Design thumb-stopping graphics using Adobe Creative Suite that stop the scroll and drive clicks.
• Pull and analyze performance reports on posts, digital ad buys, and campaigns — turning data into smarter content decisions.
• Build and launch promotional campaigns for special programs, investigations, events, and breaking stories.
• Represent KSAT12 at external marketing events and help coordinate on-the-ground promotion.

What we’re looking for

Required

• 2–3 years of social media or content creation experience
• Strong video editing skills (Final Cut, Avid, After Effects, CapCut, or similar)
• Deep fluency in TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook
• Sharp, creative writing with a strong news sense
• Self-starter mentality — you don’t wait to be told what’s trending

Bonus points

• College degree in communications, journalism, marketing, or related field
• Adobe Photoshop and graphic design experience
• Familiarity with paid social and audience targeting
• Experience in a broadcast or newsroom environment

You’ll thrive here if you...

• Know what’s trending before it trends
• Can flip from funny to breaking news in minutes
• Treat every post like it’s your best work
• Geek out over analytics
• Work well under deadline pressure
• Love San Antonio and local storytelling

Interested candidates, please submit your resume, cover letter and examples of social media campaigns or creative content you’ve led to:

Nate Mills, Director of Marketing

nmills@ksat.com

KSAT12

1408 N St Mary’s

San Antonio, TX 78215

KSAT 12 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, KSAT 12 will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

Crowley overcame Francesca Hong in dramatic fashion in Tuesday's primary, stunning pundits and pollsters who had long placed Hong as the front-runner. That means Crowley's challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, must pivot to face a Democrat known for working across the aisle with Republicans as the county executive in Milwaukee, the state’s largest source of Democratic voters.

Crowley immediately leans into Tiffany's ties to Trump

After a unity event with Hong and others on Wednesday, Crowley pledged to build a broad coalition — including Hong's progressive backers — to take on Tiffany by zeroing in on the Republican's support for the Make America Great Again movement.

“This isn’t establishment versus progressive. This isn’t insider versus outsider,” Crowley said. “This is Democrats defeating a MAGA extremist in Congressman Tom Tiffany and that’s what we should be focusing on moving forward.”

It will be easier for Tiffany to pivot away from his ties with Trump and unpopular federal policies because he’s running for governor and not Congress, said former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a Trump supporter.

“He’s got to be on point, on message every time that comes up, and say, ‘That’s not what’s on the ballot,’” Walker told The Associated Press. “What’s on the ballot is who’s going to be governor the next four years.”

But former Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, who opposes Trump, said Crowley makes the path “way harder for Tiffany.”

“It's going to force the campaign back to the issues that people care about like affordability, the war in Iran and the cost of healthcare,” Schultz said.

Tiffany represents a broad swath of Wisconsin’s rural, conservative north woods. Trump won the state in 2024 and 2016, but lost in 2020. All three elections were decided by less than a percentage point. Crowley’s win on Tuesday was even more narrow — about half a point, further cementing Wisconsin’s reputation for close elections.

Democrats look for a trifecta in Wisconsin

Democrats savored the shift in focus from their chaotic primary to the general election against Tiffany, an opponent they’ve long seen as vulnerable. They hope to capitalize on Trump’s low approval ratings to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Just as Crowley highlighted his Republican opponent's ties to Trump, Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Hong.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement Wednesday. “His record in Milwaukee County shows exactly what Wisconsin would get: mismanage the government, run up the bill, and raise your taxes to pay for it.”

And it may be tough for Crowley to connect with the young people who were among the nearly 40% of primary voters who supported Hong, Republican strategist Rusty Schultz predicted.

“Making sure they come out in November will be no small feat,” he said.

Crowley's surprise win came after he had dropped out of the race

Crowley, 40, often notes on the campaign trail that he grew up in poverty in the poorest ZIP code in Wisconsin on Milwaukee’s north side, his parents struggled with drug abuse and mental health issues, and his family was evicted multiple times.

Elected to the state Assembly in 2016 at the age of 30, Crowley served just over three years before being elected as Milwaukee County executive. In 2023, Crowley worked closely with the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass a bipartisan deal that sent more state aid to Milwaukee and local communities.

Crowley launched his bid for governor 11 months ago. But he dropped out of the race on July 8, saying he didn’t see a path to victory. He rejoined it on July 18, less than a month before Tuesday’s primary. With the backing of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow moderate who crisscrossed the state with him in the final week, Crowley made a case that he was the better matchup against Tiffany.

“Obviously Hong was the never-ending gift in terms of one gaffe after another, wasn’t really ready for primetime,” Walker said. “But Crowley didn’t get any real scrutiny either.”

Crowley shared a meal with Hong, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and others at a unity event outside Madison before embarking on a statewide tour. Evers, who is not seeking a third term as governor, had another commitment and did not attend.

Crowley became the first Black person to win a major party nomination for Wisconsin governor. Now he's vying to become the first Black governor of the state and just the fourth Black governor elected in the country's history.

“This historic moment is not lost on me. But I'm not even thinking about that because we've still got work to do,” Crowley said. “The job is not done. The job is not finished. My job is not to become the first, and if I do become the first, my job is to make sure I'm not the last.”

On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas became the highest-ranking Republican official to speak out, asking Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to consult with local officials before proceeding with construction. The move drew praise from Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, who issued a statement applauding Cornyn’s call for local input and blasting the Big Bend wall as a “monument to corruption” that “no Texan asked for.”

As Republicans from Cornyn to U.S. House candidate Brandon Herrera to local county judges and sheriffs push back on the wall plans, Attorney General Ken Paxton — the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas and a close ally of President Donald Trump — has remained tight-lipped.

Asked whether Paxton supports construction of barriers and patrol roads in Big Bend, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s campaign did not say where he stands on the matter, responding with a statement that said Paxton wants to balance competing priorities. The statement also did not address whether Paxton agrees with Cornyn’s call for the feds to halt construction until they meet with local leaders.

“As Attorney General Paxton has stated previously, he is focused on listening to voters to explore all effective and smart solutions to the serious challenges facing communities along the Texas border,” Paxton spokesperson Madison Cercy said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “He is committed to strong border security that protects Texans while considering the unique characteristics of different stretches of the border, including areas like Big Bend.”

Cornyn is set to leave office at the end of his term, having lost his primary to Paxton in a runoff earlier this year. In his letter to Mullin, which Cornyn sent Friday and publicly released Tuesday, the senior senator noted that border county leaders in April had asked the Department of Homeland Security to consult with them before implementing the agency’s border security plans, including new wall construction. DHS did not appear to have responded, Cornyn said.

“The requests from local officials and community leaders for coordination and communication appear very reasonable to me,” Cornyn wrote, adding that his constituents “believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States.”

Talarico, who has vigorously opposed construction plans in Big Bend National Park or Big Bend Ranch State Park, praised Cornyn for penning the letter.

“He and I agree: we need to secure our border by listening to local sheriffs and Border Patrol,” Talarico said in a statement Tuesday. Echoing Cornyn’s letter, the Austin lawmaker added, “We don’t need to wreck one of our nation’s greatest treasures by building an expensive wall on an already existing natural barrier.”

In Trump’s second term, DHS has moved forward with plans to build 30-foot wall segments and other infrastructure in the environmentally sensitive and much beloved Big Bend region. The harsh environment in West Texas includes what opponents of the plan describe as “God’s walls” — massive limestone canyon cliffs that make migrant crossings rare.

The Big Bend Sector is the quietest of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s nine sectors along the country’s boundary with Mexico. It accounted for about 1.3% of apprehensions in fiscal year 2025 despite covering nearly one-quarter of the southwest border.

As the wall project has proceeded, Democrats have seized on the issue. At the federal level, U.S. House Democrats from Texas urged DHS to change tack in letters and attempted to thwart construction via legislation. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, proposed an amendment to the homeland security appropriations bill in June — which funds the department and the border agencies it oversees — to prevent barrier construction in the national or state park. The measure was killed on a party-line vote.

At an April rally at the U.S. Capitol with park advocates, members of Texas’ congressional delegation emphasized the bipartisan nature of the opposition.

“I hope our Republican colleagues will join us, because this is not a partisan issue,” Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said. “You can file this under nobody asked for this, and nobody wants it.”

And on the campaign trail, they’ve called out Republicans’ reluctance to break from Trump by speaking out. Escobar said Paxton could, as attorney general, sue the federal government to stop construction.

Talarico has attempted to tie the project to his broader anti-corruption campaign theme, alleging that it will be built via “sweetheart, no-bid contracts.” He has also packaged his opposition to the wall as part of a broader suite of border security proposals aimed at appealing to Republicans and independents, such as hiring more Border Patrol agents and using surveillance technology to detect illegal crossings.

“Three weeks ago, I stood in Sanderson, Texas alongside Republican, Democratic, and independent sheriffs, mayors, and small business owners,” Talarico said in a statement after bulldozers arrived in the park last week, referring to his campaign stop where he rolled out his border plan. “Every single one of them told me the same thing: this is irresponsible spending that no Texan asked for, enriching wealthy contractors without making Texans one bit safer.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized Talarico’s record on the border. Paxton has referred to the Democrat’s support for border security as the “fake Talarico,” and emphasized his votes in the Texas Legislature against a sweeping border funding bill to create a state border policing unit and a bill requiring local sheriffs to collaborate with ICE.

“He fought against every single bill that would have protected our state at the border — every single one,” Paxton said at a recent rally in Allen.

The Big Bend region is located in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which has sat vacant since former Rep. Tony Gonzales, a moderate Republican, resigned earlier this year. Both candidates to replace him — Herrera, the Republican nominee, and Democrat Katy Padilla Stout — have publicly opposed the wall proposal for months and rallied against it earlier this year at the Texas Capitol.

“I have made it very clear that I oppose any construction in the Big Bend area that disturbs the natural landscape and threatens the jobs that tourism brings where non-intrusive technology would do the job,” Herrera said in a statement Wednesday. 

Herrera, noting that he has brought his concerns directly to Mullin, said the department “has communicated in the past that it shares this goal,” and that he plans to hold them accountable. And he took his stance a step further, pledging to oppose funding measures that lack language protecting the national park.

“Once elected, I will deliver the strongest possible oversight of this area and will oppose any border-related spending bills that do not guarantee that there will be no disruptive and unnecessary construction in and around Big Bend National Park,” Herrera said.

In her own statement to the Tribune, Padilla Stout criticized Herrera’s endorsement from Trump and echoed Talarico’s messaging that frames the Big Bend wall effort as a hotbed of corruption.

“This is not about protecting our border, this is about greed,” Padilla Stout said. “And the ones who will pay the prices [are] our children. If you want someone that will stand with the Texans who support protecting Big Bend, who is not aligned with the administration funding the destruction of our beloved park — I am that candidate.”

In February, under then-Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS waived dozens of environmental laws in order to expedite the construction of barriers and roads along a stretch of the border in the Big Bend region. In May, with Mullin now in charge, the department again waived policies to accelerate construction in an area that includes the national park.

The Trump administration awarded a $1.7 billion contract in May to construct “border wall in Big Bend Texas”, and the agency’s current publicly available smart wall map states that the contract is for the construction of vehicle barriers, technology and a patrol road, rather than a 30-foot wall. Heavy machinery was spotted in the park last week to begin clearing land. 

That contract is for one of five border barrier projects in the Big Bend region. Others include a $2.6 billion deal for vehicle barriers and patrol roads on a nearly 166-mile stretch of the border east of the park, in Alpine and Sanderson, and a $1.2 billion border wall contract for vertical barrier construction along the border west of the park, from Presidio County to Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Park advocates have slammed the project as both unnecessary for border protection and irreparably damaging.

Earlier in August, a contingent of 140 local businesses and recreation organizations wrote to Cornyn, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott asking them to speak out, saying the government’s current plan would “end commercial and recreational river use in Big Bend National Park and along Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, crippling local businesses and the regional tourism economy for no demonstrable security benefit.”

In March, a bipartisan group of sheriffs in the Big Bend region released a statement arguing that a continuous physical wall would be neither practical nor provide the same strategic benefit as wall segments in “high-traffic urban sectors.” One of the signatories, Republican Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, called DHS’ planned vehicle barriers east of the park “a boondoggle.”

Local residents have raised concerns about the environmental impact of construction and the addition of lighting systems and access roads — a concern Cornyn reflected in his letter. The Big Bend region contains some of the darkest skies in North America and unique biodiversity that environmental advocates say would be harmed by wall segments.

In May, a group of seven former superintendents of the national park wrote a letter to Mullin warning that the installation of vehicle barriers would forever alter the landscape, increase the risk of flash flooding and prove destructive to plants and animals of the desert.

“If a border wall—or other unnecessary and highly destructive border infrastructure—is built inside Big Bend National Park, it would be the most egregious assault on the integrity of the entire National Park System since the construction of a dam in the Hetchy Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park more than a century ago,” the former superintendents wrote.

The Knicks will travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers on Oct. 30 on the opening night of NBA Cup games, the league announced Wednesday.

The teams already are scheduled to meet in the Oct. 20 season opener at Madison Square Garden, when the Knicks will get their NBA championship rings before James plays his first game since signing with the 76ers last month.

The NBA revealed the schedule for opening night and Christmas on Tuesday, and along with the NBA Cup schedule on Wednesday also announced the national TV schedules for games on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day. It will release the entire 2026-27 schedule on Thursday at 3 p.m. EDT.

This is the fourth season of the NBA Cup, the league's in-season tournament. Games in the group stage will be played Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Nov. 24, Nov. 25 and Nov. 27, when the Knicks will host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat.

The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the title game last year, then became the first NBA Cup champions to refuse to hang a banner to acknowledge the achievement. They will hang the banner they really wanted — their first since 1973 — on opening night after beating the Spurs again for the NBA championship in June.

The Knicks-76ers matchup in East Group B will open a Prime Video doubleheader, followed by the Lakers at Golden State in West Group C.

Quarterfinal play will be Dec. 4 and 5, with the semifinals on Dec. 8 and/or Dec. 9, all at team sites. The championship game will be Dec. 11 at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the first time it has been staged outside Las Vegas.

Holiday Hoops

The two holiday schedules revealed Wednesday, both to be televised as NBC Sports quadruple-headers, were highlighted by LaMelo Ball's return to Charlotte on Feb. 15. The Hornets traded their point guard to Minnesota in the offseason.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18) games: Detroit at Cleveland, Philadelphia at Atlanta, Minnesota at New York, and Houston at Memphis.

The Presidents Day (Feb. 15) games: Minnesota at Charlotte, Philadelphia at Dallas, San Antonio at Miami, and Indiana at Golden State.

Going global

San Antonio and New Orleans will play two games in Europe in January. Victor Wembanyama returns to France for the Paris game on Jan. 14, and the teams will meet again Jan. 17 in Manchester, England.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

General. By submitting an entry to the August Firstmark Friday Sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”), brought to you by KSAT12 (“Sponsor”) and Firstmark Credit Union the “Co-Sponsor”), entrant acknowledges and agrees that entrant has read, understands, and agrees to be bound by these official Sweepstakes rules (“Official Rules”). By entering the Sweepstakes, entrants agree to waive any right to claim any ambiguity or error in these Official Rules, or the Sweepstakes itself, and agree to be bound by all decisions of the Sponsor, whose decisions are binding and final in all matters related to the Sweepstakes. Failure to comply with these Official Rules or any Sponsor instructions relating to the Sweepstakes’ Official Rules may result in disqualification from the Sweepstakes.

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How To Enter. The Sweepstakes begins at 10:00 am on Friday, August 14, 2026, and runs through 9:00 am on Friday, August 21, 2026 (the “Sweepstakes Period”). Sponsor’s time clock will be the official time clock of the Sweepstakes. To enter, you must completely and accurately fill out the Sweepstakes entry form provided on the Sponsor’s Sweepstakes page at https://www.ksat.com/contests/2026/08/12/august-firstmark-friday-sweepstakes-treat-yourself-with-texas-eats-now/ (“Entry Form”). Entrants must be the natural person assigned to any submitted email account by the provider responsible for the assigning email addresses for the domain associated with such email account. Entrant must also be an authorized account holder for any submitted telephone number. Limit one entry per person and per email address and per telephone number during the Sweepstakes Period. Any attempt by any entrant to obtain more than the stated number of entries using multiple/different email addresses, identities, registrations and logins, or any other methods will void such entries and that entrant may be disqualified if discovered by Sponsor. Entries generated by a script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified if discovered by Sponsor. The use of automated or third-party software or web site to enter and/or play is prohibited. Entries that are inaccurate, incomplete, illegible, or corrupted are void and will be disqualified if discovered by Sponsor. If Entry Form permits or requires submission of user-generated content (“UGC”), by entering into the Sweepstakes, entrant represents and warrants as follows: (1) that they created and fully own or have properly licensed all UGC materials or information, can submit such UGC without violating any applicable law, agreement with any third-party, and/or third-party right of any kind (including without limitation any intellectual property, data protection, privacy, or publicity right); and (2) that all UGC entries hereunder will be true and correct in all respects. UGC may not contain personally identifiable information or other similar sensitive/confidential information of any third-party, or content that is offensive, inappropriate, or inconsistent with the Sponsor/Co-Sponsor’s image or the spirit or purpose of the Sweepstakes. By submitting UGC, entrant represents and warrants that all UGC content complies with the User Conduct section of the Sponsor station websites Terms of Use available at https://www.grahammedia.com/terms. UGC may not have been previously published or otherwise made public elsewhere. Furthermore, without limitation on anything set forth herein to the contrary, Sponsor will have the irrevocable, transferable, and fully sublicensable right and license (but not the obligation) to exploit all such UGC in any manner it so elects to promote the Sweepstakes, its business, brand, products, and/or services, throughout the world in perpetuity, and in all media, now or hereafter known. All received entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned except as disclosed in these Official Rules. By checking the relevant box or selection in the registration form, entrants agree that the Sponsor and Co-Sponsor may contact the entrant via email with advertising information for selected goods or services. If you do not wish to receive these materials, do not check the relevant box in the Entry Form. If at any time you do not wish to receive these materials in the future, please use the unsubscribe procedures contained in the email message.

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Prize(s) One $100 Gift Card. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of prize: $100.00. ARV of all prizes: $100.00. Unless otherwise stated, subject to winner verification and compliance with these Official Rules, all prizes will be available for pick up at the office of the Sponsor/Administrators (address provided below)]. Sponsor and Co-Sponsor not responsible for loss, delay, or damage in shipping. There will be no substitution, transfer, or cash equivalent for prizes, except at the sole discretion of Sponsor, which may substitute prizes of comparable value. Limit one prize per person and per household. Payments of all federal, state, and local taxes related to the award of the prize are solely the responsibility of the winner. Prizes may not be sold, bartered, or auctioned. Prize is awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. All properly claimed prizes will be awarded provided a sufficient number of eligible entries are received, but in no event will Sponsor award more prizes than are provided for in the Official Rules. Unclaimed prizes will not be awarded. For tax purposes, the winner of a prize (or prizes) with an ARV of at least $600 within one calendar year, will be required to accurately complete and submit IRS Form W-9 to the Sponsor, and Sponsor will arrange to issue an IRS Form 1099 MISC to winner reflecting the value of the prize(s).

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Sponsor also reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify these Official Rules for clarification purposes without materially affecting the terms and conditions of the Sweepstakes. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, terminate or modify the Sweepstakes if an insufficient number of entries are received or if the Sweepstakes is not capable of running as planned, including, without limitation, as a result of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, or technical failures of any sort, or for any reason beyond Sponsor’s control. If due to circumstances beyond the control of the Sponsor, any event related to the Sweepstakes or prize is delayed, rescheduled, postponed, cancelled or has a change of venue, the Sponsor reserves the right, but is not obligated, to cancel or modify the Sweepstakes. Notice of cancellation or modification of the Sweepstakes will be published on Sponsor’s website. If cancellation occurs prior to Sponsor’s receipt of any entries, Sponsor will not be obligated to award prize(s). If cancellation occurs after Sponsor’s receipt of entries, winner(s) will be selected by random drawing from among all eligible, non-suspect entries received prior to cancellation, provided Sponsor is able to do so.

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Sponsor/Administrator: Graham Media Group, Michigan, Inc. d/b/a KSAT-TV 1408 N. St. Mary’s Street, San Antonio, TX 78215

Co-Sponsor: Firstmark Credit Union, 2023 Gold Canyon Drive, San Antonio, TX 78232

In marquee Senate primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, progressive candidates defeated two members of Congress with significant backing from party leaders. Wisconsin voters narrowly rejected a democratic socialist but still chose a 40-year-old county executive who is seeking to become the state’s first Black governor. And in Connecticut, voters ousted one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress for a challenger who campaigned on generational change.

The results so far this month deliver no clear ideological mandate. Instead, they add to mounting evidence from this year’s primaries of a Democratic appetite for turnover that is cutting across the party’s traditional divisions.

“The through line between these races isn't ideology. It's impatience with this political system that feels disconnected from the urgency voters feel,” said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist. "The demand for change is much broader than the demand for socialism.”

The immediate challenge for Democrats is whether they can harness the frustration fueling revolts against their own party and turn it against Republicans in November. Beyond that looms the 2028 presidential race, when a new generation of leaders will compete to shape a changing Democratic Party.

“If leaders in our party don’t recognize that we need to make changes, then the changes are going to come from the ground up,” Luke Bronin, a former mayor who defeated 14-term Connecticut Rep. John Larson in Tuesday’s primary, said in his victory speech. “That’s a message our party needs to hear.”

Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits

Progressive leaders touted Tuesday’s results as further proof that their message is working after victories in Minnesota and Michigan.

“What we are seeing is that people are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment policies,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told The Associated Press on Wednesday, pointing to a string of progressive victories around the country.

In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong had hoped to also ride the wave of recent progressive victories to the Democratic nomination for governor. Instead, she narrowly lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more moderate Democrat who had the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers.

Hong’s defeat also came after a number of her past comments resurfaced, including support for defunding the police and a call to cancel Thanksgiving, which she said was a joke. Unlike El-Sayed, Hong didn't receive the backing of some of the nation’s most prominent progressive leaders, including Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Sanders said Wednesday that he didn’t endorse Hong because his team lacks the resources to “get involved in every single race. Period. And that’s about it.” He nevertheless praised her “very strong grassroots campaign” for getting “a whole lot of people excited.”

The result illustrates a tension for the party’s ascendant left flank. Candidates running on populist economic messages have found growing success with Democratic voters. But some positions associated with the progressive movement’s recent past remain vulnerabilities — particularly among voters worried about electability in November.

“A lot of Democrats are traditionalists on things like culture issues. This is not about culture, it's about economics. It's about corruption,” said David Axelrod, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. “The closer that candidates hew to those issues, the larger the base they're going to be able to accumulate.”

That tension was evident Tuesday for Sarah Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who said she agreed with Hong on some issues but worried that Hong’s deeply progressive politics and the democratic socialist label would make it harder for her to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany. She voted for Crowley.

“I didn’t vote my heart,” Atkins Hoggatt said.

Progressives scored a much clearer victory in Minnesota, where Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan resoundingly defeated centrist Rep. Angie Craig. Craig had the backing of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other prominent Democrats, while Flanagan was supported by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Flanagan, similar to El-Sayed in Michigan, highlighted her opponent's support from wealthy donors while also attacking her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill that became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

As in Michigan, the winning progressive candidate was significantly outspent.

“Super PACs spent over $80 million trying to defeat El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan," Sanders said. "They lost both elections. I think what people are saying is, we’re sick and tired of billionaires and their super PACs buying elections.”

Democrats are hungry for change

Flanagan is 46 years old. Crowley is 40. And El-Sayed is 41. But nowhere was the demand for generational change more explicit Tuesday than in Connecticut.

Bronin, 47, defeated the 78-year-old Larson — who was first elected to Congress in 1998. A central theme of Bronin’s campaign was the need for a new generation of leadership in Washington.

Larson became the seventh Democratic House incumbent to lose a primary this year, many of them to younger challengers. The defeated incumbents and the Democrats replacing them span ideological lines, making the wave of losses difficult to explain simply as a shift to the left.

The push for generational turnover has taken on greater urgency since 2024, when concerns about President Joe Biden’s age ended his reelection campaign and forced Democrats into a reckoning over aging leadership.

That sentiment was evident among voters in Larson’s district. Dan Schnaidt, a 73-year-old Democrat, said he appreciated Larson’s service but believed it was time to move on.

“It’s time for new blood, for new ideas,” Schnaidt said.

The generational divide extends to the electorate

While Hong fell just short in Wisconsin, the strength of her insurgent campaign highlighted another force reshaping Democratic politics: younger voters.

Cody Chandler, a 35-year-old software engineer, voted for Hong and called her “probably the most exciting candidate I’ve seen.” Unlike in elections past, Chandler said, he voted for the candidate he most wanted to win rather than the one he considered most electable.

That support showed up geographically. Hong won Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus, by nearly 7 percentage points, though it wasn't a big enough of a margin to help her win the nomination.

A similar pattern helped propel El-Sayed to victory a week earlier in Michigan.

El-Sayed won Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan, by nearly 25 percentage points and Ingham County, home to Michigan State University, by 23 points. He also won Grand Rapids, with its large population of younger, college-educated voters, by nearly 26 points.

Jordan Snyder, a 20-year-old Michigan voter who supported El-Sayed, said she backed him because of his progressive positions and because she viewed him as someone she could trust, rather than “someone who I feel could be bought and sold.”

“People are feeling like a lot of the people that they’ve trusted that have been in government haven’t really been living up to expectations,” Snyder said.

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Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Sullivan in Hudson, Wisconsin and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

The administration last week announced plans to award the contract to the Burke Law Group, a Houston-based firm with little experience in immigration. The contract offer came as the administration ramps up its mass deportation campaign and after it let a key contract with nearly 100 providers working with immigrant children around the country expire at the end of July with no replacement.

Unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody are being temporarily represented by another group, but it is unclear how things will shake out after its contract expires in December. A Wednesday statement from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the contracts, offered no insight into why Burke declined the offer.

“Burke Law Group has declined to apply and has not been awarded any grant," the agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement in response to a query about the contract.

Burke Law Group published a short statement on social media Tuesday night saying it had considered applying for a “small portion” of the contract. It did not explain why it decided against it.

Burke Law Group's founder, Marcella Burke, served in President Donald Trump’s first administration as a lawyer with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.

Others on its roster include Justin Shubow, a supporter of Trump’s efforts to require federal buildings to adhere to classical and traditional architectural styles, and a former Trump appointee to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Prominent conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro is listed as senior counsel.

Migrant children who are detained after entering the U.S. without their parents are usually entrusted to federal government care. Congress created various legal protections for them, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which requires the government to provide legal representation for children put into deportation proceedings.

About 1,800 children were living in shelters and roughly 22,000 facing deportation were living with outside sponsors such as family members, according to the legal service providers whose contract expired.

The Burke Law Group, with fewer than 30 lawyers and only two with relevant immigration experience listed on its website, was one of two groups tapped by the government to fill in the gap.

A temporary contract for $20 million was awarded through the end of the year to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a legal aid group whose previous work with the government involved helping resettle Afrikaners.

Attorneys with USCRI started showing up in immigration court last week, unannounced, claiming to represent children they had not yet met and sparking confusion among judges and lawyers from the expired contract still providing representation.

Some legal aid providers whose contracts expired sued the administration after they went without payment since last year. On Aug. 6, a California federal judge ordered the federal government to pay the providers.

“These half-baked plans are not sufficient to comply with this court’s order,” Caelin Moriarity Miltko, an attorney representing the providers, told the judge last week, referring to the interim contracts the government is trying to set up.

“Plaintiffs have ethical obligations to the children they represent today, to continue providing that representation to the best of their abilities, and that representation cannot transfer instantaneously to a new group simply because defendants have changed the contract,” Miltko said.

Bilal Askaryar, director of communications at Acacia Center for Justice, the organization that handled the expired contract with the government, confirmed on Wednesday that the groups started to receive payments covering six out of nine months owed, with the rest in progress.

Cadillac said the move was part of a “planned leadership transition as the organization evolves from its initial build phase into the next stage of racing performance," though it hadn't previously signaled it intended to move on from Lowdon, who played a key role setting up the General Motors-backed team.

It comes a week before the F1 season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix after the mid-season break.

“It was my decision. It wasn't a mutual decision,” chief executive Dan Towriss said. He added that he and Lowdon had talked about a transition happening “at some point” but that Lowdon was only informed of the decision on Wednesday morning.

“There’s no easy way to make this transition within Formula 1,” Towriss said, citing the risk of leaks or undermining an existing leader. “It makes it feel more abrupt than it would be otherwise. But it’s the nature of Formula 1 and it’s the way it had to happen.”

Cadillac has yet to score a point in F1, with a best finish of 13th, and had been expected to struggle as a new team. The cars' brakes have repeatedly overheated in recent races, forcing retirements.

Towriss said the decision to replace Lowdon wasn't down to the recent reliability problems and that Budkowski would be tasked with a longer-term vision for the team.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

“At its current pace, it's on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. That outbreak horrified the world and jolted efforts to develop a vaccine.

The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing one yet, has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases. The outbreak was declared on May 15, but health authorities now say sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February.

It is unlike recent Ebola outbreaks because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments, though efforts to address that are underway.

WHO says this outbreak ‘had a big head start’

Experts say this outbreak is moving faster than efforts to track and manage it in a remote part of eastern Congo facing ongoing conflict, near the borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

Most new cases and deaths are being reported in communities outside the reach of health workers in a region of poor infrastructure and ill-equipped health centers. Some workers have gone on strike over lack of pay. Misinformation about the virus circulates in communities where some are wary of outsiders, keeping some people from clinics.

“The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us, and we’re playing catch-up,” Tedros said.

Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO's director for health emergency alert and response operations, said the agency expects the peak of the outbreak to be reached in six months.

“But ... that’s the moderate scenario,” Mahamud said. “There is a one-case scenario where this outbreak may last nine months to 12 months.”

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak that had at least 28,000 cases. That one took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Two vaccines for this type are being tested

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and from contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for this type of Ebola began last month in Ituri, the most affected of the five provinces in Congo where cases have been reported.

Two vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus are now being tested in people for the first time, Tedros said Wednesday.

WHO also plans to test whether an existing Ebola vaccine could protect people against the virus after studies in animals showed promising results.

The origins of the outbreak are becoming increasingly clear.

A study published in Nature Medicine on Monday added evidence that the outbreak began when the virus jumped from an infected animal to a person, rather than stemming from earlier outbreaks. Researchers found the virus is genetically different from versions seen in Bundibugyo Ebola outbreaks in 2007 and 2012.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Banchereau from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

The work has prompted calls from Texas leaders for federal officials to meet with the local community before moving forward.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pause the work and consult with leaders.

Texas Senate candidate James Talarico also echoed calls for more discussion. Talarico criticized the project as wasteful and said it would divert resources from other border security needs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the activity is not wall construction inside the national park.

According to CBP, the plan includes patrol roads, detection technology and some vehicle barriers as part of a broader border security effort.

Read also:

• DPS arrests attorney Neil Calfas after executing search warrant at his downtown San Antonio office
• Migrant kids are being held in a South Texas detention center longer than a court order allows

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

Israel says it struck a Hamas commander, but unclear if he was killed

An Israeli drone strike hit a man in the city of Beit Lahiya who was described by Israel’s military as a Hamas commander. It was the first targeted strike Israel has announced since Aug. 3.

Targeted strikes have come under closer scrutiny since U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal aimed at advancing peace efforts in Gaza that would include halting such strikes.

Though Hamas accepted the plan to decommission its weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it earlier this week, saying Hamas must fully disarm before Israel accepts the terms. Board of Peace officials have urged Israel to stop the strikes as a way of moving the deal forward.

The Israeli military did not provide details about the man targeted or say whether he was killed. Officials at Shifa and Nasser hospitals said four injured people were brought in Wednesday.

The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported 45 people killed since Aug. 1.

Three Pakistanis among the dead in Houthi attack on ship

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday condemned an attack by Houthi rebels on a ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, saying three Pakistanis were killed and another wounded. The attack Tuesday killed six people total.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen’s southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.

The attack came as part of a growing number of Houthi strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

Trump insists blockade gives US control of Strait of Hormuz

Claiming the U.S. has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said Wednesday: “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!”

Trump’s social media post referred to the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports. A vital route for one-fifth of the world's traded oil before the war, the strait has been largely closed to other traffic since the start of the war because of Iran’s attacks on shipping.

Those attacks have continued despite the blockade and U.S. strikes.

Iran has said the strait will only reopen if the U.S. meets a list of demands, including lifting the blockade.

Pakistan presses to defuse tensions between US and Iran

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Iranian Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam in Islamabad on Wednesday as Pakistan seeks to resume peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S.

Their meeting came a day after Pakistan sent Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Tehran for talks with Iran’s top leaders.

An interim deal to end the fighting reached in mid-June is set to expire Monday. The ceasefire collapsed last month as the U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes over more than two weeks before pausing.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters Wednesday the June deal remains valid and the deadline could be extended.

“We are not closing the chapter,” Andrabi said.

Turkey condemns Colombia's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights

Turkey condemned the decision by Colombia's new government to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, calling it a move to “legitimize Israel’s occupation” of the territory.

Colombia, shortly after the swearing-in of conservative Abelardo de la Espriella as president on Friday, became just the second country to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territory, which Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.

The United States was the first during Trump's first term, reversing a longstanding U.S. policy.

The United Nations recognizes the territory as part of Syria.

Kuwaiti authorities thwart plot against unnamed facility

Kuwait's Interior Ministry said a “terrorist plot” against an unspecified facility was thwarted Wednesday when a Kuwaiti citizen affiliated with the Islamic State group was detained shortly before carrying out his plan.

The ministry said the man had received training on making explosives and activating drones to be used in the planned attack.

The ministry said a vital facility had been targeted but gave no further details.

The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News. A Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce.

Civilian casualties from U.S. military operations have drawn concerns, including from lawmakers in Congress, after a U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war, killing up to 168 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to have slashed the size of an office focused on reducing civilian harm, the AP has reported.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.

Those strikes targeted hostile forces in or near Yemen’s rebel-held capital city of Sanaa as well as the Ras Isa port, the report said. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The strike on the port was the most deadly, killing 80 people and injuring 171 others. It sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks. The Houthis aired graphic footage of the aftermath on their al-Masirah satellite news channel, showing corpses strewn about the port.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said at the time that the "strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.”

“U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” U.S. Central Command said in its statement in April 2025.

The command determined that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the review said. The information was based on U.S. intelligence sources, imagery and open-source reporting.

It was determined that condolence payments were not appropriate for the three strikes, according to the Pentagon’s review, which did not explain why that was the case.

Such payments may be one of several responses when U.S. military operations injure or kill a civilian, the review stated, adding that they’re not required by law and not an admission of wrongdoing.

Such payments are not unheard of. Following an errant drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 people, seven of them children, in 2021, the Pentagon said it was committed to offering condolence payments to relatives.

The U.S. military first launched attacks against the Houthis in 2023, during the Biden administration, after the militants started launching drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at stopping Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though they occurred as the Houthis tried to strengthen their position in Yemen.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II, U.S. military leaders and experts told the AP in 2024. American fighter jets and Navy destroyers shot down Houthi drones and missiles that were launched at commercial vessels and U.S. warships.

The Houthis now are carrying out a growing number of strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

Fears are growing that the renewed violence could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce and open a new front in the Middle East war.

The NFL announced the headliners for the halftime show Wednesday. The game will air on Netflix in the U.S. on Sept. 10. The Jonas Brothers will be part of the entertainment lineup for the league's international schedule this season involving seven countries and four contents.

“We couldn’t be more excited to perform at halftime during the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Australia,” the Jonas Brothers said in a statement. “Playing at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of such passionate Australian fans is an incredible honor.”

The Jonas Brothers — featuring Nick, Joe and Kevin — have sold more than 20 million albums and recently landed a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tim Tubito, the NFL's senior director of global game presentation and entertainment, said the league's first regular season game in Australia is a landmark for the NFL.

“The Jonas Brothers are global entertainers whose music connects across generations, making them the ideal artists to help us celebrate this historic game in Melbourne," Tubito said. "We look forward to delivering a memorable halftime performance for our fans in Australia and those watching around the world.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Martin Sanchez Jr., 58, faces a murder charge, according to the sheriff. He was also charged Monday with tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair and failure to report felony with serious bodily injury or death results.

After a two-day investigation, Salazar said deputies were able to find enough evidence to identify Sanchez as the alleged shooter.

Investigators listened to a phone call from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center that involved Sanchez, according to the sheriff.

“During the course of that jail phone call, (Martin Sanchez) states several times that he shot the man that eventually died,” Salazar said.

As of noon Wednesday, Sanchez’s murder charge has not yet been added to his online Bexar County court records. This article will be updated once those details become available.

According to a BCSO spokesperson, the weapon used in the alleged murder was located between residences near the intersection of West Silver Sands Drive and Sandman Street.

Deputies responded to the shooting at approximately 2:30 a.m. at the intersection of Waterside Drive and Crestway Road.

Upon arrival, deputies located a 31-year-old man, later identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office as Andrew Locke, unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds inside a black Mitsubishi Lancer.

Locke was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Two other suspects — Kyle Erin Torres-Carcovich, 45; and Robert Barnett, 38 — were also arrested Monday in connection with the shooting.

According to court records, Torres-Carcovich and Barnett were charged with failure to report a felony with serious bodily injury or death results, which is considered a Class A misdemeanor.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• 3 suspects arrested in connection with deadly northeast Bexar County shooting, affidavits say
• Shooting that killed man, wounded mother doesn’t appear random, Bexar County sheriff says

The 30-year-old Walls, whose homers were his first of the season, went 4 for 5 in his second two-homer game. He last went deep as a righty and lefty on April 18, 2023, against the Cincinnati Reds.

Walls hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to right-center, in the fourth. He added a solo shot in the sixth inning. The homers ended a 105-game regular-season drought dating to July 27, 2025.

Walls is the fifth player this season to homer from both sides of the plate, joining the White Sox’s Drew Romo, Colorado’s Willi Castro, Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds, and Minnesota’s Josh Bell.

Martinez (12-3) struck out five, and allowed four runs on eight hits with a 101-pitch effort for his second career complete game. He previously worked an eight-inning complete-game with the Reds in 2024, but took the loss.

The AL East-leading Rays jumped out to an early lead off Junior Caminero’s 412-foot, two-run shot to center field in the first inning.

Caminero also scored in the third on Chandler Simpson’s sac-fly, but Liam Hicks was thrown out attempting to tag from first for a double play that ended the inning.

Yandy Diaz had a solo homer, Carson Williams had a three-run blast and Victor Mesa Jr. has a two-run shot for Tampa Bay, which banged out 11 hits in the win.

Lawrence Butler had a two-run homer for the Athletics in the fifth inning. Mason Barnett (1-3) took the loss, allowing six runs on five hits in four innings.

The Athletics' Jacob Wilson had his MLB-record 113-game errorless streak extended by a postgame scoring change. Wilson was initially charged with a throwing error in the eighth inning, but the ruling was changed to a fielder's choice.

Up next

RHP Drew Rasmussen (11-5, 2.75 ERA) goes for Tampa Bay in the finale of the three-game series Wednesday. The A's have not announced a starter.

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

Defendant Tyler Robinson's attorneys say the bullet traveled above the crowd and prosecutors have not proven that he knew others who attended Kirk's event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 were in danger — a potentially aggravating factor under state law that would make it a capital crime.

“The only evidence presented supports that the bullet traveled above, not through, the crowd,” defense attorneys wrote in documents filed late Tuesday as the defense tries to block the case from proceeding to trial.

The defense lawyers also disputed claims that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political views. Prosecutors allege Robinson told his roommate that he killed the activist because he “had enough of his hatred." But the defense said that was not enough to prove what motivated Robinson, after searches of his apartment, computers and telephone failed to produce anything beyond that one statement.

Prosecutors last month presented what they call “overwhelming” evidence against Robinson, including DNA tests that tie him to the suspected murder weapon and apparent confessions by the defendant.

His defense attorneys during that hearing questioned the reliability of the prosecution's evidence, but they didn't offer any alternative theories for Kirk's assassination. The defense made no mention of DNA in Tuesday's filing.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea in the case. He turned himself in a day after Kirk was killed.

His defense attorneys previously tried to get the death penalty taken off the table after prosecutors were found to be in contempt of court for talking about the case to the media. State District Judge Tony Graf rejected that request.

Prosecutors have until Aug. 18 to respond to the defense arguments. The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the Utah County Attorney’s Office seeking comment.

In documents filed last month, prosecutors said the fact that Robinson loaded his rifle with four bullets showed that he knew he could miss Kirk, “thereby putting others in danger.”

But defense attorneys said “it is just as likely that the shooter did not believe he would miss.”

Robinson faces possible sentence enhancements if prosecutors can prove he targeted Kirk because of his political views. They contend that Kirk’s strong opposition to same-sex marriage and gender transitioning stood in contrast to Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with a roommate, Lance Twiggs. Twiggs told investigators that he had been considering transitioning around the time that Kirk was killed, according to prosecutors.

Twiggs also told investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including President Donald Trump. But Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ+ rights, Twiggs said.

The AP emailed Twiggs’ attorney seeking comment.

Closing arguments in the preliminary hearing are scheduled for Sept. 1. Graf will then decide if the case can go to trial and on what charges.

Preliminary hearings typically don’t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf and the large volume of evidence. Lawyers for Kirk’s family have asked Graf to make his decision on Sept. 1 so they case can proceed.

Everyone wanted a pope-themed hat.

“When things go bananas ... that’s when it gets really fun,” said Brooks Boyer, Chicago's chief revenue and marketing officer.

Fun is the overarching theme when it comes to stadium giveaways, and business has been good at major league ballparks this year.

An array of creative promotions — everything from the New York Mets handing out fake glasses and mustaches for a Bobby Valentine Disguise Night to the Texas Rangers giving away a Nolan Ryan bloody lip jersey — has played at least a small role in an MLB-wide average attendance of 29,618 through Tuesday's games, the highest such number for a full season since 2017.

Bobbleheads remain popular — like the Brandon Nimmo Bull Riding bobblehead in Texas, or the butter-churning Nick Kurtz “Big Amish” bobblehead with the Athletics — but it's not just those iconic figurines that are drawing big crowds. The Brewers handed out 25,000 bar dice sets to fans 21 and over on Saturday, and they had a crowd of 40,625 at American Family Field.

The pitch clock and other innovative rules introduced by MLB in 2023 are often credited for spurring fan interest. But it's clear from the long lines — and occasionally astronomical resale prices on eBay — what a clever giveaway can do for ticket sales, too.

“I definitely think across the league, there’s been an increase in demand and desire, and even necessity, to do things that are outside of the box," said Meagan Hermosillo, the director of marketing and promotions for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "For us, we can’t really do a standard bobblehead or a standard anything. It has to have some kind of unique factor if we want it to move the needle.”

Chicago's pope hats took creative — and careful — planning

The White Sox ended up giving the pope hats — shaped like the Pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle — to everyone in the crowd of 38,113 for Tuesday night's 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The tribute to Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and longtime White Sox fan, helped push the club's season-long attendance to 1,460,383, surpassing its total of 1,445,738 for all of 2025.

The team leaned into the theme. There were signs posted in the ballpark that read “LEO KNOWS MUNE” and “LEO KNOWS KONERKO,” referring to current White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami and former slugger Paul Konerko. Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw out a ceremonial first pitch, and former White Sox pitcher Donn “The Pope” Pall kicked off the game with the “play ball” announcement.

“I thought it was a great idea, knowing that the Pope is from Chicago and he's a Sox fan, which is great,” said Edward Lopez, 58, a truck driver from the south side of the city.

Lopez was supposed to go to the game with his girlfriend, but she wasn't able to make it. So he went through two different gates to make sure he secured two pope hats.

“It was worth it,” he said.

Promotions for the White Sox go through a committee led by senior director of marketing and promotions Mike Downey. They throw out ideas and concepts, and they also look at samples from different vendors.

The team also is handing out wooden domino sets to 10,000 fans on Aug. 22 and magic wands to 20,000 fans on Sept. 4, a nod to the viral wand-waving dugout displays of injured reliever Mike Vasil.

“We’ve always looked to have our giveaways be something that we know people would wear or use or value because it adds value to the ticket,” Boyer said. “So it starts with that.”

While planning the pope hat night, religious sensitivities were part of the conversation for the promotions committee.

“We haven’t done items that would be Pope Leo’s likeness,” Boyer said. “We wouldn’t do that without the permission of the Vatican. ... We’ve been very careful. There is a little bit of nuance and finesse that needs to be done. And items, you know a lot of items may not be for everybody.”

Teams are eagerly jumping on larger cultural moments for eye-catching promotions

The Baltimore Orioles handed out a Tupac Shakur bobblehead in May. The New York Yankees gave out a “ KPop Demon Hunters ” bobblehead on Tuesday night, and they have a George Costanza calzone bobblehead — paying tribute to a 1996 “Seinfeld” episode — coming up on Aug. 27. Every MLB team except Toronto had a Star Wars Night this season.

Following in the footsteps of the minor leagues in many cases, it's not enough anymore to just feature a popular player for a giveaway.

“You can see that teams are doing a much better job with their understanding (of) who they’re trying to target,” said Jim Strode, an associate dean and professor at Ohio University’s College of Business. “When I think of the ‘Seinfeld’ one, I’m thinking, you know, they’re targeting Gen X, they are targeting some, you know, younger baby boomers to try to get out to the ballpark.”

There is also what Lauren Anderson, the director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon, described as the “collector chase game.” There were multiple fans looking to buy additional pope hats at Tuesday night’s game, and there were several listings for the giveaway and the “KPop Demon Hunters” bobblehead on eBay on Wednesday.

“You want something that’s unique and cool and something that you can, you know, I’m one of 5,000 people to get these, I’m one of 10,000,” Anderson said. “I mean, there is also a bit of the game of people want something that’s limited so they can flip it and sell it, like on an eBay."

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AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this report.

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

The crash happened around 5:02 a.m. on U.S. Highway 90, which is located around 16 miles from Brackettville, Texas.

According to DPS, a 2024 gray Dodge 350 pickup truck was traveling westbound, and a 2022 blue Chevrolet Equinox was heading eastbound in the westbound “improved shoulder.”

Troopers noted that the Equinox driver was on the wrong side of the road.

At some point, the driver of the pickup truck swerved to avoid a head-on collision, DPS said.

Despite the effort, DPS said the driver of the Equinox struck the truck’s front panel. The collision caused injuries to both drivers.

The Equinox driver, identified as Brittany Ramon, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver suffered minor injuries.

DPS said the crash investigation remains ongoing.

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The trial scheduled to begin next week is expected to last six to eight weeks. Meta faces 29 states in the federal multidistrict lawsuit filed in 2023, but the Oakland trial will only include the first four — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Eight states, including Tennessee where a trial is ongoing, filed lawsuits in their own state courts.

The 2023 lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked prospective jurors about their own social media activity, knowledge about other lawsuits Meta faces, and any strong feelings they may have about social media companies and their role regarding the allegations.

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

Last week, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial.

The penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The states are seeking heavy penalties and changes to the way Meta operates its platforms to make them safer for children. Meta has repeatedly said it has introduced dozens of features to do so. It is appealing the New Mexico decision.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” the Menlo Park, California, tech giant said in a statement. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

This sale agreement is $12.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the terms who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because neither side revealed specific details of the latest stunning development with one of North America's marquee sports teams.

ESPN first reported that Kushner and Iger are buying the NBA's most valuable franchise. The Lakers were valued last year at $10 billion — a record for a pro sports team — when Mark Walter purchased a controlling stake from the Buss family, which had owned the team since 1979.

“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world,” Iger and Kushner said in a statement. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss. Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”

Kushner, a venture capitalist, and former Walt Disney Company CEO Iger had been working together on landing a possible NBA expansion team for Las Vegas. By buying the Lakers, they don't have to wait until the possibility of expansion in the 2028-29 season at the earliest.

Lakers icon Magic Johnson, a partner in Walter's ownership of baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, praised the deal on social media.

“Laker fans, you couldn’t have two better owners,” Johnson wrote. “I’ve known Bob personally for over 40 years — he has always loved the Lakers and basketball and he will bring championships back to LA.”

The sale still will need approval from the NBA’s board of governors, and that process can take several weeks. The next board meeting is set for September in New York.

The $12.5 billion price tag is not only a record for U.S. pro sports but a new summit in skyrocketing NBA franchise values. Only three years ago, Michael Jordan sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets for a $3 billion valuation, while the Boston Celtics were sold last year to private equity mogul Bill Chisholm at a valuation of just over $6 billion.

Walter’s agreement to purchase a controlling stake in the Lakers at the $10 billion valuation last summer obliterated that mark, and now Iger and Kushner have pushed the bar even higher.

The 66-year-old Walter’s shocking decision to sell after just 10 months of official ownership is reverberating throughout the team’s massive fan base, which appeared to be uniformly excited about the purchase last year. Walter has stewarded the Dodgers into the most successful stretch in franchise history, with three World Series championships in the past six seasons as the most aggressive spenders in baseball.

Multiple media outlets last month reported that Walter’s business empire is under scrutiny from both federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission in tax fraud investigations.

The Lakers are 17-time NBA champions who won their most recent title in 2020. They've made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, and their current roster is built around NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is signed through the 2028-29 season. The Slovenian superstar has become passionate about Los Angeles and the Lakers less than two years after his arrival.

“Being a Laker means everything to me, and I’m excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA,” Doncic wrote on social media after hearing of the sale. “I’ve gotten used to big changes over these last few years, but I know that no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get to work building something special in LA together.”

The 41-year-old Kushner has been a minority owner of two NBA teams, but he jumped into the international sports spotlight this summer when his capital holding company, Thrive Eternal, was set to be the “anchor investor” in FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits. Infantino abandoned the idea on July 31.

Kushner’s older brother is Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Josh Kushner currently owns a minority stake in the Miami Heat, and he previously owned a stake in the Memphis Grizzlies.

The 75-year-old Iger became one of Hollywood’s most well-known executives while he ran Disney for two lengthy stints between 2005 and last March, when he stepped aside. Iger and his wife, former sports journalist Willow Bay, became the controlling owners of NWSL team Angel City FC in 2024 with a deal that valued the club at $250 million.

Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was approved by NBA owners last October. He originally bought a 27% minority stake in the team in 2021 before purchasing control of the team last year.

The Lakers' 17 championships going back to the franchise’s origin in Minneapolis are the second-most in NBA history behind Boston’s 18. It is a global brand, always at or near the top of the league’s merchandise-sales rankings.

This record sale price comes just weeks after LeBron James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, left the Lakers after eight seasons to become a free agent. James ultimately decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Walter and his team had already begun to make extensive changes to the Lakers, who were often perceived as an antiquated franchise in many aspects during their decades of Buss family ownership.

The Lakers had beefed up their basketball operations department with new hires in the front office around longtime general manager Rob Pelinka. They also boosted the business side with extensive searches for new revenue, including sales of new jersey patches and additional prominent sponsorship deals.

When Walter bought his controlling interest in the Lakers, the deal specified that Jeanie Buss would stay on as the team’s governor. With new ownership, it’s unclear whether Buss will have a continuing role in the team she inherited along with her siblings from her father, Jerry Buss, who died in 2013.

Along with the Dodgers, Walter and his various partners also have ownership interests in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, English Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the new Cadillac Formula 1 racing team.

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

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

The state-run General Electricity Company said in a statement that a power substation in the city of Zawiya that links power plants to homes and businesses was completely burned down.

The city of about 250,000 people has been rattled by a series of drone strikes that hit oil and power facilities. Zawiya is home to critical energy infrastructure, including Libya’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the drone strikes.

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who governs western Libya, and warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli.

The country has been divided for years between rival administrations, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Dbeibah governs western Libya and the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad governs the eastern part of the country.

The power company said the attack resulted in outages across southern parts of the city, which is located about 47 kilometers (29 miles) west of the capital Tripoli. Footage shared by the company showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the facility.

Dbeibah denounced the attacks on energy and power installations as “a serious crime and an escalation that will not go unanswered.”

“We will reach those responsible for this attack, and the accountability will be firm. No one will be protected by their position, status, or influence,” he said in a statement.

On Monday, a drone strike hit a fuel-laden tank at Zawiya's refinery, igniting a massive blaze which firefighters battled for over 15 hours. The refinery was repeatedly attacked over the weekend and on Tuesday, according to the state-run National Oil Corporation.

The power plant was hit by two drones on Tuesday, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility’s main fuel storage, setting it on fire, the electricity company said.

After Tuesday’s attack on the power plant, the U.S. company General Electric withdrew its teams from the facility “until security conditions and a suitable and safe work environment are ensured,” the electricity company said. GE performs maintenance and upgrading services for the plant.

GE previously withdrew its staff from the plant over security concerns, prolonging the loss of more than 700 megawatts of the station’s production capacity, estimated at 1300 megawatts, the electricity company said.

The violence came as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Dbeibah and Mohammad Younes Menfi, chairman of the Presidential Council in Tripoli on Tuesday, before traveling Wednesday to the eastern city of Benghazi to meet with powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.

Turkey is the main foreign backer of Dbeibah's government, but in recent years has also reached out to the rival authorities in eastern Libya in an attempt to mend ties, and as part of regional efforts to unify the North African country.

Libya, an oil-rich country on the Mediterranean, has been wracked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising-turned-civil war toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Issac Mathew Trinidad, 28, of San Antonio, is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, evading arrest with vehicle, unlawful conduct mail receptacle key or lock, and possession of a controlled substance, jail records show. He was also booked into jail on the parole violation, records indicate.

The crash happened around 10 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of East César E Chávez Boulevard and South Flores Street, a DPS preliminary report states.

A DPS anti-gang trooper attempted a traffic stop on a white BMW near the intersection of Mitchell Street and South Flores Street.

According to the report, the BMW driver, identified as Trinidad, briefly pulled over to drop off a woman before evading northbound on South Flores Street.

In the pursuit, DPS said Trinidad sideswiped a vehicle and disregarded a red light at an intersection, which contributed to the four-vehicle collision.

The BMW collided with two trucks and a Range Rover that carried a total of six people, DPS said.

Several people in the other three vehicles were treated on the scene by EMS officials. Two women in the Range Rover were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the report said.

Trinidad was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, DPS said. He was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, troopers said.

“He’s got the most serious injuries; everyone else was non-life-threatening,” DPS Sergeant Orlando De Luna said.

DPS confirmed that the BMW vehicle was stolen. Troopers said Trinidad also allegedly had methamphetamine in his pocket.

According to jail records, Trinidad was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $60,000 bond.

The crash remains under investigation.

Read also:

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According to an SAPD incident report obtained by KSAT, Luis Gerardo Posadas-Ruiz, 52, was transported to a local hospital where he later died.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office also confirmed Posadas-Ruiz’s identity to KSAT. The medical examiner’s office said his cause and manner of death are pending.

Background

SAPD officers were dispatched just after 9:30 a.m. in the 3600 block of East Houston Street, which is located near East Commerce Street.

Police said Posadas-Ruiz, a truck driver from Mexico, towed several trucks to the Penske Truck Rental Business.

Posadas-Ruiz worked on disconnecting one of the trucks from its position. The SAPD report said a witness used a tow truck lift to provide assistance.

At some point, officers said the witness warned Posadas-Ruiz to wait “while he made some adjustments.” However, SAPD said Posadas-Ruiz did not hear the witness and started to disconnect one of the trucks.

The truck slipped and moved a short distance before police said the man was pinned between the two trucks.

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The number of people on board Tuesday was unclear as estimates reached as high as 153 people on a government agency-operated ferry whose capacity, authorities said, was just 90.

“Some of us survived by standing on top of the capsized hull,” one of the two crew members who survived, Anyway Chambati, told state broadcaster ZBC News. “Before it went down, passengers were screaming at us that the boat was flooding, water was pouring into the engine room and goods were spilling out.”

Chambati said he was in charge of ticketing and that he counted 153 people on board, including crew and infants, before the disaster.

Multiple witnesses told ZBC that passengers urged the captain to turn back as waves grew perilous, only to be dismissed. When water surged into the vessel, chaos erupted as frantic travelers scrambled for life jackets beneath their seats.

"We argued with him right at the harbor. We told him the waves were too dangerous," one woman said. “A bag fell overboard before we had even left, and we pointed it out, but he refused to listen.”

Passengers told the broadcaster that bags, dishes and beer bottles began toppling overboard within minutes of setting off.

“About 30 minutes in, we begged again to abort and return, more goods were falling, the wave was getting worse and water was gushing into one side of the boat, but (the captain) just said, ‘My boat has never sunk anyone.’ He even refused to call for help,” another survivor told the broadcaster.

The woman described some people floating in the water and clutching sacks of goods while help did not arrive for nearly an hour.

The captain was among the dead, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the incident a state of disaster to enable the government to mobilize “extraordinary measures and resources” to assist victims.

Police on X said bodies had been retrieved from the lake that forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but they did not update how many people were injured or missing.

Zimbabwe’s disaster management agency has said the ferry was carrying at least 114 adult passengers and five crew members, and that 77 people had been rescued.

But the real number was not clear because the figures only included those who bought tickets, and children below ticketing age could have been on board. The state broadcaster reported that children were among the dead.

The ferry is used to take people from rural communities around the lake to the town of Kariba on the shore.

Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of Parliament, posted a video Tuesday of what she said were people on shore waving at the ferry when it set off. Some of the people expressed concern whether the aging ferry could handle strong waves, according to the video.

Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam on the Zambezi River. The huge lake is now more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) long and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in places.

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

The Maumelle High student felt unusual movement inside his headgear following warmups last week and brought his helmet to an assistant coach for inspection. A slithering 2-foot cottonmouth was discovered behind some padding.

The pit viper was so reluctant to exit the helmet that animal control officers had to submerge the helmet in water and forced the snake out, grabbing it with tongs. Animal services technicians identified the snake as a deadly cottonmouth. It was released in a wooded area.

Cottonmouths are the second-most venomous snakes found in Arkansas.

Animal services director Chris Davis said the player wore the helmet for nearly an hour and was fortunate he wasn't bitten.

“It was unreal," Davis said. “You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.”

The player grabbed a different helmet and continued practice. But the situation caused the head coach to reiterate to his team that players should examine their equipment carefully before using it, checking for insects — or maybe something larger and more dangerous.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Moscow's full-scale invasion over four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers.

Ukraine's air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country’s biggest accomplishments of the war.

But Ukrainian officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on pressing ahead with the war, despite his bigger army’s slow and costly progress on the battlefield and U.S. diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Putin is planning “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday night on social media, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.

Those reports have said recently that Russia is expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are hard for Ukrainian air defenses to counter.

Ukraine also is trying to scale up its weapons manufacturing through agreements with partner countries.

Russia shows no sign of a new mobilization

Neither Putin nor other senior Russian officials have hinted at a possible major call-up of forces to fight in Ukraine. Some officials have accused Kyiv of trying to rattle the Russian public with talk of a mobilization.

Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov brushed off reports of a possible autumn mobilization. “It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia,” he was quoted as saying by pro-Kremlin online outlet Tsargrad in comments published Monday.

After the widely unpopular partial mobilization of some 300,000 men four years ago, Russia has relied on volunteers attracted by relatively high pay. However, the decree declaring the partial mobilization that Putin signed in September 2022 is open-ended, allowing authorities to resume it if needed.

Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure

The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday. The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure, he added.

Russia relocated most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the main Black Sea base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region overnight, said Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

An 8-year-old child was one of three people killed in the attack on the region, Kondratyev said. He added that 24 others in the region were wounded. Dozens of residential buildings were damaged, Kondratyev said, and debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants.

The strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk’s three grain terminals, with one of them halting operations, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones.

Struck Russian port is also a key oil hub

Novorossiysk also is home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of the largest international hubs in southern Russia for petroleum products. No reports indicated it had been hit.

In February, the U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they affected U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwestern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

With the militaries of European countries boarding and detaining sanctioned Russian oil tankers at sea, hurting the country’s trade and heaping economic pressure on Moscow, Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for what he termed “piracy.”

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin said Western countries are breaking international maritime law by seizing ships they say are part of Moscow’s “ shadow fleet ” of sanctions-dodging merchant vessels.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

On the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-installed head. He added that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.

Russian drones kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall in Ukraine

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 138 long-range drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles during the night, with damage recorded at 16 locations.

In the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, said regional head Oleksandr Prokudin.

The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.

Missiles and long-range drones hit fuel reservoirs and infrastructure used for unloading and storing military cargo in the port of Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

A bulk cargo vessel carrying military equipment and a tanker loaded with oil for the Ukrainian armed forces also were hit in Odesa, it said.

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

“I don't know what I'm going to do without you,” the post said in Spanish, shared on Messi's Instagram. “I don't know how to keep going. All I ever did was play soccer, and now I have serious doubts about whether I'll keep doing it for much longer.”

Jorge Messi — who played a fundamental role in the soccer star's career, serving as his agent and managing his business affairs — died Saturday. He was 68.

Lionel Messi led Argentina to a runner-up finish in this summer's World Cup. In the team’s first match, against Algeria, he was visibly emotional after scoring the first of his three goals. He said later that he wept for “a reason unrelated to sports.”

“You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you took a turn for the worse," the post said. “It was the first time you weren't going to be at the tournament. But mom kept telling me that you were going to get better and that you'd be well enough to travel. I kept telling you that we were going to make it to the final so you could travel.”

The post added that Messi “wanted to win it” for his father.

“I couldn't,” the post continued. “My legs had nothing left. This time I tried to push beyond what my body could handle, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel right.”

Messages of support for the Messi family have poured in over recent days. Messi had returned to his native Argentina and missed his MLS club Inter Miami's recent Leagues Cup match against Monterrey.

Inter Miami concludes the group phase of the tournament Wednesday night against León, though coach Guillermo Hoyos said Tuesday there is no timetable for Messi's return.

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

The Putri Yasmin ferry was traveling from Bali to the neighboring island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province when the fire broke out at about 4:15 a.m. The ferry was also transporting 44 vehicles and 53 motorcycles.

The Search and Rescue Office in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, received an emergency report almost half an hour later and immediately deployed personnel and rescue vessels.

“Our top priority is the safety of all passengers and crew members,” said Muhammad Hariyadi, who heads the Mataram Search and Rescue Office.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed people wearing life jackets crowding an inflatable life raft in choppy waters during a rescue operation at sea, as thick black smoke billows from the ferry.

The rescue agency said that as of Wednesday afternoon, rescuers evacuated 211 people from the burned vessel, including 2 Australian tourists, and recovered the body of a 19-year-old Indonesian woman.

Initial reports had said the ferry was carrying 131 people, including 17 crew members, based on the ship’s manifest.

However, hours after the incident, officials said more people were aboard than listed. It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest.

Authorities have not yet explained why the number of people evacuated exceeded the total listed on the initial passenger manifest. Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said officials will look into the discrepancy.

“The findings will be thoroughly reviewed as part of the ministry’s evaluation,” Purwagandhi said. “This is a serious issue that will be thoroughly investigated.”

He said investigators were determining the cause of the fire.

Syamsurizal, head of the Lembar Port Authority in Lombok, said that survivors told authorities the blaze appeared to have started in a cargo truck before quickly spreading through the ferry. The heat forced some passengers to jump into the sea, he said.

“The response operation is ongoing, and authorities are continuing to account for all victims,” said Syamsurizal, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. He said at least two injured passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital.

Hariyadi said the rescue effort was supported by six vessels, a helicopter, two inflatable boats and two private yachts. He said rough seas with waves reported as high as 4 meters (13 feet) complicated rescue efforts.

Wednesday's incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Consumer prices increased 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Inflation had fallen to 2.4% before the Iran war. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

The mild decrease is the second straight decline after sharply higher gas prices pushed inflation to 4.2% in May, a three-year high. Yet even with the pause, prices are still rising more quickly than average wages, underscoring the struggle many Americans have had paying for groceries, gas, and healthcare. And many costs grew last month, including airfares, computers, and used cars.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation slipped to 2.5% in July from a year ago, down from 2.6% in June. July’s figure matches a post-pandemic low reached in January and February, before the Iran war.

Core prices rose 0.2% from June to July. Monthly increases at about 0.2% would be low enough over time to bring inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% goal.

“America still has an inflation problem, but there are encouraging signs that price pressures outside of the gas pump are easing,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said.

Inflation report could make Fed rate hike less likely

Cooler inflation could also ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise their key interest rate to combat rising costs. Fed officials are sharply split over their next steps. Roughly half the members of the central bank's rate-setting committee support raising borrowing costs this year, while another half think rates are already high enough to slowly push inflation back to their 2% target.

“We're clearly not out of the woods, however it makes the Fed’s decision a little bit easier, because now you see that inflation is creeping down,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America.

Still, oil prices remain elevated and gas prices rose in late July and August, suggesting overall inflation could accelerate next month. On Wednesday, gas averaged $4.04 a gallon nationwide, 16 cents higher than a month ago, according to the motor club AAA.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Donald Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the U.S attack on Iran, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade or whether they will lead to persistently rising prices.

Some companies, however, are still struggling with higher costs from Trump's tariffs.

Julie Robbins, CEO of Earthquaker Devices, an Akron, Ohio-based maker of pedals used to create effects for guitars, said her company has paid $200,000 in tariffs this year and has had to raise prices twice to offset the costs.

Only a small amount of those tariffs have been refunded after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's emergency duties. Robbins is worried they will have to raise prices again as the White House has sought to impose new tariffs to replace the ones that lost due to the Supreme Court decision.

Her company's electric bills have also risen in recent months and the rising costs of fuel have pushed up her shipping costs.

“I am just seeing more and more costs going up all the time,” Robbins said. “The money we paid on tariffs, that easily could have paid for two or three more employees.”

Gas, grocery prices fell, while computers, airfares rose

Wednesday's report showed that gasoline prices fell 2.9% from June to July, and even grocery prices declined slightly, falling by 0.1%. Yet gas prices are 25% higher than a year ago. And groceries are 2.7% more expensive than a year earlier.

Hotel room prices dropped 2.8% from June to July, likely reflecting the end of the World Cup tournament. Clothing costs rose just 0.1%, though they are up 3.9% in the past year.

Other things are growing more expensive: Computer prices jumped 3.5% from June to July, reflecting a decision by Apple to sharply raise prices for its computers and tablets as AI spending pushes up the cost of semiconductors. Smartphone prices rose 1.1%.

Airline fares rose 2.2% from June to July as jet fuel prices spiral higher along with oil.

Price increases have stayed above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years, suggesting there is more than temporary factors at play.

The cost of services such as healthcare, restaurant meals, and car maintenance rose 3% in July from a year earlier, and they aren't particularly sensitive to gas prices or AI investment. Rising costs for services often reflect higher wages, as companies charge more to offset the cost of higher pay. But incomes aren't growing fast enough to sustain inflation, economists note.

It's a confounding situation that has left many economists — and Fed officials — seeking more information to determine where inflation is headed.

“You've got all these things that are just not the way the economy used to behave,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, said.

For many consumers, years of sharply rising grocery prices have led them to adopt a wide range of coping strategies, from comparison shopping, to couponing, to cutting back on favorite foods.

Retailers, including Walmart, have responded by rolling back food prices, a trend that could have lowered July's inflation figures. Yet many other businesses are still passing on higher costs.

Paint company Sherwin-Williams is planning an 8% price increase in September to offset higher raw material costs, CEO Heidi Petz said late last month.

“We are seeing the impact of higher oil and related cost pressures, and we expect continued volatility throughout the balance of the year,” she said.

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AP Writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed to this report from New York.

LUBBOCK — The Texas Broadband Development Office placed a temporary hold Tuesday on all disbursements of billions of dollars in federal funds related to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD.

The hold comes after the office was accused of favoritism to certain companies, specifically Elon Musk’s Starlink, which led to lawmakers announcing an audit.

In an email obtained by The Texas Tribune, the state broadband office shared with subgrantees that the hold was effective as of Monday, and will be in place “until further notice.” The office did not give a reason as to why the disbursements were paused.

The office did not respond to The Tribune in time for publication.

“No further action is required from subgrantees at this time,” the office said in the email. ”The BDO will provide additional guidance and updates as they become available.”

Last week, Comptroller Don Huffines announced a comprehensive internal review of his office, which includes the broadband office.

Lawmakers began questioning the Broadband Office in June on how it doled out more than $3 billion in BEAD funding. During a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown, said his office heard about the concerns regarding taxpayer money, including how much money was disbursed up-front for the projects. While other providers were only expected to receive 10% of the grant money to start, with the rest dispersed on a tiered system, the rules were changed for low-Earth orbit satellite providers.

According to Bryant Clayton, the BDO’s director, the change was a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and made just days before the grant was awarded.

In response, Schwertner called for more transparency in the grant award process by the BDO.

“I have my eye on y’all regarding the way y’all are conducting your business,” Schwertner told Clayton. “I don’t care who’s messing with your business, but we, as an oversight committee, are going to oversee it regarding fairness and transparency.”

Starlink is the largest provider of residential broadband service through low-Earth orbit satellites in Texas, and has at least 12 million customers worldwide. Amazon recently began deploying satellites for its own LEO service. Both of the companies were chosen as subgrantees by the BDO.

Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat running for Texas Attorney General, claimed in a campaign statement that the award process could be corruption from the federal government down.

“Without drawing conclusions for the moment, the whole process may have involved coordinated corruption among the Trump administration, the illegally empowered DOGE czar Musk, private entities (Starlink), the governor’s office and the broadband development office,” Johnson said in the statement.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows called for an audit of the state’s broadband office. In a joint statement, the lawmakers said the audit is a result of the concerns raised about the BEAD award process.

In his final days as acting comptroller, Kelly Hancock responded to the allegations by accusing Amazon of “aggressively” lobbying state legislators, including members of the Senate committee. Hancock also said he didn’t believe Texans should act as a financial safety net for multibillion-dollar companies. His statement did not mention Musk or Starlink, which is the focus of the allegations.

Schwertner fired back at Hancock, saying in a post on X: “It’s good to see new incoming leadership in the comptroller’s office after the failed election and tenure of the current interim comptroller. No tantrum on the way out of the office will change that.”

The audit process is underway, but there is no clear date on when it will be completed. Patrick and Burrows said in their statement that the legislature will take action during the next session, beginning in January.

The 30-foot (9-meter) model of a Dutch Kitchenette opened to the public last month as part of the 150th anniversary celebration of Coppes Napanee, one of two companies still in existence that manufactured the popular Hoosier cabinets more than a century ago. The cabinet name was coined after its largest producer, the Hoosier Manufacturing Co.

Dubbed the world’s largest Hoosier cabinet, the replica built against a brick background is equipped with stairs leading to a loft that visitors to the town of Nappanee can look out from. It overlooks Coppes Commons, the site of the original Coppes Napanee factory that has been converted to an indoor marketplace, artisan hub and museum. The company still produces custom cabinets next door.

Wesley Mast, owner and president of Coppes Napanee, said he typically hears two types of responses when visitors first see the giant cabinet.

“There’s the one extreme where people are like, ‘Why? Why such a big cabinet?’” Mast said. “And my response is always like, ‘Why not?’

“The other response we get is like, ‘That’s so cool. Where did you get this idea? I love it.’”

Mast said the cabinet “brings us another level of attention and branding and makes this place more of a destination than just a pass-through.”

The Hoosier cabinet is a freestanding kitchen workstation and storage area that centralized and sped up food preparation. The cabinets were popular from the 1890s through the 1930s but waned after World War II as built-in, wall-to-wall cabinetry became the norm in new home construction.

A century ago, “this was the kitchen,” Mast said. “This was kind of the first piece of furniture that went into the house as a kitchen and was considered all-in-one, the kitchen itself in just one piece.”

There were 5,000 dealers of Hoosier cabinets across the country, said Mary Figueroa, curator of History at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, which has four Hoosier cabinets in its collection.

Prior to the Hoosier cabinet, a kitchen area would have some shelves, a separate work table and a corner cupboard. “But this was a piece of furniture that kind of consolidated all of that, allowed women to save their steps and have everything that they could possibly need to make a meal right at their fingertips,” Figueroa said.

The Hoosier cabinet had space for storing items such as flour, sugar, spices, loaves of bread and other pantry supplies. They were nicknamed “kitchen pianos” because everything that was needed was within close range. They had built-in flour sifters and came with small cookbooks with recipes involving meats, soups, breads or desserts, among other things. Advertising for the cabinets even made the promise to “strengthen your marriage” and “make you more beautiful” because of the time and steps that it saved for women, Figueroa said.

Nappanee is located in Elkhart County, a region known as a top U.S. hub for recreational vehicle manufacturing, wood products production and home to the third-largest Amish settlement in the nation. It is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.

And now, add Nappanee as a potential tourist attraction for the colossal cabinet.

“It’s bringing awareness,” Figueroa said. “I mean, you can’t miss it.”

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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

“Last week, A&M had me at one point down. The week before that, Fox News had me one point down,” Hinojosa said. ”So this race is within the margin of error. We are in a statistical tie with Greg Abbott.”

Hinojosa said she is crossing the state speaking with both Democrats and Republicans.

“Politics is all mixed up in 2026, and I think what it is is this energy for change, anti-incumbency energy,” she said. ”It is not that people are suddenly, yay, Democrat. They’re just like, whatever this is, we want change.”

Last week, KSAT’s Courtney Friedman interviewed Abbott about his new energy plan to break monopolies.

On Tuesday, she sat down one-on-one with Hinojosa, asking about her priorities and confidence level with recent poll numbers.

Watch the full interview below:

Hinojosa addressed several key issues during the interview, including public schools, data centers, energy and the economy:

Public schools

Friedman: What conversations are you having with people who maybe have voted conservative before, who are opening up to the option of voting for you?

Hinojosa: I have MAGA moms supporting me in this campaign who see our schools are in crisis. We have over 150 schools shutting down, a lot of them here in San Antonio, actually. We’ve launched TeamTexasPublicSchools.com, and it’s an effort for people who love their public schools and are ready to fight for them. It is not coded Democrat or Republican because I do have Republican supporters who see this.

Friedman: How does that work? What is the actual protocol for making this happen?

Hinojosa: Basically, DOGE the Texas Education Agency or scrub it, audit it, to make sure that every dollar we’re spending is prioritized for the classroom.

Data centers

Friedman: One of the top topics is data centers. The governor just talked about a moratorium and these audits.

Hinojosa: In 2015, Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that would give these giant data centers tax breaks for 20 years. So they don’t have to pay any sales tax on the electricity they consume, and they consume a ton. So people are mad, in these rural areas especially. They’re about water being sent to the data centers instead of their communities. They’re mad about pollution. They are mad about noise.

What Greg Abbott did with his temporary pause is tell all these data centers, get your project in now because next year we’re going to work with the legislature to put real protections in the law.

We need Governor Abbott to call a special session today. He has the sole power to provide real legal protections for people.

Economy

Friedman: What are the key points that you want people to know about how you can make things more affordable on a day-to-day basis?

Hinojosa: Great question, and so what I have proposed is $1,500 money in your pocket to every Texas household. That comes out of our rainy day fund that is capped and overflowing at $27 billion. It’s never been that high. It has historically been at $10 billion.

Energy

Friedman: I reported and talked to the governor last week about his energy plan that was put forth to disperse the energy sector to break up so-called monopolies. What’s your opinion on that?

Hinojosa: I think he’s trying to distract from the fact that everybody’s utility bills, electricity bills, have gone up about $40 or more a month after Winter Storm Uri. When we had the blackout and gas companies withheld the gas that our grid needed until they could make record profits, billions in mere hours, Greg Abbott let that happen.

Your local CPS (Energy) sued to try to protect the ratepayers and just lost that lawsuit maybe last month or two months ago, and because they were not able to prevail in court, your electricity bills are going to go up in a big way in the coming year ... and that’s what your City Council is trying to figure out right now.

We need a guarantee that we freeze rates and make industry pay its fair share. Greg Abbott’s proposal only ensures profits for for-profit companies who are in the business of utilities. When you compare these municipally owned utilities to the private sector in the rest of the state, you’ll see that you all get a better deal.

Big Bend

Friedman: The border wall going through Big Bend and those areas. What is your comment on that and this border wall security?

Hinojosa: We need a governor who will stand up for our land rights, property rights, and our sovereignty, and that is not happening. What is happening right now is a travesty for all of us. We know the beauty of the Big Bend region; those of us who have visited, it takes our breath away, and it is being decimated right now by these federal contractors. I am against that, and I would use whatever power as governor in court to try to stop it.

Turning Texas blue

Friedman: We’ve seen a lot of great poll numbers before. Do you actually think you can turn Texas blue?

Hinojosa: I wouldn’t be spending a year of my life away from my family, I still have a son at home, doing this campaign if I didn’t believe we could win.

It’s not just the polling, but we’re seeing Democrats win all over this state where they haven’t won in a long time, sometimes ever. I was just in the Houston area. They flipped a mayor’s seat in Pearland. We know about Leander, flipped their mayor’s seat, a city council seat. We knew about Tarrant County, flipped a state senate seat, swung it 31 points.

I received twice as many votes in the primary as Beto did in 2018, and I had eight opponents, and that’s because people are motivated for change.

Talarico connections

Friedman: How closely is your campaign and James Talarico’s campaign keeping tabs, communicating, because this is also a really big surge that we’re seeing over there.

Hinojosa: We’re friends. We sit next to each other on the floor of the House. In 23, we were co-chairs of the effort to stop vouchers. We were successful in that effort. We both sit on the Public Education Committee, and our teams talk daily. So yes, he’s running a fantastic campaign.

He helps me. I help him, and it is a historical first. We have two strong campaigns at the top of the ticket, and that just makes for better chances for both of us.

KSAT has requested a one-on-one interview or a statement twice from Abbott to go over his top campaign priorities as well. The campaign team has not sent a response yet. Any future statements will be updated in this story.

Last week during talks about a new energy plan, Abbott spoke to the press about his new Keep Texas Affordable Initiative that promises cheaper insurance premiums, energy bills, tuition and more.

Read also:

• Gov. Abbott announces plan to break energy monopolies in cities like San Antonio, Austin
• Reactions flowing in after Gov. Abbott announces plan to break up energy sector in San Antonio, Austin
• Governor’s new energy plan fuels debate about CPS Energy payments going into City of San Antonio general budget

Superintendent Justin Turner said students can return to classrooms, though some are still in the work phase and may not be completed until winter break.

Crews have been working overtime to replace drywall and flooring after floodwaters entered multiple buildings on campus.

Turner said the agriculture and science building took the worst hit, and some expensive equipment inside may be ruined.

“In here you can see where the water got,” Turner said while showing damage to a laser cutter. “This is a very expensive piece of machinery; all the electrical components are below.”

Twelve school buildings were damaged in total. Turner said five buildings had Category 3 floodwater, meaning the water may have been contaminated, while seven others were damaged by rainwater.

The district told KSAT the flooding was tied to the heavy rain on the week of July 16.

The campus sits on a slight slope, and the agriculture building is next to a retention pond. Turner said the rain overwhelmed the pond, the wall gave out and water rushed into several buildings.

The water then had a direct path toward the athletic facility, which houses the weight room and coaches’ offices.

Five days before school started, there was still significant cleanup and repair work underway. Turner said the district remained committed to opening on time.

“Rest assured, we have school on Aug. 12. That’s going to happen,” Turner said.

Turner said the recovery effort also showed the strength of the Ingram community. After the water receded, about 150 parents and students came to campus to move equipment and pull out carpet.

“The first thing I can think about is what are we going to do as a school district in order to eliminate this from happening in the future?” Turner said.

The district is now pausing other construction projects while engineers determine how to prevent similar flooding from happening again.

Turner said the flood repairs are expected to cost the district less than $2 million, which will likely not be covered due to the insurance deductible.

The district is also waiting on a new administration building after the previous one was destroyed in the 2025 floods. That new building is expected to open next spring.

More Back to School coverage on KSAT:

• Back-to-school start dates for districts in San Antonio, surrounding areas
• What San Antonio drivers need to keep in mind before hitting the roads as children return to school

Those districts include Fort Sam Houston ISD, Harlandale ISD, Ingram ISD, Judson ISD, Lackland ISD, Medina Valley ISD, Natalia ISD, Pleasanton ISD, San Antonio ISD, School of Science and Technology, Somerset Academies, and Southside ISD.

To mark the start of the new school year, KSAT has crews at both Creekview High School, the new high school at Medina Valley ISD, and Nathanial Hawthorne Academy in SAISD.

WATCH KSAT’s live coverage from GMSA in the media players below:

More Back to School coverage on KSAT:

• IDEA Public Schools welcomes 18K students on first day
• Viewers share back-to-school photos on KSAT Connect
• Driving to school for the first time? What teens and parents need to know to stay safe

They do this in a grassroots, community-led way: helping families preserve photos, documents and memories; recording oral histories; and building a digital archive and museum exhibits so these stories are accessible for education and the public.

Their work makes the region’s history more complete by adding an African American lens to the broader San Antonio story, from Spanish colonial days through the Texas Republic and beyond.

KSAT Community Phone Bank

To strengthen efforts to preserve, share and celebrate the stories of African descendants across San Antonio and the Southwest, KSAT Community will host a phone bank benefiting SAAACAM.

The live televised “Every Story Matters” fundraiser runs 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12. Representatives from SAAACAM will be available to help collect contributions and answer your questions.

Community contributions help sustain free educational programming, public exhibits and long-term preservation of oral histories. Donations also support development of a future cultural center envisioned as a hub for sharing personal stories, learning from one another, honoring those who came before and ensuring the community’s history is not lost.

With traditional funding for museums and cultural organizations shrinking, community giving is increasingly critical to protect irreplaceable local history and expand access to learning opportunities.

Donations can be made through SAAACAM’s Givebutter page. From $10 to $100, every gift supports preservation, education and the long-term goal of a permanent home for these stories.

SAAACAM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit preserving and sharing the history and cultural heritage of African descendants in San Antonio and the Southwest. Through community-led archiving and digitized exhibits, it brings a holistic African American lens to regional history and serves as a steward of historic resources. SAAACAM is a member of leading museum and oral history associations.

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union. Click here to read about other KSAT Community efforts. Interested in partnering with KSAT Community? Get in touch by filling out this form.

Castle Hills police were dispatched around 3:25 a.m. Saturday to a business alarm at The PokeHive. Officers walked through the front door, which had been forced open, to find shattered display cases that held Pokémon trading cards, the department said.

The PokeHive store owner Cole Blancett said the four suspects stole more than $100,000 worth of cards.

Robberies of trading card stores are common, according to Blancett, but the break-in still caught him off guard.

“Trading cards are the most liquid asset other than just stealing cash out of the register,” Blancett said. “You can go to stores all over town, be able to cash out and move product quickly — usually anonymously.”

That concept isn’t new for Blancett. Three years ago, KSAT reported on a robbery that happened days after The PokeHive opened.

There was no damage to the store after the 2023 robbery. However, Saturday’s break-in cost at least $25,000 in store repairs and damaged product, Blancett said.

Dramatic surveillance footage of the store shows four people rushing through the door and piling boxes of Pokémon sets into two large buckets.

The video shows some suspects carrying an object to break open the glass displays. Police said detectives found blood near the shattered glass.

As of Tuesday night, the suspects remain at large, but Blancett believes it’s only a matter of time before someone is caught.

The Castle Hills Police Department said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to contact the department at 210-342-2341.

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The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes, barely 50 centimeters (less than 20 inches) high, showing Mozart with his dog. They were designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl.

Within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.

“The worst thing for an artist is when his work dissolves,” Hörl told the German news agency dpa. He said he did not believe visitors stole the works but rather that it was an “organized theft.”

Hörl intended to sell the statues for about 100 euros ($114) once the exhibition was over, meaning whoever ran away with 210 mini-Mozarts has not become an overnight millionaire.

The mini-Mozarts populated not only the garden of the composer's former house, but also his living quarters as well as several pavilions.

While the organizers put aside some spare statuettes in case of theft, there were too few to compensate for the actual losses. And in a further stroke of bad luck, the manufacturer of the statues was away on holidays, so there was no quick fix.

The exhibition of statuettes, now more widely spaced, is scheduled to remain on display until Aug. 30.

For Hörl, who is known from his sculptures made from polymer, the theft of his artworks is nothing new. At an installation in Bayreuth, Germany, a complete array of statues of Richard Wagner was stolen within 10 days.

“That’s just the nature of public space. That means when you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn’t complain about what is happening there,” Hörl said. “It ranges from destruction to theft. That’s just how it is.”

Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, where the Mozarteum Foundation offers concerts, maintains Mozart museums and supports research on him.

“I didn’t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. But I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,” Hörl told The Associated Press.

To give the statues a human touch, Hörl depicted the composer with his favorite dog, Pimperl. Mozart and his family were known to take long walks with their dogs in the Mirabell Garden, next to where they lived.

“There’s a part of me which says, ‘you didn’t write that,’” he recalls of composing his debut album, “Life Is a Dream.” “What’s it called? Impostor syndrome.”

Thankfully, it did not stop him from finishing the collection of 12 compositions he crafted over six decades.

Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and recorded at London's Alexandra Palace in April, it will be released by Decca Records on Aug. 21.

“My first love, or vocation really, is music,” said the 88-year-old actor. “That sounds very official, but I was raised with a lot of music (of the) postwar years, and it influenced me. And I started playing the piano when I was quite young.”

He picked up the instrument at 4 and began composing years later, writing his first piece, a waltz, in 1960. He was 22 at the time.

“I find more freedom with music,” he says, compared to acting, which he labels “a discipline, you have to know your stuff. But music for me is a freewheeling kind of art form.”

And he's had his fair share of experience. Prior to the release of “Life Is a Dream,” Hopkins had composed scores for a number of films.

“The opening of ‘Shadowlands’ is my first adventure in composing music,” he said, referring to the 1993 film he starred in as “The Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis. Then he composed for a few other movies, including 1996’s “August,” 2007’s “Slipstream” and 2020’s “Elyse.”

Hopkins' childhood informed ‘Life Is A Dream’

“It's about my childhood,” he says of the album, which shares its title with the Pedro Calderón de la Barca play. “It's basically the memories of my childhood and growing up in Wales, and my developments in life, my adolescent years,” and so on.

But he says “there’s a great sadness in it all because — don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a wonderful life — but underneath it all, there is the knowledge that life is one long goodbye. From the moment we’re born, we begin to die,” he starts to laugh. “Sounds so cheerful!”

That tension — or better put, wisdom — carries throughout the release. Take the first single as an example. “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra: II. Bracken Road” is the middle composition in a three-part suite about a particular summer in South Wales. He says it contains a “melancholy and sadness,” a sense that arises with its cello.

“It’s the welcomed sound of nostalgia, of the strange, whimsical pain of life,” he describes the song. “All music is actually based in pain. Sounds pretty preposterous, but it is. It’s about the yearning.”

The same can be said about the song “Stella Aria” — named after his wife, director and actor Stella Hopkins — that deals with “the loneliness in all of us,” he says, but is part of a path to “sheer happiness.”

Hopkins has been reflecting for quite some time now — both in his memoir, “We Did OK, Kid,” released last fall — and on this album. “I look at my own life now, and especially this year; I’m going to be 89 at the end of the year. And I look back and I’m thinking, ‘good God, I couldn’t have planned any of this.’ From the moment I decided to become an actor, 70 years ago, I thought … ‘Why did I do that?’ I didn’t know, because I was pretty useless in school? I didn’t know what else to do. So I tried for a scholarship, became an actor instead of a musician. And suddenly I’m given a huge plate of success by some force of nature.”

“I'm without fear of mortality,” he adds. “I'm just so grateful I’ve lived this long.”

How Bradley Cooper was instrumental in the album

In a surprising turn of events, actor Bradley Cooper “passed me on to Dudamel,” says Hopkins, after witnessing Hopkins' composition a few years before with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Seal. Dudamel was on board.

But when it came time to record at Alexandra Palace earlier this year, “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How the hell did I write this?' I have no idea,” said Hopkins. “And Dudamel said, ‘This is wonderful.’ … He is one of the most astonishing people I’ve met. He’s so full of life and so full of energy and love, and it’s quite extraordinary.”

It's a shared affection.

“The same depth of imagination, humanity and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music,” Dudamel said in a statement. “Anthony approaches music with the heart of a storyteller and the instincts of a poet, creating sound worlds that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.”

Live performance may be on the horizon

After his debut album, live performances may be next. Top of Hopkins' list is Carnegie Hall.

“That’s where I want to go. That’s what I want,” he says.

The 1947 film “Carnegie Hall” was a formative film for him, and he has the distinct memory of his mother saying, “You play at Carnegie Hall one day.”

It is yet another dream in a life full of them.

Judge Ryan Luna, who presides over McLennan County’s 414th District Court, issued the update in a filing made at 4:03 p.m., a McLennan County District Clerk’s Office official told KSAT.

Tuesday afternoon’s filing went into effect immediately, the official said.

Due to Luna’s new ruling, Boerne will represent the Southwest region at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Shortly after Tuesday’s ruling, Little League Baseball, Inc. issued a statement to social media that thanked the 414th District Court for its ruling and “looked forward to welcoming Boerne” to Pennsylvania.

“The decision upholds our commitment to a fair and equitable experience for all children based on our Official Rules, Regulations, and Operating Policies,” the league said.

An update regarding the LLB Southwest Region Tournament pic.twitter.com/y1VZwxVb5A

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 11, 2026

KSAT reached out to Boerne Little League board president Jacob Myers for a comment on Luna’s ruling but has yet to hear back.

Below is the original story that was last updated at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday.

1:05 p.m. — A day after celebrating on the field, the Boerne Little League baseball team said it plans to compete in the 2026 Little League World Series despite twists and turns off the field.

Boerne received stellar pitching to defeat the Ascension Parish team from Gonzales, Louisiana, 4-1 Monday in Waco.

Approximately an hour before Monday’s game, Little League Baseball, Inc. announced that the team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was disqualified from competition after using an ineligible player. Before Monday, Tulsa qualified for the Southwest regional title game.

Tulsa’s disqualification meant the Boerne-Ascension Parish game became the de facto regional title game.

After Boerne’s win, a Waco-area district judge granted a temporary restraining order against Little League Baseball, Inc., which included the Tulsa Little League team’s reinstatement into the Southwest regional bracket.

Tulsa station KOTV first obtained the news release that announced the temporary restraining order.

In the release, Judge Ryan Luna in McLennan County’s 414th District Court also ordered the Tulsa team to face Boerne in what was originally scheduled to be the Southwest regional title game at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Waco.

Boerne’s response

Boerne Little League board president Jacob Myers told KSAT in a phone interview late Tuesday morning that he had yet to hear an update from Little League Baseball, Inc. about any schedule changes for the Boerne team.

By virtue of the win, Myers said Boerne was “declared (Southwest region) champions Monday and intend to head to (Williamsport), Pennsylvania.”

In a social media post made following Boerne’s victory, Little League Baseball, LLC, declared, “The Boerne boys are back!”

The Boerne boys are back! pic.twitter.com/5mj8qZesGa

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 10, 2026

“We’re proud of our team and coaches,” Myers said. “This is not to diminish the work they put in. We’re focusing on the next steps forward.”

KSAT also reached out to the Little League’s Southwest regional headquarters, which is based in Waco, and to Little League Baseball, Inc.’s headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for comment on Luna’s ruling.

As of Tuesday afternoon, neither entity has responded to KSAT’s requests.

The 2026 Little League World Series begins Aug. 19 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

More sports coverage on KSAT:

• Spurs schedule sneak peek: San Antonio to face Thunder on Opening Night, Knicks on Christmas Day
• Lanier HS football opens fall camp with midnight practice
• Boerne’s Little League World Series bid uncertain after judge reinstates disqualified team

With the improvements, the search giant hopes to give users a reason to buy new models and expand the number of people using its AI tools.

“Google continues to tout new software features, primarily around AI, as the reason to upgrade," said Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall. He noted the company has added a way to extract photos from videos, a teleprompter, video stabilization, and an improved speech-to-text feature.

While the Pixel phones are not as popular as Apple's iPhone, Google has been steadily increasing the amount of AI on its Pixel phones since 2023.

Apple, meanwhile, has been lagging behind. It announced new AI advances in June, focusing on how the technology can help with people's day-to-day lives, with a focus on privacy and security — using Google's Gemini AI model to do so.

Google said in a presentation to reporters last week that the new phones will double the previous storage size, starting at 256 gigabytes, and feature 30 hours of battery life and faster wireless charging. The company has eliminated the 128 gigabyte Pixel 11, which had been its lowest-priced option at $800.

Beginning Wednesday, U.S. customers can order the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, starting at $900, $1,100 and $1,300, respectively. The Pixel Pro Fold, meanwhile, starts at $1,900. That's a $100 increase for each phone from last year's prices.

New features include live translation for videos, podcasts and voice messages. In the Pro models, a tool called HiLight lets you assign a color to your favorite contacts and have the phone light up in that color when they call and your phone is placed face down. It complements Pixel's “Flip to Shhh” feature that puts the phone in “do not disturb” mode when it is placed face down.

Google is also offering a free six-month subscription to its AI Pro plan to anyone who buys the more expensive Pixel 11 Pro or Pixel 11 Pro XL models. The company is hoping to hook more people on the AI Gemini tool kit, which it assembled to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Camera upgrades include a new mode called Magic Capture, which automatically takes a series of photos and video with a single tap of the shutter button. Google said the cameras also feature improved light sensitivity and, for Pro models, Instant Night Sight captures shots in dark environments faster, so you don't have to hold your phone still while waiting for exposure.

Google also introduced a tracking device for the first time. Called Pixel Tag, it will cost $30 for one or $100 for a four-pack and is compatible with phones running Android 9 or higher.

In a statement obtained by KSAT, Brazoria County Sheriff Bo Stallman said Kevin Tippit was arrested and booked into the Brazoria County Detention Center based on the indictment.

The Texas Rangers took Tippit into custody around 9 a.m. Tuesday, the Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office told KPRC, KSAT’s sister station in Houston.

The sheriff said Tippit is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, which is considered a first-degree felony.

According to Brazoria County jail records, Tippit was later released Tuesday on a $250,000 bond.

“There is no doubt this incident had devastating consequences,” Stallman said, in part. “I want our citizens to know we do our best to be, and to employ, individuals who care deeply for our community.”

Stallman announced in a YouTube video that Tippit was fired due to policy violations about a week after the shooting.

Shooting in Lake Jackson

In a previous statement to KSAT, the university identified the student as Mendoza Jr., 18. He was a freshman who studied management, the school said.

Deputies attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle just after midnight on June 1 near Farm-to-Market 2004 and This Way Street in Lake Jackson.

The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Mendoza, did not stop, deputies said. The deputies then chased after the vehicle for approximately a mile into a neighborhood located in the 100 block of Indian Warrior Trail.

According to the sheriff’s office, Mendoza went inside a home’s garage and parked before Tippit approached the vehicle.

Tippit then pulled out his firearm and allegedly shot into the vehicle. The sheriff’s office said the gunfire struck Mendoza.

Mendoza was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

“This indictment carries heavy emotion,” Stallman said. “John Jr. was a young man who was well-loved and had his whole life in front of him. He should be here with his family.”

Read also:

• Brazoria County deputy shoots, kills Texas State University student after car chase, report says

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces cooked beef (such as roast, steak or pot roast), cut into bite-size pieces or shredded
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 2 to 3 cups (2 ounces) baked or regular tortilla chips
• 1 cup thick and chunky salsa
• 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend or Cheddar cheese (optional)

Toppings:

• Additional salsa, sour cream, lime wedges, chopped avocado, chopped tomato, fresh chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add bell pepper and garlic; cook 4 to 6 minutes or until pepper is crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

Add eggs and tortilla chips. Cook 30 to 60 seconds or until eggs begin to set, stirring constantly. Stir in beef and salsa; cook 2 to 4 minutes or until beef is heated through. Season with salt and pepper, as desired.

Sprinkle with cheese, if desired; remove from heat. Let stand, uncovered, 1 minute. Serve with Toppings, as desired.

The country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia despite its fairly restrictive gun laws. The two recent shootings, both in Nonthaburi province northwest of the capital Bangkok, have intensified calls for tighter controls on firearms.

A student opened fire at his high school and family home on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20 before apparently taking his own life, according to police. Three days later, a former lawmaker was arrested after a shooting at a government office that killed one person and injured another.

Government spokesperson Lalida Persvivatana said the government is working to strengthen gun regulations and crack down on illegal firearms.

The ultimate goal is “to find ways to remove guns from people’s daily lives as much as possible and make Thai society safer,” she said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered an urgent review of gun regulations, including a suspension of new permits to purchase firearms and a review of existing permits, according to a statement from the Government House.

He also instructed the Interior Ministry to propose amendments to Thailand's gun control laws within 60 days. The changes are expected to bolster the collection of firearms data, tighten controls on the gun trade and increase penalties for offenders.

Penalties for unlawful possession of firearms in Thailand include prison terms of one to 10 years and fines of up to 20,000 baht ($600). While the licensing laws are strict, critics say there are weaknesses in enforcement.

The measures announced Tuesday include the immediate suspension of welfare gun programs, which allowed public officials, including civil servants, police and soldiers, local officials and lawmakers, to buy guns at a discount through government subsidies. Gun control experts say the poorly regulated resale of the guns contributed to their proliferation.

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

Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org found that Thai civilians owned about 15 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 people in neighboring Malaysia.

Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but it is relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.

While mass shootings are still rare in Thailand, the country has seen an uptick in high-profile attacks in recent years.

Michael E. Picard, a security analyst who researches arms trafficking in Southeast Asia, told The Associated Press that he hasn't seen much evidence of the effectiveness of gun control measures enacted after previous mass killings in 2020 and 2022 that each left more than two dozen people dead.

In reaction to last week's school shootings, in which the gun used was reported to be legally registered to the shooter's grandfather, he said increasing safe storage requirements for gun licenses would be an important step.

More broadly, if bribes are paid to get a gun permit, corruption in the government agency that administers licenses needs to be rooted out, he said.

The welfare gun programs also need to be scrapped, Picard suggested, adding that "the government should buy back, safely store, or organize an amnesty for the millions of welfare guns out there."

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship that was taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin described the Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia as a breach of international maritime law.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

He added that the Russian response wouldn't necessarily come in the waters where the Russian ships were seized, noting that Moscow could retaliate “in any area where we see it as necessary and appropriate,” including in the Pacific.

The Pacific Fleet chief, Adm. Viktor Liina, reported to Putin that the navy was ready to start inspections of the commercial ships serving the “unfriendly nations.” He noted that many of the ships operated by British, French and other European carriers fly the flags of other nations, effectively making them a “shadow fleet.”

“We have enough assets for inspection and detention of vessels of the unfriendly nations and their shadow fleet,” Liina told Putin. “We are ready to start performing the task.”

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being of Russia's “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president in 2008-2012 to let Putin observe term limits and is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, noted that many ships belonging to European carriers fly the so-called “flags of convenience” just like Russian carriers do.

“It means that by applying a symmetrical approach, which is only fair, Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel belonging to hostile nations, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, provided there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is carrying cargo in the enemy’s interest, and that applies to any cargo,” Medvedev said. “There are a great many such vessels, and our military is capable of dramatically expanding operations well beyond the Black Sea basin.”

The arrest warrants identified the suspects as Kyle Erin Torres-Carcovich, 45; Martin Sanchez Jr., 58; and Robert Barnett, 38.

According to court records, Torres-Carcovich, Barnett and Sanchez are all charged with failure to report a felony with serious bodily injury or death results, which is considered a Class A misdemeanor.

Sanchez is also charged with tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair, a third-degree felony, jail records show.

License plate reader on suspect vehicle

Bexar County sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting around 2:30 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Waterside Drive and Crestway Road.

Upon arrival, deputies located a 31-year-old man, later identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office as Andrew Locke, unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds inside a black Mitsubishi Lancer, authorities said.

Locke was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators detained multiple people at the shooting scene who said that they were traveling toward Waterside Drive and noticed a white Volvo sedan parked on the side of the road with a blonde female driver.

Witnesses told investigators that when their vehicle stopped at the Waterside and Crestway intersection, the white Volvo pulled up beside them and multiple gunshots came from the vehicle.

Approximately a minute before the shooting call came out, the affidavit said the white Volvo was located at New World Drive and Miller Road, which is around half a mile away from the crime scene. Investigators used a license plate reader on the vehicle.

A sergeant later drove by a home around 11:25 a.m. in the 1900 block of Clay Oak Drive. The affidavit said the address was associated with the Volvo since it was a loaner from a dealership.

The sergeant said he saw a woman and a man standing beside the white Volvo parked inside a residential parking garage. The pair were cleaning the vehicle, according to the warrant.

The white Volvo was eventually located back at the dealership in the 1300 block of Northeast Loop 410. The driver of the vehicle, identified as Barnett, and the passenger, Torres-Carcovich, were detained as they pulled into the location, court documents state.

The suspect’s vehicle was confirmed to have the same Texas license plate detected on the reader approximately a minute before the shooting call, the affidavit said.

In subsequent interviews with investigators, court documents state Barnett and Torres-Carcovich said they were aware a shooting occurred on Waterside Drive.

Torres-Carcovich stated that Sanchez fired a weapon out of the Volvo’s window, which struck the victim’s vehicle. She also told investigators that she and Barnett discussed contacting law enforcement, but decided against it.

‘I’m going to light them up’

Barnett allegedly told authorities that Sanchez, who was sitting directly behind him, said, “I’m going to light them up” before the shooting, the affidavit states. Torres-Carcovich also told deputies that Sanchez fired the gunshots.

In Sanchez’s interview with investigators, he said that the purpose of the late-night meetup was to obtain narcotics, according to the affidavit. His timeline of events leading up to the shooting, however, was inconsistent with investigators’ account, the warrant said.

Investigators later obtained surveillance footage from a Valero gas station at approximately 3:10 a.m., which was around 40 minutes after deputies responded to the shooting.

The footage showed Torres-Carcovich, Barnett and Sanchez at the gas station. Sanchez was allegedly seen “rummaging” through the back seat of the Volvo and throwing items into a trash can.

According to the warrant, investigators searched the trash can and discovered multiple shell casings.

Read also:

• Man hospitalized after being shot in fight on West Side, police say

Zhu died in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin.

Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.

Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter.

Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007.

A spiky personality who fought corruption and conservatives

Named premier in 1998 at age 69, Zhu became a popular figure by criticizing official bungling and graft and accepting blame when the government fell short. His demanding style earned him the nicknames Boss and Zhu Fengzi, or Madman Zhu.

“I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself,” Zhu said in 1998, according to the party newspaper People’s Daily.

Zhu ranked No. 3 in the party hierarchy behind Jiang and Li Peng, chairman of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress. But he was a technician without his own power base. Zhu complained that allowed officials to ignore his orders.

Zhu made his name as a deputy premier in the 1990s by crushing inflation. He enforced price controls and cut off loans to money-losing state companies, rebuffing resistance by local leaders — a pattern Zhu would repeat as he fought conservatives over the pace of reform.

Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s. That status would enshrine free trade as a national commitment, giving Zhu a tool to force local officials to stop protecting favored companies.

Zhu’s campaign was nearly derailed when he went to Washington in 1999 with market-opening concessions to win U.S. endorsement of the WTO bid. The Clinton administration rejected the offer as inadequate, while his political enemies at home accused him of offering too much, but Zhu survived and China went on to join the body in December 2001.

Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned.

Still, Zhu was less an advocate of free enterprise than a skilled bureaucrat who carried out party orders to whip state industry into shape.

Zhu showed no interest in privatizing the economy. He played a key role in drafting plans in the 1990s to turn banks, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises into profit-oriented corporations but to retain government ownership.

Zhu stood out for admitting official failings

Born Oct. 23, 1928, in Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan, Zhu paid an early price for his willingness to take risks and speak out.

After a start as an economic planner, his career went into a 22-year eclipse when he was labelled a “rightist” in 1957 for praising reforms in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He was banished to the countryside during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution to do manual labor.

Rehabilitated in 1979, Zhu rose swiftly, becoming deputy Shanghai party secretary in 1987 and mayor the next year.

As mayor in 1989, Zhu gained a reputation for moderation when he placated protesters and pledged not to call in the military.

“He managed to defuse, with considerable subtlety, a tense political situation that could have developed into localized violence or worse if the military had felt it necessary to intervene,” wrote Australian diplomat Shelley Warner in the 1991 book “The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces.”

Zhu’s boss, Jiang, would soon be called to Beijing by Deng and made party leader. Zhu was named deputy premier in 1991 and joined the party’s ruling Standing Committee in 1993.

Zhu broke with the leadership’s stance of infallibility by admitting and taking blame for official failings.

In 1998, after summer floods killed 4,150 people and officials were accused of embezzling money meant for anti-flood dikes, Zhu complained some barriers were no stronger than bean curd.

Three years later, he apologized on national television for his Cabinet’s failure to protect the public after an explosion in a schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Zhu enlivened the party’s bland image by cracking jokes in public, sometimes at his own expense. Laughter erupted at a 1999 news conference when he said a recent photo “made me look like a dead man.”

One of Zhu’s proudest triumphs as deputy premier was to craft a tax system that required local officials to hand more revenue to Beijing. He said in 1996 that he deserved a Nobel Prize in economics for that.

Zhu rarely appeared in public after leaving office as premier.

Zhu was married to Lao An, a fellow Hunan native. Their son, Yunlai, also known as Levin Zhu, is a former CEO of China International Capital Corp., a government-owned investment bank.

Their daughter, Yanlai, led a charity organization supporting schoolchildren that was backed by Zhu Rongji.

___

A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Zhu died at 98. He was 97 years old.

___

McDonald is a former Associated Press journalist. AP writer Kanis Leung contributed to this report from Hong Kong.

Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, is vying to become Wisconsin’s first Black governor and pitched himself as the candidate best positioned to win in November against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who was hoping to ride the wave of recent victories by progressive candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed in neighboring Michigan’s U.S. Senate race last week.

El-Sayed's win was the movement’s first major success in a purple state. It also fed fears in the party’s leaders that such candidates, farther afield and often carrying political baggage of past stances such as defunding the police, would struggle to beat Republicans and imperil the party’s hopes of recapturing control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

Crowley didn’t address supporters Tuesday night but was expected at a unity event later Wednesday.

“Now, David is focused on bringing people together, earning the support of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone who believes Wisconsin is at its best when we work together and deliver results,” Crowley's campaign manager Garren Randolph said in a statement.

Hong’s loss in Wisconsin may have doused the momentum, but it’s far from snuffing it out. A democratic socialist coming close to victory in a battleground state sends a clear message: There’s unignorable angst among the party’s voters.

“We have built something that will change politics forever,” Hong told supporters as the outcome of the race hung in the balance late Tuesday. “The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Her campaign manager Becky Cooper said after Hong conceded that she was “proud of the race we ran.”

“Our team campaigned clean, our souls are intact and we really made meaningful change for the progressive movement,” she said.

The Associated Press declared Crowley the winner once Hong’s concession removed the possibility of a recount in the exceptionally close race.

Hong could have requested a recount since Crowley’s margin of victory was less than 1 percentage point. But because it was wider than 0.25 points, Hong’s campaign would have had to pay for it.

Sanders and other top progressives stayed out of the Wisconsin race

Progressives had wanted to notch a clear win, but national progressive leaders, most notably Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sat out the race and did not endorse.

The movement is not entirely aligned. Not all candidates are democratic socialists or have endorsements from Sanders, but they are often tilling similar voter anger with politics and the party: over military aid to Israel, the amount of money wielded in campaigns, the Trump administration’s immigration raids and the high cost of daily life.

In New York City in the June primary elections, two democratic socialist candidates and a progressive came out on top, booting two Democratic incumbents from Congress in the process. All three were backed by the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, himself a democratic socialist who framed the upsets as a question of electing “better Democrats.”

Democrats in Wisconsin are hoping to capitalize on low approval ratings for Trump in a state he won in 2016 and 2024 to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Wisconsin Democrats are hoping to unite after tight primary battle

Both Hong and Crowley said in the waning days of the race that they expected Democrats to come together and unite to defeat Tiffany, a congressman from conservative, rural northern Wisconsin.

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don’t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor’s office,” Crowley said Sunday.

Democrat David Zimmerman, a 79-year-old retired industrial engineer professor in Madison, voted for Crowley on Tuesday. He said Hong’s chance of beating Tiffany in November “worries me a lot.”

“I think she’s going to have trouble winning,” he said.

The photo finish is just the latest twist in a chaotic primary that saw two major candidates drop out amid scandals. Crowley had also dropped out in early July, but he got back in 10 days later with Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement.

Both of them crisscrossed the state in the final week, making the case that Crowley was the better matchup against Tiffany in a swing state known for close elections where independent, moderate voters often decide the outcome.

Democratic socialist shook up Wisconsin race, fueled by national movement

Hong, a single mother and former line cook, tapped into Democratic anger with the party’s mainstream and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

The 37-year-old known for sprinkling her comments with profanity and leaning into her edgy and sometimes humorous social media profile excited the liberal wing of the party. Hong called for free childcare and healthcare and a moratorium on artificial intelligence data center construction. But she also wrestled with her past support for defunding the police, saying at the race’s only debate that she would not support cutting law enforcement funding.

She also drew criticism for past social media posts in which she called for canceling Thanksgiving because “we should stop celebrating colonialism” and disparaged Valentine’s Day as “another day capitalism tells you how to show love.”

Hong has since downplayed the posts as her attempt at making jokes.

Chaotic Democratic primary saw candidates drop, come back in

Evers’ decision not to seek a third term created an open race for governor that initially had seven Democrats file to run.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez appeared to be making a move to consolidate mainstream Democratic support in July, but she dropped out in the middle of the month amid a campaign finance scandal. That led Crowley, who had dropped out a week earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, to get back in the race, this time with Evers’ backing.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who was seen as an early front-runner after nearly beating Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, bowed out less than two weeks before the election amid questions about inappropriate behavior.

In one more twist, reporting the results of about 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee was delayed until early Wednesday morning after a human error related to uploading the data, the city’s election leader said shortly before midnight Tuesday.

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Associated Press reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed from Austin, Texas.

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After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

Jayme Franklin, a 28-year-old conservative activist who appeared with the president to promote his executive order on Monday, said she thinks the action is “going to go a long way” for MAHA mom voters like herself.

But Shaughnessy Naughton, president of the left-leaning political action committee 314 Action, which aims to elect doctors to office, said she sees the order as “one more data point” in support of Democrats’ cause.

“Our organization and our candidates are certainly going to hammer that message home — that if you want healthcare that’s accessible and affordable, if you want medical advice that is science-based, we need to have accountability in Washington,” she said.

Trump has long called for shots spread out in separate visits

Trump’s doubt in the number and cadence of vaccines dates back at least to 2014, when he posted to social media the disproven claim that combination shots can cause autism and said if he were president he would spread them out.

While he’s since shown pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speed effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly and praised certain other shots like the polio vaccine, he also has repeatedly called for reforming the childhood vaccine schedule. While his administration released an assessment comparing U.S. childhood vaccine schedules to peer nations', several of his suggestions have come without any new scientific evidence.

“This is based on what I feel,” Trump said last September when he called for splitting the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three single-disease vaccines.

On Monday, he again pushed for separating the MMR shot into three, ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work on developing that option for children, since it doesn’t currently exist in the United States. Public health experts have warned that spacing out shots could increase the risk of infection with a vaccine-preventable disease before a child returns for the next visit.

Most Americans don’t see reevaluating vaccine safety as a top issue

Trump’s views have aligned him with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics.

The president credits Kennedy’s diverse coalition of MAHA followers — whose priorities range from regulating pesticides to ending vaccine mandates — with helping him win back the White House in 2024.

Even as the Trump administration has handed several wins to the MAHA coalition, including changing the federal dietary guidelines and loosening restrictions on peptides, some in the movement have grown impatient as their other priorities remain unfinished. It’s unclear whether Trump’s action to loosen vaccine recommendations, an issue some MAHA supporters are passionate about, will be enough to shore up those voters ahead of the midterms.

Franklin, who runs a conservative magazine, said she had talked with Trump about making vaccine recommendations more flexible at a MAHA roundtable earlier this year. She was pleased when the administration informed her that her requests were coming true.

“I think it just really shows he loves to hear from everyday Americans on how his policies and his administration affect the lives of people who are raising kids in this country,” she said.

But political strategists and Trump’s own pollster Tony Fabrizio have warned that efforts to shave down vaccine recommendations may not matter much to most voters this fall.

Polls show most Americans believe children should be vaccinated to attend school, though Republicans are less likely to see vaccines as important. And as rising prices on things like groceries, gas and healthcare tighten Americans’ budgets, many view the economy as a top issue they care about.

“Nothing in America matters more than affordability,” pollster Frank Luntz said. “And anytime the administration or Republicans goes off affordability, they’re not talking about what Americans really care about.”

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said with most Americans viewing vaccines positively, Trump’s announcement “does not strike me as the most persuasive political message.”

Recent polling from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF suggests that even among MAHA supporters, only 10% rank reevaluating vaccine safety as their top priority for the federal government. Higher-ranking priorities included lowering health costs (42%) and restricting chemical additives in the food supply (21%).

Democrats are seizing on Trump’s message

Asked about the timing of the order with the midterms approaching, a White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said that the move was a longstanding presidential priority and that other health issues voters care about were still being addressed.

To that effect, on the day Trump signed the order, the Food and Drug Administration announced an effort to require more transparency from food manufacturers about new ingredients or additives in foods — something many in the MAHA movement had been calling for.

The administration has also touted its efforts to lower drug prices and crack down on federal health program fraud, which it argues will save taxpayers money.

Still, Democratic candidates, including doctors linked to Naughton’s group 314 Action, seized on Trump’s order in messages to voters this week.

Dr. Richard Pan, a physician running as a Democrat for the U.S. House in Northern California, reposted the American Medical Association's condemnation of Trump's vaccine falsehoods, among other fact checks. He told The Associated Press he thinks voters are deciding between electing people who choose not to hold the administration accountable and those who “stand for the science.”

Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, pleaded with voters not to take health information from Trump in a video posted on Instagram in collaboration with the left-leaning Courier Newsroom.

“Do whatever you can to help elect scientists up and down the ballot in November, including sending me to the U.S. Senate,” she said to the camera. “I cannot think of a more urgent time for us to have a pediatrician in the room where these conversations are happening.”

They received a first-hand look at the production process as they toured the assembly line and spoke with employees about their jobs and the company itself.

The federal leaders told reporters they were impressed with how Toyota can integrate emerging technologies like AI and robotics while keeping people employed.

“One of the things this factory illustrates is that this factory has a lot of robotics built,” Cruz said. “It has a lot of AI built in and yet they’re hiring 2,000 additional workers, and what the technology is enabling those workers to do is be even more productive.”

“They’ve got such a strong automated advanced manufacturing footprint here that they can build on it and expand and actually export to the rest of the world,” Lutnick said

Tuesday’s visit comes a little more than a month after Toyota announced its $3.6 billion expansion.

The expansion will double the size of the current Toyota campus with a second vehicle assembly line that will see 150,000 Tacomas being built locally instead of across the border once construction is complete in 2030.

“They’re going to move those 150,000 trucks from Mexico to America and hire Americans, thousands of Americans, trained Americans and build those trucks right here,” Lutnick said.

According to a Toyota news release, the company said its Tacoma production carried out at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Baja California (Tijuana) will transition to Toyota San Antonio over four years, but Toyota will maintain its operations in Mexico with the plant’s future production plan under review.

Toyota also has operations in Toyota Motor Manufacturing Guanajuato (Apaseo el Grande).

Sonderling said San Antonio has the workforce for the new jobs at the new assembly line and said the company is not wasting any time recruiting and educating the local labor pool.

“Toyota is partnering with the Workforce Development Board. They’re partnering with community colleges. They’re going into middle schools, they are going into the high schools, they’re talking about all the opportunity here,” Sonderling said.

Cruz added that Toyota’s expansion plans are what is called the fruit of low taxes and reasonable regulations.

While construction of Toyota’s second vehicle assembly is slated to be completed by the year 2030, a Toyota official said permits have already been obtained and the construction will begin shortly.

Back in March, Toyota provided a soft tour of its new rear axle plant under construction on the campus. The rear axle provides power to the rear of the vehicle.

The plan for its construction was announced in June 2024, and construction is finishing up and is expected to be done by this fall.

Read also:

• South Side residents hopeful Toyota’s $3.6 billion expansion benefits entire community
• 2,000 new jobs, multibillion-dollar expansion planned for South Side Toyota plant

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ballistic missile fired from the North's eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6 a.m. flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles). The Japanese Defense Ministry also detected the launch, saying the weapon landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The launches, within days of each other, were seen as part of North Korea’s extended run of weapons tests as the country has refused to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea for years. Experts say North Korea often uses its rivals’ military training as a pretext to boost its own testing activities.

South Korea's military said it remains ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang in cooperation with the United States. South Korea's national security council called North Korean ballistic missile launches “acts of provocation” and urged the North to halt them immediately.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that Japan strongly protested the North Korean launch through their embassies in Beijing. “It’s a serious problem that affects the safety of the Japanese people,” he said.

The latest launch came two days after South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual large-scale military drills on Aug. 17 to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

North Korea has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-U.S. military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric. The U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature.

After last year's Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the drills showed the U.S. and South Korea's “will to ignite a war” and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures.

On Aug. 6, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. North Korea didn’t confirm the reported launch, though it usually releases details of weapons tests a day later.

Multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. But North Korea has ramped up ballistic and other weapons testing activities to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Experts say Kim likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions from the U.S., such as relaxing international economic sanctions on the North.

In recent years, Kim has boosted his diplomatic footprint by strengthening cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine. He's also recently taken steps to bolster ties with China, the country's traditional ally and economic pipeline. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the North Korean capital Pyongyang in June for the first time in seven years.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

But in April, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested the family, who immigrated from Iran more than a decade ago, after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told immigration officers to revoke their permanent legal status. ICE separated the family, sending them to two different Texas detention centers.

For the past 123 days, the teen and his mother have lived in an immigrant detention facility in Dilley, where he and other detainees share their rooms with swarms of cockroaches, spiders and mosquitoes, he wrote in a sworn affidavit. Meanwhile, his father is at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall.

South Texas ICE Processing Center, an ICE detention center in Pearsall, on Sept. 30, 2020.

“We have been put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for years,” Maryam Tahmasebi, his mother, wrote in The Nation on Tuesday. “We are only allowed to speak with my husband for 10 minutes every two weeks, under supervision.”

The teen is one of at least 60 children who the Trump administration has held in the Dilley detention center for 100 days or more — far exceeding the 20-day limit for detaining immigrant children — according to a Texas Tribune analysis of federal government data.

On average, children in the Dilley detention center spend 25 days there — but in a six-month period ending in December, that average peaked at 47 days, according to the Tribune’s analysis.

The teen, who is only identified by his initials — S.M.H. — in court documents, said in a sworn declaration that being arrested and detained was “terrifying” and he has lost 10 pounds since his arrest.

His four months of detention is illegal, the family’s lawyers argued in court documents, because it’s six times more than the limit set by a federal court in what’s known as the Flores settlement, a legal agreement from a 1985 class-action lawsuit accusing the federal government of mistreating children in immigration detention.

U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee in California, who oversees the Flores settlement, said in a court hearing in June she plans to appoint a monitor to force the Trump administration to comply with the agreement. The case is currently before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In President Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to end the Flores settlement. Now the administration is trying again to end the agreement, arguing in court that it’s “outdated” and “judicial micromanagement” of its immigration policy.

In a statement to the Tribune, the Department of Homeland Security called the settlement “a tool of the left that is antithetical to the law and wastes valuable U.S. taxpayer funded resources.”

ICE also said in a July court filing that Dilley’s average length of stay was ballooning because of a small number of detainees who are being held longer after being declared national security risks, among other reasons.

In the first year after the March 2025 reopening of the Dilley facility, the country’s only detention center for families, the Trump administration held around 3,000 children for deportation there — more than half of them for more than 20 days.

The Biden administration had ended the practice of detaining families and closed the Dilley facility before the Trump administration reopened it last year as part of its mass deportation efforts.

“The facility is in perpetual violation of the law,” said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio. Castro, who has made seven oversight visits to the Dilley detention center, has demanded that the Trump administration shut down the facility.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, speaks to the media in San Antonio after visiting the Dilley detention center on July 28, 2026. Isaiah Moseley for The Texas Tribune

Immigrant children’s rights lawyers have renewed their legal fight against the federal government, claiming the conditions at Dilley and prolonged confinement is evidence the Trump administration is violating the Flores settlement. As part of the ongoing legal dispute, lawyers have collected testimony from families, including children, who describe rotting food, non-potable water and lack of medical attention.

The teenager’s father, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2014. His wife and S.M.H. then 5, followed a year later. Hashemi found a job teaching psychology at The Chicago School, while Tahmasebi teaches psychology and statistics at Los Angeles Pierce College, a community college in the San Fernando Valley. In 2016, the family received their green cards.

16-year-old S.M.H sees himself as an “average American kid.” The teen’s room at home is filled with posters of anime, or Japanese animated shows, that he likes. Photo provided by attorneys for S.M.H.

S.M.H. described himself as “an average American kid” in his court affidavit. Outside of school, he read Japanese comic books and played video games.

But to the Trump administration, the teenager and his parents’ presence in the country is a foreign policy risk. Their arrests came just over a month after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran.

Rubio wrote an April memo to immigration officials that he believed the family’s green cards should be revoked. Rubio cited a little used immigration law that allows the secretary of state to seek the deportation of specific people for foreign policy reasons.

Their presence in the U.S., Rubio wrote, could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” and “undermines U.S. foreign policy interests.” The reason, he wrote, is because 47 years ago, S.M.H’s then-19-year-old grandmother, Masoumeh Ebtekar, served as a spokesperson for a university student group that held 52 American citizens hostage for 444 days inside the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the Islamic revolution.

“It is shameful that Secretary Rubio takes the position that children should be held accountable for the acts of their parents and grandparents,” said Curtis Morrison, a lawyer in the family’s legal team.

In her article, Tahmasebi wrote that she, her husband and son have never been accused of a crime while living in the U.S. “Not even a traffic ticket.”

“I have struggled to understand how this can happen to people who have never broken the law, in a system I believed to be based on the rule of law,” she wrote.

The family’s lawyer has filed a petition for their release, arguing that for S.M.H., California “is the only home he has known, and he is closely bound to his family, friends, school, and community there.”

The U.S. State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. But after the family’s arrest in April, it released a statement saying the administration “will never allow America to become a home for foreign nationals tied to anti-American terrorist regimes.”

A DHS spokesperson said the family “posed a clear threat” to the country’s foreign policy and national security. The department also pushed back against detained children’s complaints about conditions at Dilley.

“All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the spokesperson said.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, which operates the detention center, defended the company’s practices and said it has no control over how long children are detained.

He said staff regularly clean the facility and drink the same water that detainees do — he added that the water quality is tested regularly. He also pointed to a recent ICE report that said Dilley “has maintained core Flores-related services” such as medical and mental health care, sanitation and food service. The report cited education as an area that needs improvement; Gustin said the company has been working to address that.

Attorneys in contact with detained children have called this report “a fiction of compliance.”

Teen calls Dilley experience “a nightmare”

Like the teen from California, O.S. was also arrested and held for months at Dilley when he was 16.

In June 2025, immigration officers arrested the teenager, his mother, Hayam El Gamal, and four siblings when his father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, according to prosecutors, threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel demonstration in Colorado. A state judge sentenced Soliman to life in prison earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to 101 charges including murder.

The rest of the Egyptian family, however, was never charged with any crimes. They also said they were estranged from Soliman and did not know about his plan to attack the event. Still, they were detained for 323 days at Dilley before their release in April.

“With the El Gamal family, the Trump administration began to set a precedent whereby innocent people could be punished for the actions of others,” said Eric Lee, an attorney for the family. “And that has no place whatsoever in a democratic society.”

O.S. called the experience “a nightmare.”

“This prolonged detention has and continues to destroy our lives,” the boy wrote in a letter in March. “It is slowly killing us on the inside.”

His family also raised concerns about moldy food and lack of adequate medical care. O.S. wrote that a dentist in the facility found that his 5-year-old sister had 13 cavities but didn’t properly treat them. The girl’s pain became so unbearable that she would cry for hours, and staff treated her with painkillers for two months before their release, he added.

A letter written by 16-year-old O.S. describes having seen food with mold and worms. Documents provided by attorneys for the El Gamal family

Their deteriorating mental health and complaints about the facility’s conditions are similar to what many detained families have said after being held in Dilley.

A 13-year-old girl who grew up in Miami before she and her mother were arrested by immigration officers during a periodic check-in had spent 90 days in the detention center when she wrote in her court declaration that if she had to “describe Dilley with one word, it would be ‘horrible.’

“It is awful to be inside here all the time and feel like you’re locked up,” she added.

These experiences can also stay with the children long after they leave the facility. O.S., for instance, said it had been difficult to return to normal life after his family’s release in April.

“Being at Dilley distances kids from the real world and takes away all the normalcy from everything,” he wrote in a court declaration weeks later. “After you get released, the effects are still there. Nothing is normal anymore because you live in fear of going back to that place.”

“There’s no humane way to detain a child”

Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates’ have called for Dilley to be shut down, saying holding children in such conditions is causing harm to innocent families.

Over the past year, Castro, the San Antonio congressman, has visited detention centers in Texas, including Dilley, to document the conditions immigrants are living in. The vast majority of people detained in Dilley do not have a criminal record so it doesn’t make sense to treat them like criminals, he said.

“People were very desperate and traumatized, and you can see it in their faces,” Castro said in an interview. “The kids are usually either shellshocked and just quiet and detached, or they’re very overcome by emotion sometimes. But most of all, they don’t understand why they’re there.”

Leecia Welch, a lawyer with Children’s Rights who has visited Dilley a dozen times and interviewed children held there, said in a court filing that some would also cry all night, isolate themselves or have panic attacks.

Welch told the Tribune that the concerns for children become more extreme the longer they stay in custody: “A hundred days for any of us feels like a long time, but 100 days is an eternity in the life of a child.”

Sural Shah, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, said children should not be in a detention center and is concerned the federal government wants to get rid of the Flores settlement.

“There’s no humane way to detain a child,” Shah said.

Complaints about food, education

Tahmasebi, S.M.H.’s mother, said that her son, who only speaks English and has only had schooling in California, is “struggling to understand why the only country he considers home is treating him this way.”

At the time S.M.H. wrote his affidavit, he and his mother had been in the Dilley facility for 100 days.

He said staff routinely yell at children and deny anything they ask for — such as the pizza and cupcakes the staff brings from outside for themselves.

“It’s really hard for them to see it and have that food be just another thing they are denied here,” S.M.H. wrote.

He added: “They don’t seem to really know how to actually deal with and work with children,” he wrote. “They all trash talk and gossip about residents everywhere. It’s like watching Mean Girls but irl,” he added, referencing the teen comedy movie and using the textism for “in real life.”

The food they’re served, he wrote, is “terrible and unhealthy.” And the food detainees can buy at the commissary is mostly junk food.

Gustin, the CoreCivic spokesperson, said detainees receive “three nutritious meals a day, plus snacks” from a dietician-approved menu.

S.M.H. wrote that he missed his friends, and school.

At the Dilley facility, the education is “non-existent” compared to what he was getting in California, S.M.H. wrote. He added that classes are more geared toward younger kids, with “nothing for teenagers.”

Back home, he was arrested just before his class was scheduled to do a pig dissection in his biology class.

“Maybe I will get to do some of the biology things I missed when I go to college,” he wrote.

First, we’ve hired one of the leading education reporters in Texas: Megan Menchaca. Megan joins us from The Houston Chronicle, where she’s led coverage of the Texas Education Agency’s historic takeover of Houston ISD — scooping the competition with critical news such as the state’s extension of the intervention and the sudden replacement of state-appointed managers.

Megan’s coverage is additive as our excellent K-12 reporter, Jaden Edison, remains in place. Growing the team allows us to tell the story of education in Texas with more depth and resources. We’ll continue focusing on the latest news while also digging into the biggest questions: Are our children being set up to succeed? Are our schools getting the resources they need? Megan is based in Houston, where there’s no better place to explore those questions.

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But that’s not all we have planned for the region. This summer, we added a Houston regions reporter. And we filled that role with a Tribune veteran: former mental health reporter Stephen Simpson.

Four years ago, we created our regions team around the idea that you can’t tell the story of government and politics in Texas exclusively inside the halls of power. You must spread across the state to explore the impact our leaders have and to hear the needs of Texans that are worthy of policymakers’ attention. That work started in less populous areas with regional reporters in East Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, the Permian Basin and the High Plains. But Stephen’s new position expands that work in the Houston area, a region more populous than most states and whose diversity, economy, weather and culture create impact far beyond its borders.

Stephen moved to Houston last month, and his impact is already on display. He helped anchor our coverage of the fatal shooting of a Houston man by an ICE agent — our team has written nearly three dozen stories on the topic — and he’s penned a moving feature about how a youth soccer club for at-risk youth is threatened by federal cuts.

Stephen and Megan grow an already strong reporting presence in Houston, joining our general assignment reporter Colleen DeGuzman, climate reporter Emily Foxhall and investigative reporter Lomi Kriel there.

These moves are made with our broader mission in mind: Seek the truth so Texans can govern themselves. We want to fearlessly tell the story of this state with nuance, complexity, expertise and authority. We hope you’ll keep reading and sharing that work.

It’s not his political ideology. Mizani is a die-hard conservative who, as mayor of Keller, proudly partnered with federal immigration officials, denounced Sharia law and slashed property taxes.

It’s his profession: Mizani is a personal injury lawyer, a career path once so closely intertwined with Democratic politics that both were pushed to the sidelines when Republicans gained control in Texas in the early 2000s.

But now, a quarter century later, some trial lawyers are reclaiming their political relevance by aligning with Republicans. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association, once the de facto war chest of the Texas Democratic Party, sponsored the state GOP convention. Wealthy personal injury lawyers are throwing cash behind conservative candidates, including Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate bid.

And trial lawyers themselves are running as Republicans on their record representing “average Texans against powerful insurance companies,” as Mizani said at a candidate forum. “America First Republicans care more about how policy impacts everyday Texans than about corporate profits and special interests,” he added.

Hidden from view of the average Texas voter, this realignment is the result of a complete upheaval of the power base within the Texas GOP. The traditional, business-first Republicans who rose to power by sharply restricting personal injury suits have been supplanted by a MAGA wing that scorns “corporate welfare,” crusades against Big Tech, and is open to the idea that Texas’ legal system has gotten too friendly to big business over the little guy.

Last legislative session, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the longtime capitol kingmaker responsible for creating Texas’ business-friendly legal environment, saw its efforts to further restrict lawsuits fail for the first time in decades. And now they’re watching, aghast, as Republicans up and down the ballot rake in cash from trial lawyers.

“For decades, TLR would blame every problem on trial lawyers in Texas,” said Adam Loewy, a personal injury lawyer and social media political commentator who has recently begun donating heavily to GOP candidates. “The Republican grassroots, they don’t believe that shit anymore. And that’s very different from 25 years ago.”

“Own goals”

In the 1970s and 80s, Texas was the “Wild West of lawsuits,” where plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely won massive judgments on behalf of injured clients. The companies who were forced to pay up saw this as a runaway system of jackpot justice. And they loathed the wealthy, flamboyant trial lawyers who bankrolled the Democratic politicians running the state.

Things came to a head in 1987, after legendary Texas trial lawyer Joe Jamail won the largest civil verdict in U.S. history — $10.5 billion against Texaco. The “King of Torts,” as Jamail was known, then bragged in front of the 60 Minutes cameras about his donations to the Texas Supreme Court, in a segment that exposed Texas’ brand of civil justice to the masses.

“That was an own goal,” said Guy Choate, a San Angelo attorney who led the Texas Trial Lawyers Association in 2005. “The GOP really attached onto that and was able to win a bunch of Supreme Court seats out of it.”

Amid the public outrage, a new group entered the scene — Texans for Lawsuit Reform, promising to put guardrails on the state’s overrun civil justice system.

“They came in with a big bang, because they gave unprecedented amounts of money to Republican candidates, which previously hadn’t been done,” said Bill Miller, a lobbyist and political consultant who worked with TLR in the early days. “They played big, and they found a lot of success.”

After TLR’s millions helped Republicans capture the Texas House in 2003, legislators returned the favor. They enacted the nation’s most sweeping tort reform policy, sharply limiting medical malpractice payouts and reining in what they saw as frivolous lawsuits against corporations. GOP lawmakers cut taxes and regulations and passed more laws reinforcing Texas’ business-friendly legal environment, helping usher in the boundless economic growth the party promoted as the “Texas Miracle.” TLR became the clearinghouse for tens of millions of dollars in political donations from business leaders eager to support aligned candidates.

Trial lawyers, meanwhile, were in the political wilderness, painted as craven scammers who exploited the legal system to line their own pockets. When now-Gov. Greg Abbott ran for attorney general in 2002, he hammered his Democratic opponent, Kirk Watson, for being a “plaintiff personal injury trial lawyer.”

Even as TLR made embracing tort reform a prerequisite to be considered a Republican, there were then, as there are now, Republican trial lawyers. Some of them even supported tort reform and condemned their colleagues who they felt had abused the system.

“These are people that don’t make any bones about it, that they feel more politically aligned with [Republicans],” Choate said. “But TLR had been so effective that they made trial lawyer money just toxic. You’d get primaried by TLR just for talking to a trial lawyer.”

Over the years, the party TLR helped build began to shift — grassroots conservatives gained ground, other donors came on the scene and lawsuit reform faded from the headlines as the tort reformers quashed the trial lawyers. But TLR’s deep pockets and political instincts kept it relevant. In 2014, when right-wing state Sen. Dan Patrick edged out incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the primary, forcing a runoff, TLR abandoned its endorsement of Dewhurst to back the winning horse. Patrick, the group said, was “a tort reform stalwart who has consistently refused to accept political contributions from personal injury trial lawyers.”

For a time, it seemed old-school business interests could work alongside the party’s growing MAGA influence. But the schism was widening, especially as TLR grew more vocal in its opposition to Paxton and the cloud of legal and ethical allegations that had long hung over him. In 2022, TLR gave Eva Guzman, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, $3 million to take on Paxton in the primary, hoping the pro-business faction that had found favor before the high court would follow suit.

She lost, and Paxton returned for a third term with his supporters wary of anyone who had opposed him. The next year, when a majority of House Republicans impeached Paxton, TLR was blamed as the architect of the whole scheme. TLR’s founders denied any involvement, but the damage was done.

“I call that the COVID moment,” said James Wesolek, the founder of Republicans Against Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a new advocacy group that goes by its acronym, RATLR. “That was the moment where everyone realized that TLR wasn’t their friend anymore.”

“A different kind of Republican”

At the Texas Republican Convention earlier this year, Wesolek spoke to a packed room for his talk on “exposing TLR’s liberal agenda.” He brought stacks of four-inch binders detailing every time he believed TLR had betrayed Republican values — by donating to Democrats, supporting GOP incumbents over the hell-raisers primarying them, and pushing corporate-friendly policies.

“TLR is protecting big business, big insurance and criminals, which actively hurts Texans,” Wesolek said. “TLR is fighting against our values. TLR is fighting against what defines us as Texans.”

If the last few years wasn’t proof enough, the cheers from the crowd made clear that the Republican Party TLR helped build is no more. In its place stands an angrier, edgier insurgency less interested in propping up big business than destroying the systems they believe are keeping Texans poor, unhealthy and under the thumb of a government hell bent on taking their freedoms.

Party leaders are catering to this brand of MAGA populism. On the campaign trail, Paxton and Abbott are matching the Democrats’ talk about affordability, health insurance and housing prices. Abbott has vowed that data centers must pay their own way if they’re coming to Texas, and Paxton is touting his lawsuits against Tylenol, Lululemon, Meta and Dow Chemicals.

In this environment, trial lawyers are finding an opening.

“Republican voters are saying, people should be able to be compensated when someone injures them,” Choate said. “This is a really different kind of Republican, more populist, more MAGA, whatever you want to call it, but they’re talking about this issue.”

The cause has found purchase among a new class of GOP lawmakers, many of whom swept into office after Paxton embarked on a revenge tour to help unseat lawmakers who voted to impeach him. Some of these new firebrands are themselves lawyers who work on the plaintiff side.

Marc LaHood, best known for the billboards bearing his face and law practice across San Antonio, ousted TLR-backed Rep. Steve Allison. Mitch Little, Paxton’s attorney, won a North Texas seat by defeating a conservative Republican whose main blemish was voting to impeach Little’s client.

Little rejects the term “trial lawyer” as overly broad and notes that he doesn’t handle personal injury cases. He says he came into office opposed to the idea that he owed anyone a vote based on his profession or party affiliation.

“You’re with the plaintiff’s personal injury bar, or you’re with a Republican PAC that supports capitalism and the American way of life and the Texas way of business,” was the sentiment Little says he encountered. “In my view, like most things in life, it’s just not that binary.”

In their first session, Little and LaHood helped shut down one of TLR’s main priorities, a bill that would have further capped lawsuit payouts. TLR also accused LaHood of blocking another priority bill, which would have made it harder to sue trucking companies, in a blistering letter to its members in which they accused him of being “not philosophically aligned with the business community.”

LaHood replied in kind: “For too long, the powerful have exploited and abused the powerless. I am proud of my record, and I stand by it. I’m not here to help run over regular people.”

As TLR smarted, the trial lawyers pounced. Arnold & Itkin, a Houston personal injury firm, kicked in $10 million to start a PAC aimed at funding candidates who defied TLR. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association gave LaHood half a million dollars to successfully fend off a TLR-funded primary challenger. Loewy and other individual trial lawyers also opened their wallets to Republican candidates, supporting candidates all the way up to the top of the ticket with Paxton.

“It’s very much a one-issue thing. If someone’s with us, like Mitch Little, even if I disagree with some of his other positions, I’m happy to support them,” Loewy said. “You now have serious, serious funding from trial lawyers funding people on the right who are with us on this issue.”

The GOP convention was proof of the new world order. TLR sponsored the event, as always, but so did Wesolek’s group, RATLR. And, this year, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association was right there with them.

In a statement, TTLA President Craig Eiland said the group is not affiliated with either party and supports any candidate who shares its mission of “keeping the courthouse doors open with laws that are fair for all Texans … These are non-partisan issues that reflect the fundamental values of most Texans.”

While Wesolek spoke on stage, Ryan Patrick, the new president of TLR, stood in the back of the convention hall, listening in. The son of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, he was brought on after last session to chart a new path forward for TLR, one that’s adapting to the new era of GOP politics where his group is increasingly seen as a bastion for “Republicans in name only.”

“TLR has sins, real and imagined, that we need to atone for,” Patrick said. “We know not everybody is always going to agree with us, and it’s going to create political realities that not everyone understands and likes. But if I was some sort of in-disguise RINO, I’d be cut out of the family will.”

Patrick believes he can win back the conservative grassroots and find common ground with groups like RATLR.

But the trial lawyers? That’s a different situation.

“The whole argument that there was a time and place for TLR, and we should move on, a lot of that is funded by trial attorneys, some of them Republican trial attorneys,” Patrick said in a recent interview. “Our issue set impacts their wallet, it just does.”

Trial lawyers are a Trojan horse, TLR’s leaders believe, taking advantage of infighting to infiltrate Republican politics, undo lawsuit reform and usher in liberal candidates. Patrick points out that TTLA, and many individual trial lawyers, are still giving heavily to Democrats and their causes.

TLR is trying to fight back by emphasizing tort reform as an affordability issue that helps everyday Texans, not just those that have dealt with the legal system.

Families, Patrick said, are “making a decision between, are we buying groceries, are we paying rent [or] are we getting car insurance?” Insurance companies drive insurance rates, he said, “and when they see the increases in litigation, when they see the increases in verdicts, they’re going to price that in.”

But it’s been a hard message for TLR to sell after decades of positioning themselves at the forefront of Texas’ business boom, and as their foes cast them as a deep state-type actor lined up against the Paxton wing.

If the Republican primaries are any guide, TLR might face another difficult year at the Legislature. LaHood defeated a TLR-backed primary challenger, as did two other Republicans targeted by the group for opposing its priority bills. And Mizani took down his opponent, who TLR spent over $300,000 to boost.

Already, Mizani has positioned himself as a potential dissident against TLR’s push for further tort reform. On X, he recently said that Texas already has strong laws to prevent frivolous lawsuits, and the focus should be on ensuring those safeguards don’t harm injured Texans.

“We can protect businesses from abusive litigation while also protecting the constitutional right of injured Texans to have their day in court,” he said. “Those objectives aren’t mutually exclusive.”

For trial lawyers, used to nothing but further restrictions from the Legislature, this nod toward moderation feels like a victory.

“They’re certainly not just falling down for trial lawyers or victims,” Choate, the San Angelo trial lawyer, said of the new crop of Republican legislators. “They do have an ear, and they will listen, and that is different.”

Disclosure: Meta, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Texas Trial Lawyers Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

In other contests, experience was rewarded in two governors’ races and voters went for generational change in voting out a House incumbent.

For Republicans, a contest to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham pitted his sister, Darline Graham, against far more experienced candidates. But she also had the endorsement of President Donald Trump, and she secured a spot in a runoff election later this month.

Here are some takeaways from the night’s elections.

In Wisconsin, verdict anything but clear for Democrats’ direction

Crowley eked out a stunningly narrow, surprise win that did not become clear until the predawn hours of Wednesday, but that seemed to settle little in the party’s national battle between party establishment candidates and an insurgent, populist movement from the left.

Crowley’s win by less than a percentage point over state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, showed neither side of the party debate was winning the argument convincingly.

A week earlier, Michigan’s Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat came down to roughly 15,000 votes — a margin of a percentage point — as progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed edged four-term U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who had the support of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.

In both Midwestern battleground states, presidential elections have been decided by tiny margins in recent cycles, making midterm statewide elections proxies for the 2028 race for the White House.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2024 and its state legislature has long been in the hands of the GOP, but Democrats have been bullish about reversing that trend. The pressure will now be on Crowley to knit together the divergent wings of the party against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Democrats in neighboring Minnesota weren’t as torn. They solidly supported progressive Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan over centrist Rep. Angie Craig. But there are obvious differences — Minnesota has been reliably Democratic for several elections, albeit by smaller margins. And Flanagan has already won statewide elections before.

Nonetheless, Republicans are hopeful the divisive, bitter primary gives their candidate, sportscaster Michele Tafoya, a chance in November.

Family name + Trump nod = runoff spot for Graham in South Carolina

Darline Graham advanced to a runoff Tuesday night in the primary for her brother’s seat. She was appointed to fill the remaining months of his current term after his death last month. While little was known about her, the family name and the goodwill toward her brother propelled her candidacy.

Trump then endorsed her in the GOP primary to occupy the seat for the next six years. He also praised her Tuesday night after returning to Washington. The role Trump chooses to play in the next two weeks could be decisive in a state where he is quite popular.

A who’s who of conservative South Carolina politicians also competed for the rare prize of a Senate seat, and Rep. Ralph Norman, a durable conservative who finished second, will face off against Graham in two weeks. Both candidates will need to consolidate votes from the other challengers to win.

Another veteran Democrat goes down in race over generational change

Connecticut Rep. John Larson became the latest Democratic stalwart to lose his primary. The 78-year-old, who served 14 terms in the House, was defeated by former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin.

Larson’s loss didn’t have the ideological overtones that have dominated some other Democratic House primaries, where younger, socialist candidates ousted veteran House members in Denver and New York City. But there was a definite generational cast, with his 47-year-old challenger arguing voters deserved a different choice in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.

Larson is the 10th member of the House to lose a primary this year, in a sign of bipartisan fury with each party’s veterans.

While that tally includes three Republicans, the rest are Democrats. After Joe Biden’s collapse during the 2024 presidential election — and the deaths of four Democratic House members over the past 18 months — it’s clear that Democratic voters are casting a very critical eye on elderly party members.

Minnesota Republicans reject MyPillow founder, a Trump favorite

Trump backed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s campaign for his party’s nomination for Minnesota governor. Lindell has been a prolific peddler of lies about American elections, including Trump’s own false claims that fraud cost him the presidency in 2020. Lindell has claimed that elections in the United States have been “rigged” for decades.

Democrats were eager to have Lindell at the top of the ticket, hoping he’d drag down the entire state GOP. Instead, Minnesota Republicans chose a more traditional nominee, House Speaker Lisa Demuth.

It’s yet another loss for Trump in Republican governors' primaries, after his preferred candidates fell short in Georgia and Iowa. And it improves Republicans’ odds in Minnesota in what’s shaping up to be a difficult year for the party, especially after Trump’s immigration crackdown roiled the state’s biggest city in January.

Experience and resume still mattered in some races

While much of this year’s midterm campaign cycle has been animated by new candidates with provocative progressive messages and by the fact that being an incumbent seemed like a liability, Democratic voters in Connecticut and Minnesota gravitated toward the familiar in their respective choices for governor.

Connecticut’s two-term Gov. Ned Lamont defeated his progressive challenger in the state’s Democratic primary while Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who first won her seat 20 years ago, easily won her state’s nomination for governor.

Their victories ran counter to any trend toward younger, more progressive candidates who had scored surprising wins in several House primaries, and notably, in the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan last week. Lamont began his political rise as an insurgent challenger to incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman but is now considered establishment. Klobuchar has a reputation as a bipartisan consensus-builder.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane," Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

His comments confirmed a report that first appeared in The Washington Post saying that Trump, following a NATO summit last month, was spirited onto a different plane because of a credible threat from Iran. The action was kept secret for weeks, until the newspaper's story.

“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk," Trump said Tuesday, who did not provide many details about the action. But he said the incident did not scare him.

“I don’t worry about anything, to be honest," Trump said. "Whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever!”

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn't have been aboard.

Many details about what happened remain unknown

The president's flight out of Turkey made headlines at the time because he had arrived aboard a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, which was not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems found on older presidential jets.

Trump ended up traveling in a smaller government aircraft from Turkey to the United Kingdom, only to secretly reboard the decoy jet, then descend from it and climb back aboard the Qatari plane.

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren't announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm's way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president and his actions — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn't fully revealed what took place.

Graff said the presence of the White House press corps is as much about protecting “the presidency and democracy” as it is about covering the story.

“This shows that the White House just fundamentally doesn’t understand how important that role is,” he said.

Officials have gone to great lengths to keep presidents safe on covert trips before

In 2023, a motorcade pulled away from the White House around 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday, and President Joe Biden later boarded an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports, and flew to Poland. Biden then took a secret, 10-hour overnight train ride to Kyiv meant to show solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

A press pool at the White House had been expecting a quiet Sunday for Biden in Washington. However, two journalists went to Ukraine with him and documented the trip, capturing images of Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walking together.

In Trump's first term, he made a secret Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan in 2019, when officials kept a separate press pool and decoy plane in Florida to maintain the illusion that the president was spending the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Instead, Trump and another group of reporters flew to the U.S. military base at Bagram, where the president served turkey to troops, gave a speech and met with Afghanistan's then-president, Ashraf Ghani, while journalists documented what was occurring.

When President George W. Bush made his first trip to Iraq in 2003, news was not released until he was in the air on the way back to the United States. President Barack Obama made a furtive nighttime visit to Afghanistan in 2010, when he was meant to be spending the weekend at Camp David.

Other risky trips featured presidential misdirection

President Bill Clinton went secretly from India to Pakistan in 2000, attempting to calm tensions in the disputed Kashmir region. He was seen talking with officials in front of a military plane that he appeared to board. Instead, Clinton ducked around the front of the aircraft to another jet parked nearby.

Both planes took off for Islamabad, as did a third jet painted with the familiar baby blue markings of Air Force One.

Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary for Clinton, noted that reporters knew the president was on one of the planes, “but not which one.” He said he and other officials had briefed the press pool ahead of time and “although they didn’t know all the details, it was made clear” that Clinton “was not going to travel on the plane they were on.

“There was no attempt to hide anything, much less lie about it later,” Lockhart wrote on social media.

Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, during the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and, after all commercial air traffic was grounded, officials wanted to move him to an undisclosed location.

The full White House traveling press pool flew with Bush from Florida to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where officials reduced the number of reporters and staff on the plane. Bush and the smaller traveling party next flew to Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base before eventually returning to Washington.

Bush's location remained secret throughout the day. However, the White House did not suggest that the president was somewhere he was not — unlike when Trump was whisked out of Turkey.

“You can imagine the different ways that this could have gone wrong, where, for a period of time, no one would have been able to independently corroborate the status of the U.S. president, or who was in charge of the U.S. government,” Graff said. “And that’s an incredibly dangerous moment for the world.”

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

4 crew members and 2 allied fighters killed, Yemen says

Six people were killed Tuesday by Houthis firing missiles on a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Yemeni authorities said.

Yemen's coast guard said the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces. Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to the Transportation Ministry of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

They are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping off Yemen in the latest bout of fighting in the Arab country.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen’s southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.

The deadly vessel strike came amid Houthi attacks on the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea and other areas of the country. Dozens of government troops and civilians have been killed in attacks since last week, according to the Yemeni military.

The strikes are part of an escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis’ chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015.

He said the Houthis are open for negotiations but any settlement must include lifting the blockade.

US fires on ship it said was trying to break blockade of Iran

The U.S. military said Tuesday that its forces fired on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that tried to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. The move came as U.S. President Donald Trump tries to keep economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

U.S. Central Command said the vessel had ignored warnings to stop, prompting an American helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova, disabling the ship. The statement did not say whether the ship’s crew suffered any casualties.

Trump on Tuesday night insisted that the U.S. military has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, despite the fact that Iran has kept up its attacks on ships in the waterway, largely impeding traffic there.

“Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine,” he told reporters after a trip to Ohio. “We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us,” Trump said.

Central Command said it has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three noncompliant vessels and boarded two. The U.S. Navy currently has more than 15 warships, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship, stationed in the waters of the Arabian Sea.

Iran has refused to back down on demands that the U.S. end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic and fulfill other conditions.

Iran effectively closed the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28. Attacks on the key waterway — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — and uncertainty around its future have kept energy prices a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Pakistani official returns to Iran hoping to ease tensions with US

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi traveled Tuesday to Tehran for meetings with Iran's foreign minister and other officials.

Naqvi's visit aimed to encourage Iran to resume negotiations with the United States under an interim peace deal brokered by Pakistan in June, two officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted photos from his meeting with Naqvi on his private Telegram channel.

It is Naqvi's sixth trip to Iran as part of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.

—Munir Ahmed in Islamabad

Israel criticized at UN meeting over West Bank violence

Five European nations on the Security Council called a meeting Tuesday as Britain’s new U.N. Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh condemned escalating violence across the West Bank, calling settler attacks on Palestinian villages, some alongside Israeli soldiers, “appalling.”

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory is already “underway -- brutally and relentlessly.” He urged international action to chart a path for Palestinian self-determination and “freedom.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon responded by saying: “Israel condemns all violence against Israelis and Palestinians” and “does not tolerate extremism — we confront it.”

Danon said “extremist attacks" by Israelis are declining and accused council members of ignoring “rising” attacks by Palestinians.

Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia

In Syria, a court sentenced former President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.

Assad and his brother Maher, who fled to Russia after insurgents marched into Damascus in December 2024, were sentenced in absentia at the Fourth Criminal Court in the Syrian capital.

___

This story has been corrected to state that Bashar and Maher Assad fled to Russia in 2024, not 2014.

The vote took place during a hastily convened meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers at Parliament in Wellington, which was held behind closed doors and ran for more than three hours. Luxon then emerged flanked by his lawmakers to give a brief statement and departed without taking any questions from reporters.

“There was a confidence vote in my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting,” he said. “I had the full support of our caucus and our caucus is united and it is determined to win this election.”

Luxon didn’t say how many lawmakers had voted for him to continue in the job, although such ballots are usually a secret.

Hours later, he said in a statement that the vote was prompted by a leadership challenge from his defense minister, Chris Penk, adding that he had removed Penk from his ministerial portfolios. On Wednesday night, Luxon's office distributed a statement from Penk, in which the challenger said he would quit Parliament altogether.

It was Luxon's second confidence vote since April

The vote was the second Luxon had called about his own leadership since April and leaves lingering questions coming so close to the election scheduled for Nov. 7.

The April vote followed drops in polling for National, while this week’s followed recent public remarks Luxon had made on various issues that some in his party saw as gaffes.

On Tuesday, the leader took the rare step of disclosing on social media that he faced renewed rumblings about his leadership, and announcing he would call a meeting of his lawmakers Wednesday to resolve it.

“It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election,” he wrote on X. “I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”

National has led a right-wing coalition government since New Zealand’s 2023 election. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2020, had led the party since 2021.

Defense minister launched showdown

Details of who had prompted the leadership rumblings at first remained a mystery.

Nobody publicly confirmed plans for a leadership bid or expressed intentions to oust their leader, and those whose names were reported speculatively by news outlets denied it.

Several hours after the vote, Luxon named Penk as his challenger and said his now former minister’s position was “untenable.”

Penk, 47, was also the minister for building and construction, and responsible for the security services and space portfolios. A former lawyer who served in Australia’s navy, Penk entered Parliament in 2017.

He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but in the statement Luxon's office attributed to him, Penk said he had “reflected on my political future with my family tonight” and would not seek reelection in November, effectively ending his political career.

“I am proud of the progress I have contributed to as a Minister this term,” Penk's statement said. “However, I have decided it is the time for me to seek other opportunities to serve New Zealand.”

The statement did not criticize Luxon or reference his leadership bid.

Meanwhile, Luxon’s political opponents lambasted him and his party.

“Backstabbing and infighting just means more delay and more distraction for New Zealand,” said Chris Hipkins, the opposition leader and leader of the center-left Labour party. “If National can’t govern itself, how can New Zealanders trust it to govern the country?”

Luxon’s remarks in recent weeks prompted fresh speculation

Among the recent remarks that appeared to prompt renewed leadership murmurings were comments Luxon made to a business audience earlier this month, when he said some business leaders in the country had a “parent-child mentality” and too often looked to the government for direction. Luxon, who was once an executive at Unilever when he lived in the United States, has always sold himself as a business expert and has sometimes pointed out where he sees New Zealand as falling short of global trends.

When elected, he pledged to use his experience to reverse New Zealand’s economic woes of recent years. This month’s remarks were lambasted, including by some in his own party, as being out of touch while the economy remained sluggish.

He later apologized for the comments. In another episode, he was forced to divulge that he had used a military aircraft to return to Wellington after a political party fundraiser.

Luxon also surprised his lawmakers this month when he promised a referendum on New Zealand’s electoral system if reelected – apparently without first telling his caucus. The episodes were seen among some in his party as an unwelcome distraction ahead of the election and revealing of Luxon’s relative political inexperience.

___

This version has corrected that Luxon entered Parliament in 2020, not 2000.

Ademi was just 9 when he last saw his father, Adem Ademi, a prominent surgeon who disappeared along with 22 other intellectuals in April 1999, just months before the end of the war. Some 1,600 people are still missing from the conflict, believed scattered in unmarked mass graves, and Ademi's family had endured years of anguish and disappointments at failed efforts to find his father's remains.

They are now cautiously optimistic because the newly found graves are near to where Ademi was last seen. Excavations near the village of Kalluder e Vogel in the northern municipality of Zubin Potok, started in late July after the discovery of human remains there. Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that the authorities believe the victims could be the missing intellectuals, who allegedly were caught as they were trying to flee Kosovo to avoid being rounded up by Serb troops.

“Always, when we hear about the beginning of the excavations, there is a mixed feeling, a feeling of hope and a feeling of pain,” Ademi said. “No matter how many years pass, the feeling of pain will always exist … but at the same time there has always been hope, a feeling that finally the truth will be revealed.”

Kosovo’s missing include roughly 1,200 ethnic Albanians, around 400 ethnic Serbs and dozens of Roma, according to the Humanitarian Law Center rights group.

Some 13,000 people died in Kosovo's war, which saw ethnic Albanians launch a rebellion to gain independence from Serbia. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade still does not recognize.

Tensions still simmer. In May 2023, Serbia and Kosovo reached an agreement which included commitments by both sides to clarify the fate of the missing, but Kosovo and Serbia have accused each other of stalling efforts to work together.

“It is obvious that authorities are not willing to cooperate,” said Bekim Blakaj, from the Humanitarian Law Center.

The European Union wants Kosovo and Serbia to normalize ties in order to move forward in their plans to join the bloc.

Police in Kosovo said last month they arrested two ethnic Serbs on suspicion of war crimes in connection with the mass graves, several days before the latest excavations started. The two men remain in custody.

Several top Serbian political and military officials have been tried and convicted of war crimes in Kosovo at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Erblin Ademi clutched the photo of his father holding him as a little boy.

“Every human being has the right to have a grave where they can be visited, where they can be honored, where they can be remembered,” Ademi said. “We are very hopeful that this will be the end, no matter how long the whole process will take, we will wait until we can honor them as they deserve.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the name of the village to Kalluder e Vogel, not Upper and Lower Kalluder.

Company spokeswoman Shino Yamada confirmed Wednesday that Okuda had died but said the date and cause of his death were not immediately available. Major Japanese companies are on summer break this week.

Okuda served as president then chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. from 1995 through 2006. In his 45-year career at Toyota, Okuda is especially remembered for having led the development of the gas-electric hybrid Prius, introduced in 1997, a model with the fuel-efficient technology that was ground-breaking at that time.

The Prius became a symbol of the auto industry ’s push for green driving. Okuda was instrumental in helping drive Toyota’s reputation for fuel-efficiency at a time when gas prices were already surging, with models such as its bestseller Camry, as well as the hybrids.

Born in central Japan, the area where Toyota has its headquarters, Okuda graduated in 1955 from the prestigious Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, with a degree in business.

Reputedly outspoken and always ready with a quick laugh, Okuda was unusual in not being from Toyota’s founding Toyoda family, as the leadership at the world’s top automaker tended to be.

He was key in leading Toyota’s global expansion while at the helm, not only in sales, but also production, setting up manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe.

Okuda, a black belt in judo, was vocal about his concerns over the possible backlash that Toyota might face, as its growth meant the inevitable dethroning of the American so-called “Big Three,” General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, once synonymous for U.S. manufacturing grandeur.

He liked to emphasize how the auto industry was global and connected, using the term “harmony” to drive home that message.

Toyota and other Japanese automakers like Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. were raking in huge profits, while the Americans were sinking into losses. That helped ring in “Japan-bashing” sentiments starting in the 1980s.

As is still the case today, the cheap yen viewed as giving Toyota and the other Japanese manufacturers an unfair advantage. A cheap yen raises the value of overseas earnings when translated into yen.

Okuda was an adviser on Toyota’s board when Toyota added an American, Jim Press, to its board for the first time, in 2007.

He was also a proponent of promoting younger managers, when that was still relatively rare in Japanese corporate circles, although that usually meant empowering men in their 50s instead of their 60s.

“A company must change when things are going well. There’s no point in trying to change after things start going bad,” he told reporters in 2005.

That emphasis on staying nimble encapsulates Toyota’s basic principle of constantly improving, known as “kaizen,” which, along with just-in-time production, centering on the idea of avoiding huge inventory, is at the core of Toyota’s founding philosophies.

Okuda served as the head of major business lobbies such as the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren; the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association; the Prime Minister’s Economic Strategy Council of Japan and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Associations.

Toyota did not immediately have details on surviving family. Funeral arrangements were being made by the family, and plans may be coming later on a more public formal ceremony, according to the company.

___

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

Drought conditions had forced Mohamed and her family to leave Saakoow, a town in the Middle Jubba region more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) away. They moved from village to village before arriving in Baidoa, now a major hub for people fleeing drought, insecurity and food shortages, on Aug. 3.

“We are very hungry and in a desperate situation,” Mohamed said. “We have nothing to eat and can only place our hope in God, as He is the one who sustains us through this ordeal that culminated in our trip.”

The family's journey is one example of a deepening humanitarian emergency in Somalia, where years of drought, conflict and economic pressures are pushing more families from rural communities into displacement camps as hunger rises and humanitarian funding shrinks.

About 2 million people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, more than double the number recorded last year, according to Plan International, which has provided assistance to more than 200,000 people in Somalia this year. The humanitarian group and Somalia’s Disaster Management Agency are calling for increased international assistance, with concern that the crisis could be compounded by another climate shock later this year.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has projected a greater than 90% probability of El Nino conditions developing from mid-2026 and intensifying during Somalia’s October-to-December rainy season, bringing the severe risk of flooding.

Somalia is highly vulnerable to extreme weather and has experienced repeated cycles of prolonged drought followed by destructive flooding. The shocks have eroded livelihoods, displaced communities, contributed to disease outbreaks and worsened food insecurity.

In Baidoa, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing prolonged drought have gathered in sprawling displacement settlements on the outskirts of the city.

One of them, Habiba Adan, fled her settlement in Awdiinle in the Bay region after four consecutive years of drought destroyed crops and killed livestock. She eventually moved to Baidoa with her two older daughters and now lives in a displacement camp.

Adan would like to return home, but she said continuing drought and failed harvests there have left families with little prospect of rebuilding their lives.

“The drought we are experiencing has stretched for four consecutive years, and this year, most crops have again been decimated,” Adan said. “Farmers were only able to harvest enough to sow their fields for the next season, leaving our future bleak. Here in these camps, we lack food and essential support. We have no food, water, or money, and we sit idly.”

According to Plan International, the city is hosting about 1.6 million people, nearly half of them displaced. It says one in five families lacks reliable access to water, among the most immediate challenges facing displaced families. They are increasingly forced to buy trucked water at steep prices that many simply cannot afford.

Families have nothing left after years of drought

Reena Ghelani, the global CEO of Plan International, visited Baidoa last week, meeting drought-displaced families and visiting a malnutrition ward in the Bay region.

Ghelani said many of the families she met had tried to remain in their communities through successive years of drought, leaving only when their resources were exhausted.

Many fled “after waiting and waiting year after year of drought and just surviving,” Ghelani said. “And now they say there’s nothing left. They have no water. They have no stocks. The animals have died. There is literally nothing left anymore.”

She said rising prices are placing additional pressure on families already struggling to find enough food.

Children are suffering from malnutrition

Data released in May by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring system, showed that about half of children under 5 in Somalia were facing acute malnutrition.

Plan International, citing Save the Children, said the number of children receiving treatment for the most dangerous form of malnutrition in Baidoa had nearly tripled over six months.

Dr. Omar Abdikarin, a nutritionist in Baidoa, said patients are arriving for treatment from the Bay as well as the neighboring Bakool and Gedo regions.

“Malnutrition is prevalent in this region, and the majority of patients treated at this hospital suffer from malnourishment,” Abdikarin said.

The health risks extend beyond malnutrition. Ghelani said she encountered children affected by outbreaks of diphtheria, measles, malaria, cholera and acute diarrhea.

The prospect of heavy rainfall later this year presents a new threat to communities facing multiple crises. Intense rainfall and flooding could wash away homes and farmland, contaminate drinking water and force families to move again. Aid agencies warn that the expected El Nino conditions will compound the crisis for countless families before they have had time to recover from prolonged drought conditions.

For families arriving in Baidoa such as Mohamed's, the most urgent question is where to find clean water and food.

Mohamed said her husband had left for farms on the outskirts of the city, in search of work or something for their children to eat. A day after arriving in the city, she was still waiting to find out whether her husband would return with good news.

___ Faruk reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.

___

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Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota's Democratic U.S. Senate primary over centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the latest moderate-vs.-progressive contest in the Democratic Party. In the race for governor, state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the GOP primary despite President Donald Trump's endorsement of opponent Mike Lindell, known as the MyPillow Guy. Sen. Amy Klobuchar won the Democratic nomination with minimal opposition.

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and establishment candidate David Crowley are locked in an extraordinarily tight race in the Democratic primary for governor. The results, delayed by an absentee ballot uploading error, are not expected until early Wednesday. The winner will take on Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November in an open election that could test the limits of progressives’ appeal in a critical battleground state. In a separate race, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s 26-year-old son-in-law Michael Alfonso won a five-way primary for Duffy’s old U.S. House seat.

And Sen. Darline Graham advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate. The first-time candidate will face U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who also emerged from a 10-way field in Tuesday's primary. The winner of the Aug. 25 runoff is expected to claim the U.S. Senate seat over the Democratic nominee.

Here's the latest:

Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary hangs in the balance awaiting Milwaukee votes

Early Wednesday, the race between democratic socialist Francesca Hong and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley remained too early to call as 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee were delayed because of a human error in uploading the results.

Both candidates were waiting for the final ballots to be counted before announcing next steps. If the margin is less than one percentage point, the losing candidate can seek a recount.

“We’re still waiting for all the results to come in,” the Crowley campaign said. “We feel optimistic, but it’s not over until the votes are counted.”

Hong addressed her supporters just before midnight, saying, “I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Milwaukee absentee ballot results delayed

Milwaukee elections officials say a human error will delay reporting the results of about 28,000 absentee ballots by at least an hour.

The ballots could determine the winner in the tight race between democratic socialist Francesca Hong and more moderate challenger Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Milwaukee Election Commission Director Paulina Gutierrez said human error was to blame for audit logs being uploaded onto flash drives instead of ballot results.

Hong spoke to her supporters late Tuesday night, saying, “We are ready to keep fighting.”

Crowley has not addressed his supporters as the race remains too early to call.

Wisconsin democratic socialist says she will keep fighting as governor’s primary race remains tight

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong is telling her supporters that she will keep on fighting as the outcome of the Wisconsin Democratic governor’s primary remains too early to call.

Hong did not concede the race or declare victory against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

“We have built something that will change politics forever,” Hong said. “The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Hong also looked ahead to November in the race against Republican Tom Tiffany, not knowing whether she or Crowley will be the one facing him.

“We will win together, united,” Hong said.

Peggy Flanagan says Trump doesn’t need another ‘yes sir’ senator

Flanagan took the stage at her party shortly after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate and laid into GOP nominee Michele Tafoya.

She said Tafoya supports Trump on issues from immigration enforcement to the war in Iran.

“We already have too many spineless ‘yes sir’ senators who won’t stand up to Donald Trump,” she said. “Minnesota, we are not going to send him another one.”

In concession, Angie Craig urges supporters to rally around Peggy Flanagan

Craig gave a gracious concession speech at a Saint Paul brewery after losing the Democratic primary. She framed the coming general election in stark terms and wasted no time going after the Republican nominee.

“To every person who supported me, I ask you tonight to support and elect Peggy Flanagan as the next senator from Minnesota,” Craig said. “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and Michele Tafoya would be nothing more than a rubber stamp to his dangerous agenda.”

She stood in front of a large American flag with her wife by her side.

“This is the moment, folks, to use democracy to save democracy,” Craig said.

Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan wins Democratic primary for Minnesota Senate seat

Flanagan’s win is the latest for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment.

She defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

Flanagan was backed by popular progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who rallied with her in the campaign’s final weeks. She was also supported by the retiring incumbent, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.

Flanagan highlighted Craig’s support from wealthy donors and blasted her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill, which became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Flanagan enters the general election as the frontrunner in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to a statewide office in 20 years. But Republicans see an opening from Flanagan’s progressive views and backlash to a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of public funds dispersed by state agencies to social services organizations. Republicans say Democrats turned a blind eye while Flanagan was lieutenant governor.

Lisa Demuth defeats MyPillow founder Mike Lindell to win GOP nomination for Minnesota governor

The win by the state House speaker was also a rare loss for a Republican primary candidate endorsed by Trump.

Demuth argued that she’s the most electable and experienced Republican candidate, pointing to her role as a legislative leader. She became speaker in a power-sharing agreement for the Minnesota House, which is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

Some Minnesota Republicans worried Lindell would be unable to win over independents and moderate Republicans who reject the 2020 election lies he’s best known for promoting, potentially dragging down the entire GOP ticket.

Demuth will face Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who had no serious opposition for the Democratic nomination. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz dropped his reelection campaign in the aftermath of a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of tax money his administration gave to organizations that were supposed to use it for social welfare programs.

Economist Amanda Janoo wins Vermont’s Democratic gubernatorial primary

The first-time political candidate will go on to face Republican Gov. Phil Scott in November.

Janoo, 38, has spent her career working with the United Nations and international development organizations. She billed herself as the more progressive candidate while running against Aly Richards in the primary. Richards was also a first-time candidate.

Scott, who has served five terms and is one term away from becoming the state’s longest-serving governor, ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Vermont is one of two states, along with neighboring New Hampshire, that hold a gubernatorial election every two years.

GOP voters says Marques has a proven record

Bill Ventress voted for Republican Rhett Marques in the special congressional primary in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.

Ventress said Marques has a proven record already in the district after serving in city government and the Alabama Legislature.

“He’s done a great job in every position he’s been in, and I know he will again,“ Ventress said.

Marques, who was backed by President Donald Trump, defeated five GOP rivals to secure the Republican nomination. He will face incumbent Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures in November.

Michele Tafoya says it’s time to end one-party rule in Minnesota

The former sports broadcaster is working against history after winning the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican statewide since 2006.

She indicated fraud will be at the center of her pitch as she tries to convince voters to give the GOP a chance. The Democratic-controlled state government has been embroiled in scandal after failing to detect and stop the widespread theft of tax money from public assistance programs.

“We will not reelect politicians who let criminals steal billions and treat accountability as optional,” Tafoya said in a statement Tuesday night. “We deserve better, and it’s time we demand better.”

Tafoya will face either U.S. Rep. Angie Craig or Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who have fought a tense campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Key rematch set for Wisconsin’s 3rd District

Rebecca Cooke’s Democratic primary win in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District sets up a key battleground in the fight for control of the U.S. House.

In a rematch of the 2024 election, Cooke will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who flipped the seat four years ago. Democrats hope to win back the district Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind represented for 26 years before retiring.

The 3rd District is one of 31 on the 2026 U.S. House map that Trump won by less than 10 percentage points.

After ousting Larson, Luke Bronin says Democratic Party needs to embrace change

Speaking to supporters after defeating U.S. Rep. John Larson, Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, said the Democratic Party needed to act with more urgency in its fight with President Donald Trump.

“If we are going to fix this mess that we are in, we need to build a Democratic party that is bringing a whole new energy to this fight,” Bronin said.

While Bronin praised Larson for his liberal politics and longtime service, he said the party needed to adapt, and if it is too slow to do so, “then the changes are going to come from the ground up. And that’s a message the party needs to hear.”

10 incumbent US House members have lost their primaries so far

Fourteen-term Democratic Rep. John Larson is the 10th House incumbent to lose their primary this cycle and the sixth ousted by a younger challenger. Overall, 70 representatives will not return to their seats next year, the most at this point in the calendar in recent history.

Democrat Rebecca Cooke wins western Wisconsin congressional primary in targeted district

The 3rd Congressional District is a top target for Democrats to flip this year. Cooke will battle two-term incumbent Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden for the seat in November.

Van Orden is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters. But he will face a tough reelection bid in a narrowly divided district in a year where Trump’s approval ratings are low in Wisconsin.

Cooke defeated former Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge in the primary. Berge ran an underdog, insurgent campaign against Cooke who was more well known and better financed.

Cooke narrowly lost to Van Orden in 2024 and also ran in 2022 but lost in the Democratic primary that year.

Tight race in Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley are neck and neck.

The winner will advance to face Republican Tom Tiffany.

Hong was counting on support from her home city of Madison, the liberal state capital, to overcome Crowley, who has served as the top elected official in Milwaukee County for six years.

Crowley has the endorsement of two-term Gov. Tony Evers and has been running as the more moderate choice.

Sean Duffy’s son-in-law Michael Alfonso wins Wisconsin congressional primary

The 26-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy won a five-person Republican primary for Duffy’s old congressional seat in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.

Alfonso rode President Donald Trump’s endorsement to victory in the race where his opponents and some longtime Republican leaders in the district argued he was too young and inexperienced.

Duffy returned to Wisconsin to help campaign for Alfonso, who was waging his first run for any office. Alfonso is married to Duffy’s daughter.

Alfonso defeated four other challengers including Kevin Hermening, a Republican with deep ties to the district who was also one of the American hostages held in Iran starting in 1979.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar pledges to be ‘a transformative governor’

The Democratic nominee for Minnesota governor said she will bring tangible improvements for Minnesotans, including making life more affordable and tackling fraud.

“You expect leaders to deliver results, not excuses,” Klobuchar said.

She went on to preview the case she will make against her Republican rival. The GOP primary is too early to call between MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and state House speaker Lisa Demuth, but Klobuchar said both are more interested in serving the president than the state.

“When my opponents were asked to name one place where they disagreed with Donald Trump, they couldn’t do it,” Klobuchar said.

Longtime Connecticut congressman John Larson says he’s ‘disappointed’ with election turnout

Larson still stressed to supporters that Democrats must “come together, heal and move forward.”

Larson, a longtime Democrat who has represented the state’s 1st Congressional District for nearly 30 years, was ousted by former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.

“Tonight, the people have spoken. And they’ve made that clear. They’ve made it clear what their decision is. And now is the time for all of us to come together,” Larson said, thanking his supporters, family and friends.

Larson added that he intended to “fulfill my responsibility to the last day.”

Norman earned his runoff spot with help from Upstate

South Carolina’s most populous county of Greenville once again showed its independent streak in Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate primary by helping Rep. Ralph Norman secure a spot in the August 25 runoff.

At 9 p.m. ET when he locked a runoff berth, Norman had a plurality of the Greenville County vote and a sizable lead over U.S. Sen. Darline Graham.

Norman was also Greenville County’s top vote-getter in the June 9 primary for governor, outperforming Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who both advanced to the June 23 runoff over Norman.

A plurality of Greenville County voters also preferred businessman Mark Lynch over the late Sen. Lindsey Graham in the June 9 Senate primary. Greenville and Spartanburg counties were the only two counties Lindsey Graham lost on June 9.

Ammie Akin wins Republican primary in redrawn Alabama district

She will face Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell in the November general election for the 7th Congressional District seat.

Akin served as assistant superintendent in a public school system, was interim superintendent of a private Christian school and founded a nonprofit.

Alabama is holding special primaries in four congressional districts after redrawing lines in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s redistricting decision. Alabama Republicans reshaped the 2nd Congressional District to make it more likely to elect a Republican, and altered the lines of three others, including the 7th District.

Sewell still remains the favorite to win in November.

A native of Selma, Sewell has served in Congress since 2011. She has sponsored legislation aimed at restoring and modernizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

‘Guilty as charged’: Darline Graham is a political newcomer, and proud of it

“I’ve been accused of not being a politician,” she said at her election night speech. “Guilty as charged.”

Graham, who is now in the Republican U.S. Senate runoff in the race to replace her late brother, was tapped to serve his remaining months in office. She touted what she had done in the Senate so far and her work outside of politics, but leaned into the newcomer role.

“I will spend the next to weeks of this runoff meeting with voters and, unlike some politicians, listening to their concerns — yes, listening to their concerns,” she said. “This seat belongs to the people of South Carolina, and I will work hard to earn your vote.”

Luke Bronin defeats incumbent US Rep. John Larson in Connecticut Democratic primary

Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, topped Larson in a race that evoked the battle over generational change in the Democratic party.

A Rhodes scholar, lawyer and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bronin, 46, was a sophomore at Yale when Larson, 78, was first elected to the 1st District seat in 1998.

Bronin’s campaign got a big bump earlier this year when the state party endorsed him at a May nominating convention.

Larson has had to fight concerns about his age and health, which intensified last year after he suffered a partial seizure during a speech on the House floor.

Even in a loss, Sanford can’t stop talking about national debt

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s run for U.S. Senate ended with a loss for a man who almost never used to lose in South Carolina.

Sanford jumped at the opportunity to run for U.S. Senate in the state’s two-week special Republican primary since he had plenty of money remaining in his campaign account and a burning need to tell everyone the U.S. is drowning in debt.

His concession speech Tuesday was another campaign speech. He talked about how the U.S. will spend more national debt interest than defense this year and Social Security and Medicare are less than a decade away from bankruptcy.

“We are on an unsustainable course, and no civilization across the pages of time has been able to outrun math,” Sanford said.

The former governor had a blast getting back on the campaign trial. He spent most of his election night talking to his sons and supporters and drinking a few beers.

Darline Graham addresses grief and victory

“This is a very emotional night, because I’m usually standing here celebrating with Lindsey,” said the sister of the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, after she secured a place in the Republican runoff to replace him.

Darline Graham was subdued for a victory party, as she thanked God, her family and President Donald Trump.

“His steadfast and his complete and total endorsement means so much to me,” she said of the president. “He knows that I will stand with him, and fight for his agenda, just like Lindsey did.”

Former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya wins Republican Senate nomination in Minnesota

Tafoya, a newcomer to politics, defeated Adam Schwarze, a Marine veteran and Navy SEAL who had the official backing of the state Republican committee, and Royce White, who had an existing profile as a prior candidate, conservative commentator and a brief professional basketball career.

Tafoya will face an uphill battle in Minnesota, where Democrats have a two-decade streak of winning top offices. But Republicans think Tafoya, who is known outside of politics and doesn’t have a controversial voting record, is well-positioned to pull off an upset victory.

President Donald Trump did not make an endorsement in the primary.

The Democratic candidate for South Carolina Senate is already on defense

Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews spoke to WIS News 10 after both Darline Graham and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman notched the top two spots in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

Andrews, who was elected in her party’s June primary, batted away attacks from Norman’s election night speech before pitching her vision in an uphill race to win the red state.

“Unfortunately for Ralph, I guess, I am not a socialist, I am not a democratic socialist, I’m a mom and a pediatrician,” said Andrews. “I’m running, as I said, to address our affordability crisis and our broken healthcare system.”

Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Republican President Donald Trump.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The outcome was another sign of progressive energy among Democratic primary voters. It comes a week after Abdul El-Sayed won a bitter and divisive primary in Michigan that fired up the left and fueled anxiety among party leaders that Democrats will alienate moderate swing voters.

The result was less clear in Tuesday's primary for Wisconsin governor, where democratic socialist Francesca Hong and moderate David Crowley were in a tight race as of Wednesday morning.

Flanagan will be the front-runner in the general election contest against former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who won the GOP primary Tuesday. Minnesota voters haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.

Still, Republicans are hoping a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of public funds will give them an opening up and down the ballot.

“We’ve had a crisis of leadership here. We’ve seen what career politicians have done in this state,” Tafoya told reporters after casting her ballot earlier Tuesday in a Minneapolis suburb. “They’ve brought us to a place of national embarrassment, and this state is ready for change.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Demuth won the Republican primary for Minnesota governor. Among the candidates she defeated was Mike Lindell, the Trump- endorsed pillow purveyor, who has been among the most persistent advocates of the lie that Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent.

Demuth, the state House speaker, will face U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who defeated six others to win the Democratic nomination.

Race between Craig and Flanagan shaped by ICE, outside spending

In the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, Craig lined up support from Democratic establishment figures including House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as senators from battleground states.

She pointed to her record of winning tough races in a closely divided House district in the suburban Twin Cities, saying she had the experience to bring the change voters are demanding to Washington.

“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and Michele Tafoya would be nothing more than a rubber stamp to his dangerous agenda,” Craig said, previewing the message Democrats will take into November as she conceded and urged her supporters to back Flanagan.

Flanagan was backed by popular progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Smith, who rallied with her in the campaign’s final weeks.

Flanagan highlighted Craig’s support from wealthy donors and blasted her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill, which became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

The race was shaped by the killing of Good and Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump's immigration policies. Flanagan highlighted Craig's vote for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration bill that passed early in Trump's second term. Craig repudiated her support after Good and Pretti were killed.

U.S. support for Israel and the influence of corporations and wealthy donors also figured prominently in a race that attracted tens of millions of dollars in spending by allies of both women.

“I love that she doesn’t take any corporate money, she doesn’t take any money from AIPAC,” said Andrea Ropella, a Flanagan supporter, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates. “The things that she says, she believes in and she stands for.”

Gov. Tim Walz declined to endorse either candidate, but late last month his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Craig over Flanagan, a move seen as a repudiation of her husband's running mate and governing partner for two terms.

Trump did not endorse a candidate on the Republican side, although Tafoya had support from the national GOP. Adam Schwarze, a Marine veteran and Navy SEAL, had the official backing of the state Republican committee and Royce White had an existing profile as a prior candidate, conservative commentator and a brief professional basketball career.

Lisa Demuth wins GOP governor primary over ‘MyPillow Guy’ Mike Lindell

Republicans had another crowded primary in the race for governor.

Lindell established his national profile from his TV advertising campaign as the “MyPillow Guy.” He has been one of Trump’s most outspoken supporters and a persistent proponent of myths about the 2020 election. He lost a defamation lawsuit last year and was ordered to pay $2.3 million to a former employee of a voting systems company, whom he called a traitor.

In a post on social media Tuesday morning, Trump said Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN.”

Trump's endorsement carries enormous weight in GOP primaries, and few of his favored candidates have lost so far this year.

Some prominent Minnesota Republicans worried Lindell was too toxic with independent voters and would drag down the entire GOP ticket. Even state GOP Chairman Alex Plechash raised doubts about Lindell's electability.

Jim Busche, 79, said he likes Lindell but agrees that he’s probably too controversial to win a general election, so he cast his vote for Demuth.

“I wanted to vote for somebody that at least has a chance,” said Busche, who is retired and lives in Independence.

GOP sees hope despite Minnesota's long blue streak

No Republican has won a statewide race in Minnesota since Gov. Tim Pawlenty was reelected in 2006, but the state is more closely divided than that history would suggest.

In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump here by only 1.5 points, and in 2024, even with Walz on the ticket, Democrat Kamala Harris won the state by only 4 points.

In the state Legislature, Democrats hold just a one-seat majority in the Senate, and the House is split evenly between the parties.

Republicans think the fraud scandal, which led Walz to abandon his plans to run for a third term, gives them a rare opening to make inroads in an otherwise tough environment for the GOP.

At least 65 people have been convicted in a series of overlapping food fraud cases stemming from investigations that began during the Biden administration. One former nonprofit leader was sentenced in May to 42 years in prison in a $250 million fraud case.

Trump pointed to the scandals as justification for launching a massive immigration crackdown that he initially said would focus on the state’s large Somali community.

A boy’s scream can be heard in the distance on body camera footage showing how rescue teams last week found two women and a 9-year-old boy who had been stranded for three days after their river tubing trip went wrong.

“We’re coming, guys,” says Cameron Wright, a conservation officer from Newaygo County, his breath heard in ragged gasps.

The team picks up their pace, pushing through sharp switchgrass and stinging nettle, the footage released by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources shows. A few moments later, they find Sarah Vida, 28, and her son Kayden Kovalcik, 9, along with Jazmin Hock, 28; wearing just their swimming suits.

Hock's legs are almost entirely covered in deep, red cuts from scrapes after trudging through the brush. They have a broken phone and a single water bottle with only a few sips left.

“You’re talking about vegetation that’s higher than your eyes and switchgrass that cuts you when you touch it and stinging nettles that makes your skin set on fire,” Anna Cullen, a conservation officer from Muskegon County who helped with the rescue, said Tuesday.

The trio had been on a tubing trip on the Muskegon River in the small community of Twin Lake on Tuesday when they'd hit logs and their tubes popped, according to officials. They were reported missing after one of the women hadn't shown up to her dentist appointment.

“I was just in disbelief at finding them because we were just running out of ideas and places to search and it was nothing short of a miracle that we ended up finding them the way we did,” Wright said.

For days, teams had scoured the river and rugged terrain.

The group was found Friday about 7 miles (11.27 kilometers) from where they entered the river, according to Wright. The rescuers had tracked them from a tube next to the river, following footprints, broken twigs and bent grass.

In the video, Kayden explains that they’ve been eating bark and flowers, while Hock says they had to drink river water.

They'd been tubing down the river and kept hitting log jams, Hock explains.

“The last one that we ran into just popped everything,” she says.

They started walking and soon realized they were going in circles, she says.

Members of the rescue crew handed over their own shirts to protect them from the bugs swarming their cuts and put medical gloves on some of their hands and feet. Wright inflated his life vest for Hock to sit on. As she answered the rescue team's questions, her legs, lined with scratches, shook.

“There was not even an inch of their exposed skin that was not just covered in cuts and bug bites and mud and scrapes where they were just physically not able to go any further,” Wright said, explaining that he still had cuts on his arms from the search.

Cullen said the women later explained that when they saw the rescuers, they thought they were hallucinating.

The two women couldn't walk, so the rescuers put them in Stokes baskets, a type of stretcher, to get them out of the brush, while Wright carried the boy on his back. They were taken to the hospital and treated for infections, dehydration and rashes, according to Lt. Pat Agema, a spokesperson for the Michigan State Police. As of Tuesday, they were all back home, he said.

Wright said the entire hike out, Kayden was telling him about everything he was going to eat and drink.

"He's just telling me about all of the root beer he’s going to drink and the slushies and the pizza and doughnuts he’s going to eat,” said Wright.

He adds: "You would have no idea that he had just spent 72 hours in the woods from how happy he was.”

“Many families are finishing up that back-to-school checklist, and among those things is the medical checkup and assuring that their kids have their vaccines,” Michigan pediatrician Dr. Molly O’Shea said. “To put into question the safety or efficacy of these vaccines right now is really unfortunate and ill-conceived.”

The order, signed Monday, advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and giving all childhood immunizations at separate appointments when possible. It also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule already attempted by Trump’s health department but blocked by a federal judge. The department is run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years.

Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even though decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. He also strongly suggested that the MMR vaccine could be harmful or even deadly.

Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser, said the recommendations by Trump and Kennedy “are just not science based,” and it’s irresponsible to cast doubt on a vaccine that protects against measles when the nation is facing its biggest epidemic in more than 30 years.

“The harm that it will cause is … to induce chaos and confusion into the system, so people aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do,” he said.

Trump’s order evokes fears

At one point before signing his executive order, Trump used the word “lethal” when talking about the current MMR vaccine, saying: “Together there could be a possibility they are quite lethal and separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal but just very effective.”

Doctors strongly rejected this characterization, saying the current combination vaccine has gone through rigorous studies and years of safety tracking — like other childhood vaccines — and has been shown to be very safe. The diseases they protect against are the far bigger risk, they said.

“The suggestion that separating the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines one from another has value is incorrect in both science and in immune response,” O’Shea said. “You actually get a better immune response giving them together. There’s no value in separating them.”

There are currently no separate vaccines for children against these diseases in the U.S., but Trump's order directs the health department to present a plan to offer them. Trump spokesperson Kush Desai has said that would give parents more options on timing and frequency, ultimately increasing vaccine uptake.

Doctors lamented that Trump revived debunked theories about vaccines and autism. Autism diagnoses have been rising for decades, with a recent count finding that an estimated 1 in 31 children in the U.S. have autism spectrum disorder. Scientists say that’s in part because the definition has broadened with expanded understanding of its wide range of traits and symptoms. There’s no single cause, they say, and genetic and environmental factors can play a role.

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the potential link between childhood vaccines and autism has been studied in dozens of well-designed studies around the globe and there is “unequivocally” no link.

The fact Trump raised the issue, O’Shea said, “is really misguided and unfair to families.”

Competing vaccine schedules raise confusion

Trump’s comments and his order also cause confusion about which vaccines to give children and when, doctors said.

In the first year of Trump’s term, Kennedy set out to overhaul immunization guidance, firing a 17-member vaccine advisory committee and installing replacements who made the restrictive recommendations halted by a federal judge. Those recommendations call for injections against 11 diseases, with additional vaccines separately categorized for at-risk children or as available through “shared decision-making” with a doctor.

The pediatrics academy, meanwhile, continued to recommend vaccines to protect against 18 diseases in its 2026 immunization schedule. O’Shea said that schedule “has been very well designed, carefully constructed and thoughtfully put together to provide safety and protection just as the baby or young child’s immune system is ready to accept it.”

Doctors said insurance coverage shouldn’t be an issue. Medicaid and CHIP continue to cover the vaccines recommended before the current Trump administration took office. Through 2027, private health insurance plans generally will too, said Chris Regal of AHIP, the national health insurers’ trade association.

Doctors say vaccine hesitancy, and dangers to kids, could grow

With confusion and fear rising, Racine said pediatricians expect to answer more questions from parents.

But many doctors fear vaccine hesitancy may still keep increasing. Federal data shows U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have been dropping, with the share of children with exemptions hitting an all-time high in the 2024-25 school year.

Experts said they worry about families skipping necessary vaccines for their children or spacing out shots, since a vaccine-preventable disease could strike between doctor visits.

“Parents deserve clear, evidence-based guidance about how to protect their children, not competing recommendations issued through political processes,” said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases. “When families receive conflicting messages, confidence in vaccination suffers, and children ultimately bear the consequences.”

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Medical writer Mike Stobbe and video journalist Mary Conlon contributed.

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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.

Lewis Trudell Barber, 56, was arrested Monday and booked into the Bexar County jail on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, booking records show.

According to the affidavit, which was also issued Monday, the victim was 12 years old when she disclosed the alleged abuse to her doctor in September 2024. The doctor reported the information to Child Protective Services.

The victim told investigators her occupational therapist, identified as Barber, had sexually abused her “at multiple places,” including at her house and another relative’s house.

The affidavit states Barber had been the victim’s therapist since she was 4 years old. The last therapy session took place Sept. 3, 2024.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Barber was employed by Aveanna Healthcare, where he provided outpatient therapy services, according to the affidavit. KSAT has reached out to Aveanna Healthcare for comment.

According to the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Barber’s certification was suspended on July 26, 2025.

Additional information was not immediately available.

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Northside ISD, the largest school district in San Antonio, said transportation is the responsibility of a parent or guardian if a student’s home falls “within a two-mile distance” of the campus.

“There are some exceptions that can be made due to extenuating circumstances, but those do not exist in this case,” the district wrote in a statement to KSAT.

The district said the rule does not change based on a student’s age.

“TEA has outlined the two-mile radius expectations for districts,” the district wrote.

Kelly Arrigoni said her 11-year-old son rode a school bus last year to Ott Elementary School but this year is starting at Luna Middle School, which is across the street from Ott.

Arrigoni said Northside ISD notified her that her son would not be able to ride the bus this school year because their home is less than 2 miles from the school.

The Arrigonis live 1.9 miles away from the school.

“He is no longer eligible for a bus,” Arrigoni said. “It’s not fair.”

Arrigoni said the route her son would have to walk can take about 45 minutes and runs along Potranco Road during peak traffic. She said the commute is particularly challenging because of her work schedule.

“There are days I open, and I have to be here at 8 a.m.,” Arrigoni said. “School doesn’t start until 9:40 a.m.”

She said on days she closes, she is at work by 1 p.m. and does not get off until late in the evening, long after the school day ends.

“You’re putting all of these children in such imminent danger,” Arrigoni said. “It’s terrifying.”

Arrigoni said family and friends are stepping in to help get her son to and from school safely without reliable transportation from the district.

Northside ISD said about 40,000 of the district’s roughly 98,000 students are registered and eligible for bus transportation.

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According to San Antonio police calls for service, officers have received at least 12 reports of vehicle burglaries at the hospital since June 26. The most recent call was made Aug. 10.

Several of the calls occurred on the same day, sometimes within a few hours of each other, according to the records.

Police also received eight calls classified as “disturbances” at the hospital during that period. The San Antonio Police Department said those calls could be related to vehicle break-ins but may also involve a variety of other issues.

One Northeast Baptist employee, who asked not to be identified, said the number of reported break-ins is concerning, particularly for employees working overnight.

“It is a concern. We should have security going out at night and watch more,” the employee said.

The employee added that the break-ins are particularly concerning when arriving at or leaving the hospital after dark.

“It is concerning. It concerns me more when you come in, and it’s night,” the employee said.

The employee said they now take extra precautions when parking, including making sure nothing valuable or attention-grabbing is left inside their vehicle.

“I always double-check and make sure I don’t leave anything exposed that will catch attention,” the employee said.

Another hospital employee, who could not be interviewed on camera, told KSAT that patients’ vehicles have also been broken into.

The employee raised concerns about the hospital’s security staffing and camera coverage.

Northeast Baptist Hospital said the safety of its employees, patients and visitors is its highest priority, and that it is working with the San Antonio Police Department on its investigation.

The hospital said it has implemented several enhanced security measures, including increased security staffing, additional mobile surveillance units and lighting, expanded camera coverage and license plate reader technology.

The hospital also said it is redesigning its employee parking plan to incorporate controlled access points and increasing security patrols throughout its parking lots.

The goal, the hospital said, is to help employees safely travel to and from their vehicles.

The hospital also pointed to a broader increase in vehicle burglaries across San Antonio this summer.

“According to SAPD, valuables left inside vehicles continue to be a primary target for thieves,” the hospital said.

The hospital encouraged employees and visitors to remove valuables from their vehicles and remain vigilant when parking on campus.

Northeast Baptist said it will continue evaluating and implementing additional security measures as needed.

“Northeast Baptist Hospital remains committed to investing in the safety of our workforce and the community for which we are privileged to serve,” the hospital said.

KSAT has also requested police calls for service related to criminal mischief, trespassing and theft at the hospital and is awaiting a response from SAPD.

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One hundred firefighters from Mexico have joined the effort, bringing the number of firefighters battling the blaze to 193. The fire has destroyed homes and other properties near Okanagan Lake, killed an 80-year-old woman and burned toward Summerland, a community of about 12,000 people roughly 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Vancouver.

The fire showed “quite significant growth” in some areas overnight even without strong winds, said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. He added crews were working around the clock to establish control lines and make it safe for evacuated residents to return home.

“We recognized and we heard even last night that people obviously would like to go home. They would like to see the extent of the damage,” Chapman said.

Provincial officials ramp up evacuations

Kevin Dunbar, British Columbia’s executive director for emergency response and recovery operations, called it one of the largest evacuations in recent British Columbia history.

British Columbia officials said they had secured 1,600 hotel rooms and 1,000 group-lodging spaces for evacuees in Okanagan after some residents faced delays getting emergency assistance during the weekend evacuation.

Beyond those already forced to flee, another 10,000 people have been told to be ready to leave on short notice. More than 100 wildfires were burning across the province, and officials warned that dry lightning could spark new fires in the Central Interior and Okanagan. The province also asked the federal government for help expanding lodging for evacuees.

RCMP are investigating whether criminal activity played a role in the fire. Chapman said about 4% of wildfires in British Columbia over the past decade were suspected of having been deliberately set, but officials have not said the Bald Range fire was intentionally started.

Evacuated residents recount emotional experience

Lucille and Gordon Beach of Summerland were in Vancouver for the weekend wedding of a granddaughter when they heard the fire had started. “We didn't feel too celebratory,” Lucille Beach said Tuesday.

The couple, staying for now in West Kelowna with their dog, haven't seen their home since leaving Friday but believed it was OK. It took a few days to adjust to the reality of what was happening, Lucille Beach said.

Carmen Bodzasy evacuated from Summerland, where she and her husband moved recently. She had to navigate evacuating on unfamiliar roads while he was away for work.

Before leaving, “I cried my eyes out for a minute, and I thought, you know what, if I had to restart over, what would I take with me?” She took photos of her parents' wedding, of her children's families and of her and her husband. “I thought if I didn’t have walls to go home to, at least I have memories to put up on my new one,” she said.

Holding her small dog Tuesday, she was not sure of the status of their home but said whatever happens, she intends to stay in Summerland, a place where people wave at passing motorists and stop to ask how you're doing.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help that town rebuild because everybody’s so kind there,” she said.

The lack of information has frustrated some Summerland residents, who have turned to photos and videos posted online from inside the evacuated community.

Firefighters battle blazes across the US

In the United States, firefighters in California were fighting a blaze that has burned nearly 5 square miles (about 12 square kilometers) in the Big Sur region of the state’s rugged central coast.

Area state parks have closed and evacuation orders have been issued, including for a roughly 7-mile (11-kilometer) stretch of Highway 1, the state’s iconic coastal route. Portions of the highway were closed on Tuesday due to the fire's spread and evacuations, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Along the Nevada-California border, a quick-moving blaze north of Reno spread to about 90.6 square miles (234.7 square kilometers), according to officials. More than 4,000 people and families were displaced, and a memory care facility had to be evacuated, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said during a news conference. Hot, dry and windy conditions were adding to the fire threat.

The fire has merged with another blaze that was burning on Freds Mountain. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 47-year-old woman on a third-degree arson charge in connection with that mountain fire after she told crews responding to it that she had started it, the sheriff’s department said in a post on social media Tuesday.

In Minnesota, a person involved in fighting a wildfire near the town of Ely died Tuesday following an unspecified medical emergency, the Superior National Forest said in a social media statement. Further details were not immediately released.

At least eight other people have died while helping with wildfires in the U.S. this year, including four firefighters who got trapped in a fire in western Colorado, a bulldozer operator who got overrun by flames in Oregon, two helicopter pilots who crashed while helping fight a fire in Utah and a helicopter pilot in Colorado who crashed into a reservoir.

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Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

The six-page report, dated April 2026, said the investigation was the result of allegations made during public comment at a Judson ISD board meeting earlier in the year.

In separate statements to KSAT Investigates on Tuesday, Judson ISD board member Jose Macias, who called for the investigation in January 2026, said the investigation “was intentionally tainted through veiled threats and intimidation by Ms. Ryan.”

Ryan called the investigation “an egregious weaponization of our school district’s procedures for political purposes,” and said, “board members lied about being in receipt of complaints.”

Investigation finds no evidence Ryan pressured staff

The allegations Ryan received special treatment for her children were brought up by a citizen during public comment at a board meeting, according to the investigation report.

The report said investigators spoke with Ryan, Macias and several others whose names were redacted.

Ryan was very involved in scheduling her children’s classes, including going through the schedule line by line, records show.

The report said several staff members told investigators they would have made the same efforts to grant any other parent’s requests for classes as they would for Ryan.

“Campus staff also reported that while Mr. Ryan made multiple requests for her child, some of those requests were granted, but some of her requests were denied,” the report states.

While some staff members “may have felt pressure to grant courses to Ms. Ryan,” the report said none of the people interviewed for the investigation reported that Ryan used her status as a board member to influence her child’s school schedule.

The report states decisions to grant any “unusual request” were made by central office staff members, not at the campus level.

“Because of the possible perception that certain requests should be granted due to a parent’s status as a Board member, it is recommended that Board members be conscious of that perception and exercise care in requesting courses that are not generally offered to all students,” the report stated.

Ryan, Macias at odds over investigation’s findings

Macias and Ryan have publicly sparred for months over several issues, including the termination of former Judson ISD superintendent Rob Fields, budget issues, and board conduct.

The investigation report, conducted by law firm Walsh Gallegos, was finalized in April 2026.

At a March 19 board meeting, board meeting minutes show the district’s board voted 4-3 to have the law firm continue its investigation into Ryan. Records show the scope of the investigation into Ryan was clarified during that meeting.

Ryan is one of the three board members who voted against the decision, while Macias is among the majority who voted in favor.

“... They had every reason to not be kind to me in the investigation; they have zero reason to hide or cover up anything,” Ryan told KSAT Investigates.

The meeting’s minutes show six board members, including Ryan, voted to hire a different law firm, JCA Law, PLLC., to investigate complaints against Macias, who abstained from the vote.

“As a result of Ms. Ryan’s interference and intimidation, the outcome of the investigation was compromised,” said Macias in a statement to KSAT Investigates on Tuesday. He accused Ryan of intimidating witnesses who ultimately did not agree to be interviewed for the investigation, and said the TEA is investigating allegations of abuse of authority.

Statement from Ryan

“Board members represented to the Board and to the Texas Education Agency—in writing—that there were two actual employee complaints of retaliation against me and provided investigators with more than a dozen employees to interview.

“The investigation told a very different story. Every employee interviewed denied making a complaint of retaliation, denied coming forward to anyone with a complaint of retaliation, and denied that I had retaliated against them. In the end, the transcripts show board members lied about being in receipt of complaints, and the investigation produced no finding that I retaliated against an employee.

“The cost is very real. The allegations advanced by Lisa Butler, Suzanne Kenoyer, Laura Stanford, and Jose Macias have already cost Judson ISD more than $27,000 in district funds—money that should have been spent serving students. That cost continues to grow as a TEA investigation generates additional legal fees based on the same false allegations the district already investigated and did not substantiate.

“There has also been a deeply personal cost. My children never asked to be part of school district politics, yet they have been dragged into this and had their personal information exposed on social media over allegations about me that were not substantiated.

“Public officials should expect scrutiny, and legitimate complaints should be taken seriously. But there is a profound difference between accountability and using unsubstantiated allegations to trigger governmental investigative processes for political purposes.

“Judson ISD has too much important work ahead of us to continue spending taxpayer dollars and valuable time relitigating allegations already investigated and not substantiated. Our time, resources, and attention belong where they should have been all along: on our students.”

Judson ISD Board President Monica Ryan

Statement from Macias

“The investigation into abuse of board authority was intentionally tainted through veiled threats and intimidation by Ms. Ryan. She publicly named the employees, potential witnesses into her actions, on social media in an effort to possibly intimidate them.

“Additionally, Ms. Ryan threatened the law firm doing the investigation with non-payment if they did not pause the investigation immediately. She claimed they were not authorized to conduct a broad investigation into her actions. Ms. Ryan wanted to bring the investigation back to the board to take action to close it out.

“However, the board ultimately voted 4-3 to continue with the investigation, but at the same meeting, the law firm conducting the investigation, that pushed back against Ms. Ryan’s assertions about the scope and desire to pause the investigation, were fired as board counsel and replaced with JCA. As a result of Ms. Ryan’s interference and intimidation, the outcome of the investigation was compromised.

“I look forward to the Texas Education Agency’s investigation into some of the same allegations of abuse of board authority. I am confident that Ms. Ryan cannot interfere, fire, or intimidate TEA.”

Judson ISD board member Jose Macias

Have a tip about Judson ISD? You can email Daniela at dibarra@ksat.com .

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.