The Post said the operation was prompted by an Iranian assassination threat against Trump. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington from the annual gathering of NATO country leaders.

The Post cited material reviewed by the newspaper, a U.S. official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the report.

Trump had flown to the summit in a new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet. But ahead of departing Turkey, he said he would fly partway home on an older-model baby blue Air Force One plane instead.

The president at the time said the new luxury jet was being flown out ahead of his departure from Ankara to give some U.S. troops based in eastern England a chance to check out the new Air Force One.

In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras ahead of the plane flying to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.

However, according to the Post report, after boarding the legacy Air Force One jet, he was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane — an Air Force C-32A — via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies. Trump flew to Mildenhall on that smaller jet.

The White House did not respond directly to questions about the Post report of the secret operation to whisk Trump out of the country on a third aircraft, or the reported elaborate ruse to make it appear he was on the baby blue Air Force One jet flying to Mildenhall.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The U.S. Secret Service declined to comment. The Air Force, which maintains the fleet of executive travel aircraft, referred questions to the White House.

There have been questions about the safety of the new Qatari-gifted plane

While Trump was in Turkey, the U.S. military conducted a series of large strikes in Iran in retaliation for its attacks on merchant shipping in the region.

The New York Times and CBS News reported last month that intelligence officials had raised concerns about a potential attack on the president or his jet, triggering additional precautions and the decision not to use the newly inaugurated aircraft gifted to Trump by Qatar for the first leg of Trump’s trip home from Ankara.

The swap had spurred questions about the security of the Qatar-provided aircraft, and Trump said last month after the trip that it would undergo additional upgrades.

Cheung on Monday maintained that the new, Qatari-gifted plane was “a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff.”

The new Post report on clandestinely putting Trump on a third aircraft and quietly whisking him out of the country adds a fresh layer to just how seriously concerned U.S. security officials were about the threat against Trump during the ongoing war with Iran.

Paul Eckloff, a former special agent with the Secret Service, said such an unusual move could either reflect actionable intelligence or an abundance of caution given volatility in the region with the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

“I would not say unprecedented, but it is an unusual occurrence,” Eckloff told The Associated Press.

The Post reported that to exit that plane without being seen by those uninvolved in the operation, Trump and several aides stepped aboard an airport catering truck, which was elevated planeside using hydraulics and positioned at a door on the opposite side of Air Force One’s entrance.

The small group of reporters who thought they were traveling with Trump were advised to lower their window shades ahead of takeoff.

After arriving at Mildenhall, news photographers captured images of Trump getting off the presidential plane — suggesting he reboarded Air Force One out of sight of the pack of journalists who thought they were traveling with him.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for a congressional investigation.

“It is unprecedented and it is surreal,” he said Monday on CNN, calling the incident “downright scary.”

After the brief visit to the base at Mildenhall, Trump boarded the new Air Force One aircraft to fly the rest of the way to Washington.

During a gaggle with reporters aboard the aircraft, Trump was asked directly if there was any credible threats on Air Force One by Iran.

“Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list before you,” Trump said. He added to the traveling reporters, “But if I go, you go.”

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AP writers Josh Boak, Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin contributed reporting.

Iran's foreign minister, meanwhile, underscored Tehran's stance against reopening the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. meets its conditions, in comments that came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was now demanding compensation from Iran “for all of the people that they have killed” in the past.

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

Houthis hit targets in central Yemen and Red Sea port city

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea coast and other areas of the country, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Yemen's military said the rebels targeted both Mokha and the central province of Marib with missiles and drones but did not provide further details.

The Houthis struck Marib and the eastern province of Hadramout last week, killing dozens of government troops and civilians. They hit Mokha with missiles and drones over the weekend and killed at least seven people, including three troops, according to the Yemeni military.

Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping to avoid the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The strikes came as part of a recent escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

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 to open oceans.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen’s civil war after a four-year hiatus following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

Iranian foreign minister underline's Tehran's demands

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Iran that the country had “astonished the whole world” in the war against the United States and Israel, proving “that it is a tough and invincible power.”

Iran has refused to back down on its demands that the U.S. end its blockade of Iranian ports and fulfill other conditions before Tehran will consider reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran shut down the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28. The closure of the key waterway — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — has kept energy prices a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Araghchi said on his Telegram channel that in a call with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul late Monday, he had “emphasized that making the Strait of Hormuz secure requires an end to the United States’ aggressive actions and unlawful interventions, including the naval blockade and other violations of U.S. obligations.”

Wadephul said on X that he had emphasized “the Strait of Hormuz needs to be opened unconditionally ensuring free and safe navigation for all.”

Trump said in a social media post he was directing his negotiators to include “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.” That was after Iran demanded compensation for the devastation caused to the country by the U.S. and Israeli bombardment over the past five months.

The U.S. president also claimed Monday in an Oval Office exchange with reporters that the U.S. has “100% control” of the Strait of Hormuz, but that the situation remains complex.

He said the U.S. Navy’s blockade of the strait is preventing Iran from selling its oil on the international market, a move that is effectively choking the Iranian economy.

“Now, can they make trouble? Yeah, they can make trouble, but they’re broke,” Trump said. “They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And they’re not paying their soldiers.”

Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib for leading the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.

Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence.

Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after insurgents marched into Damascus in December 2014.

Najib was later detained and became one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.

Najib is a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011.

U.S. futures edged lower.

Oil prices rose after U.S. President Donald Trump scoffed at demands from Iran that the U.S. pay for devastation caused by five months of war as one condition for reopening the strait.

Brent crude oil gained 2.4% to $89.80 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude picked up 2.6% to $84.28 a barrel.

Brent surged 5% on Monday. It swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

In early European trading, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2% to 8,708.85, while Germany's DAX also fell 0.2%, to 26,272.81. In Britain, the FTSE 100 lost 0.2% to 10,840.84.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1% lower.

Stocks wavered in Asia after the U.S. market edged away from its all-time highs.

South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7% to 6,345.53 as shares in market heavyweight Samsung Electronics jumped 4.1%. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 0.4%.

The wild swings of recent weeks, driven by waxing and waning hopes for a lasting boost to corporate profits from artificial intelligence, have abated in the past several days.

“Broadly, for the Korean memory chipmakers, the past year’s chip mania could well be over, even though Korean chipmakers will continue to benefit from the massive AI build out,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, said in a commentary.

Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng lost 1.1% to 25,652.82, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.8% to 3,934.09.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher to 9,250.60 after the Reserve Bank of Australia opted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.35%.

Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.4% and the Sensex in India shed 0.5%.

On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% from its record set on Friday. The Dow dipped 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

The recent rally powered by soaring profits for U.S. companies has slowed. Reports are on track to show earnings per share leaped 50% in the spring from a year earlier for companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Berkshire Hathaway, famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, gained 1.5%. It is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected.

Intel fell 4.1% after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. That would dilute its shareholders' ownership stakes. Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments in the huge spending related to AI technology.

The main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on U.S. inflation in July. Economists expect it slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% in June, and that would relieve pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow money. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.35 Japanese yen from 159.30 yen. It has been inching higher despite a recent rate intervention in the markets by Japan and the U.S. to help raise the yen's value against the dollar.

The euro fell to $1.1539 from $1.1544.

The price of gold, often used as a hedge against risk in times of uncertainty, added 0.3% to $4,434.20 an ounce.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in their overnight attack on the southeastern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, where local officials said six people were killed and 19 wounded.

A further three people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities said.

Russia has received additional ballistic missiles from Pyongyang and is preparing to deploy more North Korean troops, Zelenskyy said late Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership agreement just over two years ago. It vows mutual aid if either country faces aggression.

Kim has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of weapons to support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Some experts say the engagement with Moscow is helping improve North Korea’s military capabilities, and Zelenskyy warned that the battlefield experience would help Pyongyang menace other countries in its region.

Ukraine says Russia is scaling up its production of ballistic missiles, aiming to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air defense interceptors that can stop them, and claims Moscow is readying an increase in recruitment for a new push on the front line that stretches 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) along eastern and southern Ukraine.

“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war have fizzled as Washington grew frustrated with the lack of progress toward a settlement and its attention turned to the Iran war.

“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an analysis late Monday.

"Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war,” it said.

Russia hits the grounds of a Kyiv children's hospital

Russian forces also struck parts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, overnight, according to officials. One strike hit the grounds of a children’s hospital, leaving two craters and shattering windows, the State Emergency Service said. Children and medical workers were in bomb shelters and nobody was hurt, it added.

At another location in the capital, a Russian strike started a fire in a warehouse that spread across about 1,200 square meters (nearly 13,000 square feet), according to emergency officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces overnight struck “military industrial facilities and transport and logistics centers” in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia with “ground-based precision weapons.”

It said in a statement Tuesday that it hit drone storage facilities in Kyiv and a metallurgical plant in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Russia targeted Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv with Zircon anti-ship missiles and Iskander ballistic missiles, while launching 120 long-range strike drones of various types across the country, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russia's biggest e-commerce company hit again

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defenses overnight intercepted almost 400 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions and occupied Crimea.

Russia’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries, said in a statement that its logistical facilities in the Voronezh region on the border with Ukraine came under attack and caught fire, but it said the fire has been extinguished. It said goods stored at the facilities were “largely undamaged.”

Ukraine has repeatedly struck Wildberries warehouses and has also bombarded Russian oil facilities in what it says is a strategy to compel Putin to negotiate an end to the invasion.

Russian independent online outlet Astra said an oil refinery in the city of Orsk, some 1,300 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, was hit and published images of smoke billowing over it. There was no official confirmation of an attack on the Orsk oil refinery, which has been targeted before.

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

Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths. A total of 704 patients are in admission and isolation.

The grim toll comes nearly three months since the outbreak was declared on May 15. While it took about nine weeks for the outbreak to record 1,000 deaths, it’s taken just around three weeks to record the additional 1,000 deaths, showing how fast the health crisis is moving beyond the control of responders.

It's already the second-largest outbreak in history, only behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases including over 11,000 deaths.

Aid workers say the outbreak continues to outpace response that’s been expanding across the five provinces affected. Many health workers have gone on strike to protest lack of payment for their work since the outbreak was declared. And most new cases are recorded outside of contacts being monitored.

The Ebola outbreak is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. Clinical trials for those have begun in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that the outbreak likely started in February, long before authorities detected it in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas. WHO said some cases early on were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid, and that early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola.

The WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told a news conference that officials are “chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us.”

The first Ebola virus to be identified was in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now Congo. The current outbreak is the 17th — and largest — the Central African nation has faced.

“Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning,” Trump said, dressing down Zelenskyy in front of the world’s media. “You don't have the cards.”

The blowup in February 2025, three years into the war, was more than just a heated public exchange: The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave the White House, and Washington briefly suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv. In the ensuing months, as Russia made slow but steady gains on the battlefield, Trump warmly welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and seemed ready to push Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal, including forcing it to give up territory.

But even as Zelenskyy sat next to Trump, his forces were preparing an operation that would reveal Ukraine’s ability and ambition to take the war to Russia: Months later, drones smuggled into the country attacked Russian bombers, destroying or damaging planes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since then, Kyiv has ramped up a campaign of longer-range strikes inside Russia and in areas Moscow has seized, increased production of weapons, targeted Russian air defenses, and hit oil infrastructure and the warehouses of a major retailer in a bid to ensure ordinary Russians feel the impact of the conflict.

In an embarrassment to Putin, Ukrainian drone strikes sent thick plumes of smoke billowing over St. Petersburg shortly before the opening of an international economic forum in June. Concern over Ukraine’s attacks led Russian authorities to scale down the May 9 military parade commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany. Strikes on oil refineries have caused a summer fuel crisis.

By the time Trump and Zelenskyy met at a NATO summit in July, the American president said the Ukrainian leader had “been very effective” in the war. “We’ve actually developed a good relationship,” Trump added.

But as Ukraine’s strikes have intensified, so have Russia’s — and Kyiv faces major challenges in defending against them because of shortages of American Patriot air defense missiles.

In the first six months of the year, 1,396 civilians were killed in Ukraine, according to the U.N. Meanwhile, the world body said Russian authorities reported 250 civilians killed in the same period. On Monday, a strike that Ukraine said hit an oil refinery in Russia killed 13 people, according to local officials.

And while Ukraine's effort appears to have shifted the narrative about the war in Washington, it's still not clear if it will be able to push Putin toward the negotiating table.

Ukraine’s strikes are aimed at undermining the idea that Russia can afford to “just let this roll,” said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the London-based RUSI think tank.

The question of whether it will succeed depends on how much pain Ukraine can exact. “Logically, above a certain threshold, it does work but whether they can reach that threshold is an interesting question” — and one that depends at least partly on factors outside Kyiv's control, like continued European financial support, he noted.

Ukraine brings the war to Russia

While most of Ukraine's strikes have a range of less than 200 kilometers (125 miles), its longer-range attacks have increased dramatically this year. It launched three times as many of those strikes in July as it did in January, according to data from ACLED, an independent conflict monitor. Repeatedly hitting deep into Russia has forced its military to stretch air defenses over a larger area.

Many of its strikes have focused on four key categories of targets, according to an Associated Press analysis of hundreds of Ukrainian attacks this year — compiled from statements by Russian officials and state media and the Ukrainian military.

As the Iran war pushed up energy prices, leading the U.S. to ease sanctions on Russian oil, Kyiv ramped up strikes on oil infrastructure to deny the Kremlin revenue from fuel exports and force shortages on ordinary Russians. It is also striking defense manufacturing to damage Russia’s long-term ability to produce weapons, targeting air defenses to clear a path for its own arms, and hitting retail warehouses to bring the effects to ordinary Russians.

— As part of the campaign against oil infrastructure, Kyiv said it hit Russia’s largest oil refinery, more than 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine.

— Kyiv has also targeted defense manufacturing centers. It hit a factory making navigation systems multiple times, including with its own Flamingo missile.

— In July and August, Ukraine struck Wildberries warehouses. Kyiv said the company helps supply the Russian military. Moscow denies that.

— Many of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian air defenses and radar are around Russian-held Crimea and are often carried out with drones.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the commander leading Ukraine’s drone war, told the AP its strikes in Crimea are also aimed at rendering the peninsula unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces.

Starlink gives Ukraine an advantage — for now

It’s not always clear if Ukraine’s attacks are effective — and some may have resulted in minimal or no damage. In May and June, Ukraine said it hit several satellite, reconnaissance or signals intelligence facilities in Russia, but satellite images analyzed by AP did not show major damage.

Still, Ukraine has one advantage that can help it strip back Russian air defenses and make its drone strikes more precise.

It has access to Elon Musk’s satellite communications service Starlink — which means its operators can control drones in real time in Russian-held Ukrainian territory. Russia has been blocked from using Starlink.

But Russia is also building its own version of Starlink, and is installing jamming systems that hamper Starlink connectivity, Brovdi said.

Ukraine is investing heavily in weapons production

Even before the Oval Office meeting, Ukraine scrambled to invest in new weapons — but that moment was “a real wake-up call," said a European military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the front-line situation in detail. It became clear that U.S. support could be stopped “from one day to the next.”

Ukraine doubled down on production, churning out a growing array of weapons in larger numbers and shortening traditional research and production cycles from decades to years or even months.

Even so, Ukraine is still not able to produce as many missiles as it needs. It also took Ukraine time to make systems that could target facilities precisely enough that Kyiv felt comfortable using them to strike deep into Russia, Watling said.

And while Ukraine has begun to resolve navigational issues with its missiles, such as the Flamingo, those weapons are still not as accurate — or as stealthy — as their Western analogues. That often means hundreds of drones must be fired to overwhelm Russian air defenses to allow a missile to get through.

It's an expensive and time-consuming way to wage war since only 5% to 9% of what Ukraine fires gets past Russian air defenses, according to Watling.

But, although Russia's weapons are more powerful, Zelenskyy suggested at the NATO summit that Putin is “losing the initiative” in the war as Ukraine has moved the fight from the stalled battlefield to the sky.

Sitting next to Trump at the summit, the Ukrainian leader even cracked a joke, demurring when Trump asked him if he would accept Moscow as a venue for peace talks, as Putin has suggested.

“There are a lot of Ukrainian drones in the air," Zelenskyy said. "It would be dangerous.”

Skubal still intends to be much better than he was while allowing three runs on four hits over five innings Monday night in the Dodgers' 6-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

“I thought I competed well and gave our team a chance to win, and our offense picked me up big-time, defense picked me up big-time, and the bullpen was outstanding tonight,” Skubal said. “So all in all, a good team win, especially when I don’t feel like I performed up to my standard.”

Skubal left trailing 3-2 in the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner's decent, if unspectacular, first start in the home whites. His fastball command was decidedly lacking, and he was unable to get ahead early in most counts during an outing in which he managed just one 1-2-3 inning. The fireworks came instead from the Dodgers' slumbering offense, which awoke with Max Muncy's three-run double and Freddie Freeman's RBI single after Skubal departed.

Although he struck out six, Skubal didn't live up to manager Dave Roberts' pregame prediction of “an electric night” for the vaunted left-hander and his slumping club, which had lost eight of nine heading into this homestand.

“I thought he fought well,” Roberts said. “Tarik didn't have his best stuff, but he didn't relent. He kept going, and he gave us what he had for tonight.”

Even after everything he accomplished while becoming one of the majors' top starters with the Tigers, Skubal was particularly amped up for this debut in front of 51,799 fans eager to cheer their team's biggest trade-deadline addition in its bid to win three straight World Series titles. When Skubal was announced in the starting lineup for the first time, Dodgers fans responded with loud cheers and a serenade of “Skuuuuuu!”

“This one was special to me, so the nerves run a little bit higher,” Skubal said. “But it just means you care, so I think that’s all positive stuff. I was excited to go out there and pitch in front of the Dodger fans. It was a ton of fun to play the game today.”

Skubal threw 95 pitches against the Royals, and Jac Caglianone tagged two of them for a two-run homer and an RBI single. Skubal also issued two walks and hit a batter with a pitch in just his second career appearance at Dodger Stadium, taking the mound nine days after the defending champions acquired him from Detroit in the biggest trade of the deadline.

Los Angeles gave up three promising prospects for what might be a short-term rental of the 29-year-old Skubal, who will likely reap the benefits of free agency this winter.

Skubal made his Dodgers debut at Wrigley Field last Tuesday, pitching six innings of two-run, four-hit ball with six strikeouts in his new team’s 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

The back-to-back champions had the farm talent and the impetus to go out and get the AL's best pitcher over the past two seasons — and Skubal's reception at Chavez Ravine showed their fans still don't take their deep-pocketed team's winning mentality for granted.

But after that warm pregame reception, Skubal yielded two soft singles and a run to Kansas City’s first three batters, with Bobby Witt Jr. stealing second and scoring on Caglianone’s dribbler up the middle.

Nick Loftin then doubled in the third before Caglianone hit his 21st homer of the season to right, smashing a hanging slider for a 410-foot shot that induced grumbles from the stands.

Skubal retired six straight Royals after Caglianone's shot, but he got into trouble again in the fifth, hitting Loftin with a pitch and walking Witt with two outs. Skubal dug in and struck out Caglianone to end the inning, getting him with his signature changeup on his final pitch.

“Tarik Skubal — it’s nice to have him on our mound,” said a grinning Freeman, who drove in Shohei Ohtani with the go-ahead run. “I’m sure he wants to go deeper than five innings, but I like that every five, six days that he’s going to be on the mound for us.”

Los Angeles probably hoped for a more dominant beginning to Skubal's tenure, but it cares most about the games he'll pitch in October, when the champs expect to make their 14th consecutive playoff appearance.

Roberts is uncommonly impressed by Skubal after just more than a week together.

“This guy, he’s as different as anyone I’ve ever been around in this short period of time,” Roberts said. “He’s special in every way. ... He’s just built differently. The mind, the body, the focus, the humility, the willingness to serve, to help. He puts himself out there. He’s different than any player I’ve ever been around, really. Again, it’s a small sample, but I’ve dug in on him. I've got a pretty good gut. This guy is something like I’ve never seen.”

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

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

Trump demands Iran pay for decades of US military deaths

Trump's social media post Monday came after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stressed that Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. meets its conditions.

Tehran wants the U.S. to end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift economic sanctions and release Iran’s frozen assets. It also said the U.S. must pay compensation for war damage.

“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Baghaei said.

Trump responded that he is now demanding “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.”

The U.S. government has blamed Iran-backed militants for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Americans over several decades. They include a 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. military personnel at a Marine compound in Beirut and the deaths of at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.

Trump said he also wants Tehran to compensate the families of Iranian protesters who were killed.

“I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump said in his post.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — has kept energy prices as a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Iran's supreme leader is said to want unity amid signs of division

Iran’s president said the country’s supreme leader is calling for “unity and cohesion” as the Islamic Republic faces economic hardships and sanctions stemming from its war with the United States.

President Masoud Pezeshkian described a nearly seven-hour meeting with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in an interview with Iranian state television that aired amid apparent tensions among the Islamic Republic’s leaders.

Pezeshkian told the state-run IRIB that he and Khamenei discussed “people’s livelihoods, the state of the market, employment, people’s housing,” as well as “problems that are now being created as a result of the (U.S.) sanctions.” He didn’t say when or where they met.

Most important, he said, was Khamenei’s emphasis on unity.

“All of the enemy’s plans are aimed at creating division,” Pezeshkian said. “What we have to do is prevent divisions from emerging.”

It is only the second time the Iranian president has said he has met with the new supreme leader since Khamenei was appointed in March following a U.S.-Israeli strike that killed his father. Khamenei, believed to have been wounded in the same attack, has not appeared in public since then.

Iran names former Revolutionary Guard leader to top security post

Iran on Sunday appointed Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to its new supreme leader, to head its powerful Supreme National Security Council.

Rezaei commanded Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard from 1981 to 1997, a period that includes Iran’s 1980s war with Iraq. The 71-year-old hard-liner last week threatened American forces with “serious risks and casualties” if the U.S. did not lift its blockade of Iranian ports.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

While Rezaei appears willing to negotiate with the U.S. to “secure Iran’s maximalist aims, including control of the Strait of Hormuz,” he has also been “unwilling to present any Iranian concessions,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank.

Israel declares closed military zone in Taybeh

Israel's military said Monday it had declared a Christian-majority town in the occupied West Bank a closed military zone to keep out Israeli settlers and other non-residents.

The new tactic is designed to keep Israelis out of Taybeh, which has been subject to arson, vandalism and settlers coming onto private and village property. The army said Palestinian residents and journalists would be allowed unless soldiers determine their presence poses a threat. The army said its troops would detain suspects and disperse gatherings to keep the peace.

The designation comes after months of the army and police struggling to maintain order throughout the territory, where at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in 2026, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Yemen says the Houthi attack on a Red Sea town Sunday killed 7

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a Red Sea port town controlled by government forces on Sunday, killing seven and injuring 30 people. Yemen’s Defense Ministry — which operates under its internationally recognized government — said four military personnel and three civilians were killed.

Clashes continued Monday near the village of Taiz. The Houthi group said a 13-year-old child was killed by artillery shelling and another child was injured.

The attack on Mokha is the latest in one of the largest waves of Houthi strikes on Yemeni military positions and areas held by the Saudi-backed government since a 2022 truce. It comes as threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its southern tip.

Monday's 7.4 magnitude earthquake rattled Cali, Quibdo, Pereira and numerous other cities and towns. Around 1,600 buildings were reported damaged or collapsed. Soldiers, rescue personnel and families picked through the rubble, removing and passing large pieces of concrete by hand down lines of volunteers.

President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday afternoon at least 111 people had died.

Families posted information about missing loved ones on citizen-run websites. By Monday night, more than 2,700 people had been reported missing.

Dana Carolina Zamora posted an image of her missing 60-year-old uncle, Miguel Ángel Zamora, cradling his dog. The farmer was living in a rural area of El Cairo, not far from the epicenter of the quake in San Jose Del Palmar.

Local authorities said 80% of El Cairo, a town of about 7,000 people, was damaged. Zamora said she worried because her uncle lived in a traditional but fragile house made of sticks and mud.

“We are afraid. We hope that is not the case, that he is all right and that it is only a communication failure. But we haven’t heard anything from him,” Zamora said.

Choco, the region surrounding the quake's epicenter, is one of the poorest and most neglected regions of Colombia, often beset by warring armed groups. Much of Choco is accessible only by boat, through the jungle or by airplane. Little was known about the extent of the damage there.

De la Espriella traveled to Choco's capital, Quibdo, on Monday night to assess the damage and announced he had mobilized “the entire military and police apparatus” to respond, deploying engineers, rescue workers and search dogs. He announced rental subsidies for those whose homes were damaged while they undergo repairs.

“Choco will never again be the ‘land of the forgotten,'” he said.

The earthquake presents the first major test for de la Espriella, who was sworn in as Colombia's leader on Friday. De la Espriella is a divisive figure because of his pledge of an all-out crackdown on criminal groups.

The U.S. State Department announced it would provide $15.5 million for emergency shelter, food and other aid. Governments across Latin America also lined up to help.

The earthquake left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing more than 6,300 people.

Many Colombians were only beginning to grapple with the disaster's longer-term consequences.

Mónica Sánchez owns a small company that makes work uniforms. Her home city, Pereira, was one of the worst hit, and a wall inside the factory collapsed. Sánchez and her 12 workers were able to get outside just in time.

“It was shocking — the city fell down around us,” she said.

____

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.

In Wisconsin, state Rep. Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, is the front-runner for the party's nomination for governor in a swing state where winning the governor's mansion is central to Democrats' hopes for 2028 and beyond. In Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is running for the nomination for an open Senate seat against centrist Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.

The left vs. center theme is on display in Democratic primaries in multiple states voting Tuesday, with other significant races in places like Alabama and South Carolina.

Here's what to watch Tuesday night.

Does the left keep surging in swing states?

Left-leaning candidates have consistently won primaries, capitalizing on Democratic voter frustration at party leadership. Most wins came in reliably liberal urban areas, ranging from New York Cityto Denver. But last week, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed broke new ground by winning the party's nomination for a competitive Senate race in swing state Michigan.

Now Hong and, to a lesser extent, Flanagan are trying to claim even more purple terrain for the left.

President Donald 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. Hong has maintained a steady lead in public polls against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, despite his endorsement by the state's current governor, Democrat Tony Evers. Hong is also helped by the presence on the ballot of multiple more traditional candidates who will split votes against her, including former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who dropped out of the race late last month.

Hong has a trail of controversial statements, including vocal support for defunding the police in 2020, a position she now disavows. Prominent Democratic strategists fear that she can win the primary by appealing to the party's base but is a risk in the general election. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

The stakes are high in the race for Democrats nationally, not just Wisconsin residents. Democrats are hoping to win control of the state legislature, and the governor's mansion would give them an ability to redraw Wisconsin's map to counter the edge the GOP built up in this year's mid-decade redistricting. Without that, their path to a House majority in 2028 becomes challenging.

Democrats will also likely need to win Wisconsin to retake the White House in 2028, and the governor will have a key role in certifying the winner of the election. In 2020, Trump tried to claim Wisconsin despite it being won by Joe Biden, only to be blocked in part by Evers. Tiffany, who has been endorsed by Trump, supported the president's attempt to overturn the election.

Democrats have reliably won Minnesota during the Trump years, but by shrinking margins, and Republicans believe they have a shot at claiming the open Senate seat given the primary battle there. Craig represents a swing district and has taken more moderate stances, and Flanagan has slammed her for being supported by establishment Democrats and being too accommodating to Trump, especially on immigration.

Lamont won as an insurgent. Now he's establishment

When the Democratic establishment was worrying about insurgents from the left a generation ago, it fretted about the man who is currently Connecticut's governor, Ned Lamont.

A wealthy former entrepreneur, Lamont was an obscure Greenwich selectman when he mounted a primary challenge against the state's senior senator, Joe Lieberman, in 2006. Lamont argued that the centrist Lieberman, who had been the party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, wasn't a loyal enough Democrat and leaned too far to the right.

Lamont won that primary, but Lieberman ran in the general election as an independent and kept his Senate seat. Lamont kept running for office and eventually was elected governor in 2018. Now 72, Lamont is being challenged from the left by State Rep. Josh Elliott, 41, who alleges the governor hasn't fought Trump hard enough and that the solidly Democratic state deserves better than Lamont's fiscally moderate approach.

For months, Lamont largely ignored Elliott and focused on burnishing his own image. But in a sign of a potentially tightening race, he's begun to advertise against his challenger.

An incumbent cast as too old and too tied to big money

Also in Connecticut, Rep. John Larson faces his first primary challenge after 14 terms in the House from former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin.

The race follows familiar contours, as Bronin, 47, argues that Larson, 78, is too old and too tied to big money donors. Larson argues his experience and seniority put him in the best position to deliver for his voters.

There is also a growing list of longtime Democrats upset by younger challengers. Will one more name get added on Tuesday night?

In a Wisconsin House district, a rematch is likely

Democratic voters in a swath of western Wisconsin are expected to renominate Rebecca Cooke to face two-term Republican Rep. Derek Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, setting up a rematch for one of the more competitive seats in the U.S. House.

In 2024, Cooke, a nonprofit executive and small business owner, lost narrowly to Van Orden, who was elected in 2022 and has been a devout supporter of Trump.

The district is a mix of Wisconsin farmland where Republicans have improved over the past decade and mini-metros with state universities giving them small but influential Democratic bases.

Cooke, of Eau Claire, faces Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge on Tuesday, but Cooke has Democratic institutional support, including from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Cooke has also raised roughly $8.6 million, far exceeding Berge’s roughly $729,000.

Van Orden is unopposed in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

In South Carolina, it's a famous name vs. experience

For a state with little mystery expected in November, South Carolina is again in the spotlight, this time holding primaries to nominate candidates for a special U.S. Senate election.

South Carolina voters voted on June 9 for nominees to statewide office, and then cast ballots in the June 23 primary runoffs for contests where no candidate reached 50% of the vote. And there were several, including GOP nominations for governor and nominations for several congressional seats.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death on July 11 at age 71 of an aortic rupture to his heart ensured South Carolina voters were not finished deciding who would be on the November ballot. Voters on Tuesday will be deciding who will succeed the four-term Graham as the Republican nominee in the GOP-heavy Southern state.

They will be choosing from Graham’s sister Darline, who was appointed to fill the vacancy by Gov. Henry McMaster and who has been endorsed by Trump, as well as U.S. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, former Rep. Mark Sanford and six other candidates.

If no one reaches 50% of the vote Tuesday -- that’s right -- there will be another runoff, this one on Aug. 25.

The Trump administration is hoping that months of bombing have pushed Iran’s economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

The president on Monday said that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for the U.S. side. It's part of a larger pivot this weekend by Trump to argue that Iran is now on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though it has already endured decades of financial sanctions, which are often a longer-term strategy rather than an immediate tool of warfare that can halt a conflict.

The shift comes as U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have dwindled and as stop-start talks seem again to have stalled. But Trump insists the pressure can lead to a breakthrough.

“Yeah, they can make trouble, but they’re broke,” Trump told reporters. “They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And, they’re not paying their soldiers. They have inflation of 300%.”

Inflation is running high in Iran, although Trump's estimates were higher than what administration officials have been citing to reporters. But the prospect of a longer war also carries inflation risks for other nations, including the U.S. — where the war and higher gasoline prices are unpopular.

Crude oil prices climbed on Monday as investors interpreted Trump’s comments as a sign that fewer ships would be traversing the Strait of Hormuz, continuing to limit global supplies of gasoline, jet fuel, natural gas and other forms of energy. The Iran war largely closed the waterway involved in shipping roughly 20% of global oil supplies before the conflict — and attempts to reopen the strait have been short-lived as it has become a source of leverage for the Iranians in negotiations.

Iran does not appear to be publicly intimidated by the prospect of more financial sanctions.

“Whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results, it simply increases the dose,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, on social media. “The real risk is that American politicians, clinging to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making.”

The White House has called this ‘Operation Economic Fury’

The president didn’t say what additional financial pressure would be applied, but the administration has since April 16 been engaged in what it calls “ Operation Economic Fury ” against Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called this component the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign as the countries that buy oil from Iran or bank with it could be sanctioned.

But one problem with this pivot is that the sanctions are unable to bite as quickly as the impact of the largely shuttered strait, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University who helped direct Iran sanctions strategy in the Obama administration.

Nephew stressed that the value of sanctions as a tool is limited because Trump has not articulated clear strategic goals for the war, at times stressing that it can't have a nuclear weapon, then emphasizing the strait and then talking about ballistic missiles. Instead, Trump has engaged in a massive series of aerial assaults and a level of destruction that has not produced the quick end that he initially promised.

“Economic pressure is a possible element in his strategy, but he’s yet to explain the purpose,” Nephew said. “Trump has systematically weakened his own hand through his inadequate use of force, inarticulate elucidation of an objective, and vacillation on negotiations.”

Still, the sanctions and the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports give the U.S. economic and financial leverage, said Juan Zarate, a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Zarate said the U.S. sanctions threatening third-party countries doing business with Iran also have an impact. But these things take time, he noted.

“The ultimate question will be how far the United States is willing to go to constrict Iran’s oil trade and threaten third countries with severe sanctions -- and whether it has the patience to test whether the economic pain will change the regime’s behavior,” Zarate said.

Past presidents used sanctions. Trump has said they didn't go far enough

Trump's latest pivot to economic issues with Iran is something of a flip-flop. Trump has long derided past presidents who used sanctions to limit Iran’s economic ability to pay for its military and nuclear development. In a speech last week in Las Vegas, he defended the bombing, missiles and drone attacks that began on Feb. 28 by indicating that the sanctions from previous administrations that date back to November 1979 had failed to succeed.

“It’s been 47 years, but really, it’s been 50 years because they’ve been saying 47 for three years, it’s been 50 years,” Trump said. “And no other president has done what you should have done a long time ago, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, can’t have it.”

The Iranian economy has suffered gravely because of the war, with the International Monetary Fund estimating the overall economy shrinks by 5.4% and the Iranian government recently reporting an annual inflation rate of 88.6%. The U.S. Treasury Department said average loadings of Iranian oil have decreased from 1.8 million barrels per day before the war to less than 500,000 barrels per day over the past month.

The U.S. economy — the world’s largest — has continued to grow, but inflation is elevated and borrowing costs have risen in ways that have hurt Trump’s popularity and led to disapproval of the Iran war.

A senior U.S. official, insisting on anonymity to discuss strategy, said the U.S. military has set back Iran’s ability to produce, sell and ship oil and other energy resources. The administration sees the naval blockade of the strait and sanctions as effective and views Trump as having additional options that can be cranked harder in the weeks and months ahead.

Trump is essentially arguing that U.S. voters are better able to tolerate any economic inconveniences than Iranians, who have been in a state of economic hardship for years.

“It’s not just what the military can do — we’ve got the most powerful economy in the world as well," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday in a joint appearance with Bessent. "And when you’ve got a motivated treasury secretary who can pull a lot of levers because he knows how to do it, you can put a lot of pressure on adversaries.”

___

AP White House reporter Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Now, a Waco judge has granted a temporary restraining order to allow Tulsa to play Boerne for the Southwest regional title as previously scheduled on Aug. 11.

“Judge Ryan Luna of the 414th District Court has granted a Temporary Restraining Order sought by parents and players, with the support of Tulsa National Little League, following the disqualification of its 12U All-Star team from the Southwest Region Tournament in Waco, Texas,” according to a press release from Christian Dennie of Dennie Sports Law obtained by KOTV in Tulsa.

“Judge Luna has ordered the championship game to go forward on August 11th at 6 p.m. as scheduled. The winner of the game will go on to represent the Southwest Region in Williamsport,” the release continued. “The winner of the game will be determined on the field where it should be decided.”

ORIGINAL STORY: For the second time in three years, the Hill Country will be well-represented at the Little League World Series.

The Boerne baseball Little League team defeated the Gonzales, Louisiana, team from Ascension Parish 4-1 Monday afternoon in Waco.

Boerne’s pitching dominated Ascension Parish. The combination of Kase Yarbrough and Joshua “Merritt” Cude held the opposition to just one run on four hits.

Monday’s game became the Southwest regional title game after the Tulsa National Little League team from Oklahoma, who was set to face the Boerne-Ascension Parish winner on Tuesday, was removed from the tournament due to using an ineligible player.

Important update regarding the Little League Baseball Southwest Region Tournament

Full Statement: https://t.co/VR6P9l6Nk9 pic.twitter.com/FMAGszNSgL

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 10, 2026

“To uphold the integrity of the International Tournament and provide an opportunity for every team, community, and, most importantly, child, to have a fair and equitable experience, Little League International relies on adult volunteers and parents to adhere to our Rules, Regulations, and Operating Policies,” Little League International said in a news release. “Little League International is committed to supporting all children impacted by this decision and will continue to provide support and administrative guidance to the families in Tulsa National Little League.”

In 2024, Boerne Little League advanced to the Little League World Series.

Boerne’s run lasted until a loss to the team from Lake Mary, Florida, in the U.S. Championship Game. One day later, the team from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Latin America’s regional champion, defeated Boerne in the third-place game.

The 2026 Little League World Series begins Aug. 19 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Read also:

• Buckets with Bella: Flemings family give back to San Antonio with basketball camp

As soon as the clock struck midnight, the Voks ran out of an inflatable tunnel flanked by pyrotechnics and onto their stadium-lit football field as Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” blared from the speakers.

“It’s always just exciting to see these kids be kids,” Lanier head coach Sal Tellez said. “This is one of those events that, yes, they’re football players and we put a lot of pressure on them, but they get to be kids here today, and they get excited just like opening Christmas presents on Christmas Day.”

Senior Justin Burclaga was one of many soaking up the moment and was especially appreciative of all the fans in attendance, including his uncle.

“In the locker room, we were hyping up, ‘Last first practice as seniors.’” Burclaga, who plays tight end, fullback and linebacker, said. “And it’s at midnight? Man, it’s an unreal experience.”

That’s what events like midnight practice do for a team — it brings out the best in a community and reinforces the support a team has ahead of a long season.

“There’s no doubt that they’re going to show up for whatever event that we have,” Tellez said about the community, “whether that be midnight, in the morning, whatever it is that we have. We have our ‘Meet the Voks’ in two weeks and they show up (there) as well.”

Lanier is coming off a 6-5 season that ended in an emphatic defeat in the first round of the playoffs to Liberty Hill. The Voks were bi-district finalists, with a 4-2 district record.

The team returns 20 lettermen, including four starters on offense and five on defense.

Lanier opens the season on Friday, Aug. 28 against Holy Cross at 7 p.m. at the SAISD Sports Complex.

Read also:

• ‘The energy is different’: Lytle, Holy Cross hold midnight practice to kick off fall training
• Midnight practices open Texas high school football season

SAPD arrested Noah James Davidson, 20, at the scene of the July 16 attempted burglary. Court records show Davidson has been charged with burglary of habitation with intent to commit a felony, which is considered a first-degree felony.

Officers were dispatched at approximately 6:15 a.m. in the 30 block of Fonthill Way, which is located near the intersection of Austin Highway and Harry Wurzbach Road.

According to SAPD’s July 16 preliminary report, investigators received multiple calls about Davidson “damaging a vehicle” and attempting to break into other homes in the area.

In an update sent Monday to KSAT, an SAPD spokesperson said Davidson attempted to get into another home when a 75-year-old man inside stabbed him multiple times in Davidson’s upper body.

It is unclear what kind of weapon the 75-year-old used to stab Davidson.

Police initially said first responders transported Davidson to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries before he was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

Jail records show Davidson fulfilled his $50,000 bond six days after the July 16 attempted burglary.

At this time, it is also unclear if the resident will face any charges in connection with the stabbing. SAPD said its investigation remains ongoing.

According to court records, Davidson is expected to make his next court appearance on Oct. 15.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Resident, 75, stabs burglary suspect, 20, multiple times at North Side home, SAPD says

ALPR systems capture images of vehicle license plates and can also log details such as the vehicle’s make, model and color. Law enforcement agencies use the technology to search for vehicles tied to investigations such as stolen vehicles, missing person cases and violent crimes.

A map from DeFlock.org, a website tracking the spread of ALPR technology and raising privacy concerns, shows automated plate readers in use across the country, including in South Texas.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office publishes a public transparency portal showing the scope of its ALPR use. The agency has 35 cameras that have collectively read more than 700,000 license plates in the last 30 days, according to the portal.

In Guadalupe County, the Commissioners Court recently approved ending the county’s contract with Flock Safety.

County leaders cited repeated vandalism of the cameras and said the company refused to pay for damages.

There have also been issues in other areas of the country, like North Carolina and Georgia, as law enforcement officials misused these surveillance cameras.

Supporters of ALPR cameras argue the technology helps law enforcement quickly locate people they’re searching for — whether that’s a suspect connected to a violent crime or a vehicle associated with an AMBER Alert.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) also operates ALPRs across Texas.

“As part of continued efforts to improve public safety, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has installed automated license plate readers (ALPR) across Texas – including in Medina, Guadalupe and Bexar Counties – within several state rights-of-ways following authorization by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and once appropriate TxDOT state roadway permits were issued,” DPS wrote in a statement.

DPS said it uses the technology to help investigators locate suspects or missing persons, recover stolen property, identify suspicious vehicles and develop timelines in criminal investigations.

DPS said it cannot provide an exact number of cases ALPRs have helped solve, but described the systems as “very effective.”

DPS provided recent examples, including a San Antonio home invasion where ALPR hits helped identify the location of suspect Rodney Robinson III and led to the arrest of him and multiple other suspects.

DPS troopers were also able to identify a vehicle and people involved in a deadly crash in June.

DPS, in addition to BCSO, has used ALPR to assist with AMBER Alerts and other missing person cases, too.

Supporters of the cameras told KSAT they agree with them because they are “great for tracking a missing person or violent criminals.”

Opponents, however, worry about how surveillance systems could be misused and raise questions about privacy, oversight and how long data is stored.

Several law enforcement officials in Georgia have been fired over misuse of Flock cameras.

“Only law enforcement agencies that have signed agreements with the department have access to footage and images collected by DPS ALPRs,” DPS told KSAT in a statement.

Even with the debate, ALPR cameras are expected to remain widely used across the San Antonio area.

Read also:

• Guadalupe County approves terminating Flock camera contract, citing vandalism, ‘public scrutiny’

The historical marker, located near South Pine and Iowa streets, was broken off, leaving its metal support legs behind.

Mario Salas, who helped secure the plaque’s installation, said he reported the damage to police on Aug. 1.

The plaque commemorated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, a key organization in the Civil Rights Movement.

Salas said the damage will not deter efforts to preserve the history the marker represents.

“If intimidation is meant by it, it doesn’t scare us,” Salas said. “We have been through much worse than this, and we’re determined to honor that site.”

Salas said the vandalism was particularly painful because he believes the person responsible may have targeted the marker because of what it represents.

“The depths of the evil in people’s hearts is sometimes pretty hard to get over,” Salas said.

No suspects or leads have been identified in the case as of the time of publication.

Neighborhood First Alliance is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information can call 210-387-8777 or 210-454-3878.

Salas said he hopes whoever damaged the plaque takes time to consider why they did it.

“You need to think about what you did and what is it in your heart that made you do it?” he said.

Despite the damage, Salas said the plaque will return.

“We plan on putting another one back,” he said. “And you’re going to need a tractor to take the next one down.”

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• City of San Antonio historical marker sustains damage, police say

• TRIPLE DIGITS: A few more triple digit days possible, otherwise upper 90s
• TROPICS: Atlantic wakes up, 3 systems to watch

FORECAST

BACK-TO-SCHOOL FORECAST

Expect fairly typical August weather as some kids go back to school tomorrow with sunshine and afternoon temperatures up near 100°. We should tally up another triple digit day or two this week, but so far this year we just have one.

ACTIVE TROPICS

Right on cue, the tropics are heating up. Three systems have been flagged by the National Hurricane Center. One, in particular, is showing signs of strengthening and has a 70% chance of development. We have plenty of time to watch and will continue to monitor.

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.

A spokesperson for the Meta CEO also said the crew didn't immediately hear the radio call for help and by the time it did, another nearby ship had already rendered assistance.

The Aug. 3 incident gained attention in recent days after a passenger on the cruise ship posted on social media that the captain had said Zuckerberg’s yacht “refused” to respond.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the 21-foot Hewescraft vessel first hailed it for assistance at approximately 9:32 p.m., using a radio frequency all boats are expected to monitor. About 25 minutes later, the Coast Guard determined the vessel was not in distress and issued an assistance request. The skiff was able to make it safely to Farragut Bay after the Wilderness Legacy cruise ship towed it there, and helped it refuel.

When another ship is in distress, everyone in the area is obligated to respond as long as doing so doesn't put their own ship at risk. But maritime law expert Ian Ralby said this situation appears different, and the crew of Zuckerberg's yacht wouldn't face that legal obligation.

“It’s the difference between calling AAA and 911. You need an ambulance on site, that’s a distress call. You need somebody to give you a jump or to tow your car, you call AAA,” said Ralby, who is president of the nonprofit Auxilium Worldwide that focuses on promoting sustainable development and ocean governance, among other goals. It is a big difference in terms of the emergency type, he said. "Both concerning, both needing assistance, but the legal obligations to respond are very different.”

No obligation to help a ship that ran out of gas

Zuckerberg and his family were not on the 387-foot Launchpad yacht when this happened, according to his spokesperson, who didn't specify what the yacht was doing at the time.

“As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway. We’re grateful all parties are safe," Zuckerberg's spokesman Brian Baker said.

Retired Coast Guard Captain Aaron C. Davenport, who spent three decades with the branch of the military responsible for rescues on the water, said running out of gas simply isn't considered an emergency, and the Launchpad wasn't obligated to help.

“If Zuckerberg’s ship is there and this vessel just ran out of fuel, they’re under no obligation whatsoever to assist them. Zero,” said Davenport, who led rescues in the Bering Sea during his career. “Is it that common courtesy to help other mariners out? Yes, because someday you’re going to need assistance.”

The Coast Guard also isn't going to automatically deploy ships when a ship runs out of gas, but Davenport said that in the harsh environment of Alaska a ship that ran out of gas could become an emergency if it drifts into some rocks or a storm is brewing. The fact that this cruise ship responded saved the Coast Guard a trip.

“Alaska is a remote place so it could easily go from non-emergency to emergency and very quickly,” said Davenport, who worked as a consultant on security and maritime issues for several years before retiring.

Cruise ship passenger's post drew attention to this incident

The Alaska Beacon first reported on what happened after Michael Love, who said he was a passenger on the Wilderness Legacy cruise ship, posted on Bluesky on Aug. 5.

“Our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht — which was closer — and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this),” he said.

Coast Guard determined the skiff wasn't in distress

The Coast Guard said in a statement that they determined within half an hour of when the skiff radioed in that the small ship wasn't in distress. A marine assistance request was broadcast on their behalf, and the Wilderness Legacy responded, reaching the 21-foot vessel about an hour later.

Ralby said it's a little unusual that the Launchpad crew missed the call for help because it is common practice for ships to always be monitoring channel 16 on their radios and keep it as the default frequency to hear any distress calls or emergency notices. But typically the Coast Guard tries to keep channel 16 as free as possible so they might announce an emergency on that channel and ask anyone who can help to switch to a different channel to hear the details.

“The situation was resolved without any harm to life," said Ralby, who is a maritime lawyer with experience in more than 100 countries. "It does not seem that there was any immediate issue in terms of threat to life of mariners or concerns for the marine environment, which are the two main things that lead to that urgent distress call where all mariners no matter who they are legally obligated to try and respond.”

In an “open letter to the football family” revealed Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC also said that “when trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

UEFA runs soccer in Europe, CONCACAF is the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean, and the AFC governs the sport in Asia.

The letter was co-signed by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani and the general secretaries of the those continental governing bodies.

“Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution. It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the member associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future,” the open letter said. “It is in that spirit, as confederations representing its members, that we speak collectively today.”

Infantino is facing a revolt after his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors.

“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him,” the letter said. “These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.”

Infantino got some support from outside the game, with U.S. President Donald Trump defending the FIFA leader in a social media post Monday night.

“FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino,” Trump posted. “He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT”

UEFA previously issued a threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions despite the governing body abandoning and apologizing for its failed plan.

Norway’s soccer federation called for Infantino to step down, while England's Football Association has also withdrawn its support for Infantino’s re-election next March.

“Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honored now,” the letter said. “For leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.”

Last Wednesday, FIFA said it had apologized for errors made over the failed plan but that senior staff at a crisis meeting in Morocco “reaffirmed their full support” for Infantino's presidency.

However, the nature of the meeting was also met with criticism.

“FIFA’s own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco,” the open letter from the sport's three continental federations said. “No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.”

FIFA was also urged to go further than just acknowledging mistakes were made.

“It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” the letter said. “There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.”

In a statement released Saturday, FIFA defended Infantino against what it called a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine his leadership of the organization.

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

Three days after defense attorneys filed a motion for release, prosecutors filed their response in Miami federal court, where a hearing on Thursday will determine if the brothers should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The detention hearing is likely to be the first time the Tates leave the Federal Detention Center in Miami since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest. The Tates have become among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in the Tates' long-running international legal saga spanning the U.S., Britain and Romania.

Prosecutors claim a ‘heightened risk of flight’

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office filing, the Tates should be detained pending their extradition hearing because they cannot overcome the strong presumption against bail in international extradition cases.

The serious pending U.K. charges involving human trafficking and violent rapes and assaults against multiple victims, along with allegations in Romania that the Tates attempted to intimidate witnesses, present a clear public safety concern, prosecutors say.

“That the Tates also claim to maintain multiple passports and identities, have access to excessive wealth and influence in numerous countries, and are stridently unwilling to voluntarily return to face prosecution in the United Kingdom, collectively demonstrate a heightened risk of flight that no amount of bond could overcome,” the filing says.

The defense motion filed Friday acknowledges there is a presumption against bond in extradition proceedings but argues that release can be granted in special circumstances. It says the Tates’ high profile makes it nearly impossible for them to flee, and that they regularly post updates about their locations on social media.

While prosecutors call the brothers a flight risk, their attorneys said they have proved they are not by complying with all pretrial restrictions in Romania, where they are accused of luring women for sexual exploitation.

The U.K. has until mid-September to provide evidence to the State Department to support extradition, meaning the brothers could spend months in FDC Miami before the proceedings are resolved, the defense motion says. No date has been set for an extradition hearing. They are being held in a special unit for their own protection.

Legal troubles follow the Tate brothers

The brothers have long claimed that their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. The White House has said the brothers shouldn't expect any help from the president.

British prosecutors said the new charges relate to four new accusers and were brought after authorities received evidence from police in Bedfordshire, in southeastern England. The allegations, which span from 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

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

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

The Tates' attorneys have said the Romanian court has granted a U.K. request for extradition that will take effect after Romanian proceedings conclude.

Andrew Tate, 39, became famous a decade ago when he was a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother.” He was ejected from the show when a video appeared to show him assaulting a woman.

He has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from other platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, for violating hate speech guidelines. He has made widely condemned comments, such as saying women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks and sharing graphic descriptions of how he might attack women.

Tristan Tate, 38, has worked with his brother on multiple businesses, including the production of online webcam pornography.

The city faces a $158 million budget deficit that it’s trying to close over the next two years. Though council members won’t vote on a budget until next month, city staff will present a draft version on Thursday.

Amid the expected discussions about budget cuts and possible tax increase, there could also be multiple ballot measures in the mix.

Here’s a look at some of the major points in the web.

Budget cuts

No matter what else it does, the city will need to cut expenses to at least partially close a $158 million gap.

Though the deficit isn’t projected to actually hit until FY 2028, the city balances its budget over the course of two years and will start making course corrections in the upcoming FY 2027 budget.

“We’re going to have to reduce our expenses, and it will have impacts,” City Manager Erik Walsh told council members at a June 18 budget discussion.

During the same meeting, city staff presented two possible routes for closing the deficit. The cut-heavy path would slash nearly $138 million over two years, along with more than 200 positions — many of them filled.

Though it didn’t lay out every specific program that might be cut, that path included department reorganizations, program reductions and keeping civilian pay flat as part of the measures.

The City Council had already penciled in almost $10.7 million worth of cuts FY 2027 during last year’s budget process, Budget Director Freddy Martinez told reporters most of those potential cuts, worth $21.4 million over two years, were still included in the $137.7 million plan. They include a $1 million reduction to the Minor Home Repair program or a $200,000 reduction in assistance to the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

Staff’s preferred option for closing the gap during the June 18 meeting, though, only had about $11.7 million worth of cuts in both FY 2027 and FY 2028 for a combined $23.4 million.

However, it relied heavily on a politically difficult measure: raising the property tax.

Tax increase?

The city last raised its property in FY 1993, but city staff have suggested raising it from its current level of 54.159 cents per $100 of valuation.

The city is generally only allowed to set a tax rate for its maintenance and operations that would bring in 3.5% more revenue from existing properties without getting voter approval. However, it can also tap into the unused “increment” from recent years when it didn’t take that full amount.

Using that increment and maxing out the property tax rate would cost the average homestead an additional $81 in city taxes, according to the city, though the 46% of homesteads with a senior or disabled tax freeze would be unaffected.

Some council members, like Marc Whyte (D10), have already come out dead set against the possibility of a tax hike.

“It’s just a Band-Aid to get us through the next couple of years. It doesn’t solve the problem,” he said during the June 18 meeting.

Mayor’s ideas

As the city staff prepares possible paths to balancing the budget, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has thrown out some ideas of her own to help address the gap.

Jones penned a letter to business, foundation and philanthropic leaders, which she posted on social media, asking if they would consider helping fund a list of 15 outside agencies for the next three years, including the San Antonio Botanical Garden, the MLK Commission, or LiftFund.

Neither Jones’ chief of staff nor a spokesman responded to text messages from KSAT on Monday on whether anyone had taken the mayor up on her request.

She has also called for the public to be able to vote on whether to divert voter-approved funding for the Ready to Work job training program toward “qualified programs” in hopes of freeing up money within the general fund for core services.

Jones called last week for a council discussion on whether to add the issue to the November ballot, which must be done by Aug. 17, but it has not yet been scheduled.

Father Jimmy Drennan, a member of the activist coalition COPS/Metro Alliance and board member of the job training program it helped launch, Project QUEST, seemed to have critical words for both ideas.

“We know in talking with the city manager that we have the capacity within our city government — the city manager working with our City Council and our mayor, they can close this gap,” he said. “And again, not a single penny is needed to be removed from Ready to Work, nor do we have to eliminate any funding to our delegate agencies.”

Spurs arena

Though it likely would not directly affect the city’s budget talks, Jones has framed another issue against the backdrop of the city’s budget troubles: whether to hold another vote on funding a new Spurs arena.

Bexar County voters approved the county’s $311 million share of funding in November, but Jones has called for a separate vote on the city’s $489 million share of funding. Though such an election isn’t required, the city could choose to hold one anyway.

The city funding is proposed to come in the form of bonds backed by a variety of sources, which either come with restrictions or rely on the project proceeding in the first place. That makes it unlikely to have an effect on the immediate budget crunch.

Jones also stressed to KSAT in a recent interview that she has “never” said the proposed arena funding could close the budget gap.

However, she said “today’s finances” inform how people think about major investments.

The mayor appears to lack the votes to get the issue onto the November ballot but has called for the council to consider putting it on the ballot anyway. Similar to the Ready to Work issue, it has not yet been scheduled for a meeting.

In the meantime, she has been holding a series of “listening sessions,” with the fourth and final to be held from 7 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday at Blanco BBQ.

Pre-K 4 SA

The City Council is also set to debate adding another seemingly non-city budget-related ballot measure to the November ballot: an early reauthorization of a ⅛ cent sales tax for the city’s Pre-K 4 SA program.

Voters first approved the use of a ⅛ cent sales tax to fund the early education program in 2012, and then reauthorized if for another eight years in 2020.

The current authorization won’t run out until 2029, but Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Edward Mungia (D4), Ric Galvan (D6), and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) filed memos on July 28 and Aug. 4 to force an early reauthorization vote — this time, for 20 years.

The council members wrote in their initial memo they had coordinated their request with Jones.

It is scheduled for consideration on Thursday — the same day as the budget presentation.

Read also:

• San Antonio arena debate heats up as City Council faces $158 million budget shortfall
• Spurs arena, Ready to Work and Pre-K 4 SA could end up on November ballot
• San Antonio creates advisory committee for Project Marvel

Search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings in the country’s third-largest city, Cali, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers.

“Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed,” said Álvaro López, who cradled his dog as he watched the search. The desperate scene recalled the searches still ongoing in neighboring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by two powerful earthquakes.

Besides Cali, the quake ravaged cities across western Colombia, including Pereira, Quibdo and Manizales, and was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama. The epicenter was in San Jose del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella said at least 87 people were injured and around 1,600 buildings were damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed. He declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery.

“We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” he said.

Most powerful quake recorded in Colombia this century

Colombia’s Geological Service said Monday's quake was the country's strongest recorded “in the 21st century,” and that it was followed by several aftershocks.

Colombia’s Pacific region around the epicenter lies along the “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. The Pacific, particularly the Choco region, is one of Colombia's poorest, nestled in dense jungle. Much of Choco is only reachable by boat or plane, which may pose difficulty in assessing the wider toll.

Local authorities said the death toll included at least 40 people who were killed in the Risaralda region, where Pereira is located, and 27 people in the Valle del Cauca region, where Cali is located, including three children. Authorities also confirmed nine people killed in Choco, two in the Caldas region and a 73-year-old in the Antioquia region. It was not immediately clear where the other 32 people died.

The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing more than 6,300 people.

By Monday afternoon, people had begun reporting their loved ones missing on digital databases just as civilians did following Venezuela's earthquakes. One database had more than 2,000 people, mostly in Cali and Pereira, with the number steadily climbing.

Photos of the missing included a young mother and her baby in Pereira; another showed an 80-year-old woman in Cali whose family was desperately looking for details after her building collapsed.

Cities left devastated

Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city as buildings collapsed. Residents and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors. The local government said that people remained trapped in a number of the city's 380 damaged buildings.

“My entire house shook. I’ve never lived through such a powerful earthquake,” he said. “We’re thanking God we’re alive.”

Little was known about the extent of the damage in Choco, a remote region where officials reported dozens of injured people and damaged buildings but few other details. Phone signals were out in many parts of the region's capital, Quibdo. The town closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, San Jose del Palmar, has no airport, and is located on top of a mountain ridge along a highway linking the cities of Cali and Pereira.

In Pereira, further south in the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia, photos and videos on local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling onto travelers taking shelter and screaming. People ran through rubble and plumes of dust, and residents said collapsed stores, residential buildings and homes lined the city. Pereira Mayor Mauricio Salazar told a local radio station there were at least 15 collapsed buildings where people were feared trapped.

In nearby Manizales, one of the towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral collapsed and fell on the nave. Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas asked residents to stay outside in case of aftershocks. Authorities said flights were suspended at the airports in Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira as they assessed damage.

Offers of aid pour in from across the Americas

Small earthquakes, known as “temblores,” are common in central and western Colombia, but those above 6.0 magnitude are rare. In 1999, a 6.2 magnitude quake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.

Response to the earthquake presents the first major challenge for de la Espriella, a Trump ally who was sworn in as president over the weekend. A divisive figure because of his pledge of an all-out crackdown on criminal groups, de la Espriella said he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency.

On Monday night, the U.S. State Department announced it would provide $15.5 million for emergency shelter, food and other earthquake response aid. Governments across Latin America also lined up to help.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — whose countries were among the largest providers of aid to Venezuela following its recent crisis — said they were ready to assist Colombia.

“From El Salvador, we are in communication and ready to provide immediate support with our rescue teams, medical personnel, paramedics, supplies, or any other assistance that our Colombian brothers and sisters deem necessary,” Bukele said.

Chilean President José Antonio Kast said Chile, one of the region’s most earthquake-prone countries, “knows the pain and the challenge left by earthquakes” and pledged help.

___

Suárez reported from Bogotá and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Manuel Rueda in Bogotá, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Minutes earlier, while patrolling the hallways of Judson High School in Converse, Texas, he had confronted a 15-year-old accused of pushing an assistant principal. The teenager, Jeremiah Johnson, cursed at the officer and walked away.

Officer Laue grabbed repeatedly at Jeremiah’s arms and backpack, body camera footage of the encounter shows. When the boy pushed away, the officer wrapped his arms around him and took him to the floor.

Now Jeremiah was handcuffed in the school’s cramped police office. As another officer tried to lower Jeremiah into a chair, Officer Laue rammed his fists into the boy’s belly.

“Sit the fuck down!” Officer Laue shouted.

Since 2022, when a gunman killed 21 people at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas has spent billions of dollars installing police officers at public schools. Under state law, officers are supposed to stay out of “routine student discipline.” But over the past few years, they have used physical force in thousands of cases, including to stop seemingly minor misbehavior.

The incident at Judson High offers an extraordinary glimpse into a confrontation gone wrong. What makes it so unusual is that the student and the officer, as well as a teacher, discussed it with a reporter. The 33-minute episode, from November 2023, was also captured on body camera footage, which was reviewed by The New York Times and The San Antonio Express-News.

The case underscores a concern that has been raised by parents and advocates since schools began stationing law enforcement on their campuses: that officers might clash with vulnerable students, derailing their lives.

Ian Adams, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who reviewed the footage for The Times and The Express-News, called it “horrific.” The way Officer Laue shoved his fists into Jeremiah, Mr. Adams said, went beyond the bounds of “normal policing.”

As Jeremiah folded into the chair, he gasped. “I can’t even breathe,” he said.

Officer Laue yelled at him to shut up, using an expletive. Then, he smacked Jeremiah on the side of the head.

A principal’s accusation

That morning, Elizabeth De Alba, an assistant principal, contacted Officer Laue over her walkie-talkie. The two met up in a crowded hallway, his body camera footage shows.

“He pushed me,” she told the officer, pointing out Jeremiah, who was walking ahead of them in a black sweatshirt, his hood up.

Jeremiah grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the eastern edge of San Antonio. His parents used drugs, records show, so his great-aunt and -uncle, Debra and Calvin Johnson, adopted him when he was a toddler. They raised him alongside nine other children.

The Johnsons described Jeremiah as a quiet, serious child who sang in the choir at his family’s Pentecostal church. He enjoyed school, but struggled with his class work. In eighth grade, school officials determined he had a learning disability, records show.

Jeremiah liked typical teenage things: video games and action movies; teasing his sisters and doting on his baby niece. But by the time he enrolled at Judson High, he had been in several fights and was introduced to a gang by his older, biological brother.

He first crossed paths with Officer Laue in February 2023, when he was a freshman. The officer restrained him to keep him from fighting with another student, police records show. The next week, Officer Laue received a tip about two photos on social media that showed Jeremiah in a bedroom holding a gun, according to the records. Jeremiah had it for protection from a rival gang, he told a reporter in a recent interview.

Nine months later, Ms. De Alba accused Jeremiah, then a sophomore, of pushing her in the hallway. So Officer Laue navigated his way through a crowd of students to confront him, the footage shows.

The teenager met the officer with profane language and racial slurs.

Officer Laue told Jeremiah he was under arrest, and moved to cuff him. But the boy wrenched free, knocking the officer’s body worn camera to the ground.

Ms. De Alba, a former reserve police officer, picked it up. She filmed the struggle, holding the camera upside down.

Officer Laue, 6-foot-2 with a sturdy frame, kicked Jeremiah’s legs out from under him. The teenager, nearly as tall but thin, fell backward.

The officer straddled him; when a second officer arrived, they put Jeremiah in handcuffs and then hoisted him up.

They led the boy toward the school police office. “Let’s go,” Officer Laue said.

From Combat to the Classroom

A few minutes later, Officer Laue stood over Jeremiah, berating him. He taunted him for crying. He told him he would go to jail and stay there.

“That’s your future,” Officer Laue said.

The episode inside the office was captured entirely on the second officer’s body camera. That officer, Richard Radziski, repeatedly urged his colleague to calm down. Five times, he raised his hand and signaled Officer Laue to stop. But the disparagement continued.

At one point, Officer Laue accused Jeremiah of assaulting a school administrator. Jeremiah insisted he had not, and urged him to check the school surveillance cameras.

“You think I believe you over her?” Officer Laue asked.

Jeremiah shook his head. “Of course you don’t,” he answered.

Officer Laue, then 41, had been working for the school district police department for two years. It was his first job in law enforcement, and like all new officers, he went through the police academy. He received the 20 hours of state-mandated training specific to school policing. (Texas’ training is half the minimum recommended by the National Association of School Resource Officers.)

Before policing, Officer Laue served in the U.S. Army. He enlisted in 2004, records show, and during his nine years of service he deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. For a time after his discharge, he operated technical equipment in the West Texas oil fields.

In an interview earlier this year, Officer Laue told The Times and The Express-News that he had thought his military experience would give him an advantage in law enforcement. But initially, he found Judson High unnerving. The crowded hallways made him “a little agoraphobic,” he said.

Still, he enjoyed mentoring students. Some, he said, had even asked him to come to their graduations.

When asked about the incident with Jeremiah, Officer Laue said that he had “put pressure on his midsection” only to get him into the chair.

He acknowledged that he had been “riled up” in the office, but could not say why.

“I don’t get that mad very often,” he added.

‘I Got You’

Inside the school that day, word was spreading that Jeremiah had been tackled and handcuffed. His physical education teacher, Kirk Logan, raced to the school police office as soon as he heard.

On his mind was the history of violence between police officers and Black people like Jeremiah and himself, he said in an interview.

“I’m not going to let it get there,” he recalled thinking.

Mr. Logan had a friendly relationship with Jeremiah — they talked often about music, sports and making good choices. He had recently served on a school committee that drew up a set of disability accommodations for the teen, records show. Such Individualized Education Program documents, known as I.E.P.s, are used for many students in public schools.

Part of Jeremiah’s plan advised school employees to avoid “power struggles” and to let him cool down if he got upset. It is unclear if that document, which was finalized days before the incident, was provided to Officer Laue.

When Mr. Logan arrived in the school police office, Jeremiah rose from his chair, footage shows. He begged the teacher to call his mother.

“Sit down or I’ll put you down!” Officer Laue shouted.

Mr. Logan positioned himself between Jeremiah and the officer.

He cupped the back of Jeremiah’s head. “Hey, Jeremiah,” he said, touching his forehead to the boy’s. “I got you.”

Several minutes later, Ms. De Alba arrived and shared her account of what had happened: She said that she had caught Jeremiah skipping class and suspended him, and then he pushed her.

Jeremiah interrupted, saying he had not skipped class. “When did I push you?” he asked.

Officials for the Judson school district did not provide any surveillance footage of the interaction between Ms. De Alba and Jeremiah to The Times and The Express-News, saying its release would compromise campus security.

Ms. De Alba and Officer Radziski declined to comment for this article. Both still work for the school district, payroll records show.

‘An ugly day’

Jeremiah was charged as a juvenile with assault and resisting arrest. The assault charge was later reduced to making a threat, court records show. He was put on probation, which was extended after he was caught smoking marijuana and repeatedly broke his evening curfew. At one point, he had to wear an ankle monitor, he said, which he hid under his pant leg around his classmates.

He stopped going to school last fall. Now 18, Jeremiah says he no longer hangs out with the boys in the gang. He spends his free time playing games on his phone and listening to songs by Lil Poppa and NBA YoungBoy, who rap about betrayal and feeling misunderstood.

He recently got a job washing dishes — a step toward getting his life together. He wants an apartment and to be able to support himself. More education may be in his future, but he does not plan to return to Judson High.

Since the episode with Officer Laue, he said, he has a visceral reaction to seeing police officers on the street. “I just go into shock,” he said.

His takeaway from what happened? Officers “show no mercy.”

Officer Laue said that he had been reprimanded for yelling at Jeremiah and ordered to take an anger management course. A district spokeswoman declined requests for an interview and did not respond to written questions about the encounter.

In an email, the spokeswoman said that the district “takes all matters involving student safety and student concerns seriously” and is “committed to continuously reviewing its practices.”

The only record in Officer Laue’s personnel file that the school district released was his resignation letter. He left a year and a half after the incident.

He told The Times and The Express-News that he did not like policing and that he is now an emergency medical technician. “It’s more of a feel-good profession,” he said. “I don’t have to be mean to people.”

The officer added that he had “nothing against” Jeremiah and hoped he was doing well.

After the arrest, he recalled, he watched surveillance footage of the interaction between the teenager and Ms. De Alba. Based on what he could see in that video, it appeared Jeremiah “might have brushed past her,” Officer Laue said.

“I wouldn’t have called that an assault,” he said.

Had he seen the footage before confronting Jeremiah, he said, he would have turned him over to a school administrator and declined to press criminal charges.

Looking back, he added, the whole situation could have unfolded a lot differently. “I wish we didn’t have an ugly day,” he said.

Asher Lehrer-Small contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett and Kirsten Noyes contributed research. Produced by Rumsey Taylor.

Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the lunarlike landscape Tuesday and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car.

The retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot aims not only to win another accolade but to showcase the power of hydrogen as a clean-energy alternative. It's the “fuel of the future,” Green told The Associated Press in a July interview.

Green will be driving the 32-foot (9.75-meter) JCB Hydromax, the brainchild of British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The car is bright yellow, long and slim, resembling a pencil. It's powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, which were adapted from engines used in the company’s construction machinery. They mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.

In targeting the diesel-powered record, Green also hopes to easily clear the world land speed records for hydrogen internal combustion engines (185.5 mph/298.5 kph) and electric vehicles (341.3 mph/549.2 kph).

Green hit a new top speed of 368.347 mph (592.797 kph) in practice last week, but to officially earn the hydrogen record, he’ll have to do it Tuesday in front of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” he said. “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.”

One thing Tuesday’s attempt will assuredly not do is approach the supersonic speeds Green reached with jet power three decades ago.

Green had already been flying supersonic military aircraft when he spotted a newspaper ad that read: “Wanted: High-speed driver to break the sound barrier,” according to the Guinness World Records. In 1997, he traveled faster than the speed of sound and set the outright land speed record — 763.035 mph (1,227.98 kph) — in a car powered by twin jet engines. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.

Now 64 years old, Green said he thought he was done racing but came out of retirement when JCB approached him with plans for the new car. The company has invested more than $134 million into hydrogen-powered engines that it says emit no carbon dioxide from the tailpipes.

“If you’re serious about emissions, you have to be serious about hydrogen, and a land speed project is the perfect way to prove it,” JCB Chair Anthony Bamford said at the car's unveiling in May. Bamford has also argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.

But hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.

Hydrogen combustion engines also present unique safety challenges due to the pressure and flammability of the gas.

“We're managing the risks very carefully,” Green said. The car endured rigorous testing, and Green said he spent months learning how it responds to the elements, how the engines work in tandem and how to deploy a parachute to slow the car on the low-friction salt crust.

Since the first race there in 1914, the glassy surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats has drawn generations of drivers seeking to set new land speed records. A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the salt flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop an aquifer that cools the car tires.

Spectators must stand about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from the course's straightaway, which is 10 miles (16 kilometers) long, and often watch through wide-angle binoculars.

The expanse on the border of Utah and Nevada has been a backdrop for movies including “Independence Day” and “The World’s Fastest Indian,” and the series finale of “Mad Men.”

Green will start just after sunrise to beat the desert heat. His attempt comes a year after a driver died trying to set a land speed record at Bonneville's annual Speed Week. Chris Raschke lost control of his rocketlike vehicle called the Speed Demon last August and died from his injuries.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Video journalist Serge Cartwright contributed reporting.

Elbridge Colby, an undersecretary of defense, made the remarks at a forum in the Philippines, his first stop in Southeast Asia, where he will also visit Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. He renewed Washington’s assurances that the U.S. is not backing away from Asia despite its current preoccupation with the Iran war and the Middle East.

“America is definitely not disengaging from Asia — to the contrary. Our vital national interests dictate our enduring presence here,” Colby told an audience that included foreign diplomats, generals, business executives and journalists.

“We are not leaving; in fact, we are digging in, to ensure a favorable balance of power where it matters most,” the Pentagon’s top policy adviser said. “We see Asia as of paramount importance.”

Colby stayed away from the usual U.S. tirade against China's growing aggression in the region, including in the disputed South China Sea. Washington has often expressed alarm over Beijing’s increasingly hostile actions against Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years.

Washington has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have been locked in territorial standoffs in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, for decades. Beijing virtually claims the entire waterway and has rejected a 2016 ruling in an arbitration case initiated by the Philippines that invalidated its expansive claims.

Colby repeated a vow by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a speech at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore in May that the U.S. will build and sustain a strong defense in the Western Pacific "that ensures aggression is infeasible, escalation unattractive and war deemed irrational.”

Colby said the U.S. is committed to ensuring “we can sustain combat-credible power where it matters most. Yet this defense architecture cannot rest on American shoulders alone. It must be upheld by a network of highly capable, sovereign nations that have modernized their own forces and stepped up to secure their own territory — transforming our relationships into true partnerships of equals.”

He added: “When we ask our allies and partners to step up, to invest more in their own defense and to take responsibility for their own sovereign security, we are not signaling abandonment. We are looking for partners, not protectorates.”

Colby praised efforts by the Philippines, which holds large-scale combat exercises with U.S. forces each year, to strengthen its defense capabilities and cited similar efforts by Thailand, Indonesia and other security allies in Southeast Asia.

Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports canceled more than 900 flights, or about 40% of those expected, after about 1,300 were canceled the day before, according to Shanghai Airport Group.

Shanghai also suspended some of its metro lines on Monday, and China Railway Chengdu Group suspended 115 trains, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Authorities warned of risks of severe flooding and landslides in some areas. State broadcaster CCTV reported that authorities in Yueqing, a city in Zhejiang province, searched for people trapped in flooded homes.

The China Meteorological Administration said Dolphin was moving northwest at 15 to 20 kilometers per hour (9 to 12 mph) and was expected to continue weakening.

Dolphin made landfall Sunday evening in Taizhou in Zhejiang province with winds of 151 kph (93 mph), after bringing heavy rain to northern Taiwan over the weekend.

Dolphin had forced at least 760,000 people to preemptively relocate, including over 390,000 people in Taizhou. Authorities in Shanghai and Fujian Province evacuated more than 210,000 and 160,000 people, respectively, from riskier areas.

Authorities in Zhejiang's capital city, Hangzhou, temporarily closed its iconic West Lake scenic spots as well as temples, parks and museums and will reopen on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Chan-hom was heading toward Japan’s Pacific coast. The storm had 83 kph (51 mph) winds Monday morning and was forecast to strengthen slightly before landfall Tuesday into Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Storm intensified monsoon in the Philippines

Dolphin did not directly hit the Philippines, but it helped intensify seasonal monsoon rains that set off flooding and landslides on the main northern island region of Luzon.

A landslide buried three houses Sunday night in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio, killing 10 people whose bodies were dug out in two days of frantic search by rescuers. Three people were rescued with injuries and brought to a hospital, Baguio officials said.

The deaths from the mudslide raised the death toll in nearly a week of torrential rains, floods and a tropical storm last week in the northern Luzon region to 19, the government’s Office of Civil Defense said.

More than a million people were affected by the heavy monsoon rains and floods, including about 98,000 who were displaced from homes.

One viewer, Paul L., reached out to KSAT to ask for an update on the project, so we went to the project field office to meet Rod Sanchez, who oversees VIA’s rapid transit projects.

“It is really a transformative project here in San Antonio,” Sanchez said.

The $481 million project will make bus service more frequent between the San Antonio International Airport on the North Side and Brooks Transit Center on the South Side, with dedicated bus lanes and new signal-protected pedestrian crossings. The project was funded in part by a $268 million federal grant.

VIA broke ground on the Green Line last summer and is expected to begin service in April 2028, according to Sanchez.

The first segment expected to be complete is at the intersection of St. Mary’s Street and Eagleland Drive, where Sanchez said he hopes will be finished by Wednesday when students return to class at Brackenridge High School.

Despite the new improvements, Sanchez said fares are expected to remain $1.30.

“Why get in a car and pay $4 a gallon for gasoline,” Sanchez said, “when you can ride us for $1.30 and get to your destination almost as fast as just getting in your car?”

Residents can track project updates at KeepSAmoving.com.

Read also:

• Free VIA bus pass program aims to cut transportation barrier for San Antonio students

Jones had a heart attack in his home Sunday in Washington, Virginia, as he was waiting to watch his beloved Atlanta Braves play baseball, his wife, Alma Viator, said on social media. Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie Compton confirmed his death.

Jones' fame came from his role as Cooter Davenport, the mechanic who got the Duke boys out of jams as they tried to do the right thing and fight the corrupt Boss Hogg in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.

After playing Cooter for all seven seasons of the series from 1979 to 1985, Jones turned to politics and was elected to the U.S. House from a district near Atlanta in 1988. The Democrat served two terms before he was redistricted out of the seat.

Jones was born in North Carolina and in college got involved in acting and civil rights, he wrote in his autobiography "Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of ‘Crazy Cooter.’"

Acting took over his life. Jones performed in numerous stage productions and had a few minor TV and movie roles in Atlanta during the 1970s before his life-defining break came on a TV show Jones defended as a modern-day morality tale and a fine example of Southern values.

For seven seasons, Jones was one of a small band of friends and family helping Bo and Luke Duke in “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The cousins were on probation for running moonshine and were constantly trying to clear their names and stop the crooked and powerful Boss Hogg from stealing or cheating.

The Duke boys drove a modified 1969 Dodge Charger called the General Lee with a Confederate flag on its roof. Cooter owned “Cooter's Garage” in the town square. Nearly every episode involved a car chase with jumps and stunts and a patrol car badly in need of repairs.

Cooter was often on the CB radio in his pickup truck saying “Breaker one, Breaker one. I might be crazy but I ain’t dumb. Crazy Cooter coming at you."

“The Dukes of Hazzard” was a hit for CBS and its popularity never waned. It went into syndication and later became a prominent fixture on cable's The Nashville Network.

Jones also credited the series with pulling him out of a self-destructive, alcoholic lifestyle that led to the failure of several marriages.

″It was like being in a Beatles movie,″ Jones said. ″Our lives changed.″

Tom Wopat, who played Luke Duke, said Jones was an integral part of making the series work.

“Ben Jones was a fine friend and a fierce advocate of all the best things we can offer in the entertainment business. He will be sorely missed,” Wopat wrote on Instagram.

After “The Dukes of Hazzard,” Jones went into politics. He kept his aw shucks personality, but took the issues seriously. In his four years in Washington, Jones was known as a Democrat who could buck his party. He was liberal on social issues and conservative on economics.

But even in politics, he made a splash. After losing in 1992 in his redrawn district, Jones ran for Congress again in 1994. He lost to Newt Gingrich in the elections that elevated the Republican to the Speaker's Office.

Jones would file an ethics complaint that Gingrich used tax-deductible donations to fund his partisan college course leading to a House reprimand and Gingrich's decision to leave the body.

Jones always embraced his role as Cooter. After moving to Virginia, he would open at least three “Cooter's” country stores in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and near his home. They sold plenty of T-shirts, key chains and insulated tumblers and included Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia like one of the 300 or so General Lee cars used and abused in the TV series.

The show and Cooter lived on because it was funny, had plenty of action and car chases and had a good, family-friendly heart, Jones told the Richmond Times-Dispatch at a 2001 car show where he played in a band, signed autographs and met fans.

“The show reflects the values of the heartland of America. The good guys always win,” Jones said.

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This story has been updated to correct that Bo and Luke Duke were cousins, not brothers.

Trump Media & Technology, the company behind the Truth Social platform, said Monday that it lost $238 million in the three months through June as it branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto. That was more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier. The per-share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents.

In a conference call after the earnings release, the new chief executive, Kevin McGurn, said a yearlong effort to expand by branching into several new industries including online betting and crypto would now be largely abandoned as he refocuses the business on its social media mission.

“We made the disciplined choice to pivot in order to invest more time and resources in our most important initiatives,” McGurn said. “We will say no to things or change course as warranted.”

Trump Media stock fell slightly in after-hours trading following the earnings report. The stock had fallen 8% in regular trading.

Key to McGurn's plan is a service called Truth API that offers early access to Wall Street trading firms to top posters on the Truth Social platform. That includes the user with most followers, President Donald Trump, who often moves markets by breaking major U.S policy shifts on the site.

Trump Media has been attacked by good government watchdogs from the start of Trump's second term as a vehicle for him to profit off the presidency. The new service has only heightened those concerns, with Democrats vowing to investigate the paid service if they get control of Congress in the midterms.

McGurn has dismissed such concerns, noting that other companies sell special, fast access to traders.

“Providing licensed real-time public data through commercial APIs is a well-established business practice across the technology, financial information and media industries,” he said. “This is no different.”

One previously announced new venture, nuclear fusion, will continue. McGurn said Trump Media hopes to close a previously announced merger with energy company TAE Technologies by the end of the year.

“We continue to believe it’s the single most important driver of long-term value for this company,” McGurn said of the fusion business.

Much of the damage last quarter was due to unrealized paper losses from the falling values of Trump Media's holdings of bitcoin and a crypto token called Cronos.

Excluding those paper losses as well as taxes, interest and other items, so-called operating losses still increased, but much less than the unadjusted results — a $164 million loss from a $44 million loss a year earlier.

The new Truth API service is charging $60,000 to $100,000 a month, McGurn said, adding that Trump Media has already signed up 10 customers, mostly so-called high frequency trading firms that buy and sell in milliseconds.

“We’re in the early innings,” said McGurn, noting that the potential market was much bigger than traders, including data center companies, news organizations and developers of large language models.

Ten customers translates into a big new revenue source for Trump Media, possibly bringing in between $7 million to $12 million a year, or roughly two to three times the company's entire revenue last year.

In the second quarter, Trump Media posted $1.7 million in revenue, more than double from a year earlier.

The company has $1 billion in debt from special convertible notes that don't come due until 2028, but the lenders have an option to demand they be cashed out in November, a possible hit to finances though the company appeared to have ample cash.

At the end of the quarter, Trump Media had more than $400 million in cash and short term investments. It also had $1.2 billion in bitcoin and bitcoin-related assets.

——

This story corrects that Trump Media took in $1.7 million in revenue last quarter, not $1.7 billion.

“Despite all the confusion that hits the news … nothing’s changed,” said Harkleroad, the executive director of the Texas School Nurses Organization.

In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines from the recommended list. But a federal judge in Massachusetts — and a Biden appointee — halted that move in March, keeping the pre-2026 vaccine recommendations in place. The federal government is appealing that decision.

Then on Monday, President Donald Trump ordered the splitting up of the common measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots. The three have been combined into a single shot since 1971 to help ensure children do not delay or miss doses and after hearing from parents who wanted to reduce the number of doctor visits needed to complete vaccinations.

But because each state, including Texas, is able to set up its own recommendations, Trump’s move serves as a guideline, not a mandate, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed.

According to the state’s health department, nothing has changed for the 2026-2027 school year.

Any changes to Texas’ requirements would have to be made by the Legislature which will meet again in January, according to the state health agency. The Republican-controlled state Legislature has generally embraced policies that weaken vaccine mandates, including last year’s passage of a bill that made vaccine exemption forms more accessible to parents.

“Nothing has changed for vaccine requirements in Texas at this time,” Harkleroad said after Trump’s action. “It’s very concerning to me that the president’s executive order raised the age-old questions about vaccines — their safety, efficacy, and the autism link. That science is settled.”

Rebecca Hardy, president of Texans for Vaccine Choice, praised Trump’s decision.

“TFVC applauds Trump’s EO that moves federal vaccine policy toward greater informed consent and vaccine safety, but Texas law still needs to change,” she said, adding that it’s not her group’s priority to continue “chasing an ever-changing vaccine schedule.”

Instead, she wants to see Texas expand and strengthen exemption rights. “When Texans have the right to exempt themselves, the specific vaccines on the schedule become irrelevant,” Hardy said.

For decades, the CDC has relied on a panel of vaccine experts to make recommendations about what vaccines should be administered to children, which informs various states’ vaccine requirements to enroll in public schools and how doctors counsel patients. But last year, the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the nation’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and replaced them with vaccine policy critics.

Trump’s Monday order waters down longstanding vaccine schedule-setting procedures even more by sidestepping the CDC and ACIP altogether and instead tasking the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Safer Childhood Vaccines task force with reporting back to the president on implementation of his order.

“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today,” Trump said while signing the order on Monday. “Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases along with the MMR.”

Trump further supported that the five vaccines that the feds tried to drop from the recommendation list in January be allowed to move forward, which does not affect the judge’s March decision. Trump also directed the U.S. attorney general to employ legal challenges against states that violate children’s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.

“The Immunization Partnership is alarmed by the administration’s executive order on childhood vaccines,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, executive director of the Houston-based The Immunization Partnership, a vaccine education and advocacy group. “Rather than building trust, it adds to the confusing messages parents are receiving while Texas confronts declining vaccination rates and outbreaks of preventable diseases.”

Unlikely to face such federal scrutiny on exemption violations, Texas has long allowed parents to exempt children from vaccines, expanding exemptions reasons widely in 2005 to include “conscientious” objections. Then last year, lawmakers made exemptions even easier to obtain by making the exemption forms downloadable. Previously, parents had to request a form from DSHS to be mailed to them.

Since Texas parents have easier access to exemption forms, the number of K-12 students with an exemption increased in Texas despite a record-breaking measles outbreak that began in West Texas last year. Two children died and 762 people were infected in Texas in 2025. This year, the number of measles cases in the United States has already surpassed the number seen nationally last year.

Last year, there was a slight increase in the measles vaccination rate for Texas kindergarteners, but that comes after years of decreases. The Texas Tribune offers a way to check a school’s vaccination rate here.

Compared to the previous school year, 18 fewer counties had kindergarten measles vaccination rates at the 95% benchmark for herd immunity. The number of counties where at least 5% of kindergarteners had a conscientious exemption for measles on file increased from 98 to 132, representing 52% of all counties. Ninety six of 252 counties met the kindergarten benchmark of 95% vaccination against measles

So far this summer, public health officials have seen a drop in the number of children who typically turn out for publicly funded vaccinations.

“The numbers are way down,” said Dr. Philip Huang, the director of Dallas Health and Human Services.

He attributed the drop to confusion over what is required and stepped-up immigration enforcement. Like last year, Huang says, fewer Hispanic children are turning up at back-to-school vaccination events typically held during the summer months.

“We’ve been reporting a large number of drops in our Hispanic numbers. We’re hearing about the concerns over the ICE situation,” he said, referring to the increase in federal immigration enforcement.

Nicholas Devion Sommers was arrested along with three other men after they participated in a violent home invasion in northeast Bexar County, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Sommers also had an active murder warrant for the death of Martinez, BCSO said.

In August 2023, deputies found Martinez’s body in northeast Bexar County with a shell casing nearby, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar. Authorities later located Martinez’s Toyota pickup at a nearby school and said fingerprints inside matched Sommers’.

Sommers was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and additional charges, Salazar said.

In July 2026, Sommers was arrested again along with three others — Rodney Robinson III, Nehemiah Pratt and Kentrell Guillory — for their role in a home invasion in June in northeast Bexar County. A homeowner was shot twice in the chest and survived, according to authorities. The homeowner did not press charges.

A viral video posted by BCSO shows Robinson running across lanes of traffic to flee authorities after a short pursuit following his failure to stop the car. Sommers is not on video fleeing authorities; he was in the passenger seat of the car.

Hours later, Pratt and Guillory attempted to flee an apartment complex by climbing down a balcony before troopers later arrested them, according to authorities.

‘I want his name to be remembered’

As Maria Jaquez continues to grieve the loss of Martinez, her younger brother, she said Sommers’ recent arrest has left her with more questions than answers.

“There’s no day that I don’t think about it,” Jaquez said. “I don’t think that (Sommers) deserves to be out there and get the chance to hurt somebody else, like it was in this case.”

Jaquez said her family is still coping with Martinez’s death and the loss felt by his children.

“He was loved by his family,” she said. ”He had two daughters that miss him every single day. They ask, ‘Where is Papi at?’”

On Monday, Jaquez and other family members waited for Sommers to appear in court, but the date was delayed. A prosecutor told the family the case would be pushed to a future date, in part because of Sommers’ new charges.

“We’re waiting for this trial; we’re waiting for everything to see what happened,” she said.

Jaquez said she wants accountability in her brother’s case and hopes her family will get answers in court. She said she remembers Martinez for his smile, dream of becoming a musician and the love he had for his family — including his two daughters.

“I want his name to be remembered as a person that was loved, that it’s not just another case,” Jaquez said. “This type of thing shouldn’t happen.”

Read also:

• Shooting that killed man, wounded mother doesn’t appear random, Bexar County sheriff says

The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and costly U.S. Senate primary. El-Sayed's victory has energized the left while stoking fears among Democratic Party leaders that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in November.

Wisconsin's chaotic primary pits progressive against governor's pick

In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn't seeking a third term.

Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.

Evers and Crowley were crisscrossing the state together in the last days before final ballots are cast Tuesday.

“I feel like we caught lightning in a bottle,” said Crowley, standing next to Evers at a stop to thank campaign volunteers in Madison on Monday. “Momentum is just growing and growing and growing.”

Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29.

Barnes and Rodriguez, who were both seen as potential front-runners, remain on the ballot and absentee votes already cast for them can’t be undone.

Republicans are spending to influence the Democratic primary

Republicans are putting money behind Hong, thinking she will be the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with President Donald Trump and playing up her liberal policies.

Crowley and other Democrats argue the ads are meant to bolster Hong's standing in the primary because Republicans see her as the easier opponent.

Evers projected confidence at a rally that attracted hundreds of people in Hong’s hometown of Madison on Sunday night, saying Crowley was the best chance Democrats had to defeat Tiffany.

“We’re going to win this thing,” Evers said, telling the Crowley supporters that Tiffany would be “the worst governor in the history of Wisconsin.”

“If Tom Tiffany wins in November that will be like electing Donald Trump as governor of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Crowley urged Democrats to come together after the primary to beat Tiffany.

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don’t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor’s office,” Crowley said.

Hong, speaking to supporters Monday afternoon, said the coalition she built isn't just about winning the primary.

“We have to come together to defeat Tom Tiffany,” she said, adding that she would welcome Evers campaigning with her after the primary.

“This is about uniting,” she said.

Tiffany, one of the most conservative members of Congress, is endorsed by Trump.

The president called Hong a communist in remarks on Wednesday, where he mentioned a 2020 social media post by Hong calling for Thanksgiving to be canceled. Asked about the post this week, Hong reversed herself and said that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, and Republicans have held majorities in both chambers of the Legislature since 2011. Holding onto the governor's office is key to Wisconsin Democrats' effort to gain full control of state government for the first time in 16 years.

In the race to replace Tiffany, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law Michael Alfonso is in a five-person Republican primary. Alfonso, who is trying to represent Duffy's old congressional district, has Trump's endorsement.

The president joined a telephone rally for Alfonso on Monday night, calling him “a fantastic young guy who’s going to be a star in Washington.”

Minnesota primary comes in wake of immigration enforcement surge

In neighboring Minnesota, voters are choosing between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary that’s playing out in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in the state.

The race has been shaped by the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump’s immigration policies.

Both Craig and Flanagan spent the weekend traversing the Twin Cities metro area.

In a driveway in suburban Eagan on Sunday, Craig spoke to the angst among Democratic primary voters who feel that Washington isn’t working for them. Members of Congress need to stop trading stocks and becoming lobbyists when they leave office, she said, and the U.S. needs to restrict the flood of corporate campaign spending.

“But the only way we pass any of the progressive policies that all of us here support is by winning elections and taking damn majorities,” she said.

Unlike in Wisconsin, where the incumbent governor has endorsed a candidate in the race to succeed him, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has not gotten involved in the Senate primary. But his wife, Gwen Walz, has endorsed Craig and campaigned with her on Sunday.

Flanagan campaigned Saturday with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, who helped her make the case that Washington needs a shake-up to root out the deep-pocketed forces propping up a broken status quo.

“It is big corporations, it’s special interests who are putting their thumb on the scale in our elections across the country,” Flanagan said. “And it’s not just Republicans. It’s Democrats, too.”

The race has been one of the most expensive Minnesota has seen, with millions of dollars backing both candidates, but disproportionately falling in Craig’s favor.

Whoever wins the primary will be the front-runner to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in November. Minnesota voters haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.

Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, is a top Republican candidate in the governor's race. He's endorsed by Trump, and he was a prominent promoter of falsehoods about election fraud. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in a six-person primary on the Democratic side.

Democratic struggles also on display in other states' primaries Tuesday

Two veteran Democratic incumbents in Connecticut face challenges from the left.

Moderate Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is running for a third term but faces progressive state Rep. Josh Elliott. The Democratic nominee will face Republican state Sen. Ryan Fazio in November.

Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson, 78, is running for a 15th term and his age and health have been major issues in the four-person race.

Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin narrowly won the party's endorsement at its state convention in May. Other candidates are Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.

In Vermont, two Democrats are running in for a chance to take on Republican Gov. Phil Scott.

Former child advocacy organization CEO Aly Richards boasts endorsements from former Democratic Govs. Howard Dean and Madeleine Kunin. She faces economist Amanda Janoo.

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

The boat’s pilot, Manuel Hernandez, was charged with causing the deaths of 5-month old Antonella Garcia and 27-year-old Sara Sanchez through misconduct or neglect.

Hernandez wasn’t licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard, wasn’t aware of basic safety rules and told investigators he had borrowed his friend’s personal vessel for the excursion in New York Harbor, prosecutors said.

Antonella wasn't wearing a life preserver because the boat didn't have any for small children, prosecutors said. Instead, Hernandez told Sanchez she needed to wear a life vest and hold the infant throughout the hourslong tour, a violation of federal regulations, prosecutors said.

Hernandez, 46, of Manville, New Jersey, wiped his eyes as he arrived for his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He was not required to enter a plea and was released on $50,000 bail. He and his lawyer, Amy Gallicchio, declined to comment as she led him to a waiting vehicle.

The tour was organized through Zeus Luxury Rental Inc., which had a boat catch fire last year during a birthday charter cruise on Long Island Sound. A Coast Guard investigator said in Hernandez’s criminal complaint that the company does not appear to have applied for Coast Guard licensing.

Messages seeking comment were sent to a phone number and email address listed on Zeus Luxury’s website. The voicemail box for the phone number was full, according to an automated recording.

Charter company had a boat burst into flames last year

Authorities said the 21-foot Yamaha AR210 had 14 people aboard — well over its 10 person capacity — when it swamped and sank around 10:20 p.m. Saturday as Hernandez made a U-turn in choppy waters possibly caused by the wake of a larger vessel.

The boat was later pulled from the water and taken to a New York Police Department facility.

Zeus Luxury advertises its services on social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok, marketing itself as “one of the leading companies in limousine, party bus, and yacht rentals in the tri-state area” and touting a fleet of vehicles including such high-end brands as Mercedes, Hummer, Rolls-Royce, and Cadillac.

According to his criminal complaint, Hernandez told investigators he had worked for Zeus Luxury on a freelance or contract basis since last year, starting as a limousine driver. He said that twice recently he used his personal boat, a slightly larger Yamaha AR250, but used a friend’s boat on Saturday because his needed repairs, the complaint said.

In June 2025, a boat on a company-organized charter cruise burst into flames near the Bronx. All 22 passengers survived. Some were pulled from the water and others swam to safety on nearby Hart Island. Three passengers were injured, authorities said. Loriann Garcia went into cardiac arrest and is now suing the company. Two others had severe burns.

The pilot of that boat, Joshua Brito, was indicted on charges including vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and operating a vessel while intoxicated. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail.

“This is just a fly-by-night company,” Garcia’s lawyer, Rose Day, said. The vessel Garcia was on didn’t have life preservers and Zeus Luxury wasn't properly insured, she said.

“Here we are, same thing, one year later. Same company, same reckless acts,” Day said. “It’s shocking that this has happened and sickening at the same time.”

A mother and daughter gone, a partner and father left grieving

Saturday's tour began around 7 p.m. and the vessel capsized more than three hours into its journey. Hernandez tried to accelerate to pass through the swell, but water swamped the bow and the boat immediately capsized, prosecutors said.

Hernandez admitted to investigators that had never sought required licensing and claimed he was unaware it was needed, according to the complaint.

Hernandez said he capped trips using his personal boat at 12 passengers, but that he did not know the maximum capacity for the boat he used on Saturday. Hernandez said he thought there would be 12 passengers on the tour but ended up agreeing to take 13, the complaint said.

An online campaign to help Sanchez's partner, Andres Garcia, pay for funeral and other expenses had topped $25,000 by Tuesday afternoon. Garcia also was on the boat.

Sanchez's neighbor, Diego Naranjo, said he first met her last spring when her son threw a ball into their Queens backyard. After recovering the ball, Naranjo invited her son to play on a trampoline with his children.

“They were really nice people," Naranjo said. “You can see when a person is noble.”

___

This story has been updated to correct that the boat was a Yamaha, not a Bayliner.

___

Turbay reported from Little Rock, Arkansas

In a post on X, Castro said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers pulled over Jesús Bracho as he was arriving to work.

When troopers stopped him, Castro said Bracho told his daughter, Katherine, to go inside his employer’s home.

“DPS called ICE and took Jesús,” Castro wrote. “ICE agents came back and then forced him to lure his daughter out so they could take her too.”

A spokesperson for Castro’s office said the family members were detained on July 1, 2026, on the far West Side near Loop 410 and U.S. Highway 90.

According to Castro, Katherine was a student at Bonnie Ellison Elementary School — which is in San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District.

The congressman said Katherine was frightened in the encounter and Bracho is a mechanic with no criminal record.

“She was scared and didn’t know where she was going,” Castro said.

The father and daughter have been held at the Dilley detention facility in South Texas for more than a month, Castro stated.

The Trump administration has been clear that border security is a priority. Gov. Greg Abbott previously said DPS troopers and special agents will assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in “targeting and removing illegal immigrants.”

Castro blamed Abbott’s recent initiative directing DPS troopers to assist ICE.

“Governor Abbott has ordered DPS troopers to help ICE arrest hardworking folks and children in our community,” Castro wrote.

Castro called on ICE to immediately release Bracho and Katherine, adding that he wants authorities to “stop fueling Trump and Abbott’s mass deportation machine.”

DHS provides statement

KSAT has reached out to DHS for additional details on the detention of Bracho and his daughter.

An agency spokesperson said in a statement that Bracho entered the U.S. after Border Patrol officers encountered him on June 1, 2022. On Feb. 5, 2024, an immigration judge issued Bracho and his family a final removal order, DHS said.

“He (Bracho) will remain in ICE custody along with his minor daughter pending approval,” the spokesperson said.

The agency’s entire response can be read below:

On June 30, ICE arrested Jesus Rafael Bracho-Carvajal, an illegal alien from Venezuela. Border Patrol encountered him on June 1, 2022, and he was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. On February 5, 2024, an immigration judge issued him and his family a final order of removal.

He will remain in ICE custody along with his minor daughter pending removal.

The Dilley Immigration Processing Center is retrofitted for families. Children have access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets for math, reading, and spelling. All of this is generously funded the by the U.S. taxpayer. Adults with children are housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs.

All detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries. Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Certified dieticians evaluate meals.

Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.

DHS

Read also:

• Mother finally receives response from SAPD on daughter’s 8-year-old cold murder case

The shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. at the corner of Waterside Drive and Crestway Road.

Salazar said the victims were riding as passengers in a car with two other people he described as family friends when someone in an SUV drove up and opened fire.

“I believe there was some sort of interaction or relationship between these folks at some point,” Salazar said during a media briefing hours later. “To empty 10 rounds into a car, to me, again speculation, but to me that indicates a high level of anger.”

The man who was killed was in his 30s, while the wounded woman, his mother, appeared to be in her 50s, Salazar said.

After the shooting, investigators questioned another passenger in the car who was not hurt. However, Salazar said, the driver of the victims’ car, a woman, disappeared.

The sheriff said detectives spent time searching the area for the driver just in case she was injured.

“At this point, we don’t believe that driver is a suspect,” Salazar said. “We’re looking to treat that person as a witness. But for whatever reason, they fled the scene.”

The sheriff said while random shootings do happen, they are rare. He indicated the signs point to this shooting being a targeted act.

The shooter was last seen driving east from the scene toward Kitty Hawk Road in a white, newer model Volvo SUV, according to Salazar.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office released a photo of a similar vehicle, hoping to trigger some leads.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call BCSO at 210-335-6000.

Read also:

• 1 dead, 1 injured after overnight shooting in northeast Bexar County, sheriff says

The contract includes $101 million guaranteed and will be added to the two years on his existing deal. The $35.3 million annual average on the extension is second among defensive tackles to Jalen Carter of NFC East rival Philadelphia.

The lucrative extension could keep Williams with the Cowboys through 2030 after they traded for him during the 2025 season. Dallas gave up one of the two first-round picks acquired in the shocking trade that sent star pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers just a week before the opener last year.

Executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones said at the opening of training camp the club was working with Williams' agents on an extension. Just shy of two weeks later, an agreement was in place.

“It’s a big part of all the moving parts that went with our trade last year,” Jones said on the team's website. “I think this kind of, at the end of the day, puts a bow on top in terms of knowing that we’re going to have Q here for the next five years long term.”

The addition of Williams from the New York Jets provided an initial boost to one of the NFL's worst defenses a year ago. The Cowboys won their first three games after the trade before a 44-30 loss to Detroit that started a season-ending run of four losses in five games as Dallas missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The Cowboys had one of the league's best offenses while finishing 7-9-1 in coach Brian Schottenheimer's first season, and they spent the offseason overhauling the defense while believing Williams would be a centerpiece among the many changes.

Dallas hired defensive coordinator Christian Parker to replace Matt Eberflus, who was fired after one season when the Cowboys allowed the most points (511) with the fewest interceptions (six) in franchise history.

The Cowboys traded with Green Bay again to get pass rusher Rashan Gary, drafted safety Caleb Downs and defensive end Malachi Lawrence in the first round and added cornerback Cobie Durant and safeties P.J. Locke and Jalen Thompson in free agency.

Dallas also targeted linebacker, drafting Michigan pass rusher Jaishawn Barham with the belief he could play off the line of scrimmage and acquiring Dee Winters in a trade with San Francisco.

Williams is part of a returning group that includes fellow defensive tackle Kenny Clark — acquired in the Parsons deal — along with second-year defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Shavon Revel Jr. and safety Malik Hooker.

The 28-year-old Williams was the third overall pick by the Jets in 2019 and was an All-Pro three years later despite the Jets' 7-10 finish. Williams has yet to play on a winning team, and the former Alabama standout was quick to remind everyone after the trade that he's still waiting for his first NFL playoff game.

“You’re just happy about it for a guy like that,” defensive line coach Marcus Dixon said. “Like he’s been rewarded for his hard work, the way he approaches the game, how he is with his teammates, his love for the game, how he’s always trying to perfect his craft. But he wants to win, and he’ll tell you that.”

___

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

Rachel Ramos shared security camera video from the July 31 call on social media. It has since been viewed more than 57,000 times.

Ramos said she called the San Antonio Police Department because she felt unsafe.

“My husband was being violent, and we have domestic violence history,” Ramos said.

Video from the response captures an officer making the comment about women to Ramos’ husband as the two were separated for questioning.

Ramos said she was already in a vulnerable situation when officers arrived and hearing the comment made her feel worse.

“It just, I felt alone and honestly I felt scared,” Ramos said.

Ramos said she posted the video because she wanted people to know what happened and hoped it would lead to accountability.

“I did get in touch with the sergeant, and she does say that she identified the officer and she’s sending everything up the chain of command, but other than that I haven’t heard anything,” Ramos said.

KSAT then contacted SAPD and provided the department with the video.

After reviewing the incident, SAPD said it was aware of the officer’s comment and was taking the matter seriously. The department sent the following statement:

“We are aware of an incident involving an officer’s inappropriate comment and we take this matter seriously. It is currently being reviewed through the disciplinary process. Our focus remains on public safety and continuing to serve the community with professionalism and respect.”

San Antonio Police Department

The department did not provide additional details about the officer or say what disciplinary action, if any, could result from the review.

Ramos said she hopes speaking publicly will encourage other people experiencing domestic violence to speak up and prompt law enforcement to examine how officers respond to these calls.

“I think there needs to be change, because domestic violence is serious and it’s real,” Ramos said.

Ramos said she has since removed herself from the situation and is receiving help. She is also in the process of seeking a protective order.

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:

• SAPD lieutenant arrested, accused of driving while intoxicated, department says

Zuckerberg detailed his ambitions for the technology in a 6,500-word essay published online where he also outlined why he favors open-source AI technology, in which developers make key components accessible for anyone to examine, modify and build upon.

In a document derided by critics as fantastical, Zuckerberg said his company is working toward an era where everyone will have the tools to create new businesses, receive Ph.D.-level tutoring and provide personalized lifestyle tips. His 8-year-old daughter, he wrote, can already code her ideas and quickly produce videos.

“Everyone will soon have invention superpowers,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Zuckerberg warned of risks if control of advanced AI is concentrated with a select few companies, institutions or governments. On Monday, Meta also announced the release a new open-source AI model, Muse Glimmer, which can run on a personal computer, and Zuckerberg said the company would also would provide a way for developers to access a more powerful AI model, Muse Spark 1.2.

Meta makes AI models, like several other tech companies, and uses them to power platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. The Menlo Park, California, company also makes them available to developers who can create their own apps and features.

Skeptics urge a slower pace of AI development

Critics said Zuckerberg was not reckoning fully with the risks inherent in AI's rapid development.

Noting recent incidents where AI models, including Meta’s own, hacked other companies on at least three separate occasions, Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the AI safety nonprofit Future of Life Institute, asked “what on Earth makes Meta think they — or anyone — could control something exponentially smarter, faster, and more capable?"

“Meta’s chosen path is ultimately one of human replacement and disempowerment, but there is an alternate, pro-human path -- one that brings about individual flourishing and scientific breakthroughs with controllable AI tools. What’s urgently needed now is for governments to facilitate a pause on advanced AI development and steer us onto the pro-human path — before it's too late,” Aguirre said.

Meta chief says AI should be broadly distributed

In his essay, Zuckerberg outlined why he thought open source is a better path for fair development of AI. He warned that if control of AI “superintelligence” is too concentrated, it will lead to less favorable outcomes for everyone else. The key, he wrote, is finding a balance that ensures advanced AI is “broadly distributed" to empower billions of people equitably.

Meta has long been a proponent of open-sourcing its AI models, but has struggled to keep up with rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google that have not taken the same approach.

Zuckerberg made what could be a veiled reference to Meta's rivals without naming specific companies.

“Most other labs are focused on building AI for companies, governments, or other institutions, so if those labs lead, then the balance of power will favor larger institutions over individuals,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg also included policy recommendations for keeping the U.S. ahead of rivals, including China. The United States and its allies need to speed up building energy capacity and infrastructure to stay competitive, he said.

Zuckerberg called for authorities to reconsider their position on “ distillation,” which involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one. The Trump administration has vowed to crack down on Chinese AI companies using distillation to extract technical features from U.S. AI models. Anthropic earlier this year accused China's DeepSeek of using distillation.

"Some have tried to frame distillation as harmful, but I think it is important to protect the principle that you can learn from anything you can observe," Zuckerberg said. “This is how the world works, and the U.S. will not be able to lead if we restrict ourselves on this front.”

Critics see a self-serving message from Meta

Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at the nonprofit digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, called Zuckerberg “annoyingly out of touch on his best day,” but said the CEO is right about the importance of open-source AI.

Shared access to open-source AI systems is important for protection in a world where AI can be used to hack into electronic systems, like voting systems and benefits infrastructure, he said.

But he said only Meta will benefit if everyone were to use Meta-designed AI systems, even if they are fully open-source. "Open source AI needs to be supported beyond these corporate interests. We, unlike Zuckerberg, hope for as much competition as possible,” he said.

Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.

Trump swore in Todd Blanche, his old personal lawyer, as attorney general Monday. Meanwhile, Iran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States lifts its blockade on the strait, pays compensation for months of war damage, lifts economic sanctions and releases Iran’s frozen assets. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected Trump's proposed exit strategy for Gaza.

Here’s the latest:

Trump spokesperson suggests separating MMR vaccine could help instill trust in the vaccines

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Monday that Trump’s call for the development of separate, single-disease measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for U.S. children will help generate trust in vaccine hesitant parents.

“President Trump is one of countless parents who have voiced questions and concerns about the combined MMR vaccine,” Desai told The Associated Press, saying the separate vaccines will “give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”

The White House didn’t provide new scientific evidence supporting the move. Studies of babies and toddlers in the U.S. have shown that the use of combination shots increased the likelihood of completing all recommended vaccinations by the age of 2.

Pediatricians say executive order spreads confusion about vaccines, which are safe

Doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics said the executive order spreads uncertainty and confusion.

Dr. Aaron Milstone, pediatric director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins Health System, said doctors want to reassure parents there are “many, many, many years of scientific data highlighting the safety of vaccines in children.”

The timing of vaccines has also been well-studied, he said.

“We give vaccines to children even when they’re young because we know that’s safe and because we know it’s the best time for their body to respond to that vaccine in a good way and to make their body stronger to fight off an infection if they’re exposed to that,” Milstone said.

The potential link between vaccines and autism has also been studied exhaustively — in more than 40 well-designed studies in more than seven countries involving over five million children, said Dr. Andrew Racine, president of American Academy of Pediatrics.

“I’m not sure that there is anything that has been as thoroughly looked at as this question about whether or not there is a link between autism and vaccines,” he said. “And the answer is unequivocally no.”

Republican senator blasts Trump executive order on vaccines

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, is strongly rebuking Trump’s executive order on vaccines.

“I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes,” Cassidy said in a social media post on X. “Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.”

Cassidy chairs the Senate committee with oversight responsibilities for healthcare agencies. He went on to say that children will have to get more shots to get the same protection. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe.

“Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong,” Cassidy said.

Trump did not provide new evidence of a claimed link between vaccines and autism

The National Institutes of Health started funding research teams over a year ago charged with unearthing the cause autism, a portion of them assessing vaccines’ claimed role.

Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the institute, spoke at Trump’s executive order signing and said that “science takes time” and “you don’t get answers immediately.”

Still, Bhattacharya was more tentative about claiming an evidence-based link between autism and vaccines, generally avoiding the suggestion altogether.

“What we’ve done in this administration,” he said, “is we’ve given permission to scientists to honestly answer this question, to find the link for the first time.”

12 medical groups previously endorsed the childhood influenza vaccine. Trump’s executive order did not

In January, the American Academy of Pediatrics put out their 2026 childhood vaccine guidance, which included a jab for influenza, that got the green light from groups including the National Medical Association and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

The AAP said in a press release at the time that over 80% of childhood deaths related to influenza were with unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated patients, adding that children under 5 years old are particularly vulnerable.

Trump said the vaccine is “no longer recommended for all children.”

Trump says Iran can still cause trouble but argues that it’s feeling financial squeeze

The president was dismissive of Iranian officials’ demands after Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stressed that Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. meets its conditions, including paying reparations for the five-month-old war.

Trump during an Oval Office exchange with reporters claimed that the U.S. has “100% control” of the strait, but that the situation remains complex. He made the case that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of the strait is preventing Iran from selling its oil on the international market, a move that is effectively choking the Iranian economy.

“Now, can they make trouble? Yeah, they can make trouble, but they’re broke,” Trump said. “They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And they’re not paying their soldiers.”

With measles raging, vaccine proponent said it’s no time for an ‘anti-vaccine agenda’

At a time when the U.S. is facing its worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years, “we should be making it easier to protect children from preventable disease, not harder,” said Northe Saunders, president of American Families for Vaccines.

He said “RFK’s anti-vaccine agenda” shouldn’t pressure state leaders to abandon protections that work for their communities.

“States have long played a central role in setting school immunization requirements,” he said. “and parents, educators, healthcare professionals, and state leaders should be able to make decisions about protecting children without political interference from the federal government.”

In late July, the number of measles cases in the U.S. has surpassed the record-breaking tally for all of 2025. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has logged more than 2,318 cases of measles this year.

Trump’s childhood vaccine recommendations contradict medical establishment

The president, at an executive order signing on new childhood vaccine recommendations, said that, “very importantly,” jabs for hepatitis B, COVID-19 and influenza “are no longer recommended for all children.”

Those vaccinations, however, are still recommended by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among other medical groups.

While the latter organization recommends childhood vaccines for 18 diseases, Trump’s executive order limits that to prioritizing just 11.

Public health officials have raised concerns over some of Trump’s recommendations

That includes the presidents recommendation announced Monday to space out childhood vaccine shots instead of getting all of them on the same visit.

Public health officials say that could lead to children becoming infected with a vaccine-preventable disease in the periods between jabs.

Doctor urges parents to listen to medical experts about shots

Michael Osterholm, executive director of the Vaccine Integrity Project, said parents should continue to rely on vaccine recommendations developed by trusted medical and public health experts, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, when making decisions on shots for their kids.

“Today’s Executive Order does not change the underlying scientific evidence supporting childhood immunization. That data has been built over decades — through large clinical trials, real-world effectiveness studies and continuous safety monitoring involving millions of children,” he said in a statement.

“Parents deserve clear, evidence-based guidance about how to protect their children, not competing recommendations issued through political processes. When families receive conflicting messages, confidence in vaccination suffers, and children ultimately bear the consequences.”

Trump overstates dangers of vaccines

In announcing his executive order on vaccines, President Donald Trump said “bad things happen” when children get the combined MMR vaccine.

“I’ve seen proof of it, where they have a vaccination that looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body, and bad things happen in, many cases-in too many cases,” he said.

But experts say the risk of serious side effects is extremely low and years of real-world data proves the vaccine is safe and effective. Common side effects include soreness and a mild rash or redness at the injection site, a fever, and temporary pain or stiffness in the joints.

Decades of studies have concluded there’s no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Decades of autism research have found no single cause

Besides genetics, scientists have identified various possible factors, including the age of a child’s father, the mother’s weight, and whether she had diabetes or was exposed to certain chemicals.

Any concern that vaccines could be linked to autism has been long debunked, according to scientists and leading advocacy groups for people with autism.

Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.

Trump proposes new childhood vaccine recommendations, though power in schools rests with states

Trump, who suggested connections between autism and vaccines despite a scientific consensus that there isn’t a link, issued new guidance for childhood vaccines that space out shots and limit the number of recommended routine jabs.

Still, the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren rests with state governments.

Trump to sign executive order calling for spacing out childhood shots

President Donald Trump on Monday will sign an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held belief that shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits, according to a White House fact sheet.

The order will recommend administering each vaccine in its own visit and separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different shots and direct the nation’s health department to improve vaccine research, says the fact sheet, first reported by The Daily Caller. Separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for children are not available in the U.S.

Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.

▶ Read more

CBO says this year’s deficit will be larger than previously predicted, mostly because of smaller-than-expected tariff revenue

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that this fiscal year’s deficit will be $2.1 trillion, about $200 billion more than what it predicted in early February.

The major reason for the change has to do with less revenue coming into the Treasury than projected as a result of the Supreme Court finding that the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed under an emergency powers law were unconstitutional.

The fiscal year runs through September 30.

Revenue totaled $4.5 trillion through the first 10 months of the fiscal year. That’s about 3% more than during the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, spending increased about 5% from last year, rising to $6.3 trillion. Spending in the federal government’s major healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, each increased by about 8%.

Trump signs waiver letting foreign trips carry oil and other goods among US ports for 90 days

Trump on Monday extended a waiver for 90 days for foreign ships to transport goods, including oil, fertilizers and other fossil fuel products, among U.S. ports.

The president first waived the Jones Act on March 17 so that it would be easier to transport oil and refined fuels among ports, reducing price pressures after the start of the war with Iran.

The extension will take effect on August 17.

Unlike previous extensions, the Pentagon will consult with the Maritime Administration to decide which voyages are exempt from the 1920 law containing the Jones Act. The waiver will only apply to cargo are sources of energy and commodities related to agriculture and food, such as soybean oil.

Ex Air Force secretary talking to lawyers after Trump admin revokes security clearance

Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday that he’s talking to lawyers after the Trump administration revoked his security clearance last week.

Kendall, who has been critical of the administration, said in a post on LinkedIn that he’s “talking to lawyers and will have more soon.” He said he’s had his clearance for 60 years and was careful to say nothing classified.

The Pentagon revoked Kendall’s “eligibility” to access classified information and barred him from holding “any sensitive position,” alleging Friday that he disclosed sensitive information about Air Force One’s capabilities to the media.

It follows reporting last month, including from The New York Times, on security concerns over the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One, including that it lacked the advanced antimissile capabilities of its predecessor.

US military base in South Carolina renamed after late Sen. Lindsey Graham

A U.S. military base in South Carolina was renamed after the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham Monday, with Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth praising Graham’s dedication to the military and for “taking on a radical leftist ideology” in the armed forces.

Joint Base Charleston is now Joint Base Lindsey Graham, which includes an Air Force base and a Naval Weapons Station. Graham, who died last month, served in the Air Force, Air National Guard and reserves.

Hegseth praised Graham’s support of President Donald Trump’s historic $1.5 billion defense budget proposal. In praising Graham, Hegseth also employed the Trump administration’s strategy of linking Democrats to communism.

“The hard left declared war on our own military,” Hegseth said, adding that “it seems that many people have forgotten the reality of what communism looks like.”

Trump dismisses Iran’s call for war reparations

Trump is scoffing at the Iran’s call for reparations for devastation caused to the country by the U.S. and Israeli bombardment over the last five months, a demand he said hadn’t been raised by Tehran’s negotiators until now.

The Republican president, in a social media post, added that in response to the Iranian demand he’s directing negotiators to include “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.”

The U.S. government says Iran-backed militants have been responsible for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Americans over the last several decades, including the 1983 bombing on a Marine compound in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel, the 1996 truck bombing of a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. troops and wounded hundreds more, and the deaths of at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.

Trump announces staff secretary Will Scharf will be his new White House counsel

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that his new White House counsel will be Will Scharf, the staff secretary who as the Trump-appointed head of the National Capital Planning Commission helped secure approval for the $400 million ballroom project.

Trump said that, beginning Sept. 1, Scharf will be replacing David Warrington, who will be leaving the administration to join the private sector. Trump noted that Scharf previously served as a federal prosecutor and represented him in a number of cases, including at the Supreme Court.

“Will is Tough, Strong, and Smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

The shakeup in the White House counsel’s office comes at a critical juncture — just months ahead of the midterm elections, where Trump’s Republican Party will be fighting to hold on to control of Congress. Democrats have vowed to pursue investigations into Trump and his administration if they are successful in November.

▶ Read more

Trump officials propose new scrutiny of food additives and ingredients

U.S. health officials on Monday proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods.

The proposal would change a decades-old policy that advocates have called a regulatory loophole, blaming it for allowing thousands of unvetted ingredients into the U.S. food supply.

Under the proposed rule from the Food and Drug Administration, companies would have to document and submit their safety findings for new ingredients, giving regulators the opportunity to investigate if they see a potential safety risk. Currently companies can decide for themselves if an ingredient or additive is “generally recognized as safe” and there is no requirement for companies to notify or submit evidence to the FDA, although some do.

▶ Read more

State Department says it has revoked more 175,000 visas since Trump took office

The revoked visas had been granted to more than 175,000 foreigners who have endangered American citizens, broken laws or threatened U.S. national security, according to a statement issued Monday by the State Department.

The statement says most were revoked “due to law enforcement encounters for a range of criminal activity,” including assault, child abuse, drunken driving, drug violations, and embezzlement. It doesn’t say how many of those visa holders had been convicted of such crimes.

Some of the revocations involved “foreign nationals who celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk, including one who stated ‘when fascists die, democrats don’t complain’ and another who said he ‘died too late’, the statement said.

Veteran Democrats face strong challenges in Connecticut’s primary

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s try for a third term must first clear a challenge by state Rep. Josh Elliott. And U.S. Rep. John Larson faces his first primary challenge in nearly 30 years, from former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.

Both contests could help redefine the Democratic brand by replacing old guard figures with younger alternatives. Tuesday’s primaries also could extend a progressive winning streak in New York City, Colorado and the Michigan U.S. Senate primary.

Larson turned 78 in July. Concerns over his health and age arose last year after he suffered a seizure while delivering a speech on the House floor.

Beginning in 2027, states with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment error rates above 6% will be required to share in the cost of benefits under the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in 2025. Texas recorded a 9% error rate in fiscal year 2025, meaning the state could face up to $709 million a year in additional costs, and potentially more than $1 billion if that rate climbs above 10%.

San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper said the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“When you think about the San Antonio Food Bank, for every one meal we put out, SNAP provides nine,” Cooper said. “Should we see an increase in the number of families, we just won’t have the food supply to meet that need.”

The San Antonio Food Bank currently serves around 140,000 people every week — a number that has continued to climb year over year. That growth comes on the heels of a recent study showing food insecurity in the San Antonio region has risen to nearly 22%, meaning roughly one in five people don’t have enough to eat.

Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, the state association of food banks, said the error rate triggering these new costs is widely misunderstood.

“The most important thing to know about the payment error rate is that it is not fraud,” Cole said. “It is a measure of accuracy.”

Cole explained that the error rate reflects paperwork and processing mistakes, not intentional wrongdoing, and that roughly two-thirds of errors come from state agency mistakes, not recipients. She added that Texas consistently maintained an error rate below 6% before the COVID-19 pandemic strained state workforce capacity.

If Texas cannot or will not fund its share of SNAP costs, Cole warned the consequences would be severe.

“If they walk away from the program, what that’s going to mean is 3 million Texans without access to reliable food,” Cole said. “Our food bank network won’t be able to make up for that gap.”

Food bank leaders across the state are now calling on Congress to delay the cost-sharing requirement by two years, giving Texas time to bring its error rate back below the 6% threshold. The Senate version of the Farm Bill, currently working through Congress, includes a provision for a one-year delay, but advocates say two years is what’s needed.

Cooper echoed that urgency.

“The fear that SNAP might be impacted — it’s catastrophic,” Cooper said. “I just don’t have the inventory at the San Antonio Food Bank to meet that need.”

The Texas Legislature is set to begin its next session in January 2027 — the same session that would need to appropriate funds if the cost-sharing requirement moves forward without a congressional delay.

Read also:

• 550,000 Texans lost food stamp access since the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ Food banks are feeling the strain.

The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It also directs the nation's health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.

The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.

Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”

Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. The order also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that his health department has already attempted, but that have been blocked by a federal judge. A White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said Trump was within his right to provide his own recommendation through the executive order and said the lawsuit blocking the health department's schedule was a separate issue.

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear and confusion where “there doesn't need to be any of that.” He disputed Trump's recommendations and said previous ones should stand.

“Science about vaccines and their efficacy has not changed,” he said. “The distribution of viruses and other pathogens in our environment has not changed. Children in this country have not changed in the last 48 hours."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee, slammed the executive order in a social media post, saying vaccines are safe and do not cause autism.

“I'm a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” the Louisiana senator wrote. “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.”

Who is in charge of vaccine policy?

Even as the order calls for revised vaccine recommendations, states, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order advises states with school vaccine mandates to consider updating their laws to reflect the administration's preferred schedule, according to a White House fact sheet.

Last December, Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly. The department responded by cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, a move that has since been blocked in court.

Changes to federal childhood vaccine recommendations customarily require approval from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The newly Senate-confirmed CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, oversaw policies promoting vaccination of service members while in a leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard.

However, public health law expert Lawrence Gostin at Georgetown University said the Supreme Court's interpretation of Trump's power may allow him to supersede Schwartz if she does not agree to new recommendations.

“This is clearly the first test for Dr. Erica Schwartz,” Gostin said in an email. “The President is placing her in an untenable position.”

Asked on a call with reporters why the president was advocating splitting MMR into three single-disease vaccines, the White House official did not provide any studies supporting the decision. They said that was Trump's long-held view and that some countries provide individual measles vaccines in certain circumstances.

Kush Desai, a Trump spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the president is “one of countless parents who have voiced questions and concerns about the combined MMR vaccine" and said the plan to develop single-disease vaccines would “give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children,” ultimately increasing vaccine uptake.

Studies of babies and toddlers in the U.S. have shown that the use of combination shots for childhood vaccines, rather than single ones, increased the likelihood of completing all recommended vaccinations by the age of 2.

Announcement follows other Trump administration vaccine actions

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, set out to overhaul immunization guidance at DHS in the first year of Trump’s term. He fired an entire 17-member vaccine advisory committee, installing replacements who made far more restrictive recommendations that have since been halted by a federal judge. He also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence to support the change.

Throughout his second term, Trump has been fixated on connecting autism to vaccines. He has recently ramped up pressure on Kennedy to identify the cause of autism, something Kennedy had pledged to do with new research unveiled last year. Trump publicly prodded the health secretary for an update on autism research in a Cabinet meeting last month.

“How are you doing on the autism research?” Trump asked.

“We will have an answer for you,” Kennedy said.

Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism. Racine reiterated that point on Monday, noting that the potential link had been studied in “over 40 methodologically well-designed studies in over seven countries involving over 5 million children.”

“I'm not sure that there is anything that has been as thoroughly looked at as this question," he said. “And the answer is unequivocally no."

In the Oval Office, Kennedy repeated his assertion that he believes an unknown environmental factor is to blame for rising autism diagnoses and said that his department will deliver research findings “as soon as they are ready.”

Monday's order comes as students are returning to classrooms around the country and the nation contends with a measles outbreak that experts say could result in the U.S. losing its measles elimination status.

Doctors have raised concerns that Trump's falsehoods on vaccines could stoke vaccine hesitancy. Federal data shows U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have been dropping, with the share of children with exemptions rising to an all-time high in the 2024-25 school year.

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Associated Press writers Laura Ungar and Mike Stobbe contributed to this report. Swenson reported from New York.

Carrington came from behind and hit the Fever's Sophie Cunningham in the head and neck on a fast-break layup, knocking her to the court as the shot went in. The play was reviewed and upgraded to a Flagrant 2 after the referee said there was windup, impact and follow-through on the foul.

Carrington is Black and Cunningham is white. After Carrington was ejected, she posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on social media and tagged the Fever.

Responding to a clip of former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho criticizing her reaction, Carrington posted on X that she “never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege.”

“Try exercising your critical thinking skills, I know you studied psych. Furthermore, I’m the LAST thing from ignorant or asinine when it comes to speaking on “white privilege”, do ya research on that one,” Carrington wrote. "I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject.

“I would never use that term as a rhetorical weapon knowing the historical and social weight it holds without having the proper evidence to substantiate it.”

The 28-year-old Carrington played for Stanford for four years before spending her final season of college ball at Baylor.

There has been no word from the WNBA on any additional punishment for Carrington for the hard foul. The Sky visited the Seattle Storm on Monday night.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

For more than a decade, nature lovers watched via an online video feed as Jackie and her partner Shadow tended to their nest each year atop trees near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles.

The nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley installed the nest camera in 2015 and documented the successes and failures of each breeding season. In 2024, Jackie diligently sat on her eggs for more than two and a half days straight after a winter storm blanketed the nest with snow.

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation’s San Dimas Raptor Rescue team found Jackie on July 17 following reports that the bird had been involved in a fight with two other eagles and was found to be ill.

Jackie had been receiving medical treatment for three weeks at the Ojai Raptor Center, where she was treated for a variety of ailments including anemia. Despite undergoing a blood transfusion and oxygen therapy, her condition worsened and the center announced the animal's death Monday.

“We know this news will be deeply felt by the many thousands of people around the world who have followed her journey, hoped alongside us, prayed for her, and supported the people caring for her,” the center's statement said. “Our team is heartbroken. It has been an extraordinary privilege to care for her.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is caring for the remains.

Among those who enjoyed monitoring Jackie's nests from afar was biologist Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society in central California. While his group was not involved with the Big Bear eagles, he sees their breeding as emblematic of the comeback the species has made in the state over the past decades.

American bald eagles teetered on the brink of extinction until the pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s and other protections were established, leading the species to rebound and be removed from the federal endangered list.

“You want to see a success story like that,” Sorenson said Monday. “Having access to a live cam to see the nesting first hand is very powerful. It brings people in on an emotional level.”

The two-time Olympic champion from Norway hadn’t raced since having surgery early this year to clean up scar tissue on the protective sheath around his left Achilles tendon.

Down the stretch, Ingebrigtsen was in third place before accelerating in the final 50 meters to pass Florian Bremm of Germany and cross the line in 13 minutes, 15:29 seconds. Bremm was second followed by France’s Etienne Daguinos.

“Coming from the lowest of lows to be European champion again means the world to me,” Ingebrigtsen said. “Not even I believed it could happen coming here. Only with 600 meters to go I knew I would win.

“I am starting to feel more like myself,” he added. “I doubted myself every day coming in to this and every minute leading up to the last lap today, but I’m always hoping to do my best. I’ve tried my best, and the last three weeks was very smooth.”

The Norwegian's rivals could only marvel at his abilities. Daguinos called him “a legend of our sport.”

Bremm said he looked to both sides “and I thought, ‘Oh yes I have it for sure,” before Ingebrigtsen passed him.

“He proved he’s faster than everyone else even after the injury,” Bremm said.

Ingebrigtsen is not racing in the 1,500 meters in Birmingham. He’s won both the 1,500 and 5,000 at the past three European championships.

The Achilles problem seemed to be a factor in Ingebrigtsen’s performance at last September’s world championships in Tokyo, where he failed to advance out of the first round of the 1,500 and finished 10th in the 5,000 final.

Amy Hunt wins tight 100m

Amy Hunt of Britain got just enough separation to win the women's 100 meters in 11 seconds, edging Poland's Ewa Swoboda (11.02) and Belgium's Delphine Nkansa (11.06). Hunt's teammate Dina Asher-Smith (11.10), the defending champion, was fifth.

Hunt won silver in the 100 at the Commonwealth Games two weeks ago. She was also the silver medalist in 200 at the world championships last September.

Three-peat for Schilder in women's shot put

Netherlands star Jessica Schilder made it three in a row in the shot put, taking gold with a throw of 20.73 meters at Alexander Stadium.

The reigning world champion's teammate Jorinde van Klinken (19.64) won silver, and 2024 Olympic champion Yemisi Mabry (19.50) of Germany was third.

“I will never get tired of this feeling, I will never get bored of winning these medals,” Schilder said. “I had the confidence going into this that even though I was competing with an injured finger I was capable of doing well here. It was a little bit about battling and pushing through the pain today.”

Schilder is the only woman this decade to surpass 21 meters when she threw 21.09 at the Shanghai Diamond League in May.

Schilder won gold at the past two European championships: 2024 in Rome and 2022 in Munich. She called this one the “easiest” of the three.

“There was quite a gap with the other competitors,” she said.

For the men's shot put, Leonardo Fabbri defended his title with a throw of 22.31, and his Italian teammate Zane Weir took silver. Sweden's Wictor Petersson was third.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The USDA’s FSIS issued an Aug. 8 public health alert for meat and poultry products containing “FDA (Food and Drug Administration)-regulated jalapeños that may be contaminated with Salmonella.”

The following H-E-B products are included in the alert:

• H-E-B Shake Rattle Bowl Southwest Chicken (9.75 oz) — Use by dates: 8/7/2026–8/15/2026; EST No. P34733
• Higher Harvest for H-E-B Chicken & Beef Chimichurri (12 oz) — Use by dates: 8/6/2026, 8/9/2026 and 8/13/2026; EST Nos. M46445 and P46445
• Higher Harvest for H-E-B Creamy Cilantro Chicken (13 oz) — Use by dates: 8/4/2026, 8/5/2026, 8/8/2026, 8/11/2026 and 8/12/2026; EST No. P46445
• Meal Simple Pork Carnitas Bowl (11 oz) — Use by dates: 8/3/2026, 8/7/2026, 8/10/2026 and 8/14/2026; EST No. M46445
• Meal Simple Chicken & Rice with Cilantro Jalapeno Sauce (12 oz) — Use by dates: 8/3/2026, 8/7/2026, 8/10/2026 and 8/14/2026; EST No. P46445

Other stores impacted by the alert include Albertsons, Hannaford, Kroger, RaceTrac, Walmart and Wawa.

Walmart’s 12.5 oz Marketside-branded Southwest Style Salad with Chicken is also under the recall. The impacted product’s use by date is between Aug. 8-Aug. 16, 2026 (EST Nos. P44818 and P34733).

Kroger and Albertsons no longer operate grocery store locations in the San Antonio area. According to its website, RaceTrac stores are located primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth/North Texas areas.

“There have been no confirmed reports of illness due to consumption of the FSIS-regulated products containing the affected jalapeños,” the FSIS said. “Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider.”

The FSIS urged people to not consume any of the affected products. Products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

Consumers with food safety questions are encouraged to call the toll-free USDA meat and poultry hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or email MPHotline@usda.gov.

To report a problem with a meat, poultry or egg product, click here.

Read also:

• Taylor Farms recalls jalapeno products over salmonella concerns

In questioning Dr. Jennifer Tufts, defense lawyer Kevin Reddington spotlighted her use of 25-minute video appointments with limited time for talk therapy, the computerized forms that documented her observations, and the series of pharmaceuticals she recommended as Clancy reported various side effects, symptoms and concerns about taking medications.

Reddington portrayed Clancy’s care not as common practice in U.S. mental healthcare, but rather as inadequate and indifferent treatment of a deteriorating patient. At one point, Reddington implied that the doctor was a box-checking “robot.”

“What did you do? You had a woman who was telling you she felt hopeless,” he asked as they discussed an appointment about two months before the killings.

“I told her that this was something we could address, that there was hope, that there are treatments, that there are different types of programs,” Tufts said, “so she knew that she still had options and a reason to hope.”

“Did you ever suggest to her that ‘maybe you should come in and see me, rather than on the computer?’” Reddington asked.

“Talking to her over the video didn’t seem like an issue. It didn’t seem like there was something I was missing,” Tufts replied.

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

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Clancy's camp says she tried everything to get help

Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. They were found in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts, where their mother was lying in the yard. She had jumped out a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors argue that the former labor and delivery nurse was an intentional killer who connived to get her husband out of the house, then strangled the children with exercise bands on Jan. 24, 2023. Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham has urged jurors not to view the trial as “a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women.”

Clancy's attorneys don't dispute that she killed the children. But they say she shouldn't be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill, believing that she heard voices ordering her to take the children's lives and her own.

The defense contends that she was in the grip of bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare postpregnancy condition that can alter women's sense of reality. A forensic psychiatrist diagnosed her with those conditions after the killings.

Her attorneys say Clancy did everything she could to seek help: She turned to multiple outpatient providers, tried various drugs they prescribed, called a suicide hotline, went to an emergency room, and approached but wasn't accepted into a hospital-based, full-day treatment program for women with postpregnancy mental health problems. Clancy then even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital for several days.

Rather than improving, her condition worsened on the ever-remixed cocktail of psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients, her attorneys and family say. Tufts noted that it can be difficult to tell whether such conditions as depression are continuing because of a medicine or despite it.

Psychiatrist says Clancy never indicated she'd harm her kids

Tufts saw Clancy, via video, from September 2022 until the day before the killings. Her diagnosis: generalized anxiety disorder and an adjustment disorder with depressed mood.

The psychiatrist testified that Clancy never told her about manic episodes, a criterion for bipolar diagnoses, nor about hearing voices or having other signs of psychosis.

Clancy at times said she was “close” to feeling suicidal, hopeless or like she was going to die, Tufts recalled. But she said Clancy denied having a plan to take her own life or harm anyone else and never revealed — as the defense says she did to her husband — that she had thoughts about harming the children.

“I would have been very concerned if I had heard that,” Tufts said.

Clancy is suing Tufts and other practitioners in civil court.

“I do not believe that I’ve been negligent,” Tufts testified in the criminal trial Monday as Reddington questioned how much experience she had treating postpregnancy conditions before Clancy came to her. Tufts finished her psychiatric residency training in July 2022 and joined a private practice the month before Clancy's first appointment.

Nurse-practitioner testifies about treating Clancy

As Tufts left court after two days of testimony, Clancy sat still in her wheelchair with her knitted hands to her face, looking downward at the defense table.

Prosecutors went on to question psychiatric nurse-practitioner and nurse midwife Julie Paul, a pregnancy and postpregnancy specialist whom Clancy consulted briefly in November 2022. Their interactions spanned about 10 days, as Paul was leaving for another job.

Paul testified that Clancy came to her with concerns about medications she'd been using for sleep, and that led to a few reshufflings as Clancy continued reporting various symptoms and seeking new solutions by the day. Trial-and-error switching isn't unusual in psychiatry, said Paul, who also said Clancy never told her of any thoughts of harming herself or her children or having any hallucinations.

Reddington will have his chance to question Paul on Tuesday.

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Police have not indicated whether they consider the 29-year-old Black woman’s death suspicious, saying only that they are actively working “to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.”

A week after Fortune’s body was found, a pink and white memorial honoring her life stood as a bright spot Monday in the otherwise overgrown backyard of the abandoned house in Jackson.

Feet from where rainbow pinwheels, white flowers and teddy bears surrounded a photograph of Fortune, empty chip bags and discarded plastic bottles littered the ground. Nearby, an entrance to the home gaped open, a tarp, foam pad and other debris scattered outside.

Jackson police officers responded to the home on Aug. 3 and discovered a body hanging in the backyard. Hinds County chief medical examiner investigator Jeremiah Howard later confirmed the identity as Fortune.

Her body is now in the custody of the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death.

Here's what we know so far about Fortune's death:

What was Fortune doing when she was last heard from?

Christy Spivey, Fortune's mother, told ABC News on Sunday that she last saw her daughter on July 26. Fortune, a mother of four who had lived in Mississippi for more than 10 years, had traveled to Kentucky for a family reunion.

She described her daughter as a loving mother who was not behaving out of the ordinary.

“She did not do this to herself," Spivey told the outlet. "I know my daughter, and she did not do this to herself.”

On Wednesday, Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes wrote a letter to Mississippi U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger asking for assistance in the case. In the letter, Stokes referred to Fortune as a murder victim.

Do authorities have any suspects?

Jackson police have commented very little on Fortune's death. They have not identified any suspects or person of interest.

Local media report that a man interviewed by investigators said he had argued with Fortune but had no involvement in her death. Police have not disclosed how the man, who was arrested last week on an unrelated charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, is acquainted with Fortune.

Where were the other hangings in Mississippi?

Fortune's death comes less than a year after the hanging deaths of 21-year-old Trey Reed, a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s, in Vicksburg.

Police in Cleveland concluded Reed's death was a suicide. Autopsy results were consistent with a preliminary examination of the body by the Bolivar County coroner, which found no evidence of foul play.

Reed's family and their attorneys called for an independent autopsy and for authorities to share security camera recordings.

The Mississippi State Medical Examiner determined Zukatis died by suicide.

Why are the Mississippi cases attracting interest?

How law enforcement agencies in Mississippi, a state with a tumultuous civil rights history, handle death investigations of Black residents has drawn extreme interest in recent weeks with the case of Nolan Xavier Wells.

The 18-year-old joined friends on a Fourth of July boat excursion to an island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast but did not return with them. His body was found two days later.

Wells’ parents say how their son died remains a mystery and there have been conflicting stories and missing details.

Spivey, Fortune’s mother, told ABC News she “does not want her name associated with” the death possibly being racially motivated.

Bernice King, daughter of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., cautioned people to “not rush to conclusions.” At the same time, Fortune's death is triggering.

“We also cannot dismiss the fear and painful history these circumstances evoke for Black communities, especially in Mississippi," she said in a statement. “That history makes transparency, thoroughness, and truth essential." ___

This story has corrected the spelling of Bernice King's first name.

___ Tang reported from Sunnyvale, California.

July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 degrees Celsius) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl’s July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Records go back to 1895.

“It’s not good when you’re breaking records from the Dust Bowl, which we are in this case,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. “And that was a crazy sort of situation where you put tens of millions of people in motion. You had this great migration because of the drought and the heat that hit the center of the U.S. — just a cataclysmic event in U. S. history. If we’re exceeding records from The Dust Bowl, that says that we’re in deep trouble.”

Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information.

The heat in the Dust Bowl years was more concentrated in parts of the Midwest and was aggravated by agricultural practices at the time, Vose said.

What's happening now is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists said.

"Extremely high temperatures across the continental U.S. this summer, along with intense drought and fire conditions, are absolutely consistent with the climate change signal,' said Katharine Jacobs, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona.

The biggest driver of the record heat was nighttime lows that smashed the old mark for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change, according to scientists and several studies in peer-reviewed literature. NOAA's calculation is based on averaging 24 hours of temperature, not just highs or lows.

“If you’re talking heat waves, that nighttime low is incredibly important for determining total heat stress,” Masters said. "So if it doesn’t cool off at night, your body doesn’t have time to readjust to all the heat.”

As nighttime temperatures increase, more people die and lose sleep, studies show.

The years 2021 and 1936 tie for America's hottest summer, which is June through August. Through July, 2026 is a shade cooler than 2021, which was powered by record heat in June.

Because of climate change, Masters said, “this may be one of the coolest years we’re gonna experience for the rest of our lives.”

What's needed, Masters said, is "to stop burning so many fossil fuels. We also need to be spending money to adapt to the new climate that we’ve put in place.”

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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 slipped 0.1% from its record set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 60 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

Momentum slowed for stocks following a rally powered by soaring profits for big U.S. companies. Reports are on track to show earnings per share leaped 50% in the spring from a year earlier for companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by COVID.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected, and the company built by legendary investor Warren Buffett said over the weekend that it’s also invested some of its massive pile of cash into stocks under its new CEO, Greg Abel.

Berkshire Hathaway has been famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, and criticism has been high that U.S. stocks generally look too expensive. But when they report strong profits, it helps them look less pricey.

Berkshire Hathaway’s stock rose 1.5%.

MarineMax jumped 46.1% after the retailer, marina operator and superyacht services provider said it agreed to sell itself for about $1.5 billion in cash to a portfolio company of Blackstone.

Varex Imaging leaped 48.8% after Teledyne Technologies said it would buy the maker of X-ray imaging components for $18.90 per share in cash.

But Intel helped offset such gains and fell 4.1% after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. Such a move would dilute the ownership stakes of shareholders, and Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments to take advantage of the huge spending underway on artificial-intelligence technology.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 4.53 points to 7,753.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 60.95 to 53,975.98, and the Nasdaq composite sank 85.26 to 26,605.36.

In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 5% to $87.72. It had swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

But hopes are turning toward caution again, and the price of Brent is back to where it was earlier this month, as well as in mid-July, mid-June and in the first week of the war in March.

Higher oil prices push inflation upward, and the main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on how bad inflation was last month. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% in June.

A slowdown would mean less pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow money. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

A report on Friday showing unexpectedly weak hiring across the United States lowered Wall Street’s expectations for an upcoming hike to interest rates. But traders still see a nearly 52% chance the Fed will raise its main interest rate at its next meeting in September, according to data from CME Group.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.70% from 4.65% late Friday. That’s up from 3.97% before the war with Iran, and the climb has already sent rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans significantly higher.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising in much of Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1% for one of the world’s bigger moves.

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

Legislators voted 468-88 in favor of the measure that would only come into effect after Turkish authorities have verified that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has fully disarmed.

The PKK announced last year that it is ending its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state, declaring a decision to dissolve itself as part of the peace effort. The move came in response to a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The group then staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where it is based, and announced that it was withdrawing fighters from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

Law could have regional implications

The measure, which is a step toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, could have implications beyond Turkey’s borders, leading to closer Turkish-Iraqi ties. It could also support the Syrian government’s efforts to integrate areas that were under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, affiliated with the PKK.

It also offers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to court the support of the pro-Kurdish DEM party to help him remain in office beyond the presidential two-term limit. Erdogan could run again if parliament calls an early election during his current term.

The 12-article legislation outlines the procedures for the group’s disarmament and the rehabilitation of thousands of PKK members.

It will suspend some prison sentences for convicted PKK members and postpone ongoing investigations and trials against others for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the alleged offenses. If no terror-related crime is committed within the time frame, the cases will be dropped.

Militants convicted of intentional killings and those sentenced to life terms before 2005 are excluded from the bill’s provisions. This applies to Ocalan and other senior PKK figures.

The proposal also sets up ministerial and parliamentary committees to monitor the disarmament process. The measures will come into effect only after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons.

Those wanting to benefit from the law will have six months to apply after the National Security Council’s decision is published in the official gazette.

Media reports have said exiled PKK members and those in Iraq and Syria are expected to benefit.

“With the armed organization laying down its arms and dissolving itself, we will build a new era in which peace, brotherhood, and solidarity will prevail,” Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus told reporters following the vote.

PKK says the legislation is a start but many things are missing

The PKK-linked ANF news outlet carried a statement from the group in which it said that the Turkish legislation is a “beginning” to resolving the outstanding issues but has “serious shortcomings and deficiencies.” It called for Ocalan’s release from prison, saying that the peace process can move forward only if he “lives and works freely.”

It also said that the legislation failed to address demands for democratic reforms and Kurdish rights, adding that PKK fighters would not give up their weapons and return to Turkey “if, upon returning to Turkey, they are unable to engage in democratic politics on the basis of freedom of thought and freedom of association, and if they are prosecuted and imprisoned because of their views or the organizations they establish.”

“The people of Turkey, who have paid a heavy price for many years, now have an opportunity to consolidate peace and build democracy,” Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, told parliament.

“Of course, the proposal has shortcomings, and we now have a responsibility to address these shortcomings,” she added, in an apparent reference to demands for greater rights for Kurds and for democratic reforms.

Musavat Dervisoglu, the leader of the center-right nationalist Good Party, which opposes the bill, said it “would pave the way” for Erdogan to stay in power.

Ocalan's release is not in the cards, but conditions might improve

DEM has lobbied for Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, to be granted official status to coordinate the transition process, leading to his release.

The current proposal, however, makes no mention of Ocalan’s status or possible release.

Media reports have suggested, however, that Ocalan’s conditions in his island prison off Istanbul will likely be improved, giving him broader visiting conditions and communication with the outside world.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into Iraq and Syria. It has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted to demands for autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have failed, most recently in 2015.

__

Stella Martany contributed from Irbil, Iraq.

But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. Residents and a new cadre of local officials see in it an unacceptable attempt by the federal government to restrict the heavily Democratic city's autonomy and, a year in, still question why having troops on the streets of the nation's capital is necessary.

“There’s a deep irony that here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “D.C. residents have lived with our National Guard troops in our neighborhoods for about a year, despite the absence of any genuine emergency and really any reason for them to be here.”

The continued deployment will be a major test for a new batch of political candidates expected to take office after the midterms this fall. Residents will look to them to push back on the Republican president's encroachment into the city's affairs — although they're limited in what they can do to counter it.

Temporary deployment goes on and on

On Aug. 11, 2025, Trump announced he was launching a federal law enforcement surge in Washington aimed at fighting crime. As of Aug. 4, more than 4,600 military personnel from D.C. and 24 states and territories were still deployed alongside unknown numbers of less visible federal law enforcement officers. Some are expected to be withdrawn toward the end of the summer.

Small groups of armed guard members have become a routine presence on the streets. They have supported arrest operations but are also seen patrolling tourist areas, such as along the Tidal Basin during the Cherry Blossom Festival and in neighborhoods such as Georgetown where violent crimes are rare. They've helped with medical emergencies, snow removal and beautification projects — initiatives that have received support from some residents.

Extending the deployment into 2029 will cost about $1.4 billion, the Defense Department estimates. Exact figures on what's been spent so far are unavailable, but the Congressional Budget Office projected in a report earlier this year the total cost for the first year of the deployment would be around $660 million, based on a monthly troop level of about 2,900, a figure that's fluctuated throughout the mission.

“President Trump has transformed D.C. from a crime-ridden city into a safe and beautiful haven for residents and visitors alike,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email.

Figures released Monday by the U.S. Marshals Service showed over 16,000 arrests have been made since the surge began, including 35 homicide suspects and 3,200 narcotics arrests. Authorities also have seized nearly 2,000 illegal firearms.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the arrests and weapons seizures "mean safer neighborhoods and lives protected."

Crime, which was falling before the surge began, continues to drop. Metropolitan Police Department statistics show overall crime was down 20% through Friday, compared with the same period in 2025. That includes a 32% drop in homicides, from 97 to 66.

But there’s a debate over how much of that success is owed to Trump’s mission or to yearslong local efforts to chip away at the crime rate.

What's certain is locals feel the weight of the deployment and don't see a clear way to push back against it. National Guard deployments to other cities have been blocked by courts, and a lawsuit challenging the deployment is pending, but critics of the surge aren't hopeful.

“The fact that we still have the National Guard walking our streets a year later with no end in sight is really demoralizing,” city council member Brianne K. Nadeau said.

Autonomy is a top priority for newly elected candidates

Because Washington is a congressionally established federal district, Trump has much greater influence over the police and D.C. National Guard, which he controls directly, including its commander.

The Home Rule Act, passed in 1973, allows residents to vote for local leaders, including the mayor and council members. Congress has oversight over the local budget and review authority of all laws passed and the ability to summon district officials to the Capitol routinely to explain themselves. The D.C. delegate to Congress is a nonvoting position.

The city’s governmental structure under home rule made it easy for Trump to do what he has done, Nadeau said.

“There isn’t really any political liability for national leaders to mess with D.C. because nobody really cares,” outside of those directly impacted, she said.

The law enforcement surge played a major role in Democratic primary elections in June, which elevated candidates who have made Washington's autonomy and statehood top priorities.

Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist who in the overwhelmingly Democratic city is likely to be its next mayor, has already rankled Trump. He threatened to put the city under federal control if she wins.

Robert White Jr., another pro-statehood candidate, won the Democratic primary for the city's seat in Congress.

And while they are hamstrung by the city's status, both hope they have strategies that can help fight back against the president and the deployment.

White told The Associated Press he plans to build “an army of residents” and allies to target swing districts and work at “un-electing" people critical of the district and “electing those who do support D.C.”

The action is similar to one a former D.C. congressional delegate, Walter Fauntroy, successfully pursued in 1972, mobilizing Black voters and allies against a South Carolina Congress member who had long opposed D.C.'s independence.

“He didn't deploy that strategy a bunch of times, but it sent a signal to people to lay off of D.C.,” White said.

The city's outgoing mayor, Muriel Bowser, avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented intervention into her city. A major part of that was to avoid raising Trump’s ire and threaten what independence the city has.

In a statement Monday, Bowser called the surge an “unprecedented federal intervention" that highlighted D.C.'s lack of "statehood and autonomy.”

She credited her actions during the surge, including working with the federal government, with protecting home rule and keeping the federal emergency that gave control of the local police to the president from being extended.

“Still, unmitigated ICE activity in American cities and out-of-state National Guard troops in D.C. remain problematic," she said. "Like all Americans, Washingtonians deserve local control and accountability. My North Star remains clear: protect Home Rule, protect D.C.’s autonomy, and protect D.C. residents.”

Concerns over troops in the city during elections

Donna Powell, who is living part time in the city, said she and her husband walk and metro everywhere. “We’re already safe and beautiful,” she said. “We don’t need all these National Guard here.”

The money could be better spent “on healthcare and food for families that need it.”

The National Guard deployment has raised concerns among some over what the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election will look like with troops on the streets.

“The last time this president was supposed to come out of power, Jan. 6 happened," said Alex Dodds, co-founder of FreeDC, an activist group that has protested the deployment by following and filming National Guard troops in quiet areas of the city far away from crime concerns. "Imagine if that happens again but this time he has 5,000 troops standing at the ready to be part of that situation. You know, that’s our worry.”

Brosnan succeeds Val Ackerman, who announced her retirement in April after serving as commissioner for 13 years. Brosnan brings years of experience in media, sports and business. His tenure begins on Sept. 1.

St. John's president, the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, led the charge as the head of the search committee. He said in a statement that the conference prioritized finding someone with extensive experience in revenue generation.

“Over the course of his career, Tim Brosnan has shown to be a smart, highly-respected leader with high personal and professional values rooted in his dedication to the service of others," Rev. Shanley said in a statement. "His track record of forging highly successful partnerships will be critical in this new era of college athletics.”

Brosnan has significant experience in the professional ranks, bringing a 24-year stint with Major League Baseball from 1991-2015. He served in various executive roles as well as CEO of Major League Baseball Enterprises before leaving to run a sports media consultancy.

“The Big East is one of the most iconic brands in college sports, and I am grateful and deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead the conference into its next chapter,” Brosnan said in a statement.

Brosnan's ties to the Big East date back to his college years, where he was a four-year letter winner on Georgetown's baseball team.

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

Another former Trump attorney — Emil Bove, now a federal appeals court judge — administered the oath of office to Blanche at the White House following early Saturday's Senate confirmation vote by the narrowest of margins. Shortly after, the newly sworn-in attorney general arrived at Justice Department headquarters to cheers from employees lined up along the entrance.

Blanche, a former federal prosecutor in New York, is officially taking command of a Justice Department he has been leading in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi's firing in April.

With the confirmation battle behind him, Blanche now faces the challenge of having to navigate the demands of a president who has made no secret his desire to use the law enforcement agency to target his political foes. Blanche will do so with an agency that has been hollowed out by resignations, firings and voluntary departures while also confronting mounting pushback from the courts.

Blanche was confirmed in a 50-49 vote, opposed by two Republicans who cited concerns about what they described as increased politicization of the department under Trump.

Under deputy attorney general and later as acting attorney general, Blanche has overseen the investigations of numerous Trump foes, including former FBI Director James Comey, whom the Justice Department indicted in April for a second time since Trump returned to the White House last year.

Blanche has strongly defended the Trump administration against accusations that it has weaponized the Justice Department. Blanche has said he feels no pressure to placate Trump and insists he sees no problem with the president's interest in Justice Department matters, calling it the president's “right” and “his duty.”

Blanche entered the president's orbit when he left his law firm in 2023 to represent Trump against multiple criminal cases, including two brought by the Justice Department under Democratic President Joe Biden. Blanche has said that experience afforded him a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

Blanche's defenders say the close relationship he developed with Trump as his defense lawyer can make him more successful than Bondi was at pushing back on the president's demands.

Blanche's nomination was almost scuttled over bipartisan concerns about Trump's controversial settlement of his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. His nomination only moved forward after he confirmed in writing, under pressure from Republicans, that the administration was rescinding plans to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they were wronged by the department.

The WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told a news conference that sequencing indicated the outbreak's start. He said some cases early on were wrongly attributed to other diseases, including malaria and typhoid.

“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.

Dr. Thierno Balde, WHO's incident manager for the Ebola response, said the genetic sequencing was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Steve Ahuka, head of the virology department at Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research.

Confirmed cases of Ebola in this outbreak have reached 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths, according to the latest government figures.

WHO assesses the global risk of spread as low because Ebola does not travel through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses. Cases detected outside the affected region have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, according to the agency.

The outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones for Ebola because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.

The outbreak is unfolding in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real. Health teams travel remote, unpaved roads and have reported shortages of protective gear, while a vast population of displaced people struggles to find reliable water sources for washing hands.

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That one took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

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

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it. New cases are doubling in some hot spots, Tedros said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa.

Health authorities have said between 60% and 70% of new cases are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate.

Access to healthcare in the region already had been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas, near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. Now some pregnant women and others are avoiding health centers for fear of the virus, at risk to their lives.

Several past Ebola outbreaks have also been declared weeks or months late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That outbreak was declared in March 2014, although the first human case later was found to have occurred in December 2013.

___

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

___

This version corrects the second reference to the WHO director-general to Tedros.

The proposal would change a decades-old policy that advocates have called a regulatory loophole, blaming it for allowing thousands of unvetted ingredients into the U.S. food supply.

Under the proposed rule from the Food and Drug Administration, companies would have to document and submit their safety rationale for new ingredients, giving regulators the opportunity to investigate if they see a potential risk. Currently companies can decide for themselves if an ingredient or additive is “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, and there is no requirement to notify or submit evidence to the FDA, although some firms do.

“Shifting to a mandatory notification system closes a decades-old information gap, giving the FDA the comprehensive visibility needed to enhance postmarket safety,” acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas told reporters on Monday.

The FDA will take comments on the proposal for 120 days.

Susan Mayne, former director of FDA's food program, said the new requirement would give the FDA a clearer picture of the vast number of ingredients on the U.S. market, though only a small portion would actually undergo review.

“This is a reasonable first step towards a more complete inventory, but most self-affirmed GRAS ingredients will still not be reviewed for safety by the FDA, with food ingredient safety continuing to be risk-based,” said Mayne, who is now a public health expert at Yale University.

The FDA also plans to publish a list of company-submitted ingredients. Mayne said Americans should understand that “inclusion on the list would not mean FDA thinks the ingredient is safe.”

Scrutiny of ultraprocessed food continues, but with few details

In a separate move, the FDA said it has completed work on the federal government's first-ever definition of ultraprocessed food, but did not release any details or the proposed language. The agency said it submitted the definition to the White House for further review.

Health advocates consider an official definition of ultraprocessed food a key step toward bringing greater scrutiny to meals that are blamed for multiple chronic health problems afflicting Americans. A government-backed definition could pave the way for more federal research and, eventually, possible warning labels or other restrictions.

Neither of Monday's announcements are likely to immediately impact American diets, which are packed with fats, sodium and sugar and are blamed for a host of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. But both initiatives are top priorities for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who entered government vowing to crack down on artificial colors, additives and other ingredients.

“These two actions will change how the federal government oversees what’s in our food and how we understand the foods that Americans eat,” Kennedy said at an event Monday at HHS headquarters.

Ultraprocessed foods are made using industrial processing and additives, colors, preservatives or other ingredients not found in home kitchens. The foods include sugary cereals, sodas, chips, frozen pizzas and other grocery items.

Scientists have been working to define and classify processed foods for well over a decade. But sweeping definitions come with downsides. They can be applied to foods like whole grain bread, yogurt and granola that are all highly processed but still considered nutritious. Some recent efforts to define ultraprocessed foods include carve-outs for foods that meet nutrition standards, despite having processed ingredients.

FDA proposal would bring new insights on additives used by food companies

In the U.S., an estimated 10,000 additives are allowed in food, including thickeners, preservatives and packaging ingredients.

Consumer advocates have long argued that many of those ingredients have never been properly vetted because of the FDA's policy allowing manufacturers to certify for themselves that additives are “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS.

FDA's Diamantas stressed Monday that the new policy would not require all new ingredients to undergo FDA review. He said mandatory reviews would need to be enacted by Congress.

“What we’re doing is requiring companies that utilize the pathway to notify us of their conclusions so that we have greater visibility,” Diamantas said.

Under the proposal, the FDA would be expected to review new ingredient submissions within 180 days. If regulators had safety concerns they could request additional information or ask the company to delay introducing the ingredient.

Consumer advocates who have long pushed for changes said FDA’s proposal should require more than giving advance notice.

“It must also include strong, science-based safety standards and thorough, independent FDA review before chemicals are allowed in our food,” said Melanie Benesh of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

Kennedy said the Trump administration would ask Congress to grant FDA additional powers over ingredients.

“Congress needs to give FDA the additional tools it needs to keep pace with the changing food supply and protect the American people,” Kennedy said.

A rule change in the 1990s created what advocates call a loophole

Any substance intentionally added to food is supposed to undergo formal review — unless the additive is considered safe. Since the late 1950s, the government recognized that many common ingredients in foods, such as spices and vinegar, were widely consumed and understood to be safe for consumption.

The FDA policed the GRAS exemption for years, but it took time and resources. Starting in 1997, the FDA began allowing companies to independently determine that a new additive is safe based on publicly available scientific evidence and the consensus of qualified experts.

However, the list of products deemed GRAS by companies grew to include many synthetic and natural additives, all incorporated into the food supply without independent review.

The process has created a “secret GRAS loophole,” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other health groups.

Food industry officials contend their internal reviews of additives are as rigorous as the FDA’s own process.

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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.

The Supreme Court annulled the registration of Yabloko — which is Russian for “apple” — after an appeal from a pro-Kremlin party. Last month, the Central Election Commission had initially allowed Yabloko on the ballot along with 10 other parties.

Once a leading liberal voice in parliament and often critical of the government, Yabloko later lost its bloc of seats in the State Duma as the Kremlin tightened its grip on Russian politics.

In recent years, Yabloko was the only registered opposition party that opposed sending troops into Ukraine.

Its campaign slogans included “For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!” “Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!” and “For a Russia free from fear and political repressions!”

Veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who co-founded Yabloko in the 1990s and chairs its political committee, deplored the ruling and said the party would appeal it.

“Barring Yabloko from the election means a refusal to engage in dialogue with those who ask questions that make the authorities uncomfortable,” Yavlinsky said in an online statement. “We hope the authorities will heed the public demand for peace, freedom, and life without fear, and change their policy.”

Yabloko's platform draws strong support

Many Russian opposition figures in exile had urged voters to back Yabloko, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“I believe it’s morally and politically right to support the Yabloko party,” Navalnaya said in an Aug. 6 statement on Telegram, noting the party’s anti-war stance.

Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov, who was in the courtroom Monday, sought to distance the party from what he described as unwarranted support from Navalnaya and other Kremlin foes living abroad in an apparent attempt to prevent its removal from the ballot.

In the meantime, social media buzzed with videos supporting Yabloko. Many didn't contain political slogans but instead showed young men and women holding apples when asked their voting preference for the Sept. 18-20 election or dancing to Russian songs that referenced apples.

Rybakov told the court the party wasn't paying for the videos, saying that people who posted it were backing Yabloko “simply because they want to live in Russia and don't want to get killed.”

The authorities likely initially allowed Yabloko on the ballot to give Russians an outlet for their discontent while also showing, through the party’s traditionally low vote count, that few people support its stand on Ukraine, said Nikolay Petrov, senior research fellow at the NEST Centre, founded by exiled Russian tycoon and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

But Yabloko’s campaign for peace struck a chord and upended the Kremlin’s calculations.

Now “the Kremlin is facing a rather difficult task, to come out of the situation with minimal losses,” Petrov said, because kicking the party off the ballot is effectively “demonstrating that they’re afraid of what Yabloko stands for.”

Yavlinsky said the court’s ruling “speaks volumes about the importance of our platform — far more than any official election results ever could.”

He added that “the public demand for peace and freedom today has proven far stronger than the authorities anticipated.”

Kremlin-aligned parties bash Yabloko

Several Kremlin-aligned parties have assailed Yabloko for its stance on Ukraine, and some even urged authorities to investigate it.

Sergei Mironov, head of A Just Russia Party, called on the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Justice Ministry to “look closely” at Yabloko and “give a legal assessment to their actions.”

“A party that openly opposes the special military operation, promises a shameful peace, and supports foreign agents is running for the State Duma,” Mironov said, using the Kremlin’s term to describe the 4-year-old conflict.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said Yabloko is not supporting President Vladimir Putin’s policies and has not helped “those suffering, those fighting on the front line.”

The Motherland Party filed the lawsuit with the Supreme Court demanding Yabloko’s removal from the ballot. It accused Yabloko of copyright infringement and exceeding campaign spending limits. The party also viewed Yabloko’s stance on Ukraine as unlawful and tantamount to calling for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity.

Rybakov and lawyers representing the party in the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the accusations.

A crowd of supporters greeted Rybakov and other Yabloko representatives with applause as they entered the courthouse in central Moscow.

Yabloko members faced a Kremlin crackdown

Yabloko has faced increased pressure in recent years as the Kremlin ramped up its crackdown on dissent to levels unseen since the Soviet era.

Several prominent Yabloko members were jailed or designated as “foreign agents” — a label that brings additional government scrutiny and aims to discredit the recipient. As a result, its most prominent members were not on the ticket.

Maxim Kruglov, a deputy chairman and former member of the Moscow city council, was convicted in June of spreading false information about the Russian army and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Another senior member of the party, Lev Shlosberg, is on trial for similar charges in his native city of Pskov, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted. It’s the third criminal case brought against Shlosberg in the last two years. He has also been designated a “foreign agent.”

That designation was also slapped on Boris Vishnevsky, another Yabloko deputy chairman, in 2024. The designation forced Vishnevsky to step down from the St. Petersburg city council after legislation was adopted later that year, barring “foreign agents” from participating in elections or holding public office.

Benjamin Paul Flores, 47, was taken into custody by Helotes police officers and charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI), Bexar County court records show. The charge is considered a Class B misdemeanor.

Flores, who’s been employed with SAPD for 25 years, was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Sunday, jail records show. He was later released on a $1,000 bond the same day.

Flores has since been placed on administrative duty, the release states. At the time of his arrest, Flores was assigned to the department’s patrol division.

According to a KSAT Investigates analysis, Flores is the ninth SAPD officer arrested in 2026.

SAPD said it is conducting an administrative investigation into Flores’ arrest.

Read also:

• 1 dead, 1 injured after overnight shooting in northeast Bexar County, sheriff says

Location: Remote in one of GMG’s markets Detroit, MI; Houston or San Antonio TX; Jacksonville or Orlando, FL

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This position is responsible for all aspects of the accounts receivable functions at Graham Media Group for designated stations. Credit processing and approval, daily program log reconciliation, invoice processing, and cash application will all be maintained by the GMG Credit and Accounts Receivable Specialist team. The position is responsible for communication of discrepancies to local or national staff for resolution. This is a position that reports to the Graham Media Group VP/CFO.

Job Responsibilities:

• Process and Approve Credit Applications
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KSAT’s Good Morning San Antonio provided live coverage of the first day of school at East Central ISD and Northside ISD.

East Central ISD, one of the fastest-growing districts in the San Antonio area, opened two new schools Monday: Victory Elementary STEM Academy in Elmendorf and Valor College Prep Middle School in Saint Hedwig.

Northside ISD, which includes Wanke Elementary School, said it expected to welcome back approximately 98,000 students to its classrooms this week.

More recent Back to School coverage on KSAT:

• Driving to school for the first time? What teens and parents need to know to stay safe
• What San Antonio drivers need to keep in mind before hitting the roads as children return to school
• Back-to-school start dates for districts in San Antonio, surrounding areas

The crash happened before 9 p.m. in the 1700 block of Southwest Loop 410, which is located near Marbach Road.

According to police, a 24-year-old man was traveling northbound when he was rear-ended by a Dodge Charger occupied by two people.

The man was ejected from his motorcycle and was later rushed to a hospital in critical condition, police said.

On Monday, Aug. 10, an SAPD spokesperson confirmed that the man was pronounced dead at the hospital.

After the crash, police said the driver of the Dodge Charger fled the scene. If located, they could face a failure to stop and render aid charge, officers said.

READ ALSO:

• 1 dead after two-vehicle crash involving 18-wheeler on South Side, SAPD says
• Man drives into front of East Side home, San Antonio police say

These winners were selected according to viewer votes in each category, and the love was loud and clear. From inspiring museum days to can’t-stop-dancing nights, from family fun to local music you can’t help but sing along to — this list is basically a ready-made weekend plan.

And the 2026 SA Picks winners are…

🏛️ Museums

• The Witte Museum
• DoSeum
• San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA)

💃 Dancing

• Cowboys Dance Hall
• Bonham Exchange
• Texas Pride BBQ (Adkins, TX)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family Entertainment

• Santikos Theaters
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• Morgan’s Wonderland

🎸 Local Band/Artist

• Billy Mata & Tex Tradition
• Lone Star Pickerz
• The Experience Band

🎢 Amusement Park

• Morgan’s Wonderland
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• Schlitterbahn (New Braunfels)

Congrats to all our winners!

To every winner in the Arts & Entertainment Group: congratulations — and thank you for helping make San Antonio a more vibrant, creative, and fun place to live.

Now let’s show them some love

Your votes helped pick the winners — now let’s help keep the momentum going. Support the winners with a visit, bring a friend, grab tickets, plan a family day, or catch a live show. Every outing helps keep our local arts and entertainment scene thriving.

Stay tuned for more SA Picks winners, thanks again to everyone who voted, and to our sponsor Gamez Law Firm.

Kiel Baitinger-Peterson, a white officer with nearly 11 years' experience in law enforcement, fired the shots that killed Corey Ruiz on July 22, the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation said in a statement. Baitinger-Peterson was one of four officers who surrounded Ruiz, who was on a bike, in response to calls about someone who was checking out parked cars and an alleged burglary attempt, police said.

The shooting sparked days of protests and calls from the Black community for Madison to address racial justice issues.

Baitinger-Peterson did not reply to an email seeking comment.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which is the state’s largest police union and represents Madison officers, responded on behalf of Baitinger-Peterson.

“I am deeply concerned for the safety and privacy of him, his family, and the other officers involved,” Palmer said.

He said those concerns are being taken seriously and “appropriate precautions” are in place.

“I urge everyone to allow the investigation to proceed and to refrain from prejudging the officers or placing them and their families at further risk,” Palmer said.

Baitinger-Peterson and the other three officers who interacted with Ruiz that day have been placed on paid administrative leave while the state investigates the shooting.

There is no timeline for when the state Justice Department investigation will conclude. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne will review the findings before deciding whether to file charges against Baitinger-Peterson.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Ruiz's family, has called for the officer to be charged.

While bystanders captured the confrontation on video, there is no body camera footage because Madison police officers don't wear them.

The state Justice Department said two officers attempted to use a Taser on Ruiz but weren't successful. Ruiz “brandished a knife and injured” Baitinger-Peterson, it said. Law enforcement agencies haven't divulged the extent of the officer's injuries. They did release an image of a fixed-blade knife that was recovered at the scene.

The protests over the shooting led to several nearby community events being canceled or postponed.

Bieniemy was greeted by a handful of fans as he walked down the long hill to the fields at Missouri Western State University, where the Chiefs hold camp. Then he jumped right into his first practice since Mia Bieniemy was shot the evening of July 26.

“It was good to have EB back, back in full. I don't think he missed a snap he was out there,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “Listen, I was talking to him several times a day. I knew when he was coming back. The primary thing is that Mia is stable, that she's doing well.”

Elijah Bieniemy has been charged with malicious wounding, the use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling. His court appearances have been delayed pending a mental health evaluation.

Eric Bieniemy, who returned to the Chiefs earlier this year, had been staying in touch with Reid and the rest of the staff, and had been watching streams of some practices. In one case, he called Chiefs manager Brett Veach — who was sitting next to Reid — and asked him to hand over the phone, then proceeded to tell the head coach a point of instruction for a running back.

“It was great to have him back out there. Everybody was glad to see him," Reid said. “I think once you start going, then you're going. It is like a game. Once you're in the game, you're in the game. But he always brings the energy.”

Bieniemy was part of coaching staffs that helped Kansas City reach three Super Bowls and win two of them. But because Reid is the primary play-caller, Bieniemy left to serve as the offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders, where he would be able to call his own plays and perhaps better position himself for a head coaching job in the NFL.

The Commanders struggled in his lone season there, though, and Bieniemy and the rest of the staff were let go. He spent a season with UCLA and last season coached the running backs with the Chicago Bears before returning to Kansas City as the offensive coordinator.

He replaced Matt Nagy, who was hired as the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants.

“Obviously it's great to have him back. We missed him and prayed for his family when he was out,” Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton said. “But to have a guy like that come back to the field, man, a competitor — it brings out the best in us.”

NOTES: WRs Rashee Rice (knee) and Cyrus Allen (bone bruise) both participated in 11-on-11 work during the padded practice. ... DE Ashton Gillotte (hamstring), CB L'Jarius Snead (knee) and LB Drue Tranquill (back) worked off to the side. ... RG Trey Smith (hip) was still out of practice, pushing rookie OL Khalil Benson from tackle to guard. Jaylon Moore took first-team reps at tackle.

___

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

We head to Clark High School to see how the cafeteria team is is fueling young minds & get a special performance from the Top Cat Varsity Dance team.

If the school year has you finally getting back to your routine, Black Stallion Boxing Plus can help reset your fitness journey. They have classes for grown ups & the kiddos.

Starting the year off right, means starting with a good breakfast. JTA Wellness shows us how easy it is to make a complete morning meal, and they have lots of ideas for quick items & you can just grab & go.

If you want healthy kids you need to start early. The City of San Antonio Metro Health talks about the WIC program that provides lots of benefits to new mothers & families who could use a little boost.

The sessions follow Jones’ memo to the San Antonio City Council, where she welcomed a discussion on having San Antonio residents vote on the city’s contribution toward the arena on the November ballot.

Below is the schedule for this week’s two listening sessions:

• First session takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, at the Normoyle Community Center located at 700 Culberson Avenue
• Second session will be from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, at Blanco BBQ located at 13259 Blanco Road

The listening sessions are expected to provide city residents with a chance to share their views before any further action is taken.

Read also:

• Mayor Jones lacks votes to get second Spurs arena vote onto November ballot
• San Antonio mayor pushes for new vote on city’s $489 million contribution toward downtown Spurs arena

“It’s always been fascinating to me to see the origins of things,” Dersch said. “It’s a fun challenge to debug and repair. You can understand the entire system from top to bottom.”

Dersch is part of a growing community of vintage computer collectors who are preserving the classic machines that helped launch the digital revolution. While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smartphones.

Where others see junk, people like Dersch see artifacts of computer history that are worthy of attention and respect. They delight in hearing the beeps and chimes of their childhood and firing up a low-def game of “Pong” or “Space Invaders.”

“The enthusiasm for the history of computers and all the stuff around it is growing,” said Erik Klein, president of the Vintage Computer Federation, which organizes an annual festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Vintage computer festivals bring collectors together

This year more than 3,500 people attended the two-day Vintage Computer Festival in early August that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apple, founded in 1976 in nearby Cupertino, Calif. It featured a panel with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne reminiscing about the company’s early days as a scrappy startup led by the late Steve Jobs.

More than a dozen such gatherings have since sprung up in cities across North America, South America and Europe.

Growing interest is reflected in more demand for vintage computers in online marketplaces, Klein said. Rare, iconic computers like the Apple-1 — the company’s first product — can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Collectors exhibited the computer systems that they have painstakingly restored to their original working condition, allowing attendees to play with the computers built long before the internet, social media and AI transformed the world.

Restoring the ‘grandfather of the modern computer’

Dersch drove down from Seattle to showcase the pride of his collection: the Xerox Alto. He spent years restoring what's considered “the grandfather of the modern computer,” which was developed at the pioneering Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s.

The Alto was one of the earliest computers to move beyond text on screen and use the mouse and graphical user interface — such as windows, icons and cursors — that became the industry standard. The model famously inspired Jobs and Bill Gates to incorporate the technologies in their early products.

Dersch’s exhibit featured a fully functioning Xerox Alto workstation with its boxy vertical monitor, chunky keyboard and mouse, as well as pizza-sized spinning disks that store tiny amounts of data by modern standards.

“It’s fun to share what I’ve done with people. It’s fun to share in what other people have done,” Dersch said. “Also, there’s a consignment area where I can buy more junk to take home with me, so that’s always fun.”

Klein, a Silicon Valley software engineering manager, was a passionate collector until his hobby overwhelmed his home and family life. He had as many as 150 computer systems — complete with accessories, documents and packaging — crammed into his closets and garage.

He said his beloved collection had become an “albatross” and he worried about burdening his family. So he started selling and giving away his machines until he only had a few favorites left at home.

Similar events for collectors spread around the world

Now Klein channels his passion for vintage computers into organizing festivals, repair workshops, swap meets and other events as president of the Vintage Computer Federation.

“So it’s really about evangelizing that history and evangelizing this hobby of maintaining, collecting and enjoying this vintage technology,” Klein said.

Sellam Ismail is thrilled to see the collector community develop and mature since he organized the first festival in 1997, drawing about 150 hobbyists to a venue east of San Francisco. He ran the events for a decade.

He later co-founded the Vintage Computer Federation, which runs festivals in the US and Canada. He’s helped other groups launch similar festivals in Argentina, Germany and Switzerland.

“The community grew up. More and more people started getting old computers, started collecting them,” said Ismail, who once had a massive collection he stored in a warehouse. “Next year is the 30th anniversary. And I expect this to continue and grow even bigger.”

Steele High School students Danielle Winkles and Aliyah McQuaker said school zones, buses and crowded pickup lines can make mornings feel hectic, especially early in the year when routines are still new.

“It’s gonna be a little stressful, especially with school zones, everyone getting dropped off,” Winkles said. McQuaker agreed, calling traffic around campus “really hectic” and saying it can take a long time just to get out of the parking lot.

Winkles earned her driver’s license this summer, while McQuaker is entering her second year of driving. Winkles said driving herself brings freedom, but also pressure. McQuaker said her first drive to school was intimidating.

“First day I got my license, my mom made me drive to school. I was not prepared. I was so scared,” McQuaker said.

At A-Plus Driving Academy on the Northeast Side, instructor Erica Johnson said families can reduce anxiety and improve safety by preparing before the first day of school. She recommends parents drive the route with teen drivers ahead of time so they can learn the signs, identify school-zone areas and see where traffic typically slows.

Johnson also urged teens to stay focused, especially in school zones.

“Stay off your phones, make sure you’re paying attention,” she said, adding drivers should be prepared to slow down and stop as needed.

Texas law also restricts teen drivers. For drivers ages 16 and 17 with a provisional license, cellphone use is banned while driving, including hands-free use, except in an emergency. Drivers are generally prohibited from driving between midnight and 5 a.m. unless it is for work, a school activity or an emergency. They also cannot carry more than one passenger under 21 who is not a family member.

McQuaker said new drivers should be prepared for unpredictable behavior from other motorists.

“People are very inconsiderate when they’re driving,” she said. “They like to cut you off.”

Police also encourage drivers to review school-zone speed limits and watch for children walking or riding bikes, particularly during the first two weeks of school.

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• Back-to-school start dates for districts in San Antonio, surrounding areas
• 🏫Back-to-school week brings triple-digit heat🏫

And then, a cut. The documentary, which follows the Blink-182 drummer from 2017 to 2026, is a celebration of Barker's life before and after the life-altering accident, a central event in a career full of them. The film began as a mirror of his memoir, 2015's “Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums,” but became something else entirely after a producer suggested it end with the image of Barker, then still unable to fly due to post-traumatic stress disorder, walking toward a plane.

Ending on that note, “where this thing still has power over me,” didn’t sit well with him. Instead, he boards a plane at the end, but the documentary’s final images are a slide show of family photos, including his wife Kourtney Kardashian and kids.

“I almost died,” he says. It “could be helpful to share my life.”

An elastic artist

Barker's resume is long, and a two-and-a-half-hour documentary can only cover so much of it. The film hits most of the big notes, quickly establishing Barker as a rebellious kid with a supernatural drumming ability from age 4, when he got his first kit, to now, at 50.

And that's with many projects in-between: From the SoCal punks Feeble, which he joined while working as a trash collector, to his stint in the ska band The Aquabats and multiplatinum, pop-punk legends Blink-182 — the band that skyrocketed Barker into superstardom.

Also covered? His love of skateboarding and car culture, his clothing brands, side-projects Box Car Racer and +44, turntable duo TRV$DJAM, various experiments and collaborations in hip-hop (Bun B, Lil Wayne ) and beyond.

But it all began with drumming, and hilariously enough, Animal from “The Muppets” — his first drumming hero — until he discovered cross-genre greats like jazz legends Buddy Rich, Dennis Chambers and Elvin Jones as well as Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee.

“Where drumming got really serious for me was after my mom passed, so it was therapy,” he says, reflecting on his childhood. “It’s like my life. It’s like oxygen to me.”

It's also a kind of sport. Barker has long been a dedicated, athletic percussionist, and he likens it to a boxer's meditative state. “It’s like when you see a fighter and he just goes for broke the first round. There’s sometimes where I just feel like that,” he says. “Something just takes over my body.”

Many events in life threatened that euphoria, but none quite as physically as the plane crash. “I was in a burn center for six months on morphine and I had 30 surgeries,” he recounts. “Seventy percent of my body was burned.” At one point, he didn't only fear if he would be able to drum again — even walking was a question mark.

Lessons from tragedy

Even before the crash, Barker's life — as marked with musical triumphs as it has been — offered lessons in resiliency.

“Whether it was my mom passing away or my plane crash, I learned — and through watching friends of mine and just living life — I’ve seen traumatic experiences either destroy someone or define them,” he says. “Every loss I had, or every everything I took to the chin, it made me stronger. At the time, I can’t realize it, right? I can't like really wrap my head around it. But ... that’s why I went so hard and I was so determined to play music and so determined to succeed. Plan B was only making Plan A work. You know? There was no Plan B.”

The same tenacity can be applied to his sobriety and dedication to flying again — a journey emboldened by his family. “I fly all the time now and I feel turbulence and I can’t even tell you what’s going on in my head. And I just look over and my wife’s perfectly OK,” he says. “My son loves airplanes and plays with airplanes and it’s so innocent. It’s so beautiful.”

“They’ve been my greatest joy,” he says of his children, who grow up on screen across the film's near-decade of filming.

As someone who has lost a lot and thought about what it would be like to lose even more, when it comes to the topic of legacy, Barker has a simple dream. “I think I’d want to be remembered for my music and my drumming and being a great father, husband, and son and brother,” he says.

As for the doc? “Maybe my story helps somebody,” he pauses. “I don’t love how everything happened. I don’t like the losses that happened. But I like how hard I had to work. I like that I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I liked that I had to navigate and find my way. And the journey was awesome.”

Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash just before 6:30 a.m. in the 6000 block of Interstate 10, which is located near Vance Jackson Road.

According to a preliminary report, SAPD said it received multiple calls about a silver Infiniti G35 stalled in the main lanes of I-10.

A Toyota Tundra crashed into the back of the silver Infiniti, police said. According to an SAPD officer on scene, the truck driver did not see the stalled vehicle in time to stop.

The truck driver remained on scene, called SAPD and assisted with the department’s crash investigation, the report states.

Police said the driver of the Infiniti, a male, was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine his identity, cause and manner of death.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the crash shut down the I-10 eastbound main lanes for approximately five hours.

SAPD said its investigation remains ongoing.

Read also:

• Interstate 10 eastbound lanes reopen after crash seriously injures driver, officials say

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

Upon arrival, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said deputies found a vehicle with multiple bullet holes in it. Two of the four people in the car were shot, the sheriff said.

A man in his 30s was pronounced dead at the scene, Salazar said. The man’s mother, who’s believed to be in her 50s, was taken to a local hospital for treatment after she was shot several times, according to the sheriff.

Salazar said the driver of the vehicle, a woman, fled from the scene on foot and has not been located.

“We don’t believe she (the driver) was actually the shooter,” Salazar said. “But she did flee the scene for whatever reason.”

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is currently deploying drones in a nearby wooded area to potentially locate her and determine whether she was injured.

Investigators are questioning a third woman in the vehicle who was not struck by gunfire.

The sheriff said deputies are searching for a newer model white Volvo SUV in connection with the shooting. Salazar believes the vehicle fled eastbound on Crestway Road toward Kitty Hawk Road.

The sheriff noted that approximately 10 rounds had come from the SUV.

Salazar said the sheriff’s office does not have a motive yet. Anyone with information on the shooting is encouraged to contact BCSO at 210-335-6000.

Read also:

• Man died at hospital after Interstate 10 crash on North Side, SAPD says

The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, which is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.

Russian officials didn't say what the drones targeted, but the city is home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The campaign has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into its refining capacity and unsettled the population.

Previous Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with high death tolls have come in the border region of Belgorod. In December 2023, Ukrainian shelling of the region’s capital, also called Belgorod, killed 25 people and wounded over 100, local officials said. Five months later, a Belgorod apartment building partially collapsed after shelling, killing at least 13, according to Russian authorities.

Also on Monday, several Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in the Tyumen region of western Siberia, said Gov. Alexander Moor, without offering any details.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces damaged part of a petrochemical complex in Tobolsk, in the Tyumen region. The plant produces rocket fuel components, aviation fuel, composite materials for drones and high-octane gasoline, it said in a Telegram post.

Last month, Ukrainian drones hit a refinery in Tyumen, more than 2,400 kilometers (about 1,500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine says its strikes aim to push Russia into peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire.

The city came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov.

One of the drones hit a hostel, killing nine of the 13 victims, including citizens of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, officials said. Uzbekistan’s consular office in Tatarstan said seven of its nationals were killed.

A child was among the dead, along with the 75 injured, the press service said, adding that Monday was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan.

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

Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged foreign governments and international organizations to condemn Ukraine for the attacks.

Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations. In the first six months of this year, 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine, the U.N. office in Kyiv said last week. That was a 37% increase from the same period last year, it said.

A Russian glide bomb struck the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, injuring 24 people, authorities said Monday. The city is the capital of a region of the same name that is partly occupied by Russian forces.

The World Health Organization’s European office said that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine was hit twice in less than 24 hours. The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported.

Ukraine's drones have struck deeper inside Russia

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the border.

“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home -– in Russia,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday on social media.

“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”

As part of a parallel campaign to disrupt Russian military supply lines leading to the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv's forces struck road, rail and pontoon bridges in six regions last month, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

By repeatedly striking routes for fuel, ammunition and reinforcements, Ukrainian commanders say they have made Russian logistics slower, costlier and hard to organize. That has helped stall Russian advances and enabled Ukrainian counterattacks, they say.

Repairing the stricken refineries also is complicated for Russia. Ukraine’s attacks have damaged specialized equipment that is often imported, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading international sanctions.

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

Scores of firefighters, backed by 43 helicopters, have been deployed to battle wildfires that have burned more than 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) of forests and other land across the Southeast Asian nation as of Monday, said Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago. Strengthening El Nino conditions have raised the risk of more forest and land fires during the peak dry season, he said.

East Java authorities said the largest blaze is burning in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java province, where about 743 hectares (1,836 acres) have been scorched. Authorities have closed the park to visitors until further notice.

It said the fire has burned large areas of dry grassland, vegetation and protected edelweiss flowers as flames have spread to the Penanjakan area, a popular viewpoint for tourists visiting the volcanic landscape of Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia’s best-known attractions. No injuries or evacuations have been reported.

Cloud-seeding has been ruled out because of weather conditions

Chaniago said weather-modification, or cloud-seeding, operations are considered one of the most effective ways to help firefighters combat wildfires by inducing rainfall through the dispersal of salt particles into suitable clouds.

However, the effort would be difficult to carry out because scientific monitoring “found no rain-bearing clouds suitable for weather-modification operations through Aug. 18,” Chaniago told a news conference Monday. He spoke after a meeting with related ministers and agency chiefs dealing with wildfires in the capital, Jakarta.

With cloud-seeding ruled out because of unfavorable weather conditions, “we are relying solely on water bombing and ground firefighting teams,” said Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni while visiting Mount Bromo on Sunday. He urged the public to avoid activities that could spark new blazes, including discarding cigarette butts and clearing land by burning.

Wildfires have been reported in several of Indonesia’s most fire-prone regions, including 48,890 hectares (120,800 acres) of peatland that have burned in the provinces of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra on Sumatra island, and Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan on Borneo island, forcing regional authorities deployed over 48,000 firefighters and disaster personnel, the National Disaster Management Agency said.

The blaze has scorched about 540 hectares (1,300 acres) of peatland in Jambi alone, causing choking haze in some areas and raising concerns about worsening air quality. The largest fire has been reported in the village of Sungai Gelam in the Muaro Jambi district, where dozens of hectares (acres) of palm oil plantations owned by local residents have been destroyed.

More than 5,800 firefighters have been deployed to battle the fire in Jambi. Officials said deep peat soil, limited water supplies, difficult access and strong winds have complicated efforts, even with three helicopters conducting aerial firefighting operations.

Air quality deteriorates in neighboring Malaysia

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries.

Malaysia has reported unhealthy air-quality levels in parts of Sarawak state on Borneo island, with officials saying winds were carrying smoke from hot spots in neighboring areas. In Singapore, authorities have warned that prevailing southeasterly winds could carry smoke toward the city-state, with dry conditions expected to prevail.

“We must uphold the nation’s credibility by showing that we can bring these fires under control,” Chaniago said.

Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency said August and September are expected to be the most critical months as dry vegetation and strong winds create favorable conditions for fires to spread rapidly.

Wildfires in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, are often started illegally by plantation owners or traditional farmers to clear land for planting.

___

Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

A small fly has the potential to impart a big impact on Texas’ beef and agricultural industry.

On June 3, the New World screwworm was detected in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, the agency reported more screwworm infestations in Texas.

The fly poses a multibillion-dollar crisis for the state’s cattle industry, which generates $41 billion a year. It could also increase already record-high beef prices nationwide.

It’s unclear how many cases could hit Texas. Nearly 28,000 cases have been detected in Mexico since November 2024, according to Mexican officials.

State and federal officials are working together to stop the northern migration, which they have tracked since 2023. In response to the cases, USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission have ramped up animal surveillance of animals near the confirmed detections by setting up zones around each infestation. Animals are not allowed to leave infested areas without being properly inspected.

Officials are also increasing fly traps, surveillance of wildlife and releasing sterile flies, which are used to break the reproduction cycle of the parasitic screwworm fly.

What is New World Screwworm?

New World Screwworm is a parasitic fly that is attracted to living tissue, burrowing their larvae into open wounds. After they hatch, the maggots then feed off that living flesh, causing damage to the animal. If untreated, the damage can even cause the animal to die.

Screwworm can also burrow through openings in the skin, such as the corner of an eye or through the nose.

From a biological standpoint, all mammals are vulnerable to screwworm, including pets and humans. However, livestock and wildlife tend to be the most susceptible because they spend their entire lives outdoors.

Dogs and cats are vulnerable through small wounds or scratches that break the skin. Health officials recommend pets be medicated for fleas and ticks year-round, said Casey Locklear, veterinarian and parasiticides lead for Elanco Animal Health.

“As a pet owner, if you were to notice that your dog or cat had a wound, especially if it’s foul smelling, it’s enlarging, you may actually see the maggots,” Locklear said. “If you see a wound, get treatment early. Whether that’s for yourself or your pet, early treatment is key.”

Read more about the screwworm here.

Around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, the city’s police and fire departments were dispatched to Rio Vista Park for a water rescue.

The woman, identified as Denise Scioli of Austin, was underwater diving in the river, according to the city. She was taken to a hospital in San Marcos, where she later died.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Read also:

• Caldwell County environmental crimes investigator drowns in Nueces River, constable’s office says

The announcement comes a few weeks after Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled its iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico because of a potential link to a multistate cyclospora outbreak that has sickened people across the U.S.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it was pulling some products including jalapenos from stores shelves after finding out that Coast Citrus Distributors was voluntarily recalling fresh jalapeños due to a potential salmonella contamination.

Guacamole, pico de gallo and taco dip are some of the prepared foods included in the recall. The list of recalled products were distributed by Taylor Farms in multiple states with a “Best If Used By” date up to and including Aug. 16, 2026. The products were sold at stores including Kroger, Stop & Shop, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Walmart.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were working with state and local partners to investigate illnesses in a multistate outbreak of salmonella infections linked to fresh jalapeños supplied by Coast Citrus Distributors. The company said that a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, a supplier to Coast Citrus Distributors, was identified as the potential source in the outbreak.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it is no longer sourcing products from the farmer and will be filling orders from alternative suppliers. The company is currently not aware of any reported illnesses linked to its products containing jalapeños.

Consumers who have any recalled product are advised to discard it immediately and not eat it. Refunds are available at the location of purchase.

Consumers with any questions can contact Taylor at 855-455-0098 Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm PT.

Every major index notched a second straight week of gains, which included several fresh records. It marks a strong start to August following several weak months.

The S&P 500 rose 47.68 points, or 0.6%, to 7,757.64. That topped the all-time high it set on Tuesday. The benchmark index has been on a record run throughout the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 151.83 points, or 0.3%, to 54,036.93. That put it just short of the record it set on Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite rose 342.26 points, or 1.3%, to 26,690.62.

Technology stocks, with their big market values, did much of the heavy lifting for the broader market. They are often the heaviest weights determining the market’s direction. Nvidia jumped 2.3% and Broadcom rose 1.7%.

The bond market reacted more strongly to the weaker signal on the jobs market, which can be seen as allowing the Federal Reserve more time before raising interest rates to fight inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.64% from 4.67% just prior to the jobs update. It was as low as 4.60% before recovering a bit.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action on interest rates, fell to 4.20% from 4.22% prior to the report's release. It was as low as 4.15% before edging back up.

“Although the stock market is likely to welcome the dovish implications of the report, investors should be wary of the future growth potential of an economy where fewer people are working,” said Peter Graf, chief investment officer at Amova Asset Management Americas, in a research note.

Overall, the report paints a dimmer picture of the jobs market, which has been one of the brighter areas of the economy amid rising inflation and worries about household spending. It included a revision to the figures for June and May that involved slashing a combined 103,000 jobs from payrolls for those months.

Eyes on the Fed's next move

The Fed has been holding interest rates steady amid worries about hotter inflation, fueled by a rise in oil prices because of the U.S. war with Iran. Wall Street expects at least one rate increase by the end of the year, with forecasts shifting for the next meeting. Expectations for a rate hike in September are down to 42%, from 55% on Thursday and from 67% a week ago, according to CME FedWatch.

A weakening jobs market could make matters more complicated for the Fed, which has to balance supporting job growth with fighting inflation. Raising interest rates can help tame inflation by slowing economic growth. A weaker jobs market, though, could become even shakier under higher interest rates as businesses find it more difficult to expand under increased borrowing rates.

Businesses, and Wall Street, prefer lower interest rates because it can help boost investments. That might bolster a weakened jobs market, but it could worsen already stubborn inflation.

Wall Street will get several important inflation updates next week. The most closely watched will be the consumer price index, or CPI, which measures costs for consumers. Wall Street expects it to show that inflation in July rose at a 3.4% rate, which would be a slight easing from the 3.5% rise in June. Inflation has held stubbornly above 3% for most of the year.

“Today’s weak payrolls print may ease the pressure on the Fed to raise rates at its September meeting, but next week’s inflation data will still likely be the deciding factor,” said Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, in a research note.

The earnings picture

The jobs report caps a week dominated mostly by corporate earnings and concerns about the ongoing U.S. war with Iran.

Corporate earnings for the second quarter are on track for the strongest growth since 2021. Nearly 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results and analysts expect profit growth of 50% overall. That has helped allay some concerns on Wall Street about whether big gains for stocks in 2026 are justified. Strong profits help support those gains in stock values.

It was a light day for earnings as companies near the close of the latest round of reports.

Airbnb jumped 17.4% following the vacation-rental company's report late Thursday that showed stronger profit and revenue for its most recent quarter than analysts expected.

Oil prices gained ground. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.3% to $83.55 a barrel.

Rising oil prices have been behind hotter inflation. Prices were as high as $113 per barrel at one point during the now five-month U.S. war with Iran. That raised prices for gasoline and shipping for a wide range of products. The U.S. and Iran have both said they are working on deals that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas once passed through.

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Associated Press Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The meteor shower's peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade — though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality.

As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under ideal conditions, according to NASA. The American Meteor Society estimates 30 to 50 meteors per hour could be seen from rural regions.

Random meteors are visible in dark skies on any given night. Meteor showers tend to put on dazzling celestial shows and happen at predictable times every year when the Earth plows through trails of debris left behind by comets and, sometimes, asteroids. Those remnants collide with Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds, producing streaks of light known as shooting stars.

The Perseids are debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, an icy ball that orbits the sun every 133 years and isn't scheduled for a return visit until 2125. Observations of this meteor shower date back over 2,000 years.

The Perseids are a perennial favorite because they tend to produce brilliant fireballs. Summer temperatures also make this shower popular.

“We don't have to suffer through a cold winter night to get a good view of meteors,” said astronomer Zach Vanderbosch with McDonald Observatory in Texas.

The moon will be in its new moon phase during the Perseids' peak, making viewing conditions even better.

“The moon is beautiful, but it’s such a diva,” said astronomer Aparna Venkatesan with the University of San Francisco. “New moon means we don’t have moonlight flooding the sky, and you tend to see way more meteors as a result.”

To spot the meteors, go outside after dark, away from clouds and city lights. Venkatesan plans to drive to the Sierra Nevada.

The best views will be between midnight and dawn when the constellation Perseus is high in the northern sky. The meteors will appear to radiate from that constellation.

Look up and give your eyes a half hour to adjust to the darkness. Vanderbosch recommends picking a patch of sky to focus on until a quick, bright streak passes by — even in your peripheral vision — and to avoid looking at your phone.

“There's just something magical about it,” Vanderbosch said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

National weather agency Météo-France is warning about temperatures approaching 40 C (104 F) from Tuesday onward in southeastern France. And in the U.K., an amber heat health alert for most of England will be in place beginning Tuesday as temperatures are forecast to climb to 36 C (96.8 F) later this week.

Across Europe, the extreme heat began in May and has contributed to major wildfires, prolonged drought and new national temperature records, as well as thousands of projected heat-related deaths.

Globally, so far this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show. But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino — a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe — there’s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, scientists said.

Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extrapolar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, according to the European climate agency Copernicus.

That was partially fueled by developing El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific, the service said. The new average record for July is 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit), which beat the 2023 record of 20.89 C (69.60 F).

But last month’s average surface air temperature globally was 16.90 C (62.42 F), making it only the joint second warmest July on record, tied with July 2024, Copernicus reported.

Western Europe sets new record

In Western Europe, meanwhile, the average temperature record for the June-July period hit 21.62 C (70.92 F), Copernicus said, toppling the 2022 record.

“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”

In France alone, heat wave alerts were issued for the first time on record in May, when more than half the country recorded new monthly temperature highs. The heat intensified in June, a period during which at least 5,700 more deaths than usual were recorded, according to France’s public health agency.

Météo-France said June 23 was the hottest day ever recorded in the country. Temperatures climbed as high as 44.3 C (111.7 F) in the southwest.

Two other heat wave episodes were recorded in July, amplifying a historic wildfire in southwestern France that forced 220,000 people to flee their homes in one of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.

Spain battles wildfires

Temperatures were slightly cooler in the U.K. on Monday but the country readied for its fifth heat wave in an exceptionally hot and dry summer, with half of England and all of Wales plunged into drought.

Provisional data show that England and Wales have had their driest July in records dating back to 1836, with 19 counties of England seeing no rain for the entire month.

The heat alert warns that significant impacts on health services, including a rise in deaths among older and vulnerable people, are likely.

Two record-breaking heat waves in May and June led to more than 2,800 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures.

An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach in southern England on Sunday, the latest of dozens of deaths recorded in open waters in recent months.

In Spain, firefighters were battling multiple blazes, including one that broke out on Friday in Tírig, Valencia, that has burned more than 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) and has involved more than 300 personnel and 21 aircraft to combat it.

A separate wildfire in the southern Huelva region had affected a similar sized area since it broke out on Thursday. While temperatures across Spain remained high, some parts of the country were expecting thunderstorms Monday afternoon that could bring strong gusts of wind.

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Dazio reported from Berlin. Sylvia Hui in London and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, one of Ukraine’s most prominent commanders among a new generation of soldiers, said his forces could strike seven times more military targets in Crimea if the money pledged by Western allies came faster.

“Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war,” Brovdi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Despite that shortfall, Ukraine’s summer campaign in Crimea has already inflicted significant damage: striking rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure to disrupt supply lines and blind Russian air defenses as drones fly in.

Brovdi said his forces are equipped at just 14% of what they would need to carry out the Crimea campaign at full capacity.

A firm believer in numbers since his past life running an international grain trading business, Brovdi joined Ukraine’s territorial defense as a volunteer in the war’s opening days. He rose quickly, commanding one of the country’s most effective drone brigades before being tapped to lead a force with no precedent before this war — Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

“It’s not that the production capacity of Ukrainian manufacturers doesn’t allow us to make the necessary quantities” of drones, Brovdi said. “It’s the banal problem of untimely financing, which our partners do allocate, but which moves significantly slower than our plans.”

A lover of the arts

A devoted patron of the arts, Brovdi's underground command post resembles a museum, with pieces of Ukrainian art on display, including by renowned painter Maria Prymachenko — each with small placards noting their titles and a QR code linking to more information. “Please don’t touch the sculpture,” reads a sign beneath one piece.

The artwork sits against a backdrop of dozens of screens streaming live footage from the front, along with real-time data that drives decisions on the battlefield. Soldiers can grab good coffee, pick a book, work out or rest in sleeping pods — a culture that feels closer to a Silicon Valley office than a war room.

They work around the clock to try to prevent Crimea from functioning as a staging ground for the Russian military, said Brovdi, whose call sign, Magyar, nods to his ethnic Hungarian roots in Zakarpattia, the western Ukrainian region bordering Hungary.

He pointed to one sign of progress — in four recent large-scale Russian missile barrages from the peninsula, only five missiles were launched in total, a drop he credited to the systematic destruction of Russian air defenses there. The AP couldn’t independently verify the claim.

To open that “window” for drones to strike the peninsula without being shot down en masse, his forces destroyed more than 300 air defense assets over recent months — surface-to-air systems, radar stations, electronic warfare equipment.

The window metaphor sends him into a sidetrack about something personal — he loves sleeping with one open, a pleasure he rarely gets anymore as one of Russia’s most hunted men, who spends most of his time in underground bunkers.

Forcing Russia out of Crimea

Much of Russia's Soviet-era air defense hardware runs on the power grid, which is one of the reasons Crimea's electrical infrastructure has become a recurring target. Russian soldiers become “blind,” left with just machine guns and rifles, he said. The tactic has also impacted access to power for civilians, and Brovdi said he has twice publicly apologized to Ukrainians living in Crimea for the disruptions.

Wherever Starlink connectivity reaches across Crimea, his forces can now destroy even the most heavily defended target using an average of just three drones, mixing munitions with different characteristics and warheads depending on what’s being hit. He described the strikes as deliberately calibrated — different munitions for a bridge pier than for a fuel truck or a moving train — and said his forces avoid hitting civilian infrastructure.

“Creating conditions that make it impossible for any kind of military capability … to remain there will make Crimea uninteresting ... as a military staging ground,” he said.

Ukraine is also working to dismantle Crimea’s role as a naval base — a blow to Russia’s presence near NATO’s borders, he added.

The campaign’s early results have not been made public, Brovdi said. But roughly two weeks into the offensive that began in late June, he said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russian authorities had ordered all military commands and security services to relocate off the peninsula, along with a covert order to remove secret archives and artworks. The AP could not independently verify the account.

Threats from Russia

Meanwhile, Russia is working to counter Ukraine’s edge. It is installing jamming systems at a scale that will, to some degree, degrade Starlink connectivity, Brovdi said.

Russia is also building its own satellite communications system to rival Starlink, he said. “This is a risk for the entire planet,” Brovdi said, “because a dictatorship will gain access to information across the whole globe.”

He also pointed to other threats facing Ukraine. The concentration of jet-powered Shahed drones, which are much harder for Ukraine to shoot down, has increased two and a half times in recent weeks, he said.

Russia's military can currently fire a simultaneous salvo of 77 ballistic and cruise missiles, he said, and plans to increase that to 200. That is one of Ukraine’s most vulnerable points, since the country is running short of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot — the only system Ukraine has in its arsenal against ballistic missiles — meaning dozens fired by Russia during mass barrages get through and hit their targets.

“Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” Brovdi said. The only way to bring the number down, he said, is by striking every facility involved in producing those missiles — underscoring the importance of Ukraine’s long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Ukraine's plan for Russia's Wildberries

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon, and Brovdi named it as a target.

“Wildberries is, first of all, a supply platform — it’s the war’s quartermaster,” he said, noting the company runs a dedicated section selling goods for Russia’s military.

The Kremlin has denied the site supplies the Russian military and has accused Ukraine of striking civilian targets. Russia regularly attacks Ukrainian logistics and retail facilities.

At the same time, Brovdi said, the strikes on Wildberries are meant to make ordinary Russians feel the war directly, in hopes the resulting desire to end it could weigh on Russia’s ability to keep fighting.

Brovdi declined to give a timeline for the Wildberries campaign, saying only that the strikes will continue “until it becomes impossible for it to recover quickly.”

“Ultimately, Wildberries is, forgive the expression, a consumer gambling addiction,” he said, arguing that losing access to it — like restrictions on social media — creates an intrusion on one's personal life that most Russians feel.

“It turned out to be a sensitive sensor of the comfort of Russia’s massive population — people who consider themselves completely untouched by the actions of the aggressor country,” he said.

———

This story was updated to clarify that Russia can fire salvos of both cruise and ballistic missiles. An earlier version mentioned only ballistic missiles.

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AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko in eastern Ukraine and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

These are bioplastic pellets. CJ Biomaterials ferments sugar to make plant-based polymers that microbes will consume. These alternatives to traditional plastics made of fossil fuels are seen by some as one of many solutions needed to confront global plastic pollution.

At the company's Woburn research facility, lab technicians recently poured pellets into a molding machine to make forks. The test forks were thin enough for home composting, though too bendy for stabbing a steak. Other batches have been rigid, similar to a typical plastic fork. The technicians melted pellets to roll out flexible films for food packaging, like a bag for baby carrots. The film was quite strong but not stretchy like cling wrap.

They are figuring out how their biopolymers can make products with attributes similar to conventional plastics, but that can go in a composting bin instead of a trash can. Forks and films are breaking down in the lab's compost bin. Straws that were added are long gone. A recently tossed-in knife showed pitting on the surface as bacteria colonized it, starting to consume the material.

Plastics have never really fundamentally been disrupted. Now, interest in bioplastic is growing because of concern over microplastics. It’s the new “wild card” in this market, said the company’s marketing director Leah Ford.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and the compostability has always been a really strong driver. But with the greater understanding of microplastics, I think, that’s going to change how people think about materials,” she said.

Traditional plastics last for decades or even centuries as they fragment into harmful microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics. Microplastics have been found in the ocean and the air, in our food and water, and in a wide range of body tissues. The Trump administration, while rolling back many environmental regulations, says it will address contamination from microplastics.

The most common use for bioplastics is packaging

Bioplastics are biobased, meaning they are made completely or partially from a renewable resource, commonly corn or sugar cane; or they are biodegradable, meaning that they break down completely via a natural process. They can also be both, like the polymers made by CJ Biomaterials. It’s a leader in manufacturing polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHAs, as a polymer that is marine and soil biodegradable.

CJ Biomaterials is trying to replace conventional plastics that are single use or can’t be recycled when contaminated with food scraps. Food waste decomposing in landfills emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet. A container made of pellets from CJ Biomaterials with food scraps could be sent to a composter, unlike a traditional plastic container.

The Woburn lab's shelves display the company’s successes: compostable cutlery; straws; coated cups for hot beverages and frozen food pouches used in the United States; sushi trays; ramen containers; and reusable paper towels. Lab employees dine with compostable cutlery, drink from compostable cups and make coffee with compostable pods. These products last on shelves because they are not exposed to microorganisms in water or soil.

CJ Biomaterials feeds sugar to microbes that convert it to PHA for energy. The company collects the PHA and turns it into granules. Pellets of this are then sold to other companies that can melt them down and mold them into products. These same bacteria will consume PHA in a compost pile, breaking it down within six months, Ford said.

CJ Biomaterials is part of the $32 billion South Korean conglomerate CJ Group. It has been producing PHA at a manufacturing facility in Pasuruan, Indonesia, since 2022.

One solution with potential to help address the plastic pollution crisis

World Wildlife Fund sees biobased plastics as part of a suite of solutions that are needed. They can reduce the world’s dependency on fossil fuels that cause climate change, said Erin Simon, a WWF vice president. She said the world needs to reduce the amount of plastic being produced, then make the rest sustainably.

Nations are trying to confront the spiraling plastic pollution crisis by crafting a landmark treaty. They have yet to agree on any effective methods to stop plastic pollution, though negotiators plan to meet again early next year.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley has held congressional hearings on plastic pollution, including one exploring alternatives for single-use plastics. He also views bioplastics as one option with potential, among many that are needed. But, he said, more information is needed about how they break down and impact ecosystems and health.

Environmental groups, including the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, argue that bioplastics maintain the single-use paradigm and distract from real solutions. Some say farmland shouldn't be used to grow crops for plastic instead of food.

Bioplastics are a small, but growing, share of the market

Globally, biobased plastics represent roughly 0.5% of the more than 400 million metric tons (440 million tons) of plastics produced annually, according to the industry group European Bioplastics. Production is projected to double by 2030 due to rising demand and the emergence of more advanced applications and products, it said.

China, Sweden and the United States are major exporters of natural polymers.

Large sports stadiums and major restaurant chains such as McDonald's are experimenting with biobased packaging and utensils. The Tous les Jours bakery, part of the CJ Group, uses PHA straws.

There are obstacles to widespread adoption. Bioplastics typically cost more than conventional plastics. Major cities have municipal composting programs, but they are limited elsewhere. A growing number of composting facilities accept compostable bioplastic products, though some refuse out of concern about degraded soil quality. And because bioplastics and conventional plastics often look and feel identical, they can be mixed up and cause problems for composters.

Thirty minutes from the Woburn research lab, Black Earth Compost accepts certified compostable materials. On Monday, compostable cups, cutlery and bin liners were mixed in with a delivery of food scraps and lobster shells. Accepting bioplastics increases the amount of food scraps they receive because people can put an entire compostable container into an organics bin, instead of scraping food out.

Research organization tests biomaterials

The 5 Gyres Institute tested 22 items made of traditional plastic, biobased and biodegradable materials and other alternatives, such as paper and bamboo. Straws, utensils, thin film and bottles were put in different environments across Florida, California and Maine. By the end of the 64-week study, many of the biodegradable materials were gone, or were pitted and cracked as they fragmented. Traditional fossil fuel-based plastics persisted.

Marcus Eriksen, the institute’s co-founder and a researcher, said the synthetic plastic spoon was almost the same as when he first put it in the ocean, but little was left of the spoons made from biodegradable materials.

The California-based nonprofit released the results in 2023. It's currently repeating the study to evaluate end-of-life scenarios for the new generation of packaging.

Eriksen thinks people should use biodegradable options, especially for packaging. Otherwise, he said, “we’re going to flood the entire biosphere with micro- and nanoplastics.”

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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.

BELLS — Last year, Mason McCallister saw survey markers on a property near his home in a rural community about an hour north of Dallas. He suspected it might be for a new data center he’d heard about from a neighbor.

But information hasn’t come easy. He found no project announcements and saw nothing on county agendas. Several local officials told him they knew nothing of the project.

The 34-year-old realtor searched property records. He knocked on neighbors’ doors to ask what they knew. His wife, also a realtor, asked the surveyors who was buying the land, and his grandma chased a neighbor down at church to ask if he sold his property.

Eventually, McCallister mapped companies contracting with landowners all around him including Black Mountain, an energy and digital infrastructure group based in Fort Worth. He dug up a permit for a power plant from a company with the same address as Black Mountain, indicating the data center could build its own power source.

Mason McCallister goes over a map he made designating what he believes is land that could be developed into a data center, marked in orange, in Bells on March 10, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

Heather McCallister kisses her horse, Delilah, at her home in Bells on March 10, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

Then in March, after months of searching for answers, McCallister drove 100 miles to a town hall in the Fort Worth area where he learned Black Mountain’s CEO, Rhett Bennett, would be speaking about a different project.

After the presentation, McCallister confronted the CEO and got his confirmation: Yes, Black Mountain was exploring a data center near his home.

“Deep down I was always hoping that I was wrong,” said McCallister, after getting his answer.

Helen Collins Epps asks attendees at a town hall to raise their hands if they live within the neighboring areas of the Black Mountain data center project the company is pursuing in the Fort Worth area. The meeting, held in March, was designed to show the current site plan to Forest Hill and Fort Worth residents. Many residents said they left with their questions and concerns unanswered. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

Mason McAllister speaks to CEO of Black Mountain Power LLC Rhett Bennett after a town hall at a Best Western Plus hotel in Forest Hill on March 11, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

As data center proposals are popping up across Texas, local residents have grown increasingly frustrated by how difficult it can be to get information about the projects that they say threaten to disrupt their communities. Armies of concerned neighbors, such as McCallister, have become their own private detectives in search of signs or confirmation about data center plans in lieu of public disclosures, pestering local officials at meetings or in the grocery store and sharing their findings across Facebook groups with thousands of members.

“Knowledge is power, right?” said McCallister, whose family has owned the property in Bells for roughly 150 years. “Everyone’s being so quiet about it, and everyone’s being so secret about it. If it was so good for the community, they would be screaming it from the rooftops.”

Black Mountain officials declined comment.

Homeowners aren’t the only ones operating in the dark. Local officials say they’ve been blindsided by data center projects or asked to consider approval without adequate information. For example, The Texas Tribune reported that Hood County was sued by a data center developer after they rejected a concept plan, citing lack of information about where the facility would draw its water from.

In other cases, nondisclosure agreements prevent local officials who are negotiating deals with companies from sharing what they know. In other cases, tech giants use shell companies to shield their identity in public filings.

Oftentimes, locals and even county officials say they don’t learn of the project until it’s too late to try to stop it. Indeed, officials with Crusoe, a developer building a massive data center in Abilene, shared in a presentation to state electric grid officials this year that local outreach typically begins after securing land, contractor selection and financing begin.

At least 34 Texas counties have formally called on the state to make more information available, including Grayson County where McCallister lives, according to a tracker kept by Public Citizen, an advocacy organization which has worked with grassroots data center opposition groups.

“Nothing in no way, shape, form or fashion has ever been presented to the government of Grayson County,” said county Commissioner Art Arthur. “I don’t know that there has to be. That’s the scary part.”

Residents spoke at a Taylor City Council meeting in June about a data center project they worry will overconsume water and power and cause air and noise pollution. An organizer of the opposition group, Halt Taylor Data Centers Coalition, has said they need easier access to water and power information. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Community members gathered for a potluck hosted by Halt Taylor Data Centers Coalition at Heritage Park across from Taylor City Hall before the June meeting where they presented a petition opposing the data center. “Because they’re just going to take, if no one puts a limit on them,” said Sarah Winters, an organizer with the Halt Taylor Data Centers Coalition. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Meanwhile, state leaders are calling for tougher laws in the coming legislative session to make data centers report more information.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott called to halt approvals for data centers seeking to connect to the state’s grid until state regulators and the grid operator can audit them.

In an Aug. 3 letter that reinforced how even the state is struggling to get information from data centers, Abbott said proposals should be denied unless they provide details on tax breaks the data center companies will receive, power use and generation, water use and cooling operations, efforts to reduce impacts on local communities and ownership of the facility.

This comes as Texas is rivaling Virginia as the new national leader in data centers fueling an artificial intelligence boom. The Texas Tribune reported there are at least 248 data center projects planned in the state. Those projects were identified in part by combining databases compiled by companies that track the industry, as the state does not publicly track data center development.

Data center companies say they are sharing information and trying to make it easier for the public to see their environmental impact. Google publishes site-specific water consumption for its data centers annually. Microsoft has a Texas fact sheet touting its creation of more than 500 jobs, commitment to renewable energy and efforts to lower light pollution. Crusoe in a statement said it was investing in “earlier and more consistent community engagement,” such as through blog posts, local liaisons and open houses.

Data center developers say they are taking steps to communicate with the public. Developer EdgeConneX holds a third town hall in June in Bastrop County regarding data centers under construction in the county, at the Bastrop County Community Center on June 18, 2026. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

The EdgeConneX Cedar Creek Campus under construction in Cedar Creek on June 18, 2026. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, the largest industry trade group, said their main concern when it comes to transparency measures is market rivalry.

“This is a very competitive industry, and the technology moves very fast,” Diorio said. “Your technology, related to cooling, related to electricity use and efficiency, is going to be your competitive edge in the marketplace.”

Tracy Hester, an environmental law professor at the University of Houston, said data centers don’t appear to be more secretive than any other major private industry. But transparency has become a heightened issue because of the nature of how new the industry feels and how widely the resource-intensive facilities are proliferating all at once.

He compared it to the fracking boom in the 2010s, when the industry faced heavy blowback from environmental activists and local residents over water usage and pollution concerns. The industry ultimately made concessions such as agreeing to disclose what chemicals they use but not the exact concentrations.

“The velocity and the scale is what’s the issue; it’s not the nature of the operation,” Hester said. “That does make the seams show, but that’s not just because it’s a data center, because they have a special ticket, it’s just they’re moving really fast, and the system’s straining to keep up.”

NDAs and Shell Companies

Julie Waters, a Dallas attorney, felt alarmed to learn of a data center planned in her hometown of Crowell, a 600-person town in North Texas where her parents still live. The local utility is already at Stage Four water restrictions for her area, meaning each resident must decrease their daily use by 40% and refrain from using sprinklers, washing cars and filling pools.

“We need to know how they are going to affect our water, how they’re going to affect our electricity, how they’re going to affect our health, and what’s going to happen to our agricultural land,” said Waters, who created a Facebook group called “Texans United Against Data Centers” that boasts more than 35,000 members. “You know, what’s going to happen to the cattle, what’s going to happen to the crops. So that’s why transparency is so key.”

Data centers can consume millions of gallons of water per year, necessary to cool their equipment. But publicly available information about their water consumption is often difficult to find.

There is no uniform reporting system for data center water usage in Texas, so a resident in search of information about a data center’s water use would have to know which entity has oversight. That could be a local utility, river authority, groundwater district or city.

Even then, entities might not disclose what they have. Municipal water providers have declined requests in some instances, citing a section of the Texas Utilities Code that allows it to shield an individual customer’s account.

In Crowell, Waters learned that the water agency called the Red River Authority in February signed a nondisclosure agreement with one potential developer, a copy of which was reviewed by the Tribune. The agency’s general manager, Fabian Heaney, said it’s rare that he’s asked to sign those, but the company had argued it was necessary because their proposal contained “proprietary technical information,” so he agreed.

Heaney said the authority denied the developer’s application in May because it did not have enough water available, but if the proposal had moved forward, it would have gone before the board in a public meeting.

“They’re trying to see if we have water available, and we’re just trying to see if we can provide it,” Heaney said. “But we’re not trying to hide anything.”

Diorio, the data center coalition official, said NDAs are “very common practice in economic development,” especially during initial phases like site selection.

“You have that NDA on the front end to say, ‘Hey, let’s protect this information now, because we’re not even sure if we’re going to develop here,’” he said, adding that local officials have reported to them that NDAs allow them to have more information in their decision-making process without compromising a company’s proprietary information.

In Hood County, county commissioners in 2025 approved a letter of support for waiving property taxes for a company whose identity and project details had not been publicly disclosed. An economic development official for the city of Granbury told commissioners that she was under a nondisclosure agreement and could not answer their questions about the company, according to county meeting minutes. The letter was unanimously rescinded in January after public outcry.

Similarly, the local incentive agreement for the enormous Meta data center in Fort Worth was approved before the tech giant’s identity was publicly known, as city and economic leaders said they were barred by a nondisclosure agreement from discussing any details.

“There’s now an incentive to conceal the fact that a project is a data center as long as that is practically possible because the sooner it’s known as a data center project, the likelier organized local opposition becomes,” said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office for Public Citizen.

Brandon Shelby, an economic development lawyer who frequently consults for cities, said officials need to be able to negotiate in private with companies to get the best deal for taxpayers.

“Every single economic development project in the state of Texas has some level of confidentiality,” Shelby said, adding that NDAs are common practice. “Nothing would get done without it.”

An operations engineer leads a media tour of Meta’s Temple Data Center on July 22, 2026. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

This spring, Microsoft, one of the largest data center operators in the U.S., facing a backlash, announced it would cease the use of the agreements “to allow for greater transparency moving forward.”

Shelby added that while Texas law allows local governments to negotiate economic development and real property deals in private, they must put them on public meeting agendas and vote on them in public.

But sometimes those companies shield their identities on those public votes, and on state records, by registering under shell companies.

For example, Meta negotiated multimillion-dollar tax abatements for their massive data centers in both Fort Worth and El Paso under shell companies called Winner, LLC and Wurldwide, LLC. Both are registered in Delaware where companies are not required to disclose their owners.

Meta declined to comment on the reason for its use of such companies.

County leaders have said they feel pressure to sign tax agreements because they feel it’s the only way they can get leverage to force companies to divulge specifics.

“I don’t believe that counties or our taxpayers – I don’t believe that they should have to use … tax abatement agreements to get that information,” said Delta County Judge Tanner Crutcher, whose commissioners court passed a resolution in March opposing abatements for data centers. “That is information that we need to look at in the Legislature to understand how we can address that without having to offer financial incentives.”

Texas Director for Public Citizen Adrian Shelley waits to assist people to testify against data center water use and conservation before testifying before the Natural Resource Committee at the Texas Capitol on June 23, 2026. Aiden Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune

Jenna Madrigal and Angie Meza compare testimonies relating to data center water use and conservation before speaking to the Natural Resource Committee on June 23, 2026. Aiden Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune

State information gaps

State agencies are also facing gaps in what they know about data centers.

The Texas Water Development Board, the state agency that oversees the state’s water planning, since 2020 has asked for monthly water use information from data centers that use at least 10 million gallons annually. Although reporting is required by law, compliance has been low – less than one-fifth of 341 data centers responded in 2025, according to records.

The Public Utility Commission, the agency that oversees the state’s power grid operator, as well as its water utilities, this year conducted a separate, voluntary water use survey. The commission contacted 377 facilities but only heard from a fraction of them. The commission reopened the survey for 10 days in July. It is seeking to withhold the results from the Tribune and has requested an attorney general opinion on the matter.

Abbott said that the limited response from the industry prompted him to initiate the pause on data center approvals, writing in his letter that the lack of information “hinders your ability to make fully informed decisions.”

After previously celebrating Texas becoming a destination for AI infrastructure, Abbott in June started cracking down on the industry, calling for increased regulation, a repeal of a state sales tax break for data centers and new requirements that data centers report electricity and water usage data annually to regulators.

The Senate Finance Committee listens to invited testimony regarding previously authorized tax breaks for data centers on July 27, 2026. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Texas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration at the lack of data available to them.

“If you want to do business in Texas, you say you want to be a good actor, that’s great, we invite that,” state Rep. Mary González, a Democrat from Clint, said at a panel discussion hosted by the Tribune. “But you need to be able to at least tell us how much water and how much electricity you’re going to use. Because we need to be able to plan as a state. And without that information, you just leave us with a huge gap.”

But not all information collected by the state and operators of the power grid is available to the public.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid operator, has a lot of information that residents want, including how much power a project could use, where it’s being built and who is building it. But ERCOT considers project-level data private. Instead, ERCOT only shares aggregate power consumption data with the public.

The state also doesn’t share data about the value of state sales tax exemptions offered to individual data centers, citing state law that allows proprietary information to be withheld. In total, the tax break will cost Texas more than $3.2 billion over the next two years.

The governor did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Tribune about whether the reporting he called for from data centers would be available to the public or just state government.

The search goes on

Mason McCallister meets with people who traveled from across the state to show their opposition to data center development at the Red River Roll Call, a Republican rally hosted by state Rep. Shelley Luther in Sherman on July 27, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

Back in North Texas, McCallister is still checking records every other day to monitor new developments on the properties around his home. He receives notifications of every environmental permit approved in his and the neighboring county. He pesters politicians.

McCallister feels desperate to find the one piece of information that will reveal some way to slow the project. He wakes every day thinking, “Today’s the day I’m going to find it.”

Concern for his family’s legacy and the community’s future motivates him.

Here, on Legacy Farms, McCallister’s wife keeps her beloved horses, his young daughters ride a miniature off-road vehicle and the whole family visits mamaw next door. They fear the noise, lights and health impacts from air pollution that living by a data center could bring.

Mason McCallister attends the Red River Roll Call, a Republican rally hosted by Texas Rep. Shelley Luther, in Sherman on July 27, 2026. McAllister invited over 100 people from across the state to show Texas politicians that many Texans are concerned about the rapid growth of data centers and want to pause further development. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Red River Roll Call, a Republican rally hosted by Texas Rep. Shelley Luther in Sherman on July 27, 2026. Nearly 100 people showed up as part of the Save Rural Texas group traveling from all over the state to show their state leaders that they want to pause further development of data centers. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

McCallister’s advocacy galvanized others. Last month, roughly 100 people went to a local Republican rally. Many wore bright red shirts emblazoned with “SAVE RURAL TEXAS” and “PAUSE AI DATA CENTERS.” Abbott recognized them from the stage, McCallister said.

“Them doing it in secret for so long, they control the narrative,” McCallister said of data center operators. “They can get all their ducks in a row before anarchy happens.”

“I’m taking that away from them.”

Alejandra Martinez and Paul Cobler contributed to this reporting.

Disclosure: Facebook, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Public Citizen and University of Houston 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.

Deputies responded to the single-vehicle crash on Saturday at Camp Fimfo Texas Hill Country, which is located near Farm-to-Market 306 on private property in New Braunfels.

According to a preliminary report, one person was airlifted to a hospital for further treatment. Two others were also taken to area hospitals.

At this time, their conditions are unknown. Deputies did not provide additional information on what led to the crash.

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

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The Irish Air Corps plane carrying Daniel Kinahan, 49, landed at an airport on the outskirts of Dublin on Sunday evening after courts in Dubai refused to block his extradition.

Kinahan was taken to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. He was ordered to remain in custody at the high-security Portlaoise Prison about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of the capital. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 5.

Ireland’s Special Criminal Court handles all organized crime and terrorism cases, as well as others where prosecutors believe the ordinary courts are inadequate to ensure the “effective administration of justice.” Cases are heard by a panel of three judges without a jury.

Large security operation for Kinahan's transfer to Dublin

Irish media reported that a huge security operation was underway to ensure Kinahan faces justice. It included armed police, members of the armed forces and the prison service — which recently acquired a bombproof escort van to transport organized crime suspects, terrorists and other high-risk prisoners, Irish broadcaster RTE reported.

The security precautions came after Kinahan's family members were linked to a bloody gang war with another Irish organized crime group. U.S. authorities said in 2022 that the feud had resulted in 18 murders as they announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of the Kinahan organization or the arrest and conviction of Daniel Kinahan.

“Since February 2016, the (Kinahan Organized Crime Group) has been involved in a gang war with another group in Ireland and Spain, resulting in numerous murders, including of two innocent bystanders,” the U.S. Treasury Department said when it sanctioned six members of the Kinahan gang and three businesses linked to it.

Irish police, with the help of authorities in Britain, Spain and the U.S., have been pursuing members of the Kinahan gang since at least 2016, when the feud led to a daytime shooting during the weigh-in for a boxing match at a Dublin hotel. Kinahan was a boxing promoter at the time.

The authorities allege the gang smuggled tens of millions of dollars in illegal drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, as well as guns into Europe, then used a network of apparently legitimate enterprises to launder the profits.

‘Large quantities of cocaine’ from South America

Kinahan is believed to have run the day-to-day operations of the gang from his base in Dubai, the U.S. Treasury said. That includes buying “large quantities of cocaine” from South America, organizing its distribution in Ireland and attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.K., Treasury said.

Kinahan has also instructed gang members to deliver money to a number of people in prison, including one who was convicted of attempting to murder someone on behalf of the organization, the agency said.

He was detained by Dubai authorities in April on an Irish arrest warrant.

During a phone interview with Scottish podcaster James English last week, Kinahan denied being an organized crime boss and described himself as the victim of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation. While he said the extradition proceedings were expedited due to a deal between the Irish and Dubai governments, he said he hoped his trial in Dublin would help clear his name.

“I believe, in a way, I am a scapegoat,” he said in the interview posted on TikTok. "And anyone that looks into this so-called feud that they say they have created, then you will see, you will see things yourself if someone has the time to look into it.”

In March 2022, the head of the Kinahan organization in Britain, Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, was sentenced to 21 years in prison after he was convicted of orchestrating drug shipments into the U.K. Two other men were sentenced to 20 years and 19 1/2 years for their part in the crimes.

In the course of their investigation, police found 15 kilograms of cocaine and 220 kilograms of cannabis inside asphalt removal equipment fitted with a tracking device at the port of Dover on the English Channel, Britain’s National Crime Agency said when Kavanagh was sentenced.

Kavanagh lived in a mansion equipped with bulletproof glass and reinforced doors in Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham. When police raided the property in 2019 they seized numerous weapons and 35,000 pounds of cash in various currencies, including Emirati dirhams and euros, as well as British pounds, the crime agency said.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Democrats said they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport military service members and their families.

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” according to the letter, which was signed by more than 60 lawmakers and provided to the AP.

The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”

DHS told the AP that it values service members' contributions and “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In their letter, the Democrats provided an extensive list of questions to the agencies. They said the apparent collaboration between DHS and the military to deport troops’ families “raises both ethical and legal concerns.”

“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

Warren's office is leading the probe alongside Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and several House Democrats.

The AP investigation found President Donald Trump's administration has rolled back protections for military families and departed from longstanding bipartisan consensus to carry out its mass deportation agenda. Service members have been forced to take leave of their duties, including delaying deployment, to care for their children after their spouses were detained.

The lawmakers pressed the administration on why military recruiters are still promoting immigration protections.

Citing the AP's reporting, the lawmakers urged the Trump administration to restore policies that had previously shielded military service members' families from immigration enforcement while allowing them to adjust their legal status.

“This report is appalling and shows the unbelievable cruelty at the center of the Trump immigration agenda,” said Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. “We will be demanding answers and accountability.”

The Republican chairs of the armed services and veterans’ affairs committees, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Trump established the Military Spouse Commission, chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, to develop policies and recommendations for improving life for troops' spouses.

“Military spouses are intrinsically linked to the good order, readiness, and retention of our military,” Trump stated in a letter published in the Federal Register on Aug. 6. “Their support and contributions to our Armed Forces are crucial to mission success.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department said in a December letter to Democratic lawmakers, obtained by the AP, that it had not implemented any recent policy changes for noncitizen family members in the military and has not conducted analysis on how deportations impact troop readiness and morale.

Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, an organization providing support to military families and veterans facing deportation, said troops are being betrayed.

“Our military service members are the ones that sign on the dotted line to go and defend our country and maybe not come back,” James said. “They trust our government to take care of their families, and they’re not doing that.”

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez, 36, said on Instagram about her decision regarding her reproductive options.

The New York congresswoman, a leading figure of Democrats' progressive left flank, did not say explicitly whether she plans to have children. She said in her social media posts that she was taking a “political risk” in talking so personally about her potential family plans.

She said later on ABC “This Week” on Sunday that she has not ruled out running for president or for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrats’ floor leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, in 2028. She explained that she wants to normalize conversations about what women face in their professional and personal lives, while also highlighting the policies of President Donald Trump's administration.

“In this political environment, where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations,” she said.

Trump's administration opposes abortion rights, and the Republican president's first-term appointees to the Supreme Court provided the margins in the 2022 ruling that struck down the Roe v. Wade decision that had established a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

Separately, however, Trump in 2025 signed an executive order designed to lower the costs of in vitro fertilization.

Ocasio-Cortez sponsored a Democratic bill in 2022, when the party controlled the House, to codify abortion rights into federal law after the Supreme Court's abortion decision.

As part of her weekend announcement, Ocasio-Cortez noted that women — in politics and other fields — face different standards and scrutiny about their family status.

“Men run for office, or frankly they interview for jobs, and people don’t think in the back of their minds, 'OK, this guy’s running for office, how old is he? Oh, well, is he going to want to start a family?'” she said.

His parents decided not to send him to the majority-Black, F-rated campus closer to their home in Fort Bend ISD. Still, they fear their sixth grader may lose out on the community and support that come with receiving an education alongside kids in his neighborhood.

“This is a very difficult thing,” Mikole Montgomery, Jaleel’s mother, said of the choice to bypass Missouri City Middle School. “I don’t take the decision lightly.”

Black children attend schools labeled as failing by the Texas Education Agency at a far higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group. Majority-Black schools are the least likely to achieve the state’s highest academic rating.

Of the roughly 300 such campuses last year, 20 received an A. By contrast, 105 scored a D or an F.

On Aug. 14, Texas releases the next round of school accountability ratings, largely based on how well students perform on the STAAR exam. Those ratings, promoted as a tool to identify and hold underperforming schools accountable, also serve as an annual reminder of Texas’ struggles to provide Black students a high-quality education, parents say.

That leaves families like Montgomery’s weighing whether to enroll their children in schools where they may benefit from rigorous academic opportunities but see fewer kids and teachers from their communities — or keep them on high-need campuses lacking in resources but abundant in love and understanding.

About 60% of majority-Black schools scored a C or better last year, which Texas defines as acceptable performance. By comparison, nearly all majority-Asian schools met that threshold, as did 91% of majority-white schools and 79% of majority-Hispanic schools.

Texas public schools educate north of 700,000 Black children — more than any other state in the country. And negative outcomes among a disproportionate share of majority-Black schools means thousands of kids could leave without the knowledge they need to thrive, even as state leaders often say that “demographics do not equal destiny” and have passed laws restricting the consideration of race in education policy.

Education Commissioner Mike Morath acknowledges that academic gaps between Black children and their peers have long existed in the state. However, he points to the preeminent national exam showing Black students in Texas scoring higher than those in most of the country.

“That being said,” he added, “the results are still unacceptable.”

Texas must improve the quality of schools and support for all children — not just some children, Morath said.

“This is where the A-F indicators are important,” he said. “The state’s investment in this is to make sure that our local school districts are changing practices as rapidly as possible to improve these learning outcomes.”

Meredith Anderson, a native Texan who researches K-12 education for the United Negro College Fund, sees the racial disparities in the state’s accountability ratings as “alarming.”

Majority-Black schools tend to suffer from inadequate local and state funding, as well as from limited access to rigorous courses that help raise student expectations and learning, Anderson said. Schools broadly also do not employ enough Black teachers, which research shows can improve learning for all children, she added.

“We often think about it as more so academic gaps when we just look at the accountability ratings, without looking at some of the underlying causes that contribute to them and widen those gaps,” Anderson said. “Even if we have these bright spots, overwhelmingly the state isn’t serving our Black students well.”

When Black parents choose not to enroll their kids in neighborhood campuses as a result, that could also mean the students who remain end up worse off.

Texas funds schools based on attendance, which means they lose money to pay for academic supports as families leave. That also often means the loss of involved parents and students who otherwise could help usher in improvements. Meanwhile, negative perceptions of majority-Black schools can contribute to a broader narrative that students at such campuses do not deserve positive attention or investment, parents and advocates say.

“I certainly recognize the value in these kids,” Montgomery said. “I recognize me sending my son to the other side, it says something about how I feel about the kids as well — whether it’s intentional or not.”

Pressure to improve

The Texas Education Agency evaluated more than 9,000 campuses last year, with roughly 15% of schools receiving the lowest grades.

Of the 302 majority-Black schools in Texas, 35% scored a D or an F, by far the largest share of any racial or ethnic group. No majority-Asian schools received such ratings, while 8% of majority-white schools and 19% of majority-Hispanic schools did.

Texas grades schools based on three primary measures, including how well the campuses perform compared to those with similar percentages of low-income students. Schools typically receive a D or an F if only about a third of students or worse meet grade level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.

Alongside the reality that Black students in Texas are those most likely to face discipline and drop out and the least likely to graduate from high school, many parents see the ratings as further evidence that the education system is failing their children.

“I don’t think it takes rocket science for folks to figure out,” said Tyrone Howard, a UCLA professor who studies race and education. “It’s the fact that the original sin of this country has always been around race — structural racism — and all its remnants still remain in place.”

When a school receives five consecutive F ratings, Texas’ education commissioner must either replace the school district’s elected trustees and superintendent or close the campus. Schools that predominantly educate low-income, Hispanic and Black students trigger takeovers most often.

Morath, the state’s education chief, believes that schools consistently receiving unacceptable ratings reflects a failure by local district leaders to sufficiently focus on student learning. The A-F rating system allows his agency to identify those districts and initiate reforms where necessary, he said.

Morath views Houston ISD as evidence that it matters who runs local schools, as Black students have posted large test score gains since he intervened in 2023. Critics of the takeover often accuse HISD’s commissioner-appointed superintendent of overemphasizing test scores. The critics question the sustainability of the gains given unusually high numbers of teachers and students leaving the district, especially Black children.

Eight of Texas’ A-rated, majority-Black campuses serve children in the state’s largest district.

Morath sees the academic gains as signals that state intervention works.

“In many cases, our schools are doing very well,” he said of Texas public education. “But our schools need to get better, and they need to get better as fast as possible.”

The Texas Tribune interviewed two Black former principals of D- and F-rated schools who shared details of their challenges on the job. The administrators asked to remain anonymous because they still work in Texas education and feared retaliation for speaking candidly.

The leaders acknowledge they sometimes failed to focus enough on student instruction and helping teachers improve. But that’s because they often had to extinguish other fires, such as abrupt staff departures, funding cuts and depleted morale.

Compared with predominantly white, Asian and more affluent campuses, the Black school leaders felt they lacked autonomy to make decisions that would improve learning. They say they missed out on community business partnerships, wealthy parent-teacher groups and instructional materials that reflected their students’ interests. They also dealt with students enrolling and leaving at high rates throughout the school year, making it difficult to maintain consistent standards.

There’s also pressure to improve ratings, not necessarily to ensure learning growth but to avoid state penalties, they assert. The Black campus leaders say their schools focused heavily on students most likely to improve their test scores, which meant little time to prioritize the academic growth of children who came to school hungry or without a jacket when it was cold.

“Externally, it looks like you’re a poor leader,” said the former principal of an F-rated, majority-Black elementary school. “All you’re trying to do is serve your kids.”

School officials can make a difference by listening to their local communities and, more importantly, fostering spaces where Black parents feel they can engage, education researchers say. That includes scheduling events at times when most families can participate.

Still, even the best school systems cannot overcome unsupported teachers or a lack of money to fund the initiatives students need, the experts note. Texas leaders must also recognize that addressing racial inequality cannot happen without honest conversations about race, the researchers say.

Legislators recently passed laws targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in education. Republicans approved such measures out of a belief that schools focused more on gender and race than merit and instruction.

But some who study education contend that the unwillingness to address historical racism hurts Black students the most. Research repeatedly shows they benefit from having teachers who look like them, while many Black families place high importance on their children seeing themselves reflected in the books they read.

“That’s where I think the frustration is for a lot of parents, like, ‘OK, how can I not name what I might believe to be the primary factor in why some kids don’t get opportunity?’” said Howard, the UCLA professor. “It’s just, to me, outright tragic that that’s where we are.”

More than ratings

Having raised three children and volunteered in the community for more than two decades, Stephanie Brown considers Missouri City Middle School “the best-kept secret” in Fort Bend ISD.

What it lacks in resources, it makes up for in dedicated teachers and administrators, she said. Brown believes that if district leaders granted students access to benefits such as commercial drone classes or before- and after-school programs that other children in the district receive, Missouri City Middle School would see similar results.

Brown wants students to know that they are more than standardized tests and accountability ratings.

For the last two years, she has helped organize summer trips to a free engineering camp at Prairie View A&M University, where high school students and middle schoolers stay in dorms and learn about robotics and computer science. She wants to show Black families that they do not need to leave to find a quality education. And the community needs to realize that sometimes, it is not “better on the other side,” Brown added.

“Whatever the data is showing that we’re lacking, it needs to be on our campuses,” Brown said. “We should not have to seek outside resources in order to get it if this data has been showing this all over the country. Because think about it: God didn’t make one race smarter than the other. So what is really going on here? Where does it start?”

In a statement to the Tribune, Fort Bend ISD officials said students at all of their campuses deserve access to a high-quality education, as well as the opportunities and support necessary to succeed, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or ZIP code.

“The district continually evaluates student needs, academic performance and campus resources to identify where additional support and intervention may be needed,” district officials said. “Fort Bend ISD remains committed to providing equitable educational opportunities for all students and will continue working alongside our educators, families and community to strengthen student achievement across the district.”

The district, located southwest of Houston, educates about 78,000 students — 28% of whom are Black. In 2025, Fort Bend ISD moved up one letter grade to a B and had fewer D- and F-rated schools than in the previous year. Missouri City Middle School was 1 point shy of a D.

When state lawmakers debated the A-F system more than a decade ago, Sen. Royce West worried that it would disproportionately penalize schools that lacked sufficient resources to achieve an acceptable rating. That aspect of the system continues to bother him, West said.

Given that Texas has fewer than two dozen A-rated, majority-Black campuses, the Dallas Democrat agrees with families who say the education system is failing Black children. But he disagrees with those who say Black parents should keep their children in schools that do not serve them.

“If they believe the best thing is to take them across the street, then fine. Let them take them across the street,” West said. “Unfortunately, the downside is that a lot of kids’ parents can’t take their kid across the street, and they’re left in a desperate situation.”

Local school leaders and teachers must do everything they can to provide a quality education for those kids, West added.

As for the failures of Texas public education, Montgomery said, “I think the goal is to keep our kids uneducated.”

That belief fueled her family’s decision for Jaleel to attend the new Amy Coleman Middle School farther away from their home. She believes Missouri City Middle School employs passionate educators who care about children, but she is concerned about how Fort Bend ISD officials distribute resources.

For example, Coleman has an aviation and aerospace program while Missouri City has one focused on first responders. Those are admirable professions, Montgomery notes, but kids already interact with police officers and firefighters. The disparity in offerings communicates to Black kids at Missouri City that they should not dream bigger, she said.

Montgomery witnessed a fight and misbehaving children while volunteering at the F-rated middle school last year, which she admits factored into her decision to enroll Jaleel elsewhere. But she also recognizes that Jaleel benefits from tutoring, summer programs and field trips that his parents can afford and have time to provide. Not all children in the community experience the same privileges, she noted.

And while Jaleel leaving his neighborhood causes her significant concern, her decision centered on providing him what she is convinced state leaders do not want him to have.

“When we think about our son’s education, we think about moving out of Texas,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think that these people have my son’s best interests.”

Disclosure: Prairie View A&M University 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.

The Sony-Marvel release has accrued $1.67 billion worldwide in just 10 days of release, putting it on a trajectory to be among the biggest blockbusters ever. Domestically, no movie has wracked up a higher total faster. In U.S. and Canadian cinemas, “Brand New Day” has grossed $655.1 million thus far. Overseas, it’s already surpassed $1 billion.

It took only seven days for “Brand New Day” to become the highest grossing movie of the year, easily displacing “Toy Story 5” ($1.07 billion worldwide). No Sony film has ever cleared $100 million in its second weekend before. It came close to toppling the best sophomore frame on record: “The Force Awakens,” with $149.2 million in 2015.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” also crossed $1 billion. In its fourth weekend, the Universal Pictures release added $31.5 million domestically to bring its global total to $1.1 billion.

Nolan’s Homeric epic is the director’s first movie to reach that threshold since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” It now ranks as Nolan’s biggest box-office hit ever, not accounting for inflation, eclipsing both “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion) and 2009’s “The Dark Knight” ($1 billion). Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” ($975 million) ended just shy of the milestone.

A big part of that success, of course, has been on IMAX. With $147.3 million domestically on the company’s large-format screens, “The Odyssey” now ranks as IMAX’s highest grossing domestic release of all time.

“The Odyssey” still has one major market left. It opens in China on Friday.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” have helped drive Hollywood to its best box-office year since the pandemic. Ticket sales are running 18.5% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. There have already been five $1 billion movies — more than any year since 2019. The other two were “Michael” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

Rentrak forecasts that the overall summer theatrical revenue will reach $4 billion on Monday. That seasonal mark has long been a sign of thriving business for Hollywood. Since the pandemic, the only summer to surpass $4 billion was 2023, when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” drove ticket sales.

According to Rentrak, summer revenue is just $14.8 million shy of $4 billion through Sunday.

A pair of comedies tried to provide some counterprogramming to the blockbusters but made little impact.

“One Night Only,” a Will Gluck-directed romantic comedy where premarital sex is outlawed except for one night a year, opened with $5.7 million. The Universal release, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, cost about $25 million to make. Reviews weren’t good (46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but audience scores (a “B+” CinemaScore) were better.

Coming in fourth was Fox Searchlight’s “Super Troopers 3,” the third in the long-running comedy series from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It debuted with $4 million.

Two new limited releases packed theaters. A24's “Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain, grossed $348,955, good for one of the best screen-average openings of the year: $58,159 per theater. Mubi's “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” from “I Saw the TV Glow” filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, debuted with a per-location average of $50,300 across five screens.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $145 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $31.5 million.

3. “One Night Only,” $5.7 million.

4. “Super Troopers 3,” $4 million.

5. “Toy Story 5,” $3.9 million.

6. “Minions & Monsters,” $3.5 million.

7. “Moana,” $2.8 million.

8. “Ice Cream Man,” $2 million.

9. “The Invite,” $717,568.

10. CatVideoFest 2026, $568,414.

KSAT has compiled back-to-school start dates for all the Bexar County and surrounding school districts.

The start dates span throughout August, with Comal ISD starting the latest, on Aug. 25.

Here are the start dates for the 2026-27 school year:

• Alamo Heights ISD: Aug. 19
• Boerne ISD: Aug. 11
• Catholic Schools - Archdiocese of San Antonio: Aug. 17
• Comal ISD: Aug. 25
• East Central ISD: Aug. 10
• Edgewood ISD: Aug. 11 (The start date for Gardendale Early Learning Program is Aug. 17)
• Floresville ISD: Aug. 11
• Fort Sam Houston ISD: Aug. 12
• Great Hearts: Aug. 11
• Harlandale ISD: Aug. 12
• Hunt ISD: Aug. 19
• IDEA Public Schools: Aug. 11
• Ingram ISD: Aug. 12
• Jourdanton ISD: Aug. 11
• Judson ISD: Aug. 12
• Kerrville ISD: Aug. 19
• KIPP Texas Public Schools: Aug. 10
• La Vernia ISD: Aug. 3
• Lackland ISD: Aug. 12
• Lytle ISD: Aug. 11
• Medina Valley ISD: Aug. 12
• Natalia ISD: Aug. 12
• New Braunfels ISD: Aug. 17
• North East ISD: Aug. 17
• Northside ISD: Aug. 10
• Pleasanton ISD: Aug. 12
• Poteet ISD: Aug. 11
• Randolph Field ISD: Aug. 13
• San Antonio ISD: Aug. 12 (First day of school for Third Future Schools is Aug. 4)
• Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD: Aug. 13
• School of Science and Technology: Aug. 12
• Seguin ISD: Aug. 19
• Somerset Academies: Aug. 12
• Somerset ISD: Aug. 17
• South San Antonio ISD: Aug. 10
• Southside ISD: Aug. 12
• Southwest ISD: Aug. 24
• Uvalde CISD: Aug. 10

Read also:

• Where to find back-to-school giveaways in San Antonio

Louisiana has confirmed nine cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections this year, the state’s health department said last week in a news release. All were hospitalized, and five died. During the same period over the previous decade, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death.

“Seek medical care immediately if a wound exposed to brackish or salt water becomes red, swollen, painful, warm or discolored,” officials said in the release. ”Tell the health care provider about the water exposure.”

The Gulf is an ideal environment

Vibrio bacteria thrive in seawater and in the brackish mix of fresh and saltwater found in estuaries and lagoons. Most infections are reported from May to October, and most happen in states along the Gulf Coast. Doctors say the Gulf is an ideal environment with the right amounts of salt and heat to let this organism proliferate.

The mostly deadly type is Vibrio vulnificus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as one in five of those infections are fatal, a much higher rate than other types of Vibrio bacteria.

Florida, which tends to have more infections than other states, has reported 14 Vibrio vulnificus cases and two deaths so far this year, compared with 33 cases and five deaths for all of last year. Records show more cases in years when Florida is hit by tropical storms and hurricanes.

Bacteria enters through breaks in the skin

Some people become infected by eating raw or undercooked shellfish — particularly oysters. But a large percentage fall ill when the person is in ocean or brackish water and the bacteria enter the body through small breaks in the skin.

Doctors say severe cases are seen more often in elderly patients, people with weakened immune systems, and those with liver disease, diabetes and certain chronic illnesses.

Scientists say climate change is helping the germs proliferate and spread northward. A 2023 study found that the northernmost case has been shifting by about 30 miles each year, and that cases overall have been rising.

Beachgoers can protect themselves

Vibrio vulnificus can enter the body through unhealed cuts and scrapes, recent piercings and tattoos, and recent surgical incisions. People should immediately wash cuts and scrapes thoroughly with soap and clean running water after coming in contact with coastal waters or raw seafood, the CDC said. They should see a doctor if they start to develop symptoms such as fever, chills, and hot red areas on the skin that start to turn dark and blister.

Oysters are a particular risk, and there is no way to tell if an oyster is contaminated just by looking at it. People should wash hands with soap and water after handing raw shellfish and wear protective gloves if they have a weakened immune system and are at a higher risk of infection.

Health officials also offer cooking instructions for clams, mussels and other shellfish. They recommend throwing away any with open shells before boiling or steaming.

Bella Flemings has not yet played her first college basketball game at Duke, but the former Brennan standout is already finding ways to give back to the community that helped shape her.

“What I tell myself every day is ‘go be great’” said Bella. “Their support and them pushing me, and all my siblings, they’re who I attribute my success to today.”

Flemings was back in San Antonio this week to host a basketball camp for young athletes. The event brought together local players and some familiar faces, including her brother, Kingston Flemings, a Brennan alum and Atlanta Hawks rookie.

“We know the players we are, the people we are,” Kingston said, “so we’ll continue to try to get better going forward.”

Bella used the camp as a way to connect with the next generation of San Antonio basketball players. The message of the day centered on hard work, opportunity and “paying that forward.”

“Send the elevator back down,” father Dee Flemings said, “so when you get to the top, then you got to reach back down and help somebody up”.

For young players in attendance, the camp included a financial literacy class, a health class and offered a chance to learn from two athletes who recently came through the same gyms and neighborhoods they know well.

Read also:

• Brandeis alum Rian Forestier hosts free basketball clinic to empower San Antonio girls

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office asked drivers to be alert for pedestrians and bicyclists as they pull out of the driveway this week.

Officials stressed being deliberate about watching both sides of crosswalks for children and reminded drivers must stop for school buses that have stopped and are displaying flashing red lights and/or have a stop sign extended.

BCSO said other important safety reminders include:

• Obey posted school zone speed limits
• Avoid distractions while driving such as using cell phones
• Give yourself extra time for increased traffic congestion and construction
• Practice patience

These safety tips can help keep children safe, not just the first day of school, but all year long.

Head back to school with GMSA! Watch weekdays 5-7 a.m. on KSAT 12 and KSAT Plus, and read more of our coverage below:

• Experts warn sharing back-to-school photos online can put kids at risk
• Free VIA bus pass program aims to cut transportation barrier for San Antonio students
• San Antonio families stock up on school essentials during Texas tax-free weekend

President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi’s civilian government, has been trying to win political legitimacy since the takeover and resume relations with ASEAN.

ASEAN came up with a peace plan for the Southeast Asian country in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among contending parties, to be facilitated by the special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level meetings for failing to comply with the plan.

In an apparent effort to placate critics, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week, the first known contact with an outside international independent humanitarian organization since her detention five years ago.

Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital, Naypyitaw, on charges that her supporters and rights groups have said are politically motivated.

The current ASEAN chair, the Philippines, welcomed the meeting as a step toward dialogue and reconciliation Friday, while urging greater access to political detainees and reiterating its call for Suu Kyi’s “complete and unconditional release.”

Myanmar’s foreign ministry's statement late Saturday criticized the call.

“Although the government has commuted her sentences based on humanitarian considerations, the matter of a full and unconditional release shall only be carried out in accordance with the law,” it said.

The statement also said the government will continue working with ASEAN’s current special envoy, Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, but doesn’t see the need to continue down that path when Singapore takes over on Jan. 1, 2027.

“At present, the government, which emerged from the multiparty democratic elections reflecting the genuine will of the people, has assumed state responsibility,” the statement said.

In a speech more than three months after being sworn in as president following the elections, Min Aung Hlaing dismissed ASEAN’s peace plan, saying some member states have discriminated against Myanmar and it would respond on a case-by-case basis.

Critics dismissed the elections, which were held in December and January, as a sham designed to consolidate the military’s grip on power while ostensibly restoring civilian rule.

Congress allocated $20 million to the Department of Homeland Security for body cameras in April. ICE said it expects all officers to be wearing them by the end of September.

According to the agency’s policy, released in February 2025, officers are required to activate their cameras during enforcement activities, including arrests, execution of warrants and removal operations. The policy also states officers should activate cameras as soon as an enforcement activity begins.

ICE told KSAT its process of purchasing and issuing body-worn cameras was interrupted by government shutdowns earlier this year.

The cameras are designed to capture at least 30 seconds of video before an officer presses record, a feature commonly referred to as a pre-event buffer.

ICE said the purpose of the new requirement is to improve transparency, accountability and safety during enforcement operations.

Public concern over the lack of body cameras has intensified following a series of deadly shootings this year, including two in Minneapolis, one in Houston and one in Maine. ICE officers were not wearing body cameras during those encounters.

If a body camera captures a serious bodily injury or death in custody, ICE said the footage will go through an expedited review process handled by a designated review group, which includes the agency’s deputy director.

When it comes to releasing that footage to the public, the agency’s director, along with a designee, makes the final call on whether it is in the agency’s “best interest” to expedite its release within 72 hours of the incident.

The policy also states that if there are “specific and compelling circumstances justifying an objection to public release,” then it may “withhold or indefinitely delay the release.”

KSAT asked ICE to define what the agency means by “best interest” when deciding whether to release footage, and it provided the following response:

“ICE will ensure each arrest team has an individual wearing a body camera. Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS—especially given the increase in attacks against our law enforcement including a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them and a 3,300% increase in vehicle attacks.

“This is especially needed because the media and sanctuary politicians consistently spread smears about our law enforcement.

“The process of purchasing and issuing body-worn cameras to all of our ICE field offices was interrupted by the Democrats multiple government shutdowns. Body cameras have been deployed to more than half the field offices with the remaining half expected to receive them in September.

“Footage will be available as appropriate for official purposes. Body camera footage must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis due to privacy concerns for innocent bystanders.”

DHS Spokesperson

To better understand concerns about the policy’s standard, KSAT also reached out to the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, a nonprofit organization focused on government transparency and public access to information. They sent the following statement in response:

“The standard of ‘in the agency’s best interests’ has never been an allowed argument to withhold information and creates in the agency an entity whose interests and priorities are independent from and above those of the constituent public. On its face, this standard is designed to foreclose transparency. Further, it is the opposite of the conservative ideal of limited government.

From an institutional perspective, deferring to an agency’s ‘best interests’ will be to favor it to aggregate power and defeat accountability. This is opposed to the public’s ‘best interest’ which is to ultimately that the people control their own government and ensure it is operating in, well, the public’s best interest. Under this new ICE policy, the agency’s ‘best interests’ (such as they are) overrides all other concerns and will allow complete discretion regarding what gets released. ICE is telling the public that “access to this information is on a need to know basis, and you don’t need to know.’ The public will never see body camera footage under this policy unless it is leaked.”

Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas

Read also:

• Churchill High School student, father released from Dilley ICE facility, US Rep. Castro says

• BACK TO SCHOOL: Hot and humid with a few isolated showers.
• HEATING UP: Many areas reaching 100-102 degrees and potentially higher heat indices.
• STAY HYDRATED: Not just at school, but during all after school activities.

FORECAST

THIS EVENING

Shower activity is fizzling out across the area. Skies will become increasingly cloudier overnight. By the morning, dewpoints will make it feel muggy everywhere. Morning temperatures will range in the mid and upper 70s.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL: HOT AND HUMID

The first day back to school will bring more heat and humidity. Monday’s forecast looks very similar to Sunday, with afternoon highs again reaching the mid to upper 90s and possibly near 100 degrees. A few isolated sea-breeze showers could develop during the afternoon, mainly closer to the Coastal Plains, but most of the region should remain dry.

For students, parents, teachers and anyone spending time outside Monday, the bigger concern will be the heat. Plan for a hot afternoon. Make sure students have plenty of water not only for their school day, but for activities after school - even if just walking home. Take plenty of breaks from the heat when possible.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK

As the upper-level ridge shifts southeast this week, rain chances fade by Tuesday and temperatures climb to near triple digits. High humidity could push heat indices to 108+ degrees. While humidity may dip next weekend, the region will remain unseasonably hot.

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.

Those days are over. Long over.

The wide-eyed newcomer is gone, replaced by a poised and professional 18-year-old who is embracing her role as the leader of the sport's next wave as the 2028 Olympics approach.

The proof was on display during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships on Sunday, when Rivera — still not quite 100% while recovering from a hamstring injury sustained at the Pan Am Games in June — won her second straight national title with a poised and polished performance that solidified her status as the current face of a women's program two years out from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Rivera’s two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2011 and 2012.

Heady company to be sure, but company in which Rivera increasingly feels like she belongs. It might not have seemed like it in the summer of 2024 when she ceded the spotlight to her more accomplished teammates, but the relentlessly upbeat Texan has no problem admitting these days she wants to lead from the front.

“I am comfortable with it,” she said. “And I just love kind of being a leader in a way."

Anna Liukin, who coaches Rivera alongside her husband Valeri, called Rivera “motherly." Rivera laughed when the description was passed along because well, it's strange to hear as a teenager. Yet in many ways, it's applicable.

Lee and Jade Carey helped Rivera navigate her way through the sport's biggest stage and come out with a gold medal on the other side. She feels it's her duty to do the same to the generation of gymnasts just starting to find their way as the lure of a potentially life-changing hometown Games in Los Angeles looms.

“I think it’s just really important to give pep talks because when you’re young, you’re still learning a lot,” she said. “So I just think it's good to get positive vibes.”

Even if producing them takes a little practice. Rivera relied on that practice Thursday when a fall on uneven bars — perhaps her strongest event — sent her tumbling down the leaderboard. She shook the miscue off and found herself in fourth heading into Sunday.

A comeback still seemed somewhat unlikely when Rivera began Sunday with a gritty bars set that included her fighting through a mini-stall just before her dismount and ended with her and giving Valeri Liukin a “what are you gonna do?” shrug after a dismount that included a small step.

Yet twenty minutes later, it was long forgotten during a graceful balance beam routine that brought her to within striking distance of the lead.

“It took a few years to learn that, but I’m at a point now where it’s just like there already,” she said. “I don’t really have to think about it too much.”

Her black-and-white bedazzled leotard glittering under the lights, Rivera put on a performance that made her look every bit the star she has become.

Rivera never glanced at the scoreboard to mark her progress, too intent on trying to stay warm and focused during sometimes lengthy delays. If she was bothered, it didn't show. Every time she saluted the judges, Rivera was all business.

Now she heads into the fall hoping to make her first world championship team. Rivera was practically a lock last year before rolling her ankle during selection camp, something Liukin called “heartbreaking.”

Provided she can stay healthy, Rivera is eager to make up for lost time in the first major international team meet since Paris. Yes, her hamstring still isn't quite there, but she found her way to the top of the podium anyway.

“I think it just shows how strong I am mentally,” she said. “Because physically everything’s there. But the mental aspect of things is definitely where it’s at. You can’t really do this without having a strong mentality.”

Pease and fellow first-day co-leader Skye Blakely couldn't quite keep up. Pease led with two rotations to go, but her floor routine included one tumbling pass that ended with her stepping out of bounds and another in which she opted to keep her right foot hovering above the floor rather than set it down for a penalty.

Still, Pease's second-place finish was a marked improvement from a year ago, when she came to nationals fresh off a victory at U.S. Classic and stumbled to 10th. This time around, she finds herself in a solid position to join good friend and teammate Rivera in the Netherlands.

Blakely's bid to build off a promising opening night stalled quickly. She sat at the end of her first tumbling pass and bounced out of bounds on her final one, her score of 11.900 dropping her from contention for the top of the podium on her way to a seventh-place finish. The 21-year-old called it “irritating” but stressed she's pleased with her progress in her first elite meet competing the all-around since 2024.

Charleigh Bullock, who turned 16 last month, was third. Reese Esponda, who trains at the Houston-area gym owned by Biles' family, was fourth.

Carey, who is methodically building difficulty into her routines as she eyes a third trip to the Games, won the vault title and finished fifth in the all-around in a meet that doubled as a homecoming for the Phoenix native. The two-time Olympic gold medalist also marveled at Rivera's growth both on and off the floor since that memorable trip to Paris.

“I think Hezly did a fantastic job tonight and kind of rebounding from night one and just proving to herself and everybody else that that was just a little fluke and she’s capable of so much,” Carey said. “Back-to-back national champion is something that she should be really proud of.”

___

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

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Netanyahu insists no Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that's been largely destroyed.

There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu's statement.

“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.

Houthis target Aramco refinery and Red Sea port

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mocha late Sunday night. It was the second attack on the Red Sea coast city in less than 24 hours.

A Houthi military source told the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV that the attack targeted weapons depots and Saudi troop concentrations.

A statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces posted on X said residential neighborhoods were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones in the attack, and that air defense systems managed to intercept some of the drones.

Drones and missiles were also used during the earlier attack on Sunday. The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people — four troops and three civilians — were killed and 15 civilians were injured in that strike.

Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the attack severely damaged port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television station.

Mocha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The Houthis said they targeted military forces and warehouses.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.

The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause. The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen’s civil war after a 2022 truce.

— Samy Magdy in Cairo

Iran's top security post changes again

Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.

It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran's assertion of control.

Iran says negotiations ‘cannot resume’ until conditions met

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”

The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the U.S. “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the U.S. never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the area. The U.S. also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The United States did not comment on the demands. Trump on Sunday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.

Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the U.S. but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the U.S. “has remedied” provisions it violated.

Details emerge about a potential Iran-Oman deal

Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The agreement is designed to restore the separate interim deal between the U.S. and Iran. The two people said the agreement is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the U.S. and the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization. But they stressed the terms still could change.

The Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines” of a plan to manage the strait, the state broadcaster reported, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited. The member of parliament’s presiding board said countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.

— Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York

“I can’t do anything about it, so you just run with it,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs used late pit strategy and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell over the final 20 laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

Gibbs — the 23-year-old grandson of former NFL coaching great and NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs — won by 0.253 seconds over Bell for his second victory of the season and his career.

Gibbs and Bell each pitted with 60 laps remaining in the 350-lap race, but while Bell took four tires, Gibbs just went with two right-side tires, and came out ahead. And when leader Ross Chastain pitted on Lap 330, Gibbs took over the top spot and fought off a late charge by Bell.

Tyler Allen, Gibbs’ crew chief, thought taking two tires was the only chance to get ahead of Bell in that final pit cycle.

“We knew after practice the left sides weren’t wearing much and they tended to refire OK,” Allen said. “So in terms of coming into the race, it was definitely a viable option.”

Gibbs liked the aggressive call.

“I think in the position with our points situation, for sure,” he said.

Gibbs, who picked up his first career win April 12 at Bristol, came into the race ranked fourth in the season standings, and moved into second — 103 points behind JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.

Gibbs, who had an issue in the pits on his first stop of the day when his jack fell too early during the tire change, fell back to 28th before charging back.

“You’re kind of hosed after that deal,” Gibbs said. “So you’ve got to stay locked in and keep working.”

It was the seventh second-place finish of the season for Bell, who led 108 laps.

“Ty did a really good job,” Bell said. “He did a great job of managing the race.”

Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney, who won the inaugural 2024 Cup Series race at the 0.875-mile oval, was third after leading a race-high 129 laps.

Josh Berry finished fourth. It was Berry’s best finish of the season, and only his third top-10 finish. Hamlin finished fifth.

Chase Briscoe was sixth. Chastain recovered to finish seventh. AJ Allmendinger was eighth, followed by defending race winner William Byron. Austin Dillon was 10th.

Reddick’s struggles

Tyler Reddick’s summer struggles continued when he crashed into Erik Jones four laps into the race.

The rear end of Reddick’s car slid entering Turn 1, and Reddick ran into Jones before hitting the wall. Reddick finished last in the 36-car field.

“A 100% that was on me,” Reddick said. “It’s something I don’t normally do, make those kinds of mistakes. Just gut-wrenching on a lot of levels. I thought we kind of figured out what we needed to do for the race today, and made a killer mistake earlier.”

Reddick won the first three races of the season, and four of the first six, and has five wins overall. But he has had four finishes of 30th place or worse in the last six races.

No brakes, all gas for Hamlin

Hamlin had brake issues during practice Saturday, which led to the team changing brake rotors and a cooling unit. Hamlin had to go to the rear of the field, but surged back to finish fifth despite having more brake issues during the race.

“I just had white knuckles every lap, not knowing where my car was going to land when I got in the corner,” Hamlin said. “That was a crazy race to have to do it the whole time without (brakes), but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and the team did an amazing job. I would take that day a hundred out of a hundred times.”

“I’ve never seen Denny that exhausted,” Joe Gibbs said. “I think he drove his heart out.”

Up next

The Cup Series moves to Richmond Raceway on Saturday night.

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Trump said that, beginning Sept. 1, Scharf will be replacing David Warrington, who will be leaving the administration to join the private sector. Trump noted that Scharf previously served as a federal prosecutor and represented him in a number of cases, including at the Supreme Court.

“Will is Tough, Strong, and Smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

The shakeup in the White House counsel's office comes at a critical juncture — just months ahead of the midterm elections, where Trump's Republican Party will be fighting to hold on to control of Congress. Democrats have vowed to pursue investigations into Trump and his administration if they are successful in November.

The White House counsel’s job is to advise on legal and policy questions related to the presidency. The office is the primary White House contact for the Justice Department, and it handles presidential pardons, works on judicial appointments and reviews legislation. The office also helps investigate and manage congressional investigations into the administration and lawsuits against the president when he is sued in his official capacity.

During Trump's first term, Scharf worked to get judges and justices confirmed for him. They included U.S. Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh — who himself served as White House staff secretary for President George W. Bush — and Amy Coney Barrett.

In the period when Trump was out of office, Scharf joined his legal team in October 2023 and was one of his lawyers in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The case went before the Supreme Court, which ruled that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Scharf is among several of Trump’s lawyers who have been rewarded with spots in his second administration. Todd Blanche, who represented Trump during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. was confirmed last week as attorney general.

As White House staff secretary, Scharf was responsible for managing the papers that cross the president’s desk. He is at Trump's side when the president signs executive orders and often provides running narration on what Trump is signing.

Trump in July 2025 named Scharf as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, the executive branch agency with jurisdiction over construction and major renovations to government buildings in the region.

Trump's ballroom won final approval from the NCPC in April, though a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that construction on the project must stop because Congress had not approved it. Trump has vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The project is already well on its way and has begun to rise above ground on the east side of the White House.

Young vendors sold bracelets, stickers and other homemade goods at a North Side pop-up market, putting into practice lessons on how to be their own boss.

“They learn things about sales, about marketing, they practice their pitches, they plan out their budgets for the things that they’re making and they learn about profit and kind of what that looks like,” said Erika Radis, owner and founder of Working Moms of San Antonio.

The event also gave young vendors a confidence boost. One 10-year-old vendor, Helena, summed up the feeling of watching customers browse her table.

“I feel important,” she said.

Another young entrepreneur, Rhett, came in ready to sell.

“I actually am feeling pretty confident about selling my art,” Rhett said.

Workshop facilitator Kelly Haynie said the program is designed to sneak in real academic skills while keeping things fun.

“We’re trying to do some sneaky math, some summertime sneaky skills to get them ready for school to start again,” Haynie said. ”So we do some math and we do presentation and some writing and some art and just real fun thinking projects.”

A community built for moms

Radis said Working Moms of San Antonio started on social media in 2019 and quickly grew into a safe space for mothers and their children across the city.

“Sometimes if you don’t have a good community, it can feel lonely,” Radis said. “Just know that there are places out there like this that you know you can join up with and meet people that are going through it just like you are.”

Radis said she believes introducing entrepreneurial thinking early gives children a meaningful advantage.

“I just think from a young age to learn those skills is super-important and they get to do it among their peers, so they feel a little bit more comfortable,” she said.

Working Moms of San Antonio charges a monthly membership fee but also offers free events. More information is available on the group’s website.

Read also:

• Northside ISD’s new virtual academy to open for 2026-27 school year