“I just remember being taught that area was kind of dangerous, in the sense of there being steep slopes” and a quick drop-off into the river, he told The Associated Press. A few years earlier, Martin had warned a pair of young people playing in the water at that same spot to “be very careful.”

He saw five adults in the water and two children playing on the grassy bank nearby, tracking the description of the group provided by Delaware County authorities after the drownings.

Pastor may have taken ‘the last picture’ of the group

Martin and his family floated away to enjoy a beautiful summer evening. But when they returned past the spot about two hours later and saw the group still wading in the river, Martin thought to snap a photo.

“I don't know what it was. I said, I just need to capture this picture,” he said.

Martin said he knows the area well from 10 years of boating there and considered warning the people of the potential danger. But, unlike when he'd warned the two people earlier, there were two or three boats between him and them and he didn't want to cross between them and cause too many waves in the water.

He's been losing sleep over the decision since news broke of five people drowning that afternoon. It feels “surreal,” he said.

“I believe the picture I took may have been the last picture of them being alive,” he said.

The image didn't catch authorities' initial interest

Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer has said authorities believe one of the adults began struggling to swim and the others successively went to that person's aid. All five were swept under and died. The two women’s bodies were recovered Sunday and the three other bodies a day later.

Neither Balzer's office nor the local EMS agency immediately responded to requests for verification of the photo and those who appear in it.

Martin said he feels certain the group he photographed is of the five people who perished Sunday; it's rare to see people fishing or swimming in that stretch of the river. He said he attempted to share the picture with both law enforcement and a news reporter at the scene the day after the drownings, but no one seemed interested.

Honduran authorities confirmed Tuesday that four of the five adults were Honduran citizens. One was Jose Mario Pineda Dias, 33, another his wife Marina Suyapa Regalado, 28. Pineda was from the department of Lempira and Suyapa from the department of Cortés, according to Flabia Zamora, director of consular affairs at the Honduran Foreign Ministry.

The names of the other couple and the fifth individual would be released once their families could be notified of their deaths, a spokesperson for Balzer said Wednesday.

U.S., Honduras still working to identify victims, help children

A Honduran embassy said the government is in contact with the victims' families and assisting local authorities in verifying their identities. In a statement, it added that Honduras stands ready to repatriate any of the victims should relatives request that — a process that could take six weeks.

An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, children of one of the couples, were orphaned by the tragedy. A boy shouting for his mother was spotted by a passing driver on the day of the accident and reported to 911.

Scott Varner, a spokesman for Franklin County Children Services, said the youngsters have been in the agency's care since Monday and that they are working with relatives and family friends in Columbus who are providing them with a temporary home. The children were provided with therapy dogs as they coped with the trauma, he said.

The Honduran embassy statement said the consulate has checked in with family members about their well-being and stands ready to help once relatives make a decision on next steps for the children.

Ramírez was activated from the injury list on Wednesday after the seven-time All-Star third baseman missed five weeks following left hand surgery. Cleveland stayed near the top of the AL Central while he was out, a testament to the young club's depth and resolve.

It wasn't easy.

“The last five weeks could have been a lot different, and it wasn’t,” manager Stephen Vogt said. "We kept our heads above water. You can use all the cliches you want, but we did not let the last five weeks determine the rest of our season.

“We had some low points. We had some high points, some in between. But really proud of what this group did over the last five weeks and we’ve got a lot of work left.”

Ramírez had been sidelined since getting hurt against Detroit on June 13 and having an operation to remove the hamate bone in his left hand.

The Guardians managed to stay afloat without Ramírez, going 15-15 and keeping pace with the division leaders. Cleveland entered Wednesday's game against Minnesota in a virtual tie for first place with the Chicago White Sox.

Ramírez is in the starting lineup, batting second and playing third in Wednesday's game.

Ramírez did not go on a minor league rehab assignment before being activated. The Guardians trusted him throughout his recovery. He had a similar injury to his right hand in 2019, the only other time he’s been on the injured list.

“Hosey's about winning,” Vogt said. “He’s not going to come back if he doesn’t believe that he can help us win. So it’s full trust in him, full trust in the medical staff. Everybody is on board with him being back in there today.”

Vogt said he would hold Ramírez back a little at the start.

“There’s going to be some limitations for him at first, but we’re going to be thoughtful about how much he plays, when he plays, things of that nature,” Vogt said. “But he’s done a great job of getting his body ready, which is most important and the wrist is feeling good.”

To make room for Ramírez, the Guardians optioned outfielder Kahlil Watson to Triple-A Columbus.

The 33-year-old Ramírez, who owns numerous offensive club records, was batting .239 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs in 72 games before getting hurt. The Guardians aren't the same without him in the lineup, and his mere presence should help a team that has struggled to score.

Watson played well in his stint with Guardians, batting .239 with one homer and 11 RBIs in 27 games. On Tuesday night, he made a game-ending leaping catch down the right-field line while crashing into the padded wall.

Vogt said Watson's contributions made his demotion a difficult decision.

“Khalil handled it like a true pro,” Vogt said. "He understood clearly. Not happy. No one wants to leave, but just the messaging was you came here when we needed you and you helped us. We saw an unbelievably talented player with Khalil Watson.

“He’s going to help us win a ton of games for a long time. It’s just not his time right now.”

Along with Ramírez, the Guardians could soon have outfielder Angel Martinez back as well. He's been out since June 13 with a non-displaced fracture when he fouled a pitch off his left foot. Martinez is on a rehab assignment at Columbus and appears on the brink of being activated.

Vogt said Martinez will play nine innings on Wednesday and be re-evaluated.

___

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

Speaking at a health summit in Ghana on Wednesday, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said 1,031 deaths have been confirmed.

“These are people dying. They are dying because we don’t have vaccines, we don’t have medicine, we don’t have funding,” he added.

The latest update from Congo’s Ministry of Health showed that as of Monday, 2,473 cases had been recorded in the latest outbreak. At least 737 patients were in isolation or hospitalized, it said.

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, is unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks because the Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. It has also killed more people at a faster rate than any outbreak on record, including the 2013-2016 outbreak that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months from the first case to reach 1,000 deaths.

Conflict and community resistance are complicating the response

The World Health Organization has said the true scale of the outbreak could be ⁠two to four times larger than official figures indicate. Some communities at its epicenter also remain difficult to reach, mainly because of fighting involving rebel groups.

Ebola is rare, but highly contagious and can be contracted through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. It can cause severe illness and is often fatal.

Officials have warned that 80% of new cases have emerged outside known chains of transmission, a sign the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track it even as they step up their response in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, and four other provinces where cases have been recorded.

Community resistance to Ebola teams, particularly those carrying out safe burials, has also hampered the response. Robert Ndjalonga, head of civil protection in Ituri province, said some communities have refused to allow burial teams to operate because they prefer traditional burials, increasing the risk of further transmission.

“The biggest challenge remains resistance from or outright refusal by some communities to accept response teams," Ndjalonga said. "On several occasions, burial teams have had to be escorted by security forces to ensure that safe and dignified burials could be carried out without incident.”

Shortages of burial supplies have delayed responses to reported deaths, while some affected health zones still lack operational burial teams, Ndjalonga said.

Attacks on health facilities and response teams have also forced front-line workers and aid groups out of some areas. Some health workers have gone on strike, saying they haven’t been paid since the outbreak started.

A member of a team carrying out safe Ebola burials was recently injured when assailants threw stones at the team’s vehicle following a burial in Bunia last week, according to provincial civil protection authorities.

The attack highlighted the challenges facing the response in eastern Congo. In Ituri’s Irumu territory, the local military administrator recently described Ebola as a greater threat than the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces insurgency and urged residents to support, rather than attack, health workers.

Containment efforts are faltering

A humanitarian worker involved in the response, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, cited poor coordination between response agencies, delays in transferring patients to treatment centers and waits of more than four days for some Ebola test results.

“At times, it’s unclear who is doing what and where,” the worker said.

The delays have led some patients to leave health facilities before they can be diagnosed, increasing the risk of further transmission, the worker said.

Africa CDC head Kaseya called for intensified efforts to slow the outbreak on the first day of the health summit in Ghana Tuesday.

“If we do not stop this outbreak today, it could become one of the worst Ebola outbreaks the world has ever documented,” Kaseya said.

Less than 9% of the contacts of confirmed patients who are expected to be traced are currently being monitored, far below the level needed to contain the outbreak, according to Africa CDC. More than 60% of deaths are occurring in the community before patients can receive care.

Pierre Akilimali, the Ebola response incident manager at the National Public Health Institute of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said the high number of community deaths suggests many infections are not being detected or isolated in time, allowing the virus to continue spreading.

Experts warn of a worsening crisis

Last month, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used computer modeling to estimate how the outbreak could evolve. In a worst-case scenario, they said it could approach the scale of the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic.

“There’s never been an Ebola outbreak that started with so many cases because it was so late to be identified,” said Trish Newport, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders, who has been working in Congo.

“It’s like the outbreak is outrunning the response,” Newport said.

University of Pittsburgh epidemiologist Dr. Jean Nachega, who is advising African health authorities, said he does not expect the outbreak to reach the CDC’s worst-case scenario but cautioned that the challenges remain “huge.”

___

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo, Mike Stobbe in New York and Naa Adorkor Cudjoe in Accra, Ghana, contributed.

They equaled the 1946 American League champs, who were led by future Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

Jarren Duran had a two-run triple and a sacrifice fly, and Caleb Durbin — who hit a tiebreaking homer when they posted their 14th straight victory on Monday — chipped in with a two-run single.

Ceddanne Rafaela added a solo home run for Boston in a makeup from Tuesday’s rainout.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand had a solo homer for Baltimore, his second in two games.

Red Sox rookie left-hander Jake Bennnett (6-3) worked 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs — one coming on a sun-aided RBI double by Tyler O’Neill — on nine hits.

He took a 102.8 mph liner off the stomach from Taylor Ward in the fifth, but remained in the game after being checked by a trainer, interim manager Chad Tracy and first baseman Willson Contreras, who appeared to make him breath while telling him to lift his arms.

Aroldis Chapman got the final three outs for his 23rd save and 390th of his career, tying Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley for ninth all-time.

The Red Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Dean Kremer (1-3) in the first on Durbin’s line single and Duran’s two-out hit.

Encarnacion-Strand hit his homer into the batter’s eye to make it 5-2 in the fourth but Rafaela hit his over the Green Monster in the bottom half.

Kremer lasted six innings, allowing six runs.

Up next

Orioles: RHP Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61 ERA) is set to start the nightcap.

Red Sox: LHP Eduardo Rivera (0-0, 2.89 ) will start the second game.

___

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

The news conference is expected to begin around 4 p.m. Wednesday in the 3900 block of Gristmill Way, near State Highway 211.

The event will be livestreamed in this article, on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus. Delays are possible; if no livestream is available, check back at a later time.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The case was put on hold almost immediately after the July 2 indictment, when the Louisiana Supreme Court said the local court and special prosecutor did not follow procedures surrounding the indictment. The dismissal by special prosecutor Laurie White came a day after New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, Democratic Mayor Helena Moreno and five City Council members sent a letter urging her to drop the case.

“What I did was not a crime, it was never a crime,” said Murrill, a Republican. “I think this was a malicious prosecution.”

At the center of the case are deepening rifts between the state's Republican leaders and Democrats who control Louisiana’s most prominent city.

Orleans Parish online court records show White submitted the letters from the elected city officials and the prosecutor to a judge before dismissing each count. The case against Murrill was then ordered “closed.”

White did not immediately respond to a request for comment emailed to her office.

In a statement provided to multiple New Orleans media outlets, White said she performed her lawful duty as a special prosecutor and noted that a grand jury brought the indictment.

White also criticized what she described as interference in the case but did not go into detail.

“Extraordinary interference in this situation has been truly unfortunate, and we should all hope that it doesn’t set a precedent,” White said.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill would not have her reputation tarnished by an “Orleans Kangaroo court.”

Appearing with Murrill at a news conference on the state's preparations for Tropical Storm Bertha, Landry said he would welcome state and federal investigations into how and why Murrill was indicted.

“I think the feds need to come in,” Landry said.

Moreno was among those who had accused the state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials.

The initial 16-count indictment handed up by a New Orleans grand jury accused Murrill, the state’s first female attorney general, of intimidation and malfeasance.

For months, political tensions intensified between Louisiana Republicans and New Orleans officials over a new law that abolished a court clerk office won by an exoneree, Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison. The change consolidated that job with another clerk’s office, which Republican supporters said would make the local judicial system more efficient.

New Orleans leaders opposed the change. In May, the City Council set a special election that would have given Duncan a chance to win the newly combined job. Murrill responded by warning local officials in letters that they could lose their offices for violating state “usurper” laws, which forbid support for an unauthorized officeholder.

The mayor was among those who had accused the state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials.

Murrill said she had merely advised city officials of what the law was and that they had broken it. “I didn’t write that law. The Legislature wrote that law. I just explained it to them.”

Murrill called the indictment a threat of extortion and public intimidation, “to put me in jail for telling them that I'm going to carry out my official duties.”

In their Tuesday letter, the mayor and City Council members said they were not intimidated by Murrill's previous letters.

“While the correspondence at issue contained threatening language directed toward public officials, we never believed those threats could lawfully or practically be carried out. We continue serving the people of New Orleans without hesitation,” the mayor and council members wrote.

___

Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed to this story.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday attended the dignified transfer of four more service members who were killed in action. Republicans are pushing a $95 billion package to fund the military, pay farmers and restrict voting after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced fiery questions and protests over his management of the U.S. war with Iran, which he estimated which has cost $37.5 billion so far. Democrats and Republicans alike questioned whether Hegseth has an exit strategy.

Later Wednesday, the president spoke at a Georgia high school to promote his Trump Accounts, investment accounts that offer $1,000 in seed money to every child born during his second term. Some parents say they’re still waiting for the money to arrive.

Also, Trump has reportedly approved a deal that could potentially provide Saudi Arabia with uranium enrichment capability. The agreement would be reviewed by Congress, where it could face headwinds among lawmakers who fear it would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition.

The Latest:

Jackson promises state match for Trump Accounts seed money

Rick Jackson, the state’s GOP nominee for governor, said Wednesday that he will push for Georgia legislators to approve a state match for the $1,000 in seed money that the federal government is giving to some holders of Trump Accounts.

Babies born from 2025 to 2028 currently receive $1,000 from the federal government in their accounts.

Jackson, a wealthy businessman and CEO of a health care company, said he believes Georgia lawmakers will support that, but “if they don’t, I will personally donate it myself.”

“It changed my life when I got a $100 Christmas gift in an orphanage,” he said.

Trump accuses Georgia senator and other Democrats of being communists

“The United States of America will never be a communist country,” Trump said, drawing big applause and a chant of “USA, USA.”

“The blue states are all going bad” because communism is a loser, he said. “It’s a loser and it always has been and it always will be.”

The crowd booed enthusiastically when Trump mentioned “your terrible Sen. Jon Ossoff”

“Jon Ossoff and the Democrat communists want to let the Marxists into power, bankrupt your families and leave you totally undefended with wide open borders,” Trump said.

Trump jokes about running for a third term, again

The president opened his Georgia rally with a joke about running for a third term.

“Well, thank you very much, everybody. It’s a special place, and I am here to announce my candidacy,” the president said at the start of his speech, pausing as the crowd cheered.

After a few seconds, he held up his hand and waved it in front of him slightly. “I’m only kidding,” Trump added.

The president is constitutionally barred from running again in 2028, but has repeatedly suggested he might somehow do so anyway. Sometimes Trump suggests he’s joking, but he’s also said he might lead a constitutional movement to rewrite the Constitution in his favor.

Trump finally gets to Trump Accounts

After a nearly half-hour riff on unrelated topics, the president began talking about the subject of Wednesday’s event in Georgia.

“It’s hot as a pistol,” Trump said of Trump Accounts.

He then gave a brief description of how the accounts work, including the $1,000 in seed money that the government awards babies born from 2025 to 2028.

After that initial investment, the value of the account “goes up, and up, and up,” Trump said.

Trump wants credit on lower inflation in June due to lower oil prices that have since climbed

The U.S. president is tweaking his pitch to voters on inflation — wanting credit for the monthly dip in the consumer price index that was caused by energy prices falling due to a ceasefire in the Iran war.

But the ceasefire has failed to endure and oil prices have since jumped, with average gasoline prices at $4.06 a gallon. That’s up 4.3% over the past week and prices at the pump have jumped nearly 29% from a year ago, according to AAA.

Speaking in Georgia, Trump claimed the monthly drop had more to do with his management of the U.S. economy. That claim carries a political risk if the rising energy prices cause inflation to rise this month.

“It was announced just last week that inflation dropped by the largest amount in more than six years,” Trump said. “Because we’re doing it right. We’re running the country properly.”

Trump says his White House ballroom is actually a ‘military facility’

He told the rally crowd in Georgia, “We’re building a tremendous military facility at the White House. It’s a ballroom, but it’s also a big military facility.”

The president said it would feature a “drone port on top and tremendous things underneath.”

Trump originally said the project, which is expected to cost at least $400 million, would be paid for by himself and wealthy donors. But Trump now says the ballroom is supposed to include White House security upgrades like the drone port.

However, $1 billion in federal funding proposed for White House security upgrades has stalled in Congress.

The president also said crews building the ballroom are working from around 6 a.m. until late in the night, sometimes 11 p.m., and working Sundays.

Trump says dignified transfers are ‘the toughest thing I do’

The president said his visit to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday for the dignified transfer of four service members was particularly difficult.

“It’s very tough to watch, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “I think it’s the toughest thing I do.”

Trump said he invited the family of 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan to join him on Air Force One on his trip to Georgia, where the family lives.

“We will carry Tyler’s memory in our hearts forever,” Trump said, describing him as a “flawless” person.

Trump shouts out Republican candidate for Georgia governor, Rick Jackson

“Gonna be your next governor, right here,” Trump said, gesturing toward Jackson, who was right next to the stage.

Trump had endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Republican primary, but was quick to praise Jackson after he won a fiercely fought Republican primary.

Trump congratulated Jackson on social media the day after the primary runoff in June, saying he “very successfully campaigned on being ‘TRUMP,’ and won.”

Trump is about to give remarks in Marietta, Georgia

Leading up to Trump’s arrival, the crowd gathered in a suburban Atlanta high school gym heard from several candidates for statewide office.

They also heard from U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, a former Georgia state senator; U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, a former U.S. senator from Georgia; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Friend says soldier killed in the Middle East ‘always made people feel seen’

A friend of Angel Rampersad says the 28-year-old Army sergeant genuinely cared about people and made them feel important and seen.

Deonne Jinkins and Rampersad met in 2024 in Germany, where they served together and became good friends.

On Wednesday, the 22-year-old Jinkins recalled how Rampersad jumped in and set up a weekend celebration for Jinkins’ birthday within weeks of their first meeting.

“The fact that we had barely known each other, yet she showed up for me in such a big way, spoke volumes about the kind of person she was,” Jinkins said over Facebook Messenger. “I’ll never forget what she did for me that weekend.”

Jinkins said her friend “loved deeply, cared genuinely, and always made people feel seen and important.”

Rampersad’s family said in a brief statement she was a “gentle giant” who “stood up for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.”

“She loved her family fiercely and will live on in the hearts of everyone she touched,” the statement said.

Trump pays respects to four service members killed in Middle East

The president saluted as four cases draped with American flags were escorted off an airplane during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

He was joined by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Trump was scheduled to meet privately with grieving family members.

The White House said one of the families will be joining on Air Force One later on Wednesday when Trump flies to an event in Georgia, where the family lives.

Senate committee moves nomination forward for FEMA administrator

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 8-4 Wednesday morning to advance Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cameron Hamilton.

Hamilton is a former Navy SEAL who briefly led FEMA in a temporary role last year before being fired after defending the agency’s existence. His potential return marks a shift in the Trump administration’s stance toward the disaster agency, after Trump said early in his second term that he was considering eliminating it altogether.

If approved by the Senate, Hamilton would be the first permanent FEMA administrator in Trump’s second term. The agency has seen four temporary leaders and been roiled by upheaval, including the departure of thousands of staff.

Journalists urge correspondents’ association to stand up to Trump at rescheduled press dinner

Hundreds of former or retired journalists and eight press freedom groups are asking the White House Correspondents’ Association to stand up to the Trump administration’s recent attacks on the media at its rescheduled dinner this week — a dinner President Donald Trump says he’ll attend.

The first dinner was cut short in April when a gunman, who prosecutors say was trying to assassinate Trump, opened fire at the Washington Hilton. The much smaller rescheduled dinner will take place Friday, with enhanced security precautions, at the capital’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel.

The letter expands on a similar one issued in April, before the first dinner. It notes that since then, “the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious.”

▶ Read more

Iran war energy shock hits Southeast Asia hard

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised her country’s concern over renewed attacks by the U.S. and Iran in the Middle East, warning that “the situation could deteriorate further without much warning.”

“We want to see an end to this war. We want to see a ceasefire. We want to see negotiations and we want the strait to be opened,” Wong told reporters at the ASEAN summit. The war’s impact on global energy markets has had a direct and personal impact on people, she said.

Southeast Asia’s reliance on fossil fuel imports from the Mideast has made the region particularly vulnerable, according to the International Energy Agency. Asian markets imported about 80% of the crude oil and almost 90% of the liquefied natural gas, or LNG, transiting through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, the IEA said.

Rubio says US willing to be ‘patient’ with pace of change in Cuba

Asked whether the Trump administration’s goal is regime change in Cuba, Rubio told reporters that the U.S. is prepared to be “very realistic” and “patient” about a process of ensuring that the Cuban people “can experience prosperity, safety, security and a better life moving forward.”

Rubio insisted the country’s socialist economic model doesn’t work and that the Cuban government is most interested in holding on to power, not making reforms.

But he said that “we’ll keep talking to them about the kind of changes they can make” because it affects U.S. national security.

“It’s a failed state. But I’ve never laid out any timeline as to what change would look like or when it would happen,” Rubio said.

A plane was carrying food and hygiene kits to Cuba on Tuesday, part of U.S. efforts to directly aid residents.

Oil prices rise another 3%

A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $93.83 at midday Wednesday after briefly topping $95 to touch its highest price in six weeks as the war with Iran continues.

Rising oil prices threaten to reaccelerate inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, which would slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.65%, helping to bring long-term U.S. mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year. The yield was 3.97% before the war.

The auto club AAA said Wednesday that the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. jumped again overnight to $4.06. It had been below $3 before the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

The soldiers whose remains are being returned to their families

The four U.S. service members were identified by the Defense Department:

1. 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii

2. Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas

3. Sgt. Angel Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York

4. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Spring Lake, North Carolina

Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.

Trump to tell families of service members fallen in the Middle East, ‘we love your child’

Trump is at Dover Air Force Base, participating in the return of the remains of four U.S. service members killed in the Middle East.

Asked for his message to their families before he departed Joint Base Andrews, Trump said, “All I’m going to say is, ‘we love you. We love your child.’”

“All you can do is throw out your heart,” he said.

Canada cancels joint US bridge-opening event after another Trump tariff threat

The Friday ceremony celebrating the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is no longer expected to take place after Trump announced a pending 50% tariff on most Canadian goods.

“In light of trade action threatened by the United States earlier this week, it would be inappropriate to proceed,” emailed Jenna Ghassabeh, a spokesperson for Canadian Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson.

U.S. and Canadian officials had reached an agreement to open the $4.4 billion bridge, which Canada financed under an agreement allowing it to recover the cost through toll revenue. Canada now plans its own ceremony Friday.

Two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations said they still expect the bridge to open to traffic July 27 but are less certain than they were before.

— By Joey Capelletti

Rubio says any nuclear agreement the US signs will not lead to nuclear proliferation

Rubio was asked about the risk of the U.S. signing an agreement with a Middle Eastern country that does not include the “gold standard” promise to refrain from enriching or reprocessing uranium.

Rubio said he would not “opine directly on that agreement” with Saudi Arabia, but then said “the U.S. is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation.”

Rubio is pressed on Trump’s reported nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia

When asked by reporters on Wednesday in the Philippines about the nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, the secretary of state didn’t deny the approval was coming and instead said, “I’ll let the White House officials sort of put out an official statement about anything in regards to that.”

Stumbling a bit in his response, Rubio also said: “I’d prefer it be, you know, put out when there is something to say that we will say through official channels.”

Rubio points to Iran’s remaining capabilities even though ‘diminished’

Rubio said Iran’s missiles and drones being used in strikes now are “exactly the conventional shield that they were going to hide behind to pursue a nuclear program.”

He said that capacity is “greatly diminished” but that a year from now, Iran would have had so many missiles and drones serving as a shield that it “would have given them immunity to do whatever they wanted.”

He kept some hope alive for renewed talks, saying the U.S. remains open to negotiations, “but right now they don’t seem to be serious about that” so instead the focus is on protecting shipping.

“We think other countries should join us in that endeavor. We don’t need them to, but they should because they’re more impacted by it than we are.”

Rubio is asked whether China and Russia are helping Iran find targets

Rubio, who doubles as Trump’s national security advisor, was asked Wednesday whether China and Russia are giving targeting information to Iran.

“All I would say is that, you know, anytime you’re in a combat zone like that, there’s danger associated with it,” Rubio said. “At the end, this actually proves the point that this is what Iran has been investing its money in.”

When pressed again by a reporter, Rubio said, “I’m not going to discuss that, other than to say that nothing that’s happened, nothing that China has done has in any way changed the trajectory of the outcome, of what you’re seeing in terms of the conflict that we’re having with Iran.”

Rubio said China has been quite cooperative in some ways, such as publicly opposing what Iran is trying to do in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio says Iran controlling Strait of Hormuz would set dangerous precedent

Marco Rubio warned Asian leaders Wednesday that Iran’s demand to control and collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz would threaten the world’s economy.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” the U.S. Secretary of State said.

Rubio’s counterparts at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have expressed alarm over the resurgent Iran war that has battered their economies. Despite Washington’s preoccupation with the war, Rubio said “we’re with ASEAN 100%.”

Officers responded to the shooting just before 7 p.m. Monday in the 1500 block of Roosevelt Avenue, which is located near Fairbanks Street.

According to an SAPD preliminary report, the suspect shot the two men after an altercation escalated.

One of the victims, a 39-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The other victim, a 62-year-old man, was hospitalized after he was shot multiple times. SAPD confirmed on Wednesday that he later died from his injuries.

On Wednesday, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the 39-year-old man as Richard Arnold Carrillo, Jr. Monday was his 39th birthday, according to the ME’s office.

The 62-year-old victim was identified as Richard Arnold Carrillo, Sr. According to the medical examiner’s office, both men died of multiple gunshot wounds. Their deaths were ruled as homicides.

The suspect, 34, fled the scene and was later detained at a nearby hotel, officers said.

SAPD said its investigation remains ongoing.

Read also:

• SAPD bodycam footage shows exchange of gunfire between officers, suspect on North Side

The civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Wells family, announced the preliminary findings Wednesday in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the annual NAACP National Convention in Chicago.

The autopsy report, he said, showed no evidence of fractures or deep tissue injuries. It described a “red discoloration” in the back of Wells' skull as “inconclusive” and meriting further investigation.

Without further information, the forensic pathologist, Dr. Roger Mitchell, wrote that he could not rule out the possibility that “non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death."

Wells had traveled to an island off the coast of Mississippi on July 4 with a group of friends, who later returned to the mainland without him. His body was discovered two days later floating off the island's coast.

In his report, the pathologist pointed to several challenges inherent to the independent autopsy, including the decomposition of the body and outstanding questions about whether Wells was conscious when he entered the water.

Because an initial autopsy was performed by the medical examiner in Mississippi, Wells’ body arrived without organs or neck structures — making it impossible to determine if he had suffered a neck injury or whether water had entered his lungs, according to the report, which notes that the practice is not unusual.

Still, the revelation, relayed by Crump, prompted gasps from the crowd of several hundred in Chicago. The attorney called on state officials to provide that evidence for the family to review as part of their own independent investigation.

The Mississippi medical examiner, which has not released the results of the state autopsy, did not return a message seeking comment.

The second autopsy was paid for by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, whose group Know Your Rights Camp has paid for other independent autopsies.

“This is only another part of the puzzle, and even though it tells us significant information, we still have more questions than we have answers at this time,” Crump said of the results.

The still-unknown circumstances around Wells’ death have touched off rampant online speculation and prompted calls from Black leaders for transparency from local authorities. Wells, who was Black, had traveled to the island with a group of high school friends, all of whom are white.

A reward of $125,000 — jointly funded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, actor and producer Tyler Perry and former NFL player Terrell Owens — is now being offered in exchange for information leading to an arrest and conviction in connection with the death.

The autopsy announcement comes two days after Wells was laid to rest in his hometown of Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

In his eulogy, Sharpton lamented the “inconsistencies and unanswered questions” that had placed a dark cloud over the grieving family.

He questioned why Wells’ friends had left him behind, taken his phone and keys and failed to report him missing. And he suggested local investigators had spoken prematurely in statements to the news media indicating no crime was suspected.

“The reason that a lot of people across the nation are looking at this Nolan situation is because we’re looking at the history in Mississippi,” Sharpton added. “We can’t have someone in law enforcement saying there was no foul play before there was an investigation.”

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

“We are trying to be respectful and collaborative as much as we can,” Crump said. “But it’s always troublesome to all of us when these investigations just take forever.”

___

An earlier version of this report had an incorrect first name for the forensic pathologist. He's Dr. Roger Mitchell, not Robert Mitchell.

The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the service members' remains were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. It was the third that Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.

Speaking at an event in Georgia hours later, Trump described the ritual as “the toughest thing I do.”

“I’ve been there many times before," he said of Dover. “This was, in particular, something very sad.”

Earlier in the day, Trump said his message to families was simple: “We love you. We love your child," Trump told reporters.

Trump was accompanied at the dignified transfer by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

Fallen troops came from Hawaii, Texas, New York and North Carolina

Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan were returned during the dignified transfer. The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks were also returned, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.

The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, the Defense Department said.

The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, North Carolina.

Trump said Feehan's family accepted an invitation to join him on Air Force One on Wednesday as he traveled to an event in Georgia, where the family lives. Speaking at the event in Marietta, Trump described Feehan as a “flawless” person who was “going all the way — he was going to be a general.”

“We will carry Tyler's memory in our hearts forever, and I just want to thank you," he told Feehan’s parents during his remarks. “It’s an honor to have you here today.”

Trump previously said the soldiers died while protecting America and other nations from Iran.

“We feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran “in honor” of the fallen troops.

Trump vows to retaliate for each US death

The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, “they will pay for that killing many times over!”

Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.

Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.

“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he said. “If we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.” He added that "we let other people do the job — and sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.”

Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.

Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March.

Soldier had planned to marry fiance and attend law school

Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

Feehan’s family said in a statement that their hearts were shattered by his loss. They remembered Feehan, who went by “Tivo,” as someone who “packed in more living” in his 25 years than most do in a lifetime.

“He chased adventure relentlessly,” the statement said. “He believed deeply in the power of military service, especially what it builds in a person: discipline, leadership, character.”

He planned to marry his fiance and attend law school after his deployment. The family said they’re starting a scholarship in his name.

Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.

Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday's attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.

In a brief statement, Rampersad’s family called her a “gentle giant” who “stood up for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.”

“She loved her family fiercely and will live on in the hearts of everyone she touched,” the statement said.

Deonne Jinkins, 22, a friend, said Rampersad “loved deeply, cared genuinely, and always made people feel seen and important.”

Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

___

Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.

That work was far from done when a new round of storms began pummeling the state this week, triggering catastrophic flash floods in some of the same areas devastated in 2025. At least two people died. Hundreds needed rescue.

But residents in some hard-hit areas said a year of preparation did make a difference. Newly installed flood sirens sounded in the darkness, warning people to get out. Phones buzzed with alerts that weren't sent out in last year's disaster.

Still, stories of people surprised to find their homes inundated by rising rivers illustrate the challenges of trying to bolster early warning systems in a vast, rural area known as Flash Flood Alley.

Some agencies were more proactive about sending wireless alerts

Over the last decade, a variety of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to implement flood warning systems along the Guadalupe River, the AP reported after last summer’s floods killed 136 people, including 28 at a sleepaway camp for girls.

That changed after the tragedy as lawmakers and others scrutinized a lack of preparedness by government agencies and riverside camps.

Unlike last summer, when local officials in Kerr County said they had been reluctant to “cry wolf” and order evacuations and failed to send out wireless alerts to warn of flash floods, Kerr County issued four alerts and the city of Kerrville issued one early on Thursday as the risk for flooding became apparent, according to an Associated Press review of available data.

They warned residents along Quinlan Creek to evacuate to higher ground, and of “extremely dangerous” flash flooding. Those alerts came alongside flood watches, warnings and emergencies sent to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones by the National Weather Service. People who signed up for the CodeRED notification emergency system in Kerr County also received text message warnings.

“Last year, we got no alarms. We had no idea what was going on,” said Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind, of Kerrville.

“This year, very different,” she said, with multiple texts and calls coming in from local authorities, a weather channel and her doorbell camera. One night the warnings arrived “about every two hours.”

“I think we would all like to err on the side of too much,” she said.

The warnings didn't reach everyone

Between the early morning hours of Tuesday and about 9 a.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service sent 38 alerts to people in certain southwest Texas communities, including 14 tornado warnings and 24 warnings that flooding was occurring or imminent and could be “life threatening.”

Those Weather Service notifications, though, often don’t contain the highly localized information put in alerts sometimes sent by municipal and county emergency agencies — and people in some places may not have gotten any of those local alerts, which can be more decisive for people considering whether to seek high ground.

An Associated Press review of wireless emergency alert data did not find any listed as sent by agencies in Uvalde County, which was hit hard by flooding, though agencies in that county might have used other means to alert the public.

Jaclyn Gonzales was awakened at 2 a.m. Wednesday by a friend who called to warn that a tornado might be headed toward her Uvalde-area home. When she jumped out of bed, the floor was wet.

“It was the shock of the water to my feet that made me really wake up,” she said.

Kat Sprawls only learned floodwaters were nearing her Batesville home when a friend called her at 3:30 a.m. Friday. It took five or six calls before she woke up, because she had her phone on do-not-disturb mode.

“There's no warning system at all. It's just like the flood in Kerrville last year — we had no warnings,” Sprawls said. “Over half of Batesville is under water now."

Zavala County Sheriff's Department secretary Jessica Belmarez said the department is updating its Facebook page with evacuation information and that law enforcement officers were going door-to-door in affected areas, including Batesville.

The network of flood sirens is expanding

Newly installed sirens in Ingram and in Kerr and Kendall counties were used this week to warn residents, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who authored legislation in 2025 to help fund the sirens. Twenty-eight additional counties are also eligible for flood warning funding. Most are in the process of putting together implementation plans for review by the Texas Water Development Board.

“Between the outdoor sirens, and the cellphone alerts, the response was very positive in getting people out of the way and to higher ground,” Bettencourt said. “It’s an enormous improvement over a year ago.”

Three of six new sirens installed in Kerr County were used to warn people to seek high ground, said Tara Bushnoe, manager of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority. The other three were in areas with only minor flooding, Bushnoe said.

The small town of Comfort had one warning siren for years. The volunteer fire department recently installed two more.

“Some people just don’t want to leave — that’s our problem here,” said Danny Morales, the assistant fire chief. “But we did set them off twice, probably an hour from one to another, just because we had people just lingering, and not wanting to move."

Private companies are working to fill the gaps

Ian Cunningham founded River Sentry after the 2025 floods, building flood siren towers for privately owned sites like RV parks, camps and hotels. The sirens are triggered by rising water levels.

So far, the company has installed 104 sirens along the Guadalupe River, Cunningham said, including several near the site of an RV park where more than three dozen people died in 2025.

“We installed them about three months ago and did not expect them to be used so soon,” Cunningham said.

Hohonu, which has developed water-level sensor technology and a real-time data network, received a state contract that will make it easier for agencies to purchase its flood warning technology.

Watch Duty, a fire-tracking app used by millions, expanded earlier this year to help monitor floods.

Officials say the changes saved lives

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the lessons of 2025 led to a better emergency response this time.

“Everybody in Texas has been far more prepared to deal with what has happened this year,” Abbott said during a news conference in Uvalde. “Lives have been saved.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Hohonu.

___

Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Jesse Bedayn in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report.

Officer Rafael Morado, a three-year veteran of SAPD, was handed an indefinite suspension May 26 for violating rules including emergency vehicle responses and truthfulness of members, city discipline records show.

On Dec. 29, while operating a marked patrol unit, Morado disregarded six red lights and at times traveled at speeds that were twice the speed limit, according to records. The code-two designation assigned to the call prohibited officers from driving in this manner.

While responding to the call, Morado and an officer in a second patrol unit crashed into each other at Brady Boulevard and South Calaveras Street, records show.

Neither officer notified a supervisor of the crash, and they continued to the call, according to records.

SAPD supervisors learned of the wreck 13 days later, after another officer reported that the vehicle he was assigned to was damaged.

At roll call a day later, on Jan. 12, Morado came forward after a supervisor asked if anyone had information about the damage.

According to records, Morado verbally stated he struck a curb.

While later filling out a vehicle damage form, however, Morado wrote he was unsure if he struck the lead vehicle or a curb, records show.

It remains unclear if the other officer in the wreck has been disciplined.

Read also:

• Records: SAPD officer found passed out in front of far West Side bar suspended 30 days

Luminate, the industry data and analytics company that provides insight into changing behaviors across music listenership, examined streams of each song performed by each musician two days before the final (Friday and Saturday) and compared those figures to the final and the day afterward (Sunday and Monday.)

They found:

1. Global streams of Justin Bieber's “Everything Hallelujah” more than doubled, rising 110% from 592,000 streams to 1.25 million.

2. Global streams of Madonna's “Music” rose 66%, from 193,000 streams to 321,000.

3. BTS' “Dynamite” also grew in terms of global streams, from 2.14 million to 3.05 million for an increase of 43%.

4. And Shakira and Burna Boy's official anthem for the 2026 World Cup, “Dai Dai,” also saw a slight bump for an addition of 3.48 million new global streams. That's a 24% increase, from 14.78 million to 18.27 million. In the U.S. alone, streams of “Dai Dai” rose 52%, from 1.68 million streams to 2.55 million.

Luminate also found that the aforementioned artists only saw considerable jumps in the songs they performed on the field last weekend as opposed to their full catalogs. That phenomenon is more common for Super Bowl halftime performers.

Take Bad Bunny for example: After his record-breaking performance this year, streams of his catalog jumped 175% in the U.S. on the day after the Super Bowl, when compared to the previous Monday.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1%, coming off its best day in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 6 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%.

Despite the modest moves for indexes, stocks had some big swings underneath the surface. Philip Morris International rallied 3.3% after the seller of Marlboro cigarettes reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. Its shipments of smoke-free products rose 7.5%.

AT&T climbed 3.5% after reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. CEO John Stankey also said the telecom is accelerating plans to send roughly $10 billion to its shareholders this year through the buybacks of its stock.

Super Micro Computer soared 19.8% after the seller of AI servers said it expects to report stronger profit margins for the latest quarter than it had earlier forecast. It, though, also said that revenue will likely come in at the low end of its forecasted range of $11 billion to $12.5 billion.

On the losing side of the market was GE Vernova, which fell 8.7% after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Alphabet sank 1.5% ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after trading ended for the day.

Anticipation was high, and not just because the parent company of Google is one of the largest stocks on Wall Street. It’s also one of the biggest spenders on artificial-intelligence technology.

Investors are looking for signs that the deluge of dollars going into processors, computer memory and other building blocks of the AI boom are producing enough profits to make the investments worth it. If Alphabet and other “hyperscalers” say that isn’t the case, stocks of chip companies and other AI winners would look very expensive following their monumental moves higher.

Such worries have kept AI stocks at the center of Wall Street’s swings for weeks, and they helped drag the market up and down Wednesday.

Micron Technology swung between a loss of 3.6% and a gain of 1.2% before finishing with a drop of 1.2%. That’s after it jumped 14.4% in the first two days of this week to reclaim nearly all its 13.3% plunge from the week before. It’s still up 236% for the year so far.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 10.24 points to 7,498.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 6.06 to 52,218.58, and the Nasdaq composite sank 146.30 to 25,690.90.

Stocks broadly also felt pressure from continuing climbs for oil prices, which raise costs for most businesses and erode their profits.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 3.4% to $94.07 and briefly topped $95 in the morning to touch its highest level in nearly six weeks. That’s up from less than $72 early this month, which is roughly where it was before the war with Iran.

Rising oil prices are threatening a reacceleration of inflation. That in turn could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, which would slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.65% from 4.63% late Tuesday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. It’s already helped bring long-term U.S. mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year.

Oil prices have climbed as fighting in the Middle East keeps oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Persian Gulf. Normally, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes through the narrow strait.

The auto club AAA said Wednesday that the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. jumped again overnight to $4.06. That’s still below highs of around $4.56 per gallon in May, but it had been below $3 before the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed in Europe following a mixed session in Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.2%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

___

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

• TRIPLE DIGITS: Likely reaching 100° this afternoon, with a heat index of 105°+
• T.S. BERTHA: Weak storm will impact Louisiana today, minimal impact on Texas Coast tomorrow
• NUECES & FRIO RIVERS: Continue to flood near Cotulla & Tilden

FORECAST

100° TODAY

San Antonio hits its first 100° day of 2026 today, about a month late. With heat indices reaching 105°–110°, please use caution outdoors today while acclimating to these triple-digit temperatures.

Other than the heat, there is a small (20%) possibility for a stray shower overnight, with the approach of a very weak Tropical Storm Bertha.

T.S. BERTHA

Tropical Storm Bertha is weakening as it nears the Louisiana coast, bringing minor rain and wind to New Orleans.

The system will continue to dissipate as it tracks west toward Texas, causing minimal impact to the coastal plains on Thursday before disappearing by Friday morning. Bertha poses no significant threats to travel and will be gone by the weekend.

NUECES & FRIO RIVERS

It is taking a long time for the nearly 500 billion gallons of water that fell last week to drain into Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christi along the Nueces and Frio Rivers. Areas of Cotulla and Tilden along the rivers are still flooded. Cotulla, specifically, can expect the Nueces to remain at major flood stage through the weekend.

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.

It's a second trial for Hadi Matar, who was found guilty in a New York state attempted murder case last year. The federal terror charges focus more on Matar's alleged motive for the attack on the renowned author and free-speech advocate in 2022.

Prosecutors started working Wednesday to persuade jurors that Matar was trying to carry out a 1989 fatwa, or religious ruling, that called for Rushdie's death because of what some Muslims saw as blasphemy in his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.”

“Fulfill the fatwa — that’s what Hadi Matar intended to do,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Lynch said in an opening statement at a federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York, about 70 miles (110 km) from the arts and intellectual retreat where Rushdie was assaulted. The Booker Prize-winning author is expected to testify later this week about the stabbing that nearly killed him and left him blind in one eye.

Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone urged jurors to keep their minds open.

“You’re going to have to ask yourselves: What was Hadi Matar’s intent?” Barone said in his opening. “The government doesn’t know what Hadi intends or what his state of mind was at any time, quite frankly.”

Prosecutors contend that Matar's writings, communications and other materials showed he acted out of loyalty to Iran’s theocratic government and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group; Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa.

A stunned audience saw Rushdie's stabbing

Matar, 28, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. Currently serving a 25-year New York State prison sentence, he faces a potential life sentence if convicted in the federal case.

The attack — which jurors saw on video Wednesday — unfolded in front of a horrified audience at the Chautauqua Institution, where Rushdie was about to discuss writer safety.

His assailant, wearing a medical mask, strode onstage and stabbed Rushdie repeatedly, continuing even as the writer got up and fell backward. Spectators rushed to pull the attacker off Rushdie and held the assailant face-down until a state trooper arrived.

As one of the videos played, Matar, 28, placed his head down on the defense table several times before looking back up at the screen. Otherwise, he spent much of the time writing notes on a yellow pad and exchanged comments with his lawyers.

Rushdie, now 79, has recounted the assault and his lengthy recovery during Matar's earlier trial, in a memoir and in multiple interviews.

“The thing that happens when you get really a close-up look at death — that’s as close as you can get without actually doing the dance of death and heading off to nowhere — it stays with you,” he told The Associated Press in 2024. “There’s a shadow.”

Federal terrorism trial hinges on Matar's motivation

Born in the U.S. to parents who immigrated from Lebanon, Matar is a citizen of both countries. His mother has said he turned moody and withdrawn after a 2018 trip to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.

Prosecutors say his attack on Rushdie was propelled partly by remarks that the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made in 2006, amid an uproar in the Muslim world over caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers. Nasrallah opined that “the problem began the day Salman Rushdie wrote 'The Satanic Verses'” and that the furor over the cartoon wouldn't have happened if someone had followed through on Khomeini’s fatwa.

Matar started researching Rushdie in 2020, asking online contacts where the writer lived and eventually looking into where his office was, what sports teams he followed and where he watched games, Lynch said in his opening statement. He said Matar kept sticky notes and a notebook about his project.

“We need to kill him ASAP,” Matar wrote, according to the prosecutor. He said Matar framed the killing as part of what he considered a jihad, or holy war, and added: “Become a warrior and just get it over with.”

In Matar’s New Jersey bedroom, federal agents found photos of Khomeini, his now-deceased successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a Hezbollah figure, Lynch said. Matar's computer held a photo of him saluting in a Hezbollah-related T-shirt, plus a video about Khomeini’s fatwa, and Matar asked a contact in 2022 whether the edict was still valid, the prosecutor said.

On the day of the attack, Matar carried a fake driver's license in a Hezbollah figure's name, prosecutors said.

“The defendant wanted everyone to know he was doing this for Hezbollah," Lynch told jurors.

Matar declined to testify at his state court trial, and it's unclear whether he will take the stand in federal court. At his state court sentencing, Matar said he believed in free speech but blasted Rushdie as “a hypocrite” and a “bully.”

How Ayatollah's edict affected Rushdie

Rushdie was born in India, raised in Britain — where he was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II — and now is a U.S. citizen. He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his novel “Midnight’s Children” and became most famous, and notorious, for “The Satanic Verses.” A dream sequence about the Prophet Muhammad sparked often-violent protests erupted against Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim family.

Khomeini's 1989 fatwa drove Rushdie into hiding for years. Although the edict was rescinded, Iran hasn’t focused on it in recent years. Iran's government denied involvement in the 2022 stabbing, but its Foreign Ministry's then-spokesperson suggested Rushdie invited trouble by insulting Islam.

Hezbollah's Nasrallah did not comment on the attack.

After “Knife,” Rushdie's memoir about the stabbing, he returned to fiction with last year's “The Eleventh Hour,” a book of short stories and novellas. He was recognized with a Dayton Literary Peace Prize lifetime achievement award in November.

___

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut.

Trump’s latest threat to target civilian infrastructure came as the unpopular war spirals with no clear off-ramp, threatening further worldwide economic disruption and sending fuel prices up ahead of midterm U.S. elections this fall. Both sides have dug in on their dispute over the strait, a crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed because of Iranian attacks.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country would adopt an “eye for an eye” defense doctrine.

“Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response,” he posted Wednesday on X.

The U.S. carried out another wave of strikes on Iran overnight into Wednesday, and air defenses opened fire over the capital, Tehran. Iran launched a missile attack on a Jordanian city on Israel’s doorstep, and alerts were issued in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

With negotiations largely stalled, both sides have sought leverage by targeting civilian infrastructure. Iran has responded to U.S. attacks by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants that provide drinking water in parched neighboring Gulf countries.

International law generally prohibits such attacks unless the infrastructure is being used for military purposes. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried such attacks as “unacceptable” on Tuesday.

The costs of war are mounting

The closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passed during peacetime, has jolted the world economy with effects far beyond the Middle East. A new threat by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea puts another trade chokepoint at risk.

“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” Trump wrote on social media.

Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday for the arrival of the remains of four U.S. service members. A day earlier, his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, estimated in a fiery Senate hearing that the U.S. had spent $37.5 billion on the war so far.

Benchmark Brent crude oil rose to more than $93 a barrel in trading. That's up from less than $72 early this month, which is roughly where it was before the war. Gasoline prices are also climbing.

Iran says it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees in the strait, which was open to all and toll-free before the war. It has attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by U.S. forces and intended to be outside Tehran's control.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led negotiations with the U.S., appeared to brush off Trump's threats.

“If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe, and the security of the strait is in the absence of American forces,” he wrote on social media. “We have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to prewar conditions.”

Attacks shake Iran and Jordan

Jordan’s military said it intercepted four Iranian missiles over Aqaba, while two others fell in “uninhabited areas.” Plumes of smoke could be seen overhead in videos filmed by people in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat. Jordan said it also intercepted four Iranian drones.

Iran has avoided striking Israel since hostilities resumed last month, apparently hoping to keep it from reentering the war. But the attack on Aqaba, within sight of Israel’s Eilat, raised concerns over a further widening of the conflict after an agreement to halt hostilities collapsed.

Another missile alert sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia warned residents of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam to seek shelter. Saudi authorities later said the danger had passed, without elaborating.

The U.S. military said earlier Wednesday that it had completed an 11th night of strikes on Iran, with targets including aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported explosions across several provinces. Iran's Health Ministry says U.S. strikes over the past 11 days have killed 53 people, including six women and three children, and wounded nearly 600 people.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted its retaliatory attacks would continue.

Diplomatic efforts show no signs of progress

Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Zeinivand said “diplomacy isn’t called off” and that messages were still being exchanged, without elaborating, according to IRNA.

An Arab diplomat said Gulf states are increasingly pessimistic about finding an off-ramp for escalating hostilities and are particularly concerned about the latest round of threats in which the two sides have warned they may attack civilian infrastructure.

The diplomat said countries in the region, in addition to Pakistan and Turkey, are continuing to push for de-escalation. But, he said the chances for any improvement currently appear bleak. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

At a regional summit in the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Iran’s actions in the strait.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.

Rubio said the U.S. remains open to negotiations with Iran, “but right now they don’t seem to be serious about that” so instead the focus is on protecting shipping.

In response to Iran’s attacks, the U.S. re-imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

Trump signals US may attack underground nuclear site

Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had “no interest in meeting.”

He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an under-construction Iranian nuclear site buried deep under a mountain.

The site, known as Pickaxe Mountain, lies on the south side of Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which was bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in 2025. But Pickaxe Mountain has remained untouched as Iran continues to dig at the site.

Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, while resuming the enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels since Trump scrapped a 2015 nuclear deal during his first term. The U.S. and others believe Iran had a nuclear weapons program until 2003 and may reconstitute it in the future.

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Binkley reported from Washington. Contributing were Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Michelle L. Price and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

Juan Montez, 57, was initially last seen Sunday morning in the 600 block of Edgebrook Lane, according to DPS.

Below is the original story from Tuesday, July 21.

ORIGINAL: A CLEAR Alert has been issued for a missing 57-year-old man last seen on the city’s North Side.

Juan Montez, who may be in danger, was last seen at approximately 9 a.m. on July 19 in the 600 block of Edgebrook Lane, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Montez is described as 5 feet and 9 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. DPS said Montez was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, blue shorts and sandals.

The agency said Montez could be traveling in a silver 2016 Chrysler 200 with the Texas license plate VKN9978.

Anyone with information on Montez’s whereabouts is asked to contact the San Antonio Police Department at 210-207-7660 or 911.

The National Hurricane Center said Bertha made landfall in St. Bernard Parish, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of New Orleans.

The wind and storm surge were the main threats for the Deep South states. Parks and piers were closed up and down the coast, as were some low-lying roads. A tropical storm warning stretched from Alabama over to Louisiana, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain where extreme heat was also adding to misery, the National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical storm force winds were felt as much as 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the center of the storm, the hurricane center said.

The storm will weaken steadily now that it’s reached land and is unlikely to leave behind widespread damage, Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes said. The impact should be manageable for coastal communities, he said.

Gov. Jeff Landry called the forecast “encouraging” but also warned residents to be prepared for some flooding.

Storm surges up to 3 feet (1 meter) were possible in Louisiana and Alabama, forecasters said. Rain totals were forecast between 1 to 4 inches (3 to 10 centimeters), with higher amounts possible in isolated areas.

Bertha is expected to continue losing strength over the next few days as it heads toward Texas after the storm earlier trudged past the Florida Panhandle and the tips of Alabama and Mississippi. At landfall, the storm's maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph (72 kph).

Elsewhere in the U.S. this week, a line of storms generated reports of tornadoes stretching from Cincinnati to New Jersey. Torrential rains caused flash floods Tuesday night that swamped homes, washed out bridges and led to water rescues in West Virginia, authorities said.

Rare combination of tropical storm and heat warnings

Southern Louisiana was under tropical storm and extreme heat warnings for much of Wednesday — a rare double dose of suffering, the National Weather Service said.

It’s the first time in at least two decades that’s happened in the area, the weather service said, citing records that date back to 2005.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of Atlantic season

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur in June brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern U.S.

Bertha could dump heavy rain on coastal areas of Mississippi that are still recovering from flooding brought by Arthur that destroyed and damaged homes.

Hurricane Fausto in the Pacific is far from land

In the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned far from land Wednesday. The hurricane was hundreds of miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

It was forecast to gradually strengthen and the hurricane center warned that ocean swells generated by Fausto could cause life-threatening surf and rip tide conditions on the Baja California coast.

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Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.

In a video, Mamdani described the Israeli prime minister as a “war criminal” and said he is not welcome in New York City.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” he said in the video posted on X. “The federal government however does and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” he added, referring to the International Criminal Court.

Mamdani had told the New York Times earlier this month that he and the city’s legal department were discussing arresting Netanyahu if he comes to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly in September.

President Donald Trump on Monday told Netanyahu in a social media post that he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.” The post did not directly mention Mamdani.

Mamdani had said throughout his mayoral election campaign last year that he would seek to order the city’s police to arrest Netanyahu under the criminal court's warrant over Netanyahu’s role in the war in Gaza.

In his video message Tuesday, Mamdani said his administration has reviewed all avenues available and determined the city can't execute the arrest warrant.

“I want to be equally clear, Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large,” he said.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., responded by telling the mayor “enough.”

“You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda,” he said in a statement on social media. “Do your job!”

The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in 2024, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

They said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny.

Rita Elizondo, 73, was sentenced to six years of deferred adjudication and must pay back her 104-year-old mother Maria $14,000 as part of a plea agreement accepted in 399th Criminal District Court on Tuesday.

Elizondo must also perform 120 hours of community service, court records show.

Elizondo, a longtime political consultant who served as SAHCC’s president from 1998 to 2004, was indicted late last year on accusations she drained tens of thousands of dollars from her mother’s bank accounts while serving as her power of attorney.

Elizondo pleaded no contest to financial abuse of the elderly between $2,500 and $30,000. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors waived additional charges of misapplication of financial property between $2,500 and $30,000 and exploitation of the elderly, records show.

Her sentencing hearing included a recorded statement from Maria, who previously asked KSAT not to use her last name.

“At my age, every postponement carries a weight. No amount of money can restore what was broken,” Maria read on camera.

“This was a family dispute that has finally been resolved,” Elizondo’s attorney, Gerry Goldstein, told KSAT via telephone Wednesday,

Although records obtained by KSAT show the unauthorized transactions totaled more than $48,000, Elizondo was charged under statutes covering fraud up to $30,000 only.

Unauthorized transactions included skin rejuvenation and large mortgage payment

The transactions included cash withdrawals of $5,000 and $2,000, $910 on skin rejuvenation in Elizondo’s name and a payment to a mortgage company of $17,797.53, all made within a two-week period in March and April 2024, financial records show.

Maria eventually sent Elizondo a demand letter informing her that the unauthorized transactions caused her great financial harm.

The letter revoked Elizondo’s power of attorney and demanded that more than $48,000 be paid back.

Maria’s family previously confirmed to KSAT that they attempted to settle the matter through mediation, but Elizondo declined to comply with it.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

The deal — confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the decision who were not authorized to discuss details and spoke on condition of anonymity — could allow the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia after a joint U.S.-Saudi study.

Though he wouldn’t confirm the deal, Rubio sought to head off emerging criticism of the decision under questioning by reporters about the risk that helping the Saudis fulfill their long-standing desire to enrich their own uranium could lead to new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition in a volatile region.

“The U.S. is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation,” said Rubio, who was traveling in the Philippines on Wednesday.

The agreement is not expected to include the International Atomic Energy Agency 's Additional Protocol, which would allow for more monitoring, inspections and verification, according to one of the people familiar with the decision.

The deal, which would last 30 years and involve U.S. firms in developing the program, is expected to be submitted for review to Congress, where it could face opposition.

The expected announcement comes during the war against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel, in part, to wipe out Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful.

The White House and Saudi officials in Riyadh did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on the decision, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Alexander Bollfrass, a nuclear expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, called the deal “a revolutionary new approach” to nuclear nonproliferation policy.

“The revolutionary aspect of this agreement is that the United States is not asking Saudi Arabia to abide by the highest possible safeguards, internationally monitored safeguards that are standard and are available today, but instead is willing to at least theoretically transfer highly sensitive technology without the same level of oversight that one would expect,” Bollfrass said.

Both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology.

Enrichment could open the door to weaponization

Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Saudi Arabia last year shortly before Trump visited and discussed building out the kingdom’s commercial nuclear power industry with his Saudi counterpart. The U.S. Department of Energy has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

Some lawmakers are hesitant about giving Saudis enrichment capability

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the West's concerns over Iran’s program.

The United Arab Emirates, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the UAE did so without seeking enrichment, something nonproliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.

Rubio, as a Republican senator representing Florida, backed a bipartisan 2018 proposal that called for requiring Congress to approve any 123 agreement with Saudi Arabia. The bill was reintroduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers in March but has not passed into law.

Typically, 123 agreements — which authorize U.S. companies to sell nuclear technology abroad — go into effect unless veto-proof majorities of Congress pass joint resolutions of disapproval.

Rosemary Kelanic, the Middle East director at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank, said that uranium enrichment capability could give Saudi Arabia “a potent source of leverage to extract future concessions from Washington, including new security guarantees, by threatening to weaponize its program unless the United States promises enhanced military protection.”

“Giving Riyadh uranium enrichment could functionally enmesh the United States with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia forever,” Kelanic added.

US firms could be winners in expected deal

Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, predicted the expected deal would benefit U.S. nuclear giant Westinghouse, which builds the large light-water reactors Saudi Arabia is seeking.

The Trump administration said last month it is providing $17.5 billion in loans to speed development of 10 new large nuclear reactors designed by Westinghouse to meet skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers. The new reactors could use the same design, Westinghouse’s AP1000, in the planned Saudi deal.

Sherman said the U.S. military is “bombing Iran because they insist upon enriching and reprocessing” nuclear material.

Now it appears that U.S. officials “are entering into an agreement with Saudi Arabia, giving them the green light to reprocess and to enrich, and the only difference I see here is that Westinghouse stands to make an awful lot of money on this deal, whereas the Iranians were not enriching American companies,” Sherman said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

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Price reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The testimony from Benjamin Gregor came on the second day of a preliminary hearing in a Los Angeles court to determine whether there is enough evidence to put D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, on trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and mutilation of a body.

“I knew her first name,” Gregor said.

The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, later asked Gregor where he had heard the name Celeste. He said from Rob Morgenroth, D4vd's manager.

“Did he tell you she was his girlfriend?” Silverman asked, but objections prevented an answer.

Burke’s lawyers have said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death, and he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors allege Burke fatally stabbed Rivas Hernandez to prevent her from revealing their relationship and ruining his career.

Hearing got heated as relationship explored

Gregor was one of two witnesses called to discuss Burke’s finances, to indicate how much he had to lose, and whether the killing could have meant financial gain.

But the questioning, which got increasingly heated, swerved into who among the people around Burke knew he was in a sexual relationship with the teen.

Silverman asked Gregor if he knew Burke had taken Rivas Hernandez to London with him, and to Texas to meet his family. He said he had heard about the London trip.

The prosecutor asked if he had heard about Burke taking Rivas Hernandez to nightclubs, with both of them using fake IDs. Burke only recently turned 21.

This drew angry objections from Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.

“Counsel is testifying!” she said.

Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo, who will decide whether there is probable cause for trial, cut off the line of questioning.

Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Burke, an indie-pop singer whose music and online presence brought him a huge following, met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11 and began a sexual relationship with her when she was 13 and he was 18.

They said in a court filing that she had grown jealous of his relationships with other women and threatened to expose him.

Officer details finding girl's passport in area where Burke had been

The court filing said Burke sent a car to pick up Rivas Hernandez on April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles (129 km) outside Los Angeles. They exchanged messages until she arrived at his home, after which her phone went dead. Prosecutors say he stabbed her when she arrived.

A California Highway Patrol officer testified Wednesday that a road worker in January had found Rivas Hernandez’s passport in a brushy dirt area in a rural section of Santa Barbara County, about 95 miles (150 km) northwest of Burke’s Hollywood home.

Prosecutors have said Burke made two trips to the area, once in April 2025 immediately after the killing and again about six weeks later, where data shows he was at the spot where the passport was found.

On Tuesday, the lead investigator, Los Angeles police homicide detective Joshua Byers, testified that records showed Burke had ordered a body bag, chain saws, an inflatable pool and a shovel online, and most of the items were found in Burke's garage when a search warrant was served.

Prosecutors say he dismembered her body in the garage, and kept it in the front trunk of his Tesla, where it was found after the car was towed 4 1/2 months later in September.

Byers testified that when he was called to the Hollywood tow yard, a body bag matching the one Burke had ordered contained a head and torso, with arms and legs underneath in garbage bags.

Photos of the body in the open trunk were shown in court as her parents, Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez, sat in the audience. The two were back in the courtroom on Wednesday. They are not expected to testify at the hearing.

The defendant, who has been held without bail since his arrest, appeared in court in his orange jail clothes and glasses.

D4vd made millions between 2023 and 2025

The financial witnesses testified that Burke's music had earned him at least $10 million between 2023 and 2025.

Under the name D4vd (pronounced “David”), he began writing and recording songs for YouTube videos he created of the video game Fortnite as a teen.

The music was a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour. Last year, he performed at the Coachella music festival and released a full album that he was on tour promoting when the body was discovered.

Adams, 25, was charged with possession of a firearm obtained in a crime, possession of a restricted/prohibited firearm, no license while in possession of a loaded firearm and possessing a prohibited device, according to an online release from the Durham Regional Police Service in Ontario.

Adams was one of four people arrested.

“Isaiah is completely innocent in this matter,” Adams’ attorney Adam Weisberg said in a statement. “He had no knowledge of any firearm, and he will be fully exonerated.”

The report says that on Friday, police concluded an investigation into a male believed to be in possession of a firearm and involved in drug trafficking. Two of the other people arrested were charged with possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.

The Cardinals are scheduled to have their first practice of training camp on Thursday. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Adams was expected to be in camp Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting on the details of Adams' situation.

“We are aware of the situation involving Isaiah Adams,” the Cardinals said in a statement. “Out of respect for the process, we will refrain from commenting further at this time.”

Adams — who was born in Ajax, Ontario — is a third-year player for the Cardinals and in the mix for a starting job. He was a third-round pick out of Illinois in 2024.

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

“Texas should be a leader when it comes to innovation and technology, but that only works if Texans get a say and get a share of that economic growth — and that’s not what’s happening right now,” Talarico said at a news conference in Austin where he rolled out his plan. “We’re often told in our politics that we have to choose between policies that are pro-growth and pro-people. I reject that choice, and the plan that we’re outlining today to hold data centers accountable, I think, strikes a balance between welcoming those investments while also protecting working people.”

Talarico’s proposals include:

• setting minimum federal requirements to protect the grid, environment, jobs and transparency related to new data center development, “preventing a race to the bottom for communities competing to recruit data centers;”
• ending “sweetheart tax deals for big tech companies” by repealing the state’s data center sales tax exemption;
• ensuring large energy users pay for their own infrastructure and grid interconnection costs;
• requiring data centers use closed-loop water systems that reuse a fixed amount of water;
• granting local communities the authority to approve and reject data center development in their towns;
• releasing government records detailing individual tax break data for data center facilities in Texas.

Talarico is among several Texas Democrats pushing back on data centers, calling the rapid influx of the facilities in Texas a product of corporate greed and Republican leadership more sympathetic to big business than everyday people. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for governor, visited Amarillo and Lubbock over the weekend on a tour focused on rural communities’ concerns about data centers, and she was poised to announce her own data center plan Thursday.

“Data centers are jacking up utility bills across the state of Texas,” Talarico said. “Billionaire-backed politicians are giving sweetheart tax deals to giant AI companies and then sticking us with the bill.”

The Texas Tribune reported in April that the state is poised to lose $3.2 billion in tax revenue over the next two years because of a sales tax exemption granted to data centers that lawmakers first approved in 2013, when the facilities were smaller and used fewer resources. Local officials have asked the state to give them more authority to regulate data center development in their communities. Tracking data center growth in Texas is also difficult, as the state does not log new data center construction, and information about their location and energy use has not been made public.

Republican officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have recently projected greater concern around the impact of data center development on communities, though President Donald Trump remains a staunch advocate for the rapid growth of AI-related facilities. Talarico’s GOP opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been quieter on the issue. A spokesperson for Paxton’s campaign did not immediately provide comment Wednesday.

Recent public polling found that a majority of Texans oppose the construction of data centers in their community, with opposition strongest in rural communities, where data centers are more likely to be built and which have historically voted red.

Last week, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt and Clayton Tucker — the Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor, comptroller and agriculture commissioner, respectively — backed a moratorium on data center development.

“This isn’t about being anti-technology, it’s not about being anti-AI,” Tucker, who has made reining in data center development central to his campaign, said. “It’s about who controls that AI. Because right now, it’s not us. It is a few greedy folks from Wall Street, from Silicon Valley, some of them not even based in the United States.”

Talarico did not call for a moratorium, saying he wanted to support innovation and technology while ensuring local communities had a say in projects looking to build near them. Projects that did not meet “basic guardrails,” he said, should not move ahead.

His plan overlaps significantly with a sweeping regulatory scheme Abbott proposed last month. Abbott later also called for a ban on data center development in “rural neighborhoods.”

The three-term governor, who is running for a fourth, previously championed the growth of data centers, declaring in November that Texas would become the “epicenter of AI development” while announcing Google had made a $40 billion investment in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in the state. Lawmakers passed an addition to the sales tax exemption in 2015, during Abbott’s first term.

Talarico said Wednesday he didn’t know the details of Abbott’s plan, but that he was “willing to work with anybody, including the governor, to pass these commonsense regulations.”

“It should be plain for anybody to see, whether it’s the governor or whether it’s our campaign,” he said. “All of us are hearing the same thing from Texans all over the state, and that is that we don’t have a balance between welcoming growth and protecting people.”

In a statement to the Tribune after the news conference, Talarico said the governor “signed one of the country’s biggest data center giveaways. If he is serious about helping working Texans, he should immediately end these sweetheart tax breaks for data centers.”

Disclosure: Google 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.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the June 1 trial date at the request of lawyers on both sides. Under the approved schedule, defense lawyers will begin filing requests in early September to challenge the indictment and the couple will return to the courtroom Nov. 17 for oral arguments on the motions.

Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.

Neither spoke during Wednesday’s 15-minute hearing as each sat separately at a defense table, surrounded by their lawyers. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.

As he was led into the courtroom, the bespectacled Maduro greeted the judge’s staff and shook hands with lawyers for him and his wife. Noticeably thinner in a tan jail suit and with his thick mustache, he seemed upbeat, smiling and chatting with his lawyer. He listened to a Spanish interpretation of the proceeding through headphones and clasped his hands in front of him in a prayerlike gesture. He had a black pen wedged in his right fingers and sporadically jotted notes on a white pad.

As deputy U.S. marshals led him out, he waved to someone in the gallery.

President Donald Trump’s administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a “surgical law enforcement operation” in a criminal case first brought six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.

U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.

“I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,” he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.

Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said he expects to contest the legality of Maduro’s “military abduction.”

During Wednesday's hearing, Pollack said he will first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because if that is successful, Maduro won't have to continue litigating the case.

The lawyers have said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before a trial can begin.

Maduro and Flores have not asked to be released on bail.

Xavier Isiah Gutierrez, 21, is accused of impersonating another inmate with the first name “Xavier,” who was scheduled to be released from custody, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Authorities said Gutierrez is 6 feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes.

At the time of Sunday’s escape, the sheriff’s office said Gutierrez was jailed stemming from a felony theft case in Brazoria County and an evading arrest warrant out of Pearland.

Deputies said they have now issued a warrant for Gutierrez on an escape charge, which is considered a third-degree felony.

“An investigation is currently underway to determine the circumstances surrounding this escape, including how Mr. Gutierrez was able to be released while impersonating another inmate,” HCSO said in a news release.

The sheriff’s office said it is reviewing the incident and is “committed to identifying any necessary improvements to its procedures and safeguards” to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

Anyone with information on Gutierrez’s escape is asked contact Detective Mike Bishop at michael.bishop@hayscountytx.gov or dispatch at 512-393-7896.

Individuals can also contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-324-8477 or submit a tip online.

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So when Kovar, 64, bought a Ford F-150 last fall, his hope was to be better prepared for any new crisis.

“I was interested in trying to find some sort of power backup situation,” he said.

Now, Kovar has a setup from Ford that allows drivers of certain F-150 models to plug their vehicle directly into their electric meter to power parts of their home during an outage.

It is the latest example of automakers broadly adapting their electrification technologies to the home energy business, especially as demand on the grid increases and sales of electric vehicles slow. Car companies are looking to leverage their multibillion dollar EV investments to tap into a promising market in vehicle, home and grid technology, both for backup power and for supporting electrical grid resiliency.

“They’re trying to look for other businesses that they might sell into,” said Parth Vaishnav, assistant professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan.

Ford's latest connects F-150 drivers to their meter

Drivers of the F-150 PowerBoost hybrid and F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks can now plug in a one-foot long adapter to a 240-volt outlet onboard. That adapter — which Ford made with company Global Power Products — makes the vehicle compatible to plug into a longer, separate cable. That cable connects to a transfer switch installed directly on one's electric meter.

Through the adapter and cable series, homeowners can connect their vehicle essentially right to their home’s breaker box. The homeowner simply turns on and off which breaker switches they want for which devices they want powered.

“The way we think about it, especially for customers who already have a compatible vehicle is, you already own the power source, it’s in your driveway,” said Amanda Roraff, Ford's grid and energy services business acceleration lead.

The Lightning might provide power for two to three days, depending on what home devices are being used, and the PowerBoost Hybrid, up to five days on a single tank of gas.

The automaker says its solution is a less expensive way to supply backup power. Conventional, diesel-powered portable generators and full-home standby setups require expensive installation, costing several thousands of dollars. This solution, which also requires professional installation at the meter, starts around $1,100.

The setup only applies to about 200,000 vehicles so far, and it is also exclusively for outages. Ford also offers its Home Integration System for bidirectionality, sending power both from the vehicle to the home and from the home to the vehicle, while also being able to feed the grid.

Other automakers are boosting their energy solutions

Over 630,000 U.S. vehicles already have this functionality, estimates say, and automakers are rapidly expanding their available options with the goal of full vehicle-to-grid support in the long run.

South Korean auto brand Kia and Wallbox, an EV charging company, have teamed up so that drivers of eligible compatible vehicles can have home power backup during outages or during periods of high demand, to cut their utility use. They can send power back to the grid.

Tesla’s technology is similar — allowing drivers of equipped vehicles to connect to their home using additional Tesla hardware. The Cybertruck provides full vehicle-to-home capability, where other Tesla models can only connect to and power specific devices or appliances.

General Motors is also in the energy space.

A recent partnership with WeaveGrid, for instance, allows homeowners who drive certain GM EVs — and have the automaker’s home system and a proper grid interconnection — to enroll in some grid reliability utility programs. Once an outage is detected, GM’s vehicle-to-home tech has the capability to disconnect one's home from the grid and start supplying power from their GM EV.

“If you can imagine the future as we go forward, it's having the ability — now that we have this single platform — that allows our customer to experience our system,” said Wade Sheffer, vice president of GM energy, “but also can have the full control of the energy.”

The capability is an important lifeline amid EV sales slowdown

Not only is this business critical amid growing grid demand and increasing power outages, experts say automakers need to pivot with the EV market less active under current U.S. federal policy. Pure EV sales in the U.S. year-over-year are down 23.8%, according to a July Cox Automotive report on the first half of 2026. This demonstrates what an asset that EV and hybrid ownership can be.

The tech is not without challenges.

On the industry side, these systems have to undergo third-party testing to ensure they meet safety standards, and the vehicle and the charger need to be programmed to communicate. It also requires the approval of the utility where the capability is being used. It could take years to get an interconnect agreement.

On the customer side, homeowners need to understand their vehicles' abilities and how to self-manage their system. It also just brings another generator of power into the home mix.

Still, experts see opportunity, especially with interest in EV sales high outside of the U.S.

“We already know during an outage, its impact, providing electricity to the home,” said Scott Samuelsen, engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine. “This is going to become very, very popular.”

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Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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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.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will operate the massive 86-foot-wide curved dome theater and an adjacent 14-theater complex. Alamo's owner, Sony Pictures Entertainment, announced the plan to restore the Dome and reopen it in early 2028.

Alamo's plan will preserve the distinctive Cinerama Dome's geodesic exterior and large logo that have been a Hollywood landmark since the theater opened in 1963. The dome will not have in-theater dining, as is common in other Drafthouse theaters.

“There is no moviegoing destination anywhere in the world that commands the affection, history, and cultural significance of the Cinerama Dome. It represents the kind of singular experience we value and champion,” said Ravi Ahuja, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment. Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kustermann said the dome would be its new West Coast flagship theater.

The dome's massive screen supports 70 mm projection, which is having a moment thanks to Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey.”

It was commissioned in 1963 by Pacific Theatres founder William R. Forman as a state-of-the-art way to see movies using three projectors for its custom curved screen. When the dome closed in April 2021, it was one of only three theaters in the world with that capability. Its operator, Pacific Theaters, announced the closing was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael O’Leary, the president and CEO of the movie theater trade group Cinema United, applauded the news.

“The Cinerama Dome has been a treasured and important landmark for movie fans and the entire film community for over six decades,” O’Leary said in a statement. “The timing could not be better with moviegoers making clear this year that they love the unique experience of seeing a movie on the big screen.”

Alamo Drafthouse will also reopen a 14-theater complex next to the dome that used to be operated by ArcLight Cinemas, which also shut down in 2021. Those theaters will have in-theater dining, although the chain has faced backlash recently for its pivot to an in-seat ordering operation that requires use of personal phones.

A photo snapped by a passing boater sometime Sunday apparently shows them about thigh deep in the Scioto River, fishing poles in hand, standing around a big log. Calm as the surface appeared, the river was running high and fast, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. All five adults ended up drowning, authorities have said.

After the photo was taken, if it was indeed them, the group might have returned to shore. It is not quite clear. What Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer has said is that one of the adults was struggling to swim in the river when several others went into the water to help. All five were swept under, he said.

The two women's bodies were recovered Sunday and the three men's bodies were found Monday.

On Tuesday, Honduran authorities confirmed that four of the five adults were Honduran citizens — Dias and Regalado and another married couple whose names have not yet been released. The fifth adult also has yet to be identified.

Flabia Zamora, director of consular affairs at the Honduran Foreign Ministry, told reporters Tuesday that they were working with U.S. authorities to bring their bodies home.

Zamora said that once U.S. officials have identified all the victims, Honduras will start the repatriation process, which could take at least a month.

She said the couple’s children are in the care of the state of Ohio and that arrangements will be made to reunite them with relatives in Honduras.

One of the children, a boy wrapped only in a towel, fled the riverbank in a panic and ascended to the road as the adults were drowning. According to a passing driver who called 911, “He was screaming, ‘Mama! Mama!’ and he was about to come out onto the road, and he was crying.” She said she was afraid he was headed onto a multilane road that snakes along the Scioto's eastern banks.

Brenda Raya, who described herself as a relative, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover funeral and transportation costs, as well as childcare costs for the two orphaned children. She said they are 8 and 10.

“The emotional and financial burden is overwhelming, and we want to honor the memory of our loved ones while providing for the children left behind,” she wrote.

The drownings occurred along the O’Shaughnessy Reservoir. The reservoir and its 18 miles (29 kilometers) of shoreline are the property of the city of Columbus. According to the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, Jet Skis, tubing and swimming are not permitted in any city of Columbus reservoir.

Lt. Heather Byers, of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said rivers can be deceptively calm on the surface.

“Even though the water doesn’t seem to be moving very quickly, you can still get swept away in very slow-moving water,” she said. “Also, since you can’t always see the bottom, you never know if you’re in, you know, you could be in 2 to 3 feet of water, what you’re comfortable standing in, and then the next thing you know you’re at 4 or 5 feet.”

Besides the currents and the depths, people can catch a foot between the rocks, snag their clothes on a branch or lose their balance on slippery algae.

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González reported from Honduras. Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

Discussion

At 100 PM CDT (1800 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Bertha was located near latitude 29.9 North, longitude 89.1 West. Bertha is moving toward the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 km/h). A westward motion with an increase in forward speed is expected to resume later today and continue through Friday. On the forecast track, the center of Bertha will move near or along the Louisiana and upper Texas coasts through Thursday, and then move farther inland into Texas on Friday.

Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts. Additional weakening is forecast during the next couple of days, but Bertha could maintain tropical storm intensity through late Thursday.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km) from the center. Dauphin Island, Alabama, recently reported a sustained wind of 36 mph (58 km/h) and a gust to 41 mph (66 km/h).

Data from the reconnaissance aircraft indicate that the minimum central pressure is 1000 mb (29.53 inches).

Watches and Warnings

CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY:

The Tropical Storm Warning has been discontinued east of the Alabama/Florida border.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for, * Alabama/Florida border to Morgan City, Louisiana * Metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for, * West of Morgan City, Louisiana, to Sargent, Texas * Lake Maurepas

A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area, in this case within 24 to 36 hours.

A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, in this case within the next 12 to 36 hours.

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

Land Hazards

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

WIND: Tropical storm conditions will continue spreading across portions of the northern Gulf Coast within the warning area today. Tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area in Louisiana by tonight and along the upper Texas coast by Thursday or Thursday night.

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

Alabama/Florida border to Port Bolivar, TX, 1-3 ft Lake Pontchartrain, 1-3 ft

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

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

RAINFALL: Bertha is expected to produce total rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches with isolated higher totals of 6 inches through Friday along the central to western Gulf Coast from Northwest Florida to southern Texas. This rainfall may produce isolated flash flooding, especially in urban areas.

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

SURF: Swells generated by Bertha will continue spreading westward along the northern Gulf Coast during the next few days. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Please consult products from your local weather office.

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

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the worksite just before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 600 block of Gold Coast Drive.

Upon their arrival, deputies said the man worked alongside a crew working on a trench at the location when an apparent “accident happened.”

The worker, who was later identified as Somerset resident Cornelio Martinez, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies said their investigation is ongoing.

More recent local news coverage on KSAT:

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House Republicans are divided over the plan, with conservatives wary because there are no offsetting budget cuts. But the GOP leadership is pushing ahead, viewing the go-it-alone process as the best chance to usher President Donald Trump's priorities through the split Congress, despite skepticism in the Senate.

“Just bullets and bombs to finish the job,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chairman of the Budget Committee.

Democrats argued the money should be spent at home, particularly on efforts to lower costs for Americans.

“Republicans plan to spend tens of billions of dollars on Trump’s failed war in Iran,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, this week. “Think about what we could spend with these resources instead.”

The Congress is at a standstill over the U.S. war against Iran — unable to stop Trump's military strikes, but not having authorized the use of American military force — and politically torn over having to provide billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for it. Most Americans disapprove of Trump's Iran strategy, according to a recent AP-NORC poll.

The budget battle comes as Trump attended the dignified transfer of four service members killed in the Middle East, bringing the military death toll to 18. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators at a fiery hearing this week that the Pentagon is running short of cash, despite a massive $150 billion one-time allotment in last year's big budget bill.

Even if the House hauls the budget resolution forward, Johnson’s strategy faces uncertainty in the Senate.

The package has $60 billion for the Pentagon and $13 billion for other national security needs, $12 billion for farmers struggling under Trump’s tariffs and $10 billion for voting law changes aligned with the SAVE America Act and proof of citizenship requirements that are Trump’s top priority.

A once rare budget tool is now the norm in split Congress

Republicans are relying on the budget reconciliation process, which enables approval on a majority vote in Congress, bypassing the Senate's ability to filibuster the measure t o stall or kill it.

Once rare, the reconciliation process is now Johnson's preferred strategy for pushing proposals through Congress. It's the way Republicans approved Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill last summer and funded Homeland Security this year over Democrats' refusal to fund Trump's mass deportation agenda.

“No matter how you feel about current events, these funds are necessary to ensure our fighting forces remain ready, our troops are paid and our nation is safe," said Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Republicans have literally ripped. food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans to sustain the Trump war machine.”

This is the third time GOP leaders have relied on reconciliation, dubbing this version 3.0, and it's a lengthy process. If the House approves the budget resolution, it next goes to the Senate for a round-the-clock session to consider politically tough amendments — something senators would rather avoid in an election year.

The budget resolution sets out instructions for the various committees to draft legislation, which Johnson hopes could be done this summer, with final voting on the package once lawmakers return after the August recess.

Senators pan House's budget and have their own ideas

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been noncommittal on the House package that also divides his own GOP majority, with some Republican senators preferring more money for the military and others demanding the costs be offset with cuts elsewhere.

“We’ll see,” Thune said this week.

Thune's focus, at the moment, is avoiding another government shutdown. He wants the Senate to approve a stopgap funding measure, called a continuing resolution, to provide routine government funding before lawmakers leave for the summer break.

If senators are unable to reach agreement on government funding, Thune has said he may hold onto the House's budget resolution and use it later in the fall as a way to push the resolution through the Senate over objections. He wants to prevent a federal shutdown when current funds expire, Sept. 30.

“It’s a possibility that, if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government,” Thune said. “I hope that’s not necessary.”

Thune has also clashed with Trump over the president's push for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voting. The measure, while popular among Trump's most ardent supporters, does not have enough support among Senate Republicans for passage.

It's already against the law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and experts warn the proposed new rules could make it more difficult for eligible Americans to cast ballots. Estimates are that some 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.

Trump on Wednesday plans to speak at a Georgia high school to promote the investment accounts, which offer $1,000 in seed money to every child born during his second term. The accounts went live July 4, two days before Trump rang the opening bells for the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq from the Oval Office.

The tax-advantaged accounts, created last year through Trump’s signature tax and spending cuts bill, can be opened for any child under the age of 18. The Treasury Department boasts 6.5 million sign-ups for Trump Accounts, with 1.5 million of those eligible for the $1,000 seed funding for babies born from 2025 through 2028. Most of those families receive their $1,000 in one or two days, the Treasury Department said.

Boosters of the program say it’s a chance to give more Americans a stake in the stock market. They hope it will stem the rising popularity of democratic socialists, who seek to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy people to ease the cost of things like food and healthcare for low-income and middle-class Americans.

After the Trump Accounts are set up, parents, relatives, friends and employers can contribute to them. Some billionaires have also pledged philanthropic contributions. The money is turned over to private firms that invest it in index funds, a type of mutual fund that tracks the performance of the stock market. The money can’t be accessed until the child turns 18, and only then for specific purposes, such as going to school, opening a business or buying a home.

Some parents were told it could take 4 weeks for the deposit

For babies born since Trump took office last year, $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury is supposed to kick off the accounts. While some parents report receiving the money, others said in interviews and on social media they're still waiting for the accounts to receive $1,000.

Masaki and Kristina McLellan, new parents from Bergen County, New Jersey, said in an interview they were wary of signing up for the accounts because they worried it was a promotional stunt for the president. But the $1,000 incentive persuaded the couple, whose daughter Maya was born in late March, to start an account anyway.

Masaki McLellan said he applied for the account July 6. At first, the application was rejected, but the account was activated after he called the Trump Account hotline. He was told he'd see the money in the account in 10 days. Now, he says, he's been told it will take up to four weeks.

Kristina McLellan said she was disappointed it was taking so long to fund her daughter's account. But the infant has multiple other investments already compounding for her. Maya's parents have already started a 529 college savings plan and a custodial brokerage account for her. The Trump Account is the third investment account in the little girl's name.

“We definitely want to give her options for her future and make sure she can choose what she wants to do,” said McLellan, a studio director for a local news station, who returns from maternity leave next week.

The Treasury Department emphasized the McLellans’ case is unusual and said only a sliver of those who apply need customer support.

Treasury says most parents wait only 1 or 2 days

The Treasury Department said that the lag between opening an account and receiving the seed funding constitutes “standard processing time, like receiving a tax refund,” and that the overwhelming majority of parents are waiting only one to two days. But the department likes to give parents a conservative estimate for how long it might take for the money to be transferred, such as the estimate of up to four weeks given to the McLellans.

“Trump Accounts level the playing field by allowing every parent to invest in their children’s future, not just wealthy families with trust funds,” the department said.

The government also unveiled an initiative last month that permits child welfare agencies to open accounts on behalf of foster youth.

"With roughly 1 million sign-ups per month before launch, Trump Accounts have become the most popular and successful government-backed savings product in U.S. history,” the Treasury Department said.

Trump faces pressure over his handling of the economy

Trump's stop in Georgia comes as he and fellow Republicans face pressure in the midterm elections for their handling of the economy. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s economic leadership, among the lower ratings of his second term, according to a June survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Trump pledged to lower costs, but his tariffs and the war in Iran have instead helped to increase prices.

Trump Accounts are similar to baby bonds, championed by Democratic-led cities and states meant to shrink the wealth gap between low- and high-income children. But unlike most baby bonds, which generally target kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, Trump Accounts are available to families of all incomes.

The program has faced criticism from those who say it does nothing to help families in a child's first years of life, when children are most likely to experience poverty, homelessness and hunger. And the Republican bill that created the program also slashed funding for programs that are disproportionately used by children, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

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This story has been corrected to show the mother's surname is McLellan, not McClellan.

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Associated Press writer Adriana Morga contributed to this report.

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

Gov. Patrick Morrisey sent 100 National Guard members to the hardest-hit areas in the northern part of the state, and declared a state of emergency for all 55 counties Tuesday night. An additional 200 National Guard members were deployed Wednesday.

“State and local agencies will remain on the ground for as long as it takes to help affected communities,” Morrisey said in a statement.

The state Division of Natural Resources has been involved in 85 rescues, he said, and 19 National Guard and state police helicopters were either out on rescue missions or standing by if needed. Local officials also reported numerous rescues.

Bob Pfister said the power remained on at the hotel where he was staying in Weston, even though the first floor was inundated with coffee-brown water. Most people had planned to stay put until Wednesday morning.

“Right now this option is much better than a shelter and a life boat,” Pfister posted on Facebook. “If the power goes out that may change a whole lot!”

Forecasters said up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell in some places.

The National Weather Service in Charleston warned of life-threatening flooding conditions in some communities Tuesday night, telling people to “SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”

Video and photos on social media showed submerged vehicles in parking lots, including at a Walmart in Weston where muddy water surged far into the store.

Emergency crews reported dozens of rescues of people stuck in submerged vehicles. However, some rescuers were unable to get to locations where floodwaters had cut off access.

Officials in some communities were still waiting for floodwaters to recede Wednesday before figuring out where the public can drop off donated supplies.

“Right now, that’s our problem,” Mayor Robbie Skinner of Buckhannon said on social media. “Our city is spliced up in such a way by the flood waters that there’s simply not a centralized place for everyone to access at this time.”

The heavy rains were part of wide-ranging storms — which also produced reports of tornadoes — stretching from the Cincinnati area across New Jersey to the New York City suburbs. Damage from a possible tornado was reported in the area of St. Marys and Belmont in West Virginia.

The ground was already saturated after storms dumped more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain throughout the state on Saturday.

Although the rain had cleared out Wednesday, flood warnings remained posted in several counties for rivers, creeks and low-lying areas. Flood watches were posted for a large swath from eastern Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.

Emergency service communication channels were buzzing with activity late Tuesday night in West Virginia's Lewis and Upshur counties, which have about 40,000 residents combined.

First responders were performing water rescues for hours Tuesday night into Wednesday, Lewis County Commissioner Agnes Quinn Queen said.

“The devastation across our county is extensive,” she said in a social media post.

The governor urged residents to stay home Tuesday night. Floodwaters forced the closure of portions of Interstate 79, U.S. Route 48 and numerous secondary roads. A sinkhole caused by the storm swallowed a vehicle at a bar in Fayetteville.

Tuesday’s storms occurred a decade after 23 people died when heavy rains fell for hours over the same areas.

Data from a U.S. Geological Survey water gauge showed one creek tributary, Sand Run, rose to a record level near Buckhannon, topping the mark set during a November 1985 flood event that resulted in 47 deaths statewide.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

The tornado touched down Wednesday morning, remaining on the ground for about eight minutes before dissipating. It left behind damaged businesses, downed trees and structural damage along its path, but no serious injuries were reported.

One of the areas that has rebounded quickly is the Santikos Palladium, a movie theater near The Rim. Although fencing remains around parts of the property, the theater has reopened, and signs direct customers that it is operating normally.

Mike Segovia went to the theater for a movie, but after seeing images of the storm’s destruction, he said he was surprised by how much progress had been made.

“When my daughter invited me to the movies, I’m going, ‘Is it up and running?’” Segovia said. “‘Yeah, Dad, it’s ready to go.’ So I couldn’t believe it. I actually wanted to come and look at it myself. As I look around, where are the trees that were down? I don’t see too much damage right now, and I’m grateful for that.”

Segovia said the damage appeared less extensive than he expected.

“After a while you realize, yes, it was devastating, but it was more cosmetic,” he said.

Not every business has reopened. A nearby Marshalls store remains closed, with its entrance taped off and parts of the exterior signage still missing.

In the Tanglewood subdivision, residents said crews responded almost immediately after the storm. While some broken and uprooted trees remain, much of the debris has been cleared from neighborhoods and front yards.

“Local workers were on it,” resident Victor Rosales said. “They were here maybe an hour afterwards chopping down trees, making sure people were good and stuff like that.”

Asked about the recovery effort, Rosales described it as “fast, thank God.”

The most extensive damage occurred at the Oasis Apartments near UTSA Boulevard, where the tornado ripped the roof off one building. While cleanup crews have removed much of the debris, the building remains without a roof.

Gage Commercial Construction, which is assisting with repairs at the complex, said the recovery process for a project of that size will take several weeks. The company’s immediate priorities are stabilizing the property, restoring power and HVAC service, and then beginning reconstruction.

The company said only the building that lost its roof remains without power.

The University of Texas at San Antonio Police Department said the storm displaced at least 10 students.

Despite the damage, authorities said no serious injuries were reported as a result of the tornado.

Below is Gage Commercial Construction’s full statement:

“When the tornado hit, Gage Commercial Construction had a response team onsite at The Oasis Apartments within hours that morning. The full-service contractor has an existing relationship with the ownership group, and Gage was their first call.

“The first priority in a situation like this is to take control of the site. Once the fire department finished their response that morning, Gage mobilized crews to secure the property with fencing and boarding of public entryways. This is for safety but also to protect the property from looting, which can be a common occurrence when disaster strikes.

“The damage was fairly substantial as about a quarter of the roof was pulled off, and quite a few units at the top of the building needed full reconstruction. In addition to water damage throughout there was wind damage with fences, trees, and light poles down. The pool area also took quite a hit, and the concrete carports were damaged.

“Debris was cleared and the remediation process began which includes a temporary watertight roof to protect from further damage as the rain continued. We worked to extract water from the damaged units and set up power stations, dehumidifiers, and temporary HVAC units. When the power goes out, air quality is a major concern, and all that moisture can lead to mold, so crews worked to stabilize the air to prevent further damage. This remediation process is still ongoing, as it can take several weeks with a project of this size. The goal is to get the property to a stable place, and get power and HVAC restored while the planning to build it back happens next.

“As remediation continues, Gage will work alongside the property owners to connect them to the right partners, including a public adjuster to help with insurance claims and an architect and engineer to work on the repair plans. The process to rebuild can take several months while insurance is dealt with, plans are developed, and coordination with the city.”

Gage Commercial Construction

Read also:

• San Antonio crews remove dozens of tornado-damaged trees as cleanup efforts continue

Mathieu van der Poel led his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Philipsen to his first stage victory of this Tour by controlling the pace and containing counterattacks through the last kilometers.

Philipsen finished just ahead of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij.

The Belgian rider described a “a rollercoaster of emotions” after what had been a disappointing Tour for him personally.

“I prepared very, very well. I was in the shape of my life, I think, and the first stages, the first 12 days were just horrible. I couldn’t find myself, couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for,” said Philipsen, who thanked his team colleagues.

“I was like an angry bird at the table. I was just disappointed in myself, angry that I couldn’t take (a) stage win, that I didn’t find my feeling. And the team, they had to deal with it, not only the riders, the staff. This one is for them to keep on believing,” Philipsen said.

Pogačar plays it safe

Pogačar, who is chasing a third straight Tour title and fifth overall, maintained his lead of just over 4½ minutes over Remco Evenepoel, the winner of the previous two stages.

But it was a bad day for Pogačar’s UAE Emirates XRG teammate Adam Yates, who struggled and only made it back within the time limit. The British rider slumped over his handlebars, clearly exhausted.

The race ends Sunday in Paris.

Sprinters’ last chance

The relatively flat 174.7-kilometer (108.5-mile) route from Chambery to Voiron was the last favorable stage for sprinters before the Tour takes to the Alps, and it led to a day of attempted breakaways with many riders vying to put themselves in contention.

Van der Poel was among the leaders after Côte de Saint-Jean d’Arvey, the last significant climb, and they were joined by others before Yates’ problems began in the peloton.

Mads Pedersen was next to attack the leaders with 65 kilometers remaining, and the green jersey-holder invigorated the group when he joined them.

More sprinters broke away, swelling the group to 30 riders, before Pedersen, Ben Healy, Michal Kwiatkowski, Felix Engelhardt, Ed Planckaert and Jasper Stuyven struck out 57 kilometers from the finish.

Stuyven attacked on his own 26 kilometers from the line, leaving his five former co-leaders to chase or wait for the main bunch. They were caught. The only question was whether the 34-year-old Stuyven had the stamina to claim his first Tour stage win.

The Belgian rider was caught with less than 4 kilometers remaining, and Van der Poel did the rest for Philipsen.

Race for green jersey heats up

Philipsen's stage win moved him just behind Pedersen in the contest for the green jersey awarded to the rider with the most points.

With four stages remaining, Pedersen of Lidl-Trek had 452 points, followed by Philipsen on 445. Biniam Girmay of Eritrea was next with 361 points.

Doping test concerns

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, responded to criticism of unannounced anti-doping controls after Pogačar and his main rival Jonas Vingegaard were woken in the early hours of Sunday for tests by the Swiss-based International Testing Agency.

Vingegaard subsequently crashed during Sunday’s stage and had to abandon the race.

The UCI said it acknowledged the night-time testing “can disrupt riders’ rest and recovery” and said it remained an exceptional measure.

“While fully aware of how onerous such a measure is for riders, the UCI nevertheless underscores that these controls serve an overriding interest: the fight against doping,” the body said in a statement.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Agent Tim Harrison was captured on camera June 10 walking onto the driveway of a Northwest Side home belonging to the parents of Cody Sparks and then striking Sparks.

“He walked onto my property, eyes locked, ready to rumble, which I did not expect,” said Sparks.

Sparks said Harrison punched him twice in the head before he was able to tackle Harrison into the home’s garage door.

“From there I had no choice. I grabbed his testicles, and I squeezed them,” said Sparks.

Both men are heard in the recording yelling to people off camera to call 911.

The door sustained structural damage, and more than a month after the incident, dried blood remains on the driveway.

An Animal Care Services report obtained by KSAT Investigates states Harrison was bitten on his leg by one of the family’s dogs and suffered four puncture wounds to his calf.

Harrison was treated at the scene by paramedics, the ACS report states.

‘We used to kind of be friends’

Sparks said he used to live at his parents’ home, but even after moving away, he returns almost daily to walk the family’s two dogs.

He said his relationship with Harrison turned sour about 18 months ago.

“We used to kind of be friends. We were neighbors,” said Sparks. “He likes to stop and intimidate me, so he’ll stop in the middle of the road whenever I’m walking.”

Sparks said he began to record his interactions with Harrison after Harrison spit on him.

In one incident, recorded by Sparks in May 2025, Harrison challenged Sparks to fight him in the street after accusing him of revving his engine at Harrison and Harrison’s child.

“Come on down, Cody. Mutual combat. I’m right here buddy,” Harrison is heard saying on the recorded video.

The argument came weeks after Sparks was arrested at a nearby residence for tampering with evidence and drug possession.

The tampering case was dismissed in February, and Sparks recently entered pretrial diversion in the drug case in hopes of completing the program and getting the charge removed from his record.

“You and your druggie buddies will be found again. I’ll make sure of it,” Harrison said in the May 2025 recording, as he appeared to reference Sparks’ legal issues.

The night of June 10, Sparks said he began recording Harrison after the man called Sparks a “pu***” and told him to “go get your mommy.”

The footage shows Harrison walk onto the driveway as Sparks repeatedly tells him not to come onto the property.

Officers called to the scene interviewed both Harrison and Sparks.

Harrison told the officers that he walked to the home to speak with Sparks’ mother and that Sparks approached him and “took a swing” at him.

The claim contradicts what was recorded on Sparks’ cell phone.

SAPD’s incident report states that the footage shows Harrison was the first to make physical contact.

Weeks after the fight, Harrison has not been criminally charged.

An SAPD spokesperson told KSAT the case remains under investigation.

“I feel that he feels he’s above the law, that he’s invincible and that he can do whatever he wants to anyone, even trespass and beat someone up on their own property,” said Sparks.

Sparks’ dog was required to be quarantined for 10 days after biting Harrison’s leg.

Sparks confirmed to KSAT that after the incident, he was contacted by ICE’s Office of Personal Responsibility.

ICE officials have declined to say what, if any, action has been taken against Harrison since June 10.

An ICE spokeswoman told KSAT via email, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not comment on ongoing investigations.”

A woman who answered the door at Harrison’s home spoke with KSAT at length but said she would need to consult with the family’s attorney before commenting on the record.

Since the start of 2025, SAPD has responded 19 times to incidents involving three neighboring homes on the same street: Harrison’s home, the home next door and Sparks’ parents’ home.

Ten of the incidents were for threats, disturbances and disturbances with neighbors.

SAPD earlier this month declined to release the incident reports from the disturbances, claiming in a letter to the Texas Attorney General that some of them are related to an ongoing criminal investigation while another one is related to a closed criminal investigation that did not end up going to court.

The fire in rural Guadalajara comes less than two weeks after a deadly blaze devastated a small expat community in southern Spain. That small but extremely virulent fire killed 13 people, including several foreigners, in one of the southern European country's deadliest wildfires.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday visited the fire-ravaged area in Guadalajara, and called for a pact between political parties to fight climate change.

“Year after year we clearly see how climate change kills and destroys wealth in our communities,” Sánchez said in the village of Tamajón, located less than two hours by car northeast of Madrid. “This isn’t politics. It is science, it’s about facts.”

Some 34 villages have been evacuated in the area but there are no reported serious injuries or deaths. Over 200 firefighters were supported by land vehicles and aircraft on Wednesday.

Spain this year has already suffered 22 major forest fires, defined as a fire that burns over 500 hectares (1,235 acres.)

The Socialist leader said over 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) had already been scorched through the first half of the year, matching the total yearly average for Spain over the last decade.

Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, described the Guadalajara fire as “one of the largest in the recent history of our country” and the largest ever for the region of Castilla La Mancha.

The Guadalajara blaze is the second-largest on record in Spain’s history after some 37,000 hectares (91,000 acres) were burned last year in the northwest of the country, according to data from the ecological transition ministry, as cited by EFE news agency.

Regional authorities said firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft had so far protected homes in all 40 villages in the burned area, 90% of which belongs to a national park. Firefighters hope to have the nearly week-old fire under control by Friday, said Emiliano García-Page, regional president of Castilla La Mancha.

Miguel Ángel Moreno, mayor of the village of Zarzuela de Jadraque, said its 100 residents were evacuated Friday, with 14 taking refuge at a Red Cross shelter.

Moreno said that the firefighters should receive as much admiration as the soccer players who won the World Cup on Sunday.

The firefighters “had to run from one side of the village to the other putting out fires,” Moreno told Spanish national television TVE. “Besides the heroes who won the World Cup, we have other heroes who remain nameless.”

New heat wave could complicate firefighting efforts

Spain’s weather agency said a heat wave that began Tuesday was expected to reach its peak between Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures pushing 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several inland areas and crossing 42 Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) in parts of Andalusia, in southern Spain.

Guadalajara and large areas of Spain were under alert for high temperatures.

Like many other European countries, Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which is combining with wind and limited rainfall to create ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as quickly as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing severe heat waves across Europe. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

Europe facing hot, dry weather

In Sicily, firefighters said they had carried out more than 1,000 operations since Saturday and have put all the Italian island’s fire departments on double shifts to cope with the blazes.

The latest was a wildland-urban blaze in Agrigento, in central western Sicily that required the evacuation of 100 people from homes and a clinic, with 22 patients transferred to other facilities, the national service said. Firefighters were particularly concerned about an oxygen storage plant nearby.

For days, Italy’s Civil Protection agency has declared all of Sicily at the highest risk for wildfires. Winds and temperatures near or above 40C (100F) have fueled blazes from near Palermo on the northern coast to Catania in the east and now Agrigento in the west.

Greece was sweltering under what was forecast to be the last of a four-day heat wave. Temperatures were predicted to top 42 C (107 F), while several regions in southern and central Greece, including the wider Athens area, were on the highest alert level for wildfire danger.

Cyprus, meanwhile, issued a warning for high temperatures expected to reach 43 C (109 F).

In Britain, it hasn’t rained in more than a month in some areas, and much of the southern half of England is in a state of “prolonged dry weather,” one step before a drought. Thames Water, the country’s biggest water company, has banned its 10 million customers from using hoses to water lawns or wash cars starting Thursday.

France's public health agency on Wednesday said the country recorded at least 5,700 more deaths than usual during a historic heatwave last month, sharply increasing its estimates of the feared toll from record-shattering temperatures.

Public Health France said regions hit by the heat between June 17 and July 2 recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes. But without a heatwave, those same regions would have been expected to have seen far fewer deaths, or 15,910, based on statistical modeling using data from previous years, it said.

___

Nicole Winfield in Rome, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Jill Lawless in London and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

But now the colleges are short the millions they planned to receive as their successes outpaced what state lawmakers budgeted.

Officials with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board are scrambling to adjust the funding formula. During Wednesday’s board meeting, they will discuss a proposal to trim the state incentives to educate the highest-need students that prompt more dollars.

Some colleges could see massive drops in state dollars in fiscal year 2027 as THECB officials tweak funding to stay within budget. Nearly a dozen colleges would see state funding drop from the prior year by at least 15%, according to funding projections based on the proposed change. The Texarkana, Navarro and McLennan community college systems would be hit the hardest, with projected drops of at least 20%.

Paris Junior College president Stephen Benson wrote an editorial this month calling on the state to close the gap between the money community colleges earned and the money they will receive. The East Texas junior college could see a drop in funding of $1.4 million at a time when its enrollment increased by 20%.

“Successful colleges should not be penalized for exceeding expectations,” Benson wrote. “The timing couldn’t be worse. PJC is serving record numbers of students, expanding workforce programs, strengthening partnerships with school districts and employers, and producing outstanding student outcomes.”

THECB spokesperson Bobbi Kessler said the state faces a cap of about $1.2 billion that it can distribute to colleges until the next legislative session, during which lawmakers can consider allocating additional dollars. Kessler added community colleges are “receiving more funding than ever before” under the state formula.

State lawmakers approved a revamped funding formula for community colleges in 2023 with near unanimous support to get more students ready for the workforce. House Bill 8 gives colleges money primarily based on how many students complete industry certificates or associate’s degrees, transfer to universities or participate in dual credit. Bonuses are given based on educating high-need students, including those who are economically and academically disadvantaged as well as nontraditional adult learners.

Community college advocates celebrated the move away from a static, enrollment-based funding and toward a dynamic one. But while the new formula opens the door for more money from the state, it also introduces uncertainty that can be difficult to plan budgets around.

The proposal THECB board members are considering would reduce the incentives that community colleges get for educating low-income students and adult learners, the very students who need to go to college the most.

That proposal has been met with backlash among some education advocates.

Jonathan Feinstein, the Texas state director of Education Trust, says the current funding weights recognize getting more vulnerable students to complete college requires extra resources.

“These high-need student groups — students from low-income families, students who maybe were not entirely prepared for college when they completed high school — are the ones who really stand to gain the most,” Feinstein said. “It does raise concern in terms of this being a precedent so early.”

THECB officials noted in the board’s agenda that lawmakers gave them the flexibility to make such changes to manage the financial impact of the new funding system.

Texas legislators approved a nearly $90 million supplementary budget request after community college exceeded expectations during the last biennium. THECB officials can recommend a similar request this session. Such a request would be considered at a time when Texas’ top officials are ordering agencies to cut spending by 3%.

Ray Martinez III, the president of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said in a statement to The Tribune that his group was partnering with the coordinating board to ensure that funding “keeps pace with the results students and colleges have earned.”

Martinez added that community colleges outperforming funding predictions is evidence that HB 8 is a success.

“When the Legislature passed House Bill 8 in 2023, it made a generational commitment — a bold and deliberate policy decision to tie state funding to student outcomes rather than enrollment,” Martinez said. “Our colleges answered that challenge, made significant institutional investments, and delivered results that exceeded projections.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Open Campus and Texas Association of Community Colleges 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.

Public Health France said regions hit by the heat from June 17 to July 2 recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes. But without a heat wave, those same regions would have been expected to have seen far fewer deaths, or 15,910, based on statistical modeling using data from previous years, it said.

The difference between expected and actual deaths — a total of 5,764 — are therefore considered to be “excess” deaths during the heat wave, the agency said.

It said the excess mortality, with 36% more deaths that would normally have been expected, was the highest from any heat wave since 2003. A historic heat wave that year caused an estimated 15,000 deaths in France.

France registered its hottest-ever days on June 24 and June 25 this year — with a national average of 30 C (86 F) — as well as record heat at night and peak temperatures that soared well above 40 C (104 F) in many places.

Just over half of the unexpected deaths occurred during and in the immediate wake of that hottest period, over three days from June 25 to June 27, the public health agency said.

“This unprecedented episode, characterized by its early onset, intensity, and duration, exposed nearly the entire population to extreme heat during a period when school and work activities were still in full swing,” the agency noted.

All told, across Europe, extreme temperatures that hit exceptionally early and hard this year saw well over 10,000 more deaths at the height of the heat wave than would normally have been expected, according to figures that are still emerging across the continent.

In France, the Paris region appears to have been hardest hit, recording 1,999 unexpected deaths — around 80% more than would otherwise have been anticipated without a heat wave, the French health agency said.

Funeral service directors in Paris said they struggled to find places to store bodies before burial or cremation, with some mortuaries saying they were full and having to turn bodies away.

Nearly half of the more than 21,600 people who died passed away in hospitals, which wrestled with surges of patients suffering from heat-related ailments. About a third died at home and the rest were mostly deaths in care homes for older people, the agency said.

The latest estimated death toll, which the agency said will be updated later in the year with more complete data, was sharply higher than initial figures it had given. It had previously reported around 2,000 additional deaths from all causes for the week of June 22 to June 28, the peak in France of the heat wave that also broke temperature records in many other parts of Europe.

Experts caution that it takes a while for a full picture to emerge, and that many heat-related deaths will never formally be recorded as such. For example, a heart attack, which can be triggered by extreme heat exposure, especially in people who are older or have underlying health issues, may be listed on a death certificate simply as a heart attack.

Ukraine has made significant progress in the war this year, and a rift between the country’s outgoing army chief and its defense minister threatened to derail its efforts. Both men lost their jobs following Zelenskyy’s major government reshuffle last week.

The top-level changes late Tuesday were intended to draw a line under an unwelcome spasm of political turmoil that lasted almost a week and prompted rejoicing in Russia. It was not clear whether Zelenskyy's measures would achieve that goal.

The new army chief, 43-year-old Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, belongs to a new generation of Ukrainian generals who have come up through the ranks during the battle against Russian aggression. He became known for his daring and courage in 2014, the year that Russia seized and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula — eight years before Moscow's all-out invasion.

Zelenskyy said Drapatyi and other commanders must present an updated defense strategy, including continued reform of the corps system, faster weapon and drone deliveries, stronger air defense against Russian strikes and a clearer mobilization plan.

Russia says the changes in Kyiv won't alter the front line

There is no sign that the two countries are any closer to a peace settlement, despite U.S.-led diplomatic efforts.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow is sticking to its previous demands. They include Kyiv withdrawing its forces from the four eastern regions that Russia has seized but doesn’t fully control, renouncing any aspirations to NATO membership and sharply cutting the size of its army.

Peskov told reporters that the Ukrainian political and military changes reflect strains in Kyiv.

“Kyiv’s regime is trembling from within. It can be seen with the naked eye,” Peskov said.

Nor will the top-level alterations change the front line, he told reporters, claiming that Russian forces are on the offensive.

With the war’s roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line mostly off-limits to independent observers, Russia and Ukraine have also engaged in a propaganda battle.

Fedorov's future is still uncertain

Zelenskyy met separately Tuesday with outgoing defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old tech-savvy entrepreneur credited with swiftly developing Ukraine’s drone technology that has given it a battlefield edge.

Fedorov locked horns with outgoing commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, a 60-year-old veteran trained in the Soviet Union before Ukraine’s independence.

Street protests in Kyiv and other cities demanded Fedorov’s return, viewing him as a key military modernizer, and urged Zelenskyy to fire Syrskyi, regarded as part of the old guard.

The demonstrations looked set to continue on Friday, despite Syrskyi's exit.

“It is good that the dialogue is working. At the same time, we should not forget the protesters’ second demand — to reinstate Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister,” Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a veteran and former combat medic who has emerged as an informal voice of the protests, wrote on Threads.

Zelenskyy offered Fedorov what he called a respected position in the government that would unify the country’s technology sector. It wasn’t clear if Fedorov accepted the offer -- or whether the latest moves would satisfy protesters and calm the streets.

Fedorov said after his dismissal last week that he had been offered jobs by some global defense tech companies.

Fedorov supported Drapatyi's appointment, calling it a “new hope in the fight of free people for freedom and justice” and “a voice for change that could not go unheard.”

Fedorov had criticized Syrskyi publicly before his dismissal, saying the general was blocking his reform efforts and needed to be replaced for Ukraine not to fail in its resistance against Russia.

Outgoing military chief points to recent battlefield achievements

Syrskyi defended his wartime record in a statement Wednesday.

Among other things, he claimed Ukrainian forces had clawed back 743 square kilometers (287 square miles) of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory this year and said he was handing his successor an army that was not only defending but also conducting offensive operations.

It was not possible to independently verify his claim.

Fedorov called Syrskyi to thank him for his military triumphs, including defending the Kyiv region at the time of Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion, the Kharkiv counteroffensive operation later that year and other battles, calling them “already an important part of Ukraine’s history.” But he added that the country must “move even faster and write new chapters, correcting all previous mistakes.”

The political crisis began last Thursday, when Zelenskyy overhauled his wartime government, replacing his prime minister and firing Fedorov after just six months in the post.

The reshuffle immediately drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Kyiv and other cities, framing Fedorov’s removal as Zelenskyy siding with an entrenched military old guard over a reformer.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that he’s also appointing Maj. Gen. Ihor Skybiuk as chief of the General Staff as part of the overhaul.

Russia and Ukraine keep up their long-range strikes

The political maneuvers took place against a backdrop of continued deadly strikes by Russia and Ukraine on each other's soil.

Ukrainian drones overnight struck two more sprawling warehouses of Russia’s major online retailer, Wildberries, in Russia’s southern regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol, Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim and Russian officials said Wednesday.

The strikes came four days after Ukraine’s long-range drones hit massive Wildberries warehouses in the Moscow region and in the Tambov region, killing eight people and wounding dozens, according to officials.

Zelenskyy said, without naming the facilities, that they were used by Russia to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment.

Russian attacks, meanwhile, have also struck several major Ukrainian logistics hubs and retail facilities over the past week.

Russia attacked Ukraine with four missiles of various types and 216 long-range strike drones overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

In the southern Odesa region, a Russian drone killed a woman when it struck a two-story apartment building, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said.

___

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

She was scared, sure. But more than that, she was brought to tears.

“I thought I’d be a bit more petrified, but I was enamored. I was in awe. It was witnessing nature,” she says. “You can’t put it into words the emotions and the feelings that you experience.”

Viewers can watch Rei Ami — and hear her sing a new K-pop song inspired by her experience with sharks while off the Korean Peninsula — as Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” kicks off Sunday.

Twenty new, hourlong shows leap deep into the world of the ancient predators, from a record-setting dive attempt into shark-infested waters to trying to find out what triggers giant bull sharks to confront humans.

“Growing up, I always watched ‘Shark Week,’” says Rei Ami. “You see those epic commercials, with the great white jumping out and eating the chum and the tuna. That’s ingrained in my brain forever.”

Actor-comedian Ken Jeong joins her to start the week off with the show “K-Pop Shark Heroes” on Sunday. But while she went on two cage dives and two free dives with hammerheads and reef sharks and bull sharks, he preferred to stay out of the water.

“I’m more of the Christopher Nolan of the shark ‘Odyssey’ — just overseeing it,” Jeong jokes. “Just overlooking everything. High and dry. That’s when I do my best work.”

It’s a shark-a-thon

The seven nights of new shows ends Aug. 1 with a look at how great whites are moving further up the East Coast and an examination of how thresher sharks use their tails to stun and kill prey.

One highlight is watching high diver Molly Carlson leap 50 feet (15 meters) from a helicopter into a Plexiglas cage in the ocean surrounded by circling reef sharks. She's OK with jumping from enormous heights, but sharks terrify her.

“There was zero chances of me ever swimming with sharks. This was just not on my radar,” she says. “That’s always been my thing, and so for me to be invited to be on ‘Shark Week,’ I was like 'Why me?'”

Viewers will see Carlson, who has been frank about her struggles with anxiety, overcome her lifelong fear of sharks. Carlson hopes she can motivate others.

“If I can inspire that next 16-year-old girl who wants to just hide in her room and never come out because she’s scared of so many things, then I’m absolutely going to find a way to do this,” she says. “You’re allowed to be scared and do it anyways. And so I think that was the big purpose behind this project for me.”

This year’s highlights also include an attempt to locate a rumored 15-foot (4- meter) mako off the coast of Southern California, which would make it the largest ever documented.

Marine biologist Kendyl Berna, a “Shark Week” veteran who co-founded the ecology group Beyond the Reef, says her team of scientists were betting on the fact that a marine heat wave has made mako prey in those waters abundant, allowing the sharks to get bigger.

“Sharks are the cockroaches of the sea because they’ve been around for 450 million years. They’re older than dinosaurs, they’re older than trees. Sharks have just been around, but the form that they’re taking constantly changes,” she says.

‘Shark Week’ is fun but also educational

“Shark Week” has become a key part of the summer holiday TV schedule, a place where humans safe on land can see ancient apex predators unnervingly glide into view and snap open their jaws, fueling nightmares.

As always, there is a deep respect for the creatures and strong science beneath the amusing titles, sharky puns, dramatic music and racy titles like “Chum Island: Catching a Killer” and “Sharkzilla Takes New York.”

“While ‘Shark Week’ is very entertaining and thrilling, it is at the core very educational. And I think there’s still so much misinformation regarding sharks and how they behave,” says Rei Ami.

“Through these episodes, people can understand, there’s really no reason to fear them, you know? And I hope that message gets received.”

Discovery’s “Shark Week” has a rival — National Geographic’s “SharkFest,” which also has hours of sharky content. And there's Amazon Studios’ new movie “The Devil’s Mouth,” which has bull sharks terrorizing college students in a flooded cave system.

“Shark Week” also has practical advice about what to do when you find yourself face-to-snout with a shark, a rising concern from Korea to Brooklyn as interactions increase. The advice is clear: Stop splashing.

“It’s even more imperative that humans know how to act and react in a situation when they are in the waters and they see a shark,” says Rei Ami. “It would really, I think, help the public to understand how these apex predators work and behave.”

>>Flooding risk continues in La Salle County as Nueces River rises over 23 feet

During a news conference, La Salle County Flood Response incident coordinator Daniel Mendez said the Nueces River is currently at 28.96 feet.

According to the KSAT Weather Authority team, the Nueces River is not expected to rise any further. The river will remain in the major flood stage through Sunday and is not anticipated to decrease until next week.

La Salle County officials, in collaboration with state and local partners, have assisted residents with voluntary evacuations and checked on those who chose to shelter in place.

“Our fire department, law enforcement officers, emergency management staff and other state coordinating agencies have been working around the clock to protect lives, conduct door-to-door notifications and keep our community informed,” said Mendez.

As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, 599 La Salle County residents have chosen to shelter in place. Mendez said there were two voluntary evacuations, 122 self-evacuations and three water rescues over the course of the floods so far.

“I cannot stress enough: please stay off the flooded roadways,” Mendez said. “If you see barricades, they are there for a reason.”

According to a Facebook post by La Salle County Fire from 11:47 p.m. Tuesday, evacuation recommendations were in place for residents living:

• On Jay Street between Martinez Street and Copp Street
• On Martinez Street between Jay Street and Guadalupe Street

More than 300 first responders from Texas and other states are assisting with the flood response, officials said.

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Alexander Convention Center for residents who have been displaced or who choose to evacuate voluntarily. Only service animals are allowed inside the shelter.

A separate pet shelter has been set up at the county fairgrounds.

Officials encourage residents to monitor updates from local authorities and be prepared to leave if evacuation recommendations become mandatory or flood conditions worsen.

Read also:

• City of Kerrville issues public notice for sanitary sewer overflow in downtown area
• Hill Country floods add new setbacks for Kendall County Women’s Shelter

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The FA said Wednesday that Eckert had been charged for three incidents that came to light during the end of season playoffs.

Southampton was expelled from the Championship playoff final in May after admitting to spying on other teams, including semifinal opponent Middlesbrough.

The FA said it was alleged Eckert acted in an “improper manner and/or brought the game into disrepute” by authorizing the observation of opponents' training sessions.

Southampton was charged by the English Football League with the unauthorized filming of Middlesbrough’s practice sessions ahead of their two-legged semifinal, which it went on to win and go within one game of promotion to the Premier League.

It was expelled from the final after admitting to spying on Oxford United and Ipswich earlier in the season. The EFL also imposed a four-point deduction for next season, while Middlesbrough was reinstated to the final, which it lost 1-0 to Hull City.

An arbitration panel laid bare the influence of Eckert in the scandal, saying it was “a contrived and determined plan from top down to gain a competitive advantage” and analysts who carried out the unauthorized filming “felt pressurised to do the observations that Mr. Eckert and the senior coaches wished them to do.”

Expulsion from the playoffs deprived Southampton of the chance of promotion to the top flight and a guaranteed windfall of at least $270 million in future earnings.

Despite the controversy Southampton said it was sticking by its coach.

“As a board, we are fully behind him,” owner Dragan Šolak said in June, “and together we only have one objective — we want promotion back to (the) Premier League.”

Eckert also said in June that he had “made a mistake” and took “full responsibility.”

Eckert has until July 28 to respond to the FA charges.

___

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

Rubio spoke at the start of an annual meeting in the Philippine capital, Manila, with counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who have expressed alarm over the resurgent fighting in the Middle East that has battered their region. Despite Washington’s preoccupation with Iran, Rubio said, “We’re with ASEAN 100%.”

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation-state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.

Washington's top diplomat also renewed allegations that Iran has reneged on commitments under a collapsed interim ceasefire deal. Rubio said Iran “has been reaching out to the United States, both directly and indirectly, to engage in talks about settling the differences.” He said that while “the U.S. would love to reach a diplomatic settlement," the Trump administration is “not going to sit by and let ships be blown up or Americans be attacked.”

Top diplomats from the U.S., China, Russia and several other countries are in Manila this week to take part in at the ASEAN ministerial gathering. Newly minted British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was arriving Wednesday, his office said.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told reporters that Moscow would like to see a quick settlement between the U.S. and Iran.

“There are those eager to incite each party to keep the conflict going, but we aren’t one of those,” he said.

“We would like to see it stop — it impacts the global economy and Russia is part of the global economy,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow is “interested in stable global energy prices to pursue long-term economic policies.”

Southeast Asia hit hard by energy shock from Iran war

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong underscored her country's concern over the renewed attacks in the Middle East, warning that “the situation could deteriorate further without much warning.”

“We want to see an end to this war. We want to see a ceasefire. We want to see negotiations and we want the strait to be opened,” Wong told reporters.

“People are being affected by what is happening and has happened to global energy markets and the effect on people has been direct and personal,” she said.

Overreliance on fossil fuel imports from the Middle East has made Southeast Asia particularly vulnerable to the energy shock triggered by the Iran war, according to the International Energy Agency, which called the crisis a “stark wake-up call” for the region’s energy security.

Asian markets imported about 80% of the crude oil and almost 90% of the liquefied natural gas, or LNG, transiting through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, the IEA said.

Rubio and allies reaffirm commitment to counter growing Chinese influence

Rubio also met with counterparts in the four-nation Quad partnership, which is made up of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan. They discussed maritime and transnational security, among other issues, and issued a joint statement that reaffirmed their commitment to maritime security initiatives aiming to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

During the meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi voiced strong opposition to any attempts to change the status quo by force in the region, including in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea, where China's increasingly aggressive actions have sparked concern.

Tokyo has a long-running dispute over Japan-controlled islands, which Beijing also claims, in the East China Sea.

Wong echoed his concern, saying, “We have real concerns about behavior that is destabilizing and risky.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized China's assertive actions in the South China Sea to the disadvantage of smaller claimant countries like the Philippines, Washington's oldest treaty ally in Asia.

Rubio met separately with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, telling reporters later that they discussed a new altercation this week between Chinese and Filipino forces in a disputed shoal. Rubio called the incident “escalatory."

“It speaks to areas of disagreement when it comes to our policies with China,” Rubio said. “Those need to be managed very carefully, because obviously, a conflict — be it economic or otherwise — between the U.S. and China would have a dramatic global impact.”

He said they also talked about a trade board that is meant to allow the two governments to discuss certain goods, and that he hopes it can be a “deliverable” from a planned meeting in the U.S. in September between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Wang protested to Rubio about “recent negative words and actions by the U.S. side,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It was not clear what he referred to, but Trump recently accused China of meddling in the 2020 election and the U.S. administration shortened visas for Chinese journalists.

ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the territorial disputes Tuesday, welcoming progress in yearslong negotiations between China and their regional bloc on a proposed non-aggression pact that aims to prevent a major conflict in the disputed waters that could draw in the United States.

Rubio and Lavrov to discuss Ukraine

Rubio said he will meet Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, on Thursday and discuss the war in Ukraine. He suggested he also would use the meeting to find other areas of potential cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.

He said the U.S. remains open to playing a role in ending the conflict “if that opportunity presents itself.”

Rubio said those efforts have “kind of fallen off a little bit over the last few months” but he will use the meeting with Lavrov to see if there’s an opportunity to renew talks.

Lavrov, meanwhile, said he will ask Rubio about Trump’s claim that a settlement on the war in Ukraine is getting close.

Rubio also met with his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a U.S. official said. They discussed both regional issues and the Iran war, along with a yet-to-be completed trade agreement to lower Trump’s tariffs on Indian goods.

___

Associated Press journalists Haruka Nuga and Anton Delgado in Bangkok, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.

In a letter sent to Texas Family Initiative — EMPOWER’s parent entity — Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Audrey O’Neill notified the company that “EMPOWER has failed to perform satisfactorily under its Community-Based Care contract after continuous quality improvement plans, corrective action plans, and other remedial measures.”

In a separate letter sent to judges, attorneys and advocates, O’Neill said the action came “following an extensive assessment” and was done with “one priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services.”

The agency also noted that the decision came after conditions within EMPOWER continued to present safety problems and contributed to “critical breakdowns in case planning and decision-making, resulting in the deaths of two children. Additionally, medical mismanagement stemming from staff turnover caused a child to suffer a lupus flare-up and hospitalization.”

Those services and care to more than 2,000 children in EMPOWER’s care will now transition to two other contractors: Our Community Our Kids (OCOK) and Texas Family Care Network (TFCN). The move prompts even more questions about the state’s rocky progress in handing off state foster care management to private companies.

A representative for EMPOWER informed The Texas Tribune that it was not allowed to comment on the state’s action without getting its statement pre-cleared by DFPS. 

Late Tuesday the company, through a spokesperson, emailed a statement that said it was “disappointed” by DFPS’ decision 

“We are proud of our dedicated staff, providers and partners and the positive impact they have made in the lives of countless children and families,” EMPOWER’s statement said. 

The agency’s drastic move comes less than a week after the Texas Attorney General’s office — which represents DFPS in court — filed a court motion to extend EMPOWER’s receivership until Oct. 14. 

“While progress has been made, the conditions that gave rise to the receivership have not been fully resolved,” the July 17 motion stated. 

EMPOWER’s contract for the fiscal year ending in August was $137.6 million.

DFPS selected EMPOWER to manage and oversee foster care children in nine north Texas counties: Dallas, Collin, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro and Rockwall. But in its first two years, the state issued more than a dozen notices to the agency outlining its shortcomings when it came to training, staffing and case management.

More than a year ago, attorneys with the Dallas County district attorney’s office took their complaints to state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, and she carried a bill creating the receivership process for DFPS to take over the supervision of poor performing foster care contractors.

After a second child’s death in two years occurred in March, the state petitioned a Dallas County district judge to allow it place EMPOWER under its supervision. The move is the latest challenge to the state’s efforts to privatize all of its foster care management system and occurs as the agency tries to settle its ongoing 15-year federal lawsuit over foster care conditions. That lawsuit, which comes with court-appointed monitors of foster care placements and resulting improvements, has cost Texas taxpayers more than $200 million.

DFPS has declined to offer details about their ongoing negotiations with EMPOWER since it took over the supervision of the company’s work in March. The agency’s supervision was supposed to end in June, but instead, DFPS requested that the receivership be extended to August. It also requested that when it files its official progress report on EMPOWER to the Dallas court in August, that it be sealed from public view.

A JBSA spokesperson confirmed to KSAT that Army, Navy and Air Force enlisted medical students assigned to the Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) “are being relocated to on-base temporary lodging.”

KSAT received several emails and calls from people claiming mold in the dorms is forcing hundreds of military members into base hotels.

JBSA’s official statement, however, cited “infrastructure” issues rather than mold specifically.

“This decision was made based on continuing infrastructure degradation that is rooted in the campus construction and can no longer be resolved through routine maintenance or ongoing repairs,” a JBSA official wrote in a statement to KSAT.

All affected service members faced “immediate relocation” while the base works toward a long-term solution.

“The relocation of these students to interim quarters demonstrates the Department of War commitment to its servicemembers to improve their quality of life,” the JBSA statement added.

The Department of War is investing more than $1.2 billion to “improve barrack conditions,” according to JBSA. Construction is expected to begin by the end of this year.

“Our primary focus is the safety, and quality of life of our students,” JBSA’s statement continued. “This relocation will allow the medical training pipeline to continue without compromise.”

KSAT asked a base official Wednesday for an interview and if any students were reported sick related to dorm conditions.

JBSA-Fort Sam Houston has yet to respond to KSAT’s request.

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The public can tour the majestic room and view its gilded ceilings and Greek frescoes en route to the nearby Mona Lisa, but they won’t see any crown jewels or empty display cases. The collections and precious jewels once displayed there have been removed, as the museum said the gallery is returning to its 17th-century original ceremonial purpose.

The stolen jewels remain unrecovered nine months later.

The gallery's former exhibits will be relocated elsewhere in the museum, said Christophe Leribault, the Louvre's director. “It’s also an opportunity to rediscover the splendid architecture and decor of this gallery,” he said.

Leribault was named to lead the Louvre in February after previous director Laurence des Cars resigned after the October crown jewels heist and a string of failures that battered confidence in the leadership of the world’s most-visited museum.

“That sinister day, when iconic pieces were taken, cannot be forgotten, and indeed, I believe, should not be,” said French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard. “It was a trauma for the entire world, which, for several days, expressed its shock and sadness in every language. It was a trauma for us, discovering the fragility of a place we thought unshakeable, and which, like so many others, proved vulnerable.”

Security at the Paris museum has been boosted with the addition of new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems.

On the day of the heist, thieves took less than eight minutes to force their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery and steal crown jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million), in a weekend operation that stunned visitors and exposed glaring security vulnerabilities.

Security improvement is a priority of the decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan launched last year, with an estimated cost of up to 800 million euros ($933 million) to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.

It hasn't worked out that way. With a little more than three months to go, both parties are grappling with self-inflicted wounds and messy missteps that have complicated their paths to victory in key races.

Trump steered the country into a war against Iran with no end in sight, disrupting the global flow of oil and spiking prices at the pump. He remains fixated on purging his party of dissent and relitigating his election defeat six years ago.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are in the throes of an internal civil war between moderates and progressives, as democratic socialists successfully oust incumbents. Some candidates have imploded in spectacular fashion, jeopardizing races the party had expected to win.

The drama has turned existential as each party faces a moment of reckoning. Democrats remain shaken by Trump being elected again and are desperately searching for a path back to power. Republicans are beginning to contemplate a post-Trump era even as the president maintains an iron grip on the party.

Frank Luntz, a longtime pollster, said the year has been consumed by “a sense of chaos and confusion.”

“We really do not know what’s going to happen in November," he said.

Candidates have been rocked by scandal

Democrats' latest turmoil has unfolded in Wisconsin, one of the most narrowly divided battleground states.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez abandoned her bid for governor after a campaign finance scandal just as she seemed to be consolidating support. Now the party establishment is concerned her departure will elevate Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who's viewed by party leaders as a potentially weak opponent against U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the likely Republican nominee.

“If we lose, Trump’s most loyal lackey in Congress takes control of Wisconsin, and that’s turned regular Democratic angst into flop sweats,” said longtime Wisconsin liberal activist Scot Ross. Still, he predicted that once the focus moves past the primary fight, Democratic voters would unite behind the party's candidate.

Then there's Maine, where the party is eager to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins as part of a nationwide push to regain control of the chamber.

Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and political outsider, rode a wave of grassroots energy to the Democratic nomination, only to drop out after an allegation of sexual assault, which he denies.

Supporters had hoped Platner would be the kind of candidate who could win white working-class voters back to the party, despite controversies including a tattoo widely recognized as a Nazi symbol and a history of inflammatory social media posts. Democrats are holding a convention this weekend to choose a replacement candidate.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster and consultant, said activists and voters have been willing to overlook potential vulnerabilities while supporting outsiders for office.

“There is something in the air that has made these candidates incredibly reckless and thinking that they can get away with it," she said, pointing to the president as a potential explanation. “I think Trump has kind of created a high-risk environment."

Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Trump's first-term vice president, Mike Pence, said the dynamic was reminiscent of 2010 when the tea party ushered in a wave of unvetted Republican candidates who famously beat establishment figures in primaries but lost in November, costing Republicans the Senate even as they made gains in the House.

The shoe, he said, is now on the other foot.

“I feel like when there is a lot of energy on one side that you can tend to nominate candidates that create hurdles for you and limit what your gains could be,” he said.

Divisions between Democrats are on display in key races

Other races are forcing Democrats to confront some of their deepest divisions.

In Michigan, Senate candidate and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed has worried party leaders like Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer who fear he's too far left to win in the seat, which Democrats will need to hold onto if they want a shot at winning the majority this year. Supporters point to the enthusiasm he's garnered as a way forward for the party.

The primary also highlights a schism over Israel. El-Sayed has described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide, an accusation rejected by Israel and the White House. In response, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its affiliated groups have spent close to $30 million backing primary rival Haley Stevens.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said it's clear voters across the country are rebelling against a political system they see as rigged and are yearning for candidates willing to fight on their behalf.

He said candidates like El-Sayed would serve as proof of concept going into 2028 that “bold, shake-up-the system economic fighters" are more electable in purple and red states than "stale, status quo corporate-aligned Democrats.”

In Washington, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., downplayed the idea the ideological divisions would endanger Democrats.

“A healthy party is a party that has arguments," he said. “I think our party should be debating ideas. We should be having hotly contested primaries."

Republicans rocked by retirements and ousted incumbents

Republicans are facing their own challenges as they try to buck historical precedent and maintain congressional control.

Trump reshaped this year’s Senate map by sidelining some Republican incumbents and promoting loyalists to replace them. That includes in Texas, where he ousted longtime Sen. John Cornyn and endorsed Ken Paxton, a fiery conservative with a lengthy history of corruption allegations.

Republican leaders had warned his nomination would put the state in play and force the party to spend millions of dollars defending what would have otherwise been a safe seat.

Others chose to leave the party. In North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tillis declined to run for reelection after feuding with Trump. Democrats hope to flip the seat with former Gov. Roy Cooper.

Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster and strategist, said Trump “has exacerbated the problem” of a political culture that has produced more extreme candidates on both sides of the aisle thanks to closed primaries.

Trump can boost candidates — or hold them back

Republicans have historically struggled when Trump isn't on the ballot. But he also risks weighing candidates down.

Just 37% of U.S. adults approve of how he's handling the presidency, according to the most recent AP-NORC poll, which shows deep dissatisfactions over his handling of the economy and other issues.

But instead of staying focused on lowering prices, Trump has continued his bombardment of Iran in a struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil supplies. He also delivered a primetime address in which he continued to dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws.

“Trump is our biggest ally," said Lake, the Democratic pollster and consultant. “He’s the best things that Democrats have going. And it’s the gift that keeps on going."

But Jenny Beth Martin, chair of the grassroots conservative group Tea Party Patriots Action, disagreed.

“President Trump is the single greatest advantage Republicans have in the midterm elections," she said in a statement. “The energy and enthusiasm he generates is incomparable, and we’re counting on him to motivate his supporters to go to the polls.”

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., and Steven Sloan in Washington contributed to this report.

The 32-year-old South Korean singer's second full-length album looks back on a decade of change as she moves from the uncertainty of her early 20s.

“It has seven tracks, and they reflect the emotions and feelings I’ve experienced from my early 20s until now — like a chronicle of my life,” Kim told The Associated Press.

The album, released seven years after her last major project, the 2019 EP “GENERASIAN,” marks a return for an artist who has spent her career shifting between genres and exploring questions of identity, belonging and self-discovery. It arrives 13 years after her debut full-length album, “A Voice.”

When Kim released “GENERASIAN,” she said global interest in South Korea and its music, including K-pop, was still developing. She said the album came from a desire to speak about her own identity and perspective as an Asian woman born in South Korea.

“That was a period when no one had really told that story properly,” she said. “I wanted to show that perspective properly — not through the way it’s usually seen from abroad, but from my own point of view.”

Kim said her new album represents a move away from the broader cultural questions of “GENERASIAN” and toward a more personal reflection.

“After I finished ‘GENERASIAN,’ I thought about my next step for a long time,” she said. “Each album feels like a record of what I was feeling at that time, and then I move on. This time, I wanted to focus more on my own individual story.”

Kim broke through in 2011 as part of South Korean folk-pop duo Togeworl before launching her solo career in 2013. She won two Korean Music Awards in 2020.

The singer said the album’s title reflects the uncertainty she felt during the years it covers — a period she described as moving through a “wasteland” while searching for direction.

The album’s title track, “Never Gonna Be Alone,” begins at a wedding and explores the paradox of feeling most alone when surrounded by a bride and her guests. Kim said that feeling became more familiar as she entered her 30s and attended more weddings. The song’s warm, string-laden sound belies its unsettling lyrical undertone.

“INSA” — the Korean word for “greeting” — features rapper Bree Runway and plays on the formality of everyday exchanges Kim encountered when she entered the music industry. She said she often felt a sense of distance from the people and glamour around her.

“It wasn’t that I felt like one of them, but more this strange sense that I was somehow separate,” she recalled.

Kim said she hopes listeners who are also navigating uncertain futures can find something familiar in her journey. The album draws inspiration from South Korean novelist Yang Gui-ja, American writer Joan Didion and Studio Ghibli film “Spirited Away” — works that similarly explore self-identity and transformation.

Chief Jason Brady notified Michael Godinez via a termination letter KSAT obtained Tuesday. The now-former officer was officially let go June 18.

Godinez’s last dispatch in Seguin

According to a police report, Godinez and four additional officers were dispatched on an assault in progress call May 20 at the Stone Ranch Townhomes in the 1300 block of C. H. Matthies Jr. Road.

The five officers arrested Danny Lee Villela, 48. According to jail records, he was booked into the Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center on the following charges:

• Having a prohibitive substance or item in a correctional facility (third-degree felony)
• Family violence assault (Class A misdemeanor)
• Resisting arrest, search or transport (Class A misdemeanor)
• Possessing less than two ounces of marijuana (Class B misdemeanor)

As of Tuesday, court records show Villela remains in custody at the Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center.

Complaint made against Godinez

In a formal complaint filed one day after the incident, Seguin Police Department Lt. Marcos Martinez alleged that Godinez may have used excessive force against Villela.

Godinez was the first officer on scene, according to the complaint obtained by KSAT on Tuesday. Upon arrival at the apartment, documents show Godinez directed a family member away from Villela so he could place him in handcuffs.

“It is not clearly visible on BWC (body-worn camera) from Ofc (Officer) Godinez’s viewpoint. However, it appears the subject (Villela) was struck several times on the back side of the head,” Martinez alleged in the complaint.

According to Seguin PD Administration Lt. Michael G. McCann, Godinez was terminated for violating the department’s Response to Resistance and Aggression policy.

McCann said Godinez could face criminal charges in connection with the May 20 incident. As of Tuesday night, Godinez is not facing any charges.

Until his June 18 termination, McCann said Godinez joined Seguin PD in August 2023.

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The whales are among the first six of a pod of 30 to be moved to the United States, with the other four transferred to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

SeaWorld said the whales made the trip in specialized cold-water containers, traveling by truck and plane with marine mammal veterinarians and animal care teams accompanying them throughout the journey.

The belugas will receive around-the-clock monitoring and immediate care as they adjust to their new environment. Care teams will watch for signs that the whales are settling in, including eating, exploring and socializing.

Officials said the transfer is an important milestone, but not the end of the effort. More rescues from Marineland of Canada are still being planned.

Additional rescued beluga whales are expected to be relocated to Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld San Diego and Oceanogràfic Valencia in Spain, pending government approval.

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A report issued Tuesday by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime estimated that scams caused estimated losses in the Asia-Pacific region alone of as much as $114 billion in 2025. It warned that even as authorities conduct raids on industrial-sized scam centers mostly located in border regions of Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, criminals have responded by shifting to other parts of the world or operating on a smaller scale.

Patel arrived in Cambodia from neighboring Thailand which co-hosted a two-day summit with the U.S. this week on scam centers that was attended by representatives of nearly 20 countries and hundreds of law enforcement officials.

The head of the top U.S. law enforcement agency met with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul for talks on joint cooperation to tackle scam centers and other transnational crimes, such as human trafficking and drug trafficking, particularly through information sharing and intelligence exchanges.

Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia where law enforcement is weak, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar. Scam centers are also linked to human trafficking. Thousands of foreign nationals who are employed to run “romance” and cryptocurrency scams to swindle victims are often recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.

Cambodia this year claims to have accelerated a crackdown on the scam operations, whose proliferation there is “a top priority for the U.S. government,” according a U.S. Embassy statement. Washington appreciates Hun Manet’s pledge to counter this problem and is coordinating closely with the Cambodian government to battle the problem, it said.

The embassy said Patel’s visit “reinforces the need for strong, joint efforts to combat transnational cybercrime, including increased efforts to hold high-level scam bosses accountable and for improved information sharing regarding complicit officials and scam compound owners.”

The U.S. also “fully supports efforts to ensure justice for victims and criminal accountability for online scam operators, those who enable or protect them, and those complicit in related human trafficking crimes,” it added.

Cambodia will host an international conference on combating cyber scams in September, Hun Manet said in a post on his Telegram social media account.

Deputies responded on a shooting call just after 9:15 p.m. Tuesday in the 12600 block of Emmett Grove, which is located near Stillwater Parkway.

A caller told the dispatcher that they heard multiple gunshots and saw several vehicles flee from the area at a high rate of speed, BCSO said.

Upon arrival, deputies found that multiple homes and vehicles were struck by the gunfire. Though no injured individuals or “active threats” were found at the scene, the sheriff’s office said several shell casings were recovered.

Under 10 minutes later, BCSO said a dispatcher told deputies that a male with a gunshot wound to his lower body arrived at a nearby urgent care. He was later referred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Deputies determined that an exchange of gunfire happened between two, possibly three, vehicles traveling through the area, the sheriff’s office said.

BCSO said it is still in the process of determining the detainees involvement in the shooting and whether any others were involved.

Deputies are working to obtain additional evidence. Anyone with relevant information on the incident is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 210-335-6000.

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“It was a bit more of a rugged crowd. And they were small crowds,” she says in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I could only enter after the bar closed. That was after midnight because I was underage. And as long as the bar wasn’t still serving, then I could go in and play while everybody was finishing up their last call.”

It was “character building,” she says, painting an image of a bygone era of her life in Northern Ontario and one dramatically opposed to the glitz and glamour associated with the five-time Grammy Award winning country musician. But those days were instrumental to what became her career. “I spent a lot of years dreaming about things that would eventually come but took a little while,” she says.

As Twain describes it, her latest album, “Little Miss Twain,” out Friday, is the period of her life from her earliest performances at age 8 all the way to her late-20s, when she inked her major label record deal.

“There’s this whole gap of life that I’ve never written,” she says. “I wanted to fill in story wise, personal story wise. … It’s a phase of my life that not a lot of my fans would know about.”

Revisiting the past — in more ways than one

A number of the songs on “Little Miss Twain” have been sitting with the singer for many years. “'Rockstars' I was writing probably 10 years ago now, and ‘Northern Town' is one that’s been around for a long time,” she says.

The title track of the record, “Little Miss Twain,” is its emotive heart — a song for her mother, who died in a car crash in 1987, alongside her stepfather, and never got to experience her success. For Shania, it was an opportunity to reflect on “my mother being my manager and my agent, my driver and my coach, even though she couldn’t sing a note,” she said. “She would drive me around to all these stages, underage in the bars, and that’s where I got my experience.”

The song was one of the last ones to make the collection, she says, but “it was this missing piece that came to me.” That's at least partially due to the inclusion of Tanya Tucker, who duets with Twain on the track.

On the chorus, Twain sings “According to my mother / I'm the next Tanya Tucker.”

Twain says of having Tucker on the record: “I don’t know if I would ever really be able to explain in words what it meant and what it would have meant to my mother.”

The song also features her son Eja D’Angelo Lange on background vocals; he appears on a few of the album's tracks. “I get to fulfill a lot of things that my mother would not have been able to share with me,” she says about working with her son. “It’s really beautiful.”

Genre explorations from a country music giant

Pulling from her early years allowed Twain to focus on some of her musical loves in and outside of country music. Listen closely and you'll hear “Motown, the country and western that my grandparents used to play like Marty Robbins” she says. “There’s a lot of rock edge stuff in there. ‘Faded Blue Jeans’ is very much a bluesy rock song” — it features Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme.

The multi-genre moments on the album, with credits that also include Ronnie Wood, work for Twain's current voice, which now features a wizened rasp. “I don’t have the little sweet sound I had years ago, but I have a new sound that I actually like,” she says. “And I think I write songs a bit differently because of it.”

A number of years ago, Twain contracted Lyme disease, which affected her voice. In 2018, she had implants placed in her larynx. “It’s a very unusual procedure to have for a singer,” she says. “I had damaged nerves in my larynx. So the vocal cords were perfectly fine.” The surgery worked, and the continued result is a kind of gravelly tone, a vocal fry, and additional distinction to her already unmistakable voice.

When her audience listens to “Little Miss Twain” for the first time, Twain hopes they will leave the experience with “a sense and a feeling of the atmosphere that I grew up in, the environment that shaped me, the experiences that developed me as a person and as an artist,” she says.

She wants them to get to know the cover singer at the local bar, the woman who didn't have childhood success. “I hope they learn,” she takes a beat, “about the missing chapter of who I am.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed Iran for the Houthi rebel group's naval blockade against Saudi Arabia but hoped it could be de-escalated.

The Houthis are armed and significantly influenced by Iran but are independent of Iran’s supreme leader, unlike the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and several Iran-backed Iraqi militias.

“Anything that restricts shipping through the Red Sea would be problematic for the same reasons that the Strait of Hormuz is problematic,” Rubio said on the sidelines of a regional summit in the Philippines. The U.S. is closely monitoring the situation, he said, and has contacted Saudi Arabia a number of times over the last week about the threats.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil passes in peacetime, has been fully or partially closed since the war in Iran started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli attacks.

“It’s not a new threat, but it’s one that’s manifested itself in the past, but at the gist of that issue is the fact that, again, Iran is in the middle of it. Talking about the troublemaker in the region, it’s Iran,” he added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday condemned the Houthi threats and said they violate established principles of international law.

The Houthis opened a new front against Saudi Arabia by declaring a naval blockade of the kingdom, threatening the flow of global oil supplies and trade. With the Strait of Hormuz blocked, Saudi Arabia has relied on a pipeline to the Red Sea to get millions of barrels of oil out to market.

Three Houthi officials said the group warned international shipping companies on Monday to avoid transiting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

A news agency in Yemen run by the Houthis, SABA, said Tuesday that six ships in the Red Sea were forced to reroute after they received warnings from the rebel group. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the claim but tracking data from MarineTraffic.com showed at least three tankers appeared to make U-turns on Tuesday.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned that the actions “threaten regional security, undermine freedom of navigation, challenge the rules-based maritime order and jeopardize uninterrupted flow of global commerce.”

The Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said Pakistan was “particularly concerned by reports of threats directed against vessels engaged in lawful commercial trade with the Kingdom.”

The ministry warned that “any hostile act against Pakistani-flagged vessels or Pakistani maritime interests will be regarded as a grave threat to Pakistan’s national security and sovereign interests.”

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are longtime allies, and the kingdom is one of Pakistan’s largest oil suppliers.

Last year, the two countries signed a mutual defense pact defining an attack on either nation as an attack on both. The agreement followed Israeli attacks on the neighboring Gulf state of Qatar. Pakistan has also repeatedly condemned Iranian attacks on Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan brokered an interim peace deal between the U.S. and Iran in June and is currently mediating between the two sides after they resumed attacks on each other earlier this month.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have maintained close defense ties for decades, in part because of Islamabad’s longstanding commitment to help defend Islam’s holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, in the kingdom. Pakistani troops were first deployed to Saudi Arabia in the late 1960s amid concerns over the war in Yemen involving Egypt.

———

Associated Press writers Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Michelle Price in Manila contributed to this report.

The Kendall County Women’s Shelter said floodwater pushed into the basement of its building, an area that sits beneath the shelter’s thrift store.

The basement, which is used for thrift store storage, took on water amid the heavy rain. Many donated items were damaged or destroyed, shelter officials said.

“It’s just another thing,” said Allison Peterson, the shelter’s executive director, who started in the role in March.

Peterson said volunteers spent much of the weekend cleaning up after the water receded, but the shelter is still drying out the space and assessing what can be salvaged.

The flooding is the latest blow to an organization that has been fundraising to repair its aging building. Peterson said the shelter has faced a steady string of maintenance problems in recent months, including air conditioning issues and leaks from equipment such as water heaters.

“You have to have the funding to be able to take care of these things,” Peterson said.

The shelter which sits in a separate location and did not suffer flooding, provides emergency housing and support services for women and families, Peterson said.

The facility is about 7,000 square feet, has nine bedrooms and serves about 36 people daily. She said the shelter is typically at capacity and helps clients with basics such as food and clothing, along with services including counseling and case management.

The shelter operates on about $100,000 a month, Peterson said. Revenue from its thrift store helps offset costs, making the loss of donations and damage to storage space especially challenging.

Even outside the building, the flooding worsened existing issues, Peterson said, including damage to a back driveway that was already in need of repair.

Community leaders who want to help can donate money or offer volunteer labor, including skilled work from local businesses, the shelter said.

Tejano music icon Ram Herrera has added another milestone to his remarkable career with his exhibit induction into the Totally Tejano Hall of Fame & Museum. The honor recognizes more than four decades of musical excellence, cultural impact, and unwavering dedication to preserving and promoting Tejano music.

Born around 1960 and raised in the Victoria Courts neighborhood of San Antonio, Herrera’s journey is a testament to talent, perseverance, and a deep love for his roots. He first captured audiences’ attention in the early 1980s as the powerful lead vocalist for David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, helping define an era of modern Tejano music.

Building on that success, Herrera launched his own group, Ramiro Herrera y Montana, and later signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In 1986, he released Most Wanted Man, a groundbreaking album that marked his first English-language recording. The project became a certified gold record and further cemented his place among Tejano music’s most influential performers.

Throughout his career, Herrera has earned recognition from some of the music industry’s most prestigious organizations. At the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007, he received a nomination for his album Ram Herrera and the Outlaw Band. He has also been nominated multiple times at the Latin Grammy Awards, including for Ingrata, Mucho Más Que Amor, and Back On Track, showcasing his continued excellence and longevity in the genre.

Known for chart-topping hits, an unmistakable voice, and an unforgettable stage presence, Herrera has become much more than an entertainer. He has served as a cultural ambassador for Tejano music, introducing generations of fans to a sound that continues to celebrate the heritage and traditions of South Texas and beyond.

Even after 45 years in the music industry, Herrera continues to perform with the same passion and authenticity that first won over audiences decades ago. His exhibit induction into the Totally Tejano Hall of Fame & Museum is a fitting tribute to a career that has left an enduring mark on Tejano music and inspired countless artists who have followed in his footsteps.

Congratulations to Ram Herrera on this well-deserved honor. His music, dedication, and lasting legacy continue to inspire generations of fans while ensuring that the rich tradition of Tejano music remains vibrant for years to come.

Read more community stories, music news, and celebrations from across San Antonio at LiveFromTheSouthside.com.

A powerful new independent film is bringing an important conversation about mental health to the big screen. Anxious Mark, produced by Keep It Texas Productions LLC, will make its red-carpet premiere on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at City Base Cinemas in San Antonio. Tickets are now on sale at Anxious Mark Tickets.

Directed by Bert Lopez and Rogelio Cirilo, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Anxious Mark follows Mark, a comedian and youth mentor whose struggles with anxiety and depression stem from childhood trauma. As he works to overcome his own battles, he must also help guide his younger brother away from a dangerous path. The film explores the lasting effects of abuse, grief, and mental illness while delivering a message of hope, healing, and resilience.

Filmed entirely in San Antonio, the production highlights local talent both on screen and behind the camera. The cast includes Cleto Rodriguez as Mark, Jacinto Rodriguez as Jonah, Victor Valdez, Carlos Alcantar, Daniel Gomez, Mário Miranda, Brandy Lopez, Soraya Lopez, Roy Allen Vasquez Jr., April Monterrosa, and many other South Texas actors. Behind the scenes, Rogelio Cirilo also served as director of photography and editor, with cinematography by Jessica Martinez.

Following its San Antonio premiere, Anxious Mark will be submitted to film festivals before being released on streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.

Executive producer Bert Lopez has spent more than 25 years working in independent film and theater. Raised in San Antonio, he began acting and making films in high school and has since produced, directed, and appeared in numerous projects while helping grow the city’s independent film community. With Anxious Mark, Lopez continues his commitment to telling meaningful stories that inspire conversation and raise awareness about mental health.

A coalition of property owners, community advocates and scientists recently came together to oppose a wastewater treatment plant permit renewal for Juniper Ranch, a subdivision under construction by Lennar Homes, located across the street from Mystic Shores.

The concerns mark the latest in a series of communities expressing concern about wastewater treatment plants that KSAT has been following.

However, the Juniper Ranch subdivision wants to send its treated wastewater, known as effluent, down a creek bed which residents said has been dry for decades.

Neighbors have already felt the impact of the development.

Two Mystic Shores property owners — Terry Shake and Steve Wright — said they already are seeing problems on their land, including drainage issues, stormwater pooling, foundation risks, and algae growth because of all the vegetation that was cut down to make way for the homes.

While properties in Mystic Shores are spread out on multi-acre lots, the new subdivision will have multiple homes per acre. The new homes will also not have to follow the same rules about wastewater.

Mystic Shores resident Frank Hutchins said homeowners are legally prohibited from spraying septic effluent onto a neighbor’s property, yet the developer’s plan would send treated effluent directly behind his home.

“While we are required to keep our effluent water on our property, why does TCEQ allow the developer to release their effluent onto other owners’ private property?” Hutchins said. “Does Texas property rights not apply to everyone?”

What’s at stake

Canyon Lake sits in the Edwards Aquifer Contributing Zone, directly above the Cow Creek formation in Devil’s Hollow. This hydrological system feeds more than 8,000 private groundwater wells in Comal County, according to advocates.

Four wastewater treatment plants are currently permitted to discharge treated effluent into that same interconnected system. Retired geophysical engineer Ron Harris said the risk is compounding.

“Canyon Lake has an extensive groundwater system that serves over 8,000 private wells,” Harris said. “As a geophysicist, I am concerned that the cumulative impact of these discharges poses a growing risk to both surface water quality and groundwater quality. I strongly recommend we change course now.”

The proposed discharge path through Devil’s Hollow also runs directly through a registered Texas archaeological site, according to retired petroleum engineer and archaeology volunteer Marty Rolleg.

“Pumping 300,000 gallons of treated effluent wastewater into the fragile environment of Devil’s Hollow Creek and across this registered archaeological site every day will utterly destroy an ancient record that has survived since the Middle Archaic Period 8,000 years ago,” Rolleg said. “Once it washed into Devil’s Hollow Creek, that history is gone forever.”

Proposed solutions

Mystic Shores neighbors are not calling for a halt to development in the area. Instead, residents argue the technology and policy precedent already exist to protect the watershed while allowing growth.

A no-discharge wastewater ban has been in place at the Highland Lakes near Austin for roughly 40 years. They said development has continued in the region because builders know there are alternatives.

Organizers proposed the following solutions:

• 100% water reuse: routing treated effluent to irrigate lawns, landscaping, or supply a future fire station
• Selling treated wastewater as a commercial resource to golf courses or industrial users

“Responsible planning to reuse millions of gallons of treated effluent would become millions of gallons of high-quality raw water conserved for the people,” organizer Denae N. Delaney said. “Later is too late.”

Read also:

• Canyon Lake Reservoir nears full capacity after dramatic water level increase

In a news release, the city said the sewer overflow is located in the Town Creek area near State Highway 27 and Water Street.

Residents and visitors are encouraged to avoid Town Creek and downstream areas of the Guadalupe River toward Louise Hays Park and Kerrville-Schreiner Park until further notice due to a “potential water quality issue.”

Though public works crews have assessed the affected areas since Thursday, some locations remain inaccessible due to high water levels, unsafe terrain, and flood debris, the city said.

Flooding along Town Creek has delayed crews’ response to the sewer overflow area with the proper equipment. They had to rebuild an access ramp to reach the affected area, the release states.

The City of Kerrville has notified the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority about the situation.

According to the city, crews will continue to monitor conditions and provide further updates once more information becomes available.

Read also:

• ‘I’ve never ever seen that kind of water’: Uvalde residents begin cleanup after historic flooding

The latest conflict started March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets toward Israel after the U.S.-Israeli February attacks that set off the Iran war. In response, Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing 1.2 million others.

The two sides, technically in a state of war nearly 80 years after Israel’s establishment, started rare direct talks championed by Washington.

They reached an agreement by late June, setting a plan for the deployment of Lebanese military forces in areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah had a military presence and influence, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, while disarming the militant group.

Hezbollah has refused the talks and disarmament calls.

Lebanese government vows to rebuild and take control

Nawaf Salam’s visit to Zawtar Al Gharbieh came a day after President Joseph Aoun’s landmark White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, who made a surprise announcement, allowing American carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in 40-plus years.

Salam, alongside Lebanon’s defense minister and senior military officials, pitched a Lebanese flag near a destroyed building in the town, vowing the government will start rebuilding destroyed homes and infrastructure.

“We have insisted since the beginning that our goal is the complete Israeli withdrawal from all our territory,” Salam said. “What we are seeing today is just the beginning, but we remain determined and steadfast, and will continue to mobilize all political and diplomatic efforts to secure a full withdrawal from all of Lebanese territory.”

The army did not immediately allow civilians to enter as they cleared unexploded ordnance. Residents tried to storm the barrier in a desperate bid to enter the village and check on their homes and properties.

Some expressed frustration, downplaying the army’s deployment.

“The prime minister should have informed people that he was going to Zawtar and he should have taken the people, who have been waiting for the past two days, with him,” said Zaynab Ismail, a resident.

The agreement’s implementation begins with ‘pilot zones’

Lebanon and Israel agreed to establish two “pilot zones” in a series of villages in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is to turn over control to the Lebanese army after clearing the areas of any Hezbollah presence.

Israel hasn’t occupied any of the newly assigned zones in the latest conflict, though it has struck them and conducted ground operations. The Lebanese army has a limited presence there.

Trump, in his meeting with Aoun, did not address the “pilot zones” entering their implementation phase, but pledged to support Lebanon without going into details.

Aoun and the Lebanese government have urged the international community to invest in the Mediterranean country and its army to help rebuild its infrastructure and military capacity.

Lebanon’s top political leadership has criticized the group for dragging the country into another war, but also condemned Israel for its widespread bombing and ground invasion.

Hezbollah has condemned the government for holding direct talks with Israel and rejected the agreement, but the militant group has not tried to sabotage it through military means. Its leadership believes Israel cannot be pressured to withdraw its troops by diplomatic means only, and that Lebanon lacks the leverage of its key ally Iran in negotiations.

Officers responded to the stabbing just before 10:15 p.m. Tuesday in the 8500 block of Laurens Lane, which is located near Oakwell Farms Parkway.

Officers were not able to find the scene where the man was stabbed, and no information on the suspect was provided either.

SAPD believes the man was stabbed at a different location and then went to the apartment complex to find help.

Further information was not readily available.

Read also:

• BCSO: 2 detained, 1 hospitalized after apparent exchange of gunfire between vehicles in NW Bexar County

The delegation also stands to get wealthier. The majority of prospective new members are likely millionaires, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of candidates’ personal financial disclosures.

Exact net worths are impossible to pin down, given that candidates are required to list their assets in broad ranges, not exact dollar amounts. This means a candidate might report owning stock worth $15,001 to $50,000, for example, rather than a specific figure. They are required to disclose revenue-generating assets and investments, including bank accounts of over $5,000, stock portfolios, money market accounts, retirement funds and rental properties. Additionally, candidates are exempted from including some assets, such as personal residences or vehicles.

But using these ranges, it is possible to estimate the net worths of the likely incoming members who will be voting on the nation’s laws and regulating industries in which some have a direct financial stake. To estimate each candidate’s net worth, the Tribune took the midpoint of their lowest and highest possible worths, based on the assets and liabilities they listed on their disclosure forms.

Among 15 first-time candidates from Texas who could be in Congress next year and who disclosed their assets, the mean estimated net worth was $3.34 million. Nearly half the potential incoming members had net worths which, at minimum, top $1 million. Five of the 15 could be worth $10 million or more at the high end.

Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said the trend owes to a campaign finance system that rewards candidates with money or access to it.

“If [parties] are evaluating one candidate versus another, they’re very much looking at: Is this person going to be able to raise the numbers that are required in order to be a viable candidate?” Gutierrez said. “That one piece of criteria is often the one that beats everything else.”

Common Cause advocates for a ban on stock trading among members of Congress, who are currently required to disclose stock activity but are not banned from trading. Gutierrez said a candidate who is serious about demonstrating a commitment to good governance should be comprehensive in their financial disclosures and could divest from any stock holdings.

“What is required by law as far as disclosure should be treated as the bare minimum,” he said.

The 15 candidates include nominees running in safe seats, where they are considered all but locks to win in November due to the partisan lean of the district, and nominees from both parties running in competitive seats. The analysis looks at candidates who have not held federal office before, meaning incumbents were excluded.

Two likely new members are worth at least tens of millions of dollars, and potentially worth over $100 million — Republican Mark Teixeira, running for the Central Texas seat currently held by retiring Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and Republican Chris Gober, the favorite to replace retiring Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin.

Teixeira, a former Major League Baseball star who made hundreds of millions of dollars during his 14-year baseball career, has a net worth between about $48 million and $331 million, according to an overview of his personal financial disclosure. That figure would make Teixeira likely the wealthiest member of the Texas delegation and one of the richest in Congress.

The former first baseman holds stock in a number of companies that Congress has jurisdiction over, including tech giants like Amazon, pharmaceutical firms like AbbVie and artificial intelligence company Nvidia, through his retirement plans, a trust and a limited liability company.

Teixeira also has ownership interests in a number of companies, including an e-sports league, hotel development and management firms, and real estate developments.

Teixeira’s campaign said he has a team of financial advisors that direct his stock trades, and that he is working with them on identifying structures — including a potential qualified blind trust — to remove any financial conflict of interest while in office. Teixeira’s campaign also said the candidate’s goal is to not have to buy or sell individual stocks in Congress.

Gober, who owns the conservative powerhouse law firm LexPolitica, has a net worth of between about $32 million and $107 million, according to his disclosure. His law firm alone is worth $25 million to $50 million.

In addition, Gober owns rental properties in Port Aransas, Garland and Telluride and between $100,001 and $250,000 of Bitcoin, which would make him one of just a handful of lawmakers to own cryptocurrency as digital asset legislation gains traction in Congress.

In a statement, Gober, who has stakes in companies including Alphabet, Apple and Tesla, committed to not trading stock while he is an elected official.

“The American people don’t send people to Washington to get rich, and they deserve confidence that elected representatives are serving the people and not themselves,” he said. “As I’ve stated on the campaign trail, I won’t trade individual stocks while serving in Congress, and everything I own will remain fully disclosed to the public.”

Beyond Teixeira and Gober, several candidates have multimillion-dollar net worths. In the Houston area, Jessica Steinmann, the GOP nominee to replace Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, is worth between $2 million and $4.6 million, while Alex Mealer, running in a redrawn seat in Harris and Liberty counties, has a net worth of $2.3 million to $8 million. Republican Jon Bonck, in retiring Rep. Wesley Hunt’s seat, is worth about $2.3 million to $8.7 million.

Republican Tom Sell, the nominee in the West Texas seat that Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, is vacating, has millions of dollars worth of assets. A farmer and lobbyist, Sell disclosed four farms, worth a combined total of $1.25 million to $2.5 million. His consulting firm, which counts several high-profile agricultural groups as clients, is worth between $1 million and $5 million.

But Sell also has mortgages and commercial notes on his properties, putting his net worth as low as negative $2.8 million and as high as $13.9 million.

Texas’ delegation could be in for further change if a handful of South Texas seats flip control this November. After redistricting, Republicans are hoping to defeat Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, with a pair of recruits the national party is enthused about.

Both Republican candidates — Eric Flores and Tano Tijerina — are multimillionaires. Flores, a lawyer challenging Gonzalez, is worth between $2.6 million and $11.4 million, owing to his ownership of a healthcare company and his wife’s trust.

Tijerina, who as Webb County Judge is already an elected official, is worth between $3 million and $10.5 million. Tijerina and his wife have ownership interests in a number of Laredo businesses, including a hemp farm which produces CBD products, an oil and gas exploration firm, a ranch and a real estate development company.

Not all prospective members are wealthy. Some, like Democrats Johnny Garcia and Katy Padilla Stout, both running in Republican-leaning districts in South Texas, have maximum net worths of under $250,000. Garcia disclosed only a pension, worth $100,001 to $250,000, while Padilla Stout only listed a bank account, a mutual fund and her spouse’s retirement plans.

Republican Trever Nehls, running to replace his brother, Rep. Troy Nehls, in the 22nd Congressional District, had the lowest estimated net worth of potential incoming members. Nehls only disclosed a handful of bank accounts, stock and a mutual fund — all worth less than $15,000, while listing liabilities in the form of revolving credit from three credit card companies.

Nehls does list a six-figure salary in earned income from his consulting business in 2024. His net worth, according to his disclosure, is as low as negative $145,000 and as high as $30,000 in the black.

One candidate — Republican Brandon Herrera, running to replace former GOP lawmaker Tony Gonzales — did not disclose any assets in his filing. Herrera solely disclosed $80,000 in income in 2024 from his company, The AK Guy, along with numerous sources of compensation in excess of $5,000, including creator payouts and merchandise sales from his YouTube presence.

Herrera has said that he “made millions” before his congressional bid and that Congress, where members earn an annual salary of $174,000, would represent a “90%+ pay cut.”

Herrera’s campaign said he plans to refile an amended financial disclosure. His campaign manager said Friday that accountants are still working on the new filing.

Herrera also said on X that he supported a proposal to prevent lawmakers from buying stock in office and pledged to refrain from doing so himself — though his current financial disclosure does not include any stock ownership.

Democrat Frederick Haynes III, who is running to replace Rep. Jasmine Crockett in her Dallas district, is the sole potential incoming member who has not filed a financial disclosure.

Disclosures are due within 30 days of becoming a candidate or by May 15, whichever is later, and must be done annually, making Haynes delinquent. He has not filed an extension request.

Haynes’ campaign said the candidate was working on the filing and expected it to be completed within a week.

Disclosure: Amazon, Apple and Common Cause 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.

It was around 3 a.m. Thursday, and in the darkness the nearby Guadalupe River was surging over its banks.

Dobbs, familiar with the damage floodwater can inflict on the human body, refused to allow this couple to share the fate of more than 130 people who were killed in July 2025. He threw open their back door and pointed: “That’s the river.”

“The fear that came over me,” he recounted later, thinking of the couple who eventually heeded his advice to flee. “I know what y’all are going to look like if you don’t get out of here. I’ve seen what all of y’all are going to look like.”

Two destructive floods only 12 months apart inflicted renewed trauma on first responders, volunteers and residents in and around Kerr County as rivers and creeks quickly rose, in some places to all-time high levels. Even after the water subsided, what remained — strewn debris, damaged roads, destroyed buildings — took them back to 2025 and made clear that processing this year’s flood will be impossible without processing last year’s, too.

“It is traumatic,” said Darcy Hasty, who like Dobbs is with the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department.

“I mean, thank God for therapy, right?” Hasty said from a displacement shelter emergency officials opened in the Center Point Middle School gym.

Fire department gear is spread out for cleaning on the floor of the Center Point fire station on July 17, 2026. Eric Vryn for The Texas Tribune

The call to mobilize came around 2:40 a.m. Thursday, and Hasty was soon driving from her home in Bandera to the fire station in Center Point and wondering: “Are people going to listen when we tell them to get out?”

Hasty recalled encountering a woman who had ignored barricades on the RM 480 bridge for a better view of the flowing Guadalupe River.

“I told her, ‘Ma’am, you really need to get off the bridge. There’s another wall of water coming.’ She looks at me and goes, ‘I will,’” Hasty said.

The lack of urgency was frustrating.

“I’m just … people died last year, what did she expect?” Hasty said. “Even if she didn’t die, you’re still going to become somebody else that we have to go save, and what if I lose one of my brothers or sisters trying to save her? Or does she not consider the fact that I may have to watch her get washed away?”

Last year, after the Guadalupe River rose a staggering 29 feet in three hours, killing 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic about 30 miles upstream, Center Point Fire Chief Charles Holt made therapy mandatory for first responders. Members of the department expect similar mental health check-ins to be made available in the coming weeks and months.

“People don’t consider the things that we see … what I see in my brothers’ and sisters’ faces when they get back from pulling bodies out of the river,” Hasty said.

That was the hardest part of last year’s floods for Hasty — watching the faces of fellow first responders when body bags ran out or having to sort the personal belongings of kids from Camp Mystic, knowing “the last kind thing I could do for the parents was to love those items.”

“And then for that lady not to care enough about our family, to just want pictures or a video of a disaster,” Hasty said, recalling the woman on the bridge.

“Just get off the bridge,” she said. “It’s a picture.”

“We are mourning with one another”

A memorial dedicated to those who died in the Kerr County floods last year stands in front of the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department on July 17, 2026. Twenty-four hours prior, the area was underwater. Ellie Ashby/The Texas Tribune

A 20-foot-tall white cross stands in front of the Center Point fire station, the words “Letters to Heaven” just above a mail slot at its base to accept notes to the Camp Mystic flood victims.

Dobbs, sitting on the back of a muddied work truck with the cross over his left shoulder, was asked what it had been like watching the river rise to the same height as a year earlier.

“I haven’t even dealt with the flood from last year,” he said.

After a month spent recovering bodies in summer 2025, Dobbs learned his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and he focused on taking care of her until she died in December.

“I just went straight into her mode [as] caretaker,” Dobbs said. “And then we had a bunch of really bad car wrecks before the flood, too, with a lot of deaths. It was just a bad year for us. There was a lot of trauma, a lot of debriefing.”

Though there were significantly fewer casualties this year, property damage was widespread.

Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that 135 homes in Kerr County were destroyed or severely damaged by the floods, with almost 600 other homes and businesses sustaining damage. The Center Point fire station, which had recently finished repairs from last year’s flood, was hit with six to seven feet of Guadalupe River water, undoing virtually all of the repairs and damaging much of the station’s new equipment.

“I think for most of us, when we got up early Thursday morning and we’re evacuating residents and clearing out our station, we were all thinking to ourselves this is déjà vu,” said Tye Turman, chaplain and president of the Center Point fire department. “Is it really happening, and can I deal with it?”

“That being said, everyone fully dropped into their roles,” Turman said. “We have things to do. We can’t worry about last year. We have to focus on the moment. And I think everyone did an extraordinary job.”

Volunteers gather outside the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department station on July 17, 2026. Eric Vryn for The Texas Tribune

The vigilance of the first responders was one of many reasons this year’s storms brought fewer human casualties than last year. But the preparation and quick response was tinged with sadness — knowing what to do this time around was a stark reminder that last year caught so many by surprise.

“We know what to do, but it doesn’t make it any better,” said Heather Joas, who lived in Bergheim during last year’s floods and applied her search and rescue experience in the aftermath alongside the Center Point fire department.

“If anything, it almost makes it worse. I don’t want to know how to do this,” she said.

“This is devastating, and we’re mourning, but the subtle mercy we are receiving is that we are mourning with one another,” Joas said.

“I gave myself 10 minutes to grieve”

Angie Walters, case manager for Southern Oaks Church in Kerrville, sees reliance on faith — and the organizing and emotional support that faith communities provide — as integral to moving through tragedies like this one.

“Every time a storm comes, I stop and pray now, and I find it very difficult to sleep,” she said.

When a 2025 flood survivor texted Walters at 2:30 a.m. Thursday that water was once again in her home, Walters could not help but cry.

“I gave myself 10 minutes to grieve in that moment,” Walters said, “and then I said OK, it’s time.”

Southern Oaks has been helping survivors and local businesses “walk the process” of recovery for the past year, providing financial and emotional support for individuals and communities dealing with heartbreak and loss, Walters said.

“We’ve had our shepherds who have reached out to their people, prayed with them, loved on them, given resources when resources have been available,” she said. “We are God’s community. We are His hands and feet, and we will work towards making everybody whole again.”

Two chaplains from Warriors Sworn to the Cross, a nonprofit that specializes in first responder trauma, have been stationed at the Center Point fire station since Friday.

“I’ve made it a point every morning, whenever I’m available, to say, ‘Let’s say a prayer before everybody gets started for the day,’” said Turman, the department chaplain who also pulls his people aside to ask how they’re doing and search their eyes for signs of pain and grief.

Dobbs and Hasty say faith has gotten them each through difficult circumstances.

“If it’s a fire, I pray that the fire’s out, that nobody gets hurt,” Dobbs said. “It’s just automatic. I pray for strength.”

“We’re all able to lean on our faith, as well as on each other,” Hasty said.

The flooded Guadalupe River in Kerr County on July 16, 2026. Brenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune

This story is published through a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Religion News Service.

SAWS offers free consultations for homeowners to assess their irrigation systems and identify opportunities to conserve water. For those who qualify, the rebates can be significant.

“So for taking out the whole thing, your maximum available rebate would be 2,150 bucks,” said Cleve Powell, a SAWS conservation planner.

KSAT’s Daniela Ibarra received a firsthand look at how the process works, starting with something most homeowners rarely think about — the water meter.

“This is basically where all the water comes into your house. And if you suspect that you have a leak, this is the first place to start,” Powell said.

Powell showed Ibarra how to read the meter to detect a potential leak. If the meter reads zero, there’s nothing to worry about.

“If you were to have a leak, it would say like zero point something,” Powell said. When Ibarra asked if zero meant she was in the clear, Powell confirmed: “Yeah, you’re zero, and you’re good.”

Rebates tied to irrigation systems

For homeowners with sprinkler systems, the savings can add up quickly. Powell explained that rebate amounts are tied to the number of irrigation zones in a system.

Ibarra’s home has a seven-zone system — a setup she rarely uses.

“I really don’t know how to use this other than turning it on,” Ibarra said.

Powell was quick to offer help but also pointed out that a system that sits unused still has value, at least when it comes to rebates.

“So since you don’t use it, I can’t save you any water. But the cool thing is that if you want to get a rebate, you’ve got a seven-zone system. So for taking out the whole thing, your maximum available rebate would be 2,150 bucks,” Powell said.

When asked what she thought seeing that number, Ibarra didn’t hesitate.

“I mean, that’s a lot of money,” she said.

Powell agreed and explained the thinking behind the program.

“The idea is like, we’re buying that water back,” he said.

Conservation still matters, even after a rainy stretch.

Even with San Antonio receiving recent rainfall, SAWS says water conservation remains a priority — especially heading into the height of summer.

Residents interested in a free irrigation consultation or learning more about available rebates can contact SAWS directly.

SAWS coupons, rebate programs

From checking on your swimming pools to updating your flower beds, SAWS offers several different coupons and rebate programs to help you conserve water and save money.

• WaterSaver Landscape Coupon
• Outdoor Living Rebate
• Swimming Pool Rebate
• Water Flow Sensor Rebate

A memorial stone is to remain in place outside the house in Braunau am Inn near the German border with the inscription, “For freedom, democracy and liberty. Never again fascism. Millions of dead remind us.”

Hitler was born in the building on April 20, 1889. His family moved to another residence in Braunau am Inn after only a few months, before settling temporarily in Passau in southern Germany.

Fueled by racial fanaticism, Hitler's Nazi regime killed approximately 6 million Jews and other minorities and groups during the Holocaust. The dictator unleashed World War II in which at least 60 million people died. He committed suicide in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

“The Republic of Austria, the state, the county is facing up to this heritage, the terrible heritage of this time, and commits itself to deal with it,” Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said during the opening ceremony of the police station on Wednesday. “This entails this house and this address.”

The renovation of the building took several years and cost around 20 million euros ($22.8 million), Austrian news agency APA reported. It was preceded by a yearslong back-and-forth over the ownership of the house.

The ownership question was resolved in 2017 when Austria’s highest court ruled the government was within its rights to expropriate the building after its owner refused to sell. A suggestion it might be demolished was dropped.

The building had been rented by Austria’s Interior Ministry since 1972 to prevent its misuse and was sublet to various charitable organizations. The structure stood empty after a care center for adults with disabilities moved out in 2011.

The Austrian government has said the best use for the building would be the presence of the police as guardians of civil liberties. But critics said the building in its current presentation lacks historical context.

A commission of experts came out against turning the building into a museum, advocating instead for a redesign that would not be easily recognizable.

The building's ochre-yellow was turned white, the arched windows were replaced by simple rectangular shapes and the facade has been extended upward toward the roof. Debris from the construction was disposed at a secret location to ensure it would not become a new source for Nazi memorabilia, APA reported.

In the past, far-right extremists repeatedly paid homage to the “Führer,” photographing the building, taking stones as souvenirs and laying flowers and wreaths. In 2024, four Germans were caught laying white roses in the building's window recesses and posing for photos, including a woman giving the stiff-armed Hitler salute.

Hottle was one of two passengers in the car when it went off the road and hit a culvert in Ijamsville before 3 a.m. The driver was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the other passenger declined medical treatment, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. Excessive speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, which is under investigation, the sheriff's office said.

Hottle was a native signer of American Sign Language, and her family members are also deaf. Her parents, Joshua and Ketsi Hottle, shared emotional video statements about her death on social media sites.

“Kaylee’s mom and four siblings are crushed,” her father said in ASL in a post from an airport. “They are together at home, grieving. I am on my way to Maryland to bring Kaylee’s body back home.”

Hottle’s heart stopped before she arrived at a hospital, transported by air from the scene of the accident, her father said. “Very grateful for the 18 years we had together — and wish we had more,” he said.

Joshua Hottle also reached out to the driver, described by the sheriff's office as a 19-year-old Frederick man.

“I have forgiven you,” her father said. “Don’t let this incident ruin the rest of your life.”

“I still feel Kaylee is with us,” her mother said in ASL in a post.

In “Godzilla vs. Kong” and the sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” Hottle played an orphaned girl named Jia who sees beyond Kong's threatening appearance and forms a special bond with the monster, communicating with him using sign language.

“I’m so devastated to hear this. You will be deeply missed Kaylee,” her “Godzilla” co-star Millie Bobby Brown posted on Instagram.

Co-star Alexander Skarsgård, who learned ASL to communicate with Hottle, told the pop culture website Junkee in 2021 that he and others were impressed by the young ingenue's professionalism and her ability to quickly incorporate the director's notes into her acting.

In a 2024 interview with The Associated Press, Hottle said through an interpreter that she hadn't watched monster movies before she was cast in “Godzilla,” so her father helped her understand the genre.

“I look up to a lot of people, but the one person I look up to, the few people I look up to mostly, are my parents and my sisters,” Hottle said.

Hottle said that when she was working on the first film, she was a bit concerned about whether she would be able to return to her “normal life," afterward.

“People do recognize me at school, yes, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be,” Hottle said.

Hottle previously appeared in a 2021 television episode of “Magnum P.I.” She was listed as appearing in the upcoming film “What Doesn’t Kill Us.”

“I’m so heartbroken. My heart goes out to her family during this unimaginable time,” Alaqua Cox, her co-star in that film and fellow deaf actor, wrote on Instagram.

Other prominent deaf actors also shared messages of grief online.

“I am absolutely gutted about the passing of sweet Kaylee Hottle. May her beauty and talent be a memory for eternity,” Oscar winner Marlee Matlin wrote on Instagram.

Fellow Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, who starred in the film “Coda,” wrote that Hottle's death made him think of his own daughter, and reminded him not to take time for granted.

“I have no words to express on what happened this morning,” Kotsur wrote, offering his “deepest condolences” to the Hottle family.

Officials with Texas School for the Deaf in Austin also announced Hottle's death on Facebook, writing that counseling and support services would be available to her classmates and friends.

“Please keep Kaylee's loved ones in your thoughts as we mourn this tremendous loss together,” the school wrote. ___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Lage reported from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Salsa dancing & late night pizza, we check out the new & unique Esta Pizza in Leon Valley.

Beef Loving Texans is joining in the Pizza Week fun by creating a pizza with two unique toppings. It’s sure to be come a new classic.

CPS Energy is helping you beat the heat without break the bank. We learn about their new programs that can help keep your energy bill from soaring like the temperatures.

Methodist Healthcare recently opened a new midwifery clinic in downtown San Antonio, expanding access to comprehensive women’s health services in the community. They offer comprehensive care to pregnant women but also menopause support, routine gynecologic care, contraceptive counseling, family planning & much more.

Aside from competing in a celebrity ball hockey game, Lynch will also host a football clinic at the HDA's fourth festival on Saturday. The former Seattle Seahawks player and 2014 Super Bowl champion is no stranger to the HDA. Lynch took the ice at the alliance’s WinterFest that coincided with Toronto hosting the NHL All-Star Game two years ago.

“I’m really excited about him and the football aspect of it,” HDA chairman Akim Aliu said. “Where we’re able to have success as an organization is tapping into the culture and personality aspects and using people’s audiences from different sports.”

The HDA was launched in 2020 by current and former NHL players of color to speak out against racism and intolerance, and with an objective of opening hockey to minorities and underserved youth by providing free hockey equipment, hosting clinics and renting ice time.

Aliu estimated the HDA has spent about $1.1 million annually in its grassroots mission, and has since expanded beyond the Toronto region. The alliance has launched programs in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Nova Scotia, and is preparing to add Calgary, Alberta, to the mix next month, Aliu said.

SummerFest stands as the major event on the HDA calendar, and features performances, carnival attractions and rides, followed by a fundraising gala in the evening.

Among the notable athletes scheduled to attend are Canadian Olympic sprinter Andre De Grasse, tennis player Bianca Andreescu, former Seahawks tight end Luke Wilson and former Toronto Raptors player Serge Ibaka.

Aliu anticipates the daytime event attracting a capacity crowd of more than 4,000 participants.

Aliu is a former pro hockey player who was born in Nigeria, lived in Ukraine and picked up the sport when his family moved to Toronto when he was 7. In 2022, Scholastic and the publishing company of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick released a graphic novel highlighting Aliu’s life titled: “Akim Aliu Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey.”

“Why I’m so proud of our work is because it’s really for the most vulnerable that would never have access to the sport,” Aliu said. “Over 2,000 lives have been positively impacted by our work, and we’re just getting going.”

___

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

At MD Anderson Cancer Center, researchers holding H-1B work visas explore why tumors resist treatment, test new drugs and use artificial intelligence to analyze tissue cell by cell. Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show the Houston institution sponsors 277 workers through the program.

Across Texas, 44 public universities, health centers and system offices reported sponsoring 3,332 H-1B workers to the Texas Workforce Commission. The higher education institutions had to detail their use of such employees as part of Abbott’s directive.

The records do not establish whether Abbott’s policy has disrupted research, clinical trials or patient care. But Lore Gruenbaum, chief scientific officer and senior vice president of research at Blood Cancer United, said these types of restrictions send “a chilling message that foreign-born researchers are less welcome” at a time when institutions already face difficulty recruiting and retaining young scientists.

Gruenbaum estimated that foreign-born students make up more than 40% of the graduate-student pool in biomedical research and at least half of postdoctoral trainees.

“If we don’t have that talent pool available, the quality and the scope and the impact of the research that can be done will very likely decrease,” she said.

Alejandro Coronel, a press assistant in the governor’s office, did not answer the Tribune’s questions about the directive’s potential impact on cancer research.

Instead, Coronel pointed to Abbott’s Jan. 27 directive in which the governor said the restrictions are needed to protect Texas workers and prevent abuse of the federal program.

Abbott barred public colleges, universities and state agencies led by gubernatorial appointees from filing new H-1B petitions without TWC’s permission through May 31, 2027, the end of the next legislative session.

Institutions seeking approval must explain why the job is essential, why existing employees or a Texas vendor cannot do it, what uniquely qualifies the proposed worker and how they tried to recruit Texans or other authorized workers.

Abbott required public institutions to report their existing H-1B workers to TWC, including their jobs, countries of origin and visa expirations dates as well as the documented efforts to give qualified Texans a chance to apply for those positions.

As of July 17, no public university or state agency had sought permission, TWC press officer Sara Fischer said.

MD Anderson officials said the center is complying with Abbott’s directive and “will await further guidance on how future hires may work.” They did not answer repeated questions from The Tribune about whether the policy has affected hiring, research, clinical trials or patient care.

The center’s report to the state did not note whether qualified Texans applied for the jobs held by its H-1B workers. Officials told the TWC it was “not administratively feasible” to determine how each position was recruited because they do not collect applicants’ citizenship or immigration status, according to the documents reviewed.

MD Anderson reported a total of 278 workers on the first page of its report to TWC, but the accompanying spreadsheet listed 277. Most of those jobs are tied directly to cancer research and treatment.

From 2020 to 2025, MD Anderson filed 853 H-1B petitions. Annual filings rose from 91 in 2020 to more than 160 in each of the last three years, including both new petitions and renewals.

Recruiting the brightest

The visa program has become integral to the cancer-research enterprise Texas spent decades building.

In 2007, Texas voters approved the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, initially committing $3 billion to make the state a national leader in fighting cancer. Then-Gov. Rick Perry said the investment could “lure the brightest research minds from around the world.”

MD Anderson researchers have received more than $745 million from CPRIT, about 18% of all the state programs’ awards.

From 2020 through 2025, MD Anderson also led all U.S.-based higher education institutions in National Cancer Institute funding every year, receiving nearly $847 million in total.

Abbott issued his directive days after a conservative outlet scrutinized Texas A&M University spending more than $3.25 million on H-1B-related expenses over nearly five years.

MD Anderson spent about $2.78 million filing 853 H-1B petitions during that same timeframe, including 564 new petitions and 289 renewals.

The H-1B program was created to supplement the nation’s workforce, not replace it, Abbott wrote in his directive. “Bad actors” had failed to recruit qualified Americans and, in some cases, replaced them with lower-paid H-1B workers. Public institutions “must lead by example” and ensure taxpayer-funded jobs are “filled by Texans first,” he wrote.

State officials’ public focus on H-1B fraud in recent months has centered largely on private businesses, not public universities or public agencies.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has investigated dozens of private businesses and sued one company and its owner over an alleged scheme involving fake childcare businesses and fraudulent H-1B petitions.

Paxton’s office did not respond to questions from The Tribune about whether it has received any complaints about or launched any investigations into Texas public universities over their use of the visa program.

State Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat whose district includes part of the Texas Medical Center and a former Harris County prosecutor, said she would support efforts to prosecute fraud but does not believe Abbott’s directive is really aimed at stopping it. Johnson was treated for thyroid cancer at MD Anderson.

“You’re not stopping fraud,” Johnson said. “You’re stopping a patient from getting the finest care from the finest doctor in the world because they’re no longer welcome in Texas.”

Layers of scrutiny

Universities’ ability to recruit foreign researchers depends partly on a pipeline that begins with international students, some of whom remain in the country after graduating from schools in the United States.

The Trump administration last week finalized a rule generally limiting international students’ authorized stay to four years unless they receive an extension. The change could particularly affect doctoral students, whose programs often take longer.

Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said the rule would shift decisions about students’ academic futures to an already overburned immigration system.

“This is not just bad for higher education. It is bad for American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership,” Aw said.

In Texas, immigration attorneys said many were relieved when the TWC issued guidance in March that interpreted public agencies’ approval requirement more narrowly than Abbott’s directive initially suggested.

Jerry White, TWC’s director of human resources, told institutions that approval was required for prospective workers living outside the United States whose petitions would have been subject to a $100,000 federal fee. Renewals and certain status changes from students and recent graduates already in the country did not require approval, he wrote in a March 13 email.

Kathleen Campbell Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney with Dickinson Wright PLLC and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, works with public universities.

In June, she questioned whether college officials would need the agency’s permission to hire an out-of-state graduate already in the United States on a student visa if they wanted to hire and sponsor that person through the H-1B status.

TWC’s initial guidance had specifically referred to students and recent graduates of a “Texas institution of higher education,” raising the possibility that approval may be needed to hire someone on a student or H-1B visa who trained at Harvard, Yale or another out-of-state state school. TWC officials later responded to Campbell Walker in writing that universities do not need its permission in such situations.

The commission’s March guidance noted that permission “will not be granted” for workers from countries on a prohibited list. That includes China, one of the most common countries of origin among MD Anderson’s H-1B workers.

Campbell Walker questions why Texas would consider a worker’s country of origin after a federal court vacated a separate policy pausing immigration applications filed by people from 39 countries. The federal government appealed, but its request to pause the ruling was denied on July 15, requiring immigration authorities to resume normal processing while the appeal proceeds.

Campbell Walker said the shifting guidance and remaining uncertainty about the prohibited-country restriction underscore her view that the directive is more political than practical.

“And it’s a political statement, to me, that does not put Texas first,” Campbell Walker said.

The absence of permission requests does not mean universities no longer need H-1B workers, Campbell Walker said. Institutions may be relying on foreign talent who do not require such approval or are avoiding new petitions that could draw scrutiny from state leaders, she said.

“I think that the universities are very worried about being targeted for potential retribution if they file H-1B petitions right now subject to the governor’s directive,” Campbell Walker said.

The state review adds another layer to an already extensive federal process.

TWC requires institutions to identify the position’s Labor Condition Application, confirm that the salary meets or exceeds the federal prevailing wage and document their recruitment efforts. That federal application requires wage and worksite information and is intended to prevent employers from underpaying H-1B workers.

Federal officials review whether the job requires specialized expertise, whether the worker is qualified and whether the employer and worksite are legitimate, said Samantha Wolfe, a Colorado-based immigration attorney who advises universities and employers.

TWC’s instructions list what institutions must submit but doesn’t explain how the agency weighs the information or decides whether to approve a request.

Wolfe said the additional state review could put Texas institutions at a disadvantage when they compete with universities and hospitals elsewhere for specialized researchers and physicians.

Hiring delays can prevent laboratories from adopting specialized technology, stall grant-funded work and slow research into rare cancers, Gruenbaum said. Because some blood cancers affect relatively few patients, a small number of research groups may be responsible for advancing a promising treatment for an entire disease.

“Biomedical science is a team sport,” she said.

Blood Cancer United funds research at MD Anderson and relies on its researchers and physician-scientists to review grant proposals, Gruenbaum said.

MD Anderson’s influence extends beyond its own laboratories. It trains researchers, physicians and physician-scientists who later help develop drugs at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Gruenbaum said.

“This is the training ground,” Gruenbaum said of MD Anderson. “Nobody can advance without going through this training ground.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Open Campus, Kathleen Campbell Walker, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas A&M University 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.

HOUSTON — Less than 10 years ago, Moises Badera, 14, was playing soccer at a refugee camp in Burundi. He never would have imagined that he’d step onto a World Cup field in Houston, next to one of his favorite players, Cristiano Ronaldo.

But that’s exactly where he found himself after the soccer club he was a member of, reVision FC, offered him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve as a flag bearer June 23 at the world’s biggest tournament.

“I was trying to act nonchalant, but inside I wanted to call out his name, but I was like nah,” Badera said with a laugh.

Badera’s confidence and his participation in the FIFA 2026 World Cup are just one of the multitude of character-building and life-changing experiences that reVision FC, a nonprofit soccer program in Houston, has provided to hundreds of young players since its founding in 2007.

The program, established in southwest Houston, aims to keep teenagers and young adults safe and out of gangs. Based in the suburbs of the Gulfton and Sharpstown communities, the group’s members are at particular risk of isolation due to the region’s immigrant demographics.

However, the donation-and-grant model on which this youth program is built is starting to crumble due to the downstream effects of federal budget cuts and economic uncertainty.

The Department of Justice terminated roughly $819.7 million in grants nationally, hitting juvenile justice and delinquency-prevention nonprofits like reVision especially hard. State funding has also been inconsistent, with support coming and going with each passing legislative session. Nonprofit foundations that supported the program face their own funding challenges and have had to step back from auxiliary support to keep staff.

“We are down 50% in funding,” said Charles Rotramel, soccer coach and CEO of Houston reVision, the nonprofit behind the youth club. “A lot of our funding sources that we got from the federal government were deemed DEI, and they just got outright eliminated.”

Without a change, the future of this Houston-based soccer program is starting to dim. State Rep. Gene Wu, the Houston Democrat who leads his party in the Texas House, is working to keep the club alive. He plans to introduce a bill during the next legislative session that would dramatically increase funding for programs like reVision FC by using a portion of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s funds.

“These are things that other responsible governments in other societies do normally,” Wu said. “The state should be paying for this. This should be a county program. It should be funded by the city. This is just basic common sense that we’re refusing to do.”

Once in a lifetime

Badera said when he walked onto the field at NRG Stadium, he was struck by loud cheers coming from the World Cup audience and the height of the players. He was far from his birth country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but he oddly felt at home due to the confidence built into him from playing soccer, better known as football across the world, for years.

“I wasn’t really nervous about the crowd, for some reason,” Bedera said. “Like, why would I get nervous because people are looking at me? Whenever I play varsity, there are a lot of people watching; it’s just a little bit bigger now.”

Rotramel’s connections to the FIFA World Cup 26 committee and Common Goal, a worldwide anti-racism soccer organization that was awarded all player escorts for World Cup games, allowed him to provide players like Badera and other young people in the program with an opportunity to be flag bearers and participants in World Cup activities and events.

“It’s been great, because a lot of our kids get to see people who come from the same places they do and they are playing in the World Cup, and that fills you with enormous pride, and it’s also shown them what’s possible,” he said.

Soccer is considered the most popular sport in the world due to its accessibility. In most countries, all someone needs is an open field, a ball, and something to kick with.

However, youth soccer in America can be expensive due to the club format, which requires high player registration fees and tournament travel. Nationally, the average family can spend $1,500 to $6,000 per year on competitive travel soccer, according to a report by U.S. Soccer Parent, and elite soccer pathways such as MLS NEXT, which ReVision FC has played against, can often cost $8,000 to $15,000 annually.

“If you aren’t in one of these clubs, then bigger schools and teams won’t see you,” Badera said, whose entire goal is to become a professional soccer player to move his family to a better home.

ReVision FC is located in the highly immigrant neighborhoods of Houston, and residents there often don’t have the extra income to enroll their kids in expensive after-school programs.

To ensure children in their region get a fair look, Rotramel said his youth soccer club offers everything for free, including cleats and transportation to games and practices.

The soccer club provides these free services through federal and state grant funding and donations instead of collecting expensive player participation fees. Using this funding model, the soccer program in Houston’s immigrant communities is considered one of the most successful organizations in the state, having won multiple championships, with over 40 players going on to play in college.

However, the soccer program’s main goal is to keep children out of the juvenile justice system, something it has accomplished in a short time by using the world’s game to offer a safer alternative to criminal activity.

“Kids can get really isolated, especially kids who are a little different from their peers in school and other things. They can lack community and really feel like they’re by themselves,” Rotramel said. “This is where they can fall prey to gangs that offer them a sense of belonging.”

Changing the community

Rotramel looks out at his soccer players at each practice with pride as they run across bright green soccer fields.

“When we moved here, this was the highest juvenile crime area in Harris County, this zip code 77081, and the next one over, 7704, would consistently have the most juvenile gang activity and the highest incarceration rate of any in Harris County,” he said, waving his hand over the soccer fields that used to be home to juvenile detention facilities.

Rotramel said that when his organization set its sights on immigrant communities more than 20 years ago, it quickly realized it needed to move from gang intervention to prevention, hoping to find a way to captivate kids with a positive activity before they were drawn into criminal activity.

The first initiative launched was a breaking program, sometimes known as breakdancing, and its success can be seen today with one of their former participants taking part in the 2024 Olympics.

The idea for a soccer program came to them when a group of kids from the nearby high school appeared in front of the nonprofit building, asking staff to use their parking lot to play soccer because they had been kicked out of the park.

Rotramel said he was watching the kids play and noticed how skilled they were; it seemed all they needed was a team and a chance. He decided then, despite having no prior knowledge of the rules or experience in soccer, to create a free-to-play youth team for the community.

Robert Trevino, a mental health counselor at Houston reVision, said their mission to combine after-school activities with resources and support has enabled them to collaborate with like-minded individuals, including Henry Gonzales, the executive director of the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department. He said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, reVision worked with Gonzales to enable youth who were locked up to deliver hot meals to children in the neighborhood.

“They let 80 kids out in one single day, and we put those kids in our food routes, and we said if we can keep 50% of those kids from being locked up again, we’ll consider that a success,” Trevino said. “Well, only 10% of them ever got locked up again.”

The food distribution partnership was such a success that the juvenile detention department closed the facilities where the soccer fields now stand and converted the remaining facilities into the Opportunity Center, where youth can earn their GED diploma.

Rotramel said the stories of transforming detention centers into soccer fields and training centers are just examples of the stabilizing impact his soccer club and nonprofit organization have had on Houston.

“The kids talk about us; the neighborhood knows about reVision,” he said.

An uncertain future

Kenasi Mwami, a 14-year-old refugee from the DR Congo, waited in the rain outside his apartment complex in Houston, which he shares with Badera and other refugees from Africa and the Middle East. This morning, he was going to watch Portugal play his home country at the World Cup game in Houston

Mwami was waiting for fellow Congolese refugee, 26-year-old Patricque Kisindja, to pick him and four other current and former reVision FC players. He’s a shy teenager who says very few words, but his coaches and teammates make sure he feels comfortable.

As they walked toward the stadium, Mwami, the youngest of the group, grew nervous until Kisindja rustled his shoulders to get him excited. It wasn’t until Mwami saw the DR Congo bus that he finally smiled while silently wiping a tear from his eye.

By the time the game was over, Mwami was laughing and joking in Swahili with other team members. For Mwami, soccer brings out his confidence, and reVision FC gives him a community where he feels safe enough to be himself.

Rotramel said he remembers when Mwami and Badera first appeared at reVision in 2021 because they were the two youngest children in the room watching the World Cup game. He said he watched their confidence grow over the span of a few days, going from sitting quietly in the back to cheering with everyone else during the final.

“I mean, they just live and breathe reVision now,” Rotramel said with a laugh. “That is who their friends are, that is who they hang out at school with, they play on the same high school team, and both of their families are involved. They are great ambassadors for us because they’re great examples of what we’re trying to achieve.”

ReVision FC has many stories like Mwami’s and Badera’s, but last year, the nonprofit had to lay off half its staff due to a sudden decline in revenue.

“It has been brutal for reVision; we lost a lot of federal funding, as every nonprofit did,” Rotramel said. “I mean, it’s a scary time to be in the nonprofit sector. We are just hopeful we can continue to sustain it.”

The nonprofit received funding from various federal programs for its work in criminal justice, youth homelessness, immigration, and more, but each of these line items was targeted by budget cuts this past year by the DOGE committee and other anti-DEI philosophies permeating Washington.

When it comes to state funding, it comes and goes with the mood of lawmakers, and the current sentiment is against reVision FC.

“One day, crime prevention is a top priority until it’s not. Then, it’s putting cops in schools and building more detention facilities,” Rotramel said. “We are currently in one of those downward ebbs where they aren’t listening to us but racist anti-immigrant messaging, instead of what makes economic sense.”

Rotramel said the organization is planning a large fundraising event in November and has several other counties’ juvenile justice programs, like Rosaria and Fort Bend, reaching out to expand their concept beyond Harris County, something they are examining to keep the program going

Wu said currently, state institutions aren’t providing enough mental health support to prevent tragedies, making programs like reVision FC crucial to the community. He recalled a promising Houston student whose life spiraled after the death of his brother, and despite everyone seeing it happen, nothing was done to prevent it, leading to a life of crime as a gang member.

“The teachers all say you can pinpoint it down to the day what had happened. They watched this kid spiral at the grave. I asked the family if they did any counseling, and they said the school provided two sessions, and that was it. Now he is doing 15 years all because we couldn’t provide adequate counseling,” Wu said.

Wu said he plans to keep fighting for reVision FC with his crime reform bills, but it won’t reach Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk without public pressure.

“The question should be, why is this being left to private organizations dependent on the generosity of strangers and government handouts? Why is the safety and security of our community up for grabs like this?” Wu said. “Why don’t we invest consistently in those that we know work? That is the question I wish people would ask because it’s embarrassing as hell.”

The blast triggered by a buildup of methane gas tore through the tunnel Monday at the 500-megawatt Teesta Hydroelectric Project in northeastern Sikkim state in the Himalayas. Authorities have recovered the bodies of 12 workers who died inside the tunnel about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the state capital Gangtok.

Rescue teams equipped with specialized breathing equipment and night-vision gear were having difficulty entering the tunnel because of the gas and a buildup of water, administrative official Anupama Tamling said.

Gandura Oraon, 38, said he and other workers were eating lunch inside the tunnel when a loud explosion forced them to run for the exit.

“Luckily, we found the vehicle that had delivered lunch to us sometime earlier. We got into it and drove out,” he said.

As they escaped, Oraon said, they came across their supervisor and urged him to leave with them as well. Instead, he headed toward the site of the blast to see what had happened and was later found dead, Oraon said.

The Teesta River basin, where the hydropower project is being built, lies in a seismically active region marked by young, fragile rock formations riddled with fractures and underground pockets that can trap ancient gases. Fragile mountains, seismic activity and unpredictable underground conditions make tunnel projects especially risky in the region, according to experts.

A February explosion in a coal mine in neighboring Meghalaya state killed 18 workers. A tunnel section collapsed in 2023 in northern Uttarakhand state, trapping 41 workers for 17 days before they were rescued.

Burnham, from Britain’s left-leaning Labour Party, faces restive voters seeking relief from the high cost of living. At the same time, the investors who help finance the government by buying its bonds are demanding that he reduce public sector debt that has ballooned to levels last seen in the 1960s.

In an effort to balance the competing demands, Burnham surprised pundits by naming former Defense Secretary John Healey as his Treasury chief. Healey, who served in the Treasury under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is seen as someone who will make sure the government lives up to its pledge to reduce Britain’s debt pile.

Then, first thing Tuesday morning, Burnham made a down payment on his commitment to ease the pressure on cash-strapped consumers. The government announced it would scrap the tax on home electricity use for at least six months beginning in October, saving the average household 45 pounds ($60) a year.

Importantly, the government said the move would be paid for by canceling plans to introduce digital ID, in an effort to reassure investors that Burnham isn’t about to go on an unfunded spending spree.

Treasury chief has a big job ahead

“Healey has a daunting task on his hands,’’ said Victoria Scholar, the head of investment at interactive investor.

“The government has ambitious plans to tackle cost-of-living pressures … but he faces a very difficult set of public finances to carry these expensive plans through.”

Now that he’s controlling the purse strings, Burnham faces the same issues that have bedeviled every prime minister since the financial crisis of 2008. And their failure to find answers is a big part of the reason that the eight men and women who have taken up residence behind the famous black door at 10 Downing Street in that period have had an average tenure of two years.

Burnham, like his predecessors, faces the challenge of finding a way to reinvigorate an economy that has grown an average of less than 1.5% a year since 2009, compared with an annual average of 3% in the 15 years before the financial crisis.

Burnham received a boost to his cost-of-living reduction agenda Wednesday when inflation fell to its the lowest rate in 15 months in June, buoyed by a drop of food and fuel prices. The rate of the Consumer Prices Index was 2.6% in June, down from 2.8% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics. But experts warn the good news may be short-lived because the conflict in the Middle East will continue to put pressure on wholesale energy prices.

As he develops his economic plans, Burnham will be constrained by promises to reduce government debt, which now exceeds 95% of gross domestic product. According to Britain’s budget watchdog, debt interest payments rose to 111.2 billion pounds ($149 billion), or 8.3% of government spending, in the financial year that ended in April, leaving less money to spend on government services ranging from healthcare to education and defense.

New challenges are added to the old ones

But he also faces a new challenge after his predecessor, like most other European governments, pledged to increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. That came after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized his allies for not paying their fair share of Europe’s defense.

Meeting that commitment will cost about 36 billion pounds a year, or 500 pounds for each person in the U.K., according to estimates from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a respected independent researcher.

“We should absolutely acknowledge that these constraints are structural,” said Olivia O’Sullivan at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “They would be tough for any prime minister at this time.”

And that’s why boosting economic output is so crucial to all of Burnham’s plans.

Stimulating economic growth is key to Burnham's plans

Without faster growth, British taxpayers will either have to pay higher taxes or accept cuts in popular programs such as the National Health Service, which offers free medical care to everyone. A booming economy, on the other hand, would boost the revenue generated by existing taxes and tax rates because the value of company profits, worker salaries and other transactions would rise.

Sluggish growth doomed former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government when angry Labour lawmakers forced him to cancel welfare cuts designed to help balance the budget. More recently he was widely criticized for failing to offer a credible plan for increasing defense spending.

Some Labour supporters have grumbled that the government “shouldn’t be in hock to the bond market.” But economists say Burnham and Healey must take the financial constraints seriously if they are going to succeed in bolstering the economy and increasing the pot available to fund popular programs.

“It’s not some imaginary bogeyman in the bond market,” said David Aikman, director of the independent National Institute of Economic and Social Research. “We need people to buy the debt we’re issuing.”

So far, Burnham has offered little detail on his plans for the British economy.

His big idea is to “reindustrialize” the economy by shifting investment away from London to other parts of the country that were hard hit by the decline in manufacturing. Burnham also says he will increase construction of public housing to address the nation’s housing shortage and bolster the construction industry, and support the small and medium-size businesses that account for 60% of private employment.

At the same time, he has pledged to stick to Labour’s promises not to raise taxes on working people and to maintain the “triple lock” on state pensions, an expensive policy that guarantees pensions will rise each year by the annual increase in consumer price inflation, average wage growth, or 2.5%, whichever is higher.

Jim O’Neill, a former chief economist for Goldman Sachs and member of the House of Lords who has advised Burnham in the past, told the BBC last month that Britain’s new prime minister must “get real.”

“We need somebody that’s prepared to do something bold and different,” he said.

Burnham, he added, “has got the same challenge that everybody else seems to avoid and that’s doing something about things like welfare, stop this never-ending spectacular rise in the spending on NHS. … Do something about the triple lock, etc., etc., and get out of this weird sort of prison of being owned by every little small group that opposes anything anybody wants to do. “

Jenitar Sau Na’amoana, who is 34 years old and already had four children, delivered the babies last week at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland state.

“We are very excited to be able to care for this amazing little family, a big family now,” Dr. Alexa Bendall, a maternal fetal medicine specialist who cared for Na’amoana, said in an interview released by the hospital.

The babies were conceived naturally and came from one fertilized egg that split into four, “which was incredible," Bendall said.

“We think the figures are probably around 1 in 15 million for a case like this to be spontaneously conceived,” she said. “We don’t think it’s ever happened in Australia.”

Overall, experts say, the chance of conceiving quadruplets naturally is only 1 in 700,000; most are conceived with the assistance of medical technology.

Hospital officials said Na’amoana and her husband, Jortham, hadn’t planned to have more children and were quite surprised when she became pregnant with the quadruplets.

Na’amoana faced a high risk of complications, especially given the fetuses shared one placenta. In general, being pregnant with any multiple fetuses puts a mom at increased risk for problems such as preterm birth, miscarriage and birth defects, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Na’amoana was monitored by a large medical team at the hospital since 10 weeks gestation and was admitted as an inpatient at 25 weeks so she could be monitored, hospital officials said. She delivered the babies by cesarean section on July 14.

“The fact that we’ve got four beautiful, healthy babies born at 28 weeks and four days is incredible,” Bendall said. "Mum did lose a little bit of blood but not an excessive amount for having quads, and she’s doing well.”

The babies are doing well in the neonatal intensive care unit. Their names are Emily, Harriet, Catherine and Alexa, in honor of Bendall. The doctor called the name a “beautiful tribute,” and said she feels privileged to have helped bring these children into the world.

“From an academic perspective, it’s really interesting,” she said. “But also from a human perspective, to be able to be part of the family’s journey and come out with four beautiful babies and a healthy mum is very precious.”

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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.

Democrats were locked in a close primary contest for a battleground U.S. House district, with emergency physician Amish Shah leading party-backed Marlene Galán-Woods for the chance to take on Jay Feely, the former Arizona Cardinals kicker who won the Republican nomination with Trump's endorsement.

A Shah victory would be another defeat for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has occasionally struggled this year as voters seek out antiestablishment candidates. The race was too early to call early Wednesday morning.

Biggs overwhelmingly defeated fellow U.S. Rep. David Schweikert in the primary and will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in what could be one of the closest governor races in November.

By choosing Biggs, who supported Trump's failed attempt to block certification of his 2020 election loss, Republican voters risk nominating another conservative warrior who excites the party base but fails to win a general election by turning off independents. Although the party once dominated Arizona, Democrats now hold both U.S. Senate seats and the top three state offices.

Biggs faced travel problems leaving a Republican Governors Association meeting in Colorado, according to senior adviser Drew Sexton, and didn’t reach his victory party in Scottsdale until more than three hours after he won the race. By the time he took the stage, the crowd of hundreds had dwindled to dozens and he spoke to a mostly empty room.

“Let’s make this the year that we turn Arizona red again,” Biggs said.

Schweikert argued during the campaign that Biggs would continue a decade of Republican backsliding. However, he struggled to raise money and did not even return to Arizona for Election Day, remaining in Washington as the House passed a government funding bill.

Biggs rejected Schweikert's claim that he'll be another Republican judged by voters to be too extreme.

“I am a conservative — and a principled conservative — but I work with people that don’t necessarily agree with me on every issue,” Biggs told a reporter after his victory speech.

Biggs, who had Trump's endorsement and support from the grassroots organization Turning Point Action, said he can unite Republicans going into the general election.

“Everyone I have talked to is really conservative around here,” said Ray Roberts, a 33-year-old Republican who works as a processing engineer and knocked on doors for Biggs. “We all have mostly conservative values. I think Arizona is a red state. I think Andy will be the winner in November.”

State Rep. Alexander Kolodin won the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, defeating Gina Swoboda, the former Arizona Republican Party chair. Kolodin, a lawyer, was sanctioned by the state bar over his involvement with two 2020 election cases that courts found baseless, including one alleging the vote was marred by fraud and demanding Biden's victory in the state be overturned.

State Senate President Warren Petersen won the Republican nomination for attorney general and will face Democratic incumbent Kris Mayes, who won four years ago by just 280 votes out of more than 2.5 million.

Biggs and Schweikert responded differently to Trump's GOP takeover

Biggs built a national profile as chair of the House Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2022 and as a staunch defender of Trump. He assisted the president’s attempt to block the certification of his loss in the 2020 election, voting against accepting Electoral College votes from Arizona and other battleground states after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

He has always represented safe Republican seats and is a veteran of factional brawls within his party. Before going to Congress, he nearly lost his post as state Senate president during a confrontation with then-Gov. Jan Brewer, also a Republican, over her push to expand Medicaid.

“I want the border secured. I want the police and more money spent in the right places like education,” said Kate Rouleau, a 67-year-old Republican who voted for Biggs because he "has the same quality as President Trump.”

Democrats focused their attacks on Biggs, whom they plan to portray as an extremist focused on helping Trump and not Arizonans.

In a statement Tuesday night, Hobbs said that “the more Arizonans learn about Biggs, the more they’ll realize he’s one big problem they can’t afford.”

The race is likely to be another close contest four years after Hobbs narrowly beat Republican firebrand Kari Lake by less than 1 percentage point. Republicans have since expanded their advantage in the state, growing GOP registration by 6% while Democratic registration fell by 4%.

Repeating her victory will require Hobbs to again win a majority of independents and some disaffected Republicans. For his part, Biggs has attacked her as a weak leader who presided over rising costs.

"We can’t let the state go to somebody who's actually recklessly incompetent, and that is our current governor," he said.

Primaries set the field for a top House battleground

Both parties had hotly contested primaries to replace Schweikert in the highly competitive 1st Congressional District, which both parties are targeting in the fight to control the House.

Feely won the Republican primary over Joseph Chaplik, a former state legislator popular with many grassroots activists, and businessperson John Trobough. Feely had Trump’s endorsement but has been dogged by criticism for living outside the district.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw its support behind Galán-Woods, a controversial decision to get involved in a contested primary that rankled some party activists. Her late husband, Grant Woods, was the Republican attorney general in the 1990s and later became a vocal Trump critic.

Galán-Woods’ chief opponent, Shah, is a former state legislator who was the nominee in 2024 but lost narrowly to Schweikert.

“We have a long tradition in Arizona of being independent-minded and working for the benefit of people,” Shah said at his election night party in Phoenix. “I wasn’t exactly my party’s pick. And I was willing to stand up to that establishment. And that’s what the voters of this district want.”

If Shah's lead holds, he would be the third Democrat to beat a DCCC-backed rival this year following Randy Villegas in California and Matt Dunlap in Maine. Unlike the candidates in those races, Shah and Galán-Woods are largely aligned ideologically.

Linda Bandler, a 65-year-old independent who volunteered on the Galán-Woods campaign, said the party will be in good shape regardless of who wins the primary.

“There still is some sanity,” said Bandler, who like Galán-Woods is a former Republican. “I do think that the Democrats will take over the House and the Senate.”

DCCC support generally brings an influx of money and staffing, both from the party itself and from the donors and interest groups that take its cues. But this election season, substantial parts of the Democratic base are rejecting candidates that party bosses see as their best shot at winning in Congress.

“The Democratic Party needs to grow up and wake up,” said Maria Liong, a 24-year-old medical student who volunteered for Shah’s campaign. “They need to realize that they want candidates who listen to their people.”

Republicans hold a voter registration advantage in the affluent district, which includes northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley.

But it started to trend toward the center after Trump’s 2016 victory. Redistricting accelerated the trend, fueling Democratic hopes that the seat could be flipped.

In Tucson, retired Marine drill instructor JoAnna Mendoza ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination to challenge second-term Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who also had no primary opponent. The seat is perennially competitive in general elections and is a top pickup target for Democrats in November.

Meanwhile, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb won the Republican primary for the conservative district that Biggs is vacating. The race turned salacious as Lamb, who was endorsed by Trump, came under scrutiny for alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of power.

The county attorney cleared him of criminal wrongdoing, and Trump reiterated his endorsement this month. Lamb dismissed the allegations as “slander and lies.”

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Associated Press writer Josh Kelety contributed.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Feely.

U.S. Central Command said targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. The newest barrage came after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying.

Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revamp diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to world energy supplies.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had “no interest in meeting.” He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.

With negotiations and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz largely stalled, both sides have sought to gain leverage by targeting civilian infrastructure in the region relied on by millions of people.

A barrage of U.S. strikes hasn’t loosened Iran's grip on the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas was shipped before the war.

The U.S. continued its airstrikes into Wednesday, with Iranian air defenses activating near the capital, Tehran. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that explosions rocked Bushehr, East Azerbaijan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

That came after Iran attacked a tanker in the strait Tuesday, forcing the crew to abandon the ship. Iran also kept up attacks against U.S. allies in the region. Iran also launched attacks against Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.

The escalation pushed energy prices higher. The international benchmark for crude oil traded Wednesday above $92 a barrel and regular gasoline in the U.S. climbed to an average of $4 a gallon.

With U.S. midterm elections approaching in the fall, polls have pointed to the unpopularity of the war among Americans, who have felt the pain of pricier gas and seen new casualties in a conflict that weeks ago seemed to be winding down.

The number of wounded U.S. personnel in the Iran war has grown to well over 500 troops, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The total is higher than the Pentagon’s official tally on the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which currently shows 482 wounded.

The U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the system has a significant lag in reporting injuries. The official said that was a function of its design and not intentional.

Iran-backed rebels in Yemen open a new front in the Red Sea

In the Red Sea, Iran-backed Yemen's Houthi rebels have opened a new front against Saudi Arabia by declaring a naval blockade of the kingdom, threatening the flow of global oil supplies and trade. With the Strait of Hormuz blocked up, Saudi Arabia has been relying on a pipeline to the Red Sea to get millions of barrels of oil out to market.

A news agency in Yemen that is run by the Houthis, SABA, said Tuesday that six ships in the Red Sea were forced to reroute after they received warnings from the rebel group. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the claim.

Three Houthi officials said the group warned international shipping companies on Monday to avoid transiting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.

Trump says US has ‘no interest’ in Iran talks

Momeni, Iran's interior minister, met Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations. Momeni later met Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In a statement, Sharif expressed deep concern over the recent U.S.-Iran escalation, and urged all sides to exercise restraint and avoid actions that could further destabilize the region.

Pakistan’s political leadership and Munir, who serves as both the chief of army staff and defense forces, played a key role in brokering last month’s interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran. Islamabad has been working to persuade both sides to return to the negotiating table.

Trump told reporters that Iranian officials "want to desperately meet. And until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting.” He said the U.S. would soon target the area near Pickaxe Mountain — a fortified underground site near one of Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment facilities.

Iran's military leaders said any attack on nuclear or “other sensitive facilities” would be considered a major escalation, according to a statement reported by Iranian state media.

A deep level of mistrust persists on both sides. Iran came under a surprise attack in June 2025 and again in February while it was engaging in nuclear negotiations with the U.S. The interim deal unraveled when Iran resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which was supposed to be reopened under the agreement.

US strikes come as ships are attacked

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the strait off Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as two other attacks on ships Monday in the waterway.

The route close to Oman's shores has been the one the U.S. military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control.

To enforce the blockade in the strait, as of Tuesday U.S. forces have redirected eight commercial vessels and disabled one, CENTCOM said on X.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Contributing were Associated Press writers Fatma Khaled in Cairo; Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Collin Binkley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

The confirmation brings the death toll to 18 U.S. service members killed since the war began.

On Monday, the Pentagon identified 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as the two other soldiers who were killed in Jordan in Friday’s attacks. The soldiers were killed by Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in the first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war. They were deployed to support a U.S. mission against the Islamic State group, a U.S. Central Command statement said.

After the attack, U.S. Central Command announced that two service members were killed and another was missing. The following day, the military command said that troops found unidentified remains and that an examination process to verify the remains was underway.

Now, the Pentagon says that Rampersad is believed to be that missing soldier and her official status is now “Duty Status–Whereabouts Unknown” and she is “believed to be deceased.”

Rampersad belonged to the same unit as Gonzales — the 10th Army Air & Missile Defense Command based in Ansbach, Germany.

Also, a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone was identified as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, a 30-year-old father from North Carolina who had served for nearly a decade, according to a military statement Tuesday and his family.

Swinton will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. The Army said it was investigating the circumstances of his death Sunday at an air base in Irbil.

He leaves behind a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, his mother said.

“I will never recover from this,” his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, posted Monday on Facebook. “We had so many plans for when you got back, I’m sick to my stomach.” She said she was notified Sunday that he had been killed.

Two U.S. Army soldiers were also killed in Jordan last week while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. They were the first U.S. troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.

His wife and kids were the center of his world, his mother, Christel Swinton Andujar, told The Associated Press.

“His legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched, the laughter he shared, the strength he gave others, and the unconditional love he poured into his family,” she said via text message. “He will forever be missed, forever honored, and forever our hero.”

Swinton enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He lived in Spring Lake, a popular off-base location for Fort Bragg families, according to public records. The military gave his hometown as Fayetteville, another nearby community.

“Sgt. Swinton was an experienced noncommissioned officer who took great pride in his work and the people around him,” said Brig. Gen. John L. Dawber, commanding general of the Army Air and Missile Defense Command. “He answered the call to duty with courage, honor, and selfless dedication.”

Renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran is now in its 10th day, with both sides launching barrages of strikes. Iran has attacked U.S. allies in the region, and American soldiers are stationed across the Middle East.

Iranian authorities say U.S. strikes in just the past three weeks have killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 500 others.

Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people. Workers on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also died in the conflict.

The U.S. State Department said in a new warning to Americans that “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump, a Republican, now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against. The escalation has pushed oil prices higher in recent weeks.

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This story was corrected to show Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton died Sunday, not Saturday, as earlier reported by the military.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

The team scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to secure the shutout victory.

Pitcher Avery Cox went the distance for Greater Helotes, throwing a two-hit shutout.

Greater Helotes will compete in the Little League Softball World Series, scheduled for later this month in Greenville, North Carolina.

Read also:

• Texas, Baylor men’s basketball to reunite on hardwood for game at Frost Bank Center

First responders are urging residents near the KOA Campground to be aware of the mandatory shelter-in-place notice.

The urgency comes after water levels rose in the Nueces River. The National Weather Service said the river rose to 24 feet at 10 a.m.

After nearly 480 billion gallons of rain fell in the Hill Country last week, roughly 350 first responders were sent to La Salle County on Monday in preparation for significant flooding that could impact the area.

Although the forecast for Cotulla is clear, the Nueces River continues to flow at major levels downstream, prompting road closures and residents to plan for potential flooding in the area.

Cotulla residents react to flood warning

Spirits are high in the community even as floodwaters continue to rise.

"We’re in a drought, we got water, ain’t nothing to complain about," a resident told KSAT.

Others acknowledged the reality of the situation.

"It’s kind of scary because you’re like, OK, like it’s getting real. Especially in a town where everybody knows everybody,“ one resident said. ”I got my sisters, nephews, and all of them, you know, so it’s kind of sad."

Residents who have prepared evacuation plans said they are ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

“We’re all packed up, ready to go. We have bags packed. We have our, we have three dogs. We have the cage. We have their leashes. Just be ready,” another resident said.

KSAT’s Weather Authority team projects the river to stay at a major flood stage heading into the weekend, inundating areas along the river. Extreme caution should be used anywhere downstream along the river.

Officials have implemented a color-coded alert system. As of Monday night, the county moved to a “yellow alert,” which urges residents to prepare an emergency bag and be ready to evacuate if needed.

The American Red Cross has set up a shelter for displaced residents. A separate pet shelter is available at the county fairgrounds, La Salle County Judge Leodoro Martinez III said.

Additional information can be read on the La Salle County Fire Rescue Facebook page.

Read also:

• Around 350 personnel deployed in La Salle County to prepare for Nueces River flooding, officials say
• Nueces River reaches major flood stage in Cotulla & a TS Bertha update

• NUECES RIVER: Reaches major flood stage this morning
• T.S. BERTHA: Slight strengthening today, then weaker as it moves toward TX
• TRIPLE DIGITS: Good chance SA sees first 100° day on Wednesday

FORECAST

NUECES RIVER FLOODING AT COTULLA

With an estimated 480 billion gallons of water falling in the Hill Country last week, all of that water is still making its way to the coast. The swell along the Nueces has reached Cotulla and the river is now at major flood stage, reaching 24 feet. It could stay at major flood stage into the weekend, inundating areas along the river. Extreme caution should be used anywhere downstream along the river.

T.S. BERTHA

Bertha strengthened, with winds now sustained at 60 mph, categorizing it as a tropical storm, but is not expected to reach hurricane strength. The storm will begin to interact with land in Louisiana on Wednesday. From there, wind shear and proximity to land should help to weaken the system. While it will move west toward Texas late this week, the impacts here will be minimal. A shower or two is possible around San Antonio on Thursday. Along the Texas coast, don’t cancel your beach plans, as only a few showers are expected.

FIRST TRIPLE DIGIT DAY THIS YEAR

Wednesday is poised to be San Antonio’s hottest day so far this year. Temperatures will soar to near 100° in town, with areas to the south of town reaching as high as 105°. Heat index values will make it feel even worse. Added clouds may bring down temperatures a bit by the end of the work week.

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.

The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly about the yet to be formally announced decision, said the agreement is expected to be announced publicly as early as Wednesday.

The deal is expected to last 30 years and is also expected to involve U.S. firms in developing the program. The deal could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint U.S.-Saudi study.

But the deal, which is expected to be submitted to Congress for review, could face headwinds among lawmakers who fear that helping the Saudis fulfill their long-standing desire to enrich their own uranium would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition.

Saudi Arabia is a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a Vienna-based agency which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs.

But the agreement is not expected to include the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which would allow for more monitoring, inspections and verification, according to one of the people.

The expected announcement comes in the midst of the war against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel, in part, to wipe out Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful.

The White House and Saudi officials in Riyadh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Both Trump and former President Joe Biden tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology.

But nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Saudi Arabia last year shortly before Trump visited the kingdom and discussed building out the kingdom’s commercial nuclear power industry with his Saudi counterpart. The U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.

The United Arab Emirates, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the UAE did so without seeking enrichment, something nonproliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.

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Price reported from Manila, Philippines, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writers Will Weissert and Matthew Daly contributed from Washington.

In 2026, Florida and Tennessee will be complete strangers.

Their once-a-year matchup that, back in the day, featured Steve Spurrier, Peyton Manning, Phillip Fulmer and snark that sometimes even outweighed the stakes — “You can’t spell Citrus without ‘U-T'” — is absent from the schedule for the first time in 37 seasons.

Alabama-LSU — soon that’ll be gone, too, for the first time since 1963.

The Gators and LSU — they’ll miss each other this year for the first time since 1970.

Such is the price of progress in the Southeastern Conference, which has grown from 10 teams in the old days to 16 now.

The league is introducing a nine-game league slate this season in an attempt to boost strength of schedule for what is now a playoff system that has a committee awarding seven at-large spots in the 12-team field.

“When you look at our schedule, no one has created the kind of weekly competition that exists in the Southeastern Conference,” commissioner Greg Sankey said.

The divisions that once made Florida-Tennessee such a big deal — winner had an inside track for the East, a spot in the conference title game and maybe the national championship — are gone, another product of expansion.

Under the new system, in place through 2029, each school will play three “annual” foes. Some of the SEC’s most ancient rivalries, like Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Georgia and Auburn-Georgia, were preserved.

Others are now less-permanent affairs. Another oldie but goodie that's missing this year, Georgia vs. Tennessee, was first played in 1899 and became an annual event in 1992. The Volunteers got the best of the Bulldogs early, but Georgia has won nine in a row and 14 of the last 16 — a run that prompted a question to Georgia coach Kirby Smart on Tuesday about feeling like he has “one less win” on the schedule.

“You said that; not me,” Smart responded. “I got a lot of respect for Josh (Heupel) and their staff. I mean, they’re a tough prep. I’m glad other teams get an opportunity to do that, and then we get some new teams to play.”

Some new teams, yes. Some old rivalries will return, too.

For instance, Arkansas-Texas, a must-see game on the old Southwestern Conference schedule that produced the Game of the Century, attended by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is an annual affair again. Two years ago, Missouri renewed acquaintance with Oklahoma, reupping a rivalry that meant a lot in the Big Eight for a time in the 1970s. And Texas-Texas A&M, the “Lone Star Shootout” and a game held every year between 1915 and 2011, will now be played annually.

Asked about rivalries being renewed and others that, in another effect of realignment, are changing dates — Missouri's season-ending tradition against Arkansas has been moved to Week 8 — Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said: “I don’t worry about that. I know each and every game in the SEC is extremely difficult.”

The SEC also mandated its teams play a 10th game against a Power Four opponent, which led Kansas and Missouri to renew their so-called “Border War” and created other early season matchups like Oklahoma-Michigan, Clemson-LSU, Ohio State-Texas, Auburn-Baylor, Arkansas-Utah and Arizona State-Texas.

SEC coaches believed moving to a nine-game league schedule would coincide with College Football Playoff expansion, which didn’t happen.

Now, they have tougher schedules, no increased access to the 12-team playoff and a few less rivalries.

“That’s what our conference looks like,” Oklahoma coach Brett Venables said. “Each and every week, you’re not going to sneak up on anybody.”

A brief look at the Tennessee-Florida series

The Tennessee-Florida rivalry decided the SEC East a dozen times between 1993 and 2009. Spurrier got under Fulmer’s skin with his “Citrus Bowl” comments. Manning, despite all his accolades, went 0-4 against the Gators. The importance of the rivalry diminished beginning in 2011, with both schools falling behind Georgia in the East.

A brief look at the Florida-LSU series

The Florida-LSU matchup has been filled with chaos, controversy and close games. Among the most memorable: LSU upset No. 1 Florida in 1997, and fans stormed the field and tore down goal posts; the top-ranked Tigers won another close one a decade later by converting five fourth-down plays; and in 2020, unranked LSU stunned the sixth-ranked Gators in Gainesville on Cade York’s 57-yard field goal through heavy fog after cornerback Marco Wilson inexplicably threw an opponent’s shoe and kept alive the game-winning drive.

A brief look at the LSU-Alabama series

Alabama and LSU played 12 times between 2008 and 2021 with one of them ranked first or second. It often had Western Division and national title implications. It comes off the schedule for 2027, no longer an annual fixture. Few matchups outweigh the 2011 showdown in which top-ranked LSU knocked off No. 2 Alabama 9-6 in overtime. The Crimson Tide won the rematch in New Orleans two months later for the national championship.

Could current rivalries be affected beyond 2029?

The SEC has been adamant that each team’s annual opponents will be revisited and potentially realigned to maintain competitive balance before the 2030 season. Of course, by then, there’s no telling what the SEC or college football will look like.

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Long reported from Gainesville, Florida.

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Marco Antonio Moreno Vasquez was convicted of murder in the death of Duniel Valladares Fernandez and sentenced Tuesday in Bexar County’s 187th Criminal District Court, according to a news release. He also received a six-year sentence for deadly conduct. Both prison sentences will run concurrently.

In February 2023, authorities responded to a shooting and found Fernandez suffering from a gunshot wound. Fernandez was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Surveillance video captured the shooting and provided key evidence during Vasquez’s trial, including the suspect vehicle’s license plate and images of those involved, according to the DA’s office.

Days after the shooting, law enforcement in Atascosa County found the vehicle during a traffic stop. Vasquez was identified and taken into custody without incident, the release states.

Further investigation uncovered four shell casings consistent with the firearm used in the shooting. The murder weapon was recovered from Vasquez’s residence, where the DA’s office said it had been concealed inside a refrigerator.

Ballistic evidence confirmed the shell casings from the scene matched the firearm, the release states.

The DA’s office said evidence presented at trial showed Vasquez and his co-defendant, Adis Hernandez-Rivas, confronted Fernandez over a financial dispute that escalated into a deadly shooting.

Hernandez-Rivas previously accepted a plea agreement and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, the release states.

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It’s the second satellite-saving mission to launch this month, all part of a growing, money-saving effort to keep spacecraft running as long as possible. Another company’s three-armed spacecraft rocketed into orbit on July 3 to boost NASA’s Swift Observatory so it doesn’t crash to Earth this fall.

Launched by SpaceX, Northrop Grumman’s mission robotic vehicle — dubbed MRV — and its jetpacks will spend the next year angling into the proper orbit 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth. Hundreds of satellites orbit at this so-called geosynchronous orbit, where they match the speed of Earth's rotation and keep to the same part of the sky for continuous coverage.

Once in place by mid-2027, the minivan-sized spacecraft will use its 10-foot (9-meter) arms to attach a jetpack to an aging communication satellite. Then it will zip off to two more satellites in need.

For its debut flight, the spacecraft was accompanied by three electric-propelled jetpacks that peeled away separately following liftoff. Like the MRV, the jetpacks will use their own xenon gas thrusters to get to the desired orbit. Once in place, the jetpacks will wait for the robot to grab them, one at a time, and plug them into their designated satellites.

Each jetpack — the size of a washing machine — will provide the necessary oomph for an out-of-gas satellite to keep operating for several more years instead of retiring. If it works, it will be a boon for satellite operators SES of Luxembourg and Optus of Australia, saving them millions of dollars in replacement costs.

This is Northrop Grumman's latest foray into the satellite-servicing business. In 2019 and again in 2020, the company launched a pair of spacecraft that latched onto faltering communication satellites and steered them, providing extra years of life.

Northrop Grumman designed its new robotic helpers to be even more resourceful. The company envisions future versions repairing and relocating live satellites, and even latching onto dead ones for removal from highly trafficked orbits. The company is collaborating with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Katalyst Space Technologies, meanwhile, continues to test its Link satellite helper in orbit before rushing to the Swift Observatory's rescue. Flight controllers had to overcome initial communication and pointing problems with Link, beaming up software patches.

Launched in 2004, NASA's Swift telescope has been sinking faster than usual because of all the recent solar activity. A boost by Link in the coming weeks could give the nearly $400 million gamma ray observatory many more years of studying some of the biggest explosions in the universe.

NASA is paying Kataylst $30 million to raise Swift to its original 373-mile (600-kilometer) altitude. Northrop Grumman provided Link's ride to orbit, using a plane-launched Pegasus rocket.

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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 deadline for action is more than two months away, but House GOP leaders are not leaving to chance another possible shutdown souring the mood of voters shortly before they go to the polls. House Speaker Mike Johnson dared Democrats to vote against the bill, and if they did, "then they alone are going to own the chaos that ensues if the government shuts down after September 30.”

The House passed the measure by a mostly party-line vote of 220-205.

It’s highly unusual for Congress to pass a stopgap funding bill months before the end of the fiscal year. Lawmakers normally act just days or even hours before the deadline. But once lawmakers leave town this week, the House is scheduled to be in session for only 16 more days before the funding deadline.

GOP leadership is laying the groundwork to spend most of that time on another priority: a long-shot, party-line bill that spends $95 billion to boost defense, aid farmers and get portions of President Donald Trump’s elections overhaul bill passed into law.

“I think it's kind of smart to go ahead and take the potential chaos of a shutdown off the table because the amount of damage that does to the American citizens,” said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. He said he believed a shutdown “probably works to the advantage of Democrats politically,” and he blamed the press for such a scenario.

Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the stopgap measure, which would generally fund agencies at current spending levels.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the legislation was dropped on Democrats on Friday without any bipartisan negotiations. She said that, among other priorities, Democrats would have pushed for provisions to reverse a proposed federal rule that could allow agency heads to block or terminate grants they claim don't match the president's priorities.

She said that instead of a bipartisan agreement, “we are scrambling to jam through a one-sided stopgap measure two days before everyone leaves for the August recess.”

Republicans said work on the dozen annual spending bills would continue in the months ahead, but that funding the government through Dec. 4 could help lawmakers avoid a repeat of the past year when the country experienced the longest federal shutdown in history followed by the longest partial shutdown in history.

“We've seen that happen twice in this Congress already,” said Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “I'm not willing to risk a third time if we can avoid that.”

Some of the more conservative Republican lawmakers were fine with the bill to extend funding to Dec. 4, known as a continuing resolution.

In this environment, that's "the best way to spend the least amount of money,” said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo. “You keep spending levels static for at least a period of time.”

It's unclear if the Senate will go along with the bill. Spending bills require support from 60 senators to advance to a final vote, so some Democrats would need to support it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins was working with Democrats on the committee to “find a path forward.”

Rescue teams with oxygen gear raced to find survivors Tuesday as toxic levels of gas were detected at the disaster site in Samardung village near the Chinese border.

The blast had ripped through the tunnel Monday while 21 laborers were inside working on the 500-megawatt Teesta hydroelectric project, officials said. Two of them managed to escape. Six power utility officials later entered the tunnel to help in the rescue, but became trapped themselves, officials said.

The explosion was believed triggered by a buildup of methane, said State Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, who visited the site Tuesday. Survivors told authorities they heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, civil official Anupama Tamling said.

Officials had recovered 12 bodies on Tuesday while rescuers from the National Disaster Response Force, or NDRF, raced to reach the 13 people believed to be still trapped.

“We found toxic gases such as methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide inside the tunnel,” NDRF official Nitin Kumar said at the scene.

The conditions late Tuesday were so dangerous that, although equipped with oxygen gear, the rescuers could enter the disaster site only for shifts of about 15 minutes at a time, officials said.

Construction accidents are not uncommon in India, where rapid infrastructure growth often collides with fragile geology, construction lapses, extreme weather and safety standards.

In the Himalayan region, fragile mountains, seismic activity and unpredictable underground conditions make tunnel projects especially risky. An explosion inside a coal mine in neighboring Meghalaya state in February killed at least 18 workers. In 2023, a tunnel section in northern Uttarakhand state collapsed, trapping 41 workers for 17 days before they were rescued.

Experts say the Teesta River basin, where the hydropower project is being built, lies in a seismically active region marked by young, fragile rock formations riddled with fractures and underground pockets that can trap ancient gases.

Dr. Devesh Walia, a geology professor at North-Eastern Hill University in Meghalaya, said the area contains relatively young rock formations, some associated with coal-bearing strata.

“It is quite possible that methane along with other gases accumulated underground and may have triggered an explosion,” he said.

The U.N. food security report, released Tuesday, found global hunger has eased modestly in recent years, but projected more than 500 million people could still face chronic hunger by 2030. Africa is expected to bear the largest share of that burden.

In an interview with The Associated Press on July 10, IFAD President Alvaro Lario said geopolitical tensions and potential disruptions to shipping and energy supplies, including uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war, could leave an additional 9-18 million people facing hunger if the shocks persist.

“We are in a current era where we have the highest number of conflicts and are still increasing,” Lario said. “Whenever there is a conflict, also hunger, displacement, refugees increase.”

Conflict fuels food insecurity

Conflict remains one of the biggest obstacles to reducing hunger worldwide, Lario added.

Wars and geopolitical tensions can disrupt shipping, energy supplies and agricultural inputs, increasing costs across food systems already strained by inflation. Lario stressed that hunger and conflict often reinforce one another, creating a cycle that is difficult to break without greater stability.

Higher energy prices are already affecting fertilizers and agricultural production, he said. The impact is especially significant for small-scale farmers, many of whom rely on diesel fuel to pump water, harvest crops and transport goods to market.

Rising fuel costs increase production expenses and can feed directly into higher food prices.

Climate shocks add pressure

The new report identifies affordability as one of the world’s biggest food security challenges. While food production continues to grow, roughly a third of the global population still can't afford a healthy diet. In low-income countries, that figure rises to about 77%, according to Lario.

“The biggest challenge is no longer simply producing enough food, but making healthy diets affordable,” he said.

Climate change is adding further pressure to food systems and rural livelihoods.

Lario noted that floods, prolonged droughts and extreme heat are increasingly disrupting agriculture around the world and have become a common reality for many communities.

Governments should focus on resilience and adaptation before disasters strike, rather than relying solely on emergency responses afterward, he said.

“This is just becoming the new normal,” Lario said. “We are seeing floods in many countries. We’re still seeing droughts that have been expanding for four or five years.”

The fund is increasing investments in climate-adaptation programs aimed at helping rural communities withstand floods, droughts and extreme heat, he said, arguing that support is urgently needed for the millions of small farmers who produce much of the world’s food.

Africa emerges as the epicenter

The report highlights Africa as the world’s most pressing food-security challenge. For the first time, the continent has overtaken Asia as the region with the largest number of hungry people, and nearly 60% of the world’s chronically undernourished people could live there by 2030.

Lario attributed the shift partly to rapid population growth and slower economic gains than in parts of Asia, and he called for greater investment in agriculture, infrastructure and food systems.

African countries currently import nearly $100 billion worth of food each year, he said, underscoring the need for stronger local production, storage, distribution and regional trade networks.

Conflicts, energy-market disruptions and climate extremes threaten to derail progress unless governments invest in more resilient food systems, Lario said.

Burnham told his top team that he would lead a “cost-of-living government” focused on easing the economic burden felt by millions of people.

“We need to think every day, what can we do just to take that little bit of pressure off people’s shoulders, to give them that little extra sense that help is coming, so they can have that bit of hope that things are getting better,” Burnham said.

He made a small down payment on that pledge by announcing a tax cut on domestic electricity bills that will save the average household about 45 pounds ($60) a year. The cut will take effect Oct. 1, Burnham said, with the funding coming from scrapping a plan for digital ID cards announced by Starmer.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester entered Downing Street on Monday after replacing Starmer as leader of the governing Labour Party, becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister since 2016. Starmer resigned just two years after winning a landslide election victory, forced out by his party after missteps and U-turns.

In his first speech as prime minister, Burnham pledged to ease the cost of living, decentralize political power, revitalize industry and end street sleeping by homeless people — a tall order, especially given Britain's sluggish economic growth in recent years.

Burnham acknowledged at the Cabinet meeting that the government would have to make difficult financial decisions and “take a really hard look at what our priorities are.”

Starmer loyalists removed from office

After taking office Monday, Burnham set about remaking the government.

Starmer’s finance minister, Rachel Reeves, was ousted, replaced by John Healey, a former defense secretary who resigned in June and accused the Treasury of failing to spend enough on the military at a time of rising threats. In an interview after he quit, Healey called the Treasury “a dead hand on dynamic government” and “in denial.”

Healey has said defense spending, due to be 2.6% of GDP next year, should rise to 3% by 2030. Now he will have to find the money.

Wes Streeting, whose resignation as health secretary in May helped topple Starmer, took over the defense portfolio.

Other key Cabinet appointees include Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who has an expanded brief that includes innovation and science.

Louise Haigh, a key Burnham ally who helped engineer his rise to the top, was named First Secretary of State and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, effectively the deputy prime minister.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has overseen contentious rules designed to reduce immigration, kept her job.

Burnham has huge support from the party that is desperate for a new leader to reverse its decline in popularity under Starmer. But there is some grumbling after Burnham removed several of Starmer’s senior ministers including ex-Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, former Business Secretary Peter Kyle and Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones.

Foreign policy challenges lie ahead

Burnham has little experience of foreign policy and faces a stack of challenges including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and managing relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, who first warmed to Starmer before souring on him.

Burnham’s office said he had an “extremely warm” conversation with Trump in one of his first calls as prime minister and “underlined his commitment to defense and security.” Trump posted on social media that the men had “a very good conversation” and would be “meeting in the not too distant future for topics of mutual interest.”

The prime minister also spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and leaders of the European Union and NATO.

Burnham told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that putting former defense chief Healey in charge of the nation’s finances “was a signal of his intent.”

In a reminder of the growing international tensions Britain faces, a Russian warship carried out a live-fire weapons exercise in the English Channel on Monday, the day Burnham took office.

The Ministry of Defense said the frigate Neustrashimy was being shadowed by the Royal Navy when it conducted the exercise in international waters about 46 miles (74 kilometers) south of the southwest England port city of Plymouth. It said the navy “continues to track the vessel’s activity closely and stands ready to protect U.K. national security.”

Streeting, the new defense secretary, said the Russian ship's actions were “performative and irresponsible.”

“Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government and this prime minister, our resolve to stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine but also Russian aggression against all of our allies,” he said at a news conference.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian warships always acted “in strict accordance” with international and maritime law.

Asked whether the Russian government felt relations with the U.K. would improve under the new prime minister, Peskov said it had “no such hopes.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the new actions — which come after previously announced Medicaid funding deferrals in those states — are part of the administration's strategy to “stop the fraud before it happens” rather than claw back problematic spending after bad actors are prosecuted, as previous administrations had done.

“We have a duty to stop the payments, demand answers and then follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Kennedy told a news conference.

The tactic is part of the administration’s sweeping campaign to show it’s cracking down on fraud and saving taxpayers money when rising healthcare costs and other economic stressors have made affordability a top voter concern in November’s midterm elections.

In March, Vice President JD Vance launched a new anti-fraud task force at the request of President Donald Trump, bringing together officials from various departments to use data and technology to identify and investigate suspected wrongful use of federal dollars.

But the federal government hasn't provided “data or explanation on how the deferral amount was calculated or what it was based on” to Minnesota, said John Connolly, the temporary commissioner and state Medicaid director for Minnesota's Department of Human Services.

“Today's actions show that the federal government is acting again in unprecedented and punitive ways as part of their war on Medicaid and its recipients,” he said in a statement. “Partnership — not politics — is required to stop criminals and protect services for the people who need them.”

Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz suggested the Republican administration was deferring the funds to pay for Trump’s tax cuts to wealthy Americans. California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the administration of targeting it for political reasons.

The Trump administration intensified anti-immigration efforts in Minnesota earlier this year, sending in a robust force of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers whose actions there caused weeks of counterprotests and included the shooting deaths of two civilians. Trump himself has frequently denounced California as a badly governed state.

States are facing obstacles because of the actions

The strategy has led to some false starts and headaches for states.

In April, for example, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acknowledged to The Associated Press it made a significant error in figures it used to help justify a fraud probe in New York. Last month, California's Medicaid director told a congressional committee that CMS had not yet provided “any instances of fraud, waste or abuse” to the state in its justification of a $1.3 billion Medicaid funding deferral announced in May.

And in Minnesota, state officials have been executing a thorough corrective action plan to defray CMS concerns that have led the agency to defer some $260 million in federal money and to threaten future cuts.

“We have cooperated in good faith and proactively engaged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to first raise the alarm on fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program, to effectively investigate fraud and to institute further safeguards against future misuse of funds,” Connolly said.

Kennedy didn't specify in Tuesday's announcement whether the new deferrals — $867.5 million in federal Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota — are in addition to, or overlap with, earlier deferrals announced this year.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz didn't provide concrete examples of fraud in the two states in justifying the deferrals. He did mention some patterns the agency noticed that it found questionable, including that some providers were billing for four or more patients at the same time, or billing after the date of a Medicaid beneficiary's death.

Oz also highlighted a fast rate of growth in California's home care program as a reason for concern. California officials have disputed that idea, explaining that the state's home care program has grown because of an intentional strategy to keep people out of more expensive nursing homes.

“In-home care growth reflects intentional, federally encouraged expansion, not improper spending,” said Anthony Cava, spokesperson for the California Department of Health Care Services. “California is calling on CMS to stop threatening care for California’s most vulnerable residents.”

Flow of money could be restored — with documentation

Kennedy and Oz said states could restart the flow of federal funding by providing documentation proving the payments in question were legitimate.

Officials in both states have previously acknowledged they are working with the federal government to provide the requested information. Oz said Minnesota had already returned documents to the federal government and they were being “reevaluated very carefully.”

Kennedy also suggested Tuesday that he would extend the power to exclude providers from Medicaid, Medicare and other federal health programs to CMS. In the past, that authority has rested solely with his department’s Office of the Inspector General.

“This is going to be a full force multiplier,” HHS Inspector General Thomas March Bell told a news conference. “It's going to create additional momentum, and it's going to exclude additional bad actors.”

More than 23 kilometers (14 miles) have been constructed in recent months, running through Palestinian communities demolished by the military. That is equivalent to more than half the length of the coastal strip, which is some 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide, and home to over 2 million Palestinians.

When presented with the satellite images, Israel’s military confirmed to The Associated Press it has built a physical barrier in the area of the so-called yellow line, the boundary to which Israeli troops withdrew under the October ceasefire deal with Hamas. The line was envisioned in the U.S.-backed agreement as a temporary division of the territory pending a fuller Israeli withdrawal.

But as the truce stagnates, it appears Israel is digging in, heightening Palestinian fears that the line is morphing into a border. Neither U.S. Central Command, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, nor the Board of Peace, the body led by U.S. President Donald Trump meant to eventually oversee Gaza, would comment on the barrier.

Along with the barrier, the military told AP it has developed a “security zone” around the line, equipped with intelligence and technological assets. It declined to give details on the route of the barrier when asked how far it would be extended. It said the barrier aimed to prevent infiltration and protect Israeli troops and Israeli communities near Gaza.

Construction of the barrier is proceeding rapidly

Since the ceasefire deal took hold, Palestinians in Gaza have feared Israel would not return the area of Gaza it controls. But few appear to be aware of the berms now being built around them — because of the danger of even approaching that area.

A portion of the berm network in southern Gaza was extended by more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in two weeks this month, according to the satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC.

The berm was about 500 meters (0.3 miles) long on July 1. By July 15, it was about 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles), splicing the Israel-controlled ruins of the city of Rafah from Muwasi, site of some of the largest Palestinian tent camps.

If construction continues in its current direction, it will join up with the longest stretch of the barrier, which runs nearly unbroken for around 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the southern city of Khan Younis to near Gaza City, in the north.

Construction began on that stretch in February, and it appears work to extend it further south is continuing, according to the satellite images. More than a kilometer (0.6 miles) was added between June 21 and July 7, running close to an Israeli military base built on the ruins of the town of Bani Suheila, near Khan Younis.

In the far north of Gaza, several unconnected stretches of berms run just outside the largely leveled town of Beit Lahia.

The height of the berms in each place remains unclear. In some places, the barriers appear to run outside the yellow line.

Israel has mostly destroyed and depopulated the half of Gaza it controls

Gaza’s population has been crowded into the coastal area west of the yellow line, most living in squalid tent camps and dependent on aid.

On the other side of the line, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have leveled the vast majority of buildings using bulldozers and explosives, virtually erasing several towns and Rafah, once home to more than a quarter million people.

They have carved new road networks and erected new bases on the ruins of Palestinian towns. Agricultural land has also been destroyed. The Israeli military says it is demolishing infrastructure used by Hamas.

The yellow line was never precisely defined, whether in the ceasefire deal or by Israeli or U.S. officials, and it has been inconsistently marked on the ground. The military told AP it is working to clearly mark the route of the yellow line to “reduce friction and prevent harm to uninvolved individuals.”

Israeli forces have killed Palestinians who came close to the line or crossed it. The Israeli military says it fires on those believed to be militants threatening its troops. But those killed have included children and other civilians seemingly unaware of the line. Some soldiers have said they don’t always know who they are firing on and have orders to kill anyone crossing the boundary.

Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians since the ceasefire

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, most in airstrikes and drone strikes around Gaza. Militant attacks have killed five Israeli soldiers in the same period.

Early on Tuesday, an Israeli strike in Gaza City killed Firas al-Masri, his wife and their four children, ages 6 to 13, according to Shifa Hospital. Israel's military only said that they conducted a strike on Hamas militants in the area at that time.

Firas' brother, Ahmad al-Masri, lives nearby and said he heard the children's voices at the moment of the blast.

“They were calling out to me, ‘Uncle! Uncle!’” he said. “But the fire was raging, and we couldn’t do anything.”

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel is eventually supposed to withdraw its troops further to the very edges of Gaza, to be replaced by an international security force. But implementation of the deal has been stalled for months.

A former U.N. diplomat now in charge of coordinating the ceasefire has blamed Hamas’ failure to disarm. Sporadic talks to reach a formula for decommissioning its weapons appear to have made little progress, and Hamas accuses Israel in turn of violating the ceasefire.

The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with a punishing military offensive that has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem.

Roger Rogoff is the latest in a series of judicially appointed U.S. attorneys to be ousted by the Trump administration from their posts but is believed to be the first of that group to sue over the removal. His action creates a first-of-its-kind court case that will test the Justice Department's authority to fire federal prosecutors who are appointed by judges,

Rogoff was unanimously appointed to the job of U.S. attorney for western Washington by the federal judges in the district. But shortly after he was sworn in last Wednesday, he received an email from the Trump administration informing him that President Donald Trump had ordered his termination.

The lawsuit contends that the abrupt firing was unconstitutional and disregarded the authority of the judges of the district to name Rogoff to the job until the vacancy could be filled through a Senate-confirmed nominee. The complaint seeks a court order declaring that the firing “was unlawful and is void” and that Rogoff at least temporarily remains U.S. attorney.

“The President’s actions violate the law, and they ignore the protections of the Constitution of the United States," Rogoff said in a statement issued through the law firm representing him. "His removal of me, like his removal of other court-appointed U.S. attorneys across the country, is illegal and cannot stand."

US attorneys are typically nominated by the president

U.S. attorneys, top federal prosecutors who oversee regional Justice Department outposts across the country, are typically nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate.

In the case of a vacancy, attorneys general have the authority to name an interim U.S. attorney who can serve for 120 days, but when those temporary appointments expire, the judges in a judicial district are then empowered to name a U.S. attorney — as happened in Rogoff's case — who can serve until the selection of a Senate-confirmed appointee.

But under Trump, the Justice Department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely or has moved to fire prosecutors appointed by the courts.

The acting attorney general had foreshadowed the firing

Rogoff's district has not had a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney since 2023. He submitted his name for consideration with the federal bench after the judges last January signaled their intent to fill a vacancy created by the end of the 120-day term of Charles Neil Floyd, who had been named to the job in an interim capacity last year by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Even before Rogoff was appointed, the lawsuit notes, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche foreshadowed his plans to fire whomever the judges selected, writing on X after the court announced its appointment of a merit selection panel that the candidates did not have the president’s support, “and I expect they will suffer the same fate as others have when judges ignore Article II” of the Constitution.

After Rogoff was fired, Blanche posted: “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them.” Judges from the state’s western district, he said, “abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration. Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President.”

The Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday that “the district court did not coordinate with DOJ on this selection. Consistent with other firings of this type, this is wholly within the President’s authority.”

Other jurisdictions that have seen tussles between the judiciary and the administration over the prosecution posts include New Jersey, where Trump's former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, resigned in December after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.

Lindsey Halligan, another of Trump's personal lawyers who was installed by the administration, left her position as an acting U.S. attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded her appointment was unlawful and that indictments she brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.

The City of San Antonio’s Public Works Department told KSAT that crews have removed 69 tornado-damaged trees as cleanup efforts continue.

In the Bridgehaven neighborhood, one homeowner who asked not to be identified said the damage was extensive.

Large oak trees that had stood for decades were uprooted or split apart during the storm. Massive limbs snapped off, trunks cracked and one fallen tree damaged the walkway leading to the homeowner’s front door. Piles of branches and other debris remain visible throughout the neighborhood as residents continue clearing their properties.

The homeowner said she was fortunate to receive help quickly.

She had already been preparing for a scheduled brush pickup when the tornado struck, and city crews along with private contractors were able to remove the largest debris soon afterward.

“I was just lucky because I got it all done that day,” the homeowner said. “They came and got a couple of guys, and they came with their team and cleared it all out.”

Residents who still need assistance with storm debris can call 3-1-1 to report damage or request services through the assessment survey.

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Prosecutors say D4vd, a 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke, used the items to dismember Rivas Hernandez's body after he had stabbed her to death for threatening to reveal their relationship and ruin a music career that one witness said had brought in more than $10 million in just a couple of years.

On the first day of a hearing where a judge will decide if there's enough evidence to go to trial, the homicide detective, Joshua Byers, testified that Burke had used the alias Trayvion Davis for the orders, but used his own cards to buy them and had them delivered to his Hollywood home.

Burke's lawyers have said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez's death, and he has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

Byers said most of the items that digital records show Burke bought, including two of the three chain saws and the blue pool, had been found in Burke's garage when a warrant was served. Prosecutors previously said a blood stain in the garage matched Rivas Hernandez's DNA.

And Byers testified that the body bag Burke ordered matched one that contained the head and torso of Rivas Hernandez in the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke at a Hollywood tow yard on Sept. 8, 2025.

Prosecutors show photos of teen's dismembered body

The lead prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, showed photos in court of the dismembered and decomposing body of Rivas Hernandez. Under the body bag, authorities found a garbage bag with the girl's arms and legs.

Burke's lawyer, Blair Berk, pressed Byers about whether the body bag was tested to tie it to the defendant. Berk's cross-examination took a microscopic look at how the scene was treated and the body was investigated.

Byers said the medical examiner at the scene told him the bag could not be taken into evidence because the body was so decomposed it could not be removed from it.

Rivas Hernandez’s parents were in court along with dozens of reporters and members of the public who got their seats through a lottery drawing. Her mother appeared to look down when the photos of the body were displayed.

Investigators did not immediately identify the body of Rivas Hernandez when it was found. Byers said her father, Jesus Rivas, called police a few days after the body’s discovery because he had seen news reports and feared it was his daughter.

The photos showed blue fragments on the body that prosecutors say were from the inflatable pool.

Byers also testified that when he and his partner arrested Burke, they noticed he had ‘Celeste’ tattooed in red on his finger. A photo of it was shown in court. A tattoo on another finger read “Shhh” and was identical to one on Rivas Hernandez's finger.

Body camera video shows Burke downplaying the relationship

Also Tuesday, prosecutors showed a body camera video from February 2024 with Burke telling sheriff’s deputies who were investigating after the then-13-year-old Rivas Hernandez was reported missing; Burke told them he had only met the girl once in person, and did not know she was a minor.

“She told me she was 18,” the singer said in the video from February 2024. “Everybody’s telling me she was 13.”

Prosecutors allege that D4vd had already been having a sexual relationship with the girl for several months. He was 18 at the time. Burke said he met the girl as a fan online on Discord and Instagram in 2020 or 2021.

LA County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Gonzalez, whose body camera video was shown, testified that Burke had been extremely cooperative, and allowed him and his partner to search the house. They found no sign of Rivas Hernandez, who was reported missing a number of times in the years before her death.

The mood was friendly and jovial among the three, and one of the deputies says “Ohhh, that’s pretty cool, good for you,” when Burke described his music career.

The hearing resembles a mini trial

The preliminary hearing, which is expected to last about four days, resembles an abbreviated trial. Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether the prosecution offered enough evidence to demonstrate probable cause to proceed to trial.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside the hearing that his office has not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty in the case.

The defendant, who has been held without bail in a jail near the courthouse since his arrest, appeared in court in his Orange jail clothes and glasses. The judge ruled that his hands could be uncuffed, but he must remain shackled to his chair.

A court filing said Burke sent a car to pick up Rivas Hernandez on April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles (129 km) outside Los Angeles. They exchanged messages until she arrived at his home, after which her phone went dead.

“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened,” the document said, “defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out.”

D4vd had budding music career

One of Burke’s financial managers, Benjamin Gregor, testified that he had earned between $10 million and $11.5 million dollars from 2023 through 2025.

D4vd began making music for YouTube videos he created of the video game Fortnite.

The songs he wrote and recorded on his phone were a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour. Last year, he performed at the Coachella music festival and released a full album that he was on tour promoting when the body was discovered.

Andrew Arrabaca, 43, plotted the attack for months and considered striking other New York City targets before setting a fire, lighting fireworks and firing a pellet gun Monday morning outside 26 Federal Plaza, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Fry said.

Arrabaca told investigators that he understood people could've been hurt or killed and that he he was willing to accept his own death in the process, Fry said. She called his actions “calculated, targeted and unacceptably dangerous."

Three people sustained minor injuries, including a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building, which also houses offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI. The building has been a magnet for protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Arrabaca, wearing glasses and a black sweatshirt, sat quietly between his lawyers at his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He nodded at times as they explained what was happening. He was not required to enter a plea. The charge, arson or explosion causing damage to U.S. government property, carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky ordered Arrabaca jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn, rejecting his lawyer's suggestion that he be sent to a locked ward at a Veterans Health Administration facility for a mental health evaluation. Instead, the judge said she wants Arrabaca to be evaluated at the jail as soon as possible.

“This is an individual who, notwithstanding what he appears to have done, has served our country and is quite clearly ill,” Tarnofsky said.

Arrabaca was living in his car and slept in a park the night before the attack, Fry said. In 2020, she said, he was prescribed medication for a mental health condition but he stopped taking it about a year later.

A military-style helmet that authorities say Arrabaca wore during the attack had words on it suggesting he was suicidal, defense lawyer Jennifer Brown said.

Brown noted that Arrabaca has no criminal history and, until recently, had a long history of employment. He is a U.S. citizen and a lifelong New York resident, she said. He grew up in Queens, public records show, and was linked to an address in Poughkeepsie.

Arrabaca repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2004. He also served a year in the New York Army National Guard. He had no deployments and left the Army as a specialist, an Army spokesperson said.

Fry, arguing for jail instead of hospitalization or release, argued that Arrabaca is a danger to the community and a flight risk. Brown conceded “the nature of this offense is undoubtedly dangerous,” but that Arrabaca’s “expressed intention was not to cause damage to people but to cause damage to property.”

Arrabaca started planning the attack as far back as January and went to upstate New York to buy weapons and Pennsylvania to buy fireworks, Fry said. Outside the Manhattan building, he was tackled by a security officer after authorities say he dumped gasoline outside an employee entrance and set the sidewalk on fire.

Arrabaca had two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer, a machete and a wagon affixed with a sign that said “ICE Off Our Streets," authorities said. As he was being arrested, he made “anti-government and anti-American statements” and derogatory remarks about ICE, James Barnacle, the head of the FBI’s New York field office, said at a news conference on Monday.

Fry said that while only a few people were injured, “this attack could have ended much more tragically” at a building where hundreds of federal employees work, parents leave children at a daycare and members of the public use a post office inside.

Fry said there is “overwhelming evidence of his guilt” including “his own fulsome confession."

Tarnofsky said she seriously considered the psychiatric ward option but rejected it because she wasn’t convinced Arrabaca would comply with treatment.

“The crime you’re charged with is troubling," she said, addressing Arrabaca directly. “The nature and circumstances, the fact that it was planned over time and carried out at a time when it could cause significant harm.”

“This wasn’t done on a Sunday when no one was at the building," the judge said.

___

Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

The majority Black congressional district was redrawn by the state legislature in May to favor Republicans in November's midterm elections. A month earlier, the Supreme Court ruled that Fields' district relied too heavily on race and was an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”

“After a great deal of prayer and reflection, I have decided not to seek reelection, to Congress, in the 6th District or any other district in Louisiana," Fields said.

Fields, who a longtime fixture in Louisiana politics, said he would instead seek a seat in the state Senate.

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the map favoring Fields' district escalated a nationwide redistricting battle, largely fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect Republicans in the midterm elections.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama could use a map that favored Republicans in this year’s elections.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map this year that would have given the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with GOP losses.

The new map renews Fields’ district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

Fields had previously served two terms in the U.S. House from 1993 to 1997 and was the state's second Black member of Congress in Louisiana.

___ Wilder 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.

The plane, the Clipper Endeavor, made a hard landing after losing engine power shortly after takeoff. The 17 passengers and crew who survived told investigators everyone lived through the landing, but panic set in as many passengers struggled to find life vests and the crew had a hard time pulling out life rafts.

Within minutes, the plane sank. Explorers found the wreckage of the DC-4 last month by using an autonomous sonar drone to locate the fuselage and tail in 2,000 feet of water.

Now before takeoff, flight attendants instruct passengers about exit locations and where life vests are located and how to inflate them.

“This one became a catalyst, and it helped drive safety steps forward of better flotation equipment and the preflight briefings,” said aviation safety expert John Cox, a pilot and founder of Safety Operating Systems. “So this is one steppingstone along the path to what we today enjoy as aviation safety. It was a rallying cry at the time.”

And now the discovery of this wreck could offer new hope for families who lost loved ones in other ocean crashes like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared 12 years ago with 269 people aboard.

Years of research helped locate the wreckage

This crash first caught the attention of Russ Matthews in 2019 when he saw a blurb about a luggage tag from the flight washing ashore in Florida. He said the historical significance of the Clipper Endeavor prompted him to dig deeper.

That led to years of digging through the Pan Am Airlines and Coast Guard archives looking for clues about the location of the plane's watery grave. Reports from the Civil Aeronautics Board, which was the predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration, also helped.

But the key to finding the wreckage was found in records in Puerto Rico from a hearing that was held on the crash, and a map estimating the location of the crash that was done by Air Force pilots who witnessed the crash because they just happened to be in the area on a training flight.

Bad weather disrupted a previous attempt to locate the wreck in 2024 with a towed sonar array that was also documented by the Discovery Channel's “Expedition Unknown” show. But Matthews said he and the volunteers who work with his Air/Sea Heritage Foundation dreamed of making a second attempt to find it before next year's 75th anniversary of the crash with one of these newer advanced drones that were originally developed for military uses like finding undersea mines.

Undersea drone played a key role in the search

Tony Romeo, who is CEO of the undersea exploration firm Deep Sea Vision, had been talking with Matthews for a while about the possibility of helping try to find this plane if one of his ships was ever in the area, and then in April one just happened to be passing right by Puerto Rico between two other jobs while carrying an advanced underwater drone with the right sensors to be able to find it.

“There we were, and everything kind of came together at the moment: good weather, the right team, and the right equipment and ship. So we took a shot at it,” Romeo said.

Deep Sea Vision previously led an unsuccessful six-month search to find Amelia Earhart's plane, but Romeo had a special interest in this case because his father was a mechanic and pilot for Pan Am airlines. In fact, the drone they used in the search already had a Pan Am sticker on the side.

Capturing the moment of discovery

All the research Matthews' group had done, combined with weather data from the time of the crash, was synthesized to create a map of the most likely location and a search area of 10 square nautical miles. The drone actually found the wreckage on its first pass over that area, although the explorers didn't know that until it returned to the surface with its images.

The Discovery Channel’s Josh Gates and his crew were again along for this latest search to capture the moment the plane showed up on images from the drone after they were downloaded. The search will be featured in a special episode of the show this fall, but a few highlights released Tuesday show the moment everyone in the control room realized what they had found. Shouts of “Oh God!” and “That's a plane!” erupted when the image loaded on screen.

“To have a front-row seat to an expedition like this as it’s unfolding is tremendous, and so I feel really lucky that we were able to be a part of it,” Gates said.

According to a Tuesday news release, the nonconference matchup — the 264th all-time meeting — will be played Nov. 15.

The game will pair the longtime rivals for the first time since Texas left the Big 12 in 2024. The Bears last met the ‘Horns in March 2024, a 93-85 home win for Baylor.

The Longhorns are coming off a run to the Sweet 16 in head coach Sean Miller’s first season in Austin.

“We have an immense amount of respect for Baylor as a basketball program and Scott Drew as a head coach,” Miller said in a news release. “Coach Drew is one of the best to ever do it, and the success of Baylor’s program over the last 20 years speaks for itself. We wanted to play a high-quality opponent knowing that we’re going to challenge our team to the highest level, and Baylor does that.”

Last year, Drew missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

“The state of Texas has always been home to outstanding college basketball, and anytime you have two in-state programs like Baylor and Texas competing on a neutral floor, it’s great for the game,” Drew said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to play in front of what should be a terrific atmosphere in San Antonio.”

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