But the drowning death of Jaylen Robinson, 13, at Boerne City Lake this weekend has served as a grim reminder of the importance of water safety, especially on the state’s various lakes, rivers and miles of coastline. Like Boerne City Lake, many of those natural bodies of water might not have lifeguards either.

KSAT spoke with Dr. Dan Murray, a divemaster instructor and the owner of Dive Masters of San Antonio, about staying safe with friends and family.

Strengthening your skills

Prevention is the best cure, and in this case, that means being a strong swimmer.

If you’re not, Murray suggests taking lessons to learn. The City of San Antonio, for example, has free group swim lessons for all ages.

“At least a stroke, a nice, easy breaststroke that you can save your own life, regardless of the kind of the water that you’re in, that would be recommended as well,” Murray said.

Swim together

Accidents can happen to anyone, and even strong swimmers should swim with others.

Have flotation devices on hand if someone is struggling, and Murray said “there should be somebody that is watching from shore, particularly if you’re under the age of 18.”

Avoid boat traffic

If there are designated swimming areas, stick to those. Avoid swimming too far out, where you could be in the way of boats.

Rescue attempts

The adage for water rescue is often learned as “reach, throw, row, go,” though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses a slightly different mantra of techniques to work your way through.

• REACH with a paddle or stick to bring someone in, but make sure you don’t get pulled in, too.
• THROW a flotation device or something else that floats, preferably attached to a line, that you can use to pull them in.
• ROW out in a boat to help them or wave down a boat on the water.
• DON’T GO into the water to rescue them yourself unless you’re trained, like a lifeguard, and a strong swimmer. This is a last resort for a rescue, since drowning people can panic and grab onto their rescuers, pulling them down, too.
• CALL FOR HELP on 911 or to others in the area.

Murray acknowledged the danger of trying to rescue someone yourself.

“If you have to enter the water to go and rescue them and you have the skills to do it, then you should,” he said. “But if you’re not sure of your own skills, you might just create two people who are having a problem rather than just one.”

Caution in murky water

Unlike your local pool, natural bodies of water can be murky and hide any rocks, branches or other obstructions until you’ve landed on them, or any drop-offs until you’re well over your head.

So, enter the water feet first, and be cautious as you make your way out, especially if you’re not a strong swimmer.

Tubes ≠ life jackets

Tubes and other floating toys can give you a false sense of security if you’re not a strong swimmer.

They might keep you afloat, but only so long as you’re on them and they don’t pop. They are not substitutes for a proper life jacket.

“If you’re going into water where you don’t feel like you have the ability — like you might fall into water that is over your head — you should probably be wearing a life jacket, right, a personal flotation device that isn’t going to come off, or you can’t lose contact with just by slipping away from it,” Murray said.

Amy Niles, the river and watershed manager for the City of New Braunfels, said they recommend all tubers wear life jackets.

Alcohol and drugs

Alcohol and drugs don’t mix well with water activities, and Murray warned swimmers against them.

“If they do, then make sure that you’ve got somebody on shore that is not enjoying any of those so that you have somebody who can do the rescue if it were necessary,” he said.

Ocean safety

With its waves, tides and currents, the Texas coast offers additional dangers for swimmers, so be especially cautious when swimming at the beach.

Murray said swimmers may look for the calm areas without waves, thinking it will be safer, but that’s where he says a riptide or rip current may pull you far out into the open water, away from the shore.

If you find you’re stuck in one, he said to swim parallel to the shore, in the direction you came from, to escape it. Don’t try to keep swimming across it, since you don’t know how wide it is, and don’t try to fight it and swim directly to shore.

Additional tips

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has additional tips on its website.

Read also:

• San Antonio paramedic urges water safety as summer swimming season heats up

Bells tolled through the mountain valley of Econe, Switzerland, as the Society of St. Pius X began the solemn ceremony at its seminary. Thousands of people, faithful Catholics who prefer the traditional Latin Mass over modern liturgies, filled the field under cloudy skies as the incense-led procession of hundreds of priests approached the altar under a tent.

The orderly, solemn ceremony, accompanied by organ music and livestreamed on the society's YouTube channel, went ahead despite a last-ditch appeal by Leo to call it off. In a letter published Tuesday, the American pope warned that consecrating bishops without his approval amounts to a “sin of extreme gravity” that will actually harm their faithful.

And yet at the start of the Mass, a priest read aloud a statement justifying the consecrations as a necessary defense of the faith and criticizing how the Catholic Church today had deviated from tradition.

“Therefore before God we consider it a sacred duty towards Holy Church and towards souls to proceed with the consecration of bishops who are entirely faithful to her holy tradition and to her constant magisterium,” the priest said. “We consider every punishment and censure brought to bear against this step will have no validity.”

According to church law, the mere act of consecrating a bishop without a papal mandate incurs the harshest penalty in the Catholic Church: automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. It also amounts to a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church.

And yet everything about Wednesday’s ceremony had the air of a joyous celebration. The website for its consecration has had a countdown clock running for days. Video clips show seminarians joyfully unloading boxes. Participants received a baseball cap with the “Econe2026” seal on it.

The field, located under giant power lines, was awash in smiling nuns, priests posing for photos, girl scouts handing out water bottles, black-clad security guards with earpieces and orange-vested volunteer escorts keeping journalists on a short leash. Morning mist coated the nearby Rhone River that snakes through the Alpine valley as worshippers flocked in.

And in perhaps the most obvious sign of a celebration, registered participants were able to purchase a souvenir set of wine to commemorate the “historic” event. The 75 Swiss franc ($92.50) “Cuvee des Sacres” gift box features pinot noir, Syrah, Petit Arvine and Fendant, each bottle with a bishop-themed label: an image of a bishop’s pointed miter hat, his ring, cross or crozier staff.

For the society, known by its acronym SSPX, neither the threat of a declared schism nor an excommunication matters. The SSPX believes it alone is upholding church tradition and the Catholic faith.

“We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us,” said Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society.

In a late response to Leo's letter, the SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, urged Leo to wait before declaring any penalty.

A society founded in opposition to Vatican II

The ceremony took place 38 years to the day after the Vatican declared the last consecrations of SSPX bishops a “schismatic act” that incurred automatic excommunication for the bishops.

The French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had founded the ultratraditionalist SSPX in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s church meetings revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

Today, the SSPX celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and has accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors, including modernism, liberalism and ecumenism. The society insists that only the SSPX is upholding the true faith of Christ and has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.

But many Catholics, including conservative and traditional ones, are opposed to the consecrations, viewing them as an act of severe disobedience to the pope that hurts the church.

“You can’t serve tradition while disobeying the church and her authority,” said the Rev. Robert Gahl, an ethics expert at the Catholic University of America.

The St. John Paul II biographer, George Weigel, has written that the SSPX-Vatican divide is about far more than just whether Mass is celebrated in Latin or English.

It’s about “a rejection of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the church, salvation, religious freedom, church–state relations, and the church’s relationship to other religions,” Weigel wrote recently in First Things magazine.

Weigel recalled that Lefebvre was a supporter of the “collaborationist" Vichy regime in France during World War II. One of its original SSPX bishops denied the Holocaust.

The SSPX claims a state of necessity

The SSPX has justified the consecrations by invoking a “state of necessity.” The group says that with only two of the original four bishops surviving, it simply needs more bishops to tend to the needs of a faith community that counts 800 places of worship in 77 countries.

The group denies that the consecration is a rejection of Leo’s authority or a challenge to his power. Rather, it says the creation of four new bishops is solely to be able to ordain new priests and preside over confirmation ceremonies according to the ancient rite.

The SSPX has identified the new bishops as Pascal Schreiber of Switzerland, Michael Goldade of the United States, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry of France and Marc Hanappier, also of France.

In response to the pope’s letter, Mabillard, media manager for the society, expressed “great sadness to not be understood by our leader,” and added: “We are changing absolutely nothing in our plans.”

___

Winfield contributed from Rome.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

U.S. futures slipped and oil prices edged higher.

The U.S. dollar rose to 162.68 Japanese yen from 162.55 yen early Wednesday, hitting a 40-year high as traders remained wary over risks of an intervention in the market by Tokyo.

The euro cost $1.1406, down from $1.1426.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.6% to 70,474.96. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6% to 8,722.90. South Korea's Kospi dropped 2.0% to 8,303.41. The Shanghai Composite edged up 0.4% to 4,112.53. Trading was closed in Hong Kong.

Crude oil prices drifted as two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators about the implementation of the deal with Iran. The Americans will not be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Doha.

“While oil markets are currently priced for a gradual return to supply normalization, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has yet to recover to prewar levels,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 13 cents to $69.63 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 13 cents to $73.08 a barrel.

U.S. stocks trimmed their losses Tuesday. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, though it still recorded its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136 points, or 0.3%, to its record, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.

The main reason for this month’s weakness has been a fall to Earth for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. After soaring in the frenzy around AI, such stocks have come under pressure because of worries that they shot too high.

AI stocks were stronger Tuesday, with Nvidia rising 1.6% to trim its loss for the month. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Microsoft, which is investing heavily in AI, rose 0.7% to bring its loss for the month back below 18%. Oracle, though, fell 1.6% to bring its drop for June to nearly 36%. It's another company contending with concerns that big spending on AI may not yield enough productivity and profits.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 58.93 points to 7,499.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136.46 to 52,319.20, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 393.58 to 26,213.72.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.40% from 4.38% late Monday.

U.S. government bonds are paying much higher yields than their Japanese counterparts, and the possibility of rate hikes by the Fed is putting more pressure on the yen.

That's meant to safeguard the summit, but also to display strength and underscore Turkey’s commitment to NATO, even as it is often portrayed as an outlier within it.

On July 7–8, leaders from all 32 member states are expected convene in the Turkish capital, including U.S. President Donald Trump, whose threats to withdraw from NATO and reduce U.S. troop levels have cast uncertainty over the alliance’s future.

Turkey has also unveiled a new VIP airport, converted from a former military airfield, specifically to host NATO leaders.

Allies will aim for unity

At the Ankara summit, NATO members are expected to address questions over defense spending and the U.S.’s evolving role in the alliance.

The main agenda will center on unity after Trump has criticized allies for failing to support the U.S.-led war on Iran and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The important aspect of the meeting is to what extent the rift between the United States and Europe can be healed or narrowed during the summit,” said Fatih Ceylan, a former Turkish ambassador to NATO and security analyst at the Ankara Policy Center. “We should not expect miracles, but nonetheless if there is a convergence of ideas emphasizing the importance of NATO, that should be seen as a success.”

Turkey's role as host seems to have helped win an appearance by Trump, who has a close rapport with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Well, except for the fact that it was being held in Turkey by President Erdogan, I don’t think I would have gone to it,” he told reporters following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.

Turkey has often acted independently in NATO

In the runup to the summit, Erdogan has described Turkey as a reliable ally that consistently shoulders responsibility on NATO’s southeastern flank and would continue to play a leading role in the alliance. He said his country was working to ensure that the Ankara Summit “will stand as a reference point in NATO’s history.”

A NATO member since 1952, Turkey has the alliance’s second-largest army after the United States, a fast-growing defense industry, and occupies a strategic location the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East the Black Sea, and the Caucasus.

Yet it has often acted independently, frustrating allies by refusing to participate in sanctions on Russia, engaging in disputes with Greece, and purchasing Russian missile defense systems — a move that led to its expulsion from the U.S.-led F-35 program in 2019.

Turkey also delayed Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership until it secured concessions on counter-terrorism cooperation and the lifting of arms export restrictions, and blocked the appointments of NATO chiefs Anders Fogh Rassmussen in 2009 and Mark Rutte in 2024 until other demands were met.

But Turkey's independent streak has also enabled it to play a mediating role, from brokering a deal to ship grain across the Black Sea between Ukraine and Russia in 2022 to supporting recent initiatives aimed at ending the war in Iran.

Ankara too has at times been frustrated with its NATO allies, particularly over what it saw as the alliance’s lack of solidarity during a failed coup attempt in 2016, and the arms sales restrictions imposed on Turkey after its intervention in Syria.

Murat Aslan, an analyst at the Ankara-based SETA think tank, said Turkey learned to “play it alone” due to its turbulent relations with the United States and Europe, adding that Europe is now also talking about “strategic autonomy” from the U.S.

Turkey can help NATO navigate U.S.–Europe tensions by showing how to “balance” independence with alliance commitments, he said.

Ankara is tilting back toward the West

More recently, however, Turkey has leaned closer to NATO, whose importance was underscored during the Iran war when alliance missile defenses intercepted four missiles fired from Iran into Turkish territory. Weeks before the summit, Italy and Germany deployed air defense systems to help Turkey respond to heightened threats.

“Turkey wishes to distinguish itself as a foreign policy actor that is independent of NATO and the West,” wrote Hamish Kinnear, principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, in a note. “While Turkey is not abandoning its balancing approach, it is tilting closer to the West, primarily because of NATO.”

Authorities roll out strict security measures

In Ankara, strict access restrictions will be imposed on several of the city's main arteries, around airports, the presidential complex where the summit will be held, and around hotels hosting the delegations, severely disrupting life in the city of nearly 6 million.

As the country prepares for the summit, Erdogan unveiled a new airport which was transformed from a former military airfield into a modern facility with expanded runways. The new Ankara Airport is expected to remain a VIP airport after the summit and is not expected to serve the general public, officials have said.

Facades of houses along the route from the new airport have been painted over as part of city beautification effort, the newspaper Cumhuriyet reported.

With a history of terrorist attacks, Turkey's capital is no stranger to tight security, but the measures being taken in connection with NATO appear to go beyond the usual.

Authorities have also banned demonstrations, concerts, and graduation ceremonies during the summit, while non-essential state employees have been placed on leave to ease congestion.

Security units have detained more than 200 people suspected of links to extremist groups, including the Islamic State group, authorities said. Media reports said that several activists, lawyers and an academic were caught up in the sweep.

A Turkish court, meanwhile, blocked access to websites critical of NATO and the summit on security and public order grounds, according to Engelli Web, a website that tracks websites banned in Turkey. Several journalists from Turkish opposition-leaning media organizations were denied accreditation to cover the summit, sparking outrage from media rights groups.

“In the history of the organization, we have never witnessed security measures as stringent and suffocating in a host city for a summit as we are seeing this time in Ankara,” wrote Namik Tan, a former Turkish ambassador and legislator from Turkey's main opposition party.

Personal trainer Selin Karakoc said she breathed a sigh of relief after she was told that her wedding on July 5 falls just before the start of the restrictions.

“Ours could be one of the last weddings in Ankara that week,” she joked.

Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer turned doctoral student, is the latest candidate to rise from the party's left flank and boot establishment-backed candidates. That includes two self-described democratic socialists and a progressive who won their Democratic primaries in New York last week.

Kiros' victory adds to a nascent but clear uprising, stirred by frustration among some voters, that has vexed party leadership. Colorado's 1st Congressional District covers the dark blue city of Denver, and Kiros is expected to win in November and reach Congress in January.

“We are winning from coast to coast," Kiros said to an ecstatic audience and the blast of air horns. "We are taking back our party and our country!”

There were mixed results for progressives in Tuesday's other races.

Sen. John Hickenlooper fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive” state Sen. Julie Gonzales. And a smaller divide separated the two Democrats competing for U.S. House in the state’s lone swing district, where the candidate considered more progressive, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, won.

Kiros says ‘we are just getting started’

Taking to a stage under a sign that read “Power to the People,” Kiros told her supporters that her win belonged to every one of them.

“This is a movement,” Kiros said. “We are just getting started.”

To an excited crowd, which had been singing and dancing moments before she got on stage, she laid out her plans: taking the fight to “Donald Trump and the oligarchy," abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, passing “Medicare for all” and ending the “genocide in Palestine.”

Those she thanked included DeGette, for standing up for women’s rights, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed her.

DeGette — a more progressive lawmaker herself — had comfortably controlled her House seat in Denver for nearly 30 years and was backed by Colorado’s established Democratic House delegation.

The incumbent had argued that experience in Congress is needed right now to combat Trump, while Kiros, a former attorney, accused DeGette of ineffectiveness.

DeGette did not speak or release a statement after the race was called Tuesday night.

Hickenlooper fends off a challenge from the left

His victory didn't come as a surprise to the political world, though it dampened a broader wave of progressive candidates beating establish-backed Democrats across the country.

Gonzales, the state senator who challenged the more centrist Hickenlooper, had attacked him for being an “incrementalist” and had said she previously joined the Democratic Socialists of America but that her membership had lapsed.

After his victory, Hickenlooper quickly turned his attention to Trump and said he'd never lost an election and didn't intend to in November.

“Coloradoans have once again made their voices clear. We are not going to accept Trump’s broken promises and cost of living emergency, or his constant corruption,” he said in a video posted to YouTube.

Rutinel to face GOP Rep. Gabe Evans in race key to House control

Colorado's 8th Congressional District is relatively new, stretching from the northern suburbs of Denver up through farming country, and has flipped party control in recent elections.

Evans now holds the seat, after beating the Democratic incumbent in 2024.

Party leaders thought the more moderate Shannon Bird, a former state representative, was best equipped to challenge Evans. But Rutinel, who had the more progressive record, beat Bird Tuesday night.

The district is heavily Hispanic and poorer than much of the rest of the state, and that's where Rutinel, who is Latino, planted a flag, arguing his personal story and more aggressive economic agenda would be more potent against Evans.

“This is the moment for all the kids out there who had the deck stacked against them,” Rutinel said in his victory speech. “I’m going to work with everything I have so that those kids have the same opportunities to live out the American Dream that I did.”

Progressives could find new ally in governor's mansion

Phil Weiser, the state attorney general, won the Democratic primary Tuesday and will be favored to win come November. Term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis will depart after two-terms governing with a more moderate touch, at times stymieing progressive state lawmakers.

Weiser, who formerly served in the presidential administrations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, is considered to be more sympathetic to the party's left. Michael Bennet, the U.S. senator who Weiser beat Tuesday, would likely have brought a similar change.

On the campaign trail, Weiser and Bennet struggled to show major differences in their political agendas, and instead often attacked each other over who could better stand up to Trump.

Weiser hammered his point home in a victory speech to ecstatic, sign-waving supporters who crowded around the candidate.

“In the face of a lawless bullying Trump administration trying to intimidate us, rip away our rights and freedoms," Weiser said, “you made it clear that we need a leader who will fight back and never bend the knee.”

After his loss, Bennet spoke to supporters. “Sometimes the harder path is the right path, even when it doesn’t lead where you’d hoped," he said.

The three candidates seeking the Republican nomination included state Rep. Scott Bottoms, a further right state lawmaker. State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer was considered the more conventional Republican, while Victor Marx was something of a wild card candidate with an eclectic past.

Kirkmeyer and Marx were locked in a tight race that was too early to call Tuesday night. ___ Associated Press reporter Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, contributed to this report.

Eight other children were injured and being treated at a hospital, senior police official Faisal Kamran said, adding that the owner of the tutoring center and another person have been arrested.

Kamran said rescuers were searching through the rubble after receiving reports that more children could be trapped beneath the debris. He said the tutoring center was housed in an aging building and that the roof of an unfinished second floor apparently collapsed because of poor construction quality.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are frequently ignored to reduce costs.

Witnesses said ambulances and rescue workers rushed to the scene after the roof collapsed. Residents also joined the search, using shovels and their bare hands to remove rubble in an effort to reach children trapped beneath the debris.

Hours later, as the bodies of the children were being handed over to their families, scenes of anguish unfolded outside hospitals and in the neighborhood on the outskirts of Lahore where the private tutoring center was located in a house. Parents wept over the loss of their children, while mothers and other female relatives cried and beat their chests in grief.

Most of the victims lived nearby, and funeral prayers were expected later Tuesday.

Grief was mixed with anger as residents demanded stern punishment for the owner of the tutoring center, blaming him for operating classes in what they described as an aging and unsafe building. Dozens of mourners were seen gathering outside the victims’ homes to offer condolences.

“We don’t know whose home to visit first to offer condolences for the loss of their children,” resident Zafar Iqbal said as he moved from one bereaved family’s home to another nearby street.

Lahore is the capital of Pakistan's most populous Punjab province, where many parents send their children to private tutoring centers in the afternoon and evening.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the collapse of the roof of an evening school building in Lahore. In separate statements, they offered condolences to the families of the victims, prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured, and said effective safety measures were needed to prevent similar tragedies.

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Associated Press writer K.M. Chaudhry in Lahore contributed to this story.

In almost any other conflict, these haunting truths would be seared into national memory. Yet more than 120 days since at least one U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school, there remains no final accounting of what happened.

The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or formally release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the bombing, even though the military possessed evidence almost immediately that the site of the school had been struck, a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press.

The AP has reconstructed the story of the attack, beginning in the schoolyard on the morning of Feb. 28, drawing from open-source information, video footage, human rights reports and interviews with researchers and civilians inside and outside Iran to reveal previously unreported details about the bombing in Minab, including the diversity of children killed.

Still, many details about the blast remain elusive, as a lack of information from the Pentagon and politicization of the attack by Iran’s theocracy have complicated independent reporting efforts. That has created an accountability vacuum, leaving the families of the victims without resolution. Among the mysteries remaining are the number of munitions that hit the school and a complete list of the dead.

When asked last week about the incident, President Donald Trump said he hadn't read the Pentagon's report and had seen nothing to make him believe the U.S. had carried out the attack.

“I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it, because there were missiles flying all over the place,” he said. “I don’t think it was us."

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.

Video evidence, interviews and other sources yield a fuller picture

The reconstruction draws from interviews with U.S. officials, Iranian human rights workers, a resident of Minab, an international representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Union and researchers from major international rights groups.

Several people who spoke to the AP were in direct contact with the families of victims and rescuers who rushed to the scene. Most requested anonymity for fear of retribution against them and those with whom they spoke.

Teachers called parents to pick up their kids. Then the bomb fell

Skies over the city of Minab, located in southeastern Iran about 16 miles (25 km) from the Strait of Hormuz, were clear and bright on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 28, a school day in Iran. It was Ramadan.

Students of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school, Farsi for “Good Tree,” jostled past the colorful murals lining the schoolyard and into the building. Boys and girls filtered into separate spaces with brightly painted desks.

The school they entered was one of over 30 with the same name established to serve children from families closely tied to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard or other state institutions, said Shiva Amelirad, the international union representative who also worked as a teacher in Iran for 18 years and has been in contact with people in Minab.

Though most schools in Iran operate within guidelines proscribed by the Islamic Republic, the Shejareh Tayyebeh schools were more explicitly oriented toward reproducing and reinforcing the Guard’s worldview, she said, adding that children are civilians regardless of their family backgrounds, and "any attack targeting a school is unequivocally condemnable."

The school lay within the same walled compound as a Guard base, according to an AP assessment of satellite imagery and open-source mapping. It was once part of that neighboring base, before it was fenced off and converted over a decade ago.

Though some of its pupils were the children of Guard officers working on the nearby base, others were local children from Minab, which is populated predominantly by people of the majority-Sunni Baluch ethnic minority who often face repression from the Iranian government, said the Balochistan Human Rights Group.

Hundreds of students are believed to have been inside the building by the time teachers and administrators received the news that bombs had begun falling on Tehran around 9:40 a.m.

Teachers and administrators thought it prudent to send the children home. They called parents on landline phones, summoning them for an early pickup, two people told the AP. A recently released report by Airwars, a London-based independent group that tracks recent conflicts, also found that parents were called to pick up their children.

At 10:15 a.m., Iran’s state media sent out an advisory, closing schools across the country.

One father, who lived a short distance away, went immediately to pick up his 10-year-old son, said a resident of Minab, who relayed the stories of several families to the AP. The AP verified details of the residents’ stories against available lists of the dead and rights groups' chronologies of the day’s events.

The father noticed his 6- and 7-year-old relatives among the students waiting for their parents, said the resident. He asked them if they’d like a ride home and they said no, that their own father was on the way.

He left with his child and headed to the supermarket. Ten minutes later, he heard the explosions.

Multiple munitions pummeled the compound, striking at least five buildings, according to an AP analysis of satellite imagery. Hundreds of pounds of explosives collapsed the school.

A tiny arm, suspended in the rubble

The father raced back to a scene of chaos, where onlookers gathered, screaming, as men pawed through smoking rubble to dig out bodies, according to video of the aftermath circulated by Iranian state media.

Eventually, the father made out two burned figures he believes were those of his relatives, but he couldn’t be sure.

People kept coming. One man from a nearby Sunni village arrived to search for his nephew after receiving a panicked call from the boy's mother. In the rubble, he found her dead son.

Rescuers found small backpacks and children’s drawings, colored pencils and worksheets. Gently suspended, a tiny arm lay in the wreckage.

Men carried disfigured limbs and torsos to the local hospital, said the Balochistan Human Rights Group, whose staff spoke with two families of those killed. The AP has not been able to verify how many munitions specifically hit the school, but the attack had left flesh so mutilated that many body parts were unrecognizable.

By the end of the day, doctors at the hospital estimated they had at least 108 bodies, but cautioned that it was likely an undercount, said the resident of Minab.

By the next day, state media was saying around 150 had been killed. Soon, it was reporting a death toll of 168.

‘They called the kids martyrs’

Three days after the bombing, state TV showed thousands of Iranians packing a Minab roundabout, where the crowds faced a podium and a large portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic.

The gathering might have been mistaken for a demonstration, if it were not a funeral. All the parents of victims, regardless of ethnicity or religion, had to participate, said the Minab resident. Most women in the crowd donned the black chador garment customary to the Islamic Republic, even though it’s not typically worn by Baluch people at funerals.

Parents were told they'd be permitted to take their children’s bodies back to their villages and conduct their own observances, said the resident. In the end, though, many decided to bury their children together.

In footage captured by drone cameras and circulated by state media, workers broke ground on an earthen lot, creating a grid of tiny, identical, unmarked graves.

“The state media advocated a narrative based on IRGC interest,” said Amelirad. “You can tell because they called the kids martyrs.”

The story grows harder to tell

Strikes continued to ravage Iran, targeting more sites in its opening days than the start of recent U.S. or Israeli military campaigns, including in Gaza, an Airwars analysis found.

Racing to document the ongoing bombardment, journalists and rights groups struggled to verify details from Minab. They had no access to the target site. Government restrictions in Iran prevented most foreign journalists from entering the country. The opening day of the war, Iran shut down the internet, making it nearly impossible to hear from ordinary civilians.

As the war progressed and the Strait of Hormuz became a major battlefield, the situation in the province grew more tense, said the resident. All branches of the military were deployed heavily in the area. Families of the victims feared retribution for speaking out. People were reportedly being detained for trying to communicate with foreign media.

That left Iran's government in control of the messaging around the strike.

Iran’s soccer team wore golden “#168” pins on their jackets upon their arrival at the FIFA World Cup.

The Iranian team negotiating for a pause to the war with the U.S. named itself “Minab 168.”

The children were depicted as animated Lego figures in viral videos made by pro-Iran groups trolling the U.S.

“In the aftermath of the attack, Iranian authorities ... exploited the suffering of victims’ families and surviving children for propaganda purposes,” wrote Amnesty International in a March report investigating the deaths.

Through it all, there remained no public list of the names of the dead.

The Pentagon finds clues in archive

Locked out of Iran, researchers focused on the question of responsibility.

Iran blamed the U.S. Trump cast doubt on American culpability and pointed the finger at Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said only that the Pentagon was investigating.

Internally, the U.S. military knew more than it initially let on. The clues were buried in their archives.

When the news first surfaced, the U.S. military knew they had conducted strikes in the vicinity — though it took the military time to verify the Iranian claims that a school was struck and begin a formal investigation, said a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing inquiry.

It appears that while the building housing the school was identified as such by one analyst as early as seven years ago, that discovery was not sufficiently made known across different intelligence and military staffs and agencies, the U.S. official said.

Ultimately, the building was not known among target developers as a school, revealing potential systematic shortfalls in the target analysis and review process, they said.

One former Pentagon official, similarly speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bombing came as a natural result of changes made by the Trump administration to reduce staff to mitigate civilian harm and Hegseth’s emphasis on lethality.

When Hegseth took charge, he slashed the size of an office called the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, created at the direction of Congress in late 2022. That stopped the office’s work on updating “no-strike lists,” which are lists of protected sites such as hospitals, schools, churches and mosques, that the Pentagon keeps, said Wes Bryant, who began working at the office in 2024 as the Branch Chief of Civil Harm Assessments.

When he was working at the Pentagon, it was well known that the list was out-of-date, he said.

The search for more answers from Minab

In the last weeks, researchers have made some progress. Airwars, the conflict research group, spent months combing through open-source information to verify the identity of victims. The group determined the names and identities of 157 of the dead, including 123 children, all 13 or younger, and 34 adults. Among the adults are 26 school staff members (one of whom was pregnant) and five parents — each of whom lost at least one child.

The group puts the death toll between 157 and 168 and says between 95 and 111 people were injured.

It’s unclear if the formal results of the military’s Minab investigation will be published. Much of the investigative work has been completed, but the U.S. military’s Central Command, which commissioned the investigation, is currently reviewing the findings.

Findings from similar past investigations have been more timely. When a Hellfire missile killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2021, the Defense Department claimed responsibility and gave details on its operations in less than a month.

When asked about the Minab investigation last week, Trump said, “I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem." Hegseth said the report would be divulged “when the appropriate time is right.”

Some members of Congress still push for transparency.

In a recent interview, Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota and a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said Congress has not gotten enough information on the bombing and expected a full report.

The issue “has not gone away,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin, Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Amir Hussein Rajdy in Cairo and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Police reported that several people were arrested, although they did not disclose how many. At a press conference late on Tuesday, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi praised the peaceful nature of the protests but warned that anyone involved in violence or other criminal acts would be prosecuted.

“Those who chose to exploit the marches to commit criminal acts will face the full might of the law," she told reporters. "Police will continue to identify, arrest and prosecute all those responsible for criminal conduct.”

Protesters blame migrants, but root of South Africa's problems disputed

The demonstrations come after some protest groups set their own June 30 deadline for the departure of all migrants who are in the country illegally. The activists blame those migrants for causing unemployment among South Africans by accepting low wages, and for other problems, including high crime.

South Africa's government has rejected the deadline, saying only authorities can enforce immigration laws.

The most prominent groups opposing illegal immigration include March and March, Operation Dudula and Progressive Forces. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has challenged the protesters' allegation that migrants are to blame for the country's social and economic challenges, met Monday night with leaders of some of the groups and asked them to conduct peaceful demonstrations.

Ngizwe Mchunu, one of the protest leaders, told The Associated Press that he blamed illegal migration for a proliferation of illicit drugs in South Africa. He also complained about the high percentage of informal neighborhood shops run by immigrants from other African countries, saying they should all be owned by South Africans.

“It's a very sad story that we have been telling our government since the dawn of democracy that illegal immigration here is out of hand,” Mchunu said. “It is time for our government to put South Africa first.”

Amnesty International South Africa said migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are being unfairly blamed for the country’s unemployment, inequality and struggling public services, arguing that those challenges stem from the legacy of apartheid, persistent inequality and failures in the asylum system.

The rights group warned that scapegoating foreign nationals distracts from the government’s responsibility to address those underlying problems and said misinformation and xenophobia risk fueling further violence against migrants, according to a statement from Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed.

Demonstrators express frustration

Protesters marching through Johannesburg’s city center Tuesday included young men carrying traditional fighting sticks and women of all ages. Some wore the South African flag and sang liberation songs.

They carried posters with slogans including “SA withdraw from the U.N. refugee convention,” “The future of our kids” and “80% of children born in Limpopo province are born to foreign nationals.”

“Today is the last day,” protester Nkele Thebe said at the start of the Johannesburg demonstration. “After today, we’ll be dealing with our president and our nation. We don’t want an outsider to come interfere.”

Another protester, Bongani Cindi, said groups opposing illegal immigration were being unfairly labeled as xenophobic for raising legitimate issues.

“Our country has got a lot of problems. We have influx of illegal immigrants who are committing crimes that we can’t even take anymore. So we need them to leave us in peace, so we can sort our house. We are not fighting anyone,” he said.

Demonstrators also gathered Tuesday in parts of Durban with reports of more protesters in parts of the North West and Free State provinces.

The South African police deployed hundreds of officers in cities including Johannesburg in Gauteng province and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province to prepare for potential violence.

Previous marches against illegal immigration have resulted in attacks on migrants and vandalism of foreign-owned businesses. In Johannesburg, most shops owned by both foreign nationals and locals were closed before protesters arrived on Tuesday. In some parts of the country, private security firms were protecting businesses.

Protests fuel an exodus of migrants

Thousands of migrants, primarily from neighboring Zimbabwe and Malawi, gathered at their embassies and consulates to request transport back to their countries.

There has been increased traffic over the past few days at the Beitbridge checkpoint along the Zimbabwe border as buses carrying migrants left South Africa. Thousands of Malawian nationals also have returned to their country from a temporary repatriation center in Durban.

Three groups of Nigerian migrants returned to Nigeria this month amid rising anti-immigrant tensions, including a group of 271 people who arrived in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to Nigerian officials, 632 Nigerians have been repatriated out of the more than a thousand Nigerians who have registered for the voluntary repatriation and more flights are expected in coming days.

Emmanuella Akagbosun, a 44-year-old who moved to South Africa in 2017, said she left because she feared she would be killed. She said the shop that she shared with her sister was ransacked by the anti-migrant protesters and their wares looted.

“We are not safe, so we had to leave,” Akagbosun said in Lagos.

Fintan Opara, another Nigerian national repatriated after 18 years in South Africa, said most Nigerians no longer feel welcome in the country.

According to Justice Minister Kubayi, South Africa has successfully repatriated 4,286 individuals thus far and deported an additional 419 in recent days.

___

Associated Press writer Ope Adetayo in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

Quiñones opened the scoring in the 22nd minute while Jiménez added a strike in the 31st minute for the Mexicans, who had not won a knockout-stage match since defeating Bulgaria in the round of 16 when they hosted the tournament in 1986.

Mexico subsequently lost seven consecutive times at that same stage from 1994 to 2018.

In Qatar 2022, they were eliminated in the group stage for the first time since Argentina in 1978.

It was Quiñones third goal of the tournament and he is now El Tri’s second-best scorer in World Cup history behind Luis “Matador” Hernández and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, who scored four each.

Jiménez scored his second goal of the tournament and has 47 with the national team to break a tie with Jared Borgetti. He is five away from tying “Chicharito” Hernández as the all-time leading scorer for Mexico.

Mexico will play another home match Sunday against the winner of Wednesday’s match between England and Congo.

Playing at the iconic Azteca Stadium, the Mexican squad boasts an undefeated record across 10 World Cup matches. Mexico has just two official losses at the venue — the last being a World Cup qualifying defeat to Honduras on Sept. 6, 2013.

With the win, Mexico extended its unbeaten run to 12 games, dating back to a friendly loss against Paraguay in November.

Mexico also became the first CONCACAF side to eliminate a CONMEBOL side in a World Cup knockout match. Teams from South America won the previous five meetings.

Ecuador was trying to advance to the round of 16 for the second time in their history and the first since Germany 2006.

The match started one hour after the original scheduled time due to a thunderstorm.

It was the second match of the tournament affected by weather. A storm during the France-Iraq match at Philadelphia on June 22 caused a 2-hour, 11-minute suspension at the end of the first half.

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Mexico has not won a knockout match since 1986, but the team heads into the knockouts unscathed from group play and with the 13th-best odds to win it all, per DraftKings Sportsbook.

They face an opponent in Ecuador, who finished third in Group E after a dramatic upset victory over Germany, which just barely qualified them for the knockout stage.

Mexican midfielder Obed Vargas was asked on Monday how his team, who’s favored, will match up appropriately against Ecuador.

“By doing what we’ve been doing,” Vargas said. “Being solid on defense, giving our all and trying to play our best football. I think we already have a very good identity, and we’re going to rely on what got us here.”

Mexico and Ecuador last played in a friendly in October, which ended 1-1. Now, Mexico gets Ecuador again on home turf at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

Mexican fans have taken to the streets and public squares throughout the World Cup to show their appreciation for their national team, making a case to be considered among the most passionate soccer fans in the world.

Those demonstrations haven’t gone unnoticed to Team Mexico. In fact, they relish the support.

“First of all, I want to thank them because we feel their support on the pitch,” Jesús Gallardo said. “Whether they’re at the Azteca or not, we feel that support. And honestly, it motivates us. We want to give back to them. They deserve it, and we hope to keep bringing them plenty of joy.”

Team Mexico isn’t taking their home support for granted, either.

The Mexicans have had the convenience of playing every match on home grass so far in the tournament, while Ecuador has traveled over 3,000 miles with stops in East Rutherford, Kansas City and Philadelphia, traveling out of their base camp in Columbus, Ohio.

“I think the Azteca is a very important, historic venue, and having our fans there gives us an extra boost,” said Armando González. “But I know (Ecuador) won’t use, ‘Oh, we traveled a lot,’ as an excuse. They’re going to leave it all on the field, so we can’t afford to give anything away.”

González, like 10 of his 26 teammates, had never played in a World Cup before 2026. The manager of the Mexican national team, Javier Aguirre, is in his fifth appearance.

Aguirre was a part of the ‘86 team that last won a knockout match as a player. He then served as an assistant coach for the national team in 1994 and later as the head coach in 2002 and 2010.

Forty years after his first World Cup experience, Aguirre’s team may have its best opportunity yet to break the infamous streak of seven straight knockout round losses.

“These are very evenly matched matches,” Aguirre said. “I think tomorrow’s match will be the same. (Ecuador is) a team with World Cup stats showing that they don’t let you play much in your own half. They win the ball back high up the pitch, one of the best at doing so among the 48 teams participating.

“All I can say is that we have to play an almost perfect game to stay in the competition.”

This year, Mexico became just the sixth nation in World Cup history to win all three group games without giving up a goal.

Should they make it past Ecuador, Mexico will have a chance to slay the demons of “the fifth game curse,” or as it’s known in Mexico, “El Quinto Partido” (the Curse of the Fifth Game), the game the knockout rounds used to begin before the expansion to 48 teams this year.

Finally breaking that streak is something Mexican fans would most certainly take to the streets to celebrate.

“Mexican fans are passionate and joyful,” Aguirre said. “They show up and travel a lot. But now, we are truly aware that we have an entire country behind us, and that motivates us immensely, really immensely. So, I’d say we are all, myself included, very excited about what’s coming up.”

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• US finishes World Cup group play with 3-2 loss to Turkey

Last month, the Education Department announced it would offload oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose comments on the limits of disabilities such as autism have drawn sharp rebukes from advocates and lawmakers.

Meanwhile, following a White House push to police homelessness, the Department of Justice released guidance that lowered the barrier to institutionalizing any person with a disability.

Taken together, the actions signal a worrying return to a reality where people with disabilities are pushed to the margins of society, advocates said.

“It’s a direct, frontal assault on the rights of people with disabilities to live their lives the way that people who are nondisabled live their lives,” said Selene Almazan, legal director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. “I can't imagine that as a country, that would be something that we would agree we should go back to.”

The move away from confining people with disabilities

Since the 1960s, legislation and court decisions have progressively expanded supports and protections for people with disabilities to go to school with nondisabled peers and to live and work in their communities. Before that, people with mental illnesses or developmental and intellectual disabilities were largely confined to institutions.

Advocates have pushed back on what's known as the “medical model,” where an individual's disability is viewed as a defect to be cured. Instead, under a “social model” of disability, differences can be accommodated and supported, as people with and without disabilities learn and work alongside each other.

Families and advocates have warned that moving special education to a health department marks a return to the medical model. They've also been angered by Kennedy's attempts to link vaccines to autism, going against decades of research that show no such link, and his framing of autism as a debilitating disease.

Kennedy's comments last year, where he said children with autism would never write a poem, pay taxes or hold a job, raised questions about how he would oversee an agency meant to help students develop those skills. Kennedy later said he was referring to people with " severe autism ″ or those who are nonverbal.

“Many of the things he said autistic people will never do, (special education) is in charge of making sure students with disabilities have the opportunity to do,” said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. “Will he execute that faithfully, or does he consider disabled students a lost cause until we find some medical cure?”

The Supreme Court weighs in

In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that segregating disabled people who are otherwise able to live in their community with proper supports was a form of discrimination. The Olmstead v. L.C. decision led to requirements that government agencies provide disability services in the most integrated setting possible — in mainstream schools, homes and workplaces.

But in a memo issued in June, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel upended that guidance. It argued that neither the Americans with Disabilities Act nor Section 504, two major disability rights laws, requires states to provide services in the most mainstream setting. While the memo does not change the law, it signals how federal agencies may interpret and enforce civil rights issues related to the topic — and it could embolden states or school districts to decline to support people with disabilities in mainstream environments.

The White House has already acted on a similar philosophy. Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on homelessness that endorsed civil commitment, where a court orders individuals into involuntary hospitalization or treatment programs. Trump directed HHS to reduce barriers to institutionalizing people with mental illnesses.

In its memo, the Justice Department acknowledged its interpretation of the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision is “out of step" with the common understanding. If a state starts to provide services in institutional settings, legal challenges likely would follow, the DOJ said.

The Trump administration's steps fit a worldview in which the government has no obligation to support people with disabilities, said Claudia Center, legal director at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

“It's dark, and it's awful,” Center said. “And I think it's contrary to the majority view in our country. ... It's out of touch with where our society is."

Families say their kids thrive in mainstream classes

The moves have created a deep sense of uncertainty for students with disabilities.

Lindsey Althaus says home and community-based services in northwest Ohio have been instrumental to her family. Her 12-year-old son, Whitman, has autism and a neurological disorder called apraxia, in which the brain struggles to tell muscles how to move to form words or perform other motor skills. For some of his school career, with proper support services, Whitman was able to spend much of his school day in a classroom that included kids without disabilities.

Through a Medicaid waiver program, Althaus pays her mother to care for Whitman in her absence. That allows him to spend time out in the community with his grandmother while Althaus and her husband are working or away with their daughter.

Under the Justice Department's new interpretation of Olmsted, states would have fewer obligations to fund and support those programs. And Kennedy, in testimony to lawmakers on Capitol Hill earlier this year, criticized similar programs as subject to fraud.

“We want to be able to have him in the community,” said Althaus, who works as a disability rights advocate. “It's just starting to feel like Whitman's not going to be welcome anymore. We're going back to this: You're either perfect, or you're not in the light.”

For many students with disabilities, schools are where they receive the majority of support services and where they are integrated among their peers. Before Magda Nakassis's 8-year-old son, who is autistic and nonverbal, started public school in Maryland, his preschool experience had largely been defined by being kicked out of things, she said.

In school, Nakassis said, she found teachers and staff members who understood her son's needs and told her to stop apologizing for them. A program at his school called Fantastic Friends teaches mainstream fifth graders about autism, and they spend recesses with children in the autism program. Every year, Nakassis said, there is a waitlist to be a Fantastic Friend.

Nakassis said that it has been difficult to see the ways autism in particular has become politicized. Every child is entitled to a public education in this country, Nakassis said, and special education is a response to the fact that some children have differences that require additional support.

Regardless of his diagnosis, his right to an education is not a medical issue, she said, but rather a question of equity and access in a society that often pushes disabled people to the margins.

“There are lots of kids like him out there, and I sometimes wonder, ‘what did we use to do?’” Nakassis said. “I can't believe it was better.”

___

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

Management told KSAT the issue began with a CPS Energy issue and that the property has worked with the utility to resolve it.

One resident, Jennifer Arguello, said the outage made conditions inside apartments unbearable as temperatures climbed, leaving families scrambling for alternatives.

Arguello, who has a 1-year-old child, said her family worked to keep their toddler out of a nearly 90-degree apartment.

“Everybody’s struggling right now, and then with little kids who have no say so, no voice, and the elderly who are living here needing the electricity because they’re on oxygen … just with the heat itself,” Arguello said.

Arguello said while she was out running errands on Saturday, her son and husband heard a transformer blow.

Fairways 5 Apartments property management emailed KSAT saying the property “recently experienced a temporary electrical outage resulting from damage associated with electrical infrastructure after utility work in the area.”

Though the outage began as one building losing power, the entire property lost power after work began to fix the initial outage.

During a phone call with KSAT and Fairways 5 Apartments, management said, “We had an issue on our side with a building, and then CPS (Energy) came and said, ‘We need a part to fix that building,’ and they said, well, we can’t give that to you till Monday,” the manager said. “Then, CPS (Energy) tried to bypass that line, and it put the rest of the property out. All power off.”

Management said crews began responding immediately and provided an outline of the issues addressed and the repair timeline.

“Throughout the event, our highest priority has been the safety and well-being of our residents,” the emailed statement from Fairways 5 Apartments management said.

Arguello said the outage quickly became expensive. Arguello said her family stayed in a budget-friendly hotel for two nights, that all their groceries spoiled, and they had to buy meals, which totaled about $640 between Saturday and early Tuesday morning, when the power returned.

KSAT reached out to CPS Energy for details. A CPS Energy spokesperson said crews responded to the outage and “successfully completed all necessary repairs to CPS Energy-owned equipment.” When asked to confirm whether a transformer blew, CPS Energy said the “initial cause of the outage was equipment failure.”

As of Tuesday, the complex said it restored temporary power to every unit with generators operating on-site. During a call with the property’s CEO, KSAT was told the temporary generator setup is costly, totaling about $30,000 per week to keep running.

CPS Energy did not clarify whether a transformer had blown, as mentioned by both residents and property management.

“Everybody needs to be held accountable,” Arguello said.

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Fuel rationing has been introduced in many regions, with hourslong queues of cars snaking beside roads. Social media videos show drivers aghast at the lines or swearing at empty gas pumps and rising prices. The mayor of the Siberian city of Irkutsk even ordered portable toilets brought in to accommodate those in line.

The fuel crisis — unprecedented for a nation that is one of the world's biggest energy producers — has brought Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine home to ordinary Russians like few other events in the war, now in its fifth year.

It drew a rare admission from President Vladimir Putin, who acknowledged that “problems persist for both motorists and businesses,” and “there are still queues at petrol stations, and finding the right grade of petrol isn’t always easy.”

Putin insisted the shortages are “not critical” and “temporary.”

But that appeared to do little to reassure at least one motorist in Moscow, the wealthy capital typically better-insulated from economic shocks than the rest of the country.

“I think the situation is not very good,” the motorist waiting in line told The Associated Press on Monday, the day after Putin's televised remarks.

“They say one thing on television, and in reality it’s another. ... People are queueing everywhere,” he added, declining to identify himself out of concern for his safety.

Ukraine hits energy targets multiple times

An AP count shows over 50 reported attacks by Ukraine on oil refineries, depots, terminals and other oil infrastructure in Russia and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula since late March. Often, the same facility is hit more than once -– such as the refinery in the Black Sea town of Tuapse, which was struck four times in just over two weeks.

As a result, the amount of crude oil Russia processed into fuel in June was down 25% from a year ago, to 3.95 million barrels per day — the lowest level in over two decades, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.

“The outages are extraordinary,” he said.

Gasoline production has fallen 17% to 850,000 barrels a day, from 1.03 million a day a year ago — far short of what’s needed for the domestic market. Russia exports relatively little gasoline.

About a third of Russia's oil refining capacity is offline, said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy, noting that because refineries don't publicly confirm the extent of the damage, his estimate comes from anecdotal evidence and oil industry sources.

“It comes at a very critical time for the Russian economy, in that the agriculture season, particularly the harvest season, is now starting to ratchet up,” increasing demand, Weafer said.

Ukrainian officials describe the strikes as a campaign to pressure Moscow to end the war by undermining its military logistics and supply lines and weakening its ability to mount assaults along the front.

In particular, Kyiv has sought to isolate Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that most nations do not recognize. Attacks earlier this year forced the Moscow-installed authorities to enact fuel rationing on the peninsula in May and halt sales to civilians there altogether several weeks later. Limited sales later resumed in the city of Sevastopol.

Attacks — and fuel shortages — spread

Ukraine has carried out major drone strikes on Russia’s two largest cities, embarrassing the Kremlin with images of black plumes of smoke that circulated widely online, despite regulations restricting their publication.

A June 3 attack on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg darkened the sky as Putin prepared to host his annual economic forum to attract foreign investment. On June 18, a similar cloud rose from the Moscow Oil Refinery on the outskirts of the capital, sending greasy black droplets raining down.

By late June, some form of gas rationing was reported in over half of Russia's regions. Some of them slapped strict limits on all gas stations; in others, gas station chains limited how much fuel could be bought.

Officials blamed hoarding and panic-buying, urging motorists to fill their tanks only when needed.

Exports of gasoline and aviation fuel have been restricted, and authorities weighed banning diesel fuel exports, too.

Importing fuel was being considered, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying contacts with some countries were “underway.” He described the move as “another step toward stabilizing the market and aimed at reducing panic-buying.”

Shortages in Siberia

The shortages have reached distant Russian regions where no refineries have been hit by Ukraine's drones.

Viktor Shkurenko, who owns retail stores in the Omsk region and other businesses, called announcement on limits on gasoline sales there to 40 liters (10.5 gallons) per vehicle “unexpected.”

“Nothing was bombed here. We have the biggest oil refinery in Siberia right here, and it gave us confidence that this fuel crisis won’t come to us,” he said, expressing worry about how limits could affect his businesses. As of Saturday, however, he said his company has not had any problems refueling its vehicles.

In the Siberian region of Zabayakalye, east of Lake Baikal, media reports said a garbage hauler suspended pickups and some bus services were curtailed.

In addition to ordering portable toilets outside gas stations, the city of Irkutsk raised public transport fares as of Wednesday, citing rising fuel costs.

Pavel Kharitonenko, acting head of the Irkutsk branch of the opposition Yabloko party, told AP he now finds it easier to walk or use public transport.

“I don't have the fuel, and I don't want to queue at gas stations,” he said. The Irkutsk region, home to a Rosneft oil refinery, has experienced acute shortages for several days, with lines growing, Kharitonenko said.

Repairing refineries will take time

Putin said Russia's stockpiles of gasoline are only 4% lower than what it had last year. Weafer, the analyst, says that "reportedly, there are good supplies of fuel around the country. The problem is it’s in the wrong place."

Supplies need to be reallocated to regions experiencing shortages, and in a big country like Russia, “it's not something that can be done overnight," Weafer said.

“There should be enough, but it will take several weeks to get it from where it is to where it’s needed,” he says. “It’s just a huge logistics operation to do that.”

Fixing the war-damaged refineries is complicated. Ukraine's attacks damaged specialized equipment that is often sourced abroad, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading sanctions.

“They manage to get these things up and running, not necessarily at full capacity,” Peach said. “But the extent of the damage this time is so extensive that they won’t get back to winter levels of refining this summer.”

Some refineries won't be worth repairing until there’s a ceasefire or armistice, he said, because they will just "get knocked down again.”

Repairing the Moscow Oil Refinery, which supplied 40% of the fuel to the capital and the surrounding region, is expected to take at least three months, Weafer said.

If there's no further damage to Russia's oil infrastructure, he estimated the shortages will last “probably throughout the summer" because demand from agriculture will likely remain high into September.

——

Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

The board is proposing paying cash and offering the issuance of new bonds to bondholders that have not settled and are seeking some $8.5 billion in claims.

The proposed settlement represents $1.4 billion more than previously offered.

Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority has been trying to restructure its debt for roughly a decade, after the U.S. territory announced in 2015 that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion debt load. That prompted U.S. Congress to create the federal board in 2016. A year later, Puerto Rico’s government filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Since then, the board and bondholders of the power company's debt have been at odds over compensation, with multiple mediation attempts failing.

“Puerto Rico must be able to close this last chapter of its fiscal crisis and move forward,” said Robert F. Mujica Jr., the board’s executive director.

He stressed that restructuring the company’s debt “is essential to Puerto Rico’s recovery — to the reliable, affordable electricity and the new investment its residents and businesses deserve.”

The board said it has not yet identified the source to finance the proposed settlement.

Some worry that the source of funds could come from an increase in power bills, which already are among the highest in any U.S. jurisdiction as chronic outages persist.

The board noted that previous agreements reached with several creditors and some bondholders in the power company’s case remain in place.

The board said that overall, it has completed 12 debt restructurings for Puerto Rico’s government, eliminating more than $55 billion in debt payments over 40 years.

___

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

Peter Balraj was convicted of murder in the death of Christopher Vargas, 32, and sentenced Tuesday in the 290th District Court, according to a news release. He was also found guilty on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

Vargas was found dead at his North Side home in the 3200 block of Nantucket Drive.

In December 2022, Balraj conspired with his daughter’s boyfriend, Joshua Walls, and Walls’ roommate, Adrian Gomez, to intimidate Vargas into paying past-due rent and leaving the premises, the release states.

During a confrontation at the residence between all four of them, Gomez fatally shot Vargas, the DA’s office said.

Both Gomez and Walls were sentenced earlier this year in connection with the murder, the release states.

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• Wrong-way driver accused of murder convicted on 5 lesser charges, sentenced to 18 years in prison

Cavalli struck out Contreras looking on a full-count pitch in the top of the fourth of what eventually became an 8-1 victory by the Nationals. The 27-year-old right-hander then shouted at Contreras as Contreras made his way back to the Boston dugout.

Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said he heard Cavalli yell “Sit down, boy” after fanning Contreras.

Asked what his specific words to Contreras were, Cavalli told reporters, “I don’t know. I just lose my head in it. I’m competitive. I just told him to sit down.”

The term “boy” has a racially charged history in the U.S. Contreras, who is Venezuelan, demurred when asked if he felt there was a racial component to Cavalli's word choice.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Contreras said, later adding he plans to "let MLB handle that.”

Contreras, who hit a three-run homer off Washington's Miles Mikolas on Monday and celebrated with a massive bat flip that he later apologized fo r, then approached Cavalli on the mound. The two jawed at each other as both dugouts emptied.

“He struck me on a good pitch, I was walking back to the dugout, and then he did what did, and the rest was history,” Contreras told reporters afterward, later adding, "He was like, instigating, and I snapped.”

Boston catcher Carlos Narvaez tried to hold Contreras back, but Contreras broke loose long enough to leap and throw his batting helmet in Cavalli's direction.

Things settled down quickly after that, though the brief dustup ended with Contreras, Boston interim manager Chad Tracy, Boston outfielder Nate Eaton and Mikolas being ejected.

Cavalli pointed to an incident at the end of the top of the first when Contreras nearly ran into the pitcher as both exited the field as the spark that set things in motion.

“He's just been doing stuff," Cavalli said of Contreras. “In the first inning, he just runs past me and brushes me. It's just something you don't do in baseball. I think he knows that. I didn't say anything. I just looked at him. And a few words were said after the strikeout. It's part of the game. And he's going to let everybody run out there and try and do whatever he does, throw a helmet and get himself tossed.”

Cavalli stayed in the game and allowed one run on one hit with 13 strikeouts over seven innings in what became an 8-1 romp.

“After everything that happened, the people that they chose that were going to leave the game, I just felt like the other pitcher should have been one of them too,” Tracy said. "That was my biggest complaint.”

The early exit was the second in as many nights for Contreras, the first time that's happened to a Red Sox player in the club's 126-year history. The 34-year-old Venezuela native — who acknowledged he is having a difficult time while his native country tries to recover from a pair of devastating earthquakes last week — was ejected in the second inning on Monday for mimicking an appeal call after striking out on a checked swing.

“I feel like everything is against me right now,” Contreras said. "I got ejected last night from nothing. I got ejected today even though I was walking back to the dugout.”

___

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

In a news release Tuesday night, Castro said “the Air Force confirmed that trainee Keon McDaniel died from the flu during the outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.”

According to a June 17 news release from the U.S. Air Force, McDaniel, a trainee with the 737th Training Support Squadron, died June 16.

The Air Force said McDaniel was in his sixth week of Basic Military Training on June 12 when he experienced a “medical emergency” and was subsequently transported to Brooke Army Medical Center for treatment. McDaniel died at the hospital four days later.

In its June 17 statement, the Air Force said the cause of McDaniel’s medical emergency is under investigation and a “comprehensive medical review” is being conducted to “determine the facts.”

During a joint news conference Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., alongside fellow U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pennsylvania) and U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-California), the San Antonio-area congressman connected McDaniel’s death to a recent flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base that he said has swelled to 284 confirmed cases and includes four hospitalizations.

“I’m demanding an investigation into his (McDaniel’s) death in connection to the flu outbreak,” Castro (D-San Antonio) said.

“As a veteran, and as the ranking member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, I know that military readiness is built on discipline, professionalism and on leaders who make decisions based on evidence and not ideology,” Houlahan, a former U.S. Air Force officer, said. “Readiness begins and ends with healthy troops. That’s why what is happening in Lackland is so deeply disturbing and troubling.”

The Congress members also called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “reinstate the flu vaccine requirement for all service members” and introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require all service members to get vaccinated for the flu.

“In my previous role at the Department of Defense, I oversaw the Defense Health Agency. I know firsthand why we kept these requirements,” Cisneros, a U.S. Navy veteran who is also on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, said. “Health care is part of readiness. Vaccines are part of readiness.”

“What’s absurd about keeping those who serve our nation safe?” Castro asked rhetorically. “No president or secretary should be able to play politics and put the health of our troops at risk.”

In an interview with KSAT on Tuesday, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones noted that recruits who have “fallen ill” can also come into contact with civilians on base.

“It’s unfortunate, because again, this is completely preventable,” she said. “I mean, that’s in fact why you have the vaccine.”

Jones, who previously served as Under Secretary of the Air Force, emphasized the impact on military readiness.

“I know how important it is to keep that timeline and that pipeline moving, and so this unnecessary, and unfortunately, kind of politicization of public health, has yielded this negative impact on our readiness,” she said.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Flu cases rise to 275 at JBSA-Lackland, US Rep. Castro says
• 150+ recruits test positive for influenza as outbreak hits JBSA-Lackland, reports say

Around 3:30 p.m. Monday, authorities responded to an apartment complex in the 12000 block of Culebra Road, near Roft Road.

On Tuesday, BCSO identified the two as Mark Anthony Ferrel Jr., 24, and Meritxell Primentel, 27. The agency said a firearm was recovered between the bodies.

According to a BCSO spokesperson at the scene, authorities are investigating the possibility of a murder-suicide, but said it is too early to determine.

BCSO said a family member had been attempting to reach one of the people since Saturday evening. When they were unable to make contact, the family member went to the complex.

After the family member spoke with the property manager, the maintenance team forced entry into the unit, where they found the two dead, BCSO said.

BCSO said it appears an altercation occurred between them, and authorities are not currently looking for any suspects.

Read also:

• Deputies called for welfare check on Bexar County man 1 day before shooting him, BCSO says

The group quickly created a committee to help allocate those recovery funds to community members.

“Our focus has been here in Hunt and Ingram, really the Hunt (Independent School District) boundaries,” said Lisa Field, Hunt Preservation Society’s community allocations committee chair.

Over the last year, the committee has taken in about $9.2 million and has distributed $6.3 million.

“We got the help of an organization called StormWise, and they came in and helped set up a database for us. We needed data to know what everyone needed,” Field said.

Just days after the flood, they held an open house to figure out what their neighbors needed most.

“It was the first time since the flood the whole community had come together at the same place. It was gut-wrenching and heartwarming at the same time to be together,” Field said.

They quickly figured out housing was priority number one.

“We were able to create a home repair team and start building back people’s homes. Then Airbnb.org and St. Peter’s and Hunt Preservation Society, we created this temporary housing program, so we’re still paying rent for people who are not back in their homes,” Field said.

The Hunt Preservation Society hired case workers and assigned 42 total homes to either repair or renovate. In a year, they’ve already finished 27.

Field said they have a specific focus on what she calls “legacy homes,” houses that have been owned by the same family for 50 years or more.

“It was their great grandparents who built the home, and it’s just sickening to all of us to see those not be built back. So we’re really fighting hard to try to bring some more attention to those homes,” Field said.

The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has been a major asset to the Hunt Preservation Society.

“As our case managers would get homes approved through the Community Foundation program, then they would be assigned to us. And this is obviously happening all throughout the county as well,” Field said.

The Hunt Preservation Society has also stepped up to help businesses.

“We realized very quickly that there were some programs to help businesses, but there were some gaps. We decided we needed to develop a program to help fill in those gaps, which is where our Hunt CPR program came from,” Field said.

Another big project was building a brand-new community center. Construction started in October, and the ribbon cutting was in May.

“We’ve had the UGRA (Upper Guadalupe River Authority) come out and speak about the flood sirens. So any of those kinds of things that our community needs to gather for, town halls or anything like that,” Field said, showing KSAT around the new space.

She said a big upgrade for the community will be the ability to hold voting in the community center.

“The voting has been happening for our area at the Hunt School. It’s a nightmare for us to deal with security and everything. And so now it’s going to be happening here. The county already came out to approve it,” Field said.

The center will also be student-focused.

“For forever, kids get out of school, and they walk down to the Hunt Store and they do their homework while they wait for their parents to come pick them up. So we wanted to just kind of have a temporary space for them to do that if they wanted to,” Field said.

She said the space will also be used as a hub for any future emergencies, so the volunteer fire department and school don’t get overwhelmed.

“There have been so many acts of amazing generosity and kindness. And I think ultimately, it has brought our community so much closer together,” Field said.

With a whole lot more work to do, Field will continue to carry that gratitude.

Read also:

• World War II veteran survives Hill Country floods with wife, dog and flag
• What Camp Mystic’s bankruptcy means for the camp’s future, lawsuits against the camp
• One year later: Father remembers five family members lost in Hill Country floods

The Panthers sent Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and the rights to pending restricted free agent Ben Steeves to the Devils for Markstrom and winger Angus Crookshank. Florida got goalie Akira Schmid from Vegas on Monday night for a 2028 third-round pick.

“Jacob is an established veteran leader in this league who possesses size and a relentless drive to win,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “We are excited for him to compete alongside our established group and return to South Florida.”

Markstrom at 36 returns to Florida, where he started his NHL career a decade and a half ago. He was one of the top prospects at the position after getting taken with the 34th pick in the 2008 draft and played his first 43 games in the league with the Panthers during their down years, long before becoming a contender again.

Bobrovsky, 37, backstopped Florida to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2024 and ’25 and another trip to the final in ’23. He is expected to be among the top players available when free agency opens Wednesday.

Markstrom is beginning a two-year contract at an annual salary cap hit of $6 million. That was signed in late October by former Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald, who left the organization in April. Moving on from him is the first big roster shakeup for successor Sunny Mehta. New Jersey now has Jake Allen in net and will likely go shopping for his tandem mate in free agency.

Rodrigues, who turns 33 on July 28, gives the Devils another top-nine forward. The Panthers shed his salary of just over $3 million after getting Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa to play with brother Matthew.

The Devils also re-signed forward Arseny Gritsyuk to a three-year, $9.75 million contract. The 25-year-old Gritsyuk is from Russia, and had 13 goals and 31 points in his rookie season last year, and was a pending restricted free agent.

In other moves around the NHL:

— Vegas is re-signing Jeremy Lauzon to a six-year contract worth $24 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the extension had not yet been announced. Lauzon will count $4 million against the salary cap through 2032.

— The New York Rangers agreed to a seven-year contract with newly acquired Pavel Dorofeyev, the high-scoring forward acquired in a trade with Vegas. Dorofeyev, who turns 26 in October, was a pending restricted free agent. He had career-highs with 37 goals and 64 points and scored 12 goals in the playoffs.

— The St. Louis Blues put winger Jonathan Drouin on unconditional waivers to buy out the final season of his contract. They got Drouin at the trade deadline from the New York Islanders as part of the return for Brayden Schenn.

— Utah signed goalie Sebastian Cossa to a two-year, $4 million contract after trading a first-round pick to Detroit for his rights.

— The Minnesota Wild re-signed right wing Bobby Brink to a one-year, $2.75 million contract. Brink, a Minnesota native who was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers before the trade deadline last season, was eligible to be a restricted free agent. The 24-year-old had 15 goals and 15 assists in 68 regular-season games between the Flyers and Wild.

— Fresh off winning the Cup, Carolina reacquired defenseman Kyle Masters' rights from Anaheim for forward Noah Philp. The Hurricanes sent Masters to the Ducks on Saturday along with a sixth-round pick for the rights to pending free agent John Carlson.

— Vegas, which lost to Carolina in the final, made a one-for-one defenseman swap with Pittsburgh, sending Kaedan Korczak to the Penguins for Parker Wotherspoon. Pittsburgh is retaining half of Wotherspoon's $1 million salary in a cap-saving deal for the Golden Knights. ___

AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow and AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell contributed to this report.

___

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

The Ohio Bureau of Investigation and local sheriff's department searched a home in the small village of Hamden, where they found the kids in what officials called “deplorable" conditions."

“Conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in,” Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said at a news conference.

Law enforcement arrested Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders. They have not yet been arraigned and assigned public defenders.

Vinton County prosecuting attorney William Archer said they were being charged with second-degree felony child endangering because it involves “serious physical harm.”

Officials did not confirm if the children were related but said it was not a human trafficking situation. They said the adults were not locals and appeared to have been traveling.

Hamden has a population of less than 1,000 people and is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Columbus.

The children ranged from ages 1.5 to 18 and included both boys and girls, officials said. Several were in serious conditions when found, and two had to be flown to level one trauma centers because of their injuries.

Wilson said it was the worst scene he had ever encountered in his entire career, describing what he saw as “pure evil.”

Law enforcement were also executing a secondary search warrant at the home Tuesday, and the investigation is ongoing. The four adults will appear in court Wednesday morning.

“Justice will be served for these children,” Wilson said.

• HOT, BUT NOT *TOO* HOT: Highs average for this time of year (low- to mid-90s)
• STRAY SHOWER: Possible Thursday through July 4th (10%)
• BETTER SHOT AT RAIN?: Slightly better chance Sunday into Monday (20%-30%)

FORECAST

WEDNESDAY

Very similar weather tomorrow! Morning clouds will quickly clear to total sunshine. Highs will be in the low- to mid-90s with a heat index near 100°.

STRAY SHOWER THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

A stray shower or two will be possible as the sea breeze becomes active. The odds of seeing a shower are very low (10%) and any activity will be short-lived.

JULY 4TH

A smidge hotter with highs in the mid- to upper-90s. Other than a very low chance (10%) for a coastal shower, it will stay dry. As for firework displays, it will be warm and in the 80s, but breezy. If you’re setting off fireworks, be very careful with the breeze.

BETTER SHOT AT RAIN?

A weak area of low pressure will attempt to form near the area Sunday into Monday. Depending on its location, odds of rain may go up slightly. Right now, chances sit at 20%-30%. We’ll keep you posted!

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.
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Cleveland's left fielder lost track of the number of outs in the seventh inning and threw the ball into the stands, allowing the Texas Rangers to score the go-ahead run in a 4-2 victory over the Guardians on Tuesday night.

“Obviously, I feel terrible,” Ingle said, his face flushed red on a warm, humid night. "It’s a pretty embarrassing feeling.”

With a runner at second base and one out in the seventh, the 24-year-old Ingle, making just his second major league start as an outfielder, caught a routine fly ball hit by Rangers left fielder Alejandro Osuna off Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee for the second out.

Thinking it was out No. 3, Ingle briefly glanced at the ball in his glove before throwing it over the protective netting to fans as a souvenir.

The umpires immediately ruled the ball was dead and Osuna was awarded home plate.

It wasn't until then that Ingle realized his mistake and he walked back to his position in shocked disbelief. He was charged with an error.

“Yeah, honestly when I threw the ball out, I heard a bunch of yelling,” Ingle said. “Happens sometimes, but just got to learn from it and not make the same mistake."

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who has had to plug rookies into his starting lineup all season, offered his unwavering support to Ingle.

“These things happen,” Vogt said. "Rookie. Non-rookie. It’s happened to Hall of Famers. They’ve done it. We’re going to keep learning. We’re going to keep getting better."

Vogt was proud of the way Ingle's teammates quickly rallied around him following the bone-headed play.

“It’s a mistake. Lost track of the outs. Pretty big spot,” he said. “We’ll learn from it and can’t control it once it happens. That’s why I was like, flush it. And I just want to give a credit to the dugout. Every one of his teammates, when he came back in, same messaging.”

One of the first to talk to Ingle was Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who told him to keep his chin up.

“I’ve made so many mistakes,” Hedges said. “I can’t even remember half of them. I’ve embarrassed myself a billion times on the field. I mean, just check my offensive numbers for my career. It’s not super easy to go through that, but that’s the big leagues.”

After his mistake, Ingle said he immediately apologized to Bibee (2-9), who battled Jacob deGrom for seven innings. Bibee's response to his teammates was to try and make things right.

“I just told him to go tie the game right back up,” Bibee said. “Obviously, we all make mistakes. Everyone in this locker room has made multiple mistakes in the big leagues, whether you’re (rookie) Khalil (Waston) or me or Hedgie. It’s tough.”

Ingle was only brought up from Triple-A Columbus last week. He made his big-league debut on June 26 and got his first major league hit the next day, a two-run single against Seattle.

After his fielding foible, Ingle came up in the bottom of the seventh and grounded out. He got another chance to avenge his gaffe in the ninth, but struck out looking for the game's final out.

What's most important now is that he move forward.

“Obviously learn from it and think about it,” he said. “It’s not something that makes you feel great, but things like that happen for a reason and learning from those things and moving on and getting better from them, it’s pretty much the only thing you can do.”

Vogt said the mistake doesn't affect his belief in Ingle.

“We’re going to help him through it. That’s what we’re here for,” he said. "You’re playing in your second game in the outfield in the big leagues and a mistake like that. Let’s learn. So what? It’s over. Flush it. We’re not going to be mad at him.

“We’re not going to hold it against him. He’s going to be right back out there the next time it’s his turn to play outfield. This was a mistake. This isn’t a judgment or anything like that, but we know how good of a player Coop is and we’re going to stick with him and we’re going to keep helping him.”

___

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

Mbappé had his third two-goal game of this World Cup and set a career scoring record for the tournament's knockout rounds, leading Les Bleus over Sweden 3-0 on Tuesday to set up a round of 16 match against Paraguay.

“I personally haven't seen a better team,” Sweden coach Graham Potter said. “The quality they have all over the pitch and then the options for them off the bench are very, very strong, so they’ve got as good a chance as anybody, I would suggest.”

France's 27-year-old star scored the go-ahead goal with a brilliant crossover step in the 45th minute and added his sixth goal of the tournament in the 74th to tie Lionel Messi for the tournament scoring lead. He has 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, one behind the Argentine's career scoring record of 19 in 29 matches.

In between, Bradley Barcola had a 53rd-minute goal for France, which became the first nation to score three or more goals in five consecutive World Cup matches.

“I’m very aware of who I am, how I play, what I shall do, but it’s not just about me,” Mbappé said through a translator. "The entire team is aware of what should be done. It is a new competition that has started today. We did play well, but we were timid. We could have done better at the beginning."

Mbappé’s 10 knockout round goals are two more than the previous high by Brazilian greats Leonidas and Ronaldo.

France coach Didier Deschamps bowed when Mbappé came to the bench after he was substituted in the 85th minute.

“We’re on a mission — so am I with them,” Deschamps said through a translator.

France has outscored opponents 13-2. Michael Olise has five assists, the most in a World Cup since Germany's Thomas Hassler had five in 1994.

“They are skilled at knowing when to change the pace and increase it, when to possess the ball, went to fall back,” Sweden captain Victor Lindelöf said through a translator.

Seeking to reach its third straight World Cup final, France plays Paraguay on July 4 in Philadelphia. The winner advances to a quarterfinal against Canada or Morocco five days later at Foxborough, Massachusetts.

It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), sunny and humid at the 5 p.m. kickoff with poor air quality at the site of the July 19 final. Many fans in the club areas stayed inside their air-conditioned suites.

France outshot Sweden 25-7 in the first World Cup meeting between the nations, including 15-3 in the first half.

Mbappé hit a post in the 32nd minute, raising both hands in disgust, and France nearly went ahead four minutes later on Olise’s spectacular bicycle kick from just inside the penalty area, which also clanked off a post.

“I said I think we needed a couple of miracles. We had a couple, but we ran out of them," Potter said. “So we needed a few more.”

Mbappé scored after goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström tipped Olise’s shot just outside the post.

Olise played a short corner kick to Ousmane Dembélé, who passed to Mbappé near the byline. Mbappé took a crossover step to get around Viktor Gyökeres and from just outside the 6-yard box sent a diagonal shot inside the far post.

Mbappé ran up the center of the field to celebrate, colliding with Dembélé, and jogged to the bench to hug Deschamps, who returned for the match after going to France for his mother’s funeral.

“He knows that he will never be alone with us, and we will support him,” Mbappé said.

Gustaf Lagerbielke lost the ball ahead of France’s second goal. Aurélien Tchouaméni passed to Olise, who nutmegged Lagerbielke, and Barcola took a centering touch and sent the ball past Zetterström’s outstretched right hand.

Mbappé entertained the crowd with a backheel pass to Barcola in the buildup to France’s third goal, the 62nd of his international career. Barcola passed to Olise, who sent the ball forward as Mbappé sprinted into the penalty area, took a touch and fired the ball inside the far post.

“We continue to deliver great performances,” Mbappé said.

A crowd of 80,663 raised the record total for the expanded 104-match tournament above 5 million. A majority of fans wore France’s blue, with a pocket in Sweden’s yellow at one end.

“I have no complaints to the players whatsoever. I said to them after the game I don’t think it’s a disgrace to lose to France," Potter said. “For us it’s about using this as a foundation to go forward and to be proud of what we’ve done so far.”

Speaking just after the final whistle, Mbappé wasn't quite ready to turn his attention to Paraguay just yet.

“I’m looking forward to the changing room and the AC," he said.

___

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Mere startups when he took the oath of office, the new ventures have now eclipsed in revenue much of his vast property portfolio that took him decades to accumulate. Fueling their rise were billionaire investors and Trump’s own move to quash a federal crackdown on the industry.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face.

Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

Trump also took in millions last year from selling Trump-branded bibles, sneakers and other small items in another unprecedented move for the presidency. The sale of Trump-branded watches alone brought in $4.7 million.

The 927-page disclosure form paints a stark, if incomplete picture of the massive growth of the president’s wealth since taking office last January through a web of business interests — many that have benefited from the policy moves of Trump’s own government. Trump has insisted that his sons direct his finances but the arrangement rejects the conflict of interest protections that his recent predecessors in office had instituted.

Forbes estimates Trump's net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.

The Trump business is growing abroad

The rise of crypto relative to Trump’s property is especially noteworthy because he first rode to office boasting of his property wins. It's also remarkable because that mainstay business also boomed last year. Trump took in tens of millions in fees from a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas that amounts to the biggest property expansion ever in the century since the family business was founded.

Many of those countries were negotiating with the U.S. over tariffs, military aid and other important matters while the family business was striking the deals.

A property in the United Arab Emirates generated $10.4 million for the Trump business last year. One in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9 million. And one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar sent him $5 million each.

One of his prominent domestic properties, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, notched big growth last year, too.

Trump took in $77 million from the property, a 50% jump from the year earlier when he was just another citizen, as heads of state and business people flocked to it in his new term.

The disclosure report doesn't give profit figures, just revenue, so it's impossible to know how much he is earning.

Trump is now the billion dollar crypto man

After taking office last year, Trump reversed the Biden administration's tough stance on the crypto industry and pushed policies friendly to the industry.

But regulators still had some concerns. Before Trump's World Liberty began selling “governance tokens,” they issued warnings about this new kind of crypto asset, saying that unlike stocks, the tokens offer no ownership stake in the issuing company, just voting power on certain corporate polices, and are difficult to value.

Buyers pounced anyway, including a Chinese billionaire who spent $75 million on the tokens and $200 million on the souvenir coins. In February last year, a federal lawsuit charging him with duping investors was paused before being settled for a $10 million fine.

The billionaire, Justin Sun, has repeatedly denied his spending on Trump businesses had anything to do with his federal case, while World Liberty has dismissed the notion of a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, investors have seen the value of their Trump-tied holdings drop significantly.

The price of World Liberty tokens has fallen 80% since they started trading in September. And the Trump souvenir coins that spiked to more than $74 in the days after launching in January 2025 now sell for $1.68.

The White House says Trump only acts in the public interest

The White House has repeatedly said Trump put his business in a trust managed by his sons and is not involved in its decisions and that there are no ethics issues to discuss.

“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”

The Trump umbrella company, the Trump Organization, has said its deals overseas were with private companies, not with governments.

Still, it is difficult to know what is truly private in countries ruled by authoritarians, royal families and one-party governments.

For a new Trump resort in Vietnam, the report shows Trump took in $5 million last year after the ruling Communist Party sent its deputy prime minister to sign off on the deal and, according to The New York Times, pushed farmers off the land to make way for the construction.

Whether the deals played any role in changing U.S. policies in ways these countries sought is nearly impossible to know but the countries did get what they wanted.

Vietnam got tariff relief. Qatar got access to advanced U.S. technology previously off limits, and Saudi Arabia got U.S. fighter jets it had coveted for years.

___

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the disclosure form was released Monday.

If the city eliminated every library, all general fund spending on public health and funds to Animal Care Services, San Antonio would still be $21 million short of the budget deficit, Jones said.

“So when we’re thinking about the scale of this challenge, that is how deep some of these cuts may have to be,” Jones said.

Jones suggested raising property taxes for the first time in decades.

“When we haven’t raised property taxes in 30 years, we’re not only looking at raising property taxes once, but potentially twice,” Jones said.

The San Antonio Botanical Garden was one organization potentially on the budget chopping block. Although Jones stated the garden is a great resource, she cited the organization charging people for tickets as a reason for the city to potentially cut funds.

“Please introduce me to the person that says, ‘Please give the San Antonio Botanical Garden a million dollars and raise my property taxes,’” Jones said.

Jones criticized the Spurs and its annual $2.5 million to the city, part of a Project Marvel deal, and said she wants to push for more money from the billion-dollar basketball organization.

“I think what’s important is that we are asking for more,” Jones said. “You know how much it costs to do a speed bump? $16,000.”

Jones noted 2.5 million divided by 16,000 would equal 156 speed bumps.

“So 15 speed bumps in your council district for 30 years,” Jones said. “I would argue revenue sharing. When they eat, we eat, right?”

Jones said the city budget, including cutting funds, must be approved by late August or early September. The term sheet is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

Watch the full interview in the video player above.

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The court’s six-justice conservative majority, which has repeatedly ruled against transgender Americans in the past year, ruled that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution. The court unanimously agreed that barring transgender girls and women also doesn’t run afoul of the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court that, “states may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females” to address safety and competitive fairness concerns. “The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America.”

More than two dozen other Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes, and the decision seems certain to extend to them as well.

Left unresolved by the outcome are lawsuits challenging state laws and regulations in Connecticut, California and elsewhere that permit transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying from the bench that the majority opinion was wrong to reject an equal-protection claim from 16-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson.

With the science still evolving, transgender students shouldn’t automatically be shut out of team sports, she said. “We just simply do not know scientifically that transgender students pose dangers,” she said, reading from a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues.

Pepper-Jackson, a high school sophomore in Bridgeport, West Virginia, has been taking puberty-blocking medication, has publicly identified as a girl since age 8 and has been issued a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia.

Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to statewide champion in the shot put. She beat the second-place finisher by two feet in last month’s West Virginia championship meet.

In the Idaho case, Lindsay Hecox sued over the state’s first-in-the-nation ban for the chance to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. She didn’t make either squad because “she was too slow,” her lawyer, Kathleen Hartnett, told the court during arguments in January, but she competed in club-level soccer and running.

Prominent women in sports have weighed in on both sides. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings are supporting the state bans. Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart back the transgender athletes.

Kavanaugh, who has coached girls’ basketball, underlined the importance of women’s sports and athletes’ dedication. “No student-athlete on either side of the issue, whether a biological female or transgender, deserves to be ostracized or vilified,” he wrote.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, finding that “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate.

But last year, the six conservative justices on the nine-member court declined to apply the same sort of analysis when they upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The states supporting the prohibitions on transgender athletes argued there is no reason to extend the ruling barring workplace discrimination to Title IX.

Idaho’s law, state Solicitor General Alan Hurst said, is “necessary for fair competition because, where sports are concerned, men and women are obviously not the same.”

Republican President Donald Trump applauded Tuesday’s decision, calling it a “BIG WIN” in a social-media post.

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argued that such distinctions generally make sense but that their client has none of those advantages because of the unique circumstances of her early transition. In Hecox’s case, her lawyers wanted the court to dismiss the case because she had forsworn trying to play on women’s teams.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than half a million students on college teams. But despite the small numbers, the issue has taken on outsize importance.

Baker’s NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women’s sports after President Donald Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to compete only on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The team announced his deal Tuesday, keeping Porzingis off the market as the NBA's free-agency period begins. The person provided the terms to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not part of the announcement.

The 30-year-old Latvian joined Golden State at the February trade deadline from Atlanta in a swap that sent Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks.

Porzingis missed significant time last season even after coming to the Warriors. The 7-foot-2 veteran played just 32 games, averaging 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks in 24 minutes of action. He appeared in 15 games for Golden State with 11 starts.

The Warriors finished 37-45 to earn the 10th seed in the Western Conference and lost to Phoenix in the Play-In tournament.

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

As the nation celebrates its 250th birthday this weekend, the legislative branch has momentarily called it quits.

The House leadership on Tuesday abruptly canceled votes and sent lawmakers home early for the holiday recess, Speaker Mike Johnson ’s majority once again ground to a standstill by a Republican revolt over their own party’s agenda.

In this case, it's a standoff blocking the annual defense bill — with pay raises for the troops and other matters at a time of war — as the renegade Republicans push to include President Donald Trump’s own priority, the SAVE America Act, a strict voter ID bill. Last week, the Senate similarly shuttered after Trump's demands.

The emptying Capitol provides another snapshot of the imbalance of power in Washington as a headstrong executive confronts a weakened Congress.

For the second time in as many weeks, the House has simply given up.

“It’s a relatively bad time in Congress,” Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota said recently. “A lot of my colleagues have forgotten how to govern.”

The scene is far different than last year's Fourth of July

A year ago this weekend brought a wholly different scene in Washington, as Trump gathered Republican lawmakers outside the White House for an ebullient July Fourth ceremony to sign what they called the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts.

It was a celebratory moment for Trump and the slim Republican majority — and for Johnson, who many doubted could pass the bill over the objections of Democrats who viewed it as tax giveaway at the expense of billions of dollars in cuts to health care and food stamps for Americans in need.

Johnson was so reliant on Trump's power to help push the bill to approval that he gifted the president a speaker's gavel, which Democrats and others saw as a worrisome symbol of the transference of power from one branch of government to the other.

“We’re not dealing with Speaker Mike Johnson,” Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the caucus chairman, said in a recent interview. “Unfortunately, Speaker Donald Trump does not want us in this week.”

Trump makes conflicting demands on his party in Congress

As Johnson works to keep Trump close, the president's demands seem to grow in ways the Republican speaker can't always deliver.

The president’s insistence on the SAVE America Act, which doesn't have enough support in the Senate to pass, has interrupted almost all other business in Congress. Trump has refused to sign a popular bipartisan housing bill that cleared both chambers until the voting bill is also approved. He calls the housing bill a “yawn.”

Johnson spent four hours last week at the White House and said he spent another two hours with the president this week on a path forward.

“I told him, ‘Mr. President, I don’t have any tattoos, but if I did, it’d say SAVE America on my shoulder,’ OK?” Johnson said over the weekend on Fox News.

“We passed it three times in the House already. We’re going to pass it again.”

But by Tuesday, a House vote to advance the legislation collapsed. Republicans led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida argued that Johnson's plan to attach the voting bill to the defense bill was essentially a doomed strategy that would be rejected in the Senate.

“That’s disappointing,” acknowledged Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who insisted the GOP would try again.

“We’re going to keep trying because we have to,” he said. “We’re not done doing big things.”

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, Congress is adrift

The founders of the new democracy clearly had aspirations for the Congress, putting it first in the Constitution as the Article One branch of government, ahead of the executive and judicial branches.

But as lawmakers face voters this fall, they will have to answer for these dwindling days on their calendar.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the problem is not the Congress, it's the GOP.

“Donald Trump is fighting with Senate Republicans, Senate Republicans are fighting with House Republicans, and House Republicans are fighting with each other,” said Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win control in fall.

“It’s not the Congress that’s struggling. It’s House Republicans who are struggling,” he said.

Jeffries said Democrats are fighting “to make life more affordable for the American people.”

As they left the Capitol for an extended recess, lawmakers voiced frustration with the House’s dysfunction.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the Republican Party to become an independent earlier this year, said the situation in the House is “frustrating.”

“It’s just like déjà vu where many times now we run into some sort of obstacle," he said, “then the solution is just to go home.”

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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

Thriving on a hot, humid afternoon, Mbappé scored his 17th and 18th career World Cup goals in France’s 3-0 rout of Sweden on Tuesday, moving one back of Messi’s record of 19. With six in the tournament, Mbappé tied the Argentina star in the race for the Golden Boot.

Asked coming off the field if he was already looking forward to facing Paraguay, Mbappé quipped, “I’m looking forward to the changing room and the AC.” It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) for the 5 p.m. kickoff, so steamy that Lucas Digne let himself be doused by a sprinkler during the first-half hydration break.

Before halftime, Mbappé scored one for the highlight reel. In the 45th minute, Mbappé engaged in a give-and-go with Ousmane Dembélé, crossed over Viktor Gyökeres and fired his shot past goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström.

“It goes without saying that Mapp is an absolute top, top player,” Sweden coach Graham Potter said. “His goal was a fine example of the speed and the change of direction and the way he can get the shot off quick. It’s an incredibly high level.”

That broke a tie with Brazilian greats Leonidas and Ronaldo for the most goals in the knockout stage of the World Cup with nine. Mbappé added to his record with his 10th, scoring in the 74th minute off a feed from Michael Olise.

Celebrating the first goal, Mbappé ran immediately to coach Didier Deschamps after scoring. This was Deschamps’ first game back on the sideline after missing the group stage finale to fly back to Europe for his mother’s funeral.

“We know that the head coach had to face a really tough, tough challenge,” Mbappé said. “Everyone will go through that one day. It goes beyond football. He knows that he will never be alone with us, and we will support him.”

With 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, Mbappé has scored at an even faster clip than Messi, who has played in 29 games at the tournament. Deschamps bowed to Mbappé when he was substituted out in the 85th minute.

That kept Mbappé from chasing a hat trick, but he also could have scored in the 32nd minute. Instead, the 27-year-old banged a shot off the left post and even began to celebrate before watching it bounce back.

Scoring twice later allowed Mbappé not to regret that missed opportunity at a World Cup he is trying to soak in while playing some of his best soccer.

“I did say that I wanted to enjoy this World Cup to the fullest,” Mbappé said. "I’m not saying that the other World Cup I didn’t enjoy, but I was younger. I was focused then into delivering the best performances, and today I believe I can do both: delivering great performances and obviously enjoying.”

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AP Sports Writer Ron Blum contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Selma-to-Montgomery marches galvanized passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which did away with most barriers such as poll taxes and other forms of voter discrimination targeting Black Americans in the Deep South.

A delegation of five people brought dozens of flower lei with them from Hawaii to Alabama in March 1965. Images of King wearing lei, garlands that are synonymous with Hawaiian culture, have been previously published -- but most of the photos displayed in Hawaii’s new exhibit have never been seen before. Some photos have subtle variations, while others include figures who may have been deemed unimportant at the time. The exhibit runs through July 7.

One of the lei-bearers was Charles Campbell, a high school teacher and chairman of the Hawaii Civil Rights Conference, who a March 20, 1965 article in The Honolulu Advertiser quoted as saying: "Selma has the capability of becoming a real sore that could affect the entire nation.”

King was photographed wearing lei about two weeks after the event known as Bloody Sunday when state troopers violently attacked Civil Rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965.

The photos were taken by Civil Rights photographer Matt Herron, whose widow donated them to Hawaii's Department of Accounting and General Services for the state's archives.

After the photos were unveiled, Steven Springel stared at a photo of his mother, Nona Ferdon, who was a divorced mother of two children and a graduate student when she traveled to Selma.

Springel remembers he was just about to turn 7 and only realized as an adult how important her trip was. Growing up in Hawaii, “we never experienced segregation or racial inequality,” he said of his and his sister’s childhood. Ferdon died in 2021.

The exhibit, part of Hawaii's programming to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, is a reminder people from the Aloha State participated in an important event in history, said Keith Regan, who oversees the department as the state's comptroller and presided over the photo unveiling as acting governor while Gov. Josh Green is out of state.

The small delegation traveled thousands of miles “to be a part of the Civil Rights movement, to show ‘aloha’ to the world that Hawaii was there holding hands with our fellow brothers and sisters to ensure equality and justice were heard throughout the nation,” he said.

The Hawaii members also wore lei during first day of the 50-mile (80.46-kilometer) march. Mothers of Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu strung together fragrant plumeria plucked from church grounds to assemble the lei.

Giving lei, a word that is both singular and plural in the Hawaiian language, continues to be a way to share the “aloha” spirit. People in Hawaii give and receive lei for all kinds of reasons, including to celebrate birthdays and promotions, or to show appreciation or recognition.

Tomi Knaefler, who had traveled with the delegation as a reporter with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, planned to attend Tuesday's news conference. But at 96 years old, she wasn't feeling up to it, said her daughter, Pamela MacDonald, who did attend.

MacDonald said she was 14 when her mother went on the assignment, “the one that she holds dearest to her heart."

The exhibit comes at the end of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2026 term, which included a ruling gutting the remaining piece of the Voting Rights Act, setting off a wave of partisan gerrymandering in states in the South and endangering generations of gains in Black political representation.

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This version corrects that the number of people in the Hawaii delegation was five, not four.

The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur called a titanosaur. Scientists haven't yet identified the species it belongs to.

It was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica's James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, Thomson was mapping the area's rock layers and collected marine reptile fossils to help with future dating efforts. He recorded the find as a large reptile.

Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey's collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur. He and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Dinosaur fossils are rare to find in Antarctica because of the unforgiving ice caps. But millions of years ago, when this dinosaur lived, the region was populated by lush forests — a “rather different and much more hospitable place than we think of today,” said study co-author Paul Barrett with the Natural History Museum in London.

At about 23 feet (7 meters) long, the dinosaur was small for its group and may have been young when it died. Scientists don't know how the creature met its end, but they think its body floated away from the coast and sank to the sea floor, becoming fossilized in marine rock.

Technology has come a long way since the dinosaur tail bone was first found, allowing researchers to peer inside bones and gain even more detailed information about ancient creatures. Thomson died in 2020 before the fossil was identified as belonging to a dinosaur.

“If he were still with us, he would be delighted to know what this was,” Evans, a study co-author, said.

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An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified paleontologist Mark Evans as Mike Evans in one reference.

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AP video producer Havovi Todd in London contributed to this report.

___

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.

“I don't consider this stuff a personal victory," Norman Wong told The Associated Press. “It’s an obligation and a duty for every American to care about this because ultimately we’re not fighting for the rights of Chinese or Japanese or whatever. We’re fighting for rights for all Americans because these are fundamental rights.”

Wong, 76, has become an unexpected public face of the movement to protect birthright citizenship. He began giving speeches and interviews in January 2025 — shortly after President Donald Trump issued his executive order declaring children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

In a 6-3 decision, a divided Supreme Court upheld a broad interpretation of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s arguments.

In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court held that the long-settled understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, adopted after the Civil War, makes anyone born in the U.S. a citizen, with very limited exceptions.

Dissenting Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have upheld Trump’s proposed restrictions. The Fourteenth Amendment “was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support,” Thomas wrote.

Trump said the decision was “too bad for our Country” and wrongly suggested that Congress could “easily” address it with legislation. The majority decision rests on constitutional grounds. It would take an amendment to overcome the decision.

Wong called the executive order Trump issued on the first day of his second term an unconstitutional “decree.”

“If it didn’t fly in the face of the Constitution, the Supreme Court would have ruled differently today,” Wong said. “That’s unfortunate that we have a leader that wants the United States to be in his image, but that’s not what we’re supposed to be. He’s supposed to conform to what we the people believe in.”

Maintaining birthright citizenship as a right and a family legacy

In the late 1800s, birthright citizenship was legally expanded to the children of immigrants.

Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873, was returning by steamship from China in 1895 and was denied reentry. He sued and the Supreme Court in 1898 ruled in his favor. The court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment, a child’s citizenship depends on birth in the U.S., not a parent’s citizenship.

Norman Wong has always been social justice-minded. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1970s, he joined the multiracial student-driven Third World Liberation Front. He saw how the term “Asian American” rallied Asian student groups to join forces.

It wasn't until he was in his 50s that he learned Wong Kim Ark was his great-grandfather. His father had spoken very little about family history. But journalists from Chinese-language newspapers approached his father for an interview after seeing his name in old court records.

He never pictured lobbying for another movement in his 70s. But last year, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the same organization that funded Wong Kim Ark's legal fight, invited him to speak at a press conference. Since then, Wong, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has given interviews, speeches and even traveled to Washington in April to hear the Supreme Court arguments.

“I consider myself lucky enough to actually have a meaningful role," Wong said. “All that citizenship grants is the stuff that was the promise of America, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Is birthright citizenship status secure now?

In April, the birthright citizenship court proceedings also marked the first time a sitting U.S. president attended Supreme Court oral arguments. California Attorney General Rob Bonta recalls sitting in the same row as Trump.

Since Trump's executive order, Bonta, the first state attorney general of Filipino descent, has heard from “hundreds” of people born in the U.S. who have been worried about being stripped of their citizenship because of a parent's immigration status. Most of them have been people of color — Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander. The high court's decision, while affirming, does not mean they should be less mindful of their rights.

“Everyone who believes in the rule of law, believes in the U.S. Constitution — its durability, its strength, its potency — should breathe a little easier today,” Bonta said. “But, the attacks on lawful immigration status, on the U.S. Constitution's protections, rights and freedoms afforded to people, including birthright citizenship, they will continue.”

Chinese American daughter of immigrants makes the case

The Justice Department said in a statement that it’s “committed to tackling illegal birth tourism schemes by working diligently with U.S. Attorneys across the country to uphold the law.”

“Actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice,” the department said in a post on the social platform X.

Cecillia Wang, the national director of the American Civil Liberties Union who argued for birthright citizenship in front of the Supreme Court, said in a statement the court "reaffirms a fundamental American promise — if you are born here, you are a citizen.”

“A president cannot change the Constitution by executive fiat," Wang said. "Our brave clients and our legal team stand with millions of people around our country who spoke up for one of our most cherished rights."

Bonta previously worked with Wang at the same San Francisco law firm. He described her as brilliant and said that having immigrant parents “was an added dimension to Cecillia's incredible advocacy.”

Wang is American-born with parents who legally came to the U.S. from Taiwan as graduate students. The fact that she was the one who got to argue the case nearly 130 years after his great-grandfather won his case makes today's decision even better, Wong said.

“It’s kind of sweet because — especially for Chinese Americans — they were at the forefront of all this anti-Asian hate,” Wong said. “There are certain aspects of my life where I think what happened actually prepared me for what’s happening now.” ___ Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

At the same time, more activity can lead to a larger need for blood.

South Texas Blood & Tissue, one of the region’s largest blood suppliers, helps keep more than 100 area hospitals and health care providers stocked and ready.

One pint can help save up to three lives. Every blood type is needed.

KSAT Community Phone Bank

KSAT Community hosted a blood donor registration drive for South Texas Blood & Tissue on Tuesday, June 30, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Representatives were on hand to answer questions and help callers register to donate.

South Texas Blood & Tissue officials said blood collected locally stays in the region or can be sent wherever needed in an emergency.

Representatives from South Texas Blood & Tissue were also available to answer any questions for donors and help with registration. Survivors and blood donation advocates shared powerful, firsthand journeys showing how one simple decision can mean the difference between life and death.

Carina, Samantha, Lyric, and David each offered a lifesaving testimony, highlighting how donated blood supported critical treatment, emergency care, and recovery, and underscoring that becoming a blood donor directly helps save lives in our community.

Other ways to help

Interested in doing more? Viewers and callers can also consider becoming a blood drive coordinator and organize a drive at a neighborhood location, community group or workplace.

What to know before you go

South Texas Blood & Tissue is looking for donors who meet these requirements:

• 16 years old who weigh at least 120 pounds with a completed a parental consent form
• 17 years old who weigh at least 110 pounds
• Valid ID

Get ready to give

Before you donate, South Texas Blood & Tissue recommends:

• Eating iron-rich meals the night before and the morning of your donation
• Drinking plenty of water
• Getting a good night’s rest
• Filling out your questionnaire the day of your donation

South Texas Blood & Tissue offer more helpful tips before donating.

Types of donations taken

• whole blood 
• platelets 
• dual red blood cells

‘I can’t give blood because…'

Think tattoos or piercings automatically disqualify you? Think again. In most cases, they don’t.

South Texas Blood & Tissue said there are guidelines and a few exceptions, but many donors with tattoos or piercings can donate right away or after a shorter wait period.

Even if you’ve spent time in Europe, you may still be eligible to donate blood.

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union. Click here to read about other KSAT Community efforts.

Interested in partnering with KSAT Community? Get in touch by filling out this form.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts vacated the U.S. Education Department's changes, saying they overstepped the agency's power and threatened to violate First Amendment protections for free speech. The ruling came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by more than 20 states along with a coalition of nonprofit groups and cities.

In Washington, D.C., District Judge Amir Ali in Washington issued a similar ruling in a case brought by nonprofit organizations. The rulings came a day before the new rules were set to take effect.

Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said the department was evaluating next steps.

“The Department stands behind this commonsense policy to ensure that taxpayer dollars are never used to subsidize illegal activities,” Kent said in a written statement.

Congress created Public Service Loan Forgiveness in 2007 to encourage college graduates to work in government and nonprofit jobs. It promised to forgive their federal student loans after they worked in public service jobs for 10 years.

Last year, the Trump administration moved to add new eligibility rules that would strip the benefit from workers whose employers are deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose.”

The overhaul targeted nonprofits and government organizations that support causes at odds with the Trump administration's priorities.

It gave the education secretary power to exclude groups from the program if they engage in the trafficking or “chemical castration” of children, illegal immigration or supporting terrorist organizations. Its definition of “chemical castration” included using hormone therapy or drugs that delay puberty.

The overhaul amounted to a major reworking of a program that has canceled loans for more than 1 million Americans. Nonprofits and government groups said it undercut an important benefit that helped attract college graduates to jobs that traditionally pay less than the private sector.

“This decision is a win for the communities that depend on local nonprofits and for the workers who serve them,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, one of the plaintiffs in the Massachusetts case.

One of the plaintiffs in the Washington case, Student Defense, said the judge's ruling is a victory for student loan borrowers.

“Public servants should not have to worry that the federal government will punish them because of their employer’s mission or perceived political views,” said Aaron Ament, Student Defense's president.

Joun said the new rules threatened to impose the administration's policy views on employers. The judge also faulted the department for failing to connect its definitions of illegal activity to criminal statutes.

“The Department cannot create new criminal prohibitions through rulemaking,” he wrote.

The judge also questioned the department's stated rationale for proposing the new rules, drawing on its own estimates that fewer than 10 employers would be barred from the program per year.

“The Department offers no explanation for why a Final Rule with such sweeping consequences is necessary to address the possibility that, at most, ten employers each year may be engaging in illegal activity,” Joun wrote.

In his ruling, Joun noted that more than 100 supporting briefs were filed on behalf of the groups challenging the rules, while none were filed in support of the Trump administration's change.

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

Christopher Rey Navarro, 27, was originally charged with murder in connection with the January 2024 driving death of Yulissa Valero, 26. While a mistrial was declared on the murder charge, jurors convicted Navarro on Tuesday on five lesser charges and sentenced him to 18 years in prison.

Navarro was convicted on the following charges, which are all considered second-degree felonies:

• Manslaughter
• Two aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury charges
• Two aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges

The manslaughter conviction carries the longest prison sentence (18 years). The sentences will all be served concurrently.

Court proceedings came to an end Tuesday afternoon, a full week since the original murder trial began inside Bexar County’s 399th Criminal District Court. Visiting Judge Melisa Skinner presided over the case.

Last Friday, the jury began deliberating on a verdict. Jurors did not convict Navarro of murder, but they officially found him guilty on the five charges Monday. The jury deliberated Navarro’s sentencing for approximately a day.

Background

San Antonio police said Navarro was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of Interstate 35 near West César E. Chávez Boulevard.

Authorities said Navarro collided with another vehicle head-on just after 2 a.m. on Jan. 13, 2024. First responders pronounced Valero, a passenger in the other vehicle, dead at the scene.

Had he been convicted of murder, Navarro could have faced up to life in prison.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Murder trial begins for man accused of driving the wrong way in 2024 crash along Interstate 35
• San Antonio family awaits trial in wrong-way crash that killed 26-year-old woman
• San Antonio family marks one year since wrong-way DWI crash killed 26-year-old woman
• Ofrenda of awareness: San Antonio family honors loved one lost to drinking, driving
• ‘Nothing is the same without her’: Family calls on San Antonio to stop drinking and driving after daughter’s death

The biggest pressure cooker of them all: the penalty kick shootout. Exhausted players and goalkeepers face off in a tense one-on-one confrontation that carries the hopes and dreams of entire nations.

Two of the first four matches in the round of 32 were settled by shootouts: Morocco beat the Netherlands and Paraguay bested Germany.

A miss can mean humiliation. A goalkeeper's save or the final bulge of the ball in the back of the net can bring tears of joy to millions.

That kind of pressure can reach “inhumane” levels, almost all of it focused on the penalty takers, said Geir Jordet, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and author of the book, “Pressure: Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout.”

“In our research, the only emotion everyone agrees is present is anxiety,” Jordet said.

Expect more shootouts, more pressure, more anxiety.

A record five games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were settled by penalty kicks, including the final when Argentina beat France.

“As you go into knockout football it’s something that becomes more prominent in the games,” England winger Noni Madueke said. "So like every part of our game we want to be at the highest level when it comes to that.”

The physical and mental distance from spot to goal

This tense battle of wills is fought over a 12-yard (11-meter) distance between the penalty spot and the goal line. The shootout was added to the game in 1970 and has settled several of the world's biggest tournaments.

The first World Cup final to be settled by penalty kicks was Brazil’s 1994 victory over Italy. That shootout also produced one of the most infamous misses in soccer history when Italy great Roberto Baggio sent the final kick over the crossbar.

The penalty taker

Techniques vary.

Some take the kick quickly. Others pause, taking deep, calming breaths before they approach. Some run and strike it hard. A popular variation is the stutter-step, waiting for the goalkeeper to commit to which way he's going.

The penalty taker faces the most pressure in the moment because he's expected to score, Jordet told The Associated Press by email.

Research shows that the players who start toward the ball almost immediately after the referee's whistle more often miss than those who wait between two and five seconds, he said.

“We suspect this is because those who (wait) extremely short sometimes do so because they, understandably, just want to get this stressful situation done and over with,” Jordet said.

It takes guts to be in that moment, United States forward Christian Pulisic said.

“For the people that go up and shoot, it takes a lot of courage. It’s not easy,” Pulisic said. “Goalkeepers get better and better every single year."

The view from goal

Standing between the posts, goalkeepers have three basic choices. Dive left, dive right or stay in the middle in a guessing game of anticipation.

Morocco keeper Yassine Bounou did something critically different. On the decisive save against the Netherlands, he moved to his right while standing up.

By staying upright, Bounou used his left hand to easily swat away the kick from Crysencio Summerville, who was shooting for the upper corner. Had Bounou dived, the ball would have easily found the net.

The best goalkeepers are “creative, deliberate and volatile” in their attempts to disrupt the shooter, Jordet said.

Tactics can include throwing the ball away, verbal insults and physical confrontation at the penalty spot. The mind games can get so hostile they can result in a yellow card for the goalkeeper.

He noted Bounou's well-timed body twitches and hand fakes to disrupt shooters' timing. The “master” of the mind games, Jordet said, is Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez, who has won his last six penalty shootouts, including the 2022 World Cup final.

“I would say everyone’s different, every keeper’s different, everyone’s got their own routines," said England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. “You see last night with Bounou. With his saves, it’s a different save and they put them off and that happens.”

Picking the lineup has its own pressure

Selecting the lineup for a shootout has its own rhythms and risks for a coach and a team. It is a delicate balance between analytics, experience and gut feeling.

Some players will be automatic choices. Imagine France in a shootout without Kylian Mbappé or Argentina without Lionel Messi with the World Cup on the line.

“The guys who feel the most confident to go up and shoot will want to go shoot. I think that’s normal," Pulisic said. “We haven’t been in many shootouts with these guys, but like I feel it’s a pretty brave, courageous team.”

A shootout lineup should be decided and discussed well beforehand, and not a call for volunteers in the moment, Jordet said.

After Germany and Paraguay were still even after five penalty attempts each, Germany captain Joshua Kimmich asked his teammates who wanted to take the sixth. Jonathan Tah stepped up for the first penalty attempt of his career and launched the ball over the bar.

Players should rehearse the critical moment months ahead of time, Jordet said.

“Make sure that when you are called to take a kick, you have a strong and robust penalty technique, and you have a rehearsed and stable pre-shot routine that can help you lock your attention,” Jordet said. “With that type of focus, you have done what you can, and the outcome will be what it will be.”

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AP Sports Writers Josh Dubow, Steve Douglas and James Robson contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

On Tuesday, the Spurs released their NBA Summer League roster. Assistant coach Corliss Williamson will serve as the team’s Summer League head coach.

Right now, the team is focused on two priorities: getting to know one another and learning how to play together.

“These guys are anxious to be in the NBA, to play. The ones who were drafted, the ones who have been in the G League, or whether they’re just a free agent this year,” Williamson said. “That does give you some excitement as a coach because you get an opportunity to reteach some things you’ve done throughout the year.”

The Summer League squad held its second practice together Tuesday. On Friday, they will put chemistry to the test.

“Three-day prep and then we’re going to play, so I feel like the three days we’re going to play out in San Fran are going to be a great grasp,” rookie center Tarris Reed Jr. said.

Reed said he’s looking forward to learning his teammates and how they like to play the game that allows them to be successful.

“Where guys want the ball, ball screen wise, how guys look to score, how guys pass and really get us ready for Vegas,” Reed added.

The Spurs open Summer League play July 3 at Chase Center in San Francisco, where they’ll face the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers before heading to Las Vegas.

All four of the Spurs’ drafted rookies are on the Summer League roster, including first-round pick Carter Bryant, who just entered his second summer with the Spurs.

San Antonio Spurs NBA Summer League schedule

California Classic – Chase Center (San Francisco)

Friday, July 3

• San Antonio vs. Miami
• 7 p.m. CT | TV: TBD

Sunday, July 5

• San Antonio vs. Golden State
• 6 p.m. CT | TV: TBD

Monday, July 6

• San Antonio vs. Los Angeles Lakers
• 9 p.m. CT | TV: TBD

NBA 2K Summer League – Thomas & Mack Center/ Pavilion (Las Vegas)

Thursday, July 9

• San Antonio vs. Atlanta
• 3:30 p.m. CT | ESPN2

Saturday, July 11

• San Antonio vs. New York
• 5 p.m. CT | ESPN

Sunday, July 12

• San Antonio vs. Milwaukee
• 8 p.m. CT | ESPN

Wednesday, July 15

• San Antonio vs. Utah
• 8:30 p.m. CT | Prime

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Report: Harrison Barnes to sign one-year deal with San Antonio Spurs worth $8 million
• Julian Champagnie returns to San Antonio Spurs on new 3-year contract
• San Antonio Spurs introduce their 2026 NBA Draft picks

NPR attributed the error by reporter Nina Totenberg, on the final day of the court's session, to a misunderstanding of a statement by Chief Justice John Roberts that led to previously prepared copy being posted live. The erroneous news was also broadcast on NPR. It was live on the organization's website for about five minutes, though some member stations had it up longer, NPR said.

An editor's note posted by some NPR affiliates said: “Earlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. Neither Alito nor the court’s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.”

Later, a longer statement from Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans said NPR regretted the error and the confusion it may have caused. “Due to a misunderstanding, NPR’s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement,” Evans said.

“As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused,” Evans said.

Breaking down the error

Interviewed later on NPR's “All Things Considered,” Totenberg explained how what she called “the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism” came about.

Reading aloud from a letter of apology she'd sent to Alito, Totenberg said she'd rushed out of the courtroom early after announcements of court opinions, and when she realized that others had not rushed out, she asked what was happening and was told “retirement announcements.” She then mistakenly assumed it was Alito who was retiring.

“This was a rookie mistake,” Totenberg noted in the interview.

“I scared everybody half to death for about five minutes, and it's entirely on me,” she said.

Evans, also appearing on “All Things Considered,” said that he too felt responsibility, and noted that NPR would be looking at newsroom systems to determine “where we could do better and be better.”

The error was also detailed in a column by NPR's public editor, Kelly McBride, who explained how when Totenberg misheard the announcement, the organization posted some previously written “preparedness” — copy that news organizations often prepare in advance of major expected events and notable deaths.

"Alito is not retiring. The story was wrong," McBride said in her column. "Totenberg misheard Roberts’ statement."

McBride continued: “Totenberg spoke with both her intern, who was at the court with her, and NPR Executive Editor Krishnadev Calamur and told them what she heard. Calamur surfaced the story that NPR had previously prepared for the day Alito did announce his retirement and published it. The information was also broadcast on NPR’s airwaves.”

Retirements were mentioned, though

On a busy day for the court, Roberts had announced the retirement of several court employees, as he customarily does after the court’s final opinions are out. But Alito's name was not among them.

Speculation had swirled about the justice’s future plans earlier this year, but Fox News and CBS reported this spring that he planned to remain on the bench.

Alito has been on the court since 2006, when he replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican.

McBride, in her column, said she didn't expect the mistake to endure in the public consciousness.

"For most news consumers, the error is a blip, something that flashed across their feed or they heard on their radio," she wrote. “It was corrected quickly and will not have lasting consequences.”

“We must prohibit them from building AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods,” Abbott said at the Bullard event, which primarily discussed his plan to cut property taxes, adding that this issue “dovetails right into fighting for East Texas values.”

Abbott’s push for a prohibition in rural neighborhoods appears to go further than a sweeping regulatory framework he unveiled earlier this month, which called for data centers to add new power generation to the grid, pay for their own infrastructure costs, reuse their own water and implement measures such as setbacks, among other proposals aimed at limiting their impact on residential communities.

In a statement, Abbott campaign spokesperson Eduardo Leal said, “everything the Governor said today tracks with his June 10th letter.”

“As the Governor said in the letter, he will work with lawmakers to ensure local communities are not adversely impacted,” Leal added.

Abbott reiterated his support on Tuesday for the measures laid out in his earlier announcement.

“I made clear already: Any AI data center even thinking about coming here — they got to bring their own money, bring their own power, reuse their own water and do it in a way that reduces the cost of electricity for residents across our state,” he said. “We must eliminate the tax break they are getting. They must be responsible for funding their own projects here in Texas. We will get that done.”

In outlining his regulatory recommendations this month, Abbott instructed the Public Utility Commission to “guarantee any data center development does not come at the cost of Texans and our local communities” and to consider how to “minimize adverse impacts on local communities.”

The third-term Republican governor had previously been enthusiastic about the influx of companies seeking to build the facilities, calling Texas “the epicenter of AI development” when he announced in November that Google had made a $40 billion investment in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in the state.

Abbott has received over $2 million from people and companies linked to the tech and AI industries since last year, E&E News by Politico reported in April.

His call for a ban in rural neighborhoods Tuesday comes as many rural counties and activists have attempted to pass moratoriums and called for the Legislature to grant them greater local control to prevent the construction of the centers. Opponents argue that the oftentimes gigantic operations will put their water availability and air quality at risk and threaten to hike their power bills.

The Data Center Coalition, a trade group for the industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has argued that its members are providing a critical service that the digital world depends upon, bringing immense property tax benefits and helping the U.S. win the AI war over foreign adversaries. The group has also pointed to technological advancements that reduce the facilities’ water needs.

A Texas Tribune analysis earlier this month found that nearly half of planned data centers in the state are set to be built in unincorporated areas not governed by cities or towns, up from 12% now.

Public polling has shown that data centers are extremely unpopular amongst all Texans and especially those living in rural areas, nearly two-thirds of which opposed construction of the facilities in their community, according to a recent University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll.

The majority of facilities planned or under construction are in state House districts that voted for President Donald Trump and elected a Republican state representative in 2024, the Tribune analysis found, creating a political conundrum for top GOP leadership.

Several counties have considered moratoriums. Hill County was the first, but leaders quickly reversed course after getting hit with a $100 million lawsuit by a data center developer.

Meanwhile, cities, which unlike counties have broad zoning power, are passing new regulations that attempt to keep the large industrial facilities out, and the city of San Marcos recently became the first to outright ban them. A Texas lawmaker has already said he plans to challenge the ban.

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 Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.

Although both major parties traditionally hold blockbuster conventions during presidential campaigns, Trump has long floated the idea of a similar gathering this year to focus voters' attention on a sprawling collection of House and Senate races.

If Democrats regain control of either chamber, they will be empowered to block Trump’s agenda and launch investigations into his administration for the final two years of his term.

Republicans have only slim majorities in Congress, and the party in power normally loses ground in the midterms. And without Trump on the ballot, Republican leaders worry that it could be hard to galvanize their voters.

Trump hopes the convention would help change that dynamic, and he’s been talking about it since last year. He floated in a social media post that Republicans would use the event “to show the great things we have done since the Presidential Election of 2024.”

“We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the convention details.

The Democratic National Committee considered hosting a similar midterm convention but ultimately rejected the idea. An expensive soiree could have strained the DNC’s finances, which are struggling with lackluster fundraising and millions in debt.

Democrats have said the GOP convention will be a chance for them to tie Republican House and Senate candidates to Trump, whose approval rating is underwater.

Locating the convention in Texas places a spotlight on the state’s Senate race, which pits Democratic nominee James Talarico against Republican nominee Ken Paxton.

Paxton is the state attorney general who, with Trump’s backing, defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn in a primary earlier this year. Republican Senate leaders fear that Paxton’s history of scandals — including an extramarital affair, an impeachment and a securities fraud case that did not lead to a conviction — could undermine his candidacy and turn a winnable race into a drain on party resources.

It also highlights the aftereffects of Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push that began in Texas, an effort to secure more seats for Republicans in this fall’s elections.

The Republican National Committee began laying the groundwork earlier this year, voting at its winter meeting in January to make such an event possible by amending procedures centered around quadrennial presidential nominating conventions.

Democrats considered holding a similar gathering ahead of the midterms but tabled the idea. However, the party did hold such conferences in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper contributed.

A mere 16 years after his first famed “decision” — the one that saw him leave Cleveland for Miami — James is getting ready to change uniforms once again. He has told the Lakers that his eight-year run with them is over and that he'll play a record-extending 24th NBA season elsewhere.

James has made clear many times in recent years that more championships are his motivation, which means it's almost certain he'll pick a team that he believes can contend for the NBA title in 2027. Golden State is believed to be on his list, though there are certainly some who will wonder if reunions with Cleveland and Miami are possible. Or, perhaps, a new landing spot awaits such as San Antonio, where he could partner with 7-foot-4 global megastar Victor Wembanyama.

“I’ve done it all. I’ve seen it all,” James said when the Lakers' season ended in May — after what was his last game with the franchise. “Just being able to compete and trying to win championships, I think that’s a motivating factor.”

The first half of his decision is complete: He's back for at least one more year, which means his family agreed to that part of the plan — James had said his wife Savannah and 12-year-old daughter Zhuri would have big says in whether he continued to play.

His next decision — where to play — is among the biggest dominoes that will fall during the NBA's offseason player movement window, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded by Milwaukee to Miami.

The next step for James is hearing from interested teams — Golden State, Miami and Cleveland were among the clubs expected to make pitches, a person with knowledge of the plans said — before he picks a landing spot. How long the process will take is anyone's guess, and the person made clear to The Associated Press that money won't be a factor in James' decision.

The Lakers released a statement Tuesday thanking James for his eight seasons with the club.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” said Jeanie Buss, part of the Lakers’ ownership group. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances, and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”

ESPN, citing James’ longtime agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, first reported James’ plans.

What happens now for James

The free agency period in the league opened at 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, which meant James and Paul could start taking those meetings. James will not be able to sign with a new team until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.

The momentum toward Golden State seemed to pick up when longtime Warriors forward Draymond Green did not exercise his $27.6 million option for this coming season earlier this week, in large part to allow his team flexibility to make other roster moves. It doesn't mean Green won't be back in Golden State — all indications are that he will — but it gives the team options.

“Personally, I’m always willing to work with the team on whatever is best, especially at this point in my career,” Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, which was released Tuesday. “So, my decision to opt out was for a few reasons. As you all know, I’ve always taken the approach of working with the organization. I’ve been in one place for 14 years. It’s more of a family to me than anything.”

Golden State is a franchise James faced four times with Cleveland in the NBA Finals. He also has close relationships with Green, Stephen Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr; Curry was his teammate and Kerr was his coach for the United States' run to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

James' tenure with the Lakers was the longest he spent in one stint with an NBA team and he led them to the 2020 NBA championship. He became the NBA’s career scoring leader while wearing a Lakers uniform and surpassed a slew of other records while in purple and gold.

He spent the first seven years of his career in Cleveland, then left for four years in Miami, where he won the first two of his four championships. That was followed by another four-year stint with the Cavaliers (so he had 11 years there total), and in 2018 he joined the Lakers.

A career like none other

James is the NBA’s oldest active player; he turns 42 in December. He was the first player in league history to log 23 seasons; he’ll add at least one more to that this season. He also became the first player in the league to have a son as a teammate, with Bronny James playing alongside him with the Lakers.

The list of James’ accolades to this point are beyond comparison.

He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team. He’s coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and for his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

“He created a whole new era for the Lakers, including leading us to an NBA Championship in 2020 and all the milestones he surpassed in a Lakers jersey,” Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson wrote on social media. “I’ll always love and be grateful for him and wish him all the best in the next phase of his life, on and off the court!”

NBA sets cap, tax lines for 2026-27

As is custom, the NBA revealed the salary cap for this coming season shortly before the formal start of the free agency window. The cap was set at $164.961 million, with the tax level at $200.428 million.

Other numbers released by the league:

— The minimum team salary is $148.465 million.

— The first apron level is $209.015 million.

— The second apron level is $221.686 million.

— The non-taxpayer midlevel salary is $15.044 million.

— The taxpayer midlevel is $6.064 million.

— The room midlevel is $9.366 million.

Hardaway Jr., Fontecchio to Heat

Tim Hardaway Jr. grew up in Miami, where his father's jersey sways as one that the Heat retired. And now, he'll follow in his father's footsteps — agreeing to a $6.5 million deal to join the Heat and be one of the shooters around soon-to-be formally acquired Antetokounmpo. Miami also agreed with Simone Fontecchio on a deal that will only cost Miami $2.5 million against the cap.

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

One of the killed firefighters worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, established this year without customary congressional approval by drawing personnel from four agencies within the Interior Department. The victims were part of an elite, helicopter-based crew that got trapped Saturday in a fast-growing wildfire near the Utah border as they attacked the blaze on the ground.

Five firefighters, including the ones who died, tried to shield themselves by deploying tentlike emergency shelters as flames overran their position. The two survivors were hospitalized with burn injuries.

The consolidation of thousands of personnel into the fire service has sown confusion among some firefighters about who their bosses are and what their responsibilities should be, according to former government officials.

And the administration’s focus on “full suppression” of new fires marks a sharp reversal from a decades-long trend toward embracing flames as a tool — to burn off old vegetation and growth that acts like fuel and lessen the risk of catastrophic blazes being stoked by a warming planet.

The changes benefit private fire aviation companies that are key to hitting blazes fast.

Federal officials have not released details on the circumstances preceding the weekend deaths, including the firefighters’ objective at the site where they were overrun.

“The question is, why were they attacking that fire in the first place?” asked Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of the advocacy group Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “What was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?”

98% of fires are extinguished

Wildfires ignited over the past week all across the West following months of dry weather and a record lack of snow in some places. Authorities in southern Colorado said Tuesday that a wind-driven fire northwest of Colorado City had burned more than 35 square miles (90 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 150 structures, including at least 55 homes.

Under an order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Wildland Fire Service plans to use full suppression “for every wildfire under its management,” federal officials said in a statement to The Associated Press.

“Any wildfire that represents a threat to life, property, infrastructure or the environment should be extinguished as quickly as possible,” the statement said. “Our experienced fire managers retain the authority to select the safest and most effective tactics based on conditions on the ground.”

But critics say the administration is trying to fix something that isn’t broken: The four agencies the firefighters were drawn from — the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Park Service — have a record of extinguishing 98% of the fires they handle.

The new agency and policy won’t eliminate catastrophic wildfires that occur due to dense forests where people are increasingly moving and extreme weather caused by climate change, said Steve Ellis, who retired as a Bureau of Land Management deputy director. Land managers must be a part of the solution, he said.

“Severing forest management and forest managers from fire suppression will make firefighting less safe and put communities at greater risk,” Ellis said.

The two other wildland firefighters killed in Colorado worked for the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, which handles most U.S. wildfires and is also operating under a full suppression policy. Trump had wanted the new agency to include Forest Service firefighters, but Congress blocked that part of the plan.

Fire aviation companies pushed for the consolidation

Under Trump, federal officials have been bringing in aircraft more quickly once fires ignite, said Austin Moeller, an aerospace analyst for the investment firm Canaccord Genuity.

“Anyone that has an air tanker benefits from this more aggressive contracting activity,” Moeller said.

A chief beneficiary is Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based company founded by U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy. Before his 2024 election, Sheehy hired lobbyists in a failed attempt to persuade the Montana Legislature to create a statewide fire service analogous to the one just created at the federal level. Within a month of taking federal office, he sponsored a bill to codify the consolidation of federal firefighters into one agency.

Sheehy stepped away from his company during the 2024 campaign and put his Bridger assets into a blind trust, said Sheehy spokesman Tate Mitchell.

Mitchell said Trump was behind the idea to create a new fire agency, but Sheehy supports it.

“One of Senator Sheehy’s top priorities in the Senate is using his experience to stop the catastrophic fires destroying American communities and he won’t apologize for it,” Mitchell said.

Bridger describes itself as one of the nation's leading aerial firefighting companies. CEO Sam Davis has said the company's fleet of Super Scooper aircraft, its surveillance aircraft and its fire observation technology make it “uniquely positioned” to respond to the renewed emphasis on attacking fires to put them out.

New full suppression policy dates back decades

The aircraft will help the administration's new full suppression policy, which harkens back to a 1935 policy known as the 10 a.m. rule because it required agencies to put out new fires by 10 a.m. the following day.

Michael Dudley, a retired director of fire, aviation and air management at the Forest Service, said that old policy is why forests today are overgrown.

Wildfires serve a purpose — they clear out the small and dead material. But officials became so good at putting out fires that the forests kept growing and more fuels built up, so when a fire hits now, it's easy for it to get out of control, he said.

Scientists who study wildfires say trying to stop all fires is unrealistic since some of the most destructive blazes in recent years have evaded efforts to put them out. Some fires simply grow too fast, are too remote, or result from multiple ignitions that makes them impossible to stop.

“The narrative that if we just try harder, we’re gonna make these fires go away isn’t true,” said former Forest Service wildfire researcher David Calkin. “The fire paradox is not beatable: The more you make fire go away, the more fuel accumulates. The more fuel accumulates, the harder it is to make fires go away.”

Firefighters: New agency needs work

Firefighters in the consolidated agency are working under newly appointed Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy, who had served as chief of California's Orange County Fire Authority since 2018.

“There’s a level of confusion as everyone’s trying to sort out responsibilities and who’s in charge and who do you report to,” Dudley said.

An Interior spokesperson said Fennessy was highly respected with decades of experience, including managing some of the nation's most complex fire challenges in densely-populated southern California.

Luke Mayfield, a founder of the group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said he believes the consolidation will better serve firefighters, but significant work remains to get the new agency fully running.

“Everyone was aware of the potential fuel and fire conditions we face this fire season,” Mayfield said. “Those conditions are surfacing and have resulted in firefighter fatalities with weather conditions that won’t let up in the near future.”

By a 6-3 vote, the court struck down Trump’s order. A bare majority of five justices, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, makes a citizen of anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions,

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”

A sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, disagreed about the constitutional ruling, but pointed to a federal law that he said broadly conveys birthright citizenship.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have upheld Trump’s proposed restrictions.

“The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a 91-page dissent, more than three times as long as Roberts’ opinion. “In doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

The Republican president’s restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.

Trump said the decision was “too bad for our Country” and wrongly suggested that Congress could “easily” address it with legislation. The majority decision rests on constitutional grounds. It would take an amendment to overcome the decision.

During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality in a momentous case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented attendance in the courtroom.

The case framed another test of Trump’s assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.

The justices ruled on Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck down the citizenship restrictions.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Birthright citizenship was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously struck down global tariffs Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.

Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs decision, saying he was ashamed of the justices who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.

He also seemed to recognize the court was likely to rule against him on birthright citizenship, too, using his Truth Social platform to criticize “dumb judges and justices” and wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the U.S. to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship.

Trump’s order would have upended widely held views that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

The amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” it reads.

In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down Trump’s executive order as illegal. The decisions have invoked the high court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

Roberts, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberal justices, said the amendment’s language, the historical context and the 1898 case make clear that children born to parents illegally or temporarily in the U.S. “are citizens at birth.”

But there was only a bare majority of five justices on the constitutional question.

Kavanaugh sided with the majority because of a federal law that makes those children citizens. But he joined the dissenters in finding that Trump’s order does not violate the Constitution. His view would enable a future Congress to change the law to restrict birthright citizenship.

The Trump administration had argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright citizenship restrictions also would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Shakayla Johnson, 22, was taken back to Marion County, where the alleged crime was committed, and faces a murder charge, according to the U.S. Marshals.

Indianapolis police responded to a report of someone shot on Nov. 17, 2024, and found 20-year-old Tyshaun Williams dead with gunshot wounds, the police department said through a social media post.

A witness helped identify Johnson, and police identified her as a suspect in the crime. Indianapolis police said the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office spoke with Johnson and eventually released her.

Nearly two years after William’s death, detectives in Indianapolis discovered more evidence and issued a warrant on June 11, 2026, for Johnson’s arrest, Indianapolis police said.

After William’s late 2024 death, Johnson had relocated to the Northwest Side of San Antonio, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals said. It is unclear how long Johnson has lived in San Antonio.

Johnson was located by the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force last Wednesday near La Cantera Parkway and was arrested, U.S. Marshals said.

Johnson was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center that same evening, jail records indicate. She was transferred to the Marion County Jail last Friday, where she remains behind bars.

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Jorge Ernesto Campos Herrero faces one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, the indictment confirms.

Herrero is accused of obtaining approximately $2,120,000 fraudulently from the victim’s company in an attempt to purchase a commercial building in Grand Prairie, Texas, court documents show.

Herrero had applied for a multi-million-dollar loan in the name of one of his companies called “Immobiliaria Herrero.”

In July 2021, the indictment said Herrero provided a lease agreement between Herrero Properties and the Texas Facilities Commission (TFC) to the victim’s company.

Herrero Properties is identified as another one of Herrero’s companies, of which he is the sole member who controls it.

Herrero also represented verbally and in writing that he had secured a 10-year lease with TFC for the Grand Prairie property.

However, court documents show that the victim’s company “became aware” that TFC did not occupy the building after walking through the property and talking with tenants.

The victim’s company later foreclosed on the property in early November 2024 at a loss of more than $1,000,000, the indictment shows.

TFC Director of State Leasing Services confirmed that the documents were fraudulent and that neither the Texas Attorney General’s Office nor any TFC agency ever leased the Grand Prairie property, court documents said.

Herrero “did unlawfully and knowingly devise and execute a scheme to defraud” the victim’s company, according to the indictment.

Herrero is also accused of forging the victim’s signature without his knowledge or consent on TFC letterhead, which the indictment said fraudulently represented to the victim’s company that Herrero had secured the lease with TFC.

Read also:

• Man sentenced to life in prison for fatal 2025 nightclub shooting, DA’s office says
• Authorities investigating after 2 found dead with gunshot wounds on far West Side, BCSO says

In a Facebook post Monday, the sheriff’s office said its deputies were dispatched in the 700 block of Hahn Road after two bodies were located.

“We believe it to be a murder suicide at this time,” the post said.

The sheriff’s office said it has “good reason to believe” that the two people were not from the Gillespie County area.

At this time, it’s unclear what specifically led to the deaths. Deputies said there is no current threat to the community.

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

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• Man detained after 2 children shot while sleeping in Northeast Side home, SAPD says
• Authorities investigating after 2 found dead with gunshot wounds on far West Side, BCSO says

And when it was all over and the 44-year-old Williams had performed admirably in a three-set defeat to an opponent less than half her age in the opening round of Wimbledon with her two daughters cheering her on, Williams smiled as she walked off to a loud round of applause.

“It was really great to be back at Wimbledon. I never expected to be here,” Williams, who did not meet with media after the match, said in a statement released by Wimbledon organizers. “The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything.”

In a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 loss to 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia on Tuesday, Williams showed she can still crank out serves faster than 120 mph and dictate points with her heavy groundstrokes.

Movement was an issue for Williams, though, and the 87th-ranked Joint was able to handle Williams' pace and win more of the big points by hitting beyond the American's reach.

While Williams played two doubles matches just before Wimbledon to announce her comeback to the sport she once dominated, she hadn’t played a singles match since the 2022 U.S. Open.

“She has such an aura, she’s just a legend and this court has so many huge names that have played on it,” Joint added. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.”

Williams has 98 career victories and seven titles in singles on the hallowed grass of the All England Club. By contrast, it was Joint’s first Wimbledon victory in just her second appearance at the All England Club after losing in the opening round last year.

But Joint won a Wimbledon warmup in nearby Eastbourne last year and knows how to play on grass.

Doubles match still to come

Williams, who has no singles ranking after being out for so long, was given wild card invitations by Wimbledon organizers to play singles and also doubles with older sister Venus. Her doubles match will come later in the week.

Williams has said that having her two daughters off from school inspired her comeback and it marked the first time that her youngest daughter, Adira, who is almost three, saw her play singles. Adira sat next to her 8-year-old sister, Olympia in the front row of Serena’s players’ box.

Standing ovation

Fans started cheering when Williams' name was announced as the next match on Centre Court and then they gave her a standing ovation as she walked out before the match started under a closed roof. Several supporters held up signs with messages like “Welcome Back” and one wore a T-shirt that said “Unstoppable Queen.”

Williams executed a delicate topspin lob winner early on and then cranked out a 121 mph ace to hold for 3-3 in the first set. But Williams also had a costly double-fault which led to the only break of the first set.

In the second set, Williams came back from 0-40 and saved four break points to hold for 6-5. Then Williams saved a match point in the tiebreaker with a big serve down the T followed by a forehand approach winner. Another big serve — clocking in at 122 mph — set up Serena’s first set point, which she converted when Joint missed a forehand long.

After winning the set, Williams pumped her fist calmly.

But Joint took control early in the third and a forehand from Williams sailed long on Joint’s third match point to conclude the encounter after 2 hours, 22 minutes.

Williams and Joint both had 37 unforced errors, while Joint led 40-26 in winners.

Zverev and Swiatek advance

After the opening day featured wins for No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, along with Novak Djokovic, French Open champion Alexander Zverev and defending Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek made it into the second round on Tuesday.

In a match between hard servers, the second-seeded Zverev beat Alexander Blockx 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0).

Swiatek, who had her father and sister looking on from the Royal Box, struggled with her serve and committed nine double-faults before overcoming Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

No. 2 Elena Rybakina also advanced, beating Lois Boisson 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Ben Shelton, a quarterfinalist here last year, lost to 140th-ranked Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen in five sets, going out 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9).

Also, 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini beat Stan Wawrinka 6-7 (7), 7-6 (16), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5). It was the final Wimbledon match for Wawrinka, who plans to retire at the end of the year.

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AP Sports Writers Mattias Karen and Ken Maguire contributed to this report.

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

Ruben Cantu fatally shot Ricky Marquez Jr., 42, during a nightclub parking lot altercation on Feb. 2, 2025, at Papi Gallo Cantina, according to the district attorney’s office. Cantu was arrested a month later.

Cantu was with family at the club for a birthday gathering, according to the district attorney’s office. After some members of the group became intoxicated, staff members escorted them out of the building.

In the parking lot, Cantu pulled out a firearm during an altercation and fired multiple shots into the crowd, the news release said.

Marquez was among the victims who were shot, the attorney’s office said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Another man was also shot.

Investigators located Cantu in connection with a separate terroristic threat investigation about one month after the shooting, the release said.

Cantu allegedly threatened someone after being denied a request to borrow a vehicle and money, stating that he had previously killed someone at “El Gallo,” KSAT reported in 2025. The person reported the threat to authorities and identified Cantu in photo lineups.

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The 20-year-old Joint had said there was “always a part of me that wanted to experience playing against her."

After getting what she wished for — a first-round meeting with the tennis icon — Joint delivered on the biggest stage.

The Michigan-born Australian showed few nerves in winning the biggest match of her life — defeating Williams 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 on Tuesday to spoil the 44-year-old Williams' singles comeback at the All England Club.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night. I was up until like 2 a.m. just thinking about it," Joint said in her on-court interview.

The 87th-ranked Joint certainly looked calm on the outside but said she had serious butterflies walking onto Centre Court alongside the GOAT of women's tennis.

During warmups, she felt like her legs “weren’t moving.”

"I really don’t know how I got a pretty good start in the match," Joint said. “She has such an aura, she’s just a legend and this court has so many huge names that have played on it. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy."

Joint notched her first Wimbledon singles win and just her third Grand Slam singles victory. By the time Joint was born in 2006, Williams had already won seven major titles, completing a career Grand Slam in the process. Williams has won 23 major singles titles — seven at Wimbledon.

“Just the start was very nerve-racking and then trying to finish out the match, as well. She definitely lifted her level and she played some really great tennis there," Joint said.

Joint had chances to end it earlier.

At 5-5 in the second set, Joint squandered four break point opportunities as Williams held serve. Joint then won the next game to love, including back-to-back aces to force a tiebreaker.

Joint had her first match point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker but Williams hit a winner and then won the next two points.

Joint got the key break to go up 4-2 in the deciding set. She sealed the win on her third match point.

“I think I tensed up a little bit when I got close to winning, but I think I played my best tennis when I needed to, which was good,” she said.

Slowed by a back injury earlier this year, Joint at one point lost 10 consecutive matches.

“Even though I didn’t win many matches this year, I still felt like I could win," Joint said. “I had the belief and I just took advantage of the moment and enjoyed it, didn’t really think about the previous matches I’ve played.”

She later added: “If you’re playing Serena, you have nothing to lose. It makes sense that people play their best game against her.”

Last year, Joint won the grass-court Eastbourne tournament ahead of her debut at Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round to Liudmila Samsonova. Joint's only two other victories in majors came at the U.S. Open.

Joint, who represents Australia through her father, joins a list of unheralded players to have eliminated Williams in Wimbledon’s first round.

Harmony Tan was ranked 115th when she beat Williams in 2022. A year prior, it was Aliaksandra Sasnovich, ranked No. 100 at the time, who emerged victorious when Williams retired from the match with a leg injury.

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

Thomas also criticized WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for not doing more to protect the league's players when she spoke with reporters on Tuesday at the team's practice facility.

“It's unfortunate that it's come to this over basketball," Thomas said. "A lot of us — myself included — didn't even know the play took place until after the game. Now we're being painted as thugs. There's death threats out on us. It's really unacceptable. It's something that needs to change in this league and I'm just really sick and tired of it.”

Engelbert released a statement Tuesday night.

“The WNBA vehemently condemns any and all forms of hate. The safety and well-being of everyone in our community is always the league’s top priority," Engelbert said. "We are aware of Alyssa Thomas’ comments, and what she and her teammates have experienced is completely unacceptable and not representative of the WNBA community. The league and our security team have been in contact with the Phoenix Mercury organization and remain committed to protecting all players.”

Thomas called the play a “complete accident," but said her main concern wasn't the suspension. The six-time All-Star said she didn't know she was being suspended until 10 minutes before it was released on social media.

“It’s not even about the suspension,” Thomas said. “If that’s what they felt was necessary in that moment, then so be it. But I think there’s a lot of other plays that you can say the same about. The biggest thing is about our safety. We’re so concerned about the safety on the court, but time and time again, we’re having people threaten our lives. Leaking addresses out there. Putting crazy pictures that have nothing to do with basketball.”

The play happened with 6:52 left in the second quarter in a game against Clark's Indiana Fever on Wednesday and was deemed to be a non-basketball act. The league gave Thomas a Flagrant Foul 2 penalty for it.

No foul was called on the play by officials in the moment. The WNBA is allowed to review a game to reclassify a Flagrant foul or to classify as Flagrant any foul not called as such during a game.

"People are sending racial slurs and all types of stuff,” Thomas said. “There's a difference between trolling and there's a difference between hatred. The hatred that we're experiencing over a play that, honestly, was a complete accident, no one even knew it happened. It's just unfortunate. The league has to do better in this instance.”

Thomas and Engelbert exchanged text messages last week to talk about the security issue, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussion. The person said that Engelbert immediately directed league security to get in touch with Phoenix security once she heard about the threats.

Thomas served her suspension on Saturday when the Mercury visit the Toronto Tempo.

The Fever renewed their call for player safety in a statement on Thursday.

The two teams had played a few days before the Thomas-Clark incident and there were six technical fouls called and one ejection. Clark picked up her fifth technical of the season in that game. The team petitioned the league to have it rescinded, but the WNBA confirmed that the technical will stand.

“It was egregious. The fact that it was a no-call … You got to call it,” Fever coach Stephanie White said after the game. “You’re coming in here aware of what happened two nights ago and that (expletive) still happens? Absolutely unacceptable.”

The Mercury and Fever play again on July 9 in Phoenix.

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AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Texas politics have become deeply engaged in the fight over the future of college football. In this week’s episode, the TribCast crew is joined by Ralph Russo, senior writer for The Athletic and host of The Audible podcast.

We discuss the saga of Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, the influence of megadonor Cody Campbell and U.S. Ted Cruz’s proposed fix.

Watch the video above or subscribe to the TribCast on iTunes, Spotify, or RSS. New episodes every Tuesday.

Hinkle — one of the oldest arenas in the country — is iconic, and more than fits the billing that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and other league officials were looking for when he said the league was searching for “storied college arenas” to play host to the Cup final.

The 2026-27 title game, to be played Dec. 11, will mark the first time the Cup final is held outside of Las Vegas — which hosted the final for the first three in-season tournaments.

“Hinkle Fieldhouse offers a special setting to capture the excitement and drama of the Emirates NBA Cup Championship,” NBA Head of Global Events Kelly Flatow said. “Playing the championship in an iconic basketball environment like this will further establish it as a signature moment on the NBA calendar.”

The arena, which has about 9,100 seats, has played host to at least six U.S. presidents — Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush — along with the first U.S. vs. Soviet Union basketball games, circuses, tennis matches, ice shows and even was used as a barracks for the U.S. military during World War II.

“Hinkle Fieldhouse gets loud,” Boston Celtics basketball operations president Brad Stevens said when he coached at Butler, “and it gets as loud as loud gets.”

Hinkle also was home of the famed Indiana high school basketball tournament for decades, including 1954 when tiny Milan High beat Muncie Central High to win the state title in the story that served as the inspiration for the classic basketball movie “Hoosiers” — which used Hinkle as the set for its championship game.

Indianapolis native Oscar Robertson also played there; his Crispus Attucks High team won state titles in that arena in 1955 and 1956 as well. It also has been the site of NBA games in the past, along with some WNBA games in 2022.

The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023; the event was simply called the in-season tournament that year. Milwaukee won in 2024 and New York beat San Antonio for the 2025 title — in a preview of this season's NBA Finals, in which the Knicks topped the Spurs again.

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

The states and federal government accused Cal-Maine Foods, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch of a behind-the-scenes arrangement to “artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs" between June 2022 and March 2025. In particular, their investigation found that the companies coordinated on what bids they would submit to Urner Barry Publications, a company that runs an index key to determining how much grocery stores, restaurants and others pay for billions of eggs each year.

In turn, that meant “higher prices for eggs sold to consumers,” alleged the complaint, which was filed in Iowa on Monday, the day the settlement terms were announced.

“When powerful corporations collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families suffer the costs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who helped lead the investigation, said in a statement. “These egg producers manipulated the market to squeeze even more profit out of consumers and businesses."

None of the companies admitted wrongdoing under the settlements. But to settle the states' claims, Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman's will collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and 53 million eggs, James and others said. Those eggs would be donated by the companies and make their ways to food banks and nonprofits. The money will be distributed to the states.

The Justice Department and the states also outlined actions the companies will need to take, including adopting antitrust compliance programs and banning communicating with competitors on pricing and bidding strategies.

The settlements would still need court approval. The Justice Department's Omeed A. Assefi said Tuesday that the proposed settlements “resolve years of conduct that dragged on Americans’ finances and their everyday lives.”

Average U.S. egg prices soared to a record high of about $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, amid a bird flu epidemic that forced farmers to slaughter millions of egg-laying chickens. Egg producers blamed price spike on the outbreak, but critics accused big companies of taking advantage of their market dominance and the government began its investigation.

Monday’s complaint notes that price quotations “dropped significantly” after Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s learned of the Justice Department’s investigation and were instructed to preserve documents in March 2025. Consumer egg prices also later tumbled — to under $2.20 per dozen as of May 2026 — as replenished flocks caught up despite the ongoing outbreak.

Cal-Maine maintained Monday that allegations of price manipulation were “baseless” and that it believes its conduct has been legal. It also noted that while it was part of a cooperative with the other egg producers, it left the group in May 2024.

Still, Cal-Maine CEO Sherman Miller said the company's settlement agreement “enables us to move forward so we can devote our full attention to what matters most: delivering affordable, high-quality eggs and egg-based prepared foods to consumers nationwide.”

Miller added the period the Justice Department reviewed “was a particularly challenging time” — noting that, beyond avian flu, the COVID-19 pandemic, weather and other market conditions have contributed to temporary supply shocks and high prices in recent years. He said Cal-Maine “took numerous steps to protect and grow its hen flock” in that time.

Versova echoed a similar sentiment, particularly pointing to the toll the bird flu has had on its farmers, who it noted “don’t set the wholesale price of eggs.” Instead, Versova said the price of most of its eggs depends on cost fluctuations of grain used in hen feeds.

Meanwhile, Hickman's owner Mantiqueira USA, which acquired the egg producer in November, said the “conduct referenced in the complaint predates our acquisition," noting that it is committed to complying with the law.

Some advocacy groups say the proposed settlements aren't enough.

“Consumers paid record prices while dominant egg producers reported extraordinary profits, yet the result is another settlement that corporations can treat as the cost of doing business rather than meaningful accountability,” said Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action.

Cal-Maine — the only of the three companies that is public and reports quarterly financials — reported a profit of $1.22 billion for the 2025 fiscal year. Under its settlement agreement with the states, the company would pay $1.5 million and donate 30 million eggs.

Meanwhile, per court documents, Versova would provide 20 million eggs and $800,000, and Hickman's would be on the hook for 3.25 million eggs and $1 million.

In addition to New York, these states were party to the settlement agreements: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The decision, in line with the longstanding judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment, comes on the final day of a Supreme Court term that has centered on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power — and largely ruled in his favor.

In its other Tuesday rulings, the court upheld laws in roughly half the states that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on their public school and college sport teams and struck down limits on party spending in federal elections.

Here's the latest:

Venezuelan asylum seeker, with 2 daughters born in US, relieved by court ruling

Loreana Pachano, a Venezuelan asylum seeker in Lehi, Utah, with two daughters who became U.S. citizens by birth, said the court’s decision was a relief.

Her brother is also a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country while his father was working on a master’s degree with a student visa. She was born in Venezuela.

“It’s good to see there’s some pushback when things don’t make sense,” said Pachano, who has also applied for an employment-based green card. She said her daughters have no legal status in Venezuela.

Justice Thomas: ‘Citizenship Clause was enacted for people who were born in this country and called it home’

Thomas, who wrote the main dissent, disagreed with the majority’s opinion on birthright citizenship.

The basis of his argument, among other things, is that the court ignored evidence from Reconstruction debates that suggested citizenship depended on a deeper relationship to the country.

“The Citizenship Clause was enacted for people who were born in this country and called it home. It was enacted for freed slaves such as Dred Scott, who had ‘a domicile’ here and therefore were entitled to sue as citizens,” Thomas wrote in his dissent, concluding that Reconstruction was a targeted remedy for freed slaves to restore citizenship to a wrongfully excluded group.

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Supreme Court chief justice: ‘We break no new ground today’

Much of Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion was a history lesson on English common law, in which he concluded that birthright citizenship has always depended primarily on birthplace — not on parents’ immigration status or domicile.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”

“We break no new ground today,” Roberts said on the bench as he read the court’s majority opinion.

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Justice Department instructs prosecutors to crack down on ‘birth tourism’ schemes

In a memo circulated hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding birthright citizenship, the deputy attorney general’s office directed prosecutors to “prioritize the investigation and prosecution” of fraudulent “birth tourism” schemes.

In seeking to end birthright citizenship, the Trump administration pointed to “birth tourism” networks that arrange for non-U.S. citizens to come to the country solely to give birth.

The memo says that while many of such cases are charged as visa fraud, prosecutors should also consider whether other laws apply, including wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.

“Together, we will bring illegal birth tourism to an end and those responsible to justice,” the memo says.

‘A very narrow decision’

A lawyer representing trans female athletes in pending litigation in multiple states described the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams as “a very narrow decision.”

Susan Cirilli, whose clients include former Swarthmore College cross-country runner Evie Parts, reiterated that there remains no federal law in the country that prohibits transgender women from participating in sports and argues that President Trump’s executive order cannot supersede state law.

Venezuelan woman who is part of another birthright lawsuit received court decision in tears

“I feel a great sense of tranquility,” said the woman, one of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit at the Maryland district court. “It is a triumph for our children; I fought hard for this day,” said the asylum seeker.

The woman, who asked not to be identified from fear of being detained, said she filed the lawsuit Jan. 21, 2025, the day after President Trump announced his executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. She was pregnant with her first child, who was born in August 2025.

As an asylum seeker, she did not believe she could request the Venezuelan citizenship for the baby and wondered what citizenship the child would have.

“There was a lot of uncertainty and fear. I wondered: if my son wasn’t going to be from here, then where would he be from?” said the woman, who was a doctor in her country and arrived to the U.S. in 2019 after receiving death threats in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, she said she felt a “sea of emotions” when she saw the news on TV.

ACLU celebrates the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling

“This should have been a unanimous decision,” attorney Cody Wofsy, deputy director at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told reporters after the decision was announced. “The text of the Constitution is clear, the history is clear, and the precedent is clear.”

“That said, regardless of what the vote count may have been, this is a rejection of the Trump administration’s extreme attempts to rewrite the Constitution and to exclude entire portions of American-born children from our country.”

Birthright could become a powerful wedge issue in US politics, critic of decision says

“The president was never going to win, in the sense that his executive order was going to be overturned,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank favoring restrictive immigration policies. “The question was if the Supreme Court would accept the ACLU’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment.”

The ruling “constitutionalized the question” of birthright citizenship, he said, requiring changes through a constitutional amendment.

That, he argued, is highly unlikely: “Congress can’t rename post offices, let alone do anything else.”

But, he said, birthright could now become a powerful political wedge issue, similar to the court’s 1973 abortion ruling, which was overturned in 2022.

“It’ll distort our politics the way Roe vs. Wade did in energizing a political movement,” he said.

Could pregnancy now be a question on visa application?

Mark Krikorian, a prominent Washington voice favoring restrictive immigration policies, said he expects the ruling to result in new U.S. visa applications, with potential visitors being asked if they are pregnant.

“It’s something that visa officers are often reluctant to ask about — it’s awkward,” said Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

“But if it’s on the application then you have the answers, and if you lie you’ve committed a felony,” he said.

The Trump administration says birthright citizenship has created what it calls a birth tourism industry.

“It is unacceptable for foreign parents to use a U.S. tourist visa for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain citizenship for the child,” the State Department said in a post on X. “Those who abuse our immigration system through birth tourism may be ineligible for future visas or travel to the United States.”

Justice Thomas says the majority misunderstands the 14th amendment

He insists the majority opinion perpetuates a misunderstanding and misapplication of the 14th amendment.

The citizenship clause and related Reconstruction statutes granted citizenship “to persons born and domiciled in the United States regardless of their race,” he wrote. But “neither guaranteed citizenship to persons who were not domiciled in the United States.”

He continued: “Blacks were entitled to citizenship because they were Americans. They had no other homeland, owed no allegiance to any foreign power, and were subject to no other authority.”

That highlights the argument over what it means to be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.

The majority holds that, with exceptions like foreign diplomats, being on U.S. soil makes a person subject to U.S. laws. Thomas and dissenters reason that no one who is separately subject to another foreign government should be considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., at least when conferring citizenship.

Justice Jackson takes issue with Thomas in citizenship reasoning

Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent in the birthright case argued the 14th amendment’s citizenship clause applied only to formerly enslaved people and not more broadly.

That prompted Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to pen a concurrence to Roberts’ majority opinion.

“Despite his longstanding endorsement of a ‘colorblind’ Constitution, Justice Thomas now surprisingly suggests that the Citizenship Clause was a race-conscious remedial measure, relating only to ‘freed slaves such as Dred Scott,’” she wrote, calling that a “narrow vision” of Reconstruction’s intended expansion of democracy.

“This alternative account pitches Black Americans against immigrants when the advocates who promoted the Fourteenth Amendment did no such thing,” Jackson wrote. “Freed Blacks fought for the shared humanity of all people.”

Jackson is the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Thomas is the second Black man, succeeding Thurgood Marshall, who argued the Brown v. Board case that struck down segregated schools.

Trump says Congress should end birthright citizenship and calls court ruling ‘too bad’

The president said the Supreme Court’s decision upholding that anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen was “too bad for our Country,” but that Congress could “easily” address it with legislation.

Trump declared that “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!”

But the Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday makes it clear that it would be necessary to amend the Constitution. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the opinion for the court, pointed to the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

Justice Department reacts to the ruling on birthright citizenship

The Justice Department said in a statement that it’s “committed to tackling illegal birth tourism schemes by working diligently with U.S. Attorneys across the country to uphold the law.”

“Actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice,” the department said in a post on X.

Dred Scott case featured in the justices’ birthright citizenship writings

U.S. Supreme Court justices have long distanced themselves from the pre-Civil War decision that declared Black people — enslaved and free — were not U.S. citizens.

The 1857 Dred Scott case was featured again Tuesday, being mentioned 48 times in 194 pages of the birthright citizenship opinion, concurrences and dissents.

Roberts’ majority opinion explained how U.S. birthright citizenship originates with English common law: Anyone born in the monarch’s realm was considered a “natural-born subject.”

The “odious” Scott case, Roberts said, deviated from that once-accepted understanding and “was met with shock.”

In response, he detailed, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause restored common law understanding, with lawmakers making clear they were explicitly rebuking the Scott decision.

Yet, Roberts wrote, “the Government and the principal dissent propose a return to its core tenet,” that “for certain people, being born on American soil will not suffice to confer citizenship.”

Supreme Court denies report that Justice Samuel Alito is retiring

The Supreme Court’s public information office is denying a published report, since retracted, that the court announced Alito’s retirement Tuesday.

The unusual statement followed a story from NPR saying the court had announced that Alito was stepping down. NPR pulled the story a short time later. Chief Justice John Roberts announced the retirement of several court employees Tuesday, as he customarily does after the court’s final opinions are out. Alito was not among them.

Speculation had swirled about the justice’s future plans earlier this year, but Fox News and CBS reported this spring that he planned to remain on the bench.

NPR’s editor-in-chief released a statement saying the story had been incorrectly reported and that correspondent Nina Totenberg would appear on “All Things Considered” Tuesday afternoon to explain what had happened.

Court will consider striking down assault weapons bans in Connecticut and the Chicago-area

A Supreme Court that has expanded gun rights will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment.

The justices said Tuesday they will take up appeals asking the court to strike down bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in the Chicago area and Connecticut.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings and states have continued to pass their own laws.

The cases are the latest high-profile disputes over guns to reach the court since its conservative majority handed down a landmark ruling in 2022 that expanded Second Amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country.

The case is expected to be heard in the fall.

▶ Read more

More reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision on campaign spending

The conservative-leaning Institute for Free Speech hailed the decision as “a landmark victory for the First Amendment.”

“More than half the states have operated for years without restricting coordinated party expenditures, and there is no evidence of the corruption the federal government fears,” institute senior attorney Brett Nolan said. “The Court corrected a two-decade-old mistake.”

Meanwhile, Jacquelyn Lopez and Rachel Jacobs, partners in the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats in voting rights cases and election contests, said the decision “needlessly” destroyed “a long-standing pillar” of federal campaign finance laws.

However, they also said Republicans have “pushed the boundaries” of the limits to help weak candidates. They said the Elias Law Group had anticipated the outcome for months.

“In the long run, Democratic campaigns will benefit from the level playing field this ruling provides,” they said. “Now, both parties are free to offer unlimited support to their candidates, not just the party willing to ignore the law to do so.”

From a descendant of the man at the center of the 1898 birthright citizenship ruling

Norman Wong, the great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, the Chinese American cook at the center of the landmark 1898 Supreme Court decision establishing birthright citizenship, applauded Tuesday’s ruling.

“My great grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, never set out to become a symbol. He was one man, only a cook, and yet he stood up for what was right, and I believe that it has made a difference,” Wong said in a statement. “As a result, he stood up for the rights of all of us Americans — it just so happens that I am related to him. Today’s ruling shows that his victory remains as important now as it was in 1898.”

‘By the grace of God, the president does not manage to do everything he wants’

For a Mexican mother with six children born in the United States — ranging in age from 18 years to 18 months — the Supreme Court’s decision brought happiness.

“I am happy for our children,” the 38-year-old woman said in a telephone interview. “I am happy because they don’t face any risk like we do.”

The woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of being detained and deported, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2007 in search of a better life. She has not applied for asylum or any other immigration status.

She works at a plant nursery in South Florida, where her children attend school.

The woman said one of her children called her as soon as he found out about the decision to share his joy with her.

“By the grace of God, the president does not manage to do everything he wants,” the mother said. “I was confident that, with God’s help, he would not succeed.”

Birthright citizenship survived racist eras, and now Trump, Global Refuge leader says

The head of Global Refuge said the Supreme Court averted a catastrophe with its 6-3 opinion upholding the 14th Amendment and rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to overturn a Reconstruction era amendment.

“Birthright citizenship survived the Chinese Exclusion Act, Jim Crow, and today, it survived an executive order that would have essentially turned the maternity ward into a customs checkpoint,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refugee.

“The Justices rightly recognized that the U.S. Constitution is clear and unambiguous: if you are born in this country and subject to its jurisdiction, you are a citizen of this country,” she said. Vignarajah said a different outcome would have denied citizenship to more than 250,000 children born in the U.S. each year.

“This was a constitutional stress test.”

Trump says Republicans won ‘big’ on Supreme Court’s party spending ruling

The president applauded a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a federal election law and made it easier for major donors to avoid caps on individual contributions to candidates by going through the party.

“A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!” Trump posted on social media.

House Speaker Mike Johnson ‘very disappointed’ over birthright citizenship ruling

The Republican leader’s news conference was interrupted by the ruling as reporters instantly sought a real-time reaction.

“Oh dear,” Johnson said as a reporter read out the decision.

Johnson said he believes it will subject the country to “serious challenges going forward and we’ll have to deal with that.”

Johnson, who has worked as a constitutional lawyer primarily on religious issues, said the 14th Amendment is being abused by people who are coming to the U.S. to have children in a “birthing tourism trend.” It’s not illegal but is a practice the Trump administration has tried to reduce.

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This story has been corrected to reflect the correct last name of a Venzuelan asylum seeker to Pachano, not Panchana.

Meanwhile, the number of official rescues has dropped dramatically in the last three days, the government said, from 5,380 people saved in the first two days after the quakes to just four people found alive Monday by authorities. The prime window for finding earthquake survivors is typically 48 to 72 hours, but it is possible to survive longer depending on factors such as temperature and access to water or food.

The sole survivor rescued by Tuesday afternoon was a toddler who had been trapped for six days under a collapsed building, said Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly.

Those numbers do not include the many rescues carried out across the country by volunteer groups that, frustrated with the government's sluggish response, scrambled to save their trapped loved ones days before the arrival of expert international teams.

The government puts the death toll at over 1,900. Experts say that is a significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every day and morgues struggle to handle the influx.

Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. United Nations agencies estimated on Tuesday that the earthquake amassed 1.2 million tons of debris of destroyed buildings and belongings. They expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.

A healthcare system in crisis

The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underinvestment and years of economic crisis is “under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases,” said World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a media briefing in Geneva.

Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said Tuesday. Newly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and elsewhere.

Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira, just outside the capital of Caracas along the coast, are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said.

Without access to toilets, showers or soap, displaced Venezuelans have also become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable diseases like measles, given the population’s low vaccination rates, Lindmeier said, adding that conditions are ripe for waterborne infections such as dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread.

According to the government, last week's earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now buckling under the influx of injuries.

Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said, compounding the challenges to healthcare in a country that 8 million people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent years.

“Findings reveal chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding, growing surgical backlogs ... and a breakdown in biosafety measures,” Lindmeier said.

An increased presence of nongovernmental organizations was noticeable Tuesday in La Guaira and adjacent communities, with tents from the Red Cross, the World Food Program and other organizations set up on sidewalks, waterfront esplanades and athletic facilities. People lined up throughout the day under the blistering sun to receive free toiletries, food, medications and face masks.

A struggle to grasp the true toll

With the government tight-lipped about victims and survivors and offering no official count of missing people, ordinary Venezuelans are struggling to find relatives. Many have turned to WhatsApp groups and nongovernmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. One such registry listed at least 43,220 people as missing.

In his daily televised casualty update, Jorge Rodríguez, brother of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, said that the official toll stood at 1,943 people killed and 10,571 injured as of Tuesday, urging the public to share only government information.

But his numbers left thousands of Venezuelans unaccounted for. He said the government estimated there were around 30,000 people in the hardest-hit parts of La Guaira state at the time of the earthquake, and that around 20,000 of them managed to escape the area or were later rescued.

NASA estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, on Tuesday said 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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

Some neighbors say they are worried it could be a sign that an old problem with gun violence is making a new return to the area.

The San Antonio Police Department said around 4 a.m., someone fired shots into a fence behind the girls’ home on Comanche Sunrise, not far from Binz Engleman Road.

Some of the bullets entered a bedroom where the two children, ages 6 and 10, were sleeping.

Police said one child was hit in the leg while the other suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach.

At last check, SAPD said both were being treated at a local hospital and were expected to survive.

“It’s a scary thought for all of us in this neighborhood, you know? You could be sleeping, and bullets just come, you know, shooting in your house,” said Saw James, who lives down the street.

James said he noticed all the flashing lights from the police cars but didn’t know, at first, what to make of it.

Later, he learned details of the shooting.

The neighborhood, which for years bore the nickname ‘Gunrise," due to a history of gun violence, had been quiet lately, James said.

“Since I moved here, I haven’t really seen or heard of anything like that,” he said. “It’s always been peaceful. All of our neighbors are respectful of one another.”

While the idea of a shooting there was new to James, others who have lived in the area longer told KSAT 12 News that type of trouble is part of their neighborhood’s history.

They agreed, though, that it seemed the area had turned over a new leaf and that sort of violence was in the past.

“I hope to God it is,” James said, keeping the faith about a peaceful future.

SAPD detained one person at the scene for questioning in this case.

However, as of early Tuesday afternoon, they said they had not made any arrests.

Related coverage on KSAT:

• Man detained after 2 children shot while sleeping in Northeast Side home, SAPD says

Depression, Kean said, “is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.”

Kean’s reappearance came weeks after his victory in an uncontested primary on June 2 and months after he last cast his vote in the House. His speech ended the silence on his condition, yet left questions unanswered. Kean said he first entered the hospital due to health concerns and underwent testing, but offered no further details.

After the speech, Kean left the Capitol quickly without answering questions from reporters.

Kean last voted in the House on March 5. His absence had complicated matters for House Republican leaders, who have been struggling to pass bills with their threadbare majority.

Kean said he was diagnosed for depression and that doctors recommended he remain in the hospital. Addressing his earlier statement that he expected to return to work in a matter of weeks, Kean said he believed that at the time and it was his doctors’ best estimate then.

“But as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover there is no timeline for healing," Kean said.

“Today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love."

A second-term lawmaker and scion of a New Jersey political family, Kean represents a battleground district that includes President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club.

What the House speaker says about Kean’s return

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would leave it to Kean to decide whether his remarks Tuesday provided sufficient transparency.

“He spoke to it," Johnson said. “It’s his personal issue, and, you know, I thought the speech on the floor was, well, I thought he explained it.”

Johnson said he had “encouraged him all along to be as transparent as possible” and was “glad he finally has” been.

The mystery over Kean's absence had potential political implications, given the competitive district he represents and the Republican Party's narrow control of the House. His office has said he is still running for reelection and is set to face Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, in New Jersey's most high-profile contest in November.

Democrats have targeted the district as a prime pickup opportunity, given that the seat has changed hands in the last two midterm elections. Kean won in 2022 by defeating Democrat Tom Malinowski, who had defeated Republican Leonard Lance in 2018.

Johnson added Tuesday he is confident Kean would be “easily” reelected in November. Trump has endorsed Kean’s reelection, without mentioning his absence.

Kean comes from a long line of public servants, stretching 250 years to the country’s founding when one of his ancestors became New Jersey’s first leader since independence.

Kean's great-grandfather was a senator, his grandfather was a congressman and his father is the former two-term governor, Tom Kean Sr.

Absent from public view

Lawmakers vary in how transparent they are about extended absences.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, was hospitalized more than two weeks ago, and his office has released few details about his condition since.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment for clinical depression weeks after being sworn into office in 2023. Fetterman, who has dealt with the effects of a stroke he suffered in May 2022, disclosed the hospitalization the day after he was admitted.

Fetterman has talked openly about his struggle with depression and urged people to get help.

“There are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties," Fetterman said in 2023 after a six-week inpatient treatment. “If you need help, please get help,.”

Kean and House Republican leaders kept the public in the dark about his condition for months. He missed more than 100 House votes this year and was not seen publicly in Washington or his district.

New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who has spoken openly about living with depression, wrote on social media after Kean's remarks that he has “deep sympathy for anyone struggling with mental illness.”

“At the same time, public office carries a duty of transparency," Torres wrote. “When a public official is absent for an extended period, the public has a right to an honest explanation.”

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

“This is unbelievable. This is history,” Haaland said on the field after the game.

A slight tap from Haaland's left foot in the 86th minute was the difference as Norway beat Ivory Coast 2-1 on Tuesday, setting up another World Cup match against five-time champion Brazil — 28 years after a victory that many consider the greatest ever for the Norwegians.

For now, they prefer to enjoy their latest accomplishment.

“What we’re going to think about now is to enjoy the win today. We’re really happy and proud of ourselves,” said Martin Odeegaard, the team's captain who banged the drum to set the pace for the postgame row. “Hopefully we can keep dreaming and keep believing and keep performing like we did.”

Antonio Nusa scored the opening goal in the first half with a curling kick for Norway, which in its fourth World Cup will next play in the round of 16 against Brazil on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“This is really a dream come true,” Nusa said in translated remarks.

Norway is in its first World Cup since that 1998 appearance, when the team got to the knockout round only after scoring goals in the 83rd and 89th minutes for an incredible 2-1 comeback win over then-reigning World Cup champion Brazil in the group finale.

Amad Diallo, who had prevented Norway from taking a two-goal lead earlier in the second half, evened the match for Ivory Coast with a left-footed kick in the 74th minute.

Even after Haaland’s go-ahead goal, his Norway-record 60th in 53 matches, Ivory Coast kept pressing and had a chance to equalize with a direct free kick by Diallo in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Orjan Nyland made a leaping stop, the last of his four saves, when he deflected the ball away as he extended his left hand across his body.

“After their equalizer, it was easy to panic. But we got our players in the right position and managed to play our game again,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said.

Haaland's 27 touches were the fewest of any Norway player who played the full match, but he was open after three defenders converged when Patrick Berg moved into the penalty area with the ball before making a quick pass. It was a slow roll over the line after coming off the foot of Haaland, who lunged forward as if he might have to kick it again.

It was his Haaland's fifth goal in three games at this year’s tournament. That is one behind Lionel Messi, who has six for Argentina and scored three of those in two group games at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.

Haaland, who won the Golden Boot in the Premier League last season with 27 goals for Manchester City, has scored in 13 straight competitive international games — a total of 25 goals in that span.

The youthful Elephants, ranked 31st by FIFA, had never before won twice in the same World Cup. This was the fourth World Cup appearance for the West African nation, the same as Norway.

“We are proud for what we achieved,” Diallo said. “But a big disappointment because we knew we have quality in the team, we have players that can make a difference anytime.”

Nusa scored his first World Cup goal in the 39th minute when he took a few strides past the left corner of the penalty area and sent a right-footed kick between two defenders toward the far post.

Ivory Coast goalkeeper Yahia Fofana made a diving attempt at the ball that was just beyond his extended reach, and he was still in air when he turned his head back to see the ball curl into the net. It was Nusa’s ninth international goal in 28 games for Norway.

Diallo evened the score at 1-1 after a give-and-go with Nicolas Pepe, who had scored both Ivory Coast goals in its previous game and was stopped by Nyland in the 55th minute. Diallo found space for his left-footed blast.

That came only about eight minutes after Torbjorn Heggen had a shot for Norway that was deflected away by Diallo, who was right next to his keeper.

Nusa's yellow card in stoppage time before the half set up a free kick by Pepe, but the ensuing header went left of the post.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The National Weather Service was blunt: Conditions were “dangerous” as the heat index, a combination of air temperature and humidity, exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in some areas. It warned about a risk for heat-related illnesses, especially among people without air conditioning.

Detroit's air temperature was in the high 90s, the Weather Service said, and could even reach 100 at some point through Thursday. The city said a dozen recreation centers were open, some until 11 p.m., for people to cool off. Big chunks of Michigan, as well as Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and much of Iowa, were under an extreme heat warning.

The Northeast, including New York City and Boston, will next feel major heat through the Fourth of July holiday. Norristown, Pennsylvania, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Philadelphia, canceled a Saturday parade because of the weather.

Philadelphia declared a heat emergency, Wednesday through Saturday, and said 50 cooling centers will operate with extended hours. The city said visitors will find misting tents, water refill stations and medical stations at the free World Cup fan festival at East Fairmount Park.

When the heat's on, people adjust

The Chicago History Museum offered free admission to state residents who wanted a cool space Tuesday. Roads in a few places in Illinois buckled under the heat. When the surface has no room to expand in the heat, it can rise and crack.

At 9:15 a.m., window washer Stephen Mason, 72, was wiping mayflies off glass at a Detroit convenience store. He got an early start to avoid the worst conditions of the day, but it was already 85 (29.4 C).

“It's the only way to beat it. But it's already starting to cook out here,” Mason said.

Adam Schubatis, 36, a runner who was shirtless in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood, said he was cutting his route to 6 miles (9.6 kilometers).

“I know where all the drinking fountains are,” he said. “My wife thought I was crazy. She offered to pick me up if I got tired or if there was anything I was doing that wasn't safe.”

A dog's day can be ‘miserable’

In Milwaukee, more than 100 firefighters spent hours controlling a fire at a school in the extreme heat. Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said crews were rotating and shedding their thick coats while they rehydrated.

Overnight low temperatures were in the 70s (21-26.7 C) in many places, which doesn't give the body a chance to cool down naturally, said Dr. Kisha Davis, health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland.

“The heat stress will compound day after day,” said Davis, who added that alcohol and soda, popular holiday drinks, are dehydrating.

In Jackson, Mississippi, where the afternoon heat index exceeded 100 F (37.7 C), massive fans tried to keep about 100 dogs cool at an old mattress warehouse that serves as a shelter for Community Animal Rescue and Adoption.

“It’s miserable. … We try to keep everybody hydrated back there. Dogs and people,” said kennel manager Raquel Burney.

Cooling it forward

George Liller, 64, was a hero in Grosse Pointe Park, a Detroit suburb. He added air conditioning to his home, so he offered a window unit for free on Facebook — extension cord and remote control included.

“It was probably on my porch maybe 15 minutes,” Liller said. “That air conditioner was given to me. I thought, ‘Somebody needs it.’ I know how it feels to be in an old house when it’s this hot.”

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Associated Press reporters Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed.

The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, though it still fell to its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136 points, or 0.3%, to its record, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.

The main reason for the past month’s weakness was a fall to Earth for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. After soaring to tremendous heights in the frenzy around AI, such stocks came under pressure because of worries that they shot too high. That’s a big deal for all investors because AI stocks have grown into some of Wall Street’s largest and most influential, pulling indexes behind them.

AI stocks were firmer Tuesday, and Nvidia was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after rising 2.6% and trimming its loss for the month. That was even though the majority of stocks within the index fell Tuesday.

Microsoft, which is investing heavily in AI, rose 1.2% to cut its loss for the month to 17.2%. Oracle, though, slipped 0.8% to widen its drop for June to 35.1%. It’s another company contending with concerns that AI may not yield enough productivity and profits to make all the big spending worth it.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 58.93 points to 7,499.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136.46 to 52,319.20, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 393.58 to 26,213.72.

Outside of AI, the economy seems to be rumbling along, even though U.S. households are still feeling sour about it. A report released in the morning said that U.S. employers were advertising many more job openings at the end of May than economists expected, the latest signal that the job market remains resilient.

But a second report said that confidence among U.S. consumers improved by less than economists expected. More Americans are saying it’s hard to get a job, according to a survey by the Conference Board, even with data suggesting continued hiring.

Tuesday’s relatively quiet trading came as companies closed their books for the quarter running from April through June. Investors want to see strong growth in profits to justify the big gains stocks made early in the quarter. Despite June’s drop, the S&P 500 still recorded its best quarter since six years ago, when stocks rocketed out of the crash caused by the COVID pandemic.

Concentrix tumbled 11.2% after the technology company reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that were just shy of analysts’ expectations.

In the oil market, prices eased after two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran. The Americans will not be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Doha.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, erased an early, modest rise and fell 1.3% to $72.95. The hope is that an end to the war will restore full access to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil tankers to move more crude and lower its price.

Expensive oil has already sent inflation jumping around the world, which in turn has raised worries that the Federal Reserve and other central banks may have to raise interest rates. Higher rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow economic growth and hurt prices for investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.44% from 4.38% late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Germany’s DAX returned 1.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1% for two of the world’s bigger gains.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9% as the value of the Japanese yen dropped near its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in 40 years.

U.S. government bonds are paying much higher yields than their Japanese counterparts, and the possibility of rate hikes by the Fed is putting more pressure on the yen. Speculation is rising that Japan’s government may try to prop up the yen’s value, but Japan’s finance minister said only that the government was ready to “respond appropriately whenever necessary.”

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The defense attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis tried to bar the 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” from being used in trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, as well as statements Davis had made to police in 2008 and 2009.

Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the drive-by shooting of the rapper in Las Vegas.

Shakur was in a black BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries.

Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur. The book revived detectives’ investigation, and Davis was arrested in September 2023. Davis pleaded not guilty.

The state’s case hinges on the book Davis co-authored about his time in the gang South Side Compton Crips and statements he made in YouTube interviews.

Michael Sanft, his attorney, argued that the book was fictionalized to make a profit, and that it was unclear which parts — if any — Davis actually wrote. He also argued that statements Davis made to police in 2008 and 2009 should not be used in trial because Davis thought he had immunity due to a proffer agreement that allowed him to speak to detectives without being prosecuted.

Judge Carli Kierny determined that Davis adopted the statements in the book as his own, regardless if he wrote the whole book. She said he made multiple statements describing the book as the “real truth.” She also found the statements he made to law enforcement to be voluntary, but expressed concern that Davis was told in 2008 that he would not be prosecuted for what he said in the interview.

Marc DiGiacomo, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said those interviews were no longer considered inadmissible when Davis chose to write and speak about the events. The state has the right to prove that what Davis wrote is true by using those interviews, he said.

“Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” DiGiacomo said.

But he also emerged from the term with even greater power.

His immigration crackdown was largely upheld, his call to redistrict for partisan advantage marched ahead and his ability to control federal regulatory agencies expanded dramatically when the court overturned a 90-year-old precedent. The court's conservative majority also seemed willing to look past Trump’s invocation of racial tropes and boundary-pushing moves as it handed down decisions in line with its own conception of a powerful presidency.

The conservative majority seems fully behind the unitary executive theory

The court's ruling Monday gave the president effective control over independent regulatory agencies by allowing him to fire their leaders at will.

Several federal laws, some more than 100 years old, sought to protect agency independence by requiring the president to identify a cause, like negligence, before firing the leaders. The court struck down those provisions as unconstitutional limits on presidential power.

The decision could give the president the ability to reshape agencies Congress created to operate independently of the executive branch. It also could be a threat to the federal workforce, well below top executives, that has been covered by the civil service system, if future decisions allow the president to fire lower-level workers.

One agency that still appears beyond Trump's reach is the Federal Reserve. Though many experts have said there is no principled distinction, the court ruled Monday that the Fed's leadership can't be fired at will. It said Cook can remain in her job while she challenges efforts to oust her over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she denies.

The Voting Rights Act has been hollowed out

It was the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement: the 1965 federal law that finally opened the ballot box to Black Americans and other minorities and eventually led to the election of thousands of Black officeholders across the country.

But since 2013, the court has systematically and severely cut back on the ability of minority voters to invoke the law's protections to challenge election changes, saying the need for those protections had largely passed.

In April, the court made it much harder for minority voters to challenge electoral districts that result in reduced opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing, unless they can effectively prove intentional racial discrimination.

The decision meshed with Trump's call for Republicans to redraw as many districts as possible to try to hold on to their slim majority in the House.

Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee eliminated largely Black districts in response to the decision, including an Alabama district that was created in response to a Supreme Court ruling three years ago.

The immigration crackdown has been at the center of Trump's agenda

The Trump administration notched a series of wins on immigration this term: The justices allowed the Department of Homeland Security to end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians and to employ a restrictive policy limiting the number of people seeking asylum each day at the southern border.

They also allowed border officers wider latitude in cases of green-card holders accused of crimes, in a case that started during the Obama administration.

In the birthright citizenship case, Trump pushed for limits no president had sought before, and certainly not through an executive order that would bypass Congress. In the end, six justices ruled he had gone too far.

But four justices adopted the administration's reading of the 14th Amendment that it would permit denying citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

Trump's crude racial and religious stereotypes get a pass from the court

Conservative justices have repeatedly discounted or taken the best possible view of Trump’s words and actions. Critics call it sanewashing.

In last week's decision stripping protections from Haitian migrants, Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan sparred over the role of race in Trump's statements depicting Haitians as “poisoning our blood” and amplifying false rumors of them eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio, among other graphic comments.

“None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial,” Alito wrote, contending they could have neutral explanations.

Kagan countered: “The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the President’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country.”

The findings echo the 2018 travel ban case where Chief Justice John Roberts said Trump's comments about Muslims were beside the point in the court's review of a “Presidential directive, neutral on its face, addressing a matter within the core of executive responsibility.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor saw things differently. “The full record paints a far more harrowing picture, from which a reasonable observer would readily conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by hostility and animus toward the Muslim faith,” she wrote.

The court also looked past the allegations against Trump when it ruled for him in the 2024 case that helped him avoid prosecution. Two of Trump's appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, had little interest in discussing Trump's effort to undo the 2020 election results and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol that followed. “We’re writing a rule for the ages," Gorsuch said. Kavanaugh added later: “I’m not focused on the here and now of this case. I’m very concerned about the future."

The court rejected Trump's global tariffs

A six-justice majority of three liberal and three conservative justices ruled in February that an emergency powers law doesn’t let Trump bypass Congress. No president had ever tried the tactic before.

Trump responded to the loss by sharpy criticizing the justices who ruled against him, referring to those he nominated as an “embarrassment to their families.”

Meanwhile, he has continued threatening tariffs under other authorities. And new tariffs he imposed in response to the high-court ruling remain in effect even as they, too, have been challenged.

Gun rights get a modest boost

The justices backed Second Amendment rights in a pair of rulings. One found that people can't be barred from owning firearms just because they regularly use marijuana. While the federal ban wasn't often enforced in broad terms, the court's decision recognized that cannabis is now used by millions of people and said it can't automatically be considered dangerous.

Another decision struck down a Hawaii law that had required people to get permission to carry guns into stores and hotels. A handful of other states have similar laws, some of which have already been blocked in court.

They're the latest in a line of gun cases to reach the court since the justices expanded Second Amendment rights in a landmark 2022 decision.

And a major new case on gun rights is looming. The court also announced Tuesday it will decide whether state and local bans on semiautomatic rifles commonly known as assault weapons violate the Second Amendment.

In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and convictions and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30.

The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration, and part of a barrage of anti-fraud actions it has aggressively promoted in the healthcare sector. They have included the creation of a new task force, targeted investigations, funding deferrals and demands for revalidation of healthcare providers that have touched all states but focused largely on Democratic ones.

The pulled funding also comes after the administration admitted a glaring error in figures meant to help justify a fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program earlier this year, a mistake critics said revealed a Trumpian tendency to attack first and verify the facts later.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, immediately vowed to fight Tuesday's funding freeze.

“During my time as Attorney General, my office has recovered over $627 million for Medicaid and was recognized by this very administration for leading the nation in anti-fraud efforts,” she wrote. “We are considering all legal options to stop this outrageous action.”

Letter accuses New York of low performance

Bell's letter to James and New York MFCU Director Amy Held argues that the unit is moving too slowly on cases and amassing too few indictments and convictions for wrongdoing in the Medicaid system. It notes that compared to four similarly-sized units in other states, it secured the lowest number of criminal fraud convictions between 2023 and 2025.

The letter acknowledges that one reason the state has fewer criminal convictions than other states is that it made a deliberate choice to focus on “high impact, complex fraud cases” rather than smaller-scale individual cases, but says that tradeoff didn't produce sufficient results.

“Enough is enough,” Bell wrote. “The New York MFCU has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of its MFCU grant award.”

Bell said in the letter that the funding suspension could be lifted before Sept. 30 if New York takes corrective action, “showing it has remediated concerns that formed the basis for this suspension.” He said if the state doesn’t fix the problems, the freeze will continue.

New York officials dispute the Trump administration's claims

New York's attorney general's office said in a statement that it has “long been recognized as a national leader in effectively investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud schemes,” including by the HHS inspector general's office. A 2025 report from the office notes that New York is one of four states that made up half the total civil recoveries in that year.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said most of the unit’s criminal convictions focus on company owners, executives and corporations that would return large amounts to Medicaid.

“Under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State has taken concrete steps to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid," said New York health department spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva. “We look forward to the day when these disingenuous attacks end.”

The funding cutoff follows a similar move in Hawaii. In early June, Bell told Hawaii officials that Medicaid fraud funding would be cut off there, saying that it had a three-year stretch without a Medicaid fraud indictment or conviction.

Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said there's an irony in the federal government cutting off money intended for prosecuting fraud when its stated goal is to do just that.

“If you want to fight fraud, don't take away money from states' fraud control units,” she said. “I chalk this up to more political theater to distract voters from historic Medicaid cuts before the midterms.”

The Department of Justice named the MFCUs in both Hawaii and New York as prosecutorial partners in a news release about a national Medicaid fraud takedown last week.

Move follows months of federal warnings and deferrals

For months, the Trump administration has contended that states — especially some Democratic-led ones — have been lax about fraud in social safety-net programs, including Medicaid.

It has demanded at least five states, four of them governed by Democrats, share information about how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.

The federal government has also withheld some Medicaid funding from Minnesota and California over fraud concerns. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, accused Trump of making cuts because of retribution.

The fraud-busting efforts have also targeted Medicare programs. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a six-month moratorium on new enrollments for providers of hospice and home care nationally.

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

A search was underway for a suspect who fled on foot after the blast late Monday, Prosecutor Stéphane Thibault said, adding that the motive was unclear.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia. A woman and a child were also hurt.

“It appears that the family was specifically targeted,” said Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco. He said the suspect “had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims,” according to surveillance footage.

It was not clear why the family was targeted or by whom.

Russia has a long history of targeting its enemies abroad, and Western intelligence officials have recently said that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is also believed to have carried out attacks and targeted killings of Russian figures in the course of the war, although those attacks have largely been confined to Ukrainian or Russian territory.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said its embassy in France, which is also responsible for Monaco, was in touch with local authorities. Ukrainian diplomats were at the scene providing assistance, it said.

Attack shocks glamorous Monaco

The attack shocked the country on the Mediterranean coast, one of the world’s smallest sovereign states known for its high concentration of wealthy residents. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as “an odious act” and said all public services were mobilized to ensure security.

Monaco police opened an attempted murder investigation, but they did not describe it as a terrorism investigation, Thibault told reporters.

The family members are “regular” residents of Monaco, and authorities did not yet know whether they had been threatened in the past, Mirmand said.

The blast occurred around 9 p.m. Monday at the entrance of a residence near the French border.

Silvano Ippolito, who lives across from the building where the explosion happened, described hearing it and seeing a little boy on the ground being attended to by other people. He then called his wife, a doctor, who provided first aid to the badly wounded woman.

“She intervened very quickly, before the emergency services arrived, to apply tourniquets and perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as the woman was losing consciousness,” Ippolito said.

A man came out of the building covered in blood and staggering. As he tried to go down the stairs, the staircase collapsed, and he fell on Ippolito’s wife and a firefighter, he said.

The woman’s injuries were “a real disaster," Ippolito said. "I’m telling you, she had no foot.”

The woman was in life-threatening condition, Thibault said. He did not provide the identities of the people who were hurt.

The woman was being treated at a hospital in Nice, Mirmand told French news broadcaster LCI. Her partner and the 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries but were still hospitalized Tuesday, he added.

The suspect got away via steps to a small street to the neighboring French town of Beausoleil, according to surveillance footage.

In a picture captured by surveillance cameras and published by French media, the suspect could be seen in a street wearing a black jacket, light-colored pants, white shoes and a black bucket hat that partly concealed his face.

The three people were “apparently returning home peacefully,” Mirmand said, citing surveillance footage. “They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building."

Ukrainian tycoon is a well-known real estate developer

Yermolaiev, a Ukrainian-born businessman originally from the city of Dnipro, built his fortune through the Alef Group, a diversified business that includes commercial real estate, manufacturing and agriculture. He became one of the country’s best-known property developers, leading projects that reshaped parts of Dnipro’s city center. He has regularly appeared in rankings of Ukraine’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, Yermolaiev said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a Cypriot citizen in 2017.

In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on Yermolaiev as part of a broader package targeting individuals and companies Kyiv said had business links to Russia or Russian-occupied territories.

The Cyprus Registrar of Companies lists a man called Vadym Iermolaiev as the director of Vespano Ltd., a company in the Cypriot city of Limassol first registered in January 2019. Cyprus’ Interior Ministry told The Associated Press it could not provide information about the man’s citizenship status due to confidentiality rules.

A coastal playground for the rich and famous, Monaco is renowned as much for its tax-friendly incentives and Formula 1 Grand Prix as its glamorous royal family. The small principality is widely regarded as one of the safest places in the world, in part because of its network of thousands of surveillance cameras covering most public spaces.

Monaco’s population of 38,000 is multinational, with only a fifth of the population actually citizens of the principality.

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Associated Press journalists Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard’s astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years. It's part of President Donald Trump's push to declassify more information about the issue.

Loeb's team will report to a new White House panel focused on UFOs, now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

“It’s like a detective story,” Loeb said in an interview. “It’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the critics.”

For the last decade, Loeb has been scanning the skies and seas for evidence of intelligent alien life. He began the quest in 2017 as scientists puzzled over an interstellar object soaring by Earth. While others proposed it was a comet or ice chunk, Loeb said it could be a thin “light sail” detached from an alien spacecraft.

His theories have won praise in UFO circles but often put him in conflict with academic peers. Other astronomers accuse him of making exotic claims with little evidence. Some chafe at his habit of skipping the peer review process and bringing claims directly to the public.

Steve Desch, an Arizona State University astrophysicist who has challenged some of Loeb's theories, said Loeb uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions about alien life — all while shunning a more established branch of science searching for life beyond Earth.

Loeb's role on the White House panel casts doubt on the entire endeavor, Desch said.

“I don’t know what’s going to come of this, but we’re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge,” Desch said.

The team includes scientists, UFO activists and a billionaire

Loeb brushes his critics aside, saying they lack the imagination to consider new ideas. He's promising a grounded approach to his work for the White House. As he analyzes UAP, he's starting with the assumption that they're the work of humans, he said, approaching it from a national security perspective.

Nonetheless, he envisions an outcome where his work could lead to something bigger. If the government invests in better data collection on UAPs, Loeb said, it could settle the alien debate once and for all.

His hand-picked team includes more than a dozen scientists and UFO activists. Among them is Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral who has warned about UAP controlled by “nonhuman intelligence,” claiming the United States has recovered crashed aircraft. Also on the team is Ben Lamm, a billionaire working to revive extinct species.

After its first meeting last month, the team sent a request to the Pentagon asking for more than 50 videos, images and other documents related to known UAP incidents. Loeb's group meets behind closed doors, but he has vowed to brief the public and create a website to share findings.

“At a time when science is not so much celebrated, this is an opportunity to actually do good for all sides involved,” Loeb said.

New UAP board created in response to Trump's order for transparency

Earlier this year, Trump directed his administration to provide more transparency on questions of UFOs and alien life. So far, the Pentagon has released three batches of files ranging from decades-old FBI reports to more recent military videos showing orbs darting or soaring through the sky.

Trump's directive led to the creation of a UAP Governance Board overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The board met for the first time in June, and is supported by Loeb's team and several other advisory groups, the office said.

It comes as a bipartisan group in Congress pushes the White House to go further, with some Republicans amplifying claims the U.S. is hiding evidence of alien encounters. The White House has encouraged anyone with information to come forward. A Pentagon office that investigates UAP says it has seen no evidence of alien life.

Loeb said he doesn't buy into cover-up theories. “My impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,” he said.

Before looking for aliens, Loeb studied black holes and galaxies

Before he became known for his alien theories, Loeb was a respected cosmologist who authored hundreds of papers, specializing in black holes and the birth of galaxies. He served as chair of Harvard's astronomy department for nearly a decade.

Loeb's career took a turn with his “light sail” theory in 2017, which he presented in a paper and later a book. He went on to found the Galileo Project at Harvard, with a stated mission to search for artifacts from alien civilizations.

His team drew attention in 2023 when they used magnets to retrieve hundreds of small spheres from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, near the possible site of a 2014 meteor crash. After analyzing the metallic “spherules,” Loeb suggested they came from a distant planet or, alternately, from alien technology.

Other scholars challenged the claim, saying it was probably volcanic rock or coal ash.

Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist who previously investigated UAP at the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, said Loeb is “not viewed favorably” in the scientific community and lacks national security experience. He said the makeup of Loeb's team suggests the White House is more interested in fringe theories than hard science.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism.

Loeb, meanwhile, said he aims to follow the science without distraction. “Let’s keep our eyes on the orbs,” he said, “not the social media.”

The justices said Tuesday they will hear appeals challenging bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in Connecticut and the Chicago area.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings. States have also continued to pass their own laws, including recent measures in Virginia and Rhode Island.

It is the latest high-profile dispute over guns to reach the court since its conservative majority handed down a landmark ruling in 2022 that expanded Second Amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country.

Arguments are expected to be heard in the fall.

The Connecticut law was passed after a mass shooter used an AR-15 to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. The state says the guns are a preferred weapon of mass shooters, and they can be banned because they are similar to military-grade weapons.

“These laws are critical public safety measures, and they are consistent with the Second Amendment," said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at the gun-control group Everytown Law.

Gun rights groups, on the other hand, argue it’s unconstitutional to ban semiautomatic rifles, which are legally owned by millions of Americans.

“The Second Amendment protects arms in common use for lawful purposes, and it’s hard to argue that a type of rifle that potentially outnumbers Ford F-150 trucks in America doesn’t meet that standard,” said Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation.

Four conservative justices on the nine-member court, enough to grant review of a case, had signaled that it was only a matter of time before the court took up the issue.

The ban in Cook County, Illinois, was first passed in 1993. Lower courts have upheld both laws.

“If the Second Amendment does not protect the most popular rifles in the country, it is hard to see how it protects any firearms at all,” aside from handguns kept in the home, the challengers wrote.

Attorneys for Cook County, on the other hand, say the measure does pass constitutional muster. "The trauma that assault weapon massacres have inflicted on the public at large has been staggering,” they wrote.

The Supreme Court backed Second Amendment rights in two cases this term, striking down gun carry restrictions in Hawaii and a broad federal ban on gun ownership by marijuana users. They've previously upheld some restrictions, though, including a law barring people under domestic-violence restraining orders from having guns.

Also Tuesday, the court rebuffed a series of cases over restrictions on guns for young adults under age 21, declining to hear an issue that's sharply divided lower courts in recent years.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Scorching temperatures, especially combined with high humidity, pose risks particularly for children, older people and those with certain health conditions. Anyone can suffer from heat-related illness.

Climate change is also exacerbating heat waves and heat stress.

So here are some tips to stay safe:

When heat becomes dangerous

Dangers posed by hot weather depend on more than the temperature. The most detailed measurement is called the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), which includes temperature, humidity, cloud cover and wind. The heat index, which measures temperature and humidity, is less descriptive but easier to find on weather apps. Both explain why a shaded soccer field on a 90 degree F day (32 degree C) in arid Phoenix may be less risky than an exposed park on an 80 degree F (27 degree C) day in soupy Little Rock.

Just based on heat index, NOAA has a chart that calculates how dangerous prolonged exposure can be. For example, a day in which temperatures reach 96 degree F (36 degrees C) and 45% humidity would fall into the “danger” category for prolonged exposure or strenuous activity.

The WBGT threshold isn't exact, but recent research suggests that even some young, healthy people can't endure hours of exposure to high heat and humidity.

How to cool down

Overnight temperatures can be a particularly dangerous part of a heat wave, said Ashley Ward, director of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University.

“Your body needs a reprieve,” she said. “You don't get that overnight, we start the next day at a deficit.” Heat can worsen labor productivity and lead to more visits to the emergency room.

“When we have overnight temperatures that don't drop below 75 degrees" F (24 degrees C), she said, “you start to see some pretty extraordinary outcomes with respect to heat illness and heat stroke, and even mortality.”

Ward said air conditioning can help, but she acknowledged that not everyone has access.

If you can't afford to cool the whole house, Ward said, create a “cool corner" and sleep there, so your body is prepared to tackle the next day.

Evaporative or “swamp” coolers can help in dry heat, but they increase humidity and can make it more difficult to cool down. In humid places, just use a fan.

If you don't have air conditioning, find public places that do, including movie theaters, malls and libraries. Some communities set up cooling centers.

Depending on where you live, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program can help you buy a window air conditioning unit, according to the National Council on Aging. Some local nonprofits and civic organizations can also help.

Know your rights if you work outside

Knowing what workplace protections you have is important. Some states have them, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Other states don't have any.

If your state has work rules, try to learn them — though there are still challenges to ensuring regulations are actually enforced, said Bharat Venkat, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Heat Lab.

He notes that sometimes shaded areas are too far away for workers to take breaks without losing wages, or that management can make it impossible for workers to advocate for themselves. “Most workers don’t actually have control over their time or control over where they work," Venkat said.

Within those constraints, finding ways to stay hydrated and lower your body temperature are important. You can do this by drinking lots of fluids, wetting clothing or putting cold water or a cold rag on your hands, feet, armpits and neck. A portable handheld fan or a cooling vest can also help.

If you're exercising, avoid the hottest times of day and bring more water than you think you need.

Knowing heat illness symptoms

Heat illness symptoms can vary by person, Venkat said. Medications or existing health conditions can also make it harder to regulate body temperature or notice you're getting too hot.

Early trouble signs include heavy sweating, muscle cramps and headache. That's when you stop what you're doing and cool yourself off, for example by splashing yourself with cold water or finding an air-conditioned space.

As heat exhaustion sets in, new symptoms arrive, including faster heart rate and dizziness. Next comes heat stroke, which can include confusion, slurred words and fainting. Ward said that's when to call 911.

“Don’t be embarrassed to call 911 or go to urgent care when you think you might have overdone it in the heat,” he said.

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Walling and Wells are former Associated Press reporters.

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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.

Two months, and only one major, are all that remain for the PGA Tour in 2026 to find some definition. There have been good tournaments, great finishes, redemptions and breakthroughs, and Scottie Scheffler as steady as he has always been.

It's just that no one has stood out this year.

Rory McIlroy became only the fourth back-to-back Masters champion, and the first since Tiger Woods in 2002. It was an example of how much freedom he felt from finally having the green jacket and the career Grand Slam. But that's his only win this year, and except for a late rally at Riviera, he really hasn't come close.

The eight signature events were won by eight players, no different from last year when seven players won the seven $20 million tournaments. But a year ago, all seven winners were among the top 25 in the world when they won. This year that applied to only three winners — Collin Morikawa (19) at Pebble Beach, Matt Fitzpatrick (7) at Hilton Head and Cameron Young (4) at Doral.

It also is not unusual to start a season with three different major champions — that's been the case each of the past 11 years. But it's the first time since 2010 that two of the three major champions were not among the top 30 when they won.

Aaron Rai was at No. 44 when he captured his first major at the PGA Championship, and Wyndham Clark was at No. 34 when he won at Shinnecock Hills for his second U.S. Open title.

(This requires an asterisk because Brooks Koepka was No. 44 when he won the 2023 PGA Championship. He was No. 19 when he left for LIV, and his two wins came with no ranking points).

There were two multiple winners of individual tournaments last year at this point — Scheffler and McIlroy. There are four this year with Clark, Young, Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup.

The last two months, highlighted by the final major at the British Open and three FedEx Cup playoff events, should go a long way toward shaping the season. Scheffler and Xander Schauffele won the British Open each of the past two years, and it was their second major of the season.

Even in a game that moves slowly, outlooks can change quickly.

Scheffler looks about the same minus the trophies

Scheffler began his year with a four-shot victory in The American Express. Thirteen tournaments later, he still only has one victory.

He still leads the PGA Tour in overall strokes gained and tee-to-green, though his numbers are down from a year ago. Scheffler has nine finishes in the top 5 in his 14 starts. His playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at The Travelers Championship was his fourth runner-up of the year.

Take only the money from those four runner-up finishes — $8.9 million — and that would rank him at No. 4 on the PGA Tour money list. He hasn't been as sharp at times. He had a bad habit of giving the field too much of a head start. But he doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

The other Fitzpatrick seizes on the opportunity

Fitzpatrick leads the PGA Tour in victories this season with three because one of them was Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he teamed with younger brother Alex to win. That gave Alex Fitzpatrick a two-year exemption, seen at the time as one of the great gifts ever from big brother.

Instead of flying to Turkey for the next European tour event, Alex Fitzpatrick headed to Doral for a signature event. And he got in the next one, and the one after that. He went from that supposed “gift card” to registering four top 10s in the signature events against the strongest fields.

His world ranking has gone from No. 140 to No. 62. More importantly, he is at No. 17 in the FedEx Cup and a lock for all the big stuff next year — and all the majors if he reaches the Tour Championship.

Clark has to be the front-runner for player of the year

Clark is dangerous when he gets on a heater, and he's on a heater.

He won his first U.S. Open in 2023 a little over a month after dusting the field at Quail Hollow. He shot 60 to win at Pebble Beach in 2024, then was runner-up two straight weeks to Scheffler at Bay Hill and The Players Championship the following month.

Clark had another closing 60 to win at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson, followed that with contending late Sunday afternoon in the Memorial and early Sunday afternoon in the Canadian Open, and then he stood down a hostile gallery at Shinnecock to win the U.S. Open. And then running on fumes, he got within two shots of the lead late Sunday at the Travelers and tied for fifth.

How long will it last? Two more months and it might be enough to end Scheffler's four-year run as PGA Tour player of the year.

But that depends on Scheffler.

He is the defending champion at the British Open, and a victory by him or a half-dozen others could be what it takes to bring some clarity to the season.

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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

His name is Gadi Eisenkot. On Tuesday in Israel, his centrist political party “Yashar!” or “Straight!” formally launched its election season campaign.

“This time it’s on us,” said Eisenkot at the launch event Tuesday. “Will we turn a blind eye to the disaster that has befallen us? Will we accept the continued division and rush to the next disaster? Or will we heal and rebuild?”

His rise from the highest ranks of the military could sharpen scrutiny of Netanyahu and his stewardship of Israel through multiple wars. Like nearly all of the prime minister’s rivals, Eisenkot has broadly supported Israeli military operations in places such as Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. He did not mention any of those conflicts in his speech Tuesday.

But he has also accused Netanyahu of strategic failure in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and said his vision of a more isolated Israel is a threat to the future of the state.

In recent days Netanyahu, who leads Israel’s right-wing Likud Party, has fired back, saying if he had listened to Eisenkot, who was opposed to certain operations in Gaza, then “all of Hamas” would still be in control in the territory.

As a political newcomer, however, Eisenkot “looks like a front-runner because he’s everything Netanyahu is not,” said Gideon Rahat, senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank in Jerusalem.

“He’s not polarizing, he’s not a populist like Netanyahu, and he will try to unify the country,” Rahat said.

An anti-Netanyahu biography

A 66-year-old son of Jewish Moroccan immigrants, Eisenkot stands in stark contrast to Netanyahu, a U.S.-educated elite who is on trial for corruption. He comes from a working-class family. His English is unpolished. He spent four decades in Israel’s military.

He has also never campaigned on having ties to U.S. President Donald Trump. And his 25-year-old son, Gal Meir Eisenkot, was killed in combat in Gaza, while Netanyahu’s son, a podcaster, lived part-time in Florida.

Losing a son — as well as two nephews — to the war has raised Eisenkot’s profile among Israelis and given him credibility as someone who, having paid the ultimate price, won’t needlessly sacrifice soldiers.

“People trust him to be a real person and a patriot. They expect him to take care of the country and not himself,” said Rahat, who is a professor at Hebrew University.

His platform includes a pledge to strengthen Israel’s national security, including through regional cooperation, although he has said that he supports Jewish settlements that are “in line with Israel’s interests” in the occupied West Bank. He said Tuesday he would focus on establishing a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failures leading to the Oct. 7 attack, rebuild the north and south of the country and invest in education and healthcare.

He has also adopted the slogan “Service for All,” a nod to mandating military service for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities. For Israelis who have grown tired of war or sending their loved ones off to fight, such arguments may resonate.

“He presents as an everyman, a reflection of the ordinary Israeli,” Joshua Leifer, a columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, wrote. He is “a kind of antipolitician,” he said.

In 2024, Eisenkot resigned from Netanyahu’s war Cabinet, citing what he said was the prime minister’s lack of strategy as Israel prosecuted its war in Gaza. He sent a blistering letter to fellow Cabinet members warning that they were mistaking incremental battlefield gains for decisions that could actually neutralize Hamas and make Israel more secure.

But his qualms weren’t with the level of destruction in Gaza or the high civilian toll, both of which drew global outrage. And while at times he has emphasized diplomacy as a way to address Israel’s security challenges, Eisenkot is also credited with formulating Israel’s so‑called “Dahiyeh Doctrine,” named after the area in Beirut’s southern suburbs where the Hezbollah militant group has a stronghold.

He elaborated on the doctrine in a 2008 interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, after serving as a top military official during Israel’s war with Lebanon in 2006.

“What happened in the Dahiyeh quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which shots will be fired in the direction of Israel,” he said. “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases.”

Despite anti-Netanyahu sentiment, challengers face difficult path to unseating him

In Israel’s fractured multi-party system, prime ministers rarely finish their four-year terms. Coalitions collapse and new alliances are formed. Because of that — and despite Netanyahu’s unpopularity — it would still be difficult for any of the prime minister’s challengers to form a coalition broad enough to unseat him.

If Eisenkot’s party wins more seats than Netanyahu’s, it will still need to form alliances with enough other parties to constitute a majority. Eisenkot has said he will not compromise on legislation mandating military service for the ultra-Orthodox, who also wield political power.

He will also need to decide whether to include Arab-led parties to get over the threshold — something Netanyahu and his far-right allies have already used as an attack line.

“The correct response to the traitorous decision today on anchor babies is nullification,” French wrote on X. “Texas can just do things and we should. Texas is sovereign. If I have anything to say about it, Texas will not recognize them as citizens.”

French’s comments follow a landmark ruling on Tuesday by the Supreme Court justices to reject President Donald Trump’s bid to end the 170-year-old constitutional right that affords American citizenship to newborns whose parents are immigrants. The justices voted 6-3.

The Railroad Commission, a century-old agency governing the state’s enormous oil and gas industry, has no bearing on immigration issues, nor can the three-panel commissioners make decisions that affect a person’s immigration status — an issue French regularly weighs in on.

The responsibilities of the agency, in turn, have not been the focal point of French’s campaign for statewide office. Since announcing his bid last November, French has been a regular, incendiary commentator on the country’s immigration and LGBTQ+ policies, making frequent appearances on podcasts hosted by right-wing podcasters such as Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec.

He has called LGBTQ+ people slurs, said Texas should more openly embrace Islamophobia, and that the U.S. should deport 100 million people, nearly a third of the country’s population.

After winning the primary in a runoff, in which he narrowly ousted incumbent Jim Wright, French said maintaining that was the point. He said such issues resonated with voters, not the Railroad Commission itself.

“I ran a campaign because I had to win a Republican primary,” he told Posobiec. “Talking about the Islamification of Texas, talking about DEI, talking about LGBTQ issues … I think my victory is a testament to the grassroots folks in Texas who are tired of electing people who aren’t fighting for them on any of these issues.”

His remarks have drawn the ire of members of his own party, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have publicly decried French — Abbott said he would wreck the miracle that is the oil and gas industry — and endorsed his primary opponent during primary season.

That changed after French won the primary, and both Abbott and Patrick said they’d support him in November. On X, French said he’d had “a very nice call” with Patrick, who has previously called on French to step down as Tarrant County GOP chair after French posted a social media poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America.

French faces state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Democrat and career oil field engineer who faces an uphill battle of defeating a GOP-dominated commission. It has been decades since a Democrat was elected to the Railroad Commission. Rosenthal has told the Texas Tribune his campaign would bring issues the Railroad Commission regulates to the forefront of his campaign.

“My opponent is going on an unhinged rant, encouraging sedition, treason, and racism,” Rosenthal said in a statement, adding that voters “have no idea what his plan is”

French’s campaign has been bankrolled by well-known billionaires, including Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who have poured their gargantuan wealth to sway Texas elections in the past.

A new AP-NORC poll shows Republicans and older, white adults are especially likely to say they fly the American flag, while younger Democrats and Black adults are more likely to say they don’t fly it, reflecting deeply divided views on what patriotism means.

And on this final day of a Supreme Court term centering on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power, the justices have upheld the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump's effort to deny the right to the children of noncitizen parents. Follow live updates on the rulings.

Here's the Latest:

Lacking tough rules, federal officials seek voluntary enforcement on cyberscams

The AP found no evidence to suggest these companies were doing anything illegal. However, the patterns of abuse AP identified raise questions about how vigorously they are enforcing their own terms of service, which prohibit illegal activity.

Some other countries have new laws imposing financial penalties if companies don’t do more to protect consumers from scams. In Washington, lawmakers and government officials have been asking American tech companies to cooperate on a voluntary basis to cut scammers off from U.S. infrastructure.

AP/‘FRONTLINE’ investigation shows how US tech is abused for global scams

The technology of American companies is being used to power a revolution in the cyberscam industry, playing key roles in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear until now, an AP/“FRONTLINE” investigation has found.

Most public scrutiny of the technology that fuels scams has focused on the social media that platforms victims see, but the infrastructure exploited to commit fraud begins much farther upstream, the investigation showed.

Watchdogs say satellite internet, AI and internet infrastructure companies along the digital supply chains that fraudsters abuse have the technical capacity to do more to protect consumers but lack the legal, regulatory and business incentives to crack down on a crime the Federal Trade Commission estimates cost Americans nearly $200 billion in 2024.

Court will consider striking down assault weapons bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area

A Supreme Court that has expanded gun rights will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment.

The justices said Tuesday they will take up appeals asking the court to strike down bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in the Chicago area and Connecticut.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings and states have continued to pass their own laws.

The case is expected to be heard in the fall.

Republican Tom Kean Jr. said he was treated for depression during absence from Congress

New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. revealed Tuesday that he spent months away from Congress being treated for depression.

“It is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be,” he said on the House floor.

Kean, whose battleground district includes Trump’s Bedminster golf club, missed more than 100 votes in Congress this year. His reappearance comes after he won an uncontested primary on June 2.

“Today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love,” Kean said.

Kean’s office has said he’s still running for reelection against Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot. Democrats have targeted the district as a prime pick-up opportunity.

▶ Read more

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s proposed limits

The Court ’s ruling released Tuesday upholds a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

▶ Read more about Tuesday’s Supreme Court rulings

US job monthly openings hold at a surprising 7.6 million despite Iran war shock

May’s job openings were surprisingly strong in the data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing American labor market resilience to the war’s economic shock. Forecasters had expected employers to post just 7 million openings in May.

Rebounding from a miserable 2025, U.S. employers have added nearly 114,000 net jobs a month on average this year, up from just 9,700 in 2025, the weakest outside a recession since 2002.

Because of baby boomer retirements and Trump’s immigration crackdown, fewer people are competing for work, and the United States doesn’t need as many jobs as it used to keep the unemployment rate stable. Economists say the so-called “break-even’’ rate of hiring could be as low as zero jobs a month, down from perhaps 150,000 a year or so ago.

▶ Read more

Supreme Court backs state laws banning transgender girls from sports

The Court ’s conservative majority added to its repeated rulings against transgender Americans by deciding that bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The ruling seems certain to extend to the dozens of other Republican-led states that have banned female transgender athletes. Left unresolved are lawsuits challenging state laws and regulations in Connecticut, California and elsewhere that permit transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

▶ Read more about Tuesday’s Supreme Court rulings

US envoys arrive in Qatar for meetings on Iran, with tensions high over Hormuz

Trump’s special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner plan meetings with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran, following more crossfire in the Persian Gulf.

They won’t directly negotiate with Iranian diplomats, instead using mediators as go-betweens, said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.

Iran was also sending a delegation to Qatar, but has no plans to meet with the American side at any level, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. His statement left open the possibility of messages being passed through the Qataris.

▶ Read more

Who flies the American flag for holidays — and who never flies one, according to an AP-NORC poll

American views of “Old Glory” are divided by politics, age and race, according to a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.

Whether people see it as a unifying or divisive symbol tracks with other deep divisions among Americans, who see their country’s history and accomplishments very differently. About 7 in 10 Republicans and about 6 in 10 Americans ages 60 and older fly the flag at least during holidays. About 6 in 10 Democrats and independents, on the other hand, say they “never” fly the U.S. flag. That includes the vast majority, 75%, of Democrats under 45.

Only about 3 in 10 Black adults say they ever display the American flag, compared with about half of white and Hispanic adults.

The survey of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20.

▶ Read more

What the Supreme Court’s Cook ruling means for Federal Reserve independence

The Supreme Court on Monday said the Federal Reserve, unlike any other agency in Washington, has a measure of independence from the presidency and day-to-day politics. But the court didn’t define to what extent.

The case is the latest round in an unprecedented fight between the Fed and Trump. More political interference at the Fed could upend financial markets around the world, which closely follow its interest rate moves.

Trump has repeatedly demanded that the central bank cut its key interest rate to lower borrowing costs for homeowners, businesses, and even the government itself. Trump sought to fire a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, last August after accusing her of mortgage fraud — a charge she denies.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the president cannot fire the seven members of the Fed’s board of governors without a clear cause. The decision endorses the Fed’s independent structure even as the court eliminated such protections for leaders of other agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, whom the president can fire at-will.

▶ Read more

Trump nominates acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling as permanent chief

Trump said Monday he will nominate Keith Sonderling to be the secretary of labor, elevating him from the agency’s acting director two months after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid abuse-of-power allegations.

Sonderling, a lawyer who has held a variety of acting positions and leadership roles across Trump’s government, was previously the deputy labor secretary and a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“Throughout his career, Keith has proven his dedication to delivering strong results for the Hardworking People of our Country, and I know he will do an incredible job in his new role,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing Sonderling’s nomination.

Sonderling’s nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

During Trump’s second term, in addition to his Labor Department post, Sonderling has been the acting director of U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, one of several agencies Trump targeted for closure in an executive order last year.

▶ Read more

The Supreme Court it issue momentous rulings on Trump’s power

The Supreme Court is wrapping up a term that has focused on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power.

Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, fire the heads of most independent agencies at will and remove a sitting Federal Reserve governor are among the remaining eight cases the justices are expected to decide this week, beginning Monday.

The court also is weighing, in cases from West Virginia and Idaho, whether to uphold laws in roughly half the states that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on their public school and college sports.

Two election-related cases remain, over state laws that allow a grace period for the receipt of mailed ballots, provided they are sent by Election Day, and limits on political party spending in support of candidates for Congress and president.

Also outstanding is a dispute over geofence warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes. Critics say the practice is a fishing expedition that violates civil liberties.

▶ Read more

Prodded by a Republican-led lawsuit that includes Vice President JD Vance, the court's six conservative justices were again in the majority of the latest decision that upended congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections. The court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections.

The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.

The Supreme Court had previously upheld the limits, in 2001.

But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, said that decision was wrong and should be overruled. “In short, constitutional text, history and precedent establish that the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits violate the First Amendment,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Justice Elena Kagan's dissent for the three liberal justices said the court “ushers in untold harm” by enabling parties to funnel large contributions to individual candidates, far in excess of what donors can give those candidates directly.

National parties now will be able to make direct contributions to candidates’ campaigns,

The decision is likely to give Republicans at least a short-term boost because they maintain a sizable cash advantage over Democrats.

The Republican National Committee and its Senate and House campaign fundraising arms have dwarfed Democrats’ in the months before congressional elections where the GOP is defending narrow majorities in both houses.

At the end of May, the RNC reported having more than $125 million to spend, its highest-ever cash on hand total, according to its most recent Federal Election Commission filing in May. Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had more than $48 million on hand in its most recent report and the National Republican Congressional Committee had more than $81 million.

In the same period, the Democratic National Committee had $14.4 million on hand, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had roughly $37 million and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, roughly $73 million.

The Republican committees for House and Senate candidates filed the lawsuit in Ohio in 2022, joined by Vance, then a senator from Ohio, and then-Rep. Steve Chabot.

After President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the Federal Election Commission dropped its defense of the law and joined with Republicans in urging that it be overturned.

Democrats had called on the court to uphold the law, even though there is wide agreement that the spending limits have hurt political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.

Last year, the coordinated party spending for Senate races ranged from $127,200 in several states with small populations to nearly $4 million in California, the most populous state. For House races, the limits were $127,200 in states with only one representative and $63,600 everywhere else.

Entrenched divisions between liberal and conservative justices over campaign finance restrictions were on display when the court heard arguments in December.

“Every time we interfere with the congressional design, we make matters worse,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a dissenter in Citizens United and the court’s other campaign money cases.

By contrast, Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Citizens United majority, described the decision as “much maligned, I think unfairly maligned.” The effect of the decision was to ”level the playing field,” Alito said, by expanding the right to spend freely that had previously belonged only to media companies.

___

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja, a 56-year-old nun from Nigeria, and released her later Sunday after South Texas members of Congress intervened.

“There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty’s arrest and detention,” Bishop Daniel E. Flores said in a statement. “For now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to Church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed.”

LULAC, the country’s largest Latino civil rights organization, also called for an investigation into the arrest.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to multiple questions sent Sunday and Tuesday by The Texas Tribune.

Ugboaja, who is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and has worked as a registered nurse for around a decade in South Texas, declined to be interviewed on the advice of counsel, said Brenda Riojas, a diocese spokesperson.

On Sunday morning, Ugboaja was taking a short walk to Our Lady of Sorrows for Mass. She lives just about a block from the church, according to Sister Norma Pimentel, who manages the diocese’s charitable arm.

Federal immigration agents detained her before she could arrive.

Ugboaja called for help while in custody and said she was being transferred to an ICE detention facility in Raymondville, about an hour drive from the church, according to Pimentel. The detained nun also needed medication, which Pimentel said federal agents didn’t allow her to get.

“She was very distraught and scared, and didn’t understand what was happening,” Pimentel told the Tribune on Sunday.

As news spread about Ugboaja’s detention, federal lawmakers in South Texas got involved.

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said in separate social media posts Sunday afternoon that they were communicating directly with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the situation.

“As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,” De La Cruz said in a Facebook post. “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community.”

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, and Bobby Pulido, a Democrat who is running against De La Cruz, also criticized her detention on social media. Pulido further knocked the GOP congresswoman’s support for “the very policies that led to our community living in fear of ICE enforcement.” Prior to Ugboaja, members of Congress including De La Cruz had also intervened in other high-profile ICE detentions, including award-winning high school mariachi performers.

Shortly after, lawmakers announced that Ugboaja would be released.

“I’m pleased to share that Sister Letty is on her way home,” Cuellar said in a 5:39 p.m. post on X.

The news prompted Pimentel to stop searching for documents showing Ugboaba was in the United States legally and instead rush to the El Valle Detention Facility to welcome Ugboaja home.

“Any minute now,” Pimentel said in a text to the Tribune at 6:40 p.m. “Yes praise God.”

Ugboaja then walked out of the facility in tears before being embraced by Pimentel, as seen in footage aired by Telemundo.

Until recently, Pimentel said, there had not been any concerns around the status of international nuns at the diocese. Ugboaja’s detention changed that for her.

“I will definitely ask all the sisters to please give me a copy of their documents and to carry something with them all the time,” she said.

Julio Salinas, co-chair of the Texas Democratic Party’s Hispanic Caucus who is running for a statehouse seat in the area, cheered Ugboaja’s release but blasted her arrest.

“This is a stark wake-up call for all of us,” he said in a Tuesday statement. “It proves one harrowing truth: even the best of us are not safe.”

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the dog attack around 4:30 p.m. at a home in the 8100 block of Seldon Trail, a preliminary report said.

A mother reported that her two children were being attacked by her dogs.

As one family dog attacked a young boy, the report said his brother attempted to help pull the dog off of him.

Deputies stated that another family dog attacked the second brother.

The brothers were taken to a local hospital to treat their injuries to the face and head, BCSO said. They suffered non-life-threatening injuries and are recovering.

The two dogs involved in the incident have since been taken into custody, deputies said.

Read also:

• 13-year-old boy’s body recovered from Boerne City Lake, fire officials say
• Authorities investigating after 2 found dead with gunshot wounds on far West Side, BCSO says

Minetree, said “Elle” executive producer Lauren Neustadter, “actually recreated her own version of the Harvard admission video featured in the 2001 movie that starred Reese Witherspoon, "and she hit it out of the park.”

The preparation to play Elle in the series debuting on Wednesday, didn't stop there. Minetree says she watched “Legally Blonde” about “200 times at this point,” studying Witherspoon's performance, but steering clear of an outright impression of the Oscar winner.

“Reese brought her essence to the character,” Minetree said. “And that is something that no one could ever replicate. It would be a disservice if I tried to do that, so I tried to bring the parts of myself that I thought were reflected in Elle."

A fish out of water

In “Legally Blonde,” we met Elle as a sorority girl who applies to Harvard Law School, gets accepted, and is a star in her class.

“When I read the script it reminded me a lot of old Goldie Hawn movies, or ‘Working Girl,’ Witherspoon told The AP in 2001. “You think this girl is certainly not very smart because of the way she speaks and the way she looks, and then she just turns the tables on everybody and becomes smarter than everyone, and I just love that.”

Like the film, “Elle” underscores that people don’t have to sacrifice their true selves in order to achieve success.

How we meet Minetree's Elle is at her blowout 16th birthday party, shortly before her parents (played by Tom Everett Scott and June Diane Raphael) break the news that they're all moving to Seattle.

The students at her new school are less than friendly and shun Elle's sunny disposition and pink attire. This is Seattle in 1995 and both grunge music and its culture are everything. Even the cheerleaders wear flannel. It takes time for the student's to warm up to their new classmate, whose ice breaker is “I like iced coffee, the month of July and when people dress kind of tennis-y even if they don't play tennis.”

“Such an integral part of the ‘Legally Blonde' IP is not judging a book by its cover," said Chandler Kinney, who plays Kimberly, one of Elle's schoolmates who is particularly judgy — at first.

The lasting influence of ‘Legally Blonde’

The time seemed right to explore more of Elle's story when Witherspoon noticed the pressures young women feel to live up to unrealistic standards curated online. Studies have linked social media to mental health issues among teens.

Witherspoon “really saw what was happening to young women," said Neustadter of Witherspoon's desire to explore the character as a young woman. "She felt like this was the right moment to give Elle to the next generation.”

"Elle reminds us that we should feel good about being ourselves, feel proud of who we are and to be kind and good to others. It feels like a good reminder for this moment in time.”

Telling an origin story of this character just makes sense, Raphael said. We've seen prequels about all kinds of male characters — but “we rarely get to do that with the iconic female characters that we love," she said.

A surprise cast member

— James Van Der Beek

Viewers will recognize a familiar face in the first season of “Elle.” James Van Der Beek, who died in February after a diagnosis of bowel cancer, plays Dean Wilson, superintendent of Elle's new school and a mayoral candidate.

Raphael had the most scenes with Van Der Beek and says it was an honor to share scenes with him.

”It’s so special to me," she said. "His work on the show is so lovely, and he is such a lovely person. I’d never met him before, and I was so excited to work with him. I was really blown away by his charm and his charisma and mainly his ease."

More ‘Elle’ is coming

Season 2 of “Elle” wrapped filming earlier this month, and Minetree is happy viewers won't have to wait long to see a continuation to the story.

“Honestly, Season 2, it’s so good," Minetree said. “Season 1 is amazing, but season 2 might be better.”

There are also plans to make a third “Legally Blonde” film starring Witherspoon.

“Absolutely, we’re on it,” Neustadter said. "Don’t you worry. We’re in the kitchen we’re cooking something up.”

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

CHAMA GAUCHA

217 E Houston St, Suite 100, San Antonio, TX 78205

Chama Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse is an authentic churrascaria that brings centuries-old Southern Brazilian cooking traditions to the heart of downtown San Antonio. Founded in 2008 by João Carlos Ongaratto, a 20-year veteran of Fogo de Chão, the concept started with a single location in San Antonio before expanding to Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Chicago. The downtown location, spanning over 12,000 square feet across two levels, sits steps away from the River Walk, Alamo, and directly across from the Majestic Theatre.

The experience centers on tableside service, where skilled gauchos roast each cut over an open flame and carve directly from the skewer at the table. Cuts include picanha (prime cut sirloin), cordeiro (lamb), porco (pork ribs dusted in parmesan), and filet mignon, all sourced as USDA Prime beef aged over 45 days for maximum tenderness. A massive salad bar stocked with more than 30 options — including cheeses, vegetables, charcuterie, smoked salmon, and garbanzo beans — rounds out the meal, alongside classic Brazilian sides like caramelized bananas, garlic mashed potatoes, and pão de queijo, Brazil’s famous tapioca-flour cheese bread. The indulgent fireball cheesecake makes for a dramatic finish to the full churrascaria experience.

CAMP OUTPOST

1811 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78204

Camp Outpost Co. is a casual American dining experience built around a wood-fired, rotisserie-driven kitchen, set inside an industrial warehouse space in San Antonio’s Southtown and King William neighborhoods. The concept pairs rotisserie-style cuisine with a spacious outdoor patio, communal fire pit, and a vintage Airstream bar, creating a nostalgic camp-like atmosphere that sets it apart from conventional dining.

The kitchen focuses on slow-roasted proteins, which are then finished for texture and bold flavor. Wood-grilled shrimp tacos, rotisserie chicken, and a rotating selection of roasted proteins anchor the menu, while sides like crispy Yukon Gold potatoes — roasted for hours and flash-fried for a tender interior and crunchy crust — and charred corn with poblano peppers and braised onions round out the plates. A jalapeño sausage, burgers, sandwiches, and sliders round out a menu that covers something for every appetite.

Follow Texas Eats and David Elder on Facebook and Instagram for more food info, pictures, videos and giveaways.

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The players return to a homeland still in the grips of an unresolved conflict with Israel and the United States. But their fans say they should be proud.

“I think even though they lost, it gave people a sense of hope,” said Mohammad Modarres, 38, who traveled from San Diego to bid the team farewell.

Heartbreak over missed chances

After its three group stage matches ended in draws, Iran's World Cup future depended on either Algeria or Austria winning their match on Saturday.

Watching from the lobby of their Tijuana hotel, the team erupted in celebration when Algeria took the lead in stoppage time.

“I've never seen a room explode like that,” said Kimia Ranjbar, 25, a lifelong fan of Team Melli who had driven down from the Los Angeles area. But minutes later, Austria tied the game again, leaving the lobby in dismayed silence.

It was the last of many disappointments throughout the tournament, including when a late goal by Shoja Khalilzadeh gave Iran the lead in its last match, against Egypt, before being ruled offside.

Facing challenging circumstances

Distractions abounded off the pitch before and during the tournament, beginning with questions over whether Team Melli would even be allowed to play in light of Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel. What followed was Iran's denied request to move its matches to Mexico, a relocation of its base camp from Arizona, and the U.S.'s refusal to grant visas to key members of the Iranian team's staff. The U.S. also rejected Iran's request to travel to the U.S. two days before its Los Angeles matches, though it relaxed some restrictions for Iran's last match.

During a World Cup security briefing Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that the U.S. had made several accommodations for Iran's travel and repeated assertions that many of the people Iran originally requested to travel with the team to the U.S. were associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

“I'm just glad they're done and they're not coming back," Mullin said, adding that he “might have sung a song or two or maybe even danced a happy dance.”

FIFA did not respond to request for comment.

In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, the Iranian team said Mullin's remarks showed a lack of commitment to international law and the basic standards expected to host a global tournament.

“The fact that he openly celebrates Iran’s elimination says far more about him than it does about our team. It reflects a level of pettiness that cannot even tolerate the presence of a football team competing on the world’s biggest stage,” said the team, which declined requests to interview players and staff.

Before decamping Tuesday, the team thanked Mexico and Tijuana for their “kindness” but questioned its treatment at the tournament by the U.S.

“What we experienced was a series of decisions, logistical arrangements, and circumstances that undermined the sense of fairness — an impression only reinforced by the events of the final matchday of our group,” the team said in a statement.

Members of the Iranian diaspora were also divided about whether supporting the team showed tacit backing for Iran's theocratic government, which many of them oppose. Some wanted to keep politics and sports separate.

“You don't see someone screaming at (U.S. soccer star) Christian Pulisic for something Trump does,” Modarres said.

Though the team spoke out against its travel restrictions, it avoided commenting directly on the war. But it didn't shy away from spotlighting the victims of a deadly missile strike on an elementary school at the start of the conflict.

Players wore pins with the number “168” when they first landed in Mexico, referencing the number of people, mostly children, killed in the attack, which was likely launched by the U.S. They left a note in the locker room at Los Angeles Stadium, calling for peace “among all nations” and with the hashtags #168 and #minab, the school’s name.

Sherry Ghaemi, an Iranian living in Los Angeles, called their stand for the young victims “honorable.”

New friendships are forged

Amid the strife, players tried to focus on the sport. There were high notes, like when goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand made seven saves to hold Belgium to a scoreless draw, and when Ramin Rezaeian scored off the outside of his boot to equalize against New Zealand.

“They’re going home not as losers, they’re going home as winners," said Ghaemi. “We’re proud of them.”

Meeting some of the players was a thrill for Siavash Khosrowshahi, a 32-year-old Iranian American who drove from Los Angeles to Tijuana on Sunday, the day after the team was eliminated.

“It’s been really tough and stressful,” Khosrowshahi said of the months since the U.S. and Israel started the war. There were times during the conflict when he couldn't reach his parents in Tehran — but not Sunday, when he called his mother from the hotel and surprised her by putting Beiranvand on the phone.

“It’s a source of happiness for her,” he said.

Iranians and Mexicans also deepened a bond, as Tijuana embraced the team throughout its visit.

“Irán, hermano, ya eres Mexicano!" fans chanted in Spanish whenever they saw Team Melli: “Iran, brother, now you are Mexican!”

“Iran is taking home the best of our country, and this city, which is the way in which outsiders are received,” said Arely Ramírez, a Tijuana resident who turned up at the team's hotel Sunday hoping to meet some of the players.

The feeling was mutual.

“We’re leaving Tijuana today, but our heart and soul stay here,” head coach Amir Ghalenoei said Tuesday through an interpreter before the Iranian team left for the airport.

On Monday, many players still looked solemn as they passed their last hours in Mexico. A few signed final autographs and stood for photos with fans, their smiles more muted than the week before.

Despite the disappointment, some supporters were already looking ahead. “This whole year has been bad events, bad luck after bad luck” for Iranians, said Ranjbar. But the AFC Asian Cup is six months away, a new chance for Team Melli, she said. “I'll be watching them play for that.”

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Associated Press reporter Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed.

The flood warning systems, which include sirens, will be controlled by Kerr County, commissioners revealed in a Tuesday morning meeting.

The meeting came after the county became the first in Texas to install and test new state-funded flash flood warning sirens and sensors under Senate Bill 3.

The county expects to install around 30 sirens, Kerr County Commissioners said. Maintenance would cost $700 to $1,000 annually per siren.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Tom Jones said if a flood hit the area on Wednesday, the county has “the ability and information flowing in today to be able to push a button and set those alarm systems off.”

Additionally, the commissioners discussed utilizing a “flashing site” instead of sirens in some smaller, flash-flood-prone areas.

“A lot of those areas, yes, they will flood, but they’re not flash floods and there’s never been any danger or loss of life,” Jones said.

Because those areas have “low water crossings,” Jones suggested flashing lights to warn others of floods rather than a siren.

The commissioners are asking the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to fund the flashing lights.

“TxDOT has got plenty of money when it comes to that,” Jones said. “We just need to make the right appeal for them to start dealing with our roadways.”

Last month, Kerr County installed and tested new flash flood warning sirens and sensors funded through Senate Bill 3, which included $50 million in state funding. Kerr County was allocated $1.25 million for the project.

According to the county and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, the sirens were placed on both private and public property. Alerts can be sent out either by the National Weather Service or manually.

Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said the system includes more than sirens.

“We have six sirens in the western end of the county where the camps are, but that’s also coupled with a system of warning gauges and warning sensors that tell river depth, river speed and rainfall,” Herring said.

The current system is considered the first phase of the project. A second phase is planned for summer 2027, according to Kerr Together.

Commissioners have estimated final costs at about $5 million.

The commissioners’ meeting begins at 11 a.m. Updates are expected after leaders discuss the agenda item and decide whether to take action.

Saturday marks one year since the July 4, 2025, Guadalupe River flood that killed more than 100 people in Kerr County.

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• World War II veteran survives Hill Country floods with wife, dog and flag

In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court said that children born on American soil to undocumented parents are “‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said that Trump’s executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for babies born to undocumented immigrants and immigrants on temporary visas violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote. “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today.”

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, both nominated to the bench by Trump, joined the court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — in the majority opinion.

Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion that said Trump’s order violated federal law, but not the Constitution. He wrote that Congress has the power to create exceptions to birthright citizenship for “children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

In his opinion, Thomas said the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted to include undocumented immigrants.

“The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,” he added. “In doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order denying automatic U.S. citizenship to babies unless one parent is either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident — known as a green card holder — at the time of the baby’s birth. In addition to children of undocumented parents, the executive order applied to babies born to parents who are in the country temporarily, such as people in the country with a student, work or tourist visa.

In 1868, Congress passed, and voters ratified, the 14th Amendment, which begins: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The Amendment was a reaction to one of the Supreme Court’s most notorious decisions: The 1857 Dred Scott ruling that declared Black people of African descent were not U.S. citizens.

Three decades after the 14th Amendment passed, the court cemented it through its ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, when the justices said a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.

Trump has called the practice “stupid,” without explaining why. He has erroneously said the U.S. is the only country to provide birthright citizenship. Analysis by the Pew Research Center found 32 countries — many of them in the Western Hemisphere — have birthright citizenship laws similar to the 14th Amendment.

On Tuesday, Trump said the court upholding birthright citizenship “was too bad for our country” and called on Congress to pass legislation that would limit automatic citizenship. 

“They will have my complete and total support,” he said on social media.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was celebrated by many, including civil rights and immigrant rights organizations.

“As we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary we are grateful the Supreme Court reaffirmed one of the most cherished constitutional rights. We are here. We belong. This is our country too,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a national immigrant rights organization.

Texas state Rep. Ramón Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, the chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the court “got this one right.

“For families across Texas and our nation, they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing the rights guaranteed by our Constitution remain. Those rights should have never been in question.”

But others who have opposed immigration criticized the ruling.

Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that the court missed an opportunity “to restore the original meaning of the 14th Amendment.” He said that giving automatic citizenship to undocumented immigrants or those on a temporary visa is “an absurdity.” 

“Congress must clarify that American citizenship means something and does not extend automatically to children whose parents are in this country unlawfully or temporarily. The American people and the sovereignty of our nation deserve nothing less,” he said.

Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that goes by FAIR and has advocated to end illegal immigration and limit legal immigration, said the court’s decision will to have negative consequences for the country.

He said this decision means there’s more urgency “to step up enforcement to the maximum possible extent and end illegal immigration. At FAIR, we will redouble our efforts to put an end to illegal migration, and thus cancel this and all its other negative consequences.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, said that Congress needs to act to end automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S. unless they have a parent who is a citizen.

“The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roberts, failed the American people, the Constitution, and the rule of law today — not to mention the national security of the United States,” he said.

Others took a more extreme approach, saying Republican-led states should ignore the Supreme Court decision.

“It is time for red states to lead where the Supreme Court has failed. There are no federal birth certificates. Texas and other states must refuse to issue them to children born to non-citizens,” said Cary Cheshire, a longtime right-wing activist in Fort Worth who has lobbied state lawmakers to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 250,000 babies were born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S., or 6% of the total births, in 2016, the latest year for which data is available.

Latinos and Asians make up the majority of undocumented immigrant families. Among Asians, parents lack legal status in 41 births per 1,000, while 17 of every 1,000 births among Latinos lack legal status, according to a recent study by two professors at Pennsylvania State University.

Only on rare occasions is a baby born in the U.S. not considered a citizen, such as a child born to foreign diplomats.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun its cosmic survey, meant to capture swathes of the sky in more depth and detail. Perched on a Chilean mountaintop, the telescope will point its eye at the southern sky for the next 10 years, taking hundreds of images per night.

Researchers hope Rubin's observations will help them take a better census of the universe, mapping billions of stars in the Milky Way and billions more galaxies beyond it. It takes pictures quickly and will grab images of the same areas of sky multiple times, allowing scientists to glimpse fainter objects that previously eluded detection.

“We’re going to see large numbers of scientists across the world working with this data set, studying the universe in a way that they haven’t been able to before,” said Phil Marshall, the observatory's deputy director of operations.

Rubin released its first images last year, including colorful shots of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

Since then, researchers have tuned up the equipment so it's ready to take pictures at the depth and accuracy required for the decade-long survey. The images may help scientists discern how galaxies form and cluster over billions of years, and how the universe came to be.

Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, the observatory is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious material called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the effort may yield clues about dark matter as well as an equally puzzling force known as dark energy.

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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.

Both are Black.

For Esters, the flag represents the opportunities that allowed the great-great-grandson of slaves to find success and flourish. Pistochini, 79, simply says the America identified by the flag is not the same country she saw growing up.

Americans' views of “Old Glory” are divided by politics, age and race, according to a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebration.

Republicans and older, white adults are especially likely to say they fly the American flag, while younger Democrats and Black adults are more likely to say they don't fly it. Views of the flag — and whether it's a unifying or divisive symbol — track with other deep divisions among Americans, who see their country's history and accomplishments very differently.

“A lot of Black Americans see the flag as a symbol of both inclusion and exclusion,” said Matthew Delmont, professor of American history at Dartmouth College. “Black Americans, more so than white Americans, also understand the flag can be used to justify a version of patriotism that is rooted in exclusion, with the flag being used to say ‘you don’t belong here.’”

The survey of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20. It suggests that older white Americans, especially Republicans, are more likely to see the flag as unifying.

About half of U.S. adults said they display the flag at home throughout most of the year, or during holidays. About 7 in 10 Republicans and about 6 in 10 Americans ages 60 and older fly the flag at least during holidays.

About 6 in 10 Democrats and independents, on the other hand, say they “never” fly the U.S. flag. That includes the vast majority, 75%, of Democrats under 45.

Opportunities worth fighting for

Esters, a 64-year-old retired clay sculptor for a Detroit automaker, flies three American flags at his Sherwood Forest home on the city’s west side.

“When these homes were built, Black men like me, my mother and my family ... we couldn’t even buy these homes,” he said. “To me, that’s one reason I fly the flag. We went through a lot to be able to own nice homes, and this is what we fought for.”

The other reason is Moriah Martin, Esters’ great-great-grandmother, who was born into slavery.

“I’m kind of living out her dreams — what I did for a living, having a business, having a nice home,” he said. “I think that’s the American way, but we got to fight for it and we, as Blacks, fought for it.”

He's in the minority among Black adults, according to the survey, which found that only about 3 in 10 Black adults say they ever display the American flag, compared with about half of white and Hispanic adults.

Pistochini says current divisions over political leanings and perspectives, and inequality of opportunities for the poor and people of color are not what she believes the flag should stand for. People confuse flying it with being patriotic, she added.

“Just because you fly a flag doesn't make you a patriot,” Pistochini said. “If there was patriotism, we would not have all this. We can't look at (what's going on) and say this is America.”

For country and freedom

Ben Gaskins, chair of political science at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, says the flag is an important symbol of patriotism for many Americans.

“It is those who are older people, who are white and people who are more conservative,” Gaskins said. “They take it as more central to their identity.”

Nancy Hansen, a 73-year-old retired Customs and Border Protection clerk in Culvertson, Montana, believes “you have to be for the country, no matter what” and that the flag means “freedom.”

“Freedom to live where we want to live, travel where we want to travel, raise our kids where we want to raise our kids,” said Hansen, who is white and identifies as Republican.

Each year around July 4, the American Legion posts flags outside businesses and homes in Culvertson, including Hansen’s home.

Linda and Greg Cunningham also equate the flag with freedom.

The white, conservative Pontiac, Michigan, couple are going all out this summer. The exterior of their home northwest of Detroit is awash in red, white and blue. The flag sits atop a flagpole just feet from their door.

“It's no political thing, at all," said Linda Cunningham, 63. “It's our freedom. I love the American flag. I love the whole concept of it. I love America. I know there’s so much going on in the world, right now, and I know everyone has their own views, and I'm just sad that politics have to be brought into the flag.”

Flag as a ‘painful reminder’

Of those who took the survey, 47% see the flag as a “more unifying” symbol. About 16% call it a “more divisive” icon, while 36% say it's neither divisive nor unifying.

Only 22% of Black adults see the flag as a unifying symbol, compared with 55% of white adults and 42% of Hispanic adults.

“It’s a painful symbol. It’s a reminder of what we could be and how it’s failed to live up to that for Black people, for Indigenous people and people of color,” said Allison Wiltz, a Black author and founder of Writers and Editors of Color.

Paul Walthour, 71, occasionally flies the flag outside his Minneapolis-area home on special occasions and some holidays. Walthour says that when he’s away from home and at his cabin, the flag goes up each morning and is taken down at the end of the day.

“This is antiquated, perhaps,” said Walthour, who is white and a retired advertising agency creative director. “I feel it’s a symbol that you’re proud to be an American.”

“Unfortunately, I kind of think it’s kind of a symbol of dividing more than uniting,” added Walthour, who identifies as a Democrat. “The people who fly it on the far right have one kind of feeling about it, and the people who fly it on the left have a different kind of feeling about it.”

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Williams is a member of AP's Race & Ethnicity team. Sanders and Parwani reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 0.6 point to 91.2 in June, a figure that is still below its year-ago reading of 95.2. Consumer attitudes worsened after the Iran war caused oil and gas prices to spike, accelerating inflation and causing Americans' inflation-adjusted incomes to decline. Before the pandemic, the index regularly topped 120.

The report suggests that consumer confidence is recovering only slowly from the hit caused by the Iran war. Even so, Americans have continued to spend despite their dour outlook, which has kept the economy growing even as inflation accelerated. Measures of consumer sentiment have been less predictive of how Americans actually shop since the pandemic.

“Consumer confidence inched up in June as falling oil prices in recent weeks provided some relief to consumer inflation fears,” Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economists said in a statement. “Consumer appraisals of current business conditions were slightly more positive compared to last month. However, perceptions of the current labor market softened measurably."

Earlier this month, a government report showed that consumers stepped up their spending in May despite higher gas prices. Analysts expect the steady consumer outlays kept the economy growing at about a 2.5% annual rate in the April-June quarter.

Falling gas prices may also help boost Americans' outlook in the coming months. On average nationwide, gas prices spiked above $4.50 after the U.S.-Iran conflict began Feb. 28. They have since fallen back to $3.85 a gallon, according to AAA.

The survey also found that consumers had a dimmer view of hiring and the job market this month. The proportion of Americans who said jobs are “hard to get” rose to 22.5% from 19.8% the previous month, a noticeable increase.

But on Wednesday the government released a report showing that the number of open jobs remained at a solid 7.6 million in May, indicating that companies are showing more interest in recruiting workers.

The Labor Department will release its monthly jobs report for June on Thursday, and economists forecast it will show that employers added 100,000 jobs, a solid gain. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a low 4.3%, according to data provider FactSet.

Germany should be getting used to disappointment, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for a traditional soccer heavyweight that had been tentatively hoping for a fifth World Cup title to restore lost pride.

Germany did manage to survive the group stage for the first time since winning the trophy in 2014, but it’s little consolation after Monday’s loss to unheralded Paraguay on penalties sent the team home after the first knockout game.

“We messed it up,” Joshua Kimmich told reporters after the match in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

It was a familiar feeling for the Germany captain who also struggled for explanations after the team’s group-stage exit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“As a child, when you watched the national team during tournaments, it was always semifinals, finals, or world champions. There was always lots of success. You grew up with that, cheering them on,” the 31-year-old Kimmich said Monday, when he apologized for the team failing to meet expectations.

“All of us who were on the pitch should feel that, rather than looking to blame someone else. We blew it,” Kimmich said in comments reported by dpa.

Coach under fire

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann is in the firing line after some contentious calls — particularly after recalling veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from international retirement just before the tournament after months of denials.

The 40-year-old Neuer failed to justify his inclusion at the expense of Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann, and was arguably at fault for Ecuador’s winning goal in the last group game.

“I gave it my all,” Neuer said.

Nagelsmann finally bowed to pressure and gave forward Deniz Undav his first start against Paraguay, but the move didn’t pay off as the Kurdish Yazidi player was unable to add to his three goals and two assists from his first two games as a substitute.

Nagelsmann was also criticized for not playing forward Nick Woltemade at all until he sent him on with extra time looming against Paraguay. Woltemade was among three players who missed in the penalty shootout.

False hope

Nagelsmann had raised expectations by saying Germany was aiming to win the title. Ultimately, his team failed to show any justification for such hopes.

Germany played four games at the World Cup, winning two against debutant Curaçao and Ivory Coast, before the losses to Ecuador and Paraguay.

While Paraguay’s win was joyously celebrated on the streets of its capital, Asunción, it was considered a major shock — few German fans knew any of the Paraguayan players before the match, and they were already looking forward to a likely Round of 16 meeting with France, which plays Sweden on Tuesday.

“You have to beat such a team,” Neuer said of Paraguay. “That’s a fact when you want to measure yourself against teams like France.”

Nagelsmann has vowed to stay on as coach, though he was also criticized for his prickly responses to questions after the game.

“I’m still convinced that he’s probably the right one to continue,” Germany team director Rudi Völler said. “It’s not only up to me.”

Serious talks ahead

Bernd Neuendorf, the president of the German soccer federation, said Tuesday he already met “at length” with Nagelsmann, Völler and sporting director Andreas Rettig, and they agreed “our performance at the World Cup fell short of our standards.”

“In the coming days, we will calmly look at the reasons why the team was unable to realize its potential and failed to meet both its own expectations and those of the German football community,” Neuendorf said. “After such a crushing blow, we cannot and do not wish to simply return to business as usual.”

Nagelsmann has a contract running through the European Championship in 2028.

Schadenfreude takes over

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz illustrated the disconnect between the German team’s hopes and reality better than most when he wrote on social media, “What a match, @DFB_Team! You thrilled our country with your commitment and team spirit at this World Cup. We’re proud of you.”

Merz was quickly mocked for his post on X, where many users asked which match he was referring to. The words “which match” began trending.

“I honestly don’t know which was worse. The match or this analysis,” FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann wrote.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Danh Dinh, 38, sustained at least two gunshot wounds in the shooting last Tuesday.

An arrest affidavit states Dinh showed up at a neighbor’s home, bleeding from his arm, carrying two knives and tried to break in through a back door.

That neighbor then called 911, bringing deputies to the area.

“It startled us and then I went to go check the back door, and I see this man with a weapon in his hand. He had a knife,” the neighbor told KSAT 12 News. “I noticed just blood all over my patio, all over my kid’s toy and a sandpit.”

The neighbor said he did his best to secure his home and keep Dinh out, leaning against his door until deputies arrived.

When one sheriff’s deputy showed up approximately three minutes later, the neighbor said Dinh had already moved on to a different home.

In an affidavit, two deputies said they ordered Dinh to drop the weapons, described as two mini samurai sword-type knives, but he refused.

When he made a move toward them, documents show one deputy fired at him. In all, three BCSO deputies were on scene.

The affidavit states Dinh suffered gunshot wounds to his belly and backside. As of Tuesday morning, Dinh was transferred to the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

The neighbor said the ordeal has left his family traumatized.

“When we hear any loud bang, when my 3-year-old hears any little noise, he (says), ‘What’s that noise?’ and he panics,” the neighbor said.

It’s trauma, he said, that could have been avoided.

Just one day prior to the shooting, Bexar County deputies were called to Dinh’s home for a welfare check.

A statement from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said deputies determined at that time that Dinh did not need to be emergency detained.

“In my opinion, a cry for help is a cry for help,” the neighbor said. “He would’ve never showed up at my backdoor. He would’ve never showed up across the street. That whole incident, I think, could’ve been avoided.”

Now, the neighbor said he and his family are struggling to forget it ever happened.

The deputy who shot Dinh was Steven Calva, a 16-year veteran with the sheriff’s office, a BCSO spokesperson told KSAT Tuesday morning.

Fellow deputies Jason Garces has 2 years of BCSO service while Frank Diaz has been with the sheriff’s office for 10 months, BCSO said.

All three deputies have since been placed on administrative leave.

Read also:

• San Antonio man shot by BCSO deputy after waving knives ‘in a threatening manner’ identified

Danh Thanh Dinh has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. Both counts are considered first-degree felonies, court records show.

‘Stopping his deadly behavior’

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a call for a suspicious person just before 6 p.m. on June 23 in the 8400 block of Knapp Rise, which is located in far west Bexar County.

BCSO Deputy Jason Garces, who was the first to arrive on scene, noticed that the original home’s backyard gate was open. According to the affidavit, Garces checked the home’s backyard and found blood on its back porch.

While exiting the backyard, Garces saw Dinh armed with two knives attempting to enter the front of a home across the street, court documents state. Garces also noticed one of Dinh’s hands was bloody.

Garces then called for backup. Two additional BCSO deputies, identified in the affidavit as Steven Calva and Frank Diaz, arrived at the scene at approximately 6:06 p.m.

Garces and Calva, who authorities said positioned themselves in the driveway of a home in the 8400 block of Spitfire Ranch, told Dinh to put down the knives and surrender. According to the affidavit, however, Dinh disregarded their commands.

Dinh then jumped off the porch of the Knapp Rise residence and waved the knives “in a threatening manner” toward Garces and Calva, documents show.

Once again, the deputies told Dinh to stop walking and drop the knives, but he refused. Calva then fired multiple gunshots at Dinh, “stopping his deadly behavior,” the affidavit states.

Diaz then handcuffed Dinh. It is unclear how many times Dinh was struck by gunfire.

Court records show Dinh has a registered residence located next door to the original home law enforcement was dispatched to on June 23.

During a June 23 news conference, Sheriff Javier Salazar described the shooting as “an unfortunate incident” with Dinh “undergoing a mental health crisis.”

Dinh was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, according to the warrant. He underwent surgery for gunshot wounds to his abdomen and lower back area.

A BCSO spokesperson told KSAT on June 30 that Dinh has since been magistrated and transferred to the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

Salazar also said the three deputies on scene have since been placed on administrative leave.

The deputy who shot Dinh, who was determined to be Calva, is a 16-year veteran with the sheriff’s office. Garces has 2 years of BCSO service while Diaz has been with the sheriff’s office for 10 months.

According to Bexar County court records, Dinh faces a combined $200,000 bond.

More recent crime coverage on KSAT:

• 3 women accused of murder in connection with deadly stabbing in Del Rio, police say
• Bodycam video shows San Antonio police officer shooting suspect who produced gun during pursuit

Foundation President Dame Louise Richardson said the awards, launched in 2006, have never been meant to be political. Earlier this month, the foundation changed its name from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to emphasize its nonprofit status and connection to famed industrialist Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant.

“We’re not articulating it in response to this moment,” Richardson told The Associated Press. “But it seems especially important at this moment that we celebrate immigrants and their contributions and also that we present a view of immigrants different from the ones so often portrayed in the media.”

The immigration debate continues at the highest levels of power, as President Donald Trump’s administration executes his agenda to increase immigration enforcement and reduce the numbers of legal immigrants and asylum seekers in the country. On the other side, Pope Leo XIV said, “Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border,” as he visited a once-notorious epicenter of the European migration debate in Spain earlier this month.

Richardson — a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland — said the entire issue has “become so fraught, especially with the movement against legal immigration and, in particular, the visas for highly skilled people.”

“That just strikes me as an act of self-harm on a national level,” she added, “because so many of these people are the engines of the economy.”

CEO Iman Abuzeid wants to inspire other immigrants

Honoree Dr. Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of the artificial intelligence-driven healthcare career platform Incredible Health, sees the award as recognition not just for her accomplishments, but for everyone who helped her along the way.

“And if my story makes it feel like it’s more possible for someone else, then that’s probably the part that I care about the most,” added the native of Sudan, who now lives in San Francisco.

Abuzeid said she specifically chose to emigrate to the United States after living in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and completing medical school in England.

“It is the best country for what I’m trying to do,” she said. “I think if you’re ambitious and you’re willing to work hard and you’ve got some skills, it is probably the best country in the world for you.”

Being an immigrant, Abuzeid said, has given her the drive to take on risk and bet on her own abilities. It has also influenced her to build Incredible Health in a way that balances the needs of employers looking to hire health care workers with the career needs of the workers, about 20% of whom are immigrants.

“I think being from Sudan does make me a little bit more attuned to topics like bias and diversity,” she said. “Because we’re operating a marketplace at scale, we can see these patterns in our data where workers of certain last names were seeing bias against them. … So when we removed that, we were able to improve that part of the marketplace.”

Conductor Cristian Măcelaru sees immigration as ‘opportunity’

Honoree Cristian Măcelaru, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, said immigration offers both the immigrant and their new home country a chance to improve their lives.

“This is an opportunity we should hold dear,” the native of Romania said. “It really makes for a unique kind of country.”

It also creates a unique artistic point of view, said Măcelaru, who moved to Michigan to study music at Interlochen Arts Academy when he was 16.

“I’ve met so many incredible people that were supportive of my arrival to the United States and embracing of who I was,” he said. “But, at the same time, there is that nostalgia for what you’ve left behind that accompanies you on a daily basis. … The immigrant experience never leaves you.”

Măcelaru, who conducted the Orchestre National de France during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony viewed by more than a billion people in 2024, said culture becomes stronger when it appreciates the strengths of others.

“I think all of us actually love the cultures of different places,” said Măcelaru, who makes a point of diversifying the music presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. “It doesn’t matter where we are on the planet, you end up loving music that is from a different place. You end up loving food that is from a different country.”

Harvard's Gregory Nagy ‘awestruck’ by influx of new cultures

Honoree Gregory Nagy, Harvard University’s Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and a professor of Comparative Literature, takes it a step further.

“To have an influx of new cultures and new ways of looking at things — that variety is the human fabric,” said the native of Hungary who emigrated with his family as a boy following World War II. They first went to Canada, and then to the United States when his father was invited to become a professor of classical piano at Indiana University. “I’m just awestruck by how important the melting pot is.”

Nagy, who prides himself on being “a friendly Midwesterner” after spending his formative years in Bloomington, Indiana, uses the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s thoughts on repetition — how a person changes an idea even if they only repeat it — to back up that belief.

But he also supports it with his ongoing teaching. Nagy’s class on “The Ancient Greek Hero,” which he has taught for more than 50 years and is currently the longest-running class at Harvard, continues to change with the times, while remaining true to its subject matter.

He has studied how “The Oath of the Ephebes,” from more than 2,400 years ago, connects the importance of environmentalism to being a good citizen. He says the ancient Greek idea of heroism is closer to modern comic book heroes than to the idealized, perfect versions many Americans hold dear.

That evolution is driven by young people, as reflected in the election of Péter Magyar as prime minister of Nagy’s beloved Hungary in April, the social changes that followed, and the new perspectives brought by immigration, Nagy said.

“I was very fortunate to become an immigrant,” he said. “And I was lucky enough to achieve puberty in Indiana, so that Americanizes you very well.”

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

“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the Society of St. Pius X.

Leo issued the last-ditch appeal a day before the society plans to consecrate four new bishops at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. Under church law, the consecrations constitute a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church, and incur automatic excommunication for the four bishops and the bishop administering the consecration.

Pagliarani responded by writing a formal letter to Leo asking him to take time before deciding any penalty.

“Far be it from us to separate ourselves from the Roman Church. We desire, on the contrary, to serve her by means that are extraordinary, as one would assist a mother in distress who requires particular help, even if such help is not understood by everyone,” Pagliarani wrote.

SSPX asks pope for more time

The ceremony poses the first major crisis for the American pope, who has stressed the need for church unity since the start of his pontificate. He has worked especially hard to heal tensions with traditionalist Catholics who prefer the old Latin Mass, that worsened in some ways during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the council revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other religions and the laity, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin.

Its members celebrate the ancient Latin Mass and have accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors. The society insists that only the SSPX is upholding the true faith of Christ and has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.

In response to the pope’s letter, Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, expressed “great sadness to not be understood by our leader,” and added: “We are changing absolutely nothing in our plans.”

Asked by phone about the prospect of excommunication, Mabillard said: “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us.”

Previous excommunications and outreach

In 1988, SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops, and the group today still has no legal status in the church.

The Vatican in 2009 lifted those original excommunications as part of its outreach to try to bring the group back under its wing. But the Vatican has warned that a similar fate awaits the new bishops if Wednesday's consecrations go ahead.

In his letter, Leo repeated the Vatican's offer of dialogue and said that going through with the consecrations would be counterproductive for the SSPX faithful.

“I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit, and in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments,” he wrote.

Despite the original 1988 schismatic act, the group has continued to grow and today poses a threat to the Holy See as a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church. The SSPX counts two bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Like other NATO countries, the U.K. is under pressure to increase defense spending to counter a more aggressive Russia and less reliable United States. But its Defense Investment Plan has been repeatedly delayed as military leaders and Treasury officials wrangled over the cost.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the plan reflects a world of conflicts transformed by technology and will keep Britain safe in “a more dangerous and volatile world."

“When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it," he said.

But the blueprint does not commit to spending 3% of U.K. GDP on defense by 2030, one of the factors that spurred John Healey to resign as U.K. defense secretary on June 11. Healey accused the government of underspending on the military at a time of “rising threats," citing a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country by 2030.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Healey said that “with European security at stake,” Britain needs "to develop a clear, credible funding plan that will hit 3% and that will meet our NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035."

Starmer said Healey’s successor, Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis, had worked to “sharpen and strengthen" the plan. Its 15 billion pounds in new spending is more than the 13.5 billion pounds ($18 billion) Healey was offered by the Treasury, but far less than the 28 billion pounds ($37 billion) that defense officials had called for.

UK faces pressure to hit NATO target

Under the plan, defense spending will hit 2.7% of GDP by 2029. Starmer said the 3% target will be reached “in the next Parliament,” a period that could extend to 2034. The U.K. remains committed to hitting NATO’s 3.5% target by 2035, though it's unclear how it will get there.

The government said the new funding will boost spending on defense to almost 300 billion pounds ($400 billion) over the next four years. Big-ticket items include 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) for drone technology, 8 billion pounds ($10.6 billion) to build new stealth fighter jets alongside Japan and Italy, and 11 billion pounds ($14.5 billion) to increase weapons stockpiles. The U.K. will also spend 64 billion pounds ($85 billion) modernizing its nuclear weapons.

Starmer said some road and energy projects would be scrapped to help pay for the military.

The U.K. military is seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

The U.K. has watched how drones have transformed war in Ukraine, which uses 200,000 of them a month to defend against Russian forces. Britain plans to invest billions in drone systems across all branches of the military. Instead of a planned fleet of new destroyers, the Royal Navy will get hybrid vessels that will act as command hubs for drones.

“The very nature of conflict is changing before our eyes,” Starmer said during a speech at a drone manufacturer near London. He said that, armed with cutting-edge technology, Ukrainian forces have destroyed Russia’s Black Sea fleet, “struck deep into Russian territory and stopped the advance of one of the biggest armies in the world.”

Critics say more money is needed

Britain and other NATO member nations have faced pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to increase military spending. Trump has long questioned the value of the military alliance and complained that the United States provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.

The resignations of Healey and junior Defense Minister Al Carns were among a series of blows that prompted Starmer to announce last week that he will resign. A NATO summit in Turkey on July 7 and 8 may be his final overseas trip as prime minister.

His replacement, likely the former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, will be under pressure to stick to the commitments in the defense plan.

“It is a platform on which I know my successor will build," Starmer said.

Opposition Conservative Party defense spokesperson James Cartlidge said the plan was “too little, too late.”

And retired Gen. Richard Barrons, who helped lead a defense review in preparation for the investment plan, said “we have to find more money for defense sooner.”

“We’re not keeping up with our allies, we’re certainly not keeping up with our enemies, and we know that the U.S. is no longer going to come and save European security in the face of a Russian threat,” he told the BBC.

The visit by Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special Mideast envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, comes after a weekend of crossfire in the Persian Gulf over efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic.

The envoys won’t be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Qatar’s capital, Doha, said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry. Instead, mediators are working for the time being as go-betweens for the talks, which won’t include any high-level officials, he added.

The U.S. and Iran have held indirect negotiations before. However, the two previous rounds collapsed and preceded the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in 2025 and this year's war, launched jointly by the U.S. and Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran is also sending a delegation to Qatar this week. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tuesday that Iran has had no plans for a meeting with the American side at any level in the coming days.

“What will take place in Doha tomorrow is a discussion with the Qatari side about implementing parts of the memorandum of understanding, including the release of Iran’s blocked assets,” Baghaei told journalists at his own briefing.

It is possible the two sides could exchange messages through the Qatari mediators.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month that calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. It also waives U.S.-backed oil sanctions on the country, calls for free traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and gives each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Qatar plans to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive negotiations, confirmed the release amount, saying it would be used to buy U.S. food products for the Iranian people.

A fifth of the world's oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz before the war began. Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving through the strait, creating a global energy crisis.

The strait has long been considered an international waterway despite being in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters.

Both sides traded strikes amid efforts last week to open Oman’s territorial waters in the strait to both inbound and outbound ship traffic from the Persian Gulf. That raised concerns that negotiations to formally end the war could be disrupted.

Iran twice attacked vessels in the strait — including a tanker filled with Qatari crude — and drew retaliatory American airstrikes. Iran also launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.

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AP reporter Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

Forecasters had expected employers to post just 7 million openings in May.

The job market is sturdy but not exactly booming. Layoffs rose in May, and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — ticked up only slightly. That's according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday.

Employers are advertising openings, but they aren't actually doing much hiring. Gross hiring — before counting people who lost or quit their jobs — dipped to 5.17 million in May from 5.26 million in April. When the job market was booming from mid-2021 to mid-2023 after COVID-19 lockdowns, gross monthly hiring regularly topped 6 million.

“The hiring switch needs to fully turn on for the labor market to feel alive again,” ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud said in a commentary.

After the United States and Israel attacked Feb. 28, Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passes. Energy prices soared, squeezing Americans already frustrated by the high cost of living.

But the American job market has chugged along, continuing to rebound from a miserable 2025. In the first five months of the year, U.S. employers have added an average of nearly 114,000 net jobs a month. That is up from just 9,700 a month in 2025, the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002.

High interest rates and President Donald Trump's unpredictable economic policies discouraged employers from making hiring decisions last year. Trump's tax cuts and the fact that the United States is an energy producer have limited the economic damage from the war this year.

When the Labor Department releases its jobs report for June on Thursday, it is expected to show that companies, nonprofits and government agencies added another 100,000 jobs and that unemployment stayed at a low 4.3%.

Because of baby boomer retirements and Trump's immigration crackdown, fewer people are competing for work, and the United States doesn't need as many jobs as it used to keep the unemployment rate stable. Economists say the so-called "break-even'' rate of hiring could be as low as zero jobs a month, down from perhaps 150,000 a year or so ago.

The fire started at around 6 p.m. Monday outside the apartment building on West Commerce Street near Monterrey Park, according to the San Antonio Fire Department. Firefighters said it appeared to have started at an electrical panel.

Residents reported hearing popping sounds before flames were spotted, according to SAFD.

Firefighters said the fire damage was not extensive, but the electrical damage created a bigger problem for people living in the building. CPS Energy cut power to the entire building, affecting at least 13 units, according to SAFD.

Residents were told they could not stay in their apartments until the panel is inspected and repairs can begin.

No injuries were reported. However, officials said some elderly residents and people with medical issues were among those affected by the outage and displacement.

The Red Cross was responding to help residents who had to leave their homes.

It was not immediately clear when power would be restored. Residents were waiting for the electrical panel to be inspected before repairs could move forward.

Read also:

• Authorities investigating after 2 found dead with gunshot wounds on far West Side, BCSO says
• 2 children shot while sleeping in Northeast Side home, SAPD says

Officers responded to the shooting around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 4000 block of Comanche Sunrise, which is located near Glacier Sun Drive.

Upon arrival, the officers discovered bullet holes in the home that led to the children’s room, according to an SAPD preliminary report.

The children, who are 6-year-old and 10-year-old girls, told their parents they were injured, officers said.

Police said the parents then found that each child suffered a gunshot wound. One child was struck in the stomach, while the other was hit in the leg.

Both of the children were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the report said.

SAPD said at the scene that the suspected shooter, a man, was detained for further questioning. The preliminary report did not provide further information on the shooter.

Police stated that it appears the man was shooting at a fence behind the family’s home.

Around two to three bullet holes were located in the fence. SAPD’s EAGLE Helicopter is currently assisting in the search for the gun used, police said.

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

Read also:

• Authorities investigating after 2 found dead with gunshot wounds on far West Side, BCSO says
• 13-year-old boy’s body recovered from Boerne City Lake, fire officials say

Just before 12:30 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to the crash in the 400 block of Callaghan Road.

An SAPD preliminary report states that witnesses told officers the man was traveling at a normal rate of speed when he suddenly lost control of the motorcycle.

The man fell over the handlebars and onto the ground, police said. He sustained serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Homer Cruz. His cause of death was blunt force injuries, the office said.

SAPD said the man did not appear to be traveling at a fast or slow speed but may have lost control while changing lanes.

Read also:

• Four killed in Karnes County crash, DPS says

The crash happened just after 10:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of Southwest Military Drive, which is located near Mango Avenue.

The driver, identified in an SAPD preliminary report as Vynzell Edward McGarity, was traveling eastbound in a Dodge Charger at a high rate of speed.

McGarity switched lanes and struck a pedestrian attempting to cross the street, the report said.

The pedestrian, identified as Moncerrat Martinez Maldonando, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Records indicate McGarity was taken into custody and faces two charges: racing on highway causing serious bodily injury and reckless driving.

SAPD said its investigation is ongoing. Further information was not readily available.

Read also:

• Child drowns at Boerne City Lake, fire department says
• 2 drivers killed in multi-vehicle crash on Southwest Side, SAPD says

Tuesday, June 30

Traffic delays are expected Tuesday morning on Interstate 35 southbound from Forum Parkway to Schertz Parkway due to construction.

Drivers are encouraged to take an alternate route to reach their destinations.

For more information on traffic, you can click here to view our traffic page on KSAT.com. To view more on the current weather conditions, click here.

Click the links below for current road closures.

• San Antonio road closures
• Bexar County road closures
• TxDOT highway conditions

Protocols designed to protect tennis from doping are in the spotlight as players open up about their experiences navigating the system in the aftermath of a four-year ban handed to 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova — not for testing positive but for refusing to take a test.

Players are required to provide a 60-minute time slot each day to be available for testing, plus the International Tennis Integrity Agency says that if a doping control officer "locates and notifies a player outside of that hour, they must complete the test.”

Naturally, there's a need for communication between players and testers.

“I’m not going to lie, some of them can be pushy, make you feel like you’re doing something wrong,” Gauff, the No. 7 seed, said after her first-round victory at Wimbledon.

“One time she came outside my time slot. But the way she was speaking to me on the phone, it literally made me cry afterwards," the 22-year-old American said. "I found out I was in the right, and I didn’t have to do anything.”

Ahead of her first-round match Tuesday, Ajla Tomljanovic described her close calls.

“I’m very scared of the system because it feels broken," she said. "I’ve had a few experiences of my own where it was about technicalities and when I speak to people in charge they’re not helpful — I don’t want to say they don’t care — but they weren’t very helpful at all to explain things or just show some sort of compassion when I was nowhere near missing a test or testing positive.”

The Australian player said she was seeking help about how the app works.

“I was new to the whole system. And I was at two fails for a month and I knew if I get a third one accidentally I would be out for at least two, three years,” she said. “It’s in a way, I won’t say no fault of my own but it’s not to the degree of being banned and smearing your name. In that sense, I think there’s so much to improve on.”

Williams, who makes her Wimbledon return on Tuesday, said the testing system was “a big reason why I didn’t want to come back either, because it’s just so hard."

The Vondrousova case

The 27-year-old Czech player, who became Wimbledon’s first unseeded female champion when she beat Ons Jabeur in the 2023 final, refused to take a test in early December 2025 after a doping control officer rang her apartment's intercom at 8 p.m.

This month, following a hearing by an independent tribunal, Vondrousova received the maximum four-year ban for a first offense.

ITIA published a video explainer of the case, saying Vondrousova on the night in question challenged the timing of the test because it was outside her designated time slot.

The agency noted: “If a Doping Control Officer, or DCO, locates and notifies a player outside of that hour, they must complete the test.”

Vondrousova had described the tester as “aggressive” and said the frequent ringing of the intercom “triggered a state of distress," the ITIA video says.

The tribunal's June 22 decision confirmed that Vondrousova refused the test and that the evidence “provided no compelling justification for doing so.”

The ITIA added that under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, “test refusals can be sanctioned as severely as positive tests." One rationale is an athlete who is doping could simply refuse a test and seek a lighter punishment.

Last year, the ITIA said it conducted over 8,000 tests both in and out of competition “and received a handful of complaints. We take all feedback on board and encourage players to share their views with us.” Other organizations, such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also conduct player testing.

On possible changes to the system, the ITIA noted that tennis follows WADA rules and processes, which "will be refreshed in 2027. As part of this process, WADA consults with athletes from across global sport.”

“We understand the system can seem challenging," the ITIA said, “but it is there to protect players, not to trip them up. If players are ever unsure about a test, have questions, or would like to provide feedback on their experience, we want to hear about it.”

Some players say a 4-year ban is harsh

Jessica Pegula, the No. 4 seed, said she didn't know the full details of Vondrousova's case but that “I feel, like, for Marketa.”

“For something like that, for four years, you’re ruining someone’s career over something that could have really just been a complete misunderstanding, and I just don’t think that’s fair. I think the sentencing is so harsh," Pegula said.

“I don’t quite understand the difference between that and then obviously what happened with (Jannik) Sinner and Iga (Swiatek),” she said. “They justified what the rules were and why it was the way it was.”

Top-ranked Sinner, the defending men's champion at Wimbledon, accepted a three-month ban in a settlement with WADA in early 2025 following his two positive doping tests from the prior year. WADA had challenged ITIA's decision not to suspend Sinner for what it judged was accidental contamination — entering his system through a massage — by a banned anabolic steroid.

Swiatek, Wimbledon's defending women's champion, accepted a one-month suspension in 2024 after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication. The ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination of a nonprescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag.

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

Barnes intends to sign a one-year deal with the Spurs worth $8 million, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The new deal was finalized with agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management on Monday night, Charania posted on X.

Since joining San Antonio in the 2024-25 season, Barnes has provided valuable leadership to the Spurs’ young roster.

In this past season with the Spurs, he averaged 9.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and nearly two assists per game.

Barnes and other Spurs role players, such as Bismack Biyombo and Kelly Olynyk, have been consistent voices for San Antonio’s young foundation.

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Julian Champagnie returns to San Antonio Spurs on new 3-year contract
• San Antonio Spurs introduce their 2026 NBA Draft picks

Sports coach Michelle McGuire said the night of July 3, 2025, began peacefully, sharing a photo from her backyard.

“It’s so beautiful here. I’m so grateful. I love where I live,” McGuire said in the photo.

Hours later, she woke up to the sound of water rushing into her bedroom.

“I jump off the bed, and then I’m in chest-deep water,” McGuire said. “That creaking, crashing sound was the water coming through the front door.”

McGuire said the water rose above her shoulders. A surge pushed her out of the house, sweeping her toward the river in the dark and cold.

She swam to a 12-foot retaining wall and watched debris — including her truck — float past.

“OK, God, I need some help here,” she recalled, saying she prayed and focused on surviving until daylight, when the water finally dropped.

“At that point, I realized, I’m 30 feet up, and I had no idea,” McGuire said.

In the months since, McGuire said she has tried to hold onto what mattered most.

“I lost everything that night, but not my faith,” she said, describing her recovery as “a story of hope” and of people showing up for one another.

With the help of a case manager, McGuire moved into a home overlooking Hunt. In February, she purchased her first home, which was something she never expected.

McGuire now says the disaster has reshaped her priorities and her purpose, inspiring a new career path focused on helping other survivors because she can relate.

More Hill Country floods coverage on KSAT:

• Nonprofits team up to restore Guadalupe River after deadly Fourth of July floods
• Volunteer dive teams prepare Guadalupe River for summer visitors

The largest U.S. oil company and its consortium partner, QatarEnergy, consider the most likely option for getting the gas to market would be conveying it through a pipeline to existing processing facilities in Egypt where it can be liquefied for export, ExxonMobil's Vice President of Global Exploration John Ardill said.

Other options including building onshore facilities in Cyprus or a floating one in waters over the deposits are considered too costly at this point.

“Everything you’ve seen between the government of Cyprus and the government of Egypt gives us a lot of confidence that there’s good government to government coordination, the agreements in place to leverage that eastern Mediterranean energy hub concept,” Ardill said.

He was speaking after ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy signed a deal with Cyprus declaring the two deposits commercially viable.

The deposits — dubbed Glaucus and Pegasus — are located in Block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and are estimated to hold together roughly 7 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Ardill said the consortium is looking to expand its presence off Cyprus, expressing interest in exploring an area, or block, on the southwestern corner of the EEZ that is adjacent to an area where it already holds drilling licenses.

The consortium will carry out additional drilling at the Pegasus deposit around the end of this year to collect more key data for its development, he added.

“So what we should tell ordinary people is we have been working very diligently together between government and investor to make these discoveries and we’re working very diligently to get the gas flowing for the people of Cyprus,” Ardill said.

Cyprus is trying to position itself as a new energy source for Europe and beyond following the initial discovery of natural gas off its southern shore in 2011.

Apart from ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy, two other consortiums hold exploration licenses in the Cypriot EEZ.

A consortium composed of Italy’s Eni and French TOTAL holds licenses for four blocks where two deposits hold an estimated 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas combined, while a partnership between Chevron, Dutch Shell and Israeli NewMed is licensed for one bloc where the oldest discovery — Aphrodite — holds approximately 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Earlier this year, Eni’s Chief Operating Officer Guido Brusco said the company was close to making a final decision on developing the Cronos gas field that could deliver the hydrocarbon to European markets by late 2027 or early 2028.