That's not what Nigel Farage, the man who arguably did more than anyone to get Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, intended when he triggered Thursday’s special election in Clacton by quitting his seat in the House of Commons last month. When doing so, he expected to run again against candidates from Britain's main political parties, including the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party.

Farage, who is the leader of anti-immigration party Reform UK, stood down in the hope the election could put to bed awkward questions about his finances. Farage said he would let voters judge him in a “people versus the establishment” contest. His political foes described the move as a stunt and opted against standing a candidate.

Instead, Farage's main opponent is Count Binface, a political satirist posing as a comic space alien, with a keen interest in earthly matters, including the positioning of a hand dryer in the men's toilet in a pub in west London.

Record number of candidates standing in Clacton

The special election is a novelty, if not quite a circus, with a record 34 candidates standing, including Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party. They have pounded the streets of Clacton over the past few weeks as they seek to win the support of around 80,000 voters.

Given the numbers standing, Clacton residents will be presented with a ballot paper that is around 3 feet long (around 1 meter). That's not going to be easy to navigate.

Turnout is widely expected to be low for a variety of reasons. For one, turnout is usually lower at special elections rather than at general elections. In the July 2024 general election, Farage faced eight rivals and garnered 21,225 votes, or 46.2% of the total. Turnout was 58.7%.

This election is taking place in the midst of the summer holidays when thousands of voters will be far away from Clacton. It's also taking place during another U.K. heatwave, which could prompt many to opt against making the trip to the polling station as they seek sanctuary from temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Election isn't the one Farage was planning

Farage, who in 2024 was elected to Parliament at his eighth attempt in the strongly Brexit -backing town, has for months been facing what he considers to be unfair scrutiny of his finances.

Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million) to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and came before he was elected.

Newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds ($400) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.

When he stood down on July 7, he described the scrutiny as an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”

His decision to stand down put a pause to the parliamentary investigation, but if he wins on Thursday, as most pollsters expect, it is set to start up again.

If he's found to have breached Parliament's rules, then he could face a recall petition in Clacton, which may lead to another special election later this year, costing the British taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds more. The difference is that in that one, the other parties would choose to stand.

Farage's decision to trigger another election in Clacton came weeks after Andy Burnham returned to Parliament in a special election in the Makerfield constituency near Manchester. That campaign shone a positive spotlight on Burnham, triggering a chain of events that saw him become Britain's prime minister a few weeks later following the resignation of Keir Starmer.

Any hope that Farage had that the Clacton campaign would be similarly positive for him was dashed when the other political parties failed to play ball and he was left standing against the likes of Count Binface.

Binface leads the alternatives

Under Binface’s black cape, trash can and ample body armor that looks straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, is a middle-aged comedian named Jon Harvey trying to keep his cool during a sweaty summer.

He has been a regular candidate in high-profile elections before, having previously stood against then prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

He says his repeated candidacies are aimed at promoting the beauties of Britain's centuries-old democracy where even the most high-profile politicians are above no one — including someone from his fictional native planet of Sigma IX.

He's also funny.

The numbers backing him have been negligible — and fairly costly. Candidates standing for election have to put down a deposit of 500 pounds ($675). They only get it back if they muster 5% of the votes cast. In his most recent run, against Burnham in Makerfield, the comedian received 95 votes, or 0.2% of the total.

There is an expectation that he will do a lot better in Clacton. Many of the voters of the other political parties have been lending him their support, partly in the hope of embarrassing Farage.

The result of the election, which will be announced as Farage is onstage with all his fellow candidates, is expected Friday morning between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.

Discussion

At 900 AM GMT (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Cristobal was located near latitude 38.6 North, longitude 38.2 West. The depression is moving toward the northeast near 16 mph (26 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through today.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55 km/h) with higher gusts. Weakening is forecast, and Cristobal is forecast to dissipate later today.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1014 mb (29.95 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

Forecasters in the U.K. are predicting the mercury will rise as high as 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in central and southeast England, potentially making it the hottest day of the year. The highest temperature this year was recorded on June 26 when the temperature hit 38 C in eastern England.

The U.K.’s Met Office said earlier this week that only average conditions were needed for the rest of August to beat last year’s record for the hottest year.

Temperatures in France, meanwhile, are forecast to go even higher, reaching 40 degrees C (104 F) in central and southern areas and 38 C in Paris.

Britain and France ill-equipped for this sort of heat

This summer has shown that both Britain and France are ill-equipped to deal with these levels of heat. Air conditioning is a rarity outside of shops and offices, for example.

In Britain, it emerged Thursday that working has been particularly difficult in hospitals, where nurses have been known to collapse from heat exhaustion, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

“When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed,” said Nicola Ranger, the college's chief executive and general secretary.

Unsurprisingly, drought conditions are spreading

Like many parts of Europe, Britain and France are facing widespread drought conditions that have shriveled crops and drained rivers, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment, and forcing governments and water users to seek both short- and long-term measures to mitigate the effects of human-caused climate change.

Britain's Southern Water, which oversees supplies in the south of England, has applied for a rare drought order which would ban businesses from nonessential water use, including cleaning cars and filling nondomestic swimming pools, saying an “exceptional” lack of rain has threatened supplies in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will decide on the application, which would be the first such ban since May 2006.

Wildfire fears remain a clear and present danger

With the land parched and no sign of any meaningful rain coming, authorities in Britain and France remain on high alert for wildfires.

In Britain, which is increasingly looking sandy brown rather than its traditional luscious green, firefighters have been out in force this week trying to contain a wildfire in the New Forest in southern England.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Though not on the same level as those witnessed in France, Greece and Spain, they provide ample evidence of the need for the U.K. to adjust to a new reality.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will consider imposing a ban on disposable barbecues amid the risk of further wildfires as extreme heat continues to grip parts of the U.K.

“I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear,” he said. “People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.”

French firefighters were back in action too after a desperate summer and are threatening to go on strike to demand more staff and resources to cope with increasingly extreme weather events.

One broke out late Wednesday in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, and another in Brittany, far from the hotter, drier and more fire-prone regions in southern France. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

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Charlton reported from Paris.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the siege a “horrific act of terror.”

Since Sunday, according to local officials and family members, settlers have gathered near the home in the village of Qusra and harassed those inside, defying efforts by the Israeli military to defuse the situation.

A group that has included up to dozens of men has thrown stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies.

Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from his home in Ohio, the home's owner Lou Ridi said his 48-year-old brother and nephew, who have been holed up in the home to defend it, had been unable to leave the house and did not have access to food or water for several days.

On Thursday morning, the owner’s brother Qusai Abu Rida said that he and his teenage son had been evacuated by Israel’s military. It was unclear what would happen to the property and at least one other that has been targeted.

Israeli troops intervened in recent days to try to restore order. The military said that overnight Thursday its troops had dismantled “two illegal outposts” on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It added that additional soldiers had surged to the area, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) of the Palestinian city of Nablus, to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”

Journalists on the outskirts of Qusra said roads into the village were closed. Israeli police did not immediately respond to questions about whether any Israeli civilians had been arrested.

Palestinians and the Israeli opposition accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government of turning a blind eye to attacks by settlers against Palestinians as clashes have surged in the last few years.

Huckabee’s post on X was an unusually sharp rebuke from a U.S. official, even as he defended the Israeli military’s response. Huckabee is a longtime ally of Israel’s settler movement and in the past has expressed support for Israeli control over the occupied West Bank while condemning settler violence.

Home security footage from Thursday morning appeared to show a few settlers still hiding by a damaged stone wall near the house.

Ridi said that settlers have been harassing his home for months before the situation escalated in recent days, saying they had cut off the water and electricity to his house and thrown stones, causing damage to the property as well as at least one more house in the area.

“We are prisoners in our own house, hostages in our own house,” he said.

Last month, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire in another apparent settler attack. That followed the killing of an Israeli settler, which triggered violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.

Settlers have been building more outposts in an effort condemned by many in the international community as aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, as part of a future state. Many settlers and their supporters say the entire area should belong to Israel for historical, religious and security reasons.

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Associated Press writers Sam Mednick and Giovanna Dell'Orto contributed from Jerusalem. Koral Saeed contributed reporting from Herzliya, Israel.

France's CAC 40 edged up 0.1% in early trading to 8,685.40, while the German DAX added 0.4% to 26,445.93. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4% to 10,791.07.

U.S. shares were set to drift moderately higher with Dow futures up nearly 0.1% at 53,921.00. S&P 500 futures rose nearly 0.1% to 7,775.25.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 advanced 1.2% to finish at 68,308.59.

In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 3.6%, climbing to 6,813.34, as shares in Samsung Electronics surged 4.9%. Computer chipmaker SK Hynix jumped 9%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.2% to 25,378.14, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5% to 3,926.96. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% to 9,188.50.

On Wednesday, several AI-related companies reported better earnings for the spring than analysts expected, while a report showed inflation across the United States was in line with forecasts for a slight improvement.

Analysts say investors are starting to study which AI stocks to play, instead of getting drawn in by the whole sector.

AI stocks recently have been on a roller-coaster ride, surging to records and then coming under pressure on worries that they have shot too high. Investors want to see big spenders on AI prove their investments are yielding enough in profits and productivity to make them worth it. That in turn could lead to sustained demand for chips and other AI infrastructure.

In other dealings early Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude slipped $1.18 to $82.08 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell $1.17 to $87.81 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 159.37 Japanese yen from 159.42 yen. The euro cost $1.1526, down slightly from $1.1527. Foreign exchange fluctuations have been in focus after the U.S. and Japan recently jointly intervened to prop up the yen. Although the dollar has fallen slightly against the yen, it still remains above 150 yen.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

Janse's farm on the fertile land of the Netherlands' southwestern Zeeland Province is drying out despite his efforts to make it more drought resistant as accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino batter fields across Europe.

The drought that is roasting much of Europe this summer is taking a heavy toll on crops across the continent, from potatoes in the Netherlands to corn in Bosnia and grapes in Italy. Even when farmers try to adapt, the extreme weather is hitting their crops and water supplies.

Triodos, a Dutch bank that has a focus on sustainability, published an analysis this week that estimated the heatwaves and drought could reduce gross domestic product across the European Union by 1% for 2026 or around 180 billion euros ($208 billion). Farmers are among the hardest hit, with their crops set to be badly affected by soaring temperatures and lack of water. In large parts of the Netherlands, farmers are no longer allowed to use water from streams and drainage channels to irrigate fields and orchards.

Just add water? Dutch crops suffer from the drought

Another farmer in Zeeland, Hendrik Jan ten Cate, looks at a field full of withered potato plants that are almost all ready for harvest — a month early and with a significantly reduced crop. His potatoes are used to make French fries for companies including McDonald’s, but they’re likely going to be too small this year.

“People want long fries,” he says as he holds one of the potatoes. “That’s going to be tough this year.”

Ten Cate is one of the lucky farmers because he is allowed to irrigate his crops. But, even so, he estimates his harvest this year will be down by about one-third compared to average years.

“It's not just the drought that is the problem,” he says. “It is also the sun, the dry air and especially the hot days we have had this year. The potatoes just can't handle that combination very well.”

Bosnian agriculture, a key driver of the economy, is suffering

In Bosnia, where agriculture contributes roughly 5% of annual GDP and 10% of all employment, grain farmer Slavisa Lukic stood in one of his corn fields as stalks blew limply in the breeze. His crops have been hit by repeated heat waves and drought conditions. He said this year’s corn yield would be very poor, if he manages to harvest one at all.

Lukic remembers when he grew 6 to 7 tons per hectare on his farm. He expects this year’s corn yield will be around 1.5 to 2 tons per hectare.

Pointing to the drought-stricken land in northeastern Bosnia, Lukic said clover fields that once grew abundantly have all but disappeared. “Now they literally do not exist,” he said. “Nothing.”

Czech brewers fear bad hop harvest

The drought is even hitting one of the Czech Republic's most famous products: beer.

Plzeňský Prazdroj, the country’s largest beer producer, expects to incur losses this year due to a stunted hops yield.

Jakub Zaoral, the brewer’s sustainability manager, said that changes in rainfall patterns — characterized by long periods of dryness with occasional heavy storms — mean that when rain does fall, it runs off the dry soil. That results in inconsistent yields and increasingly low groundwater levels.

“There’s no choice but to simply accept the fact that one year will be great and the next won’t be,” he said. “If it were to happen three times in a row, that could very well become an existential problem for hop growers.”

Drought takes a toll across the Danube region

In Romania, some heat and drought-resistant crops like sunflowers have been less affected by the extreme conditions and yields have been plentiful. But the drought is still hitting home with record-low water levels on the Danube River disrupting grain transport, causing chronically congested terminals and an increasing pileup of crops with nowhere to go.

“In a short time, maximum 10 days, we will enter full blast in sunflower harvest, to be followed by corn,” Cezar Gheorghe, founder of grain consultancy firm Agricolumn, told The Associated Press. “Already farmers are in panic mode. They can’t find a place to store the corn and sunflower seeds.”

Cattle grazing plains in Hungary are turning to dust. No rain has fallen on Sándor Molnár's dairy farm since late May and he is having to buy expensive feed for his 130 cows.

“We’re trying to hang in there and hope for the best, hoping next year will be better,” he added. “To be honest, we’ve been saying that for a few years now, but maybe this time it will be.”

Huge UK farm that invested in irrigation is feeling the heat

Elveden Estate, with more than 10,000 acres of farmland on the Suffolk-Norfolk border in eastern England, has built a reservoir that can hold enough water to fill about 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Less than a year after opening, it's almost dry. Another reservoir is at about 20% capacity.

But the farm's water policy is paying off.

“The fact that we’ve invested significantly in reservoir storage and the infrastructure associated with pumping water has meant that we’ve been in a very strong position to continue to irrigate our crops through this growing season,” the farm's managing director, Andrew Blenkiron, said.

But every drop counts.

“We’re very concerned that we haven’t got enough water to see us through this season,” Blenkiron said. “We’ve got probably, if this weather stays as it is, six weeks of watering left to do.”

Diversify and feed the soil

Janse uses no-till farming on his fields — not plowing the soil, planting crops to cover the ground year-round and adding organic matter — to help cope with the whims of the weather as climate change triggers more extremes.

He has also diversified by running a popular campsite on his farm near the picturesque town of Veere. As he tends to his fields, guests walk by toward a lake where yachts and a river cruise ship sail past.

And as dry weather causes an increase in soil salinity in fields, Janse grows samphire, also known as sea asparagus, on a small patch of land. It's a crop that can thrive in salty conditions. But with no rainfall, even that is struggling this year.

“Samphire needs fresh water, and if there is only saltwater it doesn’t grow either,” he said.

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Nadja Lovadinov in London, Mustakim Hasnath in Suffolk, Stanislav Hodina in Prague, Czech Republic, Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

The slowdown Thursday for people in the capital, Taipei, and six other cities and localities was part of the last phase of the island's annual Han Kuang exercises, military drills that began last week and aim to model a response to a possible Chinese military invasion.

Telecommunication operators slowed mobile web traffic to 256 Kbps, making it difficult to exchange anything other than texts. Usually, residents can access 5G in major cities.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te apologized to the public for the inconvenience, “We ask for your understanding and support, as this is a necessary drill,” he said.

Taiwan has stepped up the intensity of the Han Kuang drills, incorporating reservists and more civilians into the exercises with a focus on real-world scenarios. Previously, urban resilience drills in Taipei went largely unnoticed as they were not disruptive. For example, air raid drills in the metro station didn’t stem the flow of passengers.

This year, integrating civilians and coordinating with local governments was a key part of the exercises, according to the Taipei Times.

At a Taipei metro station Thursday afternoon, passengers waited to be released after the station's gates were shut for the simulation as part of air raid drills.

Allen Hsieh, a tourist from Hong Kong who was among the passengers who waited 30 minutes to be let out of the station, said he found the exercises to be convincing.

“The exercise did not cause me any inconvenience. I know that Taiwan needs to conduct exercises, given the current situation. I can understand that,” he said. “I did not expect it to be so real. I thought I would only receive text messages.”

Lai also visited a hospital as it simulated how to relocate its critical operations to underground facilities as part of the drills.

Taiwan is ramping up its defense exercises and purchases in response to heightened tensions with China, which claims the island as its own. China sends military planes, as well as Coast Guard ships and other vessels towards Taiwan on a daily basis and carries out large-scale military exercises from time to time.

Between Wednesday to Thursday morning, 18 Chinese warplanes and 11 navy ships operated around Taiwan, the island's Defense Ministry said.

Around 8 million people in the southern African country of 22 million are registered to vote in the one-day election. Voters will also choose members of Parliament and local government councilors. Results are expected on Monday, according to the electoral commission.

Before dawn, voters bundled in thick jackets against the morning chill began forming long lines outside polling stations across Lusaka.

Some huddled around small makeshift fires to keep warm while election officials arranged ballot boxes, checked voter lists and prepared polling stations.

European Union election observers watched the proceedings at one polling station in the capital.

Mathias Ngoma, in his 70s, said he has voted in every election he could because “it’s the only voice I have.”

“I braved the cold to choose leaders I am hoping will make things better in our constituency, ” he said, encouraging other Zambians to cast their ballots, saying every vote counts.

Economy dominates the vote

Hichilema faces 13 other candidates in the presidential vote, though Brian Mundubile of an opposition alliance is expected to be his strongest challenger.

The election is widely seen as a referendum on Hichilema’s handling of the economy. He came into power in 2021 and is seeking a second term. He argues that he inherited an economy in crisis and has overseen the restructuring of Zambia’s massive foreign debt, presided over economic growth, and helped to court investors.

Hichilema says he needs another five years to create jobs, improve infrastructure and expand public services.

Many Zambians say they don’t feel the benefits as unemployment, food prices and an unstable electricity supply continue to strain household budgets.

Joseph, who only gave his first name, told The Associated Press he voted hoping for better economic management after becoming disillusioned with the current government.

“I voted for development and change," the 53-year-old said. "Change in the management of the economy ... (and) natural resources.”

Zambian copper production draws international interest

The election is also being closely watched abroad because Zambia is a major copper producer seeking to sharply increase production of the metal, critical to electric vehicles, renewable energy and power grids.

China is Zambia’s largest foreign investor and has extensive mining interests in the country, while the United States has sought a greater role as Washington looks to diversify supplies of critical minerals and reduce its reliance on China. Hichilema has courted investment from both China and Western partners, including the U.S., as he seeks to increase annual copper production to 3 million metric tons by 2031.

Security concerns shadow the vote

Security and political tensions rose in the final days of the campaign. Police deployed additional officers and warned against violence, disruptions at polling stations and the circulation of false results.

Opposition parties have accused Hichilema’s government of using state institutions to target political rivals, allegations the government rejects.

The opposition's Tonse Alliance said a law enforcement raid on its offices days before the election was politically motivated.

Hichilema spent four months in jail on treason charges when he was an opposition leader under former President Edgar Lungu, whom he defeated in 2021.

Lungu remained an influential political figure until his death in South Africa last year. A prolonged dispute between his family and the government over his funeral and burial added to tensions ahead of the election.

A presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Zambia has long been regarded as one of southern Africa’s more stable democracies, with a history of largely peaceful transfers of power. Hichilema’s victory in 2021 marked the country’s third transfer of power to an opposition candidate since multiparty democracy was restored in 1991.

Polls are expected to close at 1600 GMT.

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Associated Press writer Michelle Gumede in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

Rural areas prepared for an influx of visitors

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

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

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

Despite clouds, sky watchers in Iceland witnessed darkness

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

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

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

Eclipse glasses sold fast

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

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

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

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

A ship circles waters near Greenland hoping to catch a glimpse

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

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

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

Suddenly, for two minutes it was dark.

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

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

Hotel costs skyrocketed in Spain and Iceland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sun mostly obscured in Britain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ahead of the meeting, the Kennedy Center's management said it would present the board with three approaches for consideration.

The options would include a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”

In blocking earlier plans for closure, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the board's March 16 vote backing the move appeared “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” In moving forward, the board, which is largely made up of President Donald Trump's allies, may face pressure to prove they've thoroughly considered their options.

During Trump’s second term, the Kennedy Center has become an unlikely — and highly visible — metaphor of presidential power. While he largely ignored the institution during his first round in Washington, Trump moved quickly to oust the institution’s leadership when he returned to office in January 2025 and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. His name was quickly added to the building, a move that Cooper also declared illegal.

Trump’s name came down from the building in June but the area where it once stood is now covered by a massive tarp. Cooper has asked the Kennedy Center for updates on how long the tarp is expected to stay in place.

Trump's push to remake the nation's capital

The Kennedy Center moves are part of Trump's broader push to reshape the physical landscape of the nation's capital in ways that have few modern parallels.

He demolished the East Wing of the White House and is building a controversial ballroom in its place, though an appeals court ruled last week that construction should stop because Congress didn't approve the project. Trump has said he will take the case to the Supreme Court.

His remodel of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has also stumbled after algae returned and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro refuted his claims that a vandal was responsible for the damage.

Meanwhile, Trump is planning extensive renovations of a golf course in East Potomac Park, which could significantly reduce the public’s access to running and biking paths. He is also moving forward with a triumphal arch that will sit near Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump has derided the Kennedy Center as “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested” and threatened to hand the building over to Congress after Cooper rejected the closure and the addition of the president’s name to the building.

The institution’s leadership has argued that it’s in genuine need of repair and updating.

Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, guided a group of journalists through the building in April, highlighting severe water damage that he said corroded steel in some places as thin as tissue paper. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and in need of replacement.

At the time, Floca said he considered doing the repairs individually but insisted it was his recommendation to Trump to close the building and move forward with the renovation all at once.

“When the president asked: ‘How do you make these projects the best? How do you make them really excellent and deliver them efficiently?’ my recommendation was you close the building and you do everything over a definite period of time, two years,” he said.

More recently, the legal battles became the subject of barbs and jokes as comedian Bill Maher accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in late June. At the start of the program, Pamella Roland DeVos, a Kennedy Center trustee appointed by Trump, described the institution as a “national cultural center open not just for some but for every American patron who wants to experience the greatest art and expression the world has to offer.”

“The responsibility that comes with it is one our board takes very seriously,” she said.

U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis will have a chance to question both sides before determining if the brothers, who have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The Tates have remained in a federal detention center in Miami since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest. Their attorneys have argued the Tates’ high profile makes it nearly impossible for them to flee and that they regularly post updates about their locations on social media.

The Tates have become among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in the Tates' long-running international legal saga spanning the U.S., Britain and Romania.

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

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

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

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

U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, along with state lawmakers including Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, made the case Wednesday during a press conference.

The lawmakers are asking China Grove, Balcones Heights, Hollywood Park, St. Hedwig, Von Ormy and Sandy Oaks to end their participation in the federal government’s 287(g) program.

The program allows ICE to delegate certain immigration-enforcement functions to trained state and local law enforcement officers under written agreements and ICE supervision.

The six Bexar County agencies identified by the lawmakers are among local law enforcement agencies participating or considering to participate in the program. San Antonio itself is not a 287(g) participant.

Castro said the agreements blur the line between local policing and federal immigration enforcement.

“Our communities deserve police who protect them, not law enforcement that fuels Donald Trump and Greg Abbott’s mass deportation machine,” said Castro.

He added the six cities have signed onto the Task Force Model, which he described as the most expansive form of the program.

ICE describes the model as allowing state and local agencies to enforce limited immigration authority during routine police enforcement duties, including in non-custodial settings, while under ICE supervision and oversight. ICE says participating officers receive specialized training covering immigration law, civil rights, cross-cultural issues, liability and complaint procedures.

Castro said he is particularly concerned about the impact on smaller police departments.

“Small cities already struggle with law enforcement issues within their boundaries, and this is just going to strain their capacity even more,” Castro said.

The congressman also argued federal funding associated with the program can make the agreements attractive to cities dealing with budget pressures.

He said he has asked the participating communities for information about the number of officers involved, costs, funding and immigration-related arrests or transfers.

Casar argued smaller departments could face competing demands if officers are assigned immigration-enforcement responsibilities.

“By taking this money, you are signing yourself up for those law enforcement officers that you need to be getting to the 911 call,” he added.

Casar said local officers should instead be available to respond to emergencies, investigate crimes and handle traditional policing responsibilities.

The lawmakers’ concerns come as 287(g) agreements have expanded nationally. ICE describes the program as a partnership intended to enhance cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The lawmakers, however, contend that local participation can create additional costs and strain departments that already have limited resources. They also say public trust is also at stake.

Gervin-Hawkins said she believes participation could make some residents less willing to interact with police and other first responders.

“Most importantly, it erodes the community trust within our public safety, that trust we’re trying to rebuild and strengthen,” she said.

She added she is concerned residents could become afraid to report crimes or seek help from law enforcement. Gervin-Hawkins also warned of what she described as an increased risk of racial profiling and said the issue should not be viewed solely through a political or racial lens.

“This ain’t just a Black or brown issue. This is a humanitarian issue,” she said.

The congresswoman called on local leaders to consider the broader consequences of their decisions, even as some municipalities face financial challenges.

The debate comes as other Texas communities move forward with 287(g) agreements. On Tuesday night, Pearsall city leaders voted 5-2 to approve participation in the program. Pearsall is separate from the six Bexar County cities targeted by Wednesday’s letter.

Immigration attorney shares concerns

Jonathan Ryan, an immigration attorney and director of Advocato, a local organization providing legal services to refugees, immigrants and unaccompanied children, also spoke about the issue.

Ryan said one of his concerns is what happens after someone is initially arrested by local police.

“Most folks who are deported, who are detained, were originally arrested by local police officers,” Ryan said.

The attorney added an arrest can ultimately place someone into the federal immigration system, where the circumstances surrounding the initial arrest may not prevent immigration proceedings from moving forward.

He described the immigration process as one in which people can quickly lose the ability to remain in the United States, even when they have pending immigration claims.

Ryan said he has represented people who were detained through encounters involving local law enforcement and later transferred to immigration authorities.

He described one case involving a person who was a passenger in a vehicle stopped over an alleged license-plate-light violation. Ryan said the individual had a pending asylum claim and had entered the country through a humanitarian process but ultimately chose to leave the United States rather than remain detained while the case proceeded.

Ryan said those cases demonstrate why he believes local participation in immigration enforcement can have consequences beyond the initial police encounter.

“If immigrants and refugees don’t feel safe leaving their house, don’t feel safe going to work, reporting crimes, everyone in the community suffers,” he added.

The lawmakers said they want the six cities to provide more information about their 287(g) agreements, including how many officers are involved, the costs associated with the program and how much federal funding the departments expect to receive.

The debate now centers on whether those communities believe the benefits of participating in the federal program outweigh concerns about police resources, community trust and the role of local officers in immigration enforcement.

ICE, meanwhile, maintains that the 287(g) program is a voluntary partnership designed to allow trained local officers to assist with limited immigration-enforcement functions under federal oversight.

KSAT reached out to Republican state Reps. Marc LaHood and Carrie Isaac, as well as U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, for their perspectives on the 287(g) program and the lawmakers’ call for the six Bexar County cities to reconsider their agreements. As of Wednesday night, KSAT has not heard back from their offices. Once we learn more about their views on the lawmaker’s call to action, we will update this story.

Read also:

• ICE to require body cameras, policy says footage will be expedited if in agency’s ‘best interest’

Key Points

• The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of Wednesday, Aug. 12 and into the morning of Thursday, Aug, 13 this year.
• The best time to spot these meteors is around midnight and before dawn.
• Look towards the northeastern horizon where the Perseus constellation rises to try and spot the meteors.
• A new moon will be present, meaning there will be no moonlight to obstruct your viewing.
• With a completely dark sky, observers have seen up to 100 meteors per hour in the past.

What causes the Perseids?

According to earthsky.org, the Perseid meteor shower comes from the large parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. This comet was discovered in the 1860s and orbits the sun approximately every 133 years. The last time it passed close to Earth was in 1992.

Pieces of ice and space rock left behind by this comet cause this meteor shower, specifically as the Earth passes through the debris field. The peak of the Perseid meteor shower correlates to when the Earth passes through the densest part of this debris.

This year’s meteor shower

The meteor shower can be seen through Aug. 24, but it is at its peak the night of Aug. 12 into Aug. 13. Afterward, the number of meteors seen will gradually decline.

What makes this show the best in a while is that the moon will be in the new moon phase during this timeframe. This means no moonlight will obstruct your viewing, and you should be able to see even the faintest meteors. 🌘

The radiant point (where the meteors appear to generate from) is seemingly close to the constellation Perseus. The constellation will rise above the northeastern horizon around 11 p.m. before climbing high in the sky through the early morning hours.

When clear skies are present, the best time to view meteors is right before dawn when that radiant point is higher. When spotted, these meteors are typically colorful and leave behind glowing trails. Sometimes the longest and brightest meteors can be seen just a few degrees away from the radiant point.

Best viewing practices

In terms of weather conditions, we’ll continue to have the same pattern as previous days: Clear skies at night and into the very early morning hours, but cloud cover builds before sunrise. The best window to spot the meteors with minimal clouds will likely be between midnight and 4 a.m.

If you want the best possible seat for the show, head out to a dark spot that’s away from bright city lights. It’s also a good idea to find a place that isn’t obstructed by tall buildings and structures so you can see as much of the sky as possible.

Telescopes and binoculars are not required, just some patience and about 30 minutes to let your eyes adjust to the night sky! That means don’t look at your phone either!

Editor’s Note: These meteors are not to be confused with the Starlink satellites, which have also been reported in the South Central Texas skies. These satellites look like a “line of lights” in the sky. You’ll know the difference if you happen to spot a meteor, since meteors move much faster!

Meteor jargon

Meteor, meteorite, meteoroid ... what’s the difference? According to NASA, they’re all related to the flashes of light in the sky that we know as “shooting stars.”

Depending on where they’re located, we refer to them by different names:

• For example, meteoroids are essentially “space rocks” that can vary widely in size.
• When these meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere and eventually burn up, the “shooting star” that we sometimes see is then called a meteor.
• If a meteor doesn’t fully burn up and part of it reaches the ground, it’s then referred to as a meteorite. It can be a little confusing, I know!

By the way, if you ever happen to see a rogue fireball in the night sky, report it to the American Meteor Society by clicking here!

Happy meteor watching!

• Read more from the meteorologists on the Whatever the Weather page
• Download KSAT’s weather app for customized, accurate forecasts in San Antonio, South Texas or wherever you are
• Find the latest forecasts, radar and alerts on the KSAT Weather Authority page

The Brandeis Broncos, led by head coach Kemmie Lewis, went 8-4 last season, advancing to the area round of the playoffs.

The Broncos play in District 28-6A, one of the toughest districts in the area. The Broncos are predicted to finish third behind Reagan and Johnson, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

Brandeis returns five starters on offense and six on defense. This is year three under Lewis, and the Broncos are ready to show out.

“Anytime you can play teams to that caliber, deep in the playoffs, it makes you hungry for the next season,” Kemmie Lewis said.

“We definitely have a lot of leaders this season,” said Wynter Smith, Brandeis senior quarterback.

Smith has been on the varsity squad for several years. The Broncos have returning talent on both sides of the ball.

Senior Bronco Hakim Frampton said he’s ready to get the show on the road, especially against one of the “lost ones” from last season. He’s back for redemption.

“I got that Oct. 2 game written on my board,” said Frampton. “I need Johnson.”

The Broncos open the season against O’Connor. The non-district game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at home.

Read more reporting on the Big Game Coverage page.

It was the program’s sixth state championship — and fifth under McClure. But the 2025 title was especially sweet after Antonian had fallen in the state final each of the previous two seasons.

“A lot of people thought like it was like a rebuilding year — but all of us, we were like, ‘No, this is our year’,” said Antonian senior right side Lucy Rote.

One of the ways the Apaches finally got over the hump was through McClure’s motivational tactics.

It started with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and has now shifted to scenes from the show “Ted Lasso,” where the team’s “Believe” sign originated.

“We have a lot of Ted Lasso in this gym,” said Rote. “I think it’s I think it is really inspiring, because a lot of the clips are very relevant to what we’re going through, especially last year.”

To that same tune, Antonian believes it can defend its title in 2026.

“If you’re having a bad day, it’s OK, because you still have that belief that it’s going to get better,” McClure said. “Even if you’re having a great day, there’s still that belief that it can still get better.”

The Apaches continued their winning ways, opening their season the same way they ended it in November — with a victory — defeating Davenport 3-0.

“We’re definitely meshing and becoming more friends,” said Apaches senior middle blocker Maci Cantu. ”I feel like we definitely, like, push each other to become the best version of ourselves.”

“Humble but hungry; that’s what I see with this team,” McClure said. “They’re still very humble, even though they’re reigning state champions. It was great winning, but we’re not done yet.”

Read more reporting and watch highlights and full games on the Big Game Coverage page.

At the World Athletics U20 Championships last week in Eugene, Oregon, Taylor put sprinters everywhere on notice.

He won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m races, becoming the first male to win gold in those three events at the U20 Championships.

Taylor’s 9.94 in the 100m is a personal best. His 19.83 in the 200m is a championship record. His 38.16 in the 4x100m is a U20 world record. His anchor leg time of 8.75 seconds is the stuff of legends.

KSAT 12 Sports anchor Larry Ramirez sat down with Taylor before he left San Antonio for Texas Tech to join the Red Raiders track and field program.

Read also:

• San Antonio’s Tate Taylor completes sprint double with 200-meter gold at World U20 Championships
• Harlan High School product Tate Taylor continues rapid ascension using coach’s guidance

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

Affidavits for his arrest show Calfas, 56, is facing solicitation of prostitution and human trafficking charges.

According to one affidavit, Calfas allegedly coerced a woman to engage in sexual conduct by promising legal help for her jailed brother. The affidavit cites recorded jail phone calls and interviews that investigators say support the allegations.

Investigators also allege Calfas ultimately didn’t provide the legal representation he promised.

A second warrant alleges Calfas offered to pay a fee for sex with a woman.

According to the affidavit, investigators reviewed a screen-recorded Snapchat video showing a sexual encounter. Afterward, the affidavit says, the man in the video is seen handing over what investigators say appeared to be cash.

KSAT reached out to Calfas for comment and is still waiting to hear back. Calfas’ bond is set at $110,000.

DPS said its investigation is ongoing.

More news coverage on KSAT:

• String of vehicle break-ins at Northeast Baptist Hospital has employees concerned
• BCSO: Confession over jail phone call leads to murder charge for suspect in NE Bexar County shooting
• SAPD: Man killed after being pinned between 2 trucks at East Side truck rental agency identified

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

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

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

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

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

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

Survival takes many forms in hard-hit areas

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

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

Across the coffee-growing region, among the areas worst affected by the quake, authorities have converted sports arenas, schools and other public buildings into shelters for thousands of displaced Colombians.

Ebert Jonathan Morales, a Cali resident, said his family lost everything in the earthquake.

“My house was completely destroyed. We can’t live there," Morales said. “It collapsed. The floor collapsed, the walls cracked. The roof came down.”

In Pereira and Cali, families have been sleeping in parks — some fearing aftershocks or the collapse of their damaged homes, others without homes to return to.

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

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

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

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

Aid groups provide humanitarian relief

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

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

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

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

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

Regional partners promise to help

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

The rapid-fire developments came amid long-term questions about who will represent children in court amid President Donald Trump's push for mass deportations.

The administration last week announced plans to award the contract to the Burke Law Group, a Houston-based firm with little experience in immigration. The contract offer came after the administration let a key contract expire with nearly 100 providers through Acacia Center for Justice.

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

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

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

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

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

The administration awarded another contract worth up to $244 million to Our Rescue, an anti-child-trafficking organization based in Sandy, Utah. The group, previously called Operation Underground Railroad, was made famous by the 2023 movie “Sound of Freedom.”

Founder Tim Ballard resigned in 2023 amid allegations of misconduct. Women accused him in lawsuits of exploiting his position at Operation Underground Railroad and their desire to help combat child trafficking to abuse them.

Derek Benner, Our Rescue's current CEO, welcomed the new assignment.

“These are among the most vulnerable children in the world, and they deserve nothing less than the full weight of our experience,” said Benner, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Saturday afternoon, they came together to fight and contain the fast-spreading Windy Ridge Road Fire.

Sean Doerre, director of communications for the City of Fredericksburg and public information officer for Fredericksburg Fire/EMS Department, said crews from six volunteer fire departments in Gillespie County responded.

He said extra support came from Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department just outside Junction, and from the Texas A&M Forest Service, which has often assisted the county in fire emergencies.

“They’re able to provide those air drops, extra manpower, as well as equipment that help us,” Doerre said.

In total, 96 acres of private ranch land burned, but Doerre said no structures were lost and no formal evacuations were issued.

Those landowners are now surveying their damage and planning what needs to happen next regarding livestock and repairs.

This fire emergency comes about three weeks after the Pedernales River flooded rural areas of the county.

Doerre said some areas got 20 to 25 inches of rain, while others got less than 5 inches. But he said the flood left behind a lot of destruction.

“You’re talking about fences, barns, maybe cabins that are down by the river that have been washed away,” he said, describing the damage. “And so the recovery effort is still ongoing there.”

Doerre said crews rescued more than 30 people from those areas that were going to be flooded. According to early estimates, the July 2026 flooding caused more than $6 million in damages.

Fortunately, he said there were no deaths in Gillespie County due to the flood.

With two back-to-back emergencies, Doerre said his office, along with the Gillespie County’s emergency management coordinator, are reminding neighbors to keep fire safety in mind.

He explained all the water from the rains and floods are gone, and right now, conditions are dry and breezy.

“The sun has been out a couple days, the wind’s been up, all of those things lead to more wildfires, and we’ve seen that in the last week or so in Gillespie County.”

The call for precautions come as the Labor Day holiday approaches and people make outdoor plans.

“Obviously people will be out grilling,” he said. “The disposal of those charcoal briquettes is very critical. Make sure they are completely out before disposing of them.”

He also urged people to use deliberate caution when welding or metal cutting, discarding a cigarette, and parking in tall grass — actions that can spark a fire.

Still on the minds of emergency officials in the county is March 2025, when the Crabapple Fire raced through northern Gillespie County, burning over 9,800 acres and illustrating the amount of destruction a fire can cause when the flames get loose.

“We’ve learned some lessons from the Crabapple Fire,” Doerre said. “We continue to implement those lessons.”

He added there is a core lesson emergency personnel have taken to heart that has helped the county react to fires and other emergencies more quickly.

“We have great coordination here in Gillespie County,” Doerre said. “The coordination level between our local Texas A&M Forest Service as well as our local volunteer fire departments helps in any response we have to an emergency situation.”

His plea to everyone: “Don’t be the reason that there is another wildfire here in Gillespie County or anywhere in the Texas Hill Country.”

For those who were impacted by the Windy Ridge Road Fire, Doerre said resources like moving animals or obtaining additional hay or feed are available through the county’s AgriLife Extension Office.

He said those who need to report property damage from last month’s flooding are able to fill out the Texas Division of Emergency Management form on the Gillespie and Fredericksburg emergency pages.

Doerre said residents can sign up for the Gillespie County emergency alert system by texting FBGTX to 38276 to get information in the event of another flood or wildfire that prompts evacuations.

Read also:

• Why 2 flood disasters in just over a year are taking an emotional toll on Hill Country families

Zhu died in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin.

Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.

Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter.

Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007.

A spiky personality who fought corruption and conservatives

Named premier in 1998 at age 69, Zhu became a popular figure by criticizing official bungling and graft and accepting blame when the government fell short. His demanding style earned him the nicknames Boss and Zhu Fengzi, or Madman Zhu.

“I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself,” Zhu said in 1998, according to the party newspaper People’s Daily.

Zhu ranked No. 3 in the party hierarchy behind Jiang and Li Peng, chairman of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress. But he was a technician without his own power base. Zhu complained that allowed officials to ignore his orders.

Zhu made his name as a deputy premier in the 1990s by crushing inflation. He enforced price controls and cut off loans to money-losing state companies, rebuffing resistance by local leaders — a pattern Zhu would repeat as he fought conservatives over the pace of reform.

Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s. That status would enshrine free trade as a national commitment, giving Zhu a tool to force local officials to stop protecting favored companies.

Zhu’s campaign was nearly derailed when he went to Washington in 1999 with market-opening concessions to win U.S. endorsement of the WTO bid. The Clinton administration rejected the offer as inadequate, while his political enemies at home accused him of offering too much, but Zhu survived and China went on to join the body in December 2001.

Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned.

Still, Zhu was less an advocate of free enterprise than a skilled bureaucrat who carried out party orders to whip state industry into shape.

Zhu showed no interest in privatizing the economy. He played a key role in drafting plans in the 1990s to turn banks, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises into profit-oriented corporations but to retain government ownership.

Zhu stood out for admitting official failings

Born Oct. 23, 1928, in Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan, Zhu paid an early price for his willingness to take risks and speak out.

After a start as an economic planner, his career went into a 22-year eclipse when he was labelled a “rightist” in 1957 for praising reforms in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He was banished to the countryside during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution to do manual labor.

Rehabilitated in 1979, Zhu rose swiftly, becoming deputy Shanghai party secretary in 1987 and mayor the next year.

As mayor in 1989, Zhu gained a reputation for moderation when he placated protesters and pledged not to call in the military.

“He managed to defuse, with considerable subtlety, a tense political situation that could have developed into localized violence or worse if the military had felt it necessary to intervene,” wrote Australian diplomat Shelley Warner in the 1991 book “The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces.”

Zhu’s boss, Jiang, would soon be called to Beijing by Deng and made party leader. Zhu was named deputy premier in 1991 and joined the party’s ruling Standing Committee in 1993.

Zhu broke with the leadership’s stance of infallibility by admitting and taking blame for official failings.

In 1998, after summer floods killed 4,150 people and officials were accused of embezzling money meant for anti-flood dikes, Zhu complained some barriers were no stronger than bean curd.

Three years later, he apologized on national television for his Cabinet’s failure to protect the public after an explosion in a schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Zhu enlivened the party’s bland image by cracking jokes in public, sometimes at his own expense. Laughter erupted at a 1999 news conference when he said a recent photo “made me look like a dead man.”

One of Zhu’s proudest triumphs as deputy premier was to craft a tax system that required local officials to hand more revenue to Beijing. He said in 1996 that he deserved a Nobel Prize in economics for that.

Zhu rarely appeared in public after leaving office as premier.

Zhu was married to Lao An, a fellow Hunan native. Their son, Yunlai, also known as Levin Zhu, is a former CEO of China International Capital Corp., a government-owned investment bank.

Their daughter, Yanlai, led a charity organization supporting schoolchildren that was backed by Zhu Rongji.

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A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Zhu died at 98. He was 97 years old.

___

Leung reported from Hong Kong. McDonald, a longtime Associated Press journalist who retired in 2023, was the main author of this obituary.

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

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

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

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

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

People had to be rescued from rising floodwaters

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

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

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

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

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

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

The storms pummeled a wide swath of the Midwest

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

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

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

Heavy rains and high winds damaged homes and inundated neighborhoods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The vote took place during a hastily convened meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers at Parliament in Wellington, which was held behind closed doors and ran for more than three hours. Luxon then emerged flanked by his lawmakers to give a brief statement and departed without taking any questions from reporters.

“There was a confidence vote in my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting,” he said. “I had the full support of our caucus and our caucus is united and it is determined to win this election.”

Luxon didn’t say how many lawmakers had voted for him to continue in the job, although such ballots are usually a secret.

Hours later, he said in a statement that the vote was prompted by a leadership challenge from his defense minister, Chris Penk, adding that he had removed Penk from his ministerial portfolios. On Wednesday night, Luxon's office distributed a statement from Penk, in which the challenger said he would quit Parliament altogether.

It was Luxon's second confidence vote since April

The vote was the second Luxon had called about his own leadership since April and leaves lingering questions coming so close to the election scheduled for Nov. 7.

The April vote followed drops in polling for National, while this week’s followed recent public remarks Luxon had made on various issues that some in his party saw as gaffes.

On Tuesday, the leader took the rare step of disclosing on social media that he faced renewed rumblings about his leadership, and announcing he would call a meeting of his lawmakers Wednesday to resolve it.

“It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election,” he wrote on X. “I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”

National has led a right-wing coalition government since New Zealand’s 2023 election. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2020, had led the party since 2021.

Defense minister launched showdown

Details of who had prompted the leadership rumblings at first remained a mystery.

Nobody publicly confirmed plans for a leadership bid or expressed intentions to oust their leader, and those whose names were reported speculatively by news outlets denied it.

Several hours after the vote, Luxon named Penk as his challenger and said his now former minister’s position was “untenable.”

Penk, 47, was also the minister for building and construction, and responsible for the security services and space portfolios. A former lawyer who served in Australia’s navy, Penk entered Parliament in 2017.

He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but in the statement Luxon's office attributed to him, Penk said he had “reflected on my political future with my family tonight” and would not seek reelection in November, effectively ending his political career.

“I am proud of the progress I have contributed to as a Minister this term,” Penk's statement said. “However, I have decided it is the time for me to seek other opportunities to serve New Zealand.”

The statement did not criticize Luxon or reference his leadership bid.

Meanwhile, Luxon’s political opponents lambasted him and his party.

“Backstabbing and infighting just means more delay and more distraction for New Zealand,” said Chris Hipkins, the opposition leader and leader of the center-left Labour party. “If National can’t govern itself, how can New Zealanders trust it to govern the country?”

Luxon’s remarks in recent weeks prompted fresh speculation

Among the recent remarks that appeared to prompt renewed leadership murmurings were comments Luxon made to a business audience earlier this month, when he said some business leaders in the country had a “parent-child mentality” and too often looked to the government for direction. Luxon, who was once an executive at Unilever when he lived in the United States, has always sold himself as a business expert and has sometimes pointed out where he sees New Zealand as falling short of global trends.

When elected, he pledged to use his experience to reverse New Zealand’s economic woes of recent years. This month’s remarks were lambasted, including by some in his own party, as being out of touch while the economy remained sluggish.

He later apologized for the comments. In another episode, he was forced to divulge that he had used a military aircraft to return to Wellington after a political party fundraiser.

Luxon also surprised his lawmakers this month when he promised a referendum on New Zealand’s electoral system if reelected – apparently without first telling his caucus. The episodes were seen among some in his party as an unwelcome distraction ahead of the election and revealing of Luxon’s relative political inexperience.

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This version has corrected that Luxon entered Parliament in 2020, not 2000.

The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had stayed on the plane. The official said Bessent was likely aware but did not know for sure.

The official, however, noted that security precautions for the president — especially one who has been the target of several assassination attempts — are more robust than those for even top members of the Cabinet.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the secretaries of State and Treasury follow the vice president and the highest ranking member of each chamber of Congress in the presidential line of succession.

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

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

The Washington Post reported this week that Trump wasn’t on the old Air Force One on the return flight from Turkey and that he instead was smuggled onto another jet via a catering cart to avoid a possible Iranian assassination plot. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington.

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

Trump acknowledged the transfer late Tuesday.

“It’s only up to the Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it, I do what they say.”

A Louisiana grand jury in June declined to indict Christopher Gillum on a state terrorism charge that could have carried up to a 15-year sentence, court records show.

Gillum, who had been held without bond, was released shortly after the grand jury’s decision and is not facing charges in any other jurisdictions, according to his attorney, Dylan Utley. He declined to comment further.

Gillum's release has not previously been reported.

The 45-year-old ex-police officer, who is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had been arrested in Florida in April with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a handgun while on his way to Louisiana to commit a mass shooting, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation had involved the FBI and authorities across Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida.

Authorities did not name the event Gillum was allegedly targeting, but his arrest came on the eve of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers annually.

Gillum, who is white, had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people’ ”, according to authorities. His family had reported him missing in North Carolina and said he had a history of self-harm.

Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said in a statement that Gillum’s family had taken him “to a treatment facility out of the state” and that he is not facing additional criminal charges.

Duhe said there were “several jurisdictional issues” that complicated the case after Gillum was extradited to Louisiana following his arrest.

“The threat relayed to a family member actually occurred in North Carolina,” Duhe said. “The defendant never entered the State of Louisiana until after his arrest.”

Gillum had been planning to travel to the Florida Keys “during the same period he would have been suspected to travel to Louisiana,” Duhe added.

Gillum was charged under a Louisiana statute for the crime of “terrorizing,” which requires that “a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist.”

Jonathan Guidry, the foreperson for the grand jury, declined to comment on the decision to not indict Gillum.

Katherine Schweit, a former Chicago prosecutor and FBI executive who ran the agency’s active shooter program, said that thwarted acts of mass violence do not always lead to indictments, but prosecutors often seek an array of criminal charges when possible.

“It’s very difficult to convince a jury, or to convince a grand jury, that something might have happened,” Schweit told The Associated Press.

Law enforcement authorities in North Carolina, where Louisiana court records list Gillum as residing, told the AP that they were not aware he had been released from custody.

“If we’ve got an individual that was accused of such an action, we would want to know if in fact he did return to Alamance County,” said Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.

Nazneen Ahmed, a spokesperson for North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, said there are no plans for the state to pursue charges against Gillum.

The office of the Florida Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment about whether Gillum may face additional criminal charges in its jurisdiction. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana also did not return messages seeking comment.

In a statement, the FBI New Orleans office said the decision whether to charge Gillum rested with prosecutors.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival declined to comment.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed people wearing life jackets crowding an inflatable life raft in choppy waters during a rescue operation at sea, as thick black smoke billows from the ferry.

The agency said that as of early Thursday, rescuers evacuated 211 people from the burned vessel, including seven foreign tourists, and recovered the body of a 19-year-old Indonesian woman.

The Putri Yasmin ferry was traveling from Bali to the neighboring island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province when the fire broke out at about 4:15 a.m. Wednesday. The ferry was also transporting 44 vehicles and 53 motorcycles.

The Search and Rescue Office in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, received an emergency report almost half an hour later and immediately deployed personnel and rescue vessels.

“Our top priority is the safety of all passengers and crew members,” said Muhammad Hariyadi, who heads the Mataram Search and Rescue Office.

The search was continuing Thursday. Relatives who gathered in a post command center in the port reported at least five of their family members still unaccounted for. Their names were posted at the center as missing.

Initial reports said the ferry was carrying 131 people, including 17 crew members, based on the manifest, but officials said hours later that more people were aboard.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers to differ from the manifest, but authorities have not said why the number of people evacuated was so much greater. Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said officials will look into the discrepancy.

“The findings will be thoroughly reviewed as part of the ministry’s evaluation,” Purwagandhi said. “This is a serious issue that will be thoroughly investigated.”

He said the National Transportation Safety Committee investigators were determining the cause of the fire.

Syamsurizal, head of the Lembar Port Authority in Lombok, said that survivors told authorities the blaze appeared to have started in a cargo truck before quickly spreading through the ferry. The heat forced some passengers to jump into the sea, he said.

“The response operation is ongoing, and authorities are continuing to account for all victims,” said Syamsurizal, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. He said at least two injured passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital.

Hariyadi said the rescue effort was supported by six vessels, a helicopter, two inflatable boats and two private yachts. He said rough seas with waves reported as high as 4 meters (13 feet) complicated rescue efforts.

The 62-meter (203-foot) ferry, built in Japan in 1992, can carry up to 220 passengers and 55 vehicles. It is primarily used to transport travelers and cargo between the Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok, a journey that typically takes four to five hours.

Wednesday's incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

“There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” a league spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement, hours after an anti-hate task force met virtually and discussed a variety of topics, including social media vitriol and transgender athletes.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Last Friday, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.

The draft isn’t until next April.

There has never been a transgender woman — a person assigned male at birth who transitions to align with their gender identity — on a WNBA roster. There have been players in the league who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.

The anti-hate committee was formed last year to deal with hateful and abusive online comments directed at players and the league.

“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online,” the WNBA statement said. “We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league.”

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo last Friday to team presidents and general managers saying the league would discuss the subject of transgender women in women’s basketball.

“We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead,” Engelbert said in the memo. “We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts.”

In an ESPN article published last month, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham's comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.

Some WNBA players and coaches have come out in support of transgender athletes, including Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said on Aug. 1. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”

Many players have declined to comment on the subject.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Defendant Tyler Robinson's attorneys say the bullet traveled above the crowd of several thousand people at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 and “there were no threats to others.” Whether the shooting endangered the crowd is a key issue: Prosecutors cited the risk that other people could have been harmed as an aggravating factor under state law that makes Kirk's killing a capital crime.

“The only evidence presented supports that the bullet traveled above, not through, the crowd,” defense attorneys wrote in documents filed late Tuesday as the defense tries to block the case from proceeding to trial.

Prosecutors have said numerous people were within a “zone of danger” around Kirk, where a stray or ricocheting bullet could have hurt anyone close to the victim.

The defense lawyers also disputed claims that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political views. Prosecutors allege Robinson told his roommate that he killed the activist because he “had enough of his hatred.” But the defense said that was not enough to prove what motivated Robinson, after searches of his apartment, computers and telephone failed to produce anything beyond that one statement.

Prosecutors last month during a weeklong hearing presented what they call “overwhelming” evidence against Robinson, including DNA tests that tie him to the suspected murder weapon and apparent confessions by the defendant.

His attorneys questioned the reliability of the DNA tests and other evidence. They didn't offer any alternative theories for Kirk's assassination, and made no mention of DNA in Tuesday's filing.

Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and has not yet entered a plea. He turned himself in a day after Kirk was killed.

His defense attorneys previously tried to get the death penalty taken off the table after prosecutors were found to be in contempt of court for talking about the case to the media. State District Judge Tony Graf rejected that request.

In documents filed last month, prosecutors said the fact that Robinson loaded his rifle with four bullets showed that he knew he could miss Kirk, “thereby putting others in danger.”

But defense attorneys said “it is just as likely that the shooter did not believe he would miss.”

Robinson faces possible sentence enhancements if prosecutors can prove he targeted Kirk because of his politics. They contend that Kirk’s strong opposition to same-sex marriage and gender transitioning stood in contrast to Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with a roommate, Lance Twiggs. Twiggs told investigators that he had been considering transitioning around the time that Kirk was killed, according to prosecutors.

Twiggs also told investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including President Donald Trump. Yet Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ+ rights, Twiggs said. The AP emailed Twiggs’ attorney seeking comment.

Closing arguments in the preliminary hearing are scheduled for Sept. 1. Graf will then decide if the case can go to trial and on what charges. Lawyers for Kirk’s family have asked Graf to make his decision by or on Sept. 1 so the case can proceed.

Prosecutors have until Aug. 18 to respond to the latest defense arguments. The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the Utah County Attorney’s Office seeking comment.

Preliminary hearings typically don’t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf, the large volume of evidence and a desire by prosecutors to disprove conspiracy theories around the case.

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

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

New York AG says she is ‘outraged' by plan

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

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

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

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

Lawsuit alleges shocks from gloves contributed to man's death

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

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

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

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

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

Former ICE leader, law professor worry gloves will be misused

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report.

The cluster mailboxes along Sunlit Trail Drive in the Spring Meadows Ventura neighborhood show the damage: bent metal panels, crowbar marks, doors that no longer close and handwritten dates scrawled on the side — a makeshift log of every time thieves showed up.

Ashley, a renter in the neighborhood, said the problem has escalated sharply.

“It’s been really, really bad the last six months,” she said. “I’m talking about like weekly bad.”

She said thieves have become calculated, leaving junk mail behind while taking everything else.

“Everything — from bank cards to Social Security papers,” Ashley said. “They leave the junk mail. If there’s one piece that everybody has, they leave that in there.”

One neighbor lost nearly $10,000 after his debit card was stolen from the mailbox and used to drain his bank account, according to Ashley. The bank ultimately reimbursed him. Another neighbor had a backpack filled with school supplies for her children stolen last weekend, she said.

Emmanuel Zamora, who has lived in the neighborhood for 26 years, said the mailboxes have never had their locks changed.

A few months ago, he said the post office posted a notice directly on the mailbox with a blunt message.

“It said, ‘Check your mail every day — get there before the thieves do,’” Zamora said. “And that was it. Nothing’s been done.”

Zamora said the threat goes beyond stolen packages.

“Whoever’s doing this knows where you live,” he said. “They know specifically what house you’re at. Who’s to say they don’t know when you’re not home, and they’re just going to go in and break your house open?”

When KSAT reached out to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a spokesperson said the agency is “not aware of any mail theft occurring near Sunlit Trail Drive in San Antonio.”

Ashley said she has documentation showing otherwise.

“I reached out to the post office multiple times,” she said. “They have to send you an email confirmation after you do a service request. I got a lot of email confirmations stating all the mail theft.”

Mail theft is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and substantial fines.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says anyone who believes they are a victim of mail theft should report it to their local police department and to the Postal Inspection Service by calling 1-877-876-2455 or clicking here.

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• BCSO: Confession over jail phone call leads to murder charge for suspect in NE Bexar County shooting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

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

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

The concert was expanded after Monday's disaster in Colombia

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

Authorities and residents are just beginning to comprehend the devastation in Colombia, where at least 265 people were confirmed dead and nearly 500 people were reported missing by Wednesday afternoon, according to President Abelardo de la Espriella. Civilian-run databases put the number of missing at more than 4,100.

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

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

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

Performers from across Latin America rally to the cause

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

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

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

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

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

Some Colombian artists committed to the fundraiser well before Monday's earthquake. The Urbano Latino musician Feid, born in Medellín, has been reaching out to his more than 14 million Instagram followers this week to support aid groups there.

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

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

Additional benefits are also planned

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

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

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

——

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.

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

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

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

Here's the latest:

Pete Hegseth says Colombia president has requested US collaboration in antidrug efforts

The U.S. defense secretary said the recently inaugurated government of President Abelardo de la Espriella requested U.S. collaboration in joint military operations in Colombia to combat “narco-terrorism.”

During a meeting of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition in Panama, Hegseth said Colombia would also join the Shield of the Americas initiative, becoming its 19th member. The initiative emerged from a March summit with Trump and Latin American countries that sought to join forces in fighting drug cartels. Colombia’s then-President Gustavo Petro was not invited to that meeting.

“Through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has already requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks,” Hegseth said.

The government of de la Espriella, who is known as “El Tigre,” or “The Tiger,” did not immediately comment. But the conservative leader has previously said his administration would join the U.S. initiative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Matthew Lee

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interior Department holds third oil lease sale in Gulf of Mexico

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hegseth pushes Latin American nations to leave ICC

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

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

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

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

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

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

She also has a 2-year-old son.

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

Leavitt leaving job as White House press secretary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump-supporting pastor warns immigration enforcement risks Latino vote

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forget left vs. center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wisconsin gubernatorial primary winner David Crowley ties opponent to Trump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Many details about what happened remain unknown

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

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

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

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

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

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

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

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

Inflation paused, but higher costs remain an issue for Americans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

▶ Read more

During a meeting of the so-called Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition in Panama, Hegseth said Colombia would also join the “Shield of the Americas” initiative, becoming its 19th member. The initiative emerged from a March summit with U.S. President Donald Trump and Latin American countries that sought to join forces in fighting drug cartels. Colombia’s then-President Gustavo Petro was not invited to that meeting.

“Through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has already requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks,” Hegseth said.

The government of de la Espriella, who was sworn in last week and is known as “The Tiger” or “El Tigre,” did not immediately comment on the announcement in Panama. But the conservative leader has previously said his administration would join the U.S. initiative.

Separately, Hegseth urged the Latin American countries at the meeting not to recognize the International Criminal Court, or ICC. The U.S. under Trump has carried out military strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the region, which have raised questions about their legality.

Hegseth argued that such efforts “are entirely legal under international humanitarian law.”

It remains unclear from Hegseth’s statements what measures, if any, the international court has taken to hinder U.S. operations in the region.

He urged the nearly 20 countries in attendance to abandon the ICC and reject its attempts to strip their governments and courts of their “sovereignty.” The Trump administration is pushing a campaign to dismantle the international court in retaliation for arrest warrants issued against senior Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

While it is an exhibition game, it marks another milestone for the venerated wide receiver on his homecoming tour. Coach John Harbaugh expects Beckham to play in the team's preseason opener against Minnesota at home on Saturday.

"I’m looking forward to seeing him play," Harbaugh said Wednesday. “He’s looked good. He’s in shape. He’s taking every rep he’s supposed to take in practice. He’s getting stronger. I feel like he’s getting stronger every day. He’s in a good place.”

Beckham at 33 is in a very different place than he was in December 2018, when he was nearing the end of his rookie contract after surpassing 1,000 yards receiving in four of his first five NFL seasons.

Now, after serving a six-game suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test and not playing at all in 2025, he is attempting to show he still belongs in the league. His last game was Dec. 8, 2024, with Miami.

“I kind of had two years off,” Beckham told reporters in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, earlier this month. “Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically — whatever it was — I got time to heal, so, I feel good.”

Beckham has shown flashes of his younger self at training camp, including a catch in the back of the end zone from Jameis Winston during the opening week. Behind Malik Nabers ( when healthy ), Darius Slayton and others on the depth chart and with plenty of competition from fellow free agent additions Calvin Austin and Darnell Mooney and rookie Malachi Fields, there is no guarantee Beckham makes the initial 53-man roster.

Games and practices provide an opportunity for him to earn a spot. It is not clear yet who might be throwing him the ball, as Harbaugh dodged a question about whether franchise quarterback Jaxson Dart and the rest of the expected starters will play against the Vikings.

No matter who he's catching passes from, Beckham has the chance to steal the summer spotlight as a returning crowd favorite.

“I can’t wait to hear the fans yell when he run out there and catches a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in MetLife Stadium,” Winston said. “I think that is going to be one of the loudest roars. ... I just cannot even imagine just the anticipation that our fans have.”

Harbaugh explains the Giants bringing in Terrion Arnold for a visit

After Terrion Arnold worked out with the Giants, Harbaugh did not rule out them signing the free agent cornerback, who is facing eight felony charges, before the legal process runs its course.

“The legal process could take years, so then his career is gone,” Harbaugh said. “I think you have to decide: ‘Where does the legal process stand? What are we really talking about here? What does it look like?’ And you have to make a judgment along those lines.”

Arnold, 23, was charged in June with counts of kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy after allegations he orchestrated the abduction and beating of three men in February. He became a free agent when the Detroit Lions released him a few days after the charges were levied.

New York is the third team to bring in Arnold for a visit this week alone, after New Orleans and defending champion Seattle. Harbaugh explained the reasoning as wanting to be aggressive, while acknowledging there's a risk-reward proposition to the possibility.

“There’s things to be gained and things to be lost, and you just kind of got to balance it out and try to make a decision that’s two-fold,” Harbaugh said. “One aspect is what’s best for your football team. The other aspect is what’s best for your organization and your people and doing the right thing.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

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

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

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

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

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

Read also:

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

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

FORECAST

AUGUST HEAT

In typical August form, we’ll be running hot over the next two weeks. Today was our second triple digit day (101) so far this year, and we will tally up more in the days ahead.

SMALL SHOT AT RAIN FRIDAY

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

ACTIVE ATLANTIC

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

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

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

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

The two-time scoring champion shared his decision on social media in a post featuring a video narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan where the guard never says a word.

“Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end,” Westbrook wrote. “You had to be there. And now it’s over.”

Westbrook was the No. 4 pick in 2008 out of UCLA by the Seattle SuperSonics, just before they moved to Oklahoma City. He played his first 11 seasons with the Thunder and spent this past season with the Sacramento Kings.

Westbrook led the NBA in assists three times and was a two-time MVP of the All-Star Game. He won an Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London Games.

Westbrook leaves with 209 triple-doubles, the last on March 15. Nikola Jokic ranks second in that category with 198 going into this season. Westbrook also holds the NBA mark for most triple-doubles in a season with 42 in 2016-17, when he earned his only MVP award.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti called Westbrook “the ultimate competitor.”

“His internal belief and unbridled fearlessness helped establish the foundation of our organization from day one in 2008 and he elevated the confidence and inspired our community in every year thereafter,” Presti said in a statement. “Russell will be as successful in his life after basketball as he was during his career because his qualities and gifts transfer. His impact on our community is still felt today, and he is beloved for his devotion as much as his talent.”

Westbrook averaged double figures for points and assists in five of six seasons starting in the 2015-16 season.

Westbrook also played for Houston, Washington, the Lakers and Clippers — splitting the 2022-23 season between the Los Angeles teams and Denver.

Last season, Westbrook started 58 of the 64 games he played for Sacramento. He averaged 15.2 points and 6.7 assists.

___

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

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

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

A medical call turns volatile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brothers avoid felony assault conviction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

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

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

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

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

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

Unsealed indictment gives few new details in secrecy-shrouded case

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

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

The unsealed indictment reveals few new details in a case that has been shrouded in secrecy. It does not explain how or why Reiner was lying in wait. Without elaborating, prosecutors have said since December that the parents were stabbed. The indictment includes a special allegation of use of a deadly weapon — a knife — that could also contribute to a stiffer sentence.

Indictment released as Nick Reiner seeks trust funds

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

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

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

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

A hearing on the petition is set for next week.

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

Grand jury process happens in secret

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

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

Rob Reiner had prolific career as actor and director

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

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

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

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

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

2026 NBA Cup highlights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Across the pond and back in the United States

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

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

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

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

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

National TV exposure then vs. now

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

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

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

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

More sports coverage on KSAT:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reporter Joshua Fechter contributed to this story.

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

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

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

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

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

More recent SABJ coverage on KSAT:

• Rackspace Technology, executives named in securities fraud lawsuit over AI strategy
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• San Antonio launches $2.3B push to finance airport expansion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

____

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read also:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lamb remains wanted on the active warrant.

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

KSAT will continue following the case.

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

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

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

Read also:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

AP writers Konstantin Toropin and Josh Funk contributed reporting.

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

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

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

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

Referee was the Somali official barred from World Cup

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

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

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

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

Another season, another trophy for PSG

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

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

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

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

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

Teenager Madjo causes havoc

Remember the name: Brian Madjo.

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Neena Satija of the Texas Newsroom contributed to this report.

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

POSITION OVERVIEW

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

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Operate cameras and editing equipment to produce high-quality video and audio for news broadcasts and digital platforms.
• Engage with the community to capture news stories, demonstrating a connection to the stories and the people they affect.
• Utilize creative editing and graphics to enhance storytelling, ensuring content is modern, clean, and distraction-free.
• Serve as a field producer & photographer on location, collaborating with the news team to plan and execute coverage.
• Identify opportunities for digital video content, including vertical video for social media, OTT, and website.
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• Ability to work independently and make decisive judgments in the field.
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• Ability to lift and carry up to 50 lbs. of gear and shoulder an ENG camera for extended periods.
• Willingness to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as required, as well as be on-call for breaking news and travel for assignments.
• A collaborative attitude and excellent communication skills to work effectively with management, colleagues, and community members.
• A valid driver’s license and a clean driving record.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump is likely to take aim at Democratic Gov. Newsom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Republicans see an opening in Minnesota

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The GOP is pinning its hopes on Michele Tafoya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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What you’ll own

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

What we’re looking for

Required

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

Bonus points

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

You’ll thrive here if you...

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

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

Nate Mills, Director of Marketing

nmills@ksat.com

KSAT12

1408 N St Mary’s

San Antonio, TX 78215

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

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

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

Crowley immediately leans into Tiffany's ties to Trump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Democrats look for a trifecta in Wisconsin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holiday Hoops

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

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

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

Going global

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

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Democrats are hungry for change

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

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

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

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

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

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

The generational divide extends to the electorate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHO says this outbreak ‘had a big head start’

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two vaccines for this type are being tested

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

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

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

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

The origins of the outbreak are becoming increasingly clear.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three Pakistanis among the dead in Houthi attack on ship

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

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

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

Trump insists blockade gives US control of Strait of Hormuz

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

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

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

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

Pakistan presses to defuse tensions between US and Iran

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The United Nations recognizes the territory as part of Syria.

Kuwaiti authorities thwart plot against unnamed facility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Locke was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

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

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

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

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

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

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

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

Martinez (12-3) struck out five, and allowed four runs on eight hits with a 101-pitch effort for his second career complete game. He previously worked an eight-inning complete-game with the Reds in 2024, but took the loss.

The AL East-leading Rays jumped out to an early lead off Junior Caminero’s 412-foot, two-run shot to center field in the first inning.

Caminero also scored in the third on Chandler Simpson’s sac-fly, but Liam Hicks was thrown out attempting to tag from first for a double play that ended the inning.

Yandy Diaz had a solo homer, Carson Williams had a three-run blast and Victor Mesa Jr. has a two-run shot for Tampa Bay, which banged out 11 hits in the win.

Lawrence Butler had a two-run homer for the Athletics in the fifth inning. Mason Barnett (1-3) took the loss, allowing six runs on five hits in four innings.

The Athletics' Jacob Wilson had his MLB-record 113-game errorless streak extended by a postgame scoring change. Wilson was initially charged with a throwing error in the eighth inning, but the ruling was changed to a fielder's choice.

Up next

RHP Drew Rasmussen (11-5, 2.75 ERA) goes for Tampa Bay in the finale of the three-game series Wednesday. The A's have not announced a starter.

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

Everyone wanted a pope-themed hat.

“When things go bananas ... that’s when it gets really fun,” said Brooks Boyer, Chicago's chief revenue and marketing officer.

Fun is the overarching theme when it comes to stadium giveaways, and business has been good at major league ballparks this year.

An array of creative promotions — everything from the New York Mets handing out fake glasses and mustaches for a Bobby Valentine Disguise Night to the Texas Rangers giving away a Nolan Ryan bloody lip jersey — has played at least a small role in an MLB-wide average attendance of 29,618 through Tuesday's games, the highest such number for a full season since 2017.

Bobbleheads remain popular — like the Brandon Nimmo Bull Riding bobblehead in Texas, or the butter-churning Nick Kurtz “Big Amish” bobblehead with the Athletics — but it's not just those iconic figurines that are drawing big crowds. The Brewers handed out 25,000 bar dice sets to fans 21 and over on Saturday, and they had a crowd of 40,625 at American Family Field.

The pitch clock and other innovative rules introduced by MLB in 2023 are often credited for spurring fan interest. But it's clear from the long lines — and occasionally astronomical resale prices on eBay — what a clever giveaway can do for ticket sales, too.

“I definitely think across the league, there’s been an increase in demand and desire, and even necessity, to do things that are outside of the box," said Meagan Hermosillo, the director of marketing and promotions for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "For us, we can’t really do a standard bobblehead or a standard anything. It has to have some kind of unique factor if we want it to move the needle.”

Chicago's pope hats took creative — and careful — planning

The White Sox ended up giving the pope hats — shaped like the Pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle — to everyone in the crowd of 38,113 for Tuesday night's 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The tribute to Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and longtime White Sox fan, helped push the club's season-long attendance to 1,460,383, surpassing its total of 1,445,738 for all of 2025.

The team leaned into the theme. There were signs posted in the ballpark that read “LEO KNOWS MUNE” and “LEO KNOWS KONERKO,” referring to current White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami and former slugger Paul Konerko. Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw out a ceremonial first pitch, and former White Sox pitcher Donn “The Pope” Pall kicked off the game with the “play ball” announcement.

“I thought it was a great idea, knowing that the Pope is from Chicago and he's a Sox fan, which is great,” said Edward Lopez, 58, a truck driver from the south side of the city.

Lopez was supposed to go to the game with his girlfriend, but she wasn't able to make it. So he went through two different gates to make sure he secured two pope hats.

“It was worth it,” he said.

Promotions for the White Sox go through a committee led by senior director of marketing and promotions Mike Downey. They throw out ideas and concepts, and they also look at samples from different vendors.

The team also is handing out wooden domino sets to 10,000 fans on Aug. 22 and magic wands to 20,000 fans on Sept. 4, a nod to the viral wand-waving dugout displays of injured reliever Mike Vasil.

“We’ve always looked to have our giveaways be something that we know people would wear or use or value because it adds value to the ticket,” Boyer said. “So it starts with that.”

While planning the pope hat night, religious sensitivities were part of the conversation for the promotions committee.

“We haven’t done items that would be Pope Leo’s likeness,” Boyer said. “We wouldn’t do that without the permission of the Vatican. ... We’ve been very careful. There is a little bit of nuance and finesse that needs to be done. And items, you know a lot of items may not be for everybody.”

Teams are eagerly jumping on larger cultural moments for eye-catching promotions

The Baltimore Orioles handed out a Tupac Shakur bobblehead in May. The New York Yankees gave out a “ KPop Demon Hunters ” bobblehead on Tuesday night, and they have a George Costanza calzone bobblehead — paying tribute to a 1996 “Seinfeld” episode — coming up on Aug. 27. Every MLB team except Toronto had a Star Wars Night this season.

Following in the footsteps of the minor leagues in many cases, it's not enough anymore to just feature a popular player for a giveaway.

“You can see that teams are doing a much better job with their understanding (of) who they’re trying to target,” said Jim Strode, an associate dean and professor at Ohio University’s College of Business. “When I think of the ‘Seinfeld’ one, I’m thinking, you know, they’re targeting Gen X, they are targeting some, you know, younger baby boomers to try to get out to the ballpark.”

There is also what Lauren Anderson, the director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon, described as the “collector chase game.” There were multiple fans looking to buy additional pope hats at Tuesday night’s game, and there were several listings for the giveaway and the “KPop Demon Hunters” bobblehead on eBay on Wednesday.

“You want something that’s unique and cool and something that you can, you know, I’m one of 5,000 people to get these, I’m one of 10,000,” Anderson said. “I mean, there is also a bit of the game of people want something that’s limited so they can flip it and sell it, like on an eBay."

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AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this report.

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

The crash happened around 5:02 a.m. on U.S. Highway 90, which is located around 16 miles from Brackettville, Texas.

According to DPS, a 2024 gray Dodge 350 pickup truck was traveling westbound, and a 2022 blue Chevrolet Equinox was heading eastbound in the westbound “improved shoulder.”

Troopers noted that the Equinox driver was on the wrong side of the road.

At some point, the driver of the pickup truck swerved to avoid a head-on collision, DPS said.

Despite the effort, DPS said the driver of the Equinox struck the truck’s front panel. The collision caused injuries to both drivers.

The Equinox driver, identified as Brittany Ramon, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver suffered minor injuries.

DPS said the crash investigation remains ongoing.

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The trial scheduled to begin next week is expected to last six to eight weeks. Meta faces 29 states in the federal multidistrict lawsuit filed in 2023, but the Oakland trial will only include the first four — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Eight states, including Tennessee where a trial is ongoing, filed lawsuits in their own state courts.

The 2023 lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked prospective jurors about their own social media activity, knowledge about other lawsuits Meta faces, and any strong feelings they may have about social media companies and their role regarding the allegations.

The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media companies including Google's YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over claims their platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data and are deliberately designed to addict them.

Last week, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial.

The penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The states are seeking heavy penalties and changes to the way Meta operates its platforms to make them safer for children. Meta has repeatedly said it has introduced dozens of features to do so. It is appealing the New Mexico decision.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” the Menlo Park, California, tech giant said in a statement. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

This sale agreement is $12.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the terms who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because neither side revealed specific details of the latest stunning development with one of North America's marquee sports teams.

ESPN first reported that Kushner and Iger are buying the NBA's most valuable franchise. The Lakers were valued last year at $10 billion — a record for a pro sports team — when Mark Walter purchased a controlling stake from the Buss family, which had owned the team since 1979.

“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world,” Iger and Kushner said in a statement. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss. Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”

Kushner, a venture capitalist, and former Walt Disney Company CEO Iger had been working together on landing a possible NBA expansion team for Las Vegas. By buying the Lakers, they don't have to wait until the possibility of expansion in the 2028-29 season at the earliest.

Lakers icon Magic Johnson, a partner in Walter's ownership of baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, praised the deal on social media.

“Laker fans, you couldn’t have two better owners,” Johnson wrote. “I’ve known Bob personally for over 40 years — he has always loved the Lakers and basketball and he will bring championships back to LA.”

The sale still will need approval from the NBA’s board of governors, and that process can take several weeks. The next board meeting is set for September in New York.

The $12.5 billion price tag is not only a record for U.S. pro sports but a new summit in skyrocketing NBA franchise values. Only three years ago, Michael Jordan sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets for a $3 billion valuation, while the Boston Celtics were sold last year to private equity mogul Bill Chisholm at a valuation of just over $6 billion.

Walter’s agreement to purchase a controlling stake in the Lakers at the $10 billion valuation last summer obliterated that mark, and now Iger and Kushner have pushed the bar even higher.

The 66-year-old Walter’s shocking decision to sell after just 10 months of official ownership is reverberating throughout the team’s massive fan base, which appeared to be uniformly excited about the purchase last year. Walter has stewarded the Dodgers into the most successful stretch in franchise history, with three World Series championships in the past six seasons as the most aggressive spenders in baseball.

Multiple media outlets last month reported that Walter’s business empire is under scrutiny from both federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission in tax fraud investigations.

The Lakers are 17-time NBA champions who won their most recent title in 2020. They've made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, and their current roster is built around NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is signed through the 2028-29 season. The Slovenian superstar has become passionate about Los Angeles and the Lakers less than two years after his arrival.

“Being a Laker means everything to me, and I’m excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA,” Doncic wrote on social media after hearing of the sale. “I’ve gotten used to big changes over these last few years, but I know that no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get to work building something special in LA together.”

The 41-year-old Kushner has been a minority owner of two NBA teams, but he jumped into the international sports spotlight this summer when his capital holding company, Thrive Eternal, was set to be the “anchor investor” in FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits. Infantino abandoned the idea on July 31.

Kushner’s older brother is Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Josh Kushner currently owns a minority stake in the Miami Heat, and he previously owned a stake in the Memphis Grizzlies.

The 75-year-old Iger became one of Hollywood’s most well-known executives while he ran Disney for two lengthy stints between 2005 and last March, when he stepped aside. Iger and his wife, former sports journalist Willow Bay, became the controlling owners of NWSL team Angel City FC in 2024 with a deal that valued the club at $250 million.

Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was approved by NBA owners last October. He originally bought a 27% minority stake in the team in 2021 before purchasing control of the team last year.

The Lakers' 17 championships going back to the franchise’s origin in Minneapolis are the second-most in NBA history behind Boston’s 18. It is a global brand, always at or near the top of the league’s merchandise-sales rankings.

This record sale price comes just weeks after LeBron James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, left the Lakers after eight seasons to become a free agent. James ultimately decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Walter and his team had already begun to make extensive changes to the Lakers, who were often perceived as an antiquated franchise in many aspects during their decades of Buss family ownership.

The Lakers had beefed up their basketball operations department with new hires in the front office around longtime general manager Rob Pelinka. They also boosted the business side with extensive searches for new revenue, including sales of new jersey patches and additional prominent sponsorship deals.

When Walter bought his controlling interest in the Lakers, the deal specified that Jeanie Buss would stay on as the team’s governor. With new ownership, it’s unclear whether Buss will have a continuing role in the team she inherited along with her siblings from her father, Jerry Buss, who died in 2013.

Along with the Dodgers, Walter and his various partners also have ownership interests in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, English Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the new Cadillac Formula 1 racing team.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

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

The state-run General Electricity Company said in a statement that a power substation in the city of Zawiya that links power plants to homes and businesses was completely burned down.

The city of about 250,000 people has been rattled by a series of drone strikes that hit oil and power facilities. Zawiya is home to critical energy infrastructure, including Libya’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the drone strikes.

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who governs western Libya, and warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli.

The country has been divided for years between rival administrations, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Dbeibah governs western Libya and the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad governs the eastern part of the country.

The power company said the attack resulted in outages across southern parts of the city, which is located about 47 kilometers (29 miles) west of the capital Tripoli. Footage shared by the company showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the facility.

Dbeibah denounced the attacks on energy and power installations as “a serious crime and an escalation that will not go unanswered.”

“We will reach those responsible for this attack, and the accountability will be firm. No one will be protected by their position, status, or influence,” he said in a statement.

On Monday, a drone strike hit a fuel-laden tank at Zawiya's refinery, igniting a massive blaze which firefighters battled for over 15 hours. The refinery was repeatedly attacked over the weekend and on Tuesday, according to the state-run National Oil Corporation.

The power plant was hit by two drones on Tuesday, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility’s main fuel storage, setting it on fire, the electricity company said.

After Tuesday’s attack on the power plant, the U.S. company General Electric withdrew its teams from the facility “until security conditions and a suitable and safe work environment are ensured,” the electricity company said. GE performs maintenance and upgrading services for the plant.

GE previously withdrew its staff from the plant over security concerns, prolonging the loss of more than 700 megawatts of the station’s production capacity, estimated at 1300 megawatts, the electricity company said.

The violence came as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Dbeibah and Mohammad Younes Menfi, chairman of the Presidential Council in Tripoli on Tuesday, before traveling Wednesday to the eastern city of Benghazi to meet with powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.

Turkey is the main foreign backer of Dbeibah's government, but in recent years has also reached out to the rival authorities in eastern Libya in an attempt to mend ties, and as part of regional efforts to unify the North African country.

Libya, an oil-rich country on the Mediterranean, has been wracked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising-turned-civil war toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Issac Mathew Trinidad, 28, of San Antonio, is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, evading arrest with vehicle, unlawful conduct mail receptacle key or lock, and possession of a controlled substance, jail records show. He was also booked into jail on the parole violation, records indicate.

The crash happened around 10 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of East César E Chávez Boulevard and South Flores Street, a DPS preliminary report states.

A DPS anti-gang trooper attempted a traffic stop on a white BMW near the intersection of Mitchell Street and South Flores Street.

According to the report, the BMW driver, identified as Trinidad, briefly pulled over to drop off a woman before evading northbound on South Flores Street.

In the pursuit, DPS said Trinidad sideswiped a vehicle and disregarded a red light at an intersection, which contributed to the four-vehicle collision.

The BMW collided with two trucks and a Range Rover that carried a total of six people, DPS said.

Several people in the other three vehicles were treated on the scene by EMS officials. Two women in the Range Rover were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the report said.

Trinidad was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, DPS said. He was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, troopers said.

“He’s got the most serious injuries; everyone else was non-life-threatening,” DPS Sergeant Orlando De Luna said.

DPS confirmed that the BMW vehicle was stolen. Troopers said Trinidad also allegedly had methamphetamine in his pocket.

According to jail records, Trinidad was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $60,000 bond.

The crash remains under investigation.

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• 13-year-old boy arrested, charged with capital murder in 2025 shooting on West Side

According to an SAPD incident report obtained by KSAT, Luis Gerardo Posadas-Ruiz, 52, was transported to a local hospital where he later died.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office also confirmed Posadas-Ruiz’s identity to KSAT. The medical examiner’s office said his cause and manner of death are pending.

Background

SAPD officers were dispatched just after 9:30 a.m. in the 3600 block of East Houston Street, which is located near East Commerce Street.

Police said Posadas-Ruiz, a truck driver from Mexico, towed several trucks to the Penske Truck Rental Business.

Posadas-Ruiz worked on disconnecting one of the trucks from its position. The SAPD report said a witness used a tow truck lift to provide assistance.

At some point, officers said the witness warned Posadas-Ruiz to wait “while he made some adjustments.” However, SAPD said Posadas-Ruiz did not hear the witness and started to disconnect one of the trucks.

The truck slipped and moved a short distance before police said the man was pinned between the two trucks.

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• Body camera footage shows violent confrontation between Michelle Barrientes Vela’s sons, SAPD
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The number of people on board Tuesday was unclear as estimates reached as high as 153 people on a government agency-operated ferry whose capacity, authorities said, was just 90.

“Some of us survived by standing on top of the capsized hull,” one of the two crew members who survived, Anyway Chambati, told state broadcaster ZBC News. “Before it went down, passengers were screaming at us that the boat was flooding, water was pouring into the engine room and goods were spilling out.”

Chambati said he was in charge of ticketing and that he counted 153 people on board, including crew and infants, before the disaster.

Multiple witnesses told ZBC that passengers urged the captain to turn back as waves grew perilous, only to be dismissed. When water surged into the vessel, chaos erupted as frantic travelers scrambled for life jackets beneath their seats.

"We argued with him right at the harbor. We told him the waves were too dangerous," one woman said. “A bag fell overboard before we had even left, and we pointed it out, but he refused to listen.”

Passengers told the broadcaster that bags, dishes and beer bottles began toppling overboard within minutes of setting off.

“About 30 minutes in, we begged again to abort and return, more goods were falling, the wave was getting worse and water was gushing into one side of the boat, but (the captain) just said, ‘My boat has never sunk anyone.’ He even refused to call for help,” another survivor told the broadcaster.

The woman described some people floating in the water and clutching sacks of goods while help did not arrive for nearly an hour.

The captain was among the dead, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the incident a state of disaster to enable the government to mobilize “extraordinary measures and resources” to assist victims.

Police on X said bodies had been retrieved from the lake that forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but they did not update how many people were injured or missing.

Zimbabwe’s disaster management agency has said the ferry was carrying at least 114 adult passengers and five crew members, and that 77 people had been rescued.

But the real number was not clear because the figures only included those who bought tickets, and children below ticketing age could have been on board. The state broadcaster reported that children were among the dead.

The ferry is used to take people from rural communities around the lake to the town of Kariba on the shore.

Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of Parliament, posted a video Tuesday of what she said were people on shore waving at the ferry when it set off. Some of the people expressed concern whether the aging ferry could handle strong waves, according to the video.

Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam on the Zambezi River. The huge lake is now more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) long and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in places.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The Maumelle High student felt unusual movement inside his headgear following warmups last week and brought his helmet to an assistant coach for inspection. A slithering 2-foot cottonmouth was discovered behind some padding.

The pit viper was so reluctant to exit the helmet that animal control officers had to submerge the helmet in water and forced the snake out, grabbing it with tongs. Animal services technicians identified the snake as a deadly cottonmouth. It was released in a wooded area.

Cottonmouths are the second-most venomous snakes found in Arkansas.

Animal services director Chris Davis said the player wore the helmet for nearly an hour and was fortunate he wasn't bitten.

“It was unreal," Davis said. “You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.”

The player grabbed a different helmet and continued practice. But the situation caused the head coach to reiterate to his team that players should examine their equipment carefully before using it, checking for insects — or maybe something larger and more dangerous.

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

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Moscow's full-scale invasion over four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers.

Ukraine's air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country’s biggest accomplishments of the war.

But Ukrainian officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on pressing ahead with the war, despite his bigger army’s slow and costly progress on the battlefield and U.S. diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Putin is planning “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday night on social media, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.

Those reports have said recently that Russia is expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are hard for Ukrainian air defenses to counter.

Ukraine also is trying to scale up its weapons manufacturing through agreements with partner countries.

Russia shows no sign of a new mobilization

Neither Putin nor other senior Russian officials have hinted at a possible major call-up of forces to fight in Ukraine. Some officials have accused Kyiv of trying to rattle the Russian public with talk of a mobilization.

Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov brushed off reports of a possible autumn mobilization. “It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia,” he was quoted as saying by pro-Kremlin online outlet Tsargrad in comments published Monday.

After the widely unpopular partial mobilization of some 300,000 men four years ago, Russia has relied on volunteers attracted by relatively high pay. However, the decree declaring the partial mobilization that Putin signed in September 2022 is open-ended, allowing authorities to resume it if needed.

Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure

The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday. The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure, he added.

Russia relocated most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the main Black Sea base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region overnight, said Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

An 8-year-old child was one of three people killed in the attack on the region, Kondratyev said. He added that 24 others in the region were wounded. Dozens of residential buildings were damaged, Kondratyev said, and debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants.

The strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk’s three grain terminals, with one of them halting operations, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones.

Struck Russian port is also a key oil hub

Novorossiysk also is home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of the largest international hubs in southern Russia for petroleum products. No reports indicated it had been hit.

In February, the U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they affected U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwestern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

With the militaries of European countries boarding and detaining sanctioned Russian oil tankers at sea, hurting the country’s trade and heaping economic pressure on Moscow, Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for what he termed “piracy.”

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin said Western countries are breaking international maritime law by seizing ships they say are part of Moscow’s “ shadow fleet ” of sanctions-dodging merchant vessels.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

On the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-installed head. He added that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.

Russian drones kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall in Ukraine

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 138 long-range drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles during the night, with damage recorded at 16 locations.

In the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, said regional head Oleksandr Prokudin.

The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.

Missiles and long-range drones hit fuel reservoirs and infrastructure used for unloading and storing military cargo in the port of Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

A bulk cargo vessel carrying military equipment and a tanker loaded with oil for the Ukrainian armed forces also were hit in Odesa, it said.

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

“I don't know what I'm going to do without you,” the post said in Spanish, shared on Messi's Instagram. “I don't know how to keep going. All I ever did was play soccer, and now I have serious doubts about whether I'll keep doing it for much longer.”

Jorge Messi — who played a fundamental role in the soccer star's career, serving as his agent and managing his business affairs — died Saturday. He was 68.

Lionel Messi led Argentina to a runner-up finish in this summer's World Cup. In the team’s first match, against Algeria, he was visibly emotional after scoring the first of his three goals. He said later that he wept for “a reason unrelated to sports.”

“You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you took a turn for the worse," the post said. “It was the first time you weren't going to be at the tournament. But mom kept telling me that you were going to get better and that you'd be well enough to travel. I kept telling you that we were going to make it to the final so you could travel.”

The post added that Messi “wanted to win it” for his father.

“I couldn't,” the post continued. “My legs had nothing left. This time I tried to push beyond what my body could handle, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel right.”

Messages of support for the Messi family have poured in over recent days. Messi had returned to his native Argentina and missed his MLS club Inter Miami's recent Leagues Cup match against Monterrey.

Inter Miami concludes the group phase of the tournament Wednesday night against León, though coach Guillermo Hoyos said Tuesday there is no timetable for Messi's return.

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

Consumer prices increased 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Inflation had fallen to 2.4% before the Iran war. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

The mild decrease is the second straight decline after sharply higher gas prices pushed inflation to 4.2% in May, a three-year high. Yet even with the pause, prices are still rising more quickly than average wages, underscoring the struggle many Americans have had paying for groceries, gas, and healthcare. And many costs grew last month, including airfares, computers, and used cars.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation slipped to 2.5% in July from a year ago, down from 2.6% in June. July’s figure matches a post-pandemic low reached in January and February, before the Iran war.

Core prices rose 0.2% from June to July. Monthly increases at about 0.2% would be low enough over time to bring inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% goal.

“America still has an inflation problem, but there are encouraging signs that price pressures outside of the gas pump are easing,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said.

Inflation report could make Fed rate hike less likely

Cooler inflation could also ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise their key interest rate to combat rising costs. Fed officials are sharply split over their next steps. Roughly half the members of the central bank's rate-setting committee support raising borrowing costs this year, while another half think rates are already high enough to slowly push inflation back to their 2% target.

“We're clearly not out of the woods, however it makes the Fed’s decision a little bit easier, because now you see that inflation is creeping down,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America.

Still, oil prices remain elevated and gas prices rose in late July and August, suggesting overall inflation could accelerate next month. On Wednesday, gas averaged $4.04 a gallon nationwide, 16 cents higher than a month ago, according to the motor club AAA.

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

Some companies, however, are still struggling with higher costs from Trump's tariffs.

Julie Robbins, CEO of Earthquaker Devices, an Akron, Ohio-based maker of pedals used to create effects for guitars, said her company has paid $200,000 in tariffs this year and has had to raise prices twice to offset the costs.

Only a small amount of those tariffs have been refunded after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's emergency duties. Robbins is worried they will have to raise prices again as the White House has sought to impose new tariffs to replace the ones that lost due to the Supreme Court decision.

Her company's electric bills have also risen in recent months and the rising costs of fuel have pushed up her shipping costs.

“I am just seeing more and more costs going up all the time,” Robbins said. “The money we paid on tariffs, that easily could have paid for two or three more employees.”

Gas, grocery prices fell, while computers, airfares rose

Wednesday's report showed that gasoline prices fell 2.9% from June to July, and even grocery prices declined slightly, falling by 0.1%. Yet gas prices are 25% higher than a year ago. And groceries are 2.7% more expensive than a year earlier.

Hotel room prices dropped 2.8% from June to July, likely reflecting the end of the World Cup tournament. Clothing costs rose just 0.1%, though they are up 3.9% in the past year.

Other things are growing more expensive: Computer prices jumped 3.5% from June to July, reflecting a decision by Apple to sharply raise prices for its computers and tablets as AI spending pushes up the cost of semiconductors. Smartphone prices rose 1.1%.

Airline fares rose 2.2% from June to July as jet fuel prices spiral higher along with oil.

Price increases have stayed above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years, suggesting there is more than temporary factors at play.

The cost of services such as healthcare, restaurant meals, and car maintenance rose 3% in July from a year earlier, and they aren't particularly sensitive to gas prices or AI investment. Rising costs for services often reflect higher wages, as companies charge more to offset the cost of higher pay. But incomes aren't growing fast enough to sustain inflation, economists note.

It's a confounding situation that has left many economists — and Fed officials — seeking more information to determine where inflation is headed.

“You've got all these things that are just not the way the economy used to behave,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, said.

For many consumers, years of sharply rising grocery prices have led them to adopt a wide range of coping strategies, from comparison shopping, to couponing, to cutting back on favorite foods.

Retailers, including Walmart, have responded by rolling back food prices, a trend that could have lowered July's inflation figures. Yet many other businesses are still passing on higher costs.

Paint company Sherwin-Williams is planning an 8% price increase in September to offset higher raw material costs, CEO Heidi Petz said late last month.

“We are seeing the impact of higher oil and related cost pressures, and we expect continued volatility throughout the balance of the year,” she said.

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AP Writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed to this report from New York.

LUBBOCK — The Texas Broadband Development Office placed a temporary hold Tuesday on all disbursements of billions of dollars in federal funds related to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD.

The hold comes after the office was accused of favoritism to certain companies, specifically Elon Musk’s Starlink, which led to lawmakers announcing an audit.

In an email obtained by The Texas Tribune, the state broadband office shared with subgrantees that the hold was effective as of Monday, and will be in place “until further notice.” The office did not give a reason as to why the disbursements were paused.

The office did not respond to The Tribune in time for publication.

“No further action is required from subgrantees at this time,” the office said in the email. ”The BDO will provide additional guidance and updates as they become available.”

Last week, Comptroller Don Huffines announced a comprehensive internal review of his office, which includes the broadband office.

Lawmakers began questioning the Broadband Office in June on how it doled out more than $3 billion in BEAD funding. During a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown, said his office heard about the concerns regarding taxpayer money, including how much money was disbursed up-front for the projects. While other providers were only expected to receive 10% of the grant money to start, with the rest dispersed on a tiered system, the rules were changed for low-Earth orbit satellite providers.

According to Bryant Clayton, the BDO’s director, the change was a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and made just days before the grant was awarded.

In response, Schwertner called for more transparency in the grant award process by the BDO.

“I have my eye on y’all regarding the way y’all are conducting your business,” Schwertner told Clayton. “I don’t care who’s messing with your business, but we, as an oversight committee, are going to oversee it regarding fairness and transparency.”

Starlink is the largest provider of residential broadband service through low-Earth orbit satellites in Texas, and has at least 12 million customers worldwide. Amazon recently began deploying satellites for its own LEO service. Both of the companies were chosen as subgrantees by the BDO.

Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat running for Texas Attorney General, claimed in a campaign statement that the award process could be corruption from the federal government down.

“Without drawing conclusions for the moment, the whole process may have involved coordinated corruption among the Trump administration, the illegally empowered DOGE czar Musk, private entities (Starlink), the governor’s office and the broadband development office,” Johnson said in the statement.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows called for an audit of the state’s broadband office. In a joint statement, the lawmakers said the audit is a result of the concerns raised about the BEAD award process.

In his final days as acting comptroller, Kelly Hancock responded to the allegations by accusing Amazon of “aggressively” lobbying state legislators, including members of the Senate committee. Hancock also said he didn’t believe Texans should act as a financial safety net for multibillion-dollar companies. His statement did not mention Musk or Starlink, which is the focus of the allegations.

Schwertner fired back at Hancock, saying in a post on X: “It’s good to see new incoming leadership in the comptroller’s office after the failed election and tenure of the current interim comptroller. No tantrum on the way out of the office will change that.”

The audit process is underway, but there is no clear date on when it will be completed. Patrick and Burrows said in their statement that the legislature will take action during the next session, beginning in January.

The 30-foot (9-meter) model of a Dutch Kitchenette opened to the public last month as part of the 150th anniversary celebration of Coppes Napanee, one of two companies still in existence that manufactured the popular Hoosier cabinets more than a century ago. The cabinet name was coined after its largest producer, the Hoosier Manufacturing Co.

Dubbed the world’s largest Hoosier cabinet, the replica built against a brick background is equipped with stairs leading to a loft that visitors to the town of Nappanee can look out from. It overlooks Coppes Commons, the site of the original Coppes Napanee factory that has been converted to an indoor marketplace, artisan hub and museum. The company still produces custom cabinets next door.

Wesley Mast, owner and president of Coppes Napanee, said he typically hears two types of responses when visitors first see the giant cabinet.

“There’s the one extreme where people are like, ‘Why? Why such a big cabinet?’” Mast said. “And my response is always like, ‘Why not?’

“The other response we get is like, ‘That’s so cool. Where did you get this idea? I love it.’”

Mast said the cabinet “brings us another level of attention and branding and makes this place more of a destination than just a pass-through.”

The Hoosier cabinet is a freestanding kitchen workstation and storage area that centralized and sped up food preparation. The cabinets were popular from the 1890s through the 1930s but waned after World War II as built-in, wall-to-wall cabinetry became the norm in new home construction.

A century ago, “this was the kitchen,” Mast said. “This was kind of the first piece of furniture that went into the house as a kitchen and was considered all-in-one, the kitchen itself in just one piece.”

There were 5,000 dealers of Hoosier cabinets across the country, said Mary Figueroa, curator of History at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, which has four Hoosier cabinets in its collection.

Prior to the Hoosier cabinet, a kitchen area would have some shelves, a separate work table and a corner cupboard. “But this was a piece of furniture that kind of consolidated all of that, allowed women to save their steps and have everything that they could possibly need to make a meal right at their fingertips,” Figueroa said.

The Hoosier cabinet had space for storing items such as flour, sugar, spices, loaves of bread and other pantry supplies. They were nicknamed “kitchen pianos” because everything that was needed was within close range. They had built-in flour sifters and came with small cookbooks with recipes involving meats, soups, breads or desserts, among other things. Advertising for the cabinets even made the promise to “strengthen your marriage” and “make you more beautiful” because of the time and steps that it saved for women, Figueroa said.

Nappanee is located in Elkhart County, a region known as a top U.S. hub for recreational vehicle manufacturing, wood products production and home to the third-largest Amish settlement in the nation. It is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.

And now, add Nappanee as a potential tourist attraction for the colossal cabinet.

“It’s bringing awareness,” Figueroa said. “I mean, you can’t miss it.”

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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

“Last week, A&M had me at one point down. The week before that, Fox News had me one point down,” Hinojosa said. ”So this race is within the margin of error. We are in a statistical tie with Greg Abbott.”

Hinojosa said she is crossing the state speaking with both Democrats and Republicans.

“Politics is all mixed up in 2026, and I think what it is is this energy for change, anti-incumbency energy,” she said. ”It is not that people are suddenly, yay, Democrat. They’re just like, whatever this is, we want change.”

Last week, KSAT’s Courtney Friedman interviewed Abbott about his new energy plan to break monopolies.

On Tuesday, she sat down one-on-one with Hinojosa, asking about her priorities and confidence level with recent poll numbers.

Watch the full interview below:

Hinojosa addressed several key issues during the interview, including public schools, data centers, energy and the economy:

Public schools

Friedman: What conversations are you having with people who maybe have voted conservative before, who are opening up to the option of voting for you?

Hinojosa: I have MAGA moms supporting me in this campaign who see our schools are in crisis. We have over 150 schools shutting down, a lot of them here in San Antonio, actually. We’ve launched TeamTexasPublicSchools.com, and it’s an effort for people who love their public schools and are ready to fight for them. It is not coded Democrat or Republican because I do have Republican supporters who see this.

Friedman: How does that work? What is the actual protocol for making this happen?

Hinojosa: Basically, DOGE the Texas Education Agency or scrub it, audit it, to make sure that every dollar we’re spending is prioritized for the classroom.

Data centers

Friedman: One of the top topics is data centers. The governor just talked about a moratorium and these audits.

Hinojosa: In 2015, Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that would give these giant data centers tax breaks for 20 years. So they don’t have to pay any sales tax on the electricity they consume, and they consume a ton. So people are mad, in these rural areas especially. They’re about water being sent to the data centers instead of their communities. They’re mad about pollution. They are mad about noise.

What Greg Abbott did with his temporary pause is tell all these data centers, get your project in now because next year we’re going to work with the legislature to put real protections in the law.

We need Governor Abbott to call a special session today. He has the sole power to provide real legal protections for people.

Economy

Friedman: What are the key points that you want people to know about how you can make things more affordable on a day-to-day basis?

Hinojosa: Great question, and so what I have proposed is $1,500 money in your pocket to every Texas household. That comes out of our rainy day fund that is capped and overflowing at $27 billion. It’s never been that high. It has historically been at $10 billion.

Energy

Friedman: I reported and talked to the governor last week about his energy plan that was put forth to disperse the energy sector to break up so-called monopolies. What’s your opinion on that?

Hinojosa: I think he’s trying to distract from the fact that everybody’s utility bills, electricity bills, have gone up about $40 or more a month after Winter Storm Uri. When we had the blackout and gas companies withheld the gas that our grid needed until they could make record profits, billions in mere hours, Greg Abbott let that happen.

Your local CPS (Energy) sued to try to protect the ratepayers and just lost that lawsuit maybe last month or two months ago, and because they were not able to prevail in court, your electricity bills are going to go up in a big way in the coming year ... and that’s what your City Council is trying to figure out right now.

We need a guarantee that we freeze rates and make industry pay its fair share. Greg Abbott’s proposal only ensures profits for for-profit companies who are in the business of utilities. When you compare these municipally owned utilities to the private sector in the rest of the state, you’ll see that you all get a better deal.

Big Bend

Friedman: The border wall going through Big Bend and those areas. What is your comment on that and this border wall security?

Hinojosa: We need a governor who will stand up for our land rights, property rights, and our sovereignty, and that is not happening. What is happening right now is a travesty for all of us. We know the beauty of the Big Bend region; those of us who have visited, it takes our breath away, and it is being decimated right now by these federal contractors. I am against that, and I would use whatever power as governor in court to try to stop it.

Turning Texas blue

Friedman: We’ve seen a lot of great poll numbers before. Do you actually think you can turn Texas blue?

Hinojosa: I wouldn’t be spending a year of my life away from my family, I still have a son at home, doing this campaign if I didn’t believe we could win.

It’s not just the polling, but we’re seeing Democrats win all over this state where they haven’t won in a long time, sometimes ever. I was just in the Houston area. They flipped a mayor’s seat in Pearland. We know about Leander, flipped their mayor’s seat, a city council seat. We knew about Tarrant County, flipped a state senate seat, swung it 31 points.

I received twice as many votes in the primary as Beto did in 2018, and I had eight opponents, and that’s because people are motivated for change.

Talarico connections

Friedman: How closely is your campaign and James Talarico’s campaign keeping tabs, communicating, because this is also a really big surge that we’re seeing over there.

Hinojosa: We’re friends. We sit next to each other on the floor of the House. In 23, we were co-chairs of the effort to stop vouchers. We were successful in that effort. We both sit on the Public Education Committee, and our teams talk daily. So yes, he’s running a fantastic campaign.

He helps me. I help him, and it is a historical first. We have two strong campaigns at the top of the ticket, and that just makes for better chances for both of us.

KSAT has requested a one-on-one interview or a statement twice from Abbott to go over his top campaign priorities as well. The campaign team has not sent a response yet. Any future statements will be updated in this story.

Last week during talks about a new energy plan, Abbott spoke to the press about his new Keep Texas Affordable Initiative that promises cheaper insurance premiums, energy bills, tuition and more.

Read also:

• Gov. Abbott announces plan to break energy monopolies in cities like San Antonio, Austin
• Reactions flowing in after Gov. Abbott announces plan to break up energy sector in San Antonio, Austin
• Governor’s new energy plan fuels debate about CPS Energy payments going into City of San Antonio general budget

Superintendent Justin Turner said students can return to classrooms, though some are still in the work phase and may not be completed until winter break.

Crews have been working overtime to replace drywall and flooring after floodwaters entered multiple buildings on campus.

Turner said the agriculture and science building took the worst hit, and some expensive equipment inside may be ruined.

“In here you can see where the water got,” Turner said while showing damage to a laser cutter. “This is a very expensive piece of machinery; all the electrical components are below.”

Twelve school buildings were damaged in total. Turner said five buildings had Category 3 floodwater, meaning the water may have been contaminated, while seven others were damaged by rainwater.

The district told KSAT the flooding was tied to the heavy rain on the week of July 16.

The campus sits on a slight slope, and the agriculture building is next to a retention pond. Turner said the rain overwhelmed the pond, the wall gave out and water rushed into several buildings.

The water then had a direct path toward the athletic facility, which houses the weight room and coaches’ offices.

Five days before school started, there was still significant cleanup and repair work underway. Turner said the district remained committed to opening on time.

“Rest assured, we have school on Aug. 12. That’s going to happen,” Turner said.

Turner said the recovery effort also showed the strength of the Ingram community. After the water receded, about 150 parents and students came to campus to move equipment and pull out carpet.

“The first thing I can think about is what are we going to do as a school district in order to eliminate this from happening in the future?” Turner said.

The district is now pausing other construction projects while engineers determine how to prevent similar flooding from happening again.

Turner said the flood repairs are expected to cost the district less than $2 million, which will likely not be covered due to the insurance deductible.

The district is also waiting on a new administration building after the previous one was destroyed in the 2025 floods. That new building is expected to open next spring.

More Back to School coverage on KSAT:

• Back-to-school start dates for districts in San Antonio, surrounding areas
• What San Antonio drivers need to keep in mind before hitting the roads as children return to school

Those districts include Fort Sam Houston ISD, Harlandale ISD, Ingram ISD, Judson ISD, Lackland ISD, Medina Valley ISD, Natalia ISD, Pleasanton ISD, San Antonio ISD, School of Science and Technology, Somerset Academies, and Southside ISD.

To mark the start of the new school year, KSAT has crews at both Creekview High School, the new high school at Medina Valley ISD, and Nathanial Hawthorne Academy in SAISD.

WATCH KSAT’s live coverage from GMSA in the media players below:

More Back to School coverage on KSAT:

• IDEA Public Schools welcomes 18K students on first day
• Viewers share back-to-school photos on KSAT Connect
• Driving to school for the first time? What teens and parents need to know to stay safe

They do this in a grassroots, community-led way: helping families preserve photos, documents and memories; recording oral histories; and building a digital archive and museum exhibits so these stories are accessible for education and the public.

Their work makes the region’s history more complete by adding an African American lens to the broader San Antonio story, from Spanish colonial days through the Texas Republic and beyond.

KSAT Community Phone Bank

To strengthen efforts to preserve, share and celebrate the stories of African descendants across San Antonio and the Southwest, KSAT Community will host a phone bank benefiting SAAACAM.

The live televised “Every Story Matters” fundraiser runs 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12. Representatives from SAAACAM will be available to help collect contributions and answer your questions.

Community contributions help sustain free educational programming, public exhibits and long-term preservation of oral histories. Donations also support development of a future cultural center envisioned as a hub for sharing personal stories, learning from one another, honoring those who came before and ensuring the community’s history is not lost.

With traditional funding for museums and cultural organizations shrinking, community giving is increasingly critical to protect irreplaceable local history and expand access to learning opportunities.

Donations can be made through SAAACAM’s Givebutter page. From $10 to $100, every gift supports preservation, education and the long-term goal of a permanent home for these stories.

SAAACAM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit preserving and sharing the history and cultural heritage of African descendants in San Antonio and the Southwest. Through community-led archiving and digitized exhibits, it brings a holistic African American lens to regional history and serves as a steward of historic resources. SAAACAM is a member of leading museum and oral history associations.

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union. Click here to read about other KSAT Community efforts. Interested in partnering with KSAT Community? Get in touch by filling out this form.

Castle Hills police were dispatched around 3:25 a.m. Saturday to a business alarm at The PokeHive. Officers walked through the front door, which had been forced open, to find shattered display cases that held Pokémon trading cards, the department said.

The PokeHive store owner Cole Blancett said the four suspects stole more than $100,000 worth of cards.

Robberies of trading card stores are common, according to Blancett, but the break-in still caught him off guard.

“Trading cards are the most liquid asset other than just stealing cash out of the register,” Blancett said. “You can go to stores all over town, be able to cash out and move product quickly — usually anonymously.”

That concept isn’t new for Blancett. Three years ago, KSAT reported on a robbery that happened days after The PokeHive opened.

There was no damage to the store after the 2023 robbery. However, Saturday’s break-in cost at least $25,000 in store repairs and damaged product, Blancett said.

Dramatic surveillance footage of the store shows four people rushing through the door and piling boxes of Pokémon sets into two large buckets.

The video shows some suspects carrying an object to break open the glass displays. Police said detectives found blood near the shattered glass.

As of Tuesday night, the suspects remain at large, but Blancett believes it’s only a matter of time before someone is caught.

The Castle Hills Police Department said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to contact the department at 210-342-2341.

Read also:

• Body camera footage shows violent confrontation between Michelle Barrientes Vela’s sons, SAPD

The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes, barely 50 centimeters (less than 20 inches) high, showing Mozart with his dog. They were designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl.

Within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.

“The worst thing for an artist is when his work dissolves,” Hörl told the German news agency dpa. He said he did not believe visitors stole the works but rather that it was an “organized theft.”

Hörl intended to sell the statues for about 100 euros ($114) once the exhibition was over, meaning whoever ran away with 210 mini-Mozarts has not become an overnight millionaire.

The mini-Mozarts populated not only the garden of the composer's former house, but also his living quarters as well as several pavilions.

While the organizers put aside some spare statuettes in case of theft, there were too few to compensate for the actual losses. And in a further stroke of bad luck, the manufacturer of the statues was away on holidays, so there was no quick fix.

The exhibition of statuettes, now more widely spaced, is scheduled to remain on display until Aug. 30.

For Hörl, who is known from his sculptures made from polymer, the theft of his artworks is nothing new. At an installation in Bayreuth, Germany, a complete array of statues of Richard Wagner was stolen within 10 days.

“That’s just the nature of public space. That means when you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn’t complain about what is happening there,” Hörl said. “It ranges from destruction to theft. That’s just how it is.”

Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, where the Mozarteum Foundation offers concerts, maintains Mozart museums and supports research on him.

“I didn’t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. But I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,” Hörl told The Associated Press.

To give the statues a human touch, Hörl depicted the composer with his favorite dog, Pimperl. Mozart and his family were known to take long walks with their dogs in the Mirabell Garden, next to where they lived.

“There’s a part of me which says, ‘you didn’t write that,’” he recalls of composing his debut album, “Life Is a Dream.” “What’s it called? Impostor syndrome.”

Thankfully, it did not stop him from finishing the collection of 12 compositions he crafted over six decades.

Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and recorded at London's Alexandra Palace in April, it will be released by Decca Records on Aug. 21.

“My first love, or vocation really, is music,” said the 88-year-old actor. “That sounds very official, but I was raised with a lot of music (of the) postwar years, and it influenced me. And I started playing the piano when I was quite young.”

He picked up the instrument at 4 and began composing years later, writing his first piece, a waltz, in 1960. He was 22 at the time.

“I find more freedom with music,” he says, compared to acting, which he labels “a discipline, you have to know your stuff. But music for me is a freewheeling kind of art form.”

And he's had his fair share of experience. Prior to the release of “Life Is a Dream,” Hopkins had composed scores for a number of films.

“The opening of ‘Shadowlands’ is my first adventure in composing music,” he said, referring to the 1993 film he starred in as “The Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis. Then he composed for a few other movies, including 1996’s “August,” 2007’s “Slipstream” and 2020’s “Elyse.”

Hopkins' childhood informed ‘Life Is A Dream’

“It's about my childhood,” he says of the album, which shares its title with the Pedro Calderón de la Barca play. “It's basically the memories of my childhood and growing up in Wales, and my developments in life, my adolescent years,” and so on.

But he says “there’s a great sadness in it all because — don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a wonderful life — but underneath it all, there is the knowledge that life is one long goodbye. From the moment we’re born, we begin to die,” he starts to laugh. “Sounds so cheerful!”

That tension — or better put, wisdom — carries throughout the release. Take the first single as an example. “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra: II. Bracken Road” is the middle composition in a three-part suite about a particular summer in South Wales. He says it contains a “melancholy and sadness,” a sense that arises with its cello.

“It’s the welcomed sound of nostalgia, of the strange, whimsical pain of life,” he describes the song. “All music is actually based in pain. Sounds pretty preposterous, but it is. It’s about the yearning.”

The same can be said about the song “Stella Aria” — named after his wife, director and actor Stella Hopkins — that deals with “the loneliness in all of us,” he says, but is part of a path to “sheer happiness.”

Hopkins has been reflecting for quite some time now — both in his memoir, “We Did OK, Kid,” released last fall — and on this album. “I look at my own life now, and especially this year; I’m going to be 89 at the end of the year. And I look back and I’m thinking, ‘good God, I couldn’t have planned any of this.’ From the moment I decided to become an actor, 70 years ago, I thought … ‘Why did I do that?’ I didn’t know, because I was pretty useless in school? I didn’t know what else to do. So I tried for a scholarship, became an actor instead of a musician. And suddenly I’m given a huge plate of success by some force of nature.”

“I'm without fear of mortality,” he adds. “I'm just so grateful I’ve lived this long.”

How Bradley Cooper was instrumental in the album

In a surprising turn of events, actor Bradley Cooper “passed me on to Dudamel,” says Hopkins, after witnessing Hopkins' composition a few years before with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Seal. Dudamel was on board.

But when it came time to record at Alexandra Palace earlier this year, “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How the hell did I write this?' I have no idea,” said Hopkins. “And Dudamel said, ‘This is wonderful.’ … He is one of the most astonishing people I’ve met. He’s so full of life and so full of energy and love, and it’s quite extraordinary.”

It's a shared affection.

“The same depth of imagination, humanity and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music,” Dudamel said in a statement. “Anthony approaches music with the heart of a storyteller and the instincts of a poet, creating sound worlds that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.”

Live performance may be on the horizon

After his debut album, live performances may be next. Top of Hopkins' list is Carnegie Hall.

“That’s where I want to go. That’s what I want,” he says.

The 1947 film “Carnegie Hall” was a formative film for him, and he has the distinct memory of his mother saying, “You play at Carnegie Hall one day.”

It is yet another dream in a life full of them.

Judge Ryan Luna, who presides over McLennan County’s 414th District Court, issued the update in a filing made at 4:03 p.m., a McLennan County District Clerk’s Office official told KSAT.

Tuesday afternoon’s filing went into effect immediately, the official said.

Due to Luna’s new ruling, Boerne will represent the Southwest region at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Shortly after Tuesday’s ruling, Little League Baseball, Inc. issued a statement to social media that thanked the 414th District Court for its ruling and “looked forward to welcoming Boerne” to Pennsylvania.

“The decision upholds our commitment to a fair and equitable experience for all children based on our Official Rules, Regulations, and Operating Policies,” the league said.

An update regarding the LLB Southwest Region Tournament pic.twitter.com/y1VZwxVb5A

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 11, 2026

KSAT reached out to Boerne Little League board president Jacob Myers for a comment on Luna’s ruling but has yet to hear back.

Below is the original story that was last updated at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday.

1:05 p.m. — A day after celebrating on the field, the Boerne Little League baseball team said it plans to compete in the 2026 Little League World Series despite twists and turns off the field.

Boerne received stellar pitching to defeat the Ascension Parish team from Gonzales, Louisiana, 4-1 Monday in Waco.

Approximately an hour before Monday’s game, Little League Baseball, Inc. announced that the team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was disqualified from competition after using an ineligible player. Before Monday, Tulsa qualified for the Southwest regional title game.

Tulsa’s disqualification meant the Boerne-Ascension Parish game became the de facto regional title game.

After Boerne’s win, a Waco-area district judge granted a temporary restraining order against Little League Baseball, Inc., which included the Tulsa Little League team’s reinstatement into the Southwest regional bracket.

Tulsa station KOTV first obtained the news release that announced the temporary restraining order.

In the release, Judge Ryan Luna in McLennan County’s 414th District Court also ordered the Tulsa team to face Boerne in what was originally scheduled to be the Southwest regional title game at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Waco.

Boerne’s response

Boerne Little League board president Jacob Myers told KSAT in a phone interview late Tuesday morning that he had yet to hear an update from Little League Baseball, Inc. about any schedule changes for the Boerne team.

By virtue of the win, Myers said Boerne was “declared (Southwest region) champions Monday and intend to head to (Williamsport), Pennsylvania.”

In a social media post made following Boerne’s victory, Little League Baseball, LLC, declared, “The Boerne boys are back!”

The Boerne boys are back! pic.twitter.com/5mj8qZesGa

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 10, 2026

“We’re proud of our team and coaches,” Myers said. “This is not to diminish the work they put in. We’re focusing on the next steps forward.”

KSAT also reached out to the Little League’s Southwest regional headquarters, which is based in Waco, and to Little League Baseball, Inc.’s headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for comment on Luna’s ruling.

As of Tuesday afternoon, neither entity has responded to KSAT’s requests.

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

More sports coverage on KSAT:

• Spurs schedule sneak peek: San Antonio to face Thunder on Opening Night, Knicks on Christmas Day
• Lanier HS football opens fall camp with midnight practice
• Boerne’s Little League World Series bid uncertain after judge reinstates disqualified team

With the improvements, the search giant hopes to give users a reason to buy new models and expand the number of people using its AI tools.

“Google continues to tout new software features, primarily around AI, as the reason to upgrade," said Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall. He noted the company has added a way to extract photos from videos, a teleprompter, video stabilization, and an improved speech-to-text feature.

While the Pixel phones are not as popular as Apple's iPhone, Google has been steadily increasing the amount of AI on its Pixel phones since 2023.

Apple, meanwhile, has been lagging behind. It announced new AI advances in June, focusing on how the technology can help with people's day-to-day lives, with a focus on privacy and security — using Google's Gemini AI model to do so.

Google said in a presentation to reporters last week that the new phones will double the previous storage size, starting at 256 gigabytes, and feature 30 hours of battery life and faster wireless charging. The company has eliminated the 128 gigabyte Pixel 11, which had been its lowest-priced option at $800.

Beginning Wednesday, U.S. customers can order the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, starting at $900, $1,100 and $1,300, respectively. The Pixel Pro Fold, meanwhile, starts at $1,900. That's a $100 increase for each phone from last year's prices.

New features include live translation for videos, podcasts and voice messages. In the Pro models, a tool called HiLight lets you assign a color to your favorite contacts and have the phone light up in that color when they call and your phone is placed face down. It complements Pixel's “Flip to Shhh” feature that puts the phone in “do not disturb” mode when it is placed face down.

Google is also offering a free six-month subscription to its AI Pro plan to anyone who buys the more expensive Pixel 11 Pro or Pixel 11 Pro XL models. The company is hoping to hook more people on the AI Gemini tool kit, which it assembled to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Camera upgrades include a new mode called Magic Capture, which automatically takes a series of photos and video with a single tap of the shutter button. Google said the cameras also feature improved light sensitivity and, for Pro models, Instant Night Sight captures shots in dark environments faster, so you don't have to hold your phone still while waiting for exposure.

Google also introduced a tracking device for the first time. Called Pixel Tag, it will cost $30 for one or $100 for a four-pack and is compatible with phones running Android 9 or higher.

In a statement obtained by KSAT, Brazoria County Sheriff Bo Stallman said Kevin Tippit was arrested and booked into the Brazoria County Detention Center based on the indictment.

The Texas Rangers took Tippit into custody around 9 a.m. Tuesday, the Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office told KPRC, KSAT’s sister station in Houston.

The sheriff said Tippit is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, which is considered a first-degree felony.

According to Brazoria County jail records, Tippit was later released Tuesday on a $250,000 bond.

“There is no doubt this incident had devastating consequences,” Stallman said, in part. “I want our citizens to know we do our best to be, and to employ, individuals who care deeply for our community.”

Stallman announced in a YouTube video that Tippit was fired due to policy violations about a week after the shooting.

Shooting in Lake Jackson

In a previous statement to KSAT, the university identified the student as Mendoza Jr., 18. He was a freshman who studied management, the school said.

Deputies attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle just after midnight on June 1 near Farm-to-Market 2004 and This Way Street in Lake Jackson.

The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Mendoza, did not stop, deputies said. The deputies then chased after the vehicle for approximately a mile into a neighborhood located in the 100 block of Indian Warrior Trail.

According to the sheriff’s office, Mendoza went inside a home’s garage and parked before Tippit approached the vehicle.

Tippit then pulled out his firearm and allegedly shot into the vehicle. The sheriff’s office said the gunfire struck Mendoza.

Mendoza was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

“This indictment carries heavy emotion,” Stallman said. “John Jr. was a young man who was well-loved and had his whole life in front of him. He should be here with his family.”

Read also:

• Brazoria County deputy shoots, kills Texas State University student after car chase, report says

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces cooked beef (such as roast, steak or pot roast), cut into bite-size pieces or shredded
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 2 to 3 cups (2 ounces) baked or regular tortilla chips
• 1 cup thick and chunky salsa
• 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend or Cheddar cheese (optional)

Toppings:

• Additional salsa, sour cream, lime wedges, chopped avocado, chopped tomato, fresh chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add bell pepper and garlic; cook 4 to 6 minutes or until pepper is crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

Add eggs and tortilla chips. Cook 30 to 60 seconds or until eggs begin to set, stirring constantly. Stir in beef and salsa; cook 2 to 4 minutes or until beef is heated through. Season with salt and pepper, as desired.

Sprinkle with cheese, if desired; remove from heat. Let stand, uncovered, 1 minute. Serve with Toppings, as desired.

The country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia despite its fairly restrictive gun laws. The two recent shootings, both in Nonthaburi province northwest of the capital Bangkok, have intensified calls for tighter controls on firearms.

A student opened fire at his high school and family home on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20 before apparently taking his own life, according to police. Three days later, a former lawmaker was arrested after a shooting at a government office that killed one person and injured another.

Government spokesperson Lalida Persvivatana said the government is working to strengthen gun regulations and crack down on illegal firearms.

The ultimate goal is “to find ways to remove guns from people’s daily lives as much as possible and make Thai society safer,” she said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered an urgent review of gun regulations, including a suspension of new permits to purchase firearms and a review of existing permits, according to a statement from the Government House.

He also instructed the Interior Ministry to propose amendments to Thailand's gun control laws within 60 days. The changes are expected to bolster the collection of firearms data, tighten controls on the gun trade and increase penalties for offenders.

Penalties for unlawful possession of firearms in Thailand include prison terms of one to 10 years and fines of up to 20,000 baht ($600). While the licensing laws are strict, critics say there are weaknesses in enforcement.

The measures announced Tuesday include the immediate suspension of welfare gun programs, which allowed public officials, including civil servants, police and soldiers, local officials and lawmakers, to buy guns at a discount through government subsidies. Gun control experts say the poorly regulated resale of the guns contributed to their proliferation.

Thailand’s high rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia, and far surpasses its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org found that Thai civilians owned about 15 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 people in neighboring Malaysia.

Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but it is relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.

While mass shootings are still rare in Thailand, the country has seen an uptick in high-profile attacks in recent years.

Michael E. Picard, a security analyst who researches arms trafficking in Southeast Asia, told The Associated Press that he hasn't seen much evidence of the effectiveness of gun control measures enacted after previous mass killings in 2020 and 2022 that each left more than two dozen people dead.

In reaction to last week's school shootings, in which the gun used was reported to be legally registered to the shooter's grandfather, he said increasing safe storage requirements for gun licenses would be an important step.

More broadly, if bribes are paid to get a gun permit, corruption in the government agency that administers licenses needs to be rooted out, he said.

The welfare gun programs also need to be scrapped, Picard suggested, adding that "the government should buy back, safely store, or organize an amnesty for the millions of welfare guns out there."

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship that was taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin described the Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia as a breach of international maritime law.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

He added that the Russian response wouldn't necessarily come in the waters where the Russian ships were seized, noting that Moscow could retaliate “in any area where we see it as necessary and appropriate,” including in the Pacific.

The Pacific Fleet chief, Adm. Viktor Liina, reported to Putin that the navy was ready to start inspections of the commercial ships serving the “unfriendly nations.” He noted that many of the ships operated by British, French and other European carriers fly the flags of other nations, effectively making them a “shadow fleet.”

“We have enough assets for inspection and detention of vessels of the unfriendly nations and their shadow fleet,” Liina told Putin. “We are ready to start performing the task.”

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being of Russia's “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president in 2008-2012 to let Putin observe term limits and is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, noted that many ships belonging to European carriers fly the so-called “flags of convenience” just like Russian carriers do.

“It means that by applying a symmetrical approach, which is only fair, Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel belonging to hostile nations, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, provided there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is carrying cargo in the enemy’s interest, and that applies to any cargo,” Medvedev said. “There are a great many such vessels, and our military is capable of dramatically expanding operations well beyond the Black Sea basin.”

The arrest warrants identified the suspects as Kyle Erin Torres-Carcovich, 45; Martin Sanchez Jr., 58; and Robert Barnett, 38.

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

Sanchez is also charged with tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair, a third-degree felony, jail records show.

License plate reader on suspect vehicle

Bexar County sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting around 2:30 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Waterside Drive and Crestway Road.

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

Locke was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators detained multiple people at the shooting scene who said that they were traveling toward Waterside Drive and noticed a white Volvo sedan parked on the side of the road with a blonde female driver.

Witnesses told investigators that when their vehicle stopped at the Waterside and Crestway intersection, the white Volvo pulled up beside them and multiple gunshots came from the vehicle.

Approximately a minute before the shooting call came out, the affidavit said the white Volvo was located at New World Drive and Miller Road, which is around half a mile away from the crime scene. Investigators used a license plate reader on the vehicle.

A sergeant later drove by a home around 11:25 a.m. in the 1900 block of Clay Oak Drive. The affidavit said the address was associated with the Volvo since it was a loaner from a dealership.

The sergeant said he saw a woman and a man standing beside the white Volvo parked inside a residential parking garage. The pair were cleaning the vehicle, according to the warrant.

The white Volvo was eventually located back at the dealership in the 1300 block of Northeast Loop 410. The driver of the vehicle, identified as Barnett, and the passenger, Torres-Carcovich, were detained as they pulled into the location, court documents state.

The suspect’s vehicle was confirmed to have the same Texas license plate detected on the reader approximately a minute before the shooting call, the affidavit said.

In subsequent interviews with investigators, court documents state Barnett and Torres-Carcovich said they were aware a shooting occurred on Waterside Drive.

Torres-Carcovich stated that Sanchez fired a weapon out of the Volvo’s window, which struck the victim’s vehicle. She also told investigators that she and Barnett discussed contacting law enforcement, but decided against it.

‘I’m going to light them up’

Barnett allegedly told authorities that Sanchez, who was sitting directly behind him, said, “I’m going to light them up” before the shooting, the affidavit states. Torres-Carcovich also told deputies that Sanchez fired the gunshots.

In Sanchez’s interview with investigators, he said that the purpose of the late-night meetup was to obtain narcotics, according to the affidavit. His timeline of events leading up to the shooting, however, was inconsistent with investigators’ account, the warrant said.

Investigators later obtained surveillance footage from a Valero gas station at approximately 3:10 a.m., which was around 40 minutes after deputies responded to the shooting.

The footage showed Torres-Carcovich, Barnett and Sanchez at the gas station. Sanchez was allegedly seen “rummaging” through the back seat of the Volvo and throwing items into a trash can.

According to the warrant, investigators searched the trash can and discovered multiple shell casings.

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Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, is vying to become Wisconsin’s first Black governor and pitched himself as the candidate best positioned to win in November against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who was hoping to ride the wave of recent victories by progressive candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed in neighboring Michigan’s U.S. Senate race last week.

El-Sayed's win was the movement’s first major success in a purple state. It also fed fears in the party’s leaders that such candidates, farther afield and often carrying political baggage of past stances such as defunding the police, would struggle to beat Republicans and imperil the party’s hopes of recapturing control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

Crowley didn’t address supporters Tuesday night but was expected at a unity event later Wednesday.

“Now, David is focused on bringing people together, earning the support of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone who believes Wisconsin is at its best when we work together and deliver results,” Crowley's campaign manager Garren Randolph said in a statement.

Hong’s loss in Wisconsin may have doused the momentum, but it’s far from snuffing it out. A democratic socialist coming close to victory in a battleground state sends a clear message: There’s unignorable angst among the party’s voters.

“We have built something that will change politics forever,” Hong told supporters as the outcome of the race hung in the balance late Tuesday. “The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Her campaign manager Becky Cooper said after Hong conceded that she was “proud of the race we ran.”

“Our team campaigned clean, our souls are intact and we really made meaningful change for the progressive movement,” she said.

The Associated Press declared Crowley the winner once Hong’s concession removed the possibility of a recount in the exceptionally close race.

Hong could have requested a recount since Crowley’s margin of victory was less than 1 percentage point. But because it was wider than 0.25 points, Hong’s campaign would have had to pay for it.

Sanders and other top progressives stayed out of the Wisconsin race

Progressives had wanted to notch a clear win, but national progressive leaders, most notably Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sat out the race and did not endorse.

The movement is not entirely aligned. Not all candidates are democratic socialists or have endorsements from Sanders, but they are often tilling similar voter anger with politics and the party: over military aid to Israel, the amount of money wielded in campaigns, the Trump administration’s immigration raids and the high cost of daily life.

In New York City in the June primary elections, two democratic socialist candidates and a progressive came out on top, booting two Democratic incumbents from Congress in the process. All three were backed by the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, himself a democratic socialist who framed the upsets as a question of electing “better Democrats.”

Democrats in Wisconsin are hoping to capitalize on low approval ratings for Trump in a state he won in 2016 and 2024 to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Wisconsin Democrats are hoping to unite after tight primary battle

Both Hong and Crowley said in the waning days of the race that they expected Democrats to come together and unite to defeat Tiffany, a congressman from conservative, rural northern Wisconsin.

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

Democrat David Zimmerman, a 79-year-old retired industrial engineer professor in Madison, voted for Crowley on Tuesday. He said Hong’s chance of beating Tiffany in November “worries me a lot.”

“I think she’s going to have trouble winning,” he said.

The photo finish is just the latest twist in a chaotic primary that saw two major candidates drop out amid scandals. Crowley had also dropped out in early July, but he got back in 10 days later with Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement.

Both of them crisscrossed the state in the final week, making the case that Crowley was the better matchup against Tiffany in a swing state known for close elections where independent, moderate voters often decide the outcome.

Democratic socialist shook up Wisconsin race, fueled by national movement

Hong, a single mother and former line cook, tapped into Democratic anger with the party’s mainstream and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

The 37-year-old known for sprinkling her comments with profanity and leaning into her edgy and sometimes humorous social media profile excited the liberal wing of the party. Hong called for free childcare and healthcare and a moratorium on artificial intelligence data center construction. But she also wrestled with her past support for defunding the police, saying at the race’s only debate that she would not support cutting law enforcement funding.

She also drew criticism for past social media posts in which she called for canceling Thanksgiving because “we should stop celebrating colonialism” and disparaged Valentine’s Day as “another day capitalism tells you how to show love.”

Hong has since downplayed the posts as her attempt at making jokes.

Chaotic Democratic primary saw candidates drop, come back in

Evers’ decision not to seek a third term created an open race for governor that initially had seven Democrats file to run.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez appeared to be making a move to consolidate mainstream Democratic support in July, but she dropped out in the middle of the month amid a campaign finance scandal. That led Crowley, who had dropped out a week earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, to get back in the race, this time with Evers’ backing.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who was seen as an early front-runner after nearly beating Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, bowed out less than two weeks before the election amid questions about inappropriate behavior.

In one more twist, reporting the results of about 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee was delayed until early Wednesday morning after a human error related to uploading the data, the city’s election leader said shortly before midnight Tuesday.

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Associated Press reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed from Austin, Texas.