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At 300 PM GMT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Fay was located near latitude 29.8 North, longitude 41.2 West. Fay is moving toward the west near 6 mph (9 km/h). A generally westward motion with some decrease in forward speed is expected over the next few days.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is possible through tonight. A gradual weakening trend is expected to commence on Friday.

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

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1005 mb (29.68 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

While Trump has many thorny issues to discuss with the president of America’s biggest economic rival, he focused on his long relationship with Xi as the two gathered with aides for opening remarks before formal talks.

Also, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored. Reporters from all three outlets, however, said they remained blocked a few hours after the ruling.

Here's the latest:

US government pays for TV ad featuring Trump’s midterm messaging

An ad featuring images of President Donald Trump and saying America will never be a communist country looks like a typical Republican campaign advertisement, except that at the end, a bit of text says “paid for by the U.S. government.”

According to AdImpact, which tracks media spending, the advertisement cost $14,000 and it ran during conservative shows on Fox News and Newsmax.

It’s not clear what part of the U.S. government paid for the spot. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment. Neither did Fox News or Newsmax.

The advertisement doesn’t say who voters should support in the midterms, but it meshes with campaign messaging from Trump and other Republicans, particularly during the party’s unusual convention in Dallas earlier this month.

Trump makes a quip about Chinese press as he blocks most of the pool

The bilateral Oval Office meeting between Trump and Xi was scheduled to be closed press.

But at the last minute, the White House allowed only still photographers into the Oval Office to capture images of the two leaders meeting. They denied requests from the rest of the pool, including reporters who would be asking questions, to join.

Very briefly in front of news photographers, Trump noted that Xi has the friendliest press corps in the world. The U.S. president quipped that the Chinese press ask Xi for permission to speak.

China is one of the most oppressive environments for journalists in the world.

He later praised New York Times photojournalist Doug Mills, calling him “handsome” and complimenting his Pulitzer Prizes.

The first ladies are touring the Peacock Room

Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan on Thursday are touring one of the largest Asian art museums in the United States, celebrating cultural ties between China and the United States.

Leaving their husbands behind at the White House, the first ladies visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in a display of soft power that united two figures known for fusing style and diplomacy. It was the first public meeting in nearly a decade between the spouses, one a former fashion model and the other a famed soprano.

Trump presented a military review that was smaller in scale but had a story to tell

The White House staged a military review in the Rose Garden that was smaller in scale compared to the troop review Xi prepared for Trump in May.

But Trump had something special: a colonial band in celebration of the 250 years of America.

Twelve marines later performed rifling tossing and formations.

In Beijing, Trump and Xi walked down a red carpet to inspect hundreds of troops in a massive open space in front of the Great Hall of People. The troops later goosestepped in unison before the leaders.

Milwaukee mayor taunts Vance over ignoring calls to meet

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson is trying to take up Vice President JD Vance on his offer to meet in Washington to talk about election security.

But Vance isn’t responding.

Vance said during a visit to Milwaukee in July that he would be “happy” to meet with Johnson in the nation’s capital to discuss his concerns over how Milwaukee handled the 2020 presidential election in the battleground state.

Johnson sent Vance two letters seeking a meeting but never heard back. Johnson posted a video on social media Thursday from Washington, where he is for an event to connect local Milwaukee leaders with federal officials.

“Where is the vice president of the United States?” Johnson says in the video. “I thought this was an issue that was important to him.”

Vance was at the White House on Thursday where President Trump was meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Food and Drug Administration nominee appears before Senate health committee

Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and top White House aide, has spent most of her career working for Trump or conservative groups aligned with his agenda.

Members of the Senate health committee considering her nomination will focus on her plans for vaccines, the abortion pill and other products that have come under new scrutiny at the regulatory agency.

In her current role as a domestic policy adviser, Overton worked on several White House health initiatives, including the revamped food pyramid and efforts to overhaul childhood vaccines. Previously she was an executive at the America First Policy Institute, authoring papers critical of abortion and transgender care.

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Senate to vote on resolution to halt the Iran war as gas prices upend midterms

Increasingly anxious about the Iran war, senators are set to vote Thursday on a war powers resolution seeking to halt President Trump ’s military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in fuel prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election.

The Senate vote, days after Trump’s bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to “annihilate” Iran, is likely to be the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. More Republicans are peeling way from the president as the war drags on, a rare slap back to Trump, as they campaign for control of Congress.

“They have been carrying water for this ridiculous and illegal war for months and months and months and not listening to their constituents,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, who pushed the war powers resolution forward. “And now they finally are.”

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Military review concludes with a flyover

The flyover consisted of a B-2 bomber and four fighter jets soaring over the White House.

Trump and Xi do a military review

In the late morning, Trump and Xi participated in a military review in the Rose Garden.

With military band members positioned on the roof of the West Wing, the two leaders and their spouses watched as other musicians dressed in colonial wear and white wigs played.

The military review is a customary feature of state visits at the White House, but it’s usually done on the South Lawn.

Before they stepped out onto the Rose Garden for the review, Trump and Xi walked along the colonnade in front of the presidential “walk of fame,” where portraits of all U.S. presidents are displayed. Trump pointed to his own portrait.

Xi confirms 2 pandas will come to Zoo Atlanta in the coming days

The Chinese president announced that as a measure of good faith, China would send two pandas to Zoo Atlanta after Beijing reclaimed four pandas in 2024 as diplomatic tensions between China and the U.S. intensified.

China and the zoo first announced in April that two pandas, male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang, would be coming to the U.S. as part of a giant panda conservation agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

Xi confirmed that “Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people” in “a few days.”

He called the panda loan programs with the U.S. “an envoy of friendship.”

Both pandas were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun returned from Zoo Atlanta to China in 2024. The National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China in 2023, and other American zoos have sent pandas back to China as loan agreements lapsed.

Chinese companies should be treated fairly in the US, Xi says

Xi said in his remarks in the White House that he hopes “Chinese companies are treated fairly here in the United States” while China keeps its door wide open and welcomes U.S. companies that want to invest in China and do business there.

Chinese investments are faced with increasing national security scrutiny in the U.S.

Trump granddaughter gets a notable spot at the state visit

The “Kushner” sign on one of the seats turned out not to be for Jared, but for his daughter, Arabella.

The president’s 15-year-old granddaughter was seated between mom Ivanka Trump and Rubio, the secretary of state, when the U.S. and Chinese presidents delivered their opening remarks.

It’s rare that a presidential granddaughter gets such prominent seating at a White House state visit event.

Nearly a decade ago, Arabella sang for Xi in Mandarin when the Chinese leader visited Mar-a-Lago.

US and China must avoid conflict, Xi says

Xi says the two countries “must hold the line of no conflict and no confrontation.”

“We can certainly find the right path for two great countries to get along on this planet we both call home,” Xi said.

Xi says Washington and Beijing should put common interests ahead of differences

The Chinese president said he and Trump have established a “personal rapport” over the years and encourage their governments to communicate.

But Xi said those talks can be improved.

“We should strengthen communication,” he said. “China and the United States are different in national condition, but through candid, in-depth, and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground, while shelving differences and build up mutual trust.”

Xi said he and Trump have pushed better communication among their lieutenants “in charge of foreign affairs, economic matters, financial cooperation and law enforcement and people-to-people exchanges.”

He added later that the nations’ militaries can “maintain regular dialogue” as part of an overall relationship that involves “healthy” competition that is “kept within bounds.”

China and the US must ensure AI is under human control, Xi says

Xi touched on artificial intelligence in his opening remarks, saying the two superpowers have a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.

“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.

The two countries’ finance ministers earlier this week met, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.

Xi thanks Trump for ‘warm hospitality’

The Chinese leader, in his opening remarks, said he was visiting the U.S. to “carry on our friendship, expand cooperation and promote well-being of both our peoples.”

Both are great countries with great people, Xi said through an interpreter.

“I’m very glad to pay a state visit to your beautiful country, the United States of America,” Xi said. “Thank you President Trump and Mrs. Trump for the warm hospitality that you have extended to me and my wife.”

Trump notes US-Chinese alliance in World War II

The U.S. president said World War II offers an apt lesson on how the world’s two super powers can work together.

“Brave American pilots volunteered to come to China and fight for the very survival of the legendary country,” he said, referring to the Flying Tigers air corps that helped defend China against Japanese invasion.

“They were just unbelievable,” Trump said.

He added that it was U.S. Marines’ interactions with Chinese citizens that inspired them “to adopt a Chines phrase that they still use today: “gung ho.”

Trump said Marines use the expression to denote “great enthusiasm” but that in Chinese “it literally means ‘working together.’”

Trump promised to work with Xi “as our people worked together to win that war.”

The presidents will see the US founding documents Friday

Trump noted that Xi’s state visit comes in the year the U.S. is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding.

The U.S. president said he and Xi will visit the National Archives on Friday to “see some of the greatest treasures of that proud history, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

Trump says he’s returning hospitality to Xi

The U.S. president said it was a “great privilege” to visit Beijing earlier this year and said Xi showed “spectacular and very beautiful hospitality.”

He said he and the first lady “are honored to host you” in “the beautiful White House.”

This is the first Trump-Xi meeting at the White House

The U.S. president noted that he and the Chinese leader have met all over the world, including in China and in Palm Beach, Florida, at the president’s club.

But this is actually the first time the two are meeting at the White House proper, Trump noted.

“We have spent time together all over the world,” he said.

During those visits, Xi and Trump have “forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually.”

Trump noted that a lot has changed at the White House since Xi was last there for an Obama-hosted state visit — a nod to his renovation projects.

Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, is among those at the state visit

Her husband is Jared Kushner, one of the president’s two main diplomatic envoys. Their daughter, Arabella, sang for Xi when the Chinese leader visited Mar-a-Lago during Trump’s first term in office.

Others in attendance, according to the seating chart in the Grand Foyer, where Trump and Xi are delivering opening remarks: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China.

Xi state visit underway at the White House

Just after 10 a.m. ET, the official state visit by China’s Xi Jinping was underway.

To the blare of trumpets, Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked out of the White House residence onto the South Lawn, where they were to greet Xi and Madame Peng.

China’s leader and his spouse then walked out of a black vehicle, where they warmly shook hands with the Trumps. Then the four posed for the cameras.

Anti-Beijing and pro-Beijing protesters gather outside the White House ahead of Xi’s arrival

“Down with Xi Jinping,” chanted those condemning Beijing’s brutal policy in Tibet. They also chanted “shame on Xi Jinping.”

Another group has gathered about a block away with banners welcoming the Chinese leader.

The two camps are separated and there has been no direct clash.

Trump-Xi schedule does not include a joint news conference

The presidents of the U.S. and China are scheduled to deliver remarks Thursday morning at the White House and again in the evening as part of a state dinner.

The schedule does not include a news conference and it’s unclear whether Trump and Xi will take questions from either American or Chinese reporters.

In a 2015 meeting, Xi and President Barack Obama held a joint news conference as part of a White House summit. In the Rose Garden, which Trump has since turned into a patio, each president made opening remarks. Then they each answered one question from a U.S. reporter and another from a Chinese reporter before taking additional, nation-specific questions.

The Trump-Xi summit comes as U.S. networks are boycotting White House pool coverage in protest of Trump stripping credentials from MS Now, Politico and CNN.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters still blocked from the White House

That’s a few hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s ban of the three news outlets from the White House and ordered early Thursday that their access must be restored.

The back-and-forth is the latest in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

Trump makes a protocol error as he compliments China’s first lady

The U.S. president offered enthusiastic praise for China’s first couple — but with a social faux pas.

“I met President Xi at the plane (Airport!) yesterday and he looks strong, vibrant, and fit — Better than ever. Madam Xi, of course, BEAUTIFUL!” he posted on Truth Social.

The latter reference was to President Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan.

She is properly recognized as Madame Peng. She is correctly listed that way by the White House in its public itinerary for the Trump-Xi meetings and state dinner.

Officials typically take great care in international meetings to honor the titles and protocols of other delegations.

In one visit with Queen Elizabeth II, Trump flouted royal protocol by walking ahead of the late British monarch. In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama continued speaking at a Buckingham Palace banquet as the queen’s band played “God Save the Queen.”

US-China trade truce welcomed but leaves issues unresolved

Analysts welcomed the extension of the trade truce U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Wednesday but said it left unresolved many of the issues that divide the United States and China.

“Agreeing to the extension is positive, but agreement to merely avoid an all-out tariff war for a few months is not a cause for celebration and is probably the minimum necessary to call the summit a success,” said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. diplomat and trade official specializing in China.

“The summit will be heavy on pomp and circumstance and light on substance, so the question is whether (extending the trade truce) will be the principal summit deliverable (or) whether the leaders will also tackle more ambitious goals as well,’’ said Moon, who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy.

Trump continues his rebranding effort on AI

In his Truth Social post Thursday on AI, Trump again referred to “Super Intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence.”

Trump used his new preferred term earlier this week at the United Nations, and he’s ordered U.S. diplomats to follow suit.

The U.S. president has said Americans’ widespread skepticism about AI is unfounded, and he’s trying to put the technology and its future in a better light.

It’s the latest example of how much Trump, a former reality TV star, cares about branding.

When Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill was lagging in 2025, he dubbed it “The Big Beautiful Bill.” His investment accounts for U.S. newborns are called “Trump Accounts.” In private business, Trump has put his name on everything from buildings and golf courses to steaks, shoes and Bibles.

Trump suggests summit with Xi won’t yield any shift on AI

The U.S. president and Chinese president have both taken a hands-off view of artificial intelligence. Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday that AI would be a “big topic of discussion” when the two presidents meet later at the White House.

“But I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump said, adding “that is China’s position also.”

Trump said the U.S. Department of Justice is “our guardrail.”

Trump has said any AI regulation should be handled by the federal government, but he hasn’t pushed Congress for any major action on the matter. And he’s opposed state government regulatory moves.

The weekly average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home loan rose to 7.03% from 6.95% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.30%.

The average rate is now the highest it's been since Jan. 16, 2025, when it was at 7.04%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also rose this week. That average rate increased to 6.42% from 6.26% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.49%.

Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month to borrowers’ costs, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power. As rates rise, that can also lead prospective home shoppers to delay buying.

The housing market has been stuck in a rut this year in large part because of rising borrowing costs. Mortgage rates have continued to march higher in the months since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mortgage rates are influenced by inflation, Federal Reserve policy and bond-market investors’ expectations for the economy, among other factors. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Expectations of higher inflation amid surging oil prices have pushed up the 10-year Treasury yield, which was at 3.97% in late February, before the war began. It surged to 5.17% in midday trading on the bond market Thursday. That’s put its roughly back to where it was in 2007.

Coleman first joined the Texas House in 1991 and represented parts of central and southeast Houston throughout his tenure until 2022.

During that time, he worked on major legislation related to healthcare and mental health including helping to establish Children’s Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas. He authored the sweeping Sandra Bland Act, which requires county jails to divert people with mental health issues toward treatment and mandates that jail deaths be investigated by independent law enforcement agencies. He also advocated for Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Houston.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said he remembers Coleman as a passionate advocate for Houston, a champion of the underserved and a great man.

“Garnet’s service in the Texas House began long before I entered the chamber, but I had the privilege of serving alongside him from my freshman year until his retirement,” Burrows added in a Thursday post on X. “As a new member of the House, I looked to longtime public servants like Garnet to understand how to get things done for the people who sent us to Austin. It didn’t take long to see his compassion, courage and deep commitment to the community he served.”

In addition, Coleman chaired the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the Texas Legislative Study Group House Caucus.

He announced his retirement from the Texas Legislature in late 2021 primarily because of health reasons. His family said he died of natural causes.

“The family asks for privacy at this time and that he be remembered for his service, dedication to his family, and never-ending passion for uplifting all Texans,” the statement said.

Disclosure: University of Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

While Trump has many thorny issues to discuss with the president of America’s biggest economic rival, he focused on his long relationship with Xi as the two gathered with aides for opening remarks before formal talks.

“From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually, built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people,” Trump said.

Trump and Xi have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for the private discussions.

Xi speaks of a ‘healthy’ competition and says Chinese pandas are coming to Atlanta

China has resisted the Trump administration's urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. The two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend by two months a one-year trade truce that was set to expire Nov. 10 as they work to find a more durable agreement.

Xi said in his remarks upon arriving that the “competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds."

“It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” Xi added.

Xi also announced that China will invite 100,000 American youth to come to his country for studies and exchanges in the next five years and that China will send two pandas to the zoo in Atlanta. He called the beloved animals an “envoy of friendship" and that they will meet the American people in a “few days."

Xi says China and US should make sure AI is ‘always under human control’

Trump said in a social media post earlier Thursday that artificial intelligence — “superintelligence” as he is trying to rebrand it — will be high on the agenda amid growing global anxiety that the technology will kill jobs or potentially even wipe out humanity.

“I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump wrote. “That is China’s position also.”

Xi also touched on AI in his opening comments, saying that the two countries had a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.

“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.

The two countries’ finance ministers met earlier this week, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.

Trump rolls out the red carpet for Xi and faces criticism from some White House allies

Trump has made clear he wants to impress Xi with the visit. The Republican president made sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House's South Lawn was completed before the visit and he met Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday evening when they flew into Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

The White House also arranged for an elaborate military review that the leaders and their spouses observed before the Oval Office talks. Following the military review, first lady Melania Trump accompanied Peng for a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art.

Trump has lamented about his planned White House ballroom not being ready for the state dinner in Xi's honor on Thursday evening.

That black-tie event will be held in the White House East Room, featuring a décor that “draws on the color red’s longstanding cultural significance throughout Chinese history,” according to Melania Trump. Dinner will begin with a toast honoring the historic “Toast to Peace” between President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1972.

The guest list includes Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, among other tech titans staking out positions on whether more safeguards are needed in the race to develop artificial intelligence.

But Trump's decision to roll out the red carpet for Xi has spurred criticism from lawmakers in both parties and some White House allies.

“Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States of America based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

US and China still have work to do on trade truce

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump and Xi may be open to a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents that could affect national security. But on AI and a host of other thorny issues, it remains unclear whether the leaders can make progress.

Shortly after Xi's arrival in Washington, Bessent announced on Fox News that the two sides had come to terms on extending the trade truce. The Treasury secretary said it was possible that Trump and Xi could come to a larger agreement by January or just decide to once again extend it further.

Trump and Xi have incentive to keep the truce alive.

Trump's Republican Party is facing headwinds as they try to maintain control of Congress in November's midterm elections and can hardly afford further economic disruption. Meanwhile, Xi is navigating an uneven Chinese economy — one in which its domestic economy is struggling while its high tech exports remain strong.

A breakthrough on Iran seems unlikely

The two sides are also expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Iran. Trump has argued to little effect that China, which is far more dependent on Gulf oil than the U.S., has plenty of incentive to use its sway with Tehran to help force an end to the conflict.

But Trump's war of choice has unnerved Beijing, with the government condemning the U.S. and Israeli military action and Xi expressing concerns the conflict signaled a return to what he called the “law of the jungle."

The Chinese were also unsettled by the military operation Trump ordered to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power and bring him to New York City to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.

Xi expected to press Trump to end Taiwan arms sales

China has made clear it views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in the U.S.-China relationship.

Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and vows to annex the island by force if necessary. The U.S. is obligated by law to provide Taiwan with sufficient hardware to deter any armed attack from the mainland.

China has pressed Washington to permanently halt the arms sales, most prominently when Trump and Xi met in Beijing in May.

After that meeting, Trump said he was holding off on final approval for a record-breaking $14 billion arms package that was in the pipeline. He also described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

Xi made no direct reference to the Taiwan issue in his public remarks but said it was crucial that the two countries “must hold the line of no conflict and no confrontation.”

“We can certainly find the right path for two great countries to get along on this planet we both call home,” Xi said.

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Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Collin Binkley, Josh Boak, Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim, and Darlene Superville and contributed to this report.

China and the zoo had said in April that Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, would go to the United States. But Xi’s announcement at the White House, in opening remarks before talks with President Donald Trump, marked the first public confirmation of the timing. Beijing had reclaimed four pandas from Atlanta in 2024, the last of the animals on loan from China to the U.S. at the time.

Xi said Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, “will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people” in “a few days.” He called it “a piece of good news” and hailed the panda loan program as an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”

The pandas are part of a conservation agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Both pandas were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

In 2024, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun returned from Zoo Atlanta to China, ending a 25-year partnership and leaving the U.S. without any of the animals for several months. The National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China in 2023 before accepting new arrivals Bao Li and Qing Bao, in October 2024 after Atlanta lost its pandas. Other American zoos sent pandas back to China before that as loan agreements lapsed.

When the pandas' Atlanta return was officially promised in the spring, Zoo Atlanta CEO Raymond B. King celebrated “the wonder and joy of giant pandas" and said his facility was “delighted and honored to yet again be trusted as stewards of this treasured species.”

“Deep in the Heart 2: Texas Rivers” is the follow-up to the 2022 film “Deep in the Heart.” The new documentary is narrated by Texas native Ethan Hawke.

The film takes viewers across Texas, showcasing “the abundant diversity of wildlife that calls Texas home while confronting the critical water challenges facing a rapidly growing population,” according to the film’s website.

The Rio Grande, Sabine River and Neches River are among the rivers featured in the documentary, directed and written by Ben Masters.

Filmmakers also turn their attention to the water challenges facing Texas as the state’s population continues to grow.

The original “Deep in the Heart,” narrated by Matthew McConaughey, was released in 2022.

San Antonio screenings

Several San Antonio-area theaters are scheduled to show the film.

• EVO Schertz
• Regal Live Oak 18
• Santikos Palladium; Filmmakers in attendance on 9/26
• Santikos Embassy
• City Base Cinemas
• Flix Brewhouse San Antonio
• Santikos Casa Blanca 16

For more information about local showtimes, tickets and the documentary, visit the “Deep in the Heart 2: Texas Rivers” website.

Read also:

• River otters are showing up in San Antonio River. What do their return mean for city’s waterways?
• ‘Lasagna layer of garbage’: Volunteers remove 43,000 pounds from Elm Cove Pond in northeast Bexar County

The Senate vote, days after Trump's bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to “annihilate” Iran, is likely to be the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. More Republicans are peeling way from the president as the war drags on, a rare slap back to Trump, as they campaign for control of Congress.

“They have been carrying water for this ridiculous and illegal war for months and months and months and not listening to their constituents,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who pushed the war powers resolution forward. “And now they finally are.”

About half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when Trump returned to office, according to a new survey from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF. The costs of groceries, gas and healthcare rank as top pain points for the rural voters.

"We’ve got to break the cycle,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who now says he is leaning toward voting for the resolution to end the war.

War powers resolutions are largely political statements, without the full force of law, but stand among the sharper tools the House and Senate have to express disapproval of the White House, short of halting funds for Trump's military actions. As resolutions, they do not go to the president's desk for his signature.

As gas prices climb, Republicans start to question the war

Republicans in control of Congress have shied away from directly confronting Trump over the war, now stretching past the seven-month mark. But their unrest is beginning to surface as stubbornly high gas prices leave voters in a cash crunch back home.

Diesel costs, in particular, have almost doubled, topping $6 a gallon, according to AAA.

Just returning from a swing through Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska stumping for GOP candidates who are suddenly at risk in their elections, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana called on Trump to hold a prime-time address to the nation to explain the Iran war strategy and the end game.

“People are confused about the war and upset about the cost of living,” he said.

But he and others are not yet ready to vote against the war.

“My own view is that the focus right now needs to be on attacking the cost of living issues,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who opposes the war powers resolution and believes the president is acting within his authority to conduct the military action.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries scoffed at the handful of Republicans now trying to distance themselves from what he called Trump's failed economy. “Now all of a sudden they’re waking up,” he said.

Democrats keep pushing war powers votes in Congress

This would be the 14th time the Senate has considered a war powers resolution, since Trump launched the conflict on Feb. 28.

Earlier this month, the House for a third time approved a war powers resolution, this time with seven Republicans joining the Democrats, including two from battleground Iowa, Rep. Zach Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller Meeks, where affordability issues among rural voters are dominating the campaigns.

Senators, though, have rarely been able to confront Trump by passing a war powers resolution.

In June, the Senate approved a war powers resolution after four GOP senators joined Democrats, but Republicans abruptly reversed course the next day after Trump berated them during a private lunch over the outcome.

One GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, stood up to defend his vote only to end up in a shouting match with Trump. He later switched to oppose the war powers resolution after receiving a personal briefing from the White House.

Other options to halt the Iran war

As the war drags on, costing $43.5 billion so far, Congress is also seeking other ways to force Trump to rethink his military strategy in Iran.

Rep. Thomas Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, pushed forward articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before the GOP leadership abruptly adjourned the House and sent lawmakers home to campaign for the election, avoiding any potential vote on the matter.

Lawmakers also have the power of the purse to curtail military spending, something Republicans have been reluctant to do but Democrats are sure to tackle if they win power in the midterm election. The White House's request for an additional $87.6 billion funding package for the war and other needs has idled in Congress.

First created in the aftermath of the Vietnam War as a way to hold a president accountable for military actions, the war powers act has long posed a test of the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government.

While the Constitution says only Congress can declare war, the president as commander-in-chief is also able to engage the military. The war powers act seeks to provide clarity by requiring the president, within 60 days of any such action, to seek approval — or risk disapproval — from Congress.

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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

The horse’s name drew attention after winning his debut Monday at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racecourse. Hitler was born in Austria and was an artist before becoming the head of the Nazi Party in Germany.

“The Registrar determined that the name is ineligible under Rule 6.F.9.d, which prohibits names that ‘are likely to be offensive or threatening based upon factors including, but not limited to, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, religion, politics or sexual orientation,’” the Jockey Club said in a statement announcing its decision.

Owner and breeder Scott Herbertson said on social media it was a reference to Austrian painter Gustav Klimt and that his filly originally called New Order was named for his favorite band. New Order is also a term for the Nazis' plan for occupying Europe.

The Jockey Club said that horse, a full sister to Merrylegs, had also been unnamed.

“We take these matters seriously and appreciate that they were brought to our attention,” the Jockey Club said.

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See AP’s full horse racing coverage here

The Laredo City Council voted 7-2 Monday night to set a nonbinding referendum for May — delaying a decision that is coming due for cities, counties and law enforcement agencies that face a financial reckoning after Gov. Greg Abbott blocked state money from being spent on the roadside cameras.

“In my opinion as the head of this local government, with state funding paused, the circumstances have changed,” Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño said before the vote. “If continuing these Flock systems will require the local taxpayer to fund their entire system, I believe that 272,000 residents should have an opportunity to express their opinion.”

At least 14 cities and counties have shut off more than 900 Flock cameras since state funding was rescinded in late August, and more are scheduled to decide their next steps in the coming weeks. Larger cities like Houston and Dallas shuttered grant-funded cameras while leaving much of their networks in operation, while Plano, Robinson and Kendall County were among those that ended their Flock contracts entirely.

Complicating those decisions is a lack of information from the governor’s office about the duration of the funding pause and a desire from local law enforcement to keep the cameras they attribute to reductions in crime. In addition to the funding block, Abbott recently directed the Texas Department of Transportation to pause installation of license plate readers along state roads.

Flock cameras and other AI-enhanced automated license plate readers have come under fire from privacy advocates over their ability to scan all passing vehicles to build a database that can be accessed by law enforcement agencies from across the country. The cameras compile license plate numbers and other identifying information, including make, model, paint color, dents and bumper stickers.

Police say the information provides unprecedented ability to identify suspects, pinpoint stolen vehicles and locate missing persons. Critics fear the creation of a surveillance state and say the databases have been repeatedly abused by police conducting improper searches.

As of late August, there were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas, according to DeFlock, an anti-surveillance watchdog that uses verified crowdsourcing to map the locations of Flock cameras.

Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment about guidance provided to local governments about how to proceed without state funding.

Schertz Assistant Police Chief Phillip Waller said the lack of information about the freeze is causing “major havoc” in smaller departments as local elected officials mull the long-term implications.

“I mean, depending on how big or how small the government entity is, having tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of [automated license plate readers] not being reimbursed like we thought they were is a major hit to the budget,” Waller said.

Without information about when or if Abbott’s funding freeze will end, some local leaders have been hesitant to make decisions regarding the cameras while their current contract terms are still active.

In Addison, City Council members on Tuesday debated whether Abbott’s funding freeze was temporary or indefinite as they began weighing the loss of state support on the city’s $260,000 Flock contract. In Laredo, City Council member Tyler King cast doubt on the permanence of the funding block in Monday’s meeting.

“I personally believe it’s political, and I think on Nov. 4, if [Abbott is] reelected, that’ll come back, and the money will start flowing in again,” King said. “So if we make a decision based on that, then we’re going to be back in the same situation come Nov. 4 — the money’s back, what do we do now?”

Abbott withdrew state funds for the cameras in August as The Texas Tribune prepared to publish an investigation exploring how a small state agency had directed at least $30 million to help cities, counties and law enforcement agencies pay for more than 3,200 Flock cameras across Texas.

That support from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority had been set to continue into 2027, with $10.9 million earmarked to help local agencies afford subscriptions for more than 2,600 Flock cameras, a Tribune review of approved grants found.

The vehicle authority, overseen by a governor-appointed board that includes Laredo’s police chief, Miguel Rodriguez, had completely covered Laredo’s installation costs for its 165 cameras, according to a police department spokesperson. Rodriguez has been a vocal advocate for placing the cameras across Texas and has commended their use in Laredo and elsewhere for allowing a new approach to detecting crime.

Like Laredo, League City southeast of Houston also will hold a nonbinding referendum on Flock cameras — a decision made mid-August, prior to Abbott’s funding freeze.

In addition to grappling with the loss of state money for Flock cameras, some local officials face a financial hit because vehicle authority grants are given as reimbursements.

Kyle, a small city south of Austin, has not received its 2026 grant for $205,000, $80,000 of which would help pay for 32 Flock cameras. Even so, the City Council voted 6-1 at a Sept. 5 meeting to continue Kyle’s Flock contract.

Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale said they’ve had no issues with the devices.

“When we’re asked to remove something like Flock, it’s difficult, because what do we use instead of it?” Flores-Cale said. “It can’t just be like, ‘take it away and then we’re going to be a safer city,’ because we’ve never had a problem or a complaint or a misuse in our city.”

Like Kyle, Conroe and Carrollton have rejected calls to end their partnerships with Flock.

Even in cities and counties that are not immediately shifting their approach to Flock, the governor’s actions and widespread scrutiny have prompted police to provide presentations and explanations for how they use their cameras.

During the Schertz City Council meeting on Sept. 15, council members accepted the city’s latest $309,000 vehicle authority grant, with roughly $100,000 intended to be used for 41 Flock cameras before the funding freeze. Waller, the assistant police chief, also detailed how police were — and weren’t — using their cameras, including clarifying that vehicles, not people, are tracked.

Waller said in an interview after the presentation that misinformation about the cameras is rampant online, and he called automated license plate readers a helpful and natural improvement in policing.

“Technology advances and so does police work, and LPRs are just the next step in that advancement,” he said.

Some conversations prompted by the funding pause are the first time local elected officials have publicly discussed whether the cameras should be used. In 2024, when the Laredo City Council approved its first million-dollar installment for Flock cameras, it did so without public discussion — and did the same in January when it approved a $5 million, five-year contract.

Other cities that canceled their contracts, such as Leander and El Paso, had their police enter Flock agreements without city council involvement. The El Paso City Council responded with an ordinance requiring future contracts for license plate readers to be approved by the council.

Not all of the recent cancellations stemmed from funding concerns.

In Pflugerville and Hutto, political leaders ended Flock agreements after learning the extent to which other agencies could access their camera data. A records request from a Pflugerville resident found that hundreds of agencies across the United States had been using the city’s Flock data.

Several law enforcement agencies have begun cracking down on who can access vehicle data collected by their cameras after audits found that unauthorized departments — sometimes hundreds or thousands of them — had used their data. The Texas Department of Public Safety reined in its access significantly after a Tribune analysis found more than 2,800 agencies had repeatedly tapped into their network of more than 900 cameras without signing agreements the department said were mandatory.

But there's something different near the end — a bit of text at the bottom that says “paid for by the U.S. government.”

According to AdImpact, which tracks media spending, the advertisement cost $14,000 and it ran during conservative shows on Fox News and Newsmax.

It's not clear what part of the U.S. government paid for the spot, which includes background music with singers crooning “love me” over and over. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment. Neither did Fox News or Newsmax.

The advertisement does not say who voters should support in the midterms, but it meshes with campaign messaging from Trump and other Republicans, particularly during the party's unusual convention in Dallas earlier this month.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is in line to chair the House Judiciary Committee if his party wins the majority in November, said in a social media post that it's a violation of the Hatch Act for government employees to work on such a video.

“It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns,” Raskin wrote.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.5% and is on track for a third straight decline after climbing to the brink of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 334 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.

Stocks have slowed under the weight of higher yields in the bond market, which make borrowing money more expensive for everyone. That includes discouraged people trying to keep up with high inflation, businesses wanting to build data centers for artificial-intelligence technology and the U.S. government needing to cover the massive gap between its spending and revenue.

Yields at their highest levels in years are slowing the overall economy while also undercutting prices for stocks and other investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed again Thursday, to 5.15% from 5.11% late Wednesday.

It’s back to where it was in 2007 and up sharply from its 3.97% level before the war with Iran sent oil prices much higher. The price for a barrel of Brent crude in the most actively traded part of the market rose another 4.1% Thursday to $102.20.

That’s helped push up the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline to $4.48 from less than $4.10 a month ago and from $3.16 a year earlier, according to AAA.

It’s not just worries about inflation that have sent Treasury yields higher. The U.S. economy continues to expand, which also supports yields. The bond market got a major jolt Wednesday after a preliminary report suggested U.S. business activity is growing at its fastest pace in years, while costs for corporate America are also rising quickly.

On Thursday, a report showed fewer U.S workers applied for unemployment benefits last week and further strengthened expectations for the economy.

Such numbers could convince the Federal Reserve that the economy can withstand more hikes to short-term interest rates. The Fed last week raised its main interest rate for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing the economy and removing some of the fuel for inflation.

Traders now see better than a coin flip’s chance that the Fed could raise rates twice more by the end of the year, according to data from the CME Group.

So far, the solid overall economy has helped U.S. companies continue to deliver strong growth in profits. That in turn has helped their stock prices remain relatively strong despite worries about war, inflation and tariffs.

“The headlines have turned more ominous, but the underlying drivers of growth remain intact,” strategists at Barclays wrote in a report. “As long as AI-related investment, US corporate profitability, and consumer spending continue to beat expectations, the economy and markets seem capable of absorbing tighter central banks and higher rates.”

Stitch Fix became one of the latest U.S. companies late Wednesday to report better quarterly results than analysts expected. But its stock nevertheless tumbled 24.6% after it said “a more challenging consumer environment” could hold back its revenue growth this upcoming fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, fell 1.7% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter that matched analysts’ expectations.

High yields in the bond market hurt prices for all kinds of stocks, and they often hit those seen as the most expensive the hardest. That puts the target on AI stocks, which soared for years in the frenzy around the technology. Higher yields also make it more expensive for companies to borrow money to build AI data centers, which could slow their construction and restrain demand for AI chips.

Nvidia sank 1.5% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

Helping to keep the market's losses in check was Everpure. The data storage and management company's stock jumped 18.7% after it stood by its financial forecasts for this fiscal year and said it expects revenue growth to accelerate in the following one.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly around much of the world. A drop of 1.2% in Shanghai and gain of 0.8% in Tokyo were two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge from a state moving to rein in popular and now-ubiquitous betting apps that allow people to place wagers on most anything, including sports, weather, elections and technology.

Prediction market platforms have argued states do not have the authority to govern them because they are regulated at the federal level by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

New York officials filed Thursday's lawsuit against Polymarket in state court and want the company to face fines and be forced to pay restitution to users because the platform did not get a gaming license from the state. The state has previously sued other platforms such as Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini using a similar argument.

“By running an unlicensed gambling operation, Polymarket has done more than just knowingly violate state law, they have put New Yorkers at risk, especially those underage who are most vulnerable to problem gaming,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

In a statement, Polymarket’s Chief Legal Officer Neal Kumar said, “We'll fight for our users.”

“Polymarket was founded in a tiny NYC apartment and now has more than 350 employees here, embodying why people and businesses come here to make it. We believe in New York and we’re staying here,” Kumar said.

Prediction market platforms have said they operate differently than traditional gambling operations, because consumers are trading against other consumers, similar to how stock markets work. They allow participants to buy and sell contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. The platforms say prices are based on trading and they only take a fee from the trading.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has opposed state regulation of the platforms, did not immediately return a request for comment.

But what happens when the hackers aren't human?

That's the question at the center of a public policy debate roiling Silicon Valley and Washington following disclosures by leading tech companies that their artificial intelligence models went rogue and hacked into other organizations. The attacks have generated calls even from within the industry for greater oversight and regulation, spurred congressional inquiries and raised questions about whether a years-old legal framework designed to punish criminal hackers is sufficient in an era of autonomous actors capable of engineering their own havoc.

It all adds up to a “Wild West,” said Jack Nelson, chief information security officer and deputy general counsel at the software company Ivanti. Questions of accountability will focus on what the companies knew when they were developing the models, how much they understood about what could happen and what guardrails existed, he said.

“If you owned a tiger and you didn’t put a lock on the cage, the tiger probably did something bad you didn’t intend for it to but you knew it could have, so you are responsible for not putting a lock on that cage,” Nelson said.

“I don’t know if I would go so far as to say these models are tigers without locks, but that’s probably a decent framework to think of it as,” he added.

The prospect of legal accountability is unclear. Lawsuits are a possibility, but some legal experts believe any criminal investigations would face an extremely high burden given the autonomous nature of the attacks and the absence of evidence the AI models were designed with the intent to hack into other networks.

The FBI director has called the autonomous attacks ‘the new frontier’

The issue surfaced in July when OpenAI revealed that its artificial intelligence system escaped from a testing ground and used stolen credentials to break into the servers of Hugging Face, an AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

Since then, Anthropic said its AI models hacked into three other organizations during testing, triggering a company review into whether the models were able to access the internet from within testing environments that should have been sealed off. Meta has said a “misconfiguration” during testing resulted in an AI model accessing the internet on its own and hacking another company. Google recently made a similar disclosure.

The revelations contributed to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging a development slowdown. The topic has likewise dominated Washington, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling lawmakers he opposed giving AI labs a “liability exemption — which is what they are asking for." President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has resisted calls for greater oversight but did announce plans to appoint an AI czar and task force.

The hacks could tee up a fight over liability reminiscent of the debate over Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which shields technology companies for material posted on their platforms.

The FBI has not publicly announced any investigations, but Director Kash Patel at a congressional hearing last week called the issue “the new frontier." He suggested in response to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who has launched a congressional investigation, that the bureau would limit scrutiny to models created with the intent of committing a crime.

“What we need to do on a resource basis is go after the people that created these models that are going rogue ...for the specific purpose and with the intention to commit a criminal act,” Patel said. “We can’t be punishing people if they created something lawfully and then a criminal took it and changed it and then dispersed it."

Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that the Justice Department had no plans to regulate AI but that “if anyone associated with AI violates criminal law, we’ll investigate that.”

The case law and FBI and Justice Department approach "is going to be fascinating because it can go a bunch of different ways,” said former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor Sid Mody.

Various criminal statutes govern cyberspace

The Department of Justice does have statutes at its disposal for a company determined to have been "reckless in the way that it tests its AI agents," said Michael Zweiback, a former chief of the cyber and intellectual property crimes section of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

"And if in fact the AI agent gets loose in the wild and then causes substantial damage to other companies, then DOJ has to look at it from a prosecutorial discretion issue as to whether or not they want to make an example out of the particular company," he added.

Among the possibly relevant laws: a 40-year-old statute called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it illegal to knowingly access a computer without authorization. The White House cited the statute, which has been used against hacktivists, nation-state hackers and other cybercriminals, in an executive order directing prosecutors to pursue those who use AI to illegally access computers or further other crimes.

But some experts say even if there may be a basis to investigate, that hardly means a crime was committed.

For one thing, the law makes several references to behavior done “knowingly” or “intentionally," but there's no indication the autonomous agents were given any command or authorization by the companies to enter another network, said Kiran Raj, a former senior Justice Department official who specializes in cybersecurity law.

In detailed public accountings of the incidents, the companies have characterized the hacks as inadvertent outgrowths of testing and evaluation, with OpenAI calling its model behavior “unexpected" and “unprecedented" and Meta attributing the incident to a “misconfiguration.”

“I think it would be a pretty big stretch to say any of these companies are intentionally trying to do this. That's not their purpose. That's not what they're doing,” said Raj, also a former lead Microsoft program manager. “The fact that an AI agent may intentionally be doing something is going to be, I think, pretty hard to attribute the intent to the company.”

The 90-year-old leader's popularity at home and relevance abroad have both waned. But in his remarks, Abbas made clear he did not intend to quietly accept being sidelined.

“We will not leave our homeland. We will not accept displacement. And we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf,” Abbas said.

Though world leaders have repeatedly invoked the plight of Palestinians in speeches throughout the week, Abbas urged the international community to take more tangible action against Israel.

"How long will some countries continue to remain silent about Israel, or continue supplying it with weapons that it uses against our people? The world has witnessed the enormous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Abbas said. “What, then, is the international community waiting for before it acts to protect the Palestinian people?”

Netanyahu speaks a few hours later

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak in person early in the afternoon and arrived in New York in the morning. As Abbas spoke, the Israeli delegations' seats in the General Assembly hall sat vacant.

“The Palestinian people face one of the most dangerous periods in their history,” Abbas said.

In Gaza, he said, “Neighborhoods, cities, refugee camps, institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, and churches have been destroyed. Every foundation of life, and the future of entire generations, has been targeted.”

Though negotiations have not taken place for years, Abbas urged the international community to push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said Palestinians could live “alongside the state of Israel.”

Netanyahu has said no Palestinian state will be established while he is Israel’s leader and has argued that the Palestinian Authority is not a partner for peace.

“Saving the (two-state) solution begins with preserving the land on which the Palestinian state is to be established,” he said, referring to expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We do not want another process designed merely to manage the conflict while realities on the ground change every day."

Abbas' support has waned over the years

Since 2005, Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority, which is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. But his support among Palestinians has withered during years of corruption and anger toward the authority's security cooperation with Israel.

Under Abbas, Palestine has been recognized as a country by a majority of U.N. member states. But on the ground in the West Bank, the mostly symbolic moves have not affected Israel’s decades long military occupation. Throughout the war in Gaza, Abbas and the authority have been largely sidelined from negotiations over the territory's postwar future.

The international community has instead backed President Donald Trump’s plan for a group of apolitical administrators to govern Gaza under the Board of Peace. Yet Abbas said the territory could not remain politically separate from the West Bank and east Jerusalem for the long term.

He said the Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the West Bank needed to be governed by “one state, one government, one law and one legitimate entity authorized to bear arms.”

The Palestinian Authority was created under a series of peace agreements with Israel in the 1990s and administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank, while relying heavily on foreign aid.

It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control the following year. Abbas was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, though in his speech Abbas promised that both were on the horizon. Elections have long been demanded by international donor countries as preconditions for aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want both as part of their future state. The Palestinians and much of the international community view the settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to creating a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.

Abbas recorded the video on Wednesday.

It looks as good as over, but Baku has sprung surprises before and the 20-year-old Italian was beaten by teammate George Russell in both of Thursday's practice sessions.

A year ago, Baku was where Oscar Piastri's title shot began to fall apart. The Australian was leading the standings when he almost stalled on the grid, dropped to last and crashed, all in the space of about a minute on the opening lap.

That kicked off a run of six races without a podium finish for Piastri, who had to watch the title race become a fight between eventual champion Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Antonelli — whose practice was hampered by car problems Thursday — is sounding cautious as he aims to become F1's youngest-ever champion.

“Until you cross that finish line, it’s not over. It’s like tennis, one point at a time, here one race at a time," he said. “The sooner it’s over, the better it is. Still a long way and it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be intense but I’m ready to give my best and to keep having fun.”

There are key differences this year. For one thing, Antonelli’s lead is more than double the biggest advantage Piastri had last year. He’s coming off back-to-back wins, not the team orders controversy which was dogging Piastri and Norris a year ago.

As for Piastri, he says it's “love-hate in some ways” as he returns to a venue where he won in 2024 and endured a nightmare 2025.

“I think probably my best race ever has been at this track and probably my worst race ever has been at this track, so always eventful,” Piastri said.

Russell fastest in both practices as Antonelli has car trouble

Antonelli’s teammate George Russell was dominant in both practice sessions Thursday, heading the first by 0.4 seconds and beating second-place Antonelli by 0.552 in the other.

Max Verstappen was best of the non-Mercedes drivers as he went second-fastest in the first session and third-fastest in the second, with the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton close behind in both.

Lando Norris' flagging title defense hit another obstacle as he said the McLaren car was “miles off” the pace after placing 14th and sixth in the two sessions.

“The car didn’t feel that bad, so it’s just a little knife in the heart when you see how far off you are,” he added.

Antonelli's day was disrupted by a hydraulic failure which left his car smoking at the side of the track in the first session. Arvid Lindblad hit a barrier in second practice, causing a red-flag stoppage.

Antonelli's title rivals need to bounce back

The three British drivers behind Antonelli are all trying to recover from disappointing races at the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Russell all but ruled himself out of the title race after an uncompetitive run to fifth in Madrid, while Norris was left ruing a badly-timed virtual safety car which cost him the win. Hamilton retired, making it five races off the podium for the Ferrari driver.

“I’m going to keep fighting every single race until it’s mathematically impossible, but it doesn’t change how I go about my job," Russell said Wednesday. "There’s obviously a huge deficit, but it’s not even really a consideration right now.”

Red Bull's double bet on Isack Hadjar

Red Bull is backing Isack Hadjar's health and his potential in the hope the young French driver develops into one of F1's top talents.

It was a tough day for Hadjar as a car issue in first practice cost him valuable time to readjust to F1. After a fix for the problem, which Hadjar initially thought was the engine but turned out to be a gearbox failure, he went ninth-fastest in the second session.

Hadjar returns for Baku despite saying he still feels pain from the wrist fracture which ruled him out of the last three races. And he has a contract extension to partner Max Verstappen for 2027, too.

Wrist injuries can have long-term consequences. Lance Stroll rushed back from wrist fractures sustained in a preseason cycling crash in 2023 but ended up missing a race after all in 2025 when he needed a follow-up operation to deal with lingering pain.

A rare Saturday race amid broader F1 schedule uncertainty

It's an unusual race week in a very unusual F1 season, as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is held on a Saturday to make way for a national day of remembrance on Sunday. That means Thursday practice and Friday qualifying.

This starts a run of three races in three weeks because of the extra round next week in Malaysia, still carrying branding of the called-off Bahrain Grand Prix.

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The Houthis later claimed they fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at the kingdom’s southwestern Jazan province. In recent days, they have been blamed for attempted attacks on the kingdom, including on Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The statement by Saudi Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, who is also the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, followed alerts by Saudi civil defense authorities, who later noted the danger had passed.

The fighting near the crucial Red Sea shipping corridor has worried global markets as the Houthis pursue a blockade of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, with Iranian support.

The new launches came as Yemen's internationally recognized government prepared to take its turn addressing the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

The situation in the Arab world's poorest country is grim as the fighting backed by the two Mideast powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, has pulled Yemen back into civil war after four years of relative calm. Over 125,000 people have fled the fighting as a humanitarian crisis grows.

While the Saudis have sought military support from allies, their key partner the United States has said it has been in contact with the Houthis and indicated it was sitting this fight out.

The rebels have asserted they are targeting only the Saudis and said commercial shipping on the Red Sea otherwise faces no threat, but they have warned other nations against stepping in.

Their new perch at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea after storming down Yemen's coast this month gives them better surveillance of passing ships on one of the world's busiest waterways.

For the Houthis' ally Iran, which has asserted control over the even busier Strait of Hormuz off its coast since the U.S. and Israel attacked it in February, the added pressure on shipping is welcome.

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Anna reported from Jerusalem.

It is the second big round of store closures under Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last September, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe.

In a letter to employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said the locations targeted either aren't delivering acceptable financial results or can't provide the kind of experience that Starbucks wants for customers and employees.

The company didn't say Thursday which coffeehouses will close or how many are located in the U.S. It also didn't say how many of the affected coffeehouses are unionized. More than 700 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021, but the union and the company have yet to reach a labor agreement.

Grams said Starbucks is continuing to retrofit its North American coffeehouses to make them cozier and more inviting. The company expects 1,500 stores will be retrofitted by Sept. 30, which is the end of Starbucks' fiscal year.

“This progress has given us a clearer view of the performance of every coffeehouse,” Grams said in his letter. “While most are benefiting from this overall momentum, some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you.”

Grams said Starbucks is still committed to growing its store count in North America. At the end of June, the company had 18,371 stores in the region.

Starbucks said it will transfer employees to other stores if possible or provide severance support if it's not able to place an employee in another location.

Starbucks has also been cutting its corporate ranks. The company laid off 900 nonretail employees when it closed stores last September. In May, Starbucks laid off an additional 300 corporate employees and closed some underused U.S. offices.

The company said it will incur $300 million in restructuring charges with this round of closures, including $200 million in cash charges as it exits leases and pays employee separation benefits and $100 million in non-cash charges due to the disposal and impairment of coffeehouse assets.

Starbucks shares fell less than 1% Thursday in morning trading.

Lucio has spent 18 years on death row after being convicted of killing her daughter, Mariah Alvarez. But questions about Lucio’s possible innocence have lingered for years, stemming from questions of whether Mariah’s fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs as her mother and others described.

The appeals court stayed Lucio’s execution in 2022 to allow a lower court to review claims that new scientific evidence would prove her innocence and that suppressed evidence had contributed to her conviction. 

In separate 2024 rulings, District Judge Arturo Nelson — who had presided over Lucio’s original trial — recommended that the state’s highest criminal court overturn her sentence and declare Lucio “actually innocent.”

Instead, the Court of Criminal Appeals cast doubt on her claims and said the lower-court rulings relied too heavily on Lucio’s interpretation of events and not the prosecution’s case.

“We decline to adopt any of the habeas court’s findings and conclusions, which exclusively reflect Applicant’s interpretation of the evidence and are often unsupported,” the court said in an unsigned opinion from which four of the nine judges dissented.

Three judges — David Newell, Lee Finley and David Schenck   — filed dissenting opinions and a fourth, Scott Walker, dissented from the ruling without filing an opinion.

Newell noted that prosecutors conceded during Lucio’s appeal that they had withheld material evidence during her trial, and admonished the court for ignoring their concession.

“The facts in this case are devastating. This makes the State’s failure to disclose material exculpatory evidence all the more tragic,” Newell wrote.

Lucio’s lawyer, Vanessa Potkin, said she will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Between Judge Nelson’s detailed findings of innocence, and District Attorney [Luis] Saenz’s concession of error, we are confident that the courts will clear Melissa Lucio and allow her to return home to her children and grandchildren,” Potkin said. 

If exonerated, Lucio would be the first woman declared innocent from Texas death row, joining 18 exonerated men since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

This is a developing story.

Tens of thousands of Catholic devotees are converging on St. Louis for a formal ceremony of beatification on Thursday, in which the prelate will be designated Blessed Fulton Sheen — one step away from sainthood.

The afternoon ceremony is taking place at the Dome at America's Center after years of delays. The stadium was chosen for the site because there wasn't a venue large enough in his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the anticipated number of attendees.

About 50,000 tickets were distributed as of Thursday, according to organizers with the diocese and the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, which advocates for his sainthood. By early morning, the downtown streets were filling up with pilgrims, many of them priests in clerical garb and nuns in habits. Scores of bishops, a thousand priests and hundreds of religious order members, seminarians and deacons were expected.

A temporary altar was set up on the stage in the indoor stadium, backed by photos — including Sheen's tomb at the Peoria cathedral, now a destination for pilgrims.

The event honors a prelate who was once a regular presence in the living rooms of millions of Americans — including that of the future Pope Leo XIV, who says he watched the broadcasts of his fellow Illinois native while growing up in Chicago.

Sheen's journey from Peoria to primetime

Sheen was a pioneering radio priest who quickly adopted the new medium of television in the 1950s, when he began hosting the program, “Life is Worth Living.” Dressed in a cassock, cape and skullcap, he stood at a chalkboard and delivered moral and religious lessons without a narrow Catholic focus.

The show competed favorably against entertainers Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra on other networks. In an Emmy acceptance speech, Sheen thanked his writers — Gospel scribes Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He’s been called America’s first televangelist.

“Archbishop Sheen was a beacon of faith, hope, and love who shone through radio and television for decades,” Pope Leo said in a June speech to directors of The Pontifical Mission Societies, which Sheen headed in the U.S. for 16 years. “I myself witnessed his evangelization efforts as I was growing up.”

Sheen was born in 1895 in the small town of El Paso, Illinois, and raised in Peoria. After becoming a priest and earning a doctorate in philosophy, he had a short pastorate in Peoria before becoming a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

He became known both for his academic lectures and his plainspoken addresses from the pulpit and the studio, first on radio and then on TV. He often signed off with the benediction, “God love you.”

Sheen appeared in a Time magazine cover article. He guided celebrities and others converting to Catholicism.

He met with popes and spoke at the reformist Second Vatican Council. He railed against communism, though he opposed the Vietnam War.

Sheen raised funds and traveled the world on behalf of Catholic missions. He served as a bishop in New York state, retiring as an archbishop. After his death at 84, he was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York until his niece won a court battle in 2019 to move his body to Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

The Illinois teen tied to Sheen's path to sainthood

It's there, where Sheen had been a young altar server and was later ordained a priest, that pilgrims now place crucifixes and other items on his marble tomb, giving them status as relics.

To qualify for beatification, the Vatican normally requires one miracle attributable to the faithful seeking the candidate's heavenly prayers.

The late Pope Francis approved the beatification, attributing to Sheen the resuscitation of an infant born in 2010 without a pulse and revived only after lengthy efforts by medical workers. The Peoria-area child, the now-teenaged James Fulton Engstrom, is slated to present relics of Sheen at the ceremony, accompanied by his family, who had sought Sheen's intercession for healing.

His mother, Bonnie Engstrom, said today's ceremony will feel like a “foretaste of heaven.”

She and her husband taught each of their eight children to have a devotion to their patron saint, giving them the sense that they have a heavenly “squad” cheering them on. They chose Sheen for James' patron after discovering the prelate's old videos, adding that his Midwestern-accented voice reminded her of her grandfather and great-grandfather. “He’s like a local boy,” she said at a morning news conference.

James, who just turned 16, has a devotion to Sheen, but he's largely avoiding the media spotlight. “He’s a delightful young man, but he’s still just a teenage boy, and he needs to be given the space and the grace to have his own journey of life," Engstrom said. "He didn’t ask for any of this.”

She said she'd been praying to Sheen throughout the pregnancy, and “it was just a very natural thing in the hardest hour of our life” to seek his prayers. James was born at home without a pulse and rushed to the hospital — where workers who were attempting to resuscitate him were about to declare him deceased — when his heart began beating normally, Engstrom and other witnesses said.

Sheen's beatification backstory

The beatification was originally scheduled for 2019, but the Vatican delayed the ceremony. The Diocese of Rochester, which Sheen briefly led in the 1960s, requested the delay out of caution, due to legal investigations taking place then into the oversight of priests accused of sexual abuse across New York state.

Church officials later concluded that Sheen’s record gave no cause for further delay, and plans for the ceremony resumed. Pope Leo XIV approved the beatification earlier this year.

“May the example and the intercession of this holy bishop, known for his evangelizing work through the media, inspire many others likewise to find new ways of spreading the gospel message with joyful enthusiasm,” Leo said Wednesday on the eve of the ceremony.

Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, said church investigators review records and interview witnesses before determining whether a healing qualifies as a miracle. He said there are now six more cases under investigation; a second miracle would qualify Sheen for sainthood under Vatican rules.

Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka said he believes the wait for canonization will be shorter than for the beatification, especially with an Illinois-born pope who's “very much aware of who Sheen is and how he influenced his own life.”

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

The money will go toward 31 projects across 26 states that are expected to produce more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity — enough to power 16 million homes. The projects will use new technologies such as sensors and other devices to measure real-time weather conditions to ensure safe transmission or direct power away from congested or overloaded paths, the department said.

The upgrades could improve power reliability and lower electricity costs for about 100 million Americans, officials said.

“These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid, and help deliver affordable, reliable and secure power that will fuel American prosperity for decades to come," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.

Wright was set to promote the grant program Thursday at a PPL Corp. facility in Allentown. The utility says two data centers in its territory came online this year and six more are under construction.

The announcement comes amid warnings that AI’s voracious demand for power is threatening to overwhelm U.S. power supplies, as massive new data centers come online faster than new power plants can be built. It also comes as electricity bills rise faster than inflation in many parts of the U.S., blamed in some areas on demand from data centers.

The snowballing opposition to data centers in communities across the country has thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and transformed the midterm election landscape.

Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both major political parties criticize them and many communities try to block them. Trump, a Republican, said last month that U.S. communities that don’t have data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.”

In the meantime, Congress and some states are trying to push regulators to require utilities to use technology and new components to make grids more efficient and better able to serve new customers without additional power sources.

Utilities — which have seen rising profits and share prices during the data center-fueled energy boom — tend to stay away from such efficiencies because they make more money from building new power plants and grid infrastructure projects that are more expensive and take longer to complete, utility critics say.

Projects being announced Thursday will involve component enhancements on more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of transmission lines and technological enhancements across nearly 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers), the department said.

Projects were prioritized based on those that can be put into operation quickly, officials said. Money for the grants comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted by Congress under then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The government's $1.9 billion in funding will be matched by $3.35 billion in cost-share funding from the recipients, the Energy Department said.

Trump has vowed to “unleash” the nation's energy sector in his second term, aiming to drive up record-setting domestic oil and gas production, strip away pollution restrictions on power plants and keep expensive coal-fired power plants operating past their retirement dates.

His administration has pushed to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines and convert Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants into data center and power plant complexes.

Trump's Environmental Protection Agency this summer issued a plan that would make it harder for the public to learn about and comment on proposed AI data centers.

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Daly reported from Washingon.

Polo has oscillated between Category 4 and 5 strength — both major-hurricane strength— and on Thursday morning dipped back to Category 4. It was slated to skirt Mexico's coast over the next few days. Rain and strong winds had already started to pummel the coast, with waves crashing onto the normally pristine beaches.

While the eye and the strongest winds were expected to remain at sea, the heavy rains could cause life-threatening flooding and landslides, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Farther west in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Nolo was churning about 285 miles (460 kilometers) south of South Point, Hawaii. It was forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday night and was expected to approach the Big Island as early as Friday. A hurricane watch was issued for Hawaii County, which covers the entire island.

Gov. Josh Green’s office said public schools and state and county offices on the Big Island will close Thursday and Friday, while Maui County will shutter them on Friday ahead of the threat of heavy rain, winds and flooding. Forecasters said the storm could drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain on Maui and up to 35 inches (89 centimeters) on the Big Island.

The series of hurricanes come as the weather phenomenon El Nino prompts major environmental shifts across the world, fueling drought in some areas and flooding in others. As El Nino traditionally dampens the Atlantic hurricane season, it tends to rev up tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific, with moist air and little wind shear.

Polo could bring flooding and mudslides to Mexico’s Pacific coast

Mexican authorities were busy preparing shelters and clearing people from beaches, while coastal residents stacked sandbags in front of their businesses in fear that they might get swept away.

Much of the fear from locals came from hurricanes in past years that devastated cities along the Pacific coast, namely Hurricane Otis in 2023 which unexpectedly plunged Acapulco into turmoil for weeks.

“People here are scared because we already went through this with Otis. So many people said it wouldn’t happen and then it did. After that, you’re left on edge,” said Acapulco bartender Gonzalo Ramírez.

Guerrero state was particularly at risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, the hurricane center said.

Polo was swirling about 195 miles (315 kilometers) west-southwest of Zihuatanejo early Thursday and was moving northwest at 9 mph (15 kph). A turn west-northwest was forecast for later in the day, taking it further out to sea, before turning northwest Saturday.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph), and was expected to remain a major hurricane for the next few days. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the eye and tropical-storm-force winds extended up to 125 miles (205 kilometers).

In recent days, there had been speculation about whether Polo would touch ground. On Thursday morning, projections from the U.S. National Hurricane Center show Polo could potentially arc back east as a weakened storm and hit Baja California on Tuesday.

The region most under threat from Polo is further south, along the coast of Michoacan and Guerrero, which is rural and mountainous, scattered with a few small tourist towns and ports. Much of the area is marked by poverty and residents routinely complain authorities abandon them to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

Mexico’s government has called for evacuations in some areas and set up shelters for those affected. Thousands of military and Red Cross personnel have been deployed to the region as a preventive measure.

Another hurricane could hit Hawaii as soon as Friday

The National Weather Service said Tropical Storm Nolo would likely strengthen before closing in on the Big Island on Friday or Saturday.

The storm has the potential to be a major hurricane, John Bravender, a weather service warning coordination meteorologist, said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

While high winds are expected, Bravender said the main concern is the possibility of flash flooding. He said 20 to 30 inches (50 to 76 centimeters) of rain could fall through Saturday on southeastern parts of the Big Island, the same region hit hard in August by Hurricane Lala.

“That by itself could cause catastrophic flooding, but when you put that on top of grounds that we’ve been raining off and on for the last couple of months … that rain could cause even more damage,” Bravender said.

He urged preparation across all Hawaii islands in case the storm’s trajectory shifts.

“You need to take action now,” Bravender said. “Today is really the last dry day you have to get ready.”

Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda told residents in a video message on social media that they should start preparing now for the storm. He urged people to put together an emergency kit with food, water and medications, trim vegetation and clear drains.

“This is a very serious situation,” he said. “We do believe that the rain is going to come. It's coming already.”

The governor issued an emergency proclamation Tuesday and more than 230 Hawaii National Guard members have been activated, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, adjutant general of the state’s Department of Defense.

Kauai’s electric cooperative urged residents to prepare for “the possibility of prolonged power outages,” and to store nonperishable food and potable water.

Over 100 Kauai households remain without power from Hurricane Lowell, which passed west of the island on Sept. 7.

Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews would return to at-risk areas in preparation for the coming storm.

Odalys and Fay are not near land

In the northern Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Fay re-formed early Thursday with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph), the U.S. hurricane center said. It was 990 miles (1,590 kilometers) west-southwest of the Azores, moving west-southwest at 6 mph (9 kph).

In the Pacific, Hurricane Odalys had winds of 90 mph (150 kph) and was centered about 1,110 miles (1,785 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

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Aoun reported from San Diego. Associated Press writer Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

The main combatants are Ethiopian federal troops and fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, an armed political group in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost regional state.

Ethiopia's military said Thursday that dozens of TPLF fighters had been killed in ongoing operations and that federal forces “have been able to detain many” others and seize a large quantity of weapons from them.

The TPLF and Ethiopian federal troops waged war between November 2020 and November 2022, when a peace deal was signed in Pretoria, South Africa.

Eritrean troops fought alongside Ethiopian forces against the TPLF in that conflict. The civilian death toll was estimated by Ghent University researchers to be 500,000, including from violence, famine and the collapse of health services.

After both sides signed the Pretoria peace deal, a caretaker administration seen as loyal to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was installed in Mekelle, the Tigray capital. But tensions remained, with the TPLF maneuvering for political control in Mekelle.

Rebel fighters forge a coalition

This time, the TPLF appears to have mobilized widely, bringing together former foes in its stated goal of removing Abiy from power in Addis Ababa, the federal capital.

On Sunday, the TPLF and six other opposition groups announced that they had formed an alliance to overthrow Abiy's governing Prosperity Party, which was reelected in June polls that were boycotted by major opposition groups.

Both sides had been accusing each other of bad faith, and for months some civilians in Tigray expected a return to armed hostilities. In May, the TPLF forced out regional leader Tadesse Werede, who reported to Abiy, and replaced him with a new council led by TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who led the Tigrayans in the previous conflict.

Ethiopian federal authorities accused the TPLF of seeking to build an alliance with neighboring Eritrea to destabilize Ethiopia. The TPLF accused Ethiopian authorities of conducting drone attacks in Tigray. Eritrea said that it was alarmed by Abiy’s repeated assertions of his wish for sovereign access to the Red Sea via Eritrea.

Both sides deny responsibility for launching this round of hostilities, and most of the fighting is believed to be in remote areas of often ragged, mountainous territory. On Wednesday, TPLF fighters seized the airport in Mekelle from federal police, and national carrier Ethiopian Airlines canceled flights there and elsewhere in the region.

Observers say pressure is building on Abiy

The Ethiopian News Agency, the official news organization of the Ethiopian government, described the TPLF as a “Trojan horse,” saying that the group’s “repeated attempts to incite conflict” defy the government’s “patience, concessions and magnanimity.”

The coalition formed by the TPLF and six other opposition groups said that it would be known as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival. In addition to the TPLF, the others include the Amhara Fano National Movement, the Oromo Liberation Army, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, the Benishangul Peoples’ Liberation Movement and the Gumuz Peoples’ Democratic Movement.

That alliance, which unites some groups previously opposed to each other, may put pressure on Abiy, according to Kjetil Tronvoll, an academic analyst of Ethiopia at Oslo New University College.

“The situation now differs substantially from the 2020-2022 war on Tigray,” he said in an analysis posted on X. “This time around Fano is an ally and Eritrea a backer. Supply lines are also secured through Eritrea.”

Regional blocs and the US call for an end to fighting

The African Union and a key regional bloc known as IGAD called for de-escalation of hostilities. U.S. Ambassador Ervin J. Massinga said in a statement that he felt disappointed by the TPLF’s “poor decision to launch a large-scale offensive.”

His statement said that the TPLF’s “unwinnable fight does nothing for the people. Other armed groups would be wise to avoid this.” A TPLF official, Amanuel Assefa, said the statement was unfair.

Abiy has been praised by many for his ambitious infrastructure projects that seek to turn Addis Ababa into a world-class city. To his supporters, the prime minister is a renaissance man trying to reimagine the old greatness of Ethiopia.

Abiy rose from relative obscurity to power in 2018 as a reform-minded pragmatist. Ties with Eritrea, which broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of brutal guerrilla warfare, had been cold since the 1990s, and Abiy’s efforts to repair relations with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki helped him win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

A year later, Abiy confounded expectations by launching a military operation against the TPLF.

Some of Abiy’s critics now see him as a provocateur whose actions could lead to hostilities in the Horn of Africa. His push for sovereign access to the Eritrean seaport of Assab has reignited tensions with Eritrea, which shares a border with Tigray. Abiy also angered Somalia by trying to negotiate access to the sea via the territory of Somaliland.

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Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and top White House aide, has spent most of her career working for Trump or conservative groups aligned with his agenda. That connection may prompt questions from some members of the Senate health committee, which is considering her nomination.

In her current role as a domestic policy adviser, Overton worked on several White House health initiatives, including the revamped food pyramid and an executive order aimed at reducing childhood vaccinations. Previously, she was an executive at the America First Policy Institute, authoring papers critical of abortion and transgender care. During Trump’s first term, she served as a White House fellow.

If confirmed by the Senate, Overton would inherit a raft of controversial projects, including a safety review of the nation’s principal abortion drug, a plan to break up combination vaccines and new rules that make it easier to sell flavored electronic cigarettes.

All three policies break from FDA’s longstanding positions, especially on the safety of childhood vaccines. Overton stood beside the Republican president and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in the Oval Office last month when they falsely suggested that the use of combination vaccines could be a contributor to autism.

Overton's views on abortion could be key

In opening remarks Thursday, committee chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy said Trump's order “is based on zero scientific evidence.” Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, said he would also ask Overton to unequivocally reject a remark from Trump that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is “quite lethal.”

“This committee needs to know whether you will be radically honest, whether you will use your authority to stand up for sound science and protect children’s health," Cassidy said.

But Cassidy and other Senate Republicans may find common ground with Overton on abortion. Cassidy and several colleagues have spent months urging the FDA to restrict access to mifepristone, the pill currently used in most abortions in the U.S.

The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 and has repeatedly affirmed its safety while broadening access, including allowing it to be sent through the mail. But Kennedy ordered a reevaluation of the drug’s safety last year, following calls from anti-abortion groups and lawmakers aligned with Trump.

FDA officials have said almost nothing about the review, except that it is ongoing.

While working at the America First Policy Institute, Overton blasted the FDA’s 2023 decision — under President Joe Biden, a Democrat — to allow mail delivery of mifepristone, referring to the practice as “chemical abortion on demand.” She was similarly critical of the Biden administration’s approach to transgender care for children, including providing access to puberty-blocking drugs and gender-affirming surgeries.

And she co-authored a 2024 article calling Minnesota a “sanctuary" for physicians who perform abortions and gender-affirming surgeries.

Overton’s abortion views could complicate her efforts to win over two moderate Republicans on the panel: Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Both have bucked their party on the issue, supporting federal access to abortion. Collins is currently locked in a tight reelection race in which abortion access is a central issue.

To become commissioner, Overton will need a majority of votes from the 21-member health committee, followed by a positive vote from the full Senate.

Headquartered in the suburbs outside Washington, the FDA oversees U.S. medical products plus billions of dollars in food, cosmetics, tobacco and vaping products.

Under the current administration, leading the agency has involved balancing Trump’s demands for slashing regulations — such as those for vaping products — alongside Kennedy’s interests in scrutinizing vaccines, drugs and food ingredients.

The previous FDA head faced numerous challenges before quitting

Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May. Makary's time at the agency was defined by scientific disputes, leadership changes and a string of media stories detailing low morale and internal dysfunction among staffers. The FDA has lost about 20% of its employees to layoffs, buyouts, retirements or resignations since Trump took office.

Overton studied under Makary at Johns Hopkins University, where she received a doctoral degree in clinical research after earning her medical degree at the University of New Mexico.

Like Makary, Overton has no experience running a large bureaucracy, a critical skill for steering the FDA's 16,000 staffers spread across numerous U.S. and international locations.

In financial disclosure forms, Overton reported no investments in healthcare or food companies. That’s a stark contrast to Makary and other recent FDA nominees who have had to divest investments or cut other financial ties with companies regulated by the FDA.

Overton reported $50,000 to $100,000 in student loans.

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The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and 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 Labor Department said Thursday that 197,000 people applied for unemployment checks last week, the fewest since mid-July and down from a revised 198,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, fell to 202,250 last week from 204,000.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a sign of where the job market is headed. So far this year, claims have mostly stayed below 220,000 — historically low.

The American job market has remained sturdy despite higher energy prices that have squeezed businesses and consumers since the fighting with Iran began Feb. 28.

Layoffs are low. Businesses, remembering the labor shortages that followed the end of pandemic lockdowns, are reluctant to let go of staff. They’re hiring — but modestly by the standards of recent years.

So far this year, employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — have been adding an average of 80,000 jobs a month, including a surprising 162,000 in August. That is an improvement on a dismal 2025 when monthly job creation averaged 9,700 as high interest rates and President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policies discouraged hiring.

The Labor Department will release the jobs report for September next week. It's expected to show that employers added 52,500 jobs and that the unemployment rate remained low at 4.1%, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.

Hiring remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, and the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns.

The news outlets asked in a court filing for an immediate hearing to address their continued ban from White House grounds. The filing said a Secret Service agent had confiscated the journalists' credentials.

The high-stakes jockeying is the latest in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes. It comes during a heavy news cycle with Chinese leader Xi Jinping visiting with Trump and world leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump first announced he was banning the outlets Friday, assailing what he called “fake news,” and only later arguing that their reporting was a risk to national security. The outlets argued in a joint lawsuit that the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.

In his late-night ruling, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access. He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.

“This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote.

Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — said the government must have clear standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass. He called the standard of objectionable reporting outlined in letters that the White House sent the outlets “so vague it hardly does the trick.”

The judge also made clear he did not buy the administration’s argument that the news outlets’ reporting endangered national security — and noted that Trump himself had not used that argument in the beginning, focusing solely on what he called negative coverage.

“Nothing in the record ... suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” he wrote.

The ruling came after Kelly heard arguments in an emergency hearing Wednesday. Temporary restraining orders are typically designed to preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court.

“This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law," Theodore Boutrous Jr., attorney for the outlets, said in an emailed statement. "We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”

But a few hours after the ruling, reporters from those outlets said they were not allowed to enter the White House.

The White House did not respond to emails from The Associated Press asking for comment on the order and whether it would let reporters back inside.

Attorneys debated access to the White House and any risk to national security

Boutrous argued in the hearing that there was an urgent need for renewed access, saying that the ban caused irreparable harm to the outlets at a time of momentous news events. “We’re at war. We have world leaders coming to Washington.”

Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik, in his argument, reiterated the administration’s point that the president has the right to choose who gets into the White House.

“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” Velchik said.

In arguing that Trump was not engaging in viewpoint discrimination — the government singling out specific media outlets for the content of what they say or publish — Velchik said the president had criticized other news organizations, but not banned them. He noted, for example, that Trump had called ABC “the worst."

He added: “The president should be able to take immediate action to protect national security."

In response, Boutrous said, “Suddenly it’s a national security case,” arguing that the president brought up that point only after the lawsuit was filed.

Trump “keeps proving our point,” Boutrous said, describing how the president has consistently used negative coverage of him as justification for the ban.

Kelly seemed to agree, writing of the national security claim: “Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting.”

The Trump administration outlined ‘reporting incidents’ of each news outlet

In a filing Tuesday, administration lawyers detailed letters sent to each of the three news outlets that identified “a non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents, including those that have threatened national security and spread falsehoods.”

Among the incidents cited were: CNN reporting on “‘top-secret’ construction details related to the East Wing bunker”; MS NOW reporting “on an alleged leak investigation”; and Politico publishing “a document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements.”

Politico’s letter also included an incident in June of a report in which a “senior administration official … granted anonymity” predicted whether a preliminary deal would end the conflict with Iran.

That item appeared to reference a background briefing set up by the White House, where an official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration itself. Several other outlets also reported the official’s remarks.

Major networks refrained from covering Trump for the media pool

The ban prompted other media outlets to take action in solidarity. The U.S. network press pool — consisting of the five major networks, including CNN — has suspended coverage of Trump pool events pending further notice.

The ruling did not address that rotating pool. After the hearing Wednesday, the networks continued to refuse to air footage of Trump without assurances that CNN would be permitted into the White House pool.

Journalists from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting video at Joint Base Andrews, where the president formally welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Other television outlets whose crews were present, according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.

Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, an amicus brief was filed by other news groups, including The AP, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets’ White House access.

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Golden reported from Seattle and Kellman from London.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao provided the information to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter dated Tuesday after the New York Democrat inquired last month about the strike group's crew of thousands. The Lincoln's extended deployment drew the nation's attention following reports of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products.

Gillibrand asked Cao specifically if there were any suicides.

“There have been no suicides on board during this deployment,” Cao wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and reported earlier by CNN. “Since the beginning of LINCOLN'S deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group — this number includes the LINCOLN crew and Sailors from the carrier wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons.”

President Donald Trump had downplayed reports about conditions on the Lincoln, which left its homeport in San Diego in November, arrived in the Middle East in January in support of Iran operations, and spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days.

The carrier and some of its supporting ships stopped in Thailand in early September on their way back home to California. The Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, said then that the ship will be heading home soon but may make further supply stops. He declined to comment on the exact date the strike group is expected back in the U.S.

Last month, Trump called the nearly nine months at sea that the sailors endured a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”

Trump told reporters in August that he spoke with a retired admiral who recounted being on ships for “much longer.” Trump said the admiral assured him that the Lincoln is “beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.” Trump did not name the admiral.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also had said that conditions about the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.”

Gillibrand took aim at both in a statement released this week in response to Cao's letter.

“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members," she stated.

“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” Gillibrand said. "That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable.”

Extended deployments of carriers wear on service members who are away from home for long periods and increase strain on the ship and its equipment. The Navy is continuing to enforce a blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

The two former heavyweight world champions are set to meet Dec. 11 in Cardiff, promoter Turki Alalshikh said Thursday.

“For 15 years no one has been able to make this fight,” Alalshikh posted on X. “I can now confirm that Fury Vs Joshua will be coming to the UK, as I promised British boxing fans. The time for talking is over...”

The fight is being staged at the Principality Stadium.

A clash between the British rivals has been one of the most anticipated fights for more than a decade.

“THE WAIT IS OVER. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally collide,” Joshua’s promoter Matchroom posted on X.

Fury stepped out of retirement this year and made his return to the ring for the first time in more than a year with victories against Arslanbek Makhmudov and Mariusz Wach.

Joshua’s only fights since losing his IBF world title fight against Daniel Dubois in 2024 were against YouTuber Jake Paul and Kristian Prenga.

Alalshikh is a Saudi Arabian adviser who organizes boxing events for the kingdom.

While Fury and Joshua are arguably past their peak, it is fight that is still likely to garner global attention and will be streamed live on Netflix in the early hours of the morning running into Dec. 12.

Approval will be needed to allow the fight to take place at that time.

“There are still some arrangements to be finalized with the organisers, including any required changes to Principality Stadium’s premises licence, but we are looking forward to welcoming fans to the city for what promises to be an unforgettable night of boxing,” Cardiff Council leader Chris Weaver said.

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

Ashley Pardo, 34, was originally arrested on charges of aiding in the commission of terrorism in May 2025, according to court records.

According to authorities, she allegedly bought the items “with knowledge” that they would be “used to plan and carry out” a crime.

Now, court records show her charge was dropped due to “insufficient evidence.”

Although she’s no longer accused in that incident, Pardo still faces a separate, unrelated charge of abandoning or endangering a child with criminal negligence, according to records.

Pardo, who was arrested in August 2025, allegedly pointed a shotgun at the head of an infant, who at the time was estimated to be 11 months old, according to an affidavit.

The warrant said Pardo allegedly took a photo of the gesture and sent it to the infant’s biological father, telling him that the infant was being a “brat.”

According to records, Pardo has not been indicted for the incident.

KSAT has reached out to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office for more clarification on why Pardo’s charge was dismissed.

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People living in the area may be happy to know that the site may soon be trash- and debris-free.

The property, located near 7715 Elm Cove Drive outside Converse, backs up to a neighborhood.

Volunteers with River Aid San Antonio said the site was filled with years’ worth of debris, including mattresses, a couch, a barbecue pit and other large items.

“For all of us, this was kind of a shock,” said Vic Gomez, operations manager for River Aid San Antonio. “When we first came here, we were walking through a lasagna layer of garbage that had accumulated over several years.”

The property is in Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert’s precinct.

Libby Day, Calvert’s chief of staff, said residents had complained about the dumping hotspot for years, but the county struggled because officials couldn’t contact the property owner.

“This was formerly an encampment for folks who were suffering from homelessness,” Day said. “And one of the challenges with this site was the county was unable to get in contact with the property owner.”

Day said that issue has since been resolved.

With the property owner’s consent, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office can now address illegal trespassing and dumping at the site.

She said the county also worked with Haven for Hope to connect people who had been staying there with services and resources before enforcement began.

“We did a lot of outreach with Haven for Hope, made sure folks got connected with services and resources,” Day said. “If they wanted to go to Haven, there were beds for them, and once that outreach took place, then enforcement started.”

The county initially received a quote of $100,000 in taxpayer money to clean up the property.

Day said that would have been more than half of the county’s total abatement budget.

That’s where River Aid San Antonio stepped in to help.

During four cleanup events, about 170 volunteers removed 43,000 pounds of trash from the property.

“We’ve had a good handful of the neighbors come out to help us clean, and I think they’re very excited to help us make that difference,” Gomez said.

River Aid San Antonio has one final cleanup planned from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 7. Volunteers can meet the team at 7715 Elm Cove Drive.

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Delegates from Texas and other states are asking for two main forms of help: an Individual Assistance designation for the 2026 flood through FEMA and federal funding for the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program, known as CDBG-DR.

Individual Assistance can help pay for housing, unemployment assistance, case management and legal services after a disaster. CDBG-DR is designed to support long-term community recovery, but survivors and advocates say the program currently does not have the funding needed to help affected residents return to stable housing.

Kerrville resident Claudia Limon traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers and advocate for families still struggling after the July flood.

Limon said some residents remain displaced, while others are living in damaged homes with mold because they have nowhere else to go.

“I told her, this is dangerous,” Limon said, describing one family’s living conditions. “But she said, I don’t have nowhere to go. So I want the help that they need. That’s why I’m here, so I can advocate for all these families that they don’t have a home to go to.”

Ashlee Willis, a flood survivor from Travis County and a member of the Sandy Creek Alliance, said many people are still trying to rebuild their lives without the long-term support they need.

“We have a ton of people just hanging out there right now, trying to survive on the daily basis, rebuilding their lives,” Willis said. “And there are systems in place to help that. And we’re here to get that system allocated.”

The group, made up of about 30 delegates from several states, is also calling on U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and others to support federal action.

In Kerrville, the financial toll remains severe for local businesses.

The Kerrville Chamber of Commerce said businesses received $2.3 million in community donations after the 2025 flood. After the 2026 flood, that number dropped to $268,000.

Several businesses have closed because they could not afford to rebuild.

Grassroots organizers say they hope pressure from residents, advocates and elected officials will help unlock federal funding for disaster victims now and in the future.

They are encouraging community members to contact their senators and urge support for disaster recovery assistance.

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Hamas said it was ready to move forward with the next stages of a Gaza peace agreement, while a top European Union official said only a small amount of the funds needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip has been collected.

Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.

Netanyahu begins a whirlwind visit to address the UN

The Israeli prime minister's brief stay in New York for the U.N. General Assembly includes meetings with several world leaders — but not Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Arab leaders.

Netanyahu's office said he was on a “tight schedule” and needed to return to Israel before the start of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot at sundown Friday.

He will meet with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, and Ethiopia, the vice president of Colombia, and the prime ministers of Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea, according to his office.

Hamas says it's ready to advance the Gaza peace agreement

A Hamas spokesman said the group is ready to move forward with the next steps of a peace agreement, after Trump’s Board of Peace unveiled a six-month, $2.45-billion plan for Gaza's reconstruction.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem expressed the Palestinian militant group’s “full readiness to implement the Board of Peace’s roadmap” but made no mention of any disarmament plans.

Israel has said it will not allow reconstruction to move forward until Hamas disarms.

Hamas last year agreed to a plan that includes disarmament but has since traded accusations with Israel of ceasefire violations and has accused Israel of violating the agreement by continuing to occupy much of Gaza.

Hamas has publicly backed handing over power to Palestinian administrators operating under the Board of Peace. Board officials have blamed Hamas' failure to disarm and a lack of Israeli withdrawal as reasons for stalling progress in advancing reconstruction in Gaza.

The EU says only a fraction of needed Gaza funds have been collected

A top EU official says only 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) has been raised out of the 71 billion euros ($80.8 billion) that the United Nations, the World Bank and the 27-nation European Union estimate are needed to rebuild Gaza.

“We have to scale up our efforts,” said European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica.

She called for a unified recovery plan that would bring together Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

The UN urges access to humanitarian aid for civilians in Yemen

The U.N. pleaded for all parties in Yemen to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered rapidly as fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces intensifies an already dire humanitarian situation.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said people fleeing violence need protection and access to food, shelter and healthcare. Ground fighting, artillery and aerial strikes have killed and wounded at least 125 civilians since the beginning of August.

Türk also called for the release of 73 U.N. staffers “arbitrarily detained” by the Houthis in the past few years.

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted 6 missiles fired by Houthis

Six ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia ’s Red Sea port of Yanbu and the southwestern city of Taif have been intercepted, a Saudi military spokesperson said, blaming Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Houthis, who in recent days have been blamed for attempted attacks on the kingdom, including on Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the latest claim by Saudi Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, who is also the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis. His statement followed alerts by Saudi civil defense authorities, who later noted the danger had passed.

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 1 person

Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital said a man was killed when a car was hit on Thursday in Deir al Balah. There were also injuries in strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, the hospital said.

The Israeli military said it struck operatives in both places and would provide more information later.

Earthquake shakes parts of Turkey and Syria

A moderate earthquake shook southeast Turkey and parts of Syria on Thursday, sending people rushing out of buildings in panic. There were no immediate reports of any damage.

The magnitude 5.4 quake was centered in Sanliurfa province, near the border with Syria, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency.

In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces, including Sanliurfa. Another 6,000 people were killed in Syria.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

The former ambassador, mayor of Chicago and White House chief of staff talks about the future of his party and his political career.

It has been a week since an elementary school student brought a gun to Somerset Elementary School, and there are still questions as to how that student was able to get that gun on campus in the first place.

Questions circulating online include, “Would clear backpacks help? Are metal detectors going to be implemented? Will school searches be conducted?”

Somerset ISD director of communications Natalie Martinez said she cannot comment on this active investigation, but did stress they are evaluating all possible measures to better prevent this kind of incident from happening.

KSAT’s Japhanie Gray asked specifically what that meant and was told the district is coordinating with police to look at their security audio for any possible recommendations to the board.

Gray also reached out to the Somerset Police Department, which did play a small role in the beginning of this investigation.

Speaking generally, interim police Chief Arnold Delgado said the best resource of information in this kind of situation is the students using their voices.

“That peer-to-peer communication is important,” he said. “It is important to have that communication because sometimes, they encourage each other to speak up if they do see something without being afraid of being called a snitch or anything. It is sad that these students are having to worry about violence on campus like this. But keeping that communication open for everyone would help get rid of a threat quickly. They are sometimes the best resource of information.”

This particular case is still under investigation, but district officials are hoping it emphasizes the importance of speaking up.

They said they have fostered an environment for their students that makes it comfortable for them to report threats to adults through their Sandy Hook Promise safety initiative.

It’s a national movement aimed at protecting children against gun violence, created after the devastating mass shooting in Connecticut where 20 small children and six staff members were killed.

Martinez said the district adopted the Sandy Hook Promise two years ago to educate and empower the youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes and communities.

The district said it is proud of the safe spaces it has created for students, noting that officials were able to remove the threat and the student with the weapon from campus quickly thanks to the bravery of another elementary student.

Because of the volume of tips the district has received, the Sandy Hook Promise has not only created a culture where Somerset ISD students watch out for one another and report concerns to adults, it also encourages courageous reporting, even anonymously.

If you have a threat or concern to report, visit the district’s website. On the homepage, click on the Say Something Tip Line.

Martinez said those tips can be submitted at any time of the day. Once they are submitted, they will be sent immediately to officials who can respond in a crisis.

You can learn more about the Sandy Hook Promise by clicking on this link.

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The women are among the thousands of federal workers and contract employees in the Washington region whose lives were upended when the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency overhauled the federal workforce last year, cutting jobs and grants.

A new survey released Thursday by Gallup and the Greater Washington Community Foundation shows the far-reaching impact on the nation's capital.

Despite living in one of the most affluent parts of the country, many in the greater D.C. area — which includes parts of Maryland and Virginia and is referred to as the DMV — now see a bleak local job market and rising costs. Some are even considering leaving the region.

“It wasn’t just about our jobs being gone. It was really this awful ripple effect of all these lives and destinies really disrupted," Nataro said.

The District of Columbia, which official figures show accounted for a fifth of the roughly 100,000 job losses in the region and is host to an ongoing deployment of the National Guard, has been particularly impacted. According to the survey, about two-thirds of D.C. residents said their household had been directly affected by the job cuts, one of the highest percentages in the region.

Federal job cuts impacted higher-income households

More affluent households were hit especially hard by the cuts, the survey found. A majority — 58% — of those in households with an annual income of $90,000 or more said they were impacted by the reductions, compared to 48% of lower-income households.

Trumbull earned over $130,000 annually at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After DOGE came for her job, she took a deferred resignation in the second-round offering, under threat of a forthcoming USDA reorganization that wasn’t really a decent option. She only secured new, part-time employment a year later.

During that time, she had to take a forbearance on her mortgage. She applied for public assistance. She and her husband took home just $2,000 a month, she said, while amassing debt from their home ownership.

When jobs didn’t come through, she did some contract work and taught to “cobble together enough money to make sure my kids were supplied — cause you don’t get to stop buying diapers.”

“I don’t see a future where I can go back to not worrying about moving money around constantly” to cover bills, she said.

Even though lower-income residents were less likely to report any impacts, the survey suggests that hardship was still acute among this group. About 1 in 10, 14%, DMV residents say that they or someone in their household accessed social services like food banks or job placement support for the first time in the past year, which rose to about one-quarter of those in households earning less than $90,000 per year.

Many residents worry about housing payments and healthcare

About one-third of DMV residents say they are “very” or “somewhat” worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, down from about half in 2023 following the economic troubles of the COVID pandemic. Renters, Black and Hispanic adults, and lower-income residents are particularly worried about housing payments.

Nataro, 42, and a single mom of two young children, asked her landlord for a rent reduction after she lost her job at USAID, one of DOGE's first targets. She signed up for food stamps and unemployment assistance. She found work in academia quickly but took a substantial pay cut.

“It’s very humbling, because you know before that you’re paying all your bills and struggling but you’ve got enough to cover everything,” she said. Now, she has had to ask for help.

Roughly 2 in 10 DMV residents say there were times in the past year when they couldn't pay for healthcare, according to the survey. Nataro said she has had to make tough choices on her personal healthcare needs to cut costs.

Danielle Yates, the managing director of marketing and communications at the Greater Washington Community Foundation, said the survey found that a significant number of people in the region had trouble taking care of their basic needs.

About 1 in 10 DMV residents say they couldn't provide adequate shelter or housing for their family the past year, according to the survey, and roughly 2 in 10 say there were times when they couldn't pay for food.

A Capital Area Food Bank survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago last year also found broad food insecurity. “Thirty-eight percent of our area’s residents said that they needed some support in putting food on their tables so that they could lead an active and healthy lifestyle,” said Radha Muthiah, executive director of the CAFB.

Views of the local job market have dimmed

Residents' perceptions of the local job market are much less optimistic than just a few years ago. Only about half of DMV residents rate the availability of good jobs where they live as “excellent” or “good," down from 65% in 2023.

Those who have found work say they've been left with the scars of DOGE's ruthlessness.

A job Nataro loved and felt made a difference in the world was taken away, leaving her “traumatized.”

"I haven’t taken any real personal effects to the office. We haven’t really unboxed things.”

Some consider leaving the region

Rising costs and housing also influence how DMV residents think about the region, in addition to the job cuts.

About one-third of DMV residents expect that living conditions in the Washington area will be “worse” in the next five years, while about half think they will be “about the same.” Only about 2 in 10 expect things will get better.

About 1 in 10 D.C. residents, 14%, say they are considering leaving the DMV region in the next year, with most who are thinking about departing pointing to rising costs and housing expenses.

Barbera and her husband both worked at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a place where the staff was fired twice because of court decisions. A year and a half after they were fired in March 2025, the couple are considering leaving the area because of rising costs, especially childcare for their three children. Although both have full-time jobs doing consulting work, they are earning half of what they did, said Barbera.

The two had worked a collective 30 years for the peace-focused organization when they were let go. She said she feels lucky because they have family support and jobs but are being forced into considering a different future.

“This is the only place they’ve lived,” Barbera said of her children. “We don’t want to leave. But we have to have the conversation.”

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The VoicesDMV analysis is based on a mail survey of U.S. adults aged 18 and older living in the Greater Washington Region using random address-based sampling. The survey of 2,801 residents was conducted Feb. 9 to April 6, 2026. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

The airstrikes struck the southern and eastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Paktia and Khost, killing four civilians, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

“These shameless acts of aggression and attacks by the Pakistani military regime will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the strikes after officials said Afghanistan’s Taliban forces had fired eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants.

Tarar also posted on X aerial footage that appeared to show several strikes hitting sprawling compounds in Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Khost provinces. He said the air and drone strikes destroyed militant hideouts and support infrastructure, including drone launch and storage sites, across 10 locations in Taliban-controlled areas. He said the sites were linked to attacks on civilians in Pakistan and the drone incursions on Wednesday.

Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, rejected Pakistan's claims of drone attacks and warned of “consequences” for Pakistan over its airstrikes.

On Monday, Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad said were militant hideouts.

The escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing militants to operate from its territory and carry out attacks across the border, an accusation Kabul denies.

“Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” Tarar said.

“The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistani officials also claimed Wednesday that security forces had neutralized eight rudimentary drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could enter the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham, and that Afghan forces fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts. Pakistani forces responded with artillery fire targeting Taliban border posts, mortar sites and defensive positions, they said.

The four officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media about the latest flare-up.

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said 28 militants were killed in Monday's airstrikes, while Afghan authorities said at least three civilians died and four others were wounded. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan confirmed the civilian casualties and Kabul formally protested the attack.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern about what he said was the presence of more than two dozen anti-Pakistani militant groups in Afghanistan.

Monday’s airstrikes followed a shootout with militants in Hangu, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, that killed six Pakistani security personnel. Days earlier, a suicide bomber struck a mosque inside a police compound in the nearby city of Kohat.

Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, triggering a 20-hour gunbattle that killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. No group had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups. The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks on Pakistani security forces, boosted by the Afghan Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. AP writer Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

“I wish to state this very clearly before this General Assembly: Elections will be held in Venezuela,” Delcy Rodriguez said, adding that her government has started a “political dialogue with opposition sectors” to secure a “process based on equal conditions for all.”

Rodríguez said the Venezuelan people will determine the best time to get elections moving and assured the United Nations that, when the time comes, the country’s institutions “will be prepared to guarantee an inclusive and transparent process.”

Rodríguez took over in Venezuela after a surprise U.S. military raid in January that captured then-leader Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

This is the first trip to the United States by a Venezuelan head of state since 2018, when Maduro traveled to New York to participate in the U.N. General Assembly himself. He is currently being held only a few miles from the organization’s headquarters as he awaits trial.

She says Venezuela is coming back

Rodríguez’s participation in the international forum also marks a milestone in Venezuela’s reintegration into global diplomacy. Addressing global leaders, she said that “the last time that two presidents of Venezuela and the United States met was in 2009.”

She added that her country is coming back strong after “setbacks” suffered this year and thanked President Donald Trump for being willing to resume relations after the U.S. military spirited her predecessor out of the country.

The other setback to which she referred: On June 24, two powerful earthquakes, magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck north-central Venezuela and killed more than 6,500 people, leaving an untold number of missing and causing widespread devastation.

“I come to talk about a Venezuela whose national life has been affected by a crisis of political coexistence that disrupted the life of the nation and our interaction with the world," Rodriguez she said. “Interests alien to the common good of Venezuelans were imposed.”

Rodriguez faced a delicate balance in her speech, which needed to be addressed to both her people and the U.S. government that holds her predecessor. She thanked Trump for his willingness to resume the course of diplomatic relations and cooperation with Venezuela.

“We are working earnestly to resolve existing differences through dialogue, but above all to pave the way for cooperation in the energy sector, the promotion of security, the joint fight against transnational crime, and economic cooperation for the benefit of both peoples and our continent," she said. “Today, Venezuela is being reborn.”

Since rising to power, Rodríguez has forged a close working relationship with Trump. U.S. influence in Venezuela has grown following the lifting of sanctions against Rodríguez in April, one of several recent moves by Washington to recognize her as a legitimate authority ever since the U.S. military captured her predecessor.

Addressing some words to her people, Rodríguez said that she could not promise an “easy path,” noting that “the country’s recovery will take time.”

“Rebuilding the national soul will be our priority," she said. “We will walk united as a single nation that, after the pain, chose hope.”

Trump and Rodríguez met on the sideline of the UN

Before her speech at the U.N. Wednesday night, Trump and Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s vice president, met at a pull-aside meeting late Tuesday during a reception the U.S. president hosted at a New York hotel.

It was the first time the two had met in person since the operation that captured the nation’s former leader and effectively put Rodríguez in charge.

“We discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security, and other matters of mutual interest,” Rodríguez said on X after the encounter.

The meeting came after the two countries announced an agreement last month to give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. She described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil industry.

Rodríguez vowed to shoulder the “historic responsibility” of leading Venezuela “from a period of uncertainty and conflict toward a stage of full democracy, recognized by its own people and by the world.”

“Venezuela wants to breathe freely and exercise its rights as a sovereign nation without any kind of interference,” she said.

As in years past, African leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly this year are demanding a reform of the powerful Security Council that would include permanent seats for countries from the continent in the global body's highest decision-making structure.

Many African heads of state who addressed the meeting since it began on Tuesday have decried the continent’s lack of permanent representation in the Security Council as it navigates global security issues that directly and indirectly affect their populations and governments.

These include the war between Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and, more recently, the U.S. war with Iran — issues that all loom large at this year's General Assembly.

The 15-member Security Council has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China — that hold veto power. Other nations, which do not, are elected by the General Assembly rotate in and out every two years on a staggered basis. Africa holds three of those nonpermanent seats.

The representation question is becoming more urgent

While the calls for Africa to be represented permanently on the Security Council have often been debated by the General Assembly, many said the global conflicts currently faced by the organization made it more urgent for the body to be more inclusive.

According to most African leaders, the unfair representation in the Security Council has created doubt about the credibility of the organization and its oft-trumpeted commitment to multilateralism and equality among nations.

“Every nation is sovereign and equal under the (U.N.) charter. Yet, on the gravest question of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not. The equality proclaimed in this assembly ends at the doors of the security council,” Kenyan President William Ruto told delegates on Wednesday.

They have also highlighted the large African population and the high number of African countries that are member states of the United Nations.

“How can a world led with a right conscience justify the denial of 1.6 billion Africans, the right to equal representation?” asked Ethiopia’s president, Taye Atske Selassie.

In 2024, the United States said it would support the addition of two new permanent seats for African countries on the council. That, however, was under the administration of former President Joe Biden.

Artificial intelligence is a key example

As the world's leaders grapple with the future of artificial intelligence at the meeting, many in Africa also insisted that the decision-making about its rapid growth and development should include the developing nations as they were likely to feel its impact reverberate across the continent.

This came a day after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged global competitors in artificial intelligence to cooperate in addressing threats from the technology. And on the same day, the Security Council held a special meeting about AI that featured the industry's leaders calling for help in managing the technology.

On Wednesday, Botswana President Duma Boko was among the leaders calling for African nations to be included in the discussions. He said this extended to critical minerals, rare earths, and energy resources that power the technological developments. Many of those come from developing countries.

“Therefore, developing countries must have a meaningful voice in setting the standards and safeguards that will govern these technologies, ensuring that they expand opportunities, support decent work, and strengthen public services, while protecting human dignity, rights, and security,” Boko told delegates.

Most leaders are sticking the initial demands contained in the African Union's position on the issue adopted in 2005, which includes a demand for at least two permanent seats on the Security Council.

Said Namibia President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah: “The time has come for us to recognize that we have been negotiating for too long."

A strike on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed six agricultural workers and wounded 12 others, Interior Minister Ihor Vyhivskyi said. An attack on the capital Kyiv killed a man and a woman, he said, while officials in the southern port of Odesa also reported a major bombardment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed in a speech at the United Nations late Wednesday for countries to starve Russia of revenue through sanctions and trade bans, denying Moscow the money it needs to prolong the war. He and other leaders at previous U.N. general assemblies have sought to pressure Moscow into giving up its ambitions in Ukraine.

But despite years of diplomatic efforts there is no sign of a breakthrough in ending a war that has had repercussions for the global food and energy supply, as well as severely straining relations between Russia and Western countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Moscow’s demand for a comprehensive peace deal, not a temporary break in hostilities, following Ukraine’s call for a complete and unconditional ceasefire.

“We believe it’s necessary to seek peace, not a temporary truce,” Peskov told reporters Thursday. Russia's demands for Ukraine to surrender its territory, among other things, are unacceptable for Kyiv.

The aerial war has intensified in recent months. Russia keeps hammering Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones, while Ukraine’s long-range drones target oil refineries and businesses that are a vital part of the Russian economy.

There have been few significant changes since last year along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, where a huge number of drones on both sides limit movement.

Russian strikes are an ordeal for Ukrainian civilians

The attack on Kyiv damaged more than 50 civilian sites, including apartment blocks, post offices, a maternity hospital and a textile plant, Vyhivskyi, the interior minister, said.

Russia has repeatedly hit Ukrainian trains, shopping malls, supermarkets and gas stations, among other sites, keeping civilians on edge.

Valentyna Kolosenko, a 49-year-old Kyiv resident, said a solid oak door she was standing behind saved her when three blasts occurred around her home. She said she would endure the hardship, even though she was scared.

“Everything is paralyzed. Nothing works,” she told The Associated Press. “Getting to work is incredibly difficult and frightening.”

Liubov Paziuk, a 74-year-old pensioner in the capital whose house windows were shattered, said she remained determined to resist the Russian onslaught. “We don’t get used to it, we adapt, because we have only one choice: to stay here, on our land, despite everything,” she said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the military overnight struck arms factories, telecommunications and logistical facilities in Kyiv and the Odesa region.

The United Nations said last week that more Ukrainian civilians were killed and wounded in the first eight months of 2026 than in the whole of last year. Russian attacks in August killed at least 368 civilians and wounded 2,314 others, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

“Russia’s escalation of terror demonstrates that active diplomacy must come hand in hand with devastating pressure on Putin’s regime and unwavering support for the defense of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

As another Ukrainian subzero winter approaches, Zelenskyy said things are likely to get worse. But he promised to keep fighting.

“Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us. But in response, we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia, too,” the Ukrainian leader said on social media. “And that’s exactly why we say that de-escalation steps are important are needed before winter.”

Ukrainian drones strike in western Russia

Officials in western Russia on Thursday reported Ukrainian long-range attacks but provided few details.

Ukrainian drone fragments damaged an administrative building of an oil refinery in the Rostov region but there was no fire, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said.

In the Krasnodar region, Ukrainian drone fragments sparked a brief fire on the premises of an industrial facility, regional emergency officials said.

Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Drones fly into Romania and Moldova

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that a drone violated its airspace for four minutes before crashing near a town in the north of the country, near the border with Ukraine.

The ministry had earlier scrambled two Romanian F-16s and two Spanish F-18s to monitor its airspace in two separate locations after a spate of drones were detected in Ukraine near the border.

Authorities did not specify who the drone belonged to.

Also, Moldova’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that it recorded a spate of airspace incursions during Russia’s attacks on neighboring Ukraine. The incidents prompted authorities to close part of Moldova’s northern airspace, the ministry said.

___

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press journalists Volodymr Yurchuk and Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed to this report.

___

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

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar visited a federal detention center in south Texas where Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken into custody after being shot Sunday in Austin by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Casar said Garces Perez was in a wheelchair and still in pain, but did not say whether the family had decided that he should undergo surgery. The Department of Homeland Security has said Garces Perez, who has been taken to a hospital twice since the shooting, is receiving around-the-clock medical care and pain medication.

“If they want to say it’s great medical care, they should start providing great medical care today by having him leave the detention center, go to a hospital or to a doctor, and do not delay his surgery if that’s what his family chooses to do,” Casar said.

Garces Perez remains in Texas detention center

Casar, whose district includes Austin, was the first member of Congress to visit Garces Perez in person since the shooting. He said the wound in Garces Perez’s back remains bloody and medical staff change his gauze two or three times daily.

Following Casar’s visit and a press conference, DHS issued a previous statement denying claims that Garces Perez was forced to sleep on a floor or that he was prevented from having the bullet removed, saying ICE would not advise on a medical procedure for a detainee.

Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.

ICE and DHS haven’t said what led to the shooting beyond that Garces Perez was “the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.”

ICE has not said if the agent who fired was wearing a body camera. At the beginning of September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he expected all field agents to have them by the end of the month.

Austin police released body camera footage from its officers who arrived just after the shooting. Garces Perez is seen hunched over in the front seat of his car and grabbing his shoulder and rocking back and forth. An officer later cut off Garces Perez’s shirt, and a wound can be seen in his upper back.

Garces Perez entered the U.S. in 2024 using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that allowed migrants to make appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.

Garces Perez was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch. She said a judge issued a deportation order after Garces Perez missed an immigration court hearing because the notice was sent to a former address.

ICE crackdown in Austin sees more than 1,000 arrests

Garces Perez’s shooting came at the end of a summer in which ICE notably ramped up enforcement operations in Austin and surrounding suburbs and increasingly targeted immigrants without criminal records in public places.

In all, ICE made more than 1,000 arrests in Austin, Pflugerville and other nearby cities during June and July, more than an 80% increase from a year earlier, which had been the previous peak, according to ICE data provided to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles, and analyzed by The Associated Press.

Unlike some other places, the increases in Austin were not driven by partnerships with local law enforcement agencies or by picking up jail inmates. Instead, the data shows that ICE officers made the vast majority of arrests in the community through traffic stops and other enforcement methods.

Nearly 2 out of 3 people who were arrested in the Austin area had no criminal convictions and no pending criminal charges, the data shows.

___

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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

Many gorilla families are used to people, but while their population grows, the forest available to them does not.

Communities have planted trees for medicine, firewood and crafts along the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in a bid to reduce pressure on gorilla habitats.

The idea is simple: If residents can find the trees they need outside the park, they will have less reason to cut them inside the forest.

Bwindi’s forest is home to about 450 mountain gorillas, close to half the world’s remaining population. A 2018 survey put the global population above 1,000, a significant recovery for a subspecies that once faced possible extinction.

“Being a neighbor to the park, I understand that the number of gorillas is increasing, but the forest habitat is not increasing,” said Christina Katushabe, founder of Change a Life Bwindi.

Her organization supplies useful trees, restores degraded land while improving biodiversity. Katushabe said members of the Batwa, an Indigenous community that has helped guide the project, select species used for medicine, timber and firewood.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority distributes seedlings, including medicinal trees that people might otherwise seek inside the park.

Joseph Muhindo, an assistant tourism and hospitality officer with the authority, said residents can harvest what they need in their communities “without tampering with the habitat for the gorillas.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies mountain gorillas as endangered, an improvement from their earlier designation as critically endangered.

Tourism has helped support that recovery. Visitors trek through the forest to observe habituated gorilla families, generating jobs and revenue for nearby communities. Residents also sell locally made crafts.

Eunice Owembabazi, a member of a women’s crafts group, said the tree planting near the park means "we people and the gorillas do not inconvenience each other.”

The campaign has reached nearby schools, where students plant trees their families will be able to use.

“Now we are going to protect the forest, so that our gorillas can stay well,” said Davis Musinguzi, a student at Ruhijja Seed Secondary School.

The tree planting was among community conservation activities organized to mark World Gorilla Day, observed each year on Sept. 24.

Officers responded just before 4 a.m. for a crash involving a motorcycle on Wurzbach Road and Live Oak Road, near Interstate 10.

When police arrived, they learned a male in his 30s was traveling westbound on a motorcycle when he crashed into a vehicle that was turning into an apartment complex.

The motorcyclist was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to police.

At this time, it’s unclear what caused the crash or if anyone else was injured.

This is a developing story. KSAT will update the article when more information is available.

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Neria Leiter, a reservist in Israel's military, “needs a miracle," Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said in a social media post. The ambassador's older son, Moshe Yedidya Leiter, who also served in Israel's military, was killed in Gaza about a month after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

According to the military and law enforcement, a Palestinian man rammed his car into a security checkpoint Wednesday afternoon near the settlement of Beit Horon, seriously wounding the soldier. Israeli forces at the scene then opened fire at the man as he attempted to flee and killed him.

More military forces were deployed in the aftermath in the area, which is crossed by a major highway connecting Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

The suspect was identified as Mahmoud Suleiman, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog both sent wishes for Leiter's recovery. A social media post by Herzog described Leiter as “fighting for his life."

Netanyahu visited Leiter's family at the hospital Wednesday night before departing for the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The Iran war, which Israel launched together with the United States on Feb. 28, is a major focus of the gathering of world leaders.

Earlier this week, an Israeli man was killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank, which has experienced a surge in deadly violence since the war in Gaza began. Recent months have seen marked increases in attacks by settlers on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns, Israeli military operations, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The latest violence happened in the middle of the Jewish High Holy Days, just after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is widely considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

In mid-April, Ambassador Leiter was a central figure in the first direct diplomatic talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon in Washington. In late June, Leiter, Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.S., and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon that was described as a first step toward peace following months of renewed conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The affluent city of Scottsdale mainly uses purified water from the city's liquid waste to recharge aquifers that can be drawn when other sources are running low. But in June, as criticism mounted, the city council replaced funding for the recycling program and other water projects with a vague $100 million allocation for new water sources and supplies.

The recycling program has become a strange wedge in a three-way race for two seats on the council in the November election. One candidate supports adding purified wastewater to the drinking supply. Meanwhile, a former Republican state lawmaker and a conservative incumbent say they're skeptical and questioned the safety and cost of meeting new state regulations.

The city says the candidates’ claims of “toilet to tap” or untested “poop water” marginalize the science behind the treatment program. Less than 1% of the city’s liquid waste comes from toilets, water officials said.

The budget change killed a plan to add purified wastewater that exceeds federal drinking water standards directly to Scottsdale’s supply by 2027.

Some experts and residents said the budget change — along with a council majority that frowns upon wastewater reuse — could weaken resilience at a time when the West is mired in drought and cities are facing significant cuts from the Colorado River.

Looming shortages push cities to adapt

Scottsdale pioneered the wastewater recycling system in 1998. The city’s recycling facility is big enough to serve 60,000 households.

That expertise is vital for water officials elsewhere in Arizona who are looking to replicate the work in at least four other facilities.

“It’s so important to protect and reuse water in the Southwest,” said Bryan Cassens, an assistant senior director for Scottsdale Water, which runs the recycling program. “Here we already know it all. We’ve been doing it for 28 years.”

The city of 250,000 gets 70% of its water from the Colorado River, more than any other city with the same population or larger in Arizona and California.

Scottsdale Water employees said that reliance and decades of population growth pushed them to recycle to defend against drought. All wastewater is treated through intensive steps — like ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet photolysis, officials said.

Some was sold to breweries to make beer. Around 7,500 people tried the water after facility tours and other events, but no residents received it through their taps at home.

With the program expansion stalled, officials with Scottsdale Water said they'll be prepared to present options to the council in October.

Water reuse faces uncertainties

Former state lawmaker Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who is running for the city council, has been the most vocal opponent of the advanced water purification program.

She and actor Rob Schneider held up a glass of clear water and a glass of brown liquid in a May campaign ad that accused her opponents of pushing Scottsdale residents to drink sewage water, which her opponents denied.

A month later, the council approved the $100 million budget change.

Incumbent Councilman Barry Graham said the program is costly and an “alarmist” overreaction to drought.

Water officials in Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tucson also said some new state requirements on mixing purified water into the drinking water supply — like tracking chemicals and contaminants that are not federally regulated — unnecessarily raise costs.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is making the new rules easier to follow but won’t be finished until early 2027, said Randall Matas, who leads the department’s Water Quality Division.

Despite the debates, Cassens said the facility is operating as normal.

Ugenti-Rita did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. Graham said advanced water purification would be a last resort in a water crisis, not now.

“I can’t just assume that every visitor and resident is going to trust the experts and is even going to listen to the experts,” Graham said.

Half of Arizona voters worry about water

The criticism in Scottsdale comes as two key barometers of the Colorado River's health — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — hit record lows this summer.

A federal proposal for the Colorado River outlines combined water cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada that could serve more than 25 million people annually through 2036.

“It’s not really a good time to start being selective,” said Cynthia Campbell, a former water resource management adviser for Phoenix. “Are you really going to play political games with the one thing that makes it possible to live in the desert?”

Since last year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has committed to investing more than $300 million in advanced water purification projects in the arid West.

In Arizona, just over half of voters in the 2022 midterm election said they were “very” or “somewhat” confident that the state would have enough water over the next 10 years, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed more than 3,000 Arizona voters. The other half, 47%, said they were “not too” or “not at all” confident.

Communities shouldn't abandon long-term investments in public health and sustainability for short-term gain, said Ben Grumbles, the executive director of Environmental Council of the States, a nonpartisan group of state and local environmental agency leaders.

“It can be frustrating when there are politicians scoring a cheap, fast point,” Grumbles said. “I hope that over time, the facts will bear out.”

___

Associated Press journalist Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington, D.C., contributed.

"Our anniversary is really founded through this theme of ‘Welcome Home. Our Legacy Continues,'" said Shanita Brackett, the museum's acting director. "It means we are planning our next 10, frankly 20 years of exhibitions right now.”

Beginning with a full museum activation on Thursday, the celebrations extend through the rest of the weekend, both at the museum's National Mall home and The Wharf, located along the historic Washington Channel of the Potomac River. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum's founding director who announced his plan to retire earlier this month, will headline “Understanding America,” a discussion to commemorate the anniversary.

The festivities come as the Smithsonian museum, affectionately called the “Blacksonian” by its most committed visitors and patrons, has faced outright hostility from President Donald Trump's administration.

The president last year signed an executive order seeking to change a range of museums and landmarks supported by the federal government. The Interior Department has also removed dozens of displays from national monuments that highlighted the history of social activists, people of color, women and LGBTQ people, among others.

The order instructed federal officials to work with Congress to bar the Smithsonian from using federal funding for exhibits that allegedly “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law.”

But the Smithsonian's leadership, which responds to a board that includes lawmakers from both parties, private donors and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, says they have continued their work without interference.

“We have not changed any exhibitions. We haven't changed our language. We know that what we do is steeped in scholarship,” Brackett said of the African American museum.

‘No changes’ to museum's mission amid targeting by Trump administration

The Smithsonian is supported by a mix of federal and private funding. The institution's significant funding and complex governance structure have made it difficult for the administration to directly influence its content, as officials have done with federal landmarks, which are maintained directly by the executive branch. That hasn't stopped an outpouring of concern from supporters of the African American museum's mission in response to any curatorial changes the museum has made over the last two years.

Administration officials have also expressed frustration at the Smithsonian's resistance and have outlined new measures. Trump, a Republican, has ordered officials to place signs in front of some Smithsonian buildings warning visitors they may experience exhibits with an inaccurate portrait of American history.

Brackett said her museum is confident they can continue with the museum's original vision “to capture and share the unvarnished truth of African American history and culture.”

“We know that Black history is a part of American history, and it's our job to ensure that everyone who comes to this museum, who engages in our programming, who visits us online, understands exactly how all of this evolved, how the contributions of African Americans have advanced this country, and that's really what people walk away with,” she said.

“There are no changes to exhibits other than rotating objects that need conservation,” she added.

Some visitors had expressed fears that exhibits, such as the casket of Emmett Till and a Greensboro lunch counter housed at the neighboring American History Museum, may have been altered to appease the administration’s concerns. Brackett was clear: “Nothing has changed.”

A decade of honoring Black history after more than a century of advocacy

The idea of a landmark recognizing the contributions of African Americans on the National Mall goes back more than a century.

In 1915, Black Civil War veterans called on lawmakers to establish a landmark honoring their contributions to the war effort, often fighting for their own liberty. The idea advanced in fits and starts over the 20th century until eventually calls to commemorate the legacy of the Civil Rights movement captured the interest of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Museum of African American History and Culture was first approved by Congress in 2003 and opened its doors on Sept. 24, 2016. At its opening ceremony, then-President Barack Obama urged African Americans to see their story as an integral thread in the broader American story.

“It is a glorious story, the one that’s told here. It is complicated, and it is messy, and it is full of contradictions, as all great stories are,” Obama said. “The very fact of this day does not prove that America is perfect, but it does validate the ideas of our founding: that this country — born of change, of revolution, of we the people — that this country can get better.”

Since its opening a decade ago, the museum has welcomed close to 14 million visitors from 200 countries and has hosted more than 26,000 school groups, according to the Smithsonian. Across 10 floors — five above ground celebrating art and cultural achievements and five below ground exploring deep histories — visitors have learned of the complex history of African Americans in the U.S., a story that is by turns harrowing and triumphant, and how it fits into the broader narrative of American history.

Visitors ‘yearn’ to take in Black museum's offerings

A day before the anniversary, Shallary Duncan of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, visited the museum for the first time.

“Quite honestly, with all of the changes in our country, it made me yearn to be here. I don't want to see any changes that would mitigate the reality of this experience,” said Duncan, a psychologist and self-described “history buff.”

“We know that African Americans have been in this country for as long as the country has been here, so it's important for us that we are a part of a voice that says this is real, our history is real and we don't want it to change,” she added.

More than a dozen students from a consortium of historically Black colleges and universities also visited the museum on Wednesday, eager to learn from its exhibits. Some of the students said they had visited the museum repeatedly since they were children.

For Jaina Dotson, the trip was a special experience. Growing up in Maryland, she'd visited the museum once as a child and was “eager to see how my perspective has changed.”

Now a student at Tuskegee University studying architecture, the visit was also a chance to put her classwork into practice. Dotson said she had researched the museum’s design for her latest architectural project.

“Looking at the outside facade, the corona, and the intention of the design behind that, as well as the layout of the museum itself, was an integral part of my research,” Dotson said. “The layout of the museum, its architecture, is really important for the experience. So it'll be fun to actually experience that as a patron.”

An OpenAI agent infiltrated the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal on June 18, he said. The portal hosted aggregate data about health spending and drug subsidies and is popular with researchers and academics. No personal information had been accessed, the government said.

Albanese made the breach public following a telephone conversation with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Both are in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.

Altman was among heads of major AI firms who in speeches Wednesday pleaded with the United Nations to save the world or at least its people by somehow regulating the fast-expanding technology that they have been designing.

“Today I spoke with … Altman to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident,” Albanese told reporters. “I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred and the nature of the way that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.”

OpenAI said in a statement it had reviewed activity involving several Australian government departments and discovered “our models took actions we did not intend.”

OpenAI notified Australia of the breach in an email to a government department’s generic address on Sept. 10, Albanese said.

An inquiry looking into the security breach would examine whether OpenAI could be criminally charged, Albanese said. The inquiry would also investigate how Australian security agencies failed to detect the breach before OpenAI revealed it.

Albanese said he assumed there were commercial reasons for the AI investigation of how much was being spent on particular medicines and where expenditures were changing.

Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher said OpenAI had advised on Sept. 10 that an “AI agent had accessed infrastructure behind the public-facing” portal. OpenAI shared with the government the vulnerability the agent had found.

The Australian government had not been confident that it knew what the agent had been doing until officials held a technical briefing with OpenAI on Tuesday, Gallagher said.

She said the portal had been closed and the data moved to more secure systems.

OpenAI said last week it was introducing a new framework for tracking, investigating and disclosing instances of what it called “misalignment,” including cases where AI models acted without authorization, coordinated with other models or evaded oversight.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the incident was the first time that an AI agent was known to have gained unauthorized access to the Australian government’s information technology systems.

“This is a warning about the technology being developed without safeguards and without guardrails in place,” Marles said.

OpenAI was engaging with the government but the situation was “fundamentally unacceptable,” Marles said.

When the agent was denied information, it engaged in “misaligned behavior” to gain unauthorized access, he said.

Marles said the information accessed was “not particularly sensitive” and had since been made public.

Marles used an analogy of the information sitting behind a fence.

“It was not sitting behind a particularly high fence. This AI agent scaled the fence ... and the point is it was unintended. It wasn’t asked to. That’s our concern here,” Marles said.

___

This story corrects the date of breach to June 18.

In all that time, she’s never been more worried about an election.

“This is truly the first time I’ve felt in my bones we could lose the Texas House, and we could lose a statewide seat,” Tate said. “And that’s very scary.”

Now president of Texas Federation of Republican Women, Tate organizes over 10,000 women who do the hard work behind the party’s dominant grassroots operation — calling and texting voters, block walking, producing voter guides and sending postcards.

If her fears come to pass, it could be Tate’s backyard — the fast-growing, diverse suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex — that delivers Texas to the Democrats.

Long associated with the country club types who formed a backbone of red Texas, the area is in the midst of enormous change driven by rapid population growth, corporate relocations and shifting political views in the Trump era.

The change makes suburban voters — and suburban women in particular — a key swing bloc that U.S. Senate candidates Ken Paxton and James Talarico are chasing this November.

But with the election less than six weeks away, Republicans worry the region’s typically reliable voters, disenchanted by Paxton’s political baggage, could sit out the Senate race, a hesitancy that also could endanger GOP candidates for the Legislature, county commission and justices of the peace.

In interviews with over a dozen people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, many Republicans said they were struggling with how to vote in the Senate contest or knew friends and neighbors who were.

Jayne Howell, who chaired the Denton County GOP from 2018 to 2022, said that six months ago, she was leaning toward not voting in the Senate race. Now, she’s decided to vote for Paxton — but she knows not everyone has had the same evolution.

“I felt like he was going to vote for more conservative policies than his opponent,” Howell said at a coffee shop in Lewisville, a suburb about 25 miles north of Dallas. “So I’m going to vote for Paxton. It goes against my personal beliefs, but I don’t want Talarico to win. But I think there’s a lot of people that aren’t going to even come out to vote. That’s going to affect the down-ballot races.”

Some, describing their hesitation or opposition as faith-based, cited accusations of extramarital affairs by Paxton. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, cited adultery in her 2025 divorce petition.

Some voters lumped Paxton in with a GOP they have soured on during President Donald Trump’s second term. Others were turned off by allegations of corruption stemming from a 2015 indictment for felony securities fraud (charges were dropped in 2024 after Paxton, who didn’t admit guilt, agreed to 100 hours of community service, 15 hours of ethics training and $271,000 in restitution) and 2023 articles of impeachment accusing him of misusing his office to benefit a friend and political donor (the Texas Senate voted to acquit him after a two-week trial).

Dan Pence, a 68-year-old in Rowlett, has voted Republican in nearly every election in his life. After voting for Trump in 2024, he’s found himself frustrated with the direction of the party. He still believes he will stick with Republicans for most statewide races, but he’s undecided in the Senate contest — and leaning toward Talarico, whom he thinks he could “hold my nose” and vote for. Paxton, he said, is a bridge too far.

“I can’t verbalize how much I dislike that guy,” Pence said. “I wouldn’t even want to be in the same room as him. He exudes slimy.”

In the 2024 presidential election, nearly one in four Texas votes came from the region’s core four counties — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton — making them enormously important to both candidates’ hopes for success. The suburban area was a Republican stronghold before 2016 but has trended more blue in recent election cycles.

Democrats flipped Tarrant County in the 2018 U.S. Senate race and narrowly won the county in the 2024 Senate race even as the state lurched right. Collin County, home to Plano and Frisco, has remained narrowly red despite statewide shifts, with Beto O’Rourke, Joe Biden and Colin Allred receiving 46% to 47% of the vote despite running in wildly different cycles. Even Denton County, traditionally the most Republican of the bunch, has seen slippage in GOP support after Trump won by 20 points in 2016 and 13.1 points in 2024.

To succeed in these counties, the Republican turnout operation will need to convert the hesitant.

The Texas Federation of Republican Women this fall will host weekends of mass action in Tarrant, Williamson and Collin counties — all with significant suburban populations — to promote state-level and down-ballot Republican candidates and encourage voters to support the entire ticket.

In addition, numerous GOP candidates and organizers said they are emphasizing to friends and neighbors the old adage that a vote is a chess move rather than a valentine.

“I have tried to say to some of our ladies who are not especially enthusiastic about voting for [Paxton] — and it’s not just him, there’s some other candidates [who are] not their favorite — we may not have perfect candidates, because we’re all human,” Tate said. “We all make mistakes. But we have perfect ideals.”

Kronda Thimesch, a former Republican state representative from Denton County who voted to impeach Paxton and then lost a GOP primary, is president of her local Republican women’s club. She said friends from church with deeply held biblical values are struggling with how to vote this November, and in some cases are so put off by Paxton that they’re planning to skip the election entirely.

“There are a lot of people that I’ve been having conversations with, [telling them] if you can’t vote for one Republican, please continue to go down ballot and vote for the rest,” said Thimesch, who lost her 2024 primary to Paxton impeachment attorney Mitch Little. “But unfortunately, a lot of people, they don’t even want to walk into the polling location and vote — which is disheartening.”

Despite hesitation from some voters, Paxton can still expect to get hundreds of thousands of votes out of these counties. Trump, as Paxton has noted, has been dogged by some of the same ethical baggage yet won Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties in 2024 en route to a blowout in the state.

His campaign believes it has a compelling story to tell suburban women. One pro-Paxton ad focuses on a sex trafficking case that his office prosecuted. And the campaign plans to emphasize the attorney general’s record pursuing consumer protection lawsuits on issues suburban women care about.

“Suburban moms want someone who will actually fight the people putting their kids in harm’s way: Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Tech,” Paxton spokesperson Madison Cercy said in a statement, citing the attorney general’s lawsuits targeting misleading food labeling, forever chemicals and social media platforms that create addiction among kids.

“They’re not looking for someone who treats their kids upbringing as a social experiment and views public safety as optional,” Cercy said. “Ken Paxton is the fighter they have already trusted and the one they need, and that is the message our campaign will be bringing to them.”

Polling suggests Paxton still has work to do to consolidate the Republican base — work that the various groups making up the Republican ground game are undertaking as get-out-the-vote efforts ramp up. Down-ballot candidates also are working their territories across the region, well aware of the stakes the Senate race could pose.

Shelby Williams, a former Collin County GOP chair now running for county commission in a purple district in the west of the county, said he leads with local policy — infrastructure, property taxes, water — rather than his partisan allegiance. He has heard people “here and there” say they’re planning to skip the Senate race. Like Tate, he wants voters to see that the election is a binary choice and encourages them to look at both candidates’ records.

“Especially amongst the Christian right — and I am a devout Christian — there’s a tendency to look at the stains and say, well I can’t get behind so-and-so,” Williams said. “Well, OK, you have to inspect the alternative — even if the alternative is an undervote. You’re going to vote for something, even if it’s by your inaction.”

The Paxton campaign is emphasizing the dangers of an undervote as well.

“The stakes are clear: if voters stay home in the suburbs, they are not sitting out a personality contest. They are leaving their kids’ food, phones, schools, and streets to the politician who has proven he will not fight those fights,” Cercy said.

Ross Hunt, a GOP operative in Dallas, said the Republican base rapidly consolidated behind Paxton after he secured the nomination in May, but the pace and intensity has not been uniform across regions.

Hunt said he is more concerned about Republicans skipping the Senate race in North Texas than in other parts of the state.

“Consolidation has been stronger — not universally — but it’s been stronger in other areas of the state than it has been in D-FW,” Hunt said. “And some of that has to do with the fact that we just have more George Bush-style Republicans up here. That’s part of it. Some of it I think has to do with the fact that we have a lot of voters up here who are economically motivated, and are not really culture warriors at all, and are looking for someone who’s focused on those issues.”

What’s troubling the suburbs

Laura Hill, the Republican mayor of Southlake from 2015 to 2021, hasn’t missed an election since Gerald Ford was president.

Hill runs in a wide circle of women in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs — women she described as successful, well-educated and politically engaged. But this cycle, many of them have told her they’re planning to skip the Senate race on their ballots. Hill intends to do the same — and feels like the GOP political culture in Tarrant County has left her feeling increasingly unwelcome, particularly after losing a 2022 Texas House primary that she said included personal attacks on her businesses, employees and parents.

“I think we’ve created monsters — and that’s what my friends are saying,” Hill said. “We’ve all done things that we’ve had to ask for forgiveness, and that is between us and our Lord. But at some point, you no longer speak for the Lord when you continue to have to ask for forgiveness and you have a chosen lifestyle. Live it! But don’t tell me that I need to vote for you just because you are a Republican.”

Hill said among the skeptical Republican women she’s talked to, about 40 percent plan to vote for Talarico.

Dorothy Burton, the former Republican mayor pro tem of Duncanville, left the GOP in 2019 and now considers herself partyless. A member of Republicans for Talarico, Burton believes there’s a quiet network of Republicans planning to pull the lever for the Democrat while continuing to vote with the GOP in other races.

Being a Republican, she said, is about more than a party — it’s an identity. But she believes the willingness by some in the GOP to criticize Paxton will let more Bush-aligned Republicans vote for Talarico — or skip the race — without feeling like they’re compromising that identity.

“Now that some have given permission that it is OK to vote for Talarico, it’s like, I can do that and still be Republican,” Burton said.

John Huffman, a Republican who followed Hill as Southlake mayor and finished third in the initial special election for Senate District 9 in the Fort Worth area, has been a vocal critic of his party’s direction and the political doom he believes it could bring in November.

“I especially think suburban women — but maybe just your average suburban professional in Tarrant County and elsewhere — looks at Paxton, and looks at the personal and the professional and political baggage he comes with, and starts to think: is this the best we have?” Huffman said. “Is this really the best we can do as Republicans?”

A good portion of the more establishment wing of the party will likely come home for Paxton. Republican advertising has gone hard on Talarico, criticizing his record on taxes and comments supporting transgender Texans, to drive home the point that a Talarico victory would be anathema to their values.

Darlene Stanaland, a 79-year-old in Frisco, voted for Paxton in the primary and plans to vote for him again in the general election.

Stanaland first met Paxton, a longtime fixture in Collin County politics, years ago at a Tea Party protest outside Frisco City Hall. She appreciated that Paxton was active in filing legal challenges against the Biden administration.

“He at least fights for Texas,” Stanaland said. “That’s more than most of them do.”

Stanaland, a lifelong Republican who never misses an election, said her social circle is also firmly behind Paxton.

“Everybody’s got a past and everybody’s got a personal life, and that’s not what this is about,” she said. “This is about conserving our state, and I think he does that.”

But Huffman, who said he cannot vote for Paxton and likely will skip the Senate race, believes the Republican Party will leave votes on the table — support it potentially cannot afford to lose.

“As a candidate, you’re trying to sell yourself — and you sell on trust,” Huffman said. “And there are so many issues with Paxton. He has broken trust with many, many people. I think for him particularly, you are testing the outer limits of the average general election voter’s ability to be loyal to the concept of lesser of two evils.”

Several lifelong Republican voters from the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs echoed Huffman’s sentiment.

Kelly Sayre, a 75-year-old in Corinth, was once the Denton County GOP vice chair. But he became disillusioned with the GOP after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol; in 2024, he voted for Kamala Harris for president and Ted Cruz for Senate.

Sayre said he thinks he’ll vote for Talarico this November — both as an opportunity to vote against Trump and Paxton (“I just don’t believe he’s a good person”) and because he sees something positive in the Democratic seminarian.

“After 10 or 12 years of name-calling and outright cruelty, I don’t see that coming from him,” Sayre said. “People feel differently about this, but for me, it’s important in that I see him to be a practicing Christian that’s far closer to living like we’re supposed to live than the alternative.”

Betty Graham, an 82-year-old in Plano, is a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump two years ago. A native of West Texas, she recalled meeting George H.W. Bush at a fundraiser in Abilene in the 1980s and working on a Republican campaign in Nolan County. But she’s been disappointed by the president’s second term — especially over the Iran war and the administration’s pursuit of border infrastructure in Big Bend National Park and surrounding areas.

Graham has come to regret her Trump vote and finds herself heartbroken by the direction of the party. She could have voted for Cornyn, she said, but refuses to vote for Paxton. Now, she considers herself an independent — and she’s planning to skip the race or vote Libertarian. Voting for a Democrat is out of the question.

“I can’t, in good conscience, vote on any of the Republicans,” Graham said. “And I certainly am not going to vote on the Democrat, because I don’t believe their ideology at all.”

Democrats see an opportunity

Voters like Graham represent the potential and the pitfalls for Talarico.

Every Republican voter who skips the contest helps the Democrat, but to win, Talarico also needs to pick up crossover and independent support. Republicans are now spending tens of millions to emphasize Talarico’s negatives in the hope of moving unsure or unmotivated Republicans into Paxton’s camp.

This is not the first statewide race where Democrats have looked to the suburbs for an edge — and in the past, they’ve ultimately been disappointed. In 2018, O’Rourke posted the best results Democrats had seen in decades in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties but still lost to Cruz by 2.6 percentage points. In 2020, Biden saw record high Democratic vote totals and similar percentages to O’Rourke but lost the state by 5 points. And even as Allred achieved similar results in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties as his Democratic predecessors, he lost to Cruz by a larger margin in 2024 as his party underperformed in the urban cores and in South Texas.

The results beg the question: Are there enough untapped suburban votes for Talarico and Democrats to capitalize on?

State Sen. Taylor Rehmet, a Garland mechanic and union leader, represents the bullish case for Democrats. In a district Trump won by 17 points in 2024, Rehmet emerged from a January special election with a 14-point victory in a Tarrant County district that contains a portion of Fort Worth and its northern suburbs. Special elections, with smaller totals, can produce unusual results — but Rehmet’s victory in Senate District 9 inspired enormous Democratic enthusiasm.

Democrats see opportunity beyond dissatisfied Republicans — enthusiasm driving increased turnout by their voters and swings away from the GOP in the suburban Hispanic population. Rehmet relied on both in his shocking special election victory in Tarrant County.

“People are targeting the working class folks,” said Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. “We are a county with a huge amount of working class people, but also a lot of union people — Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter, a bunch of others. And so making sure that these working-class union voters know who’s standing up for workers’ rights, affordability and good jobs is a really big deal.”

Majority-Hispanic precincts shifted by an average of 34 percentage points toward Rehmet relative to the 2022 race for the Senate district. Jason Villalba, a former Republican state representative from Dallas who runs the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, said even with the usual caveats about low turnout in special elections, the size of the Hispanic vote swing toward Rehmet was too large to be dismissed.

He suspects the swing is not limited to Fort Worth.

“You’re seeing similar effects, at least anecdotally, in all of the major suburbs,” Villalba said. “Plano is largely Hispanic … we’re seeing the same trends. Arlington, Grand Prairie, Cedar Hill, Mansfield — all of it showing the same trends.”

Democrats also believe a bevy of newer issues — frustration with data centers and Flock cameras among them — will drive voters toward the party. Numerous Democrats also said the state’s ban on several hemp-derived THC products is an issue they’re hearing a surprising amount about as they campaign door to door.

Delia Parker-Mims, chair of the Denton County Democratic Party, said THC could be a sleeper issue for suburban women and younger voters. There are smoke shops, she said, in the more middle class and well-to-do suburbs, and middle-age women are increasingly using THC products for health reasons.

“[Housewives] are into THC, and now you’re taking that away,” Parker-Mims said. “I do think that is pissing a lot of people off.”

Some Republicans agree that this cycle is different from past ones. Many emphasized that in 2018, when Republicans narrowly held onto victory, Cruz had the Republican Party unified behind him.

But in the Metroplex, some no longer see that enthusiasm. Several GOP voters who plan to leave the Senate race blank or vote for Talarico also stressed they would’ve had no trouble voting for Cornyn.

Hill consistently voted for Cornyn and Cruz, saying they “carry themselves in a manner that is important to our party.”

“I think because we have so much power and we think Republicans are untouchable in Texas, we’ve decided that we can put up anybody,” she said.

About this seat: The Texas Agriculture Commissioner is the chief advocate for Texas’ agriculture industry. Under the commissioner’s purview, the Texas Department of Agriculture regulates the state’s agriculture industry, including cattle, grain, plants, pesticides, hemp and organic operations. The department provides agribusiness support, promotes Texas products and advocates for policies at the state and federal level that help farmers and ranchers. It also administers the National School Lunch Program to public schools. The department promotes economic development in rural areas and provides disaster relief to farmers. The department is home to the State Office of Rural Health and administers the AgriStress Helpline, which offers mental health resources to agriculture workers and rural communities. The department also ensures that price scanners and scales are accurate to ensure consumers are paying an accurate price for these items when they purchase them.

What’s at stake: Agriculture is the second largest industry in the state and Texas is home to more than 230,000 farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2024, it was the 6th largest state exporter of agricultural products. Farmers and ranchers are on the frontlines of economic pressures, the effects of climate change, and labor and supply chain disruptions and it’s the responsibility of the state agriculture commissioner to regulate farmers from a consumer protection standpoint, while providing support and funding to farms that are economic engines in rural areas of the state.

Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller lost his reelection primary to Nate Sheets, a business owner backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas Republicans, in the Republican primary. Democratic nominee Clayton Tucker faced no primary challengers.

Candidates at a Glance:

Campaign site

Nate Sheets

Republican

💰 Campaign finance:

• Cash on hand as of June 30: $104,510
• Raised between Jan. 1-June 30: $1.9 million

💰 Major donors this year:

• Jim Moyer, retired businessman from Hemphill – $300,000
• Texas Republican Leadership Fund – $294,600
• Texans for Greg Abbott – $207,588
• Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND – $178,904
• Douglas Scharbauer, a Midland investor – $100,000

Experience:

• Texan business and ranch owner
• Served for six years in the U.S. Naval Reserve before he graduated from Texas State University
• He and his wife founded a company called Nature Nate’s, known for its raw and unfiltered honey. He sold the company in 2021 and resigned as CEO in 2024 to run for agriculture commissioner.
• Previously worked as communications director for E3 Partners, an evangelist ministry organization that establishes new Christian congregations around the world.

Political ideology: Sheets is a conservative Christian and self-declared member of the MAHA (Make American Healthy Again) movement, which was inspired by Trump administration Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Nature Nate’s Honey emphasized testing to ensure the honey didn’t contain pesticides or herbicides, and Sheets has said his experience leading the company shaped his views on healthy eating.

Policy stances:

• Helping Texas farmers grow and produce clean and healthy food at home and in the state’s public schools
• Wants to see data center companies invest money into water and agriculture-related funds, as well as end all preferential tax breaks and subsidies for them
• Boost job opportunities in the agriculture industry in rural areas of the state
• Work with the Legislature to ensure Texas has the power to investigate agroterrorists who might spread pathogens that could damage state agriculture production
• Supports requiring federal e-Verify and “will vigorously advocate” for passing state legislation to verify citizenship for employment in Texas
• Says he wants to slash transportation costs for farmers and bring back rural economic development
• Wants to create an agriculture marketplace to connect consumers with local producers and manufacturers

In the news:

• Texas This Week: Ag commissioner candidates Nate Sheets, Clayton Tucker, KVUE (2026)
• Nate Sheets defeats three-term incumbent Sid Miller in GOP primary for Texas agriculture commissioner, The Texas Tribune (2026)
• Gov. Abbott endorses Nate Sheets over Sid Miller for agriculture commissioner, The Texas Tribune (2026)
• Why Nature Nate Is Shifting From Business to Texas Politics, D Magazine (2025)
• North Texas beekeeper turns to politics to save bees, launching campaign for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, CBS News (2025)
• Sheets Opens Fundraising Lead Over Miller in Texas Ag Commissioner Race, Texas Scorecard (2026)
• Q&A: GOP Nominee for Texas Ag Commissioner Nate Sheets, POLITICO Pro (2026; for subscribers only)

Endorsements:

• Gov. Greg Abbott
• Texas Cattlefeeders Association
• State Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock 
• State Sen. Kevin Sparks, a Republican from Midland 
• State Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican from McKinney
• Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania
• Houston businessman Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale

How to contact:

campaign@natesheets.com

Campaign site

Clayton Tucker

Democrat

💰 Campaign finance:

• Cash on hand as of June 30: $162,456
• Raised between Jan. 1-June 30: $264,673

💰 Major donors this year:

• Professional musician Don Henley – $50,000
• Nancy P. Sanders – $11,250
• James Talarico Campaign – $10,000
• Heather Ball – $6,275 (includes in-kind donations)
• Farrukh Shamsi, president of Texas Clinic in Houston – $5,000

Experience:

• Grew up working on his family’s ranch in Lampasas
• Fair trade organizer for the Trade Justice Education Fund, a left-leaning nonprofit that promotes awareness of the impact of trade on public health and the environment
• Worked as a water and agriculture researcher for the National Science Foundation
• Serves as Secretary of the Texas Farmers Union
• Has experience teaching kindergarten and has worked on political campaigns

Political ideology: Tucker spent his early career working as a Democratic political campaign organizer. He is an active member of the Texas Democrats and a member of the Texas Progressive Caucus.

Policy stances:

• Protect Texas from the growth of data centers across the state by helping people get more information about data center resource consumption and “set up ‘Ag Development Districts’ so that locals can fight back”
• Preserving family farms
• Lowering the cost of food and removing chemicals from food
• Stop the spread of microplastics and regulate dangerous chemicals like PFAS
• Wants farmers to be able to grow hemp and believes it could save Texas farmers
• Would like to see the AgriStress program continue and grow
• Wants to rebuild  agricultural co-ops in Texas to make farming affordable and profitable and food more affordable and safer
• Helping young farmers go into the business and succeed

In the news:

• Texas This Week: Ag commissioner candidates Nate Sheets, Clayton Tucker, KVUE (2026)
• Sid Miller to join Democratic nominee for agriculture commissioner at data center forum, The Texas Tribune (2026)
• “A deal with the devil”: Religion motivates data center opponents in Texas, The Texas Tribune (2026)
• Texas Democrats Sarah Eckhardt and Clayton Tucker discuss their plans if elected for comptroller and agriculture commissioner, CBS News (2026)
• A Young Populist Heats Up the Texas Agricultural Commissioner Race, Drop Site News (2026)

Endorsements:

• U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Austin 
• U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Austin
• U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland 
• Many Democratic state representatives
• Texas AFL-CIO

How to contact:

info@claytontuckertx.com

​​P.O. Box 1059

Lampasas, TX 76550

Campaign site

Austin R. Kelly

Libertarian

💰 Campaign finance:

• Cash on hand as of June 30: $0
• Raised between Jan. 1-June 30: $494

💰 Major donors this cycle:

• Libertarian Booster PAC – $394 in-kind donation

Experience:

• Born and raised in Comanche County
• Small business owner and full-time natural resource management consultant through ARK Ecological Consulting
• Served as a lecturer at Texas A&M University and taught rangeland, botany, and ecology classes
• Has experience showing livestock, starting a landscaping business, working on a small farm and navigating agriculture-related documents

Political ideology: Kelly says his political beliefs are “grounded in the same logic I apply to ecology—removing the excess so the individual can thrive”. The Libertarian Party of Texas’ platform says it seeks “the maximum protection for the rights of all people against any violation” and that “… government must be kept to the minimum necessary to protect the rights of individuals.” The party also says the government should not interfere in personal matters such as free speech, religion, marriage, family and property rights. It also supports the right to bear arms.

Policy stances:

• Wants to cut regulations and “bureaucratic red tape” for the hemp industry, cottage food production, local meat processing, raw food commodities and small-scale producers
• Eliminate “licensing schemes” in agriculture
• Calls for “absolute property rights” and wants to protect farmers from nuisance lawsuits and local zoning regulations
• Opposes warrantless inspections and the the use of eminent domain for state or private “convenience”
• Audit the Texas Department of Agriculture to cut spending and lower fees for farmers
• Compile and publish a review of scientific literature on water and brush control best practices
• Invest funding in biosecurity monitoring

In the news:

• Breckenridge graduate Austin Kelly announces Libertarian run for Texas Ag Commissioner, Breckenridge Texan (2026)

Endorsements:

• Many Libertarian candidates, including U.S. Senate candidate Ted Brown

How to contact:

kellyforagtx@gmail.com

P. O. Box 1629

Bandera, TX 78003

Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a major financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. Don Henley and Texas Cattle Feeders Association have been financial supporters within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

Gordon is well-placed to discuss the qualities of Spain’s World Cup-winning players, given he now trains daily with many of them — like Rodri, Lamine Yamal, Pedri and more — following his offseason move to La Liga champion Barcelona.

“They’re definitely built different,” Gordon said. “So I’m not sure we can ever get that.”

Long-held doubts over England’s ability to end the men’s team’s long wait to win a European Championship or World Cup returned over the summer when England squandered a lead — earned by a goal from Gordon — by conceding two late goals to lose 2-1 to Argentina in the World Cup semifinals.

Speaking at England’s training base this week, Gordon said he might never get over the defeat that has prompted questions over whether England’s players have the quality to control these high-pressure games like the Spanish can. That’s because England became ultra-defensive after taking the lead — Gordon was replaced by a defender, Ezri Konsa, in a telling substitution by coach Thomas Tuchel — and allowed Argentina to seize the initiative in the final half-hour.

So, Gordon was asked, couldn’t England just be more like Spain?

“I think culturally, it’s not just that tournament or that game where we couldn’t control a game,” he said, referring to the Argentina loss. “England, as a nation, we don’t have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do. It’s not in us.

“It’s not in the English DNA,” Gordon added, “and it’s probably something I’ve only realized to that extent from playing in Spain now. Because I think we, as English players, are educated the same way as the Spanish players. We know how to keep possession but it’s the decision-making of certain players in Spain, which it’s just not a natural thing. I even look at some of the decisions they take on the ball sometimes and think, ‘I’m not sure how you’ve seen that.’”

Gordon believes England might have to pursue its own course, rather than trying to imitate Spain.

“We can definitely get better,” he said, “or maybe go the other way and really play to our strengths, which is to play physical, play direct football, and on the counter-attack.”

Spain's trip to play England at Wembley Stadium is its first match as world champion and marks the start of the teams' Nations League campaign.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

• LESS RAIN TODAY: Odds are lower today (10%)
• HOT WEEKND: Upper-90s return, small rain chance Sunday
• NEXT WEEK: Still not a “slam dunk”, but next week looks promising

FORECAST

TODAY

The last few days have brought evening downpours with decent rainfall for some. The airport last night picked up over a tenth of an inch. While a few more brief downpours may develop today, odds of seeing rain go down today to 10%. The majority of us will just see partly cloudy skies and hot conditions.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Friday and Saturday are forecast to be rain-free. It’ll stay hot, too. Expect highs in the mid to upper-90s. Our heat high shifts a bit on Sunday, opening the door for a few more stray downpours.

CHANGES AHEAD?

Next week holds promise for changes, but unfortunately, we still can’t nail down specifics. Why? Well, models are notoriously bad in these situations and there are many moving parts. One thing we do know is that Pacific moisture will likely stream into the area by midweek. This could combine with a cold front Tuesday into Wednesday, although this is still not a guarantee. Should that happen, rain chances would rise and temps could potentially fall by late week. More updates to come!

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.

San Antonio police said 62-year-old Dorman Lynn Cranston was crossing the street at 6 a.m. on Sept. 15 in a marked crosswalk at a Loop 410 access road near Rigsby Avenue when he was hit by a car.

Cranston was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver did not stop to help, according to police.

SAPD released a photo of the suspect’s vehicle, which appears to be a silver sedan-style car.

Anyone with information about the crash or the driver is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP.

The investigation is ongoing.

Read also:

• San Antonio police seek tips for man accused of attacking woman inside parked car
• Crime Stoppers seeking tips in connection with fatal shooting outside far West Side apartment

White House officials told CNN that Trump will attend the game in Knoxville, Tennessee, which starts at 11 a.m. Central. The matchup is expected to be one of the biggest college football games of the season so far and will air on KSAT.

ESPN’s “College Gameday” will also be live from Knoxville, Tennessee, on Saturday morning.

After the football game, Trump is scheduled to travel to Chicago for the Presidents Cup PGA Tour golf tournament on Sunday.

Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has made several high-profile appearances at major sporting events.

Additional details about the president’s schedule have not been released.

Read also:

• Texas Longhorns star QB Arch Manning apologizes to ESPN reporter for fake AI video reaction

The warning came despite signs of improvement in other provinces, including Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter. The outbreak has spread to seven provinces, with 7,773 confirmed cases and 3,759 deaths, according to the latest government figures.

Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 20, cases fell 26% in Ituri province and 15% in Haut-Uele, said Marie Roseline Belizaire, the WHO’s regional emergency director for Africa. But transmission patterns vary widely and the outbreak remains uncontrolled, she said.

“While cases and deaths are declining in some provinces, they continue to rise in others,” Belizaire said. “The outbreak is still not under control and remains spread across a wide geographic area.”

The outbreak is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fueled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike and intense population movements. The World Health Organization has said it is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s Ebola incident manager, said cases and deaths had begun declining in North Kivu after several weeks of increases. But although treatment beds are being added daily, facilities still lack enough staff and partners to operate them.

“The human resources gap is one of the biggest gaps,” Smallwood said.

WHO representative in Congo Anne Ancia said one Ebola treatment center requires about 300 health professionals, including anesthetists, hygienists, nurses and general practitioners.

“We are building Ebola treatment centers but do not always have the human resources needed to operate them,” Ancia said. “Those health workers must be paid.”

Frontline workers in Ituri previously went on strike over unpaid wages, worsening access to care. Health Minister Roger Kamba said in July that the government was verifying payroll lists after the names of people not involved in the response were added. Frontline workers said officials promised to pay the arrears, but some workers received nothing and others only part of what they were owed.

Another major challenge in the response is the fatality rate among children, according to the WHO. Children under five have the highest case fatality rate, more than 60% compared with approximately 40% among adults, Belizaire said.

WHO Ebola Incident Manager Smallwood said detecting cases among children under five is also very difficult because the children can’t necessarily explain their symptoms, and the presentation of symptoms can be confusing.

The problem, which officials in the Republican-controlled state have not publicly defined, also could have disenfranchised people who wanted to vote in the state’s March primary but whose registration applications were never processed, local election officials said during a news conference Wednesday.

“This is really out of left field. Knowing that this one element of (state) applications didn’t come through, and we had no insight on it,” said Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials.

The size of the backlog statewide hasn’t been determined, but the association said it is in the tens of thousands for some of the state’s most populous counties. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, the election office received about 45,000 backlogged voter registration applications.

Some election offices will need to hire temporary workers to handle the crush, officials with the association said.

The issue started last October in the Texas Department of Public Safety, which among other things allows people to register to vote or update their voter registrations when they renew their driver’s license.

An unspecified error failed to send a large number of records to applicants’ home counties, where the applications are processed and verified. Those records could be a new voter registration application or an update to an existing registration, such as a change of address.

The association of local election officials said its members did not receive any communication from the Department of Public Safety about why the backlog occurred or why they were not informed of the issue for nearly a year.

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety said certain records submitted online “were incomplete and not fully transmitted” to the secretary of state’s office. It said the “system issue” had been resolved, without elaborating on the nature of the issue. The department did not immediately respond to a request for further explanation. County officials said the problem appeared to be with the department’s online portal.

Counties have until early in-person voting starts on Oct. 19 to finish processing the late-arriving applications.

During their news conference, county election officials said it is possible that some people might have been prevented from voting in the state’s primary earlier this year or initially turned away because there was no record of them registering to vote or updating their registration.

The unexpected backlog comes as counties are already inundated with tasks leading up to the November election in a state with a nationally watched U.S. Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office and county election leaders say voters don’t need to worry about their registration as long as it is submitted by Oct. 5. If a person shows up to vote and they do not appear on the voter rolls, election officials said they can cast a provisional ballot.

They also can check whether they are registered on the state’s online registration site or call their county election office.

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

Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was the sixth person executed this year in Texas, with three more lethal injections scheduled in the state over the next two months.

In the execution chamber, a prison chaplain rested his left hand on Ramey’s right shoulder and offered a brief prayer before the warden asked the prisoner if he had any last words. Ramey praised God and thanked friends, family and fellow death row inmates he called his brothers.

“To the brothers on Texas death row that grew up with me, that poured into me and showed what it means to be a man, because I came in young, and didn’t understand what manhood was ... to you brothers ... I greatly appreciate you,” he said just before the injection got underway.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing, Ramey took a deep breath, sputtered and began snoring. After 10 loud snores and two that were nearly inaudible, all movement ceased.

A physician pronounced Ramey dead 14 minutes after the injection began. Ramey’s body was then covered with a white sheet.

A jury had convicted Ramey of capital murder and sentenced him to death for the August 2005 shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, at the home they shared in Edna, a small rural city some 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Houston.

Ramey and LeJames Norman believed there was cocaine in the house and hoped to steal it, according to court records. The men entered the home with guns, found no drugs and fatally shot the three residents, who lived just across the street from Norman, the records show.

Norman was executed on Sept. 16 at the Huntsville prison, where all Texas executions are carried out.

Including Ramey’s execution, a total of 28 inmates have been put to death around several U.S. states this year. Florida leads those states with 15 executions so far in 2026, by far the nation’s busiest death chamber.

Hours before Wednesday’s execution, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Ramey’s final appeal.

His attorneys argued that jurors had never heard that Ramey suffered physical abuse as a child and grew up in poverty. State prosecutors told the court the appeal was “meritless” and said the evidence showed Ramey exhibited “an escalating pattern of criminal behavior.”

Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while seeking to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico, where he had fled. He testified at Ramey’s trial in January 2007 that both men shot the victims. Ramey’s attorneys blamed the shootings on Norman.

Ramey’s former girlfriend testified that she was with Ramey when he threw two handguns into a lake after the killings, and that he later described his involvement to her in detail.

Lopez was shot four times, including in the back of the head; Peacock was shot twice in the head; and Roberts was shot five times in the chest, neck and head.

Norman was sentenced to death in December 2008 after pleading guilty to capital murder.

Investigators identified the remains as Jason Landry through DNA tests, according to a news release from Ken Paxton’s office. The 21-year-old Bobcat had been missing since Dec. 13, 2020.

The release said on Sept. 8, a Caldwell County resident found human remains east of Salt Flat Road, between Soda Springs and Biggs Road. The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said the bones do not give insight to Landry’s cause and manner of death.

The sheriff’s office said they found no indication of foul play.

The sheriff’s office said responded to a report of skeletal remains in the 1400 block of Biggs Road on Sept. 18. Deputies initially asked the public to “avoid speculation” of it possibly being Landry.

The AG’s office notified Landry’s family and said this was a critical breakthrough in the near six year cold case.

“The Landry family has suffered an unimaginable tragedy, and they will remain in our prayers, especially during this incredibly difficult time,” Paxton said. “My Cold Case Unit will continue fighting to solve cases and bring closure on behalf of Texas families and victims.”

Background

The 21-year-old went missing during the drive from his San Marcos apartment to his hometown of Missouri City on Dec. 13, 2020.

Landry was reported missing that morning after Caldwell County officials said he crashed his vehicle on Salt Flat Road, not far from where the remains were found last week.

KSAT reported in 2021 that Landry’s shirt, shorts, socks and underwear were found in the roadway along with a backpack with some marijuana, a ball cap, a laptop and other personal items.

Authorities searched the area extensively but could not locate him despite an attempt in 2022. Searchers also looked in a pond near the area where Landry was last seen.

Read also:

• Investigation underway after skeletal remains found in Caldwell County, sheriff’s office says

“Our target is Russia’s ability to finance this war, to drag it out, to make it more brutal and more destructive,” Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly’s annual gathering. “Russia’s finances and Russia’s production are what must be stopped if Putin is to be stopped.”

When Russia gets money from trade, “it always says no to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy argued, “so Russia’s revenues must remain a target.”

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clashed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his country's European supporters at a U.N. Security Council meeting, and Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on the assembly sidelines and discussed the war.

Top US diplomat talks about potential for a ceasefire

Rubio later told reporters that Russia and Ukraine have expressed interest in a limited ceasefire that would halt attacks on grain shipments — both countries are major exporters — and on each country’s energy sectors, which have been targeted in escalating drone and missile attacks.

Rubio said reaching even a partial deal would be difficult but worthwhile, noting that Zelenskyy has publicly endorsed such a plan. The United States would be willing to help make it happen, Rubio said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry made no mention of a partial deal on grain shipments in a statement after the Lavrov-Rubio meeting. The statement reiterated that the root causes of what it calls its “special military operation” must be addressed.

At the Security Council, Lavrov said Russia will not “pause” its military action, claiming Europe would use it to “pump" Ukraine with weapons. He also made no mention of any kind of grain and energy deal, called Ukraine’s government “terrorists,” and said Moscow’s military operation aims to ensure Russia’s security and the rights of Russian speakers.

Lavrov is due to address the General Assembly on Saturday.

Zelenskyy cast doubt on Russia’s interest in ending the fighting. “Something always seems to stop Putin from saying, ‘That’s it. Enough. Peace,’” Zelenskyy said. “Can you even imagine him without war? He is ‘patient zero’, the one from whom this idea of war keeps spreading further.”

“The more freedom Putin has to act, the more dangerous the world becomes for everyone else,” the Ukrainian president warned.

The war has reverberated across the planet -- with global repercussions for fuel, fertilizer and grain shipments — and for geopolitics, widening divisions between Russia and the West.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, expecting to take the capital, Kyiv, in a week. But Ukraine rallied to defend its sovereignty, and the conflict has dragged on, with front-line positions in eastern and southern Ukraine largely unchanged since last year.

Western analysts estimate that over 500,000 Russian troops have been killed and that Ukraine has recorded more than 500,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths. Neither country discloses its own casualty totals.

Russia and Ukraine have intensified their long-range attacks with drones and missiles, and Russian drones pounded Kyiv Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 23; two others were injured by a strike that started a big fire at a shopping mall in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck Ukrainian military-industrial and energy facilities, logistics centers, and sea vessels overnight. The ministry said its air defenses intercepted more than 500 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions and Crimea, as well as the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Crimea is the peninsula that Russia seized by force and illegally annexed in 2014.

Zelenskyy says ‘you can stand and survive’

Zelenskyy told the assembly that Russia has used 63,000 attack drones of different types against Ukraine so far this year alone. While celebrating that his own country “has proven that even against a much bigger enemy, you can stand and survive,” he implored world leaders to deny Putin money or foreign fighters.

“Limit his money. Limit his war,” the Ukrainian leader said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine must boost its military and has already successfully tested four new jet-powered interceptor drones against Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Russia in Ukraine. He also heralded drone and anti-ballistic missile agreements and programs with various countries.

Zelenskyy worried, however, that artificial intelligence “will begin to decide what happens on the battlefield” with the development of autonomous killer weapons.

“We need peace before we reach that point," he said.

“Sometimes, it may seem that Ukraine is focused, focused, only on war because we speak about weapons, we speak about defense and sanctions against the aggressor. But Ukrainians did not choose this war,” Zelenskyy said. “We choose not to die. …. We are defending ourselves.”

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed from New York.

Meanwhile, the governing National Assembly of Independents, known by its French acronym RNI, suffered major losses while a moderate Islamist party made a strong comeback.

Moroccans voted for a new parliament Wednesday in an election shaped by mounting frustration among young people, high unemployment despite a thriving economy and demands for better schools, hospitals and housing.

Authenticity and Modernity, or PAM, won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, Morocco's lower house. The party was followed by the Independents with 66 seats and the Istiqlal Party with 65. The Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party that won just 13 seats in 2021, surged to 54.

Authenticity and Modernity and Istiqlal were members of the parliamentary majority that formed the outgoing Independents-led government.

Authenticity and Modernity was founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a childhood friend and close adviser to King Mohammed VI. The party emerged as a major political force seen as a counterweight to Justice and Development, which previously led the government for a decade.

Voter turnout was 38% — the lowest since 2007.

The vote was the first since deadly youth-led protests nearly a year ago and a mass attempt by migrants to cross Morocco’s northern border into the Spanish territory of Ceuta that left dozens dead. It will determine the next prime minister and the makeup of the government, which will serve alongside a powerful monarchy that retains broad authority over strategic affairs.

The next government will oversee billions of dollars in investment as Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 World Cup, prompting some to describe it as the “World Cup government.” The new political leadership will also face pressure to address everyday concerns, including jobs, wages and the cost of living.

The Moroccan Constitution requires the king to appoint a prime minister from the party that wins the most seats in legislative elections.

Since no single party is expected to capture an absolute majority, the winner will need to build a coalition government. Portfolios are split among the political allies, but the palace traditionally keeps key posts such as defense and foreign affairs under royal control.

One possibility for prime minister is Faouzi Lakjaa, president of Morocco’s soccer federation, who recently joined the PAM party and has been buoyed by Morocco’s recent soccer achievements.

Fatima-Zahra Mansouri, 50, mayor of Marrakech and minister of urban planning, is another possibility. If selected, she would be Morocco’s first female prime minister.

He went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts and a walk while batting second as the designated hitter against the San Diego Padres.

“He looked good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “At-bat quality good, there wasn’t any chase, I thought he hit the ball hard his first at-bat, just missed a homer in that other at-bat, took a walk. It just felt like he wasn’t sped up at all and I think he came out of it pretty well.”

A roar went up from Dodgers fans as Ohtani walked to the plate to Michael Bublé's “Feeling Good.” He promptly lined a 2-1 pitch from Padres starter Robbie Ray into right field and the fans got loud again. Ohtani was out at second base when Will Smith grounded into a fielder's choice to third.

“Tonight showed that he's in a good spot physically,” Roberts said.

Ohtani didn’t speak to the media afterward. He’ll be back in the lineup Thursday for the series finale.

Mookie Betts was in Ohtani's usual leadoff spot, where he's been since the two-way superstar went on the injured list on Sept. 8.

Betts is hitting .366 with six home runs, 21 RBIs, 13 walks and 18 runs scored in 18 games in September. He's tied for third in the major leagues with 26 hits this month, and also ranks among National League leaders this month in extra-base hits, RBIs, total bases, doubles and runs.

Ohtani last played on Sept. 7 against Cincinnati and came in hitting .277 with 30 homers, 80 RBIs, 89 runs scored and 80 walks in 134 games. He appeared physically compromised at the plate, shaking out his arm and wincing at times.

“A few weeks ago you could see that he couldn’t hit a fastball, he was underneath everything and it was a slower swing,” Roberts said before the game. “Just controlling the swing, the barrel, I think that’s something I’ll look at and obviously stuff like the wincing, but I don’t expect to see any of that.”

Roberts said he likely would have Ohtani leading off and Betts hitting second against right-handed pitching.

Roberts expects to see a focused Ohtani at the plate.

“It’s go-time for all of us and I think he’s in a good spot,” Roberts said. “He's getting ready for the postseason. His mind should be there and my bet is that that’s where it’s at.”

In other moves, pitcher Tarik Skubal was reinstated from the bereavement list. He is scheduled to start Friday at San Francisco. Reliever Kyle Hurt was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Rookie Josue De Paula sent back to minors, could return for postseason

With Ohtani's return, Josue De Paula was sent down to Triple-A to join the Comets in the Pacific Coast League playoffs against the Las Vegas Aviators. De Paula had been in the lineup as the DH.

De Paula quickly became a fan favorite during Ohtani's absence. The 21-year-old New York native reached base safely in 10 of his first 11 games in the majors. He went 2 for 3 with a run scored and a walk while notching his first career triple in the Dodgers' 7-0 win over the Padres on Tuesday.

“He performed more than admirably,” Roberts said. “This also just gives us an opportunity to potentially have him back for the postseason. He’s a part of the conversation and he’s earned that, and that’s what I told him.”

If De Paula makes the postseason roster, he would serve as a pinch hitter.

“Josue has been awesome,” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “Injected some real life and energy into our team.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Trump’s territorial ambitions over Greenland almost broke the NATO military alliance and shattered trust with one of America’s oldest and closest partners. The new defense agreement puts an end to the standoff. But was it worth the cost?

While the new defense agreement is a bit broader, the United States already had extensive military access under an existing 1951 deal and all the gains laid out in the agreement signed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday could, ostensibly, have been achieved by asking nicely a year ago. The trans-Atlantic distrust created since the end of 2024 seems a very high price to pay for what may ultimately be a fairly incremental gain.

Interestingly, one place may emerge from this standoff as the real winner: Greenland itself.

The promised investments and contracts may never fully materialize, but the episode marks a major step forward in its push for greater autonomy and a more influential seat at the table. Greenland is no longer merely the subject of foreign policy decided by its former colonial rulers. Increasingly, it is helping to shape it.

There's been progress toward self-determination

“A notable change is Greenland itself at the table today, signing this agreement," said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen speaking to a room cram packed with journalists and officials at the UN to witness the signing of the deal.

That's an understatement. The world’s largest island, home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people, was still considered a colony until the early 1950s. Progress towards greater self-determination has been slow and it wasn't until 2009 that Greenland became a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Even then, while the Self-Government Act recognized Greenland’s right to independence when requested by local voters in the future, Denmark retained control of defense and foreign affairs.

“I cannot stress it enough: This is the first time that we are venturing into a binding agreement as a country," Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s two lawmakers in the Danish parliament and a former government minister in Nuuk, told The Associated Press. “That is a huge step forward in our quest for more self-autonomy.”

Denmark and Greenland confront their own troubled past

Like most former colonial powers that discover history keeps receipts, Denmark's ties with Greenland are complicated. Greenland's economy is heavily dependent on Denmark, families and students often live between the two territories and the cultural linguistic ties are strong. Yet underwriting modern relations are centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families.

They included forced contraception, the removal of Inuit children for reeducation by Danish foster families, and controversial parental-competency tests that led to children being separated from their parents.

“For many, many years you believed that you were a good colonizer,” Múte Bourup Egede, then Greenland's prime minister and now its foreign minister, reminded Danish journalists early last year, shortly after a newly elected Trump made his first military threat against the island. “But time has also caught up with us, and ... cruel things have come to light.”

The abuses are not distant history; many victims remain alive. Hundreds of Inuit women have claimed compensation from Denmark, alleging that health authorities violated their rights by fitting them with intrauterine devices — often when they were teenagers and without their informed consent. Danish authorities estimate that as many as 4,500 women and girls received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s.

While the first official apology for the historic mistreatment had long been coming it was finally delivered in the summer of 2025.

The standoff with the United States “has been applying pressure and focused some of the Danish attention” on reconciliation with Greenland said Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, but “perhaps, some Greenlanders feel that it’s not as credible as it could have been without Trump.”

Trump's involvement changed the equation

While Denmark moved to address past grievances, anger with Trump's tactics also helped shore up support for its sovereignty and take the edge off calls by some in Greenland for quick moves to independence.

At the height of the crisis over Trump's ambitions in January, Nielsen said that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO."

For Denmark, the main victory is no doubt getting the US president off its back and succeeding in framing the crisis as a European security problem.

Danish and Greenlandic diplomats “have been working very hard to have European allies be part of this," Pram Gad said. "The result is an attempt to patch together the NATO alliance.”

And while Denmark has accepted some limitations to its sovereignty, investments by adversary countries such as Russia had long been off the table.

“The benefit of keeping the transatlantic alliance, or patching it together, or at least not allowing Greenland to be the occasion for Trump to blow it up, I think that counts heavily on both the Danish and the Greenlandic cost-benefit analysis here,” he said.

After Tuesday’s signing ceremony, relief was palpable. But while the Danish and Greenland delegations celebrated with a cold beer on a rooftop bar in Manhattan, the Greenland crisis has scarred a once-undefiable bond. It leaves leaders in Copenhagen, Nuuk and other European capitals now assessing the reliability of the United States — and whether a signed agreement can repair trust once it has been broken.

“If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” said Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic. And from his competitor Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, came this assessment: “We could lose control of the future to AI.”

Both said the countries of the world, through the U.N. Security Council, where they testified Wednesday, have to set safeguards of some kind to prevent the technology from getting too powerful to rein in.

They also called for the world to make sure that the power of AI isn’t concentrated in one company or country. They also touted the benefits of the technology for bettering humanity and what Altman called “giving people more power over their own lives.”

Those tech leaders “are telling us in stark terms that it cannot be left to them to prevent disaster from befalling the world,” British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said at the Security Council. “We cannot ignore them because they are right.’’

AI will be at the heart of G20 discussions

Miliband said when the U.K. leads the G20 next year, it will put controlling AI at the heart of discussions, looking for a single set of global standards “to insure that AI development is safe.”

But, the United States said: Don’t do it.

Worries about control of AI are “not a reason to pause its further development or to constrain it with new global governance structure,” said White House Science Adviser Michael Kratsios. “We want you, our allies and partners, to share in the benefits of this technology.”

The U.S. and China are jostling for AI dominance — and Chinese U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong emphasized that all countries should be able to choose AI technology as they see fit.

He warned against “banding together into a petty us-vs.-them clique in the tech sector and forcing other countries to take sides” and enabling unnamed major powers that he described as seeking “digital hegemony.” He called on countries instead to promote open-source models -- China’s approach to the technology.

For most of the world leaders, one key question about AI is this: Who should control life-and-death decisions — human or machine?

Amodei, Altman and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue, who spoke via a glitchy remote connection, spoke with the U.N.’s most powerful council because they and world leaders are trying to figure out not just whether to control AI, but by whom, how it could possibly be done and when it might be just too late.

The day before, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of “killer robots.” Experts and European leaders said that’s not hyperbole but something that’s either already a grim reality or perilously close.

Amodei called on world leaders to agree on not letting AI build biological weapons, figure out how to verify what models have the capability to do and “establish common standards” for testing and for loss of control and misuse.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, whose country convened Wednesday’s meeting, compared the current state of AI to both the runaway computer HAL9000 in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the dawn of the atomic age.

“Just as with the atom back then, the international community must now regulate AI in order to make the most of its potential and avoid the worst,” Barrot said.

Other leaders and nations are paying close attention to AI

His wasn't the only concern expressed during this high-profile U.N. meeting week.

“We must not allow the cost of today’s hesitation to become tomorrow’s catastrophe,” said Liberian UN Ambassador Lewis G. Brown II.

Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at the General Assembly, said some kind of human control over machines must achieved soon. Otherwise, he said, for his country — at war for 4½ years — it may be just too late.

“There is already a real possibility that AI, not only people, will begin to decide what happens on the battlefield. And we need peace before we reach that point,” Zelenskyy said.

Last month, a Russian drone seemingly using AI “autonomously made a targeting decision that killed three Ukrainians. Killer robots are technically easy to build, and they are real. We should not be under any illusions otherwise,” Kentaro Toyama, an information technology professor at the University of Michigan, said in an email.

Data scientist Rumman Chowdhury, co-founder of the accountability nonprofit Humane Intelligence, said the idea of killer robots “evokes a science-fiction villain, when the question I want the public to ask is much more concrete: Who authorized a machine to select and attack a target, under what constraints, and who answers for the result?”

The U.N. meeting unfolded as Chinese President Xi Jinping headed to Washington for a much-anticipated state visit. AI interests are looking to what comes out of Xi’s discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump. Earlier, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two countries had discussed a potential new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents that could impact national security.

But on Tuesday, Trump, lauding AI as “superintelligence,” said the United States would reject efforts to control the technology as it tries to win the development race with China. Kratsios was the one of the few who used that term in the Security Council.

Meanwhile, regional groups in Europe, Asia and elsewhere also are trying to coordinate AI policies, and various nations — and even subcomponents, such as U.S. states — are crafting their own.

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Farnoush Amiri, Edith M. Lederer and Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from the United Nations.

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

Hurricane Polo, an “extremely dangerous” storm, is expected to skirt Mexico’s Guerrero state, submerging coastal areas with 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain through Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Guerrero has been repeatedly pummeled by hurricanes in recent years.

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Nolo was churning about 295 miles (475 kilometers) south of South Point, Hawaii. The storm is forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday night and is expected to approach the Big Island as early as Friday.

Gov. Josh Green's office said public schools and state and county offices on the Big Island will close Thursday and Friday, while Maui County will shutter them on Friday ahead of the threat of heavy rain, winds and flooding. Forecasters said the storm could drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain.

Polo could bring flooding and mudslides to Mexico’s Pacific coast

Concepción López Villegas was busily bolstering her seaside restaurant in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, against the expected onslaught of rain. Strong waves were already hitting some beaches and López Villegas said she feared the storm could destroy the small business she worked decades to build.

“We’re worried and trying to protect our businesses,” López Villegas said. “And of course, we’re sad because it’s our heritage, our legacy that from one moment to another could be destroyed.”

Guerrero state was particularly at risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, the hurricane center said.

Polo, which was swirling about 130 miles (209 kilometers) south-southwest of Zihuatanejo Wednesday, was not expected to make landfall, meteorologists and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Rain and strong winds had already started to pummel the coast, with waves crashing onto the normally pristine beaches.

The storm was packing winds of 160 mph (257 kph), the hurricane center said Wednesday night. It warned that Polo’s deluge could cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides, in particular in Guerrero.

The region most under threat from the hurricane is rural and mountainous, scattered with a few small tourist towns and ports. Much of the area is marked by poverty and residents routinely complain authorities abandon them to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

Mexico’s government has called for evacuations in some areas and set up shelters for those affected. Thousands of military and Red Cross personnel have been deployed to the region as a preventive measure.

Another hurricane could hit Hawaii as soon as Friday

The National Weather Service said Tropical Storm Nolo would likely strengthen before closing in on the Big Island on Friday or Saturday.

The storm has the potential to be a major hurricane, John Bravender, a weather service warning coordination meteorologist, said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

While high winds are expected, Bravender said the main concern is the possibility of flash flooding. He said 20 to 30 inches (50 to 76 centimeters) of rain could fall through Saturday on southeastern parts of the Big Island, the same region hit hard in August by Hurricane Lala.

“That by itself could cause catastrophic flooding, but when you put that on top of grounds that we’ve been raining off and on for the last couple of months … that rain could cause even more damage," Bravender said.

He urged preparation across all Hawaii islands in case the storm’s trajectory shifts.

“You need to take action now,” said Bravender. “Today is really the last dry day you have to get ready.”

Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda told residents in a video message on social media that they should start preparing now for the storm. He urged people to put together an emergency kit with food, water and medications, trim vegetation and clear drains.

“This is a very serious situation," he said. "We do believe that the rain is going to come. It's coming already.”

The governor issued an emergency proclamation Tuesday and more than 230 Hawaii National Guard members have been activated, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, adjutant general of the state’s department of defense.

Kauai’s electric cooperative urged residents to prepare for “the possibility of prolonged power outages,” and to store nonperishable food and potable water.

Over 100 Kauai households remain without power from Hurricane Lowell, which passed west of the island on Sept. 7.

Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews would return to at-risk areas in preparation for the coming storm.

Odalys strengthens into a hurricane

Hurricane Odalys, also in the Pacific, strengthened on Wednesday, carrying maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (137 kph). It was located about 1,205 miles (1,939 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and was not at risk of making landfall, according to the hurricane center.

An advisory said Odalys could increase in strength over the next couple of days but would likely weaken by the end of the week.

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Aoun reported from San Diego. Associated Press reporters Desiree Brooks in Atlanta and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

“The Malvinas for us is a national cause,” Milei, a strong ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said Wednesday while addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Milei accused the United Nations of failing to enforce international resolutions that urge the parties to “refrain from introducing unilateral changes while the dispute remains unresolved." He also called on Britain to resume negotiations to “find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute.”

“The Malvinas issue is not merely a matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom; it is also a question regarding this organization’s ability to enforce its own resolutions,” he said.

The dispute has escalated in recent weeks

Milei has recently stepped up his efforts to draw attention back to the islands after facing some criticism of his strengthening ties with Britain and his professed admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who in 1982 led the British campaign to retake the archipelago during the Falklands War.

Following Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands under the country’s then-military dictatorship, Thatcher sent a task force all the way down the Atlantic and retook the islands after just 73 days of Argentine control. The war killed 649 Argentine and 255 British troops.

Earlier this month, Milei escalated the dispute with Britain, vowing new measures to halt an oil project near the British-controlled archipelago and praising Trump for saying Washington could reconsider its neutral stance on the islands’ sovereignty.

His government last week introduced a sweeping security bill that would toughen sanctions on companies exploiting resources around the islands without Argentine authorization, create a national security council chaired by Milei and expand the military’s role in protecting critical Argentine infrastructure.

Speaking to global leaders at the U.N. on Wednesday, Milei intensified his criticism.

“Today I come to say that Argentina will not sit and wait for the U.N. and the international community to live up to their own mandate,” he said.

He also sharply criticized the United Nations and its role, accusing it of becoming “a useless organization that serves only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats.”

Britain says it will ‘stand firm’

Against the backdrop of Milei’s recent remarks, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham also addressed the dispute during this high-profile diplomatic week, stating Tuesday that the U.K.’s position is “clear” and that it will “stand firm” in the face of any threats.

“We will defend the ​right of ​the ⁠Falkland Islanders to self-determination and to remain British,” ​Burnham told reporters following a meeting with Trump late Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N.

In August, Trump said he was reviewing the United States’ neutral position over the remote South Atlantic archipelago as he criticized Britain for not doing enough to support the U.S. war against Iran.

The Falklands, which Argentines call the Malvinas, are a small archipelago of about 3,500 people located around 300 miles (480 kilometers) east of the southeast coast of Argentina. They have been a British overseas territory since 1833. In a 2013 referendum, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory, with 99.8% voting in favor and just three votes against.

During Wednesday evening’s packed public meeting, around 100 people showed up, many of them hoping to get insight into how the Conservation Society came to the decision to suspend NIOSA 2027.

“When I saw it on Facebook, shock, total shock,” Terry Schoenert, former NIOSA chair said.

Many people in attendance have been a part of NIOSA or the Conversation Society for decades.

“It’s frustrating,” NIOSA Vice-Chairman Deanna Keesee said. “It’s heartbreaking. [Betty Bueché has] been very cordial but very degrading on top of that so it’s been very frustrating. ... I’ve put 42 years into NIOSA.”

The organization said in a social media post one week prior to this meeting that it is cancelling NIOSA 2027 to re-evaluate and offer the best possible experience for the organization, community, volunteers and partners who make the event possible.

The event dates back to 1936 and is a four-night festival featuring music, food and multicultural experiences inside La Villita.

The president, Betty Bueché, said NIOSA has lost money since 2022. It cost the Conservation Society at least $600,000 every year to run the festival.

Betty Bueché, president of the Conservation Society of San Antonio, said the executive committee and board members decided to suspend NIOSA 2027 by a landslide vote (17-10).

“Our attendance has dropped by 48 percent since COVID,” Bueché said. “There is less interest nationwide.”

During Wednesday’s board meeting, a board member emphasized that The Conservation Society of San Antonio will be losing access to 43 percent of it’s space at La Villita in the next year, however a city spokesperson told KSAT that is not true.

“La Villita remains available for NIOSA, with the same event footprint as last year, including full access to Maverick Plaza,” the statement read.

Multiple people who attended Wednesday night’s public board meeting said they feel like they were not given an opportunity to share their ideas to save NIOSA before it was suspended.

“I think it’s really sad,” April Smith, Conservation Society member, said. “It just hurts us in the long run in terms of what our goals are for the city.”

Members of the Conservation Society passed around a petition during the public board meeting, allowing people who are active members in the organization to sign in solidarity. The purpose of the petition, according to members of the organization, is to request a special meeting of members, the executive board and the task force assembled by the society’s president, to address the decision to pause NIOSA.

“We got to fight this, and we’ve been, and there’s a group of us fighting it,” Terry Schoenert said.

KSAT viewers who no longer attend NIOSA told KSAT they had several reasons for staying away in recent years.

Some said they did not like the crowds. Others pointed to safety concerns after a 2023 shooting at Market Square during Fiesta. Some also said they were afraid of being targeted by immigration officials. But the most common reason viewers gave was cost.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank, a federal agency, would make up to $7 billion available through 2027 for projects in Argentina, the State Department said, helping companies in the country obtain loans to buy American equipment and hire U.S. firms to expand the country’s railways, pipelines, ports and power networks.

The deal advances U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to reduce reliance on China’s mineral processing industry, as well as bolstering his ally President Javier Milei, who is betting on oil, gas and mineral exports to transform Argentina’s economy and ease the chronic dollar shortages that have fueled repeated economic crises.

“Working together, the United States and Argentina seek to continue to build on our robust relationship through increased U.S. investment, close security cooperation and aligned values," the State Department said in a statement.

The relationship has already paid dividends for Milei's Argentina: Last year, Washington backed a $20 billion International Monetary Fund bailout for Argentina and extended a separate $20 billion currency-swap line to stabilize the Argentine peso. The countries also signed a free trade pact earlier this year.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said on Wednesday that the agreement aims to connect Argentina’s lithium- and copper-rich northwest and sprawling Vaca Muerta shale fields to the country’s ports, making it easier to ship minerals, oil and gas to the U.S. and other markets.

Inadequate transport and energy infrastructure has long hampered development of Argentina’s remote deposits. The country's history of protectionist trade policies, currency controls and sovereign debt defaults has also discouraged foreign investment.

Milei, a fierce believer in free markets, has moved to open Argentina's economy, scrapping import restrictions and offering tax breaks to attract investors. That has led to a surge in cheap imports, squeezing labor-intensive industries like manufacturing and retail already struggling under Milei's spending cuts and tight monetary policy. Booming oil production and mining exports have become an economic lifeline.

The country has vast deposits of lithium and copper, minerals that are necessary for the global shift toward green energy.

The F-35 Joint Program Office said in a statement that it and the Defense Department are aware of “a shipment issue" with F-35 components.

“We are actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence,” the office said.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles acknowledged that the jet components ended up in Hong Kong when responding to questions from reporters Tuesday. But he denied that the missing parts were “sensitive equipment.”

Australia is one of several nations whose militaries operate the stealth fighter jet.

“Yeah, so we are obviously working with the United States and obviously with its prime contractor Lockheed Martin, in respect of this,” Marles said.

He added: “My understanding is that there is a sense of comfort, and we’re not talking about sensitive equipment here or sensitive parts. Ultimately, though, this is an issue which is going to be managed by the United States and by Lockheed in terms of what has occurred.”

Lockheed did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for a state visit with President Donald Trump. China's Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the incident, and the Hong Kong government said it would not comment on specific cases.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that China has the F-35 parts — a cockpit canopy and weapons-bay door — after the shipment was unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong while on the way from Australia to the United States for either repair or disposal months ago. It was not clear how the shipment was diverted.

Politico earlier reported that it prompted a congressional inquiry over concerns that China could have access to key components of the highly classified technology.

Beijing has kept tight control over Hong Kong since the territory was returned from British rule in 1997. Hong Kong cannot maintain its own military or conduct its own diplomacy.

The first F-35 Lightning strike fighter rolled off an assembly line in Texas about 20 years ago and was hailed as a technological leap. Since then, more than 1,200 of the stealth jets have been made and 19 countries have placed orders for the planes, according to the Congressional Research Service.

China already may have had at least some intelligence, albeit several years old, on the planes already. The Defense Science Board, which advises the Pentagon, released a report in 2013 alleging that Chinese cyberattacks accessed data from dozens of Pentagon programs, including the joint strike fighter.

The F-35 is “widely recognized as America’s best and most advanced fighter jet,” according to Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington-based think tank.

Bowman told the AP in November that American military systems are constantly being updated and improved, counteracting any possible secrets stolen years ago.

Described as a fifth-generation fighter, the F-35's technologies include stealth coatings as well as advanced radar and sensors, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Bowman said the plane has advanced sensors to better detect enemies as well as networking capabilities to communicate with allied planes and ground forces during combat.

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Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

The Fiesta Flambeau Parade Association announced the winner Wednesday evening at the Scobee Education Center.

The venue timing was no coincidence. The Scobee Education Center is home to a planetarium—a fitting backdrop for a parade theme centered on the cosmos.

Riojas’ winning design captures the parade’s “Cosmic Nights: A Universe of Lights” theme in full. The poster features stars stretching over the San Antonio skyline, a pair of folklorico dancers front and center, and a glowing UFO-like light beneath the Tower of the Americas — a nod to both the city’s culture and the celestial theme.

Riojas said she had wanted to win the contest for a long time.

The Fiesta Flambeau Parade Association unveiled the “Cosmic Nights” theme last month, setting the stage for the poster competition.

Known as America’s largest illuminated night parade, the Fiesta Flambeau Parade has traveled through downtown San Antonio for nearly 80 years. It draws massive crowds each year and serves as one of the signature events of Fiesta San Antonio.

Fiesta 2027 is scheduled for April 15-25. The Flambeau Parade will take place on April 24.

More Fiesta coverage on KSAT:

• Miss Fiesta San Antonio 2027 applications close Sept. 25
• Fiesta San Antonio members to choose official 2027 poster design at ‘5 to 1’ event
• NIOSA financial records show multiple years of deficits leading up to decision to suspend event

Meanwhile, another ship attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz was struck by a projectile, highlighting the dangers that continue to restrict traffic through the critical waterway as the seven-month war grinds on.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.

Iran's president calls US attacks ‘cowardly’

Iran's president said his country's people had been the “victims of terrorism” by the United States.

Delivering a rare wartime speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Pezeshkian displayed images of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed in the opening days of the conflict.

“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” he said. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country.”

Turning to the United States, Pezeshkian added: “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.”

Rubio says Trump still open to a deal to make Iran ‘prosperous’

Pezeshkian addressed world leaders a day after U.S. President Donald Trump used the same stage to suggest that he might “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if an agreement was not reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.

Hours later, Trump touted “a very good meeting” between his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Iranian officials. Tehran, however, downplayed the talks. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said they were “not anything new.”

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Trump remained open to an agreement “that allows Iran to be what it should be, which is a great and prosperous country.”

Rubio said the prospects for such a deal were hindered by Iran’s nuclear ambitions and “their support of terrorism.” If those policies continued, he said, Trump could exercise “a number of options,” including further military action.

Hard-liners in Iran criticize talks with US

Hard-line figures in Iran attacked Iran’s top diplomat for engaging with the U.S. at the U.N., triggering pushback from rival factions in Tehran.

In an X post, lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei demanded that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi explain the decision to meet with “the aggressor enemy.”

Ali Ahmadnia, a media official for Iran’s president, responded by posting an AI-generated image depicting Araghchi as a wounded warrior.

“How can a soldier be on the battlefield while the home front is being weakened from within?!" Ahmadnia wrote on X. “The Iranian delegation in New York operates in full coordination with the relevant institutions.”

US-backed Board of Peace proposes plan to begin Gaza reconstruction

The U.S.-backed Board of Peace is proposing a six-month, $2.45 billion plan to begin reconstruction and governance in Gaza as President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan struggles to stay afloat.

At a meeting of the group’s board in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, the governors unveiled a 66-project blueprint to get things started while acknowledging enormous hurdles that must still be overcome. The projects include ambitious infrastructure, education and health initiatives that are designed to support Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war.

The proposal comes as the the U.S.-backed plan has largely stalled.

While the ceasefire halted the heaviest fighting and humanitarian conditions have improved, the Israeli military has expanded its control of Gaza and now occupies some 60% of the territory. Hamas has not given up its weapons. The international military force and new government still have not entered Gaza, and reconstruction has not begun. The vast majority of Palestinians continue to live in tent camps or ruins of their former homes.

“The need is immense,” the board said, noting that full reconstruction from the physical damage across Gaza will cost roughly $35.2 billion over the medium term and an additional $71.4 billion over the next 10 years.

Another ship hit in the Strait of Hormuz

A cargo ship was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, citing an unidentified company security officer.

The vessel was hit by an “unknown projectile,” resulting in two casualties, UKMTO said without providing further details. The crew abandoned the ship, which caught fire and was left adrift.

The attack was the first reported in two days. No one immediately claimed responsibility.

The incident highlighted the continuing danger to ships attempting to navigate the waterway. Some vessels appear to be making “dark passages” without transmitting identifying signals, but Iran and the United States have maintained their competing blockades. Commercial traffic remains well below prewar levels, according to ship-tracking data from analytics firm Kpler.

Restrictions on shipping through the strait have become one of the war’s most persistent consequences. Before the conflict, one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passed through the narrow waterway, along with large volumes of natural gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products.

Vehicle ramming in the West Bank injures ambassador's son

The son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States was gravely injured in a ramming attack in the occupied West Bank.

Neria Leiter, a reservist in Israel’s military, “needs a miracle,” Ambassador Yechiel Leiter posted on social media. The ambassador’s older son, Moshe Yedidya Leiter, who also served in Israel’s military, was killed in Gaza about a month after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

According to the military and law enforcement, a Palestinian man rammed his car into a security checkpoint Wednesday afternoon near the settlement of Beit Horon, seriously wounding the soldier. Israeli forces then opened fire at the man as he attempted to flee and killed him.

More military forces were deployed in the aftermath in the area, which is crossed by a major highway connecting Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog both sent wishes for Leiter’s recovery. A social media post by Herzog described Leiter as “fighting for his life.”

Major Arab parties disqualified from running in Israeli elections

Israel’s election commission voted Wednesday to disqualify major Arab political parties and candidates from running in next month’s polls.

The disqualification came at the request of two right-wing parties, including the Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The parties had said the candidates were ineligible under a law barring those who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel.

Wednesday’s vote targeted the United Arab List, a religious Arab Muslim party also known by its Hebrew name Ra’am; as well as the Joint List, an alliance of left-wing and Arab-majority parties. Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas said the decision was a “political, illegitimate, and anti-democratic move” and that the party would appeal to the Supreme Court.

Elections will be held next month, the first since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that plunged Israel into war.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

The alleged incident was reported to the Texas Education Agency, SAISD said.

The district said they are providing support to the student and the student’s family.

Further information was not immediately available.

KSAT 12 reached out to SAPD and DPS for more information.

Read SAISD’s full statement below:

We are investigating a reported incident at the campus, along with relevant law enforcement agencies and Child Protective Services, and we have reported the allegation to the Texas Education Agency. We are communicating personally and privately with the affected student and family to ensure they are receiving the support and care they need.

SAISD

“The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information," the FBI said in a statement. It said that while the “point of breach” was undetermined, "we are actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely with those third-party providers that support FBIJobs.gov to mitigate any and all risk.”

The jobs website, the main portal for prospective employees to learn about the FBI and initiate the application process, remained offline as of Wednesday afternoon.

A message that circulated online from a hacking group known as ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the hack.

“We have compromised the FBI. We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job,” said the ShinyHunters message, which was directed to FBI Director Kash Patel and Brett Leatherman, the assistant director in charge of the bureau's cyber division.

The claims could not immediately be verified. An email to an address associated with ShinyHunters was not immediately returned.

The hackers are seeking retribution over an FBI advisory

Miriam Wugmeister, a lawyer specializing in data, privacy and cybercrime who tracks hacking outfits like ShinyHunters, said that based on the group's past practices, there was reason to believe the hackers' claims, “so I think it’s likely that they were able to compromise this website and they got some data.”

She said that though the data that appeared to be compromised was the type of personal information that is routinely accessed during a breach, the hack nonetheless had alarming national security implications given that it could expose agents and their families to extortion, swatting and other harassment and because the identities of spouses were also said to have been obtained.

“Even if the agents and the analysts and the employees are sophisticated, you worry about their families too,” she said.

In its message, ShinyHunters said it would give the bureau one week to correct or remove what it said were false allegations contained in an FBI public advisory from May that described the organization as a “cyber criminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches and extortion.”

That advisory characterized ShinyHunters as “threat actors” who often "use their real or exaggerated claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims," commonly harass or threaten victims and “may falsely claim to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs or videos of victims, which frequently do not exist.”

ShinyHunters said in its message to the FBI that it was “offended” by those characterizations and demanded that the FBI remove those claims. It did not say what would happen if the FBI did not do so within a week.

“This is not a ransom, coercion, or extortion. Your federal policies do not apply here. This PSA is NOT financially motivated,” the hacking group's message said.

ShinyHunters has a reputation for “causing trouble and being disruptive,” Wugmeister said, as evidenced by the group’s involvement in a hack last spring of Canvas, an online system used by thousands of schools and universities. The breach created chaos as students tried to study for finals and prompted the FBI’s advisory that ShinyHunters is now objecting to.

There have been other cyber incidents concerning the FBI

The hack was first reported by 404 Media, an online technology publication that said a representative of ShinyHunters shared what appeared to be a sample of personal data of 5,000 FBI employees, including addresses, phone numbers and some information on spouses.

The publication said the ShinyHunters representative said the group carried out the hack through an apparent vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft software, commonly used by companies and government agencies for large-scale data processing and human resources purposes. The FBI said in its statement that it had not determined whether the “point of breach” involved a “third-party or the FBI’s enterprise.”

The FBI, the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency, has been a common target for hackers.

In March, the FBI disclosed that it was investigating “suspicious activities” on an internal system that contains sensitive information related to surveillance operations and investigations. Also that month, a pro-Iranian hacking group claimed to have hacked an account of Patel's and posted online what appeared to be years-old photographs of him, along with a work resume and other personal documents dating back more than a decade.

The FBI described the compromised information as “historical in nature” and said it involved "no government information.”

At the company's annual Connect conference on Wednesday, Zuckerberg opened his keynote address by saying “it’s no secret that people in the industry have a wide range of views about how the future is going to go.” But at Meta, he said, “we are optimists because we believe in people.”

Zuckerberg has distanced himself and Meta from recent calls by rival companies for a coordinated slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence, arguing that individual labs can and should ensure their technology is safe.

“We believe that the best way to create a positive future for everyone is to put power in people’s hands," he said at the conference. "We believe that empowering people is the source of prosperity in the world, that the highest purpose of superintelligence is creation and invention — not automation — and that the path to a safe future is to distribute this technology widely and create the right checks and balances, rather than concentrating it in the hands of just a few.”

Zuckerberg has long said he believes wearable AI will eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people interact with technology. At the conference, the company unveiled a slew of updates to its smart glasses and virtual reality goggles, which let people control their interface using their voice, eyes and hand and finger movements.

AI agent Muse is the ‘centerpiece’ of Meta's vision

Zuckerberg said that Meta's recently launched agent Muse is the “centerpiece" of Meta's hopeful outlook for the future of AI.

Having an AI agent, which goes beyond chatbots in that it can act and perform tasks on a person’s behalf, has been a “sign of someone who is completely AI-pilled,” Meta's chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said at the conference. With Muse, Wang said, Meta is making agents more accessible and bringing “personal superintelligence” to everyone.

With the help of a mascot for the agent that looks like a plush toy, Wang and senior leadership at Meta demonstrated different uses for the Muse in everyday life. Users will be able to have real-time voice conversations and video chats with their version of the agent, which can also be customized to look and sound unique. The agent can help users plan travel, book reservations, order groceries and complete other helpful tasks. Meta has partnered with companies like OpenTable, Spotify, Ticketmaster and more to help its agents complete these tasks.

The company is working to bring Muse to its AI glasses lineup for hands-free access.

Zuckerberg also said Meta is planning to release a keychain-like device that has the “whole Muse experience” packed into it, called Muse Charm, in time for the holidays in December. The palm-sized device will allow users to engage with a personal AI agent without using a phone, computer or smart glasses.

New AI audio glasses and new updates to popular models

Meta is launching an audio version of its more widely known smart glasses. The new product will let users listen to music, make calls and talk with an AI assistant — there’s just no screen, and no video recording, which has raised privacy concerns with some users recording people without permission. Called Ray-Ban Meta Audio, it will be available in October and the cost starts at $349.

Meta is also building upon a previous feature that allowed glasses wearers to better hear a conversation in a noisy environment. Now, Zuckerberg said, a feature called hearing enhancement turns your glasses into an “FDA-cleared, over-the-counter hearing aid” that can “compensate for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.” The feature will launch in the U.S. later this year and will be available to add to supported AI glasses for $150, or with a Meta One subscription.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses have been upgraded with new features, including improved cycling and transit navigation and a personalized hologram for video calls.

The company is also offering more styles to appeal to a broader range of people and says it will have more than 100 different options across its Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta Glasses by the end of the year. The glasses will also be available in more countries, including Turkey, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

The newest generation of the classic Ray-Ban Meta glasses is also now available, with what the company touts as a slimmer, sleeker design and increased battery life, among other upgrades. The Generation 3 models are available now with prices starting at $449.

Virtual reality gets a makeover with Meta VR

Glasses

The most drastic update announced at the conference is to the company's VR device, now called Meta VR Glasses. That is because the previous bulky headset has been replaced by a set of glasses, which weigh about 100 grams (3.5 ounces), or roughly as much as a deck of cards. In comparison, the Meta Quest 3, which launched in 2023, weighs about five times that much. The difference feels similar to that between scuba diving and swimming goggles.

While they are significantly lighter and more sleek than VR predecessors, the glasses require a wired connection to an external puck for battery, storage and compute.

Instead of controllers or a neural wristband that past headsets or glasses required, the VR glasses use an eye-tracking camera and sensor that essentially lets your eyes be the computer cursor and your fingers the mouse clicker. If you want to open an app, for instance, you look at it and use hand and finger gestures, or use voice commands to talk to the Meta AI agent.

In a demo at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters on Tuesday, Meta showed off entertainment and work offerings on the glasses, including sports events and concerts that replicate the experience of having courtside or front-row seats. A new feature called “VR Enhanced Cinema,” meanwhile, seeks to immerse viewers in the movie by transforming their surroundings beyond the screen into a virtual world inspired by the movie, with dynamic effects, 3D visuals and spatial audio.

Once the glasses launch, users will have access to more than 100 immersive live sports events from that courtside-like view, because of partnerships with ESPN, MLB, NBC Sports, TNT Sports and UFC. The glasses can also function as a gaming console, Meta said, and there will be more than 75 games at launch that users can play solely with hand gestures.

The glasses can also be used for work. Users can conjure a virtual keyboard on any flat surface and use the display as their computer screen (or several screens) only they can see. For even more of a robust setup, users will be able to connect their Mac or Windows PC to seamlessly transition onto these screens, and bring their own keyboard and mouse. The VR glasses, unlike headsets of the past, will let wearers see their desk setup and surroundings while they work.

One of Zuckerberg's live demos of the night also showed off the glasses' ability to use hologram technology to project a photorealistic digital version of a person, including their real-time expressions and reactions, for hands-free video calling.

The VR glasses will launch in the spring of 2027 and cost $1,300.

First in line is “bimpert,” a Bermudian word of unknown origin that is used to describe a stupid or foolish person. People on the tiny island in the north Atlantic often use it in this traditional phrase: “A bimpert is justah wuffless bye,” which roughly translates to: an idiot is just a worthless boy.

Another colorful addition is “hornerman,” a word used in the eastern Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago since 1975 to describe an unfaithful man or a man having a relationship with someone else's partner.

Leonard Alexander, a grocery store owner in Trinidad, chuckled at the inclusion of the word “hornerman.” He explained that to “horn” means being unfaithful, and now the world would know the term for a man who commits such an act.

“That’s our heritage, that’s what we grew up with,” Alexander said.

If someone in the Caribbean were to find out about such infidelities, they might be known “to get on,” which means to have an emotional outburst or make a scene, or “to cut someone’s tail,” meaning to beat someone.

Depending on the fallout from such infidelities, a woman might need “vex money,” which refers to “money carried or kept in a safe place by a woman, for use in an emergency or in any unexpected eventuality.”

Among other dark words that made the list is “jablesse,” defined as "a malevolent shape-shifting female spirit with one cloven hoof, which at night is said to assume the form of a beautiful woman to lure men to their deaths.” It is derived from “diablesse,” the French word for female demon.

Another supernatural entry is “douen." It is “typically depicted as short in stature, with backward-pointing feet, and wearing a large hat, said to be the spirit of a child who died before it could be baptized, and believed to lure children into the forest by calling their names,” according to the dictionary. It is a variation of the Spanish word “duende,” which means elf.

Avionne George, a 45-year-old maintenance technician in Trinidad, said formal recognition of such words helps preserve tradition for the younger generations: “Most of them are ignorant of certain terms from long ago like ‘douen.' They don’t know about ‘la jablesse.'”

Several food-related words were included this year: “shadeesh,” the Bermudian word for chorizo; “sugar cake,” made of grated coconut boiled with sugar, water and spices; and “peanut punch,” a wildly popular rich and frothy beverage made with peanuts or peanut butter, milk, sugar and several spices.

In the Caribbean, one might sit down to have a peanut punch with one’s “nana” or “nani,” Hindi words that are used to address one’s maternal grandparents. In Bermuda, one would sit down to partake with a “hamma,” or friend.

The final Caribbean English words added this year are “Trinbagonian,” which refers to people from both the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and “canboulay,” which refers to Carnival festivities in Trinidad in the 1800s that celebrated the emancipation of slaves. They stem from a 1700s harvest festival that the British tried to quash, leading to riots reenacted to this day to mark the start of Carnival. Canboulay is derived from “burning cane,” which the dictionary noted was associated with “acts of defiance and rebellion.”

Sherwin Williams, a construction worker in Trinidad, said the inclusion of such words in the Oxford English Dictionary would help people around the world understand their Trinidadian origins. “People recognize us by our slang,” he said.

There are some 500,000 words and phrases in the Oxford English Dictionary, which details the history of words, some of which go back to the 11th century.

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Associated Press reporter Anselm Gibbs in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad contributed to this report.

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

Fast-food traffic in many markets, including the U.S., is flat, so for McDonald’s to continue to grow it has to grab share from competitors and improve restaurant productivity, McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said at a meeting with investors at the company’s Chicago headquarters. McDonald's wants to automate more tasks, like inventory and scheduling, and improve kitchen operations.

“The winners will be the companies that create more demand and deliver it more efficiently,” Kempczinski said.

McDonald's shares fell nearly 5% Wednesday, their largest percentage drop since April 2025, as investors shuddered at the eye-popping price of improving McDonald's 46,000 global stores.

On the product side, McDonald's said hand-breaded chicken, which has rolled out at 10,000 restaurants in Asia and a handful of restaurants near Chicago, has boosted sales and quality ratings. Many of McDonald's competitors, like Chick-fil-A and KFC, offer hand-breaded chicken. The company plans to expand its testing to more markets in the U.S. and Ireland next year.

McDonald's also plans to introduce grilled chicken sandwiches and wraps in the U.S. and other markets and experiment with products like egg bites and bowls to meet the needs of customers who are seeking more protein and varied portion sizes.

Skye Anderson, the president of McDonald’s USA, said approximately 30 million Americans are now using GLP-1 weight loss drugs, and they’re seeking smaller, more protein-packed meals as a result. But the company’s research indicates that 60 million Americans are actively seeking more protein in their diet.

“This is an opportunity. We need to keep giving them more reasons to make McDonald’s their first choice,” Anderson said at McDonald’s investor day.

McDonald’s said the restaurant modernizations include lockers to handle delivery orders, more visible coffee preparation areas to enhance quality perceptions, bigger play areas and improved kitchen layouts. Scales to help ensure order accuracy – which are already in use at 10,000 restaurants globally – will be in 20,000 restaurants by 2028, McDonald’s said.

The company is deploying its ArchIQ system, developed with Google, that improves order accuracy with artificial intelligence and automates tasks like inventory management and scheduling. Archy, the company's AI-enabled drive-thru ordering system, is now capable of taking orders in Spanish and English with a 90% accuracy rate.

Archy could eventually reduce at least 50 labor hours per week in a typical McDonald's, Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said. But he said the intention is not to reduce staffing. Instead, employees can focus more on hospitality or on tasks like hand-breading chicken.

Kempczinski said customers have responded positively to Archy in testing because it helps make their orders more accurate.

“It's not AI is bad or AI is good. We try to be really thoughtful about how we use it,” he said.

McDonald's is also rolling out new employee training that will focus on hospitality and food quality, said Tiffanie Boyd, McDonald's chief people officer. The training will be more experience-based, showing employees what a perfectly cooked Big Mac tastes like, for example, and will encourage more pleasant interactions with customers.

At the same time, McDonald's is still focused on value. Kempczinski said low-income consumers, defined as U.S. households making $45,000 or less, continue to go out for fast food but not as often as they used to. McDonald's has done a good job with meal bundles, like its $5 meal deal, he said. But the company is exploring ways to offer entry-level prices on a basic menu of items in the U.S., as it does in Europe and other markets.

“This is the environment that we’re in right now. You have to be on your game and deliver that value,” Kempczinski said. “The pressure around cost of living isn't going away.”

McDonald’s U.S. franchisees typically spend up to $450,000 per decade on required store remodels. Under the company’s new plan, they will have to spend an additional $800,000 over time, but McDonald’s will pay a portion of that cost in the form of rent relief and capital support.

Borden said the investments will be phased in over time when markets and individual franchisees are ready for them. Once the investments are made, the efficiency improvements will deliver roughly $100,000 in annual cash flow benefits to the average U.S. restaurant, some of which can be reinvested in the restaurant, Borden said.

“We'd love to see it going into hospitality to elevate the experience with our customers,” Borden said.

The filings are the latest against the world-famous amusement park operator and S&S Worldwide, the manufacturer of the X2 roller coaster cars. Six Flags recently settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding the coaster in 2022.

According to documents filed Monday, Pamela Guillen and her family visited the park in July for her daughter's 16th birthday and decided to ride the X2 roller coaster. When the ride stopped, her daughter saw her “sitting with a vacant stare and her mouth open,” confused and unable to exit the ride.

Shortly after she got out, the previously healthy 39-year-old collapsed and was taken to a hospital, where she underwent emergency brain surgery, according to the lawsuit.

Just five days later, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson boarded the ride with her siblings. She also collapsed shortly after the ride ended and was taken to a hospital, where she was found to have massive brain bleeding inside the skull that required emergency brain surgery. She remains in a vegetative state in the hospital, unable to speak or move and dependent on a ventilator. Her family filed the lawsuit on her behalf.

Their attorney, Gary Dordick, said the firm has been retained by more than 100 clients who suffered brain injuries after riding the X2 roller coaster within the past two years.

“It’s inexcusable that more isn’t done,” Dordick said. “It was known by Magic Mountain that those injuries and deaths occurred, and they kept the ride open.”

A spokesperson for Six Flags said it's the company's policy not to comment on pending litigation. The ride has been closed since the evening of July 12.

Extreme roller coaster has riders bracing for impact

According to the Six Flags Magic Mountain website, the X2 roller coaster reaches a top speed of 76 mph (122 kph) and has a total length of 3,610 feet (1,100 meters). The seats rotate 360 degrees “so your body will be flipping around the entire time,” and the ride features two “raven turns” — half loops that turn into sheer drops midway. It debuted at the park in 2002 as the world's first “fourth dimension” rollercoaster and reopened in 2008 with new trains and special effects. The uniqueness of the ride drew thrill-seekers from around the world and garnered a fervent fanbase.

Frequent riders of X2 have discussed on Reddit forums the “unspoken rules” of how to ride the roller coaster without getting injured. Many cite the final raven turn as the most extreme part of the ride and say they have gotten major headaches and what felt like concussions if they didn't brace their heads properly. One even said they wore a soft head helmet the last time they were on the ride.

“The snapping bangs the head against the headrest and it’s causing brain damage, it’s causing hemorrhaging within the skull,” Dordick said.

Another one of his clients, Michael Wilk, visited the park with his daughter and grandchildren in February. Immediately after going on the ride, he felt stabbing pain in his head, dizziness and had difficulty walking, the lawsuit states.

While he didn't seek medical attention immediately, his cognitive function quickly declined in the following weeks as he tried to return to his job as an insurance defense attorney. An MRI scan a few months later showed massive bleeding and swelling inside his skull, requiring multiple surgeries to relieve the pressure on his brain. He said he continues to suffer debilitating headaches, confusion, dizziness, memory loss, and personality changes, and can no longer practice law.

The lawsuit accused Six Flags of intentionally restricting “public disclosure of evidence concerning X2 injuries and safety issues.”

College graduate died after riding X2 in 2022

The new lawsuits follow a settlement for wrongful death in the case of Christopher Hawley, a 22-year-old who died the day after he rode X2 and was rushed to the hospital after the ride with severe brain bleeding. The medical examiner's office said his death was from “blunt head trauma.”

An engineer involved in testing the ride when it reopened in 2008 said in court filings for Hawley's case that the acceleration forces exerted on a rider by the X2 roller coaster abided by standard practices for amusement park rides that were adopted by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The division also inspected the ride's seat restraints and head padding, a state employee said in a deposition.

The employee also testified that more testing was done in 2022 following Hawley's death, but Six Flags provided them with data showing the acceleration forces exerted by the roller coaster were still within standards. The division allowed Six Flags to reopen the rollercoaster after their findings.

Hawley's attorneys alleged in court filings that the ride's headrest failed to secure or protect the rider's head and neck from the extreme forces exerted by the roller coaster. They also alleged that there was inadequate maintenance when the wheels on the ride exhibited excessive wear or degradation, affecting the forces exerted on a rider.

Dordick said the amusement park operator has argued that people are accepting risk by voluntarily going on a thrill ride, and that people who suffer injuries often have preexisting conditions.

“The risk people reasonably assume is they get dizzy, maybe someone might throw up,” Dordick said. “No one goes to a family fun amusement park and assumes the risk of brain damage.”

Many had spent hundreds of dollars on their tickets, and those looking for last minute tickets to the sold-out show were confronted with re-sale prices in excess of $1,400 for the “best” seats on Ticketmaster.

Beginning Oct. 1, though, attending top Alamodome events will get even more expensive, and out-of-town concert-goers will eventually face higher costs, too, when they stay overnight.

As part of its FY 2027 budget, the San Antonio City Council approved raising the facility fee rolled into every ticket price at the city-owned Alamodome from $6.50 to $7.50, and the maximum price for on-site parking will jump from $60 to $75.

This will be the second time those fees have been increased in three years. Before October 2025, the facility fee had been between $5.50 and $6.00, depending on the event, and parking was capped at up to $40 per space.

KSAT asked San Antonio Convention and Sports Facilities Marketing Manager Victor Caballero if the city was worried about raising the price too much when people are already paying hundreds, or even more than $1,000, for a few tickets.

“I think what we do take into consideration is what other markets are doing and making sure that we’re not exceeding those amounts. We’re staying within that range,” Caballero said. “And in many cases, if you compare our parking to other markets, you’ll see that we are oftentimes much lower.”

Caballero said that, on average, about three-quarters of attendees at major concerts are coming in from “out of market,” driving in from places like Houston, Dallas, Austin, or the Rio Grande Valley.

But the price of hotel stays will eventually go up, too. Bexar County voters approved a 0.25% increase to the Hotel Occupancy Tax in November 2025 as part a plan to help fund both a new Spurs arena and renovate the county-owned facilities around the Freeman Coliseum.

A county spokeswoman said county commissioners haven’t taken the official steps to actually institute the tax increase yet. She was unable to confirm when that might happen.

On Monday, The Texas Tribune published an investigation revealing the sweeping set of reforms state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has implemented, known as the New Education System, is straining district finances. HISD has dipped into reserves and had previous cuts to afford the costly reforms as it is losing tens of millions of dollars in state funding because of enrollment losses.

District officials characterized the recent reductions on Tuesday as part of its annual “campus leveling” process, in which schools receive more or less money depending on how closely their enrollment matches projections made in the spring. Employees affected by the reductions may be reassigned to other available positions, HISD officials said in a press release.

But the district’s release also noted that the cuts reflect a “broader financial environment” marked by declining enrollment and limited resources. It did not disclose how many campuses are affected, how much spending will be eliminated or how many positions are at risk.

Houston administrators planned the district’s budgets this year based on forecasts that it would lose 4,000 students, according to May budget documents. That projection is about half the roughly 8,000 students HISD lost the previous year.

Enrollment drops have accelerated every year since the takeover began, according to the Tribune’s analysis. The state funnels money to public schools largely based on attendance, which means every student who leaves translates to less revenue.

“We have worked hard over the last three years to put HISD on stronger financial footing while putting more resources into classrooms and increasing teacher pay,” Miles said in a press release. “But we also have to adjust when enrollment and revenues change. We have to make responsible decisions now so the District remains financially strong and can continue investing in the things that have the greatest impact on student achievement.”

The Tribune obtained communications to parents from several campuses that will be affected. At Lamar High School, principal Rita Gaves explained that the school was facing a $500,000 shortfall, which would impact the choir and debate programs. At T.H. Rogers Middle School, an assistant principal and a librarian will be reassigned to trim spending, principal Suparna Vashisht told parents in a statement.

Brooke Markeloff is a parent of a seventh grader at T.H. Rogers. While enrollment numbers this year are not yet publicly available, she said the magnet school doesn’t typically struggle with that because it has a steady list of families on the waitlist.

Enrollment across the district consistently fell below projections by an average of 1,700 students in each of the first three years of the takeover, according to an analysis by the Texas Tribune. Official enrollment counts are not due to the state until October, but the Houston Chronicle reported the district lost 10,000 students from the year prior, making the gap between projected and actual enrollment about 6,000 students.

In the first three years of the takeover, HISD lost 21,000 students at a rate faster than other urban district peers. Those losses had already cost the district $190 million before the latest round of cuts.

“All of this is unsustainable. …We’re going to eventually hit a wall,” Markeloff said. “It boggles my mind that he’s allowed to spend and make all these changes without anybody checking him. That’s what the board is supposed to do, but we have a board of managers who just rubber stamp everything that he’s doing.”

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appointed Miles and a board of managers to lead the district in a state takeover, giving them control of the district.

As Texas’ top officials treat Miles’ reforms as the blueprint for improving student academic achievement, tapping former HISD administrators to lead other takeover districts, the cost of the New Education System raises questions about whether districts can afford to follow. An analysis by the Tribune found the reforms cost a campus about $700,000 the first year it was adopted and an extra $2,000 per student in the years after.

One HISD employee who manages finances at a non-NES campus, said the directive was unusual and alarming. In previous years, school leaders are typically given soft guidance about adjusting staffing levels based on latest enrollment around this time, but this year the orders to cut were mandatory. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation for her job.

Tracy Lisewsky, who has tracked the district’s spending and is a parent of an HISD graduate who got her diploma during the takeover, worried about what the early cuts foreshadow for the district.

“Something must be really, really wrong with our cash flow … and the budget, for cuts to be coming this early into the school year,” Lisewsky said.

Overall, HISD’s annual operating budget is about $2 billion. The district has a workforce of about 22,600 employees last year, including about 10,000 teachers.

Other districts across the state have also shuffled staff because enrollment fell below projections. Fort Worth ISD, for example, leveled at campuses last month after enrollment was about 2,500 students short of what was projected, according to the Fort Worth Report. That district is in the first year of its state takeover.

Rob Reid contributed to this report.

Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the extension of the truce — under which the countries agreed to scale back tariffs and refrain from imposing new trade restrictions — during a Fox News Channel interview as Trump welcomed Xi at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington.

“I don’t know whether a bigger deal can be done. I don’t know whether we will just roll the current deal,” Bessent said in the interview, noting the extension to Jan. 10 could give the leaders more time to talk about the issues at upcoming international summits in China in November and Florida in December.

Trade has been one of the biggest flashpoints between the two superpowers, along with artificial intelligence, Trump’s war with Iran and China’s designs on Taiwan. But much of Xi's three-day visit is expected to be far more about pomp than substance, starting with Trump’s decision to greet Xi as he landed, rather than waiting for him to drive up to the White House.

A 100-foot (30 meter) long red carpet was unfurled at the bottom of the staircase placed at the door of Xi's plane. A 21-person honor guard was arrayed on the sides of the carpet and Trump and first lady Melania Trump stood near a staircase on the side of the plane, where they greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with handshakes.

The welcome ceremony also included a flyover by two B-1 bombers, platoons from each military service, and a presentation of the flags and anthems of both countries. Trump and his wife spoke to their counterparts, but their words could not be heard. Trump, who wore gloves and an overcoat though it was a relatively warm 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) outside, removed one of his gloves to shake hands with Xi. At one point, he slapped Xi on the back and said something to him that was inaudible.

“I think they appreciate it, tremendous people,” Trump told reporters after he returned to the White House Wednesday evening.

In a statement marking his arrival in the U.S., China’s leader wrote that his country and the U.S. “should be partners, not rivals. Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand and the two countries can contribute to each other’s success, thereby benefiting the wider world.”

Some Republicans have questioned the optics of the visit

Beyond using the visit to try to keep “strategic stability” between the two countries, Trump has lavished praise on Xi as a “great leader” and described a warm relationship with the man he has called a friend. That is all while he has given Xi a pass on many issues.

Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the “lavish welcome.” Wicker, R-Miss., said during a speech Tuesday in the Senate that Trump should not have invited the Chinese leader “based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. and China must interact at the highest levels because the countries are “the two largest economies in the world” and “probably the two most powerful militaries in the world.”

Danny Russel, a former U.S. diplomat under former President Barack Obama's administration, said the airport pomp delivered a propaganda win for Beijing.

“Such extreme deference is valuable evidence that China’s leader is now held in extraordinarily high esteem by the President of the United States. Beijing uses this at home and internationally to show China’s — and Xi’s — growing stature,” said Russel, now at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

China had hoped for a longer extension of the trade truce

China had wanted a longer extension of the trade truce, which had been set to expire on Nov. 10. “It underscores that the United States is still concerned about China’s full implementation of its commitments under the truce, particularly with respect to critical mineral exports and agricultural purchases,” said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator and now senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The tight timeframe gives the U.S. a chance to test whether China will deliver on unmet promises to buy U.S. farm goods, said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “This is less about buying two months of calm than making China earn the next extension,” he said.

Trump has not yet commented on the extension. The two leaders are expected to talk about issues of substance more on Thursday, after an arrival ceremony at the White House and a review of troops. Later, they will exchange toasts at a black-tie dinner, which will feature tech industry leaders like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

Trump to welcome Xi with ‘the most respect’

Trump has made it clear he wants to wow Xi, telling reporters in recent weeks that he was delighted his new “work of art” helicopter landing pad would be ready for the visit while bemoaning that his massive White House ballroom would not.

“I wish we had it for tomorrow night," Trump said again Wednesday.

Trump on Wednesday was looking to match the pageantry he was met with in China earlier this year. Xi was not at the airport to meet Trump — Chinese Vice President Han Zheng was there instead. But a red carpet was rolled out to meet Air Force One in Beijing. A military honor guard, a military band and about 300 Chinese youths waving Chinese and American flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome! Warm welcome!” also were present.

The first lady said earlier Wednesday that her husband decided to personally greet Xi when he arrived in the Washington region because “they have a great relationship.”

“He’s coming on our soil, and we need to welcome them with the most respect,” she said of Xi and his wife during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”

The long red carpet recalled a similar extra-long one the U.S. laid out for Russian President Vladimir Putin when he touched down at a U.S. Air Force base in Alaska last summer for a summit aimed at trying to find an end to Russia's war in Ukraine.

On Friday, Xi and Peng will be back at the White House for a private tea with the Trumps before joining them on a tour of the National Archives in Washington. The White House has said they will view historic documents underscoring the relationship between the two countries.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Will Weissert and Collin Binkley contributed to this report.

Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey, 41, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced deceased at 6:34 p.m., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In his final statement, Ramey expressed his devotion to God and his family, and also thanked the other men on Texas’ death row for their support.

Ramey, who was 21 when he was convicted in 2007, said he grew up while in prison with the help of his fellow inmates.

“I didn’t come from a culture in a healthy sense. To you brothers, I can’t name everybody, you know who you are, I greatly appreciate you,” Ramey said.

Ramey broke into a neighbor’s home in Edna with LeJames Norman in 2005 intending to steal cocaine before encountering the residents, according to court records. Celso Lopez was inside the home at the time of the break-in and was fatally shot. Tiffani Peacock and Sam Roberts arrived later and were killed by Ramey and Norman, who then fled the scene.

Ramey was convicted after several witnesses, including his girlfriend, testified that he had admitted to the killings. Ramey’s girlfriend helped police recover the two guns used in the murders. Norman, who was executed Sept. 16, also testified against Ramey during his trial.

Ramey had two unsuccessful appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, and a new appeal filed Sept. 10 with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was rejected on Monday. The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Ramey on Wednesday afternoon.

Ramey’s appeals primarily focused on allegations that the almost all-white jury that sentenced him to death was “infected with racial bias,” and that he received ineffective counsel from his lawyer, who was a full-time dentist and was not experienced in capital punishment trials.

Ramey is the sixth man put to death in Texas this year. Three more men are scheduled to be executed through the end of the year.

If the remaining executions are carried out, it will be the most executions in Texas in a single year this decade, after a decline in executions and new death sentences.

Trump’s decision to greet Xi shows how far the U.S. president is going to honor China’s leader as he made his first state visit to the U.S. capital in more than a decade.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News Channel Wednesday that the two countries would extend their trade truce to Jan. 10. It had been set to expire in November.

Meanwhile, a judge heard arguments Wednesday but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. It’s the latest development in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes. The administration has doubled down on its contention that it has the right to decide who can set foot in the White House, while the outlets call the ban a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.

Also, Iran’s president said Wednesday that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech on the second day of the U.N. General Assembly. Trump, on the U.N. General Assembly stage a day earlier, said he could “annihilate” the Islamic Republic. Toward the end of his speech, Masoud Pezeshkian called out Trump by name.

Here's the latest:

Nevada secretary of state asks Congress members to send election observers to USPS locations

Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says the observers would ensure that postal workers can scan the envelopes holding mail ballots without disruption.

It was unclear what prompted his ask to Nevada’s U.S. senators and House members. But it comes after the Supreme Court’s decision to reject Trump’s mail ballot restrictions.

“The Trump Administration has attempted to weaponize federal agencies to interfere in our elections, and the leadership at USPS is going along with it,” Aguilar said in a statement announcing the request. “While their efforts to take control over state-run elections failed at the Supreme Court ahead of the midterms, we must stay prepared for anything that could disrupt the election this fall.”

In the 2024 general election, about 45% of the state’s votes were submitted by mail.

Aguilar also asked that observers be sent to two out-of-state distribution centers that process mail for Nevada — in Salt Lake City and Sacramento, California.

Venezuela’s acting leader promises to hold elections

“I wish to state this very clearly before this General Assembly: Elections will be held in Venezuela,” Delcy Rodríguez said, adding that her government has started a “political dialogue with opposition sectors” to secure a “process based on equal conditions for all.”

Rodríguez said that Venezuelan people will determine the best time to get elections moving and assured the United Nations that, when the time comes, the country’s institutions “will be prepared to guarantee an inclusive and transparent process.”

The short extension gives the US leverage

Keeping the extension of the trade truce gives the U.S. a chance to test whether China delivers on its promises to buy U.S. farm goods, said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“This is less about buying two months of calm than making China earn the next extension,” he said.

China wanted a longer trade truce extension, expert says

The extension is “way shorter than China had hoped for,” said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator and now senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“It underscores that the United States is still concerned about China’s full implementation of its commitments under the truce, particularly with respect to critical mineral exports and agricultural purchases,” Cutler said.

The US and China agree to extend their trade truce

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News Channel that the two countries would extend their truce to Jan. 10. It had been set to expire in November.

Under the truce, the countries have agreed to scale back on tariffs on each other and not to impose restrictive trade measures.

Venezuela’s acting leader praises Trump for ‘readiness’ to resume ties

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly for the first time since coming to power, Venezuela’s acting president said her country is coming back strong after “setbacks” suffered this year and thanked President Donald Trump for being willing to resume relations after the U.S. military spirited her predecessor out of the country.

“Today, Venezuela is being reborn,” Delcy Rodríguez said in her remarks to the international forum.

Rodríguez took over in Venezuela after a surprise U.S. military raid in January that captured then-leader Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

This is the first trip to the United States by a Venezuelan head of state since 2018, when Maduro traveled to New York to participate in the U.N. General Assembly himself. He is currently being held only a few miles from the organization’s headquarters as he awaits trial.

Xi says China and the US should be ‘partners, not rivals’

In a statement marking his arrival in the U.S., China’s leader wrote that his country and the U.S. “should be partners, not rivals. Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand and the two countries can contribute to each other’s success, thereby benefiting the wider world.”

Xi’s statement also suggested that the two sides “should move toward each other and work together to build a stable relationship – one where cooperation is the mainstay, competition is kept within proper limits, differences are managed and peace can be expected.”

In brief comments to reporters upon returning to the White House, Trump said of going to greet Xi’s plane, “I think they appreciate it, tremendous people.”

The airport pomp delivers a propaganda win for Beijing, former diplomat says

Danny Russel, a State Department official during the Obama administration, said President Trump has given the Chinese leader Xi Jinping what Beijing wanted.

“Such extreme deference is valuable evidence that China’s leader is now held in extraordinarily high esteem by the president of the United States,” said Russel, now a distinguished fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute.

“Beijing uses this at home and internationally to show China’s — and Xi’s — growing stature,” Russel said.

And it may not serve U.S. interests, because Beijing is likely to “see this level of deferential accommodation as an indicator of weakness,” he said.

Xi bids goodbye to the Trumps at the airport

After a brief exchange with President Trump on the tarmac, Xi walked over a few steps to shake hands with Melania Trump and bid farewell to the couple. Xi had a smile on his face and looked relaxed.

Both Xi and his wife Peng were seen entering their vehicle, and the Trumps waited a while before walking off.

The two leaders are set to meet Thursday for formal talks.

Trump sports black gloves and a long coat for Xi welcome

The president appeared to be the only one dressed in cold-weather attire. He took gloves on and off multiple times for rounds of handshakes with Xi and Peng.

It was about 65 degrees F (18 degrees C) with a brisk breeze, according to the National Weather Service.

Greeting for Xi in Washington echoes Trump rolling out red carpet for Putin last year

The 100-foot (30-meter) red carpet unfurled as Xi stepped off his plane outside Washington recalled a similar, extra-long one the U.S. laid out for Russian President Valdimir Putin when he touched down at a U.S. air force base in Alaska last summer.

This time, Trump and first lady Melania Trump, shook hands with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, before appearing to chat and exchange pleasantries that couldn’t be heard.

There was a 21-person honor guard, a flyover from two B1 bombers, flower presenters, platoons from each military service and the flags and anthems of both countries.

When Putin arrived in August 2025, he shook hands with the President Trump while both grinned. The first lady wasn’t present.

Trump and Putin then took the unusual step of climbing into the U.S. president’s limo to share a ride that whisked them to ultimately unsuccessful talks about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Kids present flowers to Xi and wife Peng

Two American children presented bouquets of yellow-colored flowers to the Chinese leader and his wife as the U.S. president and first lady welcomed them at Joint Base Andrews.

Welcoming red carpet rolled out — with a bit of a struggle

A giant red carpet was rolled out at the bottom of the red stairs leading down from Xi’s jet. It took several U.S. service members and an animated director of sorts to unroll the carpet, steer it into place and get it straightened out.

Chinese officials briefly waited at the entrance of the jet while the carpet was adjusted.

The US rolls out 100-foot red carpet for Xi

The Chinese president’s plane was greeted with a long red carpet, a salute with battery guns, a 21-person honor cordon and a flyover from two B1 bombers.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump took the unusual step of appearing in person to greet Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

As part of the ceremony, the national anthems of both China and the U.S. were played.

China offered Trump an elaborate welcome ceremony when Air Force One touched down for his visit to Beijing in May, involving top officials and school children acting as greeters, but Xi did not attend personally.

Xi arrives for Washington visit

The Chinese president’s jet touched down at Joint Base Andrews at about 5:40 p.m. Wednesday.

The Air China jet landed while U.S. troops were gathered nearby for a welcome event.

President Donald Trump and Melania Trump were waiting at the base for a rare airport welcome for Xi and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan.

Trump is awaiting Xi touching down outside Washington

The president and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland via chopper, then stepped into the presidential limo to wait for Xi’s arrival.

The president saluted waiting Marines upon climbing off his helicopter, then fixed his coat on the windy tarmac.

The motorcade eventually drove past a riser with assembled media waiting to cover Xi’s arrival.

Trump could be seen looking at the reporters in attendance before the motorcade headed to a white tent next to the airport terminal.

Judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Iowa newspaper

Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie dismissed Trump’s lawsuit that accused The Des Moines Register and its former pollster J. Ann Selzer of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president’s claim that the newspaper’s poll coverage violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law.

Selzer and the Register described the lawsuit as a conspiracy theory and an affront to free speech protections.

Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations accusing them of bias, calling into question the boundaries of First Amendment protections for speech and press. Some of those lawsuits have ended in settlements.

Trump filed the lawsuit against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s parent company in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results to damage him and help Democrats, saying coverage of polls is not protected speech.

Trump’s push to acquire Greenland almost broke NATO. The winner of it all may be ... Greenland

In the end, it was all kisses and laughter as President Donald Trump hailed his “fantastic” relationship with Denmark and Greenland after signing a new security deal that America’s European allies hope will close one of the most dangerous chapters in transatlantic relations.

Trump’s territorial ambitions over Greenland almost broke the NATO military alliance and shattered trust with one of America’s oldest and closest partners.

Interestingly, one place may emerge from this standoff as the real winner: Greenland itself.

“I cannot stress it enough: This is the first time that we are venturing into a binding agreement as a country,” Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s two lawmakers in the Danish parliament and a former government minister in Nuuk, told The Associated Press. “That is a huge step forward in our quest for more self-autonomy.”

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Major networks set to continue coverage ban at Xi arrival

The five major networks on Wednesday were poised to continue their ban on filming Trump coverage. At Joint Base Andrews, where the president is set to formally welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping later Wednesday, journalists from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting, and some appeared to be breaking down their cameras.

Other television outlets whose crews were present, according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.

Democratic leader says House Republicans are ‘running scared’ ahead of elections

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win control in fall, chided Republicans for trying to distance themselves from Trump on the Iran war and other issues.

“On one hand, they want Donald Trump’s MAGA money. I mean, they’re feeding at the trough of Donald Trump’s MAGA money,” he said. “And on the other hand, they want to pretend that they creating distance between Donald Trump and themselves.”

Jeffries held a news conference at the empty House chamber, criticizing Republicans for cutting short the legislative calendar to go home and campaign.

Judge hears arguments without immediately ruling on Trump’s news outlet ban

A judge has heard arguments but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of three news outlets from White House grounds.

Wednesday’s hearing marked the latest development in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

Trump banned the outlets beginning Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.” More recently the president has said negative coverage was dangerous for the country.

The outlets argued they were singled out because of the content of their coverage — in other words, viewpoint discrimination and called the ban a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.

Hearing on Trump’s ban of 3 news outlets from White House is underway

In court arguments over Trump’s ban of three media outlets from White House grounds, the administration continues to defend the move as constitutional.

Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik told the court Wednesday that “access to the White House is a privilege, not a right.”

The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018.

Arguments began with attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. calling the ban against CNN, MS NOW and Politico an “unprecedented, unreasonable punishment” and saying there was “not a semblance of due process.”

Trump to attend Texas-Tennessee football game

The White House confirms that the president, who has put athletics front and center in his second term, will attend the matchup Saturday.

No. 1 Texas is traveling to No. 14 Tennessee for the Southeastern Conference opener in Knoxville. It’s the first meeting between the two marquee football programs since the 1969 Cotton Bowl.

State Department orders diplomats to use ‘super intelligence’ rather ‘artificial intelligence’

The move follows Trump’s attempt to rebrand the technology in his address to the UN General Assembly.

“Following the president‘s remarks at the GA today, please change all references of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ to ‘Super Intelligence’ in our documents and positions. We will be using ‘SI’ in all remarks, positions and press elements moving forward,” said an email sent Tuesday to employees by Michael Drager, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

That bureau is in charge of U.S. diplomatic missions to all U.N. and multilateral agencies around the world. The email was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if other State Department bureaus would follow suit.

AI company leaders warn that without intervention, ‘AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole’

The heads of major AI companies are pleading with the United Nations to set controls over the burgeoning technology they are designing to save the world or at least its people.

“If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” Dario Amodei, Chief Executive Officer, Anthropic said.

“We could lose control of the future to AI,” his competitor, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Both testified Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council. They said the countries of the world, through the council, have to set safeguards that would be actual controls to prevent the technology from getting too powerful to reign in. They also called for the world to make sure that the power of AI isn’t concentrated in one company or country.

Rubio says Trump has invited Putin to US-hosted G20 meeting in Florida

Speaking to reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Rubio said the Trump administration was hopeful that Putin would accept the invitation despite differences over Russia’s war with Ukraine and other matter.

“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with, so we’ve invited President Putin to the G20,” Rubio said. “We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders. We hope that’s, an invitation he’ll accept.”

Trump will host G20 leaders at his Miami country club in December.

County election offices in Texas are scrambling to process backlogged voter registrations

The problem started with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which allows people to register to vote or update their registrations when they renew their driver’s license.

State officials blamed an unspecified error dating to October 2025. It meant that applications were not being forwarded to the person’s home county, where they are processed and verified.

Now those counties are dealing with nearly a year’s worth of backlogged applications. Several county officials say they will need to hire temporary workers to handle the crush. Early in-person voting in Texas for the midterm elections starts Oct. 19.

The size of the backlog statewide hasn’t been determined, but the Texas Association of County Election Officials says it’s in the tens of thousands for some of the most populous counties. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, it’s about 45,000 voter registration applications.

State Department asks Americans to report suspected visa fraudsters

The State Department is asking Americans to report foreigners suspected of U.S. visa fraud for potential deportation and criminal prosecution.

The department said in a statement Wednesday that it had launched an online portal to make it easier to report such cases.

The department said tips from “upstanding and concerned” members of the public have been responsible for the revocation of visas from many of the tens of thousands of people who either lied on their applications or were violating the conditions of their stay in the U.S.

“This new online tool provides a convenient and reliable way for the public to submit crucial information for prompt review and action,” the statement said.

Aminata Seck, 26, is from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and her attorney said on social media that she entered the United States on a student visa.

Her attorney, Sadiqa Reynolds, wrote that Seck was detained on Aug. 7 at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport, as she was planning to travel with her team to an HBCU tournament.

The Louisville Courier Journal, which first reported Seck’s arrest, wrote that Reynolds said Seck may have missed a student visa deadline because she was having back surgery, and that she also has an ACL injury.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Seck legally entered the U.S. in September 2019, then “chose to overstay her welcome in violation of our nation's laws.” The agency wrote that an immigration judge had ordered Seck removed a year ago after she failed to appear at an immigration hearing.

DHS said that Seck was wearing a leg brace for a knee injury when she was arrested, and is receiving treatment at a hospital.

Reynolds wrote that she spoke to Seck last week, and the player said she remained in a lot of pain. Reynolds said she was transferred to multiple detention facilities before being sent to the hospital.

Seck remains listed on the Grayson County, Kentucky, Detention Center’s online inmate roster. The offense description says: “US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY / ICE.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, who represents a district including Louisville, said he is monitoring Seck’s situation, and that of others who have been arrested and detained in Kentucky.

“Aminata is a student-athlete who was arrested by ICE at the airport while traveling with her teammates,” he wrote in a statement. “The Trump administration’s cruelty knows no bounds, but we will never let this become normal and we won’t stop fighting for her.”

Seck was named to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference Third Team last season after she led the team with 11.7 points and 7.3 rebounds. Seck, a 6-foot-4 center, had five double-doubles last season and scored a season-high 30 points vs. Lane College on Jan. 14.

Seck also was named the SIAC Women’s Basketball Elite 16 award winner. The Elite 16 award is the SIAC’s highest academic achievement honor and is presented to student-athletes who demonstrate exemplary performance in athletics and the classroom.

The school declined to comment: “Out of respect for the privacy of those involved, Kentucky State University does not have information to share.”

• ISOLATED PM RAIN: Like yesterday, expect a 20% chance of rain
• DRY THU-SAT: High pressure briefly takes control
• NEXT WEEK: Changes possible, but very uncertain

FORECAST

ISOLATED RAIN AGAIN TODAY

Rinse and repeat. Today will bring a small shot at an afternoon downpour, with odds sitting at 20%.

A FEW DRY DAYS AHEAD

High pressure will briefly build back over the next few days, keeping rain out of the picture. Thankfully, it’s temporary. By Sunday, the high shifts away and small rain chances return.

NEXT WEEK

The stretch from Tuesday into Wednesday of next week will be one to watch. Models continue to show the chance for a pattern change bringing rain. HOWEVER, it’s still too early and there likely will be changes to this forecast. There are a lot of moving parts and that will continue to complicate the situation. We’ll keep you updated!

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

• WATCH LIVE: Doppler Radar
• Hourly and 10-Day Forecast
• Download FREE KSAT Weather Authority App: Up-to-date forecast information and livestreams from trusted local meteorologists.
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“Following the president's remarks at the GA today, please change all references of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ to ‘Super Intelligence’ in our documents and positions. We will be using ‘SI’ in all remarks, positions and press elements moving forward,” said an email sent Tuesday to employees by Michael Drager, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

That bureau is in charge of U.S. diplomatic missions to all U.N. and multilateral agencies around the world. The email, titled “Change in Nomenclature AI to SI,” was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if other State Department bureaus had or would follow suit.

On Tuesday, Trump told the U.N. General Assembly that he would “officially” change the name of AI, saying the existing name makes the technology seem “fake” and that U.S. government documents would from that point forward use “super intelligence.”

“The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing,” Trump said.

The president said at the U.N. that “from the point forward” U.S. government documents “will be changed to use the much more accurate term super as opposed to artificial. So it’s super intelligence.”

Drager's email was sent shortly after Trump's speech, but it wasn't clear on Wednesday whether similar orders had been sent at other agencies. Such an order would likely mean adjusting the name of the “AI Force” that Trump announced this weekend to the “SI Force.”

On Wednesday, U.S. representatives used the SI term at a U.N. Security Council meeting about AI, where tech executives urged the United Nations' most powerful body to rein in the developing technology.

AI's rapid ascent has spurred dire warnings from AI company CEOs, lawmakers and others about the technology outpacing humans' ability to control it and calls for global guardrails.

Trump has rejected efforts to slow the AI development race through greater government oversight, saying he does not want to hinder industry and that the U.S. needs to ensure an edge over China.

Trump claimed on social media Monday that the U.S. is leading over China on AI and that he was “not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself.”

AI is expected to be a key topic when Trump welcomes Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Washington for a visit starting Wednesday.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington and Farnoush Amiri and Seth Borenstein at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Justin Torres, the owner, explained, “We want to give them those type of scenarios to come in through here so; when they see it in the real world, [it] is not the first time they’ve seen it. They know how to react.”

He said 11 training weapons were taken from the non-ballistic tactical training facility that just opened this year.

He described what was stolen: “Four Unit Solutions rifles and seven Glock 17T training ammunition pistols are gone.”

The weapons were designed for training purposes, but Torres said they are crucial for training and safety during courses held at the facility.

The burglary did not stop scheduled SWAT training.

Torres said it continued initially with officers having to pretend.

“So the officers [were] coming through here with their hands [and] we’re simulating,” he said. “We [had] finger guns.”

Torres said Simunition weapons matter not only for officers but for the communities they serve.

“Going through a doorway with a rifle and coming through a door with your finger, it’s totally different,” he exclaimed. “It’s not the same. It’s not that distance, you know, it is a really, really big difference; so we are just not able to get the actual rep in. The people that are really suffering is the general public that need an officer to come [to their aid]. I want whatever officer that shows up to be very well trained and know exactly what to do, [and] when they need to do it,” Torres said.

He said it is tough to see and accept that the officers currently going through courses at Battle Grounds are bringing their own training equipment.

“But these things are extremely expensive and extremely hard to get a hold of.”

Torres said he has paid out of pocket to replace some items and shared that Unit Solutions, one of the training companies that has partnered with him, has provided a couple of replacements.

He also said officers from various areas, including out-of-town and out-of-state law enforcement departments that have trained at his facility, have offered support.

Torres expressed gratitude and said any help is appreciated as he continues working to replace everything that was stolen so he can put his full focus back on his main objective.

“[For] officers to get training, to get the good reps in, and to become better officers today than they were yesterday,” he said.

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Voter turnout in the election for the 395-seat House of Representatives was 38% – the lowest since 2007 – and down by nearly 25% compared to the last elections in 2021.

The vote was the first since deadly youth-led protests nearly a year ago and a mass attempt by migrants to cross Morocco’s northern border into the Spanish territory of Ceuta that left dozens dead. It will determine the next prime minister and the makeup of the government, which will serve alongside a powerful monarchy that retains broad authority over strategic affairs.

Results are expected Thursday.

The next government will oversee billions of dollars in investment as Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, prompting some to describe it as the “World Cup government.” The new political leadership will also face pressure to address everyday concerns, including jobs, wages and the cost of living.

For many young Moroccans, the election comes as doubts grow that political participation can improve their daily lives. Some have turned to street protests, while others have considered leaving the country or staying away from the ballot box.

Othmane Mouden, a Casablanca businessman in his late 30s, believes elections are the only way Moroccans can make their voices heard.

“Protesting like the Gen Z youth will not bring any change,” he said on his way to the polling station. “You can only claim your rights through the polls.”

Voters chose among 7,288 candidates from 27 political parties. Since no single party is expected to obtain an absolute majority, the winner will need to negotiate with others to form a governing coalition.

The Moroccan Constitution requires the king to appoint the head of government from the party that wins the most seats in legislative elections.

One possibility for prime minister is Faouzi Lakjaa, president of Morocco’s soccer federation, who recently joined the PAM party and has been buoyed by Morocco’s recent soccer achievements.

Another is Fatima-Zahra Mansouri, 50, mayor of Marrakech and minister of urban planning, who would be Morocco’s first female prime minister.

Some groups, including the far-left party The Democratic Path, called for a boycott of the election, saying that it “lacks the minimum conditions of democracy.” Banned but tolerated Islamist association Al-Adl Wal Ihsane issued similar claims.

Turnout at midday was just over 11%, slightly below the 12% at the same time during the last legislative elections in 2021.

The number of registered voters has declined by 9.7% since the 2021 election, even as Morocco’s population has grown, reflecting disenchantment with politics notably among young people.

As ballot stations opened in Casablanca and Rabat, voters of various ages formed small but continuous lines to cast their ballots.

Jamal Aamar, a 63-year-old retired banker, came to vote for the Federation of the Democratic Left, a left-wing coalition. Aamar said participating in the election allows his voice to be heard.

“If you boycott, you will leave others an empty seat,” he said.

The constitution recognizes the right to vote for Moroccans living abroad, but there is no voting by mail or ballot boxes at Moroccan consulates. Instead, they must travel to Morocco to vote or authorize a registered family member or acquaintance to vote on their behalf.

Moroccans in Madrid had mixed views on the elections, with some shrugging them off as having little impact.

Caterer Bader Eabram, 24, said Morocco's strong performance in recent World Cups and other soccer championships is driving some voters' choices, and providing hope.

“We’re all really eager to host the World Cup. It’s a great country,'' he said. ‘’We can do anything.''

——

Iain Sullivan in Madrid contributed to this report.

Grail Inc.’s Galleri test doesn't diagnose cancer but instead, with a single blood draw, looks for a signal that someone may have one of a long list of tumors. Those who receive a positive result need additional care to tell if they're really sick.

The Food and Drug Administration's advisory panel voted 7-2, with one abstention, that the DNA-based test offers more potential benefits than risks, such as causing false assurances or raising false alarms. The positive vote came even as the panel raised many questions about the technology that need more study.

“Perhaps my yes is a hopeful rather than an accurate one,” said Dr. Victor van Berkel of UofL Physicians in Louisville, Kentucky, describing how more research is needed even if the test is rolled out. “If we can find more early-stage cancers in the population that we can’t screen for currently, that will end up having benefit.”

The vote followed two earlier votes in which the experts affirmed that the test appears safe and effective for use by people age 50 and older.

Lots of companies are studying such blood tests and Wednesday's vote marks the first time a federal advisory group has backed the experimental approach. The FDA isn't bound by the advice but if it agrees, it could pave the way for widespread U.S. adoption of a long-sought way to find more cancers earlier. A final decision is expected in a few months.

Today there are a handful of recommended cancer screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, that look for one kind of tumor at a time.

Those tests are designed to spot tumors in their early stages, when they’re easier to treat, and the panel balked at using that term for Grail’s test — saying it failed to show effectiveness for “early detection.”

The experts also came up with a list of precautions that doctors and potential patients to be told, including: The test would need to be used in addition to today’s routine cancer screenings, not as a replacement. A negative test doesn’t guarantee you don’t have cancer. And it will take more study to prove if the test is as beneficial as mainstay cancer screenings like mammograms.

People in the U.S. can already buy the Galleri test — typically by paying $700 or more in cash. But FDA approval would likely widen availability by opening the door to coverage from Medicare and private insurers.

FDA staffers and other outside experts spent hours debating the potential downsides to the technology.

Risks include that the test will miss a significant number of real cancers while also flagging a potential cancer in patients who are healthy. The test also was less accurate at detecting early-stage cancers, when treatment is easier and more likely to benefit patients. Grail also didn’t provide data showing that screening with its test led to fewer cancer deaths, a metric that would have required years of follow-up.

Representatives for Grail argued that its test is a leap forward because it can pick up signs of more than 50 cancers, including dozens for which there are no screening options, such as liver and ovarian cancer.

“Patients want opportunity, they want options,” said Dr. Mylynda Massart of the University of Pittsburgh, who presented on behalf of Grail. “They want the chance to fight their disease while the chance to survive is possible.”

Grail’s primary study in 140,000 older adults showed that its test detected about one third of cancers diagnosed over a one-year period. About two-thirds of patients who received a “cancer signal detected” were later confirmed to have cancer.

But FDA reviewers at the meeting flipped the company’s data to emphasize the potential downsides of that performance. The agency’s chief reviewer pointed out that the test missed 2 of 3 cancers that were diagnosed over the coming year, giving false reassurance to many patients.

Consumer advocates warned that patients might ignore early signs of cancer after receiving an all-clear from DNA testing test.

“When they start having symptoms there will be tendency to delay going to the doctor — just a little bit — and that could be deadly,” said Diana Zuckerman of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research, who spoke during a public comment period. “They will be told to continue other screening, but will they?”

___

The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and 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.

Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its “faulty” claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that “can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.” He sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the newspaper in affirming that the poll and coverage of it were constitutionally protected political speech, not a commercial product.

The ruling Wednesday came hours after a judge heard arguments but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Trump banned the three outlets last Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.”

After the ruling in Iowa Wednesday, a spokesman for Trump's legal team said the president will take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Trump filed the lawsuit against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s parent company in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results to damage him and help Democrats, saying coverage of polls is not protected speech.

Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations accusing them of bias, calling into question the boundaries of free speech protections, particularly for the press. Some of those lawsuits have ended in settlements.

Selzer’s case was taken up by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She said Wednesday she was grateful for the ruling, which “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”

“Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome," Selzer said in a statement.

Selzer's attorneys at FIRE and her co-defendants also celebrated the ruling.

“Today is a victory for the First Amendment — and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy," Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA Today Co. chief legal counsel, said in a statement. USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett, owns The Register.

In dismissing the case, Beattie wrote that Trump’s lawsuit sought to “stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.” After hearing the arguments, the judge concluded the constitutional protection “is too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.”

Beattie said the case would have to be dismissed even if, solely for the purpose of deciding the motions, he accepted the Trump team’s allegations that the poll was intentionally skewed and its results fabricated. “Even with this assumption, each of the three counts still fails,” the judge wrote, because the lawsuit did not meet the legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception.

The poll, conducted by Selzer’s company in the final days of October and released just days before Election Day 2024, showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, capturing 47% of Iowa likely voters, to Trump’s 44%. Trump ultimately won the support of 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted.

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, both Republicans, had joined Trump’s lawsuit.

Trump, Miller-Meeks and Zaun alleged the misleading coverage diminished their reputations, valuable time in the final days of the campaign, and campaign funds and resources.

Casar said in a news conference that Garces Perez saw a specialist Wednesday who recommended surgery. He also received his first injection of pain medication one hour before the visit, said Casar, D-Austin. 

Casar said Garces Perez, who was in high spirits, was in a wheelchair with his left arm in a sling and had heavy bruising on his torso and debilitating pain on his left side. Medical staff at the ICE detention facility had been cleaning Garces Perez’s wound two to three times per day, Casar said.

“This person needs a doctor, not a deportation or a detention center,” he said.

Also Wednesday, news reports said the federal immigration officer who shot Garces Perez was not using a body camera during the Sunday incident. 

The recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruit — who has not been publicly identified — was issued a body camera but was not wearing it when he fired at Garces Perez, according to The Atlantic, The Washington Post and NBC News, which quoted unnamed current and former officials with the Department of Homeland Security.  

It’s not clear why the ICE officer was not using the device during the shooting, which left the 28-year-old man with a bullet lodged to his back. Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another ICE officer involved in Garces Perez’s arrest did use his body camera, but its footage didn’t capture the shooting, according to NBC News.

“You need to answer why your agents are not turning their body cams on,” Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the injured man’s attorney, told DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a Tuesday post on X. “Release the footage immediately!”

The reports came amid heightened focus on the availability of such devices for ICE officers, following the lack of body-cam footage in the recent fatal shootings of immigrants like that of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7.

In that Houston case, acting ICE Director David Venturella said the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras. DHS said in a July 12 statement that body cameras had been sent to more than half of the field offices and the rest would receive them in the next 60 days.

Earlier this month, Mullin said the agency was “on track by the end of September” to equip all officers who are in the field with a body camera.

“It’s for our safety and the public safety, too,” he added at a news conference.

ICE policy also gives the agency critical control over what to release in cases of severe or fatal use of force, saying that such footage would only be made public if “it is in the best interests of the agency.”

On Sunday, Garces Perez was working as a DoorDash delivery driver when he was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop in North Austin, which included a brief vehicle pursuit.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said he entered the U.S. legally in 2024 via the CBP One app and applied for asylum. But the man missed his immigration court hearing after the notice was sent to the wrong address, leading to a final order of removal. The attorney added that his work permit expired in December.

A day after the shooting, Garces Perez said an unmarked SUV sideswiped him twice before he realized that ICE officers were trying to pull him over. He said he did a U-turn under a freeway underpass when the SUV struck his blue Toyota Camry. That’s when the SUVs turned on their lights and sirens, he added.

Garces Perez said he then asked the officers if he could stop somewhere safer. He said an officer told him no, then he felt one shot to his back.

On Tuesday, DHS said the shooting followed a “dangerous attempt to evade arrest.”

“Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public,” the department’s statement said. “We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime.”

Meanwhile, Garces Perez’s attorneys have filed a petition to block his deportation and get him out of ICE detention. A federal judge set a hearing in San Antonio on Sept. 30 for the case and ordered Garces Perez to make an appearance.

Disclosure: DoorDash has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

“It’s a big loss, for sure," Harbaugh said following practice on Wednesday. "It’s your starting quarterback. It’s a tough loss.”

Dart was injured on the first drive Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams when his left leg bent awkwardly as he was hit by two defenders. The initial hope was a sprained medial collateral ligament and a shorter absence, but an MRI revealed a more extensive injury that will keep him out for an extended period of time.

"The season’s not over, but it is for him," Harbaugh said. "You feel like it’s the end of the world, then you wake up and the world’s not done. The world keeps spinning. The games keep getting played.”

For that next game Sunday against Tennessee, Jameis Winston takes over as the starter. Winston completed 11 of 27 passes for 111 yards and threw an interception in the 28-6 loss at LA that dropped New York to 1-1.

“I have to execute better, and I am going to execute better,” Winston said. "No matter how big it may seem, being present and focus on doing all that you can do with what you have, with where you are. For right now, that’s keeping Jaxson’s spirits uplifted and going out there on that football field and being the New York Football Giants’ starting quarterback.”

The Giants’ next five opponents have a combined 2-8 record. Winston is 3-9 in 12 NFL starts since 2024.

“Jameis is capable of doing anything,” Titans coach Robert Saleh said. “He’s got tremendous arm talent. He’s capable of putting 500 yards and four touchdowns on you in a heartbeat.”

Harbaugh did not say when Dart would have surgery or go into details about the extent of the injury after the NFL Network reported there is damage to his meniscus and medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments.

“With Jaxson, just unfortunate," Tennessee starter Cam Ward said. “That’s something that you don’t want to see. And he’s a great quarterback, so all of us were looking forward to going against him, that team.”

Jake Haener, who is on the practice squad, is set to back up Winston. Haener, who played in eight games and started one for New Orleans two seasons ago, joined the Giants midway through training camp and stuck around over journeyman Brandon Allen.

Harbaugh said the Giants will add another QB but move forward with Winston at the most important position in football and build a game plan for the 32-year-old set to make his 90th professional start.

“He can throw it: He’s a big, strong passing quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “Jameis has been practicing every day. He’s taken reps. He knows the offense. He’s been in every single meeting. He’s been engaged every step of the way with everything we’re doing. From that perspective, it’s seamless. It’s not ideal at all, but it’s definitely seamless.”

Dart is not the only significant Giants player who is injured

Edge rusher Brian Burns, who sprained his left ankle late in the Rams game, did not practice Wednesday. Harbaugh called Burns — who ranked second in the league in sacks last season — day to day.

Kayvon Thibodeaux would figure to move into the starting lineup if Burns is unable to play.

“We are definitely blessed with depth at that position,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll see how it goes for the game. But if he can’t go, then we are very confident in the guys that we have.”

No. 1 receiver Malik Nabers, who popped his right shoulder back into place and returned Monday night, and starting left tackle Andrew Thomas, who limped off with a groin injury, were limited participants.

Harbaugh said of Nabers: “It looks good. I think he’s going to be OK.”

___

AP Pro Football Writers Rob Maaddi in Tampa, Florida, and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

State and local governments are leading, he said, as “Trump is trying to recreate the 19th century” by reopening coal plants, announcing new plans for oil drilling including off California, and centering his energy policy on fossil fuels that cause climate change.

“He’s doubling down on stupid, and he’s putting the American economy at risk,” Newsom said in an interview. He called Trump the most destructive environmental president in American history and “an invasive species.”

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers used Trump’s derogatory nickname for the governor, “Newscum,” in responding to the comments. She said his “doubling down on Biden’s unpopular, unreliable and costly Green New Scam is stupid.”

“No one is surprised to see him whining about the climate change hoax at another conference instead of fixing the problems plaguing his state: out-of-control crime, the highest homeless population in the United States, and wildfire victims still waiting on state permits to rebuild their homes and businesses,” Taylor wrote in an email.

Newsom has long been trying to counter Trump's climate approach

Newsom, a Democrat eyeing a 2028 presidential run, has sought to counter Trump’s stance on climate issues before. He went to the U.N. climate talks hosted in Belem, Brazil in 2025 when Trump skipped it.

Trump prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity. The Biden administration sought to ramp up clean energy as a climate change solution. Trump began reversing U.S. energy policies his first day back in office.

Last year at the UN, Trump called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” He has hindered renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, while China and other countries invest heavily. China leads the world in adding wind and solar power, though it also added a lot of coal power last year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping begins his state visit to Washington Wednesday. As the economic and technological competition between the countries escalates, Newsom said the Chinese leader is "cleaning our clock from an economic perspective.”

Trump and Xi are expected to discuss artificial intelligence as they meet this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. has proposed a new “ notification mechanism ” for AI incidents that could affect national security.

Newsom also not happy with Trump AI stance

Newsom was critical of Trump for not doing more to add guardrails and instead listening to advice to let artificial intelligence “rip.” Newsom announced Wednesday a group of experts who will advise on oversight recommendations in California, including advancing the creation of a potential “kill switch” for rogue frontier models.

Trump was in New York on Tuesday. Unlike last year's climate-focused speech, Trump defended his actions against Iran as he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly and made the diplomatic rounds.

Newsom spoke at the United Nations on Wednesday alongside mayors grappling with the impacts of climate change and calling for collective action. He shared how the state is using renewables to change the way it produces and consumes energy, while reducing carbon pollution. While in New York, he also signed a new agreement with Spain's prime minister to strengthen collaboration on clean energy and climate issues and announced progress to link carbon markets with Washington state.

“California is not going to sit back and watch this guy roll back the last half century. We’re going to lead the next great revolution,” Newsom said.

“We’re going to dominate and we’re going to out compete and we are going to prepare the economy," he said, "not just in California, but the rest of the nation, for the fierce competitive fight against China as we move forward in this space.”

___

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.

She’s Alive, the entity founded to manage and protect Parton’s estate, had filed the complaint against Seaver and Squadron Augmented Protection Services a day prior. The estate accused Seaver of threatening to commit violence and destroy his aunt’s legacy and business empire in court filings.

The order says the court took into account the repeated threats cited in the complaint, as well as the alleged demands for payment and Seaver’s “claimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.” It describes the communications as “concerning,” specifically noting the threat to use force.

As part of the order, Seaver and his company SAPS, which provided Parton’s security detail, must refrain from entering any She’s Alive property or talking with or being within 1,000 feet (305 meters) of She’s Alive employees and business partners. The order is also meant to keep Seaver from interfering with its business relationships.

A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.

Seaver, who was handpicked by the star to announce her death from cancer last month, did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Associated Press requesting comment on the order being granted.

Representatives for SAPS also did not respond, and no one was present at their office in downtown Nashville on Wednesday afternoon. No one came to the door at an address listed in court documents for Seaver in the semi-rural Nashville suburb of Fairview. A woman speaking to a reporter through a doorbell camera declined to comment.

In the temporary restraining order request filed by She’s Alive and other court documents, Seaver is accused of sending increasingly threatening messages over the last several weeks. She’s Alive is run by Danny Nozell, Parton’s longtime manager.

Last week, She’s Alive terminated Seaver and SAPS, saying his “terrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable,” according to court documents.

The court documents showcase a series of messages She's Alive says were sent by Seaver, starting just before Parton's death. They start with threats to destroy Parton's brand, and then after her death, depict Seaver reveling in his newfound fame and calling himself an “international arms dealer.”

In one message written Sept. 1 and included in the court documents, he said: “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or f——— pay me.”

Seaver also claimed that he worked for private military contractors overseas during the Iraq War and used that experience as part of these threats, according to the complaint.

The messages have resulted in Parton’s trusts and estates attorney leaving and employees of She’s Alive resigning, according to the court documents. The entity has also had to hire private security for its employees, including at their homes, the documents state.

Kristin Mumford, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said in an email that there are no reports against Seaver in their system.

Parton was a beloved country music icon who wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that earned a total of more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams.

___

Golden reported from Seattle.

Republicans in key states like Iowa and Michigan called for ending exports of diesel refined in the United States to help boost domestic supply. President Donald Trump indicated he backs that step, though his energy secretary on Wednesday said a “blanket ban” won't happen. The U.S. has used 4.1 million barrels of diesel per day this year, and it has exported 1.5 million per day so far, according to S&P Global Energy.

The pain is obvious to anyone who drives a diesel-fueled vehicle or relies on a diesel generator to produce power. A gallon of diesel cost $6.52 Wednesday, up 73% from $3.77 right before the beginning of the war with Iran, according to AAA.

But the problem will likely spread to every consumer, fueling Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress by harnessing anger over runaway costs and an unpopular overseas conflict.

“The price of diesel touches everything in our economy that needs to move,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for RSM. “That includes the thing we buy the most of, groceries.”

Diesel prices become the latest campaign issue

Although regular gas prices usually get more attention, diesel has swiftly become a hot issue on the campaign trail. Adam Hamilton, a Democratic Senate candidate who has mounted a surprisingly strong challenge to Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas, told supporters in a Topeka coffee shop this week that farmers are afraid that it's getting harder to make ends meet.

“A war has sent up the price of diesel,” Hamilton said. “These guys said, ‘We don’t know if we’re going to keep the farm.’”

Elaine Luria, a Democrat running for a southeastern Virginia House seat, cited the high price of diesel at a Virginia Beach roundtable Wednesday.

“Iran is no further from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And Iran’s proxy groups, such as the Houthis in Yemen, are now expanding the footprint,” she said in an interview, adding that the conflict is becoming “an expanding economic crisis.” Luria is a former congresswoman trying to reclaim her seat from Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans.

Republicans like Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa, have called for an immediate end to the war and a ban on selling diesel overseas, hoping the extra fuel would then lower prices for Americans.

“Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” Hinton said. “We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices.”

The idea has split Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said he's open to it. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is also from Iowa, has become the proposal's strongest champion, rejecting criticism from his colleagues from fuel-producing states.

“IF U CAN EMBARGO CHIPS U CAN EMBARGO DIESEL,” Grassley posted on social media, referring to export controls on computer technology.

Trump on Tuesday told reporters that “I've called for that too,” although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration was still exploring how it might lower diesel prices. Energy Secretary Chris Wright echoed that point Wednesday, telling a climate conference in New York that “nobody wants a full blanket ban of zero exports of diesel, that's not what's being discussed,”

Why diesel prices are so high compared to gasoline

Diesel prices have skyrocketed due to a collision of events.

The Middle East produces a disproportionate share of the oil used to refine diesel, leading its price to rise faster than gasoline since the conflict began in February. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the war took about 20% of the world’s oil off the market, which raised the prices of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel.

Some of that supply has come back, but it’s nowhere near prewar levels, said Debnil Chowdhury, who leads the Americas and Europe fuels and refining team at S&P Global Energy. Then there were significant attacks by Ukraine on refineries in Russia, taking 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day of diesel off the market, according to S&P.

“These attacks have been pretty prominent," Chowdhury said. "If there is a way to a peace deal or a peace agreement announcing that there will be no more attacks on Russian refineries, on Middle Eastern refineries ... that would obviously make the largest impact on the underlying price.”

“The last few months eroded everyone’s cushion, but the last few weeks? Diesel went from under $6/gallon to over $6.53. Again, that was just in the last two weeks. You tell me what business, small or even large, budgeted for that,” William Stern, chief executive officer of Cardiff, a San Diego-based small business lender that's seen requests for loans spike due to the price increase, wrote in an email.

An export ban could make an impact — in the wrong direction. The American Petroleum Institute warned that diesel prices would actually rise for most Americans if an export ban is enacted, a caution shared by several economists.

“That will result in Americans taking a one-two punch for food and fuel prices that just don't stop,” Brusuelas said.

Export ban could ultimately end American oil industry, cause global recession, analysts warn

If U.S. refineries, which take crude oil and turn it into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, stopped exporting diesel, they would wind up with a surplus of the material. They would need places to store it. Once those storage tanks filled up, analysts warn, refiners would have to stop making diesel. But they can’t just switch off diesel production without effectively cutting the supply of those other fuels and raising their prices.

“There really is no easy way to repair the kind of damage it would be to the global diesel supply chain,” Chowdhury said. “It really will have this effect across the entire global economy."

He added that "the chances of a global recession would increase massively as well.”

Phil Verleger, a longtime energy economist who advised the federal government during the 1970s oil shock, said he thought a diesel export ban could bring prices down but still have an extreme cost. ”In a couple decades," he warned, “the U.S. fossil fuel industry is dead.”

That's because the U.S. has been a reliable supplier of diesel to other countries that would likely look elsewhere if it cuts off supply. Verleger and other economists cited former President Richard Nixon's ban on the export of soybeans in 1973, which led to the rest of the world shifting to Brazil as a more reliable supplier. Now, the South American country is growing faster than the U.S.

But Verleger, who comes from an Iowa farming family, says he understands the visceral pain that a diesel spike causes, even though he also knows the dangers of trying to regulate it away.

“It’s terrible economics, the long-term consequences will be horrible,” Verleger said. “If I were an elected politician, I'd do it."

_____

Riccardi reported from Denver and Bussewitz reported from New York. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sarah Rankin in Virginia Beach, Virginia, contributed to this report.

The Panthers placed Brooks on injured reserve on Wednesday. He will have surgery on Thursday.

The expectation is that Brooks will return later in the season.

The injury occurred in the fourth quarter of Carolina's 34-3 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

“It was a pretty significant groin injury,” Canales said following practice on Wednesday.

Canales said the Panthers received multiple medical opinions after Brooks had an MRI on Monday.

“The timeline for return with surgical versus nonsurgical was going to be similar. We agreed this would be the best course of action to get him back,” Canales said.

Brooks has struggled with knee injuries in the past, limiting his playing time to only five of 36 games since joining the league as a second-round pick in 2024.

He tore his ACL during his final season at Texas and then reinjured the same knee during his rookie season with the Panthers. That caused him to miss the remainder of the 2024 season, and all of 2025.

Brooks was used sparingly in Carolina's first two games of the season as the Panthers were looking to slowly ramp him back up.

Brooks had been slowed by a groin injury in training camp.

“He was bummed,” Canales said of Brooks. “This hit him hard. Particularly after the game. The guys (in the locker room) could feel it too. We were just trying to encourage him. It's part of this process where your body figures out how you're going to go forward in this new mode. This is a part of it.”

Chuba Hubbard is Carolina’s starting running back and A.J. Dillon is third on the depth chart. Canales said Anthony Tyus will be promoted from the practice squad and is expected to suit up on Sunday at Cleveland.

Quarterback Bryce Young said he feels for Brooks because he's been through so much adversity.

“I am going to be praying for him,” Young said. "He works so hard. It’s tough. He’s a soldier and I know he will bounce back and do the work.”

The Panthers signed safety Isaiah Simmons from the practice squad to take Brooks’ spot on the 53-man roster.

Ekeler works out for team, does not sign

The Panthers worked out free agent running back Austin Ekeler on Wednesday, but did not sign him.

Ekeler spent last season with the Washington Commanders.

Dillon said he's friends with Ekeler and has had him on his podcast. He said they often get confused for each other on social media because they look so much alike.

"It's kind of like twins,” Dillon said with a laugh.

Dillon said he's not worried about if the Panthers sign another running back and how that might impact him.

“I don't really focus too much on who is coming in,” Dillon said. “I believe in myself and trust in myself and my ability to go play football. I'm always prepared to step on the field (like) I'm number one.”

Injuries on defense

The defense forced five turnovers against the Falcons in a dominant performance in Week 2, but came away a little banged up.

Inside linebacker Devin Lloyd sat out practice with a calf injury following a big game against the Falcons that included nine tackles, three pass breakups, a sack and two interceptions with one touchdown that earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Edge rusher Jaelan Phillips (back), safety Nick Scott (ribs) and reserve linebacker Claudin Cherelus (shoulder) also did not practice.

Canales said all four players will be evaluated later in the week.

On the positive side for the Panthers, defensive tackle Bobby Brown III (back) and outside linebacker Patrick Jones II (back) were listed as full participants. Jones had missed the team's first two games and Brown sat out last week.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Mayor Kirk Watson said he didn’t trust federal investigators to conduct a thorough probe of the federal officer’s actions that left Wilber Rafael Garces Perez with a bullet lodged in his back.

Calling himself “very angry,” Watson said the Austin Police Department should investigate the shooting to “offer clear third-party eyes and expertise, and allow for a level of independence.”

Watson’s quick and assertive response stands in contrast to Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who was put in a similar situation in July after a federal immigration officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop.

Whitmire initially questioned whether the city had the authority to conduct its own investigation because the Houston Police Department was not involved in stopping Salgado Araujo’s van. A day after the shooting, Whitmire said “there cannot be two ongoing investigations, certainly when there’s not jurisdiction by one of them.”

After criticism by advocates who said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered unreliable accounts after previous shootings by its officers, Whitmire three days later said he was committed to supporting an investigation.

“Our hands have been tied, but I’ve instructed the chief [and] city attorney to untie those hands,” Whitmire said in a news conference.

Watson and Whitmire, longtime Democrats who served together in the Texas Senate, took sharply different approaches to similar scenarios.

Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said the mayors lead dissimilar cities.

“Austin is arguably the most progressive major city in the state,” he said. “Austin is a dark blue city, whereas Houston is a light blue city.”

In the 2024 presidential election, voters in Austin’s Travis County favored Kamala Harris by 40 percentage points, while voters in Houston’s Harris County backed the Democrat by 6 points.

In Houston, Jones said, “the average voter is a centrist Democrat, whereas the average voter in Austin is a progressive Democrat.”

Jones said the political realities are reflected in how the two leaders approach their jobs: “Mayor Whitmire is a little more centrist, and Mayor Watson is a little more in the center-left.”

Jeronimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said the cities’ demographics likely played a role in the differing responses to the shootings.

“Certainly Mayor Watson tends to be more liberal in terms of policy stance than Mayor Whitmire,” he said. “And that has been very clear in terms of their political history and in the Texas Legislature.”

Whitmire served 40 years in the Texas Senate and retired in 2023 as chairman of the influential Criminal Justice Committee — a rare Democrat granted a leadership position by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Watson left the Senate in 2020 after 13 years providing a consistent Democratic vote but also gaining a reputation for working with Republican senators to improve legislation, even bills he opposed.

A week after Salgado Araujo was shot and killed, frustration over Whitmire’s approach boiled over during a tense public comment session.

Houston-area resident Griselda Hernandez confronted Whitmire: “I want you to look at me when I’m asking these questions because I see you’re glazing off. … Do you want any of your kids being hunted down like animals?”

Other speakers angrily accused Whitmire of sitting on his hands after one of their neighbors was shot to death by federal officers riding in unmarked vehicles.

Afterward, Whitmire said that while he understood residents’ anger, sadness and passion, yelling and cursing at him at the meeting and protesting near his home was “bad behavior.”

“It’s just wrong,” Whitmire added.

In Austin, some demonstrators threw rocks and water bottles at law enforcement hours after the shooting, and officers responded by shooting pepper ball-like projectiles at the crowd on the city’s north side. The scene was much more peaceful at a larger protest a day later outside the Texas Capitol, earning praise from Watson.

“I’m real proud of the city and the citizens and our residents last night who participated in peaceful assembly and had their voices heard,” he said Tuesday.

Jones said Watson had the advantage of learning from Whitmire’s experience, but the Austin mayor’s response struck a nerve with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“If sanctuary politicians like the Mayor of Austin had their priorities straight, they’d stop putting the needs of illegal aliens over the safety of the American people,” Mullin wrote on X.

Jones said Whitmire tends to avoid taking positions that are “hyperpartisan.”

“Watson doesn’t have to worry about conservative or Republican voters since they’re such a small share of the Austin electorate,” Jones said. “Whearas Whitmire knows that those Republican voters are roughly 35% to 40% of his constituents.”

Watson, he said, knows “an overwhelming majority of his constituents have a negative opinion of ICE.”

“Watson doesn’t get mixed signals,” Jones added.

Disclosure: Rice University and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, didn't rule from the bench after hearing arguments in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

But the judge questioned whether the administration met its legal responsibilities and provided CNN, MS NOW and Politico with adequate due process before banning them, assailing what he called “fake news.” More recently, the president has said negative coverage was dangerous for the country.

The news outlets argued they were singled out because of their coverage content — in other words, viewpoint discrimination — and called the ban a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.

Kelly said his decision must be guided by prior rulings in comparable First Amendment cases, even if the government disagrees with them.

“I think it is fair to say that the processes that the court laid out wasn’t followed here,” Kelly said.

It wasn't clear when Kelly, who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar 2018 case, would issue a decision on the outlets’ request for a restraining order. But he said he’d rule as soon as possible.

“These are urgent matters," Theodore Boutrous Jr., attorney for the outlets, said. "We’re at war. We have world leaders coming to Washington.”

CNN, Politico and MS NOW each told The Associated Press they’d have no comment on the emergency hearing.

Prior rulings indicate journalists should be heard before press passes are revoked

Kelly opened by reminding both sides that he’s required to apply case precedent.

The rulings in two prior cases over press access — including one that went to the U.S. Supreme Court — made clear that journalists were entitled to an opportunity to be heard before they have their press passes revoked.

Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik argued that the rulings in the earlier cases were wrong.

“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” Velchik said.

In arguing that Trump was not engaging in viewpoint discrimination, Velchik said the president had criticized other news organizations even more harshly — such as calling ABC “the worst” — but hadn’t banned them.

“The president should be able to take immediate action to protect national security,” Velchik told the court.

In response, Boutrous said, “Suddenly it’s a national security case,” arguing that the president brought up that point only after the lawsuit was filed.

Trump “keeps proving our point,” Boutrous said, describing how the president has consistently used negative coverage of him as justification for the ban.

Boutrous called the ban an “unprecedented, unreasonable punishment” and said there was “not a semblance of due process.”

The Trump administration outlined ‘reporting incidents’ of each news outlet

In a filing late Tuesday, administration lawyers argued that the ban does not violate the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to a free press. It contended that the outlets, in their reporting, violated “standards of professionalism and decorum.”

The administration went on to detail letters sent to each outlet that identified “a non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents, including those that have threatened national security and spread falsehoods.”

The “reporting incidents” cited in the filing included: CNN reporting on “‘top-secret' construction details related to the East Wing bunker”; MS NOW reporting “on an alleged leak investigation”; and Politico publishing “a document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements.”

Further examples were given in individual letters. Politico’s letter detailed six reporting instances, including in June citing a “senior administration official … granted anonymity” predicting whether a preliminary deal would end the conflict with Iran.

That item appeared to reference a background briefing set up by the White House, where an official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House itself. Several other outlets also reported the official's remarks.

Major networks continue to refrain from covering Trump for the media pool

The ban prompted other media outlets to take action in solidarity. The five-network U.S. network press pool — a rotating cast of news outlets that covers the president, and to which CNN belongs — decided to suspend coverage of Trump events until further notice.

After the hearing Wednesday, the networks were poised to continue their ban on filming Trump coverage. At Joint Base Andrews, where the president was to formally welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping later, journalists from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting video, and some appeared to be breaking down their cameras.

Other television outlets whose crews were present, according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.

Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, an amicus brief was filed by other news groups, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets' White House access.

The brief — filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents' Association and 49 media outlets and industry groups, including The Associated Press, The New York Times and Reuters — says “the targeted expulsion of news media from White House grounds injures the public interest."

The proceedings are historic, said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

“No president has taken this explicit of a step” to ban entire outlets because he doesn’t like their reporting, she said. “There have been various presidents throughout history who have grumbled about the press or threatened to take more major steps, but really there was nothing at this level before Trump.”

___

Noveck reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Laurie Kellman in London and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.

Add in the roughly 40,000 businesses with actual employees on payroll, and one thing becomes clear: San Antonio is a city built on small business.

But building one isn’t easy. Federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows only about one in three businesses born 10 years ago are still operating today.

So what does it actually take — and where do you go for help?

Michelle Gimbel knows the feeling firsthand. Three months ago, she left a 15-year career in corporate IT and launched 3E AI Solutions, a company that brings artificial intelligence tools to small businesses that otherwise couldn’t afford them.

“Is it difficult? Yes,” Gimbel said. “If it wasn’t, everybody would be an entrepreneur. Is it worth it? Absolutely.”

Gimbel credits a lot of her early momentum to LaunchSA, a free resource center for small business owners in San Antonio. The organization is a partnership between the City of San Antonio’s Economic Development Department and Geekdom.

“LaunchSA has been a huge part of my business and getting it started,” she said, “and helping me to grow and to stay on track.”

For anyone thinking about taking the leap, experts say the first steps look something like this:

• Validate your idea: Make sure people actually want what you’re selling before you spend a dime.
• Choose your business structure: An LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation each carries different tax and liability implications.
• Get your permits in order: Requirements vary by city and industry — do your homework early.
• Know your costs before you need the money: Startup costs vary wildly by business type.
• Find your first customers: Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be intentional.

Funding is often where people get stuck. Matthew Espinosa, director of LaunchSA, said most first-time business owners underestimate how much preparation goes into securing a loan or outside investment.

“It’s usually not a ‘Hey, I’m going to walk into the bank tomorrow and get a loan and I’ll be good and ready to go,’” Espinosa said. “There’s usually a fairly extensive process. So the more you learn that before you need it — that’s what’s important.”

LaunchSA hosts free one-on-one business advising sessions and weekly events, including a Wednesday networking series called One Million Cups, where entrepreneurs present their businesses and connect with each other.

Gimbel’s advice for anyone still on the fence is simple.

“Find an advisor, find a mentor, find the networking group — and begin talking to those people,” she said. “They’ll connect you with people who are doing something similar or who can help you along the way.”

SA Startup and Tech Week is coming up, with events scheduled everyday Monday through Friday. KSAT is a media partner for SA Startup and Tech Week. A full list of events and information on LaunchSA’s free resources is available here.

Read also:

• Working Moms of San Antonio teaches children business skills at summer pop-up market

The news conference will be livestreamed in this article at 4:30 p.m. and on KSAT.com. Delays are possible; if no livestream is available, check back at a later time.

A news release said U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (TX-35) is scheduled to speak at 4:30 p.m. in San Antonio. He visited Pérez with fellow congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20).

On Monday, Casar called for Pérez’s release from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Pearsall. The congressman said Pérez was shot, taken to a hospital and released with a bullet still lodged in his back.

WATCH: Police bodycam footage show moments after Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez was shot by ICE officer

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement titled “Correct the Record,” that push back on claims related to the shooting.

DHS said ICE did not refuse to remove the bullet, Pérez did not have a valid work permit and that he is not in the country legally. The department also said he is receiving pain medication.

Pérez was able to describe his current condition to reporters over the phone while he was detained in Pearsall during a news conference on Monday. He said he was not feeling well.

On Tuesday, he was taken back to a hospital, and Castro said the Venezuelan man could not move the left side of his body. However, later that day Pérez was brought back to Pearsall with the bullet still in his back — days after the shooting.

Read more of this story on KSAT:

• What we know after a federal immigration officer shot, injured a man in Austin
• Politicians, advocates call for release of Venezuelan man shot by ICE officer in Austin

SA City Council votes unanimously to change César E. Chávez Boulevard back to Durango Boulevard

On Monday, crews began taking down street signs bearing the name of the late labor leader and political activist, Cesar Chavez, and replacing them with those that say Durango Boulevard.

The street had been called Durango Boulevard for decades until then-City Council members voted to rename it after Chavez in 2011.

After news reports recently came to light that Chavez was accused of sexual misconduct, the current city council voted unanimously in favor of removing his name and changing it back.

“If he behaved that way, then yes, I think that it was appropriate,” said Alicia Martinez, whose family home sits on a stretch of that street on the city’s West Side.

Martinez grew up in the neighborhood and remembers fondly the days of living on Durango Street.

She said she not only supports the change but welcomes it.

“For memories’ sake and growing up, it feels good in my heart,” she said. “I think many (neighbors) have been here most of their lives so I don’t think it’s going to be a major upheaval.”

Just down the street, though, Richard Puente had found out the news from another neighbor and was not too happy about it.

“He came over and he said, ‘They already changed it.’ I said, ‘No. I haven’t seen a change. Sure enough, I looked at it and I said, ‘Come on!,” Puente recalled.

With the street being renamed, he said he expected people, including his postal carrier, to have trouble finding him.

“Now we have to go to the bank. We have to go to change our driver’s license. Who’s going pay for that?,” Puente said.

The city’s plan calls for replacing about 80 signs along the street, which runs from the city’s West Side through downtown to the near East Side, according to Nicholas Olivier, a spokesperson with Public Works.

Crews are expected to finish the job by the end of the month.

Olivier said the Texas Department of Transportation will be handling the job of changing out highway signs, and that could take up to a year.

As crews work to replace the signs, some areas have the new name while others still have signs naming it Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

Marcella Rodriguez, who was visiting the area from the Hill Country, is concerned the conflicting signs could cause confusion for people, particularly those who are not familiar with the city.

“For tourists and younger people, it might be an issue,” Rodriguez said. “Google maps or whatever apps they’re using, if it’s not changed, that could be confusing.”

The cost of the city’s renaming work is estimated at about $375,000.

Read also:

• SA City Council votes unanimously to change César E. Chávez Boulevard back to Durango Boulevard
• How a team of three makes 8,000 to 10,000 street signs a year for San Antonio

This year, the nation of 41 million has a new posture on the planet's biggest diplomatic stage.

Since a watershed speech to the World Economic Forum in January, Prime Minister Mark Carney has become a leading voice of what he and some others call “middle powers.” He has urged them to band together to update and preserve the international order, and protect their own interests, in an era of flexes by the United States and other global giants.

And he has shown himself willing to walk the walk when faced with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff's.insults and cavalier talk of annexation. Carney rejected what he said were unacceptable U.S. trade demands and walked away from talks last month. Bluntly hedging his country's decades-long bet on U.S. trade and partnership, he has been courting other prospects — Canada might even become the European Union's first associate member.

“Partners are working with Canada because Canada’s predictable, reliable and principled in a world that’s anything but,” Carney told Canadian media at a news conference at the U.N. Tuesday as the General Assembly's big meeting got into full swing.

It's the international community's premier gathering of the year. And to Carney, it's an opportunity to demonstrate Canada's vision of “values-based realism” that's “both principled and pragmatic” — part commitment to such values as freedom, human rights and sustainability, part clear-eyed, “calibrated alliances” with partners that won't sign onto the whole list.

That's frankly practical talk for a forum that's prone to either diplomatic caution or soaring rhetoric, be it doomsaying, idealistic or, often, both. And Carney is finding an ear.

He's moving fast and building coalitions

Canada and a half-dozen other countries launched a new group Monday meant to stand up for economic cooperation and U.N.-style international collaboration. An air traffic control mess at New York airports kept Carney from making it to the “partners for multilateralism” kickoff event at the U.N. Monday night, but his schedule Tuesday included personal meetings with Jordan's king, the presidents of Chile and Angola, and an Emirati cabinet minister.

He also co-hosted a meeting on the long-elusive two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pledged 100 million Canadian dollars ($71 million) in humanitarian and security funding for Palestinians. Canada last year joined more than 150 countries that have recognized a Palestinian state, over the objections of Israel and its key ally, the U.S.

Asked whether he interacted Tuesday with Trump or members of his administration, Carney replied that he saw the huge meeting of world leaders as a chance to “meet those whom you don’t normally see.” He did attend Trump's speech at the assembly, where the president made no mention of Canada — the country on the other side of the world’s longest international border, and now on the other end of a deepening trade war.

Trump went on to criticize Canada on social media Wednesday, saying that immigration was “destroying” the country. Carney has said immigration levels have dropped during his tenure.

Meanwhile, Carney co-led a meeting Wednesday on the assembly sidelines about ocean monitoring and pledged $82 million Canadian dollars ($58 million) before heading back to Canada for other commitments. Foreign Minister Anita Anand is set to deliver the country's U.N. speech Saturday.

She said in an interview Tuesday that the address “will be very much about implementing the middle power strategy” that Carney has articulated — memorably when he told the World Economic Forum that as great power rivalries increasingly shake the international system, “middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” (There’s no official list of “middle powers,” but the term is often understood to mean countries that aren’t superpowers or their proxies but have some sway in global politics due to diplomatic or other strengths.)

Carney's “message resonates with many audiences, particularly those in the global North,” says University of Ottawa international affairs professor Srdjan Vucetic.

He noted that the prime minister's leadership is resonating at home, too. Carney, who took office in March 2025, enjoys high approval ratings from Canadians. Many are galled by Trump's remarks about making their country the U.S.'s “51st state,” his insistence on referring to Lake Ontario as “Lake America” and his trade policies. In Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, some neighborhoods are dotted with lawn signs encouraging eligible U.S. expatriates to vote absentee, and at least one coffee shop has crossed the Americano drink off its menu, substituting “Canadiano” instead.

Carney seeks to increase non-US trade

Carney, 61, a former central bank chief with a doctorate in economics, aims to double Canada's non-U.S. trade within a decade. He convened hundreds of international investment firm executives for a Canadian investment summit last week and is hoping for a trade deal with India, among others, by year’s end.

His government has touted security, defense and economic agreements with a roster of countries over the past year, and he has envisioned Canada as potentially forging an economic bridge of sorts between the EU and Pacific Rim countries.

His international efforts have drawn some questions, as when he became the first Canadian prime minister in over a quarter-century to visit Saudi Arabia. Predecessor Justin Trudeau's government had assailed Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, spurring a five-year diplomatic split. The two countries restored full diplomatic relations in 2023.

Carney said at the time of the July visit that he cares deeply about human rights, that there's no point in “lecturing countries from afar,” and that engaging with them doesn't convey approval of their every move.

At his U.N. news conference Tuesday, he said his approach “means actively, actively taking on the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish to be.”

“We have a strategy that, I believe, has already made our country stronger,” he added, “but we’ve only just begun.”

The landmark New York prosecution began nearly a decade ago with multiple accusers, but after retrials, mistrials, acquittals and appeals, it was whittled to a single victim: Miriam Haley, who said the Oscar-winning producer forcibly performed oral sex on her at his Manhattan apartment. She had worked briefly on the Weinstein-produced reality series “Project Runway.”

Weinstein, 74, pleaded for mercy, citing his age and health issues, including cancer and congestive heart failure. He apologized “to anyone I have affected with my actions” and said he felt remorse for Haley. However, he added, “I have to reiterate my innocence.” His lawyers said he will appeal.

Once a towering figure in Hollywood, with such hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat,” Weinstein’s downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the #MeToo movement. Several of his dozens of accusers were in court on Wednesday.

Judge Curtis Farber said Weinstein wielded his power as a Hollywood kingmaker to prey on women looking to break into the industry, treating them as “mere objects to be played with and discarded with impunity.”

Farber said Weinstein’s refusal to accept responsibility, portraying himself as a victim during jailhouse interviews, weighed heavily on his sentencing decision. Weinstein had faced up to 25 years in prison.

Some of Weinstein's accusers attended the sentencing

Haley credited the swell of other accusers, some of whom she hugged afterward, for giving her the courage to come forward.

For years, she said, “it was like a dark and painful secret that ate away at my spirit, my enthusiasm and sense of self worth, that it took a long time to regain.”

Jailed since his original conviction, Weinstein has already served more than six years behind bars, leaving him with about nine years on his sentence. But a pending resentencing in Los Angeles, where he was originally ordered to serve 16 years in prison for a 2013 rape, could put him away for the rest of his life.

Farber said it'll be his counterpart in California who decides whether Weinstein can serve his sentences at the same time. If it were up to him, Farber said, he'd run them consecutively, stacking Weinstein’s New York punishment on top of his Los Angeles sentence.

Weinstein, seated in a wheelchair, was quickly moved out of the courtroom after the sentencing. In the gallery, Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress whose rape allegations ended in an overturned conviction and two hung juries, wept profusely as prosecutors, Haley and other accusers consoled her.

Weinstein and Haley both spoke in court

Haley, 49, fought through tears herself as she spoke in court. After testifying at two of Weinstein’s trials — the original and last year's retrial — it was her second time confronting the ex-studio boss at a sentencing proceeding.

“Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away,” Haley said. “Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come.”

Weinstein hired private investigators to keep tabs on her, she said, and his defense lawyers and supporters ridiculed her in the media.

“It’s a life sentence for me,” she said.

Minutes later, Weinstein apologized while underscoring his claims of innocence. He maintains that he never raped or sexually assaulted anyone.

It was also Weinstein’s second time speaking at his sentencing — the latest in a series of courtroom soliloquies filled with complaints about his lodging at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail complex, boasts about his philanthropy and reminiscence about his moviemaking prowess.

“Reflecting on all that has happened since 2017 has helped me recognize how my past conduct has negatively affected others,” Weinstein said, some of his accusers shaking their heads as he spoke. “I live with many regrets and sincerely apologize to anyone I have affected with my actions.”

“I really do have remorse for Miriam Haley,” he added. “I am not a violent man. I ask for mercy. I promise I will pass it on.”

Haley says Weinstein 'still feels entitled'

Haley said afterward that she was happy with the sentence. But, she said, it's clear from Weinstein’s remarks that he does not acknowledge what he did.

“I think he still feels entitled, and that’s part of the problem,” said Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi.

Other accusers, including psychotherapist and former model Kaja Sokola, stood with her as she spoke outside the courthouse.

Haley’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, rejected any suggestion that Weinstein’s sentencing means the #MeToo era is over, telling reporters: “Women are empowered in a way they have never been before.”

“Today was about the survivors,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who sat in the courtroom alongside Weinstein’s accusers.

“I’m moved, as we should all be moved, by their courage and their steadfastness,” he added.

A retrial, a split verdict and another sentencing

Weinstein was originally sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison — 20 years for assaulting Haley and three years for raping Mann.

New York’s highest court erased those guilty verdicts in 2024, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by testimony from other women whose allegations weren’t part of the case.

Tried for a second time last year, Weinstein was again convicted of a first-degree criminal sex act for assaulting Haley. In a messy split verdict, the jury acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on Sokola and could not reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Mann.

After another retrial ended in a hung jury in May, Manhattan prosecutors dropped the rape charge rather than pursue a fourth trial after Mann said she could not bear to testify again.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Haley, Sokola and Mann have done.

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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.