Today on Texas Eats NOW:

LA FRITE BELGIAN BISTRO

728 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78205

La Frite Belgian Bistro is San Antonio’s premier Belgian bistro, bringing European bistro culture to the heart of Southtown for 17 years. Built on a foundation of Belgian heritage and culture, the welcoming atmosphere is intentional — guests are encouraged to linger, chat with neighboring tables, and feel at home in what the owners describe as San Antonio’s European dining room.

The kitchen, led by executive chef Luis Nahara, is known for its mussels above all else, sourcing Prince Edward Island mussels fresh three times a week and going through over 200 pounds weekly. Beyond the mussels, the table rounds out with dishes like a Belgian endive lettuce salad, a steak au poivre, and a duck confit, one of the few San Antonio restaurants to carry it as a permanent menu item. Daily prix fixe specials rotate alongside the regular menu, giving returning guests a reason to come back throughout the week.

CANDY’S OLD FASHION BURGERS

115 Plaza De Armas, Ste 107, San Antonio, TX 78205

Candy’s, formally known as Candy’s Old Fashion Burgers, is a downtown San Antonio institution built on a simple premise: old-fashioned burgers packed with flavor on every single bite. Founded in 2006 by Tony Vasquez, a lifelong restaurant worker who traced his inspiration back to the classic burger spots of Austin’s East 1st Street where he grew up, the restaurant has since become a true family affair. Tony’s daughter Melissa took over ownership two years ago, and her daughter — the third generation — now helps run daily operations, having grown up inside the restaurant since she was a baby.

The burgers are made with 100% fresh, never-frozen local beef patties cooked old-fashioned style — thick and juicy, never smashed — and always served on toasted buns loaded with tomatoes, pickles, and mustard. The Royale is a standout, a single patty piled high with smoked bacon and extra cheddar cheese, while the jalapeno cheddar cheeseburger features grilled jalapeños for a measured kick. The crowd favorite, though, is the chili cheeseburger — topped with the restaurant’s own blended chili and melted cheese that folds into the burger like a second sauce. The menu also extends to hand-breaded shrimp, tater tots, fish, french fries, onion rings, and a blackened chicken sandwich, rounding out a full menu of no-frills, deeply satisfying eats.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Fish City Grill 281 North
• Pappadeaux
• Sea Island
• Smashin Crab

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Benjie’s Munch
• Gino’s Deli
• Jersey Mike’s
• Max & Louie’s New York Diner
• W D Deli

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

In a DPS preliminary report, troopers identified the motorcyclist as Wilfredo Mattei, 29.

Troopers attempted a traffic stop on a black sport motorcycle at approximately 9:50 a.m. Monday near the intersection of the Loop 410 access road and Marbach Road.

Mattei, however, refused to stop. He led troopers on a brief chase, the report said.

Troopers said Mattei later abandoned the motorcycle near the intersection of Vance Jackson Road and Wall Street when he attempted to make a run for it.

Mattei was taken into custody following a foot pursuit, DPS said. He was taken to a local hospital for further treatment.

After his release from the hospital, the report said Mattei will be charged with evading arrest on foot, evading arrest with a motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

DPS said its investigation remains ongoing. Further information was not readily available.

More recent news coverage on KSAT:

• BCSO identifies couple killed in suspected murder-suicide in southwest Bexar County
• San Antonio city officials seek public input on neighborhood hazards, disaster preparedness
• Man charged with intoxication manslaughter in connection with Southeast Side crash, SAPD says

All of the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv’s need for more U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles — a point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely reiterate at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.

Fifteen people were killed in the capital of Kyiv, which was Russia's main target, and 56 were injured, according to administrative head Tymur Tkachenko. Another seven people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 29 were injured, according to Ukraine's emergency service.

Emergency workers searched for survivors in the rubble of residential high-rises in two locations that suffered direct hits.

Moscow has stepped up attacks on Kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Those Ukrainian attacks have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

On Thursday, a Russian strike killed 31 people in Kyiv, the deadliest attack in the capital this year.

Ukraine’s advances in drone technology have given it an edge in recent months, analysts and Western officials say, striking supply routes behind the front line, stripping the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and slowing its advance.

But Russia now is exploiting vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defenses, which remain heavily reliant on the Patriot missile systems to intercept ballistic missiles it can rarely shoot down. The war in the Middle East has strained the global supply of Patriot interceptors — a shortage now felt keenly in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy notes gaps in stopping ballistic missiles

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight, targeting mainly Kyiv, and all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets.

“To intercept ballistics, we need the means for interception,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television. “Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world.”

Ahead of the NATO summit in Turkey, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had performed well against drones and cruise missiles but not against ballistic missiles — a shortfall he blamed on insufficient supplies of interceptors. He urged U.S. and European partners at the summit to bolster Ukraine’s air defense and protect civilians.

“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” he said on X following the attack.

Russia's Defense Ministry said any increase in the supply of drones, missiles and ammunition produced in the West "will not go unnoticed and will be countered by a corresponding increase in the number and power of retaliatory strikes by the Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory.”

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia is deliberately ramping up ballistic missile attacks on a scale unseen before, exploiting the acute shortage of Patriot interceptors. “Fewer such missiles are produced worldwide each month than the enemy fires at Ukraine in that same period,” he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack targeted weapons factories in Kyiv, including sites it said produce drones, armored vehicles and missiles, as well as facilities repairing air defense systems and fuel and energy infrastructure in the capital and surrounding region. The claims could not be independently verified.

Russia’s attacks have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.

“These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.

A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be buried in the rubble.

In Kyiv's suburb of Vyshneve, about 600 residents were evacuated due to the risk of unexploded munitions, Ukraine's Emergency Service said.

Witnesses recount their harrowing escapes

Khrystyna Piatetska, 20, a resident of Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, said she began screaming after the first strike, which was followed by a second blast that blew out the windows in her apartment building.

The lights went out, a burning smell filled the air and the stairwell was thick with smoke, she said.

“When we were leaving the building, bodies were lying there,” Piatetska said. “When we got downstairs, cars started exploding, and we came out from under the rubble straight into the fire.”

Halina Ivanivna, 61, said she was awakened by the first strike about 2 a.m. Moments later, her apartment building began collapsing around her.

“Everything was falling down,” she said. Water poured through the building as smoke filled the air while emergency crews rushed to evacuate residents.

About five minutes after the initial impact, a second strike hit, she said.

Ukrainian strikes reach from Russian-held Crimea to Siberia

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 613 of 625 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine’s military said its Special Operations Forces struck the Omsk oil refinery in western Siberia, nearly 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine’s border. That appeared to be the farthest oil refinery in Russia's east that Ukraine has ever struck, and added to a long list of key refineries hit in recent months.

Omsk regional Gov. Vitaly Khotsenko confirmed a Ukrainian attack on the refinery in a Telegram post but provided no details, saying only that “most of the drones” targeting the facility were destroyed and that there were no casualties.

The Omsk refinery is Russia’s largest, boasting a capacity of around 460,000 barrels a day, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence. As of the end of June, it was producing close to capacity, accounting for 12% of all Russian refining output, Peach said.

“Depending on the extent of the damage, a sustained outage of even part of Omsk’s capacity will exacerbate Russia’s woes on the domestic fuel market and make the need to find import replacements even more urgent,” he said.

Russia has been grappling with a widespread fuel crisis from Ukraine’s repeated strikes on refineries and other infrastructure inside the country. Gasoline shortages and fuel rationing have been reported in multiple regions, with drivers waiting for hours to fill their tanks.

In Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, an energy provider reported a blackout across the peninsula following Ukrainian attacks early Monday. The Moscow-appointed head of the city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said the attacks cut power that was restored with backup equipment.

Ukraine’s military confirmed it struck several Russian energy and military facilities used to supply Russia’s armed forces with fuel and support its war efforts.

In the Russian city of Yaroslavl, two people were wounded in an attack in which over 70 Ukrainian drones were downed, according to regional Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev. He didn’t say if any facilities were damaged, but the Astra online news outlet said they caused a fire at an oil refinery.

Ukrainian drone attack on the Leningrad region north of Moscow damaged unspecified infrastructure at the Luga training ground, as well as in the areas of Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Vysotsk, Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said.

___ Associated Press writers Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Susie Blann in London contributed.

___

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

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Little Italy
• Marco’s Pizza Binz Engleman Rd
• Mattenga’s Pizzeria
• Mellow Mushroom
• Sofia’s Pizzeria

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Acenar
• Las Palapas
• Los Barrios
• Pappasito’s Cantina
• Pepe’s Taco and Salsa Jones Maltsburger
• Rosario’s

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Dallah
• India Taj-Palace Heubner
• John the Greek Thousand Oaks
• Mina & Dimi’s Greek House
• Pasha’s Mediterranean Grill

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

A BCSO spokesperson identified the two people as Ana Laura Rennie, 55, and Robert James Rennie, 58.

The sheriff’s office said Ana Rennie’s manner of death was homicide and Robert Rennie’s was suicide.

The couple was found dead with gunshot wounds at a home in the 15000 block of Escalante Pass, which is located near State Highway 16 and Watson Road.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he believes Ana Rennie and Robert Rennie were a married couple who lived at the home.

Upon arrival, Salazar said a woman, who is believed to be the daughter of one of the spouses, told deputies she went to the home to check on them because “she had not heard” from the couple for “at least a day.”

When the daughter went inside the home, investigators said she found their bodies. Ana Rennie had at least one gunshot wound to her upper body, while Robert Rennie died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Salazar. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

In an interview Saturday morning, Salazar told KSAT that one bullet left the house and entered a nearby home. The sheriff said no one was injured as a result of that bullet entering the house.

Domestic violence homicide trends

“We believe that there is a domestic violence history between the two, unfortunately,” the sheriff said Saturday.

According to Salazar, there was a case of misdemeanor family violence involving the couple, but the case was later “dismissed” due to a “missing witness.” It is unclear who was charged with the misdemeanor.

The sheriff believes Friday night’s incident — BCSO’s fifth domestic violence-related homicide investigation out of 10 homicides so far this year — is the continuation of a disturbing trend in Bexar County.

Last year, BCSO said nine of the 15 homicides the sheriff’s office investigated were related to domestic violence.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to remind the community that domestic violence is what I believe to be — and what we believe to be at the sheriff’s office here — an escalating crime," Salazar said. “It doesn’t go away.”

The sheriff said anyone in need of domestic violence services can call (210-335-6000.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, there is so much help for you. KSAT has a list of resources on its Domestic Violence webpage, which also explains how to identify different types of abuse.

If it’s an emergency, text or call 911. For wrap-around services, including the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services at (210) 733-8810.

You can also contact the Bexar County Family Justice Center, which also provides wrap-around services at (210) 631-0100.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or text TALK to 741-741.

You can also reach out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) or the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) at 210-223-7233 (SAFE) or 800-316-9241. You can also text NAMI to 741-741.

More recent news coverage on KSAT:

• One Year after Hill Country Flood
• Park visitors say it’s ‘scary’ seeing ICE officers at Phil Hardberger Park
• SAPD: 3 teens accused of robbing Northside ISD student connected to similar crime 2 weeks earlier

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Culebra Meat Market
• Granzines
• HEB
• Penshorn’s Meat Market
• Schott’s

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Little Italy
• Mare e Monte
• Mare e Monte on Huebner
• Olive Garden
• Pazzo Pastaria- Nacogdoches Rd

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Kirk’s parents and widow, Erika Kirk, were in the courtroom for the first time since the case began, along with Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump's son. But Kirk's family walked out of the courtroom after the prosecution's first witness — a police officer — started testifying about Kirk's arrival on campus the day he was shot. They later returned.

The five-day preliminary hearing marks the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case against defendant Tyler Robinson.

Robinson's parents also were present, sitting a few rows behind the Kirks as the hearing began. The 23-year-old defendant is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk, a conservative activist and ally of President Donald Trump, at Utah Valley University. Robinson turned himself in the day after the shooting.

Robinson sat quietly between his attorneys on Monday, looking at the prosecution’s exhibits on a monitor and occasionally taking notes. He wore a gray suit, and his wrists were shackled to a chain around his waist.

Prosecutors allege he confessed in a note left for his roommate, who was also his romantic partner, that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”

Robinson has not yet entered a plea, and his attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence. They have, however, sought to get the death penalty taken off the table, so far unsuccessfully.

A low threshold for prosecutors

The proceeding resembles a mini-trial, but prosecutors need only demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds to believe Robinson killed Kirk. The standard is lower than for a trial, where prosecutors must prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Prosecutors as a result should have little trouble advancing their case, said Mark Kouris, a former prosecutor and state judge in Salt Lake City.

“Effectively it’s 51% — there’s a 51% chance they did it,” said Kouris, now an adjunct professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. “This standard is extremely low and the chances of them not getting through it are, quite frankly, almost nothing.”

The prosecution’s first witness, former Utah Valley University police officer Chris Bagley, said he could see the right side of Charlie Kirk’s body as Kirk spoke on campus. Kirk was answering a question when Bagley heard a gunshot.

“I saw him go to the left ... I could no longer see the right side of his body,” Bagley said. “Then everybody started getting up and started to run, more of a chaos situation.”

After the shooting, Bagley went to the top of a nearby building where he saw a disturbance in the gravel that looked like a “sniper pad”, where someone might have been laying in a position that would allow them to shoot a weapon.

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester asked Bagley about finding an empty pistol holster on the ground after the crowd fled. Bagley acknowledged he never took custody of the holster and didn't know if it was fingerprinted.

Roomate's recorded testimony could be focal point

Prosecutors can use secondhand information, or hearsay, to help present their case. They expect to present between 40 and 50 exhibits during this week's hearing.

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander told state District Judge Tony Graf that the exhibits will include several videos of the Sept. 10 shooting, which occurred as Kirk was addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University. The videos will be shown on a courtroom monitor that is being set up so that it won’t be captured by the press videographer in the courtroom, said Graf.

Prosecutors have said they plan to present DNA evidence linking Robinson to the suspected murder weapon, autopsy findings, witness statements and video of Kirk’s killing. They are also expected to argue the shooting endangered others at Kirk's campus event — an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime punishable by death under Utah law.

Once the hearing is finished, Graf must determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Robinson's roommate is not expected to testify in person during the hearing. Still, the roommate's recorded testimony could be a focal point for prosecutors.

In addition to the alleged confession note, Robinson reportedly texted his roommate that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

Erika Kirk says court proceedgins are a 'painful reminder'

Before his death, Kirk and the organization he co-founded, Turning Point USA, galvanized the conservative youth vote to help Trump win a second term.

The Republican president has said he hopes Robinson receives the death penalty.

Erika Kirk said during his memorial service that she forgives Robinson.

Ahead of Monday's hearing, she thanked supporters in a statement posted to X for their kindness and prayers.

“Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death,” she wrote, “and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”

She added that the public outpouring “has sustained us during the darkest days of our lives.”

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Prosecutors are seeking to convince a state judge this week that they have enough evidence against 23-year-old Tyler Robinson to proceed to a trial.

Robinson is charged with aggravated murder in the assassination of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus last September. Kirk’s parents and widow, Erika Kirk, were in the courtroom for the first time, along with Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son.

The hearing marks the most significant presentation of evidence in the case so far. After the hearing concludes, state District Judge Tony Graf must determine if the case should proceed.

Here's the latest:

Members of the press are camped outside the courthouse

Television crews, photographers and writers are camped outside the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse in Provo, Utah.

Seats inside the courtroom are limited, so many members of the press are covering Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing from the sidewalks outside. They’re watching the building entrances to see who is coming and going, hoping for any opportunity to interview those involved with the case.

Security is tight, and surveillance teams can be seen on rooftops. A drone buzzes overhead occasionally.

Charlie Kirk’s parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, are at the hearing today. So is Donald Trump Jr. and far-right influencer Jack Posobiec.

Robinson’s parents have also been attending the hearing.

The court breaks for lunch

The judge has called a break for lunch. Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing will resume after the hourlong break.

Utah is an ‘open carry’ gun law state

Utah is an open carry state, former Utah Valley University police Officer Chris Bagley told defense attorney Kathryn Nester.

Utah state laws allow adults to carry guns openly or conceal them without a permit, though there are restrictions for people ages 18 to 20.

There are some exceptions at public colleges, however. Utah Valley University says it follows state law and allows gun owners to carry a concealed firearm if they have a permit.

Nester is questioning Bagley about the report he wrote after the shooting, including his observation about finding an empty pistol holster on the ground after the crowd fled.

Bagley acknowledged that he never took custody of the holster and doesn’t know if it was ever fingerprinted.

Defense begins cross-examination of former university officer

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester is cross-examining former Utah Valley University police Officer Chris Bagley.

She asked Bagley if he ever attended a meeting to discuss how officers would keep people safe on the day of the shooting. Bagley said he did not.

Bagley said there were six officers working that day. Thousands of people attended the event.

There were no metal detectors being used to screen the crowd, and no drones being used for security, Bagley said.

He also said there were no law enforcement officers on the roof, stairway or walkway when he arrived to work that day.

Officer describes seeing a ‘sniper pad’ disturbance in gravel rooftop

Former Utah Valley University police Officer Chris Bagley says he saw a disturbance in the gravel rooftop of the Losee building that looked like a “sniper pad,” where someone might have been lying in a position that would allow them to shoot a weapon.

The disturbance included spots that looked like they were made by two elbows and two knees, as well as a spot where someone might have laid a gun down. Bagley says he put police tape around the scene to keep people from going near it.

He then realized that they probably did not have a shooter in custody, Bagley said, and so called to have the building searched and secured.

Bagley also went to watch some surveillance video, which showed an individual run to the edge of the roof and drop down. He found a shoe print in the grass on the north-east side of the building, he said.

Preliminary hearing resumes after break

Court is back in session after a 15-minute break. Judge Tony Graf is talking to attorneys about how exhibits are being handled in court.

Charlie Kirk’s parents and widow left the courtroom before the shooting was described

The three of them walked out of the courtroom about a minute after former Utah Valley University police officer Chris Bagley started testifying about Kirk’s arrival on campus the day he was shot.

Kirk’s mother, Kathryn Kirk, clutched a pocket-sized packet of tissues. She had been listening to the proceedings with her head bowed and eyes closed. Widow Erika Kirk had been leaning her head on the shoulder of a blonde woman sitting to her right.

Defendant Tyler Robinson has meanwhile been sitting quietly between his attorneys at the defense table, looking at the exhibits on a monitor and occasionally taking notes. He’s wearing a gray suit, a pale pink shirt, and a tie, with his wrists shackled to a chain around his waist.

Bagley says he spotted something ‘out of place’ on a rooftop

Before a 15-minute recess Monday, former Utah Valley University police officer Chris Bagley said that shortly after the shooting last September, he ran up a public staircase to reach the roof of the Losee Center building, which he knew had a clear line of sight to the location where Charlie Kirk was sitting when he was shot.

On the roof, he spotted something “that looked out of place to me,” Bagley said. It was a red-and-black screwdriver.

Officer describes hearing a shot and chaos erupting

Bagley says he could see the right side of Charlie Kirk as the conservative activist spoke on campus.

Kirk was answering a question when Bagley heard a gunshot, he said, and chaos erupted.

People got up and started running.

Within a few moments, Bagley says he heard officers over the radio say that someone was in custody, so he began assessing the crowd for injuries.

Then he began working to “preserve the crime scene,” Bagley said.

He spotted a pistol holster that had been left on the ground, but knew that he had heard a rifle shot rather than a pistol shot, Bagley added.

Officer details the start of his workday on the day Kirk was shot

Bagley says that on the day of the shooting, he got to work around 11 a.m., and his job was to secure an area near a campus building called the Hall of Flags.

Bagley is using aerial drone photos to describe the layout, including whether there is a clear line of sight or view between different places on campus and the courtyard where Charlie Kirk was shot.

Officer describes the university setting where Kirk was shot

Former Utah Valley police officer Chris Bagley is describing the university campus where Charlie Kirk was shot.

He is using a drone image of Utah Valley University taken in December to set the scene, including a parking garage and campus buildings.

But Robinson’s defense team says he hasn’t adequately shown that he took the photo or that it accurately depicts the campus.

State District Judge Tony Graf says Bagley has first-hand knowledge of the area, so he is allowing it to be used as evidence.

Robinson’s parents are sitting in the courtroom gallery

They are a few rows behind Kirk’s parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, who is watching the proceedings with a furrowed brow.

The first witness has been called

Prosecutors have called Spanish Fork Police Officer Chris Bagley to the stand. Bagley was an officer at Utah Valley University when Charlie Kirk was shot there last year.

Donald Trump Jr. is attending the preliminary hearing

Trump Jr. was among the conservative political figures who spoke at Kirk’s memorial service last year.

Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder in Kirk’s assassination. Robinson’s attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence, and the preliminary hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence to allow the criminal case to proceed.

As many as 50 exhibits are expected during the hearing

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander told state District Judge Tony Graf that the exhibits will include several videos of the Sept. 10, 2025, shooting, which occurred as Kirk was addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University.

The videos will be shown on a courtroom monitor that is being set up so that it won’t be captured by the press videographer in the courtroom, Graf said.

Courtroom spectators told to treat the hearing with respect

The judge says people in the courtroom need to show proper decorum during the preliminary hearing.

Spectators aren’t allowed to display pins, clothing, photos or other visible demonstrations of support for anyone involved in the hearing. That includes things like shaking heads, Graf said.

Decorum rules like these are common during court proceedings.

Most witnesses will also be kept out of the hearing until it is time for them to testify, Graf said.

The hearing will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT each day, with two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break at noon. It is expected to last a week.

Preliminary hearing begins for man accused of killing Charlie Kirk

State District Judge Tony Graf is going over his rules for the hearing, including some limitations on the use of technology such as cellphones and laptops.

Graf says the court has the duty to protect and uphold the rights of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing the Turning Point USA founder, and those of Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk.

Kirk’s widow arrives at the courthouse

Erika Kirk has arrived at the Utah courthouse for the preliminary hearing of the man accused of killing her husband, Charlie Kirk.

Three men escorted her into the building several minutes before the hearing was expected to begin.

Charlie Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, arrived separately.

Court hearing in Kirk’s death draws the curious, heavy security

Armed officers with binoculars are on the roof of the courthouse where Tyler Robinson faces a key hearing in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

More officers are on the ground outside the courthouse. A drone was also flying overhead. Robinson’s defense team arrived at Utah County court with a dolly to move boxes of documents.

The focus of the hearing is whether there’s enough evidence to send Robinson to trial and whether the death penalty will be an option if there’s a conviction.

Shelly Juber, who lives nearby in Orem, got one of the 14 courtroom seats set aside for the public.

“I’m a trial watcher, true-crime enthusiast. … My grandson’s girlfriend was there the day it happened,” she said, referring to Utah Valley University.

A former Utah judge says prosecutors will likely clear the legal bar to pursue a murder case

For Tyler Robinson to be found guilty at trial, prosecutors will have to prove without any reasonable doubt that he killed Kirk. But the criteria for this week’s preliminary hearing are less strict.

Mark Kouris, who was a prosecutor and state judge in Salt Lake City, says there’s a low threshold for prosecutors to show the case against Robinson should proceed to trial.

“Effectively, it’s 51% — there’s a 51% chance they did it,” Kouris, now an adjunct professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, said in an interview. “This standard is extremely low, and the chances of them not getting through it are, quite frankly, almost nothing.”

Kirk’s family says his death ‘irrevocably impacted our lives’

Charlie Kirk’s family thanked supporters for their kindness and prayers ahead of Monday’s preliminary hearing.

“Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death,” Erika Kirk, his widow, said in a statement posted on X, “and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”

She added that the public outpouring “has sustained us during the darkest days of our lives.”

The statement was posted on behalf of Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn, his widow and his sister Mary.

“Out of respect for the judicial process, we will not be commenting further at this time,” the brief statement said.

Kirk’s widow has said she forgives the man accused of killing him

Erika Kirk forgave defendant Tyler Robinson during her husband’s memorial service in September.

“My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” she said as she struggled to hold back tears.

“I forgive him because it was what Christ did. It is what Charlie would do,” she added.

Her declaration was an outlier among prominent conservatives, including President Donald Trump, who said in September on Fox News that he hopes Robinson gets the death penalty.

Erika Kirk took the helm of Turning Point USA, the conservative youth movement that her husband co-founded, shortly after her husband’s death.

She is expected in court throughout the week with her husband’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk.

Robinson’s attorneys tried to block the death penalty

State District Judge Tony Graf said recently that prosecutors violated his restrictions on talking outside the courtroom when Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard told a media outlet his office had ample evidence to convict Tyler Robinson of killing Charlie Kirk.

Robinson’s lawyers argued the comments were intended to influence potential jurors. As a punishment, they wanted the judge to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

But Graf said that was too severe, and that Ballard's comments weren’t malicious.

The judge said any potential bias issues could be addressed by expanding the jury pool or more closely questioning potential jurors when the case goes to trial.

Will Robinson face the death penalty?

Starting with today’s hearing, the focus of the case shifts to whether there is enough evidence for a trial and whether the death penalty is warranted, said Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge.

Cassell said evidence made public to date in court filings suggests prosecutors have “an overwhelming case.”

“This seems like the proverbial slam dunk at this stage of the case, where the only issue is whether there is a sound basis for moving forward with a trial on the merits,” he said.

A death sentence is an option in Utah only when a crime has aggravating circumstances. Prosecutors will argue in Robinson’s case that Kirk’s shooting endangered others in attendance.

What information is publicly known about the case?

Authorities have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle used to kill Kirk, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle.

Robinson’s parents had confronted him after authorities released a surveillance photo of the suspect and details about the rifle, authorities have said. His parents convinced him to meet with a family friend, a retired sheriff’s deputy who reportedly helped arrange for Robinson to turn himself in.

Prosecutors have said Robinson left a note for his roommate, who was also his romantic partner, that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” They also said he wrote to his roommate in a text message about Kirk: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully sought to block prosecutors from using recorded statements from Robinson’s roommate during the hearing. The defense wanted the roommate to testify in person so Robinson could exercise his right to challenge the credibility of witnesses against him. Graf said the time for challenging witnesses would come later.

What to expect during today’s hearing

The proceeding will resemble a mini-trial, with prosecutors planning to offer DNA evidence linking Robinson to the suspected murder weapon, testimony from investigators, autopsy findings, witness statements and video of Kirk’s killing. They are not required to present all their evidence and can use secondhand information or hearsay.

After the hearing concludes, state District Judge Tony Graf must determine if the case should proceed.

Prosecutors need only demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds to believe Robinson killed Kirk. The standard is lower than for a trial, where prosecutors have to prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Prosecutors will lay out their case against the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk’s widow and parents are expected this week in a Utah court where prosecutors seeking the death penalty will argue that the man charged with killing the conservative activist should stand trial for murder.

The five-day preliminary hearing that starts today will be the first time members of Kirk’s family are in the Utah courtroom with defendant Tyler Robinson. The hearing will be livestreamed.

Robinson turned himself in after the shooting. Prosecutors allege that he also sent a text message confession to his partner and left a note saying he had an opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices, “and I’m going to take it.”

He has not entered a plea in the case, however.

Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk, who was addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University. His attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence.

▶ Read more

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Broadway Daily Bread
• Cinderella Bakery
• Dough Baby
• HEB
• Nadler’s

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Barbecue Station
• Blanco BBQ
• Dee Willie’s BBQ
• Smokey Mo’s BBQ
• Texas Pride BBQ Adkins Tx

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Box St. All Day - Hemisfair
• Crepeccino
• Magnolia Pancake House
• Max & Louie’s New York Diner
• Snooze

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Chris Madrid’s
• Diana’s Burgers - Zarzamora
• The Ridge at the Hill
• Whataburger
• Willie’s Icehouse 281/Thousand Oaks

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Flash flood warnings were issued Monday for parts of New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey as rounds of storms moved through the area.

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned about heatstroke and shared locations of pools and cooling centers. By Monday, he was urging people to leave basement apartments immediately if they saw water rising in their homes.

Heavy rain stranded cars on flooded highways across northern New Jersey and caused part of the roof of a BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ocean Township to collapse. Two people were briefly trapped but managed to escape, and no injuries were reported, according to the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office.

“Nothing too serious. They have us running from call to call,” said Capt. Leroy Marshall of the nearby Lakewood Police Department.

The rain and storms broke the heat dome that settled over much of the Northeast last week.

LaGuardia Airport in New York set a record high Thursday of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Low temperatures in many places barely made it below 80 degrees F (26.7 C), preventing people from cooling off even at night.

Officials in New Jersey were investigating about 25 deaths that were possibly heat-related. The people were found dead on the street or in homes without air conditioning. They ranged in ages from their 30s to their 80s, New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Raynard Washington said.

Autopsies and other investigations will be needed before the deaths are officially blamed on the heat, Washington said.

Other states have not announced possible deaths from the heat.

Severe storms moved from Michigan to the East Coast as the heat wave broke over the weekend. About 450,000 people remained without power from the damage, according to poweroutage.com.

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS

5757 US-90, San Antonio, TX 78227

Nelson Wolff Stadium is the longtime home of the San Antonio Missions, the Double-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres. Established in 1888, the Missions are one of the most storied franchises in minor league baseball, bringing affordable family fun to the Alamo City for more than 120 seasons. This July 4th, the stadium serves as the centerpiece of the H-E-B Independence Day Celebration as San Antonio joins the rest of the nation in marking America’s 250th birthday.

The night is packed from first pitch to final burst, with the Missions facing off against the Amarillo Sod Poodles on the diamond while fans enjoy all the trappings of a full-scale Fourth of July celebration. A hot dog eating contest gets the crowd fired up, and country artist Wade Bowen headlines a postgame concert on the left field berm before a fireworks display caps the evening. With baseball, live music, and a sky full of fireworks all in one place, the stadium delivers everything the holiday calls for.

DORP CREAMERY

310 W Grayson St, San Antonio, TX 78212

Dorp Creamery is a local ice cream concept serving up Asian-inspired flavors with a handcrafted approach. Founded by Michael Chue, the inspiration behind the business was to fill a gap in the San Antonio dessert scene after Chue found himself craving the kind of Asian-influenced ice cream he grew up enjoying in New York. Operating out of a truck, Dorp produces small-batch ice cream made from scratch using a rich custard base, aged before churning for a smooth, premium texture.

The menu features bold, creative flavors including ube, black sesame, matcha, and Thai iced tea, alongside the mango sticky rice ice cream that has earned viral attention on social media for its thick consistency and standout taste. Through pop-ups and local markets, Dorp has built a loyal following among San Antonians looking for something far outside the ordinary scoop shop experience.

THE BRUNCH SPOT

8022 Kitty Hawk Rd, Converse, TX 78109

The Brunch Spot is a family-owned restaurant in Converse serving scratch-made Southern comfort food with a modern twist. Founded by Tabby Pryor and led in the kitchen by her son, Nehemiah, the restaurant has earned a loyal following for its generous portions, welcoming atmosphere, and menu packed with hearty breakfast and lunch favorites. Guests can also enjoy handcrafted specialty coffees, lattes, and brunch cocktails to complete the experience.

Menu highlights include the signature Chicken & Waffles, featuring a fluffy Belgian waffle paired with crispy fried chicken, as well as the Chicken Fried Chicken served with eggs, breakfast potatoes, a biscuit, and rich cream gravy. Loaded omelets, buttery biscuits, and perfectly seasoned breakfast potatoes round out a menu that celebrates classic Southern flavors made fresh every day.

THE NEWSTAND COFFEE

1900 Broadway, Ste 106, San Antonio, TX 78215

The Newstand Coffee is a stylish neighborhood café in Midtown San Antonio that combines specialty coffee, house-made breads, and creative comfort food with a vintage-inspired atmosphere. Located inside the historic Jefferson Bank building, the café is known for its retro design, relaxed vibe, and an adjoining boutique featuring curated vintage clothing, books, and home goods.

The menu features hand-crafted sandwiches served on fresh-baked breads, including favorites like The Tribune with Texas Angus beef and The Times egg salad sandwich. Guests can also enjoy all-day breakfast items, fresh pastries, and specialty coffee made with beans from regional roasters, alongside seasonal drinks that make The Newstand a popular destination for breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon coffee break.

Follow Texas Eats and David Elder on Facebook and Instagram for more food info, pictures, videos and giveaways.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• 7 Brew
• Brevity Coffee Co.
• Dutch Bros Coffee
• Reunion Coffee
• Velvet Espresso, Inside Book Nerds, Castle Hills

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Benjie’s Munch
• Chrispy Eats 4822 Foster Rd
• Cone N Swirl
• Las Palapas
• Tacos el Regio

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Buffalo Wild Wings
• Burger Boy
• Las Palapas
• Olive Garden
• Whataburger

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Bunz Handcrafted Burgers
• Burger Boy
• Elsewhere Too
• Five Guys
• McDonald’s

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July. 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Ding How Chinese Restaurant
• Singhs Vietnamese
• South Garden Chinese Restaurant
• Thai Bird
• Tongs Thai Austin Highway

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Benjie’s Munch - Bitters
• Boudro’s Texas Bistro
• Embers
• Max & Louie’s New York Diner
• Tejas Steakhouse and Saloon

>> CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Chris Buckley
• Emily Bradshaw at Burn Boot Camp Helotes TX
• Matthew Cavazos
• Willie Nelson

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Chris Buckley
• CORE Physical Therapy
• Movement State Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab-- N Loop 1604 W
• The Program

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Burn Boot Camp Helotes TX
• Crunch
• Fieldhouse San Antonio - NW Military Hwy
• Gold’s
• The Program

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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With high inflation hurting Trump's popularity, the Republican president has tried to get more Americans to focus on their 401(k) investments, claiming that his policies should get the credit for any gains, particularly as the November midterm elections draw closer.

“It’s going to go up — I think the market’s going to go through the roof,” said Trump after formally launching the start of trading.

Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s economic leadership, according to a June survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Still, the act of ringing the opening bell suggests why the president’s emphasis on the stock market might not help his party much with voters this fall.

The Oval Office event was promoting the launch of Trump Accounts, which were created as a vehicle for children to have investments in stock indexes as part of Republicans' big 2025 tax and spending cuts bill.

In championing the accounts, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has emphasized that many Americans have no direct exposure to stocks.

This means that millions of people are not benefiting from investments that largely accrue to more affluent households or that the benefits they’re receiving are for retirements decades away.

Bessent declared before the bell ringing that “38% of American families do not have any exposure to our great equity markets.”

The S&P 500 stock index posted gains of 17.9% in 2025, but that came after annual returns of 25% in 2024 and 26.3% in 2023, during the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden. The benchmark stock index has risen roughly 10% so far this year.

But just as inflation crushed public support for Biden, Trump has also seen his approval fall prey to a cycle of rising prices. Trump won the 2024 election by promising to bring down costs, but his tariffs and the start of the war in Iran created new inflationary pressures.

The consumer price index has climbed 4.2% over the past 12 months, up from 3% when Trump started his second term in January 2025.

Trump, however, is betting that the stock investments that are being seeded by the government and by some prominent companies and billionaires will give future generations a deeper stake in the U.S. economy. The accounts already have gotten a boost from billionaires beyond the $1,000 from the government.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan, appeared by Trump on Monday as they have pledged $6.25 billion for the accounts, while there have been separate pledges by billionaires including investor Ray Dalio and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who said Monday that she would donate stock in the Elon Musk-led company to the accounts.

Trump jokingly acknowledged that children had missed the stock market gains that have occurred so far because of the delay in launching the Trump Accounts.

“We should have acted faster,” Trump said.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Arthur Murray Dance Center
• Dance Life Studio
• Studio 360 Dance & Fitness

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Alamo Heights Gymnastics Academy - Sandau
• Altitude All Stars
• Powerhouse
• Woodlands Elite San Antonio on San Pedro Ave.

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Balogun was issued a red card in the U.S. match vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina last week, resulting in a suspension for the Belgium contest. Trump called Infantino after the game with Bosnia to plead his case to overturn the call, and FIFA lifted the suspension on Sunday.

That prompted a day of off-field furor at the World Cup

The Belgian soccer federation challenged FIFA’s ruling not to enforce a ban on Balogun. The European soccer body UEFA described the decision as an “incomprehensible" breach of soccer's rule of law. Trump acknowledged calling Infantino and took credit for getting FIFA to review the red card.

A chaotic and unprecedented day in modern World Cup history then saw a FIFA appeals judge dismiss Belgium's legal challenge, fewer than eight hours before kickoff in Seattle with a quarterfinals place at stake.

The Belgian soccer body “is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision,” FIFA said in a statement.

It was unclear if Belgium can, and how soon, pursue an appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is on standby to rule on urgent World Cup cases.

The Belgian federation said it "has informed the United States Soccer Federation that it contests the eligibility of the player, should the player be listed on the referee’s team sheet. This leaves all further actions open.”

The fallout from Balogun's red-card challenge against a Bosnia-Herzegovina defender, in a 2-0 win for the U.S. in the round of 32 last Wednesday, has turned scrutiny on Infantino's executive control of FIFA and his years-long close ties to Trump.

Infantino insisted in a social media post that FIFA's disciplinary committee acted with independence and judged cases such as Balogun's on “applicable regulations and the specific facts.”

“During our conversation," Infantino said of his call with Trump, "I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies.”

A FIFA disciplinary judge's ruling Sunday left Balogun free to face Belgium in the round of 16 later instead of serving a mandatory one-game ban.

The Belgian federation earlier said FIFA had not provided key documents for its appeal, and the soccer body of Norway — which faces England in the quarterfinals Saturday — said the lack of legal explanation from FIFA was “reason for concern regarding the integrity of the competition.” The Swiss Football Association declared that the “credibility of the competition depends on clear rules that are applied consistently.”

Trump's comments

Trump on Monday defended calling Infantino, saying he merely pointed out a “horrible” decision by a referee to issue Balogun a red card for an illegal tackle.

“All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump told reporters at the White House about lobbying Infantino, a close ally, not to impose a one-game ban. Instead, the ban was deferred for one year of probation and flared into an all-time controversy in the World Cup’s 96-year history just hours ahead of the U.S.-Belgium match in Seattle.

UEFA vs. FIFA reignites

UEFA earlier criticized FIFA for an “incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision” that it said “crossed a red line,” and other stinging criticism came globally from former World Cup stars and coaches at the tournament.

“It’s a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said Sunday after his team beat Brazil to reach the quarterfinals.

UEFA, whose member federations include Belgium, insisted: “Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined.”

UEFA has often clashed with Infantino during his decade in FIFA power.

“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” said UEFA, where Infantino was its CEO-like general secretary from 2009 until being elected to lead FIFA in February 2016.

Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, who was forced from office in 2015 in fallout from corruption scandals, posted Monday on social media: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”

Belgium’s legal options

Belgian officials prepared in Seattle through the night into Monday to get a hearing with a FIFA-appointed appeals judge, and their eventual defeat might not be the end.

“Regardless of the sporting outcome of the match,” the Belgian federation said, ”(we are) deeply concerned by the way these events have unfolded and will continue, in the hours, days and months ahead, to pursue every available avenue to uphold the fundamental principles of ethics, sporting fairness and the interests of football as a whole.”

Balogun’s tackle

Balogun was sent off directly for planting his cleated foot on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic during a 2-0 win for the U.S. in the round of 32.

That kind of challenge has been a routine red card all season in competitions worldwide, and Balogun could have expected a two-game ban for serious foul play under the FIFA disciplinary code.

Still, similar challenges by star players have gone unpunished at this World Cup — by Argentina’s Lionel Messi against Algeria and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi vs. Brazil. Bernardo Silva of Portugal got just a yellow card against Congo.

“I think a yellow card would have been fair,” Balogun later suggested.

FIFA’s interventions

This World Cup has been remarkable for FIFA under Infantino seeming to rewrite the norms of disciplinary action even before the tournament began.

A pattern of pardons opened FIFA to suggestions of executive intervention in the statutory independence of its judicial bodies, including the disciplinary committee that formally reprieved Balogun.

Cristiano Ronaldo was cleared to play in Portugal’s opening World Cup game despite getting a red card for serious foul play in a qualifying game against Ireland last November. He struck an opponent with an elbow.

Ronaldo served his mandatory ban in Portugal’s final qualifying game but he was reprieved from an expected two-game ban because FIFA introduced the idea of probation. An imposed three-game ban was less meaningful as two games were deferred during a one-year probationary period.

At the opening game on June 11, South Africa’s Themba Zwane got a red card against Mexico for a similar offense to Ronaldo’s and FIFA imposed a three-game ban with no probation. Zwane did not play again at the World Cup.

Three players sent off in their teams’ qualifying games last year were surprisingly told by FIFA in May they could serve their bans in a future competition instead of at the World Cup, which was the long-standing norm.

Ecuador midfielder Moisés Caicedo, Argentina defender Nicolás Otamendi and Qatar defender Tarek Salman all had their bans waived for the World Cup.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Khamenei's flag-draped coffin, and those of his family members who were killed Feb. 28 in an airstrike at the start of the war launched by Israel and the United States, sat aboard a truck decorated to resemble the ornamental grating that surrounds the shrine of an imam. The massive turnout was encouraged by Iran's theocracy as a sign of strength, and it came as the Islamic Republic negotiates with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war.

Helicopter images aired on Iranian state television showed a massive crowd stretching from Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Square for kilometers (miles) down a multilane street of the same name. The crowd appeared to be larger than the one that turned out for the 2020 procession for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which drew over 1 million people.

Authorities offered no immediate crowd count as the truck crept down the street. People alongside the truck and elsewhere on the route carried placards, signs and banners calling for Trump's death.

“Today that we are here for the funeral for our leader, it’s a very tough day,” mourner Fatima Hassan said. “We are not here to say goodbye to him. We are here for revenge. And we will take revenge.”

Sea of mourners gather for Khamenei

Mourners reached out to touch the truck, and some threw scarves and other items for attendants to brush against the coffin, a common practice in Iran seen as a blessing. Attendants, some on the ladders of fire trucks, sprayed misted water across the crowds to cool them in the heat.

Authorities appeared concerned about the dangers of having a large crowd alongside the procession, with officials on loudspeakers urging the public to walk slowly, not to push and to stay to the edges of the street.

The coffins were taken through the streets of Tehran on a roughly 12-hour journey to Mehrabad International Airport, and Khamenei’s casket was flown later Monday to the Shiite seminary city of Qom, according to state television. He will be honored there Tuesday.

Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which began Saturday and will end Thursday as Khamenei is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace. Khamenei was 86.

“This is the last time I am seeing him,” said a weeping Maryam Alizadeh. “Our generation lived with him for decades.”

Calls for Trump's death grow as the funeral goes on

As the funeral has gone on, mourners have increasingly called for Khamenei’s death to be avenged. Mourners and the signs they carry have called for the killing of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such signs were seen again Monday along the procession’s route, with one effigy of Trump being hanged.

"We are here to show that his path will continue, and every single one of these people will continue down his path with clenched fists, and soon we will certainly avenge his death against the U.S and Israel,” said mourner Sahar Zaraatgar.

U.S. federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years, stemming from Trump’s ordering the 2020 killing of Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force. Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda footage long has suggested Trump was in Tehran’s crosshairs.

Trump, meanwhile, promised to destroy Iran’s civilization during the war, among other threats.

Negotiations over the war remain on hold

The U.S. is eager to press ahead with negotiations with Iran aimed at fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, rolling back Tehran's disputed nuclear program and reaching a permanent end to the war. Talks appear to be on hold until after the burial.

The funeral was in part a show of unity as Iran demands a measure of control over the strait, a vital waterway for global energy that it shut down during the war. The U.S. has rejected those demands, and the sides are divided on other key issues, including the nuclear program and the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance in the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.

At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel targeted top Iranian leaders, in at least one case likely using their public appearance to fix their position. It has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

King Charles III’s estranged son arrived Monday in the land of his birth for a series of charity engagements. But for most royal watchers that’s just background noise.

For the past 10 days, British tabloids and news broadcasts have been filled with speculation about whether Harry’s wife, Meghan, will accompany him and, more importantly, whether they will bring their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, so they can finally get to know Grandpa Charles. But everything is up in the air as Harry seeks to arrange protection for his family after a government committee refused to authorize taxpayer-funded security.

“With just days to go until Harry’s first public engagement in the UK on Tuesday … very little is guaranteed at all,” the Times of London reported on Saturday. “For Archie and Lilibet to meet the king, it’s now or never,’’ wrote the Telegraph.

The kids' trip hinges on adequate security measures

Harry, a British army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is visiting to attend events ahead of the next Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style competition he founded to motivate and inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries. The games will be held in Birmingham next year.

Not on the official schedule but very much in the media spotlight is a decision Tuesday at the High Court in London, where the judge will reveal his verdict in Harry’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail.

The decision about whether to bring the children, according to reports based on off-the-record briefings and unidentified people close to the royals, hinges on whether the U.K. government agrees to provide security for Harry and his family. It is an issue that has hung over every trip the prince has made to Britain since he and Meghan decamped to North America six years ago.

British authorities say Harry isn’t entitled to blanket protection because he is no longer a working member of the royal family and they will assess his security on a case-by-case basis, just like any other celebrity. Harry says it is unsafe for his children to travel to Britain without protection because his family remains a target simply by virtue of their royal status.

The decision rests with a government committee known as Ravec that rules on who should get state-funded protection.

The outcome could be problematic for the royal family, which is trying to show that it provides value for money after months of embarrassing headlines about the links between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“In the paranoid atmosphere of waiting for more Andrew shoes to drop, Ravec and the royals themselves are terrified of public blowback if taxpayers are asked to fund protection for the House of Sussex,’’ royal commentator Tina Brown wrote on X. “The issue is not a hill that either the king or the government wants to die on, and who can blame them?’’

Harry wants his children to get to know their grandfather

After initial reports that Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, would visit the U.K., plans began to wobble after the Daily Telegraph reported that Ravec had again rejected Harry’s request for protection.

The Times of London reported that Harry was “distraught” after the decision and told friends he wouldn’t let his children be “chased by paparazzi” through the streets of London.

By Sunday, it was clear the family wouldn’t accompany Harry when he arrived in the capital, though there was still a chance they would join him later in the trip.

Then on Monday, plans for the prince's accommodation fell into disarray. First, there were reports that Harry would stay at Buckingham Palace while he was in London, but within an hour, it became clear that the palace was not an option. At least for now.

Nonetheless, Harry has said that he wants to reconcile with his 77-year-old father, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer. And he really wants his children, who first met the monarch during celebrations for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, to spend time with their grandfather now that they are old enough to remember the experience.

Harry's relations with the palace have been tense

Tensions within the House of Windsor have heightened ever since Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California to pursue lucrative media deals, free from the pressures of royal life in London.

They reached a new low after Harry published an explosive memoir that included unflattering depictions of the royal family and damning allegations of a toxic relationship between the monarchy and the press.

Harry’s description of royals leaking information about other family members in exchange for positive coverage of themselves is just one of the tawdry allegations in his book, “Spare.” The prince was especially scathing about Queen Camilla, accusing her of feeding private conversations to the media as she sought to rehabilitate her image after her longtime affair with Charles when he was heir to the throne.

After losing a court battle over the security issue last year, Harry said he hoped to rebuild relations with his family, even as he suggested that the royals had sought to prevent him from receiving police protection to punish him for walking away from royal duties.

“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” Harry told the BBC. “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Belle of the Ball Boutique
• Good Goods
• Julian Gold
• Tejas Rodeo Company Store

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• Boysville
• Goodwill
• Plato’s Closet
• The Thrift Thru

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• H&M
• Men’s Warehouse
• Penner’s
• Tejas Rodeo Company Store

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• Chasing Camila on Main Street
• Defiant Boutique 4704 Broadway SA,TX 78209
• Marianita’s Boutique 3008 Nogalitos
• Pinkberry Boutique on Hackberry
• Tejas Rodeo Company Store - Bulverde Texas

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• Americus Diamond
• Good Goods
• James Avery

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• Aera’s Alterations
• Blanco Alteration Tailors
• Midtown Laundry & Dry Cleaners

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• Horizons & More
• McNealno’s Irish Pub
• Silver Fox
• Talley’s Pub

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• 1Watson
• 505 Rooftop Bar
• Rosario’s
• Tenfold
• The Moon’s Daughters

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Márquez and his father, who also survived, spoke through layers of concrete, hearing Leonel suffer, shout for help and inhale suffocating smoke as he waited for a crane to remove the columns crushing him. But it never came. After several hours, Leonel's cries gave way to silence, Márquez said.

But even that, terrible as it was, was not what disturbed him the most. The worst, Márquez said, was trying to recover his families' tangled remains with little more than his bare hands and a saw. He sliced off limbs to free the corpses of Leonel and his mother but was forced to abandon his sister, who was eight-months' pregnant, grandmother and other relatives beneath the ruins — and with their bodies, the hope that if he couldn't save them, he could at least give them proper burials.

“It’s unfair. It’s inhumane, everything that is happening,” 26-year-old Márquez said from the overflowing makeshift morgue at La Guaira port. "We couldn’t get my brother out because we didn’t get a response from the state ... and after 11 days, we are still requesting a crane.”

Márquez is one of countless Venezuelans who, after days of torment, has been left alone to search, if not for signs of life, then for loved ones’ remains — and for some semblance of closure.

International rescue teams, quietly acknowledging the possibility that no more victims would be found alive after 12 days under the rubble, are preparing to depart. Local authorities are turning their focus to finding shelter for thousands of displaced people. But the recovery of the dead has become a pressing, and horrifying, task for Venezuelans still missing their loved ones.

“I found her hand, but her torso is crushed," said Norely Rodríguez, trying to get her 5-year-old daughter out of the ruins in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira. “I want to see if I can get her out whole."

Residents say they are alone in the search for their dead

Many say that just as they were left without government help to rescue survivors in the immediate aftermath of the quakes, so too are they now under-equipped to unearth their dead nearly two weeks later.

The more time passes, the more gruesome the recovery process becomes, said William Gomez, a firefighter in La Guaira. “It has been difficult because the bodies are already in an advanced state of decomposition, decomposed to such an extent that many times when we try to remove them, they fall apart.”

Authorities announced that the death toll rose on Sunday to 3,342, with another 16,740 people injured. Beyond that is an untold toll: those whose bodies have yet to be found. There are no official statistics on how many people are buried under the rubble, but more than 30,000 reports of missing people have been sent to a website set up by the Venezuelan opposition.

Over the weekend in La Guaira, no government civil defense crews or security forces could be seen helping families dig. The vast majority of those working their way through the wreckage were civilians using their bare hands or rudimentary tools like pickaxes and shovels, occasionally accompanied by firefighters and Mexican rescuers who remain in the country.

“We are the ones helping ourselves: our family. Nobody else helps us except for a few volunteers,” said Yeikhary Urbina, who found the bodies of her mother and brother on Saturday suspended under piles of concrete, seemingly locked in an embrace.

Search teams from Italy, Argentina, Spain and other countries have already returned home. The Venezuelan government has not yet called off the search for survivors. But officials have pivoted from promoting heroic rescue stories on social media to announcing reconstruction plans under a program called Venezuela Reborn.

“Venezuela is entering a process of infrastructure recovery, of housing recovery,” acting President Delcy Rodríguez told state TV on Saturday.

Anger over recovery effort mounts

Families with missing loved ones face fresh horrors as they scour the rubble. Some have searched for days to find corpses of loved ones so decomposed, they cannot tell them apart.

Others have dug and dug only to find nothing at all. “She kept asking, ‘Why did God play this trick on me?’" Geraldine Perdomo said of her sister, who was feverishly clawing at the ruins of her home for anything that would confirm the death of her two daughters.

And some, like Márquez, have agonized for days to extract their loved ones' bodies only to lose them again in the chaos of the impromptu morgue beneath grain silos at the La Guaira port, where a near-constant stream of bodies has been arriving since the June 24 quakes.

Márquez said that on Sunday, a week after delivering their corpses, he heard authorities had located his mother and grandfather. But Leonel, he said, "is still missing because of the negligence here.”

He and many other residents of the country’s public housing blocks — built years ago for low-income families by former socialist leader Hugo Chávez — say their complaints of negligence long predate this disaster. High-rise buildings housing hundreds of apartments pancaked in the earthquakes, reviving questions about substandard construction.

Alexander, a 42-year-old police officer who lived in one of the towers, was trembling with fury at the government on Sunday — for not addressing what he said were long-running resident concerns that his concrete housing complex was shoddily constructed, for not sending rescue teams in time to save his wife and three daughters, and now, for not delivering heavy machinery to help him recover their bodies.

"Not a single person from the government was here," he said, requesting to be identified only by his first name because, as a government employee, he feared retaliation for criticizing authorities.

After 11 days of searching, he reached the last missing member of his family — his 12-year-old daughter, her corpse decomposed but intact.

“She was waiting for me to pull her out,” he said, cradling the black plastic body bag in his arms.

___

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Bar 414 at The Gunter Hotel
• Horizons & More
• Las Palapas
• Paloma Blanca
• Rosario’s

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• 54th Street
• Acenar
• Down on Grayson
• Horizons & More
• Vino Grotta

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• Aquaduck Beer Garden
• Bogart’s
• Finnegan’s Sports & Spirits
• Horizons & More
• Shady Lady

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The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and is back within 1% of its all-time high, even though the majority of stocks within the index fell. The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligence technology industry had the Nasdaq composite 1.1% higher, as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44 points, or 0.1%.

AI stocks have been swinging sharply in recent weeks on worries that their prices shot too high. Doubts are rising about whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers can possibly create enough gains in productivity and profits to make back all the investments.

Broadcom rose 4.3% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after announcing long-term agreements to provide silicon products to Apple. It's coming off two straight losses of more than 2% on Wednesday and Thursday at the end of last week, before the holiday for the Fourth of July.

The global appetite for AI from investors will face an additional test later this week when SK Hynix, the South Korean maker of computer memory, plans to raise $28 billion by selling shares of stock that will trade in the United States on the Nasdaq. That would make it one of the biggest U.S. offerings ever, behind SpaceX’s IPO from last month, which raised $75 billion.

SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul has already more than tripled so far this year because of the AI boom, but its day-to-day swings have included sharp losses in recent weeks. It fell 14.6% on Thursday alone, for example.

SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, has seen its stock likewise swing following its ballyhooed initial public offering. It erased an early gain to fall 0.9% in the last day of trading before it’s scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds like the QQQ exchange-traded fund, which mimic the index, to buy SpaceX themselves.

Elsewhere in AI, TeraWulf climbed 7.9% after it said Anthropic agreed to a 20-year deal to use its data center in Kentucky. TeraWulf expects the deal to bring in roughly $19 billion in revenue. TeraWulf is in the midst of transitioning its business away from mining bitcoin and into high-performance computing.

In the oil market, prices drifted after OPEC+ announced Sunday that seven of its members plan to expand oil production by a combined total of 188,000 barrels per day in August. It was the fifth straight month that OPEC+ members have agreed to raise output.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.5% to $71.79. That’s close to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February and sent prices spiking.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.48% from 4.49% late Thursday.

A report showed that growth last month for U.S. recreation, finance and other services businesses was roughly in line with economists' expectations. The survey by the Institute for Supply Management said that some businesses said they were seeing lower prices for gasoline and diesel, easing inflationary pressures.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and rose 1.1%.

___

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

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Bar 414 at The Gunter Hotel
• Horizons & More
• Rosario’s
• St. Anthony Club, The St. Anthony Hotel
• The Esquire

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Dos Sirenos Brewing
• Horizons & More

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Beauty Secrets, Bandera Rd.
• Diamond Wax Bar
• Esti.Alice
• Waxed Culture

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Anachacho Coffee & Cantina, The St. Anthony Hotel
• Anaqua Garden Bar
• Bar 3 Oak
• HEAT nightclub
• Horizons & More

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• All Star Tattoo
• Firme Copias

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• Bellagio Nail Bar Alamo Ranch
• Broadway Nails & Lash
• Jade Nail Salon
• Spellbound Beauty

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Esti.Alice
• Float on Fredericksburg Road
• Honeywine Studio
• Somatic Therapies Massage Center

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Brad Garza
• Devin Herrera @honeywinehair
• Erica Maspero
• Hair Diva
• Rochelle Petron - Sensational Hair

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Erica Texas
• Hair Diva
• Honeywine Studio
• The Colour Lounge

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• AJ Lugo
• Devin Herrera @honeywinehair
• JFADEZ

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• DoSeum
• San Antonio Museum of Art SAMA
• The Witte Museum

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Caliente Harley-Davidson
• Carlo Motors
• Dominion Audi
• Gunn Automotive
• Vara Chevrolet

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• BlueWave Express Car Wash
• Club Car Wash
• The Car Wash Express
• The Wash Tub
• The Wash Tub City Base

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Discount Tire
• Discount Tire Bandera & 1604
• Discount Tire on Austin Hwy
• GB Tires Culebra Rd

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• 2 Aces Auto Repair & Accessories LLC
• Excel Auto Werx-on Commerce
• Group 1 Automotive
• Gunn Nissan
• Prestige Luxury Automotive - Bitters

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

Choose your favorite and vote by using the link below. Voting is open from July 6th through July 22nd, and you can vote for each category once per day during that time.

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“All I did was ask for a review,” Trump said when asked about it during an unrelated Oval Office event. “I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this.’”

Trump confirmed that he called FIFA President Gianni Infantino and asked for a second look at the punishment against Balogun in the United States’ 2-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina last week in Santa Clara, California, near San Francisco. But he said FIFA made the final call to lift Balogun’s mandatory one-game ban for a foul tackle, allowing him to play in Monday’s round of 16 match with Belgium in Seattle.

FIFA’s decision to suspend the one-game ban was celebrated by many in the United States but brought condemnation in the international sports world, where some called it an outrageous intrusion. The Belgian soccer federation is challenging Balogun's eligibility for Monday's match, and the UEFA soccer body in Europe called FIFA's move “incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

Trump criticizes the referee's red card call

In remarks on Monday, Trump called the referee's decision a “horrible” call. He added that it would have been a stain on the tournament if Balogun, the U.S.' leading scorer at this year's World Cup with three goals, was held out against Belgium and the U.S. lost. He praised FIFA for making what he described as a brilliant decision in suspending the punishment.

“I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump said. “I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.”

The Republican president, who said he understands sports “really well,” acknowledged that he did not initially know what a red card is or the consequences it brings. When he learned it would lead to a one-game suspension for Balogun, he said, he decided to step in. He also took issue with the use of video review to issue the red card, arguing that slowed-down reviews can make plays look more aggressive.

“Belgium has got a great team,” Trump said. “We have to have our best players, and they have to have their best. And if we win or we lose, it’s fair.”

FIFA president defends the decision process

Soon after Trump addressed the controversy, Infantino issued a statement detailing his call with Trump and defending the independence of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

“During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies,” Infantino said in a statement on X. “That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold."

Trump's Oval Office event focused on new investment accounts for U.S. children, and he immediately sought to deflect attention away from the World Cup controversy. “They don’t want to know anything about soccer slash football,” he said of reporters gathered in the Oval Office. “Fortunately, they won’t be asking any questions on that. Nobody cares about that, right?”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who joined Trump at the event, turned attention back to the red card. "On behalf of all Americans, thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card,” Cruz said during his remarks. “It was spectacular.”

Pressed on the extent of his role, Trump said that he made his case to Infantino but that “I didn’t tell him what to do, I can’t tell him what to do.”

Separately on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was the right decision to lift the punishment for Balogun.

In rare comments during a photo op ahead of his meeting with Chile’s foreign minister, Rubio questioned why Belgium would want to win a match “if everyone will argue you didn’t really win it because their best, or their leading, scorer was not on the pitch.”

He joked that it was becoming an “international incident” ahead of a NATO summit in Turkey this week.

How did Balogun get the red card?

The foul against Balogun was called after he planted his cleated foot on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic during their round of 32 match. Brazilian referee Raphael Claus didn’t initially signal a card, but a slow-motion review resulted in the red card.

Balogun later said he thought a yellow card, a formal warning, would have been fair.

FIFA's decision drew quick rebuke on Sunday from Belgium coach Rudi Garcia, who said it sounded like an April Fools' Day joke. Meanwhile U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino applauded FIFA’s move, saying his team was punished enough by losing Balogun for the remainder of last week's game.

As the drama played out on the pitch last week, it was immediately clear from the perspective of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House FIFA Task Force leader Andrew Giuliani and Trump administration officials that the process used to issue the red card to Balogun was improper.

Discussions over the red card and what to do about it dominated the flight from Santa Clara back to Washington. The consensus of the group, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the talks, was simply: that the slo-mo replay was improper, so shouldn’t the red card be nullified?

The next day, Trump officials continued to dig into the rules, consult lawyers and speak with U.S. Soccer about the matter, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump was also briefed on updates as he prepared to speak with Infantino, whom the U.S. president has talked with multiple times a week since the World Cup, which is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, began June 11.

___

Kim reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press photographer Manny Ceneta contributed from Washington.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Billy Mata & Tex Tradition
• Jake Hooker
• Lone Star Pickerz
• The Experience Band

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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• STRAY STORM TODAY: Mainly along and north of Highway 90
• HOT!: Daytime temps slowly climb, upper-90s by Wednesday
• WEEKEND RAIN CHANCE: Deeper moisture ups rain chances by Saturday

FORECAST

TODAY

An outflow boundary should give lift to a few stray downpours. The best odds will be along and north of Highway 90. Otherwise, it’ll be partly cloudy and hot.

THIS WEEK

Daytime temperatures will slowly climb, peaking Wednesday and Thursday, with highs in the upper-90s.

RAIN CHANCES?

A surge of moisture arriving from the Gulf on Friday should at the very least give us more cloud cover. But, downpours, some heavy, should also arrive with this airmass. As of now, our best chance for downpours will be on Saturday (30%).

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.

Here are this year’s finalists:

• Bonahm Exchange
• Cowboys Dance Hall
• Horizons & More
• Sundown Social
• Texas Pride BBQ Adkins, TX

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Morgan’s Wonderland
• Schlitterbahn, New Braunfels
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Here are this year’s finalists:

• Main Event
• Morgan’s Wonderland
• Santikos Theaters
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• Tejas Rodeo Company

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We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories in this year’s SA Picks. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on those nominations.

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Click here to vote for your favorite finalists in SA Picks 2026.

Belgium said it’s appealing the suspension of the penalty. Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter said “red cards are not overturned by political phone calls." Norway’s coach called it “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.”

Trump rang a ceremonial bell Monday as the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq opened, reflecting how much he's counting on the stock market as he promoted the launch of Trump Accounts for children, which Republicans created in their 2025 tax and spending cuts bill.

And Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday at the NATO summit in Turkey, as Kyiv tries to refocus his attention on the conflict with Moscow and as Trump publicly mused about Syria’s role in the Middle East.

The Latest:

Trump tells lunch guests they won’t have to talk to each other while music plays

Trump offered his playlist as he wrapped more than 40 minutes of remarks in Washington, D.C.’s heat that was held shortly after an earlier, lengthy press event in the Oval Office.

“Should we put on a little music, yes?,” he asked. “This way you don’t have to talk to each other. You just have to listen to music.”

“So we’re going to put on a little music, the Trump playlist, OK, and we’ll have a little fun,” Trump said.

“YMCA” began to play as the White House press pool was escorted back indoors.

Rapper Nicki Minaj returns to White House for launch of Trump accounts

Minaj got a shout-out from Trump as he spoke at a Rose Garden luncheon after an earlier event to highlight the accounts.

The musical artist had joined Trump in January for an earlier announcement about the “Trump Accounts” for children born during his second term.

Trump said Monday that Minaj is “great” and “so respected.”

Minaj has described herself as Trump’s “number one fan.”

Rubio also wades into the red card controversy

In rare comments during a photo op ahead of his meeting with Chile’s foreign minister, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump by saying “it was the right decision to reverse” Balogun’s penalty.

Rubio acknowledged that “there’s a lot of drama around” the decision. But he mused about why Belgium would want to possibly win a match “if everyone will argue you didn’t really win it because their best, or their leading scorer was not on the pitch.”

Rubio joked that maybe it was “turning into an international incident” ahead of the NATO leaders summit in Turkey this week.

“Maybe we’ll bring it up at NATO tomorrow or with the Belgians and everybody else,” Rubio told reporters Monday, laughing. “I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength and the winner will be the winner.”

Trump says Cruz only SCOTUS appointee who would get 100 Senate votes

Calling Sen. Ted Cruz “a friend of mine,” in the Oval Office earlier on Monday, Trump said the Texas Republican was the only potential Supreme Court nominee who could get unanimous approval for the post from the Senate.

Trump talked at length about how the two were “great friends” before they duked it out for the GOP nomination during the 2016 presidential campaign, “but then it came together better than ever before.”

Cruz has been laying the groundwork for a possible run at the presidency again, stumping for Republican candidates in early-voting states including South Carolina. Frequently floated by Trump for a post on the high court, Cruz has said he would decline it, preferring to stay in politics and policy.

Trump says he’s putting ‘a lot of love’ back into the White House

Trump reviewed several of his White House renovation projects at a lunch on the Rose Garden patio for his investment accounts that bear his name for children born during his second term.

He referenced work being done to the columns on the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to the mansion and said he was having layers and layers of paint removed.

Trump also talked about the ballroom he’s building and his decision to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with patio stone.

“We’re putting a lot of love back into the White House,” he said.

Nonprofits and brands navigate this partisan 250th in search of a unifying tone

The United States’ 250th birthday carries ambitions to galvanize Americans behind nationwide community-service drives and patriotic brand launches. Well-known U.S. nonprofits hope to inspire a record-setting level of volunteerism, while major companies such as Walmart and Coca-Cola are sponsoring tributes and selling limited-edition merchandise.

But the private sector’s unifying ambitions have been met with a mixed response, complicated by an uneasy national mood. Fewer Americans see their country as exceptional compared to 10 years ago, according to a recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, part of a broad decline in patriotic sentiment. Views of the American flag — a prominent feature of semiquincentennial celebrations — are divided by politics, age and race.

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Hamas dissolves Gaza government, plans power transfer to UN-backed committee

The Hamas militant group said Monday it had dissolved its government in Gaza and is preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal.

Hamas did not say whether it planned to take the crucial step of disarming or handing over security to an international force, but described its decision as evidence of its commitment to Gaza’s reconstruction after years of war.

It was unclear if the move, announced by a lower-level official, would lead to any meaningful change on the ground.

The Board of Peace, led by Trump with the mandate of governing and rebuilding Gaza, said it would assess the impact of the Hamas announcement based on “actions, not promises” and stressed in a statement on X that the technocratic committee must control all weapons in Gaza, as laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

Netanyahu urges US not to sell F-35s to Turkey

Speaking Monday on the morning show “Fox & Friends,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “calls openly for the annihilation of Israel.”

Turkey and Israel have acrimonious relations. Erdogan frequently accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Turkey was barred from the F-35 program in 2019, after it purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. However, Trump, who has warm relations with Erdogan, has hinted ahead of his planned visit to Ankara for the NATO summit that the sales could soon resume.

Netanyahu said selling Turkey F-35s would “upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also, I think, by America’s posture in the Middle East.”

Israel’s Air Force depends on hundreds of U.S. fighter jets, including F-35s, F-16s and F-15s.

Trump points to George Washington to justify enriching his family

The president has drawn sharp criticism after financial disclosures showed his family made more than $1 billion in crypto last year.

He says his sons are running the family business, the Trump Organization, while he’s president.

“I don’t talk to them,” Trump said, adding, “I’m allowed to, I think.”

But he also said he doesn’t bother because being president is more important: “This office is a much higher calling.”

Trump also offered a dubious history lesson, suggesting that, as president, George Washington had two desks — one for business matters and another for the presidency.

“He had two desks in the same room,” Trump said. “And so, you’re allowed to. But I choose not to. I don’t talk to my kids about, you know, this stuff.”

Trump confirms he’s building a helipad on the White House lawn

The president argued that landing Marine One on the South Lawn, as has been done for years, was tough on the grass. He said the process has sometimes singed the grass or even torn it away.

“The hardest thing to get is a helipad,” Trump said. “There’s no harder zoning thing to get.”

He added “we’re building a helipad” that will feature the presidential seal and be made of granite.

The plan marks yet another building project for Trump, who has shaped the White House and its grounds in his own image in myriad ways.

Trump questions dangers of TikTok because he’s No. 1 on it

Asked whether SpaceX shares would be donated for use in Trump Accounts, the president instead talked about how TikTok helped him become president again.

Citing a news segment about the social media app’s purported dangers, Trump said he had seen that he is “No. 1 on it,” then questioned how dangerous it could actually be.

“I think it helped me win the election in a landslide, if you want to know the truth,” he said.

As for SpaceX, Trump said he’s “a cheerleader for geniuses” and speaks to many of them, including Elon Musk, who founded the rocketmaking company.

Trump says he called FIFA president to review red card, called it a ‘horrible’ call

Asked about his role in getting Balogun’s red-card penalty suspended, Trump acknowledged calling Infantino and asking that FIFA take a second look.

The president said he didn’t initially know what a red card was or what its consequences were. When he found out that it could keep Balogun out of Monday’s match against Belgium, Trump said he felt compelled to intervene.

“All I did was ask for a review,” Trump said to press at the White House. “I didn’t think it was a foul,” he added. “I thought it was two great athletes that crashed each other and got entangled.”

He said the red card was a “horrible” call, arguing that the slowed-down video review made it look worse than it was.

“That’s very unfair,” he said. “How do you penalize them for a game that hasn’t been played?”

Trump warns of ‘communists’ who want to destroy US

“Capitalism” has been the word du jour of the Trump Accounts event, with speakers talking about how the investment vehicles will energize children about financial investing.

But Trump found a way to weave in a reference to the opposing socioeconomic system of communism — applying the label to the Democratic socialist candidates whose primary wins have energized many anti-Trump voters.

Asked by a reporter if the program would go down as one of his “signature policy achievements,” Trump took the opportunity to accuse these candidates in the upcoming midterm elections of being “communists” who “want to destroy our country.” The rhetoric is reminiscent of similar narratives he has employed throughout his political career.

Cruz thanks Trump for intervening against ‘ridiculous’ red card

Speaking alongside the president, Sen. Ted Cruz began his remarks by thanking Trump for working to get FIFA to reverse Balogun’s red card penalty of a one-game suspension.

“On behalf of all Americans, thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card,” Cruz said. “It was spectacular. There was a reason the FIFA trophy sat here for as long as it did.”

Cruz appeared to be referring to a White House visit by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who in a rare move brought the World Cup trophy.

Trump thanked FIFA over the weekend after he and the White House intervened to enable Balogun to play in Monday’s match against Belgium.

Trump says he believes an end to the Russia-Ukraine war is close

“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize. And President Putin wants it to end, I will tell you that very strongly,” Trump said Monday while talking to press at the White House. He added that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also wants to end the war “now.”

The war and efforts to end it are forecast to be a central topic at the upcoming NATO summit this week. Trump plans to meet with Zelenskyy at the meeting in Turkey.

“I think we’re going to get it ended,” Trump said. “It’s been a terrible situation.”

Cruz tries to make Trump Accounts relatable to kids in Oval Office

To the children assembled for the investment accounts event, Sen. Ted Cruz tried to break down the stakes in a way they might grasp: McDonalds.

Referencing a brand no doubt recognizable to all of them, the Texas senator said the Trump Accounts and their stock market investments mean the children could go into the restaurant knowing they “now own a little bit of McDonalds.”

Cruz made a similar reference for the kids, feeling a different connection to aeronautics manufacturer Boeing, the next time they fly in an airplane.

Can older kids get any bonuses for their Trump Account?

Yes, thanks to contributions from some of the country’s wealthiest investors and executives.

Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, pledged to give $6.25 billion targeted so children 10 or under can get $250 in seed money if they live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $150,000 or less.

Trump announced that Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology, would give $250 million. Hedge fund founder Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, pledged $75 million so kids under 10 in qualifying ZIP codes in Connecticut can get $250. And Trump said investor Brad Gerstner would donate $250 to Trump Accounts for every child under 5 in Indiana.

Corporations are being urged to add such contributions to their benefits packages through what Bessent calls the “50 State Challenge.”

Trump: ‘Nobody cares’ about World Cup red card controversy

The president preemptively waved away potential questions from the press about the White House’s involvement in getting FIFA to reverse a red card against U.S. star Folarin Balogun.

After introducing the press at an Oval Office event on Monday, Trump said: “They don’t want to know anything about soccer slash football. Fortunately, they won’t be asking any questions on that. Nobody cares about that, right?”

Trump said he wanted to keep attention on his administration’s new investment accounts for U.S. children, the topic of Monday’s Oval Office event.

What are critics saying about the child investment accounts?

Critics point out that the accounts do little to help children in their early years, when they’re most vulnerable and most likely to be in poverty. The accounts, they say, also fail to offset the cuts the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have made to other programs that benefit young people and the adults in their lives, including food assistance and Medicaid.

And even with government contributions, critics say the Trump Accounts will widen the wealth gap. Affluent families that can afford to make the maximum pretax contributions will realize the greatest benefits. Poor families that can’t afford to set aside money for the accounts will benefit the least. Assuming a 7% annual return, the $1,000 in seed money would grow to roughly $3,570 over 18 years.

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Bessent says 6 million American children signed up for Trump Accounts

Ahead of the president ringing the market bell, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an overview of the program so far.

He said that 86% of the 6 million signed up came from families earning less than $200,000.

Under the program, parents can open special investment accounts for any child born during Trump’s second term and automatically receive $1,000 from the government. Accounts can be opened for older children — as long as they don’t turn 18 before the end of the calendar year — but they will not receive the $1,000. The accounts were set to open for deposits July 4, which was also the day the Treasury Department plans to transfer the $1,000 bonus.

Trump rings bell at the White House as US markets open

Trading had begun just before Trump rang the ceremonial bell brought to the Oval Office to mark the opening of trading in U.S. markets on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was the first time the opening bell had been rung in the Oval Office. Trump joked that he wanted to keep the large, silver bell for the White House.

A crowd gathered in the Oval Office to watch as Trump rang the bell, including a group of children who were visibly — and vocally — excited to be there.

Someone whispered “be quiet” to a child who began speaking just as the president was launching into an intro about the importance of the moment.

Trump’s emphasis on stock market gains ring hollow for many Americans

The Oval Office bell-ringing is aimed at promoting the launch of Trump Accounts, which were created as a vehicle for children to have investments in stock indexes as part of Republicans’ big 2025 tax and spending cuts bill.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has emphasized that millions of people — 38% of American adults have no direct exposure to stocks, so don’t immediately benefit from investments that largely accrue to more affluent households — “but with Trump Accounts, over time, we can get that number down to zero.”

The S&P 500 posted gains of 17.9% in 2025, after annual returns of 25% in 2024 and 26.3% in 2023 under President Joe Biden. The benchmark stock index has risen roughly 10% so far this year. But just as inflation crushed public support for Biden, Trump has also seen his approval fall as his tariffs and the start of the war in Iran created new inflationary pressures.

Trump rings opening bells for NYSE and Nasdaq

Trump rang the opening bells for the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq from the golden confines of the Oval Office on Monday, a symbolic act that reflects how he has increasingly tied his presidency to the stock market.

With high inflation hurting Trump’s popularity, the Republican president has tried to get more Americans to focus on their 401(k) investments, claiming that his policies should get the credit for any gains, particularly as the November midterm elections draw closer.

Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s economic leadership, according to a June survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

White House takes fresh aim at Smithsonian Institution

Trump may be preparing to install his own team at the Smithsonian Institution after a White House report branded its leadership, especially at the National Museum of American History, as radical activists who cannot be trusted.

Trump already revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian with an executive order targeting funding for programs advancing what he called “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”

Historian Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian’s current secretary, is the first African American to lead the institution. In an unrelated interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bunch said “America’s greatest strength, it’s not running away from its history, but it’s understanding how that history shaped us and continues to shape us.”

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Trump won big spending promises from NATO last year. This week in Turkey, he’ll try to enforce them

Trump got what he wanted from NATO at last year’s summit: an alliance whose members had largely acceded to his demands to step up their defense spending.

This week, when he meets leaders in Turkey, his mission is to enforce that pledge.

The speed with which most NATO countries have tried to heed Trump’s call to spend 5% of their annual gross domestic product on defense over the next decade underscores how the U.S. president has reshaped the alliance and bent it to his will — even as he continues to spar with its members over the Iran war, his flirtation with annexing Greenland, and various personal tiffs.

Trump leaves Monday evening for the summit, and for days leading up to the trip has been airing grievances about how much the U.S. spends on defense compared with other countries. That’s despite efforts from Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, who tried to feed the ego of the tempestuous U.S. leader in an Oval Office meeting last month.

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Trump posts a doctored photo of the Obamas and Air Force One with graffiti spray-painted on plane

Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.

It came months after another racist post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.

The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”

Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.

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Trump’s administration won’t seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.

Like Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool’s liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.

The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.

“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony ... just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well.”

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Trump to meet with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Syria’s al-Sharaa during the NATO summit

President Donald Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday while attending the NATO summit in Turkey, the White House said. Those discussions will come as Kyiv tries to refocus Trump’s attention on the conflict with Moscow and as Trump has publicly mused about Syria’s role in the Middle East.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly confirmed the meetings in a call with reporters while previewing the upcoming summit in Ankara, where Trump also plans to meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. Before returning to the United States on Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to have a news conference, Kelly said.

Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine is now in its fifth year. Both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone calls with Trump on Saturday, congratulating him on the July Fourth commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

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Hamas did not say whether it planned to take the crucial step of disarming or handing over security to an international force, but described its decision as evidence of its commitment to Gaza’s reconstruction after years of war.

It was unclear if the move, announced by a lower-level official, would lead to any meaningful change on the ground.

The Board of Peace, the new entity led by President Donald Trump with the mandate of governing and rebuilding Gaza, said it was aware of the Hamas announcement but would assess the impact based on “actions, not promises.” The board stressed in a statement on X that the technocratic committee must control all weapons in Gaza, as laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

At a news conference Monday, Ismail al-Thawabta, general director of the Hamas-run Government Media Office, said “only technical and professional staff” would remain in their positions to run the Palestinian enclave’s day-to-day affairs.

“All employees working in service provision are ‘state employees’ and are fully prepared to work under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” al-Thawabta said during a news conference in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called it “a positive step forward on the path to implement the ceasefire deal.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the move, saying it was designed to avoid disarmament. “As long as Hamas retains its weapons, any civilian government will of course operate as Hamas dictates,” he wrote on X.

The committee of technocrats, which is based in Cairo, is chaired by Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born engineer and former official with the Palestinian Authority. It has a mandate to restore essential services and oversee civilian affairs under the supervision of the U.N. and the Board of Peace.

In a statement on X, Shaath acknowledged the Hamas announcement Monday and said that in order for the committee to function effectively, there must be “a single governing authority operating under one legal framework” and “a unified security apparatus accountable to that authority.”

Nine months after the ceasefire was signed, negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Hamas has insisted on implementing the first phase before moving to discuss its weapons.

The Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 73,098 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

Israeli strikes have lessened considerably since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, but they continue almost daily. Israel’s military says it targets Hamas and other militants, often asserting they were planning attacks. The strikes have also killed many civilians.

On Monday, Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Gaza, including three in Khan Younis in the south and two in an apartment in Gaza City, health officials said.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas operative in the Gaza City strike and a militant from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in the attacks in Khan Younis.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza, and five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire. ___

Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.

The City of San Antonio Office of Emergency Management opened a public survey asking residents to share their experiences and thoughts on how to improve the city’s Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The plan outlines protocols for what happens before, during and after a disaster.

The survey is available at SA Speak Up and is open through July 31.

Deadly Perrin Beitel flooding highlights need for plan

One of the first questions in the survey asks residents which hazard poses the greatest threat to their neighborhood — a question that may hit close to home for many San Antonians.

Flash flooding near Perrin Beitel killed 13 people and swept away more than a dozen vehicles on June 12, 2025.

About five days after the flood, city and Bexar County officials issued a joint disaster declaration — a formal request to the state for assistance with cleanup, infrastructure and recovery operations.

An investigation into the disaster found the flood was consistent with a 25-year rainfall event. Investigators also found that design plans for the Loop 410 westbound access road placed it at an elevation vulnerable to overtopping during a quarter-century flood event.

Virtual public meetings

In addition to the survey, the city’s Office of Emergency Management will host virtual public meetings this week on Zoom for residents who want to learn more about the planning process.

The first meeting will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday. Additional virtual meetings are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Zoom details can be found here.

More recent City Hall coverage on KSAT:

• East Side detention center to open by spring 2027, ICE says in response to letter from Mayor Jones
• SAPD Chief William McManus to retire next week; Accepts new role with Pearl, officials say
• KSAT Q&A: Mayor Jones talks potential city budget cuts, raising property taxes amid $158M budget gap

The program allows Utah residents to skip the doctor’s office and get their prescriptions refilled online by an AI chatbot called Doctronic. It’s a seemingly simple step toward making healthcare more convenient for patients and prescribers.

But it’s also a precedent-shattering milestone that has set off alarm bells for doctors, lawyers and public health experts. The pilot program has laid bare a host of questions about the role of AI in medicine, including how it should be regulated, whether doctors should be able to veto it, and what kind of safety measures are needed to protect patients.

At the center of the debate: state and federal laws limit prescribing to licensed medical professionals. Proponents say those laws, which have underwritten American medicine for over 100 years, should be updated to include AI chatbots and other new technologies.

“We have crossed a threshold in terms of giving something that is not human a medical license, whether or not we want to call it that,” said Dr. Eric Bressman of the University of Pennsylvania.

AI cannot practice medicine under current laws

Bressman and other experts say they aren't opposed to AI prescribing. But they say it should have to meet rigorous standards akin to human doctors, who undergo years of testing and training before being licensed to practice medicine.

In Utah, Doctronic was able to launch thanks to a “regulatory sandbox” that allows state officials to waive laws for AI companies offering promising technology.

The refill program is currently overseen by a five-member board of AI specialists, none of whom are doctors, who say they have implemented numerous safeguards. During the program's initial phase, for example, human doctors review all Doctronic refill orders. The company expects to soon transition to fully automated refills.

The head of the state’s medical licensing board says he and his colleagues learned of the program when its January launch was reported in the news. In a March letter to the state, 11 board members called for the program to be halted, citing the risks of automatically renewing medicines that can have side effects or drug interactions.

“We were essentially told: ‘Yes this is going on. And no, you don’t have a say in it,’” said Dr. Alan Smith, a family physician who heads the board but said he was speaking only for himself.

Complicating the picture is the fact that medical technology is traditionally regulated at the federal level, while medical professionals are overseen by states.

Doctronic executives consider their AI part of the state-regulated practice of medicine. But the federal Food and Drug Administration is supposed to oversee AI that directly impacts medical care or decision making, a line that some experts believe Doctronic has crossed.

Some states are clearing the way for AI in healthcare

In an interview, Doctronic’s executives wouldn't say whether they have sought permission from the FDA.

“Our goal here is really just to meet patients where they need healthcare,” said Dr. Adam Oskowitz, who co-founded the company with a tech industry entrepreneur. “We try not to get too deep into the weeds on the regulatory side.”

In Utah, residents can visit a Doctronic website built for the refill program. After confirming their identity, the AI chatbot asks users about their prescriptions and medical history, verifying that they have a valid prescription by tapping into a national pharmacy database. If there are no issues, the AI can renew the prescription and send it to a local pharmacy. If the request requires more attention, the chatbot transfers the patient to a doctor who works for Doctronic’s telehealth service.

Oskowitz envisions a future where many routine medical tasks, including ordering tests and analyzing results, can be offloaded to Doctronic, allowing doctors to manage thousands more patients than they can today.

Other states are also waiving rules for AI, including Texas and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Iowa, Idaho and elsewhere have introduced legislation to formally license AI medical services. Many of the bills are based on a template from the nonprofit Cicero Institute, a pro-AI think tank founded by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the artificial intelligence software company Palantir.

Pushback against medical AI mainly stems from the economic fears of doctors and other health workers, says Cicero’s director for health policy.

“Whoever goes first is going to take the slings and arrows because there’s economic interests, concerns about the workforce and what that’s going to mean for jobs,” said Cicero's Adam Meier.

Doctors see potential risks to AI prescription refills

Smith, the medical board chair, says the risks to patients are real. He points out that Doctronic’s list of 190 refillable medications includes blood thinners, which can become dangerous if patients develop stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause internal bleeding.

“Many times when I see people after six months I find that their medical history or situation has changed,” Smith said. “Just because something was prescribed before does not mean it’s appropriate now.”

The American Medical Association has voiced similar concerns, warning that “prescription renewals aren’t routine checkboxes.”

Zach Boyd, who heads Utah's AI office, said Doctronic has thus far been overly cautious, often elevating uncontroversial decisions to doctors. In response to safety concerns, several medications have been removed from the list eligible for refills, including a drug for irregular heartbeats.

Utah has released some initial data on the program and Doctronic plans to publish peer-reviewed studies later this year. Currently the only publication about its technology is a paper written by company scientists that was not independently reviewed.

The study looked at whether Doctronic could correctly diagnose medical conditions based on records from 500 telehealth consultations. In the study, Doctronic's diagnoses matched that of human doctors 80% of the time.

The FDA is taking a hands-off approach

Bressman says Utah should have demanded data on prescription refills up front, not after Doctronic was up and running.

“Mostly they're accepting the company’s word on good faith that they’re up to the task,” he said.

The current approach to AI mirrors the haphazard medical standards of the early 20th century, Bressman says, before medical schools, medical boards and other authorities agreed on national benchmarks for training and licensing.

National guidelines on medical technology would typically come from the FDA, but the agency has indicated it plans to take a hand-off approach, at least under the current administration.

An FDA spokesperson said the agency has not authorized any AI chatbots but “is committed to encouraging medical innovation and helping bring promising new technologies to patients, while keeping safety at the center of every decision.”

For now, Doctronic and other companies are likely to expand across states with different regulatory approaches.

“Companies may benefit in the short term by expanding their business models and kind of having the technology go beyond the evidence,” says Daniel Aaron of University of Utah's law school. “But in the long-term, I think they risk compromising public trust and fueling backlash.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

But Pulido has been dogged by a series of headlines regarding his former bandmate, Frankie Caballero, a registered sex offender whom Pulido toured with for years as his accordionist, despite a lengthy rap sheet that includes a conviction for indecent sexual contact with a child. Pulido has maintained he was not aware Caballero was a sex offender, with his campaign saying he only knew Caballero struggled with addiction.

The Democrat’s ties with his troubled ex-bandmate, and whether voters are turned off by them, could shape the outcome of his high-profile challenge to Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.

De La Cruz has handily dispatched Democratic challengers since her first election in 2022, and her district, which runs from Hidalgo County up to rural areas east of San Antonio, favored President Donald Trump by an 18-point margin in 2024.

But Pulido, a first-time candidate, has made the race competitive, running as an outsider and telling voters he would focus on the needs of South Texas rather than partisan allegiance. In a leaked audio clip obtained by Punchbowl News, De La Cruz said an internal poll she’d commissioned had found her up by only 1 point, tracking with public polling that has shown Latino voters — who make up about three-quarters of the district’s eligible voting population — turning away from Trump.

Monica De La Cruz speaks at her election night watch party in McAllen on Nov. 5, 2024. Ben Lowy for The Texas Tribune

Pulido has maintained that the Caballero stories are a distraction from the issues of the race, such as high gas prices, the cost of healthcare and De La Cruz’s pro-Trump voting record. But De La Cruz and Republicans say Pulido’s affiliation with Caballero is disturbing and that they find his denials unconvincing.

“South Texans care about our families and our communities, and this November, we will hold Bobby Pulido accountable for his depravity and corruption,” a De La Cruz campaign spokesperson said.

Pulido’s biggest musical hit, the 1995 single “Desvelado,” featured Caballero on accordion by happenstance. He landed the gig, Pulido recalled in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, because the keyboard player who was supposed to record what became the accordion part with the band never showed up to the studio.

The two went on to tour and perform together over the course of Pulido’s career. Caballero, according to Pulido’s campaign, was a needs-based contractor hired over short stints.

In the meantime, Caballero, a native of the McAllen area, racked up over a dozen criminal charges in Hidalgo County starting in the 1990s, ranging from marijuana possession and burglary to multiple sex crimes, though many were ultimately dismissed or disposed. In 1994, he was arrested and indicted by a grand jury for sexual assault — a charge that was dismissed years later.

Tejano singer Bobby Pulido of Edinburg holds his award backstage at the Premio lo Nuestro Latin Music awards show in Miami on Feb. 22, 2007. REUTERS/Molly Skipper

In 2014, Caballero was convicted of indecent sexual contact with an eight-year old girl and sentenced to four years in prison.

After Caballero got out, he went back to performing with Pulido — including at a benefit for an Edinburg middle school in 2018 where children were invited. The performance was first reported by Axios.

“I find it unconscionable that Mr. Pulido’s campaign is dismissing parents’ concerns as ‘nothing’ while refusing to answer basic questions about his decades-long relationship with a serial child predator,” De La Cruz said in a statement after Axios reported that Pulido and Caballero performed at a middle school benefit. “His ‘I didn’t know’ excuse is simply not believable.”

Pulido’s campaign said Caballero was a contractor hired by Pulido’s management company, which did not conduct a background check — a practice the campaign said is common in the music industry. Pulido, according to his campaign manager, knew Caballero struggled with addiction but was unaware he was a sex offender.

The two performed together, according to concert footage, as recently as 2021. A spokesperson for Pulido’s campaign said his management company learned that same year that Caballero had “engaged in domestic abuse,” upon which he was “fired immediately and ties were severed.” Pulido and his management team found out about the accordionist’s sex offender status when it was first reported in the media earlier this year, according to the campaign.

“Bobby Pulido has been a public figure for over 30 years, he is an open book and has been completely transparent about this from day one — he did not know about Caballero’s sex offense charges and found out about his charges the same way everyone else did: the New York Post,” the campaign spokesperson said.

Later that year, Caballero was again charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact, as well as attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault against a child.

Caballero also was arrested in 2021 for failing to register as a sex offender — a charge that was ultimately dismissed. When he got out on bond for that charge, “Bobby Pulido Band” was listed as his employer on the bond form.

Pulido has alluded to Caballero’s criminal history before, saying in a 2024 interview it was a “shame” his bandmate “just can’t stay out of trouble.”

In 2018, Pulido, performing with Caballero, made a joke onstage that his accordionist “worked at Penn State,” adding that he was “just kidding.”

And in a 2019 interview in Spanish, Pulido, discussing Caballero, said that early in his career, he “went to get [Caballero] out of jail”, using a slang word for ‘jail’ similar to ‘the slammer.’ He did not specify which charge had put Caballero behind bars in this instance, nor did he say when this happened. The comments were first reported by the New York Post.

Bobby Pulido, Latin Grammy winner and now the Democratic congressional nominee for District 15, speaks during a Texas Together Rally at Cine El Rey in McAllen on March 9, 2026.Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune Gabriel V. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

Pulido’s campaign spokesperson said his comments referred to having given Caballero a chance to perform — and that the abundance of headlines is evidence of the Democrat’s momentum.

“Bobby Pulido did not post his bail or pick him up from jail or prison — Republicans admittedly saw Monica De La Cruz polling neck and neck with Bobby in a district they rigged for her to win, so they’re lying because they have nothing else to run on,” the spokesperson said. “This desperate smear campaign won’t distract South Texas voters from the fact Monica voted to gut their healthcare, raise their grocery bills, and drive up gas prices.”

But De La Cruz has continued to press the case that Pulido is untrustworthy.

“The only reason Bobby Pulido thought he could get away with bailing this serial pedophile out of jail and marching him into a public school is the same reason he thinks he’s entitled to a seat in Congress: he’s a silver-spooned celebrity, a creature of the corrupt establishment that got rich while the Valley got poorer,” the De La Cruz campaign said.

Pulido’s campaign has depicted the Caballero stories as hit pieces that serve as evidence that his campaign is resonating.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which includes Texas’ 15th Congressional District in its target list of flippable districts, is standing behind Pulido.

DCCC chair Suzan DelBene, a Democratic representative from Oregon, referred The Texas Tribune to Pulido’s comments on the Caballero accusations, but said she believes De La Cruz’s campaign “is scared.”

“[Pulido] has been a strong voice on important issues, like cost of living and healthcare,” DelBene said in an interview. “He’s talking about them head on, and people are hearing crickets from Monica De La Cruz. That’s why he’s in a strong position.”

Disclosure: Cine El Rey has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Records show the following suspects all remain in custody on multiple charges at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center:

• Amir Notario, 17
• Omar Timothy John Saenz, 18
• Damian Zertuche, 18

‘You’re talking s---?’

San Antonio police officers were dispatched just after 3:30 p.m. on May 18 at a Circle K convenience store in the 9800 block of Potranco Road, near Stevens High School.

A Northside Independent School District spokesperson told KSAT at the time that a Stevens High School student was the victim of the off-campus assault.

According to a police report obtained by KSAT, the 18-year-old student was on his way back to campus when Notario, Saenz and Zertuche — who are former Stevens High School students — confronted him.

“What’s up? You’re talking s---?” Notario told the student, according to the report.

The student told police he saw one of the three suspects “pull a gun from his waistband and display it.”

“Give me everything you got,” Notario told the victim.

“I don’t have anything on me,” the student told Notario, according to SAPD.

The student told investigators one of the suspects then pistol-whipped him in the face. At some point, police said the suspects stopped the alleged assault and walked away from the student “for some unknown reason.”

According to the report, the victim gathered himself and began walking back to campus. Moments later, a friend of the victim saw him, helped him talk to school staff and call SAPD.

Investigators saw the victim’s nose was swollen “a little,” had a tissue inside a nostril due to “bleeding” and had a swollen lip following the alleged attack.

SAPD, with the assistance of Northside ISD police officers and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), tracked down Notario, Saenz and Zertuche at a nearby apartment complex and took them into custody.

According to Bexar County court records, separate grand juries indicted Notario and Saenz Tuesday on aggravated robbery (first-degree felony) and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (second-degree felony) charges in connection with the May 18 incident.

Suspects’ possible connection to similar crime

A police report and arrest warrant obtained by KSAT show Notario, Saenz and Zertuche may have been involved with a separate aggravated robbery case on May 4 at the same convenience store.

In the initial police report, SAPD said a 17-year-old Stevens High School student went off campus during his lunch break and walked to the Circle K convenience store in the 9800 block of Potranco Road to get snacks.

At approximately 12:45 p.m., the 17-year-old student was approached by the three suspects. The victim told investigators that he used to consider Zertuche a “close friend.”

According to the student, Zertuche “had a firearm in his right hand” and was “pointing it towards the ground.”

“I’ma need your bag,” Zertuche allegedly told the victim. “Give me everything.”

“Just leave me alone,” the victim told Zertuche, the report states.

According to the warrant, Saenz struck the student in the face with a pistol. The victim told police that Zertuche and Saenz began going through his backpack. The student said Zertuche and Saenz “stole his gold chain, ring, sunglasses, phone charger and wallet” while Notario served as the suspects’ eyes and ears.

When people approached the store, Notario notified Saenz and Zertuche. All three then fled the scene on foot, investigators said.

The student went back to school before heading home and reporting the incident to police, the warrant states.

Court records show Notario, Saenz and Zertuche were each charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity. Both charges are considered first-degree felonies.

One suspect’s alleged connection to multiple mall robberies

Zertuche was also indicted Tuesday on an aggravated robbery charge, Bexar County court records show. However, the indictment came on an unrelated incident — one of two separate aggravated robberies he was connected to one day before his May 18 arrest.

In the first May 17 incident, San Antonio police said its officers were dispatched just after 4:30 p.m. to Ingram Park Mall on a robbery in progress call. The victim, a 16-year-old boy, told officers that a male — later identified as Zertuche — “snatched chains” from around his neck and “pointed a gun at him,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by KSAT.

The victim called SAPD after Zertuche fled on foot, police said.

According to an SAPD affidavit that detailed the second alleged May 17 robbery, Zertuche approached a 17-year-old boy shopping at North Star Mall and “forcefully removed” a necklace the victim wore. A police report indicates an officer was dispatched just after 5 p.m. to the mall’s Apple Store.

Officers said Zertuche also “assaulted” the 17-year-old, brandished a firearm and later fled the scene.

Records show a Bexar County grand jury indicted Zertuche in connection with the North Star Mall robbery charge.

After his arrest in connection with the May 18 robbery, documents show Zertuche confessed to committing the North Star Mall robbery to investigators. On May 19, the North Star Mall victim identified Zertuche to police in a photo lineup.

Zertuche was later identified as the suspect connected to the Ingram Park Mall incident by the victim and a witness on May 20, records indicate. To date, Zertuche has not been indicted in connection with the Ingram Park Mall robbery, records show.

Court records and a Bexar County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson confirmed Thursday to KSAT that Zertuche has also not been indicted on the May 18 aggravated robbery charge.

Zertuche’s combined bond for all five felony charges (four counts of aggravated robbery and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity) was set at $625,000.

During a July 1 hearing, Zertuche’s defense team asked a Bexar County judge to reduce his six-figure bond amount. Court documents show the defense’s request was denied.

In the courtroom

All of Notario and Saenz’s cases have been assigned to Judge Kristina Escalona in Bexar County’s 186th Criminal District Court. Zertuche’s five charges will be heard before Judge Frank Castro in Bexar County’s 399th Criminal District Court.

As of Friday, Notario is the lone suspect who is expected to appear in a courtroom later this month. Records show he has a hearing tentatively scheduled for July 20.

More related coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Northside ISD student assaulted off campus; 3 suspects arrested, SAPD says

Rutte spoke in the Turkish capital ahead of the two-day summit starting on Tuesday at a crucial time for the alliance, with the United States scaling down its security role in Europe. Washington has been pressing allies to shoulder more of the spending burden.

The 32 nations agreed last year to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense — 3.5% on their defense budgets and 1.5% on roads, bridges and ports so troops and equipment can move faster in times of conflict.

Spain endorsed the goal but said it could fulfill NATO’s security requirements without spending so much. Some countries are still struggling to meet the alliance’s old target of 2% of GDP.

Asked what would happen to members that don't have a clear plan, Rutte said: “If one or two of them still have to be convinced, we have ways to do that.” He did not elaborate.

Trump has called for ‘loyalty’ from NATO allies

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested last week that the U.S. has something in store for those who do not step up, but declined to say more.

“President (Donald) Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” Whitaker said.

On spending among European allies and Canada, Rutte said that “the evidence we see so far is impressive.” He said NATO estimates that they will invest a combined $258 billion more in defense in 2025 and this year than they have in previous years.

But the numbers might not be enough to satisfy the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly lashed U.S. allies over defense spending, and in the past threatened not to come to the defense of any member not doing enough — challenging NATO’s key reason for existence.

Trump also has called for “loyalty” from NATO allies, after some of them declined to allow the use of their military bases in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. As well as airing grievances about how much the U.S. spends on defense compared with other countries, Trump has sparred with allies over the war, his comments about annexing Greenland and other tiffs.

The Trump administration is promoting what it calls “NATO 3.0,” a vision in which Europe assumes greater responsibility for its own defense, freeing the U.S. to concentrate on other priorities. The approach was laid out earlier this year by Elbridge Colby, a U.S. undersecretary of defense, during a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

“We need our allies in NATO to step up and assume leadership roles, and I mean that not only in sort of loud cheerleading but also the moral authority and the moral compass of the alliance,” Whitaker said last week.

European allies warn about a possible Russia attack

Some European governments have warned that Russia might be preparing a hybrid attack somewhere on the continent as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.

NATO on Tuesday is due to make announcements showcasing the military equipment being bought with billions of dollars more being spent on defense and security. The event has been dubbed the “big reveal.”

Among the projects, many of them prepared and signed long before the summit, is one to replace NATO’s aging fleet of surveillance planes.

NATO as an organization does not own any weaponry — these are the property of member countries — but it has a fleet of AWACS aircraft that are about 50 years old and some surveillance drones.

In a report released on Monday, the European Stability Mechanism — a financial institution set up to help countries using the euro currency in severe financial distress — said NATO’s defense spending target is achievable but must be handled carefully.

It warned that Europe’s defense buildup, which largely will use debt financing in the short term, is turning into “one of the central fiscal policy questions of this decade.”

NATO governments are struggling to hike their defense spending, which requires increasing taxes or reshuffling resources from other priorities.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey unexpectedly quit last month because he said the government was not willing to spend at a time of rising threats.

The unrest at the prison in Negombo, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, started among inmates on Sunday, and when guards attempted to intervene on Monday, “they (inmates) started attacking the prison officials,” prison spokesman A.C. Gajanayake said.

He told reporters that some inmates attempted to escape but were stopped.

An official at the main state-run hospital in the area said seven prison officials and 18 inmates had died while another 43 were being treated for injuries. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Three other hospitals were also treating dozens of injured, he said.

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said the first clash erupted between two rival gangs connected to illegal drug trade. After the authorities restored order on Monday evening, Nanayakkara said the inmates who led the violence were transferred to two other prisons.

Army troops were also deployed around the prison.

Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 39,000 inmates crowded into a system with a total capacity of just 10,000.

Bexar County leaders will discuss and could approve an amendment to a non-relocation agreement with the Spurs on Tuesday, which would allow the team to play up to four regular-season games outside the Frost Bank Center during its next two seasons.

The current agreement allows for three games to be played away from the Frost Bank Center: two games within 100 miles of the venue and one game internationally.

San Antonio is scheduled to play two games against the Pelicans in Paris and Manchester next January. Only one is likely to count as a home game for the Spurs.

The Spurs also have yet to announce plans for its 2027 trip to the Moody Center in Austin, where it has annually hosted two games since 2023.

While officials have not provided a date for the opening of a new downtown arena, KSAT previously reported the team will likely remain at the Frost Bank Center for most — if not all — of its current lease, which expires in 2032.

Read also:

• Spurs to host July community meetings to discuss proposed downtown arena district

Since the 2026 FIFA World Cup began, fans across the country — including in Texas host cities Dallas and Houston — have reported that StubHub canceled their tickets days, or even hours, before kickoff, the release said.

StubHub has attributed the cancellations to “transfer problems” tied to FIFA’s ticketing platform, the attorney general’s office states.

However, consumer complaints suggest a broader pattern commonly known as “ghost ticketing” — a practice in which sellers list tickets they do not actually have, collect payment and then cancel the order when they are unable to deliver.

“In many cases, attending a World Cup match is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If StubHub is ghost ticketing Texans out of that experience, my office will use every tool available to hold them accountable and help fans who have been wronged,” he said.

Texans who purchased World Cup tickets through StubHub and did not receive them — or who received tickets significantly inferior to what they paid for — are encouraged to file a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division.

Read also:

• Thousands attend Ye concert at Alamodome after community leaders called for cancellation

But the private sector's unifying ambitions have been met with a mixed response, complicated by an uneasy national mood. Fewer Americans see their country as exceptional compared to 10 years ago, according to a recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, part of a broad decline in patriotic sentiment. Views of the American flag — a prominent feature of semiquincentennial celebrations — are divided by politics, age and race.

Rival events, planned by two different commissions, are adding to the conflicted feelings. Late last year President Donald Trump created Freedom 250, a nonprofit led by his allies, to organize alternative programming to America250, the official nonpartisan group formed in 2016 by Congress.

“The American dream is alive again. That’s something that nobody thought they’d be saying when you went through that last four years of incompetence,” Trump said at his June 24 campaign-style rally kicking off Freedom 250's Great American State Fair, which lost nearly all scheduled musical performers over concerns the event had grown too politically charged.

Philanthropy sees local impact as key to engagement

The tone contrasted with one of America250’s tentpoles: America Gives. The initiative aims to strengthen volunteering habits by encouraging Americans to serve with its nonprofit partners and log those hours in an online tracker.

Salvation Army USA National Commander Merle Heatwole lamented that a number of potential participants have assigned political agendas to the nonpartisan program, partnered on by his Christian aid nonprofit. Still, he celebrated that thousands of churches supported their “Good Neighbor Day” of volunteering in May.

“Some people have shied away because they’re not sure whether this is a nonpartisan effort, or whether it’s connected to the Trump administration versus the Democratic administrations,” Heatwole said. “That, I think, has hindered it slightly. But I think that overall, people are excited about having an opportunity to get involved.”

The America Gives tracker counted just over 38 million hours volunteered entering the holiday weekend. It's unclear how many hours would set the single-year record. Americans recorded 4.99 billion service hours in a one-year span from 2022-2023, according to an AmeriCorps analysis of Census Bureau data.

America250 Chair Rosie Rios said there will be a big year-end increase because many partners wait until “the last second" to populate their hours. She emphasized that highlighting the value of service is their only agenda.

Most nonprofits aren't leveraging semiquincentennial campaigns, one consultant found. Jayne Cravens, whose 30-year nonprofit career has included volunteer coordination, said nonprofits lack the infrastructure to provide meaningful service experiences. That's especially so after the Trump administration gutted AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, in 2025. Nonprofits scrambled to replace lost workers and funding.

Audra Watson, who leads youth civic programs at the nonprofit C&S, is spearheading a three-year effort to increase civic engagement among 20 million people ages 14 to 24.

She finds most young people are getting engaged through appeals outside of the 250th. While the milestone has sparked “some excitement for some young people,” she said, those participants are “hand-raisers” already “deeply excited about history.”

The more they encourage young people to consider local impact, where she said they hold the most influence, the more she finds they depart from partisanship.

“For some young people, the 250th is their thing,” she said. "But for many, many more of them this is about really taking that energy and catalyzing that energy around issues of their community.”

Dueling logos muddle the market

Marketing consultants say brands have to tread carefully, given a divided nation and shrinking national pride.

Further jumbling 250th celebration advertising, marketing executives noted, have been the two competing logos. The America250 emblem depicts a bold red, white and blue continuous ribbon that spells out “250.” The Freedom 250 design features the words “Freedom 250” written in a classic serif font, placed inside a circular arrangement of 13 stars, a nod to the original U.S. flag

“Once you have two competing logos, it’s confusing,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce.

Walmart, an America250 founding sponsor, is sponsoring a mobile recording studio that is collecting oral histories across the country. The Library of Congress will archive a selection of stories, the company said.

Coca‑Cola launched “Paint the Nation,” a large-scale public art initiative resulting in dozens of murals created with local artists. The company said each mural will reflect local culture and community pride, creating a “visual legacy that extends beyond the anniversary year.” Commemorative mini-cans are also being issued for all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

Aaron Hilton of Suffolk, Virginia says he’s seen lots of paper plates, cups and T-shirts with the America 250 reference. He's not interested, blaming his lack of enthusiasm on the Trump administration.

“I’ll end up getting the Coke because I do drink Coke, but otherwise I really don’t want to buy anything like that," said Hilton, 36. "I’m not feeling really patriotic about this.”

Darrell Brown, 50, of Alexander, Arkansas, has already bought commemorative T-shirts and flags. Every year, he decorates his lawn with a 7-foot inflatable Uncle Sam. This year, he's added more American flags than usual to commemorate the milestone.

Brown saye he's been sticking to merchandise with America250 references. He finds it politically divisive to have two logos.

“I don’t believe this should be a political issue,” he said. “I think it should be just about celebrating the country, regardless if you’re a Democrat or Republican."

Grassroots programming defined commemoration 50 years ago

Future generations might be pleasantly surprised to see all their communities accomplished under the milestone's banner, according to M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, a cultural historian who wrote a book about the 1976 bicentennial.

She recalled that the Vietnam war and Watergate still felt fresh during those celebrations. President Richard Nixon initially replaced Lyndon B. Johnson’s bipartisan planning commission with one composed of political appointees interested in a top-down celebration of American supremacy.

But Nixon scrapped those plans in place of federal funding for grassroots programming, Rymsza-Pawlowska said, which grew into forms of civic engagement still popular today. Environmental pick-ups and get-out-the-vote work were common forms of bicentennial volunteerism.

Private funders still support such efforts, though not at the scale possible with government backing. State humanities councils launched a “By the People” campaign to fund community-driven programs exploring the nation's culture and imagining its future. Her Washington, D.C. chapter created an oral history project that promises “an intimate and complex portrait of what it means to call the nation’s capital home" today.

“We don’t really know what the ultimate legacy of the 250th will be,” Rymsza-Pawlowska said. “A commemoration is just an opportunity to do a thing that you were already doing but have an occasion for it. And possibly get some money for it.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Tropical Storm Maysak killed two people in Nanning, in China’s southern Guangxi province. The storm affected about 55,000 people, including 48,000 who were evacuated, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Multiple dams were at risk, local media reported.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management deployed more than 1,000 rescuers, along with vehicles and boats to the region. It also sent two drones to ensure communications.

Rivers overflowed in Guangxi's Fangchenggang city, submerging cars up to their roofs, footage on state broadcaster CCTV showed. Rescuers used inflatable boats to reach trapped people. Residents described it as the most severe flooding in two decades, according to a China News Service report.

In Vietnam, the storm knocked down trees and ripped metal roofs off buildings in the town of Mong Cai on Saturday evening, Vietnamese state media said. Crews used chain saws and heavy machinery to clear debris and reopen roads after the winds subsided.

Maysak also uprooted trees in Dongxing, a city that borders Vietnam. The tropical storm dumped rain on China's Hainan island last week before crossing water and making landfall again in Vietnam.

Two villagers died in a mountain flash flood Saturday evening in the eastern part of China’s Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua News Agency said. One drowned while herding cattle and the other fell into water while driving a cattle herd away, the report said.

Three other people died the same day in neighboring Liaoning province’s Fushun city, about 390 kilometers (240 miles) to the southeast, Xinhua said. It did not provide details on how they died.

A heavy rainstorm battered Fushun for several hours early Saturday with rainfall of up to 32.9 centimeters (13 inches) in one area, according to state media reports. Video posted online showed streets turned into lakes. About 3,600 residents were relocated to safer areas.

The missile carried a dummy warhead, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. China last conducted a missile test in the Pacific two years ago, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead, the first since 1980.

The 2024 launch mirrored the testing the United States conducts for its own ballistic missile fleet, which experts viewed as an assertion of China’s growing superpower status.

Monday's launch, at 12:01 p.m. local time, was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and practice and was not directed against any country or target, according to a short statement from Xinhua, which was reposted by the Ministry of Defense.

Australia, Japan and New Zealand express criticism

Beijing's militarization has drawn concerns, and Australia, Japan and New Zealand criticized the launch.

The New Zealand government said it was informed hours beforehand and noted that the missile was fired into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.

The zone was established by the 1986 Treaty of Rarotonga, which prohibits nuclear weapons throughout the region. China ratified the protocols in 1987, pledging not to test nuclear weapons within the zone or threaten to use them against signatories with territory in the region.

“It appears that despite our long-standing concerns about this type of activity, China carried out the test within hours of informing us,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters told The Associated Press in a statement.

The launch took place the same day Australia and Fiji signed a new mutual defense treaty meant to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific.

“Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilizing to the region,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Fiji in response to the test.

Japan's Defense Ministry in a statement expressed concern about China’s increasing military activity and urged Beijing to “rethink” its missile testing so that the projectiles would not fly over Japan or pose other security risks.

“China’s military activities, combined with its lack of transparency, have become a grave concern for Japan and the international society,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said in Japan, citing Beijing's military activities around Japan and its increased military spending.

Beijing brushed off the criticism.

“We hope that the relevant countries will avoid overinterpretation,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.

Expert says it's a signal to the United States

The concern is a result of a lack of clear information, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore: “China’s military modernization and buildup have occurred without concurrent increases in openness and transparency, resulting in uncertainty about China’s intentions."

Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said the launch was the first publicly acknowledged test with a dummy warhead from a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine of the Chinese navy to travel this far into the Pacific.

Morris said it is noteworthy that the information available shows Japan, New Zealand and Australia received notifications in advance, but not the U.S.

The test was a signal to the U.S., he said: “The announcement demonstrates that China’s nuclear deterrent is no longer centered solely on land-based missiles."

China maintains a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy, but is also actively pursuing nuclear technology and weaponry as part of its long-term strategy to modernize the People’s Liberation Army.

China has a fleet of six ballistic-missile submarines and 59 nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based think tank.

In its latest report to Congress on China’s military capabilities, released in late 2025, the Pentagon said China had an estimated stockpile of around 600 nuclear warheads in 2024, adding that the PLA remains on track to field more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

___

Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Japan, E. Eduardo Castillo in Bangkok and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

In a news release on Sunday, Ray issued an apology and a public correction about his July 1 statement.

“I received secondhand information that I believed to be accurate, and I repeated it publicly without properly vetting it first,” Ray said. “That was wrong, and I need to set the record straight.”

The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office did confirm 47 dogs were euthanized at the Guadalupe County Animal Services over a three-week span.

“I hold my officers and staff to a high standard, and I have to hold myself to the same one,” Ray said. “I should have verified the information before I said a word. I did not, and I am sorry for the harm it caused.”

In addition to the correction, Ray said he will be making “a sizeable donation” to the Guadalupe County Humane Society.

“This is not about writing a check to make a problem go away,” Ray said. “It is about backing up my words with action and supporting an organization that did not deserve to be caught up in this.”

Animal shelter funding, structure

The sheriff said his concerns about the structure and funding of Guadalupe County animal shelter services remain, despite there being no parvovirus outbreak.

“I will continue to work with the Commissioners Court to address them through the appropriate channels,” Ray said. “That issue is separate from this one, and I will not confuse the two.”

In the July 1 statement, Ray said the county has allocated resources to improve animal services since there were “underlying tensions and issues” at the shelter.

Ray also said GCSO’s fractured “historical relationships” with “local animal advocates” have caused the sheriff’s office to take drastic action.

“This led me to a difficult decision in January. I gave the (Guadalupe County) Commissioners Court an ultimatum: if they did not make changes or find an alternative solution, I would close the shelter October 1, 2026,” Ray said in the July 1 statement. “I did not want to make this decision. But it is the only tool at my disposal to force the court to make meaningful change.”

The sheriff also said that if county commissioners believe an animal shelter is necessary for residents, the commissioners “should provide it separate from the Sheriff’s Office.”

The Guadalupe County Humane Society and the Guadalupe County Animal Services have no affiliation.

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In the nomination period, we asked you to choose San Antonio’s top businesses, from restaurants to dog groomers, and everything in between.

We received thousands of nominations across nearly 80 categories. Each category was then narrowed down to three to five finalists, based on the number of nominations.

Voting remains open from July 6 until July 22, and remember, you are able to vote for each category DAILY! Let your voice be heard, San Antonio!

>> CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST <<

Click here for the official 2026 SA Picks rules.

A special thanks to our SA Picks sponsor, Gamez Law Firm!

SpaceX is now worth more than $2.1 trillion following its ballyhooed debut on Wall Street last month. Whether or not you believe it deserves to be worth roughly the same as Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and IBM combined, the collective market does. And because it's that big, SpaceX is about to join a high-profile index on Tuesday, the Nasdaq 100.

Many stock indexes don't care about how realistic a company's growth plans are or who its CEO is. They're simply trying to show how slices of the market, or the whole thing, are performing.

That matters for investors and their 401(k) accounts because they're depending more than ever on funds that simply mimic these indexes. It's a lower-cost way to invest, allowing savers to keep more of their investments. Partly because of that, such index funds have usually proven to be better performers than funds that try to pick and choose individual stocks.

Just one in five actively managed U.S. stock funds survived and beat their average index peer over the last decade, at 21%, according to Morningstar's data through 2025. Such disparities in performance meant investors had more money invested in U.S. index funds than actively managed ones beginning in 2024, and the gap has only grown since then.

Here's a look at what's going on:

Indexes measure the market

Indexes are things the investment industry has created to answer the question: What is the market doing? It's otherwise tough to answer quickly when the U.S. market has thousands of stocks moving in different directions at any moment.

The S&P 500 is perhaps the most famous and influential index. It tracks 500 of the biggest U.S. stocks, and trillions of dollars in investments are either directly mimicking it or at least benchmarking themselves against it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is well known because it's been around since the 19th century, but it tracks only 30 big stocks so Wall Street pays it little attention.

Companies want to be in indexes

Because index funds are the way so many investors put money into the stock market, companies want to be part of indexes. Stocks can see a big jump in their prices after S&P Dow Jones Indices, Nasdaq, FTSE Russell or other companies announce they'll be joining their indexes.

The investment industry has created funds, including both traditional mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, to track almost every kind of index. More than 1,000 index funds were available at the end of last year, according to the Investment Company Institute. Of them, 185 tracked the S&P 500.

SpaceX is joining indexes

Nasdaq changed its rules to allow some huge companies to join its Nasdaq 100 index after just 15 trading days. That's a break from the past, where it would wait until each December to add new members in an annual reconstitution to make sure it includes the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq.

SpaceX will join the Nasdaq 100 before trading begins Tuesday.

Some popular funds track the Nasdaq 100 index, including the QQQ exchange-traded fund from Invesco that has roughly $480 billion in total investments. That means QQQ holders will soon own shares of SpaceX, without doing anything on their own.

Other AI giants could as well

Anthropic and OpenAI are two other huge AI-related companies looking to sell their own stocks soon on a U.S. exchange for the first time. Their IPOs could potentially make each worth close to $1 trillion.

It used to be that companies would have an IPO long before they got that big. But SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI swelled to tremendous sizes thanks to dollars from private investors, including pension funds, companies and rich investors, away from the public market.

That's forcing the reconsideration for the investment industry about how quickly to add companies to indexes that they say track the biggest companies.

Not every index is making changes to fast-track big IPOs

The company behind the S&P 500 is not making changes to allow SpaceX and other “mega” IPOs faster entry into the index. For it, a stock needs to trade on an eligible exchange for at least 12 months before it can join the index.

Not only that, S&P Dow Jones Indices also requires companies to have made a profit in its most recent quarter and over the sum of its last four quarters.

SpaceX lost $4.9 billion last year and another $4.3 billion through the first three months of 2026. It acknowledges that it “may not achieve profitability in the future.” Over the long term, a stock’s price tends to track with how much profit the company is making.

Not everyone is happy about SpaceX's IPO entry to indexes

Officials from pension funds for firefighters, teachers and other workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX before its IPO decrying its corporate governance, including how much power Musk will hold over the company through his ownership of a special class of stock with more voting power.

They said they could become owners of SpaceX stock because they hold index funds.

If Musk is able to control so much of the voting power on the board of directors, it would make him tremendously powerful atop SpaceX, “essentially making him unfireable without his own consent,” the CEO of California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the New York state comptroller and the New York City comptroller wrote in their letter.

If an investor doesn’t like certain companies in the index, choices are limited

Index funds track indexes. And if a stock is in an index, the index fund will buy it, even if investors may not like it.

Tesla has remained in the S&P 500 even though critics called it overvalued for years, for example, and Musk's electric-vehicle company has grown to become one of Wall Street's 10 biggest companies.

Some indexes say they will not include companies that have poor corporate governance standards or other narrowed criteria, but investors need to look for them.

The S&P 500 ESG index famously kicked Tesla out in 2022, for example.

Tabitha Martinez was taken into custody for intoxication assault and injury to a child, an SAPD preliminary report said.

Around 8 p.m., officers responded to the crash on the Interstate 10 westbound offramp and Northwest Loop 410 near Crossroads Boulevard.

Martinez failed to stay in a single lane and crashed into a center barrier, the report said. When she redirected her vehicle after the crash, she struck a Toyota.

A 4-year-old child was inside one of the vehicles involved in the crash and sustained serious bodily injury, according to SAPD.

As of Monday, the condition of the child is unclear.

SAPD said its investigation is ongoing. Further information was not readily available.

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Belgium takes on the United States later Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals.

The Belgian federation (RBFA) said it has still not received either “FIFA’s decision or any explanation regarding this matter. In these circumstances, it has no choice but to challenge the player’s eligibility for the upcoming match.”

It did not specify where it intends to appeal FIFA’s decision.

U.S. President Donald Trump intervened on behalf of star U.S. forward Balogun, whose red-card suspension was lifted in a decision that allowed him to play against Belgium.

The Belgian federation said it learned through media reports about the FIFA's move and sent a letter to the governing body requesting a copy of the decision as well as an explanation of the process.

“As its only response, FIFA sent a letter to the RBFA stating that it considered this correspondence to constitute an appeal, that a judge had been appointed, and that the RBFA had only a few hours to complete that appeal,” it said. “No information whatsoever was provided by FIFA.

The RBFA insisted that FIFA’s regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant.

“While the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible,” it said. “All of this occurred while FIFA simultaneously refused to respond to the RBFA’s legitimate requests.”

Balogun, the star forward for the U.S. with three goals in the tournament, received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemović of Bosnia-Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.

FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the round of 16 match, an extraordinary move that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium’s team. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn’t result in a suspension.

“Regardless of the sporting outcome of this match, the RBFA is deeply concerned by the course of events and will continue to fight in the coming hours, days and months in defense of the fundamental principles of ethics, fair competition, and the interests of football as a whole,” the Belgian federation added.

The FIFA decision drew criticism from the European Commission, the powerful executive arm of the European Union, which is based in Brussels.

Glenn Micallef, the European Union’s commissioner for sport, said that decisions “on sporting rules and sporting matters belong to sporting bodies, not politicians.”

“Influencing sporting decisions would undermine the autonomy of sport,” he wrote in a message on X. “Our focus should instead be on the real governance challenges facing sport, including the weaponization of sport for political purposes.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Officers were dispatched to the business just after 7:45 p.m. in the 2100 block of Southeast Loop 410.

According to a preliminary report, the security officer detained a suspected shoplifter — a 35-year-old woman — at the business. While gathering paperwork, SAPD said the woman attempted to flee the location.

While security began to handcuff the suspect, police said the woman brandished an unspecified weapon and began to stab the security officer in the head.

Authorities said the security officer, who SAPD identified as a Medina County Sheriff’s deputy, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Officers took the woman into custody while the security transported himself to a local hospital, according to the report.

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Nicholas Fernandez, 42, was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $150,000 bond, records show.

Officers were dispatched to the single-vehicle crash around 8 p.m. Saturday in the 9000 block of Southeast Loop 410 eastbound access road.

Upon arrival, officers said they found a 43-year-old man dead. As of Monday, he has yet to be identified.

SAPD later discovered that the driver, identified as Fernandez, was driving at a high rate of speed before he crashed.

The collision caused the passenger to be ejected from the vehicle. Authorities said Fernandez showed signs of being intoxicated afterward.

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SA Picks campaign (the “Campaign”) is sponsored by Graham Media Group, Michigan, Inc. d/b/a KSAT-TV (“Sponsor”), co-sponsored by Gamez Law Firm (“Co-Sponsor”) and administered by CitySpark, Inc. (“Administrator”), on behalf of Sponsor. The Campaign is divided into 82 categories (“Categories”) and nominated business candidates (each a “Business”) will be placed in one of the Categories.

The Campaign is subject to these official rules (“Campaign Rules” or “Official Rules”), and by participating in the Campaign as a nominator (“Nominator”), Business or voter (“Voter”), you agree to the Campaign Rules and Privacy Policy shown on our website. If you do not agree to the Campaign Rules and Privacy Policy, you should not participate in the Campaign in any way.

ELIGIBILITY:

The Campaign is open to Businesses operating in any of the Categories that, at the time of nomination, have a physical location within the following counties: Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson. Nominators and Voters must be 18 years of age or older and legal residents of the United States. You are not eligible to participate as a Nominator, Voter or Business if you are an employee of Sponsor, Co-Sponsor, Administrator or any of its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising companies, promotion contractors, and/or any other entity that participates in the creation, operation or fulfillment of this Campaign (“Campaign Entities”) or you are a member of the immediate family of any such employee.

NOMINATIONS:

To submit a Nomination for a Business, visit https://sapicks.ksat.com/ (“Campaign Page”), then find and visit the desired Category page, write in the Business name and click the “Nominate” button. Or, to provide more details regarding the Business, click on the “Register Your Business” button (or go here: https://sapicks.ksat.com/businesses/register and answer the prompts that appear on the webpages that follow. After completing the Business registration form, during the Nomination Period, return to the Category page and type in the registered Business name. Registered Business names should auto-populate after entering initial characters. Select the business and click the “Nominate” button. Participants may be prompted to register and/or log into their KSAT Insider Account. To register as a KSAT Insider for free, visit: www.ksat.com/insider/.

During the Nomination Period, eligible Nominators may nominate one (1) Business in each Category. Nominations in excess of these limits from any Nominator will be considered void if discovered by Sponsor. Businesses may not be listed in more than three (3) different Categories. Duplicate Nominations will be treated as multiple Nominations for the same Business, following Sponsor verification, and in Sponsor’s sole discretion. All Nominations are subject to Sponsor’s determination of eligibility, and Nominations/Businesses determined to be ineligible will not be added to the pool of Businesses available for voting (“Pool”). If Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion, that a Business is eligible for the Campaign but inappropriate for the specified Category, Sponsor reserves the right to remove the Business from that Category and enter the Business into a different Category. If Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion, that there are an insufficient number of Businesses nominated for any Category, Sponsor reserves the right to omit that Category from the Pool. Because of spelling errors and Business name variations, Sponsor will attempt to standardize the Nominations and Pool to match the Businesses to the correct Categories, and such decisions are in the sole discretion of Sponsor.

Nomination Period:

Nomination Start Date: 6/1/26 at 10:00 a.m. CT

Nomination End Date: 6/17/26 at 11:00 a.m. CT

VOTING:

To submit a vote, during the Voting Period visit the Campaign Page, find and visit the desired Category page, click on the Business you’d like to vote for and click the “Vote” button. Limit one (1) vote in each Category each day during the Voting Period per Voter and per email address. Votes in excess of this limit, if discovered by Sponsor, shall not be counted.

Proxy voting is not allowed. No one may purchase or otherwise provide incentives for votes. Any use of robotic, repetitive, automatic, programmed, script, macro, or any other automated means or similar voting methods or agents, vote exchange websites, vote “farming” or other method to vote or unfairly increase votes, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, is prohibited and will void all such votes submitted for, or orchestrated by that Business. Complimentary products or services offered in exchange for votes are prohibited. No Business may pressure their employees or contractors, or their families, to cast a vote on their behalf in the Campaign. Votes submitted in response to threats, coercion, or intimidation are void if discovered by Sponsor. A Nominator, Voter or Business may not collude with any third-party to violate these Official Rules or participate in or actively encourage such activity, whether directly or indirectly. Any votes Sponsor suspects have been submitted in violation of these Official Rules may be disqualified, in Sponsor’s sole discretion, and could affect the final standings. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this Campaign, in part or in its entirety, should virus, tampering, fraud, technical difficulties or other causes beyond its control corrupt the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper administration of the Campaign. Sponsor further reserves the right to modify these rules at any time during the voting period, in its sole discretion, if Sponsor deems the Campaign cannot reasonably be administered in accordance with the then-current Official Rules. Notice of any such changes shall be posted to the Campaign Page.

Voting Period:

Voting Start Date: 7/6/26 at 10:00 a.m. CT

Voting End Date: 7/22/26 at 11:00 a.m. CT

WINNER SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION

One (1) winner in each Category will be selected by Sponsor’s application of the following criteria: (1) number of eligible votes received in corresponding Category (2) number of nominations received in the corresponding Category (3) value to the local community (4) positive representation of corresponding Category. Limit maximum of three Category wins per eligible Business.

WINNER RECOGNITION:

Winners are scheduled to be announced beginning the week of August 10, 2026, on Sponsor’s television broadcasts, website, and/or KSAT+ livestream. Winners may receive public recognition. Winners shall not receive any prize or award with retail value. However, to commemorate their win, Winners may elect to purchase, at their own expense, a plaque from our partner, Monarch Trophy. Contact Laurie at: Laurie@mtsawards.com .

GENERAL TERMS:

All Nominators, Business and Voters (“Participants”) shall act in a civil, courteous, and professional manner in connection with the Campaign and any Campaign-related activity. Participants shall not engage in personal attacks or any other forms of harassment or inappropriate behavior targeting other Participants in connection with the Campaign. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify Businesses and/or void nominations/votes associated with Participants engaging in immoral, unethical, illegal or any other behavior inconsistent with the spirit of the Campaign.

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“When drowning occurs, seconds matter,” said Dr. Rohit Shenoi, the lead author of a recent American Academy of Pediatrics warning. “Quick rescue and resuscitation can mean the difference between life, death and lifelong disability.”

About 4,000 to 5,000 Americans drown each year. Most are adults who die in natural bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds or oceans.

But statistically speaking, drowning is a much larger danger to children. It’s the No. 1 cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4, and one of the top killers of children ages 5 to 14. The drowning rate is higher for white kids in the younger group, but much higher for Black, American Indian and Alaska Native children in the older group.

Drownings of very young children sometimes occur in bathtubs. But most, like Stewie Leonard's, occur in swimming pools.

A family tragedy leads to a foundation for water safety

The Stew Leonard’s grocery chain offers a Disney-like shopping experience, featuring food-promoting animatronic characters like a dancing banana, a mooing cow and singing avocados. But several of its stores also have an animatronic creature that seems out of place: a life-jacketed duck named Stewie who sings about how not to drown.

The duck is named for the son of Stew Leonard, the grocery chain’s chief executive. The boy was 21 months old when he drowned during a family vacation on the island of St. Martin in 1989.

More than a dozen adults and kids had gathered at a birthday party for Stewie's older sister, who was turning 3. Stew Leonard was outside hanging balloons and his wife was inside baking a cake.

“I saw Stewie outside and I assumed that he (Leonard) was watching him,” said his wife, Kim, noting that other relatives also were in the area of the pool.

“We never communicated with each other; ‘You’ve got him?’” said Kim Leonard, now 65. “When everyone’s watching, nobody’s watching.”

“There were a couple of balloons floating in the water,” Leonard, 71, recalled. “And you know after a few minutes, sort of everybody was like, ‘Where’s Stewie?’ Unfortunately I was the one who found him. He was face down in the pool.”

His death led the couple to start a foundation that pays for children’s swimming lessons and promotes drowning prevention.

Why are more kids drowning?

Unintentional child drowning deaths in the U.S. fell from around 2,000 a year in the 1980s to below 1,000 a year by the early 2000s, thanks in part to public awareness campaigns, expanded access to swimming lessons, and adoption of pool fencing laws. Between 2000 and 2019, health officials saw a 38% drop.

But then the trend reversed, with the number of child drowning deaths rising from 756 in 2019 to 865 in 2024, the most recent year for which complete data is available. The bulk of them were children younger than 5. The child drowning death rate also increased slightly, from 1.1 to 1.2 per 100,000 children.

What happened?

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted swimming lessons and lifeguard training programs, and contributed to a national lifeguard shortage. Meanwhile, some data suggests an increase in swimming pool construction and increases in unsupervised swimming, said Tessa Clemens, the CDC Foundation’s senior director for drowning prevention initiatives.

Kym Roberts studies drownings in Australia — where child drownings have been either level or decreasing in recent years. She said “drowning in young children is often associated with falls into water and lapses in direct supervision.”

Some possible good news: Preliminary U.S. data for last year suggests child drownings declined. But it's not clear whether that's the start of a trend, and the deaths still remain higher compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, Clemens said.

Pediatricians push for standards and regulations

Inventors have recognized a need for child water safety measures, and recent years have seen the emergence of immersion alarms that sound if the wristband a child is wearing goes underwater. But manufacturers of such devices note they can serve as an extra warning system, but should not be considered a primary way to keep children safe.

The federal government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid off Clemens and the rest of the staff of its drowning prevention program last year. But new guidance and drowning prevention support continues to come out of other organizations, including the CDC Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

A CDC Foundation program has paid for basic swimming and water safety skills training for over 35,000 students since 2024. The program operates in 11 states with higher drowning rates: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Ways to prevent drowning

The AAP says research shows that policies can make a difference, including lifeguard standards, life jacket regulations and requirements that swimming pools be completely surrounded by fences with self-closing, self-latching gates.

Stew Leonard emphasizes two other approaches — swimming lessons for young kids and complete focus by caregivers when young children are around water.

“I mean, I love ballet. I love karate. I love tennis lessons. You know, all the activities that kids can do,” he said. “But the only thing you can do to save their life is put them in swimming lessons.”

His foundation has funded over 250,000 swimming lessons for children and opened two swimming schools — one of them across the street from his company's headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Also, “shut your cellphones off when you're around the pool, watching the kids. Don't sit there reading a book. Don't sit there talking to your friends, neglecting your child that's near the water,” he said.

“This happens in the blink of an eye.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

It marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway ’s book “The Sun Also Rises” that launched the future Nobel Laureate to literary fame and put Pamplona on the map for millions of people around the world.

On Monday, the festival kicked off with a firework blast over a jam-packed plaza. The first of eight bull runs is on Tuesday.

Hemingway’s 1926 novel captivated generations of readers with its sexy Jazz Age tale of American and British bohemians trying to fill some inner void with the distractions of exotic travel, vast quantities of alcohol and the anguishing pursuit of impossible love.

Its success established “The Sun Also Rises” as a cornerstone of the American literary canon, right up there with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” It also popularized the term “lost generation” to describe the tight-knit group of early 20th-century writers expatriated in Paris. Hemingway's terse style forever changed American literature. In Spanish, its title is translated as “Fiesta.”

Hillmann, who hails from Chicago, was 19 when Hemingway’s vivid depiction of the bull running festival first enthralled him, especially descriptions of average Spaniards risking their lives sprinting through the streets to guide the bulls to the bull ring during the nine-day festival.

“I sat there for about six hours, well past midnight, reading the book," Hillmann told The Associated Press in Pamplona as he looked down on the pen where the bulls are held before being set free on the cobblestoned route. “And by the time I was done with that book, I was going to be a writer and I was going to be a bull runner."

Since that literary encounter, the 44-year-old Hillmann has run with the bulls in Spain hundreds of times, counting both his trips to Pamplona and his participation in dozens more bull runs in other Spanish towns. His infatuation with Hemingway and Pamplona has never waned, even though he nearly died one time that he was gored by a bull horn.

Hillmann’s appreciation led him to earn a doctorate in English, and now it is his turn to teach “The Sun Also Rises” at East-West University in Chicago, and write about bull running.

Americans are the biggest group of foreign bull runners

Hillmann is just one of many Americans inspired to travel to Spain to see the festival firsthand. While running with bulls is a cherished local custom for Spanish daredevils, Americans are still the leading group of foreigners who run at the San Fermin festival. In 2022, 16% of the bull runners were Americans, the largest percentage among foreigners and four times more than those from neighboring France, according to Pamplona’s City Hall.

Dallas-based tour operator Bruce Anderson, whose company “Running Of The Bulls” has helped thousands of Americans attend San Fermin over the years, says that Hemingway’s work made the festival a bucket-list destination. This year, his company is bringing 1,400 people to the festival, with over two-thirds from the United States.

“There’s a lot of energy, a lot of excitement around just remembering that book and the impact that it’s had,” said Anderson, himself a lifelong Hemingway fan. He spoke in Pamplona’s art deco Café Iruña, which features heavily as a drinking spot in “The Sun Also Rises” and today houses a life-size statue of Hemingway bellying up to the bar.

And Anderson, with his thick white beard, is something of a Hemingway look-alike. Local Spaniards often call out to him: “Papa!” – a nickname for their adopted hero.

It is impossible to avoid Hemingway in Pamplona

Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, which also has a statue of the writer, a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless: “At noon of Sunday, the 6th of July, the fiesta exploded. There is no other way to describe it.”

When Hemingway made his last visits to Pamplona, he would frequent the Perla Hotel; his suite still has furniture from the 1950s when he stayed there. The room, which overlooks the bull run route, also has two glass bookcases holding dozens of copies of “The Sun Also Rises.”

“Hemingway did a lot for Pamplona because he made it known around the world,” said Fernando Hualde, who worked for four decades as a receptionist in the hotel.

Hemingway’s legacy has become complicated over time

Hemingway’s local legacy, however, is mixed.

Beside a feminist critique of his hyper masculine public persona, Hemingway has drawn criticism from the animal rights movement for his praise of bullfighters. In “The Sun Also Rises,” he spills far more ink on descriptions of their bravery than on the bull runs.

Animal welfare activist Brook Spurling said during a protest against the San Fermin bullfights that “Hemingway wrote about many, many themes that today would not be accepted into society. He writes about hunting, about war, and we don’t want to be appreciating these themes today.”

Hualde says that some Pamplona residents rue his early promotion of the festival due to the ills of overtourism the sleepy provincial city is now experiencing.

Pamplona has 200,000 residents and receives over a million more people for the festival. While most are Spaniards, around 15% of the revelers are from abroad. And many, especially the younger visitors, follow Hemingway’s example of drinking to excess.

Some locals take pride in spots that weren’t touched by Hemingway. Local literature professor Gabriel Insausti of Pamplona’s University of Navarra recalls being in a bar with a sign that read “Hemingway was not here.”

“In general, Hemingway has become a product of a franchise associated with San Fermin festival that has obscured his novel,” Insausti said. “People know who Hemingway is, but they haven’t read his novel.”

But the power of Hemingway’s English prose lives on

Hillmann said that the high percentage of inexperienced foreigners today makes the Pamplona bull runs particularly dangerous. The last death was in 2009 but gorings and other injuries are common. Novice runners can easily panic and make a wrong move that can cause a pileup or send someone into the path of a bull.

He was badly gored in 2014 when he said a bad maneuver by a fellow runner left him exposed to a bull. He thought he was dying, such was the quantity of blood gushing from his leg.

After another goring in 2017, Hillmann told the AP from his hospital bed in Pamplona that he would not stop running. “People think this is just crazy people running. There is real art. If you pay attention, you can see it,” he said then.

Hemingway's granddaughter, the actress Mariel Hemingway, recalls being treated “like royalty” when she attended San Fermin years ago. Mariel, who has written and spoken about her grandfather's battles with mental illness that led to his suicide in 1961, is convinced his work will endure.

That fascination with death is likewise timeless.

“Identity, love, purpose, and how to rebuild after profound loss ... those themes haven’t ever changed. That’s what’s great about my grandfather,” Mariel Hemingway told the AP from her home in Idaho.

“I think he captured something that will never go away.”

More than 6,000 police officers, including anti-riot squads, were deployed to secure the Senate, where about 400 anti-Duterte demonstrators converged, chanting “Convict Sara now.” Duterte did not appear but was represented by her lawyers at the start of the trial, which will run for 92 days, according to a pretrial plan seen by The Associated Press.

If convicted of the charges, which include amassing unexplained wealth and publicly threatening to have Marcos assassinated, Duterte may be permanently disqualified from holding public office. She denies the charges.

Rep. Gerville Luistro, who leads the prosecution team, said there was adequate evidence and witness accounts to convict the vice president.

“This is the moment when the republic must demonstrate that laws are applied equally to the powerful and the powerless alike,” Luistro said.

Sheila Sison, head of the vice president's legal defense, expressed doubt whether prosecutors have legitimate evidence to back up their allegations against Duterte, who rose to power with a landslide electoral victory.

“This court, and we as a people, must guarantee that all efforts to hold our leaders accountable must be done right,” Sison said. “Impeachment should never be abused."

A conviction would be a lethal blow to the vice president's announced plan to seek the presidency in mid-2028, when Marcos ends his six-year term. They were running mates in the 2022 elections in a whirlwind alliance that combined the vote-getting power of two of the country’s most formidable political dynasties, but the union rapidly fell apart.

The vice president is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ predecessor. He was arrested last year on orders of the International Criminal Court and flown to The Hague, where he is detained and is scheduled to face trial over alleged crimes against humanity on Nov. 30.

The charges stem from the ex-president’s brutal anti-drugs crackdowns that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead, alarming Western governments and human rights groups. Rodrigo Duterte has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings but repeatedly threatened suspects with death while in office.

The vice president has blamed Marcos for her 81-year-old father’s arrest and handover to the ICC.

Marcos and the Dutertes have contrasting geopolitical leanings. Marcos has expanded defense engagements with the United States, his country’s treaty ally, as his administration stood up to China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Rodrigo Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin while threatening to sever ties with Washington. The vice president has come under fire for not condemning China’s assaults, including with the use of powerful water cannons, against Filipino forces and fishermen in the disputed waters.

Last month, the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos’ allies, voted overwhelmingly to impeach the vice president over alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of confidential state funds and a public threat to have the president, his wife and a former House speaker and ally assassinated if she herself were killed due to their political disputes.

Sara Duterte has generally denied the charges but has refused to publicly answer the allegations in detail ahead of the impeachment trial. Her supporters have accused Marcos and his key aides of politically persecuting the vice president and her senatorial allies to ensure her impeachment.

Two-thirds of the 24-member Senate, or 16 votes, are needed to convict the vice president.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who belongs to a Senate bloc backing the Duterte family, was arrested and detained last month on a nonbailable charge of plunder, or large-scale graft, in connection with a flood-control project bribery scandal. Estrada denies any wrongdoing.

Another pro-Duterte senator, Rodante Marcoleta, was arrested Monday over a nonbailable charge of plunder for receiving huge campaign donations and failing to declare the funds in his assets declaration. Marcoleta has denied committing any irregularity.

A third senator, Ronald dela Rosa, has gone into hiding after the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest as a co-perpetrator in the Duterte-era killings. Dela Rosa served as Rodrigo Duterte’s national police chief, who first enforced the then-president’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs.

___

Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

He points to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

“They were 26 when they were first elected to public office,” said Alfonso, a Republican.

Alfonso is trying to ride support from his father-in-law to win his old House seat in rural northern Wisconsin. Duffy has repeatedly jetted back to the district to campaign and raise money for Alfonso, and he's tapped $1 million from his old congressional account to support Alfonso's candidacy.

Alfonso has also scored the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who called him a “MAGA warrior.” But to Alfonso's detractors, including prominent Republicans in the 7th Congressional District, he's too young and inexperienced for the job.

“I think it’s insulting to people in the 7th that someone who lacks qualifications and any life experiences and any kind of demonstrable leadership skills or experience is even being touted as a candidate,” said Meg Ellefson, a 20-year resident of the district who voted for Trump three times and now opposes him. “It’s super aggravating to me.”

The Aug. 11 primary will test whether Trump's endorsement of Alfonso, Duffy’s star power in his old congressional district and Alfonso’s fundraising advantage will be enough to put the political newcomer over the top.

Alfonso leans into Duffy's ‘Real World’ past

Alfonso is taking a page from his father-in-law’s playbook by participating in a reality show. He appeared alongside Duffy, a 1997 alum of MTV’s “Real World,” in the “Great American Road Trip” video series that Duffy launched with his wife and 11 children on YouTube in June.

Duffy was elected to Congress in 2010, flipping a seat that had been under Democratic control for 41 years. He served for just under nine years before leaving politics. He returned last year when Trump tapped him to serve as transportation secretary.

Alfonso has leaned into his youth and lack of political experience.

“I’m a young man with the energy of a young man, but I have the values of someone who’s in their 60s,” Alfonso said, citing the fact that he got married to Duffy’s daughter Evita Duffy at age 22 and became a father in May.

Alfonso graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022 and then moved to Florida, where he worked for about a year on a podcast hosted by Trump supporter Dan Bongino. Prior to that, he worked construction jobs while in college.

Alfonso said that conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination inspired him to run to continue what he calls a “spiritual battle for the soul of our nation.” Kirk’s Turning Point Action has endorsed Alfonso.

Duffy’s son-in-law faces a former Iranian hostage and a dog musher

One of Alfonso's rivals in the Republican primary, Kevin Hermening, has deep ties to the district.

Hermening is a former Marine who was one of 66 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days starting in 1979. Framed photos of the then-20-year-old Hermening meeting with former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter hang on his office wall.

He has worked nearly 40 years as a financial planner, spent 16 years on a local school board and was chairman of the Marathon County Republican Party for 24 years, helping Duffy and scores of other Republicans win local, state and federal races across the district.

Hermening also previously ran for Congress in 1986, when he was the same age as Alfonso is now — 26. He lost by 25 percentage points to Democratic incumbent Rep. David Obey.

“The voters told me that I wasn’t ready or prepared yet," Hermening, who's now 66, said in an interview at his Wausau office. “I was ill prepared to have actually done the job, and I’m not saying that because Mr. Alfonso’s in the race. It’s a fact."

Another candidate in the primary, Ashley Furniture executive Jessi Ebben, has the backing of powerful Republican megadonors. Others running are Niina Baum, a dog musher, and Don Raihala, an accountant and real estate broker.

Longtime Republicans are publicly opposing Alfonso despite Trump backing

While Alfonso has endorsements from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and four of Wisconsin’s six Republican congressmen, local Republican officials in the district have publicly questioned the young candidate's credentials.

Leaders in at least three counties have publicly spoken out against Alfonso as being too inexperienced for the job and questioned Duffy's influence.

Iron County Republican Party Chair Tanner Hiller accused Duffy of trying to use his connections to get his son-in-law elected.

“I think what they’re doing is wrong morally,” Hiller told Wisconsin Public Radio in May. “There’s a lot of people that have better credentials, that know this district, that will represent this district better than Michael Alfonso.”

Donations in question as GOP megadonors are divided

Alfonso has benefited from tens of thousands of dollars in donations from transportation interests, raising more questions given that Duffy leads the federal agency that oversees the nation’s transportation system.

When asked whether he would be beholden to those donors, Alfonso said he answers only to God and the voters.

“That's it,” Alfonso said.

But Hermening said Alfonso will feel indebted to the donors.

“I would think that the people would want to get paid back,” he said.

Duffy, despite his repeated visits back home to the district to campaign and raise money for Alfonso, is focused exclusively on executing the president's agenda, his Transportation Department spokesperson Nathaniel Sizemore said when asked about the donations.

A super political action committee backing Alfonso has received $1 million from Duffy’s old congressional account and another $1 million from Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, whose shipping and packaging business, Uline, is based in Wisconsin.

However, Uihlein’s wife, Elizabeth Uihlein, has donated $1 million to another PAC supporting Ebben. Ebben also has the backing of Club for Growth and Diane Hendricks, a billionaire builder from Wisconsin who is another GOP megadonor.

Alfonso hopes Trump endorsement overcomes GOP pushback

Alfonso is leaning into the Trump endorsement, while saying it will be hard work and not the president's backing that gets him elected. His red, white and blue campaign signs say, “Endorsed by President Donald Trump.”

Jack Hoogendyk, chair of the Republican Party in Marathon County, which is home to the district’s largest city of Wausau, said Trump's endorsement is “solid gold” in a district where Trump won by 22 percentage points two years ago.

But Ellefson, the longtime district resident, who hosted a conservative talk radio show in Wausau for five years, isn't so sure that Trump's blessing carries the same weight now that it used to.

“I personally would like to believe that voters in the 7th are intelligent enough and critical thinkers and won’t be swayed by a Trump endorsement,” she said. “I’m going to give the voters credit for not being that foolish."

Because of programs like artistic swimming, the Cardinals can send many student-athletes to represent their home countries on the international stage.

This summer, several UIW artistic swimmers are competing in some of Europe’s biggest events.

The European Junior Championships were held June 30-July 4 in Munich, Germany.

The European Championships are scheduled for July 31-Aug. 5 in Paris, and the World Junior Championships will take place Aug. 12-16 in Budapest, Hungary.

Each year, several international student-athletes return home to compete in major meets during the summer. From Germany and France to Hungary, UIW Cardinals are representing their countries in elite competition.

Marloes Steenbeek, a sophomore at UIW, traveled back to the Netherlands, her home country, to compete in the European Championships.

“It’s very special also that I even have an opportunity to come back,” said Steenbeek.

“They leave their countries to come here to swim. For a lot of us, we’re the first artistic swimmers that people encounter,” said Alyson Tshuma, the artistic swimming head coach. “It’s not a sport that you can just spit facts about at the grocery store.”

“It’s always a privilege and an honor to share about our sport, to share about our athletes,” Tshuma said.

The UIW artistic swimming program is one of only two in the state at the collegiate level. However, they’ve been around for decades.

For more information, click here.

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The photo showed Halo without a fully formed skull and brain, leading to her death four hours after she was born. Casiano’s OB-GYN had told her 20 weeks into her pregnancy that the defect was “incompatible with life,” but while Casiano said she could see her doctor wanted to help her end the pregnancy, she also saw the physician’s hands were tied by the life imprisonment Texas doctors can face for providing abortions under the state’s laws.

“She had to choose between her life and mine,” Casiano said.

Casiano was one of several women who traveled to Washington last month with Free & Just, a national nonprofit formed after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that upended abortion access across the country, to speak with federal lawmakers as part of their “Abortion Stories on the Hill” campaign. It was the second June in a row in which women, like Casiano, trekked with Free & Just to the Capitol to relive some of their worst moments in an effort to explain to lawmakers how abortion restrictions delayed their medical care or forced them to carry a nonviable baby to term — an experience Casiano described as watching her daughter “suffocate.”

“I was more prepared this time,” Casiano said, comparing her first visit to Washington, in 2025, to a practice run. “I made sure to look the staffers in their eyes and let them know who I was.”

But not everyone was receptive to the message. After Casiano shared Halo’s story and photo with a staffer for her congressman, U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, she was told the office is “pro-life” and escorted out minutes after.

“It was a slap in the face,” she said. “I really wish that [the staffer] would have taken a deep breath with me.”

From left: Dr. Damla Karsan, a Houston-based OB-GYN, Amanda Zurawski, Samantha Casiano, Molly Duane, senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Ashley Brandt, address the press following the first day of testimony for Zurawski v. State of Texas outside the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility in Austin on July 19, 2023. Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune

Despite their annual visits to the Hill and efforts to share their stories with lawmakers, abortion advocates have struggled to break through in a Congress that, since Dobbs, has lacked the numbers to roll back state bans or otherwise loosen restrictions.

Rather, some GOP lawmakers say they want to further clamp down on abortion by targeting pills like mifepristone, which now account for nearly two‑thirds of abortions nationwide. In Texas, telehealth makes up virtually all abortion care that still happens within state law, according to recent estimates.

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, said advocates’ warnings about the effects of abortion bans were overblown and intended to “scare the shit out of people.” And she criticized federal rules that allow abortion medication to be prescribed virtually and mailed to patients.

“What you saw with Dobbs was the same scare tactics we always hear from Democrats about what Republicans are going to do, and history has proven them wrong once again,” Van Duyne said, adding that she still sees work to be done in scrapping federal policies allowing drugs like mifepristone “that actually kill a baby.”

Abortion and the campaign trail

Advocates like Casiano are also confronting the reality that, at least in Texas, abortion access is not top of mind for voters. In a recent Texas Politics Project poll, just 2% of voters named abortion as the most important problem facing the state, with inflation and the economy and a host of other issues ranking higher.

That disconnect is something Kaitlyn Kash, an Austin mom who joined a 2023 lawsuit challenging Texas’ narrow medical exceptions to its abortion bans, says she thinks about when she talks to Texans about her own experience.

Kash, who has spent the last three Dobbs anniversaries on the Hill, said she tries to be careful when speaking about abortion and reframes it as a broader fight over access to reproductive healthcare — and as an issue that’s interwoven with the economy, people’s families and their freedoms.

“You can have more than one issue. I don’t think people understand that you’re not voting about abortion, you’re voting for reproductive healthcare because they’re all interrelated,” Kash said. “It’s a continuum of care, and doctors need the ability to be able to give you that care.”

Kaitlyn Kash poses for a portrait in the Texas Capitol on April 7, 2025. Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune

Raven E. Freeborn, a former abortion doula and president of Avow, a Texas-based abortion-rights organization, said she doesn’t see abortion as separate from voters’ pocketbook worries.

“Abortion rights and access are vital to affordability,” she said. “Not being able to access abortion when you need it, that’s an economic justice issue. You’ll likely miss work, so you’re going to lose wages. Economic justice, affordability, reproductive justice, and abortion access are all living inside the same constellation.”

While Casiano, Kash and others have failed to move the needle on Capitol Hill, their stories, along with the deaths of Texas women due to delayed treatment, have helped generate changes at the state level. Last year, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 31, dubbed the Life of the Mother Act, a measure that directs doctors to use “reasonable medical judgment” in medical emergencies involving a patient’s life or serious harm. The law says a medical crisis need not be “imminent” before healthcare providers can act, and that a doctor can only be charged if the state can prove “no reasonable doctor” would have made the same call.

But some advocates say that has not helped when it matters. Texas Equal Access Fund, an abortion access advocacy group, has called SB 31 a “fake fix,” arguing it adds legal red tape for physicians without resolving the gray area around the ban’s exceptions, still leaving pregnant patients in medical limbo.

Additionally, two Austin-area emergency rooms were the subject of a recent federal complaint from a woman alleging she was denied miscarriage care, even with the new clarifying language on the books.

John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that helped craft Texas’ abortion bans and SB 31, said he sees the remaining problems not as flaws in the statutes but as failures in how hospitals and attorneys are applying them. That was the impetus, he explained, behind the new law’s requirement for the Texas Medical Board to create training for doctors who perform obstetrics care.

“We passed Senate Bill 31 last session to require education of physicians on this topic, because we want the message to be very clear that whenever there’s a serious situation like an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage, there is no hesitation, that doctors are supposed to serve those women and help them immediately,” he said. “[If] the attorney at the hospital misrepresented the law, that’s just malpractice.”

John Seago listens while on a panel during the Texas Youth Summit in The Woodlands on Sept. 20, 2025. Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune

Freeborn pushed back, describing abortion as more than an emergency moment, but also as “healthcare, a political bargaining chip and a moral clause.”

“These doctors are wrestling with everything that’s in the room with them about a healthcare procedure — stigma, shame, disinformation — and that is not true of other medical care,” Freeborn said. “Birthing people are navigating their reproductive realities, and their ability to have bodily autonomy and govern over themselves is often in question by way of their relationship to something else.”

Some research has found that Texas’ abortion restrictions are linked to worsening mental health among reproductive‑age women. A study of more than 15,000 Texas women found that reports of “frequent mental distress” rose significantly after the state in 2021 banned most abortions after about six weeks.

Cracking down on abortion pills

Meanwhile, Seago’s group and other anti-abortion advocates have been moving to restrict the flow of abortion drugs to states like Texas where the procedure is banned. The Texas GOP, for example, listed “protect life” as one of its eight legislative priorities at last month’s convention, a plank that includes a call for “strong criminal penalties and new enforcement tools to fight abortion and abortion pill trafficking.”

In a letter signed last week by more than 80 anti-abortion groups, advocates urged Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to settle a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s Biden-era policy allowing mail delivery of mifepristone.

“Pro-life states cannot enforce their laws while an FDA regulation gives cover to mail-order abortionists and DOJ defends the profits of abortion drug manufacturers,” the letter said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed two civil suits since 2024 against out‑of‑state providers he says illegally mailed abortion pills to Texans.

In a statement marking the four-year anniversary of Dobbs, Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, celebrated that Texas “has been a beacon of life” since the decision, while calling for action on drugs like mifepristone.

“As the state where Roe v. Wade originated, Texans have a deep and personal stake in never going back to that deadly time period,” said Saenz, one of the signatories on the letter to Blanche. “Sadly, illegal mail order abortion pills are still being sent into Texas and we must continue working hard to protect moms and babies from this type of exploitation.”

Abortion advocates like Kate Cox say lawmakers should focus instead on Texas’ post-Dobbs medical landscape. The Dallas mother, who traveled to New Mexico to terminate her pregnancy in 2023 after her fetus was diagnosed with a genetic condition that’s almost always fatal, said she is concerned that the state’s severe abortion penalties, even with SB 31, will push OB‑GYNs to practice in other states and make Texas a less attractive place for top medical talent.

Kate Cox speaks at the kick-off event for the “Women for Allred” coalition addressing the state of women’s health and abortion rights, in Dallas on Aug. 24, 2024. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

“I think new OB-GYNs coming out of school look at the situation, and they don’t want to come practice in Texas, where they would have to navigate what would be a very different situation in other states,” said Cox, the first adult woman to seek a court’s permission to have an abortion post-Dobbs. “I was in the emergency room four times, and I asked my doctor, ‘If I choose not to continue the pregnancy, can I make that decision?’ And she said, ‘Not in Texas.’ I think that puts them in a very difficult spot.”

That’s why Cox wants lawmakers to focus less on prescribing what doctors can do and more on recognizing the volatile realities of pregnancy.

“Every pregnancy is different. Some bring joy, some bring heartbreak, and some bring medical emergencies,” Cox said. “The Legislature can write a law that covers every possibility with compassion. And the more we learn about pregnancy, the more we realize how unpredictable it can be. Instead of trying to legislate every scenario, we should trust families and the physicians that are caring for them.”

“Every year, it can change on you in a heartbeat,” said Citrano, whose family runs George’s, George’s #2 and Jorge’s Cantina. “You could have your rates jump because your participation is down, someone on your staff could get hurt. You never know.”

The health insurance costs to Citrano’s business have risen about 5% since reopening from COVID-19 shutdowns, but that is because he has been forced to share that burden with his employees by passing on higher premiums and deductibles.

Citrano, like business owners across the state, is grappling with rising health insurance costs at a time when operating expenses are rising in a host of other categories. The challenges are particularly acute in the restaurant industry, where extra charges by insurers for low employee participation is common while inflation and rising credit card fees are causing a further strain on business.

Health insurance costs on businesses have gotten so high that leadership in both chambers of the state Legislature have charged lawmakers with offering solutions ahead of the legislative session beginning in January. And there’s bipartisan support to drop costs.

Under federal law, employers with more than 50 employees must provide health insurance and about half of Texans are covered by an employer-sponsored plan. A report by the Business Group on Health found health costs for businesses were projected to rise 9% in 2026 nationally. This comes after polling firm KFF found annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage rose 6% from 2024 to 2025. The average premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance for a family of four is just under $27,000 annually, according to KFF.

Co-owner of George’s Restaurant Kyle Citrano greets a couple from Florida in Waco on June 25, 2026. Justin Hamel/The Waco Bridge/CatchLight Local/Report for America

Excluding the pandemic years, the Texas state government, a major employer, has seen year-over-year increases in health costs between 3% and 9.8% since 2014, according to the Employee Retirement System of Texas which provides benefits to current and retired state employees.

Experts and employers that spoke with The Texas Tribune said these rising costs for employers shrink the pool of money available for labor, causing employees to miss out on raises and making it harder to hire new employees. Rising insurance costs that get passed on to employees can price some of the lowest paid employees out of health insurance plans altogether, affecting their access to preventative health and risking their work productivity.

Those experts say consolidation in the healthcare industry, such as among hospitals as well as companies acting as middlemen between providers and employers, and not just insurers, are driving up insurance premiums and the cost of health services. A lack of transparency around how providers, insurance companies and other industry players set prices for medical care and prescriptions makes it harder for patients and employers to negotiate the best price, further raising costs. Legislators appear poised to take aim at both issues.

The Texas Hospital Association said industry consolidation actually helps keep hospitals open in areas where they are struggling financially by allowing hospitals to pool resources. Hospitals meanwhile face their own rising costs in the form of insufficient reimbursement from health insurance and steep administrative burdens, the association said.

Healthcare costs are the top issue for Texas voters as well, with 89% of respondents to a January Texas Politics Project poll saying they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the cost of healthcare.

“When it boils down, this is about affordability,” said state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, chair of the House Select Committee on Affordable Healthcare. “This is about healthcare and actually being able to afford care. It has become much more expensive, and not just more expensive, more expensive than it should be.”

Healthcare prices in the U.S. and Texas are rising faster than workers wages, overall inflation and the rest of the developed world, Frank added.

“When I look at what the state needs to do, it is to help foster a healthier healthcare market, an actually functioning healthcare market,” Frank said. “I think most of the things we need to do have general agreement across party lines.”

Consolidation and transparency issues

Amy Hartman is the Senior Manager of Human Investments for Texas-based credit union Credit Human and said healthcare costs are rising faster than any other expense at the company, including wages. This is harming both the business and employees’ bottom line, Hartman said, noting that the company gave raises but higher health insurance premiums ate up the extra pay employees received.

Those premium increases are not only costing the business, they are starting to price out the company’s lowest paid employees, Hartman said. The premium has gone up at a double digit rate in recent years for both the employer and employee and rose 15% this year for employees, Hartman said. If employees don’t have coverage, they are less likely to seek out healthcare, and they become sicker and miss work, she added.

“In this last plan year, we had a pretty steep increase, and we did see about double the number of people decline to take the plan and tell us they have no other coverage,” Hartman said, although about 80% of employees do use the plan.

Citrano suffers from low employee participation, which is less cost effective for the employer and can result in a tax penalty by the federal government.

George’s Restaurant in Waco on June 25, 2026. Justin Hamel/The Waco Bridge/CatchLight Local/Report for America

Citrano employs roughly 425 people across his three locations and about half of them work the minimum hours and have the employment tenure to be eligible for the employee healthcare plan. But, because many don’t believe health insurance is worth the rising costs, only 19 employees have opted in to the health insurance policy, which he says offers good coverage for his overall younger employee pool.

“When your participation is low, your rates are higher. So what we pay for insurance … it’s a lot,” Citrano said.

As a financial institution, Hartman’s company values using data to make smart financial decisions but has been frustrated by the lack of transparency around costs from their claims administrator and pharmacy benefit manager. It took two years of requests for those providers to agree to give Hartman access to that data.

Without information on the exact cost of a knee surgery at a specific hospital or prescription drugs from a specific pharmacy, Hartman said she is unable to find the best deal that meets the unique treatment and financial needs of her employees and makes business sense for her company.

“Transparency is a big word, but effectively having a market price for something is what we’re after,” Hartman said.

As costs and frustration mounted in recent years, Hartman joined the board of Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare, a nonprofit organization with the goal of uniting Texas businesses to advocate for lower health insurance costs.

Executive director of the nonprofit, Chris Skisak, said the organization formed in 2022 in hopes of better engaging businesses on the issue. Despite being the most common provider of health insurance in the country, businesses have typically stayed out of health insurance debates, something that is now changing as prices begin to impact their bottom lines.

“I think they’ve realized that they cannot cost-shift to the employees and ask them to pay more anymore,” Skisak said. “So employers are realizing this is something that is at a higher level and this is something that needs their attention.”

Skisak said complaints about price transparency are common among employers frustrated with the marketplace, both in healthcare services and pharmaceuticals. Consolidation, particularly among hospitals, allows for large healthcare providers to raise their prices as they face less competition, Skisak said.

Zack Cooper, a professor of public health and economics at Yale University, testified in April before the House select committee that there have been more than 1,300 mergers among the nation’s approximately 5,000 hospitals since 2000.

Carrie Williams, chief communications officer for the Texas Hospital Association, said much of the criticism of hospital consolidation misses the difficult financial situation many hospitals, particularly rural ones, face to continue operating. Fourteen rural hospitals in Texas have closed since 2015.

“Patients recognize that if the choice is between their provider closing or maintaining an access point for healthcare in their community, consolidation offers a path to keeping care local,” Williams said.

For hospitals, Williams added that they support cost transparency for patients and called for greater transparency among health providers of all types, rather than just hospitals and health insurance plans.

Along with a lack of understanding of overall health insurance costs, Hartman said the cost of pharmaceuticals for employees on the Credit Union plan have grown significantly in recent years, about 8% to 11% annually.

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, which act as intermediaries on the drug supply chain by managing medication pricing, access and distribution, have also seen significant consolidation. This has prompted experts to question if the companies are at all lowering overall costs for prescriptions.

OptumRx, CVS Health, Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics — the four largest PBMs — own about two-thirds of the market share.

Charles Miller, director of health and economic mobility policy for nonprofit think-tank Texas 2036, said that while healthcare costs and health insurance have typically been thought of as federal issues, the Legislature has the ability to increase transparency around hospital ownership and restrict mergers and anticompetitive practices in the healthcare market.

“How most people interact with the issue of affordability is most directly through our insurance, our insurance premium, our out of pocket costs,” Miller said. “But that broader issue, the overall amount we spend, is less about the insurance companies and more about the prices for services.”

What can the Legislature do?

Frank said that while he has not begun crafting legislation yet, he hopes to use the interim hearings to better understand and build consensus around three main areas: making sure employers and patients know the cost of a given treatment ahead of time, more competition in the healthcare market and greater transparency for patients that allows them to make the best choices for the health of both their body and wallet.

“At the end of the day, I’m going for transparency at the patient level,” Frank said. “I want transparency, I want multiple people going for that business, and I want it to be built around the customer and the customer to have a say. There’s 100 different policies that fit in there.”

Line cook David Norton passes food to servers during a lunchtime rush at George’s Restaurant in Waco on June 25, 2026. Justin Hamel/The Waco Bridge/CatchLight Local/Report for America

Frank has grappled with these same issues as the owner of Sharp Iron Group LLC and Texas Transland LLC, two Wichita Falls-based companies.

In May, Frank filed a lawsuit in the 95th District Court of Texas in Dallas County against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, alleging the insurer intentionally concealed prescription drug rebates to inflate insurance costs for Texas employers. Frank is petitioning the court to certify the lawsuit as a class action.

While Frank broadly declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, the lawsuit argues much of the same concerns about healthcare industry consolidations highlighted during the spring legislative hearings.

The lawsuit argues Blue Cross Blue Shield was able to use its partial ownership of a pharmacy benefit manager to report inflated prescription drug costs to employer-sponsored health plans without disclosing rebates the insurance provider receives from the PBM, allowing the insurance provider to pocket that rebate money.

Blue Cross Blue Shield declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Frank told the Tribune he would not receive any financial benefit from the lawsuit and that it was his fiduciary responsibility as a business owner to take legal action if he suspects his employees are not getting proper benefits from their health plan.

Miller said many of these issues around consolidation and pricing transparency are so intractable because the state largely lacks data around hospital and PBM ownership and said there is much the Legislature can do to make the market healthier by simply making it more transparent.

At George’s in Waco, Citrano said he is hoping for solutions quickly.

As health insurance becomes more unaffordable, larger service industry companies can lure labor from local restaurants by offering cheaper and better plans to their employees because they have the size and employment to get a better deal. With costs rising elsewhere, from credit card fees and utility bills and food, Citrano said, healthcare is just one more growing headache for him and other owners.

“No matter what,” Citrano said, “we’re paying more, and no matter what, the employee isn’t getting exactly what they want.”

Chinese official media later reported a Chinese submarine had test-launched a long-range ballistic missile in the South Pacific, a move criticized by Australia.

Albanese and his Fijian counterpart, Sitiveni Rabuka, signed the Ocean of Peace Alliance in Fiji’s capital, Suva. They also signed an economic treaty, the Vuvale Union, under which Australia will invest more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($693 million) in its island neighbor over a decade.

The alliance is Fiji’s first mutual defense treaty. It is Australia’s fourth, following a treaty with the United States and New Zealand signed in 1951 and the bilateral treaty signed with Papua New Guinea last year.

“The Ocean of Peace Alliance introduces a mutual defense obligation and there’s no higher obligation than to come to each other’s aid at a time of need,” Albanese told reporters.

Rabuka did not expect a negative reaction from Beijing to the new treaties.

“I do not expect China to have any severe pushback on either government. And I believe that they will welcome the understanding that is between Australia and Fiji,” Rabuka told reporters.

“It does not threaten Fiji’s relationship with China nor Australia’s relationship with China,” he added.

The Chinese missile launched Monday was tested as part of routine training and carried a dummy warhead, according to the Xinhua News Agency. China last conducted a missile test in the Pacific two years ago, then firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who was in Fiji for the signing, did not comment on whether China had attempted to send a message by launching the missile on the same day as the security treaty was signed.

“I’ll leave China to speak to its intent,” Wong told reporters.

Wong said Beijing had informed her government in advance of the launch. She spoke before the launch was confirmed.

“Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilizing to the region,” she said.

“Australia has been clear that this ... proposed test is in the context of a rapid military buildup by China which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects,” she added.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that the test launch was a routine military arrangement and that it was not directed at any specific country.

“We hope that the relevant countries will avoid overinterpretation,” Mao said.

Asked about the defense pact between Australia and Fiji, she said China's cooperation with Pacific island nations has always adhered to the principles of mutual respect and equality and that it does not seek political self-interest.

“We hope relevant countries will genuinely respect the independence and autonomy of the island nations, focus on their sustainable economic and social development and refrain from targeting or harming the interests of third parties,” she said.

Australia has been attempting to shore up its role as the security partner of choice in the region since 2022 when China struck a secretive security treaty with the Solomon Islands. That deal raised fears of a Chinese naval base being built in the South Pacific.

Albanese will fly to the Solomons on Tuesday to meet with his counterpart Matthew Wale after the two nations agreed to further discussions on a security pact.

Wale said while visiting Australia last month that his new government would review the deal with Beijing.

On Wednesday, Albanese will host Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and Tongan Prime Minister Fatafehi Fakafānua in the Australian city of Brisbane.

The Australian defense treaty with Papua New Guinea, the country’s nearest neighbor, takes effect Wednesday.

Australia and Vanuatu last week signed a long-awaited bilateral security and economic treaty that prevents China creating a military base on that island nation.

Albanese signed the so-called Nakamal Agreement with his Vanuatu counterpart, Jotham Napat, in the Australian capital nine months after the Vanuatuan government rejected an earlier draft. Vanuatu had feared the deal would limit its ability to attract infrastructure investment.

China expressed concern last week that the Nakamal Agreement may be targeted at Beijing.

Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson and Sydney Watson were remembered as courageous public servants who left a lasting impact on the communities where they worked.

“They showed up to make order out of chaos day after day with purpose, dedication and heart,” U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy said during a memorial service in Grand Junction, Colorado, near where the firefighters died while battling flames on the Colorado-Utah border.

While that fire is now almost entirely contained, nearly 40 large fires are still going strong across the West. Most of the current fires are scattered around Colorado, Utah and New Mexico while there are wildfires in eight other states — from Alaska to Arizona.

Over the holiday weekend, more evacuations in Colorado were ordered across four counties where the Aspen Acres fire had burned about 136 square miles (352 square kilometers) south of Colorado Springs.

The fire had damaged or destroyed more than 200 structures as of Sunday, authorities said. National Guard soldiers were sent in Friday to help with staffing checkpoints on roads near the fire zone.

Months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter in some places along with erratic winds have been fueling the fires.

The three firefighters killed on June 27 in western Colorado were members of a Helitack crew that sometimes drops into remote areas by helicopters.

Barker, Hutcherson and Watson and two others who sustained burn injuries were overcome by flames from fast-moving fires in Mesa County. They had deployed emergency protective shelters, which are considered a “last resort” for firefighters when there is no other way out.

Fennessy, the Wildland Fire Service chief, said Sunday that “the weight of this tragedy is felt way beyond our wildland fire community.”

Photos of the firefighters were set up on the stage at the memorial service alongside flowers and flags.

They worked jobs that require courage, selflessness, strength and heart, said Sarah Fisher, the U.S. Forest Service's deputy chief for fire and aviation management.

“The work demands long days, heavy burdens and quiet acts of bravery,” she said. “We will remember them, we will honor their legacy and we will carry their light forward.”

Emily Barker

Barker, 38, had so much spirit, and the people around her always strived to be a better person by her presence, said Sarah Brubeck Schnurbusch, a friend and former roommate.

Barker was from Clinton Township, Michigan, and liked hiking, skiing, dirt biking and playing hockey. She loved firefighting.

“I’ve never seen someone so excited to go to work,” Brubeck Schnurbusch said. She added that her friend helped pave the way for many women in the industry.

Barker was a trailblazer, first working as a teacher “shaping young lives,” Fennessy said.

“She didn't just live in wild places, she helped to shape them, care for them and make them better,” he said.

Nick Hutcherson

Hutcherson, 27, served in the U.S. Navy and had plans to become a physical therapy doctor, according to the Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona where he was assigned. He was also an active member of the Northern Arizona Deaf and American Sign Language community.

Hutcherson, who was from Glendale, Arizona, “embodied the spirit of public service” Fennessy said.

He was a dedicated practitioner of Muay Thai martial arts who trained in Flagstaff.

His favorite saying was “easy day,” Fennessy said, “because Nick had an uncommon ability to face hard things with optimism, humility and a smile.”

Sydney Watson

Watson, 27, was from Warrior, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee Southern, where she was a pitcher on the softball team, the university said.

In 2023, she participated in a program in North Carolina organized by the Women-in-Fire Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges, the group said. In her application, she said she wanted to see more women on the fire line and to learn from other women in the field, the university said.

“From the time she was very young, she knew she wanted to be a firefighter someday,” Fennessy said.

“I have no doubt she inspired many young women to become a firefighter,” he said.

In the same stadium where England fell victim to Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal in the 1986 World Cup against Argentina, it was the foot of Kane that gave the nation redemption 40 years later.

“I am just proud of the mentality and the attitude ... round of 16 it is a moment in tournaments when you find a way to win and we did it with pure mentality and heart,” England coach Thomas Tuchel said. “We overcame every obstacle that was thrown our way.”

Bellingham scored two goals 98 seconds apart in the first half. And six minutes after Jarell Quansah was sent off, Kane converted a penalty to restore England's two-goal lead.

England moves on to face Norway on Saturday in Miami Gardens, Florida, for a spot in the semifinals.

“It was a crazy game. We had to fight,” Kane said, his voice hoarse. “I can't really talk, but the occasion, the team, everything against us, we found a way.”

Bellingham stunned the crowd of 80,824 at a venue where Mexico was unbeaten in 10 World Cup matches, including three this tournament, when he scored on a header in the 36th minute and again in the 38th on a pass from Kane.

“We’ve done something incredible tonight, no doubt about it, and we’ll enjoy it. And we’ll sing songs until we lose our voices on the plane and whatnot, but we’ll have a couple of days recovering, then it’s straight back to business in terms of facing Norway,” Bellingham said.

Julián Quiñones scored for El Tri in the 42nd minute, and the game appeared to turn in Mexico’s favor when Quansah was shown a red card in the 54th for a dangerous foul on Jesús Gallardo.

But England was awarded a penalty for a challenge by Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel, and Kane converted for his sixth goal of this tournament and 14th of his World Cup career, matching Gerd Müller of West Germany for fifth on the scoring list. Kane sits one behind Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland in the Golden Boot race.

Kane then committed a foul that made him the first player since at least 1966 to score and concede a penalty in a World Cup game. Raúl Jiménez converted the kick with a stutter-step approach to move El Tri within 3-2.

“Forty, 50 minutes with 10 men — even on sea level it’s almost impossible to overcome but we did it. We did it in altitude,” Tuchel said. “They’re almost too exhausted to celebrate. It’s just beautiful that players on that kind of level just give everything for the win and for the country and for that shirt.”

Mexico attacked relentlessly over the final 21 minutes, plus 11 minutes of stoppage time, but goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and England's defenders held steady.

“This is probably one of the biggest England wins in a while, probably the biggest one I can remember as a fan or player,” Bellingham said. “The best night of my England career.”

Midfielder Jordan Henderson was taken to a hospital after the match with a wrist injury, Tuchel said. He was hurt when he tumbled over an advertising board during the postgame celebration.

“I have mixed feelings; I am sad because Jordan injured his wrist and it is quite serious. It just does not fit with the evening that Jordan is not with us,” Tuchel added. “I do not know the procedure; the doctor told me that he is in the hospital.”

Mexico has not reached the World Cup quarterfinals since hosting in 1986. Since then, it has lost in the round of 16 eight times, failed to advance past the group stage in 2022 and was disqualified from the 1990 tournament.

“Dreaming and falling like this hurts a lot, but the players should leave with their heads held high,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said. “They left everything on the pitch, but today it just wasn’t meant to be. The fans had high hopes, and we couldn’t get the job done and give them another night of joy.”

It was Mexico’s third competitive loss at Azteca, which opened in 1966, after a pair of 2-1 defeats in World Cup qualifiers, to Costa Rica in 2001 and to Honduras in 2013.

The stadium sits 7,300 feet (2,200 meters) above sea level and England's travel schedule gave it no opportunity to get used to the altitude. Mexico's passionate fans blasted horns outside the England hotel to disrupt players' sleep, and the start of the match was delayed an hour because of a thunderstorm.

No matter. England is on to the quarterfinals as it seeks its first title since 1966, and its outnumbered fans continued to serenade the victorious Three Lions with Oasis' “Wonderwall.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Authorities urged residents in parts of Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, to remain indoors and shut their windows and doors due to toxic smoke from a burning recycling plant that was engulfed by a wildfire.

Another major wildfire broke out Sunday afternoon west of the Greek capital, Athens. The fire department said 210 firefighters, backed up by volunteers, specialized teams and 29 aircraft, including water-dropping planes and helicopters, were deployed to battle the blaze burning through pine forest in the Mandra area. Authorities were racing to contain the blaze before nightfall, when aircraft can no longer perform firefighting operations.

In central Portugal’s Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters backed up by nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft tried to put out a blaze that broke out Thursday, according to the Civil Protection authority. The wildfire had burned across an area of 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) by Sunday, information from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency showed.

The EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid said that Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles as reinforcements to Portugal on Friday, while three firefighting aircraft from Italy and Spain were also dispatched to help.

By Sunday afternoon, the fire appeared to be abating somewhat, with Portuguese media quoting officials as saying it no longer had major active fronts but that some hot spots remained.

In Spain, a wildfire burning since Friday in the northeastern Girona region had burned nearly 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres), the EFE news agency said. Catalan Fire Service head of operations Eduard Martinez said the blaze had a perimeter of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and firefighters may not be able to bring it under control on Sunday, EFE said.

Toxic smoke from wildfire in northern Greece

On the other side of southern Europe, in Greece, a fast-moving blaze at a recycling plant broke out Saturday evening near the Oraiokastro suburb of Thessaloniki, triggering evacuation alerts for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 people with disabilities.

Strong winds fanned the flames, and around 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames through the night until water-dropping aircraft could take off at dawn, the fire department said.

Oraiokastro Mayor Pandelis Tsakiris said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that several businesses and homes were damaged but a clearer picture would emerge after authorities conduct a full evaluation.

A 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having started the blaze through negligence by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation near the road alight, the fire department said. He was due to appear before a prosecutor Sunday.

The fire came days after another wildfire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.

Most fires in Greece caused by negligence, fire department says

Fire department spokesman Brig. Ioannis Artopoios, speaking on ERT TV on Sunday, said that about 85% of wildfires in Greece were caused by negligence, including through sparks generated through the use of agriculture machinery, discarded cigarettes and the use of outdoor barbecues. “This means most of them could have been avoided,” he said.

Greece suffers frequent, often devastating, wildfires during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens killed more than 100 people, while a massive fire in 2023, which tore through a remote nature reserve in northeastern Greece, was the largest wildfire recorded in the EU.

The country has increasingly turned to technology to combat the threat of fires, exacerbated by climate change. It is integrating an array of four satellites, launched into low orbit in May, that will monitor for wildfires.

So far this summer, Greece has been spared the heatwaves that have scorched much of western Europe in recent weeks. But it has still seen dozens of blazes across the country, both on the mainland and the country's islands.