The official death toll rose to around 235 late Thursday, with at least 4,300 people injured, Venezuela Health Minister Carlos Alvarado told state media. The number of casualties is expected to climb with thousands reported missing and frantic rescue efforts continuing.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck Wednesday evening were among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century and was felt throughout the region.

The injured were pulled out covered in dust and blood, among them children. Venezuelan state TV showed dramatic images of rescues, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab with only a bare foot poking out before rescuers slid her out alive. But few government search teams were initially seen outside Caracas.

The coastal region of La Guaira, north of the capital Caracas, suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties. The country’s main airport is there and was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.

Venezuelans reeling from quakes

Many were stunned Thursday morning as they saw buildings reduced to skeletons, furniture hanging out of windows and helicopters circling overhead. Buildings were flattened and streets cracked open.

Families posted missing-person flyers with photos of loved ones while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched. Venezuelans abroad struggled to make contact with relatives due to interrupted phone service in the country.

In downtown Caracas, hundreds spent the night huddled in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.

Mother of three Dayana Delgado asked where the heavy machinery was that government officials had promised and said residents were the ones digging through crumpled buildings.

“I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said of her missing 8-year-old son.

One mother sobbed and collapsed in grief as the bodies of her 3- and 10-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away. Others screamed the names of the missing. Some stood in silent shock.

Venezuelan authorities said they were diverting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which is no stranger to natural disasters: A 1999 mudslide killed thousands and is considered one of the country’s worst natural disasters.

In La Guaira, Cristian Carreño stared at his charred apartment building tilting precariously to one side.

“I lost everything,” he said. “There are people still inside, I imagine, that couldn’t get out. It’s incredibly devastating.”

Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendaño climbed through wreckage in La Guaira and past a dead body when he spotted a woman who was trapped and signaling with her hand for help.

“May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” Mendaño said. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do.”

Media reports have shared notable moments of hope among the destruction, including a young man brought out on a stretcher in the San Bernardino district of Caracas to the applause of onlookers as his tearful mother said, “Leandro, I love you.”

Venezuelan public television broadcast video of a girl covered in dust and wrapping herself in a dark sweatshirt as she emerged from rubble with the help of rescuers. Caracas metropolitan rescue team head José Luis Núñez said she was found in a 10-story building in La Guaira that collapsed and flattened “like a pancake.”

“We want to highlight this girl’s strength, determination and will to live,” Núñez said.

Government and rescuers face huge challenges

The natural disaster is the latest challenge for acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the capture and removal from power of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been facing economic disarray for more than a decade and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement Rodríguez represents.

Rodríguez declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes.

She appealed to businesses Thursday to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations.

“We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” Rodríguez said.

While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.

The U.S. Geological Survey said both earthquakes were centered near Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas.

The one-two punch of the quakes, combined with the shallow seismic movements, amplified the destruction, said Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil.

“It is as if I am screaming and then someone starts screaming, too. That amplifies the vibration and adds to the potential hazard,” Ferreira said.

Shortly after United Nations officials in Venezuela called on the government to lift social media restrictions so people can get potentially life-saving information, Venezuelans in the country were able to access X. The site had been blocked by Maduro since August 2024 in an attempt to suppress the exchange of information among those who rejected his claim of victory in the July presidential election.

Foreign governments offer assistance

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke to Rodríguez following the quake, said the United States was immediately deploying assistance.

“We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big; it’ll be fast; and it’ll be effective,” Rubio said, while acknowledging the closure of Venezuela’s main airport near Caracas created logistical challenges.

Venezuelan public television on Friday showed the arrival of rescuers workers, dogs and equipment including cameras and ground-penetrating radar from Spain. Earlier, rescuers from Chile arrived at a military base in Aragua, while a team of 80 specialists and eight search dogs from Switzerland also landed. Turkey announced two flights will leave Istanbul on Friday with military, medical and rescue personnel and a pair of search dogs. China also said it will provide assistance. Leaders from Qatar, Brazil, Portugal and Canada vowed to send help.

Rescue teams from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic arrived in Venezuela on Thursday, along with rescuers and material aid from Mexico.

“No country is prepared to provide the response that’s needed. That’s what neighboring countries are there for,” Dominican Air Force Major Carlos Olivares said.

The Venezuelan diaspora also was helping. In Ecuador, Félix Rodríguez said his store was receiving donations from his fellow Venezuelans as well as Ecuadorians.

“My business is always ready for whatever Venezuela needs,” he said.

Gabby Graham said she regularly sends money from Spokane, Washington, to Venezuela using a peer-to-peer payment to a local business that gives cash to her family. But since the earthquakes they can't locate the business owner and she is unable to share funds for food, water, medication and toiletries.

“I think it hasn’t been easy for them for years. Just now it’s just even worse because it’s about finding these things,” Graham said.

___

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Julie Watson in San Diego, Hallie Golden in Seattle, India Grant in Mexico City, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed to this report.

Down in the valley, a living museum honoring the Swiss national dog's history — and its future — is marking its first year.

More than 130,000 people have visited Barryland, the world's only space dedicated to St. Bernards, since it opened last summer in Martigny, Switzerland, after outgrowing a much smaller space. Tourists can watch live grooming and physiotherapy sessions, explore the mountain pass with augmented reality technology and learn more about the dogs.

“We have a lot of demand and interest for this breed and this whole history and patrimony,” said Barryland director Mélanie Glassey-Roth. “So we decided to create a new park, a big one.”

At 2,469 meters (8,100 feet) above sea level on the Swiss-Italian border, the Great St. Bernard Pass is one of the country’s highest and most treacherous.

Since the mid-17th century, large mountain dogs have been kept on the pass. They arrived as guard dogs, became companions, and gradually evolved into something the Alpine world had never seen before: Animals with an extraordinary instinct for locating hikers lost in snow and fog.

The breed's name stems from the Great St. Bernard Hospice, which was founded in 1050 by Bernard de Montjoux, the archdeacon of Aosta and future saint, to provide refuge for pilgrims and merchants crossing the dangerous pass. The dogs became central to that mission, and by the early 19th century they had a reputation that was carried across Europe by soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte following his army's own crossing of the route.

Barry the First, the most celebrated dog, is traditionally credited with saving more than 40 lives when he was at the hospice between 1800 and 1812. At the Barry Foundation, the steward for the breeding program, there is always a male dog called Barry.

Currently, the foundation's 21 keepers care for 32 dogs. Roughly 20 pedigree puppies are born annually. These dogs, as well as other St. Bernards, no longer do mountain rescues because they’re too big to be transported by helicopter. Smaller breeds like Australian shepherds are used instead, though a number of St. Bernards are kept on the pass to keep the tradition alive.

The foundation's dogs typically eat about 10 metric tons (22,046 pounds) of dry food each year and spend their summers gamboling in the remnants of snow in the mountains before heading 40 kilometers (25 miles) down winding roads back to the kennel in Barryland.

“We get to see them born, and we get to see them grow up, and then become mothers, and we get to accompany them through all those different challenges in life,” keeper Alexandra Piatti said. “We are their guide, so we can help them with socialization and educate them, and really be by their side for their whole lives.”

In 2025 alone, the foundation says its dogs completed 609 jobs by visiting hospitals, care homes, schools and prisons across Switzerland.

Keeper Déborah Dini balances the weight of the breed's history with affection for the dogs in her charge.

“We perpetuate the tradition,” she said. “We take care of them. We love them.”

The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, who is 44, accepted a wild-card entry to the grass-court Grand Slam, where she’ll also compete in doubles with her older sister Venus, who turned 46 last week.

It's all part of a tennis comeback that started with two doubles warmup matches but kicked into high gear Sunday when the All England Club announced Serena would play singles.

Joint is ranked No. 53 and made her Wimbledon debut last year, losing in the first round to Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2.

Williams hasn't played a singles match since a third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic at the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, she said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared she was “evolving” away from tennis. Her second daughter was born in 2023.

Williams' most-recent appearance at Wimbledon was in 2022 when she lost in the opening round to then-115th-ranked Harmony Tan.

If Williams beats Joint on Tuesday, she may face rising Filipino star Alexandra Eala, who is seeded 29th, in the second round. She could meet defending champion Iga Swiatek in the third round.

Swiatek opens against Taylor Townsend of the U.S. on Centre Court on Tuesday.

In a projected quarterfinals by seedings, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka would meet French Open champion Mirra Andreeva; No. 2 Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion, would face 2025 runner-up Amanda Anisimova; Swiatek, the No. 3 seed, would play Elina Svitolina; and No. 4 Jessica Pegula would meet Coco Gauff.

On the men's side, No. 1 Jannik Sinner will begin his Wimbledon title defense against Miomir Kecmanovic on Centre Court on Monday.

Novak Djokovic, a seven-time champion at the All England Club, is the No. 7 seed and will play Wu Yibing of China. Djokovic could meet third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals.

Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz, who lost to Sinner in the 2025 final, will miss this year’s tournament because of a wrist injury.

Wimbledon starts on Monday.

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

Both teams got what they wanted most out of their meaningless meeting before the Americans head on to the knockout stage — and coach Mauricio Pochettino was annoyed by any suggestion that the Americans’ last-gasp, 3-2 defeat said anything negative about the state of his team.

Kaan Ayhan scored on the final kick of the match to send Turkey past the U.S. in the eighth minute of stoppage time for its only win of the World Cup.

The result was meaningless to the Americans, who will meet Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday. Pochettino sent out nine new starters, including eight who were starting a World Cup match for the first time.

The U.S. tied it early in the second half on a goal by Sebastian Berhalter, and the Americans got within a few seconds of an unbeaten run through the group stage. But in his postgame news conference, Pochettino expressed his annoyance with what he perceived as disappointment in the result.

“For you not say congratulations that we won the group, that is a little bit sad,” Pochettino told reporters.

“What we need to remember is we won first place in this group,” Pochettino added while speaking in Spanish and English. “We ended up being No. 1, and we managed all the pressure and the expectations quite well. We had other priorities. We wanted to win. We did want the victory, but there are other things we needed to balance out, and that’s how I made the decisions. ... Making history is winning the World Cup, not just winning the group. It’s a little bit petty, if you will. You’re thinking just a little bit too small.”

Auston Trusty scored in the third minute for the Americans, who beat Paraguay and Australia by a combined 6-1 to book their place in the knockouts.

Pochettino fielded nearly an entirely new lineup for this low-stakes game, notably resting all four key players who picked up yellow cards earlier in the tournament.

Christian Pulisic entered in the 58th minute, however. The AC Milan midfielder hadn’t played since the first half of the Americans’ opener due to a calf injury, and he was involved in a couple of early scoring chances before getting beaten on the wing on Turkey’s winning goal.

“We could have done better on some defensive plays, but it happens,” said Brenden Aaronson, one of nine new starters chosen by Pochettino for the group finale.

“You make (nine) changes, and the team might not be used to as the guys that have been playing,” Aaronson added. ”It showed the hustle, the aggressiveness of the team. I think it’s a positive, because Turkey is a top team. They might have not performed their best throughout this tournament, but their quality is on the pitch and you can see it.”

Berhalter said he doesn’t believe the Americans lost any momentum from this close defeat.

“You saw the second half, how we came out,” said Berhalter, who tied it in the 49th minute by running on to a loose ball about 20 yards out for a vicious strike. “I think we deserved more out of that game. We slipped in the last second of the game. ... We gave everything we had, and we’ll be ready for the knockouts. The guys did well. We fought. Unfortunate not to get a result, but we’ll be ready for sure.”

Arda Güler and Orkun Kökçü scored in the first half of a resilient performance by Turkey, which had already been eliminated after losing its first two matches despite largely dominating both statistically.

Turkey improbably won in the eighth minute of stoppage time when Can Uzun got the ball in space on the back post and pushed it past sprawling goalkeeper Matt Turner to Ayhan, who slid to knock it home.

“I’m super-happy with how my players played tonight,” Turkey coach Vincenzo Montella said through an interpreter. “They showcased all of their skills, all of their abilities, all of their character. Playing the way they played tonight in an away match, against a very loud crowd, if they weren’t as strong as they are, they wouldn’t have made it tonight.

“I’m really happy for the Turkish people. I can say that we can go back home with our chin up.”

Indeed, the game’s meaninglessness didn’t matter to the raucous sellout crowd that packed SoFi Stadium. The American team’s fan base has been energized by its strong start to this home World Cup -- and this Los Angeles-area crowd was still chanting and standing when Berhalter airmailed a long corner to Trusty, who made the stadium shake when he banged it home inside the back post.

Trusty’s goal was the Americans’ seventh of the tournament, tying their scoring record for any World Cup before knockout play even begins. It was also the 173rd goal of this tournament, breaking the record for the most combined goals scored in a World Cup set in Qatar four years ago — and doing it in four fewer matches.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/FIFA-World-Cup

It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. The previous biggest Ukrainian attack over the past year was 556 drones on May 17.

In an effort to turn the tables on Russia’s grinding war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drones have for months been battering targets, including oil production and energy facilities, behind the front line and deep inside Russia. The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow's efforts on the battlefield, Western officials and analysts say, and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Initial damage reports from Russia after the overnight attack provided scant information. Russia’s Defense Ministry usually doesn't say what was targeted in Ukraine’s drone attacks, nor does it detail any damage.

Ukraine’s Security Service said it used drones to strike Russian navy ships and air defense radars in Kerch, an important port city in Crimea.

The targets were two reconnaissance and mine-laying ships, the Volga and the Vyatka, and the cargo-passenger ferry Petropavlovsk, the agency said, claiming that the strikes started a large fire. The claim could not be independently verified.

Successful drone attacks hearten Ukraine

The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

The successful strikes, including hitting targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, have buoyed Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said he got further promises of foreign support when he attended a recent summit of G7 leaders, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the promised aid will help Ukraine step up its effort to force Putin to the negotiating table.

A NATO summit next month could be another key moment in beefing up Ukraine's military.

A Russian chemical plant is reportedly hit

In the Tula region just south of Moscow, a private house was damaged by the attack and a woman was wounded, Tula Gov. Dmitry Milyaev said in an online statement, as reports of damage caused by the attack began to emerge.

He also said a power line was damaged and an unspecified industrial facility in the city of Novomoskovsk.

Russian independent online outlet Astra reported that a chemical plant and a hydroelectric plant in Novomoskovsk were attacked and caught fire. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the report, and there was no official confirmation.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also reported that 47 Ukrainian drones were downed as they flew toward the Russian capital. He did not report any casualties or damage.

Ukraine says 2 civilians were killed in Russian attacks

Two people were killed and seven others injured in Russian attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region over the previous 24 hours, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Friday.

Russian forces struck the city of Kharkiv and 16 other settlements across the region using guided aerial bombs and drones of various types, Syniehubov said.

Ukraine’s defenses overnight stopped 174 of 189 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force said. However, four of seven Iskander-M ballistic missiles that were fired got through air defenses and struck various locations, it said.

Ukrainian officials reported damage to energy facilities, homes and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, the southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia regions, and Sumy in the northeast. At least six people were wounded, according to authorities.

No Russian military buildup seen on border with Belarus, Ukraine says

Russia is expanding several of its military sites deep inside Belarus, but there is no buildup of forces near the Ukrainian border, a State Border Guard Service spokesman said Friday.

Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarus, which borders both countries, and Kyiv has kept a close watch on developments there during the war.

Ukrainian intelligence units have detected no grouping or reinforcement of Russian units, equipment or personnel close to the border, spokesman Andrii Demchenko said in remarks to Ukrainian television.

However, Russia has a growing number of training grounds, bases and other sites deeper inside the country, according to intelligence units.

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

TOKYO — In Shibuya, home to one of Tokyo’s busiest train stations and shopping destinations, seniors can choose a monitoring service and the city will install it and pay for the service subscription for up to a year.

They can pick Hello Light, an LED lightbulb that autonomously sends text messages to caretakers when the light hasn’t been turned on for a while.

Or, MaBeee, a battery that powers TV remotes, lights and other small devices and alerts family members when they are not being used.

There’s also Bocco, which can store medication reminders, transmit weather alerts and tell when the home is too hot or too cold. A nod to Japan’s affinity for anthropomorphic packaging, the messaging device is shaped like a small snowman.

“One of the biggest problems we have in Japan, in this [elder care] industry, is the gap between the demand and the supply because there are a growing number of elderly people but we are understaffed,” said Masaru Yamaoka, general manager of Panasonic’s Smart Aging Project, one of many divisions housed within Japan’s corporate brands focused on technology for the aging population.

Finding sustainable, low-cost ways to care for the elderly population is a problem Texas is all too familiar with and Japan, home to the world’s largest over-65 population at 36 million, is beating Texas in solving.

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Chronic workforce shortages along with rising costs to care for a growing older population have prompted Japan — from companies to local governments — to heavily invest in technology to make it easier for family members to remotely monitor the elderly. The country’s aim is to keep aging residents in their homes, rather than in an expensive nursing home, for as long as they can.

Texas shares the same goal. Keeping older Texans healthier in their own home not only costs both the healthcare system less, but most people prefer it.

“I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Gee, I hope I end up in a long-term care facility,” said Karen Fingerman, director of the Texas Aging and Longevity Center at the University of Texas at Austin. “If you’re going to have all this technology, which most of us have some, at least, wouldn’t it be better if it were more usable and it were designed as you get older to have the ability to help you stay in your own home?”

Compared to Japan, Texas has far fewer seniors at 4.4 million, but they are among the fastest growing population segments. By 2040, the number of older Texans will grow to 6.8 million and by 2060 reach 9.2 million.

Healthcare workforce shortages, sparse public transportation and spotty internet reliability, particularly in rural areas, where 28% of Texas’ over-65 population lives, isolate many older Texans and deprive them of access to healthcare, which can worsen their outcomes and accelerate the need for expensive residential care.

While most elderly Texans live in their own homes, roughly 80% of the 87,000 Texans who live in nursing homes are over the age of 65. Most of them rely on Medicaid, the insurance plan for low-income individuals, to pay for their care. Medicare, the insurance plan for Americans 65 and older, only covers short term stays following a hospitalization.

Medicaid spending on Texans over the age of 65 totaled over $8 billion in 2023, according to health policy researchers at KFF. Their analysis of Medicare, which pays for the bulk of healthcare costs for seniors, was $28 billion in Texas in 2021. The Texas Legislature, which reconvenes in January, has made the rising cost of healthcare a primary focus for next year, as it did in 2023.

“People want choices,” said Mark Hollis, spokesperson for AARP Texas. “They want options and they deserve to have good affordable safe options where they want to live out their lives.”

In Japan, building nursing homes to accommodate the next 20 years of aging baby boomers seems an expensive investment when the number of seniors in subsequent generations will eventually start to decline.

An estimated 2.7% of older Japanese, or about 1 million, live in residential care facilities. About 6.7 million Japanese over the age of 65 live alone and most of the rest live with family members, spouses, adult children or extended family. Japan’s community-based, government-funded home healthcare service help seniors live in their own homes. Still, more than 58,000 people over the age of 65 were found dead in their homes last year.

To keep seniors living independently and healthily, corporations and local governments in Japan have turned to developing and distributing at no cost to seniors ‘mimamori’ products, or monitoring technology. Less intrusive than a security camera, these drop-in services and personalized chatbots direct older residents on how to maintain their physical and mental health in their own home and keep an open line of communication with caregivers.

“In 2040, the number of elderly people who need [residential] care will decrease,” Panasonic’s Yamaoka said. “We are going to see many elderly people staying at home. That’s why we believe that these kind of systems will be necessary in Japan. 
And we also believe the communication model will be in demand.”

While Japan has worked for decades on making its transportation and cities elderly-friendly and it fared better than Western countries because of stricter infection controls, the pandemic revealed new vulnerabilities. “It became very difficult to rely entirely on human beings to visit elderly people, especially due to COVID,” said Akihiro Hioki, the aging services chief for Shibuya City, one of Tokyo’s 23 wards or districts.

That’s why taking a look at Japan’s less publicized age-tech world, one far from the gushy news streaming daily from robotics labs, could prove instructive for Texas.

“We don’t need, you know, an army of robots, just to make sure that mom’s good,” said Darryl Greer, a regional program manager for AARP’s Older Adults Technology Services, which offers digital literacy programs for seniors.

By 2021, Shibuya City embarked on an ambitious project: handing out 3,000 smart phones to its older residents preloaded with disaster and health apps. The phones gave residents better access to municipal notifications, forms and payment portals, as well as communication applications like Line, the Asian version of WhatsApp. The city also launched in-person classes on how to use them.

“We realized that we need to have a mixed solution with human power and also, technology,” Hioki said. By 2024, Shibuya declared the effort a success with more older residents switching from their old flip phones to smart phones.

Then, last year, Shibuya became one of several cities in Japan offering to install monitoring options, like Hello Light, MaBeee and Bocco, in older residents’ homes.

“COVID was a turning point,” said Yuichiro Suzuki, chief operating officer for Tokyo-based Yukai which makes Bocco. “So many people, in my generation, they were not able to go visit our parents.” They needed a way to check on family members that didn’t require boarding a bullet train to see them in person, he said.

It’s not clear exactly how many monitoring services are available nor a way to accurately capture exactly how many cities offer to front the costs for them. But, the Japanese see the technology as a way to ward off social isolation and depression that can greatly exacerbate a senior’s health problems.

“If elderly people feel they have a pain in the knee, they avoid going out many times, and then because of the less interaction, they might suffer depression,” Panasonic’s Yamaoka said. “And that’s kind of like a domino effect.” Health starts to deteriorate for the individual and hastens a move to a residential facility.

Companies have a vested interest in these devices because if their employees can offload some of their responsibilities of caretaking onto technology, they can remain more productive at work, Yamaoka said. 

Many municipalities also pay for an app called Health Mileage created by cellphone service company NTT Docomo. To sign up, a participating organization, such as a local municipality, must first invite residents to join and they can use it to track their steps. Officials will also use the app to push out programs to encourage walking, such as new walking paths and events.

Local governments “will encourage their residents to use this application,” Satoshi Hiyama, NTT Docomo’s senior manager of Medical & Healthcare Tech Group, said. “Because if they have more healthy residents, they will reduce medical costs.” 

More than a dozen cities also offer a partial subsidy to those over the age of 70 who live alone for NTT Docomo’s Chikaku, which means nearby. For less than $20 a month, the popular subscription-based device that’s shaped like a white house turns the user’s television set into a videophone and monitor. While there are some similar services in the U.S. like Grandpad or JubileeTV, The Texas Tribune was unable to locate a Texas city that subsidizes them for residents.

With permission of the older user, Chikaku allows remote relatives to use a phone app to login to their elderly loved one’s televisions to see if their parents are available for a call and conduct a chat from there.

Local and federal officials want to lower healthcare costs because in the country’s nationalized healthcare system, the government has to pay for most of it. Residents here pay about 30% of their care.

Unfettered healthcare access has allowed the rapidly growing older population to disproportionately use the system. Because the elderly often treat hospital waiting rooms like community centers, the Japanese often joke that if they don’t show up one day, they must actually be sick.

To brace for Japan’s silver tsunami, the federal government in 2000 started requiring workers aged 40 and older to pay a monthly long-term care insurance premium that subsidizes the country’s elder care services. Still, about 70% of Japan’s hospitals operate today at a loss.

Cities see technology as a way to bring down costs.

“We believe there is a growing demand among elderly people and their family members for these types of monitoring services,” said Hioki, Shibuya City’s aging services chief. “We need to work for the improvement of the welfare of the residents. That’s our task.”

What Texas could do today and learn from countries with far larger senior populations could help offset future healthcare costs.

The state’s Aging Texas Well strategic plan, a general roadmap for state, local and nonprofits stakeholders, identifies social isolation as a factor that can exacerbate health issues, details how residential care options are limited and expensive, and urges Texas leaders to make resources easier to locate and use.

“The overwhelming majority of older adults wish to age in place or age in their community to have the best quality of life,” the plan’s 2026-2027 update stated. “Moreover, it is more cost effective to assist older adults and their family caregivers to do this through long-term supportive services than it is to age in an institutional or nursing home setting.”

Other than nursing homes, many also live in assisted living facilities. It’s estimated that 1.4% of older Americans live in assisted living, which would mean about 60,000 senior Texans. Moving to an assisted living community, which offers personal care services, medication management and meals for those older individuals who need it, is also expensive, running between $3,000 and $6,000 a month. Medicaid does not pay for that monthly assisted living bill, only for some services received while living there. Medicare pays nothing toward assisted living.

Texas’ plan considers access to technology a key element in reducing social isolation and improving health for senior Texans who want to live as independently as possible as long as possible.

The state maintains an Age Well Live Well page that lists resources for older adults including how they and their caregivers can find one of the state’s 28 Area Agencies on Aging for more information on local programs. But there is no centralized effort in Texas at this time to improve online access or monitoring efforts like those seen in Japan to help seniors stay healthy in their own homes. Local Texas nonprofits are doing much of the technology heavy-lift, focused mostly on improving the digital literacy of older Texans.

Thanks to assistance from Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Bastrop County Cares is one of those nonprofits invested in helping seniors connect to technology. It gives participants a smartphone, tablet or laptop if they complete a digital literacy class.

The county has also received $43 million in a state broadband grant plus $11 million from a local broadband provider to improve connectivity in this rapidly growing community. With better service on the way, more older adults are interested in getting better connected to telehealth and relatives.

“They recognize that they need it and they just don’t know how to get the training,” said Norma Mercado, Bastrop County Cares’ executive director. “But once they do, it’s made living in their own homes so much easier.”

Judy Kanas, 84, lives in a community that is growing dramatically and as a result, has more resources such as the computer class she attended through Bastrop County Cares this month.

The retired social worker and legal assistant came to class hoping to better navigate healthcare providers’ portals, which have bedeviled her own aging desktop at home. Healthcare appointments are critical at this stage of life for Kanas, who has Type 1 diabetes, and her husband, who has cancer. The couple drives 30-plus miles to Austin for doctors appointments because they want to live in their home as long as they can.

“We have deer that come and drink our water, and it’s kind of country living and I don’t want to give that up,” Kanas said.

Namkee Choi, a gerontology professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, has been researching better ways to get more seniors, particularly low-income seniors, access to telehealth counseling sessions on tablets and computers.

“They want to live in their home using whatever freedom they have,” said Choi.

Choi said many lower-income individuals are confined to cellphone plans with limited minutes. But her research shows that if access challenges are conquered, older adults are able to quickly pick up the skills to log on and not only sign up for appointments, but build new social connections with others.

According to the state’s strategic aging plan, social isolation increases the risk for premature death by 29%.

Greer, the manager at AARP’s digital literacy organization, works in San Antonio with other community partners to get more older adults online. As technology has become easier to operate, more are interested.

“Some folks, they really embrace it,” he said. “And with some of our students, especially here in San Antonio, it’s like, some of them feel like technology was never really designed for them because they worked vocationally.”

The state’s aging future depends on greater flexibility in our existing support systems, says Hollis with Texas AARP.

“We encourage both the public sector and the private sector to be mindful of the needs of a rapidly aging population,” Hollis said. “There’s certainly room for growth, thinking innovatively about liveable communities for people of all ages.”

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

Air Chief Marshal John Stringer, NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, spoke to AP in London less than two weeks before the crucial Ankara summit on July 7-8 tests the cohesion of the 77-year-old alliance.

U.S. President Donald Trump has sent conflicting signals over America's force posture in Europe and has threatened to leave the alliance. He has also unnerved European leaders with his push to annex Greenland and his flattery of NATO adversary Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lambasted NATO allies last week for not allowing use of their bases to attack Iran, as he announced a surprise six-month review of American forces in Europe.

Meanwhile, in the U.K. — the country which holds the position of NATO deputy supreme allied commander — government ministers quit recently over what they said were military spending plans that fail to keep Britain safe.

Summits are “highly political events and they are a demonstration of any organization’s unity,” said Stringer, a senior British air force officer. It would be strange if there weren't moments of turbulence over decades of NATO expanding, he said.

“Are we in one of those moments at the moment? Yes, we are,” Stringer said during a military conference in London where AP also interviewed other senior European military officials about their hopes — and fears — for the summit.

NATO's European members step up on defense

Trump has long urged European allies to take more responsibility for their own defense, and with the notable exception of Spain they have largely heeded with an unprecedented effort to spend more on their armed forces.

Russia is increasingly threatening Europe, so allies should boost their own militaries while helping Ukraine degrade Russia's fighting power, said Maj. Gen. Indrek Sirel, a commander in Estonia's armed forces.

“Europe as a whole has a lot to do in order to be credible against Russia,” said Brig. Gen. Jyri Raitasalo of Finland, which shares NATO's longest border with Russia.

Stringer said European nations are investing to generate a “really credible force,” citing as an example how some countries are quadrupling production of 155 mm artillery shells. The summit will discuss ramping up production in ways the alliance has not had to do in decades, Stringer said.

European military chiefs wait for clarity on US plans

The outcome of Hegseth's six-month review of forces will determine how fast Europeans must take responsibility for their own security. The U.S. military in Europe had said earlier in June that Washington would be withdrawing some capabilities from Europe and expecting other allies to fill the gaps.

The Trump administration says that troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies, but Sirel said it's still not clear how U.S. forces will be positioned in the Baltic states. That includes some U.S.-led deterrence of Russia on NATO's eastern flank.

Sirel said he was “confident” he could rely on a U.S. presence, though the Estonian military is finding ways to react to sudden changes.

Stringer said it would be difficult to replace U.S. long-range strike and surveillance capabilities, but he was confident allies could bridge the gap — not always with the same equipment, but by mixing a “cocktail” of capabilities.

Only the U.S. operates B1 and B52 bomber aircraft, but Stringer said that, in theory, a loss of their capabilities might be offset by firing missiles from a variety of other systems including from the ground, sea and smaller aircraft.

Changing plans suddenly is not good for defense

NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe.

Such sudden changes are challenging because military planning requires long-term strategy, said Raitasalo, the Finnish military's logistics chief. “If you change your mind, or change your plan, every week or every month or even every year, you will not get very good results,” he said.

Raitasalo said the allies need to make clear pledges of capabilities, rather than just promise spending.

Sweden's army chief, Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, said a good outcome from the summit would be “a common picture of how to realign when it comes to deterrence and defense."

Lindfors said he would like at least an outline — if not a “clear vision” — on how defense burdens should shift so that he knows what “NATO 3.0 is starting to look like.”

Britain needs to commit to defense

British Defense Secretary John Healey resigned earlier this month, along with another minister, saying the government was unable and unwilling to commit the resources Britain needs to “defend the country at this time of rising threats.”

At last year’s NATO summit, members agreed to spend 3.5% of their gross domestic product on core defense. The U.K. committed to meeting that target by 2035, but Healey said the proposed defense investment plan would see spending rise to just 2.68% of GDP in 2030.

The new defense secretary, Dan Jarvis, has said Britain will keep its commitments, and the British government has committed to publishing the spending plan.

By the summit, NATO expects nations to have a “credible path” to 3.5%, and the U.K. is “as beholden to that as anybody else," Stringer said.

He said the U.K. cannot presume that “thought leadership” in NATO is enough, and that it must match its “forces and resources."

NATO's credibility is at stake

At last year's summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte kept Trump on board by telling him he would achieve “BIG” success at getting allies to spend more on defense.

“It’s a tricky question,” said Lindfors, the Swedish commander, when asked if a key goal for this summit is to avoid a situation where the U.S. president slams his allies.

Stringer said that at this year’s summit it’s important to display “cohesion and unity” among the alliance’s 32 members but also to have “honest” conversations and deliver “credible” plans.

Raitasalo of Finland said the meeting must go beyond traditional “communiques, roadmaps and action plans" and demonstrate deterrence through deeds. He said if NATO members don't step up and translate promises into action, the “credibility” of the alliance is at stake.

• ON REPEAT: Morning clouds, PM sun, and highs in the 90s
• DUST: Thicker plume of Saharan dust on Monday
• EARLY 4TH PREVIEW: Not much changes, likely dry and hot

FORECAST

TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND

Late June and early July often bring stagnant weather, but this week has been remarkably consistent. Cloudy early, then afternoon sun and highs in the low-90s. That’ll be the case today and through the extended forecast.

DUST

We will get our thickest plume of Saharan dust of the season on Monday. The dust is suspended far up in the atmosphere, so the affects at the surface where we are is minimal. What we do notice, however, are hazy skies and colorful sunsets.

EARLY 4TH PREVIEW

While it’s still a bit early to get into specifics, there’s no reason to believe we won’t continue to see our standard mid-summer weather. Expect it to be hot & humid.

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

• WATCH LIVE: Doppler Radar
• Hourly and 10-Day Forecast
• Download FREE KSAT Weather Authority App: Up-to-date forecast information and livestreams from trusted local meteorologists.
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The annual commemoration, known as Ashoura, is marked on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in the lunar-based Islamic calendar. Ashoura is the culmination of a 10-day mourning period and marks the day Hussein was killed alongside members of his family and companions as he fought against the army of Caliph Yazid, to whom Hussein had refused to pledge allegiance.

Hussein’s killing cemented the schism between Sunni and Shiite Islam and remains a powerful symbol of resistance against oppression and injustice.

Ashoura this year comes after a war between predominantly Shiite Iran and the United States and Israel, who launched strikes on the country on Feb. 28, killing senior officials including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The 86-year-old Khamenei was not just Iran’s top political leader but also had a final say on all religious matters and was revered by millions of Shiites worldwide.

A funeral procession for Khamenei is scheduled to take place in early July.

On Friday, large crowds of people gathered in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala to mark Ashoura. Hussein is buried in the city where he was killed in the battle that took place in 680, and his shrine is visited by millions of Shiites from around the world every year.

In Baghdad, thousands marched through the streets, including some who slashed their heads with razors and performed other forms of self-flagellation in a show of grief to mark the occasion.

In Lebanon, where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah is in place, thousands of black-clad mourners gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs at a shrine to Hezbollah’s former longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of massive Israeli strikes in 2024.

Women clutched photographs of sons and brothers killed in the war — many of them fighting for Hezbollah — while others held photographs of Nasrallah or Iran’s Khamenei, who was killed in February in an attack by the U.S. and Israel.

Many of them sobbed. Expressions of grief for the death of the Imam Hussein are traditional during Ashoura, but many of the mourners were also grieving more personal losses.

Nagham Jaber said her fiance was killed in the war.

“This war was truly harsh on all of us, and now we are feeling the meaning of Ashoura more than usual,” she said.

In the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, that is usually a major center to commemorate Ashoura, dozens of people gathered near the main square, much of which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes over the past weeks, with some of them inflicting head injuries on themselves to express their mourning. The practice is widely opposed by many Shiites, including Hezbollah.

Earlier on Friday, state media and Associated Press journalists on the ground reported two Israeli airstrikes on the nearby village of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa. It was not immediately clear if the strike inflicted any casualties.

“Despite all the hardships, everything happening to the Shiite Muslim community, and the wars we are facing, we came to reaffirm our loyalty, our love and our unwavering passion for Imam Hussein," said Khader Kamal.

To Shiites, who make up the second-largest branch of Islam after the Sunni majority, the killing of Hussein holds deep religious and historical resonance and plays a key role in shaping identity.

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Kassem, said in a speech Friday that Ashoura is being repeated again by the U.S. and Israel, adding that his group and its supporters were subjected to a “war of elimination.”

“America and Israel also wanted to eliminate Iran by removing the regime and controlling the country,” Kassem said. “The memorandum of understanding is a declaration of defeat for America and Israel,” Kassem said of the deal reached this month between Washington and Tehran.

____

Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

They are among the images posted by relatives within Venezuela and abroad desperately searching for their missing loved ones following two powerful, back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday evening.

Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said late Thursday that the death toll had risen to around 235, with at least 4,300 people injured. The number of casualties is expected to climb after the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes that caused widespread damage and were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century.

With communication patchy, social media and online registries have become a crucial tool for many Venezuelans seeking information and resources beyond sparse government statistics. Independent online registries documenting up to 40,000 people missing far surpass the official government account.

While some rushed to search beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, others created digital flyers on WhatsApp, Facebook and X with their relatives’ details.

Searching for relatives

Among them was Vanesa Marcano, 31, who posted photos from Madrid of her uncle and aunt, who live in La Guaira state, north of the capital Caracas, which suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties.

Marcano posted the images in the hopes that they were only unreachable due to damaged communication lines. Her uncle’s daughter and his 7-year-old grandson were visiting from the United States and also are missing.

“It’s a feeling of impotence and uncertainty,” Marcano said by phone. “I know you must stay calm and focus on the actions you can take. But it’s very easy to fall into despair.”

Jhoyser Concalves, a Venezuelan from the northern coastal city of Catia La Mar, was talking to his partner and her daughter just minutes before the shaking. It was the last he heard from them.

When the earthquake stopped, Concalves ran out of his house to their apartment building, where they lived on the sixth floor. There was only debris and people desperately trying to rescue neighbors from the rubble.

Concalves posted a flyer reading “MISSING” on X and Facebook in a desperate attempt to find them.

“They are pulling people out of the building alive. So I still have hope that they are in there alive,” he said.

United Nations calls for restored social media access

The search was complicated by the country's restrictions on social media and messaging platforms.

On Thursday, the U.N. human rights mission in Venezuela issued a statement calling on the government to lift local restrictions on social media and saying timely access to reliable information can save lives.

Sites including X and messaging app Signal were blocked in August 2024 by then-President Nicolás Maduro in an attempt to suppress communication among those who rejected his claim of victory in the presidential election. Former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez became the acting president in January after the U.S. captured and removed Maduro from power.

Shortly after the U.N.’s request Thursday, Venezuelans in the country were able to access X.

Search from abroad

Outside the country, such sites have become even more important for many of the 8 million people who have migrated from Venezuela in recent years and were unable to check on their loved ones.

Elibel Tovar Lanas, 38, was planning to travel Saturday from Chile, where he has lived for 23 years, for the first visit in a decade with his 70-year-old father, who lives in Brazil but was in La Guaira for business. Lanas has not heard from his dad, Félix Ramón Tovar Hernández.

“I feel powerless because I don’t know how this is affecting him: the shock, the decisions he’s having to make, whether he is physically okay, or even whether he is still alive,” said Lanas, who registered his father on the website for the missing.

“Being in Chile makes it very difficult to get information, and everything we see feels confusing,” Lanas said via WhatsApp.

In Madrid, Marcano said she was trying to stay calm for the sake of her 1-year-old daughter.

“You keep hoping someone will organize a fundraiser or some kind of initiative where you can help,” Marcano said. “But the truth is, from far away, there is very little you can do.”

___

Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.

___

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

In early European trading, Germany's DAX gave up 0.8% to 24,793.58, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.4% to 8,398.14. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4% to 10,490.62.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.2% higher.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 4.2% to 69,360.88 and the Kospi in Seoul plunged 5.8% to 8,411.21. Both recovered some ground lost earlier in the day.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.8% to 22,667.13, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 2.3% to 4,027.26.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was an outlier, gaining 0.2% to 8,764.20.

Taiwan's Taiex gave up 3.6%.

The wide swings in Tokyo and Seoul are typical of recent volatility in markets as investors react to the deluge of dollars heading into AI data centers and other investments. Shares in Japan and South Korea hit records this week and logged strong gains on Thursday after chipmakers Qualcomm and Micron Technology reported better than expected earnings.

In South Korea, market trends have been dominated by movements in stock in Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company, and chipmaker SK Hynix, which like Samsung is collaborating with Nvidia on artificial intelligence.

Given that concentration, “a strong Micron print can produce a powerful upside chase one day; a new concern around memory costs, capex, or the durability of AI demand can reverse it violently the next,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Samsung's shares lost 5.3% on Friday, while those of SK Hynix fell 8.4%. In Tokyo trading, technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. lost 12.5% and computer chip testing equipment maker Advantest sank 3.2%.

On Thursday, the U.S. stock market drifted to a mixed finish after several AI stocks veered back up the roller coaster, while Apple shares dropped 6.1% after the company hiked prices on many of its products.

The S&P 500 finished nearly unchanged with a dip of less than 0.1% after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%.

Micron Technology helped lead the market after jumping 15.7%. The maker of computer memory reported much bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it gave a stronger growth forecast for the current quarter than Wall Street expected. That helped allay worries a bit that its stock had grown too expensive after coming into the day with a surge of 267% so far this year.

Micron and AI stocks broadly have been under intermittent pressure recently because of worries that their profits can’t possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices. Beyond Micron, Qualcomm said late Wednesday that the acceleration of the AI era is forcing it to upgrade forecasts for its own growth in upcoming years.

SpaceX, meanwhile, fell 1% to drop below $153 for its lowest finish since its vaunted debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month.

While the AI boom regularly roils tech shares, other sectors have held relatively steady, noted Thomas Mathews of Capital Economics.

“Even if the AI boom turned into a bust the ‘non-tech’ parts of the stock market could conceivably shrug it off for a while, as they have this week,” he wrote in a report.

A report released Thursday showed U.S. inflation is behaving pretty much as economists expected, climbing to 4.1% last month from 3.8% in April. The hope is that it will ease because of a drop-off in oil prices.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, declined 2.3% to $73.77 per barrel early Friday. It has fallen from its highs above $100 caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the Iran war, which slowed the global flow of oil.

U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 2.4% to $70.17.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.65 Japanese yen from 161.80 yen. The euro rose to $1.1387 from $1.1371.

Observers said on Friday the government was responding to evidence that the ban on young children holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube had failed since it came into force on Dec. 10 last year. Australia was the first country in the world to pass legislation keeping youth off social media, but others have since followed.

Albanese told Parliament on Thursday this government was considering options to strengthen the ban.

“We’re working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn’t have to deal with, which is why it’s complex,” Albanese told Parliament.

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday the government was asking “are the laws as strong as possible?” and did eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, “have every power at her disposal?”

Britain announced last week plans to ban children under 16 from a range of platforms to protect them from harmful content and excessive screen time.

Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are among others studying or developing similar approaches.

Inman Grant said in April she was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were not doing enough to keep young Australian children off their platforms.

These platforms, as well as X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch, face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($34 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of young children.

Melbourne’s RMIT University expert on information sciences Lisa Given said the government’s proposed reform was a response to evidence that the ban was failing. The evidence included eSafety's own data released in March that showed seven in 10 underage children continued to hold accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok since December.

Given also pointed to a study published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday that found 85% of a group of Australian 12 to 17-year-olds were using restricted platforms.

“I do think it’s failing,” Given said. “Many kids in the media have reported that they also think that this is really a failed exercise.”

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported Inman Grant saying in an interview in early June: “I don’t have potent powers.”

“What I would say is a regulator is only as good as the tools and the resources that they’re given,” she is quoted as saying.

The Associated Press asked Inman Grant’s office on Friday to comment on the accuracy of that reporting, but her office did not immediately reply.

Given said Inman Grant faced a challenge in enforcing legislation that platforms were resisting.

“Either the eSafety Commissioner needs more powers or we’ve got to have some other approach to enforcement,” Given said.

Given expected the courts would need to decide what constituted “reasonable steps” required by the law to be taken to keep children off platforms.

Albanese said as part of increased efforts to enforce the social media ban, his government would proceed with digital duty of care legislation which would hold platforms accountable for foreseeable harms caused by content and algorithms.

The expanded tournament to 48 teams that provides a spot in the knockout round for eight of the 12 third-place teams in the group stage led to the cautious approach for both teams in their final Group D match after they each entered with three points thanks to wins over Turkey.

The winner of this game was assured second place behind the United States in the group with Australia also clinching that spot with a draw thanks to a better goal differential than Paraguay. But the draw that gave Paraguay four points in the group also was likely to be enough barring a string of bad results in the final two days of group play.

“We tried to win the game," Australia coach Tony Popovic said. "In the end, a draw was enough for both nations. Congratulations to Paraguay as well. ... I’m sure as we are feeling euphoria and joy as a nation, I’m sure Paraguay is as well.”

This marks the third time that Australia has advanced to the knockout round after losing in the round of 16 in 2006 and 2022. The Socceroos will play in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, against the second-place finisher from Group G that will be determined Friday night.

“We really did work hard for this moment and I think we should enjoy it,” midfielder Ajdin Hrustic said.

Paraguay must wait to learn its fate, but is in good position to advance to the knockout round for the fifth time.

“Now we have to wait,” coach Gustavo Alfaro said. “I am optimistic that we will be able to move on to the next phase.”

The Socceroos had the best chances in the first half, but Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill stopped an early attempt from Jackson Irvine and then made another save in stoppage time against Cristian Volpato.

The cautious play continued in the second half when Paraguay did have more possession than in the opening 45 minutes but neither team came close to scoring. Jordan Bos had the best chance for Australia in the 90th minute, but his shot went wide from the right side of the box.

Patrick Beach then made a save for Australia on a low shot by Mauricio that lacked power in stoppage time.

“You can have opinions on how the game was played or what we both thought we needed," Popovic said. “We at no stage felt we were playing for a draw. I felt we controlled the game quite well, were in control and had the better opportunities. We just gave one away at the end from the edge of the box, which was a heart in the mouth moment unfortunately for us.”

Popovic made six changes to his lineup for the game, including giving 18-year-old Lucas Herrington his first World Cup appearance. Herrington, who plays for the Colorado Rapids in the MLS, became the youngest Aussie to appear in a World Cup game.

Paraguay midfielder Diego Gomez got his second yellow card of group play and will miss the round of 32 if the team advances.

“We wanted a positive result, but it couldn’t be done,” Gomez said. “There is a lot to work on, (lots) to get done, lots of things to improve on.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Daniel Marin, FIFA's executive director of public relations, read a statement on behalf of the Iranian team in light of the Pride celebration in Seattle on Friday. Egypt and Iran are two of the most repressive places in the world for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, but they coincidentally will play each other while the host city honors the LGBTQ+ community.

“This Islamic Republic of the Iran Football Federation has asked us to inform the media that they are only willing to answer questions in relation to the game,” Marin said. “We fully respect the right of all journalists to ask questions. In this case, we ask you respect the rights of the federation here today to only answer questions in relation to the team, the tactics, the match, and so on.”

Nonetheless, Amir Ghalenoei was peppered with questions about what will transpire inside Lumen Field and around the stadium on Friday.

In December, both countries asked for the Pride-themed celebrations to be canceled. FIFA treats the rainbow flag as a statement of human rights and will allow fans to wave it inside the stadium, according to Hana Tadesse, a spokesperson for Seattle's World Cup organizing committee.

Egypt took a similar approach to the Iranians in trying to steer the conversation back to the match and away from the Pride festivities. At Thursday's practice at Husky Soccer Stadium in Seattle, Egypt players were barred from answering questions about Pride. Team staffers stepped in and would not allow reporters to ask such questions.

“We are all focused on football,” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said in Arabic. "This is all that we think about.”

With a win, Iran could advance to the tournament’s knockout stage for the first time.

“I said to you earlier we are here to play football. For nothing else,” Ghalenoei said in response to a reporter’s question in Farsi. “Our entire focus is going to be on tomorrow’s game, on succeeding in tomorrow’s game. And, anything else that is banned ... we don’t want to speak about it.

“We are only going to speak about football, what a beautiful game it is, and how enjoyable it’s going to be.”

Iran has faced numerous complications off the field. The team has endured travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in light of the war in Iran.

In March, Iran sought to move its group-stage matches to Mexico, with which it has diplomatic ties. Its request to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana was granted two weeks before the team’s arrival. Several team officials and members of the support staff have been barred from traveling into the U.S. with the team.

For the first two matches, near Los Angeles, the team was not permitted to travel until the day before and had to return to Mexico immediately after each game. The U.S. then eased its restrictions, allowing the squad to travel to Seattle two days before Friday’s match.

Ghalenoei said the team is in a better position with its fitness as a result.

“This was a right that we should have had in the two previous games,” Ghalenoei said. “They deprived us of the right to arrive in time. ... What they did for us this time, they didn’t do for the two previous games.”

Ghalenoei commended FIFA president Gianni Infantino for doing the “utmost” to “minimize the challenges” Iran has faced.

But on Friday, Iran is sure to be tested in multiple ways. Egypt is in first place in Group G, and Iran will try to focus strictly on its opponent.

“We are not going to think about what is going on outside of the pitch, because the game is going to be so arduous,” Ghalenoei said. “It is going to be so exciting that we are going to have our total focus on that. We are representatives of our great Iranian nation and great Iranian country, and football only. We are only focused on football, and nothing else.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here.

After being drafted eighth overall by the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, Flemings had a lot to say about what keeps him grounded, how he’ll fit in with an already young Atlanta group and why the Hawks were the perfect team he envisioned for himself all along.

Along with a coaching staff he said he built rapport with on pre-draft Zoom calls, the Wagner alum expressed his excitement about joining forces with two players on the Hawks he models his game after: Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Flemings is also looking forward to playing with third-year guard and Texas native Keaton Wallace, who used to hold basketball camps at UTSA that he attended growing up.

“Me and my friends would always go to it, and Keaton was on the team at UTSA when I was there, so it’s crazy that I’m going to be playing with him now,” Flemings said.

Part of what made Flemings into the player he is today — one who didn’t have to wait long in the NBA draft, though he admitted he was still a little anxious waiting for his name to be called — is blocking out outside noise and letting his work ethic be the thing that grounds him.

“That’s how I’ve kind of carried myself my whole life, not comparing myself to others, not seeing what other people are doing and just constantly trying to get better,” Flemings said. “I have a great support system, so knowing how I grew up, knowing how they taught me and raised me is just kind of how I stayed grounded and continue to get better.”

Flemings highlighted that support system again later, giving “kudos” to his sister, Bella, for being at the draft — who is preparing to start her own collegiate basketball career at Duke — and others who were sitting in the front row at the press conference.

“I’ve had the same support system as I’ve grown up,” he said. “I didn’t change high schools, I didn’t change AAU teams, same trainer since middle school. So, the people that know me best, the circle I have is really tight, so I’m grateful for them. And I wouldn’t be there without them, so kudos to them for sure.”

Flemings was also crystal clear when explaining what parts of his game need improvement: physically on defense, along with off-the-ball shooting from the three-point line.

He’ll likely be joining fellow rookie Henri Veesaar in the weight room, Veesaar joked, who also cited the need to put on muscle weight to size up better at the NBA level.

“I’m a good defender, I always believe I can stay in front of someone, but at the next level, they’re stronger, they use their body,” Flemings said. “So, continuing to gain weight so I can be more physical, be a better defender. But learning under Dyson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, that’s two great people right there to learn from.”

Lastly, for his closing response, Flemings had a strong message for up-and-coming hoopers, sharing lessons he’s learned from his parents and coaches.

“Don’t let people waver your confidence,” he said. “You should put so much work in that you have such an unwavering confidence in yourself that it doesn’t matter what someone else does that can change that.

“My dad used to always say, ‘If you put a lot of work in, it gives you opportunities to get there, it doesn’t guarantee it.’ So just continuing to work as much as you can just so you have an opportunity to make it where you want to be.”

Read also:

• San Antonio Spurs introduce their 2026 NBA Draft picks

The Republican-led State Board of Education decided Thursday evening to allow final votes on a rewrite of Texas’ K-8 social studies lessons and a mandatory reading list for all public schools that includes Christian stories. Those votes are expected Friday. 

However, the board delayed proposed changes to high school U.S. history, world history, geography and government. 

For months, educators, Democrats and public education advocates criticized Texas’ social studies revamp as rushed. Conservative advocates and Republican board members insisted on pushing the process forward. But board chair Aaron Kinsey expressed doubts Thursday about having enough time to cut down the number of lessons packed into each course. 

“This is a conundrum we’ve created of our own doing,” Democratic member Marisa B. Pérez-Díaz said. “And I’m very frustrated by it.”

Kinsey rejected an assertion from Pérez-Díaz that he rushed the process and said he was willing to continue working. But he also said board members made mistakes when they pushed through changes during late hours. For example, they eliminated a requirement that students learn about the American Revolution in high school U.S. history before reinserting it Thursday.

The elected board is on track to update what public school students must learn in reading and social studies. This week’s meetings ran as late as 2 a.m., as board members meticulously parsed through changes to lessons in each grade.

Along with Bible stories in reading, the social studies proposal features a dramatic transformation in how Texas schools have long administered lessons on history, geography, economics and government. It eliminates the current sixth-grade world cultures course, deemphasizes world history outside of European tradition and dedicates more focus to Texas and the United States.

Democrats suggested changes they hoped would make lessons more accurate and inclusive of historically underserved groups — most notably people of color — even if they ultimately did not favor the overall plan.  

Republicans blamed cherry-picking over what students should learn for the delay. 

“We wasted many hours late into the morning,” Republican member Brandon Hall said. “We have worn out and exhausted our staff on trifling amendments coming from people who had no intention of ever working with us or ever actually approving something they wanted to pass.” 

Conservative leaders and activists champion the new lessons, which they view as “the final battle” in a push to rid Texas schools of instruction they say paints America in a negative light and trains students to hate the country. 

Sociology classes, for example, currently require students to understand “the impact of race and ethnicity on society” and “analyze the varying treatment patterns of minority groups.” But that standard was eliminated in the newly proposed social studies plan. 

If approved by the education board Friday, the K-8 social studies changes and the reading lists will take effect during the 2030-31 school year. The board will also decide whether to phase in the social studies changes or introduce them all at once.

Members could take up the high school courses at its next scheduled meeting in September, or the chair could schedule a special meeting before. 

Reframing history

Educators criticized how the social studies proposal prioritizes memorization over critical thinking and simplification over accuracy. Historians called attention to factual errors, saying the new standards would set children up for failure post-graduation. 

One lesson, for example, had described the forced relocation and imprisonment of Japanese families during World War II as one of the “contributions” to America’s military effort. Another proposal noted that high school students should know the significance of leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, specifying Thurgood Marshall, Barbara Jordan and Hector P. Garcia — but not Martin Luther King Jr. 

The standards initially approved this week reflect slightly different suggestions, instead describing Japanese incarceration as one of the “changes” during the war and adding King to the list of Civil Rights leaders. 

But Democratic board members said the minor tweaks will not fix what they see as a whitewashed social studies plan and a politically influenced approval process. 

A panel of nine advisers guided the social studies overhaul, almost all of whom hold no Texas K-12 classroom experience and several of whom are either conservative activists or closely affiliated with them. Educators have described it as a major reversal of previous years when teachers led the way, while Democrats have said they do not feel fairly included in decision-making. 

“Our voices are being left off constantly,” Democratic board member Tiffany Clark said. 

Republicans clarified that advisers only provide recommendations. Elected members maintain final say in the social studies overhaul, they noted. The GOP members argued that it is Democrats’ own responsibility to ensure they are included in the rewrite. 

“I, as well as several of my colleagues, have been in direct contact with our content advisers,” Republican member Audrey Young said. “I have been communicating through my content adviser this entire time.”

But some of the appointed experts also expressed frustrations. Yolanda Chávez Leyva, a historian at the University of Texas at El Paso helping guide the board, said she “didn’t feel that every adviser’s input was treated equally.” 

Kate Rogers, a social studies adviser who previously led the Alamo Trust before publicly clashing with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, said the group remained professional but its recommendations did not represent all participants. 

For instance, the advisory panel proposed changing a lesson that originally called on students to “identify domestic challenges for the United States following World War I related to racial violence and intolerance, including the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and the Tulsa Race Massacre.”

They instead suggested that students learn about the Klan’s “intolerance” of Catholics, Jews and immigrants but did not specify Black Americans. They also changed the “Tulsa Race Massacre” to the “Tulsa Race Riots.” During the 1921 massacre in Oklahoma, a white mob killed Black residents, destroyed their homes and looted their businesses after a Black teenager was falsely accused of trying to assault a white girl in an elevator.   

The appointed group also removed standards that defined racial segregation as “keeping people apart based on the color of their skin” and specified that Africans endured slavery in the U.S. because of their race. 

“I want to make it clear to the board members that we did not discuss every item on this document,” Rogers said. “Some of the changes were not reviewed by all of the content advisers.”

Board members adopted many changes proposed by the advisory group but reinserted several others, including how Nat Turner’s Rebellion “heightened sectional tensions and deepened disagreements over slavery” and how the expansion of slavery was the central cause of the Civil War. They also clarified that the Klan sought to intimidate and “limit the rights of African Americans in Texas during Reconstruction.” 

Some members initiated changes that would expose students to more positive aspects of Black history, including Republican Keven Ellis’ suggestion that schools teach about Bessie Coleman, a Texan who became the first African American and Native American woman to obtain an international pilot’s license. 

On the contrary, Republicans eliminated a standard specifying that students should consider “the perspectives of groups whose voices are less represented in traditional historical accounts.” They added another requirement that introduces the biblical story of Moses alongside the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman — who was nicknamed “Moses” because, similar to the biblical prophet, she helped people escape slavery. 

Prior to debating high school social studies, a handful of Republicans on the elected board unsuccessfully attempted to block amendments from members who did not meet an earlier deadline to submit proposed changes. 

If successful, the move effectively would have stopped Democrats from proposing on-the-spot tweaks, which was notable because the rule had not been enforced when the board discussed elementary and middle school lessons.

Reading lessons with Christian stories

Some of the nearly 500 speakers at this week’s meetings exchanged heated words about Christianity’s role in the development of the country, and at least one person with a Confederate flag was deemed out of order by the board chair and escorted from the room for verbally interrupting the meeting. 

The statewide reading list would require, among other literary works, that schools teach Bible material to children as young as 6 years old up to young adults preparing to receive their diplomas. That includes Christian stories about Adam and Eve, the eight Beatitudes and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Republican leaders across the state often depict Islam as a violent religion they view as incompatible with their conservative Christian American values. During the board’s April meetings, the board eliminated a social studies standard that would have required students to learn about Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy.

“Let me be very clear: Islam is not a religion,” state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, testified before the education board Monday. “It is a totalitarian theocracy, not unlike totalitarian systems of communism, Nazism and globalism.”

Asked if he had ever visited a Muslim-majority country, the senatorHall responded no. 

Elizabeth Jensen, who identified herself as a Texas school board trustee but did not specify the district, told the education panel that she believes “slavery was and still is fundamental to Sharia,” referring to the set of moral codes and principles that Muslims follow. Sharia does not have a uniform meaning, as Muslims interpret and act upon it differently. 

Muslims have spent months denouncing such Islamophobia at State Board of Education meetings, calling it misinformation and harmful to the hundreds of thousands of Texans who practice the faith. 

Meanwhile, students, educators and progressive activists spoke out in opposition to the lack of racial, ethnic and gender inclusion in the debated books and lessons, as well as the state’s Christian focus over other religions. 

“These proposed standards actually defy the Constitution and highlight only one group of Americans as the founders who built this country to the exclusion of others — both in the past and in the present,” Ruth Nasrullah, a Muslim speaker, told the board members.

English teachers stressed during the meeting that many of the books on the proposed reading list do not align with what Texas requires them to teach, despite taking up most of roughly 36 weeks of instructional time in an academic year.   

Before initial approval of the reading list, the board members — led by Republican Tom Maynard — debated whether they should prohibit teachers from assigning non-state-mandated books without the educators first posting them online for parental review. However, some expressed concerns about micromanaging teachers.

They also considered whether to grant charter schools flexibility in which grades they introduce the required readings, an attempt to appease charter leaders who said they wanted to assign more rigorous books to children in lower grades. But some members said doing so might create the opposite effect, allowing lower-performing campuses to lessen rigor for students in higher grades. 

Neither of those passed, but board members have another opportunity to resurface suggestions before the final vote Friday. 

These were top of mind as Nike designed its uniform kits for this year’s World Cup, including for football powerhouses France and Brazil as well as the U.S. and Canada in their role as host nations.

In a tournament that has seen storm delays and temperatures hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) in some locations, the first step was to ensure players' performance and comfort.

Phil McCartney, chief innovation, design and product officer for Nike, said the company worked with athletes, coaches and football federations to understand how uniforms affect the game.

“We also talk to fans — so what does it mean to wear a Uruguay jersey, what does it mean to represent France, what does it mean to play for Canada?” McCartney told The Associated Press. “We take that and we merge that with all the science and the innovation to make sure that we have beautiful designs.”

Adidas, which designed jerseys for defending champion Argentina, host nation Mexico and Colombia, also unveiled cooling gear for the tournament. Puma designed the kits for Portugal as well as Morocco and Senegal, the two finalists at the most recent African Cup of Nations.

While the three companies are behind most of this year's kits, some teams are sporting uniforms designed by other apparel makers.

Testing facility features thermal chambers and robot mannequins

On a recent morning, McCartney spoke from the sports research lab at Nike’s headquarters just outside Portland, Oregon, where experimentation helped the kits come to life.

The indoor facility includes a 200-meter (219-yard) track, a small football pitch and a basketball court, with hundreds of motion-capture cameras placed throughout. Thermal chambers replicate the effects of heat and humidity on apparel donned by people or robot mannequins.

“We take motion-capture to see how they’re moving in the kit, how the kits are responding,” McCartney said. “We also use the thermal chambers that we have to test the kit’s breathability, to test wicking and moisture management.”

For the World Cup kits, Nike engineered a new fabric that it says is more breathable and made from fully recycled materials. The way the jerseys are knit, with mesh stitching in certain areas allowing more air flow, helps “get that thermal regulation that all the players have been asking for,” McCartney said.

Despite all the testing, the rollout of the kit was still a bit bumpy.

During matches earlier this year, bulges could be seen in the shoulder seams on jerseys for teams including France and Uruguay, the Guardian reported.

When asked by AP, Nike said it was able to identify the issue before the start of the World Cup, and worked with federations “to ensure kits show up as intended.”

Designs incorporate symbols of national pride

While a kit’s physical attributes are important for athletes, its appearance is just as significant for fans who sport the jerseys and want to feel connected to their team.

“We take inspiration from lots of different places, from the past, from art, from music, from culture, so anything that gets us connected to the country we really want to harness,” McCartney said.

France’s away kit, for example, is a light green akin to the Statue of Liberty, which France gifted to the U.S. in the late 19th century. The interior tag features the word “Liberté” inside a silhouette of the monument’s crown.

On the front of the jersey there's a rooster — an emblem of the national team and the country itself — and two stars representing France's two previous World Cup victories.

France's home kit features a collar — as does Uruguay's. The decision to use collars comes from the federations, Nike said, with France leaning into its history as a fashion capital and Uruguay looking to evoke a more classic football look. In previous decades, many uniforms included collars.

Key national symbols were also considered when designing kits for the U.S. and Canada. The home kit for the U.S. features horizontal red and white stripes reminiscent of a waving American flag, while Canada’s displays a prominent maple leaf.

“Especially in an event like the World Cup, we really play into national pride,” McCartney said.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here.

The World Weather Attribution rapid study released Friday found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.

Millions in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe are experiencing extreme temperatures and humidity this week associated with a heat dome. Daytime temperatures have topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many places, while high nighttime temperatures have also made it harder to cool down and recover.

The scientists estimated that a heat wave with similar characteristics occurring in the climate of June 1976 would have been about 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 Fahrenheit) cooler during the day and about 2 degrees Celsius cooler (3.6 Fahrenheit) in 2003. The nighttime temperatures would have been about 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) cooler in June 1976 and about 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) cooler in 2003.

They chose 1976 and 2003 for comparison because those years saw extreme heat in Europe.

“The increase in temperatures was so dramatic that we would have expected to have never seen this event in the 1976 climate,” said the study’s lead author Theodore Keeping, also a climate scientist at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. “And it would also still have been very, very rare, even 23 years ago in 2003.”

Climate change is the driving force behind the heat

World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaborative of scientists who study the causes of global extreme weather events, began assessing in 2015 the extent to which those could be attributed to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The organization’s rapid attribution studies, including this one, aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methodology.

The current study used observed temperature data and forecasts for an analysis of the heat wave that started on June 18.

It also found that 45% of the 850 cities analyzed across 30 European countries have broken, or are expected to hit, records for heat stress levels, a measure that includes humidity and temperature.

"It directly relates to the heat stress on the human body and our ability to cool ourselves down, and it’s a really good metric for the expected health impacts we expect to see from this heat wave,” Keeping said. Heat and humidity make for a dangerous combination for humans.

Ultimately, this marks the most severe heat wave to have ever been recorded in this region of Europe and most severe humid heat event, WWA researchers said.

Europe is especially unequipped for these extreme temperatures

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In a separate study last year, WWA researchers found there were about 1,500 climate change-caused deaths during a European heat wave last summer.

This week, weather agencies across Europe have issued red alerts about heat risks, and sporting events, schools, public transportation and attractions have been limited as a result. Many of these countries do not have widespread air conditioning or other infrastructure to account for warmer climates. France, which has been bearing much of the brunt of the heat wave, recorded its hottest day ever this week, and has also reported 40 deaths from drownings as people seek cooling relief.

The WWA scientists said the current El Nino warming cycle did not influence this heat.

Europe also experienced record-shattering high temperatures in May. Typically, Europe does not see dramatically warmer weather until July and August.

The findings of the study released Friday are reasonable, but may downplay climate change's role in the heat, said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the research.

“If anything, this latest assessment — and all similar assessments — are actually underestimating the role that climate change is playing here,” said Mann, who has separately studied how climate change is increasing heat stress in North America.

Keeping, the study author, said the Europe heat wave shows the need to adapt infrastructure and behavior to extreme temperatures.

"We need to expect them to happen. They’re only going to become more frequent in the near term,” Keeping said. “We also need to address the source of climate change as well. And that is very simply carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.”

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

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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

The four picks are already accustomed to pressure. All of them either played at college basketball blue bloods or were forces on teams who came mere heartbeats away from winning an NCAA championship.

Nothing, however, can match the stress of joining a young team wanting more after losing to the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals.

“That’s what helped us win: going all the way to the national championship,” Spurs rookie and ex-UConn center Tarris Reed Jr. said. “I really had to embrace that (gritty) part of the game where you might not get a lot of credit for. ... If that’s what I got to do to win, sign me up. Ten out of 10, I’ll do it every time.”

Defense rules draft nights

The Spurs had a consistent theme running throughout its draft philosophy this year: defense, defense and more defense.

Before the team traded up to acquire Reed at the No. 26 spot Tuesday night, San Antonio selected Kentucky’s 6-foot-10 forward Jayden Quaintance with the 20th overall pick.

Despite playing only four games with the Wildcats due to injury in 2025-26, he averaged 2.6 blocks per game in 2024-25 as a freshman at Arizona State.

“Being a young player myself, I’ll be able to relate to a lot of people on the team. It’s going to be fun,” Quaintance, who is 18, said. “I feel like I’ll be able to fit in here really well.”

On Night 2 of the draft Wednesday, San Antonio addressed its backcourt for the first time by selecting Tennessee guard and SEC Newcomer of the Year Ja’Kobi Gillespie with the 42nd pick.

Gillespie, who is 6 feet tall, draws inspiration from another 6-foot guard: former Spur Chris Paul.

“I’ve always been the smallest player, so I think just growing up like that kind of got me ready to play at a higher level,” Gillespie said. “Having heart. You’ve got to be a little strong.”

Two picks later, the Spurs went looking for another intense defender. They landed on Maliq Brown, a Duke wingman who earned the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards this past season.

“Defense is always where I’ve hanged my hat at,” Brown said Thursday. “I’ve been always paying attention to Spurs culture and the way they play basketball. They’re a very gritty team. ... I definitely can fit in with that.”

More San Antonio Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Former US President Barack Obama praises San Antonio Spurs’ deep playoff run
• Welcome to San Antonio! Spurs draft two more rookies in second round of 2026 NBA Draft

Charges against Matthew Martin, 44, were dismissed Monday due to “insufficient evidence,” according to court records.

Martin was formally charged with 39 counts of possession of child pornography in 2022, a jump from four counts when he was arrested a year earlier. At the time, the district attorney’s office said Martin intentionally and knowingly possessed files of children engaging in sexual conduct.

Arrest warrant affidavits from the cases stated that Martin’s ex-fiancée turned his phone over to the police after discovering hundreds of images of nude children ranging from 7 to 10 years old.

However, the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence from Martin’s phone should be suppressed because his ex-fiancée brought the phone to police without his consent, and police searched Martin’s phone without his consent, according to court documents.

The court determined the ex-fiancée stole the phone without Martin’s consent “and with the intent to deprive him of his phone,” the ruling states.

She also unlawfully searched through his email account and apps “containing the alleged contraband,” the court ruled.

The officer who searched the phone testified he “took possession of the phone to see if probable cause existed to seize the phone or at least proceed with writing a report,” the documents state. Police obtained a warrant and searched the phone.

The officer testified he believed he had authority to look through the phone because Martin’s ex-fiancée informed him the two were in a common law relationship, which the court determined was false. The officer claimed he believed the phone was community property, according to the ruling.

Martin’s attorney, Ben M. Sifuentes Jr., told KSAT in a statement that “The magistrate judge concluded that based upon the testimony and affidavit for search, the affiant or detective failed to provide the whole truth, that the phone was stolen, illegally searched, and held for six months by Pacheco before SAPD sought a warrant.”

“Had the detective disclosed to the magistrate judge these omitted facts, a warrant would never have been issued and the seized evidence therefore was inadmissible,” Sifuentes said.

The officer’s ex-fiancee asked the investigating officer on body camera if she was “going to be in trouble for stealing his phone,” Sifuentes said.

In a separate statement, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said “Initially, the trial court, which handled this case, suppressed key evidence that was crucial in proceeding to trial.”

“In response, our office appealed the judge’s ruling to the Fourth Court of Appeals, which upheld the trial court’s decision,” the district attorney’s office said. “We then filed a petition for discretionary review to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which was denied. Given the absence of this critical evidence, we were unable to proceed with prosecution, so we had to close the case.”

Martin resigned from the San Antonio Police Department in 2018 in lieu of a perjury charge from an unrelated case. He was accused of lying about a criminal case he was involved in, as well as his own military history. He didn’t face any charges in those cases.

Read also:

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Demolition crews began tearing down the damaged properties Thursday afternoon along Preston Hollow, near Thousand Oaks Drive.

For people who live on the street, the demolition represents more than just the removal of damaged structures. It marks a step forward after a day that changed their neighborhood.

“It’s a disruption in our peaceful neighborhood, neighbor John Young said. ”For 33 years, we haven’t seen anything happen in our neighborhood.”

Young lives near the homes that were damaged.

“The last two months, you come outside every morning, and you see the remains of what happened and it just makes you think,” Young said.

The April explosions injured five people and prompted a federal investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB completed its preliminary investigation in May and is expected to release a final report within 12-24 months.

While crews were demolishing the homes, Young told Scott that he was standing outside with neighbors when the explosions happened.

“When the second house exploded, I was standing outside talking with the remaining fire truck that was here,” Young said.

Young’s wife was in their home during the explosion and said she felt the impact as if it happened to their home directly.

What remained on Thursday were piles of crumbled brick, burnt wood, favorite T-shirts, laundry baskets, furniture and other items that lay where the families once lived.

Neighbors said while the physical damage is being cleared, the memory of what happened remains.

“I think our neighborhood has come together since the incident. It’s brought us closer together,” Young said.

KSAT reached out to the City of San Antonio Development Services, who is working with the homeowners and their attorneys on the demolition.

The damaged homes are expected to be completely demolished from the property by next week.

Read also:

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• NTSB releases initial findings of investigation into 2 North Side house explosions
• A look at what’s next for victims of 2 North Side home explosions

Sheriff’s deputies said they received a disturbance call involving a gun around 6 p.m. in the 7000 block of FM 78.

A mother and her children were involved in an incident with a male and female in a different vehicle. The sheriff’s office said the couple approached the mother’s vehicle.

One of them pointed a gun at the mother and her children, deputies stated. It is unclear if the male or the female pointed the firearm. The woman and children were not hurt, the sheriff’s office said.

The mother then called authorities for assistance. When deputies arrived on scene, a BCSO spokesperson said the couple were in the process of leaving the location.

Deputies attempted a traffic stop on the couple’s vehicle. However, the female driver refused to stop, which BCSO said prompted a pursuit.

The sheriff’s office said the male passenger, later identified as Isaiah Andrew Ramirez Bryan, exited the vehicle while it was still moving in the 5100 block of Wheatland Drive.

Bryan, 18, jumped a number of fences before he was taken into custody, deputies said. Law enforcement officials believe Bryan discarded multiple weapons — specifically a pink handgun and a black handgun — while attempting to flee.

According to court records, Bryan was charged with evading arrest, which is considered a Class A misdemeanor.

He was booked into the Bexar County jail on a $1,000 bond, but records show he was issued a personal recognizance bond. This type of bond is typically given to people who cannot afford to pay bail, as long as they have gone through a risk assessment and promise to show up for all of their future court appearances.

It is unclear if Bryan will face any additional charges.

The female driver, identified as Heavenly Rodriguez, continued traveling toward the intersection of Swann Lane and Crest Lane, where she crashed into another car. BCSO said the she was also arrested.

Rodriguez was charged with evading arrest with a vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.

BCSO said Rodriguez also had an active warrant. She was booked into the Bexar County jail with a bond total of $98,000.

The sheriff’s office encourages anyone with information on the discarded guns to contact BCSO at 210-335-6000.

More recent crime coverage on KSAT:

• 2 sentenced for sex trafficking 16-year-old in San Antonio, ICE says
• Man accused in Stone Oak murder-suicide faced additional domestic violence charges, records show

Obama made the comments during an interview on the “All The Smoke” podcast hosted by former Spur Stephen Jackson and former NBA player Matt Barnes.

“The reason I’m confident about San Antonio, when they were on the court, you know, they got that kind of game face on,” Obama said.

The former president has been a fixture at NBA games. He was courtside for the NBA All-Star Game in February, where he said he first saw Spurs center Victor Wembanyama play in person. He said Wembanyama will be as good as everyone expects.

“I don’t remember somebody that big moving like that,” Obama said. “He’s got to figure out what his go-to, you know, folks have talked about. He’s got to figure out where his go to move is. He’s going to have to put on some weight.”

Obama also said Wembanyama will have to work on his conditioning. He shared his thoughts on why the Spurs phenom may appear tired in games.

“It just looks to me like playing defense today is so much harder because you have to close out everything,” Obama said. “It used to be your Wemby, you just plant yourself in the paint and you’re a rim protector. But I’m watching him on defense now, the way they’re using him, he’s in the paint and then he’s trying to close out a three-pointer.”

Jackson, who spent parts of four seasons with the Spurs, said NBA defenses have changed throughout the years.

“I think they move a lot more. We did a lot of iso, so we just had to guard our man,” Jackson said. “I think now they’re moving pick and rolls and so much. That’s why it’s harder.”

Obama said while he likes De’Aaron Fox, the Spurs would have been better served by having a natural point guard on the floor. He stated that the Spurs may have that player on the roster already.

“I think (Dylan) Harper will be that guy, but he’s 20,” Obama said. “Sometimes I look at these guys, and I have to remind myself. Sasha, my younger daughter, just turned 25. These kids are... five years younger than my baby.”

Barnes, who spent 17 seasons in the NBA, added that being young in the NBA is sometimes a good thing.

“Sometimes you’re too young...to fear anything, you know, kind of young and dumb,” Barnes said. “I don’t mean dumb in a bad way, but just kind of like, oh man, we’re going up against so-and-so. Like you don’t care about that because you’re so young, you just want to go out there and play basketball.”

The interview took place on the basketball court at the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Welcome to San Antonio! Spurs draft two more rookies in second round of 2026 NBA Draft
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The information compromised includes names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and bank and medical information, according to Paxton’s office.

The data breach is tied to a recent ransomware attack that caused a temporary network outage, Alamo Heights ISD said in a statement. The district said its network has since been restored.

Alamo Heights ISD also said it has notified the people affected by the breach.

The Federal Trade Commission recommends anyone affected by a data breach to visit its website for steps to protect their information.

The FTC also encourages people affected to check credit reports for new inquiries or lines of credit, activate fraud alerts on credit cards and report suspected fraud as soon as its noticed.

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Jacob Ramos, who sits on the SAISD Board of Trustees, was the only member who said they were concerned about voting Adrian Bustillos as the lone superintendent finalist.

“I have concerns,” Ramos said. “He was involved in a cheating scandal at El Paso ISD.”

Bustillos, a former assistant principal at El Paso Independent School District, was sanctioned and served a yearlong probated suspension in 2017, according to the Texas Education Agency.

In 2018, the El Paso Times reported that the TEA said Bustillos allowed students to receive credit without grasping the curriculum during his time as an El Paso High assistant principal from 2009 to 2011.

KSAT has reached out to the TEA and the El Paso Independent School District for more additional information about Bustillos.

Additionally, Ramos pointed out Bustillo’s missing, and required, certificate needed to become a superintendent in Texas.

SAISD elected Bustillos as the lone superintendent finalist on Wednesday following Superintendent Jaime Aquino‘s retirement announcement in March. The district interviewed at least 40 nationwide candidates for the job, according to board member Ed Garza.

The board voted 5-2 with Ramos and Stephanie Torres voting against Bustillos.

Garza and other board members echoed similar statements recognizing Bustillos’ accomplishments during the meeting while supporting the decision to vote him as the lone finalist.

“The Board believes Dr. Adrian Bustillos is the right leader for this moment,” SAISD said in a statement. “Dr. Bustillos understands the realities facing urban school districts and brings experience building on districts’ existing strengths.”

However, Torres called it a “difficult decision.”

“Community, you come out and you give us all the feedback,” Torres said. “You tell us where we’re slipping.”

Chief of Staff Toni Thompson will serve as interim superintendent starting July 1, until the superintendent is confirmed, according to a news release.

What is a sanction?

To be sanctioned also means violating disciplinary policy guidelines, according to the TEA. Those guidelines state an educator must:

• Protect the safety and welfare of Texas schoolchildren and school personnel
• Ensure educators and applicants are morally fit and worthy to instruct or to supervise the youth of the state
• Fairly and efficiently resolve educator disciplinary proceedings

An educator who has been probated is suspended unless the conditions of probation are met, TEA said on its website.

Read also:

• SAISD deputy superintendent leaving district for position in Georgia

The U.S. Park Police responded June 9 to a complaint by the park service, said Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service. Lands made the statement in a court document filed late Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization to halt the Trump administration's work on the project.

His statement does not say when exactly the damage occurred or whether it was a suspected case of vandalism and does not identify anyone who might have been involved.

The police report indicates damage to the pool, "including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material,'' Lands said. About 70 fence post tops also were thrown into the pool, he said.

The statements are the first time the Republican administration has offered specifics for when and how the Reflecting Pool may have been damaged after work on the project was substantially completed.

Interior Department thought the reported damage was an ‘isolated incident'

A spokesperson for the Interior Department said Thursday that public notification about the damage was delayed because, “at the time of the June 9 incident, the vandalism was under investigation and believed to be isolated. So as not to encourage deranged individuals, we did not announce what we hoped to be an isolated incident.”

Around the same time, park service staff "discovered another incident where fencing around the pool had been forcibly removed and thrown into the pool,'' the spokesperson said in an email.

The department soon noticed that "recurring cases and videos of people ripping at the coating began to circulate. We then knew this was not an isolated incident, but a new trend to attempt to damage the Reflecting Pool,'' the email said.

President Donald Trump and other officials have repeatedly blamed, without citing evidence, unidentified vandals for peeling paint as well as a “350-foot gash” in the liner and other problems. Six people have been arrested, Trump said this week, without providing details.

The Interior Department said Thursday there have been seven arrests, seven federal citations and 18 police reports filed. The department did not specify what the charges were or identify anyone cited by police.

Trump pledged to beautify the century-old Reflecting Pool before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations, draining its water and directing the bottom to be painted a color he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, its water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom. The pool has largely cleared in recent days after devices called nanobubblers infused ozone into the water to kill algae and bacteria.

Trump's administration faces a self-imposed deadline to complete the renovation before July Fourth. Trump also has said the federal government would release images to substantiate his claim.

Trump said Wednesday that “sick people” had used razors and box cutters to slice portions of the lining.

Reflecting Pool was refilled between June 4 and June 9

The Associated Press reviewed videos showing that the Reflecting Pool was refilled between June 4 and June 9, meaning the alleged cut reported to law enforcement on June 9 could have occurred before the basin was fully refilled. Days later, pieces of the new blue liner were observed peeling up from the bottom.

The Park Police posted surveillance footage Wednesday evening and asked for help “identifying the individual depicted here in connection with a Destruction of Government Property investigation.” The grainy, 30-second video appears to show a person kneeling down, reaching into the reflecting pool and removing something from the water. Police said it was taken on Friday afternoon.

In his statement to the court, Lands said the parks agency plans to begin draining the Reflecting Pool following Independence Day celebrations to conduct repairs, including assessing and repairing any damage to the lining.

The park service completed more than two months of renovations at the Reflecting Pool in early June. The 2,000-foot-long basin was drained and a tinted, plastic-like liner was installed to waterproof and protect the concrete pool surface, and the pool was refilled with water, Lands said.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy group that sued in May to halt work on the project, asked a federal judge to block further renovations.

“It is also not too late to correct course,” the group wrote in a filing Monday. It urged the administration to “engage with experts and the public, and make an informed decision about what is best based on the consultations mandated by the law, instead of once again rushing ahead with half-baked ideas.”

Democrats call for investigations into the pool renovations

Congressional Democrats have called for formal investigations into the pool renovations, saying no-bid contracts for the project were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.

Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations panel overseeing the Interior Department's budget, said the pool renovation appears to be a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

“After railing about waste, fraud and abuse, Donald Trump spent more than $16 million on a renovation of the Reflecting Pool that’s now peeling and chock full of algae,” Merkley said Thursday. He said this is a "massive waste" of tax dollars and the public deserves "swift answers — and a refund.”

Merkley is one of about 10 Democratic senators and House members investigating the pool project.

"Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them,'' said another letter, signed by New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and five other senators.

Heinrich is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, Leslie and Douglas Martin say their son was experiencing a mental health crisis in October when responding Oakland police officers held him "face down while one or more officers pressed on his back.” The lawsuit alleges this restraint was a “substantial factor” in causing his death.

“The family is very much interested in finding out what happened to their son,” said attorney John Burris. “Unfortunately the litigation is a mechanism to best get that done.”

Martin, 36, best known for his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was selected last August as one of the top 50 players in franchise history as part of the team’s 50th anniversary celebration. He was originally from Oakland and lived in Stockton, where he played high school football.

Over a decade, more than 1,000 people have died across the country after police subdued them through means not intended to be lethal, such as physical holds, Tasers and body blows, an investigation led by The Associated Press found. That includes George Floyd, whose murder by a police officer in 2020 led to a national reckoning over law enforcement's use of force, especially against Black people.

Police said in a statement at the time of Martin's death that he was involved in a break-in and that a “brief struggle” happened as police were trying to detain him and he became unresponsive. The department did not release any other details.

The Oakland Police Department said Thursday it does not comment on pending litigation and referred inquiries to the Oakland city attorney's office, which declined comment. Oakland police also said the investigation into Martin's death is ongoing.

Leslie Martin had called 911 because she was worried about her son, Burris said in an interview. He had been acting strangely and she “thought that he needed some medical attention," he said.

Burris said Doug Martin took off after she called. Police officers responding to Leslie Martin's call and separate reports of a break-in found Doug Martin hiding in a neighbor’s home.

Oakland police released several minutes of officers' body camera footage and 911 calls in March. In the video, officers called Martin by name.

The officers and Martin struggle briefly and then he is physically restrained face down. There are several minutes not shown in the released video.

The complaint alleges that Martin was later turned onto his side and was unresponsive and says officers initially thought he was “sleeping or pretending to be.” They only requested medical assistance after he remained unresponsive, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also accuses Falck USA, Inc. and its subsidiary Falck Northern California Corp.'s paramedics of taking more than 15 minutes to respond to the call and not promptly providing medical care after they arrived. Messages seeking comment were left Thursday for Falck.

The Alameda County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy report is awaiting test results after extra testing was requested by Martin's family. Burris said he does not know what additional testing is holding up the report.

Burris said he had a second autopsy conducted, and the pathologist determined tentatively that the cause of death was restraint asphyxiation.

In addition to the autopsy, Burris said Martin's brain was immediately sent to be examined posthumously for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can affect regions of the brain involved with regulating behavior and emotions and is linked to contact sports such as football. The family also is awaiting those results.

“They're concerned enough about it that they immediately sent the brain to Boston for examination,” Burris said, though he added the degenerative brain disease might account for his behavior but not how he died that night. Research is done at the Boston University CTE Center.

Martin was the 31st overall pick in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft after a standout career at Boise State. He rushed for 1,454 yards, scored 11 touchdowns as a rookie and was selected to the Pro Bowl. He also was named first-team All-Pro and made the Pro Bowl again in 2015.

Martin played six seasons with the Buccaneers and one season with the Raiders.

“Unfortunately we have received around 235 patients who arrive without vital signs or die when they arrive at our health facilities,” Health Minister Carlos Alvarado told state media Thursday.

The number of dead and injured is expected to rise with thousands reported missing after the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck Wednesday evening, which was among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century and was felt throughout the region.

Thousands were reported missing and buildings were evacuated as far away as Brazil’s Amazon.

In response to the devastation, the U.S. Treasury on Thursday moved to waive some sanctions until Oct. 23 to allow transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Venezuela that would otherwise be prohibited.

Meanwhile, in cities across northern Venezuela, panicked residents poured into the streets and searched for the missing in the debris.

The injured were pulled out of the rubble covered in dust and blood, among them children and animals. Venezuelan state TV showed dramatic images of rescues, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab, only a barefoot poking out before crews managed to get her out alive. But few government search teams were seen outside Caracas.

In the capital, Dayana Delgado, mother of three children, asked where the heavy machinery was that government officials had promised, pointing out that neighbors were the ones digging through the rubble.

“I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said of her 8-year-old son who was missing.

One mother sobbed and collapsed in grief as the bodies of her 3- and 10-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away. Others screamed the names of missing loved ones. Some stood in silent shock.

The coastal region of La Guaira — north of the capital, Caracas — suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties. The country’s main airport is there and was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.

Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendaño climbed through wreckage in La Guaira and past a dead body when he spotted a woman who was trapped and signaling with her hand for help.

“May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” said Mendaño. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do.”

Offers to send aid and supplies poured in from around the world, including from the United States, which seized Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro at the beginning of the year in a surprise military operation.

The natural disaster is just the latest challenge for acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after Maduro's capture. Venezuela has been facing economic disarray for more than a decade, and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement Rodríguez represents.

Rescue teams head to heavily damaged coastal region

Venezuelan authorities said they were diverting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which is no stranger to natural disasters: a 1999 mudslide killed thousands in what is considered one of the country’s worst natural disasters.

Rodríguez appealed to businesses Thursday to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations.

“We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” said Rodríguez, who referred to La Guaira as a “disaster zone.”

She said the first rescuers from the Dominican Republic were about to land and more from other countries were expected to arrive in the coming hours.

While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas. It had a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles). Just a minute later, USGS reported a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake, with a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) and an epicenter 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Moron.

The one-two punch of the quakes, combined with the shallow seismic movements, amplified the destruction, said Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil.

“It is as if I am screaming and then someone starts screaming, too. That amplifies the vibration and adds to the potential hazard,” Ferreira said.

Venezuela residents reeling from quakes

During the quakes, people ran from swaying buildings. Many were stunned Thursday morning as they saw buildings reduced to skeletons, furniture hanging out of windows and helicopters circling overhead.

In La Guaira, Cristian Carreño stared at his charred apartment building tilting precariously to one side.

“I lost everything,” he said. “There are people still inside, I imagine, that couldn’t get out. It’s incredibly devastating.”

In downtown Caracas, hundreds spent the night huddled in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.

“We were afraid the buildings would collapse on us,” said María Cristina Díaz, a 41-year-old janitor. “My mother, my daughter and I were cold. We didn’t sleep a wink.”

Parts of the capital lost power and cellphone service, Rodríguez said. Subway services were suspended and natural gas was shut off, she said. Classes will also be canceled for several days, and the Ministry of Education said some school buildings would be used as shelters and donation centers.

Families began posting missing-person flyers with photos of loved ones, while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched for loved ones. Venezuelans living abroad struggled to make contact with relatives.

Shortly after United Nations officials in Venezuela called on the government to lift social media restrictions so people can get potentially life-saving information, Venezuelans in the country were able to access X. The site had been blocked by Maduro since August 2024, in an attempt to suppress the exchange of information among those who rejected his claim of victory in the July presidential election.

Several governments offered assistance

Rodríguez declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes.

Leaders from Mexico, Qatar, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Canada vowed to send aid. A number of shipments were already on the way Thursday. Aid included emergency and military personnel, canine and search teams, medical supplies, water purifiers, airplanes and drones.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke to Rodríguez following the quake, said the United States was “immediately” deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources other assistance, though he acknowledged the closure of Venezuela's main airport created logistical challenges.

“We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big; it’ll be fast; and it’ll be effective,” Rubio said.

___

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Regina Garcia Cano, Mauricio Savarese, Anna-Catherine Brigida, Danica Coto, Clara Preve and Alexandra Olson contributed to this report.

SA Given to Fly, a limited partnership with ties to Mosaic Land Development, owns roughly 40 acres of mostly undeveloped land next to the San Antonio Target, Hunting, and Fishing Club. The developer sued the club and its board members in late 2024, alleging it “operates more like a drinking fraternity” and that projectiles from the club “regularly trespass” onto its land.

Blake Yantis, a partner with SA Given to Fly and co-owner of Mosaic, said the two sides agreed to settle the lawsuit for an $800,000 payment from the club and a permanent deed restriction that bans the club or any future owners of 6722 West Hausman Road from firing guns outdoors.

The deed restriction allows for archery if the facility is “built, maintained, and operated in accordance with a nationally recognized safety standard” and all archery shooting takes place far enough away, and pointed away, from SA Given to Fly’s property.

Firearm use could be allowed as well, if a “proper indoor shooting range” is built.

Yantis said he did not believe the club had any such facilities and was unaware of its future plans. SATHFC President Bobby Vasquez declined to comment for this story.

“Credit to them for doing the right thing at the end of the day, and hopefully this allows them to kind of keep their property and maintain whatever social aspects of their club that they had prior, going forward,” Yantis said.

Justin T. Woods, an attorney for the club and board members, said they’ve denied the developer’s allegations through the course of the lawsuit and denied any bullets from the club had ever hit anyone’s home.

He described the choice to settle the lawsuit as a business decision.

Yantis said Mosaic had plans to develop the land to sell to a builder, eventually putting hundreds of single-family units next to the gun range. However, he said the original builder dropped the contract because of concerns about the club.

With the lawsuit now over, he believes site work could begin late this year.

Bexar County property records show SATHFC acquired its roughly 21 acres in 1955, while Yantis said his partnership acquired its land in 2022.

Yantis said they knew going in the club was there.

“We had no problem with them being there, doing what they did, but we had a real problem with them shooting bullets into our property. Once we learned that, we had to fix it,” he said.

A nearby private school and daycare, Acton Academy North San Antonio, had also asked to join the lawsuit in early 2025, but court records show it quickly dropped out.

Previous coverage of this story on KSAT:

• San Antonio gun club accused of stray rounds, lack of safety measures in lawsuit
• San Antonio school and daycare asks to join lawsuit against nearby gun club over safety concerns, stray rounds

Elanga’s impressive left-footed strike from just outside the right corner of the box in the 62nd minute was his second goal of this year’s tournament. Elanga has scored only three goals in 49 games for Newcastle, but zero in 32 Premier League matches.

Six minutes earlier, Maeda settled a nifty pass from Ritsu Doan with his left foot in the penalty area and easily beat Jacob Widell Zetterstrom with his right foot.

It was Japan’s seventh goal of the tournament, the country’s most for an entire World Cup. That topped the six the Japanese scored while reaching the round of 16 in Russia eight years ago.

Japan is advancing out of the group stage for the third consecutive World Cup and fifth time in seven tries since first reaching the round of 16 as co-hosts in 2002. The Japanese team finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands and will play Brazil in Houston on Monday.

“For the good of football in Japan, I think it would be a very good experience,” coach Hajime Moriyasu said through a translator of his 16th-ranked team facing No. 5 Brazil. “We do believe there's a chance for us to win. And then we hope that we will be able to move one step further move on to the next stage.”

The Swedes have advanced to the knockout round the past four times they’ve qualified for the World Cup going back to 1994 — when they reached the semifinals the last time the U.S. hosted soccer’s biggest event.

Sweden will have to wait to find out its opponent in the round of 32 next week.

“We have to probably recover the players first and make sure that physically we’re in a good place for whoever we play,” coach Graham Potter said. “We’ve got to be on our toes in terms of logistics. I would say if you had said to me when we first came that would be the challenge we’d face, I would have absolutely taken it.”

Elanga had another chance to score in injury time, with his right-footed attempted forcing goalkeeper Zion Suzuki to make a diving deflection.

On the ensuing corner kick, Suzuki deflected Alexander Isak’s header off the crossbar and into the air, eventually ending the scoring chance with a leaping grab in a crowd of players.

The Blue Samurai's bag-waving, chanting fans among 70,137 at the sold-out home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys were persistent as a scoreless game dragged into the second half. Japan seemed content to sit back and play for a draw that would have guaranteed the same spot in the knockout round as a win.

Just like that, things changed when Doan put Maeda in perfect position to score.

Elanga wasn't anywhere near scoring range, but Suzuki appeared screened and reacted late as the shot beat him to the far post.

Just three minutes later, Isak was inside the penalty area with a great scoring chance, but Suzuki deflected it wide and over the end line, angrily gesturing toward some of his teammates as Sweden lined up for another corner kick. The Swedes had eight corner kicks to only two for Japan.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The restraint is similar to the seat belt used in most passenger vehicles, but it is not currently standard across many public school bus fleets.

The mandate comes from Senate Bill 546, authored by State Sen. José Menéndez.

KSAT previously spoke with Northside Independent School District’s Director of Transportation Tesilia Soliz and Northeast Independent School District’s Executive Director of Transportation Bill Harrison about the mandate.

“We’re hopeful that there will be grants available,” Harrison said, “but there’s no detail about any of that yet.”

Both NEISD and NISD leaders said their district’s can not afford the state mandated upgrades on the number of buses needed.

Menéndez shared more on plans to get funding for these districts.

“We could not just pass another unfunded mandate onto schools just to tell them look, you have to do this and not provide them the resources,” Menendez said.

However, there are still several outstanding concerns including how many districts need to upgrade their buses, how much the upgrades will cost and enforcing a seat belt implementation.

“We have put some money, I think $10 million into a grant for schools to apply to have their fleets updated with three-point seat belts,” Menendez said.

However, that won’t even cover the upgrades at Northeast ISD alone.

“It will cost about $13 million if we have to retrofit all those,” Harrison said.

Texas school districts had to inform the Texas Education Agency the number of buses the district has, the type of seat belts on each of those buses and how much the upgrades would cost by May 29.

In an email on June 24, TEA said “Data submissions are still under review by the agency.” The agency also said it has until January 2027 to report that information.

School district’s across the state have until Sept. 1, 2029 to retrofit all buses to have three-point seatbelts.

Read also:

• ‘Another mandate without funding’: New Texas law could cost school districts millions
• SAISD superintendent finalist once suspended by TEA for cheating scandal in El Paso

Abcdee Rodriguez, 30, faces two charges for aggravated robbery, Bexar County court records show.

The affidavit says Rodriguez and three other suspects approached two victims on June 14, demanding they hand over their Knicks clothing. Rodriguez was armed with a knife.

The victims were assaulted and robbed before the suspects fled in a vehicle, according to the affidavit. Before the group left, the victims took a photo of the vehicle.

Rodriguez was positively identified through a photo lineup.

She was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center with a bond set at $200,000 and has since been released on bond.

Read also:

• Affidavit: Third woman arrested in connection with alleged assault, robbery of Knicks fans in SA
• Knicks fan says father was ‘lying in a pool of his own blood’ after assault outside River Walk hotel

Nothing else seems to be slowing down the Dutch these days.

Certainly not a Tunisian team in chaos.

Brian Brobbey scored his third goal of the tournament, and the Netherlands got two more goals that deflected off Tunisian players and into their own net, sending the Dutch to a 3-1 victory and ultimately first place in their group.

The Netherlands had begun the day tied at the top with Japan. But when the Samurai Blue only managed a 1-1 draw with Sweden in a game played simultaneously in Arlington, Texas, that left Virgil van Dijk and his teammates looking forward to a matchup with Group C runner-up Morocco on Monday in Monterrey, Mexico — and Japan with the heavy task of playing Brazil in the round of 32.

“These are the kind of games you want to play. These are the big games, why you want to play in the World Cup,” Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke said. “I think the team is prepared for a big game, and everyone knows it's game on.”

Tunisia, which sacked its coach after a loss to open the World Cup, had already been eliminated from the tournament.

The opening minutes Thursday night summed up the last couple of weeks for the Eagles of Carthage, too: Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries sent a ball across the front of the goal, Ellys Skhiri slapped at with his foot in an attempt to clear, and the Tunisian captain found the back of his own net instead.

Brobbey made it 2-0 in the seventh minute, after the Dutch had earned a free kick from about 25 yards. The 6-foot-5 van Dijk expertly headed it across the box, and Brobbey was in perfect position to chip the ball past Tunisian goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen.

“If you can’t defend,” Tunisia coach Hervé Renard said, “you can’t do anything in football.”

Tunisia finally scored in the 54th minute, when Hazem Mastouri redirected a corner kick into the net, only for the Dutch to match the goal a few minutes later, when van Hecke’s header off a corner glanced off Anis Slimane's head and into his own net.

“We (scored) directly after,” Brobbey said, “so that was a good response.”

That's an understatement.

The Netherlands controlled the game from there, even as a first-half drizzle turned into a second-half downpour.

The threat of thunderstorms had persisted all the week, and lightning briefly forced fans to take cover before the game. But once they were given the all-clear, the Dutch fans clad in their highlighter-orange shirts poured down the aisles and into the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, making it look like deer hunting season had suddenly begun in the Midwest.

“That gives you a fantastic feeling,” Dutch coach Ronald Koeman said, “when you enter the stadium and see all that orange.”

The Netherlands is certainly big-game hunting in this World Cup.

The nation of Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten has long held the moniker of best never to have won the tournament. Three times the Dutch have advanced to the finals and each time they have lost, most recently to Spain in extra time in 2010.

They got off to a lackluster start this go-round, too, tying Japan 2-2 in their opener. But with two goals apiece from Brobby and Cody Gakpo, the Netherlands routed Sweden 5-1, and now it has some serious momentum heading into the knockout stage.

Tunisia seemed quite content just to finish a disastrous World Cup.

The Eagles of Carthage opened with a 5-1 loss to Sweden, which led to coach Sabri Lamouchi's firing. Renard took over amid reports of tension and infighting within the team, and little seemed to have changed during a 4-0 loss to Japan last week.

Tunisia has never reached the knockout rounds in seven trips to soccer's grandest stage.

“It’s a big tournament with very good teams, especially in this group. It was a very good group,” Renard said. “We needed to be much stronger, and we weren’t strong enough, so this is the conclusion.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here.

Saucedo-Herrera, head of corporate impact at USAA, shared her story during an appearance on KSAT’s “Pickup Lines” with host Ernie Zuniga.

Raised on a ranch just outside San Antonio, Saucedo-Herrera spent weekends helping her family work cattle before sports became a central part of her life. Alongside her sister, she found opportunities through softball, eventually earning a full scholarship to St. Mary’s University.

“My parents always viewed sports as an investment,” Saucedo-Herrera said. “It was our pathway to education.”

After graduating, she began her career as an intern at CPS Energy, eventually becoming the youngest vice president in the utility’s history. She later served as president and CEO of Greater SATX before joining USAA, where she now oversees corporate impact initiatives.

Despite opportunities to leave Texas, Saucedo-Herrera said San Antonio repeatedly called her back.

“I got incredible opportunities right here in San Antonio,” she said. “Every time I considered leaving, another opportunity came along to help move this city forward.”

Her career has included working on major economic development projects, helping recruit companies to the region and representing San Antonio around the world. While she takes pride in those accomplishments, she said developing teams and creating opportunities for others has become even more rewarding.

Saucedo-Herrera also reflected on balancing executive leadership with family life, and she acknowledged there is no perfect formula for work-life balance.

“Every day is different,” she said. “Some days I have to lean in harder as an executive, and some days I need to lean in as a mother and wife.”

One of the defining moments in her life came during her junior year at St. Mary’s, when she suffered a career-ending softball injury that required extensive rehabilitation. Rather than walking away from the game, Saucedo-Herrera returned for her senior season.

“I learned so much about resilience, my teammates and leadership,” she said. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could come back.”

Throughout the conversation, Saucedo-Herrera stressed the importance of mentorship, crediting several leaders who helped shape her career. She also recalled advice from former CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby that continues to guide her.

“Don’t be a victim,” she said, explaining that while people cannot control every circumstance, they can control how they respond.

As one of San Antonio’s most prominent business leaders, Saucedo-Herrera said she now feels a responsibility to inspire the next generation, particularly young women.

“People invested in me,” she said. “My career is because of those folks. Now it’s my responsibility to invest in others.

Watch the full Pickup Lines with Jenna Saucedo-Herrera in the video player above.

More Pickup Lines episodes:

• Pickup Lines: Kristi Waters shares journey from bullied student to beloved San Antonio performer
• Pickup Lines: Radio legend Elizabeth Ruiz reflects on decades in San Antonio media, music and resilience
• Pickup Lines: Tony Plana reflects on childhood performance, Cuban exile and 50 years in acting

Ernie Zuniga started Pickup Lines, a digital talk show, straight from his vehicle. The segments feature a diverse range of guests, including executives, small business owners, and everyday individuals, as they share personal journeys, news, and stories.

Yoon, a 23-year-old South Korean seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, birdied five of her last six holes at Hazeltine National Golf Club with a putter that was consistently on point.

Nelly Korda, who’s aiming to become just the third woman to win the first three major tournaments on the schedule, had a 70.

Davidson, who finished more than four hours after Yoon, had eight birdies on the way to a career-best 65 on a calm and partly cloudy afternoon that yielded a bevy of low scores on the long course on the prairie southwest of Minneapolis that requires accuracy and muscle off the tee.

Alexa Pano and A Lim Kim were tied for third at 67. Aline Krauter, Hye-Jin Choi and Megan Kang followed at 68. Five Americans landed among the top eight scores, including ties.

“Just trying to go out there and make solid swings,” said Pano, who had an eagle and three birdies on the back nine. “My goal for this week was just to really focus on where my feet are and focus on the shot at hand.”

Korda (second round in 2021) and Patty Sheehan (third round in 1984) also posted 9-under 63s at previous Women’s PGA Championships.

Yoon logged the fourth-best first-round score at any major since at least 1980, trailing Hyo Joo Kim at the Evian Championship in 2014 (10-under 61), Mirim Lee at the Women’s British Open in 2016 (10-under 61), and Lorena Ochoa at the Kraft Nabisco Championship (10-under 62).

The 39th-ranked player in the world, Yoon sounded like she surprised even herself with the stellar start.

“I just hit the golf ball and it just dropped in the hole and it was really an awesome experience,” Yoon said, later explaining her mental approach: “Just try to think nothing. Focus on what I need to do. Focus on process. That part I think I did great today.”

Davidson, who has made cuts in 15 straight tournaments for the third-longest active streak on tour behind Korda (31) and Celine Boutier (20), is also seeking her first career victory.

“Hit a lot of fairways. Hit a lot of greens. Putting was pretty on today. Really felt like I was going to hole everything,” Davidson said. “So it was a pretty perfect round.”

Davidson, a 27-year-old Australian, had her best finish earlier this year with a tie for fifth at the Aramco Championship in April. Fellow countrymate and close friend Hannah Green won the Women’s PGA Championship in 2019, the last time it was at Hazeltine.

Jeeno Thitikul, the second-ranked player in the world who's seeking her first career major, shot a 69. This is the fifth time she has finished the first round in the top 10 in a major, including the Women's PGA Championship last year. The Thai star broke 70 in official regular stroke play last season 45 times, the second-highest total on tour.

The runaway LPGA tour scoring leader at the midpoint of the season, Korda double-bogeyed the lakeside 16th hole with “one bad swing” that landed in a pond to the left for a first-shot penalty stroke.

“I just overturned it. By now you just feel it when it’s bad. So the wind was off the right and I actually I think just made a too fast of a swing and I was kind of in between clubs,” Korda said. “It’s a pretty intimidating tee shot, and I just didn’t really like the way I hit it off the start.”

Korda's 19-foot putt on the 18th green stopped an inch from the hole before she tapped in for par, finishing about the same time as Yoon, who wrapped up nearby on the ninth hole. Inbee Park (2013) and Babe Zaharias (1950) are the only women in golf history to win the first three majors in one calendar year.

Amanda Doherty had hole-in-one on the 17th in a 72.

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

Over the 180-year history of The Associated Press, 38 journalists have fallen on the job while working for the independent not-for-profit news organization.

Thursday marked the 150th anniversary of the very first: Mark Kellogg, one of five civilians killed alongside Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Kellogg, 43, was embedded with Custer's troops. He was reporting for The Bismarck Tribune and New York Herald — the AP circulated his reports across the country — when Custer underestimated the size of a Sioux village that he attacked.

Custer and his outnumbered men made a last stand on a hill. There, they were annihilated by Native American defenders. Kellogg's scalped body was found not far away.

His last published dispatch read in part: “I go with Custer and will be at the death.”

It was more of an attempt at poetry than prophecy. “At the death” is a foxhunting term for the end of the hunt, suggesting Kellogg expected Custer to prevail.

Still, Kellogg's final words and fate circulated far and wide through his employers and the AP. It gave the obscure, part-time journalist — a widower who worked a variety of jobs to support his two daughters — fame in death.

He got to know Custer. He covered the campaign. He mingled with the soldiers and interviewed them at their camps, historian Sandy Barnard said.

“While his record as a journalist might be very small compared to modern reporters who go into combat, he certainly was doing exactly what they are doing,” Barnard said.

Yet in other ways, Kellogg was much different from modern journalists. He carried a rifle into action, Barnard pointed out. And he made no attempt to avoid not just bias but racism against Native Americans, whom he called “red devils.”

“During the last stages of the campaign, Kellogg was probably more of a soldier than he was a newspaper man,” said Barnard, author of a Kellogg biography and other books on the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota preserves Kellogg’s diary and various belongings, including eyeglasses, tobacco, clothing and a mosquito head net. The fragile diary, now digitized online, documents weather, distances covered, who was riding in front and in back, how many antelope they saw and other day-to-day operations, Deputy State Archivist Lindsay Meidinger said. The diary ends before the battle.

“It’s a primary source of the historical event, that not many other primary sources remain from that time period related to the Seventh Cavalry and Custer,” Meidinger said.

Others who have perished while reporting for AP in war zones include:

— Mariam Dagga, a freelance visual journalist who was killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip last August;

— Anja Niedringhaus, a photographer shot by a police officer as she sat in her car in Afghanistan in 2014;

— Myles Tierney, a videojournalist killed while traveling in a convoy that came under fire in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1999;

— Joseph Morton, a war correspondent who was the only U.S. reporter known to have been executed by the Nazis following his capture alongside Slovakian partisans in 1944.

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This story has been updated to restore correct attribution in final quote to Meidinger, not Barnard.

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Associated Press corporate archivist Sarit Hand in New York and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

MLB's plan would eliminate deals such as Juan Soto's $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets. The league said just seven players this year exceed the proposed maximum and 98% of free agent contracts would not have been impacted.

"There’s no question that we’re very far apart,” union head Bruce Meyer said during an online news conference.

During a bargaining session Thursday at the union's office, MLB said it would accept the union's proposal granting free agency a year early for players who have reached age 30 if the union accepted the league's salary cap system. MLB also proposed boosting the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1 million for those with two years of big league service.

MLB also proposed increasing the pre-arbitration bonus pool from $50 million to $65 million next year and $75 million by 2032, the sixth season of MLB's proposed seven-year deal.

Meyer said “the debate got a little more vigorous today.”

“The league has done us a favor because their proposals are in fact so obviously and extremely bad for players at all levels that it’s actually been a benefit for our unity,” Meyer said. “Anybody’s who’s banking on Major League Baseball players cracking, it’s never happened. It’s not going to happen. That’s why we’re the only ones who don’t have a salary cap.”

MLB also said it would agree to eliminate the qualifying offer for free agents that since its inception in 2012 has restricted the market for some players.

Bargaining started May 13 for a contract to replace the five-year deal that expires Dec. 1, and owners proposed a salary cap for the first time since the union fought off the system during a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95. MLB is expected to impose a lockout in December, halting free agent signings and trades.

After the prior agreement expired in December 2021, intensive bargaining did not start until late February as the threat approached of losing regular-season games — along with revenue and salary. The sides reached an agreement on March 10, the 99th day of the lockout, preserving the 162-game schedule.

In the league's cornerstone proposal, made last month, team spending would be capped next year at $245.3 million, using figures for luxury tax payrolls that include $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. It also would establish a payroll floor of $171.2 million, forcing several teams to spend more. The two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s biggest spenders, had a $415.2 million payroll on opening day this year — around $170 million over the proposed cap.

“The biggest issue baseball fans want solved to strengthen the game is fixing the payroll disparity that leaves too many fans without hope of their team competing for a World Series title," MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. “Every other major U.S. sport has tackled this problem, and every year more small market teams in those leagues have a chance to win. The salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field.”

Meyer took issue with that.

“It’s appalling that the stewards of the game, the people whose job it is to grow the game primarily and promote the game have for whatever period of time now in the last couple of years been saying nothing but the game’s broken,” he said.

As part of the plan, MLB would establish a “cornerstone player” similar to the NBA's Bird rule, which would allow a team to re-sign a player at 16% of the cap. A free agent switching clubs would be limited to a $36.8 million salary next year and a re-signing player to $39.2 million.

Salaries for free agents in additional seasons of a multiyear contract would be limited to 5% increases, as would salaries for younger players in multiyear deals that cover potential free-agent seasons.

Contracts would be capped by service time: at $500 million and 12 years for those yet to make major league debuts, $461 million and 11 seasons for those with 0-1 years of service, $421 million and 10 years for 1-2, $382 million and nine seasons for 2-3, $343 million and eight years for 3-4, $304 million and seven years for 4-5, and $265 million and six years for free-agent eligible players.

Agent Scott Boras claimed the then-record $252 million, 10-year contract he negotiated for Alex Rodriguez in December 2000 would not have been allowed.

"It’s like offering a few pieces of furniture if you agree to live in a house with a 4-foot ceiling," he said, "an attempt to move player contract values back to the 1990s.”

Banning deferred compensation would eliminate a business practice used most prominently by the Dodgers, who owe just under $1.1 billion to 10 players from 2028-47. In addition, MLB would restrict bonus provisions in player contracts and mandate a standard award bonus package.

MLB said it would accept the union's proposal to drop free-agent eligibility to five seasons of service from six for those turning 30 by the Nov. 1 of the offseason. MLB said 354 players on big league rosters as of Thursday would reach free agency a year earlier. MLB would start the change in the 2027-28 offseason.

As part of the minimum salary proposal, MLB said players with less than two years of service would have a $900,000 minimum and if earning a full year of service would get an additional $100,000 from the pre-arbitration bonus pool. Minor league minimums for players with major league contracts would increase from $63,600 to $73,400 for initial big league deals and $127,100 to $146,700 for additional contracts.

The union proposed to jointly lobby with MLB for the prohibition on prop bets; to allow player endorsement and sponsorship of legal betting entities, including sports books and prediction markets; to have players under MLB betting investigations to be placed on administrative leave, similar to the domestic violence policy; and to allow players near the end of suspensions for betting to have unpaid 15-day minor league assignments, similar to the drug policy.

In addition, players asked for increases for in-season meal and tip allowances; housing benefits for players with major league contracts who are assigned to the minors; and increased moving expenses, including for assignments from one minor league affiliate to another.

Meyer expects at least one more bargaining session before the All-Star break.

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

27 girls and camp director Dick Eastland died in the July fourth floods.

The camp has faced several investigations into its handling of the flood response, and recently decided not to open it’s second campus this summer to 900 families who had signed up to attend.

Just before the one-year mark of the tragedy, Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Experts explain there are three types of chapter 11 bankruptcy:

• Liquidating: a company dissolves
• Sale: a company is sold
• Reorganization: a company creates plan to stay open and pay debts

Mystic filed for reorganization, which typically means the business is trying to survive, but has high debt and needs.

“It’s generally an opportunity for financial rebirth, St. Mary’s School of Law Asst. Professor Abigail Bright Willie said. ”We get to reorganize all of our debts. We get pay our creditors the best that we can and we get to come out the other side, essentially. A new business entity.”

Willie said these cases can take years.

“They can. Hopefully they won’t,” Willie said. “Hopefully this case will be able to exit within 24 months.”

Documents show Camp Mystic’s debts amount to more than $10 million. Willie said the camp will soon have to submit forms breaking down exactly what they owe.

“So that the public, all the creditors and the court knows the total financial picture,” Willie said.

Delayed lawsuits

With Mystic filing for bankruptcy, lawsuits are “stayed,” according to Willie.

“That means they can’t go forward,” Willie said, “but the public should be reassured. The bankruptcy court will ultimately make a determination as to what those families are owed.”

The lawsuits filed are state cases, and bankruptcy courts are federal. If the families want the lawsuits to remain in the state, their lawyers will have to request that from the bankruptcy court.

Wednesday, KSAT heard from two of the attorneys representing different sets of families that are suing Mystic.

Kyle Findley, an attorney representing six Mystic campers’ families, confirmed this bankruptcy filing will cause delays but, “The firm is evaluating our options, but the case will continue to be pursued.”

Findley continued in his statement, saying, “The bankruptcy filing is not accountability. It is simply a financial reorganization that could allow the same people and entities to remain in control of Camp Mystic while attempting to circumvent the justice of the Court. After 27 girls died, this filing is just another attempt to delay taking responsibility.”

Paul Yetter, the attorney for another set of Mystic families sent KSAT a statement saying, “Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable.”

KSAT has also reached out to Camp Mystic to see if they want to make a statement about the bankruptcy filing, but they have not responded yet.

Read also:

• Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy almost a year after catastrophic floods killed 28
• TAKEAWAYS: State lawmakers’ final report into deadly Camp Mystic floods

Plata poked the ball past Manuel Neuer in the 77th minute and lifted Ecuador to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Germany on Thursday and into the knockout round of the World Cup for the first time since 2006.

“Life is different now. We suffered a lot," said Plata, a 25-year-old winger who scored his ninth international goal. “We suffered too much in the first two matches. We would have liked to secure qualification much earlier, but now we’re going forward more hungry, knowing we have to give it our all.”

Ecuador, which has lost only one of its last 22 games, finished third in Group E with four points and advanced past the group stage for the second time, headed to a possible matchup with Mexico on Tuesday in Mexico City.

A four-time champion already assured of advancement by winning its first two games, Germany will play its round of 32 game Monday at Foxborough, Massachusetts, most likely against Paraguay, Australia or Sweden.

“On Monday it’s important that we start well," Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said through a translator.

Germany's winning streak was stopped at 11 games, one shy of the team record set in 1979-80.

"The difference was today that the opponent wanted to win more than us, and you could really feel it, especially in the second half,” Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich said.

Germany went ahead on Leroy Sané's second-minute goal. Aleksandar Pavlović chested the ball and ended up kicking Pedro Vite in the head following Nathaniel Brown’s throw-in, but American referee Tori Penso didn't whistle a foul. Pavlović passed to Florian Wirtz, who centered to Sané just inside the penalty area to beat goalkeeper Hernán Galíndez.

Nilson Angulo equalized in the ninth minute with Ecuador's first goal of the tournament following a 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast and a 0-0 draw with Curaçao. Felix Nmecha lost the ball in midfield to Vite. The midfielder passed to Angulo, who dribbled toward goal and beat Neuer to the far post from just outside the area.

Penso originally awarded Germany a penalty kick less than 30 seconds into the second half after Joel Ordóñez took down Kai Havertz, but a video review ruled Sané had first fouled Vite.

With the crowd tensing as time ran down, Plata scored after Vite's corner kick was nodded on by Kevin Rodríguez, who was 6 yards out at the near post. Neuer, the 40-year-old Germany goalkeeper who ended two years of international retirement for the World Cup, was about to grasp the ball when Plata raised his left foot and stabbed it into the net.

Sebastián Beccacece, an Argentine who has coached Ecuador for two years, sprinted to the front of the stands, his shoulder-length blond hair flowing, to hug his wife, Patricia Persson. He had been pilloried after the poor start and paraphrased a lyric from Argentine rock band Los Redondos.

“In loneliness you cannot always listen to what you hear. You just keep pushing forward. You ignite your fire and you continue,” he said.

A crowd of 80,663 at MetLife Stadium was mostly in Ecuador's yellow. FIFA said it boosted attendance to a record 3,587,539 in the 56th game of the expanded World Cup, one more than the 52 matches for the 1994 tournament in the U.S.

“We felt at home in all these stadiums,” Rodríguez said.

Ecuador had prepared to return to its training camp in Columbus, Ohio, rather than head home to South America.

“They told us: `You will be back here,'” he said. “The staff in the kitchen, in the spa, even the drivers.”

Ecuador isn't sure of its next opponent or even where the match will be played, so fans can't lock in travel just yet.

“I hope they brought plenty of clothes in their luggage," Plata said.

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This story corrects the name of the Argentine rock band to Los Redondos.

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AP Sports Writers Eric Núñez and Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

• HAZY SKY: Smoke, more rounds of dust, low impact on air quality
• CONSISTENCY: AM clouds, PM sun, highs in the low to mid 90s
• BEACH FORECAST: Quiet & hot for Port A/Rockport

FORECAST

HEAT AND HAZE

We are stuck in a summer rut. While not much will change with regards to temperature or humidity, ten thousand feet above us, suspended smoke and dust will make for hazy conditions. This likely will not affect air quality for us, but it will make for nice sunrises and sunsets and just an overall hazy sky.

The haze today will increase due to a fire all the way up in Utah. Smoke, aloft, is being transported into Texas.

Also of note, early next week, a thicker round of Saharan dust will arrive to the area.

BEACH FORECAST

Headed to the beach this weekend? It’ll be good beach weather, with hot conditions, and a generally rain-free forecast. Water temperatures continue to be warm, sitting in the mid-80s.

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

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

The Department of Homeland Security can now end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

The Supreme Court also voted 6-3 to clear the way for the Trump administration to potentially revive an immigration policy once used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The court overturned a lower court order blocking the practice that limited the number of people who could apply for asylum each day.

Meanwhile, a liner along the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was cut with a sharp knife or razor this month, causing damage to the foam sealant installed as part of a $16 million rehabilitation project, a top official at the National Park Service said.

Heres' the latest:

What Trump fed farmers at the White House

Farmers and ranchers invited to a Rose Garden dinner on Thursday were served New York strip steak joined by sides and desserts packed with seasonal ingredients.

The menu included a caprese salad with garden tomatoes, plus a side dish featuring White House-harvested peppercress. The meat was billed as a grilled prime New York strip steak. Dessert included roasted peaches and White House honey.

Dinner guests received organic garden seeds and tomato jam prepared by White House chefs.

In keeping with the theme, there was a white farm stand at the back of the garden, surrounded by baskets overflowing with carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, corn and other fruits and vegetables.

Vance says Watergate would fly over in today’s news, draws parallels between Nixon and Trump

Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said the legacy of the 37th president is “enjoying a bit of a renaissance.”

“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story, the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said in a conversation promoting his new book.

He went on: “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.”

Vance noted his own parallels with Nixon. “Young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,” he said. “It kind of sounds like JD Vance.”

Nixon was in his second term when he resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974.

Housing bill being sent to White House, starting clock on Trump’s signature

Speaker Mike Johnson returned from what he called a “very productive” hourslong meeting with the president in the Oval Office following a highly dysfunctional week in Congress.

“We’re on exactly the same page,” Johnson said back at the Capitol.

Trump earlier this week abruptly abandoned plans to sign the bipartisan Housing package, which had overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate but got tangled when the president insisted Congress must first pass an unrelated voting bill called the SAVE America Act. That bill has failed to draw broad support in the Senate.

A group of House GOP lawmakers joined Trump’s rally call and refused to vote on other measures, essentially shutting down business in the House.

Trump, after meeting with Johnson, told Republicans in a social media post: “no more grandstanding.”

Johnson said they had to get back to work, and he said they were transmitting the Housing bill, which starts a 10-day clock for Trump to either sign it or veto the bill.

Merchant vessel hit by Iranian drone today

The merchant vessel that was attacked earlier today was hit by an Iranian drone, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation, said that the merchant vessel Ever Lovely was attacked by a drone being flown by the Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported the attack earlier on Thursday but only said that the ship was struck by a “projectile off Oman near UN-approved route for Strait of Hormuz.”

The center noted that there were no causalities nor any environmental impact.

U.S. says no Iranian funds have been released

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that no frozen funds have been released to Iran and will not be done until Iran meets the requirements of Trump’s interim Iran agreement.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk Box this week that Treasury would oversee how unfrozen funds would be spent.

“A very large percentage of it will go to buy U.S. foodstuffs and medicines,” he said.

U.N. agency pauses evacuation of ships through the Strait of Hormuz

A U.N. maritime agency has paused the evacuation of ships through the Strait of Hormuz after the British military said a vessel was hit Thursday by a projectile off the coast of Oman.

The head of the International Maritime Organization said the plan to move stranded ships through the strait will be on hold until the agency can confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.

It was unclear who launched the projectile or the type of vessel that was targeted. The report of a strike came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using a U.N.-approved route through the strait without Tehran’s permission.

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Reflecting Pool liner was cut with a sharp knife or razor, National Park Service says

A liner along the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was cut with a sharp knife or razor this month, causing damage to the foam sealant installed as part of a $16 million rehabilitation project, a top official at the National Park Service says.

The agency reported the June 9 incident to U.S. Park Police, said Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service. Lands made the statement in a court document filed late Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization to halt the Trump administration’s work on the project.

The police report indicates damage to the pool, “including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material,″ Lands said. About 70 fence post tops also were thrown into the pool, he said.

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‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center in Florida is officially closed, governor says

The immigration center built in the Florida swamps known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is closing after nearly a year of holding thousands of immigrant detainees, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

DeSantis said the center was always supposed to be temporary and now federal officials have enough ability to handle detention and deportation in more permanent facilities.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier in June, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to keep the detainees in the Florida Everglades. All the of people kept at the isolated airstrip had been sent to other facilities.

Immigration advocates said the tents were never safe or humane to hold people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers, and have described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

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Homeland Security touts TPS win at Supreme Court

The top legal official at Homeland Security praised the Supreme Court’s decision on temporary protected status.

“The Court vindicates DHS yet again,” said James Percival, the department’s general counsel in a statement on X.

“The T in TPS stands for TEMPORARY, yet many of these designations became de facto amnesty. This is a win for the rule of law and common sense,” Percival said.

DHS secretary says the department is reevaluating warehouses purchased for ICE detention

Markwayne Mullin says his department is reevaluating the eleven warehouses his predecessor purchased to use as immigration detention facilities.

Mullin says some just “probably won’t work” and suggested a lack of “due diligence” when it came to purchasing the warehouses. They were purchased under Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement received huge pushback around the country after the purchases became known.

When Mullin came into office, he paused any new purchases and federal officials have been looking at ways to offload some of them.

Federal judge halts Trump’s election executive order seeking to create a federal voter list

The executive order also sought to limit who can receive a mail ballot.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, sided with a coalition of nearly two dozen states that challenged the Republican president’s order in granting a summary judgment. Her ruling applies to this year’s midterm election cycle.

Plaintiffs argued in two lawsuits, both filed in federal court in Boston, that Trump’s order should be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. The judge agreed, noting in her ruling that the provisions of Trump’s order “unconstitutionally violate the separation of powers.”

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Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end legal protections for Haitians and Syrians

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disaster in Haiti and Syria, exposing hundreds of thousands more people to potential deportation.

The decision overturns lower court orders and allows the Department of Homeland Security to swiftly end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

The Trump administration argued judges can’t second-guess immigration officials’ decisions about the protections, which were intended to be temporary.

Immigration attorneys said the countries remain unsafe to return, and the administration ended them in an unlawfully hasty process tinged by racial animus. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats.

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Supreme Court clears way for the Trump administration to revive a restrictive immigration policy

The policy was once used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The justices overturned a lower court order blocking the practice that limited the number of people who could apply for asylum each day under the Obama administration and during Trump’s first term.

Advocates said the tactic created a humanitarian crisis as thousands of people settled in unsafe makeshift shelters to await their turn. The Trump administration said it was necessary to deal with an increase of asylum seekers at the border.

The policy isn’t in place now, though authorities have imposed other restrictions on asylum seekers.

The administration argues that metering is a critical tool that’s been used by presidents of both parties and should stay available.

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Trump’s showdown with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy

President Trump was attending a private lunch Wednesday with the Senate GOP when he wondered aloud how anyone could have voted for a war powers resolution a day earlier that sought to block further U.S. military action against Iran.

Cassidy, one of the four Republicans who backed the measure, was ready with an answer.

“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, recounted to reporters afterward. “This is supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

Things deteriorated from there.

When Cassidy told Trump he would continue voting for war powers resolutions until there’s a congressional briefing on developments in Iran, the senator recalled that Trump “did not particularly care for my comments” and “raised his voice.”

Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. At one point, the president called the senator a “lunatic,” the person said.

Cassidy acknowledged losing his temper, which he said was “not appropriate.”

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— Steven Sloan and Lisa Mascaro

Oil tankers use new route through Strait of Hormuz despite Iranian threats

Several tankers made their way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday using a new route promoted by a U.N. maritime agency. Iran has threatened vessels using the path, which runs along the coast of Oman.

The opening of an alternative passage through the vital waterway would relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing talks about the interim deal signed last week with the United States.

Traffic through the strait has increased but is still well below prewar levels. Oil on Thursday briefly dipped below its last prewar price of just under $73 a barrel, a sign that the market believes the situation is improving.

The two sides are still debating terms of the deal — from getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf to the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

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Key inflation gauge jumps to 3-year high in latest sign of affordability challenges

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose to a new three-year high in May as gas prices peaked, a sign rising costs could pose political problems for President Trump as midterm elections near.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that consumer prices rose 4.1% in May from a year earlier, the largest annual increase since April 2023. On a monthly basis, inflation was 0.4% last month, matching April’s increase and down from 0.7% in March.

The increase was largely driven by more expensive gas, as well as pricier semiconductors and other computer equipment that are in high demand for the AI build out. Rising prices have caused the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve to keep their key rate unchanged this year, a reversal from January when they had penciled in two cuts. Some economists forecast the central bank could lift rates this year instead.

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Lawmakers demand answers as turmoil over Reflecting Pool repair continues

Congressional Democrats called for investigations Wednesday into renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as the ongoing drama over the president’s problem-plagued, $16 million rehabilitation project continued to roil the capital.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate demanded answers about the saga that’s been highlighted in the news cycle for weeks, even as the White House has repeatedly blamed — without evidence — unidentified vandals for peeling paint and other problems. Six people have been arrested, President Donald Trump said, without providing details, and a local wildlife nonprofit conducted necropsies on dead ducks found near the Reflecting Pool. The president has said the pool may need to be drained once again for additional repairs.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, challenged the Trump administration over no-bid contracts for work on the Reflecting Pool, saying they were awarded to vendors with previous relationships to Trump.

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Senate Republicans reject war powers resolution after Trump berates them at Capitol meeting

Senate Republicans who were berated by President Donald Trump over opposition to his war in Iran held a late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease him, rejecting a war powers resolution a day after a similar measure passed.

Trump harangued GOP senators face-to-face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber’s business to a halt. He exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure.

Hours later, though, Cassidy was invited to receive a personal briefing on the war at the White House from Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Cassidy then returned to the Capitol to vote against a separate but nearly identical war powers resolution.

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Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. followinga three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen.

The curtain to the death chamber went up promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time and the warden asked Spencer if he had any statement as he lay strapped to a metal table with an IV inserted in his arm.

“Sorry, sorry to the family. Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I’m on my way, Lord. I’m on my way. Amen," Spencer said, a spiritual adviser nearby at the foot of the table.

Immediately after his words, the lethal drugs began flowing and, after a few minutes of labored breathing, Spencer ceased all movements.

The warden then shook Spencer and shouted his name several times, but there was no response. Several more minutes elapsed before a medic was called in to check Spencer’s vital signs, and the inmate was declared dead.

Alex Lanfranconi, in the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, told The Associated Press in a text message that there were no complications. He had no immediate response to further phone and text messages seeking comment about the ages of the inmate executed Thursday and the next facing execution.

The family of the victim released no statement.

Florida Department of Correction records dating to 1924 show the oldest inmates previously executed by the state were both 72 — Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women; and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting death of a state lawmaker, Charles Schuh Jr.

Another 74-year-old Florida inmate, Dennis Sochor, is scheduled to be executed on July 14. Socor was convicted of killing a woman just hours into 1982 after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

Nationwide, the oldest person ever executed in modern times was Walter Leroy Moody Jr., 83, who was put to death in Alabama in 2018 for sending mail bombs during a wave of Southern terror, killing a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney.

Thursday's execution was the ninth in Florida this year after a record 19 executions in 2025. DeSantis, a Republican, oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was eight executions set in 2014.

Court records show Spencer was arrested after choking and threatening to kill Karen Spencer in December 1991. While in jail, Dusty Ray Spencer called his wife and warned her that when he got out, he was going to finish what he had started.

On Jan. 18, 1992, Spencer beat his wife’s teenage son with a clothes iron when the boy tried to stop Spencer from attacking his mother, officials said. Then about a week later, the son responded to a commotion outside their home and found Spencer hitting his mother in the head with a brick, according to officials.

Court records show the teen tried to shoot Spencer with a rifle, but the gun misfired. Spencer threatened the teen with a knife, and the boy ran away to get help. When police arrived, they found Karen Spencer dead with several stab wounds to the chest.

Spencer was initially sentenced to death in 1992 after being convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. In 1994, the Florida Supreme Court ordered his new sentencing after finding that the trial court had mishandled evaluating aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Spencer was resentenced to death the next year, and subsequent appeals were denied.

Last week, the state Supreme Court rejected Spencer’s appeals. His attorneys had argued that he had health issues such as liver disease that posed a heightened risk of pain and suffering. They also argued that executing him at his advanced age would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal earlier Thursday without comment.

All Florida executions are carried out by the lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

The two were bitten from the fox on June 19 in the 6300 block of State Highway 97, which is located in the Pleasanton area of Atascosa County.

Four days after the incident, the Atascosa County Animal Control Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed the fox is rabid.

The two people bitten are receiving post-exposure prophylaxis as a precautionary measure, the department said.

“The Animal Control Department is actively monitoring this situation and working the quarantine area to ensure the safety of our community,” department officials said in a statement.

Animal Control officials are asking county residents to be vigilant about their contact with wildlife. They are also urged to call 911/Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office in an emergency or contact Atascosa County Animal Control in a non-emergency.

The department encourages residents to take the following precautions:

• Do not approach, feed, or handle stray animals — even if they appear friendly or sick
• Animal who appear tame, disoriented, aggressive or active during daytime hours may be rabid
• Do not attempt to capture or care for sick or injured wildlife; contact Animal Control officials
• Keep pets indoors or supervised when outside
• Maintain rabies vaccinations for pets
• Report animal bites immediately

Regardless of vaccination status, the animal control department said humans are typically quarantined for a 10-day period.

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The battle, one of the most famous and symbolically charged events in American history, marked its anniversary Thursday. Allied tribes came together on that hot day near the banks of the Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana to hand the U.S. Army a rare defeat as they fought to preserve their way of life in the face of westward expansion. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 his troops were killed.

Reenactments will illustrate the battle. Horse riders from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and elsewhere traveled hundreds of miles to the Crow Agency area in Montana to mark the occasion. Families were encouraged to share their oral histories. At the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, people planned horse races and traditional songs and dances.

Gathering at the battlefield area in Montana means “we’re still here,” said William Good Bird, a traditional singer from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota who woke up the camp where hundreds of people were gathered from numerous tribes with a song and drumming.

“Today I am celebrating the victory of our people, celebrating my life as a human being and my spot on this earth,” he said.

Native warriors overpowered divided U.S. Army forces

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota by a Custer expedition just years earlier spurred a military campaign against Great Plains tribes that aimed to push them onto reservations, or what were known then as agencies, said historian Dakota Goodhouse.

There were bigger, longer battles and other Native victories between March 1876 and June 1877, but Goodhouse said only the Battle of Greasy Grass — named by Native Americans for the slick grass along the river — gained national recognition because the commanding officer was killed.

At the time, the Lakota were one of the largest and most powerful tribal nations, with strong leaders in Sitting Bull and warriors like Crazy Horse. Native warriors quickly overwhelmed Custer's men as the U.S. forces were spread miles apart over the hilly area.

News of Custer's defeat stunned Americans, who were celebrating their country's centennial.

The federal government accelerated efforts to subdue resistance, bringing years of hardship and upheaval for Native Americans. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, and starvation brought about the surrender of others in 1881.

Sitting Bull didn’t surrender as history books tell it, said Jon Eagle Sr., a former Standing Rock tribal historic preservation officer from the Hunkpapa band of the Oceti Sakowin.

“Our people say that he looked at his son Crow Foot and said, ‘My boy, if you live, you can never be a man in this world because you can never own a gun or a pony,’” Eagle said. “I think that he understood that things were going to change for his children, his grandchildren and those not yet born.”

Sitting Bull was killed with about a dozen other people when agency police attempted to arrest him in 1890.

Custer is remembered as a polarizing figure

Biographer T.J. Stiles described Custer as one of the most distinguished combat officers in the Army at the end of the Civil War. But he said the “Boy General” with his long hair and flamboyant battlefield wardrobe often bristled at the chain of command and did not take to the management side of leadership.

“Custer was someone who whenever he got into the frying pan, he immediately started looking for the fire,” he said.

In 1873, Custer was assigned to lead the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln, near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. From there, he led military expeditions, including one that confirmed the gold in the Black Hills, a sacred place to the Lakota.

Seen in the U.S. as a tragic hero and memorialized for his military feats, Custer could also be considered progressive even as the federal government sought to displace Native Americans and stamp out Native languages through boarding schools, Goodhouse said. He learned to speak Arikara and Lakota and became fluent in sign language used by tribes in the region.

Still, as many Americans are celebrating the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, for many Native Americans it's not a reason to rejoice.

“It’s just a mark to me of 250 years of injustice to the Native people,” Crow tribal member and reenactment coordinator Jim Real Bird said.

Eagle agreed: “That’s one of the things that we always tell our people when we come together, is they failed at their attempts to rub us out. We’re still here as ancient people deeply connected to our environment.”

Commemoration keeps history alive for future generations

For more than 30 years, reenactments featuring hundreds of warriors have marked the anniversary near the battlefield. The choreography is based on Northern Cheyenne oral history and highlights horsemanship and language preservation.

“All the other things that are Native American don't mean nothing if you don't know your language,” said Real Bird.

The atmosphere at the battlefield area was celebratory as hundreds of people from numerous tribes had gathered. Several hundred horse riders charged up a hill and circled at the top as they whooped and yelled. The sun shined on the battlefield area, a wide-open grassland with few trees, mountains in the distance.

Elders wore headdresses. People sang and played drums as flags flew from various tribal nations. The camp with dozens of tepees stood along the Little Bighorn River, with people there from tribes in the Dakotas and as far away as Washington state.

“This is our fuel for the year. We come here and this is a renewal for us, too, you know, personally,” said Theresa Long Turkey, of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

At Standing Rock, Eagle said the races honor the horse nation that carried their ancestors to victory 150 years ago. The commemoration also includes oskáte, a traditional celebration of oral histories, victory songs and tribal dancing.

“It's just an opportunity for us to share with the generations coming behind us that they’re descendants of a very powerful nation and ancient people that are still here despite everything that was done to us,” said Eagle, whose great-great-grandfather, Sunka, fought that day. His father, Charging Thunder, also was there.

Goodhouse recalled stories his grandfather would tell him of their ancestors who were in the Hunkpapa camp when troops attacked. His grandfather’s great-grandfather, Striped Face, was shot but mounted his horse and joined the fight.

“There’s this kind of energy there that still lives on because we have this direct narrative that was handed down,” he said.

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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.

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This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

Vance described his admiration for Nixon during a conversation at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. Widely expected to be a presidential contender in 2028, Vance spoke at the library while promoting his new book, “Communion.”

After talking about the book and his faith journey, Vance shifted to Nixon, saying the legacy of the 37th president is “enjoying a bit of a renaissance.”

“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said.

He went on: “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.”

Vance then noted his own similarities with Nixon.

“Young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,” he said. “It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I've always liked Richard Nixon."

Nixon was in his second term when he resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974.

First responders were dispatched to the scene at approximately 2:30 a.m. on the Interstate 35 southbound upper level near the Finesilver Curve.

Upon arrival, investigators determined a blue Chrysler was driving the wrong way when it collided head-on with a red Toyota.

The driver of the Chrysler, a 27-year-old man, and the driver of the Toyota, a 35-year-old man, were both pronounced dead at the scene, according to an SAPD preliminary report.

A 25-year-old woman, who authorities said was a passenger in the blue Chrysler, suffered life-threatening injuries. She was transported to a local hospital for further treatment, officers said.

It is unclear if any criminal charges will be filed in this case.

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The flooding claimed the lives of five members of his family: his son, Jake Moeller; daughter-in-law, Megan Moeller; granddaughter Harley; and Megan’s parents, Gary and Deann Knetsch.

Now, nearly a year later, Moeller said the grief remains just as real.

“It’s been tough, especially having to go up there and go through and see the devastation of what happened,” he said.

For Moeller, remembering his family has become both a source of comfort and heartbreak.

He described Jake as someone who overcame a difficult childhood.

“He was a tough kid. One of the strongest kids that I know mentally,” Moeller said. “Myself and my parents raised him.”

But becoming a father transformed him.

“Once Harley came along, everything changed,” Moeller said. “It was six years of seeing a total different Jake and Megan, and I was enjoying it because I was right here.”

His granddaughter Harley shared many of his interests, including hunting.

One of Moeller’s final conversations with his son came the night before the flooding.

After apologizing for sounding upset during an earlier conversation, he called Jake.

“I said, ‘Hey, look, I’m sorry,’” Moeller recalled. “He goes, ‘Oh, it’s OK, Dad. Don’t worry. I love you.’”

The next morning, Moeller saw news reports of catastrophic flooding. When repeated calls to Jake and Megan went straight to voicemail, he feared the worst.

“I knew something was wrong,” he said.

He immediately drove to Kerr County, where families had gathered, hoping for answers as search and rescue efforts unfolded.

Recovery crews eventually found the bodies of his family members over several days and across miles of river.

“Jake they found first,” Moeller said. “Harley was the last one.”

The family members were recovered between roughly 6 and 30 miles downstream from where the floodwaters swept them away.

Despite the devastating loss, Moeller said he chooses to focus on the memories his family left behind.

“I just am going to remember them in my heart, my soul, and in pictures that I have,” he said. “That’s enough for me.”

As communities prepare to commemorate the one-year mark of the disaster, Moeller hopes people remember not only those who were lost, but also the lessons learned.

“It’s an act of nature. There’s nothing we can do to prevent it,” he said. “There’s things that we can learn from it. But there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

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The 6-3 decision overturns lower court orders and allows the Department of Homeland Security to swiftly end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

It marked another victory at the high court for Republican President Donald Trump's sweeping crackdown on immigration. Though the conservative-dominated court has put the brakes on some of Trump’s immigration policies, it handed him a second win Thursday in a decision clearing the way for the revival of a policy restricting immigrants seeking asylum.

The court’s conservative majority found that the law doesn’t allow courts to question the process that immigration authorities use to revoke the protections.

The opinion from Justice Samuel Alito also brushed aside arguments that Trump's derogatory comments about Haitians showed the decision was unlawfully tinged by prejudice. He called the statements “insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people.”

Justice Elena Kagan forcefully disagreed, calling Trump's comments “so repellent and racially inflected that the majority declines to put them in print.” Her dissent pointed out that Trump had said Haitians in the U.S. “probably have AIDS,” and he also amplified false rumors during the 2024 campaign that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating dogs and cats.

Federal authorities deny that prejudice played a role, and argued that TPS was supposed to be temporary but has lasted over a decade in some cases.

James Percival, DHS general counsel, applauded Thursday’s ruling. He said the program had become “de facto amnesty. This is a win for the rule of law and common sense.”

In a Fox News interview Thursday, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called it “a victory 10 years in the making," saying it allows Haitian migrants to “finally” be removed.

Lawyers said Haitian immigrants would be in danger if they are sent back. “Simply put, the Supreme Court’s ruling will directly result in thousands of innocent people dying violent, needless deaths,” Geoff Pipoly and Andy Tauber said.

They urged the Senate to approve an extension of deportation protections for Haitians that passed the House on a rare bipartisan vote in April.

“Families are here, kids are going to school, parents are going into work, folks are trying to commute, and it’s like the Supreme Court just put all those activities on stop and put folks in limbo,” said Viles Dorsainvil, who runs a support center for Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

People with TPS are also a key part of the workforce in long-term care facilities, an industry group said. “This would be a dreadful loss for all seniors in our community,” said Rita Siebenaler, a resident at Goodwin Living, a senior living community in Virginia.

The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court after judges postponed the end of the program for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. The high court sided with the administration before and allowed the end of the program for people from Venezuela.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Homeland Security has moved to end the protections, including some that had been in place for more than a decade, for people from 13 countries.

Immigration lawyers said the terminations were made through an improperly fast process, even though countries such as Haiti and Syria remain dangerous. Four Haitian women who were deported from the United States in February were later found beheaded and dumped in a river several months later, lawyers said in court documents.

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, called the ruling “a devastating betrayal of Haitian families who have lived, worked, and contributed to this country for years — only to be cast out based on anti-Black immigration sentiment.”

The United States first granted protections to Haitians in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and extended them multiple times amid ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people, according to court documents.

Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.

“Today, many of our community members, they feel lost,” Farrah AlKhorfan of Immigrants Act Now said about Syrian immigrants losing TPS protections. “They are trying to understand … what this decision means for them and how it will be implemented and how much time they will have to prepare for what comes next.”

The program was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife and other instability. It allows people already in the country to stay with work permits in increments of up to 18 months, but it does not provide a path to citizenship.

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Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.

According to a notification ICE officials sent congressional members late Wednesday, Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez died about an hour after being rushed to the emergency room from the Webb County Detention Center on June 19. His death has not previously been reported. It is not yet listed on ICE’s website and spokespeople for the agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did congressional representatives who oversee the agency.

Dr. Corinne Stern, Webb County’s medical examiner, said in a brief interview that although the autopsy and notification of family is ongoing, Alcorta died from “natural causes.”

“It’s not in any way related to his incarceration,” she said, without providing more details.

According to the email from ICE notifying Congress, which the agency is required to do so under federal law, Alcorta entered the U.S. without inspection at an “unknown date and time.” ICE arrested Alcorta following his release from Webb County Jail on June 16. The Laredo Police Department had detained him the previous month on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court for a 2018 driving while intoxicated charge. Alcorta has previous arrests for unauthorized use of a vehicle, unauthorized disposal of a lead acid battery and drunken driving.

The email sent to Congressional representatives Wednesday said that Alcorta was found “unresponsive at 9:13 p.m” on June 19. Detention staff called medical emergency providers and began “lifesaving measures.” He was rushed by an ambulance to the Laredo Medical Center and pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m. His official cause of death is currently pending an autopsy.

“While in custody he received medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” according to the notification ICE sent congress.

A Laredo police department spokesperson confirmed Alcorta’s previous arrests. His recent arrest was the result of an outstanding warrant from the sheriff’s office for drunken driving in 2018. Webb County Judge Tino Tijerina said he was not familiar with the case.

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, wrote in an email that the congressman had been advised of the death and was concerned.

“It’s critical that we get the facts and investigate what happened,” said the statement from Cuellar, who is in a heated election battle against Tijerina, the former Democrat turned Republican. “Any death in federal custody is a serious matter and transparency is important.”

Cuellar is ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which helps oversee billions in annual federal spending for the agency that Congress recently ballooned. He was absent from some votes last year due to his federal indictment on bribery and money laundering allegations. As he and his wife, who were accused of accepting some $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank, were preparing to go to trial, President Trump pardoned the couple.

Earlier this year, Cuellar was one of a handful of Democrats to vote to fund DHS and prevent a partial government shutdown in the face of mass protests after ICE’s Minnesota operation. ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens in that surge.

Alcorta’s death in Laredo marks the latest in ICE detention in Texas, which has been home to at least a quarter of the deaths in ICE custody since Trump took office last year.

It also unfolds as the Webb County Detention Center, where Alcorta was detained, has come under some recent criticism. An ICE report this February found that the facility had at least nine violations for providing proper care in the span of the three-day visit. The facility is operated by CoreCivic, which did not immediately respond to questions. About a third of those complaints related to concerns of improper medical care. Among the allegations was that staff did not properly check on inmates for concerns about suicide or sufficiently care for pregnant women.

Such complaints have ramped up in Texas this year. In the span of six weeks between December and January, for example, six people died while detained by ICE in Texas — three of them at El Paso’s Camp East Montana.

The deadly period began with a 48-year-old Guatemalan, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, who ICE said died last December of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention. His relatives have disputed ICE’s characterization that he died of natural causes. But the most controversial case has been that of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban with a criminal history, who died earlier this year at that sprawling and troubled tent camp at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss.

Initially, ICE officials said it was a suicide. The local medical examiner later ruled it a homicide involving staff. Lunas Campos’ death remains under federal investigation.

Thirty-two people died in ICE custody nationwide last year, surpassing the previous high of 20 in 2005, according to federal data.

Detention facilities are seeing more overcrowding and understaffing as the Trump administration ramps up enforcement in the interior of the country, experts said. Unlawful border crossings have plummeted due to the administration’s restrictions. Federal data shows that most current ICE detainees are not accused of crimes beyond civil immigration offenses.

The government last fall also temporarily stopped paying many medical providers due to bureaucratic changes under the administration. As a result, ICE for months has been unable to reimburse health care officials, including for prescription medication, dialysis and chemotherapy.

The request came days after an Associated Press investigation found agents repeatedly monitored — but did not seize — major shipments of the synthetic opioid in a bid to build bigger criminal cases between 2023 and 2025.

In a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General, DEA administrator Terry Cole wrote that an internal probe was necessary because “the allegations have generated significant public attention and have raised questions regarding DEA’s operational decisions, supervisory oversight, and response to concerns.”

Cole wrote in a public statement that his request “should not be interpreted as reflecting any lack of confidence in the professionalism or integrity of DEA personnel or in the investigative decisions made during this matter.”

“If improvements are identified, DEA will implement them,” he added. “Strong institutions are sustained — not diminished — by objective oversight and a willingness to continuously assess and improve.”

Current and former DEA agents told the AP the investigative strategy — known as letting the counterfeit painkillers “walk” — amounted to a gamble with public safety in a state ravaged by the fentanyl epidemic and may have violated Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities from a drug the White House last year designated as a “ weapon of mass destruction.”

The AP investigation cited three current and former agents and government records, including an internal report of a 2023 delivery of 74,000 pills the DEA watched happen at a mobile home park in Albuquerque. One of those agents, David Howell, first raised serious concerns about this strategy in a 2023 whistleblower complaint. He continued to raise his objections internally and spoke at length with the AP about what he described as a strategy that “poisoned our community to make cases."

In an earlier statement to AP, a DEA spokesperson said "public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts."

The DEA's request for the watchdog investigation came just a day after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked the state’s attorney general to examine whether the agency’s actions violated New Mexico law, an extraordinary challenge to a federal law enforcement agency at a time when fentanyl remains one of the country’s deadliest public health threats.

“There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway.”

The Justice Department said in a statement that it welcomes a partnership with New Mexico leaders to keep the state safe.

"Protecting the public requires more than addressing individual transactions as they occur," the statement said. “It requires identifying the sources of supply, the individuals directing criminal activity and the organizations responsible for moving dangerous drugs into our communities.”

Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico, meanwhile, sent Cole a letter asking for a briefing on the DEA's tactics in the state.

“New Mexicans are paying the price for a fentanyl epidemic that is tearing families apart and deserve answers," U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury said in a statement. “At a time when overdose deaths continue to devastate our state and communities, the DEA should be focused on stopping these drugs before they reach our streets — period.”

___

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

The head of the International Maritime Organization said the plan to move stranded ships out of the Persian Gulf through the strait will be on hold until the agency can confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.

The report of a strike came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route through the strait without Tehran’s permission. The vessel that was attacked was not part of the evacuation effort, said Arsenio Dominguez, the U.N. agency’s secretary-general.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the vessel was hit by an Iranian drone.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation, said the merchant vessel Ever Lovely was attacked by a drone being flown by the Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Following reports of the attack, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority — a new government agency established to control shipping in the strait — wrote on X that transit outside its own designated routes “will not be covered by the guarantee of safe passage.”

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel sustained damage, but it reported no injuries or environmental effects from the attack off the coast of Oman.

An alternative passage would relieve pressure on economy

The opening of an alternative passage through the vital waterway would relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing peace talks with the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to the Gulf to reassure American allies, said Washington was committed to the new route and ensuring that ships are able to transit the strait.

“If that stops, then we’re going to have a problem,” Rubio said Thursday before the report of the strike on the ship.

Traffic through the strait increased in recent days but was still well below prewar levels. Oil on Thursday briefly dipped below its last prewar price of just under $73 per barrel, a sign that the market believes the situation is improving.

The U.S. and Iran are still debating terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week, the U.S. and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details. As talks are held behind closed doors, U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders have seemed to negotiate in public, trading threats and claiming concessions the other side denies.

Meanwhile, a flare-up of fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants threatened the wider truce. Lebanon says five people have been killed by Israeli strikes over the past two days. Iran says the tentative deal to end the war would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon — a condition Israel has rejected.

More ships pass through the strait, but far fewer than before the war

Oil tankers, led by the Stoic Warrior vessel, sailed along the United Arab Emirates and then Oman early Thursday, passing by Oman's Musandam Peninsula fairly close to the shore. The route was laid out by Oman and the International Maritime Organization.

North of the route is a corridor in the center of the strait where ships moved freely before the war, transporting about a fifth of all the world’s oil and natural gas.

Iran said it mined that passage after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. At least one mine has been sighted there.

Though some ships had been getting out of the strait, with U.S. military support, the U.N. agency's effort was the latest to free trapped vessels. The shipping company Maersk said its container ship, the Maersk Baltimore, and another chartered vessel made it out on Thursday.

Last week, 125 vessels crossed the strait, up from 33 the week before, according to marine data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

According to S&P Global, Wednesday saw 78 transits, the most since the war began, but still below the daily prewar average of 130 or more.

Iran says the new shipping route is ‘unacceptable’

The naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard issued a warning Thursday against using the new route.

In a statement carried by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, naval officials said the route was established without notice or coordination with Iran, calling it “unacceptable and completely dangerous.”

“The only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian force said. “Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited.”

“Violators will be dealt with,” it added, without elaborating.

On Wednesday, the Guard threatened one tanker over the radio, with a soldier warning, “You are in range of my missiles and maybe (I) fire on you,” according to the private security firm Ambrey.

Rubio says the US will ensure there are no tolls on ships

Rubio met with foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to assure them that their interests would be protected in any agreement with Iran.

Those countries, including major energy producers reliant on the strait for exports, came under attack by Iran after the start of the war.

“There is no part in this deal that’s undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability or the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region,” Rubio said at the meeting in Bahrain.

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, said the agreement brought a glimmer of hope but stressed that it was “critically important that Iran adheres to its obligations.”

Lebanon remains a flashpoint

A lull in fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah that started Sunday began to show cracks after Israel said it targeted Hezbollah militants.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that three people were killed by an Israeli strike on a car in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has called the recent strikes a ceasefire violation but has not retaliated. The Israeli military said Thursday that it fired on two separate groups it suspected of being Hezbollah members. The strikes came as Lebanese and Israeli officials were in Washington discussing a proposed phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

Israel’s military also said Thursday that a reservist soldier was killed in southern Lebanon.

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Lee reported from Manama, Bahrain. Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Oscar Torres and thousands of others spent the last 24 hours keeping up with a flurry of messages posted to a WhatsApp group that connects people in Venezuela with their families. He lives in Doral, Florida, a city outside Miami that's home to the largest Venezuelan population in the U.S.

“Already this morning, I was looking at the group in Doral and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” said Torres, a sales manager who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 1995. “They’re talking about making the first shipment ASA

In Washington, the Trump administration said it’s sending $150 million to support relief efforts by aid groups and the United Nations, according to a U.S. State Department news release.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government was mobilizing a disaster response team to Venezuela that includes two urban search and rescue teams from fire departments in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. The U.S. military, which seized Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro in a surprise January drug arrest, will provide aircraft to help assess damage, assist searches and deliver aid.

Other countries including Mexico and Colombia also promised assistance.

People in the US scramble to reach their families in Venezuela

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes Wednesday night caused severe damage to the country’s main airport in the capital of Caracas, which could hamper efforts to get aid into the country quickly. The quakes were among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century.

In photos and videos of the aftermath, injured children, animals and civilians are seen covered in dust and blood being pulled out of concrete rubble.

In addition to those killed and injured, thousands more were reported missing — leaving many families members in the U.S. scrambling for updates. More than 770,000 Venezuelans live in the U.S., with large communities settling in Texas and Utah, in addition to Florida.

In the Houston area, home to a large Venezuelan community, residents used community Facebook groups and other social media to spread the word about local donation sites. First aid and medical supplies such as gauze, bandages, antiseptics, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers and blood pressure monitors all were in demand.

Local resident Daniel Arenas translated a Spanish-language post into English and shared it Thursday on his LinkedIn page hoping people across Houston would step up and donate.

“I came to this country 10 years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

Arenas, a maritime industry consultant, said that his wife is concerned about her aunt, who lives in a high-rise apartment in Caracas and sent a distraught message on WhatsApp after the quakes hit.

“She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas said. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.”

Arenas said his wife was later able to reach her aunt.

In Venezuela, people are trapped in their homes or forced to sleep outside

Many of the sites mobilizing donations are in Katy, a suburb about 30 miles (48 km) west of downtown Houston that’s earned the nickname “Katyzuela” because of its high concentration of Venezuelans.

Luis Angarita, who lives in Katy, said his younger sister and family were forced to sleep outside in a park after their home was damaged in the mountain community of Caribia, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Caracas.

Angarita’s sister told him in a WhatsApp message that she’s trying to get everyone to their father’s home on the other side of the capital. But no taxis or buses are running and roads leading out of their mountain community are closed.

“Thank God they’re safe,” Angarita said in Spanish. “There are many displaced people and others are stuck in their homes, unable to leave. They need help.”

In Florida, workers for the Doral-based aid group Global Empowerment Mission on Thursday packed medical supplies, toiletries, cases of bottled water and nonperishable foods to be sent to Venezuela.

Despite damage to airports and roads, the aid group doesn’t foresee delays getting supplies into Venezuela, said Billy Richardson, the group’s U.S. logistics director.

“Sometimes it means using other airports, other means of transport, or even coming into other countries,” Richardson said by email.

Torres planned to contribute money for relief efforts. He still has uncles and cousins who live in Caracas and Valencia, another hard-hit Venezuelan city. He said some of them were injured as they fled buildings during the quakes.

“Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” Torres said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.”

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Marcelo reported from New York.

Wednesday evening’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region.

Venezuelan officials were trying to make the most of the daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed to remain trapped under the rubble.

Here are some of the reactions from world leaders and celebrities to the earthquakes in Venezuela.

US State Secretary Marco Rubio

“The United States extends our deepest condolences to the people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on the social platform X.

“America stands with the Venezuelan people during this difficult time and at the direction of President Trump, the State Department is immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”

UN emergency relief chief Tom Fletcher

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that Venezuela will need “all hands on deck” from the international community to deal with the aftermath of the earthquakes.

“I’m in close contact with our team in Caracas to ensure a full and urgent response, including search and rescue support and emergency relief for survivors. International solidarity coming in," Fletcher said.

French President Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron took to social platform X to express France's solidarity with the Venezuelan people and said that a team of 85 French rescue workers specializing in search and clearance operations is “being deployed immediately” to Venezuela.

“France stands ready, alongside its European partners, to provide assistance to the affected populations in response to the needs identified by the Venezuelan authorities,” he wrote.

Venezuelan actor-model Alicia Machado

The 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who was born in Maracay, is using her Instagram account to give visibility to distressed Venezuelans and linking them to an initiative named Global Empowerment Mission for aid.

“Venezuela needs us united more than ever! We are waiting for you here,” Machado said in an Instagram post. “Our reconnaissance and emergency response team is deploying immediately and is expected to be on the ground by Friday to assess needs, coordinate with local partners, and begin response operations. Please keep the people of Venezuela in your thoughts during this challenging time.”

Actor Édgar Ramírez

Emmy Award-winning actor Edgar Ramírez, a native of San Cristobal who has appeared in several movies and TV series in the U.S., posted more than 20 messages on his Instagram account by Thursday morning showing people who had disappeared after the earthquakes. He also shared an image of the Venezuelan flag that Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis had posted.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said Thursday evening he had just talked ro Rodríguez to offer solidarity and decide the best way to support the neighboring nation.

“We will send Friday morning a humanitarian search and urban rescue mission in a KC-390 plane,” Lula said on X, adding 36 firefighters and eight other specialists on risk assessment and telecommunications will be aboard. “With them, we are sending nine tonnes of equipment to help.”

“On Saturday, we will send another flight with equipment to assemble an open hospital, 100 water purifiers moved by solar panels, medication and medical supplies for surgeries,” the Brazilian president added.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that a team of military rescue workers, along with medical personnel, will depart for Venezuela on Thursday. She did not say how many people would be traveling.

“We will determine tomorrow exactly what additional personnel are needed to continue helping the communities that need it,” the Mexican president said.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun

“China has taken note of the reports concerning Venezuela. We extend our sincere condolences to the Venezuelan government and the affected people,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday in a news conference.

He added that “China is willing to provide assistance to Venezuela to the best of its ability, according to Venezuela's needs."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

Sánchez said he spoke with the Venezuelan president on Thursday to say his country was sending a plane later that day with two government-sponsored search-and-rescue teams, along with other aid workers to assess needs on the ground.

“Our government is working to give all the possible assistance to our Spanish expatriates in Venezuela (too),” Sánchez said in his social media channels.

Colombia’s President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella

“I stand in full solidarity with the brotherly people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquake. Colombia stands with you during this difficult time with affection, respect, and hope. My prayers are with the victims and their families. God will provide,” Colombian President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella wrote on X.

It doesn't clear the former Hollywood honcho's criminal record. The 74-year-old has been convicted of other sex crimes in two states and is still behind bars while he appeals those verdicts.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

Charge dropped when accuser said she couldn't endure another trial

Jessica Mann, the hairstylist and actor who accused Weinstein of raping her in a New York hotel room in 2013, told the court in a letter that she “could no longer endure going through this.”

She had given extensive, emotional testimony at three trials. One produced a conviction that later got overturned for reasons unrelated to her testimony. Then two retrials ended in hung juries.

Mann, 40, said in her letter that she “gave my all” in the case, it “put me through more harm than good” and she wanted to close this chapter of her life.

Prosecutors said they believed Mann and were confident in the case, but they would drop it because of her wishes and Weinstein's other convictions.

Weinstein's lawyers said the charge should never have been brought in the first place.

He denies the allegation, and his lawyers said the encounter was part of a consensual, yearslong relationship. Mann testified that in the early months of that relationship, Weinstein raped her after cornering her in a Manhattan hotel room, grabbing her arms and ignoring her repeated pleas not to have sex.

Dismissal doesn't affect Weinstein's convictions

Mann's allegation was one of a number of criminal charges that evolved from a 2017 deluge of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer who had huge sway in Hollywood. The accusations propelled the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Weinstein was convicted of some charges and acquitted of others at trials in New York and California. The dismissal of the Mann-related case doesn't affect his convictions, which involved other women.

Weinstein is facing sentencing in other case

Weinstein, who has said he “never assaulted anyone,” is challenging his convictions. He was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting an Italian actor-model in Los Angeles and sexually assaulting Miriam Haley, a production assistant and producer, in New York.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to make their names public, as Mann and Haley have done.

Weinstein, 74, is facing sentencing in September on the conviction tied to Haley — a verdict reached in at a 2025 retrial after an appeals court reversed an earlier conviction. Haley testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her after inviting her to stop by his Manhattan apartment before a flight in July 2006.

Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year sentence for that conviction. Weinstein's lawyers say they haven't yet decided what sentence they will seek.

After whatever punishment Weinstein gets in New York, he faces a 16-year sentence in California.

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

NICŌSI

221 Newell Ave, San Antonio, TX 78215

Nicōsi is an intimate, Michelin-starred dessert concept located in San Antonio’s Pearl district that challenges traditional ideas about sweets through an immersive tasting experience. Led by Executive Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph, the 20-seat restaurant presents a multi-course menu that explores a range of flavors, including acidic, savory, bitter, and sweet elements. Diners are seated around an open kitchen, allowing them to interact directly with the culinary team while learning the stories and techniques behind each meticulously crafted course.

The menu features inventive combinations that blur the line between savory and sweet, incorporating unexpected ingredients such as tomatoes, cheese, herbs, and even slow-braised meats into dessert preparations. Guests are encouraged to disconnect from their phones and fully engage with the theatrical presentation, creating a one-of-a-kind dining experience that has helped establish Nicōsi as one of San Antonio’s most celebrated culinary destinations.

TEXAS D WILLIE’S SMOKEHOUSE

6506 S Zarzamora St, San Antonio, TX 78211

7393 US Hwy 87 E, China Grove, TX 78263

Texas D Willie’s Smokehouse has built a loyal following in San Antonio and China Grove by serving generous portions of pecan wood-smoked barbecue and classic Texas comfort food. Known for its budget-friendly prices and hearty plates, the family-owned smokehouse offers brisket, pork ribs, turkey, pulled pork, sausage, and massive beef ribs cooked low and slow to develop rich smoke flavor and a tender bite.

In addition to its smoked meats, Texas D Willie’s is praised for standout sides such as sweet potato casserole, baked potato salad, cream corn, and house-made mac and cheese. Diners can also enjoy loaded baked potatoes, brisket nachos, banana pudding, and a trio of signature sauces ranging from traditional barbecue to a tangy mustard-based option. The restaurant’s all-you-can-eat offering and oversized portions continue to make it a favorite stop for barbecue enthusiasts looking for a satisfying South Texas meal.

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

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Camp Mystic has been under increasing pressure since the July 4 disaster. Owners had planned to reopen the Texas Hill Country camp this summer for its 100th anniversary but reversed course in April amid outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers. Victims’ families filed lawsuits accusing the camp of failing to protect the girls as the powerful floodwaters approached.

Camp Mystic’s owner, Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.

The camp listed its debt at more than $10 million, according to the filing made in federal bankruptcy court in Houston. An attorney for Camp Mystic has not responded to an email and a phone message seeking comment.

“Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable,” Paul Yetter, a lawyer who represents multiple families of campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic, said in a statement. “These innocent girls deserve justice.”

For decades, Camp Mystic was a summer staple and an institution for generations of families who dropped off their girls at the sleepaway camp to ride horses, canoe, fish and attend Bible studies. Other summer camps in Kerr County, west of Austin, did not take on such devastating flooding and in some cases have reopened.

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Eastland family spent months determined to reopen the camp this summer, pointing to enhanced safety measures that included flood warning river monitors and putting two-way radios enabled with national weather alerts in every cabin.

By the spring, Camp Mystic’s attorney said it was ready to reopen for business for nearly 900 campers.

But assurances of safety did not convince victims’ families and some Texas lawmakers. State regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted by the owners, including in proposals for flood warning evacuations and safety training.

The decision not to reopen followed weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on poorly trained staff.

Families of the victims packed the hearings, some wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood and the decision to leave girls in their cabins until it was too late. Testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed “help!” somewhere in the distance.

Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that hundreds of families wanted to return.

It happened with 6:52 left in the second quarter and was deemed to be a non-basketball act. The league gave Thomas a Flagrant Foul 2 penalty for it. No foul was called on the play by officials.

The WNBA is allowed to review a game to reclassify a Flagrant foul or to classify as Flagrant any foul not called as such during a game.

Thomas will serve her suspension on Saturday when the Mercury visit the Toronto Tempo.

“It was egregious. The fact that it was a no-call … You got to call it,” said Fever coach Stephanie White after the game. “You’re coming in here aware of what happened two nights ago and that (expletive) still happens? Absolutely unacceptable.”

The Fever renewed their call for player safety in a statement Thursday.

“Player safety should be paramount in our league,” Fever team president Kelly Krauskopf said in a statement. “We appreciate the WNBA’s review of last night’s incident and the action taken. Right now our focus is on Caitlin and our entire team as we prepare for Saturday.”

The Fever host Los Angeles on Saturday night.

This isn’t the first time the league has upgraded a foul against Clark. Last season Marina Mabrey, when she was with Connecticut, received a technical foul in a game against Indiana. The league later upgraded it to a Flagrant 2. Over the years the NBA has had a few instances where the league upgraded a play that resulted in a suspension.

The two teams also played on Monday night and there were six technical fouls called and one ejection. Clark picked up her fifth technical of the season in that game. The team petitioned the league to have it rescinded, but the WNBA confirmed that the technical will stand.

The physical play carried over to Wednesday's game which the Mercury won 111-109.

Clark left the game in the third quarter as she was dealing with a back issue. She appeared to tweak her back in the second quarter when she was fouled shooting a 3-pointer in the second quarter. She fell to the ground and was rubbing her back as she stood up. In the first quarter she went back to the tunnel and returned to the bench wearing a wrap around her back.

She finished the game with 19 points and eight assists in 20 minutes.

___

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

It turned out that the three, including Arnold's personal driver, had nothing to do with the theft in February, investigators said.

Two people charged alongside Arnold have pleaded guilty in the attack and agreed to cooperate with Tampa-area authorities, court records show.

“Fame doesn’t get you out of criminal charges or our pursuit of justice and holding criminals accountable,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.

Three men in their late teens were held at gunpoint, battered, pistol-whipped and robbed in a Tampa apartment on Feb. 4, police said. It was three days after Louis Vuitton bags and shoes, Rolex watches, a Bible, cash and more were reported stolen from Arnold at an Airbnb rental in Largo, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west.

Arnold, 23, was the “primary conspirator” in the attack, police said.

“He’s absolutely denying these allegations,” defense attorney R. Timothy Jansen said in Hillsborough County court.

Arnold briefly appeared in court by video as a judge announced charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy, crimes that carry a sentence of up to life in prison. He surrendered to authorities Wednesday and will remain in jail at least until a detention hearing Monday.

Denise White, the CEO of EAG Sports Management, an agency that represents Arnold, said there's “no credible evidence” against him, only accounts from others who may have an incentive to get a lighter sentence.

At least six other people face charges, including two women who pleaded guilty Wednesday and are cooperating. Jasmine Randazzo, 19, was immediately sentenced to four years in prison for kidnapping, conspiracy and robbery with a gun, records show.

The victims told police that Arnold’s friends lured them to an apartment, held them at gunpoint and hit them, all the while streaming the attack to Arnold. Police said he was giving orders in a group chat and later arrived at the apartment.

“No one has the right to take the law into their own hands. A dispute over missing property does not justify kidnapping, violence or retaliation,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez said.

Arnold, a cornerback on Detroit's defense, was a first-round pick in the 2024 draft after playing at the University of Alabama. He had 31 tackles and an interception last season for the Lions. The Lions and the NFL said they were aware of the arrest but declined to comment.

Police in Largo spent weeks investigating the thefts from Arnold's Airbnb stay. One neighbor said there were “pretty wild parties” there that seemed to last until dawn, with multiple people coming and going, according to a report released to The Associated Press. The Airbnb host told police that 20 bags of trash were removed.

Police said they declared the investigation inactive on March 25 because Arnold and others whose property was also reported stolen did not want to pursue it.

Alejandro Vasquez, 1, and Escarleth Vasquez, 15, have been found, DPS said.

Below is the original story from June 22, 2026.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Texas Department of Public Safety issued an AMBER Alert on Monday for a teenage mother and her child who were last seen in Converse.

Alejandro Vasquez, 1, and Escarleth Vasquez, 15, were last seen at approximately 3 p.m. on May 9 in the 7000 block of Phoenix Path, which is located near Woodlake Parkway.

A DPS spokesperson said it “recently” received a request from the Texas Department of Family Services to locate the teenager and infant. After reviewing available information, DPS said its agents determined the mother and child were in “grave or immediate danger.”

Alejandro Vasquez is 2 feet, 10 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

Escarleth Vasquez, of Honduras, is 5 feet 4 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black hoodie and white sweatpants.

The two may be traveling in a red pickup truck, DPS said.

Escarleth Vasquez was recently in foster care, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a Tuesday news conference. She abruptly left with a “strange” note, saying, “I’m leaving. Don’t call the authorities. Send all my stuff back to Honduras.”

The sheriff said in the early stages of the case, deputies did not believe an AMBER Alert was necessary.

Child Protective Services continued to work on the missing persons case and developed enough information to issue an AMBER Alert, Salazar said.

Salazar also mentioned that Alejandro Vasquez’s father is “currently incarcerated,” but the sheriff does not know where.

Anyone with information is urged to call 911 or contact DPS at 210-531-2284.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a Silver Alert for a man last seen north of downtown San Antonio.

According to the alert, Carlos Rubio Jr., 67, was last seen at midnight Wednesday, June 24, in the 100 block of Dallas Street.

Rubio is 5 feet 7 inches tall and has gray hair and brown eyes. The alert said he was last seen wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt and plaid pajama pants.

Anyone with information on Rubio’s whereabouts is urged to call 911.

The S&P 500 finished nearly unchanged with a dip of less than 0.1% after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%.

Micron Technology helped lead the market after jumping 15.7%. The maker of computer memory reported much bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it gave a stronger growth forecast for the current quarter than Wall Street expected. That helped allay worries a bit that its stock had grown too expensive after coming into the day with a surge of 267% so far this year.

Micron and AI stocks broadly have been under pressure recently because of worries that their profits can’t possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices. But beyond Micron, Qualcomm said late Wednesday that the acceleration of the AI era is forcing it to upgrade forecasts for its own growth in upcoming years. They’re the latest signals of the deluge of dollars heading into AI data centers and other investments.

Qualcomm said it expects its revenue outside of handsets, including data centers, to hit $40 billion in its fiscal year of 2029, roughly double its prior target. Qualcomm’s stock rose 3.8%.

But all the strong demand for computer memory and storage that’s driving profits and stock prices higher for producers is also leading to higher costs for customers. Apple on Thursday raised prices for many of its products, including increases of 15% to 20% for Mac computers, according to analysts. Its stock slumped 6.1% and was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

SpaceX, meanwhile, fell 1% to drop below $153 for its lowest finish since its ballyhooed debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 0.73 to 7,357.49 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71.72 to 51,960.62, and the Nasdaq composite fell 118.03 to 25,358.60.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased to lessen the pressure on stocks and other investment prices. They regressed after a report showed inflation is behaving pretty much as economists expected.

The report said that a measure of inflation hitting U.S. consumers accelerated to 4.1% last month from 3.8% in April, but the hope is that inflation is set to ease because of a drop-off in oil prices.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 2.2% to $75.50 Thursday. But it’s still well off its highs above $100 caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the war, which slowed the global flow of oil. Earlier Thursday, it dropped near its roughly $72 price from before the war.

That helped the yield on the 10-year Treasury slip to 4.39% from 4.41% late Wednesday and from 4.56% earlier this month.

“As long as gasoline prices trend lower, inflation expectations will likely follow suit,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation are threatening to slow economies, and they have already sent rates higher for mortgages and other kinds of loans. High yields also hurt prices for investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive. That raises the pressure on AI winners.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi jumped 5.4% after its own AI winners shot higher, including a 13.1% surge for SK Hynix.

Other markets also rallied, including gains of 4.6% for Japan’s Nikkei 225 and 0.7% for the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100. A 1.4% drop for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The movie mogul still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New York and others in California, and he remains behind bars. But the New York rape charge had remained unresolved after an overturned conviction followed by two hung juries.

Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, spent days on the witness stand at all three trials, telling jurors that Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel in 2013 and being questioned extensively about the complex relationship she had with him before and afterward. The Oscar-winning producer denied the charge and said everything that happened between him and Mann was consensual.

In a letter that prosecutor Nicole Blumberg quoted in court Thursday, Mann said she could “no longer endure going through this,” adding that the 8-year-old case has “put me through more harm than good.”

Blumberg told the court that prosecutors believe Mann and hail her “bravery, strength, courage and inspiration” to other survivors, but given her feelings about proceeding, “dismissal is appropriate.” With that, Judge Curtis Farber formally dismissed the case.

Weinstein left court with a neutral expression, returning to jail to await a September sentencing on a New York sexual assault conviction involving a different woman. Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison term.

Once Weinstein finishes whatever punishment he gets in New York, he's due to serve 16 years in California, where he was convicted of raping a third woman, who's an Italian actor. He is appealing both convictions.

Weinstein's lawyers said he was relieved by the dismissal of the case surrounding Mann's allegation.

“These charges should never have been brought to begin with,” lawyer Jacob Kaplan said outside court. “He is innocent.”

Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with Weinstein, who was married at the time.

But she told jurors she repeatedly tried to leave and said no to any sexual activity as he cornered her in a hotel room on March 18, 2013. They had planned to meet in the lobby for breakfast, but he had spontaneously taken a room.

She said he persevered, demanding that she undress and grabbing her arms, until she was afraid to keep protesting.

The latest trial, this spring, took a visible toll on Mann, 40. During five days of testimony, she was questioned for the first time about a diarylike, soul-baring note she wrote two days after the alleged rape, which the note did not mention. At one point during her testimony, Mann said she was struggling to focus, prompting court to wrap up early for the day.

In her letter to the court Thursday, she said she had suffered a concussion shortly before her testimony, had headaches and other symptoms on the stand and ultimately “disassociated.” It was a humiliating addition to an already crushing experience, she wrote.

“I have been fragmented, silenced, defamed and traumatized. I’ve paid the price of my reputation,” Mann wrote. Slamming the court, the media and Weinstein, she said her experience showed that "pursuing justice is better left a pipe dream.”

Weinstein was one of the movie industry’s most powerful figures, a producer of such tastemakers and hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.”

Then a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo campaign for accountability and eventually leading to criminal charges in New York and Los Angeles.

He denied all of them and was acquitted of some, even as he was convicted of others.

During a series of trials, Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann. Then an appeals court overturned that verdict for reasons unrelated to her testimony. Jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial, and jurors deadlocked again at this year's retrial.

The rape charge in this case was a low-level felony punishable by up to four years in prison — less time than Weinstein, 74, already has served.

Weinstein didn’t testify at any of the trials, though he complained during and after the 2025 New York retrial that it was unfair; the judge disagreed.

His lawyers have maintained that all his accusers had completely consensual sexual liaisons with a movie studio boss who could help them go places in show business. Weinstein himself has said he “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to be named, as Mann has done.

Royal officials stressed that the king and Queen Camilla would continue to work out of the palace, which will remain “the ceremonial and operational center” of the monarchy. But for the rest of Charles’ reign, the king and queen will remain in nearby Clarence House.

“It is and will remain Monarchy HQ, the crown jewel of our national buildings,” said James Chalmers, the senior royal official responsible for managing the king’s financial affairs.

The decision was announced Thursday during a briefing on royal finances at which Charles became the first British monarch to reveal the taxes he paid to the government. The king paid 12.9 million pounds ($16.1 million) in income and capital gains taxes in the 2024-25 financial year, up from 11.7 million pounds the previous year.

The royals are trying to respond to criticism

The announcements come as the royal family tries to shift the narrative after months of embarrassing headlines about the links between the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.The public’s focus on Mountbatten-Windsor has overshadowed the king’s efforts to modernize the monarchy and show that the 1,000-year-old institution can evolve.

Built in the 1820s, Buckingham Palace has been the London home of every British monarch since Queen Victoria. With 775 rooms, the palace also provides office space for the royal bureaucracy and hosts lavish state dinners for visiting presidents and potentates.

The palace is also a focal point for the public, with crowds gathering under its famous balcony to cheer as kings and queens announce the end of wars, celebrate their marriages and mark historic events, such as Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. It also provides the backdrop for parades down the broad ceremonial avenue known as The Mall.

Buckingham Palace needed some love

But after all the wear and tear, the palace was starting to show its age. In 2017, the royal household began a 10-year program to update obsolete plumbing, wiring and heating and upgrade the building so it could continue to house the monarchy for another 50 years. The project is scheduled to be completed next year.

But now the king and queen have decided to live at Clarence House, a stately home close to the palace where Charles has lived since he was Prince of Wales.

That decision will allow the palace to increase access public access, hosting more events and expanding the number of visitors and tours of the building, Chalmers said. The palace already receives about 700,000 visitors a year.

Royal watchers are waiting for more details about plans for the palace. Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself,’’ said it would be a shame if, for example, the building lies vacant for much of the year.

“I’m hoping for a second act in terms of this decision,’’ he told The Associated Press. “I’m waiting to see whether there will be a sort of a more radical proposal for what Buckingham Palace might be in the future.”

The palace recognizes it needs more transparency

The other big news of the day was the announcement on royal taxes.

While Charles released the details of his personal taxes when he was Prince of Wales, this is the first time he has done so since ascending the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022.

While monarchy receives funding from a number of sources, the king pays taxes only on his personal income, much of which comes from his privately owned estates, Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham on the east coast of England. Charles also paid capital gains taxes related to the sale of assets.

Prince William, the current Prince of Wales, also released his tax details on Thursday. William paid 7.76 million pounds in income and capital gains taxes in the 2024-25 tax year, down from 8.34 million pounds the previous year, his office said.

The figures for the first time give the public a concrete idea about the King’s personal wealth, as opposed to the castles, jewels and artwork that go with the job but aren’t the monarch’s personal property.

Charles didn’t have to do this. The king’s tax affairs, like those of any citizen, are strictly confidential. But he decided to give up that right to privacy as the monarchy tries to put as much distance as possible between itself and Mountbatten-Windsor.

It also underscores the idea that the monarchy is a public institution and its workings should be public, said Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“If they’re open and as transparent as possible, then the contrast with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor becomes all the greater,” he said.

Mateo Chávez and Julián Quiñones scored in a six-minute span early in the second half, and Mexico beat the Czech Republic 3-0 on Wednesday to complete wins in all three of its World Cup group-stage matches for the first time.

The 22-year-old Chávez, in his first World Cup, opened the scoring in the 55th minute and Quiñones scored his second goal of the tournament in the 61st. Alvaro Fidalgo added a goal in stoppage time.

“It was something very beautiful, and I’ll take it with me to the grave,” Chávez said of his goal. “I imagined it many times; I dreamed of this.”

Mexico's previous best group-stage performance was two wins and one draw, done in 1986 and 2002 and both featuring Aguirre, the first as a midfielder and the second as El Tri's coach. Aguirre is now in his third stint leading the national team.

After topping Group A, Mexico will play again at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday in a round-of-32 match against an opponent to be determined.

“Now comes the knockout stage; statistics and data don’t matter. We’re achieving things, but what lies ahead is what counts,” Aguirre said. “Neither the players nor I dwell on what we’ve just done; we’re thinking about what’s next.”

Mexico is undefeated at nine World Cup matches at the massive stadium, which was packed with 80,824 fans on Wednesday. El Tri has only two losses at Azteca, most recently in World Cup qualifying against Honduras on Sept. 6, 2013.

The match Wednesday included nods to Mexico’s past and future. Gilberto Mora, at 17, became the youngest Mexico player to start in a World Cup. And 40-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa entered in the 77th minute, joining Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to appear in six World Cups.

“It’s like a dream come true after everything I’ve worked for,” Mora said.

“Now we have tough opponents ahead,” he added. “We’re going to keep working to stay on this path. We want to keep advancing because the Mexican national team can become champion.”

Mexico's triumph was marred, however, by the return of a homophobic chant by fans that has previously led to fines and other sanctions against its soccer federation. The chant, a one-word slur, was heard near the end of the first half when Czech goalkeeper Matej Kovar took a goal kick.

The Czech Republic was eliminated, finishing with one point in three games.

Mexico is unbeaten in 11 games dating to a friendly loss against Panama last November. And Aguirre has made the most of his roster, using 25 of 26 players in the tournament. Chávez was one of five starters Wednesday who didn't start in the previous win over South Korea.

“Twenty-five of the 26 have played — that is no small detail — nor is it a small detail that everyone celebrates the goals,” Aguirre said.

Ochoa makes history in his likely farewell

Ochoa, who wears No. 13, played the last 13 minutes in regulation, plus stoppage time, in what's likely to be his last appearance for Mexico. He turns 41 on July 13 and plans to retire from international competition after the World Cup.

“Life — football — had this farewell in store for me, to cap it all off perfectly. For my part, I’ve left it all out there; I gave everything,” Ochoa said. “I leave with nothing left because I poured it all into my teams and the national squad.”

He was a substitute in the 2006 and 2010 tournaments and started for Mexico in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

“I felt Memo had to play (but) for how long? I never knew until I said, ‘This is the moment,’” Aguirre said. “These are coaching decisions, but it was a night for Mexico to honor its legend, Memo.”

Raúl Rangel is the starter this year, stepping in for the injured Luis Ángel Malagón, who helped Mexico win the CONCACAF Nations League and Gold Cup last year. Malagón's injury opened the door for Ochoa's return.

Ochoa became the oldest Mexican to play in the World Cup. The previous record holder was Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who was 37 when he played in South Africa in 2014.

After the match, the veteran goalkeeper kissed the goal post before kneeling down and was hugged by the rest of the squad.

“Regarding Memo’s appearance, we don’t know if he’s going to say goodbye or not, but it was a nice tribute for his six World Cups,” Aguirre said. “He is a legend — he is Mexican.”

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The justices, in a 6-3 decision, overturned a lower court order blocking the practice that limited the number of people who could apply for asylum each day, first under the Obama administration and then expanded during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Advocates said the tactic created a humanitarian crisis as thousands of people settled in unsafe makeshift shelters along ports of entry to await their turn for days or months. The Trump administration said it was necessary to deal with an increase in asylum seekers at the border.

The policy is not in place now, and crowds are much thinner as authorities have imposed other restrictions on asylum seekers. The Department of Homeland Security did not say if it plans to revive it, but applauded the ruling. “This decision opens up an important tool to continue securing our southern border,” said James Percival, the agency's general counsel.

The administration argued that metering is a critical tool used by presidents of both parties and should remain available. Federal attorneys say people turned away at the border could come back later, though lines were thousands of people long when the policy was in place before.

The case is one of several immigration suits the court is considering this term, including Trump’s push to restrict birthright citizenship. The high court also allowed his administration to end deportation for migrants fleeing instability and armed conflict on Thursday.

Under federal law, migrants who arrive in the U.S. must be able to apply for asylum and be screened for fear of persecution in their home countries.

The Justice Department argued that people stopped by authorities haven’t arrived in the country, so immigration agents don’t have to let them apply.

The court's conservative majority agreed. “A guest does not arrive in a house when he knocks on the front door,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.

But attorneys for people seeking asylum say the law has long meant anyone arriving at a port of entry should be screened, and blocking arrivals disregards the nation’s ideals.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the bench, saying that the majority’s opinion “regrettably and tragically extinguishes the light of the torch of the Statue of Liberty.”

The decision could also give people a “perverse incentive” to enter the country illegally if they can't count on being able to legally apply for asylum at a port of entry, she said, a concern that Alito's opinion said was overblown.

In an unusual exchange, Alito voiced a response after she finished speaking. He expressed surprise that she had read her dissent aloud and defended his opinion by noting that the policy had been used under two presidential administrations. “I won’t add anything more to that,” Alito said.

Metering was first used under President Barack Obama when large numbers of Haitians appeared at the main crossing to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. It was expanded to all border crossings from Mexico during Trump’s first term in the White House.

Customs officers often cited reaching maximum capacity in holding cells at the port of entry as a reason for delays in processing asylum seekers waiting to be accepted for inspection, but those claims were refuted by official data that was disclosed in a lawsuit in 2020. Many waiting in Mexico were exposed to violence by organized crime, severe heat during the summer and cold conditions during the winter. The queue was managed differently at each port of entry, sometimes by Mexican authorities, volunteers or migrants.

The policy ended in 2020 when the government introduced greater restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, and President Joe Biden formally rescinded it in 2021.

The same year, a California-based federal judge found that metering violated the asylum seekers' rights and the law requiring screening. A divided appeals court panel affirmed the ruling, but nearly half of the judges on the full San Francisco-based court voted to rehear it, a strong signal that might have caught the attention of the Supreme Court.

Since Trump returned to the White House, crowds at international bridges have decreased significantly. In May, the government reported an average of 114 immigrants encountered by customs officers along the southwest ports of entry. Those numbers reached a daily high of 1,703 immigrants in May 2024.

Attorneys with the group Democracy Forward first brought the case, and condemned Thursday's ruling. “We are disappointed in the Court’s decision and call on all Americans to demand that our government protect the families the Court today decided to keep in harm’s way,” said President and CEO Skye Perryman.

They represented the group Al Otro Lado, whose executive director said the decision would mean a “hardening of borders to keep out the most vulnerable" that is "sure to result in many more lives lost.”

U.S. law allows people seeking refuge to apply for asylum once they are on American soil, regardless of whether they came legally. To qualify for asylum, they must show a fear of persecution in their homeland for specific reasons, like race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

People who are eventually granted asylum can’t be deported. They can legally work, bring in immediate family, apply for legal residency and seek citizenship.

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Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein and Rebecca Santana in Washington, as well as Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.

Thousands of people have been reported missing and about 1,500 people have been injured. Some of the heaviest damage and casualties were in La Guaira, a coastal region north of the capital, Caracas.

Here’s what to know about the earthquakes and the search for survivors:

Two earthquakes in less than one minute

The powerful 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart along the San Sebastian fault on Venezuela’s northern coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

They were among the strongest in the South American nation in more than a century.

The first earthquake, a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, hit west of Morón on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas, with a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles).

The second, a 7.5-magnitude mainshock, was centered 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Morón, with a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles).

The back-to-back earthquakes — known as a doublet because of their similarities in magnitude, time and proximity — resulted from shallow strike-slip faulting near the complex plate boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Many people are dead, injured or missing

The death toll in Venezuela is likely to climb as rescue crews comb through buildings toppled by the earthquake.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said authorities have deployed rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, where dozens of buildings have collapsed.

The city, about 165 kilometers (103 miles) east of the 7.5-magnitude quake’s epicenter, is a “disaster zone,” she said.

Civilians and authorities pulled survivors out of concrete rubble, some of them covered in dust and blood. Families sobbed in front of destroyed homes.

Families began posting missing-person flyers with photos of loved ones, while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched for those still unaccounted for.

Significant damage in Caracas and beyond

The earthquake destroyed buildings in Caracas and led to evacuation as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) away.

In downtown Caracas, hundreds of people spent the night huddled in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.

Parts of the city lost power and cellphone service. Venezuela’s main airport in Caracas was damaged and closed, subway service was suspended and natural gas was shut off.

Classes will also be canceled for several days as schools are used as shelters and donation centers.

Rodríguez said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for hospitals and homes damaged by the earthquakes.

Another challenge for Venezuela’s leader

The earthquakes are yet another crisis for Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the U.S. captured former President Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are jailed in New York City while awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges.

Rodríguez inherited a country that has been in economic turmoil for more than a decade.

Many Venezuelans reject the legitimacy of her political movement, while some loyalists have criticized her leadership and warming relationship with the U.S.

Help from other nations and Venezuelans abroad

The U.S. said Thursday it is sending two specialized urban search and rescue teams to Venezuela and will provide $150 million in assistance through nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The United Nations said Thursday that international search and rescue teams are expected to start arriving “in the coming hours.”

Other countries sending aid to Venezuela include Qatar and Mexico.

Venezuelans in the U.S. are rushing to organize donation drives. More than 770,000 Venezuelans live in the U.S., with large communities in Florida, Texas and Utah.

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

The case came before the justices after a tidal wave of litigation that included some multibillion-dollar verdicts against Bayer, a German agrochemical manufacturer that acquired Roundup’s original producer, Monsanto, in 2018.

The decision is a victory for President Donald Trump's administration, which argued in support of Bayer. But it provoked outrage from allies in the “ Make America Healthy Again” movement who want to rein in pesticide use.

The high court, in a 7-2 ruling, held that Roundup cannot be sued in state courts for failure to warn because federal regulators have found a cancer link unlikely and do not require a warning label. Federal law also bars states from imposing additional or different labeling requirements, the opinion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh states.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Neil Gorsuch, dissented, saying that Monsanto could have added a warning without violating federal law.

Though focused on Roundup, the ruling could affect similar health claims against other pesticide products.

“This decision is good for American farmers who help feed the world,“ Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said. ”It provides the regulatory clarity necessary for innovators like us to develop the agricultural tools that guarantee an affordable food supply.”

Though Bayer said the ruling should result in the dismissal of failure-to-warn lawsuits, the company said it plans to proceed with a proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement intended to resolve many of the remaining claims.

The ruling was denounced by environmental groups and lawyers representing people who believe they were harmed by Roundup.

“This Supreme Court ruling wrongly slams the courthouse door on Americans sickened by pesticides," said attorney Christopher Seeger, who is a claimant’s representative in the settlement. But he said a settlement still would allow some people to receive compensation.

The decision “is a tragic setback for public and environmental health,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a health and environmental group.

A sickened gardener had won $1 million

The case before the Supreme Court was filed by Missouri resident John Durnell. He developed a cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after more than 20 years of serving as the neighborhood association’s “spray guy,” using Roundup on parks in his historic St. Louis community.

A jury agreed that the company failed to warn him about possible cancer dangers and awarded him $1.25 million. But Durnell never received the money as his case was appealed. Durnell, 75, said Thursday that his cancer is in remission, and he will be fine without the money.

But “there are thousands of cases that are like mine that will not see court now," Durnell said. "So that is the biggest disappointment for me.”

There is still fierce debate about whether Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes cancer. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that it’s not likely to cause cancer in humans when used as directed.

The agency approved a label without a cancer warning, and Bayer argued that it was required to follow those federal standards. The Supreme Court agreed, ruling that separate warning requirements cannot be compelled by state laws and courts. The ruling still leaves room for other lawsuits alleging problems with the product’s design, and Durnell said he is considering bringing a new case on different grounds.

Bayer has pledged billions for settlements

Bayer disputes the cancer claims but previously set aside $16 billion to settle cases, and earlier this year proposed a $7.25 billion class-action settlement. A federal judge recently ruled that the proposed settlement will be heard in a Missouri state court, where many of the lawsuits have been filed.

At the same time, Bayer has tried to persuade states to pass laws shielding it from liability in failure-to-warn lawsuits. North Dakota was the first to do so, followed by Georgia and Kentucky.

About 200,000 Roundup-related claims have been made against Bayer, mostly from home users. It has stopped using glyphosate in Roundup sold in the U.S. residential lawn and garden market.

The company had said it might have to consider pulling glyphosate from U.S. agricultural markets if it keeps getting sued. Agricultural industry groups have said Roundup is important for a strong food supply.

"Today's decision protects our access to the tools that let us care for our soil, protect our crops, and keep food affordable for your family and mine,” said Blake Hurst, a corn and soybean farmer who is a former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau.

The court ruling runs counter to the MAHA movement

Pesticides have created a rift between the administration and members of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s MAHA movement, who were frustrated by an executive order aimed at boosting glyphosate’s production.

Kennedy has said repeatedly that glyphosate causes cancer, even as he says he recognizes the executive order was necessary for food supply and national security reasons.

After the high court's decision on Thursday, prominent MAHA activist Kelly Ryerson, known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” called the Trump administration's participation in the case “unforgivable.”

Some health advocates contend the EPA's approval of glyphosate-based weedkillers was based on limited information and that lawsuits in state courts have turned up additional evidence against it.

“The fact that EPA approved a pesticide label does not mean a product is safe, and it should not become a shield for companies that fail to warn about cancer risks, neurological harm, and other serious dangers,” said Patti Goldman, senior attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental legal organization.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

When he was about five, his father bought him a Spider-Man basketball hoop that went on the back of his door.

“I loved Spider-Man growing up. So I just started shooting from my bed, started shooting from my bed with this miniature ball. Then I started playing in the YMCA leagues ... ended up falling in love with the game," Dybantsa said. "So Spider-Man is the reason why I love basketball.”

The Washington Wizards are certainly glad Dybantsa took up the sport and committed himself to it. Two days after taking the 6-foot-9 star out of BYU with the top pick in the NBA draft, the team introduced him Thursday at a hotel overlooking the Potomac River, about 1 1/2 miles south from where the Wizards play their home games.

“Nothing comes easy, but I want to be a piece of the puzzle that is part of the rebuild,” he said. “Obviously, Wizards fans have been waiting for a long time.”

This was the first time the Wizards have picked first in the draft since 2010 when they took John Wall. Dybantsa joins a team that hasn't won 50 games in a season since 1979 — and more recently managed only 50 victories over the past three seasons combined.

One issue of uncertainty was resolved at the news conference. Dybantsa wore No. 3 in college, but in Washington that belongs to Trae Young. Dybantsa will change to No. 4.

“Previously wore No. 3, but I was the No. 1 pick,” he said. “Wanted to add those up, and we got four.”

Dybantsa averaged 25.5 points per game in college, becoming the first freshman to lead the nation in scoring since his new teammate, Young, did it at Oklahoma in 2017-18.

Washington fans will have a chance soon enough to see what Dybantsa brings on the court, but Thursday's event was an opportunity to see the type of person they'll be investing so much hope in. Dybantsa was personable and confident, and he seemed eager to get down to business. That much was clear back at the combine before the draft.

“It was like a job. My dad was like, ‘This is your first job interview,’” he said. "So we decided to dress up. I went to a suit and tie in every single interview. Media availability, that was in a suit and tie. So I just wanted to treat it like a real job.”

That made quite an impression on Wizards general manager Will Dawkins.

“It was a pretty fun first introduction, just to learn the maturity that he brings," Dawkins said. "We allow opportunities to ask questions. Sometimes you get the standard questions from guys. We didn’t get that from AJ. He’s just curious and mature and asked some really deep questions.”

Dybantsa said he intends to graduate college, finishing his studies online, and he has big plans for how he can make a difference away from basketball. The 19-year-old has already started a foundation aimed at empowering young people.

“My mom’s from Jamaica, my dad’s from Congo. We’re going to start off just sending 20 kids from there to different universities," he said. "If that’s universities in the continent of Africa, if that’s different universities in Jamaica, if that’s universities in the States, we’re going to try that. But after those two, we’re just going to expand all around the world. We just want to help kids all around the world.”

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

The decision, which comes amid a record heat wave in France, fell short of requests from the climate organizations who brought the lawsuit to force the company to reduce its oil and gas production.

The court scheduled a new hearing for January to consider TotalEnergies’ new assessment under a 2017 law that requires companies to prevent human rights abuses and environmental risks. It's the first time that the so-called corporate duty of vigilance law is being applied to climate change.

The law is not intended to make companies “responsible for the risks linked to climate change, which result from all human activity on the planet since the Industrial Revolution” the court said in a statement, but rather requests them to act “according to their own situation.”

TotalEnergies expressed "satisfaction" that the court didn’t ban it from pursuing new oil and gas projects or force it to reduce oil and gas production.

In a statement, the company said it will update its climate policies following the ruling. It also said it has expanded development of other energy sources and reduced emissions of its operations by 28% since 2015.

It's a landmark case for environmental campaigners

Environmental groups Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, ZEA, France Nature Environnement, together with the city of Paris, launched the proceedings in 2020.

The groups said that they were happy that the court decided that climate change was included in the 2017 duty of vigilance law.

“This decision marks a significant step forward, confirming that the duty of vigilance fully applies to climate risks generated by multinational corporations,” they said in a statement.

They claim that TotalEnergies is one of the largest historical emitters of greenhouse gas and asked the court to require the company to reduce oil production by 37% and gas production by 25% by 2030. The lawsuit also asked for a halt to all new fossil fuel projects.

Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, told The Associated Press that including the effects of climate change in the duty of vigilance law could set a precedent across Europe. This legislation “is a key legal path to corporate accountability,” he said, adding that the French law has “served as a model for other laws of the same nature in other countries and at the EU level.”

Europe is feeling climate change this week

The court's decision comes as Europe is experiencing a heat wave. Punishing temperatures extended to the United Kingdom and Spain, where weather agencies issued red alerts — like France — about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people.

The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum have been forced to restrict visiting hours, and school and transportation schedules have been interrupted across the continent.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years are likely to shatter more heat records.

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

Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month.

Court cases about the climate are on the rise

The decision is the latest in a series of rulings in climate change cases. Last year, the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice, said that countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change. In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that countries must better protect their people from the consequences of climate change.

In 2019, the Netherlands’ Supreme court handed down the first major legal win for climate activists when judges ruled that protection from the potentially devastating effects of climate change was a human right, and that the government has a duty to protect its citizens.

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Quell reported from The Hague, Netherlands.

DeSantis said the center, which opened in July 2025, was always meant to be only temporary until more permanent detention centers could be secured and federal officials now have that capacity.

“We stepped up because there was a gap, but my hope is that they’ll be able to handle that,” the Republican governor said at a news conference at the facility.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier in June and sent all of the detainees to other facilities, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to keep them in the Everglades.

Immigration advocates said the center's tents were never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn’t flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

They described large white tents with rows of and rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air conditioning could shut off abruptly in the sweltering Florida heat. Detainees could go days without showering or getting prescription medicine.

Advocates for immigrants said the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz” does nothing to stop the harm to people who spend months in custody as their families suffer. The Florida Immigrant Coalition said the only winners were corporations and contractors who profited millions of dollars as Republicans pushed an immigration emergency that does not exist.

The detention center of tents and trailers was built by DeSantis’ administration in a matter of days. The governor and President Donald Trump said the center was critical to Republican efforts to return people in the country illegally back to their home countries.

“There is no question this mission has made the state of Florida safer," said DeSantis, noting that 21,000 people were deported through the facility.

Even with the closure of the facility, Florida continues to play a key role with other detention centers and an increased role in helping with immigration enforcement, White House border czar Tom Homan said at Thursday’s news conference.

“Gov. DeSantis did a good job, and he’s going to continue doing what he’s doing to help us make this country safe again,” Homan said. “This isn’t the end of relationship. This is a continuation.”

Lawyers for the immigrants at the facility said their clients suddenly started leaving for other facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas earlier this month, disappearing for about a week before their attorneys and families were told where they were sent.

DeSantis said the Everglades airstrip the facility was built around will continue to be used.

Environmental groups sued over the detention center, saying Florida officials never got the proper permits or did required reviews on its impact.

The state and federal governments built the site with no oversight and closed it with no input, but they will still be held responsible even with the site is closed, said Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

"The administration believes it can quietly walk away and leave its mess for others to clean up. The law will not allow them to escape accountability. We will ask the courts to ensure that the environmental damage is fully addressed," Schwiep said in a statement Thursday.

The pontiff has been given the baseball from the final out of Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. It was unclear when exactly the exchange occurred, but Pierzynski posted pictures on social media on Thursday showing the moment at the Vatican.

“7 year old me, at my First Communion, would have never thought that I would get to meet The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV,” Pierzynski wrote on Instagram. “I was honored to give him the last out ball from Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, the game he attended.”

Leo is a White Sox fan dating to his days growing up in Chicago. He was known as Robert Prevost or Father Bob when he went to the World Series opener 21 years ago, a 5-3 White Sox victory that ended when Bobby Jenks struck out Houston's Adam Everett with Pierzynski behind the plate.

There is a graphic installation at Rate Field that marks the section where the pope sat for Game 1. The White Sox went on to a four-game sweep for the championship.

The first pope from the U.S. in the history of the Catholic Church has received several sports-related gifts since he was elected last May.

He was given a pinstriped No. 14 White Sox jersey with “Konerko” and “Pope Leo” written on the back and signed by former White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, who wore No. 14 during his playing career. He also has a bat that once belonged to Hall of Famer Nellie Fox, who spent most of his career with the White Sox.

Shortly after he became the pope, Leo was given a custom Chicago Bears jersey from Vice President JD Vance. He was presented with a Chicago Bulls jersey with No. 14 and “Pope Leo” on the back from Bulls radio broadcaster Chuck Swirsky in November.

The White Sox plan to pay tribute to Leo at their Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati, handing out pope-themed hats to fans. The hats are shaped like the pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle.

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

The Saharan Air Layer as its most known is most notable for helping to suppress tropical activity due it’s dry, dusty and hot atmospheric conditions.

By the upcoming weekend, some dust will try and sneak into Florida.

Unless really thick, you’ll only know it’s there by the milky haze in the sky or dirt residue left on outside objects from rain carrying dust particles to the ground.

The dust is usually suspended thousands of feet in the air.

The thickest concentration of the plume is expected to head toward Texas. This is where air quality would be most impacted.

Florida Impacts

While extremely sensitive groups may notice lower air quality, most will not be impacted.

The dry, dusty airmass is expected to move in Saturday into Sunday. As a result rain chances will drop and temperatures will soar.

Highs will top out in the upper 90s with rain chances falling to 30%.

In the areas that do receive rain, keep an eye out for the dusty spots on cars or outdoor porch furniture.

Florida may see just the right amount of dust to help enhance the sunrise and and sunset Sunday and Monday.

The extra particles in the atmosphere will help to scatter light more enhancing the red color in the sky.

What’s The Deal With The Dust?

There are several good and bad things that comes with the dust.

Limits tropical development

During the months of May, June and July, when the dust is most prolific, it helps to keep tropical development at bay in this part of the world. The dust tends to a much lower impact during August, September and October.

Amazon rainforest fertilizer

The dust cloud contains phosphorous, among other things, which is then transported more than 5,000 miles across the Atlantic often settling in the Amazon. The phosphorous helps to fertilize the soil in the rainforest.

The bad side of this is it can help fuel algae blooms and red tide.

Poor air quality & dirty rain

The dust typically hangs out anywhere from 5,000 feet to 20,000 feet above the ground. Rain, thunderstorms and gusty winds can bring some of this dust down to the surface, aggravating allergies and impacting those with respiratory ailments. Air quality when the dust is thick could become unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Some of the raindrops could also contain the dust leaving dirty marks on your car or porch furniture when the raindrops evaporate.

Vibrant sunrise/sunsets

When the sun is low on the horizon in the morning and evening, the sun’s rays have to travel through more of the Earth’s atmosphere. The light scatters more, producing beautiful red, orange and pink colors in the sky. When small dust particles are introduced, more scattering takes place, enhancing the already vibrant colors.

The high court's 6-3 decision means people can carry guns onto privately owned property like shopping malls and gas stations, unless the owners specifically say guns are banned at their establishments. It comes shortly after the court found that marijuana users can't be completely banned from owning firearms.

It's a win for President Donald Trump's Republican administration, which argued the law violates the Second Amendment. The measure was sometimes referred to as a “vampire rule" because it required people with guns to get permission to enter, according to vampire lore, bloodsuckers need an invitation to enter a home.

Hawaii argued that the 2023 measure ensured private owners could decide whether they wanted firearms on their property. The state passed the law as thousands more people got legal permission to carry guns in the wake of a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that found the Second Amendment gives most people the right to have guns in public.

About four other states have enacted similar laws, though presumptive restrictions for guns on private property open to the public have also been blocked elsewhere.

Hawaii also restricts guns in places like parks, beaches and restaurants that serve alcohol, but those rules weren't before the court. They are being challenged in lower courts, however.

The suit before the Supreme Court was filed by a gun rights group, the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, and three people from Maui. A judge originally blocked the measure, but an appeals court allowed it to be enforced. Trump's Republican administration backed the Supreme Court appeal.

The Second Amendment Foundation applauded the ruling. “This law was nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to disarm peaceable citizens, and we’re grateful the Supreme Court saw through the ruse," said Alan Gottlieb, its founder and executive vice president.

The Hawaii Department of the Attorney General said they are disappointed, but will “continue to pursue common-sense regulation of firearms, consistent with the Second Amendment, for the safety of our people.”

The gun-control group Everytown Law pointed out that business owners can still post signs forbidding firearms on their properties. “The Supreme Court may have changed the default rule, but it cannot take away a private property owner’s authority over their own land," said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment Litigation.

The two Second Amendment decisions this term are the latest in a series of gun cases that have come before the Supreme Court in the wake of its 2022 ruling, which led to a flood of challenges to firearm restrictions across the country. The justices have since struck down a ban on bump stocks, gun accessories that enable rapid firing, but upheld a federal gun law intended to protect domestic violence victims as well as strict regulations on firearms known as ghost guns, which are nearly impossible to trace.

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

“Who do you think you are trying this after 17 years?" Di Liberto recalled asking herself. "You have no business doing this.”

The fear and uncertainty she felt is familiar to many people seeking work after an absence from the job market. Whether they lost a position during mass layoffs or needed to leave one to care for an ill loved one, job applicants can expect questions about employment history lapses to surface during screenings and interviews.

“You have to address it honestly and directly,” said Andy Decker, CEO of Goodwin Recruiting, a candidate recruitment and placement firm. “Make sure that you’ve included anything you did during that time. Did you get certifications? Did you volunteer?”

Extended periods between jobs have become far more common and are less stigmatized than they were before many people worked from home or took time off during the COVID-19 pandemic to take care of children or relatives, Decker said. Some people note these periods on their resumes as a “career break” or “family responsibility,” he said.

Here are strategies suggested by a recruiter and workers who have been there for addressing a career gap.

Highlight transferable life skills

Employers are more focused on skills or results than a perfect career path, and volunteering your services at a nonprofit organization is a good way to keep those skills fresh, Decker said.

Di Liberto, 57, was a classically trained opera singer before she got married and became a mother. While her husband built a chiropractic practice, she set aside her music career ambitions to raise their children.

Once she decided to reenter the workforce, Di Liberto didn’t have 9-to-5 job experience to feature on her resume. Instead, she reviewed activities beyond family life for skills that would translate into a work environment.

Serving as PTA president at her children’s school, for example, required managing budgets and presenting project plans to the school board. She also helped with budgeting, software rollouts and hiring for her husband's business.

Even so, she kept hearing as she applied for administrative support roles that she wasn't qualified. However, one person who interviewed Di Liberto was intrigued, saying, “This resume was so different than anything I had ever seen. I needed to see the person who created this."

Determined not to walk away empty-handed, Di Liberto proposed a monthlong trial run as an administrative assistant. Her pitch was: “I recognize that you probably are getting resumes of people who are far more qualified than me, but I would challenge that they are not as tenacious and driven as me. If you give me 30 days, I’ll prove to you that I can learn this job and I can do this job.”

The company hired her. Over the next decade, she was promoted and recruited away by other employers and worked her way up to head of client services at an artificial intelligence company. Di Liberto said she was asked about her employment lull each time she interviewed for a new position.

“I was fortunate enough to stay home for 17 years and raise amazing humans,” she tells potential employers. "And I worked from the ground up to be where I am today."

Laura Sandvik, who left a marketing job to care for her mother and later her children, highlighted in her LinkedIn profile the soft skills she gained from her experiences.

“I have no regrets about those choices. They strengthened my patience, perspective, and sense of responsibility. In returning to formal roles, I have done so intentionally,” she wrote.

Practice telling a layoff story

If you lost a job due to restructuring or layoffs, you don't need to volunteer that information on a resume but be honest if an interviewer asks why you left, Decker said.

“I would simply say, ‘I was one of 270 people caught up in this reduction of force,’ or if you made it through a few rounds of layoffs, say, ‘Over two years we had five rounds of reductions in force, I made it through four, I was caught up in the fifth,’" Decker suggested.

Practice your response before the interview, and avoid negativity such as blaming the employer. “Own it, acknowledge it and move on,” Decker said.

Baura Zia, 35, was laid off in 2022 shortly after returning from maternity leave. She was upset initially but says losing her job “was honestly a blessing in disguise" because she spent the next three years raising her two children full-time.

On her resume, Zia describes those years as a “parenting gap,” and states that she also moved across the country in that time. When she decided to find a part-time job after her son's first birthday, she explained during interviews that the organization she previously worked for didn't let her go over performance issues but because it lost the contract she was working on.

“Having grace with yourself is really important," Zia said. "It’s not a flaw to have a career gap. If anything, you’ve grown so much from that.”

During her job hunt, Zia sometimes sent messages to people she found online to ask about their experience working at the company where she'd applied. Many didn’t reply, but some did. She also reached out to contacts from a networking group for women in public relations she joined years ago.

“When I was ready to go back to the workplace, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, only because I had my network to tap into,” Zia said.

Own your accomplishments

Addressing resume gaps due to major employment barriers such as incarceration can be especially difficult.

Ryan Cuellar, 29, who was charged with felony possession of stolen property at age 18 and sent to jail a month before he expected to graduate high school, is proud of his perseverance and record of overcoming hurdles.

“Don’t reflect on your mistake but take pride in what you learn from it and what you are doing about it," Cuellar advised.

After being incarcerated for a few months, Cuellar returned to high school to repeat his senior year. Then he took a string of odd jobs that didn't require background checks, including acting gigs and working as a machine operator, while also taking college classes.

After receiving certification as a paralegal, Cuellar said he used the training to petition to have his criminal record sealed. That meant he did not have to disclose his legal history on job applications or worry about getting asked about it following background checks.

Cuellar chose to tell potential employers about it anyway, even though doing so often hurt his chances of getting hired. He also volunteered at the jail, helping people held there acquire skills to help them succeed after their release. He recently landed his first full-time job, working as a salesperson for a company that provides online tutoring services.

“It’s part of my story,” Cuellar said of his incarceration. “At the end of the day, I think that you need to know that about me as a person to understand my side and where I come from and my perspective.”

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of a subject's surname to Di Liberto, not De Liberto's name.

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

Consumer prices rose 4.1% in May from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Thursday, the largest annual increase since April 2023. On a monthly basis, inflation was 0.4% last month, matching April’s increase and down from 0.7% in March.

The increase was largely driven by more expensive gas, as well as pricier semiconductors and other computer equipment that are in high demand for the AI buildout. Rising prices have caused the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve to keep their key rate unchanged this year, a reversal from January when they had penciled in two cuts. Some economists forecast the central bank could lift rates this year instead.

“Underyling inflation is closer to 3% rather than 2%,” said Mark Vitner, chief economist at Piedmont Crescent Capital. "It does suggest to me that the next Fed move, whenever it comes, is more likely to be a hike than a cut.” The Fed probably won't raise rates until next year, he added.

Oil and gas prices have fallen substantially since Trump agreed to a peace deal with Iran earlier this month, but the conflict lifted gas prices to nearly $4.50 a gallon on average nationwide in May. They have since fallen back to $3.92 as of Thursday, according to AAA, but that's more than 20% above prices at this time last year as the driving season gets underway.

Declining gas prices will likely pull down headline inflation next month, yet measures of underlying inflation remain stubbornly elevated and will be a concern for the Fed. Excluding the volatile energy and food categories, core prices rose 3.4% in May compared with a year earlier, up from 3.3% in April and the largest increase since October 2023. On a monthly basis, they rose 0.3% from April to May, the same as the previous month.

Higher gas prices aren't the only thing worsening inflation. The AI buildout has made computer components more expensive, and Apple announced last week that it would raise prices for its computers and iPads because of the higher costs. Services prices also rose sharply last month, lifted by more expensive restaurant meals, hotel rooms, auto repairs, and health care.

At the same time, consumers appear willing to keep spending and boost the economy. Adjusted for inflation, spending rose 0.3% from April to May. And inflation-adjusted incomes rose for the first time in four months, picking up 0.3%, which could bolster consumer spending in coming months.

A separate report Thursday showed that the economy expanded at a 2.1% annual rate in the first three months of the year, an upgrade from a previous estimate of 1.6%. And the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week, a sign that layoffs remain low.

New Fed chair Kevin Warsh last week underscored the central bank’s determination to drive inflation back to its 2% target, but he gave no sign of what steps the Fed might take. Some economists, however, now expect the central bank to increase rates this year. Those expectations upended U.S. markets this week, hammering fast-growing sectors like tech.

Inflation has been above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five years, leaving many Americans more gloomy about the future. Vitner points out that inflation hadn't topped 2.5% for nearly a decade before the pandemic, likely making the inflation spikes since then even harder to accept for most households.

Thursday’s report covers the personal consumption expenditures price index, a lesser-known measure compared to the consumer price index, which was released earlier this month and showed a similarly large increase. The Fed prefers the PCE index because it puts less weight on housing and also reflects changes in how Americans shop when prices rise, such as when consumers buy cheaper off-brand items.

The new inflation data arrives a day after Trump refused to sign housing legislation, approved by Congress, that is intended to spur more construction and lower home prices over time, a response to Americans' concerns about rising costs.

Trump responded to the CPI report earlier this month by saying he “loved the inflation.” He has previously dismissed Democrats’ focus on “affordability” as a “hoax.”

Inflation jumped to 9.1% under former President Joe Biden, but even as it fell back closer to 2% in 2024, voters remained angry about the cumulative rise in the cost of groceries, rent, and other necessities.

The PCE price index was last below 2.5% in April 2025, when Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Inflation then climbed steadily to 2.9% just before the Iran war.

Spokesperson Eric Alper said that Clayton-Thomas died “peacefully” Wednesday at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Alper did not cite a specific cause.

Clayton-Thomas was a onetime street fighter and petty thief from Canada who briefly became a rock superstar, the front man of a nine-member group that sold millions of records and won two Grammys for “Blood, Sweat & Tears,” which beat out the Beatles' “Abbey Road” for best album of 1969. Calling out amid a jazzy parade of horns, keyboards and percussion, Clayton-Thomas’ urgent shout was a signature voice of the era, preaching love on the Motown cover “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” a lasting legacy on Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die” and a cool head on his own “Spinning Wheel.” Meanwhile, Blood, Sweat & Tears helped inspire a wave of horn-led bands, among them Chicago, the Electric Flag and Ten Wheel Drive.

“A lot of the guys (in Blood, Sweat & Tears) would play a Broadway show matinee, then go up to Harlem and play Latin music or R&B and funk at night, or come down to the Village and play pure jazz the next night,” Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com in 2023. “I was just a blues player: give me three chords and I’ve got a song.”

At its peak, Blood, Sweat & Tears’ appeal was so broad it helped lead to the band’s downfall.

Hip enough to perform at the 1969 Woodstock festival, where they were among the highest paid acts, they also were known enough to the establishment to tour Eastern Europe the following year on behalf of the State Department. When Clayton-Thomas and other band members denounced the Communist regimes on the other side of the Cold War, Rolling Stone’s David Felton wrote that “the State Department got its money worth.” Yippies would turn up at a 1970 Blood, Sweat & Tears show at Madison Square Garden, carrying obscene banners outside and dumping manure by the front gate.

The band had practical reasons for going along with the government: Clayton-Thomas, who had allegedly wielded a gun at his girlfriend, had been denied a green card and faced deportation. But after topping the charts in 1970 with the album “Blood, Sweat & Tears 3,” their appeal soon faded. A burned out Clayton-Thomas left the group in 1972, and neither he nor the remaining musicians ever regained their old stature. Blood, Sweat & Tears would continue recording over the next few years, and even briefly reunited with Clayton-Thomas, who went on to release more than a dozen solo albums and tour on his own for decades.

Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996. “Spinning Wheel,” covered by everyone from James Brown to TV star Barbara Eden, was voted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame a decade later.

Clayton-Thomas is survived by his daughters, Ashleigh Clayton-Thomas and Christine Graham.

Up from the streets

Born David Henry Thomsett in Surrey, England, and raised near Toronto and Ottawa, he was the son of a Canadian World War II veteran and of a pianist-entertainer who helped inspire her son’s interest in music. Thomsett was lucky to have the chance. He fought violently with his father, was living in the streets by his mid-teens and by age 20 was serving time in a reformatory for vagrancy, assault and other crimes.

An old guitar, left behind by a fellow inmate, changed his life. He taught himself to play and began spending extensive time in the early 1960s around Toronto’s Yonge Street music “strip,” where peers included the American rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins, a mentor to Robbie Robertson and other future members of the Band and a guide for Thomsett early in his career.

Anxious to reinvent himself, he changed his last name to Clayton-Thomas while leading his own groups. In the mid-60s, he released such albums as “Sings Like It Is” and had a hit single with the anti-war rocker “Brainwashed.” He would also befriend a rising star, Joni Mitchell, whose childlike “Circle Game” helped inspire “Spinning Wheel,” and the venerable John Lee Hooker, who would indirectly contribute to Clayton-Thomas’ breakthrough in the U.S.

America beckons

Hooker had encouraged Clayton-Thomas to move to New York, where the American bluesman had an engagement at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. When Hooker unexpectedly departed for a tour of Europe, club owner Howard Solomon needed a replacement and recruited Clayton-Thomas.

“So I played him a couple songs on the guitar,” Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com. “He said, ‘Do you have a band?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ and went out into Greenwich Village looking for anybody carrying a guitar case or even looking like a musician, and we put together a little band and we opened there that night. We ended up staying there for several months.”

Around the same time, session man-producer Al Kooper was looking to form a jazz-rock group and was joined by such musicians as guitarist Steve Katz, drummer Bobby Colomby and horn players Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. They called themselves Blood, Sweat & Tears, releasing the debut album “Child Is Father to the Man” early in 1968. Although praised by Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner as “a fine, exemplary group,” members were torn between those allied with Kooper and those who thought his vocals too weak to attract a substantial audience.

By the end of the year, Kooper and others had departed, and the band was seeking a new singer. After Judy Collins saw Clayton-Thomas perform, she recommended him to Colomby.

“I got home and just a couple of days later, Bobby Colomby called me up and said, ‘Hey, Kooper’s gone. We got four guys left out of the nine. And we still got a record contract with Columbia. Do you want to come down and try out for the band?”’ Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com. ”I said, ‘You’re damn right.’ I knew (bassist) Jim Fielder real well and I knew they were superb musicians. So I was on the next plane. We had a rehearsal that afternoon, an audition, and it was instant magic. We just knew right off the bat.”

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter Wednesday to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he had “credible information” that the Trump administration had a list of more than 500 migrant children it was targeting for a fast-track removal process and that the department was racing to act in days. He warned that the administration was abdicating “core humanitarian and child welfare mandates” and demanded an immediate halt to any plans to remove the children.

Wyden, who is the ranking member and senior Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Office of Refugee Resettlement, did not detail how he came by his information. His office declined to provide further details. The ORR, which oversees the care of unaccompanied migrant children, falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.

An HHS spokesperson denied any such plans.

“The new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department is laying the groundwork for another lawless deportation effort, this time on a greater scale, across more countries of origin,” Wyden wrote.

“You have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed within the ORR network. Proceeding with this plan knowingly endangers their lives and violates your duty to these vulnerable children.”

Trump administration made a similar attempt in 2025

Wyden also issued an early warning last August ahead of what eventually became a chaotic weekend of efforts by the Trump administration to remove Guatemalan children in its care and send them home.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in “there are no plans to target these children,” calling Wyden's claims ”irresponsible fearmongering."

“The Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because ensuring every child is placed with a properly vetted sponsor is our top priority,” she said.

Over the Labor Day weekend, dozens of migrant children either staying in government-supervised shelters or with foster families were taken from their homes and bused to airfields in Texas bound for Guatemala. A federal judge woken up in the middle of the night eventually stopped the planes. Lawyers for the children — many who had fled violence at home to come to the U.S. — later described how traumatic the middle-of-the-night removal effort was for them.

The administration insisted it was reuniting the Guatemalan children — at the Central American nation’s request — with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the children said that wasn’t true and argued that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not.

Some of the children in the plane last year were represented by the American Bar Association’s ProBar project. Lauren Fisher Flores, the legal director, said children that day were seen “crying, praying, vomiting” and some entered into a catatonic state. The effects were long-lasting.

“One child was hospitalized for several days due to nerves. For months, one young client refused to board buses for medical appointments or court hearings. All the rules and laws that exist to protect these children were unable to prevent them from experiencing something deeply traumatic," Fisher Flores added.

Congress established legal protections for migrant children

Migrant children traveling alone are usually entrusted to U.S. government care, and there are various legal protections designed to protect them once they’re in the U.S. and navigating the immigration system.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is one of the key pieces of legislation designed to protect them. With some limited exceptions, it requires that children be placed in the “least restrictive setting possible,” which generally means that they can be released to a sponsor such as a relative in the U.S. while their immigration proceedings play out.

The children can apply for a specially protected status if they can’t return to their home country because of abuse or neglect and they can also apply for asylum.

The Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for those children to be released to sponsors though. The administration says that they are doing due diligence to make sure that sponsors are thoroughly vetted and that in the past, children were released into dangerous situations.

But advocates say that the result has been children lingering for months in government shelters.

This time, Wyden said the children at risk of being removed come from various countries, potentially including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, and have been in U.S. custody — mainly in foster care — for at least 180 days. He said they were described as not having any “viable sponsor" who could come forward and take care of them in the U.S.

Not having an identified sponsor could mean the child's parents are in their home countries, are deceased or are too afraid to claim their children after ICE started arresting some parents who are not in the country legally during their reunification efforts.

The bank also announced Thursday that Marianne Lake, who had held several top positions in the company including chief financial officer and CEO of the consumer banking division, will retire at the end of the year. Lake was long thought to be a potential person to take over the company when Dimon retired.

The promotion of Petno and Rohrbaugh is a sign that JPMorgan’s board is also looking to its commercial and investment banking ranks as it develops the next generation of leadership, even as Rohrbaugh will now move over to run the bank’s giant consumer business. Petno and Rohrbaugh both ascended JPMorgan’s ranks through the company’s investment bank but worked on different sides of the house: much of Petno’s experience has been working with clients and doing advisory work, including natural resources investment banking, while Rohrbaugh came up through the bank’s trading desks, with a background in foreign-exchange derivatives and options trading.

“The changes announced today mark an important step in our Board’s thoughtful process around succession planning and development of our top leaders,” Dimon said in a statement.

There are two other potential successors, both women, who remain on JPMorgan’s operating committee, the group of top management at the bank who report to Dimon. Jennifer Piepszak, 55, is JPMorgan’s chief operating officer, while Mary Erdoes, 58, runs its asset and wealth management division. The bank disclosed Thursday that Piepszak and Erdoes each received $20 million equity-based retention awards, underscoring that the board is trying to preserve a broad bench of senior leaders as it plans for Dimon’s eventual succession.

But even with those retention bonuses for Piepszak and Erdoes, analysts noted that promotion of Petno and Rohrbaugh is a signal that the board is leaning toward them.

“Given that Lake has been viewed as a front-runner, her retirement reshapes the succession field for Jamie Dimon’s CEO role, while elevating Petno and Rohrbaugh into president-level roles that have historically served as the springboard for the CEO job,” said analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a note to investors after the announcement.

Further, the retention bonuses mean that the person who takes over for Dimon will have a full slate of senior executives to help them with the transition, analysts said.

Wall Street loves to speculate who will succeed Dimon, who is 70 years old and has been CEO since 2006. Dimon has had several health scares over his 20 years running the bank, including a throat cancer diagnosis in 2014 and emergency heart surgery in 2020. Still, Dimon has repeatedly said he enjoys being chairman and CEO, and has emphasized that JPMorgan’s board of directors will decide the timing of Dimon’s replacement.

Whoever replaces Dimon will inherit one of the most prominent roles on Wall Street and, more broadly, in Corporate America. Dimon is among the last of the generation of Wall Street CEOs who steered their firms through the 2008 financial crisis and is widely seen as the banking industry's elder statesman.

Before joining JPMorgan Chase in 2004, Dimon’s career was rooted more in consumer finance than trading and investment banking. He held leadership roles at American Express, Citigroup and Bank One. JPMorgan Chase acquired Bank One in 2004 in a deal to expand its consumer banking and credit card businesses. Bank One’s credit card division was considered a strategic asset in that deal.

The Charlotte Hornets agreed to trade Ball, their starting point guard, and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for power forward Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round draft pick, three first-round pick swaps and three future second-round picks, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal, first reported by ESPN, has yet to be approved by the league.

The three first-round pick swaps will be in 2028, 2029 and 2030. The Hornets also get three second-round picks in 2029, 2032 and 2033.

The Hornets quickly moved to agree on a three-year, $74 million contract with new projected starting point guard Coby White following the trade, the person familiar with the situation told the AP.

White, the all-time leading scorer in North Carolina high school basketball history, averaged 15.6 points and 3 assists per game while shooting 39.1% from 3-point range last season for the Hornets after being acquired in a trade with the Chicago Bulls.

The 24-year-old Ball, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, had three years left on a five-year, $203.9 million designated rookie contract with the Hornets, which was a franchise record.

An All-Star in 2022, Ball has struggled with ankle and foot injuries during his career, but he played in 72 games last season and averaged 20.1 points, 7.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, helping the Hornets win 44 games before being blown out in the play-in tournament by the Orlando Magic.

Ball finished second in the league in 3s made last year with 272, one behind rookie teammate Kon Knueppel.

Ball is considered an exceptional offensive player, but his shortcomings on the defensive end were at times a source of irritation for coach Charles Lee.

Still, Ball's ability to create opportunities for his teammates off the dribble, his exceptional passing and unique knack for getting off 3-pointers — with shots often coming off one foot — via a stepback move, make him one of the league's most dynamic scoring point guards.

But Ball was never able to get the Hornets to the playoffs in his six seasons with the club, with injuries playing a role. Before this season, Ball missed 141 games over the previous three seasons.

This trade is expected to be included as part of the transaction in which Minnesota agreed to send Julius Randle to Brooklyn in a deal that involved the Chicago Bulls, a second person with knowledge of the agreement told the AP. It will create an NBA-record trade exception of nearly $41 million for the Hornets.

The deals cannot be finalized until July 6, when the league moratorium on such moves is lifted.

It’s another blockbuster for the league, which has seen Giannis Antetokounmpo getting traded by Milwaukee to Miami for a package that includes Tyler Herro, a move that followed the Randle deal before the draft.

Reid, 26, has spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the Timberwolves.

After reaching the Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025, the Timberwolves stagnated at times last season and were ousted in six games in the second round of the playoffs by the runner-up San Antonio Spurs.

President of basketball operations Tim Connelly has never been shy about aggressive pursuit of roster improvement, from the package of draft picks he sent the Utah Jazz in 2022 for defensive ace Rudy Gobert shortly after taking the job in Minnesota, to the stunning trade of franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks two years ago.

To make this work, the Timberwolves had to give up one of the most popular players in their history in Reid, the 2023-24 NBA Sixth Man of the Year who would’ve been in line for a starting spot after the departure of Randle.

The 6-foot-11 Reid, who went undrafted out of LSU in 2019, worked his way into an excellent offensive player with a shooter’s touch from the outside who has the quickness to get to the rim. Playing through a painful shoulder injury this season, Reid appeared in 77 regular-season games while averaging 13.6 points and a career-best 6.2 rebounds per game.

Their five-game loss in 2025 to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder and their defeat by the Spurs last month made clear to the Timberwolves that they’re not yet at the championship level they’ve been chasing since building their roster around 2020 first overall pick Anthony Edwards. Now they’ll have the third pick in that draft to play next to Ball, one of the few remaining pure point guards in a league that has evolved toward more volume scorers serving as the primary initiators of the offense.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch lamented after the season his abrupt decision to make Edwards the starting point guard, a move Finch said last month set the whole team back.

Trusty veteran Mike Conley will be a free agent and is now more of a limited-role player, leaving Minnesota's front office looking outward for ball-handling options. The agreement to bring back Ayo Dosunmu went a long way toward solidifying the backcourt for the long term, but he’s more of a combo guard who can thrive off the ball.

Connelly even hinted at a move like this on Tuesday night after the first round of the draft.

“We have to ensure that we’re creating as many good shots as possible, specifically for Ant, and whether that’s on our present roster or whether it’s looking outside of our team, it’s something that we certainly have to address,” Connelly said.

Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson decline to address the trade during a news conference Thursday in which the team introduced first-round draft picks Hannes Steinbach and Christian Anderson Jr.

“There will be a time when we will address the roster and the transactions and stuff,” Peterson said. “We want to make this day about Christian and Hannes. They have earned it.”

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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

Due to the detection of the New World Screwworm, Medina County Judge Keith Lutz said in a statement Wednesday that portions of Bandera, Medina and Uvalde counties have since been designated as “Infested Zone 09.”

To prioritize the health of animals and reduce the spread of the parasitic fly, the Texas Animal Health Commission said a quarantine is now in effect for Infested Zone 09.

The following animal movement restrictions are now imposed:

• Warm-blooded animals located in Infested Zone 09 cannot be moved outside the zone without permission from the TAHC
• To move animals outside the zone, the animal must be inspected and treated as required by the TAHC and issued a permit or certificate for movement by a TAHC representative
• Any parts of an animal capable of serving as a host for the parasitic fly must be inspected and receive treatment deemed necessary by a TAHC representative before its removal from the zone
• Unauthorized movement is not allowed and is subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution

According to the TAHC, the order will remain in effect until the quarantine is lifted.

Bandera County’s response

Bandera County commissioners met Thursday morning to consider declaring a local state of disaster regarding the parasitic fly.

Watch the commissioners court discuss the New World Screwworm below.

Bandera County Judge Richard A. Evans signed the declaration — which lasts for seven days — before the commissioners court voted in favor of extending the declaration to 30 days moments later.

The declaration allows the state to allocate resources to the county to combat the parasite, if needed.

During the meeting, Evans said the commissioners waited until Thursday to take action because “we didn’t know if we were going to actually have a case (of New World Screwworm) or not.”

“We have an imminent threat (of New World Screwworm),” Evans said Thursday. “We do not have a screwworm case in our county.”

Evans also disputed Bandera County’s partial inclusion in “Infested Zone 09,” which Medina County Judge Keith Lutz mentioned in his Wednesday statement.

“If you go on the (Texas) Animal Health Commission’s (website), there is a map and it shows that we’re on the very edge of it (Infested Zone 09),” Evans said. “We’re not quarantined. We’re in the outer ring — the (Adjusted) Surveillance (Zone) ring."

As of Thursday morning, there are 17 active cases of the New World Screwworm in Texas, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture online dashboard.

More related coverage of this story on KSAT:

• The U.S. last beat screwworm in 1966. Can current leaders learn from the past’s playbook?
• Texas officials say rodents and other small wildlife could be to blame for New World Screwworm infestations
• 2 new screwworm cases detected in Edwards County over last 24 hours, USDA says

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, sided with a coalition of nearly two dozen states that challenged the Republican president's order in granting a summary judgment. Her ruling applies to this year's midterm election cycle.

Plaintiffs argued in two lawsuits, both filed in federal court in Boston, that Trump’s order should be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. The judge agreed, saying in her ruling that the provisions of Trump's order seeking to create a federal list of eligible voters and using the U.S. Postal Service to determine who can receive a mail ballot are “legally void” because they "unconstitutionally violate the separation of powers.”

It was the second ruling in as many days against executive orders Trump has signed seeking oversight of the nation's elections. A separate ruling Wednesday prohibited an executive order he had signed last year that would have required people to show documents proving their citizenship when registering to vote.

Order targeted mail voting, administration likely to appeal

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose state was among the plaintiffs, celebrated the court’s decision.

“Millions of independents, Republicans and Democrats across Arizona have voted by mail for decades,” she said in a statement, noting that nearly 80% of ballots in the state are cast by that method.

Mayes, a Democrat, singled out military families, voters in the state’s rural expanses and Native Americans who cast ballots from tribal lands.

“Donald Trump’s executive order targeted all of these voters,” she said. “But today, the courts affirmed what the Constitution makes clear: States run their elections, not the President.”

The White House stood by Trump's executive order and indicated the administration would appeal the ruling. The order, said spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, “lawfully protects our elections, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in its implementation.”

The administration, in its motions to dismiss the lawsuits challenging the order, argued that the motions were premature and that plaintiffs lacked the legal basis to bring their claim based on the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

But in an interim order before Thursday's ruling, Talwani said the motions pertaining to this year’s election cycle were relevant: “In light of the EO’s specific deadlines over the next three months, and the reality that elections will be occurring throughout this period with the November 3, 2026 midterm occurring in just five months, postponing judicial review is impracticable and may inflict significant hardship on Plaintiffs,” she wrote. That order denied the Trump administration's motion to dismiss the challenges.

Executive order sought to give Postal Service a central role in elections

Trump’s executive order, the second one aimed at elections during his second term, comes as he continues to raise the specter of widespread voting by noncitizens as a reason to change election rules. But states already have detailed processes aimed at keeping their voter rolls accurate, and voting by noncitizens has been shown to be rare. It also is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.

Trump issued his second order in March after a bill he supported to overhaul voting stalled in Congress. The order would have had the federal government — through the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration — create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters. It then directed the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to those on the list.

Election officials argued that it was ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

The Postal Service has published a proposed rule required by Trump’s executive order in the Federal Register. Among other things, the rule would not apply to primary elections or overseas ballots.

Postal Service workers have pushed back against the order, saying they are not equipped to determine who is eligible to vote in each state. After Trump issued his order last spring, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association said forcing its members into such a role “risks politicizing one of the nation’s most trusted public institutions.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat whose state was among the plaintiffs, said the executive order illustrated how Trump was attempting to “abuse power in previously unthinkable ways” to interfere in elections.

She said it “strains credulity” to think the U.S. Postal Service could set up a workable system for pre-screening individual voters to determine whether they would be allowed to vote by mail, adding that it would be “a shocking violation of American constitutional rights.”

The Postal Service did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.

Trump's second election executive order faces multiple legal challenges

The lawsuit seeking summary judgment was filed by Democratic attorneys general representing 22 states and the District of Columbia. Also signing on were attorneys representing Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, which has a Republican attorney general.

The states also told the court that the move imposes a costly burden on election officials to comply and would spread fear about the possibility of prosecution. Stephen Pezzi, a lawyer for the Trump administration, had argued that no one would be prosecuted for violating the order.

The other lawsuit filed in Talwani’s court was by the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups, which have sought a preliminary injunction against the executive order.

In yet another lawsuit filed against the executive order, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., in May agreed with the Trump administration that it was too early to block the order because it had yet to be implemented. That lawsuit was brought by Democratic and civil rights groups, which have appealed.

Since his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta and Hanna from Topeka, Kansas.

The name that put action sports on the map, then turned it into big business that eventually landed in the Olympics with its risk-taking, counterculture vibe, will debut its multimillion-dollar reboot with nothing less than the future of one of the sports industry's best-recognized brands at stake.

Sports like snowboarding, skateboarding and BMX biking that were founded on a spirit of devil-may-care individuality are becoming team enterprises.

Those same sports that were founded on the idea that it was more about hanging out and doing cool stuff than medals, money and winning are now building franchises that organizers say are selling as part of eight-figure transactions.

The debut of the new team concept, scheduled to cover both the upcoming summer and winter seasons, is set for Friday in Sacramento, California. Among the headliners are skateboarding's Nyjah Huston, Garrett Reynolds and Chloe Covell.

Eileen Gu, Chloe Kim, Mark McMorris and Scotty James are among those signed up for the winter portion.

“I love working on big ideas, and this is a big idea,” said Jeremy Bloom, the Olympic freestyle skier and former NFL receiver who was hired by MSP Sports Capital shortly after they bought a majority stake in the X Games from ESPN in 2022. “But ideas are only worth the word on the page. The execution of ideas is always the hardest part.”

Did the X Games really need a reboot?

What was wrong with the X Games? Nothing, really.

The winter version, traditionally held in Aspen, Colorado, drew 50,000 fans this year and ratings on ESPN and ABC rose 48%.

But when MSP — which has stakes in F1, and Premier League soccer teams among its investments — bought the property in 2022, it had a bigger vision.

It wanted to build a season-long race for a title. The way to do that was by creating summer and winter teams that hold drafts. Both seasons will run over three events — for instance, the summer league will go to Tokyo and New Orleans after the debut in Sacramento; the final event takes place late next month.

Earlier this year, the investment group UNA Sports Group bought the summer and winter teams based in New York for what the X Games said was an eight-figure transaction. Private equity investor Allen Thorpe bought the summer team in Los Angeles and the winter team based in Park City, Utah, the home of the 2034 Olympics. On Thursday, private equity group Summit Ventures and entrepreneur Ali El Ali bought the team based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Thorpe called the new version of the X Games “an entirely new category of sports ownership.”

Bloom sees owning a franchise not as a revenue stream but rather, a growth opportunity.

“When you set aside the NFL, which is really the 2,000-pound gorilla, it's not really a world where you're looking for, like, (cash-flow) return or profit-sharing return,” Bloom said. “You're just looking at growth. Growth in a brand, growth in fans, growth of viewership.”

Sports leagues have potential for growth (WNBA) but also carry risk (LIV)

A best-case scenario for owners of these X Games teams might be to replicate what happened in the WNBA where, for instance, the Indiana Fever is worth an estimated five times its former value since the arrival of Caitlin Clark.

F1 teams, thanks to spending caps and a surge in popularity driven by the Netflix series “Drive to Survive,” have also enjoyed a surge in value.

UNA, which bought the New York franchises, made the decision partly based on a study it published that projected the value of the global action sports market at $650 billion in 2027.

"Action sports today look remarkably like women’s basketball did five years ago or women’s soccer eight years ago: passionate participants, a loyal core audience, strong brand equity in the category leader, and a fragmented competitive landscape with no dominant league format," the paper said in detailing the strength of the league idea.

The paper made no mention of lessons learned from LIV Golf.

The league always hoped its franchises would generate value and was trying to sell minority stakes in the teams, saying they were worth $300 million. The team concept hasn't caught on and the pullout of the Saudi investment fund backing the league is putting the worth of those teams at risk.

Will fans follow sports beyond X Games, Olympics?

While golf still resides in the category of a niche sport, its schedule has a familiar cadence and the tug between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf largely was a difference in vision among some players who were rich and others who were richer.

Action sports has less of that. For every athlete like Huston or Gu — whose sponsorship income dwarfs what they've collected in prize money over the years — there are dozens more who have to scratch out paychecks in sports that have struggled to generate big prize pools.

“Skateboarding, depending on what your deals are, you can make some money,” said Bob Burnquist, a 14-time X Games skateboard champ who is the general manager of the Sao Paulo team. “But there were several times throughout your career, where I was there for glory and I did it and I knew it. Because if you quantify the risk, it's not really on my side. If I won the event, I'd make ‘X,’ but if I got broken trying to win the event, I'd owe the hospital.”

One of the lures for the athletes was a guaranteed base salary, the likes of which is basically unheard of in actions sports. Also, travel expenses will be covered and they'll receive a health-care stipend, in addition to a prize-money pool. That's among the reasons some of the biggest names, including Kim, Gu, Huston, James and McMorris signed on.

Now, the question is whether enough people will buy into the team concept to the point where they're willing to watch an entire season of action sports unfold.

Bloom — a once-in-a-generation athlete and entrepreneur who made his mark both in individual and team sports — is staking his reputation and that of the X Games that the new idea will work.

“It's still special to win a world championship and World Cup overall titles and make it to the Olympics, there’s no doubt,” Bloom said. “But I was really drawn to this idea and notion that for the first time ever, action sports athletes could feel that camaraderie.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Officers were dispatched to the incident just after 9:30 p.m. in the 500 block of the East Loop 410 access road near Tex-Con Road. Upon arrival, they found a man with multiple injuries.

A police spokesperson said the man walked along the access road when he was hit by a vehicle.

The man was transported to a local hospital where he later died, according to an SAPD preliminary report. He has yet to be identified.

Police said the driver remained on-scene and cooperated with SAPD’s investigation.

At this time, no charges have been filed against the driver.

Along with doubling the number of Community Center branches, the bank plans to hire an additional 150 employees, known as community managers, and provide additional programming at these locations.

The Community Center program focuses on Chase opening branches in low- and moderate-income communities, particularly in areas where residents may be underbanked or unbanked. Chase opened its first Community Center in Harlem in 2019 as an experiment and the program’s success led to 19 locations in operation across the country. Jamie Dimon, the bank’s CEO, has historically attended the grand opening of nearly all the Community Centers, and their openings are typically attended by local government officials and other dignitaries.

“We are doubling down on our efforts to expand access,” said Diedra Porché, head of Chase's community and business development division.

These Community Centers are still Chase branches, but they include open areas where financial educators, local nonprofit organizations and other groups can provide financial workshops to neighborhood residents. The programs and workshops are free to the public. The bank says the locally-hired community managers who run the centers are directed not to sell products, and attendees are not required to be Chase customers or interested in Chase products.

The centers are focused on financial education, ranging from teaching a person how to build a household budget to workshops for small business owners. The bank estimates it has hosted 14,000 of these workshops since the first community center opened, with more than 1 million attendees. Chase has set a goal of increasing the programming to reach 5 million attendees.

Banks by law are required to provide services to low-income communities under the Community Reinvestment Act. But how banks provide these services can be in several different forms. While Chase does charitable giving through the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Dimon has said in the past that he believes the bank can have a greater impact in low-income communities by opening branches in those neighborhoods, creating jobs and providing financing in underserved areas.

“We try to meet people where they are, and then give them the tools and resources they might need to take their next step successfully,” Porché said.

The program is also generally good business for the bank. While there are no salespeople involved in the actual programming, the opening of a community center branch in an underserved neighborhood tends to result in new accounts being opened and new customers for the bank. Chase has issued reports in the past that show its community centers lead to higher account openings, often far more account openings than what other branches in the area provide.

How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results. The new research reexamined those decades-old recordings and compared them with the newly captured giggles of four young children while they were being tickled and playing at home.

It turns out that the chuckles of humans and great apes follow similar rhythms, with regular timing between their laughs, a uniting thread that likely reflects their ties to a common ancestor, researchers said.

“In a way, we are very similar to other great apes because we’ve been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years,” said study author Chiara De Gregorio, a primatologist at the University of Warwick in England.

Laughter communicates a playful, happy feeling without using words. Many animals can laugh too, but the giggles don’t follow human patterns as closely. When researchers tickle rats, for example, they respond with ultrasonic squeaks.

Scientists trying to uncover how laughter evolved have picked apart animals’ facial expressions, but less work has been done on how laughs sound. And compared with apes, human laughter has become faster and more complex. For one, our laughs sound different based on context — from a polite chuckle among colleagues to a full-bodied guffaw with close friends.

“We are like the masters of laughter, I would say,” said De Gregorio, whose findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.

These giggles evolved to best suit animals’ different social lives, said Brittany Florkiewicz, who studies animal communication at Lyon College and had no role in the new research. She said the study’s findings make sense, and point to a need for more investigation.

Florkiewicz said she’d like to hear comparable recordings of other animals with playful facial expressions, like dogs, horses and cats. That could tell us more about how laughter evolved, so we can “understand what makes us uniquely human, but also what is similar between humans and other animals.”

Studying the origins of laughter may seem corny, but it's one aspect of human communication that can help us understand others — including how we learned to speak. Because sounds don't fossilize, scientists are using the evidence we do have to trace things back, one chuckle at a time.

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

The growth in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — marked a rebound from a sluggish 0.5% in the last three months of 2025 when a 43-day federal government shutdown weighed on the economy. Thursday’s numbers were an upgrade from of Commerce’s previous first-quarter estimate of 1.6% growth.

Business investment surged, probably reflecting an investment boom in artificial intelligence. But consumer spending, which accounts for around 70% of U.S. economic activity, fell sharply from fourth-quarter 2025 and from Commerce’s previous estimate in a sign that consumers may be cutting back in the face of higher gasoline prices caused by the war with Iran.

“It was unsettling to see consumer spending revised even lower,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a commentary. "Spending is likely to tick up in (the second quarter), but it’s worth watching carefully... It’s been a tough few months for American consumers, but most have been able to make it through. The question is how much relief is coming” as the U.S. and Iran continue talks toward a resolution of the conflict.

Excluding housing, private investment jumped 10.6%, up from 2.4% in fourth-quarter 2025. In a sign of the AI boom, investment in information-processing equipment jumped at a 39.9% pace as companies scrambled to outfit their data centers. But Michael Reid, head of U.S. economics at RBC Capital Markets, said before Thursday’s report came out that “unfortunately, it’s not a sustainable path.’’ He expects data center investment to lose momentum going forward.

Residential investment, weighed down by high interest rates, dropped 7.8% from January through March, biggest fall since late 2022 and the fifth straight quarterly decline.

The federal government's spending and investment rose at a 9.4% clip in the first quarter after dropping 16.6% in October-December 2025 largely because of the government shutdown.

Imports, which are subtracted from GDP, grew at a slower pace than last estimated from January through March. They still subtracted 1.49 percentage points from first-quarter growth, but that was down from a 2.59 percentage-point hit in the previous estimate and was a major factor in Thursday's upgrade.

The U.S. economy — the world’s biggest — has continued to chug along despite the Iran energy shock. The American job market has proven especially resilient. Employers added an average 188,000 jobs a month from March through May after adding fewer than 10,000 a month in 2025 amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies.

Thursday’s report was the Commerce Department’s third and final estimate of first-quarter GDP growth. The first look at second-quarter economic growth is due July 30.

In 2022, Ty and Leslie Eggemeyer received a notice in the mail that would shape the next four years of their lives. Their nearly 4,000-acre wildlife resort in Lampasas County — featuring everything from giraffes to wildebeests and gazelles — was along the route of a planned pipeline project proposing to connect the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast.

Matterhorn Express, a pipeline entity majority-owned by the Austin-based infrastructure company WhiteWater Midstream, would transport Permian Basin gas 580 miles to the Houston area using the powers of eminent domain to sail through thousands of acres of private property.

On Artemis Ranch, the 42-inch pipeline would clip through just a half-mile strip of the property. But it would create an eyesore near the ranch’s entrance, visible to guests coming for wedding parties, corporate retreats and other events.

“We’ve been pushing our ranch as an eco-tourism ranch. How does that fit with a 42-inch gas pipeline running through the front entrance?” Ty Eggemeyer said.

To compensate, Matterhorn offered the landowners what it claimed was market value for the strip of land — around $21,000. The Eggemeyers refused, forcing the two sides into a yearslong legal battle that dragged on as the pipeline was built.

In April, nearly two years after the project went into service, the Eggemeyers and a packed Lampasas County courtroom listened as a jury delivered its final judgment. Matterhorn was ordered to pay them about $7 million for easement rights and property damages, a sum roughly 330 times greater than the pipeline company’s final offer.

“I had tears running down my face,” Eggemeyer recalled.

Tensions between landowners and pipeline companies over eminent domain are stirring up as Texas faces a surge of pipeline projects seeking to move more natural gas from West Texas oil fields. By 2029, several new gas pipeline projects are expected to be completed, three of which are slated to finish construction this year. All are spurred by either data centers thirsty for more electric power generation or liquefied natural gas exporters seeking to supply a turbulent global economy with American energy.

Caught in the middle are Texas landowners confronted with the power of Texas’ eminent domain laws, which attorneys say can trample on property rights while leaving landowners with little compensation.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, pipeline developers acquire easements through voluntary negotiations with landowners, where companies seek to achieve “fair, mutually beneficial outcomes,” according to Thure Cannon, president of the Texas Pipeline Alliance.

But when an agreement can’t be reached — such as in the case between Artemis Ranch and Matterhorn — companies file condemnation suits in state district courts, setting off lengthy and costly legal processes.

“Over 80% or 90% of landowners will negotiate 10% or 20% more than that final written offer and think they’ve hit a home run,” said Chris Johns, an eminent domain attorney in Austin. “But they haven’t. They got low-balled and they accepted it.”

Neither Matterhorn nor members of its legal team responded to requests for comment. On June 16, the company filed a motion asking the judge to overturn the jury’s verdict or schedule a new trial. The Texas Oil and Gas Association said developers have guaranteed that private property rights are respected while ensuring that pipeline infrastructure — a backbone of the Texas economy and global energy security — can be built.

“Because of the Lone Star State’s role as a global energy leader, the very same infrastructure that secures our local economy simultaneously provides stability to our allies abroad,” TXOGA President Todd Staples said in a statement. “Strengthening our infrastructure network allows us to deliver reliable energy that helps our global partners reduce their reliance on energy from hostile regimes.”

In good faith

Texas law grants eminent domain authority to private companies whose projects serve a public purpose, meaning that developers have the power to take private property from landowners if they can demonstrate that their project provides a public benefit.

In order for pipelines to meet this requirement, they must qualify as a common carrier — defined as those that transport products for one or more third-party customers.

The law also requires developers to make a bona fide offer to landowners, or an amount based on an appraisal of the property being condemned, and engage in good faith negotiations for a voluntary sale.

If a landowner rejects the offer, a developer can file a condemnation suit asking the court to appoint a special commission of three disinterested property owners from the same county to determine the proper compensation. A landowner can still reject that amount and continue the legal fight, but at that point the developer can take possession of the property as soon as it deposits the commission’s recommended price into the court’s registry.

But eminent domain attorneys say that the bona fide offer requirement has been weakened by the courts.

“The ‘bona fide offer’ is a joke,” said Jeff Mundy, an Austin-based environmental law attorney.

Several experts point to a watershed moment in 2004, when the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling that changed how good faith negotiations play out.

Before 2004, landowners unwilling to give up their property were incentivized to drag out negotiations with developers for as long as possible. The longer negotiations take, the more likely companies are to sweeten their offer.

The 2004 case, Hubenak v. San Jacinto Gas Transmission Co., sought to end that strategy. The court ruled that any dollar amount offered by a pipeline company qualifies as a bona fide offer, and it’s not up to the courts to evaluate the reasonableness of the offer.

“Before the Hubenak case, there was this idea that the offer has to pass this subjective good faith test. That means you look at what everybody else is getting offered and so on, then try to divine the real value of the land,” said Chris Kulander, an oil and gas attorney and senior lecturer at the University of Texas School of Law. “You really don’t have to do that anymore.”

The case “assisted pipeline companies in bringing these condemnation actions to a speedier close,” he added.

Three months after the Eggemeyers first received the condemnation notice in the mail, Matterhorn obtained a temporary restraining order allowing the company to survey the land. Within two months, the company sent them an initial offer of around $38,000 for the half-mile easement, followed by the $21,000 final offer, both of which they declined.

“I don’t know how the state of Texas can equate a $21,000 offer as a bona fide offer,” Eggemeyer said.

Ahead of the jury trial, Matterhorn made a final pitch to the landowners — $3 million in exchange for settling the condemnation suit in addition to allowing the company to lay a second pipeline through their property.

With global demand for Texas natural gas rising, the company had plans to build a second, even larger pipeline that would run along the same general route as the Matterhorn pipeline. That project, known as the Eiger Express, is expected to begin carrying gas to the Gulf Coast in 2028.

The Eggemeyers declined that pre-trial offer, preferring to take their chances before a jury. But it was their first confirmation that the company aimed to install a second pipeline through their ranch.

The corridor effect

It’s not uncommon for one pipeline to multiply into several when developers use a right-of-way to install a second, third or fourth line, creating what several experts describe as a pipeline corridor.

In the region where the hills of Central Texas flatten into the rolling plains of the west, Babette Taylor and her family have been farming and ranching for six generations. But the previous 45 years have made Taylor an expert on Texas’ eminent domain laws and the pipeline corridor effect.

Sitting just east of the Permian Basin, Taylor’s ranch in McCulloch County is marked by a ribbon of cleared land stretching as far as the eye can see. Underneath is a thoroughfare of four pipelines shipping oil and gas to the Gulf Coast.

Taylor’s first exposure to the pipeline business was in 1981, when she recalls her parents discussing easement terms at their dining table with a landman representing a Houston-based company. Within two years, a natural gas pipeline was running through their ranchland from the Permian Basin to processing plants east of Houston.

The same company returned a decade later with a second pipeline project, then again in 2015 and 2019. Over the course of 40 years, the booming Permian Basin turned Taylor’s ranch into a pipeline corridor.

“Once these easement terms are signed, they’re in effect in perpetuity. You can’t go back and renegotiate,” Taylor said. “The land is burdened for eternity with those pipelines.”

With each subsequent project, the compensation to the landowner dwindles because every additional pipeline causes less harm to the property’s value than the one before.

“Something we tell our landowner clients is to make sure you do a really good job of getting compensation on the first one, because the second, third and fourth one that may come through, you’re not going to get compensated as well,” said Johns.

But to Taylor, any kind of upfront lump-sum payments leaves landowners with the short end of the stick. If for-profit companies are using her land to transport their products, the landowner should be cut into some kind of revenue-sharing arrangement, she argues.

And it’s an idea that has made its way to the Texas Legislature once before.

Capitol solutions

Few Texans have perhaps felt the strain of the state’s eminent domain laws more acutely than David Simpson, an East Texas Republican who served in the Texas House from 2011 to 2017. Simpson and his family-owned timber company, Avenger Timber, were embroiled in a 12-year condemnation suit filed by pipeline company Enbridge, which both sides ultimately settled out of court.

Simpson quickly gained a reputation in the Legislature for his ardent opposition to what he sees as government overreach, and his experience with Enbridge only bolstered his criticisms of Texas eminent domain laws, he said.

“Oil and gas companies are private, and they should be treated that way,” Simpson said. “My idea is they should pay a royalty for traversing your property against your will.”

As a freshman legislator, Simpson floated the idea of royalty payments so that property owners can benefit from the pipeline profits, and he filed bills proposing other landowner protections, although no bills made it out of committee.

Eminent domain reform efforts didn’t appear again at the Capitol until 2019, when a bill by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst sought to prevent companies from making lowball offers to landowners, along with other protections. But the bill died in a joint House-Senate conference committee after another lawmaker led an effort to remove provisions that Kolkhorst said were critical for leveling the landowner-developer playing field.

Reform efforts finally gained ground in 2021 when the Legislature passed a version of Kolkhorst’s bill that failed in 2019. Although it did not address landowner compensation, it required companies to restore damaged land around a pipeline easement or compensate landowners for damages that aren’t restored, along with other transparency measures.

Kolkhorst described it as a first step to try to bring more balance to the process. Although numerous industry associations threw their support behind the bill, it struggled to gain backing from some landowner groups that felt it didn’t go far enough.

The Texas Pipeline Association described the reforms as a significant strengthening of landowner protections that resulted from years of negotiations with landowner groups and lawmakers. The bill “created a more consistent process for landowners while preserving the state’s ability to develop infrastructure that serves a public need,” Cannon, the Texas Pipeline Alliance president, said in a statement.

Of the six pipeline projects slated to come online by 2029, two will connect the Permian Basin to Dallas-Fort Worth’s growing data center market, where many facilities are expected to build their own on-site gas-fired power plants. Three would feed gas storage hubs along the Gulf Coast, where seven new export terminals are expected to double U.S. liquefied natural gas exports by the end of the decade.

“How can something be eminent domain-able if all the product is being piped to get put on a boat and shipped overseas?” said Allison Koester, a Coleman County rancher facing a proposed gas pipeline coming through her land on its way to the Gulf Coast. “Eminent domain should be for the good of the people impacted by it and the people that will be using it.”

As pipelines and transmission lines continue expanding across Texas and add pressure on rural landowners, the issue may percolate in the Capitol once again, said Kathi Seay, policy adviser for state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.

“This is an issue that raises to the surface every couple of years with the gnashing of teeth, then quietly slides back below the surface,” Seay said.

Disclosure: Texas Oil & Gas Association and Texas Pipeline Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Gracie, who is about 3 years old, has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, said Vic Jones, who owns the remote property about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He said Wednesday that Gracie had wandered into a part of the privately owned preserve that other giraffes previously avoided.

Jones said he has sent up helicopters to look for Gracie, a few sightings have trickled in, and a $5,000 reward is on the table.

But the giraffe, which stands roughly the height of a tree, hasn't turned up.

“She wound up going up and feeding in an area on the hillside and the rocky ledges that none of the other giraffes had ever gone on before,” Jones said. “And when she came down off of there, she came down on the wrong side of the gate.”

The ranch is in rural Real County, where its roughly 2,700 residents were put on alert to be on the lookout for a missing giraffe. Jones said the search area is extremely remote, and the likelihood of Gracie encountering any humans is low.

“People are not in danger of her because she’s not around people,” Jones said. 'She’s out in very, very rough, heavily wooded lands.”

The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the country. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said the mild climate and rugged terrain seems to serve as a good stand-in for most of the animals' native African environments.

He rattled off a list of animals that have gone missing over the years, especially after floods, but said this was his first giraffe.

“I’ve had wildebeests, I've had water buffalo, I've had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.”

While the middle of Texas is not a giraffe's native environment, Jones said Gracie should be able to find plenty of leaves and other vegetation to eat. He said other animals were not likely to bother her.

Jones said he initially had helicopters searching an area of about 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) with no luck. A few days later, there was a report that Gracie was spotted to the south.

But by the time they could search the area, Jones said, she was already gone.

“We're always two three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” Jones said.

Gracie, who is about 3 years old, has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, said Vic Jones, who owns the remote property about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He said Wednesday that Gracie had wandered into a part of the privately owned preserve that other giraffes previously avoided.

Jones said he has sent up helicopters to look for Gracie, a few sightings have trickled in, and a $5,000 reward is on the table.

But the giraffe, which stands roughly the height of a tree, hasn't turned up.

“She wound up going up and feeding in an area on the hillside and the rocky ledges that none of the other giraffes had ever gone on before,” Jones said. “And when she came down off of there, she came down on the wrong side of the gate.”

The ranch is in rural Real County, where its roughly 2,700 residents were put on alert to be on the lookout for a missing giraffe. Jones said the search area is extremely remote, and the likelihood of Gracie encountering any humans is low.

“People are not in danger of her because she’s not around people,” Jones said. 'She’s out in very, very rough, heavily wooded lands.”

The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the country. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said the mild climate and rugged terrain seems to serve as a good stand-in for most of the animals' native African environments.

He rattled off a list of animals that have gone missing over the years, especially after floods, but said this was his first giraffe.

“I’ve had wildebeests, I've had water buffalo, I've had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.”

While the middle of Texas is not a giraffe's native environment, Jones said Gracie should be able to find plenty of leaves and other vegetation to eat. He said other animals were not likely to bother her.

Jones said he initially had helicopters searching an area of about 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) with no luck. A few days later, there was a report that Gracie was spotted to the south.

But by the time they could search the area, Jones said, she was already gone.

“We're always two three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” Jones said.

Now, they're going on public display for the first time after a nonprofit organization paid a whopping sum of more than $7 million for the sketches after they ended up on an auction block following a family dispute over their ownership.

The four 1940s-era sketches titled “So You Want to See the President!” show people from all walks of life waiting to see President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. They depict U.S. senators, members of the military, the press and even a Miss America biding their time in the West Wing reception area, as they wait to be shown to the Oval Office.

The White House Historical Association spared no expense for the sketches to prevent them from being “lost forever,” such as to a private art collection, its president Stewart McLaurin told The Associated Press. The public will be able to see them through June 2027 at the historical association’s “The People’s House” education center near the White House, he said.

“And since they had been seen by the eyes of so many presidents and first ladies and senior White House staff and important visitors from around the world, we wanted the American people to see them," McLaurin said. “So we acquired them.”

The sketches had been put up for sale by a grandson of the White House official who received them as a gift from Rockwell.

Rockwell is famous for his scenes of American life

Rockwell, who became famous for his illustrations of everyday American life that graced covers of the Saturday Evening Post, spent hours at the White House people-watching from a chair in the West Wing lobby, McLaurin said.

But after his sketches were consumed by a fire that destroyed Rockwell's art studio in Vermont, he went back to the White House to collect more material.

“So it's really a combination of his memories from that first visit, the memories of the second visit,” McLaurin said. “And it is an array of these people representing the military and White House staff and members of Congress and the press corps and all kinds of people that literally, to this day, go through that space in the West Wing.”

The first of Rockwell's colorful sketches opens with scenes of the entrance gate, photographers waiting outside the White House entrance on West Executive Avenue and Stephen Early, a former AP journalist who became the third White House press secretary under Roosevelt, in a huddle with a group of journalists. Seated on red leather chairs and reading papers are members of the press and Rockwell, with a pipe in his mouth and legs outstretched.

The next scene shows Miss America — identified as Rosemary LaPlanche, the 1941 titleholder — in a yellow dress and her sash, sitting on a red sofa alongside her publicity man. A kilt-wearing Scottish officer also sits nearby as a Secret Service agent hovers.

U.S. Sens. Tom Connally, D-Texas, and Warren Austin, R-Vt., face each other in conversation as they sit on a red couch in the third sketch while a U.S. Navy “WAVES” officer looks on from a nearby chair. Gens. Joseph W. “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell and Edwin M. “Pa” Watson shake hands while being photographed, and an aide pushing Roosevelt's lunch cart is chased by Fala, the president's dog.

The final sketch shows more uniformed U.S military members huddled in conversation and, finally, an aide opening the door to the Oval Office, where the president is glimpsed.

“It's such a little aquarium of these people and we're like a fly on the wall as to what it was like at that particular period of time,” McLaurin said of the sketches.

They were a gift for Roosevelt's press secretary

Rockwell made the sketches for Early and gave them to him after they appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in November 1943, during World War II, McLaurin said.

Early, who died in 1951, had displayed them on the wall in his West Wing office and then kept them for many years after. In 1978, a family member turned the sketches over to the White House, where they were on display throughout the West Wing for more than four decades, sometimes in a hallway between the press offices that are mere steps from the Oval Office.

The family’s ownership dispute began in 2017 when Thomas Early, one of the press secretary’s sons, saw them on a wall in the White House while watching a television interview with President Donald Trump, according to court records.

William Elam III, a grandson of Stephen Early, said his mother received the drawings as a gift from her father, the press secretary, before he died, and that ownership had later passed to him.

The illustrations had gone to the White House in 1978 under an agreement that required they be returned to Elam upon request. The White House gave back the drawings in 2022.

A federal appeals court settled the dispute in May 2025, upholding a lower-court ruling in favor of Elam, according to court records. Elam put them up for sale.

Association says the sketches are ‘priceless’

Historians at the association have researched the people in the drawings to learn their stories, McLaurin said, and the exhibit will include a digital component that uses modern technology to bring the characters in the sketches to life.

The association is still figuring out what happens to the sketches after the exhibit ends in June 2027. They may be shown in other venues, and may eventually end up back in the White House, McLaurin said.

When the association learned the sketches were for sale, “our board affirmed that this is an acquisition that we should make,” he said.

McLaurin said the privately funded association, which was founded in 1961 by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and receives no taxpayer dollars, had feared the sketches would sell for even more than the $7.25 million it paid for them. That is the most the association has ever paid for a work of art for the vast collection it holds as part of its mission to help the White House collect and display artifacts that represent American history and culture.

“In our view, these are priceless works,” McLaurin said.

In new overnight strikes, Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv's forces hit two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the front line, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Ukraine.

In recent months, Ukraine has stepped up its aerial campaign against Russian military installations and energy facilities. Its success has caused fuel shortages and disrupted army supply lines, stalling Moscow’s full-scale invasion after more than four years of fighting.

Zelenskyy said in his daily address late Wednesday that Russia is moving more air defenses to the capital as well as to Valdai, a town some 500 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of Moscow and the site of a residence for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said they are also protecting the Kerch Bridge, a vital supply route connecting the Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland.

“In the Moscow region alone, they have amassed hundreds of launchers” for air defense missiles, Zelenskyy said. “Nearly 90 launchers have been redeployed to Valdai from other regions of Russia.”

It was not possible to independently verify Zelenskyy's claims, which portrayed the Russian leadership as caring more about protecting itself than other cities and towns in the vast country. Russian officials made no immediate comment.

Ukrainian drones this month have hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and Putin’s hometown. Ukraine is also trying to cut off Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.

The air defense changes, Zelenskyy suggested, would leave other parts of Russia vulnerable to Ukraine’s increasingly sophisticated long-range drones, which can now fly more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles).I

“There are many difficulties (for Russia), all because Putin refuses to end his war and to hear our proposals for a meeting, genuine negotiations, and a dignified peace,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused, and a year of U.S.-led peace efforts made no significant headway.

Trump praises Zelenskyy

Western officials and analysts say Ukraine’s prospects have improved after more than four years of a grueling war of attrition as its domestic development and production of cutting-edge drones pin down the bigger Russian army.

Trump, who previously has been critical of Zelenskyy, said Wednesday the Ukrainian leader is “courageous” and “doing pretty well” in the war.

Zelenskyy said he won pledges of sustained foreign support when he attended a recent summit of G7 leaders, including Trump, and that promised aid will further help Ukraine’s intensified campaign.

“Our operation, including the one concerning Crimea, has been carefully planned, and the way it is unfolding clearly demonstrates that if Ukraine receives exactly what we discussed with our partners at the G7 — and that depends on our partners’ decisions — we will quickly create conditions in which Russia will be forced to choose peace,” he said.

“We very much hope for a positive response from our partners,” Zelenskyy added. “They know exactly what we are talking about.”

Ukraine is wary of its neighbor Belarus

Belarus, whose factories have played a key role in supporting Moscow’s war effort, appears to have turned off signal repeaters on its soil that Kyiv says were used to help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. Moscow launched its 2022 invasion of its southern neighbor from Belarus.

Zelenskyy demanded last week that Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Russia, remove the relay equipment. He threatened to take action against the relay stations, presumably with a military strike that could bring the countries into direct conflict.

Ukrainian intelligence has determined that the repeaters are now off, Zelenskyy told journalists.

Even so, Zelenskyy said later Thursday on Telegram that “along our state border, Belarus is completing the construction of road infrastructure and storage facilities for ammunition and fuel, which have no purpose other than military use.”

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said he recently met with Zelenskyy’s representatives and warned them against using force against his country. At a meeting with the governor of the Moscow region, he said Belarus has no intention of entering the war and doesn’t want to fight Ukraine but would “stand alongside Russia.”

Ukrainian military officials on Wednesday ordered a mandatory evacuation for the approximately 1,000 people still in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia and Belarus starting July 1.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Lukashenko is walking a fine line.

“Lukashenko continues to stall and deflect the Kremlin’s intensified attempts to drag Belarus into the war in Ukraine while maintaining relatively neutral rhetoric towards Ukraine,” the institute said.

Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the armed forces, said last week that Ukraine is strengthening defenses on its northern border, including creating new drone units there.

Russia targets Ukraine's civilian gas stations

Russia launched a ballistic missile and 90 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.

One drone struck a gas station Thursday in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, injuring four people, said regional administration head Oleh Hryhorov, adding that Russian forces have attacked the region's gas stations 13 times in June alone.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 269 Ukrainian drones from late Wednesday until early Thursday.

Several Russian airports temporarily restricted flights overnight during drone attacks.

In other developments, the French navy intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean that is suspected of being part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of aging vessels of uncertain ownership and safety practices that are dodging sanctions, French authorities said.

The Deliver, sailing under the flag of Cameroon, had departed from the Russian port of Primorsk, authorities said.

___

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

Officers responded to the incident around 10:25 p.m. in the 300 block of East Lachapelle, which is located near Lone Star Boulevard.

Officers said the man, who’s around 30 years old, was sitting on the tracks prior to the collision.

The train was not able to stop in time and hit the man, SAPD said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine his identity, as well as his cause and manner of death.

SAPD said its investigation is ongoing. Further information was not readily available.

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The justices, in a 6-3 decision, overturned a lower court order blocking the practice that limited the number of people who could apply for asylum each day under the Obama administration and during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Advocates said the tactic created a humanitarian crisis as thousands of people settled in unsafe makeshift shelters to await their turn. The Trump administration said it was necessary to deal with an increase of asylum seekers at the border.

The policy isn’t in place now, though authorities have imposed other restrictions on asylum seekers.

The administration argues that metering is a critical tool that’s been used by presidents of both parties and should stay available. Federal attorneys say people turned away at the border could come back later, though lines were thousands of people long when the policy was in place before.

The case is one of several immigration suits is considering this term, including Trump’s push to end restrict birthright citizenship and his administration’s effort to strip legal temporary protections for migrants fleeing instability and armed conflict.

Under federal law, migrants who arrive in the U.S. must be able to apply for asylum and be screened for fear of persecution in their home countries.

The Justice Department argued that people stopped by authorities haven’t arrived, so immigration agents don’t have to let them apply.

But attorneys for people seeking asylum say the law has long meant anyone arriving at a port of entry should be screened, and blocking arrivals disregards the nation’s ideals.

Metering was first used during President Barack Obama’s administration when large numbers of Haitians appeared at the main crossing to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. It was expanded to all border crossings from Mexico during Trump’s first term in the White House.

It ended in 2020 when the government introduced greater restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, and President Joe Biden formally rescinded it in 2021.

The same year, a California-based federal judge found that metering violated the asylum seekers rights and the law requiring screening. A divided appeals court panel affirmed the ruling but nearly half of judges on the full San Francisco-based court voted to rehear it, a strong signal that might have caught the attention of the Supreme Court.

U.S. law allows people seeking refuge to apply for asylum once they are on American soil, regardless of whether they came legally. To qualify for asylum, they must show a fear of persecution in their homeland for specific reasons, like race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

People who are eventually granted asylum can’t be deported. They can legally work, bring in immediate family, apply for legal residency and seek citizenship.

Van Hollen’s endorsement, shared first with The Associated Press on the day early voting begins in Michigan, makes him the first senator to back El-Sayed since Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed him shortly after he launched his campaign last year. It also comes on the heels of big wins for progressive challengers in New York U.S. House races on Tuesday.

The Aug. 4 race in Michigan has increasingly split Democrats along ideological lines, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer backing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow drawing support from other prominent senators.

Democrats will need to hold the Michigan seat if they want a shot at winning the majority this year. It opened by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ retirement and former Rep. Mike Rogers has an uncontested path to the Republican nomination.

In an interview with the AP, Van Hollen said he believed El-Sayed was the “strongest” candidate who can win in November, and “the candidate who’s willing to take on the status quo.”

“When I say the status quo, I mean not just the lawless Trump administration, but take on the Democratic establishment that has not fought hard enough for working people," said Van Hollen.

Senate Democrats have split across the field

Schumer last week publicly backed Stevens, a fourth-term congresswoman from suburban Detroit who is seen as the more moderate candidate in the race. She has also been endorsed by other senators from battleground states, including Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and former Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Stevens has also benefited from heavy outside spending, including nearly $8 million this month from United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

McMorrow, a state senator, has tried to carve out her own lane between Stevens and El-Sayed as an anti-establishment candidate with a reform-focused agenda. She has won endorsements from other senators, including Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, while also drawing millions in outside support.

El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health director, has run furthest to the left on issues including Medicare for All and halting all U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, making him a favorite of the party’s progressive wing. He has campaigned with popular-yet-controversial streamer Hasan Piker, who has millions of followers online but has said things such as that “America deserved 9/11.”

Earlier this month, the United Auto Workers endorsed him, saying its members “want a fighter in Washington, D.C. who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity.”

Van Hollen said he believes El-Sayed is best positioned to compete in a battleground state because he is running on affordability and against what he described as a political system too influenced by wealthy donors and special interests.

“This is not about left versus right. This is about very concentrated economic and political power at the top, and everybody else,” Van Hollen said. “And he’s fighting for everybody else.”

El-Sayed praised Van Hollen after receiving the endorsement, calling it the “culmination of an ongoing conversation” and describing the senator as a “mentor.”

With progressives coming off a string of wins in New York, El-Sayed said the results reflected the same frustrations he has heard from voters across Michigan.

“It’s not surprising to me that candidates who buck that system win,” El-Sayed said. “I really hope that folks in D.C., like Chuck Schumer, decide to pay attention, finally.”

Tensions with Schumer as Democrats debate their future

Asked whether backing El-Sayed amounted to a broader rebuke of Democratic leadership, Van Hollen said the endorsement was “not about personalities” but about backing a candidate who would take on both President Donald Trump and “the establishment Democratic Party” that he said is “too cozy with big money special interests.”

Van Hollen has not called on Schumer to step aside. Asked if he would be interested in leading Democrats in the Senate, Van Hollen told the AP that he has “not thought about doing that.”

But his endorsement lands at a moment of growing friction between Democratic leadership and the party’s left flank over how aggressively to confront Trump and what kind of candidates can win in battleground states.

Those tensions were exacerbated earlier this month in Maine, where Schumer had backed Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic Senate primary before she suspended her campaign and progressive Graham Platner won the nomination.

Van Hollen has also been among the Senate Democrats urging the party to rethink its approach after the 2024 election. He framed his endorsement of El-Sayed at odds with leadership as a “difference of opinion with respect to which candidates will best connect with voters.”

“I think it's pretty clear that Abdul is the candidate who can build a grassroots movement and others are not," said Van Hollen.

San Antonio Mission Indian Descendants, a nonprofit organization, has launched the “Find Your Roots, Claim Your Story: Descendants Legacy Project.”

The project is an effort designed to help families trace their lineage and learn more about their connections to the people who helped build and sustain the city’s historic site.

For many residents, the San Antonio Missions are among the city’s most recognizable landmarks and a source of pride.

However, organizers say many descendants of the indigenous communities associated with the San Antonio Missions grew up in the city without knowing their own family ties to the historic site.

KSAT talked to Diana Reyes with the San Antonio Mission Indian Descendants during GMSA @ 9 this week about the Descendants Legacy Project, which aims to bridge gaps in historical knowledge by providing research assistance for people interested in exploring their family histories.

As part of the initiative, the nonprofit is partnering with universities in San Antonio and San Marcos to help descendants access genealogical records, historical documents and academic expertise.

Organizers hope these partnerships will make it easier for families to uncover ancestral connections that may have been lost over time.

Reyes is encouraging community members who believe they may have ancestral ties to the San Antonio Missions to participate in the program and learn more about their family heritage.

Additional information about the Descendants Legacy Project, including upcoming events and research opportunities, is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

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For the past four years, Windcrest has been recruiting new tenants and developments to help offset that loss.

Mario Hernandez, the executive director of the Windcrest Economic Development Corp., said the city has not yet determined exactly how much of the gap has been closed, but sales revenue is trending about 10% higher than last year.

“To lose a million dollars is very significant,” Hernandez shared.

One of the most significant projects in the works is at the former Builders Mark site, which has sat vacant for years.

Hernandez told KSAT that a developer has plans to build two national restaurant chains.

The companies have not yet been publicly named, but Hernandez said developers are investing nearly $10 million into the project, with an opening date in early 2028.

The restaurant development is one of several projects Windcrest has been pursuing as it looks to grow its tax base. The city has also announced three other businesses that are expected to open soon.

Within the past year, Windcrest has already welcomed four new food spots and a fitness center. Hernandez said that level of development is notable for a city of Windcrest’s size.

“Doesn’t sound like a lot, but this is a community of two-and-a-half square miles and 5,800 people,” Hernandez explained.

Still, not all residents are convinced the city is bringing in the types of businesses they need most.

One woman, who spoke off camera, said she would like to see more retail options, especially for older residents who cannot easily travel elsewhere to shop for clothes.

On June 17, the city’s EDC announced on Facebook that a Marshall’s will be moving in, next to the Sketchers off Interstate on Fourwinds Drive.

Resident Rey Valdez said he wants to see more businesses that support the surrounding neighborhood.

“Our neighborhood around here is not, how do you say it? I don’t want to say dying. It’s just not making it around here,” Valdez said. “There’s nothing supporting in the neighborhood.”

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They’re giving you something to “cluck” about - The nation’s first fast casual chicken salad restaurant has come to South Texas. Chicken Salad Chick opened a new location in Boerne & are giving us a taste of the menu today.

The Wrestling Shop is a collectible store dedicated to all pro-wrestling merchandise and collectible memorabilia. They are kicking off summer with fun Friday match-up & offering a kid’s camp for all those young fans.

La Sorrentina Italian restaurant is bringing a taste of Italy to the west side. This hidden gem is worth the visit - we check out their menu, filled with the classic dishes you’ll love.

It’s summer road trip season and South San Antonio Buick GMC can help make sure those long rides are comfortable with their latest and greatest models. They’re offering a deal on Sierras & has a big announcement to make.

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 20 fell by 12,000 to 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 225,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite concerns that the war in Iran would trip up an already wobbly labor market, hiring has picked up in recent months following a miserable 2025 that saw fewer than 200,000 job gains. For comparison, about 1.5 million jobs were added in 2024.

U.S. employers delivered a surprising 172,000 new jobs in May and the economy is averaging 188,000 job gains in the three months since the Iran war began in late February. That’s the best three months of hiring since early 2024. The unemployment rate remains historically low at 4.3%.

The government issues its June jobs report next week.

Job openings also rose in April as employers posted 7.6 million vacancies, up from 6.9 million in March and the most since May 2024.

The government also reported Thursday that the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose to a new three-year high in May as gas prices peaked due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s southern border, where one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes every day.

Consumer prices rose 4.1% in May from a year earlier, the largest annual increase since April 2023, largely driven by more expensive gas. While energy prices have fallen considerably from their peak during the Middle East conflict, those higher prices put the squeeze on consumers’ budgets for months and may have made businesses more reluctant to hire.

Last week, Iran and the U.S. agreed to a deal to end the war and allow Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and sell its oil without restrictions.

With inflation still well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, officials at the U.S. central bank left the benchmark interest rate at its most recent meeting last week.

Lower interest rates can boost the economy and hiring, but also tend to stoke inflation, leading a number of Fed policymakers to say they are actually willing to consider at least one interest rate hike this year. That could potentially help bring inflation down, but higher borrowing costs generally make businesses more reluctant to hire.

The Federal Reserve has signaled that it could raise interest rates at least once before the end of the year. Wall Street sees an 85% chance that the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate this year, according to date from CME Group.

Optimism over artificial intelligence has also injected a degree of uncertainty about the job market due to the investment required to develop it and because the powerful technology could alter or even replace some jobs.

Among the companies that have cut jobs recently are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks and Walmart.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Thursday's report showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 750 to 224,250.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending June 13 increased by 21,000 to 1.82 million.

Trump harangued GOP senators face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber’s business to a halt. He exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure.

Hours later, though, Cassidy was invited to receive a personal briefing on the war at the White House from Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Cassidy then returned to the Capitol to vote against a separate but nearly identical war powers resolution.

“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns,” said Cassidy, who lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, in a post on X.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has repeatedly voted with Democrats to halt the war, voted present this time “to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace,” he said on X. The measure failed 47-50-1 just before midnight on Wednesday, and the Senate then left town for a two-week recess.

It's unclear whether the move will be enough to appease Trump, who had called the Republicans “losers" for voting against his war and had called Cassidy a “lunatic” at the lunch after their tense exchange. But the vote was a clear signal to the president from Republican senators who still want to placate him, despite increasing tensions in recent weeks and his decision Wednesday morning to reverse himself and delay signing a housing bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and a small group of his Senate GOP colleagues called Trump after the vote. Thune told reporters that the president was “pleased with the outcome."

Trump later thanked Thune in a social media post and noted that Cassidy and Paul had switched their votes. “This vote puts Iran on notice!” he wrote.

The war powers measure blocked by the Senate on Wednesday was on a separate track from the nearly identical resolution adopted on Tuesday, which had also been passed by the House. Both votes were largely symbolic, and the measures do not carry the full force of law.

Cassidy had sharp words for Trump

Invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to speak at a GOP luncheon in the Capitol, Trump had signaled ahead of time that he would use the closed-door meeting to push senators to pass his proof-of-citizenship voting bill. But the conversation was more focused on Tuesday’s vote on war powers.

Most Republicans stayed quiet. But Cassidy stood up and defended his vote.

“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. “This was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

The two men “went back and forth,” Cassidy said, and he “matched his tone and volume." Cassidy said that he eventually de-escalated, but he did not want to be bullied.

“I am voting for war powers until I get a briefing,” he said afterward.

Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who was not authorized to discuss it. At one point, the president called the senator a “lunatic."

Publicly, Trump said afterward that they had “a really great meeting." But he hinted at the discord.

“We like everyone in the room," Trump told reporters on his way out. "I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK.”

The luncheon capped weeks of friction between Trump and Senate Republicans and added a new layer of frustration as Tuesday's vote was the first time the Senate had adopted a war powers resolution on the Iran war. Trump made clear he was in no mood to compromise before it even started, calling off a scheduled signing ceremony on a housing bill that passed both chambers overwhelmingly this week and that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement.

Trump reverses on housing bill

Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But Trump upended their plans when he declared on social media just beforehand that he wouldn't sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn't know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis said as he walked into the luncheon.

Thune said the housing legislation, which aims to lower costs, is “an affordability issue,” and that ”eventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.”

It's unclear if Trump might veto the legislation or if the late Wednesday night vote will change his outlook. But by rejecting a public bill signing, Republicans worry that Trump is indicating a level of indifference to voters’ affordability concerns heading into November’s midterm elections.

Trump and Senate Republicans have been at odds

Trump's move on the housing bill is his latest reversal after weeks of being at odds with Senate Republicans.

Trump has blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.

Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda — Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Both men have become more critical of Trump since losing reelection.

“If we’re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,” Cornyn said ahead of the meeting. “We’re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.”

Trump pushes Thune on SAVE America Act

Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill, even though Thune has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes.

While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear. Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, “it’s just not realistic.”

Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren’t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill.

“I think people at some point have to come to grips with that,” Thune said.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

The new requirement takes effect Nov. 1. It applies to gasoline-powered vehicles that are between 2 and 24 years old. Diesel and electric vehicles are exempt.

The Official Inspection Station/Texas Tag and Title office is holding a free pre-screening event from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at 10480 Culebra Road, located near Loop 1604 on the far West Side.

The pre-screening can tell drivers whether their vehicle will pass or fail the actual emissions test. It may also help identify why a vehicle failed, giving owners time to make repairs before the requirement begins.

Once the law takes effect, the emissions test is expected to cost about $26. Vehicles that fall under the requirement must pass the inspection to register with the state.

Charissa Barnes, owner of the Official Inspection Station, said earlier this year that she is concerned many Bexar County residents who drive older vehicles may need time to fix problems before the deadline.

“Oh, absolutely,” Barnes said when asked whether some groups may have more difficulty than others. “And even different communities across Bexar County. So we expect to see a higher failure rate in Bexar County, first of all, and in other subparts of subcommunities of Bexar County as well.”

The emissions testing requirement comes as Bexar County remains out of compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.

Other major Texas metro areas, including Dallas and Houston, have required emissions testing for years.

Drivers can call the Official Inspection Station at 210-698-1000 for information about future pre-screening events.