Biya arrived at the international airport in the capital, Yaoundé, aboard a flight from Geneva, Switzerland, after more than 10 weeks away.

The world’s oldest president, who has led Cameroon since 1982, began his eighth term in office in November after winning a widely disputed election in October.

Biya had left the country on June 7 for what his office described as “a brief private stay in Europe,” but it became the longest recorded absence of his presidency.

The 20 deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia.

Deportees will include African nationals as well as nationals from North America, South America and the Caribbean, according to Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah. Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh has said they could seek asylum in the West African country if they wished.

The U.S. State Department declined to answer questions about the Liberia agreement, but said that implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies was a “top priority.” It said it was “unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security.”

The U.S. Homeland Security Department declined to confirm Thursday's deportations “for operational security reasons” and referred additional questions to the State Department.

Third-country agreements are often shrouded in secrecy. Migrants have been deported to countries they have never been to or where they face safety risks and are left with little choice other than to return to the home countries they were fleeing from.

The Trump administration struck agreements with at least 35 countries to deport people who are from other countries, including Liberia and 13 others in Africa, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a partnership of Refugees International and Human Rights First that relies on public records requests, news reports and other sources. More than 23,000 people have deported to 26 countries under the agreements.

The U.S. State Department previously announced that Liberia agreed to accept deportees who are not from Liberia. But a six-page agreement reached in September 2025 and posted on its website does not say how many or from which countries.

In October 2025, Liberia offered to accept Kilmar Abrego Garcia of El Salvador, who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador. Blocked from sending him to his native country, the Trump administration has vowed to send him to a third county, including Liberia.

Abrego Garcia has said he would agree to be deported to Costa Rica, which has said it will accept him. But the government has so far declined to send him there. Abrego Garcia is fighting deportation to Liberia in a federal lawsuit in Maryland.

Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana, who has a pending federal criminal case in connection with the Aug. 8 crash, lied to a border officer and falsely claimed he was a U.S. citizen when he entered the country in Texas in 2007, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.

Hernandez-Umana, 46, a citizen of El Salvador, is being held at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to online records. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he will eventually be deported.

Immigration authorities arrested him after he was released on bail in his criminal case, where he is charged with causing the deaths of 5-month old Antonella Garcia and 27-year-old Sara Sanchez through misconduct or neglect.

According to prosecutors, Hernandez-Umana wasn’t licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard, wasn’t aware of basic safety rules and told investigators he’d borrowed his friend’s personal vessel for the New York Harbor excursion. The boat was illegally chartered and overcrowded, prosecutors said.

“Once he faces justice for his crimes, we will make sure that he is swiftly removed from our country,” Mullin said in a statement.

Hernandez-Umana's lawyer, Amy Gallicchio, declined comment.

Hernandez, who had been living in Manville, New Jersey, was not required to enter a plea at his initial court appearance in the criminal case on Aug. 10. He wiped his eyes as he arrived to the courtroom, still wearing the T-shirt, swim trunks and water shoes he’d had on during the voyage. He is due back in court on Sept. 9.

According to Coast Guard investigators, Hernandez was piloting a 21-foot Yamaha AR210 with 14 people aboard — well over its 10 person capacity — when it swamped and sank as it made a U-turn in choppy waters. The tour began around 7 p.m. and the vessel capsized more than three hours into its journey.

The infant wasn’t wearing a life preserver because the boat didn’t have any for small children, prosecutors said. Instead, Hernandez told Sanchez she needed to wear a life vest and hold the infant throughout the hourslong tour, a violation of federal regulations, prosecutors said.

The tour was organized through Zeus Luxury Rental Inc., which advertises its services on social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok. A boat chartered by the company caught fire last year during a birthday cruise on Long Island Sound.

According to his criminal complaint, Hernandez told investigators he had worked for Zeus Luxury on a freelance or contract basis since last year, starting as a limousine driver. He said that twice recently he used his personal boat, a slightly larger Yamaha AR250, but used a friend’s boat on Aug. 8 because his needed repairs, the complaint said.

Messages seeking comment were sent to a phone number and email address listed on Zeus Luxury’s website. The phone number’s voicemail was full, according to an automated recording.

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This story has been updated to correct that Homeland Security announced the arrest Wednesday, not Monday.

Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy’s story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy's lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The livestreamed trial has sparked massive discussions online and has brought attention to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington says she had that is linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Reddington said she also has bipolar disorder. After strangling her children, Clancy jumped from a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Reddington says Clancy repeatedly sought help: She turned to multiple outpatient providers, tried various drugs they prescribed, called a suicide hotline, went to an emergency room, and even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital.

Prosecutors say the former labor and delivery nurse planned the Jan. 24, 2023, killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family. They have also questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt, and witnesses have testified that Clancy wouldn’t always take prescribed medications.

Supporters stood silently for an hour

Thursday's rally was the first time during the nearly monthlong trial that supporters have come out in such large numbers.

“Women are being dismissed, neglected and ignored when we speak up,” said April Vincent, a 52-year-old paralegal from Providence, Rhode Island. “We’re scared because nobody takes us seriously.”

The women stood silently for more than an hour ahead of Thursday's proceedings, where a chaplain called by the defense testified about visiting Clancy in the hospital after the killings.

At the sight of Reddington outside the courthouse, the crowd broke into applause.

Rally organizer Renee Kimball implored the crowd to trust that Reddington “has Lindsay’s fight.”

Toward the end of their rally, supporters formed a circle, said the Lord's Prayer, held up their arms and formed hearts with their hands. Some held flags from different countries to show that the support for Clancy was global.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. Researchers estimate that postpartum psychosis — which is more serious and less common than postpartum depression — afflicts 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery.

Jeanne Zaborski, a 72-year-old retired nurse from Rockland, Massachusetts, said she hopes the case raises awareness about postpartum health. She and many others at the rally said they had been following the trial almost daily.

“It's very sad,” Zaborski said. “I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I have a sister who had problems after birth and it's just very sad. I hope Lindsay gets the care she needs and deserves and other women will come together like we did today.”

Chaplain recalls one of the first things Clancy said to her

In court, Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, testified that when she first visited Clancy, she was unconscious. By Jan. 31, 2023, Clancy was conscious and no longer connected to a ventilator, Cavanaugh said, but “her emotional state was very neutral – a flat affect.”

Cavanaugh said she “vividly remembers” one of the first things Clancy said to her.

“She said to me, as I held her hand to comfort her, ‘I’m so glad my children are safe,’” Cavanaugh said. “I replied theologically to Lindsay. I said, ‘Lindsay, your children are safe. They’re safe in heaven with God.’”

“We prayed for them,” said Cavanaugh, who saw Clancy more than 200 times and has visited her at the state mental hospital where she resides.

Cavanaugh said Clancy “alluded to hearing a voice, and the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe.”

Prosecutors questioned why Cavanaugh had not documented the disclosure about the voice in notes she made in Clancy’s hospital record.

“I’m not there to evaluate the patient; I’m there to bear witness to their suffering,” Cavanaugh said, noting that she is not medically trained and her notes aren't meant to be verbatim transcripts of conversations.

Their last visit was right before the trial started. She said Clancy “talks frequently about her children.”

“She loves them deeply,” Cavanaugh said. “She carries immense grief.”

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Associated Press journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston.

The Treasury and State departments announced Thursday that they are leveling new penalties against nine state-owned mining, metal and construction companies along with the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans.

“Just days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials,” Rubio said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms — none of which are afforded to its people — by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime’s raison d’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world,” Rubio said.

Trump's Republican administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on Havana, threatening it with potential military intervention even when mired in a conflict against Iran, while also boosting economic sanctions designed to cut off funding for the Cuban government. An oil blockade that the U.S. imposed on Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whose country provided Cuba with free oil, has plunged the already economically crippled island into full-blown crisis.

The Cuban Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new sanctions. Cuba routinely denounces U.S. sanctions and the decadeslong embargo it has imposed on the island, accusing multiple administrations of unfairly targeting a poor nation and its people merely for ideological differences and its proximity to the United States.

The latest sanctions follow an operation at the Miami airport last weekend in which several American citizens returning to the U.S. from Cuba after participating in events marking Castro’s birthday were briefly detained, according to U.S. officials. Some of them had their cellphones and other personal electronic devices seized for inspection, the officials said.

U.S. authorities had been prepared to detain dozens of returning activists for secondary screening, but far fewer were found to meet the criteria for the enhanced questioning by Customs and Border Protection agents, the officials said. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the operation have not been made public, said those detained were eventually released and allowed to enter the U.S.

The officials said anyone detained and released could still face prosecution if it is found they violated U.S. sanctions, which prohibit all transactions with Cuban government-owned entities, including restaurants, hotels and shops. The status of seized cellphones, laptops and tablets, however, was unclear.

The new sanctions that were imposed on the leadership of ICAP target the group’s president, Fernando González Llort, who had been among five Cuban intelligence officers arrested in the U.S. in 1998 but later released in 2014. They also target its first vice president, Noemí Ramona Rabaza Fernández, and its North America director, Leima Martínez Freire.

The metals, mining and construction sector sanctions target a nickel production company, two firms that specialize in the import of heavy industrial products, a mineral resources company, the Cuban Ministry of Construction, a company that provides Cuban workers to foreign entities on the island and two enterprises that import vehicles, automotive parts and construction materials.

The Trump administration also has stepped up a campaign that portrays Cuba as a grave national security threat to the U.S. In a report released last month, the State Department accused the Cuban government of sponsoring or otherwise supporting left-wing and anti-American activism in the United States for the past six decades.

While Cuba has been falling deeper into crisis for around five years, the oil blockade by the Trump administration has thrown the nation into free fall.

The lack of fuel to provide Cubans with electricity has plunged the island into all-out blackouts. Access to public transport has effectively disappeared, shortages of things like medicine have worsened, work hours have been slashed to adapt to the outages, and tourism, the island’s economic lifeline, has evaporated.

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This story has been corrected to show the sanctions are on nine, not 10, companies.

TEXARKANA — When Scott Norton became president of the TexAmericas Center, he hoped the industrial park would attract employers that would bring much-needed jobs to North East Texas.

Little did he know the industrial center would sit atop one of the country’s largest and richest lithium deposits, known as the Smackover Formation, and would also become a key location for mineral production in Texas.

“[Lithium production is] a great opportunity not just for the Department of War and Red River Army Depot, but in the entire region when it comes to capital investment and job creation,” Norton said.

Lithium production in East Texas could create high-paying jobs, support local businesses and encourage cities to improve East Texas infrastructure, such as roads or public utility services. But it could also leave landowners struggling with high property values and a community dealing with infrastructure that doesn’t keep pace with rapid growth, leading to a bust that the state has seen before with the oil and gas industry.

Economists at a Texarkana lithium symposium in July warned against vying for a boom, and encouraged leaders instead to seek slow, sustainable growth.

Now, however, local officials and state lawmakers must decide how to manage the industry to ensure that landowners’ rights are respected, that the extraction process remains safe and clean, and that producing this mineral in East Texas is worth the cost.

“We can learn from Arkansas and from some of these other places, but it has to make sense economically for companies,” said Brent Elliott, an economic geologist and mineral resource specialist with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. “They won’t do it if there’s not some kind of incentive or clarity on the landscape, like ownership, unitization and the production procedure. And then the economics of it at the end of it.”

Next year could prove to be a crucial year for this budding industry, if lawmakers make it a priority in the 2027 legislative session.

Who will manage lithium rules and regulations?

Lithium production is a national issue with wide-reaching implications. Landowners near production facilities have a stake in the game, as do producers such as EnergyX, ExxonMobil and Chevron, local officials and state and national lawmakers.

President Donald Trump and Texas’ congressional delegation are pushing to expand domestic mineral production and reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals. Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency oversees federal regulations on mineral extraction.

In Texas, lithium mining regulation is overseen by the Texas Railroad Commission, which also oversees the state’s oil and gas production, use and waste. The agency was given rule-making authority in 2023 and established some guidelines based on the oil and gas industry, and brine production.

Industry players would like to see some clarity on important issues, such as property tax values, royalties and brine injection regulations, either from the commission or from state lawmakers.

Researchers at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, including Elliott, plan to present lawmakers with findings on the industry, such as water rights and mineral royalties, by the end of the year to help lawmakers form decisions on this emerging industry.

“We’ll try to get to anyone who represents East Texas,” Elliott said. “Anyone who has jurisdiction over the Smackover or anybody who’s on the Natural Resources committees, both in the House and Senate, or the Energy Committees. Those folks would do well to understand the current landscape and the recommendations for making it better.”

This issue also touches on local economic development, which is why the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce hosted its first-ever lithium symposium, at which experts provided more insight on the industry to regional and state leaders. It even brought Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Texas to open the symposium.

Lithium production in Arkansas has grown exponentially over the last few years as companies pull brine from the Smackover Formation, which spans from Florida to Central Texas. Because brine production was already common in Arkansas, lithium production rules and regulations were folded into an already established framework.

Arkansas’ regulations were cited in both the symposium and multiple independent interviews with the Texas Tribune as a solid source for Texas to base its own regulations on.

“They seem to be very happy with the structures in place in Arkansas, and would like to see more structures in the state of Texas,” said Robin Hickerson, president and CEO of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce.

Economic implications

Texas’ reputation as a business-friendly state could encourage lithium producers to create high-paying jobs for out-of-work oil and gas workers since both industries require similar skillsets. It could also encourage tertiary development, such as retail, restaurants and hotels, in underdeveloped areas.

Before any of that happens, though, the industry needs to hammer out some much-needed details.

Bruce Cutright is the CEO of GeoFrame, an Austin company that wants to build the largest lithium production facility in the U.S. in Mount Vernon, a town about 60 miles north of Tyler. He has been working closely with community leaders in Franklin County to get the lithium project off the ground.

Cutright said the Legislature has several matters to settle next year, including the rights and responsibilities around minerals and brine, the water byproduct of drilling.

The key question lawmakers should ask when deciding water and mineral rights is why the brine is being extracted, said Chris Alex, vice president of U.S. Upstream Asset Development for EnergyX, which is developing a lithium production facility in Texarkana. Is the brine being brought to the surface as a byproduct of oil and gas production, or is it being extracted specifically to recover lithium through direct lithium extraction?

“The state has yet to clarify this in a ruling or statute,” he said.

If the brine is produced as a byproduct of oil and gas operations, Alex said it would belong to the exploration and production company. But if a company extracts the brine specifically to produce lithium, he said state law does not clearly establish who owns those mineral rights.

Other concerns center around the impact lithium production in the area would have on property taxes as well as who ultimately would see the financial gains from mineral production.

Cutright is concerned that, without clear guidance on how property taxes will be affected by lithium production, homeowners near his site may not be able to afford a significant increase in their property valuations.

“I wouldn’t want these beautiful fifth-generation ranches to suddenly be priced out of their property,” Cutright said.

Texas currently leaves it up to landowners and producers to hash out these decisions and they’re made as part of lease agreements, Alex said.

The Mineral Interest Pooling Act, which can dictate royalties for oil and gas rights, could also guide lawmakers, Elliott said.

Environmental implications

Most of the lithium produced around the globe is extracted from salty aquifers and stored in massive evaporation ponds in the arid countries of the Southern Hemisphere. The brine that is left is processed further for lithium extraction. The lithium carbonate, which is left after that extraction process, is then shipped to countries like China to be used in battery components for clean energy technology.

The whole process can take years and can be delayed by a rainier-than-average season. It requires significant amounts of water and has led to water scarcity in countries like Chile, which sits atop the largest known reserve of lithium in the world. And in some cases, the ground and surface water have been contaminated because of lithium extraction processes.

Lithium producers in East Texas, however, are eyeing an extraction process called Direct Lithium Extraction, or DLE, that more closely resembles oil and gas production. And it could work exceptionally well at extracting lithium from the brine in the Smackover Formation thousands of feet below East Texas.

For long-time environmental advocate Neil Carman, a volunteer and former Clean Air Director for the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, the idea of lithium production in the state is a scary one. He worries that Texas’ emerging lithium industry won’t truly be regulated in a way that protects the community.

DLE poses similar risks as those of oil and gas production. If something fails in the infrastructure, it could leak into the potable groundwater resources East Texans are currently fighting to protect, and Texas doesn’t have the best reputation for cleaning up those messes, Carman said.

He’d like to see the state outline reporting requirements for operations and a detailed plan for if something goes wrong.

Elliott sees DLE as something akin to what Texas has already done for years with the oil and gas industry. The Railroad Commission already has rules in place for brine production overall, which includes lithium.

Alex of EnergyX believes brine extraction is regulated similar to oil and gas in some ways, but with more stringent requirements in others. EnergyX maintains a strict emergency action plan with the county and has secured its site beyond Railroad Commission requirements, he said.

Cutright is happy with the state’s framework, but he’d like to see the Railroad Commission update its rules regarding reinjection. As it stands, brine pumped from the ground must be reinjected into the same formation. This will dilute the lithium brine source over time, meaning eventually the lithium extractors will have to find a new place to pump, Cutright said.

“There needs to be sort of a side decision loop in the permitting process that asks if there are other, more appropriate zones to inject the spent brine back into the subsurface,” Cutright said.

What comes next

Arkansas is using much of its framework and infrastructure from bromine production, a mineral that can be extracted from brine, which is why some experts have encouraged Texas to see what its northern neighbor is doing.

But Texas is in a position that could set the stage for real industry growth and development that even Arkansas doesn’t have, Elliott said.

“We have the advantage of developing infrastructure that would be better suited for future development without having the previous stuff,” said Elliott.

It could take some time, though. Lithium may have been a priority for lawmakers going into 2027 before state residents began to worry about data centers. Now that data centers and most especially, water and energy usage, are top of mind for many voters, Elliott said he isn’t sure how this new industry will be perceived.

“It was probably higher on the priority list before,” he said. “The data center issues have really kind of moved to the forefront. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for lithium.”

Meanwhile, in East Texas, companies are setting up test sites and figuring out exactly what the deep-water aquifer has to offer. Texarkana is bracing for investment, as are communities across the region.

GeoFrame’s ground breaking was pushed back from its original goal of 2026 due to financing and project changes, but Cutright is excited for its launch.

The site would produce more than 83,000 metric tons — about the weight of 16,000 large elephants — of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually. This would put a sizable dent in the U.S. domestic needs, if successful.

“Texas is blessed with some of the highest lithium concentrations in the Smackover Formation,” he said. “The part of Texas where we’re working, Franklin County, and that area — that’s really the bullseye for the highest concentrations.”

“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,” Trump said, “I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.”

It's not the kind of message anyone is using in competitive midterm races.

The race to build data centers, which power artificial intelligence and cloud computing, has run aground amid frustration from voters who don't want to live near the massive warehouse campuses. Even the Senate Republicans' campaign arm warned that anger over data centers — some of which dwarf football stadiums and use more energy than small cities — could cost them a seat.

Opposition stretches across the political spectrum because of fears that the behemoths will jack up electricity bills, drain people's water wells, create unhealthy amounts of air and noise pollution and forever change a community's character — all while getting lucrative tax breaks from states competing for their business.

Trump has framed data centers as a necessary component of a top national and economic security priority: winning the AI race against China. However, he also has acknowledged concern over rising electricity bills, previously saying “it’s only fair” for the companies to shoulder their costs.

He also suggested this week that data centers need “a little public relations help.” In recent months, he has gotten tech giants to sign a voluntary pledge to shield U.S. consumers from higher utility bills from data centers, even as he pushes to streamline the process for companies and utilities to build their own power plants.

But building power plants doesn't happen overnight, and the immediate political reality for candidates across the country is far different.

“It is yet another dimension in which the White House appears tone deaf — tone deaf at best and indifferent to the interest of other Republican candidates at worst,” said James Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Austin, a nonpartisan research organization.

Republican committee issues warning over data centers in Ohio

Statewide candidates from Nevada to Pennsylvania, both Republican and Democratic, are weaponizing data centers against their opponents, and candidates who absorb those attacks are subsequently trying to distance themselves from them.

In Ohio, a data center hot spot with closely contested races for governor and U.S. Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo Tuesday that Sen. Jon Husted is vulnerable to losing his seat because of the centers.

Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown is airing attack ads against Husted that call him the “face of data centers in Ohio” as people gather signatures for a statewide referendum to ban their construction.

The Republican memo said it's been a “sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”

“Brown is using it because it works,” the NRSC said. “More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck. If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one.”

The memo suggested voters may balk at Democratic candidates who want to stop data center construction altogether in favor of a Republican candidate who only wants data centers built if a community approves it in a local vote and it pays for its own power, water and other utilities.

Most registered voters oppose building a data center in their area, according to a July Fox News poll. Still, the issue falls behind other voter concerns, such as cost of living, as November looms.

A Quinnipiac Poll conducted in June asked voters what issues were important in deciding who to vote for in U.S. House elections, and about 4 in 10 mentioned AI data centers.

Trump’s statement already put to use in Nevada race

In Nevada, Democrat Aaron Ford quickly tied Trump’s statement to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, characterizing them as being in “lockstep on data centers.”

In a statement, Ford said Trump and Lombardo are “Nevada data centers’ biggest cheerleaders” who “only care about catering to their ‘billionaire friends’ while Nevadans pay the price.”

Ford this week unveiled a policy platform in which he said he would halt new state tax breaks for data centers — he estimated them at $200 million currently — while auditing existing projects to ensure they are delivering on promises. He also said he would ensure data centers pay for their electricity needs, do not deplete Nevada’s water supply and help local governments negotiate strong benefits agreements with developers.

Texas' governor changed course and got a jab from Trump

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who last November celebrated Google’s announcement of a $40 billion investment there by calling the state “the epicenter of AI development,” is under attack from his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, over his pursuit of data center development.

Abbott has since changed course by promising tougher action, such as removing the state’s sales tax exemption and holding up projects to review their energy usage.

Trump criticized the shift, saying “I think it's a mistake” in a recent interview with Punchbowl News.

Asked about Trump's support for data centers, Abbott's office said the governor's “top priority is to protect Texans’ safety and quality of life and ensure the integrity of our power grid and water supply.”

“Simply put, Texans must come first,” Abbott's office said.

Data centers complicated Wisconsin governor race

While Trump embraces data centers, even some of his allies are using them for political attacks. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, running for Wisconsin governor, released a TV ad this week branding his Democratic opponent as “Data Center David Crowley.”

The ad includes a clip of Crowley saying Wisconsin could become the “AI and data hub not only for the entire country, but for the entire globe.”

Crowley has said local communities must have veto authority while also calling data centers a part of the modern economy that could bring significant economic benefits to the state.

Tiffany, who Trump has endorsed, has also said positive things about data centers. In January, Tiffany called data centers “exciting new technology,” in an interview with PBS Wisconsin. And last December, he voted for a bipartisan bill known as the SPEED Act, which is designed to accelerate construction of new AI infrastructure projects like data centers. It hasn't passed the Senate.

Neither Tiffany nor Crowley support a moratorium on new data center construction.

Tiffany has called for repealing the state tax incentive for data centers, while Crowley has not. They both have called for stricter regulation.

Crowley, at an event Wednesday where he received the endorsement of the environmental group Clean Wisconsin, downplayed the attacks Tiffany has made against his data center position.

“He’s getting very good at saying one thing and doing something different,” Crowley said, pointing to Tiffany’s votes in support of the SPEED Act.

“What Congressman Tom Tiffany’s doing is lying because he’s trying to run away from his record in Congress,” Crowley said.

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin, and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Linley Sanders contributed from Washington.

In June, KSAT reported about the plans to revitalize the historic district known as Project DC.

Stakeholders have purchased properties with the goal of creating affordable housing, businesses and using the future VIA Silver line to connect workers, but they must first deal with unhoused people that have been in the area for years.

The San Antonio Housing Trust approved a 28-month Homeless Response Action Plan focused on the area, where more than 160 people experiencing homelessness are sleeping near abandoned buildings.

Nearly 40 nonprofits and other organizations have started working to connect people with housing, medical care and legal assistance.

Corazón Ministries is one of the groups involved. The organization said it has helped house 35 people.

During the first six months of the plan, participating groups will focus on building relationships, earning the trust of people experiencing homelessness and identifying their needs. The next phase will focus on finding permanent housing and providing long-term support.

The first two years of the plan could cost more than $12 million. Expenses are expected to decrease as people leave the program.

People who live and own businesses near Cattleman Square said they are glad people are receiving help, but some remain skeptical about whether the plan will work.

“You can’t help everybody, but you can try to help the majority of the people who are there,” said Diana Avila, a West Side resident. “I’ve seen families who are homeless.”

Ralph Gauna said he has seen “a lot of promises” and hopes this plan will help the entire neighborhood.

Jennifer Villegas, owner of Cafe Don Juan, said the business is close to a shelter that provides services for people experiencing homelessness.

“The homeless population will gravitate to that area, so it will be a little hard to say, ‘Get them out of the area’ because the resources are readily available,” Villegas said.

Cafe Don Juan has been in business for five decades and borders the Cattleman Square district. Villegas said she believes a nightlife scene could benefit her business.

She also said she did not know about or attended community meetings in June focused on reshaping the district.

A draft of the Project D.C. master plan is expected in October. The final plan may be available by January.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• ‘Project DC’ aims to revitalize neglected district west of downtown

Nguyen Thi Quynh Tam, 24, said she was raped on July 5 and pressured by the man’s family to accept money and not go to police. She said the police also initially urged her to settle the matter privately.

The AP does not usually identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, except if they come forward publicly about the abuse. Tam's candor is unusual for Vietnam, where sexual violence is rarely discussed publicly, but she said she wanted to speak out to help protect other women.

“I’m doing this not just for me. But for everybody else that has been harmed,” said Tam.

Tam’s account was documented in interviews, her police complaint and communications with U.S. and Vietnamese officials. After she sought help from U.S. officials and a U.S. lawmaker, officials confirmed Thursday that they had charged the 23-year-old man.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said authorities had initiated legal proceedings “in accordance with Vietnamese law.” She did not respond to questions about alleged police pressure to settle the case.

The man charged in the case did not respond to AP queries sent via social media.

Tam, whose family moved to the United States when she was 5 years old, returned to Vietnam in May for a banking internship, hoping to reconnect with her family’s homeland. She joined a group of acquaintances on a July 4 trip to a resort in Phu Tho, near Hanoi.

The group stayed up late and when she went to bed, Tam found herself locked out of the room where she expected to sleep. She found another bedroom and fell asleep with the door unlocked, then awoke to the 23-year-old man kissing her neck.

Her complaint says Tam told him not to touch her, but he persisted and climbed on top of her. She pushed and punched him and shouted, “No!” But he pinned both her arms above her head and raped her.

Later that night, she messaged her boyfriend in the U.S. that she had been raped. The AP has seen the messages.

Afterward, she said she blamed herself and struggled mentally. Others in the group they traveled with told her the man was from a wealthy, politically-connected family and she was unsure what to do.

Tam said the man apologized twice on July 9, in a note and during a phone call. The AP has heard a recording of the call and seen the note.

On July 11, Tam and friends of her family met with the man's father in an encounter suggested by members of the group she traveled with. She said he asked how much money she wanted for not involving the police. He called five days later, again offering compensation, she said.

In an email to the The Associated Press, the father said the two had been “intimate,” but he declined to comment further. He said his family had “no intention” of pressuring Tam to drop the case.

Tam said that after she reported the incident to police on July 21, they took her back to the room where she said she was raped and asked her to reenact the assault, leaving her distraught.

“A part of me is gone. And it’s in that room,” she said.

The next day, she said, police urged her to meet with the 23-year-old and to sign a statement saying she had refused a rape kit and a lawyer. She refused. The police again asked her to settle while she was getting mental health care at a Hanoi hospital, she said.

Tam, who is from Houston, Texas, said she got little help at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, where she was told she could report the matter to Vietnamese police, or return home. She said she was discouraged when they cited a previous sexual assault case that dragged on for over a year before being dropped.

After Tam's father contacted their senator, Ted Cruz, the embassy called her to apologize. It told Cruz’s office it had supported Tam and helped her contact authorities. Her father called that “inaccurate,” according to a July 29 email exchange.

The State Department said it was aware of her case, but couldn't comment further because of legal and privacy reasons. It said American “safety and security” was its top priority.

The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It reached $38 trillion five months before that, in October.

The Latest:

US ramps up Cuba sanctions and detentions of Americans returning from the island

The Trump administration is imposing new sanctions on Cuba targeting its mining and metals sectors and broadening restrictions on Americans’ transactions with government-owned or affiliated businesses. It also accused Havana of using cultural and educational exchanges to radicalize U.S. citizens.

The Treasury and State departments announced sanctions on Thursday against 10 state-owned mining, metals, and construction companies and the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ICAP is responsible for sponsoring a “subversive network” to “cultivate” Americans, most recently with educational and cultural exchanges around the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s birth earlier this month.

The sanctions follow an operation at the Miami airport last weekend in which several American citizens returning to the U.S. from events marking Castro’s birthday in Cuba were briefly detained, some of whom had their cell phones and other personal electronic devices seized for inspection.

Federal agents seize devices from ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell in sexual misconduct probe, AP source says

Federal agents have seized electronic devices from former Rep. Eric Swalwell and searched his Washington home as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the ex-Democratic congressman from California, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Swalwell’s devices were seized at the San Francisco airport on Saturday, and federal agents searched his home a day later.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with an attorney for Swalwell.

Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress in April following sexual assault and misconduct allegations, which he has denied. The AP source wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

▶ Read more

Bessent says bond buyback operation could be more than $4 billion

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a CNBC interview on Thursday that an accelerated buyback of government debt “could be more than $4 billion per issue.”

His comments followed the Treasury’s Wednesday announcement that it would dramatically expand the amount of U.S. government bonds it will buy back. When asked about the motivation for the move, Bessent said: “We’re trying to signal that this is a thinly traded area of the market, we’re in August and there’s been a lot of corporate issuances.”

“We’re trying to keep the market in equilibrium.”

Melania Trump is set to announce new scholarships for foster children

The first lady is partnering with IndyCar, the sanctioning body for U.S. auto racing, and Indiana and Purdue universities to fund the scholarships, her office says.

Both Indiana-based schools are joining about two dozen other institutions of higher learning to offer scholarships through Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative benefiting young people in foster care.

A formal announcement is set for Thursday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden. The first lady will be joined by her husband and representatives from IndyCar and the universities.

The announcement comes just before Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix race in downtown Washington, which was organized by the president to help celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

US approves $4.5 billion sale of military aerial refueling planes to Qatar as Iran conflict lingers

The State Department said Thursday that it had given the green light for Qatar, a key U.S. partner in the Gulf, to buy four KC-46A aircraft along with assorted equipment, including turbofan engines, radar warning devices and countermeasure systems. The sale will also include trucks, training and assorted logistics services.

The sale “will increase Qatar’s capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing its defense capabilities and interoperability with U.S. and allied forces and reinforcing Qatar’s strategic role in regional security,” the department said.

Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base, has been a critical part of the war with Iran, including by trying to mediate an end to the conflict.

North Korea fires missile barrage toward the sea after dismissing overture from Trump

The launches come a day after North Korea shrugged off a U.S. decision to scale back military drills with South Korea in an apparent bid to resume diplomacy.

South Korea’s military said the launches of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles happened from North Korea’s capital region Thursday evening. The military said the missiles flew about 300 kilometers each toward North Korea’s eastern waters.

Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises just before they began Monday. The president cited what he said was a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.

▶ Read more

White House legislative affairs director James Braid is leaving his post

Braid was in charge of helping to shepherd Trump’s legislative agenda through a Congress where his Republican Party controlled both chambers.

Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that Braid “played a critical role in all of the administration’s achievements in Congress,” including the sweeping tax and spending legislation approved last summer.

Vance described Braid as “brilliant” and “one of the hardest workers you will ever meet.”

The vice president didn’t provide details of Braid’s next job, saying only that he was “very excited to see what he does next.”

Fresh US aircraft carrier arrives in Middle East

The Asia-based USS George Washington aircraft carrier is now operating in the Middle East, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The Washington is relieving the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln after reports that sailors were facing mental health challenges and supply shortages while supporting the Iran war.

The Lincoln’s deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea. Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said were “completely misrepresented.”

The deployment of the Washington to the Middle East has left Asia without an American carrier strike group at a time when China shows more signs of aggression.

Rubio designates US citizen jailed in China as ‘wrongfully detained’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated a U.S. citizen scholar jailed in China as “wrongfully detained” as Trump prepares to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House next month.

The State Department said Thursday that Rubio had decided that Min Zin, who was arrested by Chinese authorities in June, is being unjustly held.

“We call on Beijing to release all U.S. citizens arbitrarily detained or exit-banned in China,” the department said.

The designation raises the profile of his case within the U.S. government and in the past has led to additional attention and resources being devoted to securing the release of wrongful detainees.

Min Zin, who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy, was arrested on suspicion of spying. He was a student activist in Myanmar’s 1988 uprising, a student-led movement that the government at the time reacted to with military force. He eventually sought asylum in the U.S.

House Democrats add five new candidates to ‘red to blue’ program

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the expansion showcases the depth of its candidate bench as they try to wrest majority control of the House.

Chair Suzan DelBene said the candidates are “proven fighters” at a time when voters are “eager for leaders who will always put the well-being of their communities first, not rubber stamp Trump’s failed agenda.”

The candidates include retired Army Brigadier General Leela Gray in Florida, former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo in Kentucky, Maine state auditor Matt Dunlap, former Navy helicopter pilot Nancy Lacore in South Carolina and former Rep. Tom Perriello in Virginia. The “red to blue” program invests in promising candidates with funding and other support.

Democrats narrow their list of 2028 presidential convention sites

Democrats on Thursday narrowed the list of potential host cities for their 2028 presidential convention to Boston, Denver and Philadelphia as their party looks ahead to a wide-open primary to succeed President Trump.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement the cities put forward “incredibly strong bids,” and he promised the convention would be an “inspiring celebration of our party’s future nominee.”

A final decision is expected to be made later this year by party leaders. Republicans have already chosen Houston for the site of their 2028 convention.

The Democratic convention, scheduled for Aug. 7-10, 2028, traditionally gives the party a chance to formally introduce its nominee to the country, rally the base and kick-start the most intense period of campaigning ahead of the general election.

The party didn’t specify why Atlanta and Chicago, which was the site of the 2024 convention, were eliminated. Officials visited all five cities in April and May, considering logistical and fundraising capacity among other factors.

▶ Read more

Trump plays White House tour guide to show off work on his helipad and ballroom

Trump played White House tour guide on Wednesday, showing off the helipad he is building on the lawn before leaning over to autograph a piece of it and bragging about the ballroom he’s rushing to complete despite legal challenges.

Trump gushed for several uninterrupted minutes about granite being laid and said the chopper landing area would leave visiting foreign leaders “very impressed” — including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is coming next month.

At times, he sounded almost like a construction manager, singing the praises of granite over asphalt in painstaking detail and noting for reporters he brought out for the show that the stone could withstand 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.

The president also revealed for the first time that he has replaced the walkway from the White House’s diplomatic entrance along with a portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn with white granite.

▶ Read more

The US national debt now stands at $40 trillion

The national debt surpassed a record $40 trillion Wednesday, a staggering milestone as defense costs, social programs like Social Security and Medicare and interest on the burgeoning deficit make up an enormous share of federal spending.

The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It reached $38 trillion five months before that, in October.

The unprecedented $40 trillion figure highlights competing administration priorities, from boosting defense spending that the U.S. relies on to carry out President Donald Trump’s almost 6-month-old war in Iran to lowering the cost of gas and groceries.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration “has been focused on slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending while accelerating economic growth to get America’s debt-to-GDP ratio trending in the right direction.”

However, experts say the exploding debt and the latest record milestone are already affecting Americans’ pocketbooks by raising borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lowering wages from businesses that have less money available to invest, and creating more expensive goods and services.

▶ Read more

The decision to stop using the gloves in middle and high schools came after The Associated Press first revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers the gloves, which are known as G.L.O.V.E. or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. The deviceshave also been used in recent years by some jails.

Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray requested Tuesday that city police assigned to the schools, known as school resource officers, no longer use the gloves. Ray said in a school board meeting Monday and a letter to the public schools community that he’d only learned about the gloves the previous week. The first day of school was Wednesday.

The Omaha Police Department held a news conference last week in which it demonstrated the glove, saying it quickly achieved compliance and control with little to no force. The gloves were used twice during the 2025-2026 school year, police said.

It was not immediately known if other school districts have used them.

Residents and school board members speak out against the gloves

At the school board meeting, about 30 people spoke out against police using the gloves. Residents and board members alike said they were appalled at the practice. No one spoke in favor of it.

“I can't even imagine walking down the hallway and seeing a peer of mine being electrocuted in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students,” said Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School. “Yet, this is now a very real possibility. These are adults we are supposed to be able to trust, but these weapons create a barrier for our students to turn to resource officers when needed.”

Ray said the district recognized long-standing relationships with law enforcement partners and the important role school resource officers have in promoting school safety. Continued use of the gloves “would be counterproductive to our work together,” Ray said.

Mayor John Ewing Jr. said police have honored the school district's decision to “opt out.” The Omaha Police Department said officers will continue to carry tasers, batons, OC spray and firearms.

Most school resource officers were trained to use the gloves

Most of the Omaha Police Department's 34 school resource officers had been trained and were allowed to use the gloves, the mayor and Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said in a statement.

“We believe it is the safest use-of-force option in the rare times when it is used,” the statement said.

In 2025, the city's police department agreed to pay Compliant Technologies LLC, which manufactures the gloves, about $66,000 for 40 gloves, according to the contract.

Officers were expected to give warning before using the gloves and then touch the person for up to 15 seconds while the electric shock was delivered, the statement said.

The devices activate when an officer presses a button. The gloves must touch someone’s skin directly to produce voltage that causes pain, which is intended to make people compliant if they are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.

In the 2025-2026 school year, an officer used the glove in one case to stop a high school student from another school from trying to escape after fighting with a security guard, according to the statement. In the second case, the glove was used on a student who made verbal threats and threw a chair at a school security guard, striking the guard in the head, the statement said. The student also punched the guard in the head, it said.

Omaha Public Schools is the largest district in Nebraska and serves more than 50,000 students, according to its website. ___ Hallie Golden contributed to this report from Seattle.

• LOW-100s TODAY: Highs near 102°, heat index peaking near 105°
• BRUTAL STRETCH AHEAD: Rain-free, triple digit streak continues through next week
• ENERGY DEMAND: While demand will be high, ERCOT showing plenty of supply

FORECAST

STREAKS TO WATCH

We have now logged 26 straight days without measurable rainfall at San Antonio Int’l, with 3 days in a row at 100° or above. Both these streaks are forecast to continue through at least next week. Today’s high should reach around 102°. Slightly higher humidity today will push heat indices to near 105°. Those east of San Antonio will experience higher heat index values, with a Heat Advisory now posted for these areas.

ENERGY DEMAND

While this stretch will be brutal for much of Texas, ERCOT demand should be able to cover supply. We’ll keep you updated should anything change.

LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

If you haven’t heard, we have a local team in the LLWS. Boerne plays Friday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Temperatures will be warm, but not near as hot as what we’re dealing with in Texas. Good luck Boerne!

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• 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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Commanders of the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, believe free time to indulge in the latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series — in which players commit carjackings, battle police in shootouts and attempt audacious heists — will sway some soldiers to extend their military commitments.

The Nov. 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to be one of the year's biggest entertainment events. Game publisher Take-Two Interactive hasn't released sales figures for preorders, but CEO Strauss Zelnick recently called them “unprecedented and astonishing.”

A career counselor with the Army engineer battalion hatched the idea with commanders to tie a retention perk to the game's release, in part to remind soldiers of their approaching reenlistment dates, said Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a Fort Stewart spokesperson.

“The idea was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what soldiers are interested in,” Tomko said Thursday in a statement to The Associated Press.

Battalion commanders wrote in a memo to soldiers that those who sign reenlistment contracts by Nov. 14 would receive “a special 4 day pass.”

“This special pass is specifically designed to coincide with the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI,” battalion commander Lt. Col. Ryan Hodgson wrote.

Tomko confirmed the authenticity of the July 28 memo, which was photographed and posted online.

She said at least 20 of 130 eligible soldiers have signed up for the bonus. To qualify, they must commit to serving at least two more years in uniform.

Buzz for Grand Theft Auto VI has been building since 2023, when its first cinematic trailer showed a return to the series’ fictional Vice City — a satirical analogue of Miami — and an expanded swath of Florida-based locales that include gator-infested swamps.

Underscoring the hype, developer Rockstar Games plans to debut gameplay video next week in an extended trailer on Netflix. The rollout was preempted when hackers leaked apparent footage online this week.

The San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Thursday morning to officially revert the name César E. Chávez Boulevard back to Durango Boulevard in the wake of a March New York Times investigation into the labor leader.

Chávez, who died in 1993, is accused of sexually abusing girls and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union, Dolores Huerta, decades ago.

The street, which spans from the West Side across downtown to the near East Side, was named after Chávez in 2011, replacing the previous name, Durango Boulevard.

The renaming will cost nearly $375,000, mostly in city and state signage changes. The updated signs will include:

• 58 ground-mounted pole signs
• 15 highway signs
• 31 streetlight-mounted overhead signs
• 1 overhead frontage sign

San Antonio officials expect to change the city signs within two months. It could take up to 12 months for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) signs, though officials hope it will happen sooner.

It will also require 295 address changes, but the Development Services Director Amin Tohmaz said it won’t affect anyone’s ability to vote in the November election.

After the allegations against Chávez came to light, the city received more than 18,000 responses for a survey on renaming the street.

And though many of the suggestions included other civil rights or farmworker movement themes, such as “Dolores Huerta Boulevard,” the city says 64% of respondents wanted the name changed back to Durango Boulevard.

For the respondents who live on the street, the city says that rose to 79%.

Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) submitted the official request to change the name back to Durango Boulevard. Given the severity of the allegations against Chávez, Castillo said the city had a responsibility to take “quick action.”

The city’s Governance Committee gave the go-ahead for a name change three months ago, but it also had to go through technical review and be reviewed by the Historic Design Review and Planning Commissions, which both recommended approval.

Read KSAT’s previous reporting: Renaming César E. Chávez Boulevard could cost over $300K, city estimates

The Texas Department of Transportation is moving forward with improvements along Loop 410, San Pedro Avenue and U.S. Highway 281 on the North Side.

The project covers 4.3 miles of Loop 410 between West Avenue and Broadway and 2.7 miles of U.S. Highway 281 between Loop 410 and East Nakoma Drive.

The work will affect areas within San Antonio and Castle Hills near the airport.

TxDOT said the project addresses safety and operational concerns in a corridor that experiences heavy traffic and a high number of crashes.

Between 2014 and 2018, the project area averaged 3.7 crashes per day — a rate higher than the statewide average for both interstates and U.S. highways. Officials said the work will improve congestion and vehicles weaving in and out of traffic.

Without improvements, morning commutes in the corridor could double by 2045, while evening commutes could take up to four times longer than they do today, according to TxDOT.

The improvements include removing seven ramps and replacing them with new access points. Several intersections also will be improved to help traffic flow and increase safety.

The project follows a multiyear planning process that included a feasibility study and public input.

TxDOT will hold a stakeholder open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 27 to discuss the planned improvements. The meeting will include information about the project, details about the proposed work, construction timelines and opportunities for public involvement.

Residents can subscribe to TxDOT email updates through the project webpage or submit questions to SATINFO@txdot.gov.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and is on track for a fourth loss in the five days since setting its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 424 points, or 0.8%, as of 1:02 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.

The bond market remains the center of action after yields charged higher through the summer on worries about high inflation, gargantuan government debts and other factors. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a move Wednesday that jolted financial markets to at least double the size of his department’s planned purchases of longer-term Treasurys from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.

That helped push yields down after the 10-year Treasury’s yield had hit its highest level in more than a year and the 30-year yield got back to where it was in 2007, before the Great Recession sent yields toward zero worldwide. It’s a big deal because high yields slow the economy by raising interest payments for people, companies and the government, and they can undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

But analysts had cautioned the effect may be short lived, given how small the purchases are relative to the overall size of the Treasury market and how they don't fix the fundamental concerns of investors that had driven up yields. Plus, more signals arrived quickly to push worries higher.

The U.S. government’s debt topped $40 trillion on Wednesday, a staggering record that arrived just months after the national debt first blew past the $39 trillion mark in April, because Washington continues to spend far more money than it brings in.

And on Thursday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 1.8% to $93.24 as uncertainty continues about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY” late Wednesday but provided few details.

That helped push the 10-year Treasury yield up to 4.70% from 4.65% late Wednesday. It’s almost back to its 4.71% level from late Tuesday, before the Treasury Department made its announcement.

A couple encouraging reports on the U.S. economy also helped push up longer-term Treasury yields, which move with expectations for the economy and inflation in coming years. One said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, while another said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region appears to be much stronger than expected.

On Wall Street, Walmart was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 and fell 8.9% even though it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on how an important underlying measure of revenue growth at its stores slowed again. Its forecast for profit in the current quarter also fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Given its massive size, Walmart offers a look at how shoppers are doing across the United States. A surprisingly weak update on sales at U.S. retailers overall last month had raised worries that shoppers may be succumbing to pressure from high inflation and a job market that may be looking less solid.

Advance Auto Parts tumbled 25.7% after the retailer reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter, even though its profit topped expectations. CEO Shane O’Kelly said that “tighter household budgets constrained spending more than we anticipated, especially during the last four weeks of the quarter.”

Spending by U.S. consumers is the main engine of the economy, and a pullback by them could exacerbate what's already a slowdown in growth for the economy.

A pullback could also mean a double-whammy for travel companies, which would see fewer bookings when they have to pay higher prices for fuel. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings fell 4.1%, while United Airlines sank 3.2% and American Airlines lost 2.4%.

Helping to keep Wall Street’s losses in check was Deere, which reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It rose 8.8% as the company said order trends indicate the agriculture equipment business looks set to accelerate after this year.

Oil companies also rose with the gains for crude prices. Exxon Mobil added 1.7%, and ConocoPhillips climbed 3.1%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi soared 5.9% for one of the world’s biggest moves after the two tech titans that dominate its market, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, jumped. Such swings have become more common for Seoul's market, which has borne the brunt of rising and falling worries that winning stocks in the artificial-intelligence boom may have shot too high.

___

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

In one crash, a bus and vehicle collided as the bus was making a turn near the intersection of Babcock Road and Eckhert Road. A district spokesperson said 47 Rhodes Elementary School students were on board at the time of the crash.

Another Northside ISD school bus was dispatched to the scene to transfer the uninjured students to class, which is less than a mile from the scene.

The second incident was a minor crash in the Interstate 10-La Cantera area. The district said a Brandeis High School student, who was not hurt, was on board at the time of the crash.

More local news coverage on KSAT:

• SA City Council votes unanimously to change César E. Chávez Boulevard back to Durango Boulevard
• Keith Urban headlines San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo’s first round of performers for 2027

Fréchette had said a day earlier that negotiations were “far from over" and that Quebec alone would decide whether U.S. alcohol returns to shelves at the SAQ, the Quebec government corporation that controls most wine and spirits sales in the province.

Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, returned to Washington on Thursday to meet again with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer as the two sides continued work to finalize an agreement.

Fréchette said Carney provided answers to many of her questions during a lengthy call Thursday, though Quebec was still awaiting some information.

“I got a number of the answers that I was looking for,” Fréchette said in French, adding that the province would analyze the potential economic impact before taking a position.

Fréchette said Quebec could restore U.S. alcohol to SAQ shelves if its analysis finds the overall agreement is positive for the province.

Canada and the United States moved closer to finalizing a trade agreement that would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump has called the emerging agreement “very fair” to both sides and predicted U.S. farmers and manufacturers would benefit. Tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports have been postponed until 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Neither Canadian nor U.S. officials have released the full terms of the emerging agreement.

Quebec does not have a veto over a Canada-U.S. trade agreement, but it controls provincial measures such as whether U.S. alcohol is sold through the SAQ.

Carney asked provincial premiers during a briefing Wednesday to return U.S. alcohol to store shelves, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said, a step aimed at addressing one of the Trump administration’s key trade complaints.

The White House has said the emerging deal includes a Canadian commitment to address restrictions on U.S. alcohol. But Carney cannot order provinces to restore sales.

Fréchette’s Coalition Avenir Québec faces voters in an October provincial election, adding political pressure as she assesses changes that could affect Quebec's dairy and forestry sectors.

Houston and two other premiers voiced support for the direction of the talks, though Houston said whether Canadians would actually buy U.S. alcohol again “is a whole other discussion.”

Eight of Canada’s 10 provinces restrict or ban U.S. alcohol — measures imposed in retaliation for Trump’s previous tariffs on Canadian goods and amid anger over his repeated talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is especially important. Its government-run LCBO, one of the world’s largest alcohol purchasers, sold nearly 1 billion Canadian dollars ($723 million) worth of U.S. products annually before pulling them from shelves last year.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has clashed with Trump before, has not yet commented on the emerging deal.

While details of the emerging agreement remain vague, Trump has claimed Canada agreed to end tariffs on U.S. agricultural products.

Canada currently allows a set amount of dairy imports at low tariffs. Once imports exceed that limit, much higher tariffs apply. The U.S. says Canada’s supply-management system makes it harder for American dairy producers to gain full access to the Canadian market.

LeBlanc has said Canada’s “agriculture sector will be well protected and we have maintained our tough line.”

Swalwell’s devices were seized at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and agents executed a search warrant at his home a day later, said the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with an attorney for Swalwell, who has denied allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress in April following allegations that Swalwell had sexually assaulted a woman twice, including when she worked for him. The San Francisco Chronicle, followed by CNN, first reported the allegations. CNN also reported that three other women alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct by Swalwell, including sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos.

The seven-term lawmaker had been seen as one of the leading candidates in California’s gubernatorial race before dropping out after the allegations surfaced.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed in April that it was investigating Swalwell after a former staffer told CNN and the Chronicle that Swalwell raped her at a hotel while he was in New York City for a charity gala in 2024. In a statement, Bragg’s office encouraged “survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division.”

Swalwell, an Iowa native, was elected in 2012 and represented a House district east of San Francisco. He launched a presidential run in April 2019 but ended it a few months later after failing to catch on with voters.

He was one of Republican President Donald Trump’s top Democratic antagonists in Congress. He was a prominent member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees during Trump's first term and served as one of several Democratic prosecutors for Trump’s second impeachment after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Swalwell was removed from the Intelligence Committee by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in 2023 based on Swalwell's contact with a suspected Chinese spy, Christine Fang.

Fang was reported to have come into contact with Swalwell’s campaign as he was first running for Congress in 2012 and to have participated in fundraising for his 2014 campaign.

Federal investigators alerted Swalwell to their concerns and briefed Congress about Fang in 2015, at which point Swalwell says he cut off contact with her. He was not accused of wrongdoing and a House Ethics Committee investigation that was opened in 2021 closed two years later without any action. ____

Associated Press reporter Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

The Bruins are to play two games in Munich, while the Oilers will play two matches in Leon Draisaitl’s native city of Cologne during the 2027-28 NHL season. The opponents have yet to be determined.

“These events represent an important step in our commitment to grow the game in Germany. By bringing more NHL games to one of Europe’s most dynamic hockey markets, we hope to continue to deepen engagement amongst our fans, partners and local communities, while at the same time creating a significant opportunity to grow the game throughout the country,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators were already slated to play two games in Düsseldorf in December. Those Global Series games are the second and third regular-season games the league has staged in Germany after the Buffalo Sabres and Los Angeles Kings played in Berlin in 2011.

More are to follow with the NHL and NHLPA committed to bringing regular-season games to Germany for at least the next three seasons.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

The petition with the hashtag InfantinOut also calls for FIFA "to be rebuilt so that the current debacle can never happen again.”

“The shameful attempt by one individual — the FIFA President himself — to sell off the World Cup to private investors exposed a betrayal football will never forget,” the petition said about Infantino's plan for a commercial spinoff, which he dropped amid a furious backlash.

The fan groups include Football Supporters Europe, Football Supporters Africa and, in North America, the Independent Supporters Council, plus about 40 national fan groups worldwide.

Infantino has resisted calls to leave office despite European soccer body UEFA saying it has no confidence in him. He has also been criticized by the leadership of North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation.

Some of FIFA's 211 member federations are supporting Infantino, including 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco as well as Qatar, where he lived before the emirate hosted the 2022 World Cup, and Lebanon, which gave him citizenship this year. Saudi Arabia, the 2034 host, has not publicly backed Infantino despite his close political ties to the kingdom.

“Gianni Infantino has demonstrated a profound failure of leadership, incompatible with democratic governance,” the fan petition states. “The concentration of power around the FIFA Presidency, combined with opaque decision-making, personality cult clientelism, and zero accountability has destroyed any remaining trust in the world governing body."

“For the credibility of FIFA — and for the future of the game — he must resign,” the petition adds.

FIFA was approached for comment about the petition.

Fan anger at World Cup ticket prices

The petition also cites Infantino’s past support for projects that outraged fans, including the failed European Super League project, pushing to hold World Cups every two years that was resisted and the “extortionate ticketing policy at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”

FIFA and Infantino did not consult with fan groups before setting record ticket prices for the 104-game tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, that provoked anger and led to some tickets being sold for $60 to the most loyal fans of each of the 48 teams.

Football Supporters Europe is the official liaison for fans with UEFA and advises on ticket prices for European Championships and club cup finals like the Champions League.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

In Gaza City, a mass funeral was held for 50 people killed in Israeli airstrikes nearly three years ago but whose remains were just recovered. Meanwhile, Syria’s foreign minister visited Pakistan, which is seeking to defuse tensions between the United States and Iran.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Thursday. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran denounces Trump's economic threat

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected the economic threats made against his country, saying that such “failed policies” will stir more hostility among Iranians and “bring more failures.”

Araghchi's comments came a few hours after Trump threatened “crushing economic measures” against Iran. Trump promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” but provided few details.

In a social media post, Araghchi maintained that the threats aim to divert the attention of the U.S. public from domestic financial problems, adding that U.S. “economic terrorism threatens the global economy and the national sovereignty of countries around the world.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Iran will face the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world."

In a CNBC interview, Bessent threatened secondary sanctions on nations and companies that conduct business with Iran, saying it's time for U.S. allies to make a decision on where they stand.

China and India are major buyers of Iranian oil, though Bessent did not call them out by name.

UK and others rebuke planned West Bank settlement project

Several countries condemned the latest development in a contentious Israeli settlement project near Jerusalem that would effectively cut the occupied West Bank in two.

Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing issued a tender for constructing several compounds with more than 1,200 homes in total in an open tract of land east of Jerusalem. It’s the latest step in a project under consideration for more than two decades, which critics say would prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband called the publication of the tender “an unacceptable and destructive act” and denounced “settler violence and terrorism.” In a statement released on Wednesday, he added that the British government “demanded an immediate reversal” and had summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires.

Egypt and Jordan also condemned Israel’s move, which Cairo said would isolate east Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded on Thursday by defending “the historic right of the Jewish people to reestablish their national home in the Land of Israel — including in the area in question.” Saar criticized Britain’s government for “blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism.”

Gaza funeral remembers 50 killed in opening strikes of Israel-Hamas war

A mass funeral Thursday in Gaza City remembered 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the opening months of the Israel-Hamas war but whose remains were only recently recovered from under rubble.

Dozens of mourners carried the remains, draped in Palestinian flags, through debris-strewn streets before lowering them into graves. Some held portraits and posters with photos of the deceased.

“We were able to recover them after three years of war, after three years of anguish, pain and torture. We were able to recover them, and dignify them in their final resting place. We were able to pray over them and bury them,” said Lina Karam, who lost her father and other members of her family.

The 50 bodies were from three families who were killed in airstrikes in November and December 2023.

The nearly three-year war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.

Turkey denies delegation had visited air base in Syria that was hit by Israel

Turkey has denied that a Turkish military delegation had visited an air base in northern Syria that was hit by Israeli airstrikes, and vowed to continue supporting Syria in its efforts to rebuild its military.

The Israeli strikes targeted the Abu Duhur base early on Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had attacked the base because Syria was “on the verge of breaching” an agreed-upon “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

Syrian officials have said that a Turkish delegation visited the base before the Israeli strike to review rehabilitation work underway there.

Syria's top diplomat discusses Middle East in Pakistan

Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani arrived in Islamabad for talks expected to focus on regional issues, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The visit comes days after Israeli airstrikes targeted an air base in northern Syria, causing damage but no casualties.

Pakistani officials say the country's political and military leadership remains in contact with both Iran and the United States over efforts to de-escalate tensions and push for the resumption of talks after a 60-day deadline under a June memorandum of understanding expired. The agreement was brokered by Pakistan with help from regional countries.

Bodies of Pakistani sailors returned after Houthi attack

The bodies of two Pakistanis killed in last week’s Houthi attack on a Tanzanian-flagged commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have been repatriated to Pakistan.

Six Pakistani sailors who were injured in the attack have also safely returned to the country, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X.

Officers responded to the scene around 8:45 a.m. Thursday in the 9500 block of Interstate 35 southbound, which is located near Whirlwind Drive.

With the state of the decomposition, officers said it’s unclear whether foul play was involved in the man’s death.

The death may have resulted from a drug overdose or natural causes, SAPD said.

Police noted that the abandoned motel is a “haven” for people experiencing homelessness.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the man’s cause and manner of death.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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• Man stabbed multiple times at North Side convenience store, police say

Anthony’s attorney told a newly appointed judge that prosecutors also did not follow through with an off-the-record agreement. Defense attorney Russell Wilson said the case’s original judge allowed a “shadow docket” that kept information out of the trial.

“Everything was done off the record, at an astonishing clip,” said Wilson, who didn't represent Anthony at the criminal trial.

Anthony already won a legal victory on Wednesday when the judge who presided over his trial was removed from the case. Judge Michael Chitty was then assigned to consider the motion from Anthony's attorneys asking for a retrial in the killing of Austin Metcalf.

Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the case.

Prosecutor Bill Wirskye argued Thursday that Anthony had received a fair trial and said that his attorneys had agreed to everything that was done during the trial.

Anthony's attorneys had asked for state District Judge John Roach to be removed in part because of a TV interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict.

In seeking a new trial, Anthony’s attorneys have argued that the June proceedings were marred by strict courtroom rules and improper jury instructions. They have also said Anthony’s decision to not testify came after a dispute with prosecutors over an agreement to focus the trial on the events leading up to the stabbing.

Jurors in the trial had rejected Anthony’s claims he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year. Students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.

The case attracted national attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race.

During the recusal hearing Wednesday, Anthony's legal team focused on comments Roach made to a Dallas TV station after the trial had ended. In the interview, which was played as the hearing began, Roach was asked if the jury got “it right.”

“Yeah, they did,” Roach said, adding: “Whatever they say, they got it right.”

During the interview, Roach also defended his courtroom rules and spoke about the onslaught of online postings about the case.

As national attention on the killing intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.

Several schools were competing at the track event when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.

Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.

Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.

Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.

Hurricane Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many households without electricity. With nearly 15,000 homes and businesses still dark Thursday, forecasters warned of the likelihood of another tropical cyclone forming southeast of the islands.

A depression moving west and northwest could become a tropical storm Thursday and is expected to pass near or south of Hawaii's Big Island this weekend, according to the National Weather Service’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center. That could mean up to 15 inches of rain across the Big Island and life-threatening flooding, mudslides and rip currents, the hurricane center said.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials planned a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the potential cyclone as well as the ongoing recovery efforts related to the hurricane, which has been blamed for two deaths in the state.

The body of a man in his 60s was located by residents in a pasture Tuesday, a day after police were asked to conduct a welfare check, police said. That followed the discovery Monday of May Doi, 93, whom neighbors said was escaping floodwaters in her home and trying to get to a nearby shelter.

Doi was a beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii’s Big Island.

“She taught grandkids of her students,” said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student of Doi’s who is now a vice principal at a local school. “She was a fixture in this community."

Now well west of Hawaii’s main islands, Lala reached major Category 3 strength with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) on Wednesday in what the National Hurricane Center called the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean.

The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and a collapsed section of a two-lane road had cut off access to the community of Pahala.

About 13,200 customers on the Big Island remained without power Thursday, the Hawaiian Electric utility said. Repairs in the heavily damaged areas of the Big Island, including the southern end, could take at least two weeks, the utility said.

Meanwhile, Lala was moving to the northwest at 9 mph (15 kph) Thursday and was expected to turn toward the north later in the day. It was bearing down on a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Hurricane warnings were posted for portions of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.

Despite the remote area, there were humans in harm’s way. A charter boat with a crew of 16 people dedicated to removing marine plastics and abandoned fishing nets from the shores of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands got out of Lala’s projected path earlier this week.

Kevin O’Brien, president of the nonprofit Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project, departed Lisianski Island on Monday and headed 350 miles (563 kilometers) out to sea.

“We were ready for it,” O’Brien said. “We keep on our toes out here during hurricane season.”

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

To compete in the increasingly commercialized world of college sports, programs of its size might spend more than $40 million a year on talent acquisition, revenue sharing and other costs, according to experts. But just five of Louisville's 23 sports generate any revenue, according to the athletic department. Only football and men’s basketball turn profits.

Louisville, like a growing number of major conferences ′ public universities, is trying to narrow that spending gap and its supporters are trying to help by creating a new organization to oversee everything from third-party multimedia deals to hospitality packages.

This spring, Louisville launched Cardinal Ventures, a nonprofit designed to help the athletic department leverage its brand to generate new revenue streams, all to keep pace with the multibillion-dollar market around compensating athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.

“We live in a highly, highly competitive environment and industry,” Heird said. “And if there’s anything that anybody can do to try to create even the smallest sort of competitive advantage, then they’re gonna look to do that.”

The University of Kentucky also has a revenue-raising nonprofit. The University of North Carolina is actively discussing a limited liability company. So, too, is Louisiana State University.

There’s “feverish” interest from higher education in these offshoots, according to Clay Grayson, whose South Carolina law firm designed Clemson University’s in-house venture. There’s also scrutiny from Congress. Widespread privatization could further transform universities into profit-driven businesses resembling professional sports franchises, weaning them off fatigued donors and opening the door to private capital.

“Governmental universities don’t do commercial very well,” Grayson said. “Those nonprofits are the ones that kind of can get out into that space.”

Record high gifts underscore the spending spree. Virginia Tech touted an “unprecedented” $75 million commitment intended to “ensure a strong start” for its nonprofit Hokie Ventures. Michigan State bolstered its athletic department with a $401 million contribution that included an investment in its own Spartan Ventures.

Louisville’s Heird said he frequently finds himself discussing these new organizations with peers as they all look to boost their bottom lines.

At his school, he has found some “low-hanging fruit” with concerts. Louisville’s 60,000-seat football stadium largely sits dark outside of home games.

Country music star Zach Bryan recently lit up the field. The rapper Ludacris headlines an upcoming hip-hop billing. Planning is already underway for next year’s shows — each of which could bring seven-figure profits for the hosts.

Athletic directors seek flexibility, control and a ‘commercial engine’

These new efforts may not provide a “silver bullet,” but they do offer new revenue and something many athletic directors may value even more — more control.

The nonprofits and LLCs offer greater flexibility to crack the financing puzzle than the previous system. Bureaucracy can drag decision-making out for months. Key components of the fan experience — tickets, parking, merchandise, concessions— are often outsourced to vendors they don’t fully run.

“There is an unstoppable train that is college sports," said Jason Belzer, a Sequence Equity partner who advises schools on NIL deals. "The reality is that you need to create new platforms and paradigms to be able to successfully operate a business that no longer really sits with the original mission of college athletics -- at least at the higher levels.”

Everything is on the table for Syracuse University. Athletic director Bryan Blair sees an opportunity to corner New York's college sports market. It's the state's only Power Four conference school. And all five ticketed sports play under a 50,000-seat dome that brings what he called a “big state school feel."

The question is how to build a “commercial engine,” Blair said, whether it exists within his department or outside it.

“We’re trying to educate young people, give them a great experience. We’re trying win on whatever day of the week it is for whatever competition it is. We’re trying to be great stewards and ambassadors for our university,” Blair said. “But to do a lot of those things requires more revenue than ever before.”

Nonprofits join growing number of affiliates

Commercial affiliates aren't new to higher education. Some universities use them to monetize drug patents or manage copyright.

Take the University of Kentucky, believed to be the first school to convert its athletic department into a limited-liability holding company. Trustees already managed separate health systems through a not-for-profit that was primed to take ownership of its athletics offshoot.

Athletic director J Batt, who recently joined the Wildcats from Michigan State, expects these formations will become the norm rather than an exception. “And everybody will do the one that’s right for your campus,” he added.

Grayson, the legal architect behind many such models, said he mostly hears from members of the Power Four. Those 67 schools tend to be the only ones with large, competitive enough programs to spend beyond the revenue-sharing cap of $21.3 million this year. His firm has helped create affiliated entities at an estimated one in seven schools competing in the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12.

His model strays from the traditional nonprofit. He proposes smaller, seven-person boards in order to expedite decision-making. Some of the athletic ancillaries even own for-profits that handle taxable activities such as stadium concerts.

Another big difference: they’re not registered to fundraise because their focus is programmatic revenue. He recommends aligning these new ventures with existing fundraising organizations — like “two pedals of a bicycle.”

“If you get them moving in sync, you’ve got a powerful, powerful motor," he said.

Questions about charitable purpose and donor fatigue

It remains to be seen whether these new entities will alleviate donor pressure to bankroll costly football programs. Moreover, they raise the same question that murky NIL collectives did: what is the charitable purpose of an institution whose main goal is to generate more revenue for athletics?

The Internal Revenue Service decided many nonprofit NIL collectives were erroneously given charitable status. They served players, not the public good, so their activities were likely not exempt from taxes.

These affiliates are similar, in the view of an NIL tax consultant who previously worked at the IRS. Thad Madden, who studied NIL compliance issues for the agency, said he doesn't see any “charitable connotation."

“It's to serve the financial interest of the athletes so that they make the most possible money with the goal of putting the best team on the field,” Madden said.

That financial interest has fatigued donors, according to consultants who advise schools on issues of NIL. They're fielding more athletics solicitations even as universities continue fundraising for student scholarships, research projects and other functions.

It used to be that development officers could leverage donor interest in athletics to direct some funds towards academics. That's not so nowadays, according to University of Pennsylvania professor Karen Weaver, a former athletic administrator who studies the evolving college sports landscape.

“Athletics doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem," Weaver said. "So, whatever dollar they bring in is gonna be spent on trying to get an advantage in athletics.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The announcement of his contract extension ahead of Verstappen’s home Dutch Grand Prix this weekend ends speculation that he could seek a blockbuster move to another team or quit the sport.

It comes despite Red Bull struggling to match the pace of leading team Mercedes this season, and Verstappen's own frustration with how much the 2026 cars rely on electrical power.

“After the first few races (this year), I said to Laurent (Mekies, Red Bull team principal): ‘Don’t come to me with any kind of questions about the future because I don’t even know if I want to stay.’ Honestly, we always kept it very open,” Verstappen said.

He added that talks with F1 and governing body the FIA had persuaded him that “we are slowly working towards something that becomes better and better” with the current cars, while the new contract until 2030 could cover a potential — but not confirmed — return to simpler V8 engines.

“Even if I’m not entirely happy with how the package is, I still love racing, this is still the pinnacle of motorsport, so I still want to be here,” he added.

Asked whether he’d spoken with other teams, he said: “I think I was closer to retiring than changing team.”

The Verstappen-Red Bull pairing could set an F1 record

Seeing out the contract in full would take Verstappen to 15 seasons with Red Bull. It would be the longest-running driver-team pairing in F1 history. It comes with strong support for team principal Mekies after he replaced the team's founding boss Christian Horner last year.

In return, Mekies laid out how the team is built around Verstappen.

“He’s a lot more than the fastest driver in the world for us,” Mekies said. “He’s the central point of the team. He’s one we always refer to for all the strategic decisions we are making, and to know that he’s going to be with us in order to build that next winning cycle is phenomenal.”

Verstappen, already considered one of F1’s all-time greats at the age of 28, has yet to win a race this season. The 71-time race winner hasn’t had a winless season since his rookie year in 2015.

Why there was speculation Verstappen might move

Verstappen’s previous contract ran through 2028 but reportedly included performance-related clauses which could have potentially allowed him to leave earlier and which fueled speculation he might seek to move.

Red Bull backed Verstappen’s career from childhood and brought him into F1 at the age of 17 in 2015 at its second team, then called Toro Rosso. That made him the youngest driver in series history, a record he still holds.

Still, there had been signs of tension in recent years amid the departures of a series of key staff including Horner last year and car design great Adrian Newey.

Verstappen also raised safety concerns this season after two separate faults with the Red Bull car’s rear wing hurled him into high-speed crashes.

Verstappen had been linked with a move to McLaren after reports of a meeting in June between his representatives and McLaren management. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said at the time the team didn't have an opening for him and would stick with defending champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who said Thursday he hadn't been worried for his seat.

Mercedes had also signaled interest in the past.

“Drivers talk with different teams, teams talk with different drivers. Everyone has to just see what their cards are," Mercedes' George Russell said Thursday. "My seat never felt under threat, and I felt 100% security with Toto (Wolff, team principal) and the team. That obviously now continues.”

One driver who had been considered a potential replacement for Verstappen at Red Bull, Carlos Sainz Jr., signed a new contract on Wednesday with Williams.

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The injury happened Wednesday, according to the district. Crandall is located approximately 25 miles southeast of Dallas.

“Our thoughts are with the student and the student’s family. We ask our community to respect their privacy at this time,” Crandall ISD posted on Facebook.

The Crandall ISD case is the second incident a Texas high school football player has fallen ill during practice this school year.

Lake Travis High School football player Odin Hensley suffered a medical emergency during practice Aug. 10 and was later airlifted to a hospital. He died two days later.

After careful consideration, Lake Travis announced Wednesday it will cancel its season opener against Dripping Springs.

Crandall ISD has not said when additional information about the injured student may be released. The district has yet to release details about the student’s condition or the nature of his injury.

Read also:

• Lake Travis football coach says team ‘heartbroken’ after player’s death

Bodeen died Monday after a struggle with cancer and complications from a stroke, his daughter, Ingrid, said Thursday by telephone from Taiwan.

Bodeen, who spoke fluent Mandarin with a proud Taiwan accent, spent much of his career detailing China's rise to an economic, political and military superpower — and the accompanying friction from what critics have long called Beijing’s heavy-handed efforts to establish dominance in Asia and beyond.

“Chris was a reporter who would go anywhere and do anything for the story,” said Charles Hutzler, AP's former bureau chief in Beijing. After a huge quake flattened a swath of Sichuan province in 2008, Bodeen composed his account from one devastated town sentence by sentence over text messages because of damaged telecommunications networks. "It was one of the first eyewitness reports the AP and the world received about one of the worst earthquakes in decades,” Hutzler recalled.

He was an expert on politics and Chinese military issues

From AP bureaus in Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei, Bodeen was for years the news agency's go-to person on Chinese politics and military issues, able to quickly determine the newsworthiness of the government's often abstruse statements.

“A chat with Chris would inevitably turn into a remarkable history lesson," said Emily Wang Fujiyama, former Greater China news director. “He had astounding knowledge of the region and would be writing about China’s military presence in the South China Sea, pivot to Taiwan’s intricate politics, and just as deftly write about the political sensitivities of Tibet, Mongolia and China.”

Bodeen was born in Missouri on Sept. 9, 1970, but he spent parts of his childhood in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia. His father was a foreign service officer and his mother a former diplomat, his daughter, Ingrid, said. Friends and colleagues remembered his love of the Boston Red Sox, esoteric punk rock -- and his contagious enthusiasm for the job of journalism.

"He was the blondest, palest person you’ll ever meet” yet also spoke pitch-perfect Chinese, said Ted Anthony, AP’s former China news editor and news director for Asia. “So when the earthquake in Sichuan happened in 2008, he went out there, put on one of his ever-present ballcaps to cover his hair, and slouched down. He passed as Chinese, started interviewing people and sailed under the scrutiny of the authorities.”

He was 'always ready for adventure’

Bodeen joined the AP in 1996, in Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island China claims as its own, before working as an editor on the agency’s international desk in New York and then joining the AP bureau in Beijing as a correspondent, in 2000. He majored in history and Asian studies at Tufts University, graduating in 1993.

“Chris Bodeen was always ready for adventure. Hiding in the hills of Hainan Island, China, to try to report on the return of an American Air Force plane forced down in 2001, he was the best colleague to be with,” said Raf Wober, a video journalist in the AP's Hong Kong bureau.

In a 2017 story on efforts to burnish the image of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Bodeen described state broadcaster China Central Television leading its evening national news bulletin “with more than four minutes of uninterrupted clapping for Xi as he met with adoring citizens,” and a Russian translator who “was so engrossed with reading a recent speech by Xi, Xinhua (the official news agency) said, that he skipped lunch and dinner just to finish studying it.”

While much of this might have seemed amusing to outsiders, Bodeen was careful to note that “the domination of (Xi’s) image in official propaganda evokes, for some, the painful memories of the upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s, when Mao (Zedong) was accorded the status of a near deity.”

Julie Pace, AP's executive editor, remembered Bodeen as not only an effective China correspondent but as a fellow journalist whose knowledge elevated those around him.

“Chris cared deeply about his work and the value of on-the-ground reporting in such an important region of the world," she said. "His expertise informed AP’s audiences for so many years, but also helped lift up so many colleagues.”

Passion for family and work was his hallmark

Bodeen was deeply proud of his two daughters and loved showing off their artwork and achievements — and creative Halloween costumes — to colleagues. “Every parent thinks their kids are the best, but, hand to God, these girls are both adorable and seriously tough cookies,” he wrote of his children.

“He truly, passionately loved what he did, as much as he loved being a dad," Ingrid Bodeen said. She recalled that when her father spent long stints reporting from Afghanistan during her childhood, “he would always have my mom fax over my spelling lists and homework so we could work on them together. He never missed a spelling test week.”

Bodeen was also beloved by colleagues for his sharp sense of humor, his knowledge of good local food and an encyclopedic knowledge of movie and TV comedies from the ’70s and ’80s.

Kanis Leung, an AP reporter in Hong Kong, said that Bodeen once told her about an old correspondent's description of news reporting as “the art of shoving 50 pounds of oatmeal into a 10-pound sack."

“Except,” Bodeen told Leung, "he didn’t say oatmeal.”

Bodeen is survived by his wife, Yen Ling, daughters Ingrid, 26, and Naomi, 22, his parents and a sister.

Country music star Keith Urban, who’s performed at the San Antonio rodeo several times in the past, is the headliner, according to a news release.

Urban most recently appeared in the 2025, 2023, and 2020 editions of the rodeo.

Below is a list of the four artists and their performance dates:

• Flatland Cavalry: Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
• Turnpike Troubadours: Saturday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
• BlackHawk: Sunday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
• Keith Urban: Saturday, Feb. 20 at noon and 7:30 p.m.

The San Antonio rodeo takes place from Feb. 11 through Feb. 28, 2027, at the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum fairgrounds.

Tickets are currently available on the rodeo’s website and Ticketmaster.

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Walmart’s second quarter fanned anxiety about the financial well-being of low-income shoppers who are spending cautiously as prices rise at the gas pump and everywhere else.

Company shares tumbled more than 8% Thursday and helped drag the U.S. stock market lower as well.

Walmart’s comparable sales in the U.S., which measure sales at stores open at least a year along with online sales tied to those locations, rose 2.6% in the second quarter. That is down from 4.1% in the first quarter.

Excluding the wellness category that includes Walmart’s pharmacies, comparable sales increased 3.4% in the second quarter. Sales were hit by federal legislation that requires pharmacies to dispense some high-cost Medicare drugs at capped prices, the retailer said. That was still below Wall Street projections of a 3.8% increase, according to FactSet.

Still, Walmart’s quarterly profit, boosted by a $2.9 billion tariff refund, topped expectations, and so did revenue. Walmart says it continues to take market share.

Walmart is using the U.S. tariff refunds to temporarily lower prices on 11,000 items, it said Thursday, particularly on groceries and general merchandise.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority when he imposed double-digit import taxes, meaning U.S. companies were owed refunds from the government.

Yet Walmart is trying to contain prices as it is squeezed by the same pressures hammering the American consumer, namely rising energy costs due to fighting in Iran. The company expects to book an additional $2 billion in incremental fuel costs this year.

Slowing comparable sales, particularly in Walmart stores, also reflect a strategic shift toward e-commerce, Walmart+ memberships and advertising. Walmart’s domestic e-commerce business, which has become a growth engine for the retailer, rose 24%.

U.S. e-commerce now represents 23% in the overall U.S business., Walmart said, double the share five years ago.

“As these businesses scale, they become a more meaningful part of our mix, and they’re changing the shape of our business,” CEO John Furner said Thursday.

Walmart is considered a barometer of consumer spending given its vast customer base. More than 150 million customers are on its website or in its stores every week, according to Walmart.

Walmart’s trajectory may draw even more attention after U.S. data released Friday showed retail sales were surprisingly weak in July. On the same day, a new read on consumers from the University of Michigan revealed growing pessimism about the economy.

Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said Friday that when gasoline prices rise above $4, the company can feel it.

“There’s a psychological impact to that ... that there are choices that consumers are making,” Rainey said. “June was a little more obvious as we look at the quarter in terms of customers making trade-offs. And it’s why we have leaned so heavily into lower prices.”

The price of a gallon of gasoline ticked higher again overnight, according to AAA, reaching $4.10.

With prices higher, Walmart continues to capture a larger share of wealthier consumers. The biggest gains in market share for Walmart are coming from households with annual incomes over $100,000, the retailer has said.

Walmart’s quarterly net income was $6.37 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the three-month period ended July 31. Adjusted per-share results were 81 cents, easily topping the 74 cents Wall Street had expected, according to FactSet.

Sales rose 5.9% to $187.94 billion. Analysts were predicting $186.62 billion, according to FactSet.

For the third quarter, Walmart expects earnings per share of 62 cents to 64 cents. It projects sales to be up 3% to 3.75%, putting sales in a range of $184.9 billion to $186.23 billion.

For the full year, Walmart now expects earnings per share to be in the range of $2.80 to $2.87, while sales should be up anywhere from 4% to 5%. That would mean a forecast for sales in the range of $741.7 billion to $748.8 billion, according to FactSet.

Analysts expected $2.90 per share and sales of $752.06 billion for the year, according to FactSet.

Moscow's forces have in recent months intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine's chronic shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.

Large-scale Russian missile strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine were killed in the city two days before that. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.

At the same time, Ukraine has shifted the war onto Russian soil through long-range drone strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages across the country. It has also unsettled the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer.

Zelenskyy repeats his appeals for more air defense

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded for countries to send more Patriot interceptors for defense, but international stockpiles are low amid the Iran war and Kyiv's more than four-year fight against Russia's all-out invasion.

Russia's overnight barrage also included cruise missiles and jet-powered drones that further strain air defenses, Ukraine's air force said.

Explosions boomed across Kyiv in the dark, but the air force said hits were recorded at 28 locations across the country. Emergency services said 15 people were killed in the capital, with another death in the wider Kyiv region. About 40 people were wounded, Zelenskyy said, as air raid warnings lasted until after dawn.

More than 38,000 people, including over 2,000 children, sheltered in Kyiv’s subway stations overnight, the system's operator said.

“It was a massive attack,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Russia “had been preparing (it) for a long time, combining different types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, aiming to cause as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure."

The Russian Defense Ministry said it struck a Kyiv industrial site manufacturing components for Flamingo cruise missiles. Sites involved in the production and storage of drones, an ammunition depot and a logistics center were also hit, it said.

Russia is able to produce more than 200 cruise and ballistic missiles per month, Ukraine’s intelligence agency told news outlet Ukrainska Pravda in comments published Thursday. It has stockpiled more than 1,100 cruise missiles and about 130 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, as well as hundreds of missiles of other types, the agency was quoted as saying.

It was not possible to independently verify the report, and Russian officials do not routinely answer questions about the country's arsenal.

Ukraine says it struck more Russian oil facilities

Russia and Ukraine have battered each other with drones and missiles as their armies struggle to gain the upper hand on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, starting a fire, and the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in Volna, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, where there was also a blaze. Ukraine has hit both facilities in recent months as part of its campaign to disrupt Russia’s vital oil industry.

Tatarstan leader Rustam Minnikhanov confirmed there had been a “massive attack” in the region, state news agency Tass reported, citing his press service. Many of the drones targeted Nizhnekamsk’s Zakamsk economic area, disrupting production at industrial sites and damaging residential buildings, Tass quoted him as saying.

The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 726 drones overnight over a number of Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov seas, in one of Ukraine's biggest aerial attacks of the war.

Ukraine's neighbors are on alert

Russia’s relentless onslaught has spooked other European countries, especially those bordering Ukraine, which fear spreading attacks from Moscow.

Amid the attack on Kyiv, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command activated its military aviation operations, ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance. Polish and other NATO military aircraft were deployed to monitor its airspace, Polish news agency PAP reported.

Romania’s Defense Ministry said an unidentified drone crashed and burned in an uninhabited area near the Ukrainian border. Two Spanish F-18 jets, deployed on a policing mission in Romania, were scrambled overnight to monitor a group of “air targets” near the border, the ministry said.

In addition, two Romanian F-16 fighter jets were deployed to destroy a naval drone seen near a major Black Sea gas project, Romania’s acting Defense Minister Radu Miruta said.

Moldova’s Defense Ministry also said its airspace was breached by at least one drone.

Russia “is increasingly testing the resolve of NATO and its partners, violating the sovereignty of neighboring states and deliberately expanding the risks posed by its war far beyond Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on social media.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saw a broad threat to the European Union. “An escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union,” she said on X.

Explosions shatter windows and screams fill the air

Russia's overnight strikes hit 12 locations across Kyiv’s Darnytskyi, Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, damaging 30 apartment blocks, a school, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten, Zelenskyy said.

Larysa Bondaruk, 60, sat on the ground, holding her cat, Chanel, which had been rescued by firefighters. With tears in her eyes, she said her neighbor’s grandson had been trapped by the rubble and died. Her apartment was badly damaged.

“A rocket hit the roof. It was incredibly loud. Immediately, debris and doors were blown out. There were columns of smoke, columns of fire, screams, crying and despair,” she said. “Two people were killed in our building, but the rescuers responded quickly and professionally. I am grateful to them for that.”

In Solomianskyi district, the top two floors of a nine-story residential building were destroyed and fires broke out on other floors. People were also trapped in two residential buildings and a school shelter.

___

AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed.

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

An analysis by The Associated Press and Reporter Brasil of all National Mining Agency records through June shows that rare earth exploration applications have surged, with more than 86% filed in the past three years, including 268 in the first half of 2026.

The interest is already raising environmental concerns for the Amazon and other areas.

Here are takeaways from the story:

The US and others are seeking alternatives to China

Rare earth minerals are a group of chemicals essential in digital and defense technologies, used in electronics, magnets and batteries. They are also used in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors, critical to the transition away from fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal that cause global warming. The International Energy Agency estimated in 2022 that demand for rare earths could increase at least threefold by 2040.

China has nearly half of the world’s reserves and dominates global processing. Brazil has the second-largest reserves and is becoming increasingly attractive to investors seeking alternatives to China after Beijing restricted exports last year.

By reviewing all National Mining Agency records in Brazil through June, the AP-Reporter Brasil analysis found that foreign investors are driving the growing interest in rare earth exploration, accounting for more than four in 10 applications.

Australian and U.S. firms dominate the interest. Among recent deals was the acquisition of Serra Verde, Brazil’s only commercial rare earth producer, by a U.S.-backed company.

Chinese firms had not filed any rare earth exploration applications in Brazil as of June, but they are positioning themselves in the sector. Last year, state-owned China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group acquired tin producer Mineracao Taboca and announced plans to assess rare earth potential at its Amazon mine. Separately, Shenghe Resources signed an agreement with Brazilian partners WEG Mineracao and Fenrir do Brasil to pursue rare earth projects, including one in Minas Gerais.

New mining push could impact communities and ecosystems

At least a quarter of the applications overlap with or are within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of protected areas and Indigenous territories, including in the Amazon, according to the Energy Transition Observatory, a collaboration among researchers and Reporter Brasil. Experts say mining projects within this buffer zone can cause environmental damage.

Depending on what is mined, toxic chemicals can be released and radioactive waste generated. Other potential impacts include deforestation and polluted water seeping into rivers and lakes, which can poison fish populations, as well as air pollution and noise.

In Goias state, in central Brazil, a small Afro-Brazilian community overlaps with mining claims by the Canadian firm Aclara Resources, which last year secured $5 million in project development financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Aclara in a statement said its project initially overlapped with the community’s territory, but “no mining activities will take place there.” Still, residents fear operations that could start as early as 2028 could affect local springs and wildlife.

Brazil is considering safeguards around foreign influence

“The challenge today is that China dominates processing and refining,” said Brazilian lawmaker Zé Silva, author of pending legislation that would establish a federal policy on critical minerals and rare earths, set investment priorities and create a national council to monitor significant foreign influence in the sector. “Under our proposal, companies are welcome to invest, but they must transfer technology to Brazil, including processing capacity.”

On Monday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Senate would move forward with the proposed law, to defend national interests.

“We will not allow anyone from outside to come here and exploit our mineral resources, because we want their processing and transformation to happen here,” Lula said.

___

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.

Officers responded to the stabbing just after 9:30 p.m. at a 7-Eleven in the 900 block of Fredericksburg Road.

According to an SAPD preliminary report released Thursday, officers found the victim with multiple stab wounds to his “upper torso area and upper extremities.”

The victim was taken to a local hospital for further treatment, the report states.

Police believe the two men know each other. According to the report, both men entered the convenience store. As they left the store, the men began arguing.

While it is unclear what the argument was about, authorities said the 39-year-old suspect then stabbed the victim multiple times.

The suspect fled the scene before officers arrived, police said.

SAPD said its investigation is ongoing.

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• Man randomly shot while riding bike on Southwest Side, SAPD says

The most significant impact in the San Antonio area was at North East ISD, where 30 campuses lost the free meals program.

As some San Antonio families adjust to the changes, nutrition experts say packing an affordable lunch at home does not have to mean sacrificing healthy options.

Luis Ricardo Crompton, a nutrition education coordinator with the San Antonio Food Bank, demonstrated a few lunch options that combine affordable ingredients with lean protein and vegetables.

One option is a three-bean salad made with three types of beans.

Crompton said beans can provide a source of lean protein while helping families cut back on foods high in saturated fat.

For children who are not fans of beans, Crompton suggested a vegetable wrap made with celery, onions, and carrots, along with Swiss or mozzarella cheese and low-sodium smoked turkey.

The ingredients can also be relatively inexpensive, he said.

Tortillas can cost about $2 to $3, while vegetables such as celery and carrots can be purchased for about $1 to $1.50. Cheese can cost about $2 to $3, depending on the brand.

Crompton recommended store brands, including H-E-B products, as another way to keep grocery costs down.

Families can also save money by making some foods at home. Crompton demonstrated homemade hummus as well as a chocolate mousse made with avocados, bananas, almond milk and honey.

He estimated the ingredients for the dessert at about $2 to $3.

For families trying to stretch their grocery budgets, Crompton said choosing inexpensive staples and preparing food at home can make it easier to put together nutritious school lunches without spending a lot.

Crompton offers nutrition education to students and families through the San Antonio Food Bank’s Culinary Health Education for Families program.

Noah Lopez, who attends Memorial High School in Port Arthur ISD, told KPRC, KSAT’s sister station in Houston, that the punishment happened less than a month after he joined the team.

Noah said he had missed school because he did not have a ride after his mother was seriously injured in a crash. He also said he wore the wrong color football pants to practice. According to Noah, the coach was also upset because he did not have Noah’s phone number.

“It just really hurt real bad,” Noah said. “I was running across the room, going in circles, and everybody was just laughing. And I was like, dang, like, come on bro, it’s already embarrassing, I’m getting hit.”

Noah’s father told KPRC that neither he nor Noah’s mother gave permission for the paddling.

“The way they did it, you know, it was like an assault,” Henry Lopez, Noah’s dad, told KPRC. “You know, they didn’t let me know. I don’t even whoop with my son.”

The Texas Education Agency said it has a zero-tolerance policy toward misconduct that threatens student safety. The agency also said parents can report school safety concerns to the TEA.

Port Arthur ISD said, in part, that district policy does not require a parent to provide advance written consent before corporal punishment may be administered.

According to the Education Code, parents or guardians must sign a written statement and send it to the board of trustees of their district to prohibit the use of corporal punishment on their children.

It is not yet clear whether the family has filed a formal complaint with the district or the state. Parents with safety concerns may report them to the Texas Education Agency.

Also on KSAT.com:

• Lake Travis football coach says team ‘heartbroken’ after player’s death

According to a Spurs Sports & Entertainment news release, Gunn Family Coyote Dog Park reopens Friday.

The reopening comes more than five weeks after the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in the area July 15. Damage forced the park to close for repairs.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which manages the 7.5-acre facility, worked alongside Bexar County and local partners to restore the park, the release states.

The free public space draws approximately 50,000 visitors a year and features a dog agility course, walking trails, seating areas, dog-wash stations and play mounds.

Friday’s reopening celebration kicks off at 8 a.m. at 15915 Old Fredericksburg Road. Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody will join representatives from Spurs Sports & Entertainment and Gunn Auto Group for brief remarks at approximately 8:05 a.m.

Giveaways, free coffee and pup cups will be available while supplies last. Admission is free.

Read also:

• NIOSA organizers announce layoffs, ‘reset’ ahead of event’s redesign

Officers were dispatched to the scene just after midnight Sunday in the 5100 block of Crestway Road.

Upon arrival, officers located a deceased man, police said. Witnesses reported that he was assaulted in the area.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Michael Allen Berry, 62.

At this time, it is unclear what led up to Berry’s death. However, the medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide.

According to an SAPD preliminary report, no suspect information is available and no arrests have been made.

Officials said Berry died from cardiac air embolism due to sharp injuries to his neck.

Additional information was not immediately available. The investigation is ongoing.

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• 2 children seriously injured after three-vehicle crash on US Highway 281, police say

The Ervebo vaccine is licensed for use against Ebola virus, one of the viruses that cause Ebola disease, but not for Bundibugyo virus, which is responsible for the current outbreak which has so far killed 2,476 people out of the 5,208 confirmed cases

WHO said in a statement that while it’s not known whether Ervebo may protect against the Bundibugyo virus, “early laboratory and animal data suggest it may provide some protection.”

The allocation includes 20,000 doses for a Phase 3 clinical trial to understand the impact of the vaccine on the Bundibugyo virus, the agency said. The remaining 50,000 doses will be used for front-line and health workers as recommended by WHO experts.

The outbreak raging in six provinces in eastern Congo has infected and killed more people at a greater speed than any other Ebola outbreak in history, and is spreading about three times faster compared to the 2014-2016 outbreak across West Africa — the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record with more than 11,000 deaths.

The International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision, which includes WHO and other partners, said the doses will be released immediately following a request from Congo’s government.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the approval “an important example of global solidarity in action.” He said the agency and its partners remain committed to supporting strengthened surveillance, rapid detection, quality care, community engagement and vaccination efforts to bring the outbreak under control.

The lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus has been a major issue for responders. Most new cases have been reported outside of the people being monitored, showing the virus continues to spread faster than efforts to track it. That has been a key contributor to the recorded deaths.

The case fatality rate so far is 47.5% although it is far worse in some places where response efforts are more challenging, such as in North Kivu province where the fatality rate is up to 70%.

Experts believe the virus began spreading from the mining town of Mongbwalu as early as February, months before authorities declared the outbreak on May 15.

In a news release, the Conservation Society of San Antonio said it is reenvisioning NIOSA for future success, streamlining operations and reducing staff to support the redesign.

Betty Bueché, president of the Conservation Society, said two people were laid off: one full-time NIOSA manager and one part-time bookkeeper. Three employees remain on staff.

“There is a financial situation,” Bueché told KSAT in an interview on Wednesday. “We need to retool this so that we can make sure that we have proceeds. We’re being very cautious about this.”

Bueché said that “the city has been working toward the moment when they can redevelop La Villita for public benefit.”

“As a result of that, we no longer have available for NIOSA the use of the Villita Assembly Hall,” she said. ”We will not have Maverick Plaza if their construction continues.”

The Conservation Society’s loss of two major spaces within La Villita for NIOSA results in a 43% loss of space, according to Bueché.

The society said the goal is to build a stronger NIOSA for the future, while honoring the volunteers and workers who helped make it a San Antonio tradition.

“Unfortunately, aligning our resources with this new direction means saying goodbye to some of our valued team members through a staff reduction,” Bueché said in the Wednesday release. “We are immensely grateful to those who have helped sustain this event and appreciate the thousands of volunteers who are committed to making A Night In Old San Antonio even better.”

For more than 70 years, the release states the Fiesta event has helped raise millions of dollars to support the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic structures in the community.

Read also:

• Could San Antonio’s budget increase Fiesta costs?

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 206,000 last week from a revised 212,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, ticked up to 204,000 last week from 199,750.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a harbinger for where the job market is headed. For the past year, claims have been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week.

“The labor market has yet to show any sign of wear and tear from the surge in oil prices since the start of the war with Iran and the global energy supply shock,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary.

The number of people collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended Aug. 8 rose to 1.8 million from 1.78 million the week before.

The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, partly because the economy has proved resilient in the face of higher energy prices. But it’s also because President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the ongoing retirement of baby boomers mean that fewer people are competing for jobs: More than 1.3 million people have dropped out of the U.S. labor force over the past year.

The job market is tough for those looking for their first job and for those who lost their jobs and are looking for new work. At the same time, companies, remembering the worker shortages that followed the end of COVID-19 lockups, are still reluctant to let go of staff; but they aren’t eager to take on new workers. Economists regularly refer to a “no hire, no fire″ job market.

In July, companies, government agencies and nonprofits together cut 23,000 jobs. So far this year, employers are adding 61,000 jobs a month. That is an improvement on the 9,700 they averaged last year — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. The lingering effects of high interest rates and Trump’s erratic trade policies discouraged companies from hiring in 2025.

Hiring this year remains well below the 166,00 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

The couple's children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, have already enrolled at British schools and will start classes in September, according to a person close to the Sussexes who was not authorized to speak publicly. The family plans to live at a private, non-royal residence outside of London, but plans to maintain their home in Montecito, California, and their vacation property in Portugal.

The Daily Telegraph first reported the story. When asked to discuss the reports by the AP at a roundtable event with U.S. veterans in Washington Wednesday night, Harry replied, "Nothing to say.”

Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago to earn their living through lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify. Although relations with the rest of the royal family have soured since then, Harry has recently expressed an interest in reconciliation so he could spend more time with his father, King Charles III, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.

Charles was informed of the couple's plans on Sunday. Harry and Meghan visited the U.K. last month.

Buckingham Palace has a policy of not commenting on speculation about non-working members of the royal family. A representative for Harry and Meghan declined to comment.

According to a source close to the Sussexes, Meghan will continue heading her As Ever company from the U.K., while Harry can spend more time working with his U.K.-based charities.

Harry and Meghan have had a stormy relationship with the royal family ever since they decamped to a mansion in the exclusive Southern California enclave of Montecito.

In a series of interviews and Harry's memoir “Spare,” the couple said they left Britain to escape the restrictions of royal life and criticized palace officials for being insensitive to Meghan's mental health while alleging that at least one member of the royal family had expressed racist views when she was pregnant with their first child. Meghan describes herself as biracial.

Those tensions were exacerbated by Harry's long-running legal battle with Britain's tabloid newspapers, which he alleges illegally hacked his phones and invaded his privacy when he was younger.

The prince recently lost a lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail, though he won a 2023 judgment that condemned the publisher of the Daily Mirror for phone hacking. He also reached a settlement with the publisher of the Sun, which apologized for intruding on his life and agreed to pay substantial damages.

The latest trial has left Harry facing a potential bill for millions of pounds after the court ruled he and other plaintiffs in the case were liable for the publisher's legal fees. Associated Newspapers has filed documents showing that its legal costs amounted to 34.5 million pounds ($47 million).

Harry has also been embroiled in a legal wrangle with the British government after a government committee refused to authorize police protection for the prince and his family when they are in the U.K. The prince says he and his family need armed police protection because they are at risk simply because they are members of the royal family, regardless of whether they are working royals.

After losing a court battle over the security issue last year, Harry said he hoped to rebuild relations with his family.

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

Last month, Harry returned to the U.K. for a series of charity engagements. Meghan and the children joined Harry for part of the visit and they spent time with the king at his Highgrove estate in western England. It was the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather since the late Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee in 2022.

While Harry has recently met with his father, there are no signs of a warming of relations with his brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne.

Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, said the surprise announcement would make William “apoplectic.”

“In the short term, Harry will be able to deepen his rapprochement with his father," Hunt told Britain's Press Association. “And his presence back home will make it harder for his brother to duck a reconciliation."

___

Pollard reported from Washington.

Fletcher spoke to The Associated Press in an interview after a visit to the southern city of Kherson, where he witnessed how communities there are coping while living under the constant threat of Russian drones. Fletcher described the visit to Kherson, split by the Dnipro River, which acts as an active front line, as “quite chilling."

Russian forces occupy the eastern bank, while Ukrainian forces hold the western bank. From across the water, surveillance and exploding drones routinely hunt and attack civilians, vehicles and public transit.

“It really gives us an insight into the dangers ahead of us,” he said.

The threat is also making it harder for humanitarian organizations to reach people who need assistance.

Fletcher spoke after attending a commemoration for two humanitarian workers who had died while doing their jobs.

“Drones are a real threat to not just civilians but the humanitarians who are here to protect them,” Fletcher said.

He said that aid workers are protected under international humanitarian law and yet marked humanitarian vehicles have still been hit. “So that does restrict what we can do," he said.

Local organizations are particularly exposed. More than two-thirds of operations funded through Ukraine's humanitarian fund are carried out by local organizations, according to Fletcher.

“They’re the ones who are saying most loudly to us, we’re not protected,” he said.

Fletcher said the U.N. needs more than $2 billion for its prioritized humanitarian response in Ukraine this year, with winter among his biggest concerns. Damage to civilian infrastructure, including electricity, water and gas systems, could once again leave millions vulnerable during the harsh winter months, raising fears of a repeat of last winter’s severe conditions.

The U.N. has sharply narrowed its humanitarian priorities all over the world as donor funding has fallen. Fletcher said the organization initially identified 87 million people facing the most severe humanitarian needs, but that figure has since risen to about 92 million with the onslaught of Ebola in Africa, the earthquake in Venezuela and other conflicts.

The U.N. is seeking $23 billion to provide life-saving assistance to those people and had raised about $11 billion, said Fletcher.

Ukraine is relatively well funded compared with many other crises, he added, with roughly 70%–75% of its hyper-prioritized funding requirement covered. But even full funding of the humanitarian plan would address only part of Ukraine’s needs.

Fletcher also admitted that raising money for humanitarian operations has become more difficult as governments have increasingly redirected spending toward defense and domestic priorities.

“We’re in a more transactional world, I would say a more selfish world,” he said.

Fletcher said the U.N. now has to demonstrate that it is using limited taxpayer money efficiently and strategically.

“We have to show governments that we are spending their taxpayers’ money sensibly, wisely, in a prioritized way,” he said.

In a stark new assessment released on Wednesday, the U.N. warned that 907 aid workers were victims of violence last year and over 1,000 have been killed in three years. Fletcher said he could not reassure colleagues that those responsible would be held accountable based on how the international community has reacted.

He said accountability should extend beyond identifying the person who physically carried out an attack.

“I want to see investigations into the people who fired the weapon or flew the drone,” he said.

In a news release Wednesday, city health officials said a Husky mix tested positive for rabies Aug. 18.

The dog’s owner said it killed a baby skunk in late July near the family’s home on the far West Side, inside Loop 1604. The incident was not reported, ACS said.

Several weeks later, the dog began showing “concerning behavioral and neurological symptoms,” according to the release. Rabies treatment was offered to people and pets who may have been exposed.

Health officials said San Antonio and Bexar County are experiencing an outbreak of rabies among wild animals. The county reported 22 rabies cases in wildlife in June and July 2026, compared with two to three cases reported during the same period in 2024 and 2025.

Officials recommend these rabies precautions:

• Keep dogs, cats and other pets up to date on their rabies vaccinations.
• Do not allow dogs to roam freely, which is illegal.
• Never feed, touch or handle wildlife or unknown animals.
• Report animal encounters to 311. Bexar County residents can call Animal Control at 210-335-9000.
• Confine a pet that may have encountered wildlife to prevent additional contact with people or other animals.
• If a potentially rabid animal is inside a home or building, try to confine it only if that can be done safely and without direct contact.
• If you are bitten, scratched or exposed, wash the area with soap and water and contact a healthcare provider immediately.
• Call 311 or use the 311 app to request safe removal of dead animals.

Health officials say the rabies vaccination is the best protection. City and state law require dogs and cats to stay current on their rabies shots.

San Antonio Animal Care Services will offer free vaccinations to the first 100 pets Saturday, Aug. 22, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Monterrey Park, 5919 West Commerce St.

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The decision marks a milestone in Evergrande's saga after it defaulted on more than $300 billion in liabilities when Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing in the real estate industry in 2020. That triggered a crunch among many developers and brought on a downturn in the property market that has weighed on the broader economy ever since.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court said Thursday it convicted 67-year-old Hui, who founded Evergrande, of engaging in large-scale financial fraud in inflating the group’s assets and concealing its liabilities.

In a statement, the court said Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, abused his position in orchestrating fraud and misappropriating company assets.

Evergrande group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) and Evergrande Real Estate Group was fined 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion), the court said.

“The amount involved is exceptionally large, the circumstances are particularly egregious, and extraordinarily heavy economic losses have been caused,” the statement said. “The harm to society is extremely serious. Therefore, severe punishment should be given in accordance with the law.”

Hui’s sons, Xu Tenghe and Xu Zhijian, were also sentenced alongside senior Evergrande executives and others linked to the group on charges including illegally taking public deposits, fundraising fraud and the illegal use of funds, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. A total of more than 50 individuals got prison terms of between 22 months and 18 years, it said without providing a breakdown of sentencing details.

A photo of Hui's courtroom appearance released by the Shenzhen court on Thursday showed an aged Hui, who used to be a high-profile figure but had long been out of public view, wearing a navy blue shirt standing between two uniformed officers behind a sign that read “defendant” in Chinese.

Hui pleaded guilty in April to various charges including illegal absorption of public deposits, fraud and bribery after he was detained in China.

China Evergrande was founded in 1996 as China's housing boom was taking off. It defaulted on its debts in 2021 and was ordered to liquidate its assets. The broader downturn in China's massive property sector that ensued has pulled home prices down 20% or more since 2021.

Authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China earlier said their investigations found Evergrande had manipulated its financial data using tactics such as prematurely booking revenue from property sales before completion and delivery of the apartments to buyers. Revenues were overstated by roughly $80 billion over 2019 and 2020, they said.

Hui was fined 47 million yuan ($6.5 million) in 2024 and banned from China's securities markets for life by the China Securities Regulatory Commission over inflating company financial results, among other issues.

Once reported to be China’s richest man, Hui used to own the football club Guangzhou Evergrande. At one point, he and his companies were involved in investing in and building theme parks and electric vehicles.

His story was one of rags-to-riches. Born in 1958 into a rural family in central China's Henan province, he worked in the steel industry in the 1980s before establishing Evergrande, which then prospered during China's housing market boom. He was one of many businessmen who have also gained political influence by joining a major advisory organization, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

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Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed to this report.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles happened from North Korea’s capital region around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday. The military said the missiles flew about 300 kilometers (185 miles) each toward North Korea’s eastern waters.

The military said South Korea has bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the U.S. and Japan. South Korea’s presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches.

The Japanese prime minister's office had earlier said that it detected a suspected missile launch.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, just before they began Monday. Trump cited what he said was a good relationship with Kim and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.

On Wednesday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries confirmed they shortened the 11-day drills by shortening their duration by about half and canceling some field training exercises. The reduction of the exercises raised worries about the allies’ joint defense posture.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed Trump’s overture later Wednesday, saying “the provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”

“If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer,” she said in a statement.

She denied Trump’s claim that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for a conversation.

Kim Yo Jong still refrained from the typical North Korean reaction of fiery rhetoric and said personal relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent.” That signals North Korea would want to wait for Trump to make bigger concessions before returning to talks.

When asked by reporters Wednesday if he would be meeting with Kim Jong Un this year, Trump said that “Yeah, I will be.” He wouldn’t answer a question about whether he is exchanging letters with Kim but said he gets along with him.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of the main military exercises conducted by the U.S. and South Korea annually to enhance their ability to cope with potential North Korean aggression. Washington and Seoul say their drills are defensive in nature, but North Korea calls them an invasion rehearsal and often reacts with weapons tests.

Before this month's drills started, North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of plotting more provocative exercises this summer and vowed to respond with "a new level of a deterrent.” Days before the drills' start, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea in its first such launches since late June.

Trump's earlier diplomacy with Kim Jong Un collapsed in 2019 due to disputes over how much sanctions relief North Korea should be given in return for dismantling its main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step. Kim has since shunned any talks with the U.S., pushed to modernize weapons arsenals and expanded cooperation with Russia.

Kim has said he won’t place his nuclear program back on the negotiating table. Experts say Kim has more leverage than when he first held talks with Trump in 2018 and 2019. They say Kim likely hopes to eventually win international recognition as a nuclear state and extensive sanctions relief in exchange for only limited steps toward denuclearization.

__

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

In Waldorf, in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, a woman was struck by a falling tree and fatally injured, the German news agency dpa reported Thursday. Another woman suffered serious injuries in the accident, police said.

The women, 58 and 47, were walking together when a storm rolled in and they sought shelter under a covered seating area. Both women were struck when a tree was uprooted and fell onto the seating area. The 58-year-old died at the scene, a police spokesperson said. The 47-year-old was taken to a hospital.

A tornado struck the town of Fürstenwalde, 78 kilometers (49 miles) southeast of Berlin. Roofs were torn off and several cars were damaged by falling trees, and one person was injured, according to dpa.

In Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Westerwald district in western Germany, a storm tore walls from buildings. At least two homes were affected, according to dpa. Falling pieces of building facades and flying debris caused additional damage, and several trees were uprooted. A widespread power outage also hit the area, while strong gusts of wind overturned a truck on the A61 highway.

There were also numerous weather-related emergency calls overnight in Hesse, Thuringia and Bavaria.

A village festival in Kronach, Bavaria, was partially evacuated due to severe storms. About 3,500 guests had to leave the outdoor area of the festival grounds late Wednesday evening, local police said. They were able to continue celebrating inside the beer halls.

In Wetzlar, in Hesse, the storm damaged about 60 houses, according to the fire department. In some cases, pieces of roofing were blown as far as 100 meters (110 yards) away, dpa reported.

The German Weather Service warned that further severe storms could occur later in the day, particularly in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in southern Germany.

While the storms in Germany were accompanied by cooler temperatures, high temperatures continued to be recorded in southeastern Europe, and fires raged in some parts of the region.

Firefighters are battling wildfires in the Balkans

In Serbia, a Russian firefighting plane joined efforts in Serbia on Thursday to fight wildfires that devastated a nature reserve in the northeast as the Balkan country faces a fresh heat wave in the coming days.

The Il-76 plane landed in Serbia on Wednesday evening, also illustrating continued friendly relations between the two countries despite Belgrade’s proclaimed intention to join the European Union.

The fire in Deliblatska Pescara, or Deliblato Sands, first erupted a month ago, but was under control until early August when it started spreading swiftly, engulfing thousands of acres of pine forests and shrubbery.

Several other big fires also have been raging in other parts of the country, as well as throughout the region in the past weeks. An extremely hot and dry summer this year has fueled wildfires throughout Europe, from Belgium to Greece.

Croatian firefighters from the popular tourism hot spot of Dubrovnik on Thursday joined a struggle to contain a fire across the border in Bosnia to prevent it from spreading toward the medieval walled city that is a UNESCO protected heritage site.

“It was a hard night,” regional firefighting unit commander Stjepan Simović told the Hina news agency. "The fire is huge and in an inaccessible terrain, so we have to be vigilant.”

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Gec reported from Belgrade, Serbia.

Scott Williams, marketing manager for the San Antonio Public Library, said the library’s back-to-school resources are designed for anyone looking to learn something new.

“It’s the best tool you can have to connect you to so many resources that are your best friend when you’re a student,” Williams said.

Library card holders can now check out free Wi-Fi hotspots at 10 SAPL locations: Bazan, Collins Garden, Cortez, Forest Hills, Las Palmas, Memorial, Mission, Pan American, Schaefer and Westfall.

The hotspots work like a book. Families check one out, take it home and keep it for up to three weeks.

“The hotspot has to be returned to the location where you checked it out, but if nobody’s waiting in line behind you for that device, you can check it out again for another three-week period,” Williams said.

The hotspot checkout option is part of a pilot program focused on areas of San Antonio identified through equity and broadband internet needs.

Williams said more than 60% of the available hotspots have already been checked out, and demand continues to grow.

The library also offers free homework help around the clock from professional tutors. Through Brain Fuse, the service is available for students from kindergarten through graduate school and can be accessed in both English and Spanish.

“You can access it from anywhere that you have an internet connection,” Williams said.

For students or adults preparing for exams, SAPL also offers access to LearningExpressHub.com, which includes preparation materials for a wide range of tests. Resources include nursing and health care exams, firefighter and law enforcement exams, and common college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT.

“Time is such a constraint for people, especially if you’re looking for a new career,” Williams said. “You’re probably already working a job, maybe two jobs. You don’t have a lot of time. So in those precious moments that you have, the library is there in person and online 24/7 to help you make the next move in your life.”

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With universities competing to pay athletes millions of dollars, some states now are propping up their strained sports budgets in ways not previously seen. The state dollars aren’t going directly to star athletes. But by funding facilities and administrative costs normally borne by the schools, states are freeing universities to use their own dollars for other purposes.

The athletics program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for the first time, is receiving $3 million earmarked from state sports betting taxes. Wisconsin lawmakers approved $15 million for athletic costs at the University of Wisconsin. And Connecticut and Louisiana also are using tax dollars to support college athletics. Even more states have considered it.

Sports business analysts see an emerging trend.

“Once one state provides that kind of assistance, schools in competing states can argue that they are being placed at a competitive disadvantage, which could create additional pressure on legislatures to respond,” said Daniel McIntosh, faculty director of the sports business program at Arizona State University.

Legal cases have accelerated spending on college athletes

NCAA rules long barred college athletes from getting paid by schools and boosters. But under pressure from lawsuits and states, the NCAA cleared the way in 2021 for athletes to receive money from private entities for the use of their name, image or likeness (NIL). Then a legal settlement last year allowed higher education institutions to directly pay athletes a total of about $20.5 million annually — on top of any scholarships and other NIL deals they receive.

That cap rose to $21.3 million for this school year, and is set to rise again the following year.

Many mid-level programs cannot afford that much. But almost all NCAA Division I athletic programs are trying to generate more money to pay athletes in a bid to remain competitive with their peers. At the same time, schools have been incurring greater costs for facilities, coaches’ salaries and travel amid conference realignments that discarded old geographic-based rivalries.

Over the past four years, athletic operating expenses at public Division I institutions shot up by nearly a third — notably outpacing revenue and running up deficits, according to an Associated Press analysis using the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database.

Federal legislation could drive athletic costs even higher

The Protect College Sports Act, pending in the U.S. Senate, has been promoted as a way to put guardrails on college sports spending. But it could potentially allow even greater spending by schools.

The latest version would allow institutions to pay up to an additional $27.5 million annually to retain players on their rosters, pushing the overall athlete payment cap close to $50 million. The higher ceiling could reduce the demand for third-party NIL deals.

But the legislation contains no provision restraining increases in state and institutional funding for athletics, said Amy Privette Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

“Without some restraint on the underlying spending competition, additional public funding could simply finance the next stage of the arms race,” McIntosh said.

States are routing money to schools in creative ways

When North Carolina launched online sports wagering in 2024, it earmarked part of the tax revenue for athletic departments at 13 public universities. But the two largest institutions — the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University — were excluded.

That changed in July under a new state budget that raises the sports betting tax. Those two schools now are projected to receive $3 million each this year and $5.8 million next year.

In the meantime, Louisiana also hiked its sports wagering tax and earmarked about $2.2 million to each of its 11 public universities in conferences with Division I football programs.

Seeking to drum up athletic revenue, Connecticut lawmakers authorized the University of Connecticut to issue vouchers for state tax credits equal to half the amount of donations, sponsorships and licensing endorsements. The program generated $1.7 million in its first four months, according to a university report.

New Jersey’s new budget allots $5 million for “events attraction and marketing” at Rutgers’ flagship campus. A university spokesperson declined to say if the money would be used for athletic programs.

Though not providing new state money, the governing board for Florida’s universities last year authorized institutions to transfer up to $22.5 million to athletics. Florida State University did so almost immediately, and other schools have since followed.

Lawmaker says a bad football team is bad for the state

The Wisconsin budget provides $14.6 million for athletic facility debt payments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and $200,000 each for the Milwaukee and Green Bay campuses.

“None of that state funds technically would go toward student athletes,” said Republican state Rep. Alex Dallman, who sponsored the legislation.

But with the state covering facility debt, the university could use its own funds “for other things, such as NIL, or just trying to compete,” said Dallman, who typically attends a couple Wisconsin football games each year.

“Having a bad football team, having uncompetitive college sports in general, would not be beneficial to our state, both culturally or economically,” Dallman said. “So we decided as a state we’d help out.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement the cities put forward “incredibly strong bids," and he promised the convention would be an “inspiring celebration of our party's future nominee.”

A final decision is expected to be made later this year by party leaders. Republicans have already chosen Houston for the site of their 2028 convention.

The Democratic convention, scheduled for Aug. 7-10, 2028, traditionally gives the party a chance to formally introduce its nominee to the country, rally the base and kick-start the most intense period of campaigning ahead of the general election.

The party didn't specify why Atlanta and Chicago, which was the site of the 2024 convention, were eliminated. Officials visited all five cities in April and May, considering logistical and fundraising capacity among other factors.

The three finalists are liberal strongholds surrounded by the type of suburban areas that have become increasingly important to the party in recent elections. They also provide access to fundraising and key demographic and interest groups, like labor unions.

While Colorado and Massachusetts have gone Democratic in recent presidential elections, Pennsylvania has been among the biggest battlegrounds. Trump, a Republican, won Pennsylvania in 2024.

Philadelphia last hosted the convention in 2016, Denver in 2008 and Boston in 2004.

Before the presidential primary gets into gear, Democrats are looking at this year's midterm elections as an opportunity to flip the narrowly divided Republican-led House and maybe take back control of the Senate.

Democrats face fundraising disadvantages compared with Republicans, along with financial debt, and Martin has confronted criticism over his stewardship of the party.

During a recent DNC meeting in Texas, Martin downplayed the critics and called for the party to unite as it tries to win the midterms and look ahead to 2028 and the end of Trump's second term.

But on television, Texans have only seen one of them.

Talarico, an Austin state representative, has spent over $25 million on advertising since the general election began in late May, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact — with nearly $10.7 million deployed on broadcast and an additional $8.4 million on streaming devices. (The rest has gone to a combination of cable, digital, radio and satellite.)

Texans turning on their TVs this summer have seen Talarico talk about the importance of loving God and neighbor in a spot featuring his grandfather. They’ve seen the Democrat lamenting high costs in a grocery store and while driving a truck, and heard about his record in a World Cup-themed Spanish language ad.

Over that same time period, the Paxton campaign has spent $119,000 — nearly all of it on digital advertising — meaning that Talarico has essentially had the airwaves to himself. Over that time, he’s built a narrow polling lead, pulling ahead in numerous surveys within the margin of error.

In television interviews, Paxton has noted this disparity and appealed to donors for help. On Fox News recently, the Republican nominee laid out his timeline for campaign spending, saying he expects that litigating Talarico’s record will cement the Democrat’s loss — but that he needs resources to do it.

“As we’re raising money, we’re working our way back into October, which is where we can spend money, and we’re trying to work our way back to September,” Paxton said. “But we need help now, because James Talarico’s been spending $3 or $4 million a week on TV for the last month. So, I want to compete.”

The Paxton campaign has also touted that while he was outraised by Talarico in the second quarter, Paxton still raised more money — over $9 million — than any non-incumbent GOP Senate candidate in the country. And Paxton has noted that the expensive primary runoff left his coffers more depleted than those of Talarico, who could afford to spend the spring stockpiling his war chest after winning his March primary.

Conventional election wisdom states that most voters don’t start paying attention until after Labor Day, and that Republicans can still win while being outspent on ads — which Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did in both his narrow victory in 2018 and comfortable win in 2024. Republican strategists expect the cavalry to come for Paxton, with well-heeled outside players helping narrow the spending gap.

But as September approaches, they’re eyeing the calendar.

“I do think Paxton needs to define Talarico, and he needs to do it soon,” John Wittman, an unaffiliated Republican consultant and former adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott, said in an interview. “We’re about three months out from Election Day. So it’s important for Republicans to combat this Democrat aggression, that they do start to spend and start to define Talarico for the crazy liberal he is.”

Republican strategists caution that Democrats’ polling is typically strongest in the summer, and that they expect those numbers to shift once Paxton or his allies begin attacking Talarico on television. A Republican group called Protecting America’s Future, seeded by longtime Paxton ally and West Texas billionaire Tim Dunn, became the first GOP group to run an anti-Talarico ad, attacking him in two spots on China policy and crime in a $120,000 ad spend airing mostly in the Corpus Christi media market this week.

By comparison, Talarico’s campaign has spent over $7.3 million on ads over the past couple weeks, over 36 times the amount dropped by Republicans.

In 2024, when Cruz beat Democrat Colin Allred by an 8.5-point margin, he was also outspent over the summer — though Cruz was spending more on a week-by-week basis than Paxton is now. Cruz started spending six figures a week on advertising in late July 2024, according to AdImpact data, and ramped up to a weekly seven-figure spend by late September. When combined with outside spending, Republicans were dropping at least $2 million on ads each week by the end of August two years ago.

Paxton, by contrast, has spent no more than $20,000 on ads in any week of the general election thus far. AdImpact has tracked over $72,000 in Republican spending this week, the party’s high-water mark since the runoff.

In total, Democrats outspent Republicans by a margin of $119.7 million to $82.6 million in Texas’ 2024 Senate race after the primaries. Cruz’s campaign was aided by tens of millions in outside ad support and coordinated spending, the bulk of which did not come until late September.

And Cruz, of course, was an incumbent senator who had six years to build his war chest, while this is Paxton’s first federal race.

“GOP donors need to get off their asses”

Beyond Paxton’s campaign itself, well-heeled groups including Senate Leadership Fund, the national PAC aligned with Senate GOP leadership, and MAGA Inc., the massive campaign super PAC aligned with Trump, could even the field in Texas — though both groups are operating with a national map bigger than Texas. The question animating Republicans in Texas remains: When will the money come?

Paxton has acknowledged that Talarico’s superior spending has affected the standing of the race. Polls have put the race essentially tied, with Talarico narrowly leading in recent polls that put him within the margin of error — an unprecedented situation for the top-of-the-ticket race in Texas since Republicans solidified control of the state.

“He’s got money,” Paxton told GOP radio host Dana Loesch. “He’s been on TV for about four or five weeks. And it’s helped him a little bit in the polls — that’s why the polls have gotten closer.”

But the current lack of future ad reservations — from Paxton or allies — has some Republicans offering warnings to the outside groups that have yet to spend money. After the Paxton interview, Loesch, whose show is broadcast from Dallas, told her listeners that Republican groups were “leaving you to hang” and questioned, “Where’s the GOP in this race?”

“This is a winnable race,” Loesch said. “All these big money GOP donors need to get off their asses and make a decision. Because I guaran-damn-tee you, if their inaction results in us having somebody like James Talarico, dear God in heaven, my rage will be limitless.”

Karl Rove, a longtime Republican strategist who supported Sen. John Cornyn in the primary against Paxton, put it even more starkly. Rove said Texas is a Republican state, but that the disparate fundraising dynamics have made the race unusual.

“He’s not going to change as a fundraiser,” Rove said on Fox, referring to Paxton’s past performances. “So this is going to be one that is going to depend mightily upon the decision of President Trump to spend or not spend the half a billion plus dollars that he has in his two super PACs — MAGA Inc. and Never Surrender. If he does spend, then he can sort of even it up. If he doesn’t spend, this could be a really bad night for Republicans in Texas.”

Texas Bullpen reported that MAGA Inc. fielded a message testing poll in Texas with possible attacks against Talarico this month, portending potential future spending.

In the Fox News interview, Paxton said Republican leadership is “planning on spending money here, is my understanding,” but he noted that he can’t coordinate with them.

“We haven’t yet, but we’re very hopeful that that’s coming soon,” Paxton told Loesch when she asked if he was getting adequate funding from GOP groups. “We’ve been told September.”

Across the Republican spending landscape, Texas stands out for the lack of future TV ad reservations. GOP candidates and their allies have booked at least $10 million from Sept. 1 onward in eight battleground states, according to AdImpact. In the five other competitive states where Republicans are playing defense — Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio — the GOP has outspent Democrats in its fall bookings.

Democrats have not booked any ad reservations in Texas past Sept. 1 either. That includes Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, which has bought ad time in other battleground states.

A few factors could explain why both parties are waiting to get involved in Texas.

In smaller states with fewer media markets, ad rates can rise quickly, especially when there are competitive governor and House races also competing for airtime. In those cases, early reservations can be critical. Meanwhile, Texas has 20 different media markets, placing less pressure on outside groups to commit money early and lock in rates, one national GOP strategist told the Tribune. That’s why campaigns and groups often buy ad time on a week-to-week basis here.

Super PACs can also make a difference. But on that front, Democrats also had an advantage at last count.

Lone Star Liberty PAC, the pro-Paxton super PAC that dropped $5.7 million throughout the primary, has yet to spend any money on television since the runoff. That’s expected to change at some point, but the group went into July with major reloading to do after an expensive second quarter taken up by the primary runoff. The PAC only had $35,000 in its war chest at the end of June, according to federal records.

Meanwhile, Lone Star Rising PAC, which supports Talarico, had nearly $12.7 million on hand.

Outside of the Senate race, Republicans’ cash advantage in other statewide contests — especially the governor’s race — could serve to benefit Paxton as well, when an expected deluge of pro-Republican, anti-Democrat messaging hits the airwaves this fall.

The next round of federal campaign fundraising data will not be available until mid-October, just before early voting begins.

The military said it would not probe three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. It said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and made decisions on the five cases.

Chef José Andrés, founder of U.S.-based World Central Kitchen, condemned the decision on X as “wrong and painful.”

The investigations involve killings that drew a heavy international outcry. Hind was trapped in a vehicle with her slain relatives, pleading for help by phone before she too was killed in February 2024. After the shooting of the 15 medics in March 2025, troops bulldozed their bodies into a mass grave.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, including tens of thousands of women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Rights groups and U.N. commissions have said the campaign amounts to genocide and that Israeli forces have committed a litany of war crimes, including indiscriminate use of force and deliberate killings of civilians.

Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes and says it is targeting Hamas after its October 2023 attack on southern Israel. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group operates in populated areas in the tiny, overcrowded strip.

Israeli officials contend the country's justice system can address any violations by its troops, but rights groups say soldiers are almost never held accountable.

Wednesday's statement did not mention many other high-profile killings that Israel has pledged to investigate, such as its strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press and other news organizations.

The 5-year-old was the last alive in a stranded car

Hind's grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told the AP by phone that the Israeli investigation into her killing is not enough.

“An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable,” she said. “We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children.”

The military in Wednesday's statement admitted to firing at the car carrying the 5-year-old, four of her cousins and her aunt and uncle as they fled an Israeli invasion of Gaza City.

As gunfire sprayed around them, the girl's cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic center, telling staff there her family had been killed. Seconds later, more gunshots were heard, and Layan’s screaming stopped, according to the Red Crescent recording of the call.

Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Hind and stayed on the line with her until contact was lost. Hind, her five relatives and two medics from the ambulance were found dead 12 days later.

The military admitted Wednesday that troops had fired toward that ambulance, killing the two medics.

Dyab Abou Jahjah, director of the Belgium-based Hind Rajab foundation, told Al-Jazeera he considered the military investigations a “charade meant to whitewash the culprits instead of convicting them.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent also insists on an international investigation, according to Raed al-Nims, a spokesman for the organization in Gaza. “Israeli measures are not enough,” he told the AP.

A movie docudrama about Hind's death, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” won international awards and was nominated for an Oscar.

The 15 medics had been trying to reach casualties

In the killing of the paramedics, Israeli troops fired on an ambulance driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah, then fired on other emergency vehicles that came looking for the first one, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings. Fifteen medics and emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Gaza's Civil Defense were killed.

Troops then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.

The Israeli military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on troops without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked after the footage emerged, showing the teams driving slowly with their emergency lights flashing and logos visible. A deputy commander was directed to step down over the killings.

“We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, told the AP in a phone call. “We shouldn’t have reached this point if they respected and followed international humanitarian law.”

Israel will not criminally probe World Central Kitchen strike

The military said it had decided against a criminal investigation into April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven staffers.

The aid group, which distributes food in Gaza, said at the time it had coordinated with the military over the convoy's movement. The vehicles, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air, were left incinerated and mangled.

Wednesday's military statement said individuals in the vehicles were mistakenly identified as armed Hamas operatives. But it concluded that the commanders' decisions "did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” At the time, two officers were removed from their positions and three others reprimanded.

World Central Kitchen responded in a statement saying the military’s account of the strike was untrue, “conflates different timelines and events, muddies the story and shifts the blame.” It called for an independent investigation.

Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong expressed “outrage” at the outcome Thursday, saying the removals and reprimands of officers weren't sufficient accountability for the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom. Wong said unanswered questions remained and her government would continue to pursue the matter.

The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024.

What happens next?

Military investigators will now take up the probes and present their findings to military prosecutors. The military advocate general can then decide to keep investigating, indict any soldiers involved or decline to charge them.

Any action will take a long time, if it comes at all, said Tal Steiner, head of the Israeli rights group HaMoked.

Indictments are very uncommon and convictions even more so, she said, recalling only one soldier who had spent time behind bars since Oct. 7, 2023, for alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners. That soldier was imprisoned for seven months under a June 2025 plea bargain.

“It’s very rare that soldiers accused of harming Palestinians even go to court ... and even rarer that they get a severe punishment,” Steiner said.

Just 0.17% of all military investigations launched during three Gaza operations from 2014 to 2022 led to prosecution, according to an analysis by Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The war's toll keeps growing

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others.

Israeli strikes have continued in Gaza since a ceasefire deal came into effect in October, killing at least 1,270 people, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children constitute about half of the dead. ___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Meanwhile, France announced it will expel two Iranian diplomats in response to the expulsion of French diplomats from the Islamic Republic this week. And the Iranian parliament speaker and chief negotiator landed in neighboring Iraq for a three-day visit.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage can be found here.

Israel's military plans criminal investigation into Gaza attacks

The Israeli military said it would investigate the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family members in February 2024, and the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in March 2025. Both drew international attention.

The announcement followed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct during the war in Gaza. The military said it would not launch criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.

Rajab was killed when Israeli troops opened fire on a vehicle that also was carrying her aunt, uncle and four cousins as they tried to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli offensive.

The 15 paramedics were killed when Israeli troops opened fire on their vehicles in the southern city of Rafah, then bulldozed over the bodies and buried them in a mass grave. Troops first shot at an ambulance that was driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on several other emergency vehicles that went out to look for the first one, according to phone footage and the sole survivor.

Australian official angered by move not to probe aid worker’s death

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed “outrage” on Thursday at Israel’s decision not to pursue criminal charges over strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian woman Zomi Frankcom.

Wong said her government was informed of the decision moments before it was announced, leaving officials no time to inform Frankcom’s family before it became public.

“There are still many unanswered questions,” Wong said.

They included why the convoy was struck three times in a humanitarian fire control zone and why a senior brigade officer involved in the strikes was a signatory to a letter urging the restriction of aid to Gaza, Wong added. Australia had yet to receive drone recordings from the attack, despite seeking them multiple times, she said.

“The Australian government does not believe that the removal of two officers from their positions and three officers being reprimanded is sufficient accountability for the deaths of seven people, including an Australian citizen,” Wong said.

The minister hours earlier summoned Israel’s envoy to Canberra Hillel Newman for a meeting. However, she wouldn’t expel the ambassador, she said, citing a need to continue engaging diplomatically with Israel.

Newman told reporters after the meeting that he was “very sorry” for Frankcom’s family, but did not apologize for her killing.

“One cannot attack findings of a court if the findings are not suitable to one’s political agenda,” Newman said. He added that the finding of no criminal liability came “after two years of independent research.”

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 10 as ceasefire is in doubt

At least 10 people were killed Wednesday in two airstrikes in Gaza, according to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The attacks cast further doubt on whether new U.S. efforts can advance a tenuous ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

Just two days after U.S. negotiators reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks in Gaza, Israeli troops also crossed the ceasefire line in southern Gaza and detained a Hamas police colonel at dawn, two witnesses and a Hamas official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.

— Samy Magdy and Wafaa Shurafa

Iran's parliament speaker and top negotiator visits Iraq

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in Iraq for a three-day visit where he will meet with Iraqi officials and leaders of an Iran-backed political coalition.

Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched drone attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic targets both within Iraq and abroad, piling pressure on Baghdad, which for years has delicately tried to maintain strong ties with both Washington and Tehran.

Qalibaf praised the country’s Tehran-backed militias, which he called the “resistance in Iraq," describing them as a “key component of the country’s national power.”

His comments came even as the Iraqi government has been trying to disarm the militias that have long operated on their own even though they were nominally under state command.

Iraq is asking Iran to grant special status to Iraqi oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz because the country has been affected greatly by Iran's war with the U.S. and needs to guard its economic interests, according to a statement from Iraqi Parliament Speaker Haibet al-Halbousi.

Iraq relies on oil revenues for roughly 90% of its budget, and most of its oil is exported through the strait. Since the war erupted and Iran asserted control over the strait, halting most shipping traffic, Iraq has turned to alternate routes, including sending oil over land to Syria, which is less efficient and more expensive.

France and Iran expel diplomats

France announced it will expel two staff members of the Iranian Embassy in France, in response to what the French Foreign Ministry described as an assault by Iranian security forces against two French diplomatic staff in the Islamic Republic last month.

Iran accused the French pair of taking part in a secret meeting with “suspects in a major case involving foreign infiltration and interference,” Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The French diplomats were expelled on Monday.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot slammed the Iranian authorities for not investigating what he called a “premeditated and deliberate attack.” He called the allegations fabricated and said the two Iranians will leave Paris in the coming days.

___

Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Hundreds of emails exchanged between U.S. immigration officials, which were obtained by the National Iranian American Council and made public Tuesday, offer the most transparent play by play yet of how the two countries worked together to arrange for more than 100 Iranians to be flown back to Iran on three separate immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.

The emails show that Iranian officials had some influence over which Iranian immigrants in the U.S. were sent back to their home country, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials apparently heeded some last-minute changes to deportation lists at the request of Iran.

“Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases," one unnamed ICE official wrote in late August, a month before the first deportation flight in September. Just over a week later, someone with the same job title moved to make another, unspecified change to the deportation list after they said they met with the “Director at the Iranian Embassy.”

“Iran has requested that I amend the previous manifest and expedite the removal process,” the official wrote.

In a Sept. 26 email, just three days before the deportation flight left U.S. soil, an ICE official said in an email that the Iranian Embassy was still making requests for three additional Iranians on the flight. It's not clear who ended up on the flight, which ended up being much smaller than initially planned. Iranian officials were still making requests the day the flight departed, although one official wrote that those requests were denied.

Coordination of the flights remained a high priority even as ICE officials acknowledged internally that Iranians were fleeing Iran amid the deadly 12-day war with the U.S. and Israel in June 2025, emails show. The flights departed just months after the U.S. and Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran.

The new emails highlight a clear departure from a decades-long practice by the U.S. of welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others since the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced a large number of Iranians to flee.

The deportation of Iranians to a country whose government has a pattern of violent persecution against women, religious minorities and political dissidents has drawn significant criticism from human rights activists.

The Department of Homeland Security did not offer comment in response to an emailed request sent Tuesday afternoon.

Some deportees were handpicked by Iranian officials, emails show

Iranian officials acknowledged in September 2025 that as many as 400 Iranians could be returned under an agreement with the Trump administration. They said most of the Iranians had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico illegally, while some faced other immigration issues.

It is not clear from the emails how frequently U.S. immigration officials had direct contact with the Iranian government. Sometimes messages were conveyed through Qatari officials, who helped charter the deportation flights through Doha, but other times officials reference regular meetings with the “Iranian delegation," the “Director at the Iranian Embassy” and other unnamed Iranian officials.

It is not clear whether the people Iran put on the list had volunteered to repatriate or if they were forced. Previous reporting from The New York Times revealed that asylum-seekers were among those deported to Iran, while others said they were deported against their will.

At least one person was deported who wasn't supposed to be, emails showed.

“An Iranian not included on the final manifest we sent to the Qatari MOI was boarded on the flight,” an unnamed U.S. official wrote.

In response, another unnamed U.S. official wrote, “I have no idea how the case/person got through on the plane.”

US prioritized deportation efforts during war

Emails suggest that pressure to carry out the Iranian deportations came from the highest levels of the Trump administration, even when U.S. and Israel were exchanging strikes with Iran in a 12-day conflict between June 13 and June 24, 2025.

Just days after Trump's June 16 warning on social media that “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” the former acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, called the repatriation of Iranian immigrants a “priority" in an email sent to the agency’s head of removal operations Marcos Charles and a number of unnamed staff.

Shortly after Lyon's email, Charles forwarded the message to a group of officials whose names are redacted. An unnamed ICE official responded, warning that “removal will prove difficult” amid the ongoing conflict because Iran wasn't issuing the travel documents for Iranians eligible for deportation. On top of that, the Iranian airspace was closed to all flights during the bombings and Iranians were fleeing the country.

Charles was unfazed, telling staff in a subsequent email to make a plan to deport 58 Iranians with final removal orders in ICE custody at the time.

“We need a plan forward ASAP,” Charles wrote. Another official, who name was redacted, urged colleagues to “identify a solution for this White House priority.”

Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, said the emails undermine Trump’s assertions that the U.S. is at war with Iran to save ordinary Iranians from a repressive regime.

“It demonstrates that the top priority here was to kick out as many people as possible by whatever means necessary,” Abdi said.

Iranian officials had access to immigration detainees

On several occasions, the emails show ICE officials arranging for Iranian officials to meet for unspecified reasons with people detained in the U.S., echoing testimony from Iranian asylum-seekers in an unrelated lawsuit filed by an unaffiliated Iranian interest group in July.

Eleven Iranians in immigration detention said they were forced to meet with Iranian government officials while in ICE detention. Those Iranian authorities knew intimate details about their asylum claims, according to the sworn declarations filed in a Washington, D.C., court in July.

The lawsuit alleges that U.S. immigration agencies have been illegally sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum-seekers with the Iranian government.

The U.S. government is allowed to work with government officials of foreign countries to coordinate deportation logistics. However, federal regulations passed in the late 1990s prohibit the government from sharing information that could reveal that the person getting deported applied for asylum.

DHS vehemently disputed the lawsuit's allegations.

“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE,” DHS said in a statement in July.

Last year, they added former O’Connor superstar and two-time NCAA volleyball national champion coach Dominique Gonzalez-Tomlin. Coach “Dom” got her rings from Penn State and used what she learned from the game to give back to the Warriors.

Coach Dom graduated from O’Connor in 2011. She was the libero at Penn State. While she was there, she won two NCAA volleyball championships.

“This is what’s going to help you be successful,” said Gonzalez-Tomlin. “Showing up on time, being disciplined, hard work. Whether you feel like being in the gym or not, you show up and do it anyways.”

“The experience having coached at a high level, in college and obviously winning two national championships as a player,” said Cornerstone head volleyball coach Mike Carter. “She has an experience that I can’t bring to the table that she’s able to share with them.”

Carter knew Gonzalez-Tomlin decades before she joined his coaching staff.

“I was fortunate to coach Dom as a 9-year-old and again as an 18-year-old. I got to go see her win a national championship in Seattle,” Carter said. “I’ve been around her mom for 30 years, who is also a national champion.”

Gonzalez-Tomlin said coaching in San Antonio is a privilege in itself. When she got the call to coach at Cornerstone, her decision was based on more than volleyball. She wanted to impact as many kids as possible.

Cornerstone is an independent school with students from elementary through high school.

“Eleven all the way to 18 and that’s such a big gap and such a big time for them that’s like changes happening in their life,” she said. “How can you continue to transfer that from 11 to 18?”

The Cornerstone Warriors just returned to the Alamo City from a tournament in Hawaii. Their next match is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20, in Plano, Texas, where they will face Prestonwood Christian Volleyball. First serve is set for 5 p.m.

Read also:

• Harlan football enters season with Matthew McKinney taking over as head coach

UTSA said the attempted attack was stopped before reaching its core systems. The university has not said student or university data was stolen, and officials have emphasized that the investigation and security response are ongoing.

The attempted attack has disrupted some online services and forced the university to adjust several deadlines as it works to restore systems and prepare for the delayed start of the fall semester.

But cybersecurity experts say the attempted breach also illustrates a much larger problem facing universities and other large organizations: attackers do not necessarily need days or weeks to find a target.

They may need only minutes.

Richard Hummel, vice president of threat Intelligence at SecurityScorecard, has spent nearly two decades working in cybersecurity, including threat intelligence involving nation-state actors, cybercriminals and other malicious groups.

His team monitors cybercriminal activity worldwide, including claims made on hacker forums, messaging platforms and social media.

When an attacker claims to have breached an organization, Hummel said security researchers initially treat that claim as an allegation. Researchers then look for evidence confirming whether the breach actually occurred.

That can include public disclosures from an organization, evidence that stolen data is being sold or confirmation from other sources.

Hummel said the speed at which attackers scan for vulnerable systems is a separate and increasingly urgent concern. But he said the basic lesson remains the same.

“The moment a device comes online, has a public IP address, it’s available for anything out there to scan,” Hummel said.

For organizations, that means cybersecurity defenses must be in place before a system connects to the internet — not after an attack begins.

Universities face unique challenges

Universities face a particularly complicated cybersecurity environment. Thousands of students, faculty and staff may connect personal computers, phones, tablets and other devices to university networks. Unlike a traditional corporate environment, a university has less control over many of those devices.

That creates more potential entry points for attackers. Hummel said the university’s ability to stop the attempted breach before it reached its most critical systems is an important distinction.

“The fact that they were able to catch this and stop this before it hit critical systems speaks to the fact that they’re doing a lot of the right steps,” he said.

He pointed to network isolation, permissions and other security controls as potential reasons an organization can prevent an intrusion from spreading.

UTSA has not publicly detailed the specific techniques it used to stop the attempted attack.

AI lowering the barrier to entry

Cyberattacks have traditionally required a certain level of technical knowledge. An attacker might have needed to understand networking, identify a target’s systems, conduct reconnaissance and create or modify tools to exploit a vulnerability.

Hummel said artificial intelligence is changing that equation. Cybercriminals have increasingly used automated tools and AI agents to help determine how to attack a target, he said. Some systems can help users move from identifying a target to selecting potential attack methods.

Hummel said unrestricted AI models could make that process even easier.

“There is zero barrier to entry anymore,” he said. “If you have a computer and you have the internet, you have the capability.”

That does not mean every internet user is capable of successfully breaching a major university, but Hummel said the tools have lowered the technical knowledge needed to attempt malicious activity.

What attackers want

So what are attackers after? For many cybercriminals, the answer is money.

Hummel said criminal groups can operate much like businesses, with different participants specializing in areas such as stealing information, hosting infrastructure, moving money or distributing spam.

Ransomware groups, for example, may steal data and encrypt systems before demanding payment.

Some groups use multiple forms of extortion, threatening to keep systems locked, publish stolen information or launch additional attacks if victims refuse to pay. The common factor, Hummel said, is that large organizations have to prepare for multiple types of threats.

Hummel said organizations need to identify the systems they absolutely cannot afford to lose and make sure those systems are protected and capable of continuing to operate even during an attack.

How to protect yourself

Hummel recommends people learn what common cyberattacks look like.

Phishing emails, fraudulent password resets and unexpected multifactor authentication requests can all be used to trick people into giving attackers access. He added that people should not assume they are too smart or too careful to become victims.

Think about which accounts would cause the greatest problems if they were compromised, he said. That could include email, banking, credit cards and other financial accounts.

Using unique passwords, a password manager and multifactor authentication can reduce the risk that one compromised password will provide access to multiple accounts.

For now, the attempted breach at UTSA is still being investigated, and the university has not indicated that its core systems were compromised.

But Hummel said institutions should view incidents like this as a reminder that cyberattacks are no longer unusual events reserved for the largest technology companies.

Read also:

• Students share mixed reactions as UTSA’s fall semester delayed amid attempted data security breach

“I don’t think we’ve played great,” the two-time reigning NL manager of the year said Wednesday. “We haven’t really jelled. We haven’t really come together."

The Brewers’ results tell a different story.

Milwaukee appears well on its way to earning its eighth playoff berth in the last nine seasons as it chases a fourth consecutive NL Central title. The Brewers won three of four from the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers last weekend and trounced Seattle 22-0 on Tuesday before their four-game winning streak ended with a 7-5 loss to the Mariners on Wednesday.

“There’s so much that I see that needs to improve, yet you look up and everybody’s saying, ‘Wow, I love the way you play,’ “ Murphy said before Wednesday's game. “And I look funny and I look behind me, and I see if they’re talking to someone else. Really? Maybe I’m too critical. Maybe I’m missing something. I don’t know. I do trust the team.”

They’ve been rewarding that trust.

Surviving a 17-day grind

The Brewers just completed a 17-day run that included no days off, one complete West Coast trip and part of another. They went 10-7 during that stretch.

After losing three straight games at San Diego last week, the Brewers responded by winning a series with the Dodgers, who swept them out of the NL Championship Series last year. After finally getting a day off Monday, the Brewers delivered their 22-0 blowout of Seattle that matched the most one-sided shutout in modern MLB history.

“I think it says we’re a good baseball team,” first baseman Jake Bauers said. “I think in tough times it can be easy to lose sight of that, but we have the right people around to bounce back when things get tough, and we have the right people around to continue to play winning baseball.”

Milwaukee has needed to stay hot to remain ahead of the Chicago Cubs, who have won 11 of their last 16 games and are 4 1/2 behind Milwaukee in the NL Central standings. The Brewers and Cubs face off in a four-game series Aug. 31-Sept. 3 at Wrigley Field before meeting again for three games in Milwaukee from Sept. 7-9.

During that grueling 17-day run, the Brewers encountered some criticism for their inability to acquire two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. The Brewers made a strong push to land Skubal, only to see the Detroit Tigers send him to the Dodgers instead.

Having NL Cy Young Award front-runner Jacob Misiorowski and Skubal fronting a starting rotation in a playoff series would have given the Brewers perhaps their best shot at making the postseason breakthrough that has eluded them during the franchise’s longest run of sustained success. The Brewers haven’t reached a World Series since 1982 and have never won it all.

Continuing to win without adding Skubal

Logan Henderson, an outstanding rookie pitcher the Brewers chose to keep rather than including in a trade last month, outdueled Skubal in Sunday’s series finale at Los Angeles. The 6-2 victory improved Henderson’s record to 7-2 with a 2.70 ERA.

The Brewers pivoted after the Skubal trade by acquiring former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Dustin May, who is seeking to become the latest in a growing list of starting pitchers to improve after joining the Brewers. Left-hander Kyle Harrison, who also is thriving in his first year in Milwaukee, attributes that trend to Milwaukee’s pitching coaching staff of Chris Hook, Jim Henderson and Juan Sandoval.

“They’re so good at just knowing who you are as an individual and knowing what you need,” Harrison said. “Shoot, yeah, they’ve been doing it for a while now, too, so it’s pretty cool to have those guys you can trust and rely on.”

The Brewers believe they have the makings of a quality playoff rotation with Misiorowski, Henderson, Harrison and May. Milwaukee has withstood injuries that knocked two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff out for the season and prevented Quinn Priester from pitching at all this year.

Milwaukee’s lineup has produced the fewest homers in the big leagues, yet the Brewers remain among the top five teams in scoring. Bauers’ breakthrough season has helped the Brewers overcome down years from 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich and three-time All-Star William Contreras.

Without naming names, Murphy said: “I watch some of our leaders that might not be getting the results, but the way they handle everybody else is pretty impressive.” Murphy added that might be one of the keys to this team’s success.

Another is simply the ability to continue competing even when things aren’t going smoothly.

“Maybe that’s the secret,” Murphy said. “Maybe this team still plays well enough to be close when they’re not at their best.”

___

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

May Doi, 93, was found dead Monday after she was reported missing, police said. Neighbors think she was escaping floodwaters in her home and trying to get to a nearby shelter, said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student of Doi's who is now a vice principal at a local school.

She taught for so long at Naalehu Elementary on the island's southern tip that “Mrs. Doi was my dad's kindergarten teacher,” Akamu said Wednesday.

“She taught grandkids of her students,” he said. “She was a fixture in this community.”

Akamu often saw her taking walks around the small, rural, sugar plantation-era town: “She was so strong.”

He recalled how everyone looked forward to having Mrs. Doi as a teacher because she sometimes allowed students to have sleepovers in her classroom. Her deceased husband was a math teacher, Akamu said.

The body of a man in his 60s was located by residents in a pasture on Tuesday, a day after police were asked to conduct a welfare check, police said. Authorities said it was the second death attributed to the storm and have not yet released his identity.

Residents were struggling to clean up after Hurricane Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many households without electricity for days. On top of all that, forecasters warned of the likelihood of another tropical cyclone forming southeast of the islands.

‘We just ask the ancestors to protect us’

Akamu also lamented the destruction of two cemeteries, including one where Akamu’s ancestors have been buried since 1850. Caskets were sticking out of the ground through the town, home to about 800 people, and headstones littered the roadway, he said.

“Our graveyard is now scattered all over the community and how do we heal from that?” he said.

He worries crews working to clear roads could inadvertently run over remains.

“Don't clear the road, my grandma could be in there,” he said. "That's what makes me most emotional, it's like you lost them again."

Akamu was trying to focus on helping his community recover by setting up a hub where residents can get donated items. They are in most need of generators, gasoline and propane, he said.

“We just ask the ancestors to protect us,” Akamu said of the threat of an another storm.

Now well west of Hawaii's main islands, Lala has reached major Category 3 strength with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) on Wednesday in what the National Hurricane Center called the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. But Hawaii residents were put on notice for another storm system, located far to the east-southeast.

The hurricane center said conditions appeared conducive for a tropical depression to form within days.

It's too early to tell the exact location or potential wind, rain and storm surge impacts. However, “interests in the Hawaiian Islands should closely monitor the progress of this system,” the hurricane center said, adding it could be a hurricane when it moves near or over the islands by the weekend.

Power repairs could take weeks

Work continued to clear away tons of mud and debris left behind by a torrent of water that inundated buildings, some of whose roofs were sheared off by the winds. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and a collapsed section of a two-lane road had cut off access to the community of Pahala.

The U.S. Department of Transportation approved an initial $6 million in emergency relief to help repair transportation infrastructure damaged by Lala, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said.

The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said.

About 17,000 customers on the Big Island remained without power on Wednesday, the Hawaiian Electric utility said. Some customers on the islands of Oahu and Maui were still in the dark. Repairs in the heavily damaged areas of the Big Island, including the southern end, could take at least two weeks, the utility said.

Lala was moving to the northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) and was expected to turn toward the north early Thursday. It was bearing down on a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Hurricane warnings were posted for portions of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.

The weather service said the storm was forecast to veer east of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The population in one of the most remote places on Earth consists entirely of a few dozen U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, volunteers and contractors. Forecasters said there were no tropical-related advisories for the Midway Atoll and any impact might include some elevated surf with a limited amount of rain.

___

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

The city has been working to close a projected $158 million budget deficit over the next two years. City’s staff’s plan to fill in the gap involves a mix of $90 million worth of cuts and funding shifts, a pair of tax hikes, and increasing fees.

Not everyone’s on board with the plan, though, and city staff presented a pair of very different alternatives for council members: keep the tax rate flat for the next two years by cutting out another $75 million, or front-loading the tax increases next year.

The latter, which would more than double the size of the proposed FY 2027 tax increase while staving off less than half of the proposed cuts, got little support.

More attention and frustration were focused on the cut-heavy plan, which would affect police and fire overtime, library hours, and parks programming among numerous other areas. Altogether, it would cost another 171 positions on top of the 101 already on the chopping block.

Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9) and Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) retained their anti-tax increase stances during the council discussion, though the rest of the council appeared less convinced.

“These are real cuts, man. These are real things for people’s lives that they rely upon,” said Councilman Ric Galvan (D6).

“I’m really, really exhausted at this like high ground that certain folk are taking where it’s, ‘I cannot fathom that we would increase property taxes for people,’ like, ‘I can’t fathom that we would consider this,’” said Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2).

“That is ridiculous, because the alternative is that we’re — you can fathom that we’re going to cut 171 additional people, and that we’re going to cut all of these programs that my constituents rely on. You can fathom that.”

The current budget proposal calls for raising the tax rate in FY 2027 to 56.288 cents per $100 worth of valuation. That amounts to a 3.9% increase that would cost the average homestead an extra $49 on their tax bill than if the rate stayed the same.

The city’s plan to close the deficit anticipates a second increase for FY 2028.

Whyte said the council needed to “do the hard work and make the tough decisions” to cut the budget and framed a tax increase as one cost of many.

“It’s a couple bucks here and there on property taxes. It’s another $3 a year on the environmental fee that’s going on the CPS bill, right? It’s SAWS next. Then you’re going to want to raise property taxes to get a bigger bond, right? We’ve already heard that. So it’s not — it all adds up,” he said.

While City Manager Erik Walsh said staff tried to stay away from mandated services and council priorities when coming up with the possible additional cuts, Alderete Gavito requested other options that “mostly cut the fat internally.”

“I think it’s interesting that y’all put up these line items that really impact residents and start riling us up against each other,” she said.

Walsh denied tying to “pit” council members against each other and said “we are a rather lean organization administratively, and we are not going to be able to solve our issue with administrative cuts, period.”

Ultimately, the city appeared ready to move ahead with the original budget proposal as its guide — at least generally.

“I think that the council is interested in maybe some additional reductions that we’ll work on. They’re looking for different scenarios in terms of the proposed property tax rate,” Walsh said.

The city is hosting a series of budget halls Aug. 17-25. You can see the list here.

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• NO RECORDS, BUT ABOVE AVERAGE: 100°-102° will be the norm
• HOW LONG?: Triple digits will hold through at least next week
• EL NINO UPDATE: ‘Very strong’ El Nino this winter almost a certainty

FORECAST

SAME SONG, SECOND VERSE

The last two days have given highs at 100°. Today will be no different, with some places a degree or two warmer. It’s possible that temperatures may even climb to around 102° in San Antonio by the weekend. It’ll be steadily hot into next week.

HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO LAST?

This hot streak shows few signs of letting up. As of now, triple digits appear to be a good bet through the end of next week. If you look long-range, there are some indications that the heat high may weaken a bit by the end of the month. Unfortunately, this far out, there’s no guarantee that’ll be the case. We’ll keep you posted.

‘VERY STRONG’ EL NINO IS LIKELY

Farther down the line, we do expect El Nino to have impacts on South Texas this winter. The odds of a ‘very strong’ El Nino have now increased to more than 90%. El Nino winters typically bring a more active pattern to the area.

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 order comes a day after Minnesota leaders sued Abbott to force the extradition of 52-year-old Christian Castro, who faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, having also been accused of lying about the circumstance leading up to the shooting.

The federal lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Texas, is the latest step in a monthslong effort by Minnesota officials to take custody of Castro.

Federal law requires states to cooperate on extradition requests, according to the lawsuit.  

“Abbott’s refusal to extradite Castro is unconstitutional and violates federal law and Texas law,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. “I will not stand for that, so I’m taking Abbott to court.”

Wednesday’s order from U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez requires Abbott to file a response to Minnesota’s request for a restraining order by Aug. 24. A hearing on the order was also scheduled for Aug. 25. Castro could be released on Aug. 26 if the order is not granted, Minnesota’s request warned.

Abbott’s office initially declined to comment on “pending extradition matters.” But when asked about the lawsuit during an unrelated news conference on Tuesday, the governor was dismissive. 

“While they’re making demands, I got a demand of my own and that is: It’s time for Minnesota to step up and repay the United States of America and Americans for all the fraud that they have committed in their state under federal programs,” Abbott said. “I will not respond to them at all until they step up and do what’s right, and they acknowledge their fault in the fraud that took place, and they fully repay the United States of America for the fraud they committed.”  

The Trump administration also justified Operation Metro Surge, a major immigration enforcement crackdown that began in Minnesota in late 2025, by connecting it to a welfare fraud scandal in the state’s social programs. The operation led to several shootings by immigration agents, including two that killed U.S. citizens. 

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced the charges against Castro on May 18, about four months after he allegedly fired into an occupied home during Operation Metro Surge and hit Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg. Castro told federal investigators that Sosa-Celis and another man had attacked him with a shovel and a broom, but surveillance camera footage contradicted the ICE agent’s account, according to court documents. 

The Texas Rangers helped arrest Castro in Cameron County in late May, prompting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to send the extradition request to his Texas counterpart.

Abbott has on average signed a rendition warrant agreeing to Minnesota’s requests in around 30 days but has not done so in this case, Minnesota officials said.

Last week, Ellison sent a letter asking Abbott to sign the legal document for Castro’s extradition by Monday afternoon or face legal action.

“The duty to extradite is ministerial and non-discretionary,” Ellison added in the letter. “Federal courts have the power to enforce a governor’s duty to extradite a fugitive, and a governor ‘has no power to refuse to extradite a fugitive based on the merits of the fugitive’s case.’”

In Tuesday’s lawsuit, the Minnesota attorney general called the decision to not sign the paperwork in Castro’s case “unusual and inconsistent” with typically prompt cooperation between the two states. Ellison said Abbott’s office complied with extradition requests from Minnesota for several other unrelated defendants — including a person with the same charge as Castro — in recent months.

The need for action is growing, the lawsuit said, because Texas cannot hold someone awaiting extradition for longer than 90 days. The lawsuit also named Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino to prevent the South Texas sheriff’s office from releasing Castro before he is turned over to Minnesota’s custody. 

“If Defendants are permitted to release Castro from custody before turning him over to agents of Minnesota for extradition, there is a substantial risk that Castro will flee and avoid prosecution in Minnesota,” the lawsuit said.

Trevino didn’t immediately respond to a comment request.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, blasted Abbott’s refusal to act on Castro’s case. 

“Abbott is more interested in burnishing his well-known anti-immigrant credentials than following the law,” he said Wednesday. 

Doggett also was part of a letter state congressional Democrats sent to the governor last week urging his “swift review and signature on the extradition paperwork.”

This was not the first time Minnesota officials have filed a legal challenge related to their efforts to prosecute the shooting of Sosa-Celis. 

In March, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the state of Minnesota sued the federal government for access to evidence related to Sosa-Celis’ case as well as the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in January. 

In addition, when Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare launched an investigation into the July fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston, he said he contacted Hennepin County prosecutors. 

“No one is more familiar with these kinds of situations than them,” Teare said last month.

KSAT followed through on Anthony Carlisle’s concerns about the project after he reached out in the comments of a previous story about VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Green Line.

Carlisle said that while he is excited for the rapid bus service, he did not expect the scale of disruption that the project has caused.

“We never expected to have work crews showing up at 5 o’clock in the morning working,” Carlisle said. “We certainly didn’t expect work crews to stay past 10 o’clock at night.”

The noise and inconsistent schedule have been difficult to manage for people who live in his community, Carlisle said, while neighbors juggle working from home, taking children to school and running their businesses.

Carlisle described crews as “inconsiderate,” and said they have used profanities toward him and his husband and at one point placed a portable restroom “basically outside our front door.”

Carlisle said he tried to bring his concerns to VIA but did not receive a response.

“There is generally a lack of engagement and communication from VIA,” he said.

In an email to KSAT, VIA said some overnight work is done to prevent impacts to traffic and is allowed under city ordinance. VIA also said it is “committed to working with businesses and property owners.”

According to its website, current construction projects on that stretch of the Green Line are expected to be completed by December. The entire project is slated to be complete in April 2028.

Carlisle said he is concerned about whether that timeline is realistic.

“I’m just really concerned about how long this is going to take to actually complete,” he said. “In our opinion, we’ve only seen very little progress in the past seven months.”

A spokesperson for VIA also said not all projects in the Green Line corridor are theirs, and may be managed by other utilities or city departments. Read VIA’s full statement below:

“The City of San Antonio (COSA) permits construction during designated hours under its ordinances, and VIA is adhering to those hours. Activity observed outside that window involves crews removing barriers and traffic control devices. This is done overnight, in accordance with COSA ordinances, specifically to avoid disrupting daytime traffic and to protect the safety of both workers and motorists.

“VIA understands that construction along the corridor can be disruptive and takes concerns seriously. When issues are brought to our attention, our teams work to address them as quickly as possible. Construction staging and traffic control measures follow established agreements, and VIA remains committed to working with affected property and business owners to minimize impacts wherever we can. Anyone with questions or concerns about the Green Line is encouraged to call 210-362-2590, email keepsamoving@viainfo.net or visit VIA’s ART Project Office located at 7067 San Pedro Ave.”

VIA Metropolitan Transit

Read also:

• When will San Pedro construction be complete? Here’s what VIA says about progress on the Green Line.
• VIA Metropolitan Transit sees resurgence in San Antonio ridership as agency improves bus routes

The Panthers are coming off back-to-back playoff appearances and an undefeated run (6-0) to a district championship in 2025. Last season, they advanced to the third round of the playoffs and are looking to build off that success.

Medina Valley has 10 starters returning from last year’s squad that went 10-3, with six of those returners on defense. This season, the Panthers are looking to make even more noise.

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football predicts the Panthers will win the 14-5A-DI championship ahead of John Jay.

Led by head coach Andrew Britt, the Panthers will open the season against the Churchill Chargers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, at Comalander Stadium.

Read also:

• Harlan football enters season with Matthew McKinney taking over as head coach

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The stunning developments came a day after Ukraine’s recently fired defense minister demanded national elections, despite Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion.

Although Zelenskyy was not implicated in the graft investigation, it threatened to pull him into another political crisis and provide another test of his resilience.

Investigators gave few details of the probe. It has identified a group of people alleged to have laundered 150 million hryvnias ($3.4 million) to pay bail for a defendant in a major graft case last year, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said.

That case, involving the state-owned nuclear power company, brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.

The latest suspects include a former lawmaker, the chairperson of a state bank’s board and the head of the bank’s supervisory board, as well as a deputy head of the presidential office, the agency said.

Zelenskyy made no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree dismissing Iryna Mudra as deputy head of the Office of the President. Investigators have not named her as a suspect.

Investigators searched Mudra’s office Wednesday, said lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko.

Zelenskyy remains dogged by high-level graft investigations, although he has never been named as a suspect even as the probes have engulfed officials close to him. Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and later was named as a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the biggest threat to Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership in the bloc.

Zelenskyy's former aide wants a wartime election

Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since helping him win the 2019 presidential election.

Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the Defense Ministry's young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

That sparked sustained street protests supporting Fedorov. For Zelenskyy, it was the second time in a year that a move triggered a strong public backlash, after he tried to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies in 2025.

Fedorov, in an address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for elections — appearing to directly confront Zelenskyy, whose term expired in 2024. Ukraine's constitution prohibits such a vote under martial law.

“We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,” Fedorov said.

He said Ukraine faces a crisis in how it is governed, arguing the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine’s ability to fight.

Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately comment on Fedorov’s address. It was not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal would resonate with Ukrainians.

Also on Wednesday, lawmakers approved Zelenskyy's candidate, Maj. Gen. Yevhenii Khmara, as the new defense minister, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov’s return to the post, which he has sought, anytime soon.

Lawmakers also gave their consent for Andrii Sybiha to stay on as foreign minister after serving in an interim role.

Political disarray follows Ukrainian wartime successes

The political disarray follows recent successes for Ukraine in the war. Using innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Moscow's bigger army.

But Zelenskyy has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has balked at negotiating a peace deal directly with Zelenskyy.

In its latest attack, a Ukrainian drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all have been attacked.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions, as well as Russian-held Crimea and the Black Sea.

It said Russian forces on Tuesday hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk.

A Russian drone struck a minibus in Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration, adding that four women were wounded. Another Russian drone struck a civilian car in the regional capital, killing a woman, he said.

Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine swapped 103 prisoners of war, according to Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

Graham, a political novice, was asked whether the U.S. has a national security interest in Taiwan and the South China Sea — a longstanding contention of both Democratic and Republican administrations. She struggled to answer before admitting, “National security is not my thing.”

“I’m not that informed on national security,” she added.

Her rival in next week's runoff for the GOP nomination, Rep. Ralph Norman, suggested the answer showed Graham was unqualified for the role.

“By her choice, she’s running for the United States Senate. It’s a six-year term,” Norman said. “You need to get fully versed in what issues you’re going to be dealing with. This isn’t a get training on the job, you can’t do that.”

It was a moment that drew a stark contrast to Graham’s brother, Lindsey, who died unexpectedly on July 11. It also gave Norman, an established conservative politician, a fresh avenue of attack as he tries to overcome President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Graham in her first campaign. The Republican president is set to visit South Carolina on Friday to campaign for her.

During his decades in the Senate, Lindsey Graham was known for his foreign policy involvement, making countless foreign trips, sometimes as part of a group of U.S. lawmakers meeting with international leaders and observing contentious areas firsthand.

There were multiple trips to Taiwan, including in 2022, when he led a delegation for a two-day visit that included meetings with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the island’s defense minister.

Darline Graham had been asked, “Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States and if so, why or how?”

Graham avoided a direct response and instead mentioned her brother's wealth of experience and her desire to lead differently.

“My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military,” said Graham, who often read from a legal pad on which she had notes, its pages draped over the front of her lectern. “My dad was in the Army. I’m not a polished politician up here; national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.”

Candidates were not allowed to bring notes into the debate, but Graham spent several minutes before the broadcast began copiously writing on her legal pad. Norman wrote down a few things but not as extensively.

As interim senator, Graham is surrounded by many of her brother's Capitol Hill staff, many of whom worked with him for years on issues foreign and domestic. She's repeatedly thanked them for getting her up to speed on legislative issues and has pointed to her several weeks on the job as a productive time in which she's gotten legislation passed, including a Russia sanctions bill named for her brother.

In the wake of her brother’s death, Graham has been asked multiple times about how she would either further or shift away from his intense focus on national security, an attitude that was at the essence of his Senate portfolio.

Asked after the debate by reporters if she wanted another crack at her answer to moderators' question, she doubled down, saying she was more focused on South Carolinians' everyday concerns.

“They’re worried about their pocketbooks more than they’re worried about the South China Sea, quite honestly,” Graham said. “So that’s going to be my biggest focus.”

Graham added that she had spoken multiple times during the debate about the overall national security threat posed by China.

“I realize national security is very important,” Graham said. “I probably said 10 times up there tonight how bad China is, how they’re a national threat to us.”

Speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Graham acknowledged her flub but said that she had spoken with voters since the debate who said they appreciated her honesty in expressing her lack of foreign policy expertise.

“I tripped up on one question last night regarding Taiwan, but you know, I’ve said many times, I’m not a politician, certainly not a career politician. I don’t speak politician,” Graham said. “You know, I was just honest, and I think that’s kind of a foreign concept.”

Taiwan has often been a flashpoint for aggression from China and international efforts to support its right to self-rule. The U.S. maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity over whether it would defend Taiwan militarily if the mainland invaded, but has committed to bolstering the island's defense for generations.

Claimed by China as part of its territory, Taiwan sits along a South China Sea global trade route, virtually all of which China claims despite a 2016 arbitration ruling based on the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims.

During a visit to Manila this week, Adm. Frank Bradley, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said that American special operations forces are ready to step up warfighting-readiness exercises with counterparts in the Philippines and other countries in Asia to further strengthen a security alliance and help deter a major conflict in the region.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Just two days after U.S. negotiators reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks in the Gaza Strip, at least 10 people were killed Wednesday in two strikes, according to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Israeli troops also crossed the ceasefire line in southern Gaza and detained a Hamas police colonel at dawn Wednesday, two witnesses and a Hamas official said.

Israel's military said one of the strikes on Wednesday, in the area of Nuseirat refugee camp, struck a Hamas commander who had participated in the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 abducted. A second strike in the Tuffah area of Gaza City struck four Hamas militants gathering in a police station, the military said, claiming they were planning to carry out attacks against Israeli troops.

Israel's military said a strike the day before targeted a meeting of four Hamas commanders and additional militants.

The commanders killed included Muhammad Hamdi Ahmad Al-Masri, Muhammad Attar and Muhammad Fathi Hussein Nasser, all accused of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli troops, and Samed Samir Harb Abu Habal, who infiltrated Israeli territory during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, according to a statement from Israel's military.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the Wednesday Gaza City strike on the police station killed eight police officers and a 13-year-old girl. Two officers were women, it said. One person was killed in Nuseirat. On Tuesday evening, an Israeli strike on a busy seaside cafe killed seven Palestinians, including a child, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Jared Kushner, a U.S. negotiator and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, held a marathon meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, in which he asked Israel's leader to draw down attacks on Gaza, a person familiar with the meeting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief journalists.

Also on Wednesday, Israel's military said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct during the war in Gaza and would launch criminal investigations into the 2024 killings of a 5-year-old girl and her family, as well as of 15 Palestinian paramedics in 2025.

At least 17 killed in Israeli strikes

The deadly strikes in Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday exacted more casualties even as a ceasefire that’s been in place since October has significantly diminished the fighting in the tiny enclave where more than 2 million Palestinians live. Since the ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,273 people, according to health officials in Gaza.

The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It doesn't distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.

In the early hours of Wednesday, at least 15 Israeli troops entered the Muwasi coastal area, west of the city of Khan Younis, two residents and a Hamas official said.

Accompanied by armed men, the troops stormed the tent of Sabri Abdel-All, a colonel for the Hamas-led Blue Police in Khan Younis. They also detained another resident identified as Nashat Ezzat Zaarab, they said.

The two residents and the Hamas official spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.

Latest ceasefire negotiations offer few concrete commitments

On the diplomatic front, the ceasefire also appears stalled. Trump's initial ceasefire plan laid out a broad vision for ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza and rebuilding the territory, much of which was reduced to rubble during the war.

But since last fall, major sticking points have emerged on the conditions of Hamas' disarmament and Israel's withdrawal — and which should come first.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to disarm. But Hamas said it would begin to disarm if Israel halts strikes and withdraws, adding that laying down its heavy weapons would come later and be contingent on the creation of a Palestinian state — something Israel’s government rejects.

Netanyahu also pushed back on the deal, saying Israel won't withdraw from its current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.

After Wednesday's strikes, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem lashed out at the Board of Peace — the body Trump established to oversee the ceasefire — saying it has provided a "cover” for Israel to escalate its attacks in Gaza instead of pressuring it to abide by the ceasefire agreement.

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Associated Press journalists Julia Frankel and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Jerusalem; Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made the comments Wednesday night in her country’s first reaction to Trump’s moves to drastically cut back the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills.

“We think it’s not worth making comments on that and we have no interest in it at all,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. “The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”

She also cited a series of other military drills carried out by the U.S. and South Korea earlier this year and South Korea’s push to introduce nuclear-powered submarines.

Kim Yo Jong denied that there are any communications between Trump and Kim. Earlier this week, pressed by reporters on whether he had a conversation with Kim Jong Un, Trump said that Kim had responded to his request for a conversation.

Kim Yo Jong's statement did not contain North Korea’s typically harsh rhetoric. She briefly said relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent," mentioning her brother’s past comments that he still has “good memories” of Trump. This suggests North Korea may be trying to manage relations with Trump, while seeking bigger concessions to restart talks.

When asked by reporters Wednesday if he will meet with Kim Jong Un this year, Trump said that “Yeah, I will be.” He wouldn’t answer a question about whether he is exchanging letters with Kim but said he gets along with him.

US and South Korea confirm drastic slashing of drills

Kim Yo Jong's statement came hours after the South Korean and U.S. militaries confirmed they were scaling back their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises. Trump earlier ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the exercises, citing what he said was a good relationship with Kim and South Korea’s refusal to support him over Iran.

South Korean officials said Trump’s announcement came without prior notice, baffling many people in the Asian country and raising concerns about joint defense readiness.

South Korea’s military said the allies agreed to adjust the duration and scale of the exercises at the request of the U.S. It said the ongoing drills would end Friday, not Aug. 27 as initially planned. It added that the allies also agreed to downsize some joint field training exercises.

The Pentagon said that it was “continuing training that enhances tactical capability” but certain events have been canceled or converted to simulations. “These adjustments preserve essential readiness and training objectives. There will be no degradation to U.S. training objectives,” a Pentagon statement said.

Ulchi Freedom Shield is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise meant to hone the allies’ ability to deal with potential North Korean aggression. The two countries usually hold a set of field training exercises during the command post exercise period.

The drills are a central pillar of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, which dates to the 1950-53 Korean War. But they also are a long-running source of animosities with North Korea, which has denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion and responded with provocative missile tests. Days before this month's drills began, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea.

This month's drills were initially supposed to be held in two phases in simulation of North Korean attacks — the first part until this Friday on defensive operations and the second part until Aug. 27 on counteroffensive operations. North Korea is extremely sensitive to counteroffensive drills, according to South Korean media.

Prospects for Trump-Kim summit unclear

Earlier Wednesday, North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, published a commentary slamming the U.S.-South Korean military drills as “frantic” and “extremely dangerous” and vowing to completely frustrate its rivals’ hostilities.

Many experts said Kim, now emboldened by his advancing nuclear program and expanding military cooperation with Russia, won't likely embrace Trump's overture and return to talks anytime soon unless he's promised bigger concessions. Kim suggested last year that he could only return to talks if the U.S. drops its demand for North Korean denuclearization as a precondition for diplomacy.

Trump claimed Wednesday that North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons. Some experts put the size of the North’s arsenal at more than 100 warheads.

South Korea’s intelligence service estimated last year that North Korea sent about 15,000 troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said North Korea was preparing to send more troops to Russia. But in her Wednesday statement, Kim Yo Jong flatly denied that, calling it “an ungrounded farce."

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung hailed Trump's decision, saying in his X message Wednesday that he hopes it would lead to reopening dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang and promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Lee is a liberal who wants better ties with North Korea.

South Korea's main opposition conservative party earlier accused Lee's government of prioritizing the resumption of Kim-Trump diplomacy over security concerns caused by Trump's move.

Trump and Kim met three times from 2018-2019 but their high-stakes diplomacy eventually fell apart over wrangling over a North Korean demand for extensive sanctions relief in return for limited denuclearization steps.

Trump's move may focus on South Korea over Iran

In his social media post, Trump said the drills are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House. Trump said he asked Lee if South Korea would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

At separate parliamentary hearings Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said neither South Korean nor U.S. officials were informed of Trump's move before his social media post. Cho said the alliance remains strong, while Ahn said South Korean and U.S. defense officials were maintaining close consultations.

Some experts say Trump's cut of the drills was more likely designed to apply pressure on South Korea to give him substantial support over the Iran war than to reach out to North Korea.

“Trump's message is that if you don’t cooperate with us on Iran, we’re not cooperating with you” on the drills either, said Yang Uk, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “It's like he's asking South Korea to show it's helping him over Iran” by taking steps like sending warships or reinforcing missile defenses in some areas.

South Korean officials said South Korea and the U.S. are closely discussing practical and military contributions that South Korea can make to help restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

It wasn't the first time that the U.S. and South Korea have scaled back or canceled their drills.

In 2018, Trump abruptly announced the cancellation of a major war game with South Korea, after his first summit with Kim. The U.S. and South Korea have since canceled or reduced other joint drills to support diplomacy with North Korea and cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said crews were working nonstop to fix the outages, but 75,000 customers still lacked electricity by late afternoon, mostly in Lake County next to the Illinois border.

They included more than 20,000 customers in Gary, where residents lined up again at community centers for hot meals and a place to charge phones.

The latest news for Gary wasn't good: Full restoration is not expected there until Aug. 25, NIPSCO said.

Roughly 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles need to be repaired or replaced in Gary as a result of the storm, which carried winds of 99 mph (159 kilometers per hour), said Melody Birmingham, an executive at NIPSCO's parent company.

Birmingham acknowledged the “real burden” of losing perishable food and people living for days without air conditioning after a “historic storm” that initially left 300,000 customers in the dark.

“These aren't simple repairs,” Birmingham said at a news conference. “These are systems that are being rebuilt.”

Utility says low-income residents are not ignored

Jeremy Spurrier, 51, said he's fortunate to have a generator at his Portage home, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. But the generator is expensive — it goes through about $75 of gas a day — and Spurrier said his family is relying on nonperishable food like soup. He drives to Illinois to get ice to chill his insulin.

"If I run out of ice, that’s several hundred dollars of insulin just ruined,” he said.

Gary, a majority-Black city, has been especially hit hard, with some residents voicing frustration that they're being ignored. Birmingham denied that low-income residents were being overlooked and blamed posts on social media.

“We have areas that are probably affluent where we still have customers out as well. ... This has nothing to do with race or any type of division,” said Birmingham, who is Black. “It's really a matter of where the storm hit.”

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton acknowledged that locals were “frustrated and exhausted” but said more than 600 linemen were working to restore power in the city.

"I want to reiterate this is clearly not just a Gary situation. It is a northwest Indiana situation,” Melton said.

No storm damage — but no power

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

In Whiting, Myra Carden, 74, said her home wasn’t damaged by the storm — “not even a chair was blown over in the yard.” But she was in her second blackout Wednesday.

Carden, her son and three dogs lost power for more than two days last week. Then the electricity went out again Tuesday.

“More than once I have put in an outage report,” she said. ”All I get back is, ‘You already put in a report.’ Well, what do you want me to do? ... This doesn’t make sense. Of course I’m not a lineman; I’m a paralegal.”

Carden uses a generator to keep the refrigerator humming but only when someone’s home to monitor it.

“We have a deep freeze in the garage packed full with beef and chicken. I’m sure everything will be thrown away,” she said.

The color — displayed on bandanas, pins, shirts and dresses — has become the symbol of a grassroots movement dedicated to blocking the buildout of 765-kilovolt transmission lines across the state. A coalition of those groups gathered on the steps of the Capitol building in the morning as testimony got underway for the House Committee on State Affairs’ interim meeting dedicated to the backlash against the transmission lines and data centers.

At the protest and nine-hour hearing that followed, lawmakers heard a variety of recommendations, including from local officials arguing for more local control of data center proposals and more time to reform the process behind approving transmission lines across Texas. Though discussed in separate hearings, landowners and protesters said the issues are connected.

“Data centers need energy … and the fact that there have been so many proposed throughout the state, I think these issues go hand in hand,” said Jada Jo Smith, founder and president of Hill Country Preservation Coalition, the grassroots organization that organized Wednesday’s protest.

The bipartisan coalition made up of Republican legislators, Democratic statewide candidates, landowners from rural Texas and environmentalists is starting to break through on both fronts.

Following a July Senate Business and Commerce Committee interim hearing on both topics, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and committee chair Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, called on the Public Utility Commission to scrap the 765 kv project entirely. Days later, Gov. Greg Abbott announced a pause on approvals for data centers to connect to the electric grid until an audit of data centers seeking to connect was completed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid operator.

While neither action spells an end to the debate around either issue — nor a halt to the transmission plans altogether — activists said they believe the tide has turned in their favor.

Mia Sarot, founder of the Hill Country Land and Legacy Alliance, sported a yellow button and bandana tied to her wrist as she spoke to the crowd of 40 people outside the Capitol, lamenting the need for the groups to have organized in the first place while celebrating their impact on the policy decisions made by state officials.

“Yellow means we’re paying attention,” Sarot said. “It isn’t a threat, it isn’t a political party, it doesn’t belong to any one organization and you don’t need anyone’s permission to wear it. It simply says, ‘I’m here, I’m paying attention, I’m asking questions and I’m participating.”

Inside the Capitol, lawmakers on the legislative panel spent hours deliberating the transmission lines, particularly three first-of-their-kind 765-kilovolt lines that would slice through tens of thousands of acres of private property.

For months, landowners have questioned the 180-day administrative window regulators have to approve or reject the proposal, arguing it was not enough time for residents to contest the plans. Most pleaded with lawmakers to halt the plan entirely and give lawmakers more time to reform the administrative process.

Lawmakers appeared receptive.

“When (the transmission plan) was brought to me, the 180 days was suggested, and it was suggested based on the Permian Basin Reliability Plan,” said state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo. “Not y’all deciding that we’ve got to run lines all the way across the state. So that’s where the 180 days came from, and I agree. I think we need to relook at that.”

State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, questioned transmission service providers, such as Oncor and AEP, about whether the proposed routes were the correct solution. He said most of the opposition stemmed from issues with the routes.

“We’re talking about really a routing issue, and I think everybody in this room is upset about the routes,” King said. “When we’re figuring out if we’re not going to do … 765s, what’s the alternative for transmission?”

Representatives from Oncor, AEP and CPS Energy, which would be tasked with deploying the build-out of the lines, said that if approved, they would work with landowners whose properties are along the proposed routes to make modifications and diminish the impact to the land.

And while they were receptive to a delay, they said that decision would come with a number of ramifications, including disrupting construction schedules already in discussion and the ability to secure necessary equipment on time. Adrian Rodriguez, chief operating officer and president of AEP Texas, said they buy themselves a slot for when equipment becomes available, adding that losing that place in line could result in higher costs.

“If we lose our place in those lines, given the 765 kV transmission line build that is occurring in other grids in this country, there is a high demand for these slots,” he said. “We have the potential to lose those slots, or that equipment could then be utilized for another part of the country … with the current demand that the country is facing for transmission build, those would likely be at a higher cost than we were able to originally procure those.”

Industry leaders rejected the notion that only data centers would benefit from the transmission lines, and that several industries could suffer if regulators decide to halt the proposal.

“We are concerned that putting a halt to these projects will not only affect oil and gas operations, but it’s going to affect new generation currently being built and threaten many planned projects,” said Walt Baum, president of Powering Texans. “We do support future changes to transmission planning to improve transparency and address specific siting and landowner concerns that y’all have heard about today.”

Katie Coleman, representing the Texas Association of Manufacturers, said transmission needs for the business community have not been met for 10 years, and further delays could hinder growth.

“This is not about data centers,” Coleman said. “It is about our planning process systematically under-planning for industrial growth for more than 10 years. We are in a catch-up phase because of extreme restrictions that were put on forecasting of industrial growth.”

The testimony on data centers, which lawmakers cut short to allow time for the transmission line discussion, lasted six hours.

Also at the meeting, ERCOT officials reported on how they intend to carry out Abbott’s ordered audit of data centers, a process CEO Pablo Vegas said he expects to go through in about December.

Abbott ordered ERCOT and the PUC to ensure data center developers provide information on tax breaks they will receive; power use and generation; water use and cooling operations; efforts to reduce impacts on local communities; and ownership of the facility. Any projects that fail should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.

The audit has scrambled the grid operator’s efforts to organize the queue of facilities seeking energization, roughly 90% of which are data centers. Prior to Abbott’s request, ERCOT expected to complete its study by April, when the first batch of data centers would receive approval to connect to the grid.

Vegas said they hope to not delay the entire schedule for connecting projects, but they hadn’t yet determined exactly how long the overall process delay would be. Vegas acknowledged that some of the roughly 250 projects eligible for the first batch of approvals may drop out because of the new timeline.

ERCOT is also surveying all data centers with an electricity demand of 25 megawatts or greater on their impact on the community, as directed by Abbott, Vegas said. PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson equated it to “a fact-finding mission.”

Regulators have already been working through a new way to decide how much of the cost of building new transmission lines needs to be paid for by individuals and how much needs to be paid for by companies such as data centers. Experts said they believe the new system will lower the burden on residential consumers relative to the industrial groups.

Costs for new infrastructure have long been shared because it provides an arguable public benefit, Vegas said. Economic and population growth also contribute to transmission needs.

“Well, it seems like the citizens don’t have a choice in this,” said Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. “Data centers are being pushed upon them, and they don’t have a choice to say no. But they’ve got to pay. I think that’s unfair. It’s undemocratic.”

Representatives on the committee also mulled potential regulation for the data center industry they’d like to pass in the 2027 session.

Several county officials testified that they need additional authority to manage the buildout of data centers in unincorporated areas of counties. In Texas, counties typically don’t have the power to block development — unlike city officials who wield zoning authority — and a majority of the hundreds of data centers planned for the state are set to be built in unincorporated areas.

King expressed some trepidation that giving counties more authority over data center projects could result in overriding private citizens’ rights.

“I hear a lot about local control and giving the counties or the local elected officials more control over this, but a lot of the ideas that are proposed to me kind of erode private property rights,” King said.

“The intersection is the fundamental issue we’re talking about is it not?” Leon County Commissioner Kyle Workman responded. “I think as a public policy matter, the state of Texas and local communities should be able to work together to establish that line.”

The committee did appear committed to repeal the state sales tax exemption for data centers, which has ballooned in recent years as more data centers are built and apply for the tax break. The exemption totaled an estimated $5.4 million in value during its first year of existence in 2014. In 2026, the Comptroller’s Office estimated the state is forgoing $1.3 billion in uncollected sales taxes.

“It’s a huge number,” said Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth. “I passed the bill to get it done. I’m going to probably carry the one to repeal it. Realistically, that’s going to go away.”

Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, reiterated a call he made earlier this year for the governor to call a special session to address the issues surrounding data centers immediately.

Still, Abbott’s order for ERCOT to audit the data centers in the electric grid connection pipeline represents the strongest action to date that state officials have taken to slow the buildout of data centers in Texas.

Activists have also been skeptical of the audits, urging the governor instead to call a special session of the Legislature to allow their senators and representatives to quickly pass new regulations for the rapidly expanding industry. They also say a special session is needed to rework the approval process for transmission lines, which was shortened in 2023 by the Legislature.

After the protest concluded in the morning, the activists gathered for a photo.

“Special session on three,” Smith said to the other activists gathered in front of the camera. “One, two, three: special session!”

Staff reporter Emily Foxhall contributed to this report.

Disclosure: CPS Energy and Oncor 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 Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

According to a Department of Justice news release, U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons announced guilty verdicts for Joshua Allen and Michael Cox. Allen and Cox were convicted on the following charges:

• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud
• Conspiracy to commit money laundering
• Conspiracy to launder monetary instruments
• Securities fraud

“In the midst of this Ponzi scheme, Allen and Cox collected a handsome fee by telling various egregious lies, even using their self-proclaimed faith and reputation in their community to con the investors they victimized,” Simmons said in the DOJ news release. “This case shows that within the Western District of Texas and across the Department of Justice, we are resolved to prosecute cases like these where individuals have preyed on the innocence and trusting nature of everyday Americans as Michael Cox and Joshua Allen did here.”

Allen and Cox jointly owned and operated four investment companies, evidence presented during their joint trial showed.

Former San Antonio financial advisor Brooklynn Chandler Willy, who pleaded guilty on 10 charges in connection with the scheme in March, worked with Allen and Cox — and others — to solicit victims to invest in their companies.

The trio, the DOJ said, “conspired to mislead the victims concerning the security of the investments and concealed their high commissions.” Altogether, officials said hundreds of victims lost millions of dollars.

Allen and Cox now each face up to 70 years in prison. Their sentencing hearings have yet to be scheduled.

Meanwhile, Willy pleaded guilty in March on the following charges:

• Six counts of wire fraud
• One count of wire fraud conspiracy
• One count of money laundering conspiracy
• One count of engaging in monetary transactions associated with the scheme
• One count of aggravated identity theft

Investigators said Willy faces up to 20 years each in federal prison on the wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges. Additionally, she could face additional time in prison for the engagement with monetary transactions (up to 10 years in prison) and aggravated identity theft (mandatory minimum of two years) charges.

The aggravated identity theft charge, according to the DOJ, would run concurrently with any other punishment.

Willy is set to receive her prison sentence on Dec. 14.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Former San Antonio financial advisor takes guilty plea in Ponzi scheme, DOJ says

On Tuesday, Moodini somehow broke free and wanted to see up close the place that seemed so interesting to him.

Who knew, it would be the Walmart on Southeast Military Drive near Roosevelt Avenue.

“He decided he needed to make a Walmart run that morning and spent quite a bit of time just running around the parking lot trotting around,” said Lisa Norwood, public relations manager for ACS.

Norwood said the San Antonio Police Department officers initially arrived at the store and were able to gently coerce the calf to a green space next to the store.

Norwood said Moodini was not ready to go back home just yet.

“He decided, ‘Hey, maybe too many people and decided to book it over to an underground drainage tunnel and walked for some ways.’”

The green space where the tunnel is located is gated off with a metal fence, and Norwood said officers needed permission to enter.

She said officers were hot on his tail, so he lay down inside the underground tunnel.

“A couple of our officers had to go in to see if they could get the calf safely,” she said.

Norwood said that after Moodini rested for a minute, the officers coaxed him back out into the open air.

She said in all, the whole ordeal lasted about an hour and a half, and Moodini was put into a trailer and taken to the livestock area at ACS.

Moodini’s owner was identified and claimed the calf Wednesday.

Norwood said the owner was reminded of the law and that Moodini is safer at home.

“It is against the law for livestock to roam,” Norwood said. ”Just like it’s against the law for dogs to be out running around, it’s really important when you consider the size of cattle.”

She said the owner will be cited, but said she is glad Moodini’s tale of adventure had a happy ending.

“It’s one of those things that all’s well that ends well,” Norwood said.

Read also:

• Bull calf leads ACS officers on chase through Walmart parking lot, underground drainage tunnel

Scout was donated to the district through the Kellyanne Elizabeth Lytal Memorial Foundation, honoring the 8-year-old AHISD student who died in the 2025 flood at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas.

Scout serves at Alamo Heights Junior School with counselor Lisa Taggart, his handler. Together, they work with students experiencing anxiety or stress.

“Scout and I are a team. We come together to work every day. We counsel as a team,” Taggart said.

Taggart said Scout can help students feel more comfortable opening up during counseling.

“Scout and dogs in general just really help lower those barriers that people might bring into counseling or therapy,” she said.

Kellyanne Lytal’s Girl Scout Troop 5116 helped make Scout’s role possible.

The troop donated $500 from cookie sales to the foundation honoring their friend’s legacy.

At Kellyanne Park in Alamo Heights, troop members met Scout, who is named after their tight-knit group.

“Kellyanne wanted a dog so bad,” Kellyanne’s mother, Malorie Lytal, said. “I feel like this is a way that I can get her a dog from heaven and have it with the purpose behind her foundation — with Scout spreading kindness.”

Taggart and Scout spent 100 hours training together and are now prepared to help students manage difficult emotions.

The Girl Scouts said Scout will continue Kellyanne’s legacy by loving and helping others.

“He’s just going to love people all the way,” one troop member said.

Another added, “I think he’s going to help people a lot.”

“There are just so many ways we can spread kindness and honor her memory,” Malorie Lytal said.

Read also:

• New Alamo Heights park named in honor of Kellyanne Lytal who died in Hill Country floods
• Alamo Heights playground named in honor of Camp Mystic camper who died in Hill Country floods
• Parents of girl killed in July 4 floods share story of grief, unexpected friendship with ex-Navy SEAL

The State Department announced Tuesday that it had hit ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal, with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in U.S. jurisdictions or come into contact with the U.S. financial system.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the move “very unfortunate” when asked about the sanctions by a reporter. “Japan will respond as we continue to maintain communication with related countries including the United States,” she added.

The Trump administration has now slapped sanctions on nine of the ICC's 18 judges, both of its deputy prosecutors, its former chief prosecutor and one other prosecution office staffer, the court said. The U.S. accuses the court of overstepping its mandate by investigating and seeking to prosecute senior military and political officials from countries, such as Israel and the United States, that are not members of the court.

In a statement, the court said that when “judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk.” It said the court “will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday branded the ICC “a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.”

The move came weeks after Rubio announced that the U.S. was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”

Rubio said he will pressure the court’s 125 member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States.

Since then, Venezuela and Chad have announced they plan to leave the court, bringing the number of countries to pull out of the court in the past year to five. It takes a year for a country's decision to quit the court to be formalized.

The sanctions can impact the daily lives of court officials. They prevent the ICC officials and their families from entering the United States, block their access to even basic financial services making even going to a grocery store difficult.

Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, who was sanctioned last year, lost access to her credit cards, and Amazon’s Alexa stopped responding to her. “Your whole world is restricted,” she told The Associated Press after she was targeted.

The court's oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties, called the sanctions an “escalation” that “risks undermining ongoing investigations and impeding global efforts” to ensure justice reaches victims of global atrocities.

While Japan calls its alliance with the United States the cornerstone of its postwar foreign and security policies, Tokyo has had difficulty managing the relationship under Trump’s trade and security policies. Takaichi has been portrayed as weak for avoiding any criticism of Trump as her administration navigates weakened U.S. commitment in the region and deteriorating ties with China.

Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Japanese opposition Democratic Party for the People, wrote on X that Trump’s sanctions were “outrageous and intolerable.” He urged Takaichi’s government to show its support for the ICC and reach out to the U.S. government to “have it retract this unjust sanction.”

ICC host nation the Netherlands and European powerhouse Germany both threw their weight behind the court.

German foreign office spokesman Martin Giese told reporters in Berlin that the ICC is “fulfilling its mission exactly as intended,” by holding to account perpetrators of grave crimes. Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said he had invited Akane for talks “to discuss our continued support.”

Balkees Jarrah, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, called the sanctions “the latest example of the Trump administration’s utter contempt for international law and a naked attempt to shield American and Israeli officials implicated in serious crimes from justice.”

Human Rights Watch and three other advocacy groups sued the Trump administration in a New York court last week to challenge its campaign against the ICC.

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Associated Press journalists Matthew Lee in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

Maj. Gen. Adel Issa is the first military officer to be turned over by Lebanon since Assad’s fall in late 2024.

Lebanon’s judicial authorities decided on Tuesday to deliver Issa to Syria, after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said it had asked authorities in Lebanon to hand over Issa to Syria over alleged crimes including intentional killing of more than two persons, the crime of torture resulting in death, and acts of aggression aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife.

The ministry added that Issa was the commander of the Syrian army’s 17th Division and the commander of ground forces in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour until 2016. The ministry posted a photo of Issa wearing a prison uniform.

Officials in Beirut said on Tuesday that Issa was turned over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for delivering suspected criminals to face justice.

After Syrian fighters opposed to Assad marched into Damascus to end the Assad family’s five-decade rule in December 2024, a number of military and security officers fled to Lebanon, where some remain.

Dozens of other former members of his security agencies accused of atrocities have been arrested and put on trial in Syria.

Last week, a Syrian court sentenced Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia while their maternal cousin, Brig. Gen. Atef Najib, became the most senior security official to be sentenced to death while in custody. The Assad brothers fled to Russia during the ouster.

Issa was detained on Aug. 8 when he went to the Syrian Embassy in Beirut for some paperwork. Embassy officials contacted Lebanon’s prosecutor’s office to tell them that Issa was wanted in Syria.

Issa had fled to Lebanon by crossing illegally after Assad’s fall, the officials said.

Syria’s conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a civil war, left 500,000 people dead and over 1 million wounded.

CPS Energy says hotter temperatures often lead to increased air-conditioning use, putting additional demand on the electric grid.

“During the summer, if the day’s temperatures will be higher than the month’s average, then a yellow day is called,” said Miguel Vargas, a CPS Energy communications specialist.

While temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit can serve as a rough guideline, Vargas said the utility primarily looks at how temperatures compare with the monthly average when determining a yellow, or peak-demand, day.

The hours to watch are between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. That’s when temperatures are typically at their highest and electricity use can also peak.

CPS Energy recommends shifting some household activities to earlier in the day to help reduce energy use during those afternoon hours. That includes running the dishwasher and doing laundry before the peak period.

Residents can also unplug appliances and electronics that aren’t being used, including items such as air fryers and toasters. Even unplugging unused chargers can make a difference.

“If you have 10 different chargers in your homes that aren’t plugged into anything, it can really add up,” Vargas said.

Another way to reduce energy use is to close blinds or shades during the hottest part of the day. Keeping sunlight and heat out can help an air conditioner work less.

CPS Energy also recommends raising the thermostat by a few degrees when possible.

The utility emphasizes that customers do not need to stop using electricity during a peak-demand period.

“We don’t tell people to just completely stop using energy during these times,” Vargas said. “You’re more than welcome to use as much energy as you need. It’s just the cost of the energy might be a little bit higher during these times.”

To view the current “day” you can click on the CPS link here, as well to find different ways to conserve energy.

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Prosecutors also called into question Comey's account that he had found the seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47” while walking on a beach in North Carolina and suggested that his May 2025 post on Instagram was an effort to generate attention for a forthcoming novel about a social media personality whose words inspire his fans to attack his foes.

The arguments in motions late Tuesday represent the government's most detailed explanation of its indictment and were filed in response to wide-ranging defense efforts to dismiss the case on grounds including that it constitutes a vindictive prosecution and that Comey's post did not amount to a true threat. Comey's lawyers contend that investigators in the case misled judges, submitted documents containing false statements, withheld key facts and repeatedly came up empty in their efforts to prove that Comey intended a physical threat or knew that the number 86 could suggest violence.

The entry for “86” from Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says its meaning is “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” Trump, a Republican, is the 47th president.

The Justice Department maintains that the post constituted a real threat

Federal prosecutors maintain that the photo of the seashells, which Comey said he found on the beach, constituted a threat against Trump. Comey deleted the post shortly after he put it up, saying he did not know that anyone interpreted the numbers as a call to violence. His lawyers have said that the slogan has long meant to “get rid of” or “eject” and has been featured on thousands of items sold online and regularly displayed at protests.

But the department sought in its filings to place the post against the backdrop of assassination plots or attempts against Trump in the months before and after Comey's post. Prosecutors say that two minutes before the post was made, Comey's wife texted him a screenshot of a definition of “86” that said "to get rid of or refuse service.”

"There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” prosecutors wrote.

The photo was posted days before Comey was set to release a novel he wrote titled “FDR Drive,” in which a prosecutor pursues a far-right social media personality who has called out his adversaries by name and inspired violence against them by his fans, the department said.

After the Instagram post provoked an outcry, according to the government's filings, Comey's publishing agent observed in a text message to him that he had “gone viral.” Comey responded that that was “not my intention, but I’ll be OK if it sells books.” The agent replied, ”Music to an agent's ears."

Prosecutors also asserted there was “reason to doubt” Comey’s account of having come upon the seashells while on a walk, saying they were located 4 miles (6 kilometers) “down from the beach from beachfront property where Comey was staying, in an area separated from the ocean by a sand dune.” They said there was "no evidence that anyone else arranged, photographed, or even saw the shells.”

Comey has called the case vindictive, but prosecutors deny that

Comey's lawyers have called the indictment, which was filed months after an earlier and unrelated case against him was dismissed, part of a Trump retribution campaign targeting one of the president’s vocal critics. Trump fired Comey as head of the FBI in 2017 as Comey was overseeing an investigation into potential ties between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Trump since then has called for him and other perceived adversaries to be jailed.

But the Justice Department denied allegations of vindictiveness, saying the decision to indict Comey was made by the U.S. attorney in the area and did not stem from a directive from the president or the attorney general.

To bolster their claims that Comey was unjustly targeted, the defense team argued that investigators struggled to develop compelling evidence from witnesses that Comey had intended the post as a threat, but they concealed that from federal magistrates as they applied for warrants to search digital accounts associated with Comey and his wife

For instance, defense lawyers have said that the FBI searched an internal database of information about open and closed investigations for any indication of an association between Comey and the term “86” but found inconclusive results. An FBI agent also requested a review of the FBI file for the case against reputed mobster John Gambino, which Comey worked on as a young prosecutor, but found no references to the term “86.”

Investigators also interviewed a key government cooperator in the case, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, who said he did not recall ever discussing the term “86” with Comey or hearing it in connection with the trial.

The latest filings made clear that the administration was standing behind the premise of the case.

“No Government theory was disproved at that time, or now. No intentionally false omission exists, much less one made with reckless disregard for the truth,” prosecutors wrote.

“The evidence still supports that Defendant acted at least recklessly by consciously disregarding a substantial risk that his coded message of ‘8647’ that he sent to his 200,000 or so Instagram followers, and the millions of secondary social media users who would view this as threatening violence against the President of the United States," they added.

Lynnesh Gonzalez, 36, was arrested and charged with the manufacture and delivery of a Penalty Group 2 controlled substance weighing between 1 and 4 grams, records show. Justin Nathaniel Gonzalez, 35, was also arrested Tuesday on the same charge.

The charge stems from a July 16 sale at Blvck Diamond Smoke Shop in the 1400 block of West Hildebrand Avenue, where Lynnesh Gonzalez allegedly sold 2 grams of THC wax to an undercover officer. The substance tested positive for THC, according to an arrest affidavit.

Justin Gonzalez allegedly sold 2 grams of THC wax to a separate undercover officer at the same location on July 14. That substance also tested positive for THC, the affidavit states.

Investigators identified both suspects by comparing their driver’s license photos with the physical descriptions of the people who made the sales, the affidavit states.

Both suspects were released on bond Wednesday, Bexar County jail records show.

Texas banned several hemp-derived THC cannabis products in July.

Daniel Mehler, the self-proclaimed “dopest lawyer in town,” confirmed that he’s representing Justin Gonzalez. He sent KSAT the following statement:

“I represent Justin Gonzalez and the affidavit for his arrest states that the alleged sale happened on July 16, two weeks before any ban went into effect,” Mehler said. “This is a lawfully permitted hemp business and my clients look forward to their day in court.”

Read also:

• Woman arrested in deadly South Texas human smuggling investigation, records show

That includes what to do with programs like the STAR domestic violence resource program, as grant funds expire at the end of the year.

The possibility of cuts down the line has perked the ears of many survivors who depend on STAR, causing them to reach out to KSAT with their stories.

“It started verbally and then for the little over 2-year marriage, it turned into pretty much any type of abuse you can think of,” said a Bexar County abuse survivor who is remaining anonymous for her safety. “I never thought it would be me.”

She is savoring that safety since the last violent incident six months ago that caused her and her kids to leave her home and husband.

“The following day, I got a phone call after everything had happened,” she said.

The call came from an advocate with Bexar County’s STAR program, which stands for Safety Team Active Response.

In April, KSAT reported about the program, which sends quick help to at-risk and high-risk domestic violence survivors in unincorporated Bexar County.

“They provide you with resources that you don’t even think about in that moment,” the survivor said.

STAR offers necessities like hotels, rides, counselors and food.

“The STAR program was able to help me and my kids get groceries when we had very little food,” she said in tears.

Advocates even connect survivors with other programs, like crime victims’ compensation through the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

“I got reimbursement for relocating, for housing. They help with any medical expenses that have been occurred because of the incident,” the survivor said. “Their advocates truly care.”

That’s why she is so concerned — because when Bexar County presented its budget proposal Tuesday, it was clear that cuts needed to be made. STAR was on a list of programs in question.

ARPA funds from the pandemic still support a handful of county programs, including:

• STAR domestic violence hotline
• Bibliotech navigators
• Domestic violence impact courts
• Pre-indictment court
• Preventative health
• TX Fast Track 2

The grants for those programs end Dec. 31, 2026, and the county manager has put these programs on contingencies after they expire.

“We plan to come forward to commissioners to talk about those programs to allow some more time to discuss,” the county team said during the budget meeting Tuesday.

Though the STAR program staff confirms to KSAT no cuts are set in stone, survivors want to make sure their voices are heard.

“I think it would be a major blow to the victims themselves because if I hadn’t gotten that phone call, I honestly don’t think I’d be in the position that I’m in today,” the survivor said.

She hopes when commissioners meet to discuss cuts, they’ll see worth in the program she said saved her life.

To other survivors, she said, “To whoever hears my words, know that you matter. You matter and you’re not alone.”

“All it takes is that moment of quick courage to think about yourself when it comes to making the decision to leave. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take of the people that depend on you,” she said.

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

Survivors in unincorporated Bexar County who are not in current emergencies can fill out an online form to get in touch with STAR specialists.

Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.

For wrap-around services, including the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services at (210) 733-8810.

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

Read also:

• Survival success story: Mom escapes abuse, publishes book for women in domestic violence recovery

The ruling Wednesday by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green is a victory for Republicans seeking to hold onto their slim majority in the U.S. House. But the case is likely to end up in the state Supreme Court.

Missouri’s new districts already were used in the August primaries. On that same day, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a petition with thousands of signatures seeking to force a November referendum on the map. Hoskins asserted that Missouri’s Constitution doesn’t allow a referendum on congressional redistricting.

The judge agreed with Hoskins and other Republicans, who joined in defense of the new map.

“The Missouri Constitution does not supply any statement — let alone a clear one — reallocating authority over congressional redistricting away from the General Assembly to a referendum process,” Green wrote in the ruling.

Opponents of the redistricting plan quickly announced an appeal.

“Everyone knows that Cole County is not the final decision here,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, who sued to try to place the new map on the ballot. “After months of delay, we are pleased to be moving forward to the Missouri Supreme Court to enforce our constitutional rights.”

Missouri’s redistricting targeted Democratic congressman

Missouri's current U.S. House delegation is made up of six Republicans and two Democrats who were elected from districts with boundaries drawn after the 2020 census.

But Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe called the Legislature into a special session on redistricting last year after Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional boundaries to their advantage ahead of the midterms.

Missouri's revised map is designed to help Republicans defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigns portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretches the remainder of Cleaver’s 5th Congressional District far eastward into Republican-heavy rural areas. About 59% of its voters are new to the 5th District, according to an Associated Press estimate.

State Sen. Rick Brattin won a Republican primary in the reshaped district in early August. Cleaver was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Republicans had argued that the new districts should be used in the November elections even if a voter referendum on the map was allowed to occur at the same time.

Lawsuit highlights dispute about referendum rights

The Missouri Constitution does not specifically say that a referendum can be used to decide congressional redistricting, nor does it forbid it, which is why the issue ended up in court.

Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office, which represented the secretary of state in court, argued that congressional redistricting is a legislative duty not subject to referendum without specific constitutional permission.

The attorney general and the Republican Party also argued it was too late to switch district boundaries before the November election. Changing districts after the primary would cause “widespread voter confusion” and an “erosion in confidence in the integrity of the state’s elections,” said John Gore, an attorney for national, congressional and state Republican committees.

The judge agreed, ruling that a district swap after the primary would violate federal law.

It’s been more than 100 years since a Missouri redistricting plan faced a referendum. In 1922, voters rejected a new congressional map passed by the Republican-led Legislature. The legitimacy of that referendum petition was not challenged in court.

Redistricting battle spread to numerous states

Missouri’s mid-decade redistricting effort has been among the most litigated nationally, triggering about a dozen lawsuits over the past year.

The Republican-led state was the second, after Texas, to respond to Trump’s call to redraw congressional districts. Several other states followed. All told, Republicans hope to win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states: Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.

It remains to be seen whether the redistricting works as intended for Republicans. The president’s party historically has lost congressional seats in the midterms, and Trump’s poor approval ratings could provide an extra hurdle for Republican candidates.

___

Associated Press journalist Hannah Recht contributed from Washington.

If confirmed by the Senate, Overton will have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May.

Trump said he’s delaying the 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. The countries reached a deal less than two hours before the sanctions were to go into effect on Tuesday, buying time for more negotiations and avoiding, for now, another strain in already tense relations.

The Latest:

International Criminal Court criticizes US sanctions on senior staffers

The ICC called the latest sanctions a “flagrant attack” on its independence and vowed to continue seeking justice for atrocities around the world.

The ICC said in a statement that when “judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk.” It said it “will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality.”

The State Department announced Tuesday that it hit ICC president Tomoko Akane and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye with sanctions that freeze any assets that they have in U.S. jurisdictions or come into contact with the U.S. financial system.

The Trump administration has now sanctioned nine of the ICC’s 18 judges, both its deputy prosecutors, its former chief prosecutor and one other staffer, the court said. The U.S. accuses it of overstepping its mandate by investigating and seeking to prosecute military and political officials from countries, such as Israel and the United States, that are not members.

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FTC proposal would require retailers to be transparent about personalized pricing

Companies that secretly vary prices based on how much they think individual customers will pay could face federal charges under a proposed policy released Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission.

“When consumers see a listed price, they expect it to be (the) same price that everyone else sees, not the retailer’s estimate of how much they are willing to pay based on their personal data,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

The FTC has had its eye on personalized pricing for several years. In a preliminary report filed in January 2025, the agency found that grocers, clothing companies and others were using third-party companies to help them individualize online prices based on shoppers’ locations, browsing histories and other factors, including how long they left items in their virtual shopping carts.

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Trump announces ‘MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER’ on Iran

On his social media site, the president promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” but provided few details.

He said other countries that allow their “financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”

It was not immediately clear what that meant for major economies with close ties to Iran, including China.

But Trump said his prohibitions would include things like oil smuggling, cash transfers and cooperation through exchange houses and ship registries and front companies.

“It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are,” Trump said, imploring U.S. allies “to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”

Canada and the US move closer to finalizing a trade agreement

The agreement would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs, and a senior Canadian official called the emerging terms “a very good deal for Canada” while cautioning that negotiations were not complete.

The official said it would provide greater certainty, protect Canada’s dairy sector and jobs threatened by the new tariffs, and preserve what Ottawa considers favorable trade terms with the United States.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly before an agreement is finalized.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked provincial premiers to return U.S. alcohol to store shelves, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said, a step aimed at addressing one of the Trump administration’s key trade complaints.

Houston and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, both conservatives, voiced support for the direction of the talks, though Houston said whether Canadians would actually buy U.S. alcohol again “is a whole other discussion.”

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— Rob Gillies, Paul Wiseman and Seung Min Kim

Longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes to retire, citing differences with Pentagon leadership

Max D. Lederer Jr. is ending a decades-long career with the military newspaper as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon moves to exert editorial control and eliminate what it asserts are “woke distractions.”

Lederer made the announcement in a memo to staff and an interview with Stars and Stripes. In the memo, seen by AP, he said it had “become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.”

The announcement comes less than four months after the Pentagon fired the paper’s ombudsman, whose job was to safeguard editorial independence. The news outlet is partly funded by the Defense Department but has a legacy of independence from military and government leadership.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stars and Stripes has recently been at the forefront of some reporting on conditions for sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln and concerns for their mental health during its long deployment — concerns that Trump has downplayed.

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Missouri court allows new Trump-backed US House districts be used in November election

A Missouri judge has allowed new U.S. House districts backed by the president to be used in the November elections, rejecting a bid to put the Republican-friendly districts to a statewide vote.

Wednesday’s ruling by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green is a victory for Republicans seeking to hold on to their slim majority in the House, but the court decision is likely to be appealed.

Missouri’s new districts already were used in the August primaries. That same day Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a petition with thousands of signatures seeking to force a November referendum on the map. Hoskins asserted that Missouri’s Constitution does not allow a referendum on congressional redistricting.

The judge agreed with Hoskins.

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Trump says he will attend GOP’s national midterm convention

In a social media post, the president said he plans to attend the Republicans’ first-ever national convention ahead of the midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races.

“I will be with you both nights, and rarin’ to go,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump used his characteristic hyperbole to build hype around the event, which will be hosted in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10. He teased it as “THE GREATEST RALLY OF THEM ALL.”

“It will be like nothing else,” he said. “The Music, Excitement, and Importance of this Evening will be at levels never seen at a Convention or Political Event.”

US national debt hits $40 trillion

The national debt surpassed a record $40 trillion on Wednesday, a staggering milestone as defense costs, social programs like Social Security and Medicare and interest on the burgeoning deficit make up an enormous share of federal spending.

The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It reached $38 trillion five months before that, in October.

The unprecedented $40 trillion figure highlights competing administration priorities, from boosting the defense spending that the U.S. relies on to carry out Trump’s almost-6-month-old Iran war to lowering the cost of gas and groceries.

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New CDC director acknowledges agency troubles, including ‘zombie’ programs

Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is promising to advocate for the agency while addressing staff burnout and understaffing issues.

In her remarks to staff, Schwartz referenced an AP story this week about CDC programs that have congressional appropriations but functionally are dead or nearly dead because the CDC staffers who did the work were laid off by Trump’s administration or remain on leave.

She did not say exactly what she will do about these dead, or “zombie,” programs and about staffers who feel exhausted and overloaded but said she will meet with CDC staffers to learn more about the situation and what can be done.

Trump tells Congress to pass pro-crypto law — but isn’t waiting to act

At a White House crypto conference Wednesday, Trump urged passage of the Clarity Act before yielding the floor to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig, who vowed to “use every tool available” to advance Trump’s agenda.

Selig’s comments came ahead of a CFTC meeting Thursday examining ways the agency can use its existing authority to ease crypto rules. A day earlier, other securities regulators proposed rules, making it easier for crypto to raise money from the public.

Since the self-styled “crypto president” was reelected last year, his administration has also disbanded a Justice Department crypto enforcement unit and pulled back from prosecutions.

The shift comes as Trump’s latest financial disclosure reported he took in more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income last year.

Trump said he’d welcome a data center. Many Americans aren’t so sure

“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,” the president told reporters in the White House. “I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous.”

Trump’s review is more optimistic than many Americans, who have pushed back against data centers in their backyard over concerns with the buildings’ use of water, electricity or hefty tax breaks for tech companies. The large edifices — often used for artificial intelligence and cloud computing — have stirred a bipartisan resentment, which Trump nodded toward Wednesday.

“Maybe it can use a little public relations help,” he said, adding that a solution is for companies to produce their own electricity.

US to spend more than $19M to counter Chinese seabed mining, fishing in international waters

The Trump administration has notified Congress of its plans to spend more than $19 million to assist Pacific Island and other countries in countering Chinese attempts to dominate seabed mineral mining as well as crack down on unregulated Chinese fishing in waters far from China.

The State Department told lawmakers this week in separate notices that $14 million would fund ocean mapping and seabed exploration to push back against “aggressive and corrupt practices” by China in 12 Pacific island nations. Another $5.2 million will assist seven countries in boosting inspections of Chinese-flagged fishing vessels that frequently use their ports.

The notices, dated Monday, were obtained by The Associated Press.

The programs are part of a broader effort by the administration to counter China’s growing global influence and power projection.

Trump complains rates are ‘artificially high’

The president criticized a recent spike in borrowing costs and said the U.S. should have lower rates because the economy is doing well, contradicting financial analysts who say steady growth is a reason rates are rising.

“We have interest rates that are artificial — they’re actually artificially high,” Trump said. “When our country is strong, interest rates should go down. When our country is weak, frankly, they should go up.”

Interest rates on long-term Treasury debt have risen steadily for weeks to multiyear highs, lifting mortgage rates and other borrowing costs. The Treasury Department announced steps Wednesday to push rates lower.

Wall Street analysts say borrowing costs have advanced because of expectations that steady economic growth will keep inflation elevated. Most economists also blame ongoing large budget deficits and heavy borrowing by leading tech companies to build AI infrastructure.

Trump reduced joint US-South Korea military exercises

Trump also said he gave the order because he wasn’t happy with South Korea’s refusal to support him over Iran and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“I didn’t like the fact that we were doing these massive military exercises really against North Korea,” Trump said. He added that “I’m friendly with him,” meaning North Korean leader Kim.

Trump said he hadn’t seen anything happening from North Korea “for certainly two and a half years.” The country appears to have slowed its pace of test firing rockets and ballistic missiles in the region in recent years.

“So, I felt that to do a massive, we were doing a massive war exercise, I thought that was very insulting to somebody that, frankly, has been, during my term at least, very well behaved,” Trump said.

Trump says ‘we have things we could sanction’ on Iran

“We have very draconian sanctions and we’ll see what happens,” the president said, without providing details.

Trump also said, “A lot of boats are coming through” the Strait of Hormuz while also acknowledging, “That may slow down a little bit at some point.”

Attempting to shrug off oil prices that have remained high, the president said they’d not reached $350 a barrel. He didn’t say who had suggested they might reach such a catastrophically high price.

Instead, Trump said that ongoing disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz had left the world looking for alternatives. He even offered, “I think the Hormuz Strait’s not going to be as important as it was in the past.”

Before the war, a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flowed through the strait every day.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer-turned-enemy, says the president will appear on his radio show

Cohen and 77 WABC, the radio network where he hosts a new talk show, confirmed Wednesday that Trump will appear as a guest on the program this week after MS NOW first reported it.

Cohen, Trump’s longtime attorney who later testified against him in a hush money case, seems to have mended fences with the president recently.

Cohen has since criticized prosecutors in the case and said the two have begun to reconcile.

He said in a post on the social platform X that the interview would air during the evening on Thursday and Sunday.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump hosts crypto leaders

The president is holding court on Wednesday with several cryptocurrency and finance leaders for an event on digital assets.

The meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House coincides with one held by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee, which focuses on matters of technology and finance.

The president kicked off the meeting by listing his administration’s accomplishments on the issue.

“We’re ensuring that America remains the undisputed leader, not only in Bitcoin and crypto but also technologies like prediction markets, artificial intelligence, and much more,” Trump said.

An alarmed bond market gets the Trump administration to act again

Normally quiet, the bond market can occasionally send warning signals loud enough to hit stock markets worldwide and even grab the attention of U.S. presidents and other world leaders.

After the bond market’s alarm bells rose in volume throughout the summer in the form of higher yields, the Trump administration announced on Wednesday a move that could help calm it down.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it will more than double the amount of U.S. government bonds it will buy back. And the move worked to lower longer-term yields, for now at least.

The stakes are high because high yields drag on economies and bring downward pressure on stock markets.

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Trump’s White House renovations don’t stop at driveway’s edge

Trump’s construction tour also revealed that he has replaced the walkway from the diplomatic entrance to the White House and a connecting portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn with white granite.

He asserted that asphalt is “not appropriate for a great house, or a great place like the White House.”

“One thing I know how to do is build,” Trump said.

Clinton’s birthday expands the octogenarian president’s club

Clinton was the last of three baby boomer presidents born within 66 days of each other in 1946. But he was the first to reach the Oval Office, elected in 1992 at the age of 46.

Trump turned 80 on June 14, followed by George W. Bush on July 6. Joe Biden, the only president from the Silent Generation, is 83.

It’s the oldest group of living U.S. presidents ever, with Barack Obama as the only one under 80 — and even the 44th president has reached Medicare eligibility age. He turned 65 earlier this month.

Clinton has slowed down in recent years, more than a decade after major heart surgery that led him to adopt a mostly vegan diet.

At the 2024 Democratic convention, he told delegates, “I have no idea how many more of these I’ll be able to come to.”

Bill Clinton gets birthday wishes as he turns 80

The 42nd president is celebrating a milestone birthday Wednesday.

Hillary Clinton, the former presidential nominee, secretary of state and first lady, led birthday greetings for her husband.

“Happy birthday, dear Bill. Eighty years in to your extraordinary life, I feel very lucky to have spent over 50 of them with you,” she posted on social media. “Here’s to more dancing, talking, and laughing together in the years to come.”

The George and Barbara Bush Foundation noted Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush’s “meaningful friendship … built after their time in office — a friendship grounded in mutual respect, service and a shared commitment to helping others.”

Clinton defeated the elder Bush in 1992 but came to see him as a mentor and sort of father figure. Bush died in 2018.

‘No serious dispute’ that Comey’s seashell post could be read as a Trump threat, prosecutors say

The Justice Department is defending its prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey and says there’s “no serious dispute” that a social media post of seashells he made could be understood as a threat against Trump.

Prosecutors also called into question late Tuesday Comey’s account that he found the seashells in the numerical arrangement “86 47” while walking on a North Carolina beach. Trump is the 47th president.

Prosecutors say Comey intended a physical threat or knew that the number 86 could suggest violence. Comey’s legal team calls it a vindictive prosecution and says Comey’s post didn’t amount to a true threat.

▶ Read more

Trump picks Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, to lead FDA

Overton is a deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and a trusted figure in the administration. She has worked on several of Trump’s health initiatives.

But the new Food and Drug Administration commissioner will face challenges balancing Trump’s priorities, traditional Republican interests, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-corporate stance. Overton will need Senate confirmation and face questions from the Senate health committee.

The previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary, resigned in May, leaving unfinished projects like work on ultra-processed foods, antidepressants, and COVID-19 shots.

Referring to a “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump called Overton a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

▶ Read more

Trump walks and waxes on white granite and grass

It was planned as a private event, but the president decided otherwise. He wanted the reporters to see him sign a massive stone, which would become part of the new helipad under construction.

So, a gaggle of reporters tailed Trump outside the White House as he noted the prior state of disrepair and now, “look at the columns, how perfect they are.” As for the grass, which he said, “has life like humans have life,” it will now “look so beautiful.” And the white granite, which is a “powerful stone” that “you’ll never see a crack in.”

Trump came to a stop, flanked by construction workers in hi-vis vests, hard hats, and sunglasses, who stood silently as the president complimented them and answered a few questions from reporters about the day’s news. The president signed the stone in sweeping strokes.

“I hope you liked it,” he told the assembled reporters.

Trump says underground portion of ballroom will be 5 stories deep

Trump complained that the lawsuit against his White House ballroom was “very unfortunate” because the filings in the case have made public details that might have been kept secret.

But Trump has also been talking about components of the portion of the ballroom that will be underground. And he has taken to referring to the structure as a “military complex” instead of a ballroom.

Trump said during the press tour that the part of the ballroom will be five stories deep underground. The precise depth of some structures, like the ballroom, is usually treated as a closely guarded secret.

Trump said he may reopen negotiations with Iran ‘at some point’

When asked by a reporter at the White House on Wednesday when he would plan to resume talks with Iran, Trump said, “Right now, I think the situation is so good, but maybe at some point.”

He reiterated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon but didn’t offer any other details on his thinking.

Cardboard cut-outs of desert animals with slogans like “Don’t fence us in” and “No wall, no wire, no way” lined the walkway leading to TPWD headquarters, mirroring chants from the crowd –– all hoping that the agency that oversees the state park system would finally respond to months of public outcry about the possibility of large-scale federal border wall construction on public land.

Videos of bulldozers tearing into Big Bend National Park have sparked headlines around the world, to the point that Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott personally paused construction until he could conduct an on-the-ground visit to the region.

But the federal government’s plans in neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park and Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, both Texas Parks and Wildlife properties, are still up in the air. Customs and Border Protection has released little information to the public about its plans for border barrier construction on state land beyond an online map that has changed numerous times without warning.

Despite being one of the most pressing issues facing the agency, border barriers were not included in the agenda for the board’s quarterly meeting. The commission only holds one forum for in-person public comment per year, so organizers seized on the opportunity to speak to commissioners directly.

Mike Davidson, a river guide on the Rio Grande since 1977, said that in all of his years in the backcountry in Big Bend, he’d never once felt threatened by crime on the border. “We don’t see people trying to cross the river while we’re paddling,” he said.

David Long, a longtime TPWD employee and former superintendent of the Barton Warnock Center at Big Bend Ranch State Park, talked about the joys of teaching his grandsons how to safely navigate the river and the harsh Chihuahuan Desert backcountry.

“What is the legacy that we want to leave our future generations?” he asked the crowd. “Memories of how we coexist with nature and protect it –– or a scarred landscape?”

Ninety-nine people signed up to speak at Wednesday’s public hearing and the vast majority wanted to talk about border barriers, including a large contingency from the Big Bend region.

Hillary Pierce, an organizer for No Big Bend Wall, a group dedicated to stopping the construction of border barriers in Customs and Border Protection’s largest and least busy sector, said the pre-meeting tailgate was an attempt to make the gathering feel more like a celebration of Texas parks than a tense confrontation between the public and the commission.

“A lot of people don’t realize that the commission consists of people who are appointed directly by Gov. Abbott himself,” she explained. “In many cases, they are some of his biggest supporters, some of his biggest donors, and have a direct line to him. We’re hoping that they’ll advocate for us and amplify our voices in his ear.”

Former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who has been trying to rally fellow Republicans to the cause, said opposing federal barriers in far West Texas has become a bipartisan cause. “I have yet to encounter anybody in the Big Bend area who does not oppose a wall,” he said

Jake Walker, a board member of the Texas chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said that federal border projects could affect 20% of all publicly available hunting land in the state. “Any changes in the landscape could have an impact on our access to that wildlife,” he said.

While most of the commenters were concerned with TPWD holdings in Presidio and Brewster Counties, they are not the only properties that could be affected by the barrier project. Seminole Canyon State Park — home to the Lower Pecos style of rock art –– preserves a storytelling and design tradition thousands of years old.

There are 80 recorded archeological sites in the park spanning 10,000 years of human history, earning it a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Amanda Castañeda, archeology director at Shumla, a nonprofit aimed at preserving the Lower Pecos rock art tradition, explained that CBP’s current plan would effectively cut the park in half with a six-foot fence that would cut off hiking trails and interpretive sites.

“This park contains a deep and varied history that Texans are proud of,” Castañeda said.

Though the TPWD commission is not obligated to respond to public comments, Chair Paul Foster did address the volume of comments related to border barriers.

“I think we agree with most of you, and are working with the governor’s office and the federal government,” he said. “Our goal is to minimize damage to the ecosystem and the natural beauty of not only the parks, but the whole area.”

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

The removal was a legal victory for Anthony, now 19, whose attorneys wanted the judge off the case following the June trial, in part because of a TV interview in which the judge said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict in the killing of Austin Metcalf.

Anthony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, wore a green prison jumpsuit in a suburban Dallas courtroom when a visiting judge ordered state District Judge John Roach's recusal. Judge Michael Chitty was later assigned to the case.

Outside the courtroom in McKinney, cheers erupted in the hallway while some Anthony supporters chanted “Free Karmelo!” in the parking lot.

“Today’s ruling answers a fundamental question: whether a reasonable fully informed observer would see Judge Roach’s conduct and believe that he could fairly and impartially consider a motion for new trial,” Anthony’s lawyers said in a statement.

On Thursday, Anthony was expected back in court for a hearing that will determine whether a retrial is warranted.

Jurors this summer had rejected Anthony's claims of self-defense during a confrontation with Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year. Anthony did not testify during the trial. Other students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.

The case attracted national attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race.

Anthony’s legal team has argued that a retrial is needed, in part, because Roach enforced strict courtroom rules that they said limited the public's access to the proceedings. They also zeroed in Wednesday on comments Roach made to a Dallas TV station after the trial ended.

In the interview, which was played as the hearing began, Roach was asked if the jury got “it right.”

“Yeah, they did,” Roach said, adding: “Whatever they say, they got it right.”

During the interview, Roach also defended his courtroom rules and spoke about the onslaught of online postings about the case.

Visiting Judge Sid Harle said he did not know Roach and he believed Roach would be fair in a hearing for a retrial, but was granting the defense's request for a recusal because of how it might look to others. In his written order, Harle said the evidence was such that the judge's “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” and ordered another judge to “preside over all further proceedings.”

Roach did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the ruling.

Prosecutor Bill Wirskye had urged the court to keep Roach. He said the judge “didn’t do anything wrong” and that his courtroom rules were meant to protect the integrity of the trial, which brought demonstrators outside the courthouse. Wirskye did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the ruling.

As national attention on the killing intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.

“We were all getting death threats,” Wirskye said.

Several schools were competing when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.

Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.

Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.

Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno contributed to this report from Austin.

On Wednesday, students reported they do not have access to campus resources and online services. UTSA officials said there was an “attempted unauthorized activity of technology systems” and took services offline out of an abundance of caution.

Officials also said they do not believe any information was accessed or stolen.

Some students said they were not surprised. They remember a similar disruption involving Canvas during finals in May that affected students at public schools and universities across the state.

For freshmen Santiago Barron and Sean Infante, it marks a strange way to start their college experience.

“I think it’s shocking how it happens my first semester, my first day of school,” Barron said.

Infante said he had hoped to browse student organizations and activities but could not access the websites.

“There’s nothing I can do because all the websites are down,” he said. “So it’s kind of annoying.”

Barron said other in-person activities allowed them to explore campus extracurriculars.

Meanwhile, students like sophomore Christian Ruszkiewicz said they were a little relieved to receive the notification, adding that it gives students some extra time before school starts.

“I was kind of happy because I don’t have the stuff prepared,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Maria Wence, a UTSA senior and KSAT intern, showed us how she was locked out of her accounts.

“Canvas is the only way to get to my classes, and I just can’t,” Wence said. “Even if you go to the One Stop website and you try to go into your personal information, it’ll do the exact same thing, just not let you in.”

For Infante, the situation is especially ironic as he is majoring in cybersecurity. According to the university website, UTSA has one of the top programs in the nation.

“The fact that it’s only UTSA that it happened to is pretty weird,” he said. “But it’s good that they took everything down so none of our information gets stolen.”

KSAT reached out to a spokesperson with the university to learn what systems were impacted and how it affects students, but KSAT was referred to UTSA’s news link.

The link shares that schedules for the school year — including fall break and the end of the semester — remain the same, but some deadlines for tuition have been delayed.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• UTSA delays start of fall classes after attempted cybersecurity breach

The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It reached $38 trillion five months before that, in October.

The unprecedented $40 trillion figure highlights competing administration priorities, from boosting defense spending that the U.S. relies on to carry out President Donald Trump's almost-6-month-old war in Iran to lowering the cost of gas and groceries.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration “has been focused on slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending while accelerating economic growth to get America’s debt-to-GDP ratio trending in the right direction.”

However, experts say the exploding debt and the latest record milestone are already affecting Americans' pocketbooks by raising borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lowering wages from businesses that have less money available to invest, and creating more expensive goods and services.

“If we want to improve our living standards, today and for the next generation, now is the time for lawmakers to put our nation on a more affordable and sustainable path," says Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a think tank focused on U.S. fiscal challenges.

The debt has exploded over several presidential administrations, as the nation's leaders spend more money than it collects in taxes. In recent memory, the multi-year COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the U.S. economy, where the federal government borrowed heavily during President Trump's first term and under former President Joe Biden to stabilize the economy and support a recovery.

More government spending was approved after Trump signed Republicans’ tax cut and spending legislation into law last year.

Advocates for a balanced budget also warn that the long-term trend of borrowing more and paying more in interest will force Americans to face tougher fiscal tradeoffs ahead.

"The federal debt is already raising the cost of living and choking out other spending and investment, threatening our economy and Americans’ long-term prosperity,” said Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“Our current fiscal trajectory is plainly unsustainable, and that’s the best-case scenario. AI disruption, a recession, global war, or any number of other events could quickly push us over the edge from a challenge into a full-blown crisis," Spellings said in a statement.

The U.S. is subject to a statutory debt limit, or a limit to federal borrowing, which Congress has the authority to set, adjust or abolish. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the U.S. will most likely reach the $41.1 trillion debt limit sometime between late winter and mid-summer of 2027, requiring Congress to again vote on whether to raise or suspend it.

The U.S.' fiscal position stands as the worst among other developed countries, according to recent data analysis from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

Max D. Lederer Jr. announced his retirement, effective at the end of September, in a memo to staff on Tuesday, as well as in an interview with Stars and Stripes. In the memo, seen by The Associated Press, Lederer, the second full-time civilian in the position, wrote that it had “become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.”

The announcement comes less than four months after the Pentagon fired Jacqueline Smith, ombudsman for the newspaper, whose job was to safeguard editorial independence. The news outlet is partly funded by the Defense Department, but has a legacy of independence from military and government leadership. “No one should be surprised that they’re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence," Smith wrote in a column.

Stars and Stripes has recently been at the forefront of some of the reporting on conditions for sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln and concerns for their mental health during the aircraft carrier’s long deployment — concerns that President Donald Trump has downplayed.

It's part of larger, government-driven changes to the military publication

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lederer’s retirement, which comes seven months after the department announced in a social media post that it would essentially overhaul the newspaper to align with its current messaging.

Hegseth's spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote on on X in January that the Pentagon “is returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.” He said the department will “refocus its content away from woke distractions.”

“Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Parnell wrote. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”

More broadly, the developments at Stars and Stripes come against a backdrop of increased efforts by Hegseth to control media coverage of the department.

Last year, officials attempted to impose restrictions on journalists working inside the Pentagon, which, in turn, led most news outlets to turn in their access badges and walk out.

Then this summer, the Pentagon took another step and declared its press office a classified space — instituting a policy that journalists must be accompanied by an escort on Pentagon grounds. That policy is being challenged in court. In mid-July, a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the policy could stand, overturning a lower court decision.

In her April column titled “The Pentagon is trying to silence me,” Smith, the former ombudsman, expressed concern over increasing restrictions on the media.

“For nearly a year, Pentagon leadership has placed more and more restrictions on the mainstream media,” she wrote. “The New York Times sued and when the Defense/War Department lost in court, instead of following the judge’s ruling Secretary Hegseth and company pivoted, finding another way to restrict journalists.”

Of Stars and Stripes, Smith wrote: “This newspaper has a long history of commitment to the military community and to journalistic values. Please don’t let it be controlled by Pentagon brass.”

The departing publisher objected to certain changes

Lederer was not made available for an interview with the AP. In the interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he did not feel the modernization efforts the Pentagon announced in March were appropriate, in particular a transitioning of print products to digital — a move he feared would limit accessibility for troops.

“I don’t feel that there’s a full recognition of the value of multiple platforms versus only a digital platform,” Lederer was quoted as saying.

In another development, Stars and Stripes said it could not confirm an account that, in recent weeks, a new deputy had been installed by the Pentagon under Lederer without the publisher’s prior knowledge.

In a letter seen by the AP, Rufus Friday, the chair of Stars and Stripes’ advisory board of publishers, wrote to congressional leaders about the arrival of the new deputy, a development he said “threatens Stripes’s editorial independence.”

Roughly half of Stars and Stripes' budget comes from the Pentagon, and its staff members are considered Defense Department employees.

The outlet’s mission statement emphasizes that it is “editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command” and that it is unique among news organizations tied to the Defense Department in being “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.”

The newspaper has been reporting about the military steadily since World War II, to an audience mainly of service members stationed overseas.

Lederer told Stars and Stripes that while his retirement is effective Sept. 30, he does not know whether the Pentagon will keep him as publisher until then or name an acting publisher.

___

Jocelyn Noveck writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP.

County officials estimate the deal will reduce the company’s county property-tax bill by more than $15 million over the life of the agreement.

The agreement applies to new, qualifying property value tied to the project at H-E-B’s Super Regional Center near Foster Road and East Houston Street.

Under the deal, H-E-B’s county property taxes on that new value would be cut by 85% for 10 years, while the company would still pay the remaining 15%.

The abatement affects Bexar County’s portion of the tax bill and does not automatically change what H-E-B owes other taxing entities.

H-E-B has said it plans to invest $636.5 million into the East Side facility as part of a broader supply-chain expansion described as roughly a $700 million project. The company has projected the expansion will create 720 new jobs.

In public discussions about the project, H-E-B has described early phases that include adding a bakery plant, a refrigerated warehouse and a returned-goods center at the campus. The company has said the facility already employs about 1,400 workers.

County leaders supporting the incentive said the agreement is meant to encourage long-term industrial investment and job growth on the East Side. However, the deal has also raised questions about whether the promised jobs and investment will materialize as projected, and what safeguards are in place for taxpayers if the company falls short.

Read also:

• Bexar County moves forward on $15M incentive package for H-E-B’s East Side expansion

Officer Rafael Perez is accused of fatally shooting Gregory Boaz, 56, according to a San Antonio Police Department preliminary report.

Officers responded to a call for a disturbance involving a gun just before midnight Monday in the 6700 block of Spring Front Drive.

SAPD Acting Chief Jesse Salame said Boaz called 911 to report people in his backyard, including one allegedly armed with a gun.

Upon arrival, the report states Perez contacted a woman who was later identified as Boaz’s girlfriend.

While talking with the woman, the report said Perez saw Boaz carrying two large knives.

Salame said Boaz refused Perez’s commands to put the knives down.

At some point, Boaz “aggressively advanced” toward Perez, police said.

SAPD said Perez then fired multiple gunshots, striking Boaz four times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

No other injuries were reported.

The police department believes Boaz may have been experiencing a mental episode, as there was no one armed in his backyard.

Perez has been with SAPD for one year, according to the report.

The investigation is ongoing.

Read also:

• SAPD officer shoots, kills man who ‘aggressively advanced’ at him with large knives, police say

Lucero Tetrazzi, 18, is facing the following charges:

• Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (second-degree felony)
• Assault of a family or household member by impeding their breath/circulation (third-degree felony)

After her Tuesday arrest, jail records show Tetrazzi was officially booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center just after 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Court documents show a judge set Tetrazzi’s bond at $100,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, Tetrazzi remains in custody at the jail.

San Antonio Police Department officers responded Tuesday to the 400 block of Redcliff Drive for a disturbance involving two women who are dating. SAPD said the unidentified 19-year-old victim left before officers arrived and was located at another residence.

The victim told officers she and Tetrazzi had been arguing over cash when Tetrazzi demanded money from her. Tetrazzi then displayed a handgun and fired a round, police said.

The victim attempted to leave, but Tetrazzi prevented her from doing so by choking her and striking her with the handgun before firing additional rounds, police said. The victim was not struck by any bullets.

The victim later received help from a family member and escaped the home, SAPD said.

Officers set up a quadrant and took Tetrazzi into custody without incident, police said.

Tetrazzi’s next court appearance has been tentatively set for Nov. 23, records indicate.

SAPD said its investigation is ongoing.

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

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

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

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• SAPD: Woman in custody after firing shots, pistol-whipping girlfriend during North Side money dispute

Officers responded to the shooting around 11:45 a.m. in the 5400 block of Godek Drive, located east of Old Pearsall Road.

Upon arrival, SAPD said the officers found a man with a gunshot wound in his lower leg.

Authorities provided treatment to the man and took him to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, SAPD said.

After further investigation, officers learned the man was traveling a block over when a gray SUV drove past him, and he heard a gunshot.

Police said the man realized shortly later that he was shot. He then traveled over to Godek Drive, where a homeowner called 911.

At this time, it’s unclear what prompted the shooting. Police said it’s an active investigation.

The incident happened around 6:45 a.m. at the intersection of South Acme Road and Old Highway 90.

According to a preliminary report, the man had attempted to cross the Southeast Side of the intersection while the driver was traveling westbound on Old Highway 90.

The pedestrian, who’s believed to be in his 30s, was unconscious and breathing when he was put into an ambulance, SAPD said.

Officers said the driver of the pickup truck remained at the scene and assisted the man after the collision.

Police believe the man attempted to cross the street when it was not his turn. He also wasn’t paying attention, an officer at the scene told KSAT.

Traffic is currently being redirected away from the intersection.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates

Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president’s goals.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants and COVID-19 shots.

Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.”

Overton has promoted Trump’s health priorities

Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before joining Trump’s second administration, she was the chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

In recent months, she has appeared with the president to announce major projects, including some of his “most favored nation” deals with drug companies to lower prices to those of other developed countries and his recent vaccine order that sought to split the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate immunizations — against the advice of medical groups.

At an Oval Office event to promote that order, she stood by Trump as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder. Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.

Overton has been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that made them more accessible. U.S. abortion opponents have expressed frustration that the administration has not acted to stem the flow of such pills prescribed online, a situation they view as undermining state abortion bans.

Mifepristone is typically used with misoprostol in medication abortions that make up close to two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. Medical professionals call it “among the safest medications” ever approved by the FDA.

To be confirmed, Overton must seek approval from a narrowly Republican-led Senate and face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Its chair, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.

Cassidy posted Wednesday that while he respects Overton's medical background, he has “strong concerns” about the nomination, mentioning her lack of managerial experience and her participation in the recent vaccine order, which he called “almost disqualifying.”

Democratic senators slammed the nomination.

“Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA,” posted Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a committee member.

Makary’s replacement will face challenges he left behind

Before he left the FDA, Makary had drawn complaints from health industry executives and anti-abortion activists. The frustration with him came to a head over the agency’s lack of movement on flavored e-cigarettes. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds are seeking to market to adult smokers, but sweet-flavored vapes have long been blamed for the trend of teenage vaping. FDA scientists have hesitated to endorse those products to curb adult smoking.

Days before Makary's departure, the agency opened the door to allowing more unauthorized electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches onto the U.S. market, in a policy change that essentially bypassed FDA experts.

Pharmaceutical companies will be looking for changes at the agency, too, after rejections or reversals of biotech drugs intended for rare diseases. Complaints from biotech companies, investors and patient groups have grown and been taken up by conservative lawmakers.

Makary tried to assuage industry grievances, in part by announcing new programs designed to streamline or accelerate drug approvals. Some of those initiatives, however, have meant new headaches for the agency.

Several of Makary’s deputies also exited the agency.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the vaccine and biotech chief, stepped down in April following intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors. Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who was involved in scrutinizing the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines and other widely used therapies, was replaced as FDA’s acting drug center director.

MAHA has high expectations of FDA's next head

Overton would also need to tend to the priorities of Kennedy’s health movement, some members of which are already skeptical of her.

Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer's talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.

“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.

One major decision for the next commissioner is what to do about peptide regulation. A panel of federal health advisers selected by Kennedy recently recommended easing access to several peptides that are popular with wellness influencers and celebrities, despite warnings from FDA scientists that the chemicals have not been shown to be safe or effective.

The agency recently proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. But it is still working with the White House to finalize a first-of-its-kind definition of ultraprocessed foods, which Kennedy blames for elevated rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.

Under Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots. Kennedy stood by Trump recently as the president signed the executive order aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S. despite unprecedented financial and logistical challenges.

The FDA also has an ongoing review of widely used antidepressants, including whether they may increase the risk of autism and other disorders when used during pregnancy. The medicines have long been a target of Kennedy, who was a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before joining the government.

In recent weeks, the agency has been investigating two summertime foodborne illness outbreaks: a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands of people and a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.

___

Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Laura Ungar contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.

___

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.

Democrats have hoped to mount a comeback in the diverse, populous and economically dynamic state but have struggled to craft a message that resonates in the Sunshine State's political climate. Nixon's upset sets up a long-shot challenge to U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, a former state attorney general selected by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the seat after Marco Rubio vacated it when Trump chose him as secretary of state.

The race has already inflamed tensions within the Democratic Party over how to energize liberal voters eager for unapologetic, combative candidates without alienating independents and moderates who have been key to winning in battleground states.

“If you’re surprised by tonight’s election results, you haven’t been paying enough attention to what’s happening in the South,” said Britney Whaley, the southeast regional director of the Working Families Party, which backs populist candidates. “Tonight’s election results must be a wake-up call to a political establishment that believes a populist message can’t win in the South. Angie’s campaign proves voters will respond to a bold economic vision that meets their basic needs.”

A proud progressive who campaigned with new tactics

A spirited progressive who had the backing of Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Nixon is a longtime labor organizer who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. She championed policies like universal healthcare and childcare and has been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy and the war in Gaza.

In May, Nixon protested the Republican-controlled Florida legislature’s redistricting of the state’s congressional maps by shouting through a megaphone on the state House floor. She was later reprimanded by an ethics committee but earned plaudits from Democratic allies and voting rights groups for her demonstration.

Vindman raised about $16 million in his race and had spent more than $9 million by the end of July. Nixon, by contrast, had raised just shy of $1 million. Nixon eschewed broadcast television advertising, instead focusing on targeting voters on social media. She was backed by prominent online figures like children’s education influencer Ms. Rachel.

In contrast to other high-profile statewide democratic socialist bids this year, Nixon received little opposition from national Democratic figures or major political action committees. That didn't stop progressives from immediately touting her win as a sign of greater momentum for the region.

Florida's Senate race was widely considered out of reach for Democrats and not central to the party's efforts to retake the upper chamber. Nevertheless, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin issued a statement praising Nixon as a “proven leader,” adding that the DNC “is ready to help elect Angie and work together to flip this seat.”

A defeat for ‘resistance’ Democratic politics

Vindman served on the White House's National Security Council during Trump's first term. His testimony was central to Trump's first impeachment over a phone call in which the president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his family. Vindman became a national Democratic star and target of Trump's ire for his actions, a dynamic that garnered him millions in small-dollar donations.

His twin brother Eugene, who also served on the council, is a Democratic congressman from Virginia.

“Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign. I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody. I hope you’ll join me,” Vindman said in a statement after he conceded the race.

Trump gleefully hailed Vindman's defeat to Nixon.

“The most gratifying loss last night was that of a real treasonous creep, Alexander Vindman, to a Radical Left Lunatic, who can’t speak or think properly, and who will go down to certain defeat at the hands of Ashley Moody, a truly Fantastic Senator, from the Great State Florida,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump added that Vindman “should be prosecuted for what he’d did!”

Democratic leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had hoped Vindman's reputation and campaign war chest would turn what election analysts considered a solidly Republican seat into a more competitive race. Nixon’s upset victory has now buoyed already high Republican confidence in the state and raised progressive confidence about the strength of their message.

Vindman's defeat mirrors that of others who rose to prominence opposing Trump during his first administration, when Democrats embraced “resistance” as a moniker for that opposition and for standing up for the rule of law. Their defeats may show how rank-and-file voters have shifted toward more strident and affirmative visions of politics.

In May, Rep. Al Green of Texas, a longtime Trump opponent and civil rights icon, lost a runoff race to Rep. Christian Menefee, a freshman progressive representative less than half Green's age.

Rep. Dan Goldman, who served as counsel for House Democrats during Trump's first impeachment, lost his primary in June to progressive challenger Brad Lander, who had the backing of New York City's democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. George Conway, a liberal lawyer who has garnered Trump's ire, came in fifth place in another New York Democratic primary for U.S. House.

And earlier this month, Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan, who last year introduced articles of impeachment against Trump, lost his primary to a democratic socialist in a Detroit-area congressional race.

Nixon's win headlined mixed results for progressives

In multiple southern Florida congressional primaries Tuesday, left-flank candidates lost to more moderate ones. While the state has shifted rightward in recent election cycles, Florida has long been a refuge for Latino communities who had fled left-wing authoritarian regimes in Latin America. Many of those Floridians have consequently reacted negatively to anything or anyone labeled as socialist.

Elijah Manley, who finished third in a Broward County U.S. House primary won by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, acknowledged the tightrope. He got about 14% of the vote in a five-way race. In neighboring districts, Rep. Jared Moskowitz and political newcomer Pia Dandiya ran as moderates and won 64% and 69% of the vote, respectively, over more progressive opponents.

“I’m a proud moderate. We need more moderates,” Dandiya said in an interview.

The Senate returns showed similar trends. Nixon carried most of the state but was weakest in southern Florida, which includes some of the state's largest Latino communities.

Still, Manley insisted the broader electorate wants a more aggressive, left-leaning party.

“They have looked at the Democratic establishment for the past four years, even 10 years, and it’s something that just isn’t working for them,” he said.

“Say what you will about the DSA. They’re organizing. They’re bringing people into the party. They’re exciting people, and they’re getting people. We should be happy that that’s happening,” Manley added.

Nixon's allies view her voter base, which includes some of the most working-class and majority-Black counties in the state, as another path to power when coupled with the broader Democratic coalition. But they caution intraparty divisions and an inauthentic message could hamper a candidate from any wing of the party.

“I think people are looking for change. They’re looking for leadership who they can trust and who listens,” said Moné Holder, a liberal activist and urban planning committee chair who defeated a Republican for an at-large seat on Jacksonville’s city council.

“They’re looking for people to serve who aren’t wrapped up in political drama, but are about people. And I think voters came out to show that, and it proved itself in my election, and Angie’s, and a few others,” Holder said.

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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.

“When consumers see a listed price, they expect it to be (the) same price that everyone else sees, not the retailer’s estimate of how much they are willing to pay based on their personal data,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

The FTC has had its eye on personalized pricing for several years. In a preliminary report filed in January 2025, the agency found that grocers, clothing companies and others were using third-party companies to help them individualize online prices based on shoppers' locations, browsing histories and other factors, including how long they left items in their virtual shopping carts.

In one hypothetical example, the FTC said a consumer profiled as a new parent might be shown higher-priced baby thermometers on the first page of their search results.

Ferguson said the FTC doesn't have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances. But under the proposed policy, businesses would have to “clearly and conspicuously disclose” if they are engaging in personalized pricing and share the types of data they're using to set those prices.

The proposed policy states that companies engaged in personalized pricing without revealing the practice and the data behind it could violate the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices in the marketplace.

The FTC is seeking comment on the policy for 30 days.

Several retail trade groups didn't comment directly on the FTC's proposal Wednesday.

The National Retail Federation, which represents big companies like Walmart, Target and Macy's as well as smaller stores, said retailers want to continue to offer incentives like loyalty and rewards programs, which collect personal data and provide offers tailored to individuals.

“NRF has and will continue to aggressively advocate to protect these programs that deliver timely savings and personalized offers that are relevant to each shopper's interests,” said David French, NRF's executive vice president of government relations.

FMI, a trade group for the U.S. grocery industry, said Wednesday it was reviewing the proposal and didn’t have immediate comment. But in a letter FMI sent to U.S. senators this month after a subcommittee hearing on personalized pricing, FMI also said it hoped to preserve shopper loyalty programs.

In the letter, FMI also noted that electronic shelf labels, which are becoming increasingly common at grocers and retailers like Walmart, don't automatically change prices based on individual shoppers.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group that represents Best Buy, Home Depot, Dollar General and 200 other retailers, didn't comment on the new proposal Wednesday but cited its own letter sent to U.S. senators earlier this month.

In the letter, the association said retailers don't use consumers' personal data to increase prices because that would jeopardize customer loyalty.

“As shoppers demonstrate an increased willingness to seek out lower prices, competition among retailers intensifies to meet customers' needs, creating a strong and continuous incentive for retailers to offer attractive prices, discounts and value,” the letter said.

The FTC's action comes amid consumer unease about pricing tactics. Wendy's faced a backlash in 2024 after it said it was considering charging more for its menu items during peak times. Uber and Lyft have also been in lawmakers' crosshairs for their surge-pricing practices.

Several states, including Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey, have already passed laws prohibiting personalized pricing at grocery stores. California and New York are also considering legislation that would ban personalized pricing.

New Jersey also placed a one-year moratorium on new electronic shelf labels despite retailers' assurances that the labels aren't used for personalized pricing and can actually help consumers by, say, automatically lowering prices for foods that are about to expire.

The consumer advocacy organization Consumer Reports said Wednesday that the FTC's proposal was encouraging but might still require consumers to read detailed disclosures on pricing while shopping online.

The group said the FTC and Congress should instead follow the states' lead and ban companies from using customer data to personalize prices in the first place.

During his second day of testimony, Arturo Béjar said Meta consistently prioritized profits over safety in designing its products, focusing on how often and for how long people used them, even if it was detrimental to their mental well-being.

“If you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,” he said.

The trial that began Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, pits Meta against the states of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey and is expected to last about six weeks. The four states were among 29 that sued the tech giant in 2023 over child safety and privacy — the other 25 will go to trial later. The company also faces lawsuits in state courts, including one underway in Tennessee.

The lawsuit accuses Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hide these harms from the public. It also argues that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

Meta says users must be at least 13 years old to create an account, in line with the law, called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

“The attitude in particular on Instagram was ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Béjar said in response to a question about his perception of the company’s attitude towards users under 13.

The company has rejected the claims and said evidence at the trial will show its commitment to safety.

“You will hear over the course of this case a lot of important issues, issues like teen mental health, issues like social media, issues like how teens use social media,” Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt said Tuesday. “Those are important issues, and they’re issues where Meta believes that it has a responsibility. It has a responsibility to act on its own. It has a responsibility to try to work with teens and parents in partnership to try to address those questions.”

Plaintiffs' witness says safety was an ‘afterthought’

Béjar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, attracting wide attention for his work to combat cyberbullying. He returned from 2019 to 2021 as a contractor to work on safety issues. He testified before Congress in 2023 about social media and the teen mental health crisis, saying that Meta executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, knew about harms Instagram was causing but chose not to make meaningful changes to address them.

In his testimony Wednesday, Béjar said employee performance reviews and compensation for those who worked on user-facing products were mostly focused on user numbers and how long they spend with those products.

“In that context, safety was an afterthought,” he said.

The states are seeking changes to user experiences for Facebook and Instagram as well as financial damages, which could include billions of dollars in penalties. In a written statement, the office of California's attorney general said if Meta loses, the amount of any damages would be set by the court.

“This case is about stopping Meta from offering a dangerous product to teens, and from lying to teens, families, and the public about the dangerousness of their platforms. The primary remedy under our state consumer protection law is an injunction,” the statement said.

Béjar walked through Meta features he said were designed for adults and are “inherently unsafe for teenagers.”

This includes video autoplay, which can mean teens see videos that may cause them harm even if they don't click on them; as well as various counters that track how many people liked, viewed or commented on your content or how many followers you have.

Child development experts have noted teenagers are more susceptible to social comparison than adults, so products that reward popularity can be more harmful to their mental health.

Age verification has been criticized for not going far enough

Despite Meta's statements that it works to find kids under 13 on its platforms and ban them, Béjar testified that he found “tens of thousands” of kids under 13 on Instagram through his research. He said it was “common knowledge” at the company that such young children were on Instagram.

“Meta has one of the most sophisticated infrastructures in the world to detect fake accounts,” he said. But despite that, he added, there were “no goals, no metrics” to detect and check kids’ ages who were suspected to be under 13.

Over the years, Meta has introduced features it says are designed to make the experience safer for young people. But Béjar said these did not work.

For instance, a tool called “Take a Break," introduced in 2021, is a feature that is "designed to fail,” he said. First, it is a setting that people have to turn on if they want to use it. Béjar said that in his experience building settings, very few users actually go through the trouble of turning them on. He compared it to an airbag that drivers have to turn on every time they get in a car.

“A safety tool has to be on by default,” he said.

The feature can also be dismissed with a tap of a finger. If Meta was serious about wanting users to take a break, Béjar said, it would not be so easily swiped away.

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AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press the contract is expected to be a one-year deal. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the terms hadn't been announced.

Diggs is a two-time Pro Bowler coming off a season in which he was waived by the Dallas Cowboys and released by the Green Bay Packers. In joining the Super Bowl champions, the 27-year-old hopes to more closely resemble the player who had an NFL-leading 11 interceptions and earned All-Pro honors in 2021.

“I’m looking to show that I’m still the best,” Diggs said. “I’m looking to show that I just want to win and be there for my teammates and be a great teammate and be a great player.”

The Seahawks brought in Diggs less than a week after the team entered an agreement with cornerback Terrion Arnold, whose status for the 2026 season is uncertain.

Arnold is facing eight felony charges stemming from allegations he orchestrated the abduction and beating of three men in February. He became a free agent in June, when the Detroit Lions released him a few days after the kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy charges were levied.

Arnold will be placed on the commissioner's exempt list when he signs. He will not be permitted to play or practice while the league investigates his case but can be paid and attend team meetings.

Wide receiver Julian Hicks was waived to make room for Diggs on the 90-man roster.

Diggs should add depth to a secondary that lost cornerback Riq Woolen to free agency and has been without second-year safety Nick Emannwori, who had offseason ankle surgery, during training camp.

In 2025, Diggs played six games for Dallas before sustaining a concussion in an accident at home on Oct. 16. He didn’t explain the cause of the injury to reporters until two months later, when he said he got hit in the head when he was mounting a pole while trying to install a TV.

“It was tough, but just keeping good people around you (helps),” Diggs said of his recovery. “My family is a great support system for me, keeping my mental straight. Just keep going.”

Even after Diggs cleared the concussion protocol, he remained off the field with what the Cowboys described as lingering knee issues. Diggs then returned for two games before getting waived in late December.

He joined the Packers just before their final regular-season game. He played nearly half of Green Bay’s defensive snaps in his Packers debut as the team rested its starters in a 16-3 loss at Minnesota. But he was on the field for only one snap when the Packers lost 31-27 at Chicago in an NFC wild-card playoff game.

Diggs made the Pro Bowl in 2021 and 2022 but his performance has declined since, in part because of two major knee surgeries. He declared himself healthy on Wednesday.

“It’s my first offseason that I’ve been able to just not rehab and actually do offseason training,” Diggs said. “So, a lot of trainers put the work in, helped me put the work in to get to where I’m at today.”

Diggs has played in 71 NFL games, including playoffs, since the Cowboys took him with the 51st pick in the 2020 draft out of Alabama.

The Seahawks fielded arguably the NFL’s best defense last season. No team allowed fewer points per game (17.2), and Seattle finished in the top seven in the league in sacks and interceptions.

Diggs has been teammates previously with Seattle cornerback Josh Jobe and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.

“It was just finding somewhere that felt like home,” Diggs said. “Finding somewhere that I’ll have the opportunity to compete, have the opportunity to play. It felt right.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Join Stephanie Serna, Dr. Amy Cobb, ambulatory pediatric medical director at University Health, and Maria Hoenigman, director of programs at NAMI Greater San Antonio, at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, for a conversation that shifts the focus from supplies to the whole child, including physical health, mental well-being, a sense of belonging and the everyday stress that can build long before the first quiz.

Experts and community voices will discuss what “success” really looks like when grades are only one part of the picture. From spotting signs, a child is overwhelmed to helping them feel connected and supported, the town hall will explore how adults can create safe spaces for kids to speak up and how to teach children when it’s time to reach out to a trusted adult for help.

At the heart of it all is one guiding question: What do kids need from the adults around them to truly thrive this school year?

RESOURCES

Here is a list of resources from the show:

NAMI Greater San Antonio

• 210.734.3349
• NAMI-SAT.ORG
• NAMI Warm Line: 210.939.9999

University Health Behavioral Health Resources for Children, Adolescents & Teens

University Health Pediatric Primary Care

• Appointment line: 210.358.5437

Crisis Support

• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
• For immediate danger or in an emergency: 911

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union. Click here to read about other KSAT Community efforts. Interested in partnering with KSAT Community? Get in touch by filling out this form.

The testimony of Paul Zeizel is the strongest evidence yet to support the defense contentions that Clancy should not be held legally responsible for murder because she has bipolar disorder and was in the grip of a rare mental illness called postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children before trying to kill herself. Zeizel began seeing Clancy as a patient at a hospital after the deaths.

“She was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law. She had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” Zeizel said, adding that she had “a mental disease or a defect.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. Postpartum psychosis is linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Researchers estimate that the condition — which is more serious and less common than postpartum depression — afflicts 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery.

Prosecutors say the former labor and delivery nurse planned the January 2023 killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

Clancy was not getting better

Zeizel, who said he spent more than 35 hours with Clancy over dozens of visits and reviewed her medical records, said she went to a perinatal clinic in December 2022 because she felt her “brain was damaged,” “she should kill herself” and that she “is never going to get any better.” She also showed signs of psychosis, was paranoid and feared that people could hear her thoughts and that she would lose her children.

“She was worried that her children would be removed from her and that she would never see them again,” he said.

But just because she was in a psychotic state, Zeizel said, that didn't mean she couldn't do “everyday tasks of living” like driving and searching the internet, a reference to the fact that the day of the killings she took her daughter to the doctor, played with the children in the snow and searched online for a pharmacy and a restaurant.

“So the fact she is not talking about the unicorns in the corner, she is not slurring her words and she is not unable to walk, to your opinion to a degree of medical certainty, does that mean she is not in a psychotic state?” Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington asked.

Zeizel responded: “It does not.”

Prosecution challenges Zeizel's credibility

On cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out mistakes Zeizel made in his report about Clancy and questioned whether he could be objective about her diagnosis when he was seeing her as a patient and working with the defense including appearing with Reddington at a news conference.

Zeizel acknowledged that there was nothing in Clancy's medical records in which she reports hearing voices telling her to kill herself, only that she told her caregivers that “she wanted to die.”

Prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of Clancy’s suicide attempt. After strangling her children, Clancy jumped from a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecution brings up the children's birthdays

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham also read from daily reports from Tewksbury Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital where Clancy stays, that included the anniversary of the killings and what would have been her children's birthdays. Those reports mentioned her parents sometimes visiting or her talking with other patients. But they never mentioned anything she did to remember her children.

Reddington asked Zeizel if he saw anything in the record from the hospital about her “laughing, and partying and having a good time” while in the hospital.

“Lindsay Clancy has bad days and worse days,” Zeizel said.

Zeizel also said Clancy often talks about her children, aiming to dispel prosecutors' contention that she never mentions them. “She really loves them and misses them and thinks of them every single day, almost every moment of the day,” Zeizel said.

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty because of a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

With control of the chamber on the line, Sullivan stepped up his attack against Peltola in the days leading to the primary, questioning her effectiveness while in Congress and seeking to align her with Lower 48 “liberals.” Peltola positioned herself as someone who would represent “regular” people and push back against special interests and wealthy politicians.

Both are seen as the leading candidates in November because of their fundraising and name recognition.

The Senate race was one of several being decided in the primary, which also featured Alaska's only U.S. House seat and an open governor's race. Under the state’s open primary system, all candidates appeared on the same ballot. The four top vote-getters qualify for the ranked vote general election. But it remained too early Wednesday to call all the candidates advancing in the top races.

In the House race, Republican Rep. Nick Begich advanced, along with independent Bill Hill. Two Democrats, former lawmakers Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, Nick Begich's uncle, advanced in the race for governor.

Voters Tuesday also approved a ballot measure that would reimpose campaign contribution limits, five years after a divided federal appeals court struck down a number of caps.

Senate race features 2 widely known candidates

Sullivan and Peltola were the highest-profile candidates among a field of 16 and vastly outraised the other competitors. The race, among a handful that could help determine control of the Senate, has drawn significant attention from outside groups, with Republican and Democratic campaign organizations identifying it as a top target.

Peltola, who in 2022 became the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, has tried to steer a centrist path and revived the “fish, family, freedom” slogan that first propelled her to office. But in the days before the primary, she shook up her campaign leadership. The campaign described the changes as “staffing updates as we transition into the general election.”

Sullivan, a veteran and ally of President Donald Trump who is seeking a third term, campaigned on supporting the military, opening more land for oil and gas extraction, and voting for Trump’s signature tax and spending law. He told supporters Tuesday in Anchorage that his office is “getting big things done.”

He criticized Peltola, who lost her bid for reelection in 2024, as ineffective during her time in Congress. He said “D.C. Democrats” don't have a vision for the state but instead have placed a target on Alaska, such as opposing opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Peltola said the Trump administration has brought challenges to Alaska, including cuts to the federal workforce, and criticized Sullivan's support of Trump’s tax and spending bill. She said the bill has not brought opportunity to Alaskans and accused Sullivan of voting for “corporate greed.”

She released an ad Wednesday saying she's willing to take on anyone — “including Democrats, anyone in the Lower 48 who doesn't understand what Alaska needs.” She expressed support for resource development, Second Amendment rights and border security.

A second Dan Sullivan garnered attention

A third candidate, a Republican also named Dan Sullivan, stole much of the attention ahead of the primary.

Dan J. Sullivan won a legal fight to appear on the ballot despite claims by the senator and GOP allies that he was a sham candidate running at the behest of Democrats with the intent of causing confusion. Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the island community of Petersburg, denied that and said frustration with the incumbent prompted him to run.

He appeared on the ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation — a decision that a state elections official said was intended to minimize possible confusion. The senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent.

Dan J. Sullivan, the challenger, expressed gratitude Wednesday for the support he'd received, while awaiting election results that would determine if he would be among the four advancing to November.

Matchups in House, governor's races still taking shape

Nick Begich, who was endorsed by Trump, cast himself as hardworking and effective in his role in the U.S. House. He said results from the primary show that Alaskans are ready to return him to Congress.

Hill, a fisherman and former educator from a small southwestern village, has made affordability a key issue in his campaign. He said Alaskans are tired of paying high costs for healthcare, gas and groceries.

“Begich and his buddies think they can play by a different set of rules than we do,” he said after advancing Tuesday. “The Alaskans I know don’t think that’s right.”

The governor's race was wide open with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy barred by term limits from seeking a third consecutive stint. The crowded field was mostly led by Republican tickets. A Democrat hasn't served as governor in Alaska since Tony Knowles left office in 2002.

Republicans in the race included Bernadette Wilson, a business owner and conservative activist; Click Bishop, a former lawmaker; Dave Bronson, a former mayor of Anchorage; and Adam Crum and Treg Taylor, two former members of Dunleavy’s Cabinet.

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Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage contributed to this report.