France's CAC 40 dipped 1.0% in early trading to 8,313.86, while the German DAX fell 1.6% to 24,746.63. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.6% to 10,379.26. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.7% at 51,774.00. S&P 500 futures fell 1.5% to 7,429.25.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 3.6% to finish at 69,788.38.

“We’ve had eight days of strong markets,” said Neil Newman, head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan. “Now it has cooled off a bit.”

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3% at 8,787.00. South Korea's Kospi tumbled 10.0% decline to 8,203.84, dropping from previous record highs due to a sell-off in major technology issues. Signs of greater regulatory scrutiny in the country's semiconductor sector also added to the hand-wringing.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.8% to 23,336.28, while the Shanghai Composite shed 1.4% to 4,106.25.

In the oil market, prices fell following talks over the weekend between the United States and Iran on their war. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said they created a “good foundation for a successful final deal.”

An end to the war could open the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers and allow for the full resumption of deliveries from the Persian Gulf. Iran’s military said Saturday that it had closed the strait again, though U.S. Central Command has disputed that.

On Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude fell 73 cents to $73.58 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 43 cents to $77.47 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 161.43 Japanese yen from 161.52 yen. The euro cost $1.1407, down from $1.1431.

___

AP Senior Producer Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to this report.

___

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

President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal, following high-level negotiations in Switzerland on Monday led by US Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.

In Tehran, Iran's capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters that no visits have been scheduled for the U.N. watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — to see Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year. Vance had previously said the negotiations in Switzerland won an agreement for IAEA to inspect the sites.

The IAEA has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in 2025, but has not been granted access to the bombed enrichment sites targeted by the U.S. in that war.

Violence flared again in southern Lebanon, threatening the fragile ceasefire there, as Israeli soldiers opened fire in the town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Tuesday, killing two men, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. It said the men were next to a bulldozer that was working to clear the road at the time.

Separately, the agency said Israeli troops fired on residents on the outskirts of the town of Hadatha as they were heading to carry out a burial in the town’s ceremony with a Lebanese army escort.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reports.

Iran's president makes his first visit to Islamabad since war started

Security was tight in the area of Islamabad where the Iranian president was to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. It's Pezeshkian's first visit since the conflict started with the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28.

Pezeshkian and Sharif were to hold joint news conference after their discussions.

In the initial talks, marking the start of a 60-day diplomatic process that seeks to reach a permanent deal to end the Iran war, Iran and the U.S. agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. The U.S. said negotiators also discussed “mechanisms” to ensure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the transit of oil that Iran had effectively blocked during the war, remains open.

Ahead of his meetings in Pakistan, Pezeshkian cautioned that “the effectiveness of the talks depends on full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.”

“Progress on this path will be measured by practical adherence to accepted responsibilities,” he wrote on X. “Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations.”

Iran says negotiation groups focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues and more

Iran suggested the ongoing technical talks in Switzerland have led to the creation of specific negotiation groups, which include those focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction and monitoring, according to a the state-run IRNA news agency.

The report quoted Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister leading the technical talks, saying that the countries involved also formed a contact mechanism over ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz and over the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

It remains unclear whether the de-confliction cell being created will be enough to stop fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel, which occupies part of Lebanon and insists it must maintain a free hand to attack militants launching attacks into northern Israel.

Discrepancy on Iran's use of unfrozen funds

Following the high-level talks in Switzerland, Vance had said if Iranian financial assets were unfrozen they would be used to buy American-grown food.

Vance said that the U.S. and Qatar would have approval over the process, but if Iranian money becomes accessible as sanctions are lifted, it “would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.”

However, Iran has no current demand for U.S. crops and Baghaei said on Tuesday that Tehran’s decisions on what to import would be based upon “prices and quality.”

“It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers,” Baghaei said at the news conference in Tehran.

Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, also questioned Vance’s contention that the U.S. and Qatar would have to approve how Iran uses unfrozen funds.

“Iran is the only country who decides what to do with those assets,” he told reporters.

Netanyahu raises new qu

estions over fragile Lebanon ceasefire

Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the cell would include the Lebanese government and would “ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon,” but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised new questions late on Monday, saying his military still has “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat to them or to the residents of the north.”

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the U.S.-Iran deal, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing.

When asked about Netanyahu’s comments, U.S. President Donald Trump later said “we’re going to take a look at it,” adding that he wouldn’t say what action he would take but that the situation would “get solved.”

“I’m a problem solver, I get problems solved real fast, including with Bibi,” he said, using a nickname for Netanyahu.

The reports of Tuesday's deadly violence in Lebanon came after two days of calm following a ceasefire brokered on Saturday. No Israeli airstrikes or shelling have been reported since Sunday, and Hezbollah also has not claimed any attacks in what has been the longest halt in the fighting since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.

Lebanon and Israel planned another round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, which are expected to focus on developing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Afghans make up one of the largest groups of migrants seeking asylum in the European Union, but a growing number of governments in the 27-nation bloc want to speed up and increase deportations for those whose claims are rejected or who commit crimes in their host countries.

Afghan authorities have imposed draconian restrictions on rights, particularly for women and girls, since the Taliban seized power in the country in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

Rights groups said Tuesday's meeting undercuts the EU’s human rights obligations and could endanger people in Europe and Afghanistan.

“Any engagement with the Taliban needs to prioritize protecting human rights and accountability — not deporting people to danger there,” said Fereshta Abbasi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “EU countries are undermining their credibility by condemning Taliban abuses and pursuing accountability on one hand, while cooperating with the Taliban to forcibly return Afghans on the other.”

With not a single EU nation recognizing the Taliban, the meeting in Brussels symbolizes a small crack in the group’s diplomatic isolation since seizing power five years ago.

The five-person delegation in Brussels from the Taliban — a government that none of 27 EU nations recognizes — includes Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a New Zealand-born spokesperson for the Taliban’s foreign ministry, said a Taliban official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said that while Belgium doesn’t recognize the Taliban, it would comply with EU requests to grant the Taliban visas.

“Belgium cannot confer legitimacy on a regime accused of serious human rights violations,” he said in a statement referring to Belgium’s hosting of the EU institutions. “Making a meeting possible in the framework of our host-state policy does not amount to recognition, does not amount to legitimacy, and does not constitute an invitation by the Belgian government.”

Members of the Taliban delegation were issued visas after security screening with limited territorial validity, giving them 24 hours in Belgium and no access to other countries in the Schengen border-free travel zone.

Since neither Belgium nor the EU officially recognizes the Taliban government, the meeting will not take place on official buildings or sites belonging to either. The European Commission has declined repeated requests to provide additional information.

Drive to increase deportations

A spokesperson for the European Commission said Monday that the meeting is in response to pressure from a clear majority of the 27 EU nations – 20 of whom signed a letter in October calling for stronger migration policies including a ramping up of deportations.

“They had asked the Commission to coordinate such technical contacts on returns,” said spokesperson Markus Lammert. “Member states are looking into ways to return persons who have committed serious crimes and who are possibly a security threat.”

The first EU-Taliban meeting was held in Afghanistan in January when the Commission sent a mission to Kabul. It also maintains staff there.

The October letter was drafted in part by Belgian Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who said then that “we have sent a clear and powerful message to the European Commission: we can no longer afford a standstill. It is high time for a firm and joint approach, so that Europe can regain control over migration and security.”

Bossuyt said that across the EU, only 2% of the 22,870 Afghans told to return had done so.

Another Commission spokesperson said the meeting “does not mean by any means recognition.”

Deteriorating situation in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been dealing with the return of about 3 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran in the past year alone, all of whom have been pretty much been forcibly repatriated from those two countries, exacerbating a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, already reeling from food and economic crises including biting sanctions on the Islamic Emirate.

Afghan Taliban authorities have imposed draconian restrictions on women and girls, including bans on education beyond primary school and on working in all but very few professions, as well as strict regulations on what women are allowed to wear in public.

“The desperate scenes of people — including EU staff — fleeing Afghanistan are a recent memory. It is unconscionable that the EU would now try and deport people to Afghanistan, which has only become more dangerous in the meantime,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.

Facing political pressure to toughen migration policies across the 27-nation bloc, the EU has recently passed deep reforms to its collective rules aiming to ramp up deportations -- including allowing the setting up of so-called “return hubs,” increased domestic surveillance capabilities, tighter border controls, and engagement with the Taliban government which it does not recognize because of human rights abuse allegations.

With Afghanistan facing food shortages and economic collapse, the Taliban government is in need of humanitarian aid and hopes to lessen its international economic and political isolation.

———

Afghan reported from Kabul. Associated Press writers Victoria Eastwood in Cairo, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, and Sylvain Plazy in Brussels contributed to this report.

• HEAT HIGH: Nearby, keeps weather quiet & hot
• LAKE LEVELS: Still slowly rising, should level off soon
• VERY SMALL RAIN CHANCE: One shot is on Sunday, stray shower

FORECAST

REST OF THIS WEEK

Like clockwork, our typical summertime pattern has arrived. High pressure, while not directly over us, is close enough to keep us very quiet through the foreseeable future. Expect morning clouds, afternoon sun, and highs in the mid-90s. Heat index values will top 100° for a few hours each afternoon.

LAKE LEVELS

Improvement on area reservoirs is slowing, but we’re still seeing rises. Here is the latest data as of Tuesday morning:

VERY SMALL RAIN CHANCE

If we’re grasping at straws, Sunday could bring a shower or two. Our heat high re-centers itself to our east, briefly opening the door for some deeper Gulf moisture. Don’t get your hopes too high, though, with rain chances at only 10%.

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Temperatures will remain exceptionally high around the clock as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments under a red heat wave alert. That is about half of the country.

In a country without widespread air-conditioning, schools, trains and sporting events remain impacted, while some 20 drowning deaths have been reported since the weekend.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.

“Sunshine continues to dominate across France, maintaining oppressive and exhausting heat throughout the country,” Meteo France said. Extreme conditions are expected to last at least until the end of the week, with daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many towns.

“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” Meteo France said.

The heat wave is exceptionally intense, coming very early in the summer, “but with a still uncertain duration,” the weather service said. It has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them among older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heat wave.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month. The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

Heat waves hits Britain

Across the British Channel, the Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday, with forecasts suggesting June’s all-time daily temperature record could be broken.

Temperatures of around 37°C (98.6 F) are expected in southern England, with up to 35°C (95 F) in southeast Wales. The peak of the heatwave is now forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, when highs could reach at least 39°C (102.2 F). Conditions are expected to ease by Friday, the weather agency said.

The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

Burnham is the strong front-runner to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced Monday that he will step down within weeks after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with party and public.

Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who served since 2017 as mayor of Greater Manchester, won a special election last week for a seat in Parliament with the express aim of challenging Starmer for the leadership.

Burnham’s chances got a big boost on Monday when former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was considered his main rival, announced his support.

Britain’s parliamentary system allows governing parties to change leaders — and thus prime ministers — without the need for a national election. The next general election does not have to be held until 2029.

Nominations for the Labour leadership will open July 9 and close a week later. If Burnham is the only contender, he could be prime minister by July 17. If there is a contest, the winner should be in place by the time Parliament returns from its summer break on Sept. 1.

Burnham's economic plans are not yet known

Burnham was a popular mayor of Manchester, overseeing a period of rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged, and has pledged to repeat his signature brand of “Manchesterism” on a national scale.

Many Labour members hope Burnham’s people skills and charisma can connect with the public more than the stolid, managerial Starmer could ever do.

But his policies in many areas are unknown and untested. Some Labour lawmakers want to see a party election contest where he would face public debate and scrutiny.

Burnham is expected to make a speech next week outlining some of his economic plans.

Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who quit this month to protest what he saw as inadequate defense spending, said “we need to have a clear and concise discussion about what this country wants to be.”

He has suggested he might run for the leadership but told broadcaster ITV that “I’m not ready to make a decision on this in any way, shape or form.”

Others have suggested Darren Jones, a senior Cabinet minister and Starmer ally, should run, though he has yet to comment.

Potential candidates need the support of at least 81 Labour lawmakers, a fifth of the parliamentary party, to run.

Many argue that a leadership contest will only focus attention on the party’s internal divisions and extend a period of political uncertainty.

“I think the transition should be swift and orderly,” Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told the BBC.

Starmer won a landslide but stumbled in office

Starmer resigned on Monday after a weekend considering his future, acknowledging that the Labour Party no longer thinks “I am best placed to lead us into the next general election.”

He was the sixth prime minister in a decade to stand outside No. 10 Downing St. and announce a departure. It comes as Britain marks the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the European Union, a decision that still roils the country’s economy and politics.

After weeks of insisting he would fight to keep his job, Starmer conceded to growing pressure to hand over to a new leader who can try and revive the government’s flagging fortunes. He led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024, but since then his popularity and that of the party have plummeted.

Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. He has been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to the United States.

Labour is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party and facing a rising Reform UK, the Nigel Farage -led anti-immigration party that consistently leads in nationwide opinion polls.

The U.K. is about to get its seventh prime minister since June 23, 2016, a decade ago Tuesday, when the country voted 52%-48% to leave the EU after more than four decades of membership. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the referendum but campaigned for the U.K. to stay in the bloc, quit the next day.

His successors have all grappled, largely unsuccessfully, with the consequences of that rupture. The latest is Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced Monday that he was stepping down after two years of a sluggish economy, malfunctioning government and a divided and jaded electorate — all legacies, at least in part, of Brexit.

Though the decision has faded from headlines, “the subterranean trace of Brexit” still runs through Britain’s increasingly unruly politics, said Chris Grey, an academic who has studied the fallout from Britain’s EU departure.

The Brexit campaign channeled discontent

Campaigners for Brexit promised that leaving the then-28 member political and economic bloc would let the U.K. “take back control” of its laws, economy and borders.

While the “remain” campaign focused largely on the economic downsides of exiting, the “leave” side was emotive.

“We can see the sunlit meadows beyond. I believe we would be mad not to take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk through that door,” Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit campaigner who later became prime minister, said a few weeks before the referendum.

Margaret MacMillan, emeritus professor of history at the University of Toronto, said Brexit was fueled by a bundle of motives including nostalgia “for an imagined past.”

“It was against what people saw as unrestricted immigration. It was against what they saw as EU regulations. And then there was this mix of nostalgia — ‘We fought alone in the Second World War.’ Which was of course not true.

“It was never clearly explained what Brexit might entail.”

Trying to make Brexit work made everyone unhappy

Hard reality soon collided with Brexiteers’ bold promises of immigration controls, trade deals, more money for public services and an end to complex regulations emanating from Brussels.

Acrimonious divorce talks dragged on for years. The U.K. formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, 2020, followed by an 11-month transition period until the final split.

Prime Minister Theresa May, Cameron’s successor, quit in 2019 after failing to find exit terms acceptable to a divided Parliament.

Johnson succeeded May and promised to “get Brexit done,” and managed to secure a bare-bones trade deal after negotiations that left U.K.-EU relations in the deep freeze.

He was ousted by the Conservative Party in mid-2022 after mounting financial and ethical scandals. His replacement, Liz Truss, lasted just 49 days in office. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, thawed the frosty EU relationship without making major changes.

Starmer promised a “reset, ” but refused to consider rejoining the bloc’s frictionless single market, which was free of tariffs and other trade barriers.

As he hands over power, Brexit remains unfinished business.

Political parties have fractured

Historian Anthony Seldon said Cameron called the referendum hoping it would end arguments about relations with Europe that had riven the Conservative Party. It didn’t.

“The people who obsessed about it still obsess about it. Britain’s problems have continued,” Seldon told Times Radio.

During the divorce negotiations, Conservatives who wanted a softer Brexit and closer ties with the EU were pushed out of the party by the triumphant Brexiteer faction.

Labour, though much more pro-EU, also has an internal division between those who want to get closer to the bloc or even rejoin, and senior leaders like Starmer who want to avoid reopening old wounds.

A decade on, millions of voters have deserted the two big parties for alternatives including the left-leaning Green Party and the hard-right Reform UK led by Nigel Farage.

Farage has arguably been the biggest political winner from Brexit. He campaigned for the divorce then complained it had been betrayed. His anti-immigration message has shifted from focusing on Polish plumbers to asylum seekers in dinghies. His party consistently leads opinion polls.

Cynicism and political violence have grown

The economy has struggled in the past decade, with businesses facing new barriers to trade with Britain's closest neighbors, though Brexit is not the only cause of low growth. The COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran war also played a part.

Through it all, “we just haven’t had politicians who’ve been upfront with the public about the fact that when they get into power, they won’t be able to have no increases in taxes, no increases in debt, and better public services all in the same breath,” said Hannah White, director of the Institute for Government think tank.

“And so people are disappointed.”

Brexit failed to ease debate about immigration, which has only become more heightened, regardless of the numbers. Net migration rose after Brexit to more than 900,000 in 2023 before falling to 171,000 last year.

Cynicism has grown and trust in politicians has plunged. In recent years, agitators have fueled anti-immigration street violence following crimes committed by, or falsely reported to have been committed by, immigrants.

In the past, Britain had a firm barrier “between the conventional dominant politics of talk and argument, and what was seen as beyond the pale: violence on the streets,” Grey said. “I think that boundary is being eroded. And I think that did to some large extent begin with Brexit.”

Regrets? The UK has had a few

Polls suggest a degree of “Bregret” about Britain's choice a decade ago, with a recent Ipsos survey finding 52% of people in the U.K. would like to rejoin the EU while 33% oppose it.

Hundreds of people, many waving blue and yellow EU flags, marched through London on Saturday on a “rejoin” march. It was a much smaller turnout than the mass protests on both sides at the height of the Brexit drama. Many people just want to move on.

But Brexit remains a minefield that politicians fear to enter. Even if Britain wanted to rejoin, it would be a long road back to a wary EU.

Grey said that until politicians are willing to face the legacy of Brexit, Britain faces an “undertow of low-grade crisis.”

He likened the U.K. to a person with a nagging illness that saps their energy.

“A chronic thing, in this case perhaps not incurable,” he said. “But it’s just that they don’t fancy going to the doctor because they know it’s not going to be very nice.”

Haaland scored twice to raise his World Cup goals total to four, and the Vikings clinched advancement to the knockout rounds with a 3-2 win over Senegal on Monday night that was more of a slog than a sail.

“It’s my specialty to score goals,” Haaland said. “I’m just really good at scoring goals.”

After the final whistle, Norway's players and staff gathered tightly in a 10-row formation just inside the penalty area at MetLife Stadium's north end, facing their red-shirted supporters, Haaland sitting in front as teammate Martin Ødegaard banged on a bongo drum. They alternated with the fans performing the Viking Row — chanting “Ro!” while mimicking oarsmen.

“We’ve all seen it online and it’s been going completely viral, so Martin told me before the game, `What do you think? Should we join in?'" Haaland recalled.

“`If we win, let’s do it. So why not? Let’s go for it,'" Haaland said he responded. "So it was a perfect moment I think to do that."

Back in Norway, parliamentarians did the Viking Row last week in a show of support.

“It was fun,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said through an interpreter. “We will not be rowing after the World Cup but this can be a gimmick during the tournament.”

Marcus Pederson put the Vikings ahead in the 43rd minute after replacing an injured teammate, and Haaland kept up his incredible goals streak in the 48th and 58th minutes to build a 3-1 lead.

“He's very efficient,” Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said through an interpreter.

Haaland ran onto Ødegaard's pass and put a left-footed shot past the outstretched left hand of goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, capping an end-to-end counterattack for a 2-0 lead.

For his second goal, Haaland tunneled through the defense and 8 yards out raised his weaker right foot to volley in Patrick Berg’s pass. Haaland raised a hand to an ear to inspire the Norway supporters.

Haaland has 24 goals in his last 12 international games — scoring at least once in every match — and 59 goals in 52 international appearances. The 25-year-old striker joined England's Harry Kane in 2018 as the only players in the last 50 years with two-goal games in both of their first two World Cup appearances.

Haaland is second in the Golden Boot race, one behind Argentina's Lionel Messi and tied with France's Kylian Mbappé. Haaland nearly got another in first-half stoppage time, hitting a post after Mendy lost control of the ball.

“He did miss an open goal. He could have scored even four,” Solbakken said. “He is the best striker — he is not playing for France or Argentina. He scores for Norway.”

Ismaïla Sarr got both goals for the Lions of Teranga, in the 53rd minute and in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.

“If we had just played slightly worse, then we would be in trouble,” Solbakken said.

Making its first World Cup appearance since 1998, Norway (2-0) is assured of advancing from Group I along with France. The Vikings need to beat Les Bleus on Friday for first place and what would appear to be an easier path in the knockout bracket.

Senegal is 0-2 in a World Cup for the first time and needs a win over Iraq (0-2) to have any chance of advancing as a third-place team.

“We've got everything left to play for,” Thaw said.

Pederson entered in the 13th minute for his World Cup debut after Julian Ryerson couldn't play through what Solbakken said was a nagging injury, and Pederson put the Vikings ahead with the help of mistakes by Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly and Mendy.

Ødegaard made a centering pass that Koulibaly cleared straight to Pedersen at the top of the arc. Pederson took two touches and sent a savable shot inside the near post that glanced off Mendy’s left hand and into the goal.

Mendy left in the 63rd minute because of an injury.

While there had been storm warnings, a downpour stopped more than 3 1/2 hours before kickoff. The skies opened again after the final whistle, causing announcements for fans to leave the stadium bowl for sheltered space.

“Let’s be happy,” Haaland said, “every single Norwegian on the planet today.”

___

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Messi had a golden opportunity to break the record in the ninth minute, but went wide to the right on a penalty kick. Almost 30 minutes later, Messi caught Alexander Schlager leaning the wrong way after Thiago Almada let Facuno Medina's pass go by him directly onto Messi's left foot.

“There were moments when I was really angry about missing the penalty, but I was able to make up for it,” Messi said.

In the waning seconds of injury time, Messi extended his record by sending a shot through several defenders after Schlager turned away his first attempt. He entered the game even with Germany striker Miroslav Klose, who scored 16 goals over four World Cups from 2002-14.

“Beyond anything I’m so happy for the win,” Messi said. “It was huge, tough and difficult. It would allow us to be relaxed to what’s ahead. All matches in this World Cup are very even, very intense. I’m enjoying this moment and craving to enjoy with my teammates.”

Two days before his 39th birthday and with an ailing father back home, Messi celebrated twice with teammates to the delight of the decidedly pro-Argentine crowd at the sold-out home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Most of those fans were wearing Messi’s familiar No. 10 jersey with white and blue stripes, dwarfing the small pockets of red-clad Austrian supporters under the retractable roof that offered air-conditioned comfort on the second day of what is sure to be another hot Texas summer.

The scoring record came 40 years to the day since the late Diego Maradona’s “goal of the century” — another No. 10 who made a solo run from the other side of midfield to give Argentina a two-goal lead in a 2-1 victory over England in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals in Mexico City. Argentina went on to win the title.

Messi joined Just Fontaine and Jairzinho as the only players to score in six straight World Cup games, and he's second among men all-time with 122 international goals to Cristiano Ronaldo's 143.

Argentina extended its winning streak in the tournament to eight since a shocking loss to Saudi Arabia in its 2022 opener in Qatar.

La Albiceleste clinched the top spot in Group J with Jordan's 2-1 loss to Algeria on Monday night. Messi's playing status will be in question with nothing at stake when Argentina returns to AT&T Stadium to face Jordan in a group-stage finale Saturday night. Jordan has already been eliminated.

Messi has scored all five of Argentina goals in the tournament and has 12 World Cup goals since turning 35. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as soccer’s best player in Europe had his first World Cup hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria in its Group J opener last week in Kansas City.

Trailing by a goal early in second-half injury time, Austria winger Patrick Wimmer went just wide on a header after Kevin Danso had sent a header his direction off a free kick.

“I think that we were in possession of the ball more than other people expected,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said through an interpreter. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to nullify every counter attack.”

Austria, which opened with a 3-1 victory over Jordan, can advance with a win over Algeria on Saturday in Kansas City.

___

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Their interests are officially aligned — and the Heat finally have another superstar.

Ending a marathon watch for the next great Miami get, the Heat landed Antetokounmpo — a two-time NBA MVP and 10-time All-Star — from the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night in exchange for a massive haul of players and draft picks.

The terms, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the move had yet to receive the required league approval: Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis are heading to Miami for Wisconsin native Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware and Kasparas Jakucionis.

Milwaukee also gets the No. 13 selection that will be made in Tuesday night’s NBA draft, along with a first-round pick swap in 2030, first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and a second-rounder in 2033, the person said.

It ends a wild back-and-forth in the final days of the saga, with the Bucks considering offers from both Miami and Boston for Antetokounmpo — who led Milwaukee to the 2021 NBA title, was on the NBA’s 75th anniversary list of its greatest players ever, is a nine-time All-NBA selection and is coming off an injury-shortened season in which he averaged 27.6 points per game.

Heat go star hunting again, and it pays off

There has been no secret that this is what Miami has sought, because this is what Miami usually seeks. The Heat pulled off similar moves by landing Shaquille O’Neal in 2004 (helping lead to the 2006 NBA title) and by getting LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play alongside Dwyane Wade in 2010 (leading to four NBA Finals runs in four seasons together, along with the 2012 and 2013 NBA titles).

Now, it’s Antetokounmpo’s turn. At 31, the Heat clearly believe he still has many good years left — and it’s generally presumed that by making this deal they’ll give the Greek superstar a massive extension later this year.

He was a perennial MVP candidate in Milwaukee, getting votes for that award in nine consecutive seasons before 2025-26 when too many missed games left him ineligible.

He has averaged 24.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in his career, with 10 consecutive seasons of averaging at least 22.9 points — with three years in there of averaging more than 30 points per game.

Only seven active players have more points in their careers than Antetokounmpo, who has totaled 21,531 to this point.

A trade seemed inevitable

Antetokounmpo had been mentioned in trade talks countless times in recent years, with the Bucks always insisting — with words and actions — that they had no interest in trading their best player and one of the best players in the history of the franchise.

But this time, it seemed different.

The Bucks, who fired Doc Rivers as coach after the season, don’t have a roster that would be considered a championship contender. By trading Antetokounmpo, they can essentially start over with four players (and the Heat were high on all of them) along with draft capital.

“I just think before the draft is a natural time, right, because if Giannis does play somewhere else we’re going to get a lot of assets. ... You’ve got to get it right,” Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam said in May, when the team introduced new coach Taylor Jenkins — who was told that Antetokounmpo may or may not be with the franchise when next season starts.

Jenkins and the rest of the NBA now has the answer: Antetokounmpo won't be there.

Antetokounmpo had spoken highly of Miami many times over the years, even when the Heat and Bucks were going head-to-head in the playoffs. He also shares an agent with Heat star center Bam Adebayo, who was the only player Miami clearly was not willing to part with in order to make this deal happen.

“They’re going to play tough and they’re not going to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said after Milwaukee played Miami on March 12. “That’s the Miami Heat culture.”

Little did anyone know that night that those words were coming after what would be the next-to-last game for Antetokounmpo in a Bucks uniform. He played three nights later against Indiana, then was held out of Milwaukee’s final 15 games of the season.

The Bucks said that was for injury-related reasons. Antetokounmpo said he wanted to play.

He had some bouts with injuries this past season: Antetokounmpo missed four games in late November with a left adductor strain and sat out eight games in December with a right calf strain, then he injured the right calf again in January.

He landed awkwardly on a dunk in that March 15 victory over Indiana and didn’t play again due to what team officials had labeled as a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. Antetokounmpo said the last few weeks of the season that he was healthy and wanted to play, a dispute that resulted in an investigation by the league office.

For Antetokounmpo, it's about legacy

Antetokounmpo said coming into the 2025-26 season that he is at the point in his career where he thinks about his legacy, and how more championships are important to him. Told he is already considered an all-time great, he bristled at the notion.

“I’m not there yet,” Antetokounmpo said that day at Bucks training camp.

That’s hard to believe, considering his resume. He’s won a championship. He’s been an MVP. He’s been an NBA Finals MVP. He’s a perennial All-Star and All-NBA pick. He’s one of only seven players born somewhere other than the 50 states of the U.S. to have reached the 20,000-point mark. In 2025, he led Greece to its first EuroBasket medal in 16 years.

“Every basketball player, every athlete, starts a career and they have this quest of what they want to accomplish and what to be remembered for,” Antetokounmpo said in that same training camp interview. “And I think at this point, I’ve accomplished everything that I’ve put my mind to.”

He said those words in Miami. And now, Miami is about to be his new home.

___

AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed.

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

Vance and U.S. officials claimed progress on multiple fronts, including the establishment of “mechanisms” to ensure the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy shipments, stays open and to address fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, where a ceasefire appeared to be holding.

The interim deal to end the fighting in Iran, signed last week by the leaders of the U.S. and Iran, sets a 60-day period for negotiations on key issues, including the future of Tehran’s nuclear program amid concerns that Iran wants to use it for military purposes, a claim the country denies.

The vice president departed Switzerland as technical teams were still negotiating, and U.S. President Donald Trump talked up the efforts to keep the strait open to create “an oil gusher" as he stressed that the key to resolving the war was “respect” from Iran.

"As long as they respect us, I don’t want to use the word fear because that’s an inappropriate word, but as long as they respect us, we’re not going to have any trouble,” Trump said from the Oval Office.

Iran effectively closed the strait after the U.S. and Israel attacked on Feb. 28, causing fuel prices to skyrocket far beyond the region. The interim agreement to end the war was supposed to reopen the channel. Dozens of ships passed through it over the weekend, even though the main route is still mined and closed.

The lead negotiator of the Iranian delegation, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, insisted on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz will be managed by Iran, but following international laws.

“Hopefully we can activate the strait again, in terms of passage, and bring prosperity back to regional and global economy," Qalibaf told Iranian state media on the plane on his way back from Switzerland.

Qalibaf and the Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, arrived on Monday night in Oman where they met with the country’s Foreign Minister Badr al Busaidi to discuss the peace efforts and ensure safe navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. Treasury issued a 60-day license on Monday waiving sanctions on Iranian oil as part of the interim agreement. Notably, the license allows Iranian oil to be imported into the U.S., which has not imported significant amounts of Iranian oil since the 1990s.

Tanker traffic continued to pick up through the Strait of Hormuz. According to data and analytics firm Kpler, there were 71 confirmed transits over the weekend, with a peak of 35 crossings on Saturday. Before the war, 100 to 130 vessels passed through the strait each day.

Ships have been avoiding the central route to steer clear of mines, choosing instead to use the smaller northern route, which goes through Iranian waters, and the southern route, which goes through Omani waters. In the markets, Brent crude oil fell 3.2% to $77.52 per barrel, closer to its roughly $70 price from before the war. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 2.6% to $73.86 per barrel.

Trump was not in Switzerland but loomed large over talks

Trump did not attend what was dubbed the “Lake Lucerne Summit,” but his presence certainly loomed large. The talks were jolted by statements from Trump, who, from thousands of miles away, fired off comments that offended the Iranians. But the mediation effort in Switzerland started Sunday and stretched into early Monday.

“We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people,” Vance told reporters.

The vice president suggested that the U.S. could agree to unfreeze Iranian assets for purchases of U.S. soy, corn and wheat. He said Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and one of the lead U.S. negotiators, came up with the idea with officials from Qatar.

Vance said Qatar would have approval over the process, and Iranian money that would be accessible as sanctions were lifted would buy American products "for the benefit of the Iranian people.”

Iran, which has pressed for the unfreezing of billions of dollars in assets, has not commented on the idea. The assets have been frozen over years of sanctions, banking restrictions and legal disputes imposed by the U.S. and international community.

Iranians agree there was progress on their top issue

Shortly after the Iran war began on Feb. 28, Hezbollah and Israel also went to war, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon. Iran has insisted that addressing the fighting in Lebanon is a critical component of any deal to end the wider conflict.

Iran noted “major progress” to end the fighting in Lebanon and called that the first real test of the negotiations.

Foreign Minister Araghchi wrote on X that mediators delivered "major progress to end the Lebanon War.” But he said the first “real test” of negotiations would be whether the mechanism succeeds in halting the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the U.S.-Iran deal.

But as of Monday evening in the Middle East, the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be holding.

“We have not detected trajectories from either side since yesterday,” said Tilak Pokharel, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

Airspace violations and Israeli military movements continued, Pokharel said.

Hezbollah has not announced any attacks on Israeli forces since Saturday.

The lull in fighting in Lebanon is the longest since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2.

___

Kim and Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Abby Sewell in Beirut, David Rising in Bangkok, Fatima Hussein and Will Weissert in Washington, Mae Anderson in New York, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this story.

The way the postseason unfolded, well, there was no stopping the Sooners.

OU completed the improbable run to its first national championship since 1994 with a 13-2 victory over North Carolina in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the College World Series finals Monday night, a performance that featured the prodigious offensive production and clutch pitching the Sooners rode through the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we knew the talent was always in the room,” said Jaxon Willits, named the CWS most outstanding player. “We got hot at the right time, and now we’re national champions.”

The Sooners (43-23) won the Southeastern Conference's seventh straight title, quite an accomplishment for a team picked 14th in the 16-team conference in the preseason, finished 11th and entered the postseason off losses in seven of nine games.

To get to Omaha, they beat No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech twice on the road in regionals and swept upstart Kansas on the road in super regionals. To get to the finals, they beat No. 3 Georgia twice in bracket play.

“They got really confident the last month,” OU coach Skip Johnson said. “They care about each other. They didn't want to give in. They were selfless.”

North Carolina (54-14-1) was runner-up for the third time since 2006 and now has 13 CWS appearances without a title. Only Florida State, with 24, has more without winning it all.

The Sooners were back in top form offensively after managing only four singles in a 6-2 loss in Game 2 and handed the Tar Heels their most lopsided loss of the season.

“We ran out of gas when all is said and done,” Carolina coach Scott Forbes said.

When Jackson Cleveland struck out Jake Schaffner to end the game, he and catcher Deiten Lachance embraced and then headed to the dogpile that formed near third base. Players waving national championship towels rushed back toward their dugout to salute the celebrating Sooner faithful on the first-base line, football greats Barry Switzer and Brian Bosworth among them.

Kyle Branch, the No. 9 batter who came into the game 1 of 16 (.063) in the CWS, drove in six runs with a pair of singles and home run. His homer came on his last at-bat, just as brother Kolby's did for Georgia last Wednesday.

“Pure joy. Pure joy for our team,” Branch said. “I had a teammate tell me I was going to do something special, and for him to tell me that with the way things have been going, it has to be a God thing.”

He joined Dayton Tockey as the seventh and eighth OU players to homer in Omaha. Willits had three hits, reached base five times and finished the CWS 13 of 25 (.520).

The pitching matchup of Carolina's Jackson Rose (5-1) and Oklahoma's Nick Wesloski was the first between freshmen in a CWS winner-take-all game since 1993. Neither got out of the third inning.

LJ Mercurius (7-7) turned in another strong performance out of the bullpen, shutting down a threat when OU led 3-1 in the third and holding the Tar Heels to one run in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed just two runs in 12 1/3 over four CWS appearances.

The Tar Heels' pitching staff, which had the best ERA in the Atlantic Coast Conference, had been good and occasionally great in the CWS. It was neither Monday, with eight pitchers combining to allow 14 hits, issue eight walks, throw three wild pitches and hit a batter.

ACC freshman of the year Caden Glauber, who had given up just one run in 10 1/3 innings in four CWS appearances, was called on for a fifth one day after he threw 65 pitches in five shutout innings. It was apparent coach Forbes went to the well one time too many.

Glauber was called for a clock violation before he even threw his first pitch. He issued a four-pitch bases-loaded walk and Willits followed with a two-run single to make it 6-1 in the fourth. That was all for Glauber, who threw seven pitches, five of them balls. The Tar Heels had won all 29 games in which Glauber had pitched before Monday.

“This group loved each other all season and took us on a ride and came up just short,” Forbes said. “I’d take that ride every day of the year. While we’re sad, the sadness will go away. We talk about joy. Joy doesn’t go away. These guys have given me, our coaching staff, our fans, administration, everybody, a ton of joy and a ton to be proud of.”

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Haaland scored twice for Norway in the first 15 minutes of the second half of a 3-2 win over Senegal on Monday night, making up for clanking a shot off the post and getting denied on a header just before halftime. His performance came hours after Messi scored two for Argentina and Mbappé did the same for France.

Teammate Kristian Thorstvedt called Haaland a big-game player who lives for these moments. Roughly a month away from his 26th birthday, Haaland is showing he can keep up with some of soccer's more experienced stars while playing on a team without the same pedigree or championship history.

“He is the best striker,” coach Ståle Solbakken said through an interpreter. “He is not playing for France or Argentina. He scores for Norway.”

The three have combined to score 13 goals in the World Cup: five for Messi and four each for Mbappé and Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot, which Iraq coach Graham Arnold predicted will be a very good competition between them.

“It’s easier to win the Golden Boot when you play for France and Argentina,” Solbakken said. “But we’ll try to give Erling more games and more help in the next games.”

Messi became the World Cup’s career scoring leader with 18 goals when he and Argentina beat Austria in Arlington, Texas. Mbappé is now at 16, tied with former record holder Miroslav Klose, after he and France beat Iraq 3-0 in Philadelphia.

Playing in his first World Cup, Haaland is at four. Norway last qualified in 1998 — two years before he was born.

“Let’s be happy, every single Norwegian on the planet,” Haaland said. “I’m part of something special. Norway’s part of something special. We’re making history.”

The 6-foot-5 Manchester City striker has now scored in 12 consecutive competitive matches for Norway. He has 24 goals over that stretch, and the last time Haaland did not score for Norway in a game that mattered was Oct. 13, 2024.

“He’s on fire,” Solbakken said. “I’m very happy for him that he can score on the biggest stage.”

Haaland had the fewest touches of anyone on either team in the first half, getting guarded tightly by an opponent that knew just how important it was to contain him. Still, Solbakken pointed out that Haaland missed an open net and “could have scored even four.”

“He’s one of the best strikers in the world,” Senegal's Ismail Jakobs said. “We used part of the game making some things very difficult to start with (for him), as you could see.”

Then Haaland found his footing on a wet surface at the Meadowlands that had been deluged by rain.

He scored his first goal on a 4-on-2 rush, putting behind him the frustration from earlier. After getting his second by banking a right-footed shot off the crossbar and in, Haaland held his left hand up to his left ear to encourage cheers of a large contingent of red-clad fans who chanted, “Nor-ge! Nor-ge!” and performed their signature Viking rowing celebration in the stands.

Asked how he was doing it, Haaland struggled to come up with an explanation.

“I don't know,” Haaland said. “It’s my specialty to score goals. It’s like many other things: I’m just really good at scoring goals, and I’m quite lucky. I don’t know what I’m doing, but yeah. That’s just how it is.”

___

AP Soccer Writer James Robson in Atlanta and AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

___

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

Alejandro Vasquez, 1, and Escarleth Vasquez, 15, were last seen at 3 p.m. on May 9, 2026, in the 7000 block of Phoenix Path, near Woodlake Parkway.

Law enforcement officials believe the children are in “grave or immediate danger,” according to DPS.

Alejandro Vasquez is 2 feet, 10 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

Escarleth Vasquez is 5 feet 4 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black hoodie and white sweatpants.

The two may be traveling in a red pickup truck, DPS said.

Anyone with information is urged to call 911 or contact the Texas Department of Public Safety at 210-531-2284.

More than 60,000 people are expected to be in attendance, and Ye said the concert will be one of the most well-attended in the venue’s history. Roughly 50,000 tickets have already been sold, according to the City of San Antonio.

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and Precinct 3 Commissioner Grant Moody released statements Monday after Jones called for the concert to be canceled in a social media post Saturday.

“I do not condone the hateful speech and antisemitic messages by rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye,” Sakai said. “These hateful words and actions have no place here and we must call it out.”

Ye has been criticized over the last several years for antisemitic actions, including saying “I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” in a 2022 social media post and releasing a song titled “Heil Hitler.”

In January, Ye took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to apologize for his previous behavior, attributing it to a brain injury and bipolar disorder. In the letter, he said he is not a Nazi nor an antisemite.

It was not his first apology, however. Ye previously apologized for his actions in 2023 but later took it back in 2025.

Ye’s letter in The Wall Street Journal was published two months prior to the release of his 12th studio album, “Bully.”

Since the album’s release, Ye performed two sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles and in front of nearly 40,000 fans in the Netherlands.

However, other concerts in France, Italy and the United Kingdom were canceled after European leaders took action or considered taking action against the rapper.

Regarding the issue of free speech, Moody said that the First Amendment works both ways.

“Kanye West has the right to free speech, but I have an obligation to denounce his outrageous, hate-filled rants,” Moody said. “We should never provide a public platform to, or allow the use of public property by, a Holocaust denier and well-known antisemite like Kanye West.”

Ye’s San Antonio performance will follow two scheduled shows next week at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., asked the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider holding the concert, arguing that taxpayer funds would be used to give Ye a platform.

Jones echoed those statements with Texas Public Radio on Monday, when asked whether the city may have to take additional security measures at the cost of taxpayers.

“I think there’s a long list of considerations that, quite frankly, this unfortunate incident has identified in terms of understanding what is right to host at a city-funded facility,” Jones said.

In a statement to social media, District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, said he has heard estimates the concert could generate around $1.7 million in revenue.

“While that may be true, not all money is good money,” McKee-Rodriguez said.

The councilman said he understands people calling for a cancellation, but “at the same time, we should be honest that decisions made in moments of urgency can set long-term precedents.”

“Any response must be grounded in clear, consistent standards that cannot be selectively applied,” he said.

Live Nation said it neither booked nor promoted Ye’s July 4 performance. However, the performance is listed on Live Nation’s website, and tickets are being sold through its ticketing platform Ticketmaster, which is the venue’s ticketing partner.

Therefore, it appears the decision of whether to cancel the concert ultimately lies with the city, which owns and operates the Alamodome.

As for whether Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has the power to do so, she told Texas Public Radio that it requires more than just her vote alone.

“If we wanted to cancel this,” Jones said, “the council would have to take a public action, asking the city manager to do just that, so a public vote.”

Jones, Moody and state Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, will be at a news conference Tuesday with the Jewish Federation of San Antonio to call on city leaders and Alamodome officials to cancel Ye’s concert.

KSAT reached out to the City of San Antonio, which said Alamodome staff reviews all events “using the same factors, including public demand, expected economic impact, facility revenue, hotel bookings and the goal of bringing a wide range of events to San Antonio.”

Read the full statements below:

“I do not condone the hateful speech and antisemitic messages by rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye. I am all too familiar with racism and the devasting and long-term impacts that can have. These bigoted words and messages are not reflective of and have no place in our community. As Bexar County Judge, I have a duty to our residents to provide for an inclusive and safe community. These hateful words and actions have no place here and we must call it out.

“Bexar County stands firmly against these hateful and despicable messages.”

Peter Sakai, Bexar County Judge

“I will always defend the right to free speech, but I will also never remain silent in the face of vile hatred and lies.

“Kanye West has the right to free speech, but I have an obligation to denounce his outrageous, hate-filled rants. When someone repeatedly spreads antisemitic hate, praises Nazis, denies the Holocaust, and tries to intimidate our Jewish community, we have a responsibility to call it out directly and forcefully—and I am.

“I do not support Kanye West’s planned performance here in San Antonio. We should never provide a public platform to, or allow the use of public property by, a Holocaust denier and well-known antisemite like Kanye West.

“Our Jewish community deserves to know that we stand with them today and every day. Hate and intolerance have no place in Bexar County, and I remain committed to supporting our Jewish neighbors and friends and condemning antisemitism in all its forms.”

Grant Moody, Bexar County Precinct 3 Commissioner

“The Alamodome staff reviews all events — whether Paul McCartney, Disney on Ice, Monster Jam, or Ye — using the same factors, including public demand, expected economic impact, facility revenue, hotel bookings and the goal of bringing a wide range of events to San Antonio.

“The July 4 Ye concert is expected to draw more than 60,000 people.

“As of Monday, June 22, about 50,000 tickets had been sold. That includes 14,180 from Bexar County, and many more from outside Bexar County — 23,345 from other Texas counties, 15,485 from outside Texas and 195 international sales."

City of San Antonio spokesperson

Read also:

• Ye to perform at Alamodome on Fourth of July
• San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones supports canceling Ye’s July 4 concert at Alamodome
• Ye’s Fourth of July concert at Alamodome expected to draw another record crowd

Trump's trip to the Allentown-area business comes as he works to try to put the conflict — and the higher gasoline prices it caused — in the rearview mirror as November midterm elections draw closer.

It's the president's fifth second-term visit to Pennsylvania, a key state whose support in 2016 and 2024 helped him to the White House. The Macungie, Pennsylvania, facility is in the 7th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie faces Democratic challenger Bob Brooks in November.

The visit comes amid rising prices that could color the verdict voters render on Trump's stewardship in the fall. About one-third of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s approach to the economy, according to a June Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. That’s in line with last month for Trump on the issue.

The Iran war, which began Feb. 28, has also been a politically difficult issue for the president. Most Americans continued to disapprove of his handling of Iran, according to the June AP-NORC poll, which was being fielded as Trump announced a tentative deal with Iran and concluded just before the interim agreement was signed last week. It found about two-thirds, 65%, of U.S. adults disapprove of how the president is handling issues with Iran, unchanged from May.

Still, while most Democrats and independents view Trump’s actions negatively, only about 3 in 10 of Republicans are unhappy.

Support from districts like the one he's visiting Tuesday are pivotal to Republicans holding narrow control of the House, where a loss could hobble the president's final two years in office. Mackenzie, a freshman lawmaker, is looking to hold onto a district Democrats have targeted to flip. Brooks, president of the state firefighters' union, has support from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who's also seeking reelection this year.

Trump's predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, also visited the Mack Truck facility to highlight regulations aimed at promoting manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 at nearly 19.6 million jobs. It trended downward after the 2001 recession and the 2007-09 Great Recession. The figure now stands at 12.6 million as of May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The visits underscore Pennsylvania's status as a crucial swing state.

Trump visited Mount Pocono in December to road test messages that he's addressing affordability; in July 2025, he was in Pittsburgh to tout tens of billions of dollars of recent energy and technology investments in the state; in June 2025, he was in West Mifflin to tell steelworkers he was doubling the tariff on steel imports to protect the industry; and in March 2025 he attended the NCAA wrestling championship in Philadelphia.

“We produce about 8,000 signs here with our staff a year, and then we purchase another 10,000 signs a year,” Marc Jacobsen, the assistant director of Public Works, said.

There is a small team of three people who physically make the signs, and another group who takes the signs to the proper location and assembles them. Jacobsen said the team makes speed limit and stop signs the most.

“Anything that you can imagine, we get requests for,” Jacobsen said. “If you are a citizen that has a request for a particular sign, you can call 311 and request that. … Usually, we produce common signs in batches around here and so that kind of gets spread out over time.”

The department also works on street name signs and has been in the loop on the proposal to rename César E. Chávez Boulevard. However, the sign-making team fully enters the street name change process much later than other entities in the city.

“We’re only prepping in the sense that we know it’s coming,” Jacobsen said.

The process to change the name of César E. Chávez Boulevard begins with a Council Consideration Request, which Councilmember Teri Castillo has already submitted to rename the street from César E. Chávez Boulevard to Durango Boulevard in the wake of abuse allegations against Chávez.

Last week, the Historic and Design Review Commission approved the name change to Durango Boulevard, with only one person voting against the measure.

On June 24, the planning commission will vote on the name change, and in August, City Council will vote on it. While the process is making its way through the commission, the city’s Development Services Department is part of the process. The Development Services Department recently presented to the HDRC that the name change will cost the city just over $300,000.

“Once the final decision is made as to what [the name is] going to change to, then the Development Services Department will work to ensure that those signs can be ordered and installed,” Jacobsen said. “[Public Works will] help to provide technical guidance on what those signs should look like.”

Then the process of building the signs can begin.

The team of three people begins by setting up the file for each sign’s design, then sends it to the vinyl-cutting process. Once the vinyl is cut, the next step is weeding, where they remove the excess vinyl. Then, the team uses transfer tape, cuts off any excess, and places the wording on the sign, then transfers the design to the physical sign.

Lastly, the team removes all air bubbles to ensure the transfer tape is fully in contact with the vinyl. They peel the backing to ensure the vinyl stays stuck to the transfer tape, then use a machine (shown in the video player) to push down the vinyl onto the backing to finalize the sign.

Another process that comes through this team in the Public Works Department is 311 requests. These requests include inquiries about new or updated street or traffic signs, new speed limit signs, and items obstructing the view of signs.

“Property owners should trim their trees and bushes to ensure they don’t obstruct stop signs and other signage,” Jacobsen said. “If you can’t see a sign because something is in the way, it could be a tree, it could be a bush, it could be anything, then you can call 311.”

Read also:

• Renaming César E. Chávez Boulevard could cost over $300K, city estimates

Extreme feels-like temperatures, heat stress days and tropical nights have all become dramatically more frequent, long and severe over the past six decades as the planet's warming intensifies — a result of the burning of fossil fuels coal, oil and gas — according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday.

The researchers went beyond just temperature, which is frequently studied, and used feels-like temperatures, to understand more of the impact on people. They assessed heat stress on individual humans, influenced by temperature, humidity, wind speed and more. They used what’s called the Universal Thermal Climate Index to analyze those factors and model the human body’s response to the environment.

The combination of heat and humidity can be dangerous for humans, because humidity impacts how sweat evaporates, and that's a cooling mechanism. Heat waves that are humid can be more fatal than dry heat waves as humans don't cool down as easily.

Heat stress is worsening in already-warm regions, and beyond

Past studies have looked at the extent to which human-driven climate change has sent temperatures soaring, especially in recent years. One study says people globally suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat in 2024. Some research says that the world is on track to add nearly two months of superhot days each year by the end of the century.

Here, researchers looked at heat stress at three levels: strong (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 32 degrees Celsius, or 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit); very strong (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 38 degrees Celsius, or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit); and extreme (index temperatures of greater than or equal to 46 degrees Celsius, or 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

Places that might see around 50 more days per year of at least strong heat stress compared with the 1970s include parts of Southern Africa, such as in Namibia and Angola; Eastern Africa, including parts of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda; and parts of Mexico and Central America.

In Southern Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, some areas will see up to 40 additional days with strong heat stress compared with the 1970s. Much of Southern Europe is seeing almost a full month of additional strong heat stress days from decades ago.

In the U.S., much of the country sees 15 or more days of at least strong heat stress, and southern parts, including Texas and Florida, are seeing close to 25 or more days with very strong heat stress.

Those heat stress seasons are also lasting longer.

The study’s lead author Rebecca Emerton, also a senior scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in the United Kingdom, said it was striking “to see heat stress not only intensifying in those places that we already consider as being hot or used to experiencing heat waves ... but also to see this, we call it, expanding footprint of heat stress expanding into regions where it’s historically been rare or non-existent.”

According to the study, the feels-like temperatures on the ten warmest nights of each year have also increased faster — 0.32 degrees Celsius (0.58 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade — than the ten warmest days, 0.27 degrees Celsius (0.49 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.

For tropical nights, the researchers considered minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). This means people might not be recovering properly from daytime heat in the overnight hours.

And now, one billion more people face at least one day of extreme heat stress each year than they did in the 1970s.

The future impact depends on action

The world has known that adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests will warm the globe, said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod, who was not involved in the research.

“This study adds stark details about increasing dangers to billions of humans,” Francis said. “This analysis shows not only is temperature rising, but so is humidity, which makes high temperatures more deadly because our body’s air conditioning system — sweating — struggles to keep up.”

Emerton says the work highlights the urgent need to mitigate future warming and ensure adaptation strategies, heat health action plans, early warning systems and climate risk assessments are in place.

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

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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

Just steps into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the gavel used by Nancy Pelosi when she became the first female speaker of the U.S. House sits next to a red “Make America Great Again” cap. A shirt emblazoned with a pink triangle and “Silence = Death” protesting the government's inaction during the AIDS crisis hangs alongside a campaign shirt for President Ronald Reagan, whose administration was blamed for ignoring the epidemic.

The display is part of a broader exhibit flowing throughout the museum dubbed “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness,” commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence. With artifacts ranging from a Revolutionary War-era gunboat to a 1970 Earth Day flag, it's a reminder that the challenges and divides gripping the U.S. in the age of President Donald Trump, while stark, are not new.

“In some of those contestations, people find the hope and the resiliency to move forward,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum's director. “History is filled with those moments where we think we're completely falling apart as we did in the Civil War and then we're trying to figure out how to build it back together again.”

A unifying theme is being tested

That unifying theme is being tested as the anniversary celebrations intensify in the coming weeks with Trump once again giving himself central billing. The creation of Freedom 250, an organization aligned with the White House, has come to rival America 250, a bipartisan group founded by Congress a decade ago. The different groups add to a sense that even a milestone anniversary can become the source of division.

The tumultuous aftermath is apparent on the National Mall just outside the museum, where preparations are underway for “The Great American State Fair.” A wave of artists including Martina McBride pulled out of performances at the fair, saying they didn't realize the political overtone of the event. Trump himself is now planning to speak there Wednesday.

The split screen will return on July Fourth as America 250 holds a concert in Los Angeles hosted by Queen Latifah and featuring performances from Chris Stapleton and The Smashing Pumpkins while the president returns to the National Mall for what he has described as a “Trump rally.”

Trump is not the first president to deliver a high-profile July Fourth speech. In 1986, Reagan spoke from New York Harbor marking the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. In 1976, President Gerald Ford delivered an address from Independence Hall in Philadelphia commemorating the bicentennial.

Their themes emphasized commonality and unity, framing the moment in a broader context that had little to do with the presidents themselves. Reagan joked he “wouldn't even think about trying to compete with a fireworks display” while noting “all the celebration of this day is rooted in history.”

Ford spoke of the “American adventure” as a “continuing process.”

“Liberty is for all men and women as a matter of equal and unalienable right,” he said. “The establishment of justice and peace abroad will in large measure depend upon the peace and justice we create here in our own country, where we still show the way.”

Trump tends to place the focus on himself

Trump, of course, tends to place more of the focus squarely on himself. He became the first president to host the Kennedy Center honors last year after a Trump-backed board named him chairman. The venue added his name to the building as well, prompting a federal judge to declare the move illegal and order its removal.

More recently, Trump has remade Washington in his image, demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom and moving toward building a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He's eyeing renovations at East Potomac Park even as he struggles with the return of algae at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he remodeled last month. He recently hosted a UFC fight at the White House.

“Trump is putting himself at the center of the story,” said Mark Updegrove, chairman of the LBJ Foundation and a presidential historian. "Trump does not consider himself the steward of the presidency. He considers himself the embodiment of it.”

The country is in a dour mood as the anniversary approaches. Only about one-quarter of Americans say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world, according to an April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 3 in 10 say there are better countries than the U.S., an increase from 19% in an AP-NORC poll conducted in June 2016.

Americans are less likely to see a democratically elected government as “extremely” or “very” important to the United States’ identity as a nation than they were just a few years ago. About two-thirds of U.S. adults now say a democratically elected government is highly important to the U.S.’s identity as a nation, down from 80% in 2021.

Big cultural moments face new rivals

Against that backdrop, it's little wonder that groups dedicated to the anniversary have multiplied. Even this year's Super Bowl halftime show — typically one of the few cultural moments bringing together much of the country — contended with a rival program this year after conservatives objected to Bad Bunny performing on the main stage.

Heading into the final days before the holiday, the main groups — Freedom 250 and America 250 — are outwardly aiming to downplay any tensions.

Freedom 250 spokesperson Rachel Reisner said the organization was focused on “signature events and initiatives,” including the fair, and is “sparking a unifying movement across all 50 states.”

Rosie Rios, the chair of America 250, said her main priority is delivering programming for all Americans, whether that's eight consecutive ball drops that will unfold across the country, student competitions or a massive volunteer effort. As for other organizations that have emerged like Freedom 250, “the more celebrations, the merrier.”

“We can't be all things to all Americans,” Rios said. “But we have something for every American and the more opportunities for everyone to participate in July 4th and beyond, we're thrilled.”

The suspects, aged 14 and 15, were arrested. The suspects and the victims were students of the San Jose National High School in Tacloban city, where the mid-morning shooting happened, regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jason Capoy said.

Police said 15 of the 20 injuries were caused by gunshots, including a student who was hit in the head and remained in a hospital. The rest were injured as they stumbled and jumped out of a window as they dashed to safety.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the shooting in the government-run school, which has more than 1,500 students. Capoy said that the suspects, who were close friends, said in initial questioning that they were bullied in school. He did not elaborate.

They have no criminal records. One of the suspects got the 9 mm pistol he used in the attack from an aunt, a police officer, who was being investigated. The other suspect used a .38 caliber revolver. They managed to bring the guns onto the campus because there was only one guard on duty at multiple entrances and exits, Capoy said.

“The suspects barged into two rooms because after the shooting in the first, the children scampered and the suspects apparently ran after some victims into another room,” Capoy told reporters.

Most of the dead and wounded were female students, he said. Police recovered at least 40 shell casings at the scene of the attack.

In a video posted online, students hiding under desks in a shut classroom can be heard screaming and weeping as gunshots are heard outside. Some called their mothers. Other videos show visibly terrified students streaming out of the school campus, some holding and embracing each other.

One of the suspects was arrested in the school after the attack but the second fled and hid in a house nearby. He was found by police who were alerted by residents, police said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a thorough investigation of the shooting and asked law enforcers to boost security in all schools, workplaces and public areas, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said.

“The president was saddened by this incident. Anybody, especially the parents of the victims, will feel sad and terrified,” Castro said.

The suspects were to be turned over to government welfare officers after the investigation since they are minors. The 14-year-old would be exempt from criminal prosecution under a 2006 Philippine law, which sets the minimum age of 15 for a minor to be criminally liable and only if authorities determine that a suspect was clearly aware of the crime that was committed and its repercussions.

The national police have urged the public to remain calm and cooperate with authorities by providing any information that may aid the ongoing investigation.

Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, but school shootings are relatively rare.

In 2022, a man armed with pistols opened fire at an upscale university in the Manila metropolitan area ahead of a graduation ceremony, killing a former Philippine town mayor with whom the suspect had a long-running feud, and two others in the brazen attack. The gunman was arrested.

Those are a few of the races to watch on Tuesday as voters head to the polls for primaries in Maryland, New York, South Carolina and Utah.

Manhattan House primary is a bellwether for pro-AI regulation candidates

The crowded Democratic primary became a proxy battle between two powerful camps of the artificial intelligence industry because of one candidate: New York Assemblyman Alex Bores.

Bores, a former Palantir employee who cited ethical concerns in leaving the company, pushed one of the more sweeping state-level AI regulation bills in the country. Now, Bores points to that legislation — which faced some industry pushback — as a framework for how he'd approach regulation in Congress.

So when he stepped into the race for the New York congressional district being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, a political group underwritten by investors in OpenAI spent more than $7 million on ads against Bores.

Then an opposing wing of the industry, one more in favor of regulation, rode to Bores' aid.

Political groups partly funded by Anthropic, which makes the chatbot Claude, spent more $10 million to boost Bores' candidacy. Anthropic was co-founded by former OpenAI employee, Dario Amodei, who left the company partly over concerns about AI safety.

The election will offer some measure of the political might of the two AI industry factions.

Mamdani flexes his political influence by endorsing progressive insurgents

The New York City mayor endorsed Democratic primary candidates hailing from his own political camp — a progressive and two democratic socialists — who are challenging more established candidates, some backed by party leadership.

U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, whose seat extends from lower Manhattan to a chunk of Brooklyn, is up against Mamdani-backed challenger Brad Lander, the former comptroller. A central contention between the two Jewish candidates is the war in Gaza, with Lander assailing Goldman for not being critical enough of Israel.

North of that race, in upper Manhattan, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, 71, is facing off against Mamdani-endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32. The latter is a democratic socialist who hasn't held public office before and works at a public defender's office providing legal aid to victims of police brutality.

For the seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez is retiring, Mamdani endorsed Assemblymember Claire Valdez, another self-described democratic socialist. The departing Velázquez has endorsed another contender, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

The three primaries will help distinguish not just Mamdani's political clout, but the continued viability of democratic socialist platforms in New York City.

Trump hedges in South Carolina after shaky endorsement record in gubernatorial races

Trump often touts his otherwise strong record of endorsing winning candidates in Republican primaries, but his picks in gubernatorial races haven't found as much success: his choices in Georgia and Iowa lost this month.

After the defeats, Trump ensured an ironclad victory for his endorsement in South Carolina's Republican runoff for governor: he backed both candidates on the same ballot.

The president initially supported Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in May, but on Friday, he added an endorsement for Evette’s opponent, state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

“I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!” he wrote in a social media post Friday. “It’s a Wealth of Riches – With either one you can’t go wrong.”

The projected winner? Trump's endorsement record.

Utah redistricting opens up a sole Democratic battleground, and a debate over the party's future

It's unusual for Utah's Democratic primaries to draw much attention, but that's because the party hasn't had much of a shot in the staunchly red state. That is until redistricting last year.

It created a lone Democratic island centered on Salt Lake City, which has a dark enough hue of blue that primary candidates have found themselves jostling for who's farther to the left. And Democratic primary voters, as in other left-leaning districts across the country, will decide how progressive they'd like their candidate.

That's an unusual tune for Utah Democrats, and for primary candidate Ben McAdams. The former U.S. representative has tried to cast off his reputation as a moderate as he runs against three opponents from his progressive flank.

When McAdams last ran in 2018, ousting a Republican, he described himself as pro-life and fashioned himself as a moderate. Now, in the new left-leaning district, he's pledged to support abortion rights and said he's only “moderate in tone."

The more progressive candidates challenging him include state Sen. Nate Blouin, who has said the electorate has grown accustomed to Democrats who will “play nice” with Republicans and who has won support from Sen. Bernie Sanders. Another is political newcomer Liban Mohamed.

Maryland Republicans seek an heir to Hogan in bid to retake governorship

Republican Larry Hogan reigned as Maryland governor for eight years, standing on a more moderate conservative platform to keep his perch in the left-leaning, East Coast state.

At Hogan's departure, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore took over in 2024, and is now seeking reelection for a second term. But so far Republicans haven't found a clear successor to Hogan as Tuesday's primary forces a decision from a field of nine candidates.

One is Dan Cox, an attorney who lost his gubernatorial bid four years ago, and who has more embraced a rightward flank, pledging to cut taxes and invest in housing affordability programs. Then there's Ed Hale, owner of the Baltimore Blast soccer team and retired banking executive, who flipped his party from Democrat to Republican for this race.

The Timberwolves are sending the 28th pick in Tuesday's draft to the Nets and will be receiving the No. 33 pick that will be made in the second round on Wednesday night, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal has not received the required approvals from the league office.

ESPN, which first reported the deal, also said the Bulls would be receiving Nic Claxton from Brooklyn in the trade.

For Minnesota, the trade opens up a slew of financial possibilities. It creates a $33 million trade exception, plus gave the Timberwolves room they can use to re-sign Ayo Dosunmu — which ESPN said later Monday would happen in the form of a five-year deal that could be worth $112 million — and target more players in free agency.

Dosunmu had a 43-point game off the bench during the opening round of this year's playoffs, when Minnesota ousted Denver.

Randle, a three-time All-Star, will be moving to his fifth team after stints with New York, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and the Timberwolves. He averaged 21.1 points this past season, though shot just 39% from the field and 24% from 3-point range in Minnesota's 12 playoff contests.

Claxton just finished his seventh NBA season, all with Brooklyn. He averaged 11.7 points this past season.

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

But for many young Spurs fans, this was their first time experiencing the Spurs playoff run for the team’s sixth NBA Championship — or as we like to call it, the Race For Seis.

The last two months of playoff coverage was also a professional first for many of our coworkers in the KSAT 12 newsroom.

KSAT Sports Now will stream interviews with our coworkers as they reflect on what stood out to them in their coverage of the 2026 NBA Playoffs and NBA Finals.

KSN can be streamed starting at 9:35 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Some media outlets had previously reported receiving ransom notes tied to the case in the days after Guthrie’s disappearance in early February from her home in the foothills just outside Tucson.

CNN reported Monday that one of notes revealed that Nancy Guthrie was dead — and those who kidnapped her did not mean to kill her, but she died shortly after her disappearance.

CNN said it knew the contents of one such note, and that a Tucson TV station had received two notes.

CNN and the station agreed to hold off on sharing the contents of the notes publicly so any future communications with the kidnapper or kidnappers could be authenticated, CNN reported.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the note’s contents. The FBI didn’t respond to a request for comment. And the Guthrie family didn’t make any immediate social media posts or any public comments about the notes Monday.

Jessica Bobula, news director for the Tucson TV station KOLD, said Monday that the station received several notes after Guthrie disappeared. The station notified authorities and has shared only what the FBI has released about the notes, she said.

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will after finding blood near her front doorstep. The FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night.

Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the weeks after she vanished. A volunteer group recently conducted a search for her body near the Arizona-Mexico border but didn’t report finding her.

U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

She said Congress had expressly prohibited the government from centralizing Americans’ personal identifying information and that the federal agencies that created the SAVE program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.”

The decision is a major legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to use federal agencies to encourage a nationwide crackdown on having noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls. The modified SAVE system, which critics had referred to as an unlawful centralized federal database of voter information, had been a key pillar of the second election executive order the Republican president signed earlier this year. The ruling leaves its future uncertain.

“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, said of the ruling in a social media post.

DHS referred to his post as its comment on the ruling. The Department of Justice said in an emailed statement that it would “continue to aggressively defend President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and DHS’s use of the SAVE system to verify citizenship.”

Voting by noncitizens was already rare

The executive order seeking to create a national voter list is among numerous steps Trump has taken during his second term to try to overhaul the way elections are run. He also has tried to force voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, ban mail ballots from counting if they are received after Election Day and prohibit the Postal Service from mailing ballots to people not on an approved list of voters. Most of those steps have been blocked by various courts, in part because the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, but provides no such power to the president.

Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable as a potential felony that could lead to deportation. It also is rare, accounting for just a tiny fraction of those on state voter rolls,

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. At least 25 states used it to check their voter rolls since April 2025, after the Trump administration significantly expanded its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls.

Anthony Nel was one of those whose registrations were wrongly flagged. The South Africa native became a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago but had his voter registration in Denton, Texas, north of Dallas, canceled temporarily last year after Texas ran its voter file through SAVE. The check wrongly identified him as a potential noncitizen.

“I hope others can see this fight and not take their right to vote for granted,” he said in a text message.

Right to keep Americans' data private is at heart of the case

The plaintiffs, including the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and five unnamed U.S. citizens, had alleged the revamped SAVE program violated Americans’ privacy and voting rights. The groups also alleged the Trump administration violated federal privacy laws by ignoring transparency requirements about the changes to the system.

“The agencies were scrambling to comply with an Executive Order aimed at reshaping federal elections, which directed them to create a system for mass voter verification,” the judge wrote. “So they haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”

Plaintiffs attorney Nikhel Sus told the court during the October hearing that naturalized citizens face a greater risk of unlawfully being purged from voter rolls.

“They are uniquely vulnerable to errors in the database,” said Sus, an attorney for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Sus said Monday he sees Sooknanan’s ruling as an “across the board victory” and noted the plaintiffs were pleased the judge’s ruling reinforced their argument that the federal government doesn’t have implied authority to freely share sensitive data across agencies.

Mark Johnson, who teaches at the University of Kansas law school and regularly pursues lawsuits over election laws, said “it couldn’t be more clear” that the SAVE program violates federal privacy laws.

He said an executive order from Trump cannot override a federal law.

“It’s an illegal idea. Plus it’s a bad idea,” he said.

Elon Musk's DOGE effort was crucial for updating the SAVE system

During the 2024 presidential campaign, as Trump pushed false claims of widespread noncitizen voting, Republican secretaries of state began requesting improvements to the SAVE system to make it more efficient for catching noncitizens on their rolls. One limitation was that the system had been able to check just a single individual at a time.

DHS, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency delivered on those requests in 2025, according to public announcements. They made SAVE free for election officials, allowed agencies to search voters by the thousands and began permitting queries using names, birthdays and Social Security numbers, as opposed to requiring DHS-issued identification numbers.

Several secretaries of state have said the SAVE overhaul improved its value as one of multiple tools they use to assess voter citizenship. But in her ruling, Judge Sooknanan said the plaintiffs had shown that the updated system had indeed been identifying some lawful voters as noncitizens and that states using it “are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information.”

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Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

Yeah, it got a bit messy on the pitch.

Weather aside, this game — as so many do for France — belonged to Mbappé as he tries to keep pace on the World Cup career goals list with new record holder Lionel Messi.

Mbappé scored twice to move into a tie for second in World Cup goals with 16, and France played through the tournament's first rain delay to beat Iraq 3-0 on Monday and advance to the knockout stage.

“I’m only thinking about helping my team,” Mbappé said. “By helping my team, I score goals, and when you score goals, of course, you get closer to that kind of level.”

Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé also scored for Les Bleus, giving fans who stuck out a rainy night in Philadelphia a reason to cut loose.

Mbappé scored in the 14th and 54th minutes to cap a momentous and soggy 100th international appearance for one of the best players in the world. Fans of all ages wore his jersey, either walking around Philadelphia earlier in the afternoon or in the rows of seats at Lincoln Financial Field, which had a sellout crowd of 68,234.

Mbappé's first goal gave France a 1-0 lead at halftime, when heavy rain and an incoming thunderstorm prompted a delay of just over two hours. Grounds crews used squeegees to push water off the swampy Kentucky bluegrass at the home of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.

“It was very difficult, because we had to stay focused, we had to stay engaged in the locker room,” Mbappé said.

Scoreboard messages directed the crowd to take shelter in the stadium’s covered areas, warning that a severe storm was on the way. Sheets of rain continued to fall through halftime as fans wrapped themselves in ponchos and huddled in the concourse and under balconies.

Iraq coach Graham Arnold wrestled with a poncho for a few seconds before he pulled it over his head and returned to the covered dugout. France fans who stayed in their seats in the last few covered rows of the top of the stadium waved the country’s flag, and many splashed around the concourse to pass time.

Others fled for the exits — at the same stadium where last season's Eagles opener was delayed 65 minutes in the third quarter because of lightning — as the delay dragged on, giving overseas spectators a triple dose of American sports nuisances: rain delays, overpriced concessions and TV timeouts in the form of hydration breaks. There was no second-half hydration break in this game after the long, wet pause in the action.

Playing in his third World Cup, the 27-year-old Mbappé matched Miroslav Klose of Germany on the goals list and moved one ahead of Brazil great Ronaldo.

Messi scored twice for Argentina earlier Monday to set the tournament record at 18. He had equaled Klose with his first World Cup hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria last Tuesday night in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mbappé scored his third goal of the tournament with a left-footed strike — his supposed weaker foot — from the edge of the box that got past Iraq goalkeeper Ahmed Basil, who got his first start in the tournament after captain Jalal Hassan allowed all four goals in Iraq’s 4-1 loss to Norway.

For his second goal, Mbappé took advantage of a poor pass to the goalkeeper by Iraq defender Zaid Tahseen. Dembele controlled the loose ball and passed to Mbappé, who tapped it in with his right foot.

Mbappé had a chance at the hat trick on a late breakaway, but missed before he was subbed out at the 90-minute mark.

“He can take Messi, he can take Ronaldo,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “He does have the capacity to up his ante.”

Mbappé helped France win the World Cup in 2018 and reach the final in 2022, when he was awarded the Silver Ball as the second-best player. Joined up front by Désiré Doué and Dembélé, France entered this year’s tournament as a co-favorite with Spain.

France could return to Philadelphia to play Germany on July 4.

“We’re going to try to analyze it in the coming days, see what we can improve, because I think there are two or three things we could have avoided,” Mbappé said.

Iraq striker Aymen Hussein was subbed out with an apparent injury in the 26th minute of the first half and replaced by Ali Al-Hamadi. Hussein scored his 34th international goal in Iraq’s World Cup opener.

Iraq is playing in the World Cup for just the second time after debuting in 1986.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Kylian Mbappé of France scored two goals on Monday to reach 16 for his World Cup career, moving into a tie for second most in tournament history as he tries to keep pace with new record holder Lionel Messi.

“If I want to keep up with what Leo is doing,” Mbappé said after France beat Iraq 3-0 to reach the knockout stage, “I’ll have to do even more.”

France is counting on it as Mbappé tries to lead Les Bleus to their second World Cup title in the last three tournaments. Mbappé would consider it a bonus if he could win it all and pass Messi for the World Cup goals record.

The 27-year-old Mbappé is 11 years younger than Messi and should have at least two or three more World Cups to secure the record — at least until the next young superstar comes around to challenge him.

“He's here to score goals and that’s something he’s been doing,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “He’s somebody that has a worldwide aura.”

Playing in his third World Cup, Mbappé scored in the 14th minute against Iraq, giving Les Bleus a 1-0 lead in his 100th international game. After a weather delay that extended the halftime break to more than two hours, Mbappé found the net again in the 54th minute to move into a tie with Miroslav Klose of Germany, who had the goals record before this high-scoring World Cup began.

Messi scored twice for Argentina earlier Monday to set the tournament record at 18. He had equaled Klose with his first World Cup hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria last Tuesday night in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Leo always scores,” Mbappé said.

Mbappé sent a left-footed strike from about 20 yards out past Iraq goalkeeper Ahmed Basil, who got his first start in the tournament after captain Jalal Hassan allowed all four goals in Iraq’s 4-1 loss to Norway.

For his second goal, Mbappé took advantage of a poor pass to the goalkeeper by Iraq defender Zaid Tahseen. France's Ousmane Dembele controlled the loose ball and passed to Mbappé, who tapped it in with his right foot.

The Real Madrid forward had a chance at the hat trick on a late breakaway but missed before he was subbed out at the 90-minute mark. He is one of two men with a hat trick in a World Cup final.

“I've seen enough criticism on his egotistical side,” Deschamps said. “But that’s not who he is. I reiterate, he’s the team captain. And he’s a bright example for the rest of the group.”

Mbappé helped France win the World Cup in 2018 and reach the final in 2022, when he was awarded the Silver Ball as the second-best player. Joined up front by Désiré Doué and reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, France entered this year's tournament as a co-favorite with Spain.

Dembélé also scored in the second half to complete a dominant performance for France. Les Blues won in 1998 and 2018, then lost the 2022 final to Argentina on penalty kicks.

Mbappé, one of two men to have a hat trick in a World Cup final, scored his 13th and 14th World Cup goals in France’s 3-1 tournament-opening victory over Senegal. He now has 59 international goals, two more than Oliver Giroud for the most in France's rich history.

His World Cup goals include four this year; eight in 2022, when he won the Golden Boot as the top scorer; and four in 2018.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maria Cavalluzzi ruled that 44-year-old Michael Gledhill cannot understand the case against him and cannot rationally assist his lawyer in his own defense.

Handy, the 81-year-old actor whose credits include “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” was in a relationship with Gledhill's mother, and was found stabbed in the chest and lying unconscious outside her home on June 3, police and prosecutors said. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Gledhill was arrested after telling police he was the person they were looking for. Officers had responded to the home after a 911 caller said, “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” police said.

Gledhill has not entered a plea and has not appeared in court in the case. At his scheduled arraignment on June 5, a judge paused his prosecution and sent the case to a court that specializes in mental health evaluation.

That court ruled promptly after psychiatric evaluations that he was not competent. Cavalluzzi also found at a hearing Monday that Gledhill cannot make proper medication decisions. She signed an order saying he could be involuntarily medicated for one year, citing a psychiatrist's determination that his mental health could be hugely helped by proper drugs.

She ordered him to appear in court on July 14 for a hearing on his long-term placement. His case will head to trial if he is later found to be competent.

Emails seeking comment from attorneys for both sides were not immediately answered.

Brian Delate, a longtime friend and fellow actor of Handy, told The Associated Press soon after Handy was killed that Gledhill's mother had fixed up her garage so her son could live there. Handy had his own home, but spent much of his time there, his friend said. Delate said Handy had mentioned in passing that his girlfriend's son had mental health problems.

Handy, a ubiquitous character actor, appeared in films and TV shows for decades.

He was known for his role as an exterminator in the 1995 film “Jumanji” and more recently as the bartender Jimmy in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick.” He also appeared in many of TV's top crime dramas, including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Closer” and “Cold Case.”

It was the first rain delay of the tournament and the first time in at least several decades that a World Cup match was delayed midgame because of inclement weather. Halftime began at 5:50 p.m. EDT and the game resumed at 8 p.m. — 1 hour, 55 minutes longer than the scheduled 15-minute halftime break.

France played through the rain and muck to beat Iraq 3-0 behind two goals from Kylian Mbappé.

“It’s a question of safety,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “You can’t fight against rain and lightning. We will stick to the local laws. We have to adapt. These are very special circumstances, and I do hope they will not happen again.”

There was also heavy rain ahead of Monday night’s game between Norway and Senegal in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which started on time.

With France leading 1-0 at halftime, scoreboard messages directed the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field to take shelter in the stadium’s covered areas, warning that a severe storm was on the way. Sheets of rain fell through halftime as thousands of fans huddled in the concourse and under balconies.

The stoppage was initially expected to extend the halftime break by 15 minutes. As the delay dragged on, stadium officials announced that “the game will resume when deemed safe.”

The teams returned to the field to warm up after about 1 hour, 40 minutes, prompting cheers from the crowd. Crews used squeegees to push standing water toward the sideline of the swampy field.

A rule used by FIFA pauses games for 30 minutes if lightning is detected within 8 miles. Each strike resets the clock.

France and Iraq played through a downpour that started in the 37th minute. Fans donned ponchos and most stayed in their seats until they were told to find shelter at halftime.

“I think that’s out of our control, so we just needed to adapt, and I think we did that pretty well,” French defender Jules Kounde said.

France scored twice in the second half, which did not include the much-debated hydration break that was added for this tournament.

“I think it’s the first time I experienced it in football as a coach or a player,” Iraq coach Graham Arnold said of the delay. “It obviously made it much harder for the players. I told the players, who’s going to switch on mentally?”

FIFA long had a reputation for continuing matches even through extreme weather. A 2014 game between the U.S. and Germany continued in Brazil even after torrential downpour that flooded parts of the surrounding city.

World Cup regulations do not specify weather conditions that would prompt a delay to the start of matches or an interruption. However, the regulations say “in the case of a match being abandoned as a result of force majeure after it has already kicked off … the match shall recommence at the minute at which play was interrupted rather than being replayed in full, and with the same scoreline.”

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the natural gas-fueled explosions of two houses on Preston Hollow Drive on April 21, which sent five residents to the hospital and injured a CPS Energy employee.

At least two of the residents, Timothy and Kimberly Nowell, were still at Brooke Army Medical Center as of Monday, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

The NTSB released its initial findings on the explosions on May 21, but council members heard Monday the full investigation could take 12 to 24 months.

City and CPS Energy officials pointed to the ongoing investigation as the reason they had to stay tight-lipped on specifics Monday while discussing the city’s response to the tragedy and to emergencies in general.

CPS Energy has also been reticent because of ongoing litigation. The Nowells and their neighbors in the other damaged home, Jose Ochoa and Mayte Terrie Reeves, have filed lawsuits over the blast. The utility has responded with general denials in both cases, but no court dates have been set so far.

Preston Hollow Homeowners Association Secretary Tony Flores told council members during the meeting that locals want “transparency, accountability, communication and a clear plan forward to restore confidence in our neighborhood.”

“Houses don’t blow up. There are safe havens, a place for rest, a place to relax and feel safe,” he said.

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) represents the area and called the meeting with the help of Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) and Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7).

Whyte doesn’t think there was enough clear and unified communication following the explosions.

“My office was on the ground trying to get as much information to the neighborhood as possible, but as was stated earlier, there were some questions that we just couldn’t answer,” he said. “Who was in charge? Who was talking to residents from the city? Who was handling the coordination between all of the different agencies that were involved?"

Council discussion included how the city responds to emergencies in general, but city legal staff shut down some of Whyte’s more specific questions about the Preston Hollow incident, such as when he asked if there had been a point person coordinating the agencies “during those days and weeks after the event.”

“Chief, if you would, please,” Deputy City Attorney Debbie Klein interjected before San Antonio Fire Chief Valerie Frausto could respond. “So that goes into the part of the NTSB investigation that we’re not able to discuss at this point in time. That will be part of their final report."

Just over a minute later, she jumped in again when Whyte asked about who was supposed to be telling residents in the days following the explosion that they could return to their homes.

Whyte appeared pleased, though, that city staff appeared ready at the end of the meeting to incorporate a similar, localized emergency scenario into annual training at the emergency operations center, including the role of the local council office and how it fits into communication and support for family members.

“We have never really discussed what the chain of command should be or how operations would differ from just a neighborhood-centric tragedy like this one,” he told reporters later. “And so that’s going to be a part of the presentation this year, and I think that’s going to be very valuable.”

Flores told reporters that a lot of what he heard during Monday’s meeting had been directed toward actions for after an incident, “which would be great,” but he and his neighbors also want to ensure their neighborhood is safe.

“And until we get the final investigation, we won’t know the answer to that,” he said.

A CPS Energy official said residents who believe they smell gas can call 911 and the utility (210-353-HELP), which has a 30-minute average response time.

Dead grass can also be a sign of a minor leak, even if you don’t smell it, she said.

The utility also says to call 811 48 hours before digging so underground gas lines can be marked.

Read also:

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

The Argentina captain has the World Cup scoring record all to himself after another standout performance, one that began with frustration after missing a penalty kick and ended in pure elation with another victory.

Messi, who many consider the greatest player of all time, scored both goals in his team’s 2-0 victory over Austria on Monday. That gave him 18, six days after his first-ever hat trick in the tournament had matched Germany striker Miroslav Klose's previous record for World Cup goals. Later Monday, Kylian Mbappé matched Klose's mark of 16 with two goals in France's 3-0 win over Iraq.

“Beyond anything I’m so happy for the win,” Messi said. “It was huge, tough and difficult. It would allow us to be relaxed to what’s ahead. All matches in this World Cup are very even, very intense. I’m enjoying this moment and craving to enjoy with my teammates.”

The first goal against Austria came in the 38th minute and two days before his 39th birthday, and amid the concern of an ailing father back at home. It was the sixth consecutive World Cup game in which Messi has scored — joining France striker Just Fontaine and Brazil great Jairzinho as only players to do so.

That was about a half-hour after he missed a penalty kick with a chance to match the record.

“There were moments when I was really angry about missing the penalty, but I was able to make up for it,” said Messi, who has won a record eight Ballon d'Or awards as the best player in Europe.

Argentina advanced to the knockout round by winning its first two Group J games. Messi also scored all the goals in a 3-0 win over Algeria in Kansas City.

Messi added his 18th World Cup goal in the waning seconds of stoppage time when he shot one through several defenders after his first attempt was turned away by goalkeeper Alexander Schlager.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Messi said in translated remarks. “The way things are going in the World Cup, the way it’s being played, it’s a very even game. No one is giving away anything.”

The goal record became Messi's alone in the first half when he caught Schlager leaning the wrong way after Thiago Almada let Facuno Medina’s pass go by him and directly onto Messi's left foot from about 20 yards.

“I have no more words to talk about Leo,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said through an interpreter.

As the ball went into the net on the record 17th goal, Messi ran toward a corner and thrust his right arm into the air to celebrate the mark with the decidedly pro-Argentina crowd among the 70,649 fans in the sold-out home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

“Someone who is 39 years old and can score two goals, and five goals overall at the beginning of the World Cup, well, that makes a difference,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said through an interpreter. “We knew that he is on a level of his own, and Lionel Messi showed us today that he’s one of the best, and he is the best.”

There had been a gasp from those same fans when Messi missed the penalty in the ninth minute.

His left-footed attempt went just wide of the right post. He is now 4 of 7 on penalty kicks in regulation play at the World Cup, with misses in three consecutive tournaments.

Klose played in 24 World Cup matches for Germany, which wrapped up his fourth tournament by winning the 2014 final 1-0 in extra time over Messi and Argentina.

In an interview published on June 12, Klose said he expected Messi to break the scoring record.

“With the larger field of competing teams there are more games and so more chances to score goals. And I assume Argentina and France will go far,” Klose told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “That’s perfectly OK, the record will be broken eventually anyhow and Messi is welcome to be the one who does it. I’m a big fan of Messi, always have been. Messi is a genius.”

Messi’s hat trick in the previous game, in his 200th international appearance, came 20 years to the date of his World Cup debut in Germany, when he also scored. Monday was his FIFA-record 28th match in the tournament.

The penalty kick came after Lautaro Martinez was running free in the box and was tackled from behind by Xaver Schlager and Stefan Posch, the defender playing with a broken jaw.

Play continued for more than a minute with Martinez still on the ground near the goal. When the game was stopped for him, officials reviewed the play and called the penalty.

Messi’s father has been undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness, the family said in a statement last week while not providing any specific details. The 68-year-old Jorge Messi has played a key role in his third son’s soccer career, acting as his agent and managing his business affairs off the field.

Lionel Messi was overcome with emotion after scoring his first goal against Algeria, and said after that match his tears followed some tough days not related to soccer.

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AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany, contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The sisters are still processing the news that their father, Carlos Mugica, 54, and his wife, Jennifer Salazar Mugica, 46, were killed suddenly in a car crash last Friday.

The couple were headed back to Castle Hills, traveling on Interstate 10 in Fayette County, after a trip to Houston.

“I think we’re still in shock. We feel like we’re in a twilight zone, honestly,” said Carlie Jo.

Taylor agreed, mentioning how she last saw her father by way of a virtual visit.

“I was just on Facetime the day before he left on his trip,” she said. “We were on Facetime because he wanted to see his granddaughter.”

Still recovering from giving birth one month ago, Taylor said she is grateful that her father also got a chance to meet his granddaughter in person.

As a father, she and her sister say, Carlos was the best.

They described him as being loving, caring and “a big kid.”

“He has on his desk all these toys of ‘Star Wars,’” Taylor said. “He loved ‘Star Wars.’”

They say they also loved their stepmother, Jennifer, who had married their father just a few years ago.

“She was a sweet, loving and kind woman,” Taylor said.

Carlie Joe described Jennifer as someone who also loved her family and friends and made “the best spaghetti.”

The loss of the couple is being felt beyond their loved ones.

Jennifer served as assistant principal at Longfellow Middle School in the San Antonio Independent School District.

The school sent home a letter to parents Saturday, notifying them of her death and informing them that counselors would be available to students.

Carlos worked as a realtor and volunteered with the Rey Feo Consejo Educational Foundation.

“He was Mr. Fiesta,” Carlie Jo said. “He loved Fiesta.”

In the wake of his death, a spokesman for the organization issued a statement, praising Carlos for his dedication to the group.

His daughters, meanwhile, say they hold tight to their own memories, relying on one another and their faith to get by.

“Dad and Jennifer, they served God’s mission,” Carlie Jo said. “Their purpose is done and now God has called them home.”

The family said they will hold a Mass for Carlos Mugica at St. Agnes Catholic Church at 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 24. An interment will follow at San Fernando Cemetery II.

Read also:

• Castle Hills couple identified in deadly Fayette County crash, DPS says

The patrols came two days after Trump said authorities had made “multiple arrests” of people he insisted were responsible for damage to the peeling coating after an algae bloom occurred. The liner was installed as part of his $14 million-plus project.

The president has confirmed the problems most likely require draining the pool again for liner repairs and he promised a quick fix. Without offering substantiation, he also said vandals dumped fertilizer in the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter.

But the timeline was not clear Monday, with the White House saying damaged areas are still being assessed. Contractors and federal workers in recent days have been using chemicals and ozone nanobubbles to combat the algae.

Trump pitched the original improvements as intended to clean, beautify and reinforce an iconic site that he said had become dilapidated and dirty because of previous presidents' neglect. Algae has plagued the pool for a century, and Trump insisted that a newly installed “American flag blue” coating, which he selected himself, would turn the pool into a gleaming expanse along the National Mall.

Yet within weeks of Trump declaring the rehabilitation completed in time for Independence Day, the water was plagued by a vivid green algae bloom that clouded the pool's coating. A piece of liner, about 4 square feet, was observed Friday partially floating in the pool. The Associated Press saw additional pieces in the water Monday.

Via social media, the president has blamed the problems on “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!” He asserted Monday on Truth Social that intentional damages include a “300 foot long gash” and that “chemicals have been illegally placed in the water.” A day earlier, Trump posted, “Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool.”

At an executive order signing on Monday, the president said five people had been arrested and five more were under suspicion, and he deflected blame for the pool's maintenance issues: “I can’t help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up.” He has not backed up those claims, and even if anyone has deliberately peeled or cut the lining, that would not explain the algae bloom that appeared more intensely than what typically occurred before the renovation.

Images showing that Trump's project apparently backfired boomeranged across social media last week, drawing crowds of onlookers eager to see the effects themselves. An unknown number ended up being detained by federal authorities.

One man arrested was David Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland. A former Olympic canoe racer, Hearn told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool because he wanted to examine the peeling new coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to. Hearn said he was then detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released Friday night.

“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”

The Park Police did not immediately respond Monday to AP's questions about how many arrests were made and whether any charges had been filed. Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that the agency is not involved.

The White House said Monday that any arrests have been made only by the U.S. Park Police.

It was not immediately apparent what criminal or civil violation someone might commit reaching into the pool. Trump, in one of his Truth Social posts, cited laws against defacing monuments as grounds for imprisoning anyone harming the pool.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Katie Vogel contributed reporting from Washington.

Steven Isaiah Brothers, 22, died last week from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office. His mother suffered serious injuries, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, including a fractured skull and a large cut to her head.

Their bodies were discovered last Tuesday, when a relative contacted 911 after spotting an injured woman through the window of a home in the 7900 block of Cactus Plum. The family member went to the house to check on the victims after they had not heard from them.

Anthony Wayne Neasham, 65, described by BCSO as the woman’s boyfriend and a person of interest in the case, was later found dead in Burnet County, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

On June 22, BCSO confirmed Neasham was found dead with an “apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound” during the apprehension process.

The Texas Rangers are investigating Neasham’s death as part of the ongoing homicide investigation originating in Bexar County, DPS said.

BCSO said it is not currently looking for any additional suspects.

The woman, who suffered what Sheriff Javier Salazar described as a “savage beating,” was conscious at a hospital as of June 17 but was unable to recall what happened, according to BCSO.

As of June 22, she is recovering, the agency said.

The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact BCSO at 210-335-6000 or email BCSOtips@bexar.org.

Read more:

• Person of interest in far West Side death investigation believed to be dead, sheriff says
• BCSO seeks person of interest after man found dead, woman injured in far West Side home

The State Board of Education has two pivotal votes slated for this week that would usher in these changes: one on a rewrite of Texas’ social studies lessons, the other on a reading list for all public schools that includes teaching Christian stories.

On Monday, board members heard from teachers, students and community members in support of and concerned about the lessons ahead of scheduled preliminary votes this week. A final vote on the changes is expected Friday.

Nearly 500 people signed up to testify in a hearing that at several points turned contentious, with heated exchanges between speakers and the removal of at least one person deemed out of order by the board chair. 

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

The statewide reading list would require, among other literary works, that schools teach Bible stories to children as young as 6 years old up to young adults preparing to receive their diplomas.

If approved by the education board, both changes would take effect during the 2030-31 school year.

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

Sociology classes, for example, currently require students to understand “the impact of race and ethnicity on society” and “analyze the varying treatment patterns of minority groups.” But that standard does not exist in the newly proposed social studies plan. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the other hand, educators criticize how the social studies proposal prioritizes memorization over critical thinking and simplification over accuracy. Historians call attention to factual errors, saying the new standards would set children up for failure post-graduation. 

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

A panel of nine advisers guided the social studies overhaul, almost all of whom hold no Texas K-12 classroom experience and several of whom have ties to conservative activism. 

Among the nine allegations outlined by the Texas Education Agency, Fields is accused of failing to report the abuse of a student by a certified educator, according to a document obtained by KSAT. Ryan is accused of threatening the superintendent and other trustees.

“I can confirm an investigation regarding Judson ISD. Because the matter remains active and ongoing, TEA cannot comment further,” a TEA spokesperson wrote in an email to KSAT.

A spokesperson for Judson ISD emailed KSAT saying the investigation conducted by TEA is “ongoing.”

“Therefore, it would not be appropriate for the District to comments on the allegations,” the spokesperson said. “Further, TEA specifically classifies these materials as confidential audit working papers and has advised that they are not subject to public release.”

TEA is investigating whether Ryan engaged in conduct that prevented trustees from exercising independent judgment, as well as took action that undermined Fields’ authority and interfered with administrative functions.

The state also alleges Fields failed to notify the school board of an active TEA investigation and a pending court case involving a principal’s failure to report child abuse.

Fields was terminated in April, which Ryan attributed to a failure to manage the district’s finances appropriately, allowing district academic ratings to decline, failing to report child abuse and more. Fields said those reasons were “fabricated” in a letter obtained by KSAT shortly after his termination.

TEA also said staff failed to report the abuse of a middle school student by a teacher to the Department of Family and Protective Services or local law enforcement.

School board trustees are also accused of engaging in off-site, non-public deliberations regarding decisions related to superintendent employment and interim leadership.

Judson ISD’s school board is scheduled to meet in a special board meeting Tuesday.

Read also:

• Judson ISD interim superintendent to resign after four months on job

The tournament has been one of the highest-scoring in history so far and produced nearly 25% more scoring than the same span of games in the previous World Cup.

One reason for the increase in scoring might be the ball that FIFA is using for this tournament.

FIFA says the ball has been designed with deep seams to produce “optimal in-flight stability,” and players and coaches say it has been rocketing toward goalkeepers at a high velocity. There is also added grip to help striking and dribbling in wet or humid conditions.

“This ball is as fast as a cannonball. I think today and the last couple of days, you saw if you kick the ball in the right position, it’s extremely difficult to save,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said.

The games are also running longer because of increased stoppage time related to hydration breaks that are new for this tournament, allowing more scoring opportunities. And the tournament has a bigger talent gap because of the expanded 48-team field that debuted this year.

Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo said he was not surprised by the number of goals considering the talent of the players at the World Cup. He said also said attackers are more protected by officials than they used to be.

“They didn’t have this protection some 20, 30 years ago, when they were hit a lot more, when rough play was a lot more common,” he said Monday. “Today, any team that defends well and uses counterattacks and tries to play, can manage to do well.”

The result: Fans were treated to 121 goals in the first 40 games of the tournament, and many of them came from internationally known players.

Premier League players are scoring the most

More than half the goals scored so far in the tournament were by players from the top three professional leagues in England, Germany and Spain. The English Premier League leads the way.

The trend was on full display over the weekend in the match between the Netherlands and Sweden, a 5-1 triumph for the Dutch. All six goals were scored by players who competed in the Premier League in the 2025-26 season.

“I think the Premier League is more intense than this World Cup,” said Gabriel Martinelli, a Brazil player from Arsenal. “But it’s certainly still a very beautiful World Cup, with high-quality and intense matches.”

Real Madrid, Inter Miami of Major League Soccer and Liverpool were the clubs whose players have produced the most goals. Miami, of course, is all because of one man — Lionel Messi, who has five goals in two games.

In addition to the nearly 30 goals from English clubs, 16 came from the German league, 11 from the Spanish league, seven from the French league and five from the Italian league.

MLS saw its players score eight times. Messi had a hat trick in Argentina’s opening match and another two on Monday. The other MLS goals came from FC Dallas’ Petar Musa of Croatia, Atlanta United’s Matías Galarza of Paraguay and the Portland Timbers’ Finn Surman of New Zealand.

When FIFA announced the official squads, there were 200 players based in England at the club level, nearly two times more than the 109 players based in Germany.

The tallies for the goals were made based on the players’ clubs when the official squad announcements were made.

Real Madrid and Liverpool at the top

Real Madrid players scored seven times — four from France’s Kylian Mbappé, two from Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior and one from England’s Jude Bellingham.

Madrid did not have any players called up for Spain’s national team for the first time. It signed Marc Cucurella from Chelsea during the tournament, though, making one of its own a part of the World Cup with La Roja.

Liverpool got three goals from Dutch players — two by Cody Gapko and one by Virgil van Dijk. Another goal came from Sweden’s Alexander Isak, and the other was scored by Egypt's Mohamed Salah, who was still listed as a Liverpool player when the squads were announced.

Bayern Munich had four goals — two by England’s Harry Kane and one each by Germany’s Jamal Musiala and Colombia’s Luis Díaz.

Bayern was the team with the second-most players called up for the tournament with 18. Manchester City was the first with 19, though its only four goals at the World Cup so far came from Norway's Erling Haaland.

How many goals are we talking about?

With 121 goals scored by 88 players in the first 40 games of the tournament, the average per game was at three goals. There were only three 0-0 draws, and eight of the goals were own-goals.

The tournament is on pace to shatter the 172-goal record from Qatar in 2022. The records aren't an apples-to-apples comparison because the 2022 edition only had 64 matches compared with 104 this year.

But the pace for 64 matches this year is at almost 194 goals, well beyond the record from four years ago.

The trend in scoring goes beyond the World Cup. The Champions League has set records in the past two seasons: 3.27 goals per game in 2024-2025 and then 3.47 goals per game in 2025-2026.

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

San Antonio Metro Health’s violence prevention administrator Erica Haller-Stevenson, along with the executive director for Big Mama’s Safe House, Rose Williams, said safety means storing guns in a secure location.

Other gun safety tips include:

• Make sure the gun safety is on when it is not in use.
• Clear the gun chamber to ensure it does not have a bullet in it.
• Store the gun separately from the ammunition.
• Store the gun in a safe or gun case.
• Don’t share the key or combination code with just anyone.
• Use a gun lock to prevent a magazine clip from being loaded or trigger lock to prevent the trigger from being pulled.
• Talk to children of all ages about what they should and shouldn’t do if they find a gun in their home or at a relative’s or friend’s house.

Those who choose to use a gun lock or gun case can buy one at a retail store or online, but in San Antonio and Bexar County, gun locks and cases are regularly given away for free.

When these giveaway events are not happening, there are also numerous local community organizations where gun owners can go and pick one up for free.

Monica Ramos, public information officer for Bexar County, said for the last six years, the county has teamed up with community grassroots organizations to make gun locks and cases readily available through its county gun safety initiative Bexar Responsibly.

Ramos said just last week, 2,200 gun locks and cases were distributed to about a dozen organizations.

The devices are made available to community members and neighbors for free during giveaway events or by picking it up from participating organizations’ locations, like Big Mama’s Safe House.

Williams said having giveaways and locks physically available at community organizations or gun clubs located in neighborhoods means gun owners have easy access to the life-saving devices in their own communities from people they likely know, see or hear about.

She said hopefully the word can spread and more gun owners will seek out the free locks, making the community safer.

“So, in whatever spaces that they feel comfortable, they’re going to reach out. The difference is that we know them,” Williams said. “We’re out there in the community working, we’re a grassroot organization, they know us, they trust us. So it’s easier for us just to say, ‘Hey, here it is.’”

Ramos added that those seeking the free safety devices are not questioned about their firearms or if they even own a firearm.

“We want to make sure that the public feels comfortable and that residents are comfortable coming to us asking for a gun case or a gun lock. So there’s never questions asked or anything like that,” Ramos said.

She and Williams stressed providing free gun locks and cases is about responsible gun ownership, locking guns up and keeping them secure.

For a list of some of the community organizations that partner with Bexar County to offer free gun locks and cases, click “community partners” at the link here.

Read also:

• SAPD highlights importance of firearm storage to prevent accidental shootings

The MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed several miles outside Sitka in a sparsely populated area near Harbor Mountain. The coastal town sits on Baranof Island. The surrounding Pacific Ocean currents limit extreme temperatures but deliver roughly 100 inches (254 centimeters) of rain every year.

Rescuers arrived around 11 a.m., about an hour after the crash, and took all four crew members to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center, a statement from the Coast Guard said.

“We are incredibly relieved our crew members survived with only minor injuries,” Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander of the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard will investigate the crash. It's not clear what caused it.

This helicopter crash followed a string of three major plane crashes this month.

A business jet crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas, Tuesday night, killing one person on board. A B-52 crashed on June 15 during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard. And on June 14, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

___

Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed to this report from Juneau, Alaska.

The record company lawyer who became one of the music industry’s most powerful figures, launching or resurrecting the careers of such superstars as Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys, has died, it was announced Monday. He was 94.

The greatest way to celebrate the “man with the golden ears,” as he was colloquially known, is to listen to the musicians and songs he was instrumental in turning into career artists and timeless hits, from starting his career at Columbia Records in the 1960s to today.

Read on below and then listen to all 10 songs on The Associated Press' Spotify playlist here.

“I Will Always Love You,” Whitney Houston (1992)

The story is the stuff of music industry legend. Apparently, Davis and producer David Foster fought bitterly over the arrangement for Whitney Houston’s all-time hit, a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Davis wanted the final version of the song to feature its iconic 40-second a cappella intro, an experiment suggested by Houston's “Bodyguard” co-star Kevin Costner. Foster did not. Davis won out in the end.

“Smooth,”Santana ft. Rob Thomas (1999)

It was Davis who conceived of Santana's 1999 album, “Supernatural,” which paired guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana with some of the day’s hottest talents. The record won eight Grammys and gave Santana more success than he had ever enjoyed in his decades-long career. At its center is “Smooth” with Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas, a track Santana originally hated but Davis convinced him otherwise — as he was wont to do.

“Freeway of Love,” Aretha Franklin (1985)

Aretha Franklin had long been a star before joining Davis at Arista Records later in her career. But by the early '80s, as her commercial success had faded amid changing musical tastes, he helped revitalize her career. “Freeway of Love,” an R&B-pop track from her 1985 record “Who’s Zoomin' Who?” brought her back to the top of conversation. Their partnership was one for the books; it's no wonder she once referred to him as “the greatest record man of all time.”

“Piece of My Heart,” Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin (1967)

As the story goes, attending the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 was pivotal for a young Davis, who became so enamored with the performances that they transformed his approach to running Columbia Records. He'd just been named president of the label and used his power to bring a counterculture spirit to a company that had resisted rock ’n’ roll. But of the lineup, no act resonated with Davis quite like Big Brother, and in particular, the soulful singer Janis Joplin. Their partnership began then, when he took “Piece of My Heart” and suggested adding a chorus and shortening its run time and instrumentals — turning it into a No. 1 hit.

“Blinded by the Light,” Bruce Springsteen (1973)

Davis was an early adopter of Springsteen, as he was of many artists across his career. He gave the young singer-songwriter from New Jersey a chance in his early 20s and inspired him to write the everlasting single, “Blinded by the Light,” from his 1973 debut album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” It would sound like the stuff of mythology if it weren’t true.

“Fallin,’” Alicia Keys (2001)

It's not so much that Davis had a role in the debut single from the nascent, big-voiced Alicia Keys — but he was one of her first and most ardent supporters. He signed her to his J Records and helped make her the star she is today. He saw her greatness immediately and at the very beginning.

“Mandy,” Barry Manilow (1974)

Over 50 years ago, Davis threw a party to celebrate the release of Arista Records’ first Grammy record of the year nominee: Barry Manilow’s “Mandy.” Stevie Wonder showed up. So did John Denver and Elton John. What was a one-off celebration morphed into one of the best-known and most exclusive parties of the year: the annual pre-Grammy fundraising event hosted by Davis, including four months before his death. But his fabulous gala was not the only reason this song is included here: It is evidence of Davis’ ability to identify a hit and pair it with the right artist. He gave “Mandy” to Manilow, and the rest is history.

“Piano Man,” Billy Joel (1973)

Billy Joel shared a tribute to Davis on his Instagram account on Monday, writing, “Clive Davis convinced me to sign with Columbia Records many years ago. He recognized the talent of great musicians and understood the power of contemporary music.” The album that he released immediately after said signing? “Piano Man.” Not bad work, Davis.

“Blame It on the Rain,” Milli Vanilli (1989)

Like every major music exec, Davis' aim wasn't 100% all the time — though he was a lot more accurate than most. His Arista label had huge success with country superstars Brooks & Dunn, R&B group TLC, singer-songwriter and producer Babyface, Houston, Franklin and more. He also initially knocked it out of the park with Milli Vanilli, the male pop duo, which had a huge hit with “Blame It On the Rain.” The pair would soon become the embarrassment of the industry when, after winning a Grammy the next year, it was revealed that they weren’t actually singing their songs.

“Since U Been Gone,” Kelly Clarkson (2004)

Davis and Kelly Clarkson had a complicated relationship. Davis found “Since U Been Gone,” one of the biggest songs of her career, for Clarkson but wrote in his memoir that she didn’t want to record it originally. Clarkson says it is because she was told she would cowrite the song, but by the time she got to Sweden to work with producers and songwriters Max Martin and Dr. Luke, it had already been completed. It’s both yet another example of Davis’ keen ear — and his fallibility.

Law enforcement officials disrupted the plan a few days before the June 14 White House event, according to court documents.

William Lee Spartacus Falkner of Belfair, Washington, was arrested Friday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to court documents filed Monday in the Western District of Washington. Jordan W. Rincker, 28, was arrested Sunday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the Western District of Missouri. A defense attorney appointed to represent Falkner did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment, and court records do not reveal if Rincker has obtained an attorney. Neither man has had the opportunity to enter a plea.

“Law enforcement continues to do what it does — move to disrupt and hold accountable those allegedly plotting to do harm on the White House Grounds on June 14,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release.

Law enforcement officials learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn. The Justice Department last week announced federal charges against five people from states including Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California. The latest arrests bring the number of people known to be facing federal charges to seven.

Officials say the group members harbored fringe conspiracy theories and hoped the attack would destabilize the government.

The investigation began after the mother of an Ohio man contacted police because she was concerned about her son's recent firearms purchases and online communications, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

The man, 19-year-old Tycen Proper, told investigators that he was part of a group that wanted to trigger a revolution and target members of the government, and that they planned to fly explosive-laden drones into the event and then shoot panicked crowd members as they fled, according to the affidavit. Proper is charged with firearms offenses and crimes including attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States.

“Mr. Proper appreciates the serious nature of the charges currently pending against him and will address them appropriately in court at the right time," Proper’s attorney, Joe Patituce, said Monday. "For now, we are going to move the case forward one step at a time."

Investigators recovered high-powered firearms from several of the suspects and reviewed encrypted text messages between roughly 20 participants who shared detailed maps and aerial photographs of the area and discussed the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the intended attack, the documents show.

But it’s unclear from the court records how close the would-be attackers could have come to being able to carry out the plan had it not been thwarted.

Several suspects or co-conspirators who were questioned by the authorities said they did not intend themselves to carry out violence but planned to instead observe others. One said he would have traveled to the UFC event as a protester but had to return home after his vehicle malfunctioned. And though the participants spoke of using drones rigged with explosives, charging documents suggest they were still looking to acquire such equipment when the plot was interrupted.

Prosecutors say Rincker distributed cash to some of the conspiracy members, and that he accepted goods including weapons, a 3D printer, a computer and other items and agreed to produce drone parts. Rincker told an investigator that he didn't actually intend to help build the drones suing the printer, according to an FBI affidavit, and just wanted the printer so he could make and sell crafts.

An FBI affidavit says Falkner communicated with other group members about his ability to procure and operate drones as well as what tactics and explosives to use in the plot. After news broke that the plan had been disrupted, Falkner texted another group member to say, “Work trip is canceled. My boss got picked up,” and sent a link to an article detailing the initial arrests, according to the affidavit.

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has yet to make a formal request to Congress. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, including Monday evening. A top deputy defense secretary told senators about the Iran funding request last week, according to two people familiar with the situation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the developments.

Push for Pentagon money faces skeptical lawmakers

The push for billions of dollars in Iran war funding comes at a fraught political moment. Lawmakers are skeptical of the deal Trump struck with Iran to bring an end to the war, and wary of next steps. The White House has requested a remarkable $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon — a nearly 50% increase over the current fiscal year's funding levels.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he’s expecting a supplemental spending request from the administration for the war, and when it arrives, “we’ll work through it and see where the votes are.”

“We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to replenish, resupply a lot our munitions that have been depleted — not only just with what’s happening with Iran, but prior to that,” said Thune, R-S.D.

Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg spoke to several senators about the proposal in calls last week and he notified congressional committees that the $80 billion request had been sent to the Office of Management and Budget. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, the funding package will almost certainly run into trouble from lawmakers who refuse to support Trump's decision to go to war and are reluctant to give the Pentagon more money at a time of high costs of living for Americans at home.

“You’re spending families’ hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray told Hegseth in a hearing last month.

Trump seeks a record $1.5 trillion for Defense this year

In addition to the Iran funding, Republicans hope to secure about $1.1 trillion through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval. Then, they hope to secure an additional $350 billion through a mostly party-line vote later this summer.

The amount being sought by the Pentagon is far higher than the $29 billion estimate of war costs that Hegseth gave Congress during his testimony last month. The bulk of that amount was related to replacing munitions and repairing equipment but also included operational costs to keep forces deployed. That estimate did not include the cost to repair or rebuild U.S. military sites damaged in the region.

It's also far lower than the initial $200 billion the Pentagon floated as the costs at the start of the war. An early estimate put the cost of the first week of the war at $11.3 billion.

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a member of Democratic party leadership, said he expects the actual price tag could be much higher than the $80 billion being proposed.

Schatz said he hasn't done any counting of Democrats about whether there is support for an Iran-focused bill, “but I haven't found anyone who wants to do this.”

But Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana said, "To me it’s less about the war, it’s more about the stockpiles.”

Banks said, “I would sell it to my state as an investment in our defense industrial base, reshoring defense production to Indiana.”

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said funding for an Iran supplemental can't be done in isolation. It has to be done after lawmakers from both parties have agreed to a total spending amount for both defense and non-defense programs, “then the rest of this would follow pretty quickly,” Reed said.

And Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, a member of the Appropriations subcommittee on Defense, said he has been working with the administration to broaden the package to include funds for disaster aid for California, Hawaii and other states hard hit by fires and weather problems, as well as agricultural aid for farmers.

“I think that’s the kind of combination that could pass,” Hoeven said.

Hegseth declined to answer questions from reporters late Monday as he strode around the Capitol.

But on the issue of the cost of the war, Hegseth responded rhetorically during a Senate hearing last month, asking, “What is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon?"

He acknowledged the president's decision to confront the threat of a nuclear Iran "comes with cost — and we recognize that.”

___

Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Ben Finley contributed to this report.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it's opening a special investigation into the Tesla Model 3 crash on Friday near Houston, a significant probe because the car was using technology that Elon Musk considers key to the company's future.

The Tesla CEO is rolling out robotaxis using automated software in several U.S. cities this year and plans to invite Tesla owners to put their cars into the fleet using the same system across the country.

The driver told the Harris County Sheriff's Office that he was using the technology, according to a police report on the crash, but it's not clear what role, if any, it played in the incident.

The police report also noted that the driver was not drunk and is cooperating. It identified the woman killed as Martha Avila.

Video obtained by KHOU-TV shows the car traveling at top speed over the front lawn of a brick home in Katy, then ramming into a front room. The next shot shows the car encased in the home amid piles of crumbling plaster, split beams and bits of furniture.

Tesla did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The auto safety regulator, known as NHTSA, has launched several investigations into Tesla, including one late last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using self-driving technology, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries.

A few months earlier, the NHTSA opened an investigation into why Tesla apparently had not been reporting crashes promptly as required.

As for special crash investigations, the NHTSA has opened 46 involving Teslas using self-driving or driver-assistance technology over the past decade, according to the agency's records. In more than a dozen of those crashes, at least one person — a driver, passenger or pedestrian — was killed.

Tesla stock fell sharply early last year as car sales plunged amid a boycott of Musk after he waded into politics, leading President Donald Trump's budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency initiative and embracing European extremist candidates.

Musk has since shifted the Tesla story to one less about car sales and more about AI and robotaxis, and done so successfully. The stock is up 16% in the past year.

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s overhaul of an immigration verification system to check voter eligibility across the nation, striking down a central pillar of the government’s efforts to exercise more federal control over elections.

The judge cited Texas’ use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, which flagged several voters who were actually citizens as noncitizens, as evidence that it threatened both privacy and voting rights less than five months before the November midterm election.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said in her 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

Sooknanan’s decision does not eliminate SAVE, a decades-old immigration-status verification program. But it blocks the Trump administration’s 2025 overhaul of the system, which made it easier for states to check their voter rolls against the federal database, which includes individuals’ citizenship status and Social Security numbers.

Election officials have found that the modified database, however, is prone to error, something Sooknanan referenced in her decision. Federal officials, she wrote, “haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”

The ruling could strengthen challenges by voters who were removed, flagged, or placed under review by the system.

“States have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,” the judge wrote.

Voting rights groups, Trump administration react to ruling

The case was filed by the League of Women Voters and other groups who argued that the SAVE system was inaccurate and that using it to check voter rolls violated citizen privacy rights.

“Today’s decision is a resounding victory for voters,” said Marcia Johnson, chief of activation and justice for the League of Women Voters. “Efforts to create a federal voter database to facilitate voter purges threaten the fundamental right at the heart of our democracy.”

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who worked in the White House on democracy and voting rights issues under President Joe Biden, agreed that voters would benefit from the ruling.

“This provides incremental reassurance that they won’t be inaccurately singled out and have to jump through even more hoops to vote,” he said. “It stops the use of a deeply flawed process to cause trouble for real eligible citizens.”

However, James Percival, the general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains the SAVE database, criticized the ruling as a misguided effort to block the Trump administration from trying to address voter fraud.

“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” Percival said in a statement.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Michael Morley, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law and faculty director of the FSU Election Law Center, said the ruling prevents the federal government from using all the information at its disposal to ensure that only eligible voters take part in elections.

“It seems to leave the government in a somewhat tenuous position of being able to provide citizenship data to states for voting purposes that is less accurate than it otherwise would be,” he said. “It restricts the government’s ability to take advantage of all of the most accurate sources of information it has in order, in most cases, to confirm people’s citizenship status.”

Judge cites Texas’ use of SAVE database in ruling

Texas intervened as a defendant in the case since it had been actively using SAVE to verify the citizenship status of its more than 18 million registered voters. The state gained access to the database in March 2025 after signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.

In October, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced SAVE had flagged 2,724 people as “potential noncitizens” and sent the list to county election officials to investigate. That process involved mailing letters to each person flagged, requesting additional information to verify their citizenship. If county officials received no response after 30 days, the person’s registration was canceled.

Some voters who responded to the notices turned out to be U.S. citizens after all; others had their registrations canceled, although a specific number hasn’t been released. Hundreds of other registrants who were flagged had registered at the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency that issues driver’s licenses and state IDs. In Texas, proof of citizenship is required to obtain those documents.

In the ruling, Sooknanan said the state’s use of the database burdened and risked disenfranchising voters by incorrectly flagging naturalized citizens as noncitizens. The judge pointed to examples of voters in Texas who were U.S. citizens and had to provide proof of citizenship to keep their registration active and at least one U.S. citizen whose registration was revoked without their knowledge.

Sooknanan also pointed to an amicus brief filed by Travis County voter registration officials as evidence that the use of the overhauled SAVE database was inaccurate. The state flagged 97 potential noncitizens in Travis County. Voter registration officials found that about a quarter of those voters had registered at DPS and therefore had likely provided proof of citizenship.

Travis County officials were later able to confirm that at least 11 people who were flagged as potential noncitizens were in fact citizens.

“Texas threatened to revoke their voter registrations because of information obtained through the modified SAVE system; and they were required to confirm their citizenship to maintain their voter registrations,” Sooknanan said.

The secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Celia Israel, the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, said the ruling is “validating.”

“We have asked a lot of questions in the past several months about the SAVE database and about its accuracy,” Israel said. “The lawsuit confirms that there are inaccuracies and that it is worthwhile for us officials at the county level to ask the state questions.”

Other civil rights groups and voters have also challenged Texas’ use of the database in a federal court in Austin. The lawsuit is still pending.

Dion Nissenbaum is Votebeat’s senior national reporter and is based in Houston. Contact Dion at dnissenbaum@votebeat.org.

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.

Midland County Sheriff David Criner said deputies responded to the 5400 block of East Highway 80 after someone reported shots were fired in the area.

As deputies arrived, they found three people dead with apparent gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Midland County Sheriff’s Office said there is no threat to the public at this time.

Criner said the investigation is ongoing.

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Callaway was having a miscarriage, and had developed an infection. She wanted abortion-inducing medication or surgery to help empty her uterus and bring her suffering to an end. But, in a federal complaint filed Monday, Callaway says she’d already been refused that type of care at two Austin area emergency rooms, and felt she had no choice but to endure alone at home.

Her husband, Mario, was unwilling to accept that his otherwise healthy 40-year-old wife was suddenly wan and bleeding on the floor, while their young son watched in alarm. He wanted to take her to New Mexico or Colorado to get the care they say they were wrongfully denied in Texas. But she was too weak to sustain the trip.

When they finally saw her doctor days later, Callaway was prescribed abortion-inducing drugs to pass the miscarriage. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Callaway said when she pressed her doctor on why it had taken three medical facilities four days to treat her, she was told the emergency room would “have to be damned sure that it’s an actual miscarriage to be offering the pill.”

Four years after Texas banned nearly all abortions, Callaway is among women who say they are still being denied the full range of miscarriage care by doctors fearful of being accused of performing a prohibited abortion and spending life in prison or losing their medical licenses.

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill aimed at assuring doctors they wouldn’t be punished for treating miscarriages. The law went into effect last June. But months later, in October, Callaway found herself facing the same fear and uncertainty that has restricted pregnancy care in Texas since 2022.

Callaway’s complaint alleges that Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Round Rock and St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal statute that requires hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment, including for miscarriages. She also asked the Texas Medical Board and Texas Board of Nursing to investigate the healthcare providers who she says failed to treat her.

A spokesperson for Baylor Scott & White Health said the hospital could not comment on the details of any specific case, but that medical decisions are “guided by the clinical judgment of our physicians and care teams who … determine appropriate treatment based on medical needs and applicable legal requirements.”

In a statement, St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center said it would address the complaint through the regulatory process.

“It is our practice to support and partner with licensed physicians who use their extensive training and experience to exercise their independent medical judgment to assess patients’ needs and determine the course of treatment within applicable laws and regulations,” the statement said.

Callaway’s lawyers say in the complaint that EMTALA investigations are being delayed by the Trump administration, in part due to a 2022 lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. But it’s one of the few legal tools available to women like Callaway who want to challenge the impacts of the state’s abortion ban.

In the months since her miscarriage, Callaway says she struggles seeing pregnant women without imagining the worst case scenario.

“A lot of women don’t know — I didn’t — that it can go left really quickly,” she said. “And there are so many women where it did go left, and they’re not here to talk to us about this today.”

A hoped-for pregnancy interrupted

The Callaways have always lived an adventurous life. They met in ninth grade literature class in Athens, Georgia, and began dating in college. They’ve lived all over, including stretches in Michigan, New York City and Portugal, and served together in AmeriCorps. Callaway works in marketing, and started her own mushroom soda business on the side. They moved to Texas after their son was born eight years ago.

They’d been wanting to expand their family, and thought it might take time because they were a little older — but almost as soon as they started trying, they had a positive pregnancy test. They were both so ready for another exciting chapter in their lives.

“I immediately called the OB/GYN to let them know and get on the books for my first prenatal visit,” Callaway said. “We had already started to tell my son. We were just really happy. We were so looking forward to bringing this baby into our lives.”

Before her first appointment, when Callaway estimated she was seven weeks pregnant, she began spotting and experiencing pain. At her OB/GYN’s office, a nurse practitioner said she might have an ectopic pregnancy, a nonviable and potentially life-threatening condition in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, according to the complaint.

Callaway began panicking, grief over losing the pregnancy mixed with alarm over the potential consequences to her health. She’d read about Kyleigh Thurman, an Austin-area woman who lost a fallopian tube after doctors delayed treating her ectopic pregnancy, in violation of federal law.

“I hadn’t heard of any good situations from this,” Callaway said. “It sounded like an emergency.”

The nurse ordered bloodwork to assess Callaway’s human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, levels. In early pregnancy, hCG, known as the “pregnancy hormone,” typically doubles every 48 to 72 hours. Declining numbers usually indicate a miscarriage.

Callaway was already home when she got the results — her hCG had dropped from 688 mIU/mL to 130 mIU/mL over the last 10 days, the complaint says. By that time, she was bleeding more, the cramping was increasing and she felt lethargic. She called the after-hours nurse, who said her hCG was still too high to offer more significant intervention, like a surgery or medication, according to the complaint.

It was a Friday night, so if her condition worsened, the nurse said she should go to the emergency room, Callaway said.

“I was just totally confused,” Callaway said. “And then things took a turn for the worse.”

Hospital uncertainty

That night, with her husband and son in the car, a shaking, sick Callaway walked into the emergency room at Baylor Scott & White in Round Rock. She told the nurse that she was in pain and bleeding, and based on her declining hCG levels, was having a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.

The emergency room physician asked her to consent to an STD test, she said.

“I don’t need an STD test, I’m having a miscarriage,” Callaway remembers thinking. But to expedite the process, she agreed to a painful pelvic exam.

The doctor confirmed her pregnancy was not ectopic, but she was miscarrying. There was no fetal cardiac activity, so Callaway expected to receive medications, likely misoprostol and mifepristone, which is the standard procedure for treating early pregnancy loss. The abortion-inducing drugs help accelerate the body’s passage of the fetal tissue to reduce the risk of infection, retained tissue or other complications.

Instead, she says she was told to go home and wait for the pregnancy to pass. She was told it would be like a bad period, and she could take Tylenol for the pain. The doctor told her everything with her blood work looked fine, according to the complaint. But Callaway said her blood specimen was still in the room, not yet tested.

“So I’m not really believing it,” she said. “I don’t think there was any intention on addressing the issue. It was a passing the buck situation.”

Back at home, the chills and pain increased. She thought about the women who had died from delayed miscarriage care. She was well aware of the disproportionate risk she faced as a Black woman. She started talking with her husband about what they would do if she didn’t survive — how he would raise their son, how he could access the life insurance policy.

He was aghast. He’d always thought he’d be able to protect his wife against anything that came their way, but this wasn’t a bear or a rattlesnake, he said.

“I just felt helpless in a way that I’ve never felt in this relationship, in this marriage,” he said. “It did something to me where I felt like I had to still be present for my son and be level-headed, but then on the inside I’m freaking out.”

He wanted to go out to the car, close the door and scream. Instead, he frantically Googled health care facilities in other states, calling around, looking at flights, even as his wife told him she wasn’t well enough to travel.

Callaway’s bloodwork came back in the morning showing several abnormal metrics, the complaint says. She called the hospital back, where she recalled a nurse telling her that while the labs weren’t normal, her condition was “not necessarily life or limb threatening.” She was told, once again, to follow up with her OB/GYN.

“No one’s here to help me,” Callaway remembers thinking. “I just felt like I was on my own, and that these people didn’t care. And if the hospital isn’t going to treat you, what are you going to do?”

A nurse Callaway knew through her cousin reviewed her records and advised her on how to know if she was hemorrhaging or if the infection was worsening. On Sunday, she decided to try another hospital. At St. David’s Round Rock, a physician assistant determined her hCG was now 50 mIU/mL and she had developed an infection, the complaint says. She was given pain meds and antibiotics, but the physician assistant said the emergency room didn’t offer mifepristone and misoprostol, or surgical treatments for miscarriages, according to the complaint.

The next day, she finally got in to see her OB/GYN, who Callaway said was immediately concerned by the signs of infection and blood loss. The doctor found retained fetal tissue, which can lead to infection, and offered her the treatment she’d been denied all weekend — abortion-inducing medication to pass the pregnancy.

“She made the right call,” Callaway said. “I just wish the call was made sooner.”

Life of the mother

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Texas banned all abortions from the moment of conception, except to save the life of the pregnant patient. Doctors who perform prohibited abortions can face up to life in prison, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in fines and the loss of their medical license.

Doctors warned that the strict penalties, and the unpredictable nature of pregnancy, would inevitably incentivize healthcare providers to hesitate before they provided medically necessary miscarriage care. Almost immediately, their predictions came true. Dozens of women came forward with stories of medical care delayed or denied by doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who wanted to wait until they were “damned sure” the law allowed them to intervene, as Callaway said her doctor put it.

Many of these women sued, seeking to overturn the law or widen the medical exemption. The lawsuits failed to amend the law. But after ProPublica revealed that at least four Texas women had died due to delayed treatment, lawmakers agreed to take a second look at the restrictions.

Senate Bill 31, known as the Life of the Mother Act, passed with overwhelming support in both chambers last session and was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who said at the time that it would “protect both mothers and babies while giving medical professionals the legal security and clinical clarity they desire.”

The law says a medical crisis need not be “imminent” before healthcare providers can act, and that a doctor can only be charged if the state can prove “no reasonable doctor” would have made the same call. It also required the Texas Medical Board to create training for doctors who perform obstetrics care.

That training, finalized in early 2026, lays out a hypothetical scenario in which a woman is experiencing early pregnancy loss. The training materials ask whether managing a miscarriage counts as an abortion and must be reported to the state.

“NO. Management of first-trimester incomplete early pregnancy loss is not an abortion under Texas law,” the slide says, before noting that it is legal to provide both misoprostol and mifepristone in a case like this.

Molly Duane, Callaway’s attorney through Amplify Legal, said she’s not surprised that women are still coming forward with these stories, even after the clarifying law went into effect.

“People don’t walk into emergency rooms with signs on their forehead saying this is a miscarriage, this is an ectopic pregnancy,” she said. “Pregnancy is complicated and that’s why abortion bans cannot and do not work, because once you ban one type of care, you effectively ban everything.”

Legal avenues

Callaway filed a complaint Monday against the hospitals under EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. This 40-year-old federal law, born out of a Texas statute designed to stop patient dumping, says emergency rooms must stabilize anyone who shows up.

Before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, courts long held that abortion can be a necessary stabilizing treatment for a pregnant woman having a medical emergency. When Texas and other states banned the procedure, the Biden administration issued guidance saying EMTALA overrode state abortion bans.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued, saying Biden was trying to “transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.” A district court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, putting the guidance on ice for Texans. The Biden administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

When President Donald Trump took office last year, he revoked the guidance nationwide. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement that “women will receive care for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and medical emergencies in all fifty states — this has not and will never change in the Trump Administration.”

Some patients in abortion ban states have found accountability through the law. Last year, federal investigators concluded that Ascension Seton, in the Austin area, violated EMTALA when it denied Thurman treatment for her ectopic pregnancy. She ultimately lost a fallopian tube.

While Thurman’s case was resolved quickly, Duane said others are being slow-rolled. She said CMS officials told her that Texas cases are being reviewed by the Department of Justice to ensure they comply with the 5th Circuit’s order in Paxton’s case, delaying final adjudication for an “interminable” period. CMS did not respond to a request for comment.

“The law is still there and you don’t get things you don’t ask for, so we’re going to continue to push for EMTALA to be enforced in Texas,” Duane said. “But I think people should be really concerned about … how the behavior of politicians in the state of Texas is impeding investigations into substandard care.”

Callaway also filed complaints with the Texas Medical Board and Texas Board of Nursing, asking for investigations into the doctors and nurse practitioners who did not provide her with medications or surgical options. The medical board recently sanctioned three doctors for delaying miscarriage care, resulting in the death of two women.

Duane, who has litigated on behalf of doctors, said she is sympathetic to the predicament facing healthcare providers because of the law. But patients should not be silent when their needs are being pushed aside due to fear, she said.

“What I will not accept is that patient care has just drastically changed, and that this is a new normal,” she said. “It’s not normal. It’s not normal to send someone home in significant pain and bleeding with instructions to take over the counter Tylenol.”

Months after that traumatizing weekend, Callaway saw firsthand how different care can be elsewhere.

While on a family trip in the Portuguese countryside, she suddenly started bleeding heavily, soaking through her clothes and the rental car seat. Mario rushed them to a hospital, where she navigated a language barrier to explain that she’d recently had a miscarriage. She was ushered into the dedicated obstetrics emergency room, where the doctor immediately took her seriously. They discovered more retained fetal tissue that her doctors in the U.S. had missed.

“I just remember the bedside manner of the doctor there. I just immediately felt like everything was going to be okay,” she said. “When I explained to her what I had already gone through, it was confusing to her that anyone would wait or have you go to a specialist. My understanding was that common sense trumped everything in this setting.”

Since returning to Texas, Callaway had to leave her marketing job, where she worked with both hospitals. Mario has gone to counseling, and they had to help their son through a period where he was unusually withdrawn and sad.

Callaway hopes to still expand their family one day, but knowing what she knows now, it’s hard to imagine feeling safe enough to do so.

“It wasn’t just grieving the loss of a pregnancy, but grieving a system you thought would protect you,” she said.

Disclosure: Ascension/Seton and Baylor Scott & White Health have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

“Not gonna support the Democratic Party,” Carlson was quick to add, speaking late last week on the show “Can't Be Censored.” “I don't know what I'm going to do.”

Carlson, who has amassed a large following on his own podcast since being fired from Fox News in 2023, has more recently diverged from the party, a disillusionment supercharged by President Donald Trump's decision to go to war with Iran in February.

Carlson supported Trump in 2024. After the war began, he apologized for supporting the then-presidential candidate and “misleading people," saying it wasn't intentional.

He's repeatedly criticized the war as being at the behest of Israel at the expense of Americans, and attacked the party for failing to represent its own voters, citizens and nation.

“They are making decisions on the basis of other criteria, what’s best for this company, what’s best for Israel, what’s best for our donors,” he said. “That’s not just, like, they are off in the wrong direction, like, that is unacceptable, that’s treasonous, it’s immoral, it can’t continue."

“I’ve been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, I mean very consistent defender, but there’s no defending this," he said. “So no, I’m out. And if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out.”

The businessman and lawyer, whose ventures include a clothing line, wine and rum brands, and a restaurant, earned U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite never having run for office and on Monday led the presidential runoff race by 1 percentage point, or nearly 251,000 votes, with all but a fraction of the votes counted.

De la Espriella’s victory, which electoral authorities are expected to declare this week, will add Colombia to a growing list of countries that have turned to political outsiders in search for solutions to complex social, security and economic challenges.

The self-proclaimed representative of “the never-before-seen” promised voters fearful of renewed internal conflict to combat violent crime with an iron fist, pledging a strategy that includes ending outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s attempts to establish dialogue with multiple armed groups — an effort that has largely failed — and building mega-prisons, emulating those of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

Progressive candidate Iván Cepeda, Petro’s protégé, is challenging the results.

“I don’t like either of them, but I’m terrified of continuity,” retiree María del Rosario Villaveces, 66, said after voting Sunday in the capital, Bogota.

Villaveces, 66, added she is concerned that de la Espriella “has no idea about politics,” but she said that his running mate, former finance minister José Manuel Restrepo, gives her “a little peace of mind” because “he does know (politics) and is well organized.”

Petro is as much a candidate as Cepeda and de la Espriella

More than 26 million people voted in the runoff. Of those, over 426,000 people chose a third, no-name option on the ballot that allows voters to express dislike of both candidates. About 29,000 people cast blank ballots.

Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said most voters do not perceive lack of political experience as a risk even though plenty of outsiders have failed to get much done.

“They wanted a candidate who would decisively break with Petro and the left,” he said. “Part of the country was voting as much against Petro and the left as for de la Espriella, associating the left with erosion of security, economic stagnation, etc., whether or not that’s fair.”

De la Espriella, nicknamed “The Tiger,” told thousands of supporters that he will “govern for all Colombians.” But as he spoke behind a bulletproof glass Sunday night, he also echoed the frustration of many eager to see the end of Petro's presidency.

“Pack your bags and prepare to become the opposition,” he told Petro's camp. “Make no mistake, Mr. Cepeda. You already know how fiercely the tiger roars.”

Cepeda on Monday responded to the remarks, warning de la Espriella against threats, veiled or otherwise.

“Don’t come threatening us," Cepeda said in the capital, Bogota. "Neither your roars nor your screams frighten us.”

He also asked supporters to remain calm and maintain “exemplary behavior.” Hours earlier, people in the western city of Cali took to the streets, damaging a public bus, several surveillance cameras and an ATM.

Voters expect security improvements

Sunday’s winner will begin a four-year term Aug. 7.

The candidates pitched voters widely different strategies to prevent the South American country from the nonstop violence, such as car bombs, kidnappings, disappearances and forced displacements, that Colombians lived with in previous decades.

Yolanda Hernández, who recycles trash for a living, voted for Petro in 2022 but cast her ballot for de la Espriella this time. While she acknowledged that Petro was unable to deliver on promises meant to help the poor because of congressional gridlock, she said Colombia cannot afford another four years under his vision for the country.

“We want change in Colombia because it’s always the same violence, always the same thing,” Hernández, 49, said. “(Petro) said he was going to lower the cost of services, that he was going to lower the price of food, and everything is more expensive.”

Last year, authorities recorded 14,780 homicides, the most since at least 2015, driven by clashes among illegal armed groups. Among those killed was conservative presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe. Colombia’s illegal groups have more than 27,000 members.

De la Espriella, 47, pitched a heavy-handed approach to crime-fighting, including drug trafficking, with tactics that draw from Bukele's playbook. Those tactics have lowered homicide rates in the Central American country but have fueled accusations of human rights abuses.

De la Espriella joins list with Milei and Noboa

De la Espriella managed to defeat more experienced conservative politicians in May's first-round vote, including Sen. Paloma Valencia, who represented the party of the influential former President Álvaro Uribe. For Yann Basset, a professor of Political Science at the University of Rosario, De la Espriella's feat marks a “ new stage for the Colombian right. ”

“There is perhaps a weariness among political figures that contributes to the success of this outsider populism against the political class,” Basset said.

In Latin America, several presidents have achieved electoral victories with little political experience.

In Argentina, Javier Milei, a television commentator, formed a party, rose to fame and served as a congressman shortly before becoming president. In Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, entered a snap election with only months of experience as a National Assembly member and won.

De la Espriella holds dual Colombian and U.S. citizenship. He’s a Trump supporter and a member of the Republican Party.

“Congratulations to “El Tigre” (THE TIGER!) Abelardo de la Espriella, the new President of Colombia!" Trump said Monday on Truth Social. “It was my Great Honor to endorse him, and I look forward to working together to build a powerful relationship between Colombia and the United States of America, which will bring new levels of Greatness for both of our Countries!”

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

Albert Nixon Richter IV, 44, shot and killed his estranged wife Brianna Richter, 40, before turning the gun on himself last Friday in the 100 block of Red Hawk Ridge, near Hardy Oak Boulevard. A medical examiner ruled Brianna’s death a homicide and Albert’s death a suicide.

Albert shot his way through the North Side home’s glass doors around noon last Friday and made his way towards Brianna, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said during a news conference on Friday.

SAPD believed Albert did not live at the residence.

Albert also shot Hunter Albrecht, a seven-year SAPD officer, in the lower abdomen during the early hours of the barricade, McManus said. He was sent to a local hospital and is in good condition, a hospital spokesperson told KSAT.

After a SWAT team’s multiple attempts to contact Albert, tear gas was used inside the home, a SAPD preliminary report said.

SAPD deployed a drone around 3 p.m. and flew it inside the home to find both Albert and Brianna dead. McManus said Albert had a pistol and turned the gun on himself.

The chief said there were two children inside the house who lived with Brianna. The children are OK, according to McManus. He could not confirm if Albert was the father of the two children.

Neighbors in the Stone Oak neighborhood came home on the Juneteenth holiday to SWAT and SAPD vehicles that closed off streets.

Multiple residents in the neighborhood were evacuated from their homes.

“The home is supposed to be a safe space, so the fact that this happened, it’s a heinous crime and it’s unacceptable and its absolutely devastating,” neighbor Erica Kennedy-Garcia said.

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

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

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

Read also:

• Man kills wife, shoots SAPD officer before turning gun on himself at Stone Oak home, police chief says
• ‘Absolutely devastating’: Neighbors react to deadly domestic dispute in Stone Oak

The bill, which passed 85-5 and now heads to the House, has been the focus of intense negotiations in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties try to address housing costs in an election year. The final version of the legislation bans corporate investors from buying single-family homes but doesn’t include a Senate provision that would have required investors to sell newly constructed homes within seven years.

The measure was the result of years of work to “lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., who worked with Democrats to get the bill passed.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking panel, said it is the most significant housing bill to pass Congress since 1990, when the average home in America was sold for $150,000. Now it costs more than $500,000, she said.

The bill “acknowledges that the federal government has a role to play in lowering housing prices,” Warren told The Associated Press. "For the first time ever, private equity will be blocked from buying up single-family homes and trying to turn housing into one more Wall Street investment.”

Senate passage of the bill shapes up as a rare bipartisan legislative achievement when much of Republicans' agenda has stalled. The House is expected to give final approval later this week and send the bill to President Donald Trump, who has signaled his support.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who helped negotiate the legislation, said it was a “huge step toward finally addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country.”

Housing costs are a concern for both parties

Republicans and Democrats have embraced the bill as a way to show they are addressing the nation’s affordability crisis, driven in part by rising home prices due to a shortage of affordable housing. The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes have been hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023 — well short of the 5.2-million annual pace that’s historically been the norm. Sales slowed last year to a 30-year low and have remained sluggish so far this year, declining in January and February versus a year earlier.

The Economic Report of the President in April found a shortage of 10 million homes, while a report this month from the Joint Center For Housing Studies at Harvard University found sales of existing homes were at three-decade lows and inventories were rising due to high home buying costs. “Cost burdens for both renters and owners continue to climb, while assistance remains profoundly underfunded,” the report said.

While the median U.S. monthly rent has been declining for nearly three years, it was still 17.2% higher in May than it was before the pandemic, according to data from Realtor.com.

Changes for grants, Section 8 and manufactured housing

To increase the supply of housing, the bill would streamline environmental reviews and speed up the construction process.

It would offer funding to local governments that build more housing, including Community Development Block Grant money to places exceeding the median rate of homebuilding. It would also provide new dollars for communities to turn abandoned infrastructure into housing, and offers a framework for communities that want to reform outdated zoning regulations, which often limit larger housing developments.

The legislation would allow banks to invest more in affordable housing and raise limits on the number of public housing units that can receive private financing through Section 8 funding to rehabilitate properties. And it would remove outdated requirements and expand federal financing to make manufactured homes more affordable.

“Manufactured housing produces some of the most cost-effective housing in America, but access to financing has been tightly restricted,” Warren said. “This creates the opportunity for more manufactured housing and, at the same time, creates a structure for people living in manufactured housing communities to organize and protect their investment in their homes.”

Lawmakers compromised on a disaster program

One of the sticking points between the two chambers was over a federal disaster recovery program.

An earlier Senate bill had permanently authorized block grant recovery funds, a change intended to ensure that funding requests aren't needed after every disaster. House lawmakers opposed that provision because of concerns over how the program was run, so they agreed on a three-year authorization instead.

The final bill has received widespread support in the housing community, both from organizations representing landlords and large property owners as well as groups that advocate for tenants and low-income renters.

“There is no magic wand that will fix this crisis overnight, and no single piece of legislation is perfect,” said David Dworkin, chief executive of the National Housing Conference, the nation’s oldest housing coalition.

“Compromise demands that. But this bill is a significant down payment on a long-term effort to make housing more affordable for all Americans.”

San Antonio police identified the suspect as Albert Richter, 44, who authorities said shot and killed his estranged wife, Brianna Richter, 40, before wounding a responding officer and dying by suicide.

The shooting happened Friday on Red Hawk Ridge near Hardy Oak Boulevard.

Additionally, an SAPD officer Hunter Albrecht was also shot by Albert. Albrecht was taken to a local hospital and is in good condition, a hospital spokesperson told KSAT.

Court records show Brianna Richter filed for divorce in April, moved into a new home and obtained a protective order against Albert Richter before the shooting.

Marta Pelaez, a domestic violence expert with Family Violence Prevention Services, said separation often serves as a trigger for escalating violence in abusive relationships.

“The entire time during which that abusive relationship is progressing, it progresses to this ultimate act,” Pelaez said. “What in many occasions is the triggering factor is the fact that there is a separation.”

Records also show Albert Richter was charged in 2025 with misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury to a family member. The charge was later dismissed after the complainant chose not to proceed with the case.

Pelaez said abusive relationships are frequently rooted in an abuser’s desire for power and control.

“The abuser’s whole purpose in life is moving progressively towards actual, total power and control over the victim,” Pelaez said.

She encourages anyone planning to leave an abusive relationship to create a safety plan before a crisis develops. That includes identifying trusted friends or family members who can help and contact authorities if concerns arise.

Protective orders remain an important tool for victims, Pelaez said, but they are not always enough to stop someone determined to commit violence.

“Anything that is put in front of an abuser with the clear intention to kill the victim is going to be futile. It’s not going to work,” she said.

Pelaez said cases like the Stone Oak shooting should serve as a reminder of the importance of recognizing warning signs and ensuring victims have access to support and resources.

“It’s so important that we learn the lessons that are provided by these horrific circumstances,” she said.

KSAT has compiled domestic violence resources on its “Loving in Fear” page for those seeking help or information about abusive relationships.

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

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

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

Related coverage on KSAT:

• Couple identified in Stone Oak murder-suicide by medical examiner
• Man kills wife, shoots SAPD officer before turning gun on himself at Stone Oak home, police chief says
• ‘Absolutely devastating’: Neighbors react to deadly domestic dispute in Stone Oak

Then there's the price of beer.

There are some fun — and yes, sometimes pricey — food and drink offerings at the venues playing host to the World Cup. A $75 caviar-topped tray of tater tots and a $40 empanada weighing in at 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms) for the daring or for sharing in Miami. Rib-eye tacos for $8 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Something called a Twinkie cheeseburger that has nothing to do with dessert for $22 in Los Angeles.

Prices, in many cases, aren't all that different from what U.S. fans would experience on NFL Sundays or college football Saturdays. But some international fans aren't used to such pricing and are calling foul, especially over beer prices that can top $20.

“It's unfair. It's not right. It's wrong,” said Thomas Schüller, an engineer from Germany in Toronto to watch his national team play over the weekend, as he held a beer that cost him 24.25 Canadian dollars (about $17 or 15 euros). “It's three times the cost of what I pay in my country.”

But is that stopping him?

“Well, no,” Schüller acknowledged.

World Cup beer prices become a mild pint of discord

There is clearly some sticker shock among international visitors to this World Cup, especially when it comes to the concession prices. In Europe, it's not uncommon for beers to be perhaps around 4 or 5 euros (about $5-6).

There's also no shortage of intrigue on the menu at the concession stands at stadiums across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“Never seen anything like it,” said Janine Arbetter, a fan from Austria, as she waited for a hot dog, chips and soda combo in Miami last week. The pre-tip price: $19.35 (about 17 euros), which included a discount for using Visa. “It's a lot of food for a little snack.”

Some Argentina fans happily showed off their $34 lobster rolls from a match in Kansas City on social media, but in Toronto, the brisket sandwich with chips and a bottle of soda for nearly 40 Canadian dollars ($28) had some online commenters lamenting it as “robbery.”

“It's OK, more or less, for the World Cup,” German fan Daniel Feldmann said of the food prices while watching a match in Vancouver last week.

Concession offerings vary from stadium to stadium

FIFA, the sport's governing body and the tournament organizer, has very specific rules on just about everything related to the World Cup — and there are guidelines that concessionaires have to follow as well. But prices can vary by market, as do the food and drink offerings. And that means the experience in one city might look, or taste, nothing like what's offered in another.

The “Fancy AF Tots” for $75 at Miami Stadium aren't really tots at all — it's three deep-fried hash brown patties, with caviar, creme fraiche and chives. (For those who just want the caviar, it'll be $70.) Southern California's Twinkie cheeseburger is in fact a burger topped with a Texas Twinkie — a bacon-wrapped jalapeño stuffed with brisket and cream cheese.

But there's also a slew of choices specific to a local market; for example, Vancouver offers short rib poutine (an iconic Canadian dish of fries loaded with beef gravy, pulled short rib and cheese curds) along with a maple bacon smokie (smoked sausage topped with bacon onion jam that features Canadian maple syrup).

And in Miami, the signature offerings include pan con lechon (a Cuban-style sandwich with pork, infused with citrus mojo sauce and served on a toasted full Cuban loaf) and Empanada Mundial (the five-pound, handmade, chicken-and-cheese-stuffed dish named after the World Cup).

Both Vancouver and Miami have Sodexo Live as a food and beverage provider, and the typical game-day menus in both stadiums were revised a bit to accommodate a soccer crowd.

“We want it to feel like Miami when you’re here,” said Zach Williams, Sodexo Live's vice president of operations at Miami Stadium. “Everything we do around the Miami Stadium, we want to make sure everybody understands that when they come here, they’re getting a Miami experience.”

Atlanta Stadium keeps prices low

In Mexico City, a beer could cost a day's pay — literally. The daily minimum wage in Mexico City is just 315.04 pesos (roughly $18). Some beers at Mexico City Stadium were selling for between 299 and 310 pesos — about twice as much as fans would ordinarily pay in the same stadium when the World Cup isn't in town.

But in Atlanta, where Falcons owner and stadium operator Arthur Blank promised the low concession prices he's championed for many years would hold for the World Cup, pizza slices were $3, 32-ounce sodas were $4, a cheeseburger was $5, chicken tenders with fries were $6 and beers could be had for as little as $8.

Jonathan Arango, a 33-year-old from Greenville, South Carolina, was at a match in Atlanta with his wife, daughter and father.

“In total for what we got — three orders of tacos, a slice of pizza, two waters and a Coke — we spent like $50,” Arango said. “Compared to what we’ve paid at other events ... it's nice after you paid a lot for a ticket.”

And Schüller pointed out that even though the tournament does come around every four years, it still feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The entire football world is having fun,” Schüller said, “so cheers to that.”

___

Associated Press journalists Tales Azzoni, Maura Carey, Andrew Dalton, Carlos Rodriguez, Alanis Thames, Stephen Whyno and Ben Kule contributed to this story from various World Cup venues. Kule is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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

One incumbent who is not up for election but has emerged as a key figure in the campaign is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is looking to shape the city's congressional delegation through a series of endorsements, including for challengers to two Democratic incumbents.

New York is expected to play a key role in deciding control of the chamber in November.

In New York City, competitive primaries in traditionally safe Democratic seats could help define the party’s identity in the Empire State and beyond.

In the 10th Congressional District in Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman faces a strong challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has endorsements from Mamdani and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Mamdani and Lander are former mayoral campaign rivals.

In the 13th Congressional District in Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, five-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat faces three primary challengers, including doctoral student and political organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who also has Mamdani's backing.

In the 7th Congressional District straddling Brooklyn and Queens, retiring 17-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, but he faces a tough race against state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, who has endorsements from Mamdani and Sanders.

In Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District, eight Democrats are running to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler. The top contenders include state Assemblymen Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, attorney, Donald Trump critic and former Republican George Conway, and Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg. Conway leads the field in fundraising, but Lasher boasts endorsements from Nadler, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and former independent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

North of the city in the 17th Congressional District, five Democrats hope to unseat two-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, who is unopposed for the nomination. The field includes former White House counterterrorism official and Army combat veteran Cait Conley, Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson and Tarrytown Village Trustee Effie Phillips-Staley. Conley leads in fundraising and available cash as of early June, followed by Davidson, with Phillips-Staley a distant third.

This swing district in the northern suburbs of New York City is among the top seats Democrats hope to flip. Democrat Kamala Harris narrowly carried the district in 2024. Her strongest showing was in Westchester County, the largest of the district’s four counties and the closest to New York City. Trump carried Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties with double-digit leads.

On Long Island, vulnerable Democratic freshmen Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen are defending their seats in the 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts, respectively. Both face contested primaries.

In the massive 21st Congressional District in upstate New York, Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is not seeking a seventh term following her aborted run for governor and her withdrawn nomination for United Nations Ambassador. State Assemblyman Robert Smullen has the backing of local party officials to replace her, while business owner Anthony Constantino has an endorsement from Trump.

The only statewide contest at stake on Tuesday is the Democratic primary for state comptroller, where the five-term incumbent, Tom DiNapoli, faces his first-ever primary challenge after almost 20 years in office.

Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James are running for reelection, but they are unopposed for their party’s nominations and do not appear on primary ballots, as is the case for their Republican opponents, Bruce Blakeman and Saritha Komatireddy. Under New York election law, primaries are not held in contests where only one candidate seeks the nomination.

Voters will also decide contested primaries for state Senate and state Assembly. All 63 state Senate and 150 state Assembly seats are up for election in 2026. Democrats hold about 2-to-1 majorities over Republicans in both chambers.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, state comptroller, state Senate and state Assembly.

Who gets to vote?

Voters registered with a political party may participate only in their own party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

How many voters are there?

As of Feb. 20, there were about 13.4 million registered voters in New York, including about 6.4 million registered Democrats, about 3 million registered Republicans and about 3.4 million voters not affiliated with any party.

How many people actually vote?

About 899,000 Democratic primary votes and about 451,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2022 primaries for governor.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 20% of the 2022 primary vote was cast early in-person or by mail. The figure rose to about 39% in the 2024 presidential primaries.

As of Sunday, about 277,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

New York counties and New York City tend to release all or almost all of their results from early voting and most of their results from mail voting in the first vote update of the night, usually before any results from in-person Election Day voting are released.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2022 primary, the AP first reported results at 9:04 p.m. ET, or four minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 3:11 a.m. ET with about 95% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

In New York, an automatic recount is triggered in races where more than 1 million votes are cast if the margin of victory is less than 5,000 votes. For smaller races, the automatic recount is triggered if the margin of victory is 20 votes or less or 0.5% or less of the total votes cast. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 133 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of New York's 10th District Democratic U.S. representative to Dan Goldman.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The Republican gubernatorial runoff features two-term Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, son of Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson. President Donald Trump announced Friday he was endorsing both Evette and Wilson in the runoff.

“I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other,” he said in a Friday evening social media post. Trump had endorsed Evette in the primary over Wilson and five other candidates.

Trump’s picks have had a strong record at the ballot box in 2026, although some recent contests have shown that the president’s backing is not a guarantee of victory. The president’s picks for Iowa governor and Georgia governor lost their nomination bids, while his pick for Oklahoma governor was forced to a runoff after placing second in the June 16 primary.

Evette had Trump's endorsement for the primary but also failed to win the nomination outright. She received 28.9% of the primary vote, narrowly outperforming Wilson, who received 26.1%. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman placed third with 17.1%.

Evette’s best showing was in the Pee Dee region to the northeast along the North Carolina border and the Atlantic Ocean. The region was a strong area for Trump in 2024 and comprised about 15% of the total primary vote. Wilson’s strongest area was in the central core of the state, where Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris ran about even in 2024. The area includes Richland County, home to the state capital of Columbia, and reaches southwest to the Georgia border to include several of the state’s majority Black counties. Collectively, the area made up about 19% of the total primary vote.

A key battleground in the runoff will be the Upcountry region that includes some of the state’s most populous counties, including Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson. Evette was the top vote-getter in this area, although the margin between first-place Evette and third-place Norman was less than 2 percentage points.

The eventual Republican nominee will face Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who won the nomination outright in the primary. Democrats last won the governorship in 1998.

The winner in November will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has endorsed Evette. Regardless of party, his replacement will likely play a key role in the early stages of the 2028 presidential race, with the state expected to once again hold critical first-in-the-South presidential primaries.

Placing a distant fifth in the gubernatorial primary was U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a one-time staunch Trump ally who broke with the president in calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Both the Republican and Democratic primaries to replace her in the 1st Congressional District were forced to a runoff.

The Republican finalists are Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt and state Rep. Mark Smith. The Democratic finalists are former Hilton Head Island general counsel and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Mac Deford and retired Navy Vice Admiral and former Navy Reserve Chief Nancy Lacore. Honeycutt had a 4-point lead over Smith in the Republican primary, while Lacore outperformed Deford by nearly 8 points in the Democratic primary.

Trump carried the 1st District in 2024 with about 56%, compared to about 43% for Harris.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in primary runoffs for U.S. House, governor, attorney general, agriculture commissioner and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Voters who cast a ballot in a partisan primary on June 9 may only vote in the runoff of the same party as they did in the primary. In other words, Democratic primary voters may not vote in a Republican primary runoff or vice versa. Registered voters who did not participate in a party primary on June 9 may vote in the runoff for either party.

How many voters are there?

As of Saturday, there were about 3.4 million registered voters in South Carolina. Voters in South Carolina do not register by party.

How many people actually vote?

About 473,000 voters cast ballots in the June 9 Republican primary for governor.

The total number of voters in a runoff tends to be smaller than in the preceding primary. In the last Republican primary runoff for governor in 2018, the number of voters fell about 7% from the primary. The drop-off was about 14% in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial runoff.

The two statewide primary runoffs in 2022 had much starker drops. The number of Republican runoff voters for state school superintendent fell by 47% compared to the primary. Total voters in the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff was 74% less than in the primary.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 52% of the Democratic primary vote and about 29% of the Republican primary vote in the June 9 primaries was cast early in-person or by mail.

As of the end of the state's two-day early voting period on Thursday, about 63,200 Republican ballots and about 9,300 Democratic ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Nearly all of South Carolina’s 46 counties release all or almost all of their early in-person and mail voting results in the first vote update of the night, usually before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the June 9 primary, the AP first reported results at 7:20 p.m. ET, or 20 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:19 a.m. ET with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

In South Carolina, recounts are automatic if the margin between the winning and losing candidates is 1% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 133 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The races have become bellwethers of Mayor Zohran Mamdani 's political clout, testing whether the young democratic socialist can leverage excitement he ignited last year to reshape the city's congressional delegation.

And he has been working hard to promote his slate of three House candidates, lending his star power to several campaign videos, along with hosting a rally with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders last week where the mayor called for sweeping change in the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, in another closely watched race, Jack Schlossberg, the 33-year-old grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, is hoping to ride his family ties and big social media following to a seat in Congress representing part of Manhattan.

But the Kennedy scion is facing strong opposition from Alex Bores, a state Assembly member at the center of a Silicon Valley spending war over his proposals to regulate artificial intelligence, and Micah Lasher, another state Assembly member who has deep experience in New York government and is backed by many of the state’s Democratic leaders.

George Conway, an attorney who was once married to a top adviser to Donald Trump but later become one of the president’s critics, is also in the race.

In his campaign's closing stretch, Schlossberg rallied with David Letterman, former host of the “The Late Show with David Letterman.” His mother, Caroline Kennedy, cut a campaign ad for him. Lasher hit the street to meet voters.

Bores released an ad about the dangers of AI and worked to highlight the millions of dollars that Big Tech players are spending to oppose his run.

On Monday, Bores was making a final play for support, standing on a busy street corner to chat with voters and hand out campaign flyers. One woman, 74-year-old Pattie Jordan, cruised by without breaking her stride, telling the candidate “I'm voting for you” as he slipped a flyer into her hand.

“He's the guy,” Jordan told The Associated Press, adding that she's been impressed by Bores during the campaign.

In a brief interview, Bores said, “people are ready to turn the page.”

“They want someone who is effective, they want someone who is actually going to make real change,” he said.

Mamdani has not made an endorsement in that race. Instead, he has focused on three other congressional contests, including two featuring embattled incumbents.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist whose campaign has been buoyed by the mayor’s support, is challenging U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who was the first Dominican American elected to Congress in a district that includes northern Manhattan and part of the Bronx.

Espaillat has drawn attention to inflammatory social media posts Avila Chevalier made in her 20s, attempting to portray her as an unserious candidate. Avila Chevalier, in a recent debate, said she regretted the posts and apologized for one crass post about former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mamdani is also supporting Claire Valdez, a former state Assembly colleague and democratic socialist ally, in her bid to defeat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

Reynoso and Valdez are both progressives who share many similar views, though Valdez has framed herself as a potential Mamdani ally in Washington.

In a joint interview Monday on the online news show Breaking Points, Valdez and Avila Chevalier cast their election races as the next step in a political movement ignited by the mayor last year.

“These races are about, are we going to be able to set the tone for the Democratic Party in the years going forward,” Valdez said. “We are here to prove that the election of Zohran Mamdani was not some flash in the pan, it wasn't a fluke. This is a movement.”

In another high-profile race, former city Comptroller Brad Lander got the mayor's endorsement in his attempt to unseat U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a fellow Democrat.

Lander, who appeared in the crowd at a joyous City Hall ceremony celebrating the Knicks' NBA championship win on Thursday, has worked to play up his alliance with the mayor, while Goldman, who did not endorse Mamdani in his mayoral race, has tried to shift the conversation to his own productiveness in Congress.

KEY POINTS:

• Bexar County has been in perpetual drought for more than 4 years -- since January 2022
• 2026 has been the rainiest year so far in a decade
• Extreme and exceptional drought eliminated from Bexar County
• Medina Lake is at its highest levels in four years
• Edwards Aquifer at highest levels in more than two years

HEALTHY, STEADY RAIN

2026 started a bit dry, but since April 2, San Antonio has seen steady, consistent rain. In fact, the city hasn’t gone more than 7 days without measurable rainfall at the city’s official rain gauge, which is located at San Antonio International Airport. In total, 21.74 inches of rain has fallen, which is more than 6.5 inches above what is average for this year, so far. It’s the rainiest first half of the year since 2016 -- 11 years ago!

These rains, which have not only been heavy, but also consistent, come in stark contrast to the last few years which have featured below-average and inconsistent rain.

DROUGHT IMPROVEMENT

As of late June, our region is experiencing the least amount of drought since October 2024. But where you can see the most dramatic improvement is comparing the drought from early April, before our consistent rains, to now.

Check it out:

MEDINA LAKE

The last time Medina Reservoir was full was way back in July of 2019. Since then, lake levels have been in a nosedive, reaching it lowest point -- 2.2% full -- in July 2024.

With recent rain falling right over the small watershed for Medina Lake, the reservoir has risen over 13 feet. While it is still only 8.5% full, this is the highest level for the reservoir in nearly 4 years -- since August 2022.

EDWARDS AQUIFER

The J-17 well of the Edwards Aquifer has reported a below-average number every day since early 2022. In May 2025, the well recorded a low of 623.1′. That was the third-lowest all-time, falling behind June of 1990 and August of 1957.

Since our steady rains began in April, the aquifer is now up more than 22 feet, and at its highest levels since February 2024. Great news!

The aquifer is the primary source of water for millions of us around South Central Texas and the Hill Country. It’s a complicated system, but check out this KSAT Explains from Weather Authority Meteorologists Justin Horne and Sarah Spivey.

COMAL SPRINGS

Comal Springs is also seeing great improvement from recent rain. It’s currently flowing at 187 cfs, still below the average, but the highest since early 2024.

CANYON LAKE

Unfortunately, while Canyon Lake has experienced a small rise this year, it has not seen dramatic improvement from rain this year. It still stands at 61.7% full. The largest, most recent improvement to Canyon Lake came after the devastating July 4, 2025 floods.

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.

RMS Titanic Inc., the company that owns exclusive salvage rights to the famous wreck in the North Atlantic, wants to sell the artifacts for the first time despite previous agreements to only display them at museums and traveling exhibitions.

Georgia-based RMS Titanic proposed auctioning the artifacts and displaying them on a global tour in four cities, although those locations haven't been publicly revealed. Court documents filed in the U.S. referenced the company's plan to sell artifacts including a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets and a heart-shaped pendant.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration represents U.S. interests and oversight in the wreck site. The agency contends such a sale would violate RMS Titanic's legal obligations to the site, according to documents a judge ordered unsealed earlier this month.

In arguing that the auction should be prohibited, the government wrote that the company “does not seek the Court’s approval, does not believe that approval is required, and asserts that it is not restricted in its ability to sell” the artifacts.

Representatives for RMS Titanic did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Its attorneys previously said in a federal court filing that the proposed auction arrangement wouldn’t violate existing court orders and agreements about the artifacts.

This is the latest attempt to sell Titanic artifacts

Since 1987, salvage operations have retrieved thousands of items and even chunks of the Titanic’s hull. RMS Titanic makes money by exhibiting them.

Over the decades, the company has tried to sell artifacts to fund future explorations and as it faced financial trouble. But those efforts were roundly opposed by U.S. courts along with preservation groups and relatives of the victims. Some of the salvaged items belonged to passengers aboard the ship.

However, items saved by survivors or plucked from the water by rescuers can be sold and often fetch big sums. A life jacket worn by a passenger went for just over $900,000 in April, while a gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued the survivors was sold for nearly $2 million in 2024.

Auctioneers say the unending fascination with the Titanic — which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Europe to New York, killing more than 1,500 people — and the rarity of artifacts adds up to high demand and exorbitant prices.

A trans-Atlantic dispute over the artifacts

RMS Titanic wants to auction some of the first artifacts salvaged from the wreck. Those items were taken to France, which awarded ownership of them to the salvager. French oceanographic institute IFREMER partnered with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the discovery of the wreck.

The rest of the collection was retrieved during subsequent expeditions, and the salvage claim was made in a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.

NOAA argues that all of the roughly 5,000 items — regardless of whether they were claimed in France or the U.S. — must remain in one collection based on conditions set by the U.S. court. NOAA also maintains on its website that a French court’s conditions required that the artifacts not be sold individually and be kept together as a single collection.

The company has argued, among other things, that the U.S. court lacks jurisdiction over the items claimed in France.

Representatives for the French government did not respond to requests for comment late Monday.

Pieces of history for all to see

Some undersea explorers have pushed back at the idea of selling Titanic artifacts, which they argue should be displayed in the public interest.

“I don’t have a problem with people recovering artifacts from the Titanic as long as it’s done careful, with proper archaeological techniques,” said Greg Stone, a veteran ocean explorer and ocean scientist. “I’d feel better if it was a nonprofit enterprise.”

Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston who specializes in public interest advocacy, said rules on the display and sale of Titanic artifacts are intended to preserve the wreckage for the benefit of the public, and so it can't be “picked up by billionaires for further display of their wealth and power.”

“If it’s something where someone can walk through their house and say ‘Yes, I bought this for $5 million and it’s original from the Titanic,’ that’s not a good thing,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Washington D.C. and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

“I said, ‘Hey, you guys want to have a beer together?’” Tkachuk recalled. “And I told them and broke the news to them there.”

The timing gave them even more reason to celebrate. Tkachuk was elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday, less than 24 hours after his sons became teammates when Brady was traded from Ottawa to Florida, joining older brother Matthew, during a weekend that also included a U.S. Olympic gold medal celebration and a baptism.

“It's been a great weekend for the Tkachuks,” Keith said. “It’s been a crazy weekend, but this tops it off. ... This is the ultimate, for sure.”

The patriarch nicknamed “Walt” Tkachuk is part of a player class that includes center Patrice Bergeron, who won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and the Selke Trophy as the league's top defensive forward six times, and goaltenders Carey Price from Montreal and Pekka Rinne from Nashville.

U.S. women’s hockey pioneer Cindy Curley and executive Brian Burke in the builder category also are set to be inducted on Nov. 9 at a ceremony in Toronto.

Tkachuk was one of the premier power forwards of his era, playing in the 1990s and 2000s as part of the first great generation of American pro players. He recorded 1,121 points in 1,290 games, counting the playoffs, with Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis and Atlanta, and was part of the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Bergeron, who spent his entire career with the Bruins, was chosen in his first year of eligibility. Price and Rinne were selected in their second, with Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind'Amour among those passed over again.

“You knew what you were going to get every single time you played against him: You had to dig in,” Tkachuk said of Brind'Amour, fresh off coaching Carolina to the Stanley Cup two decades after captaining the Hurricanes to a championship. “Hats off to him. He’ll be here, there’s no doubt in my mind, as a player and as a builder.”

Price and Bergeron played together on Canada's 2014 Olympic gold medal-winning team. That was during Price's prime, which included winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, Vezina as top goalie and the Lester B. Pearson as the most outstanding player as voted by his peers following a dominant 2014-15 season with the Canadiens.

“During Carey's heyday, every goalie wanted to play like him,” said Rinne, who is the first player to make the Hall of Fame after spending his entire career with the Predators and is ranked in the top 25 in wins, save percentage and shutouts in league history.

Curley skated in the first International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in 1990. Her 11 goals, 12 assists and 23 points in five games remain single-tournament records, and she'll be the 15th women's player to go in the Hall at a peak of the sport with the PWHL thriving.

“When I was playing, I was I hopeful I could play on a girls team at some point,” Curley said. “Seeing it progress to Olympics and now the professional (level) and seeing how great the players are, it’s just wonderful.”

Burke won the Stanley Cup as Anaheim's general manager in 2007, one of several front-office stops for him, along with time spent as the NHL's director of hockey operations. Burke also took on a leading role in hockey's Pride efforts and was a longtime advocate of the women's game, including a stint as executive director of the PWHL Players Association.

“They’re on the same level for me,” Burke said of the Cup and his off-ice advocacy. “That was just as important as anything else I’ve ever worked on.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

The watch party, hosted by Spurs Sports & Entertainment, is free and open to the public. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. before the draft begins at 7 p.m.

Attendees can expect live music by DJ Quake, along with Spurs giveaways, according to a news release.

The Silver and Black currently have the No. 20 pick in the first round.

Read also:

• San Antonio Spurs to bring back Silver Dancers 8 years after absence

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

HOOTERS

9802 Ingram Rd, San Antonio, TX 78245

13131 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78216

Hooters is a popular American sports bar known for its world-famous chicken wings, cold drinks, and lively atmosphere. The San Antonio location on Ingram Road serves up a wide variety of pub favorites, including hand-breaded wings, burgers, seafood, and shareable appetizers. With dozens of wing flavors ranging from mild to extra spicy, it has become a go-to destination for sports fans and families looking for casual dining and game-day favorites.

In addition to its signature wings, Hooters offers popular menu items such as fried pickles, loaded tater tots, Buffalo shrimp, and Home Run Burgers. Currently, the restaurant is highlighting two fan-favorite seafood deals: 1 pound of snow crab legs for $19.99 and a half-pound of steamed shrimp for $9.99 at participating locations. Combined with daily specials, frosty beverages, and a fun atmosphere, Hooters continues to be a favorite stop for comfort food and sports-viewing entertainment.

BURNT BEAN CO.

108 S Austin St, Seguin, TX 78155

Burnt Bean Co. is one of the most celebrated barbecue destinations in Texas, earning national recognition for its expertly smoked meats and inventive approach to traditional barbecue. Founded by pitmasters Ernest Servantes and Dave Kirkland, the Seguin smokehouse has built a devoted following thanks to its prime brisket, massive beef ribs, house-made sausages, and competition-level barbecue techniques. The restaurant has been ranked among the best barbecue joints in the state and is frequently praised for its consistency and creativity.

While the brisket remains the star attraction, Burnt Bean Co. is equally known for pushing barbecue boundaries with unique menu offerings and standout side dishes. Favorites include Hot Cheeto queso mac and cheese, street corn pudding, brisket croissants, chopped beef conchas, and decadent desserts like the bourbon peach cobbler taco. By combining traditional Texas barbecue with bold flavors and innovative recipes, the popular eatery has established itself as a must-visit destination for barbecue lovers from across the state.

ALAMO ICEBAR

200 River Walk, Ste 120, San Antonio, TX 78205

Alamo IceBar offers one of San Antonio’s most unique attractions, inviting guests to step into an 18-degree ice chamber carved from hand-sculpted ice. Located along the River Walk, the experience combines frosty photo opportunities with a rotating selection of shots, liqueurs, tequilas, and non-alcoholic beverages served inside the sub-zero environment. Admission includes a complimentary drink, while guests are outfitted with parkas and gloves to comfortably enjoy the chilly surroundings.

The IceBar focuses on quick, fun pours designed to complement the immersive setting, featuring options such as flavored tequilas, cream liqueurs, whiskey shots, and juices for younger visitors. During the day, the attraction welcomes families looking for a memorable River Walk experience, while evenings transform the venue into a 21-and-over destination with mood lighting and an energetic atmosphere. The cashless concept and timed sessions help keep the experience moving, making Alamo IceBar a popular stop for tourists and locals alike.

SMAC’N NOODLES

225 N Saunders St, Ste 7, Seguin, TX 78155

sMAC’n Noodles is an elevated comfort food destination in Seguin specializing in scratch-made macaroni and cheese bowls built around fresh ingredients and bold flavors. Known for generous portions and perfectly cooked pasta, the restaurant has gained a loyal following by transforming a classic side dish into a customizable main course. Guests can choose from a variety of cheeses, proteins, vegetables, and toppings to create their own personalized bowl.

Signature creations include the Buffalo MAC with shredded chicken and buffalo sauce, the Tah-Ko MAC loaded with taco-inspired ingredients, and the Brisket Elote topped with smoked brisket and crunchy Hot Cheetos. The menu also accommodates gluten-free and plant-based diners, while homestyle desserts like cookies and brownies provide a sweet finish. With inventive recipes, hearty portions, and a welcoming atmosphere, sMAC’n Noodles has become a go-to spot for comfort food lovers in Central Texas.

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General. By submitting an entry to the Texas Eats & San Antonio International Airport Instagram sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”), brought to you by KSAT 12 (“Sponsor”) and the San Antonio International Airport (the “Co-Sponsor”), entrant acknowledges and agrees that entrant has read, understands, and agrees to be bound by these official Sweepstakes rules (“Official Rules”). By entering the Sweepstakes, entrants agree to waive any right to claim any ambiguity or error in these Official Rules, or the Sweepstakes itself, and agree to be bound by all decisions of the Sponsor, whose decisions are binding and final in all matters related to the Sweepstakes. Failure to comply with these Official Rules or any Sponsor instructions relating to the Sweepstakes’ Official Rules may result in disqualification from the Sweepstakes.

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Alberto Carvalho 's resignation letter dated Sunday made no direct mention of the FBI's Feb. 25 search of his home and the LA Unified School District’s headquarters. Two days after the FBI served the search warrants, the district’s Board of Education voted unanimously to place Carvalho on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Authorities have not provided details of the nature of the investigation involving the district, which serves more than 500,000 students. The investigation appears to relate to a contract the school district had with an education technology company whose leader was later indicted for fraud. The company, AllHere, had a contract with the district to create an AI chatbot.

Before becoming the Los Angeles superintendent in 2022, Carvalho had spent his entire education career in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, where he drew national praise for improving graduation rates and academic achievement among Black and Hispanic students. While advocating for Miami’s immigrant students, he spoke openly about his own struggles as a young recent arrival from Portugal working in restaurants and construction while homeless at times.

Under Carvalho, the Los Angeles district had been making strides. Students’ academic growth has outpaced the state average in recent years and students have bounced back from pandemic learning loss. Voters overwhelmingly passed a $9 billion construction and modernization bond, the school system’s largest ever.

Carvalho has denied wrongdoing

Authorities have not accused Carvalho of any crimes. He denied any wrongdoing earlier this year and had asked to be reinstated as head of the nation's second-largest district. On Sunday he resigned via a letter addressed to “students, families, teachers, staff, and community."

“Placing students first has always guided my work,” Carvalho wrote. “Because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction, I am resigning as Superintendent of LAUSD effective today, June 21, 2026.”

In its statement released early Monday, the Board acknowledged it received the letter of resignation.

“The Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership. Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve,” it said. in the statement.

It said that Andrés Chait, who has been acting superintendent, will remain in that position until a permanent decision is made.

The FBI investigation has been linked to the maker of a school chatbot

In February, the FBI also searched a third location near Miami. The Miami Herald reported the Florida property belonged to Debra Kerr, who previously worked with AllHere.

In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted a deal with AllHere for an AI chatbot named “Ed” designed to help students. But about three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.

At the time, Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Mr. Carvalho respects the rule of law and the investigative process and has always acted in the best interests of students and within the bounds of the law,” Holland & Knight, the law firm representing him, previously said in a statement. “While the government’s investigation remains ongoing, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors supporting any allegation that Mr. Carvalho violated federal law.”

Following the search of school headquarters, LA Unified said it was cooperating with investigators and had no further information.

Carvalho became superintendent of LA schools in 2022 on a four-year contract with an annual salary of $440,000. He began a new four-year contract in February, just weeks before the raid, for the same salary, according to school board meeting documents.

In Miami, Carvalho began his education career as a high school physics teacher in the 1980s and climbed the administrative ranks. He led the district for nearly 14 years.

In 2020, a nonprofit he founded to support Miami schools drew scrutiny after it solicited a $1.57 million donation from an online education company doing business with the district. The district’s inspector general later determined the donation didn’t violate state or district ethics policies but did create the “appearance of impropriety” and should be returned, according to The Miami Herald. Instead of returning the funds, the foundation distributed the money to Miami-Dade teachers in the form of $100 gift cards.

___

Toness reported from Boston.

Emergency officials in Orange County, Texas, shut down roads in the area Sunday morning and warned residents to stay in their homes while crews worked to unload the trailer and salvage as many hives as possible. The county is located east of Houston and borders Louisiana.

No bee stings or serious injuries were immediately reported. Officials haven't identified the owner of the hives.

Christie Ray, who owns nearby Queen Bee Supply, said volunteers from three or four other beekeeping businesses in the area went to the crash scene Sunday to help.

“They just help each other, that’s what they do,” Ray said. “The beekeeping community is a great community.”

Chris Moore, owner of Moore Honey, along with his son and several employees, joined the effort to help the bees, but he estimated that only about a quarter of the 408 hives will survive. It mostly depends on how many queens remain alive after the crash, he said.

The potential impact on a beekeeping business following a loss like this depends on the size of the apiary. Moore pointed out that the keeper is losing not only the hives but also the revenue they could be generating.

“It’s a big loss,” Moore said. "Any time you lose that many in one shot, it’s a big loss.”

It's common for large beekeeping operations to move hives around the country to provide commercial pollination for agriculture in places like California and to follow blooming seasons throughout the South and the Midwest for honey production.

The hives that crashed Sunday had only traveled a few miles on a trip to North Dakota when the truck driver took a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood with narrow roads, Moore said. The driver was trying to navigate a tight corner when the trailer fell over.

Other local keepers have put out catch boxes to collect remaining strays, but it will likely take a while for the insects to clear out of the area, Moore said.

In April, a crash involving a truck full of bees slowed interstate traffic near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Santana on Monday called Davis “a visionary.” Barry Manilow said music wasn't just business to Davis, “it was family.” Michael Bublé said the music executive “believed in people and their dreams.” Patti Smith thanked Davis for a half century of “love and support.”

Davis died Monday in his Manhattan apartment. A statement from the family says Davis “discovered, mentored, and championed the greatest artists in modern music history, leaving an indelible mark on culture that will endure for generations.”

Davis was 94.

Here's some reaction to Davis' death and his legacy.

Barry Manilow

“My heart is heavy with the loss of my friend Clive Davis. For fifty years we worked together, created together, argued together, and celebrated together. Yes, some would say it was business. But to Clive, it never was. It was family. And I was honored to be a part of his.” — on X.

Alicia Keys

“To Clive Davis, the visionary who transformed dreams into reality, leaving an indelible mark on music and lives worldwide.” — on Instagram.

Carlos Santana

“Clive Davis was a visionary. He could hear the intangible before anyone else could see it. He believed in Santana from the beginning, and years later he believed in us again. That kind of faith is a beautiful blessing, and I will always be grateful.

“Clive understood that music is more than entertainment. Music is a healing force. It brings people together beyond fear, beyond separation, beyond borders. He dedicated his life to championing artists and helping them share their gifts with the world.

“Clive recognized the light in people. He encouraged artists to trust their own voice and step into their destiny. Because of his vision, countless musicians were able to reach hearts across the planet.” — in a statement.

Patti Smith

“This is thanking Clive Davis for transforming music, and on a very personal note, for believing in me, shepherding my efforts and a half century of your love and support.” — on Instagram.

Rod Stewart

“I owe Clive so much. The force behind J Records, he was the only one who believed a rock singer could sing the standards with conviction. Other labels rejected the idea, and so The Great American Songbook was born, selling close to 40 million copies.” — on Instagram.

Bruce Springsteen

At 22 years old, he changed my life when he signed me to Columbia Records. He treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success. A great man. — on Instagram.

Dionne Warwick

"I can think of no other record man that seemed to have that magical ability to know a hit when he heard a song. The entire music industry I'm sure will mourn his passing. He was one of a kind." — in a statement.

Michael Bublé

“Heartbroken to hear of the passing of Clive Davis. Clive wasn’t just a music legend, he was a champion of artists and someone who believed in people and their dreams. Forever grateful for his guidance, his generosity, and the opportunities he gave so many of us.” — on Instagram.

Paul Stanley

“The music world and all those who have loved music for 6 decades have lost the visionary and champion of so many artists in so many genres. A one of a kind genius.” — on X.

Stephen Bishop, songwriter and guitarist

“Clive did so much for artists and for the music business as a whole. He was truly one of a kind and lived an incredibly full and remarkable life. If you knew him, you knew he genuinely cared about artists. He could be tough, but he was always fair.” — on X.

The aquifer is the primary source of water for millions of us around South Central Texas and the Hill Country. Its health and future affects us all.

For this episode of KSAT Explains, we’ve partnered with two KSAT 12 meteorologists who report on the aquifer daily. They help us explain how the aquifer works, why it’s so heavily regulated and the conservation efforts in place that help keep the aquifer — and the creatures who call the aquifer home — healthy.

(Watch the full episode in the video player above.)

SMART. IN-DEPTH. LOCAL: Click here for more episodes of KSAT Explains

How the aquifer works

The Edwards Aquifer and its catchment area cover about 8,000 square miles. It encompasses an area from Edwards and Kinney Counties, and goes as far east as Travis and Hays Counties.

To understand it better, there are three important sections of the aquifer you should know about:

• The contributing zone, sometimes called the drainage zone, is in the Hill Country.
• Then there’s the recharge zone, which features areas of the aquifer that are fractured and visible on land. Think of areas like Government Canyon, where limestone is visible.
• And finally, there’s the artesian zone, where San Antonio lies. In the artesian zone, water is harvested through wells.

In short, here’s how the aquifer works: rain falls on the contributing zone and runs downhill into the recharge zone, where it enters the porous aquifer. Similarly, rain can fall directly on the recharge zone and immediately enter the aquifer.

Then, pressure from all of the water builds up in the artesian zone, and we harvest it by digging wells. The aquifer level you see reported on KSAT 12 by our meteorologists is the level of the water at one of these wells, J-17.

Why does the aquifer exist?

To answer the question of why the Edwards Aquifer exists, we have to go back more than 100 million years to when Texas was under shallow seas and San Antonio was a beach.

You can actually see evidence of this in the form of dinosaur tracks at Government Canyon. These tracks are believed to have been formed either on a muddy or sandy beach.

Back when Texas was partially underwater, that water was filled with mollusks and clams. They died and over millions of years, their remains have formed karst, or porous limestone, which is what the aquifer is made out of.

Justin Horne goes caving to help you understand the aquifer

One of the best ways to understand the aquifer is to go down into one of the thousands of caves located in the Texas Hill Country. That’s why Justin Horne headed out to Comal County to take a trip down a limestone cave.

“At one time, the cave was filled with water,” said Geary Schindel, president of the National Speleological Society. “These caves allow us to look at the fabric of the limestone to understand better how groundwater moves through the system, how it goes from recharge to discharge.”

The cave Justin visited was formed millions of years ago. Which brings us back to karst.

“Karst is a landscape that’s characterized by sinkholes and sinking streams in caves and springs,” Schindel said. “It’s also what we call a subsurface system that allows us to transport or move water through it very quickly.”

Just how quickly? Dye testing provides that answer: the groundwater velocity has been measured as great as a mile per day.

The walls of caves also give researchers a good idea of what the aquifer looks like, and how water moves through the system and is eventually discharged at the springs.

Learning facts like these demonstrates how important caves are to those who study the aquifer. And while most of the Hill Country caves are just relics, a few provide actual access to the aquifer.

“There are some caves in Bexar County and Medina Valley and Hays County, where we’ve been able to go through the cave down deep enough, that we’ve actually seen the Edwards Aquifer itself,” Schindel said. “It goes to show you how fragile it is.”

The creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority

The Edwards Aquifer’s formation is fascinating and dates back millions of years. But it’s during the aquifer’s more recent history where things have become more complicated. These complications eventually led to the creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority.

“The beginning really stems from a lot of conflict and controversy over what to do about this resource,” said Roland Ruiz, general manager of the Edwards Aquifer Authority.

In the 1980s, the Edwards Aquifer had long been San Antonio’s main water source. But in a rapidly growing city, there was concern about whether there was enough water for everyone.

“Then, much like now, there really weren’t many laws dictating how you could limit groundwater withdrawals,” said Amy Hardberger, director at the Center for Water Law and Policy. “So the Sierra Club in the ‘90s brought an endangered species suit, which was sort of the only way to go about something like that.”

The Sierra Club’s 1991 lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited negligence to provide the necessary protection required by the Endangered Species Act.

In 1993, a federal judge issued a ruling in favor of the Sierra Club, requiring the Texas Water Commission to maintain flows from the Edwards Aquifer-fed Comal and San Marcos springs.

“The judge said ... you either need to manage this or the federal government and me are going to come in and do it,” Hardberger said. “The Legislature has never moved so fast.”

The Edwards Aquifer Authority, or EAA, was created on May 30, 1993, and became fully operational three years later. More than 20 years later, the EAA is by all accounts a success story.

“San Antonio is so much bigger than it was, and the aquifers are doing just fine because we’ve adjusted,” Hardberger said.

The EAA’s mission is three-pronged: manage, enhance and protect the Edwards Aquifer. And over its history, they’ve evolved from mostly managing the aquifer, to shifting more toward protecting and enhancing it.

This brings us to where we are now - a city where uniquely, the local news reports the aquifer every day.

“I think that’s a testament to how important it’s become and how the conservation ethic has taken root,” Ruiz said.

According to Ruiz, the biggest challenge moving forward is making sure the aquifer remains sustainable in the face of a number of potential risks, including climate change and development.

“Is there a threat that the quality of water that gets into the aquifer is going to be compromised at some point? Is there a threat that not only the quality, but the quantity is going to be impacted in some way? So that’s what we’re looking at our field research park,” he said.

The EAA’s mission is not over. One way the EAA and the City of San Antonio are preserving the aquifer for future generations is through conservation easements. Through sales tax funding, the city has bought more than 160,000 acres of conservation easements over the aquifer. A conservation easement simply means the landowners agree not to develop the land in an effort to protect the aquifer.

“What that easement does is it has certain conditions attached to it that prevents development of that property, and it keeps it in this natural state ... to allow the processes of recharge to happen on the property to be uninterrupted by impervious cover and other types of development,” said Thomas Marsalia, EAA protection manager.

Protecting Endangered Species

As explained above, the Edwards Aquifer Authority was created to protect species that rely on the aquifer - and to keep the federal government out of managing it. In an effort to avoid further federal involvement, the EAA put together a Habitat Conservation Plan to make sure the numbers of certain species stay at healthy levels.

In total, there are 11 endangered, threatened, or petitioned to be endangered species that call the springs of the Edwards Aquifer home.

“A lot of people are very surprised that the limits that we have on watering are actually for these tiny little critters,” Hardberger said.

In 2013, five entities with permits to draw from the Edwards Aquifer agreed to the Habitat Conservation Plan. Those entities are the EAA, San Antonio Water System, the City of San Marcos, the City of New Braunfels and Texas State University. You may not hear much about the Habitat Conservation Plan, but it plays a vital role in how the aquifer is managed.

Making sure the protected species that inhabit the aquifer remain at heaty levels is something the EAA believes we al should care about.

“Those species are kind of like the canary in the coal mine so to speak,” Ruiz said. “They’re indicators of the quality and quantity of water in the aquifer. So its not just for their benefit, it’s really for all our benefit that the program exists.”

Texas Blind Salamanders

If there’s a poster child for conservation efforts within the Edwards Aquifer, it’s the Texas blind salamander. In fact, the San Marcos Aquatic Resources Center keeps a backup population alive and well just in case something catastrophic happens to the aquifer or the rivers that feed it.

At the San Marcos Aquatic Resources Center, they feed and breed the Texas blind salamanders to keep the population strong. The center says it’s a charismatic species, and that’s what makes it a great mascot for the aquifer.

“Who doesn’t love a salamander that’s kind of odd and a little creepy looking, but cute at the same time?” said Katherine Bockrath, Ph.d., lead researcher at the center. “I think people gravitate to it an its cuteness and its slight creepiness, but also its mystery.”

The blind salamander really is a bit of a mystery. Details about the species’ population are a bit fuzzy. But researchers are working to get some clarity.

“We do some tagging where we catch the animals,” said Adam Daw, Refugia Lead at the San Marcos Aquatic Resources Center. “We’ll release some that we catch and we’ll tag them so that if we catch them again, we’ll know it and can give us an idea of how many are down there.”

In reality, it’s difficult to know just how large or small the Texas blind salamander population is, simply because the tiny creatures live deep underground and underwater in a vast, pitch-black aquifer which spans thousands of miles. But we do know that they’re likely a top predator within the aquifer system - eating worms and small shrimp.

Researchers have also determined that the salamanders can live for quite a long time because of their slow metabolism.

“We have some here that have lived about 10 to 15 years so far,” Daw said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they live 20 years or more.”

So, if the Texas blind salamanders live for quite some time, and their population is healthy, why do we need to regulate the water level and quality of the aquifer?

“They have very permeable skin,” Bockrath said. “If there’s some contaminant in the water, it’s going to permeate them, too ... they’re super sensitive to environmental changes.”

And, again, these conservation efforts are not just about the protected species.

“We’re actually preserving these ecosystems and these river systems for our use, too,” Bockrath said.

What is the aquifer report number KSAT 12 reports every day?

Every day our viewers see KSAT 12 Weather Authority meteorologists giving the aquifer report. But have you ever wondered what that level means and where we get that number from? It’s actually measured at the J-17 Index Well, located on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

J-17 is literally just a small hole in the floor, surrounded by a box. It was drilled in 1914 to supply water to Fort Sam Houston.

“This is definitely one of the most important wells in Texas,” said Bryan Anderson, EAA data management director. “It definitely, as far as statewide goes, has one of the longest histories.”

Continuous observations started at the well in 1932 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The amount of historic data is what makes J-17 so valuable to aquifer scientists. Today, we get electronic aquifer measurements every 15 minutes.

Davis died in his Manhattan apartment, weeks after being hospitalized for an upper respiratory issue, his publicist Aliza Rabinoff said.

“To the world, our father was the iconic music legend whose vision, instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of countless lives. He discovered, mentored, and championed the greatest artists in modern music history, leaving an indelible mark on culture that will endure for generations,” the statement read.

Many artists mourned his passing on Monday. Carlos Santana called him “a visionary.” Michael Bublé said the music executive “believed in people and their dreams.” Patti Smith thanked Davis for a half century of “love and support.”

Unlike other record moguls whose influence waned as they got older, Davis' might only seemed to grow, spanning multiple genres and labels. Into his later years, he was directing the careers of everyone from Barry Manilow to “American Idol” winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. And his exclusive pre-Grammys gala, held the Saturday night before the Sunday award show every year since 1975, continued to be an institution.

“Clive’s talent has always been seeing and hearing what other people don’t,” former President Barack Obama said in a video message played at this year’s gala.

A Brooklyn background

Clive Jay Davis was born on April 4, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood. His father was an electrician and traveling salesman. He attended New York University and then Harvard Law School, eventually landing a job as an in-house lawyer at Columbia Records.

Davis always had a knack for business, and by 1967, became president of the company, just seven years after being hired as an attorney. He cited attending the Monterey International Pop Festival that year as pivotal; it eventually led him to bringing Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Neil Diamond and many other groups to the label — bringing a counterculture spirit to a company that had resisted rock ‘n’ roll.

Davis took big swings in the music industry, particularly in his support for Black artists, beginning when he signed Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International Records in 1971.

In 2015, the NAACP recognized Davis for his groundbreaking work by presenting him with the Vanguard Award. And last summer, Davis was presented with the Apollo Theater’s Apollo Legacy Award and inducted onto its Walk of Fame.

An unrivaled career

His success stories were staggering, with Houston a crowning achievement and devastating tragedy: Davis signed her to his Arista record label when she was just a teen and turned her into America's reigning pop princess.

Houston racked up multiple No. 1 hits and became one of the top-selling artists in pop history before drug abuse hobbled her career. She died in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2012, hours before she was to appear at Davis' annual pre-Grammy Awards gala. He had been convinced she was turning her life around.

“Maybe I should have been more skeptical,” Davis wrote in his 2013 memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life,” “but I’ve always been optimistic, and I felt hopeful. It felt like old times.”

He also launched the career of multiplatinum, multiple-Grammy winner Keys — and was quick to note other talents he signed, including Joplin and Billy Joel, Blood Sweat & Tears and other “all-timers,” as he so often put it.

“I signed Patti Smith, the great Renaissance woman ... I signed Lou Reed ... I signed the Grateful Dead,” he proudly touted in an interview with The Associated Press in 1999.

He also signed the then up-and-coming producer Sean “Diddy” Combs to a label deal with his Bad Boy Records. Under Davis, the label would have some of its biggest successes, most notably with late rap icon the Notorious B.I.G. That was long before the hip-hop mogul Diddy would be incarcerated, convicted of violating the federal Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime.

An exec who built lifelong careers

Davis didn't simply have an eye for new talent — he also knew how to keep veterans relevant, decades after their first hit. Aretha Franklin, whose legend was made at Atlantic Records, flourished in her later years at Arista, as did Luther Vandross, who made his last albums for another Davis label, J Records.

It was Davis who conceived of the 1999 album “Supernatural,” which paired guitar god Santana with some of the day's hottest talents. The record won a record-tying eight Grammys and gave Santana more success than he had ever enjoyed in his decades-long career.

And he had middle-aged star Rod Stewart trade in his rock hits for standards from “The Great American Songbook.” The album, released in 2003, sold millions and was so successful it spawned four titles in all.

Davis didn’t always make the right choices; he turned down a chance to sign up Meat Loaf. And he and his collaborators didn’t always agree.

He and producer David Foster fought bitterly over the arrangement for Houston’s all-time hit, a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Davis won that fight — and the song was published with its iconic a cappella intro.

And Manilow strongly objected to recording “I Write the Songs,” noting that he didn’t even write the song, a Bruce Johnston ballad that became a signature hit for Manilow, who would have similar latter-day success mining the music of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

“He's just brilliant at picking ideas he thinks the public will connect,” raved Manilow, who had worked with Davis since he was a budding singer at Columbia Records.

But not an infallible figure

Davis also had his struggles. Though he became president of Columbia Records in 1967 after joining the label in 1960 as a lawyer, by 1973 he was gone in a bitter fallout. The label accused him of mismanagement of funds and he was fired. Although Davis says he was later cleared, it wasn't the end of his problems; he later was indicted on tax evasion charges, pleaded guilty to one count and had to pay a $10,000 fine.

However, Davis would declare victory: He says Columbia gave him the money to start Arista to resolve the dispute, and the label would become a huge success with artists like country superstars Brooks & Dunn, sassy R&B group TLC, Babyface, Houston, Franklin and others.

The label had huge success with a debut act — Milli Vanilli. But the male pop duo would become the embarrassment of the industry when, after winning a Grammy, it was revealed that they weren't actually singing their songs (Davis blamed the debacle on the label's European division, which he said signed them; the group was later stripped of its best new artist Grammy).

In 1999, as Arista was celebrating its 25th anniversary, Davis faced another crisis: The label's then-parent company, BMG Entertainment, a division of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, wanted him to retire; most of its executives were eased out by 60, and Davis was in his mid-60s.

In 2000, despite support from his superstar roster, the company ousted him in favor of producer and songwriter Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who would later become chairman of Island/Def Jam.

Still, Davis' successes were many

However, instead of severing its ties with Davis, BMG helped him launch J Records in what BMG has described as the largest record company startup ever created. Vandross was one of his initial artists, along with forgettable acts like the boy-band O-Town.

J Records was a success from the start, though, and only grew in stature with the arrival of a young singer named Keys, a piano-playing singer-songwriter with powerful pipes and dramatic R&B songs. Keys' albums would go on to sell millions and win several Grammys.

His influence grew even more when Davis was tapped for BMG's U.S. division.

He became a key backer of the careers of the winners of “American Idol,” guiding many albums to platinum status. The show's link to Sony BMG came through a deal between Davis and 19 Recordings Unlimited, the label managed by “Idol” creator Simon Fuller.

In 2007, however, Davis disagreed with the direction of Clarkson's “My December,” and she publicly criticized him. The album was a flop, and she later apologized.

In 2008, Sony BMG replaced Davis as chairman and chief executive officer of the BMG label group, giving him the title of chief creative officer.

He was serving as worldwide chief creative officer at Sony Music Entertainment up until his death.

A love-filled personal life

In his memoir, Davis confirmed longtime rumors that he was bisexual and had been living with a man in recent years.

“Do I feel I could have been similarly attracted to a woman?” Davis wrote. “The answer is yes.”

He is survived by his four children, sons Fred, Doug and Mitchell, daughter Lauren, and his eight grandchildren Austin, Charlie, Matthew, Hayley, Harper, Sloane, Billie and Cody, two great grandchildren, cousin Jo Schuman and partner Greg Schriefer.

His family shared a loving statement on Monday.

“Through every chapter of his remarkable life, family remained Clive’s greatest pride and deepest joy. Today, we celebrate not only a towering figure whose influence changed music forever, but the man who led our family with grace, generosity, and kindness. We will miss him greatly, cherish him always, and carry his love with us for the rest of our lives.”

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This story has been corrected. Houston died in Beverly Hills, not Los Angeles.

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Former AP writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody was the main writer of this obituary.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%, coming off its 11th winning week in the last 12, and pulled 1.8% below its all-time high set early this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 148 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite slumped 1.3%.

In the oil market, prices fell following talks over the weekend between the United States and Iran on their war. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said they created a “good foundation for a successful final deal.”

An end to the war could clear the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers and allow for the undisputed resumption of deliveries from the Persian Gulf. Iran’s military had said Saturday that it closed the Strait of Hormuz again, though U.S. Central Command has disputed that.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 3.2% to $77.52, closer to its roughly $70 price from before the war. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 2.6% to $73.86 per barrel.

The lower oil prices, though, did not pull down Treasury yields in the bond market. Yields have been climbing because of speculation the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates this year to keep a lid on inflation, which has been accelerating because of expensive oil caused by the Iran war. Economists expect a report on Thursday to show a measure of inflation for U.S. consumers sped up to 4.1% in May from 3.8% in April.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.50% from 4.46% late Thursday and from just 3.97% before the war.

Traders are betting on a nearly 90% chance the Fed will raise its federal funds rate at least once by the end of the year, with a small minority calling for four increases. That’s up from the 57% chance seen just a week ago, according to data from CME Group.

High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation are threatening to slow economies, and they have already sent rates higher for mortgages and other kinds of loans. High yields also hurt prices for investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive. That raises the pressure on companies whose stock prices have soared in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology.

SpaceX fell 16.4% to $154.60. It’s the third straight drop for the company behind xAI since a big three-day run following its ballyhooed debut on the U.S. stock market, when it initially sold its stock at $135 per share.

The day’s heaviest weights on the S&P 500 included drops of 5% for Alphabet, 4.7% for Amazon and 4.5% for Broadcom.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, AbbVie climbed 6.2% after saying it agreed to buy Apogee Therapeutics and its potential treatments for patients with dermatologic, respiratory and other related inflammatory and immunological diseases.

Apogee Therapeutics soared 46.7% following the announcement of the deal, valued at roughly $10.9 billion.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 27.79 points to 7,472.79. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 148.01 to 51,712.71, and the Nasdaq composite fell 351.33 to 26,166.60.

In stock markets abroad, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% after Keir Starmer said he was stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party and will leave office within weeks.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% and ended at another all-time high, led by AI stocks. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7% to its own record, helped by AI-related companies.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott and AP Senior Producer Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.

That's right. With a win on Friday against Saudi Arabia, the tiny nation of about 500,000 people and about 15 million new Instagram followers will be headed to the round of 32. Even a draw might be — should be — enough to earn a spot in the knockout round.

The Blue Sharks were long shots entering the World Cup; some books had them at no better than 12% to advance from the group stage. They're currently favored to move on.

“It's in our hands,” defender Roberto Lopes said. “We have to go and take it.”

A pair of draws — first against Spain to begin group play, then rallying for a 2-2 result against Uruguay on Sunday — has Cape Verde still searching for its first win in its initial World Cup appearance. Still, the team is in an ideal position.

Spain leads Group H with four points. Uruguay and Cape Verde are next with two points each, while Saudi Arabia is last with one point. The top two teams from each group advance to the round of 32 along with the top eight third-place teams in the 12 groups.

A win over Saudi Arabia by Cape Verde would give it five points; it would then be mathematically certain to be no worse than second in the group. A draw would give the team three points; that, combined with a Spain win over Uruguay, would also assure a second-place finish in group play.

“One game at a time,” Cape Verde backup goalkeeper CJ dos Santos said. “This is just another challenge for us.”

There is a real chance that if Cape Verde beats Saudi Arabia, its reward would be a round of 32 game against Lionel Messi and defending World Cup champion Argentina.

And the interest in that game would be overwhelming, if it happened. On one side, there would be Messi, the biggest draw in the sport and possibly the biggest draw right now in any sport. On the other, there would be a team that the world seems to have adopted — the improbable story, replete with a 40-year-old goalkeeper whose mother needed help just to obtain a visa and fly to the U.S. to watch her son play on soccer's grandest stage.

More than half of the team was born somewhere other than Cape Verde; Kevin Pina, who scored against Uruguay, spent part of his youth living in Massachusetts, which has the largest concentration of the Cape Verdean diaspora in the U.S.

That stems from how in the 1800s, Cape Verdeans found work on American whaling vessels in the Atlantic and eventually settled in port cities in states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“We come from a country of immigrants,” Cape Verde coach Bubista said. “We want every child and every young person to feel proud to represent their country. We want our success to make them want to represent Cape Verde.”

At Luanda Restaurant in Brockton, Massachusetts, Cape Verde’s first World Cup match became an afternoon of nervous cheering as customers gathered around televisions; some fans even brought laptops so they could work remotely from the restaurant without missing the game against Spain.

Every save by 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha — whose stardom has risen immeasurably during this tournament — drew louder reactions inside the restaurant. Owner Amélia Goncalves said she tried to work while screaming, laughing and nearly crying, noting that Vozinha's story resonates with the Cape Verdean community.

“If you work hard, it's possible,” Goncalves said.

The team has worked hard. The round of 32 is very possible now. A tiny country with big hopes is poised for its biggest sports moment.

“Now nobody can ask, ‘Where is Cape Verde?’” said 22-year-old Micaelle Nunes, one of the soccer revelers in Brockton. “The whole world will know.”

The players are aware of the celebrations. They know that, in some ways, they have become a sentimental favorite all over the globe. Their story is easy to appreciate and the way they play has drawn applause even from fans in opposing jerseys.

A 12% chance is on the brink of coming through.

“We had a big journey here,” Lopes said. “Now that we're here, we can't change.”

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Associated Press writer Leah Willingham in Brockton, Massachusetts, and Zach Pascuzzi in Miami Gardens, Florida, contributed to this story. Pascuzzi is a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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

The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The three liberal justices dissented.

Prosecutors had been preparing to try the man, Pedro Hernandez, for a third time. His first trial ended in a mistrial.

The unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Hernandez’ murder and kidnapping conviction in the second trial because of how the judge had answered a question from jurors.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction “a slender reed” that essentially ignored a five-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.

The justices agreed, in an unsigned opinion, that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.

“The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,” the justices wrote.

Hernandez, 64, has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Bragg hailed the high court's decision. “It’s impossible to imagine the pain of losing a child, waiting so long for justice and having to brace for more proceedings,” Bragg, a Democrat, said at a news conference on an unrelated issue, adding that he hoped the Patz family gained some peace of mind from the high court’s ruling.

A message seeking comment was sent to Etan’s father.

Hernandez’ lawyers said they were “terribly disappointed” by the ruling. “We firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit,” attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier said.

Hernandez made statements to confidants years ago about having killed a child or young man in New York, and he later told police he’d killed Etan. His lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that his admission to police came after detectives queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.

Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn’t become a suspect until 2012.

Etan was among the first missing children ever to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.

Hernandez already has been tried twice. A jury deadlocked in 2015, and then a different panel of jurors convicted him at a 2017 retrial.

During deliberations, the 2017 jurors asked a complicated question: If they decided Hernandez didn’t confess voluntarily when he hadn’t been read his rights yet, must they disregard his other confessions? The then-judge responded simply, “the answer is no.” The jury went on to convict.

In overturning that verdict, the appeals court said the jury’s question should have gotten a more fulsome answer, including the possibility of discounting all the confessions.

Hernandez’ retrial had been expected to start in September, and his lawyers and prosecutors were due to give the trial judge a status update next week.

Asked about next steps, Bragg said prosecutors would await guidance from appellate judges and the state trial court that has handled the case.

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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from New York.

Salah scored his 68th goal in international play, a total now just one goal shy of current Egypt coach Hossam Hassan’s career record for the Pharaohs, in a 3-1 World Cup victory Sunday night over New Zealand.

It was his third World Cup goal after he netted two at the 2018 tournament in Russia. Three goals at the World Cup gives the 34-year-old Salah the most ever for an Egyptian player.

Salah played for Liverpool for nine seasons, winning two Premier League titles and becoming the league's leading foreign goal scorer. But he had a dip in form this season and amid tensions, announced his contract with the squad would be ended a year early.

His departure from Anfield sparked discussion as to where the striker would be going next. For now, he plays for Egypt with his future plans still uncertain.

While between clubs, Mo Salah has etched his name further into the history books as the captain of the first Egyptian team to win a World Cup match.

“What happened today is history for us as Egyptians,” Salah said. “We see a lot of teams win games, but for us as Egyptian, it doesn’t happen often, first time in history.”

Fans would have to wait to see the Salah they grew to expect at Liverpool. He started slow in the first half, missing wide left on a direct free kick and watching New Zealand take an early lead, but he would not be denied for long.

Salah scored Sunday on a pass from Mostafa Ziko in the 67th minute. The ball slid underneath a defender and past New Zealand goalkeeper Max Crocombe to give the Pharaohs a 2-1 lead.

Salah wasn’t done adding to his resume quite yet, getting an assist in the 82nd minute on the Pharaohs’ final goal, his second assist of this year's World Cup. He also had an assist on Egypt’s lone goal in its 1-1 draw against Belgium earlier in the tournament.

“He’s a good player,” New Zealand captain Chris Wood said. “You have to keep an eye on him.”

The four-time Premier League Golden Boot winner scored nine goals in 10 matches to qualify the Pharaohs for this World Cup. Salah became the career scoring leader in African World Cup qualifying history.

Salah should have his share of clubs interested in his talents after a strong start to the World Cup.

“Salah worked hard on the pitch,” Egypt manager Hossam Hassan said. “I am sure we are going to see more from him.”

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Connor Joyce is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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This story has been corrected to show it was Salah's second assist of this year's World Cup, not Sunday's game.

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

Pulisic participated in warmups and ball drills during the 15 minutes of practice open to the media in Orange County. The team gave no formal update on the status of the AC Milan midfielder, who has been limited to one dynamic half of play in the unbeaten Americans' home World Cup.

Pulisic didn't play in the Americans' 2-0 victory over Australia in Seattle last Friday. He played the first half of their tournament-opening victory over Paraguay, catalyzing two of the U.S. team's three goals in the first half of a historic 4-1 win before coming off at halftime with stiffness from the injury incurred the previous week in training.

Pulisic trained apart from his teammates during the workouts between the first two games, so his return to the full squad was obviously encouraging. He had been limited to gym workouts, resistance training and light ball work during his absence.

“It’s a tough situation when you’re going through a small, little knock,” U.S. teammate Alex Zendejas said Monday. “It’s an important tournament where obviously everyone wants to be able to get out there 100%, but (we don’t) talk about the injury or talk about the moment (Pulisic) is going through. (We) talk about other stuff, try to get his mind off of it. Just be there for him.”

The U.S. finishes group play on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium against Turkey in a meaningless game for the group-winning Americans and the already-eliminated Turks.

The Americans' first knockout match is on July 1 in Santa Clara, California.

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino still didn’t have his entire roster on the field at Great Park. Midfielder Cristian Roldan missed practice with a strained muscle.

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

Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SSE) announced the Silver Dancers will join the Hype Squad to expand its in-game entertainment lineup, the team said in a news release.

Originally established in 1991, the Silver Dancers are an all-women’s dance team that entertained fans and cheered for all five Spurs championships.

The Silver Dancers were discontinued by SSE in 2018, citing "lack of fan interest," and replaced by the current Hype Squad, a co-ed group made up of dancers, break dancers, tumblers and stunters.

>> Former Silver Dancers disappointed in decision to eliminate team

Eight years — and one trip to the NBA Finals — later, the Silver Dancers are slated to return to heighten the basketball arena’s energy during home games.

“The Silver Dancers and Hype Squad each bring their own energy, skillset and connection to our fans, and we’re excited to expand our entertainment lineup in a way that reflects the spirit of the Spurs both on the court and in the community,” said Jordan Mandelkorn, SSE vice president of marketing, in the release.

The release stated the Silver Dancers will perform at select Spurs home games and community events throughout the season.

“Their return signals the organization’s continued focus on expanding fan entertainment while bringing a meaningful part of Spurs nostalgia and fan experience to a new generation,” the release said.

People interested in joining the Silver Dancers have until June 28 to try out for the team. The release said registration for auditions can be found online.

Read also:

• Former Silver Dancers disappointed in decision to eliminate team
• Spurs’ deep playoff run generated $36.2M in economic impact, Visit San Antonio says

Athletic director Warde Manuel didn't take much time to make a move.

Mike Boynton was promoted to interim coach to replace Dusty May, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.

May and the Dallas Mavericks are finalizing a contract for him to make the jump to the NBA, another person with knowledge of the deal told the AP. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal wasn’t completed.

Who is Mike Boynton?

Manuel chose to give Boynton, a two-year assistant under May and a former Oklahoma State coach, another chance to lead a program.

The school is hoping continuity will help convince players on the roster to stay out of the transfer portal.

Boynton recruited Cade Cunningham to play for the Cowboys in 2020 even though they were facing NCAA penalties from rule violations under a former assistant coach.

“There’s not a lot of coaches that would say, 'Do what you want to do, I’m going to help you if you want to leave,'" Cunningham said at the time. He went on to be drafted No. 1 by the Detroit Pistons in 2021.

Two years ago, Boynton was fired with a 119-109 record over seven seasons.

May said during the NCAA Tournament that his top assistant should get another shot.

“He’s an elite basketball coach,” May said in April. “He did a really good job at Oklahoma State, especially considering the circumstances."

The 44-year-old Boynton, who is from New York, previously was an assistant with the Cowboys and Stephen F. Austin under current Illinois coach Brad Underwood.

Freedom of movement

Just days after winning the national championship, Manuel said during a celebration at the school that he reached an agreement with May that would keep him under contract for many years to come.

Two months later, May bounced.

And, no one seemed to see it coming.

“I was shocked,” All-America forward Yaxel Lendeborg said, a day before he was expected to be a first-round pick in the NBA draft. “I almost fell to my knees.”

Sign of the times?

Even though May seemed to embrace the new era of college athletics that features freedom of movement with the transfer portal and the ability for athletes to make money on their name, image and likeness, he might have been drawn to the NBA where his role is to coach while others handle the business side of the franchise.

Manuel made a deal with May shortly after the season ended in part to keep him away from suitors such as North Carolina, which fired Hubert Davis and hired former Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone.

“I think for all of those Michigan fans, they have nothing to worry about," May said on “The Rich Eisen Show" in April.

What’s next for Michigan?

May previously planned to reload for next season with nine newcomers, including three from the portal, but those newcomers along with returning players will now have an opportunity to transfer because he left.

In addition to losing May after two seasons, Michigan will be without three players projected to be first-round picks in the NBA draft on Tuesday night.

If Michigan does not name a permanent head coach within 30 days, players on the roster will have a 15-day window to transfer.

May leaves big sneakers to fill

Manuel hired May away from Florida Atlantic in 2024 and he quickly turned around a program that lost a school-record 24 games two years ago, leading to former Fab Five player Juwan Howard getting fired.

May successfully leveraged opportunities in the transfer portal in each of his two years, looking for players who loved to pass because they usually make good teammates. He also made the most of his players’ talents with spacing on offense and a swarming style on defense.

He helped make Michigan a place Lendeborg, Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. wanted to be last season. The trio of transfers helped the team win a school-record 37 games and its second national title while improving their NBA stock.

Little did they know, May would also be working in the league next season.

“I’m happy for him,” Mara said. “Obviously, I don’t think anyone expected it or knew about it. I had no idea.”

May is leaving to lead the Mavs, a team that features reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg and nine-time All-Star Kyrie Irving. He succeeds Jason Kidd, who was let go two weeks after Masai Ujiri was hired as president of basketball operations and alternate governor.

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AP Basketball Writers Tim Reynolds and Brian Mahoney in Miami and New York and AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon in Dallas contributed to this report.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Greenspan died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife of 29 years, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

“To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984," Mitchell wrote. "He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf, and music, especially jazz. He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life.”

The Fed said Greenspan helped to cement trust in the Fed during a time of economic uncertainty.

“Under his leadership, the Federal Reserve achieved a sustained era of price stability that supported economic growth and helped anchor the public’s confidence in the institution,” the central bank said in a statement Monday.

Greenspan was hailed as "Maestro'' — before crisis hit

In 18 1/2 years at the Fed, Greenspan presided over a breathtaking surge in stock prices and a 10-year economic boom that started in March 1991. He was celebrated as “Maestro’’ and “Oracle’’ — an economic virtuoso whose every utterance was dissected for clues on where interest rates and the economy were headed.

The intense scrutiny of Greenspan’s intentions gave birth to new Fed folklore: the “Briefcase Indicator.” A stuffed briefcase carried into Fed meetings implied changes might be afoot because Greenspan carried with him charts and research to make his point.

But his reputation began to suffer almost as soon as he left the Fed in 2006. American housing prices tumbled rapidly, causing huge losses for banks that had repackaged mortgage loans into a dizzying array of complex securities. The growing financial crisis pushed the U.S. economy into the Great Recession of 2007-2009 — the deepest downturn since the 1930s.

Critics blamed the devastation on Greenspan’s easy money policies and his support for deregulated financial markets. Greenspan himself later acknowledged “I made a mistake’’ in assuming that banks could essentially regulate themselves.

Greenspan became the authoritative voice on the US economy

For almost two decades, it seemed that Greenspan could do no wrong. Not only in the United States but across the world, he was regarded with a mixture of reverence and awe. Many openly dreaded the day when he would leave the Fed.

Investors hung on his sometimes inscrutable observations. In the most well-known such remark, Greenspan sent financial markets reeling on Dec. 5, 1996, when he suggested with just two words — “irrational exuberance” — that stock prices were too high.

Mindful of his power to move markets, Greenspan typically resorted to obfuscation. At times, he even joked about his habit of doing so. “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant,” Greenspan once told a befuddled congressional committee.

Greenspan was one of the few Fed chairs that Kevin Warsh, chosen by Trump to lead the Fed, praised at his swearing-in last month. Warsh has said one of his goals is to dial back the Fed's communications, particularly the guidance it gives financial markets, an approach closer to Greenspan's than to Warsh's immediate predecessors as chair.

Yet for all his circumspect comments, Greenspan did make the Fed more transparent. He was the first chair to issue a statement explaining the Fed's interest-rate decisions. Before Greenspan, investors had to divine the Fed's intentions from market changes. Greenspan also began to release minutes and even full transcripts of meetings, though those changes were in response to pressure from Congress.

A protégé is born

Born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, the young Greenspan was a math whiz who was trotted out by his mother to show off for visitors.

“I was a prop at parties,’’ he said in a 2007 interview with PBS NewsHour. A Julliard School dropout, he worked as a professional musician in his teens, playing clarinet and saxophone alongside the future jazz great Stan Getz. It was a humbling experience that persuaded the young Greenspan to seek another line of work.

He pursued undergraduate and graduate study in economics at New York University, eventually earning a doctorate there. For most of three decades, he ran an economic consulting firm. During the 1950s, he became a disciple of the libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, who stuck him with the nickname the “Undertaker’’ for his dark clothes and quiet bearing. When Greenspan was sworn in as President Gerald Ford’s chief economic adviser in 1974, Rand stood beside him.

An early trial for a new Fed chair

President Ronald Reagan tapped Greenspan to run the Fed in 1987. He was tested almost immediately. On Oct. 19, 1987, which came to be known as “Black Monday,” the stock market suffered the worst one-day percentage loss in American history just two months into his term. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 22.6% for reasons that remain opaque to this day.

Greenspan was credited for helping restore stability. He assured Wall Street that the Fed would supply as much money to the financial system as was needed to restore calm. Stocks recovered, and the American economy emerged unscathed by the market crash.

During his tenure at the Fed, Greenspan drew praise for presiding over what was at the time the longest economic expansion in American history. (It was later surpassed by a 128-month expansion that ran from June 2009 through February 2020.) During Greenspan's tenure at the Fed, the nation’s unemployment rate briefly dropped below 4% for the first time since 1970.

And inflation, which had bedeviled the United States and much of the global economy during the 1970s, was remarkably dormant during Greenspan’s chairmanship, something many economists thought impossible for so long a period.

During the long boom, Greenspan argued that improvements in technology had made the economy so efficient that it could run faster and at lower rates of unemployment, without unleashing inflation. As a consequence, the theory went, the Fed could keep interest rates low even when the economy was roaring.

The economy soared in the late 1990s, expanding by 4% or more for four straight years, and Greenspan was credited with holding off on rate hikes and allowing the boom to run.

Warsh has said that AI could reproduce the 1990s experience of high growth with low inflation, though economists are skeptical it will play out the same way.

A passion for numbers and life

As Fed chair, Greenspan relished poring over obscure economic data, from monthly boxcar loadings to steel production, all in a bid to assess where the economy was going. He would often phone economists at other government agencies to discuss details. He would rise early each morning for a two-hour soak in his bathtub, time that he used to review statistics and Fed staff memos.

Improbably, Greenspan also made the gossip pages as an unlikely ladies’ man. He dated the television journalist Barbara Walters and later married Mitchell after a 12-year courtship. They had no children.

Greenspan dated Walters while working as an adviser to President Gerald Ford. According to a biography of Greenspan, “The Man Who Knew” by Sebastian Mallaby, when Ford read a newspaper item about the pair, he cut it out and sent it to his chief of staff, Dick Cheney, with a note that said, “I don’t believe it.”

A strong faith in self-regulating markets is challenged

All along, Greenspan held fast to the belief that financial markets could largely regulate themselves. With officials from President Bill Clinton’s White House, he helped block efforts by Brooksley Born, the nation’s top commodities regulator, to bring federal oversight in the late 1990s to the shadowy market in over-the-counter derivatives. The derivatives allowed speculators to make bets on everything from the price of oil to high-risk mortgages.

Eventually, history would vindicate Born, not the Maestro.

The low interest rates Greenspan had engineered helped swell housing prices into a dangerous bubble. And the financial deregulation he supported allowed banks and other financial firms to pile up huge risks, often hidden from government supervision. Bad derivatives bets helped sink insurance giant American International Group, which required a $180 billion taxpayer bailout. Vaunted investment firms Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers failed and U.S. financial markets nearly collapsed.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was assigned to investigate the debacle by Congress, concluded:

“More than 30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation by financial institutions, championed by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and others ... had stripped away key safeguards, which could have helped avoid catastrophe."

Life after the Fed

In the years after stepping down as Fed chairman in 2006 just shy of his 80th birthday, Greenspan kept busy doing what he loved to do most — following the economic data. He ran his own consulting firm, Greenspan Associates, through which he dispensed advice to Wall Street clients and collected handsome speaking fees.

He kept up a busy schedule well into his 90s, writing his memoir and two other books on the economy, as well as opining on the latest economic developments on television news shows.

He also signed onto opinion articles and statements defending the Federal Reserve’s political independence from President Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks. In January 2026 he signed a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The statement, which was also signed by two other former Fed chairs and five former Treasury secretaries, called the investigation “an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine” the Fed’s independence and warned it would have “highly negative consequences for inflation.”

In his 2013 book “The Map and the Territory,’’ Greenspan defended himself against critics who assigned him significant blame for the 2008 financial meltdown. He argued that traditional economic forecasting was no match for the irrational risk-taking that can feed catastrophic price bubbles.

“Bubbles go up very slowly as euphoria builds,” Greenspan said in a 2013 interview with The Associated Press. “Then fear hits, and it comes down very sharply. When I started to look at that, I was sort of intellectually shocked.”

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AP Economics Writers Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

The shooting has sparked outrage in the small city of Senatobia, where some say it’s the latest in a series of troubling encounters between police and Black residents.

Kohen Wiley was riding with his mother and another woman in a Walmart parking lot on June 14 when police responded to a shoplifting call. The family says they were driving away, while the officers say the car was heading toward them.

“I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Vellesiya Wiley said at a news conference Monday.

The other woman in the car, whose name has not been released, suffered “critical injuries,” according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the inquiry.

Standing alongside Kohen’s parents and grandparents at a local church, civil rights attorney Ben Crump told reporters Monday that the best way to determine whether the officers were at risk is to publicly release any body camera, dash camera or Walmart security camera video.

“If that is the truth, then show us that,” Crump said. “The longer you delay releasing the video, the more distrustful we become.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation declined to comment on what videos investigators have or whether they would be released, agency spokesperson Bailey Martin said Monday.

“This case has been made a top priority,” Martin said in an emailed statement, “and we currently have multiple agents working tirelessly to ensure every aspect of the investigation is thoroughly examined.”

The agency says the officers weren’t hurt. Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford did not return a phone message seeking comment Monday.

State investigators gave an initial account of the shooting last week, saying that when Senatobia police arrived at the Walmart, they found two women and a child getting into a car and driving away.

“Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene,” the agency statement said.

Kohen's mother has said the shoplifting call was over a box of diapers that her friend was carrying — and that she believes her friend had paid for the diapers. State investigators declined to comment on those details.

Crump questioned why police didn't let the car go and take down the license plate number.

“They were called over a box of diapers and a family now has to bury their baby,” Crump said Monday. “You cannot put those two things next to each other and call it reasonable policing.”

Crump also said an independent autopsy would be performed.

While there's no question the child was shot by police, he said, details about the angles at which any bullets struck the child could yield clues as to whether the officer fired from in front of the car or off to the side — and therefore whether that officer was in any danger.

Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told The Associated Press last week that police should know that “shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,” noting the danger to passengers and other bystanders.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal wasn't completed.

May and the Wolverines won their first NCAA championship since 1989 with a 69-63 victory over UConn in April to wrap up a 34-3 season. They opened the NCAA Tournament by becoming the first team ever to score at least 90 points in five consecutive games.

That came three years after May led Florida Atlantic to its only Final Four appearance. The Owls returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 before May was hired by Michigan.

The 49-year-old May replaces Jason Kidd, who was let go two weeks after Masai Ujiri was hired as president of basketball operations and alternate governor of the Mavericks.

He comes to the NBA with a chance to mold 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick and reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. Veteran star Kyrie Irving is also on the roster for now after missing the entire 2025-26 season following an ACL tear in March of last year.

May's first job as a college assistant was at Murray State in 2005-06. He then served on staffs at UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida before getting his first head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.

The Owls went 35-4 during their dream season in 2022-23, which ended with a 72-71 loss to San Diego State in the national semifinals when Lamont Butler hit a buzzer-beating shot for the Aztecs.

“I was a fan of Dusty’s when he was at FAU,” said Yaxel Lendeborg, who played for May at Michigan and is expected to be a lottery pick in the first round of the NBA draft on Tuesday night. “And now, after playing for him, I’m a bigger fan. I have so much respect for Dusty May, I can’t even tell you.”

Lendeborg said at last month’s draft combine that he believed May ran Michigan’s program like an NBA program in many ways.

“A lot of schemes, a lot of switching and stuff. And his offense was very much a pro-style offense,” Lendeborg said. “We played fast-paced, physical, all of that. ... I’ve gained so much knowledge from him as far as those actions and just those little communication keys.”

May’s rise in coaching has been meteoric, particularly after the last four seasons.

He took over at Florida Atlantic in 2018 and had four consecutive seasons of finishing just over .500 — before striking gold in the 2022-23 season, going 35-4 and taking the Owls on that improbable Final Four run.

May went 25-9 at FAU the following season, then went to Michigan and brought the Wolverines back to prominence. He was 64-13 in his two seasons after replacing Juwan Howard with Michigan coming off an 8-24 season, the school's lowest win total since going 7-20 in 1981-82.

Michigan went 27-10 in May’s debut, won the Big Ten Conference Tournament and made it to the NCAA Sweet 16.

May’s record in his last four college seasons was 124-26, an .827 winning percentage that was third best in all of major college men’s basketball over that span behind Houston’s Kelvin Sampson (.861) and Duke’s Jon Scheyer (.832).

The Indiana native was a student manager for the Hoosiers and coach Bob Knight while he was in school there from 1996-2000. He gained experience in scouting, video operations and player development while with the Hall of Fame coach, who died in 2023.

After graduating from Indiana, May spent two seasons as an administrative assistant and video coordinator at Southern California. He returned to the Hoosiers in similar roles from 2002-05.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report.

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

Judge Tony Graf made the ruling during a hearing Monday morning, saying the purpose of a preliminary hearing is to establish whether there is enough evidence to justify bringing the case to trial, not to determine whether someone is innocent or guilty.

Graf also postponed a ruling on whether prosecutors could face sanctions for comments to the media about a bullet fragment recovered from the conservative activist’s body until Friday. The defense team had asked Judge Tony Graf to block the death penalty in the case, claiming the prosecutors’ comments could sway potential jurors regarding his guilt.

Robinson, 23, has not yet entered a plea. He is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was shot in the neck while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University.

Prosecutors have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing and two unfired cartridges. Defense attorneys note that forensic reports indicate multiple people’s DNA was found on some items, which they say requires a more complex analysis.

Robinson reportedly texted his roommate, who was also his romantic partner, that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

Robinson's defense team asked the judge to block prosecutors from using recorded statements from the roommate in the preliminary hearing, set to begin on July 6. The roommate should be brought to testify in person, the defense attorneys said, so that Robinson can exercise his right to confront witnesses in person and challenge their credibility. But Graf denied that request, saying the time for challenging witnesses will come later.

“The Utah Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that a preliminary hearing is not a trial on the merits, but a gateway to the finder of fact,” Graf said. The task of determining whether a witness is credible is a job for the jury if the case goes to trial, he said.

The case has attracted widespread attention, and online speculation and conspiracy theories grew after the defense team disclosed in public court documents that initial tests were inconclusive to determine whether the bullet was fired from the suspected murder weapon.

Conjecture over that evidence fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that there might have been a second shooter, or that his death was staged. Attorneys on both sides have raised concerns that the misinformation and extensive media attention could taint the potential jury pool.

Judge Graf held a hearing earlier this month over whether prosecutors should be held in contempt for their comments about the bullet.

Robinson’s attorneys accused prosecutors including Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard of trying to influence potential jurors by going on a “media tour” to talk about ballistics evidence in the case.

Ballard argued at the June 12 hearing that he didn’t speak to the media about case specifics, and he only remarked generally about how ballistics testing can be inconclusive.

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Brown reported from Denver and Boone from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press reporter Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Salt Lake City.

In a ruling unsealed Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz found the “dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”

Tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota’s Democratic leaders escalated in January as federal immigration officers clashed with protesters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, especially after officers’ fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

President Donald Trump even threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests and accused Walz, who was Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024, and others of encouraging protesters to disrupt Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.

Judge finds ‘weak to nonexistent’ reasons for subpoenas

The subpoenas seeking records were served in January as part of an investigation into whether Walz and other officials obstructed or impeded law enforcement actions. They were sent to the offices of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

The ruling is the latest rebuke by the federal judiciary of Justice Department efforts to aggressively implement the Trump administration agenda in courts and target the president’s political adversaries through subpoenas and similar demands.

The judge ruled that there appeared to be “extremely weak to nonexistent” connections between the information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation. The subpoenas seek materials “that largely if not entirely relate to constitutionally protected conduct,” the judge wrote, noting that Minnesota has the legal right not to devote its resources to enforcing federal immigration law.

The Justice Department “is not conducting a criminal investigation,” the judge wrote, “but is instead using the grand jury process for other (unlawful) purposes.”

The evidence that the subpoenas were issued for unlawful reasons is overwhelming, the judge said, arguing that the Justice Department “has struggled — without success — to identify a single plausible investigatory justification” for them.

The Justice Department said in a statement that it “takes the unlawful obstruction of federal law enforcement operations extremely seriously and will continue to act in full compliance with the law to investigate these matters.”

Targets hail the judge's decision

Walz, in a statement, called the ruling “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy.”

“The U.S. Justice Department is pursuing criminal investigations into the President’s political opponents,” said Walz, the 2024 Democratic nominee for vice president. “This case was just one example of that, but we are seeing daily reminders of this administration’s lawlessness — in Minnesota and around the country. We all must continue to seek justice and uphold the rule of law.”

Ellison said “it should disturb every American that Donald Trump is weaponizing the criminal justice system against people he disagrees with.”

The subpoenas are “a politically motivated retaliation against our city for lawfully standing up to ICE and fighting for our residents,” Her said in a statement.

Frey said the investigation was “never about justice, law, and order, but the absence of it.”

“Subpoenaing political opponents because they spoke on behalf of their constituents violates the core tenets of our democracy and human decency,” he said.

Frey also observed that criticizing government action is not a crime.

“One of the defining strengths of our democracy is the ability to challenge those in power without fear of retribution. Elected officials have both the right and the responsibility to speak honestly about how government decisions affect the people they serve,” he said.

Subpoenas were among many federal actions against Minnesota officials

Over the last year, judges have dismissed indictments against two prominent Trump foes, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, and grand juries have repeatedly refused to return indictments sought by the Justice Department.

The moves reflect mounting public concerns that the Justice Department, an institution meant to make investigative and prosecution decisions independent of the White House, is being politicized under the current Trump administration.

Vice President JD Vance has separately called on the Justice Department to investigate Walz and Ellison over allegations they failed to stop widespread social services fraud, though the department has not said whether it will open an investigation. Walz and Ellison have described those allegations as politically motivated and defended their efforts to combat fraud in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, other legal battles related to the immigration surge continue. The federal government has suggested Minnesota prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in March sued the administration for access to evidence in the Good and Pretti killings, accusing the administration of withholding evidence from state investigators. Moriarty also has pursued criminal charges against ICE officers in two other incidents, including the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man, and suggests her office is investigating several other cases as well.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show the federal judge's name is Patrick Schiltz, not Schlitz.

Washington has won three straight games on the road, including closing out victories late over New York and Minnesota.

“I think it takes time to get to where you want to go,” said Washington forward Kiki Iriafen, who scored the go-ahead basket in the wins over both the Liberty and Lynx. “And that’s something that our coaches have stressed to us. Like the first month of May was kind of hard having back to back losses and even this month, as well. But our coaches told us, like, playoff contending teams don’t happen in May.”

The three consecutive road wins — Washington also won at Connecticut last week — were the first time the team has done that since 2024. The victory at New York on Friday night snapped a 10-game regular season losing streak to the Liberty.

“You just want to get better each and every month. So kind of looking at the season as month to month to month rather than we lost X amount of games or we have this many more games to go," Iriafen said. "I think it’s just a comfortability. We’re all getting more comfortable with each other.”

Coach Sydney Johnson feels that his young team bought in during training camp by putting in the work to get better. The Mystics have the youngest roster in league history.

“I think it’s a combination that we understood we were fielding one of the youngest teams in the history of the league. At the same time, having really competitive players from winning programs,” Johnson said. “We also know that it’s really, really hard to win in this league. Really, really hard. And so we’ve learned some tough lessons, and we’re taking some of that learning and transferring it to future performances.”

Washington returns home to face Minnesota on Wednesday.

Power poll rankings

Las Vegas and Minnesota sit tied atop the power poll this week. The two teams were followed by Atlanta and New York. Dallas was fifth and Golden State sixth. Washington moved up four spots to seventh. Indiana, Los Angeles and Portland were next. Toronto, Phoenix and Chicago came after the Fire. Seattle and Connecticut rounded out the poll.

Player of the week

Sonia Citron of Washington was the AP player of the week. She averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists to help the Mystics win their three games last week. Olivia Miles of Minnesota, Jordin Canada of Atlanta, Jessica Shepard of Dallas and Marina Mabrey of Toronto also received votes.

Game of the week

New York at Las Vegas, Tuesday. The Liberty and Aces will meet for the first time this season with the next matchup taking place in New York on June 30 with the Commissioner's Cup championship at stake. The Liberty have dropped their last two games, blowing fourth quarter leads in both contests. Las Vegas is coming in off a dominating win over Golden State.

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

The Czech cited “mental stress” and fear when the testing agent “rang my door late at night without properly identifying themselves.”

The International Tennis Integrity Agency made the announcement, saying Vondrousova refused a test in December and the maximum four-year ban for a routine first offense was reached by an independent tribunal following a hearing this month.

Vondrousova became Wimbledon’s first unseeded female champion when she beat Ons Jabeur in the 2023 final. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 that year. She also reached the French Open final in 2019, losing to Ash Barty.

The 26-year-old Vondrousova detailed her reaction to the missed test in an Instagram post in April.

“It is very tough for me to talk about this, but I want to be transparent with you about my mental health,” Vondrousova said. “The recent doping control incident happened because I reached a breaking point after months of physical and mental stress.”

The ITIA said Vondrousova “did not submit a sample when notified by a Doping Control Officer during an out-of-competition test attempt at her home at around 8 p.m. on 3 December 2025” and that she instead signed a refusal form.

“I have never doped. I have never had a positive test,” Vondrousova wrote on Instagram after the ruling was released. “Throughout my entire career, I have undergone countless anti-doping controls and have always stepped onto the court with a clear conscience. Just three days after the incident that ultimately changed my life, I was tested again. The result was negative. Just like every test before it.”

Vondrousova was represented by Los Angeles-based lawyer Howard Jacobs, a specialist in doping rules cases. Jacobs helped two-time Grand Slam singles champion Simona Halep win an appeal case in 2024 at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a four-year ban for doping.

Vondrousova becomes the latest high-profile tennis player involved in a doping case after Halep, Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek.

Sinner accepted a three-month ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency at the start of last year and Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension at the end of 2024.

Halep, Sinner and Swiatek each proved they were not entirely responsible for their positive tests.

“We recognize this is a significant ban,” ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said. “You can’t have an anti-doping system where a player is in a better place by refusing to take a test than they would by taking a test and testing positive. So that feeds into the structure of the doping rules that provides for a starting point in the four-year ban for refusing to take a test.”

Vondrousova’s ban expires June 21, 2030. She can appeal the decision to the Switzerland-based CAS.

During a hearing before the tribunal, Vondrousova presented explanations that stress and poor mental health affected her decision making, in addition to concerns for her safety because she claimed the tester did not identity herself.

The tribunal also took testimony from the doping control officer and concluded the evidence offered “no compelling justification” for the test refusal.

Tennis players and other pro athletes are required by anti-doping rules to specify where they will be available for a one-hour period each day to give samples for testing.

The female testing agent showed up at Vondrousova’s home outside the assigned hour that the player signed up for that day — in a surprise test. Athletes are required to submit for testing if they are located for a surprise test outside their assigned hour. If they are not found when a tester shows up outside assigned hours, there is no sanction.

“Unpredictable testing is an essential tool to protect clean sport,” Moorhouse said. “The independent tribunal ultimately supported that principle. This case is an important reminder that players can be tested at any time, in any place, and that refusal comes with significant risk.”

The ITIA would not say if any inconsistencies were found in Vondrousova's previous anti-doping history.

“We wouldn’t disclose that,” said Nicole Sapstead, the ITIA's senior director of anti-doping, adding: “We look at all things like that.”

Vondrousova, ranked 122, hasn't played since January.

Wimbledon starts next week.

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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

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

Merlín the duck — Mexico’s unofficial World Cup mascot — didn’t take any questions; his owner, Carla Gómez, did that for him.

Gómez, a street vendor who sells water and soft drinks, introduced her family with pride and determination, presenting them as representative of countless other working-class Mexicans. “We are the working part” of Mexico, she said.

Sitting beside the lectern, with Merlín at the center, were her sons, Carlos, 22, and Cristian, 14, who “doesn’t rest after school” and helps her every day by selling goods and carrying packages.

Merlín, he said, is “the boss of our little business. He’s the one who follows behind us, making sure we’re working and doing things the right way.”

The family takes great care with his diet, feeding him small fish, crickets and, on Sundays, even a meat taco.

Gómez said she was moved by the way Merlín captured the hearts of World Cup fans.

“It has been the best thing that has happened to us in this life,” she said, though she noted that other ducks the family had owned also became local celebrities in Mexico City’s historic center, including Bruna, who wore tennis shoes.

Gómez said she believes the family went viral because people saw in them “a hard-working family, a family that gets up every day to make ends meet.”

The president eventually had to cut off questions to move the news conference along, but not before trying to pet Merlín and posing for a photo with the family.

The scene had barely ended when social media filled with criticism of the president’s decision to welcome the duck while relatives of missing persons — who have been demonstrating and seeking a face-to-face meeting with her since the start of the World Cup — remained unheard.

Wildlife advocates also warned that the popularity of pets like Merlín can have unintended consequences. In a Facebook post, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit of Pachuca, a city about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mexico City, cautioned that fame can fuel “impulse purchases and abandonment.”

“Animals do not need owners for fashion; they need responsible caretakers,” the government-run agency wrote.

Merlín, at least, appears to have found them.

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

Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine with drones and missiles since its all-out invasion more than four years ago. Ukraine increasingly has struck back against oil facilities and military factories deep inside Russia.

A United Nations tally says more than 16,000 civilians have died in the war. U.S.-led peace efforts have failed to stop the fighting.

The Sumy attack hit a home and killed a 36-year-old man, his son and the 73-year-old mother of his partner, according to Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the regional military administration. The man’s partner and 10-year-old son were wounded, he said.

“An ordinary home — not a military target whatsoever," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.

The Ukrainian missile attack on the industrial plant in Voronezh in southwestern Russia killed five people and injured dozens, Gov. Alexander Gusev said. He did not name the plant.

Ukraine’s General Staff said it hit a Voronezh factory that produces electronic parts for Russian missile and air defense systems.

Ukraine's monthly civilian casualties are highest in 4 years

The number of civilian casualties in Russian attacks has jumped recently, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, as Moscow’s forces struggle to gain momentum on the battlefield.

At least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured in Ukraine in May, the highest monthly total of civilian casualties since April 2022, the mission said earlier this month. Most casualties are in cities far from the front line, it said.

A Russian nighttime drone strike killed a woman and wounded three people, including an 11-year-old boy, in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.

Russia launched 88 long-range attack drones and one ballistic missile overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, with air defenses shooting down or jamming 79 of the drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 301 Ukrainian drones during the night over multiple Russian regions, the Crimea peninsula, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 84 Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital were shot down. He didn’t mention any damage, but all four Moscow airports temporarily halted flights.

The success of Ukraine’s long-range campaign against oil facilities, military transport and infrastructure has prompted Russian-held Crimea to halt civilian gasoline sales.

And all summer camps in illegally annexed Crimea on Monday stopped accepting children and new bookings until Sept. 1 for security reasons, said the Russian-installed governor of the occupied peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov.

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

Did you miss out on one of Justin’s “Honk the Horne” t-shirt giveaways during the championship games? Now’s your chance to grab a t-shirt while supplies last. KSAT is selling a limited quantity of “Honk the Horne” shirts for $20 plus taxes and fees, and the purchase price includes shipping within the KSAT viewing area in Texas only.

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Preston King, 22, was arrested on June 16 and booked on a $200,000 bond, according to Comal County records.

The crash happened during the early morning hours on U.S. Highway 281 near Farm-to-Market Road 1863 in Bulverde.

According to the warrant, a Bulverde police officer spotted a 2017 Chevrolet Cruze traveling more than 100 mph in a 65 mph zone in the 33000 block of Highway 281.

The officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but the driver, later identified as King, continued speeding and the officer lost sight of his car, the warrant states.

A short time later, a Comal County Sheriff’s Office deputy found a wrecked vehicle under the Highway 281 overpass near FM 1863 that matched the description of the car that the Bulverde officer had been pursuing.

Authorities found three occupants, including King, inside the vehicle, the warrant states.

King was taken to the hospital, and a woman and a dog riding in the vehicle were pronounced dead.

The woman was identified as Alyssa Sepeda, the warrant states.

During their investigation, investigators learned that King was traveling at a high rate of speed before he went airborne over 100 feet and crashed under the overpass, the affidavit states.

Investigators obtained data from the car’s black box through search warrants, revealing the vehicle was traveling at 111 mph five seconds prior to the crash and 74 mph half a second before impact, authorities said.

His medical records showed he had a blood alcohol level of .138 and cannabinoids in his system, the affidavit states.

A warrant for his arrest was issued on June 12. Records show that King posted bond on June 17.

Read also:

• Man approached officers to admit he fatally shot friend on West Side, affidavit says
• ‘Absolutely devastating’: Neighbors react to deadly domestic dispute in Stone Oak

Prosecutors asked for a hearing to challenge the credibility of expert witnesses ahead of trial. However, after discussion in court, both sides agreed the issue could be addressed during the trial instead.

Defense attorneys said they did not believe the separate hearing was necessary, noting the state has agreed to narrow its list of officers and expert witnesses who will testify. Prosecutors also said they will provide an updated witness list to the defense at least two weeks before trial.

Judge Joel Perez, who presides over Bexar County’s 437th Criminal District Court, said any attempt to hold lengthy side hearings during the trial would not be allowed if it risks delaying proceedings.

He warned attorneys that if testimony or hearings appear to stretch too long, he may stop the line of questioning and exclude those witnesses.

Jury selection is currently set to begin July 20. Brennand’s trial is expected to last two and a half weeks.

Brennand is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant in connection with the shooting. Body camera video showed Brennand opening the door of Cantu’s car and firing multiple shots as Cantu drove away.

Brennand did not appear in court on Monday, and his appearance was waived.

If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

Read also:

• Erik Cantu won’t serve additional prison time, receives 2-year deferred adjudication sentence
• San Antonio father sentenced in child’s death violates deferred adjudication terms

The latest attack — which now number at more than 60 — brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to more than 210 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

It is unclear if the survivors of this strike were rescued. In this case, and the strike on June 16 that left two survivors, U.S. Central Command said that they notified the U.S. Coast Guard. A statement from the Coast Guard said they suspended their search for survivors for the June 16 strike a day later with “no signs of survivors or debris” but had no comment on the current strike.

As with most of the military’s statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.

A black and white video posted on X showed a boat speeding through the water before being struck by a visible projectile and then bursting into flames.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics of the strikes have questioned the overall legality as well as their effectiveness. Part of the argument has been that the fentanyl behind many fatal U.S. drug overdoses is typically trafficked over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

On Thursday, U.S. lawmakers demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the very first strike that the military conducted after reports emerged that the U.S. chose to conduct a follow-up strike on survivors of its initial attack.

Two men on the boat initially survived the attack that killed nine others, and they were clinging to the wreckage when the vessel was struck again, killing them. The White House confirmed the follow-up strike, insisting it was done “in self-defense” to ensure the boat was destroyed and in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.

But some legal scholars said a second strike killing survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not.

The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May that it planned to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what’s known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.

——

This report has been corrected to reflect that the attack took place on Sunday in the Caribbean, rather than Thursday in the Pacific.

The announcement Monday from Gov. Kathy Hochul's office suggested a dual-hosting format, the likes of which Milan and Cortina pulled off at this year's Olympics.

It does not mention a year, though with the 2034 Games going to Salt Lake City and with Switzerland tabbed as the preferred bidder for 2038, the first likely available spot for New York to host would be 2042.

“The time is now to return the Olympic flame back to New York,” Hochul said.

Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980 — the year of the “Miracle on Ice” when the underdog U.S beat the Soviet Union in men's hockey on home ice. It also spent time in the mix as an emergency backup for this year's sliding sports when the venue in Cortina was riddled with construction delays.

The exploratory committee will take about a year to complete its work. The formation of the committee does not mean New York is officially involved in a bid process. The chair of the committee will be Ashley Walden, president and CEO of the Olympic Regional Development Authority.

Also among those on the committee is Assemblyman Robert Carroll, who was in Italy for the Games in February and often has said how the Milan Cortina model is one that could work in New York.

Lake Placid is among the few former hosts expected to have reliable enough weather to be able to host the Games by 2050, according to a recent climate change study.

The 2030 Olympics will be held in the French Alps.

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https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

• DRY WEATHER: Hot & humid everyday this week, no rain
• RESERVOIRS, AQUIFER RISE: Still benefitting from recent rainfall
• SAHARAN DUST: Small bouts of dust expected this week

FORECAST

TODAY

We are now moving into a quiet weather pattern, with high pressure in control. This means we’ll see a hot, humid, and quiet week. Each day, morning clouds will give way to mostly sunny skies.

STILL BENEFITTING FROM SATURDAY’S RAINFALL

Area reservoirs are still rising after rain over the weekend. Medina Lake has been the big winner, gaining over 12 feet in a week’s time. While still only 8% full, this represents a huge improvement. Canyon Lake has gained a 1.5’ over the last week.

Meantime, the aquifer has reached nearly 647′ at the J-17 well; it’s highest level since February of 2024. It has gained 22′, since its recent low in early April.

SAHARAN DUST

It’s that time again... Bouts of Saharan dust are making their way across the Atlantic. None are particularly dense, but we could see a couple rounds of very light dust Wednesday and again on Friday. They will be light enough to where you likely won’t notice any impacts.

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 national weather service, Meteo France, said most of the country — the largest in the European Union — was entering conditions that likely won't ease before Friday.

Meteo France called the heat wave exceptionally intense and similar to the August 2003 heat wave, "but with a still uncertain duration.” France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasing extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.

A country with little air-conditioning swelters

Several towns across France experienced their hottest day ever on Monday. Paris baked through its hottest night for June, not getting below 24.2 C (75.5 F). The French capital broke another June record with 37.7 C (99.9 F) recorded Monday afternoon.

“This will continue through the end of the week, with heat levels never before recorded across more than three-quarters of the country on Wednesday and Thursday," the weather service said.

The heat wave worsened air quality in Paris as it causes the formation of ozone that traps pollution. The air quality monitoring agency in the Paris region said pollutants were likely to exceed the recommended threshold.

In a country without widespread air-conditioning, people tried to adapt. Education minister Edouard Geffray said 1,352 schools were closed on Monday due to the heat, while several thousand adjusted their schedules, with students released earlier and classes relocated in air-conditioned rooms.

Deaths are reported in rivers and a parked car

A growing swath of France, spreading on Monday to more than half its regions, was under a “red alert” for heat, with areas forecast to suffer highs past 40 C and nights not dropping below 20 C.

Broadcasts on the Paris transport network urged commuters to hydrate. Medical specialists warned of the potentially deadly combination of drinking alcohol in extreme heat. Authorities cracked down on alcohol consumption in public.

Multiple drownings were reported as people sought relief in rivers, despite warnings about currents and other dangers.

Two children, aged 2 and 4, died on Monday after being found unconscious in their family’s car in the southern town of Carpentras, according a statement from the public prosecutor. According to initial findings, they had locked themselves inside the vehicle. An investigation was opened under the offense of involuntary manslaughter. Government messages warned parents not to leave children unattended in cars.

Heat warnings spread in Europe

In the United Kingdom, the weather office issued a rare “red” weather warning for Wednesday and Thursday, saying temperatures could exceed 37 C (99 F) in the shade and could rise to 40 C in parts of England and Wales.

The Met Office said extreme temperatures could cause heat-sensitive equipment to fail, including power and mobile phone services.

Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month. The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

The burning of gasoline, oil and coal, plus deforestation, wildfires and many kinds of factories, release heat-trapping gasses that cause climate change.

The Commerce Ministry said that Chinese companies would be blocked from exporting “dual-use” items to the 10 companies, which include military drone makers and some involved in rare earth mining. Dual use refers to goods that can have military as well as non-military applications.

The ministry said the export ban was both to safeguard China’s national security and in response to what it called the U.S. government’s “wrongful expansion of its so-called List of Chinese Military Companies.”

George Chen, partner for Greater China at the advisory firm The Asia Group, said the ban was an unsurprising and proportionate response to the U.S. restrictions.

“Most of them are U.S. defense industry players or they have close connections with the U.S. government for contracts and other reasons,” he said. “Those companies are not going to do business in China, so the impact will be quite symbolic.”

Separately, the Finance Ministry said that government entities would be prohibited from buying products from 46 American companies including multiple units of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics. A brief statement did not give any reason for the prohibition.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Defense Department added several tech companies including Alibaba and Baidu to its list of firms that it says have links to the Chinese military. Baidu said the suggestion that it is a military company is “totally baseless.”

The designation prevents them from getting U.S. military contracts.

The Commerce Ministry said at the time that the American sanctions run counter to the consensus that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump reached during Trump's visit to China in May.

In Monday's announcement, the ministry said that companies or individuals in third countries are prohibited from transferring dual-use items from China to the sanctioned American firms. It also said that Chinese companies could apply for export approval for goods that are “genuinely necessary.”

The 10 companies are AVEOX in Simi Valley, California; Red Cat Holdings and Teal Drones, both in South Salt Lake, Utah; IMSAR in Springville, Utah; Jaia Robotics in Bristol, Rhode Island; Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Broomfield, Colorado; Oshkosh Defense in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; L3Harris Maritime Services in Norfolk, Virginia; MP Materials in Las Vegas; and USA Rare Earth in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Six new bombshells were introduced in Episode 17, “Hearts on Fire,” where the couples were split and the men were sent to Casa Amor.

Among the new contestants is 27-year-old Parmida Keshani, a fitness trainer from San Antonio.

During her introduction, Keshani said she is Persian, born in Iran and now lives in Texas.

Keshani’s next appearance is set for Monday, 8 p.m. Central on Peacock.

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Several watch parties are happening around San Antonio, including at 3 Oak, Aye Que Chula and Little Woodrow’s.

If you know of another watch party, leave it in the comments below.

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Representatives for Tree directed The Associated Press to an official confirmation posted to Tree’s Instagram account.

“Rest in peace Oliver Tree Nickell June 29, 1993 — June 14, 2026. Your legacy will live on forever,” the caption read next to a slideshow of images reflecting Tree’s life and career.

“His legacy will live on through his foundation/endowment named ‘Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Grant For Baby Geniuses’ coming soon. This is something that Oliver had put together before his passing, written in his will,” the caption continued. “We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world, that was his final wish.”

On the morning of June 14, two helicopters collided and crashed in the Brazilian city’s Western zone, killing all six people aboard, firefighters said. Police confirmed that Tree was on the list of passengers given to aviation authorities. Argentine streaming channel Blender said that content creator Gaspar Prim Díaz, known as Gaspi, was also in one of the helicopters.

Tree was in the middle of his world tour at the time, which kicked off in Mexico City on May 30 and was scheduled to hit all seven continents.

An outsider in pop and a viral hitmaker

Born June 29, 1993 in California, Oliver Tree Nickell June, a pop outsider with a knack for internet virality, was known for his own myth-making. Rocking bright ’80s fashion and a distinctive bowl cut, Tree told interviewers he started piano lessons when he was 3 years old and had an album written by age 6. When he started his recording career in the 2010s, he did so while creating characters and making memes as he made music.

He released an electronic EP, “Demons,” under the name “Tree” in 2013 on R&S Records and scored a crucial feature on DJ and music producer Whethan’s 2016 single “When I’m Down,” growing his profile and online interest. That same year, he signed to the major label Atlantic Records and began recording as Oliver Tree.

In 2018, he released his “Alien Boy” EP with the record company, anchored by the double music video “All That x Alien Boy.” His specific visual language — off-kilter, comedic, collaborative — scored him legions of fans. To date, the video has over 52 million views on YouTube. And the single “Alien Boy” was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — his first of a few. His other platinum-certified songs include 2018’s “Hurt,” 2021’s “Life Goes On” and 2022’s “Miss You” with German musician and DJ Robin Schulz.

Over the years, his music evolved, marrying the genres of alternative rock, hip-hop and electro-pop with his cheeky flair.

His comedic persona continued to develop at the same pace: Consider the music video for 2018’s “Movement,” where he bathed in a tub filled with Flaming Hot Cheetos and dubbed it an online “challenge.” Or his 2020 major label full-length debut “Ugly Is Beautiful,” released weeks after he set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest kick scooter.

Then came 2022’s “Cowboy Tears,” a humorous country detour, 2023’s “Alone in the Crowd,” which follows the story of a character named Cornelius Cummings, and most recently, his entirely self-produced 2026 album, “Love You Madly Hate You Badly.”

All the while, his social media profile continued to explode due to his humorous antics and hooky-heavy songs. On TikTok, he boasts of 22.6 million followers — as well as 8.6 million on YouTube and 5 million on Instagram.

Tributes to Tree quickly poured in from other musicians

As news of Tree’s death broke online, famous fans and friends began paying homage to him.

“Spoke to Oliver a few weeks ago. This is heartbreaking. A really amazing and beautiful human,” rapper Kid Cudi wrote on X. “Sending all my prayers and love to the families dealing with losses. Oliver we love you, forever.”

“Been an absolute wreck today. It’s really hard to understand how someone who you once shared such a specific and formative time of your life with can all of a sudden be gone,” singer Melanie Martínez wrote Sunday in an Instagram Story post. “He was so dedicated to his art which I admired and respected so deeply. I think everyone who knew him will look back at those moments of laughter and joy he so easily sparked. His laugh was so contagious and warm.”

“I’m in shock … I can’t believe it,” wrote singer Bebe Rexha on X. “He was so smart. Passionate. Talented. Kind. I’m so sad. May he rest in peace.”

Starmer says he will remain caretaker prime minister until his Labour Party chooses a new leader — with expectations growing that it will be former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Burnham confirmed on social media that “I will put myself forward as part of this process.” Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was considered his main rival for the top job, said he will back Burnham.

It was Burnham's victory in a special parliamentary election last week that triggered Starmer's decision to resign, as Labour lawmakers flocked to the charismatic former mayor in the hope he can revive the party's fortunes. After nearly a decade as mayor of the northwestern city, Burnham returned Monday to Parliament, where he took the oath of office in the House of Commons. Only members of Parliament are eligible for the party leadership.

Streeting's statement makes it more likely that Burnham will be selected without a leadership contest.

Burnham was cheered loudly by lawmakers — and heckled by one, who shouted “He’s not the Messiah!" — as he was sworn in, before posing for selfies and a group photo with dozens of Labour MPs in another part of Parliament.

Britain’s next election does not have to be held until 2029. Asked if he would call an early vote if he becomes prime minister, Burnham said: “You’re jumping several hurdles ahead there.”

Starmer is the sixth prime minister in a decade to stand outside No. 10 Downing St., and announce a departure. His statement came the day before Britain marks the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the European Union, a decision that still roils the country’s economy and politics.

After weeks of insisting he would fight to keep his job, Starmer conceded to growing pressure to hand over to a new leader who can try and revive the government’s flagging fortunes. He led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024, but since then his popularity and that of the party have plummeted.

A new leader in place within weeks

Starmer made the announcement outside his official residence, where he delivered his first speech as prime minister two years ago. His voice choked with emotion near the end of the brief statement, which was watched by his staff, Cabinet ministers and scores of journalists.

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Starmer said. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”

He said he spoke to King Charles III, Britain's constitutional monarch, to inform him of the decision.

Starmer spent the weekend pondering his future following Burnham's special election victory.

Starmer said nominations for a leadership contest will open July 9, and the new leader will be in place by the time Parliament returns from its summer break on Sept. 1.

If Burnham is the only candidate, the change could come by mid-July.

Starmer struggled to fulfill election pledges

Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. He has been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to the United States.

Labour is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party and facing a rising Reform UK, the Nigel Farage -led anti-immigration party that consistently leads in nationwide opinion polls.

U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in even before an announcement, linking Starmer’s exit to two of the Republican leader's recurring grievances: immigration and renewable energy.

“Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well! President DJT,” Trump posted on his social media platform.

Starmer’s initially warm relationship with Trump has soured in recent months over issues including the Iran war, which the U.K. didn’t join.

Praised on the world stage

In contrast to missteps domestically, Starmer has won praise for his international role, notably in rallying European support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, and working to mitigate the economic and political turmoil unleashed by the Iran conflict.

A NATO summit in Turkey next month may be his last foray on the world stage as Britain's leader.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posting on X, thanked Starmer for his support and cooperation “that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Starmer’s legacy.

“It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years,” she said on X. “European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.”

While many Labour lawmakers have rallied behind Burnham, some have said that Starmer had been treated unfairly. London legislator Neil Coyle railed on X against “the prospect of an utter stitch-up & the media circus being rewarded."

Many hope Burnham can connect with voters

Burnham is the front-runner to succeed Starmer because many people see him as the best person to defeat the anti-immigration Reform Party at the next election, said Olivia O’Sullivan, an analyst at London's Chatham House think tank.

Burnham appeals to Labour Party lawmakers who were frustrated by the way Starmer has governed, O’Sullivan said. Many hope that he will set out a “clearer vision” and connect with voters in parts of the country that are in danger of turning to Reform.

Still, O'Sullivan cautioned that may not translate into genuine change.

“It’s absolutely correct that that is not the same thing as offering a radically different set of policies or even a particularly clear policy program,” she said.

___

Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed.

What started as a community effort to help local seniors stay cool during the summer months turned into a record-breaking year for Project Cool.

Project Cool 2026 collected an impressive 490 box fans, exceeding its goal of 350 fans and ensuring hundreds of seniors across San Antonio will have relief from the intense South Texas heat.

The annual initiative is led by Southside business owner and real estate professional Ben Godina and his wife and partner, Amanda Casanova of G Partners & Realty. Working alongside community partners, volunteers, local businesses, and donors, the project has become a growing tradition focused on helping some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

The fan drive began with a simple idea in 2016 when Godina’s father challenged family and friends to collect 50 box fans for seniors in need. Following the unexpected passing of his father in 2018 and his mother’s battle with dementia in 2019, the project was temporarily placed on hold. In 2020, the initiative returned with renewed purpose and has continued to grow each year.

This year’s drive demonstrated the power of community support. Volunteers spent the day loading, transporting, and organizing fans, while local businesses, residents, and supporters continued to contribute throughout the campaign. The final total of 490 fans far surpassed the original goal and will allow multiple organizations to assist seniors during the hottest months of the year.

Godina and Casanova credited the success of the drive to the many individuals, businesses, and organizations that stepped forward to support the cause. Among the supporters were 211 Print, Renew Renovate Services LLC, New American Funding, Alamo Ranch Boxing Club, MissQuito of Helotes, Rangel Roofing & Restoration LLC, Armadillo Home Warranty, The Law Office of E.R. Báez, Gary’s Pool and Patio, Legacy Mutual Mortgage, Live From The Southside, NewFed Mortgage, Red Door Funding, Serenity BeautySpa, and Cactus Roofing.

Special recognition was also given to Cindy Martin, Veronica Munoz, and Cactus Roofing for their generous contribution to the drive, as well as Jerry DeLeon Jr. and the many volunteers who dedicated their time and effort to collecting, transporting, and distributing the fans.

Project Cool has grown from a small family-led effort into a community-wide movement that continues to make a meaningful impact across San Antonio. With nearly 500 fans collected this year, organizers say the success reflects what can happen when neighbors, businesses, and community leaders come together to serve others.

As temperatures continue to rise across South Texas, the impact of Project Cool will be felt in homes throughout the city, providing comfort and relief to seniors who need it most.

For Ben Godina, Amanda Casanova, and the many supporters behind the initiative, the mission remains simple: helping others and strengthening the community one fan at a time.

He said he was stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party but would remain caretaker prime minister until a new head is chosen by the party.

Andy Burnham, who won a special parliamentary election last week, confirmed that he will run to succeed Starmer.

Starmer won a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, but a series of missteps badly damaged his credibility.

His resignation comes the day before Britain marks the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the European Union, a decision that still roils the country’s economy and politics.

Here's the latest:

Canadian prime minister lauds Starmer

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says the world is safer and allies are more united because of Starmer’s efforts, thanking him for a lifetime of public service.

Carney wrote in a social media post that it had been a privilege to work alongside Starmer as he led international efforts to support Ukraine through the Coalition of the Willing, strengthen NATO, improve Arctic cooperation, and deepen the historic partnership between Canada and the United Kingdom.

Burnham poses for his first-day photo

Dozens of Labour lawmakers cheered loudly as Andy Burnham arrived for a first-day photo. They crowded onto the steps in the 900-year-old Westminster Hall in Parliament to greet their newly elected colleague and potential future leader.

Burnham posed for a group portrait and took selfies with some, including rival-turned-supporter Wes Streeting and Treasury chief Rachel Reeves. She seems likely to lose her job once Starmer leaves office.

Loud cheers as Burnham is sworn in as lawmaker

Andy Burnham has been sworn in as a lawmaker in Parliament.

Loud cheers broke out among lawmakers in the House of Commons as Burnham returned to Parliament after nearly a decade as mayor of Greater Manchester.

European Commission president looks forward to stable relations with the UK

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Starmer “did a true reset built on trust, without any question.”

Speaking on the eve of Brexit's 10th anniversary of Britain’s departure from the EU, von der Leyen said: “I’m looking forward to resuming a strong and stable relationship with the people of the United Kingdom.”

Burnham greeted by media frenzy as he arrives at London train station

About 50 journalists and photographers waited to greet Burnham as he arrived at London’s Euston station by train from Manchester, ahead of being sworn in as a lawmaker at Westminster.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester told reporters that his “priority” for the day was to be officially sworn in as a lawmaker.

“It’s been very kind of sad for me today to leave Greater Manchester. The people have been brilliant to me over the last few years. I’ve loved every minute of the role,” he said.

Britain and Labour Party would benefit if Burnham faces a challenge for the prime minister post

A leadership contest would strengthen Britain’s new government because it would give front-runner Andy Burnham the chance to lay out his policies before becoming prime minister, said Victoria Honeyman, a professor of politics at Leeds University.

Burnham arrived in London on Monday to take up his seat in Parliament following a special election victory last week.

“If you are Andy Burnham, you want a bit of a proper contest because these kinds of show contests where it’s basically all decided are not necessarily good for anybody,” Honeyman said. “It isn’t good for the country because it doesn’t really kind of wrinkle out all of the issues that people want to talk about. You don’t really get a very good view of the individuals that are competing for the role.”

But Burnham won’t want the contest to be “too bruising,” she said, “because you don’t want the party to be criticized too massively publicly, and you want to be able to present yourself as being unified, which is very difficult if it’s quite a vicious battle.”

Why is Andy Burnham the front-runner to succeed Starmer?

Because many people see him as the best person to defeat the anti-immigrant Reform Party at the next election, according to Olivia O’Sullivan, the director of the UK in the World Program at the Chatham House think tank.

Burnham’s greatest asset is that he appeals to Labour Party lawmakers who were frustrated by the way Starmer has governed, O’Sullivan said. The hope is that he will set out a “clearer vision” and connect with voters in parts of the country that are in danger of turning to the Reform Party, she said.

Burnham was elected to Parliament last week after decisively defeating a Reform candidate in a special election.

“He won a very strong majority in precisely the type of area, the type of constituency that the Labour Party is worried it’s losing,” O’Sullivan said. “So it may be that a lot of his appeal is centered in the fact that he seems to connect better with those voters and offer a clearer vision. But it’s absolutely correct that that is not the same thing as offering a radically different set of policies or even a particularly clear policy program.”

Ukrainian President thanks Starmer

“Keir, thank you for all our cooperation, your support, and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger," Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.

"Here in Ukraine, we deeply value Britain, and every meeting and every conversation we have had has always been filled with real substance ... I wish the United Kingdom and all British people every success as well as realisation of your national goals. We have confidence in Britain.

Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.”

Reform UK leader calls for a general election

Nigel Farage, who leads the anti-immigration party, wrote on X that “Reform demands an election, and we are ready to deliver radical change.”

“If Labour thinks it can shove another professional politician into No 10, it has another thing coming,” he said.

Farage said Labour has betrayed voters’ trust, citing the Starmer government’s unpopular welfare and tax policies and illegal immigration as examples of the party’s failings.

Britain’s next national election doesn’t have to be held until 2029. British politics allows parties to change leaders midterm without the need for a general election.

EU Council president praises Starmer's role in EU-UK relations

António Costa said on Monday that Starmer helped turn “a new page” in EU-UK relations 10 years after Brexit.

“We turned a new page in EU-UK relations,” Costa said in a social media post. “The EU is committed to continued cooperation in this spirit.”

Starmer was seen as repairing relations with Brussels following Brexit and had helped schedule an EU-UK summit for July 22.

But on Monday, the European Commission said they were reassessing that plan.

Norwegian prime minister thanks Starmer for a ‘strong and close partnership’

“I respect the decision he has made,” Jonas Gahr Støre, a fellow center-left leader, said in a statement.

“The United Kingdom is Norway’s close ally in Europe, and over the past two years our countries have grown even closer through important agreements," he said.

Støre added: “We have worked closely together to strengthen security cooperation in Europe and to support Ukraine.”

Burnham says the country expects ‘stability and seriousness’

In a post on X, Andy Burnham thanked Starmer for his service and leadership.

He said Starmer’s decision to step down “marks the beginning of a transition and it is important that this process is conducted in an orderly and responsible way. I will put myself forward as part of this process.”

“The country expects stability, seriousness and a continued focus on the issues that matter most and that is what it will get.”

He added: “People want to see progress on economic growth, cost of living, public services, housing and opportunities for the next generation. Political change should never distract from the responsibility to improve people’s lives.”

Andy Burnham will run to succeed Starmer

Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham confirms he will run to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister.

Wes Streeting, considered another leading contender, said he will back Burnham. That makes it more likely that Burnham will be selected without a leadership contest.

Liberal Democrats say ‘merry-go-round of prime ministers’ needs to change

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat Leader, said Starmer’s replacement would have to change “our broken politics.”

“The British people are sick of being let down by an endless merry-go-round of prime ministers while nothing really changes for them,” he said. “This time must be different. It can’t just be about changing who’s in No. 10, it has to be about changing our broken politics so we can fix our country.”

Zack Polanski, who leads the Green Party, echoed that the U.K. needs a “bold change of direction.”

Referring to former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who many expect to become the next Labour leader, Polanski said: “The time for half measures and sticking plasters is long gone — if he becomes the next PM, Burnham must be bold or he will be bust.”

German leader calls Starmer a reliable partner

“The German government has always had in Keir Starmer a reliable and close partner in foreign policy questions, particularly regarding Ukraine,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, told reporters. He declined to comment on the “internal motives in Britain.”

He said the government believes a meeting that Merz plans to host in Berlin Wednesday of the so-called “E5” — Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Poland — will go ahead as planned despite Starmer’s announcement. The meeting is meant as part of preparations for the upcoming NATO summit.

Some key quotes from Starmer’s resignation speech

"Walking up this street two years ago was the proudest moment of my life. A new Labour government. The first in 14 years. A page in our country’s history turned after years of disappointment and despair. ... The chance to change the lives of millions of people for the better. That’s what I came into politics for. The journey to that point was not easy."

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace."

“Every decision I’ve taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.

“I will remain in post as Prime Minister until the contest is complete. And I will do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover of power.”

The curious sign of the lion and the unicorn

Starmer stood behind a lectern featuring a crest with a lion and a unicorn.

One is not a native of the U.K. and the other is mythical.

Both have shared the distinction of being part of the royal coat of arms since the 17th century.

The lion, although never living in the wild of England, is its national animal. The unicorn, though fictional, is Scotland’s official animal.

The two became part of the crest when the two crowns were united in 1603, when King James I ascended the throne in England; he was already King James VI in Scotland.

Starmer is the sixth prime minister in 10 turbulent years of UK politics

When he was elected in 2024 in a landslide victory for Labour, Starmer pledged to steady the ship and end years of political chaos under his successors, the Conservative Party.

Starmer had succeeded Rishi Sunak, who held the top job from 2022 to 2024.

Before Sunak, Liz Truss lasted only 45 days. Truss followed three other Conservative prime ministers: Boris Johnson (2019-2022), Theresa May (2016-2019), and David Cameron (2010-2016.)

Formal contest to replace Starmer will begin in early July and could end in days

Starmer said Monday that nominations will open on July 9 and close when Parliament breaks up for its summer recess, which is scheduled to begin July 16. The contest will be open to members of Parliament from the ruling Labour Party.

Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is the leading candidate to replace Starmer. The question now is whether anyone will challenge him.

If there is no challenge, Burnham could become Labour leader and thus prime minister soon after nominations close. Even if there is a contest, Starmer said a successor would be selected by Sept. 1.

EU leader praises Starmer

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Starmer’s legacy after news of his resignation in a post online on Monday.

“It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years,” she said on X. “European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.”

The prime minister's speech ends on an emotional note

Starmer’s voice choked with emotion near the end of the brief statement.

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Starmer said. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”

Starmer resigns

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party.

Starmer says he will remain caretaker prime minister until a new Labour leader is chosen in the next few weeks.

Starmer made the announcement after facing growing pressure to hand over to a new leader who can try and revive the government’s flagging fortunes. He has been in office since leading Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. In those two years, his popularity and that of the party have plummeted.

As Starmer spoke, protesters sing

As Starmer began his speech, protesters nearby played the EU anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

Expectations of a resignation

Expectation is building that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will set out a timetable for his resignation, conceding to pressure from his Labour Party to hand over the reins of power.

If he does, Starmer will be the sixth prime minister in a decade to stand outside 10 Downing Street and announce a premature departure.

Starmer spent the weekend pondering his future following the victory of intraparty rival Andy Burnham in a special election for a seat in Parliament. Burnham, until last week the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, ran with the aim of challenging Starmer for leadership of the party and the country.

Burnham is due to be sworn in as a member of Parliament on Monday.

Amid economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and a sweltering Milan Fashion Week, designers largely stripped things back for next summer, embracing clean lines and pared-down looks. Prada led the way, with co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons arguing for simplicity and familiar clothes reimagined through proportion and fabrication.

That didn’t mean dressing for the heat was straightforward. Milan’s runways were filled with leather and knits for the next summer season, suggesting that fashion’s elite may need generous air-conditioning, mountain escapes or higher latitudes to wear some of the looks.

Key trends from Milan Fashion Week menswear Spring-Summer 2027 collections that closed on Monday include the embrace of luxury materials, sartorial ventilation and lighter tailoring, while a few defiantly chose bling over restraint.

Leather prevails despite the heat

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season was the persistence of leather.

Prada’s leather combinations were inspired by the universality of jeans, featuring slim five-pocket pants matched with cropped flat-pocketed jackets that functioned as shirts. Other designers used woven and perforated techniques to make leather more breathable, even as temperatures climbed.

In Milan, luxury and practicality were often in tension.

The return of the body

After years of oversized silhouettes, menswear is once again embracing the body.

Designers broadly agreed that a well-dressed man still wears a suit. The challenge was how to survive the heat. The response was ventilation, with dress shirts left unbuttoned. Some were rendered transparent. Or they were simply done away with.

Long trousers remained dominant, but there was a shift toward closer-to-the-body dressing. Dolce & Gabbana pushed the idea furthest with microshorts that showcased muscular legs, while some brands exposed torsos.

Suiting for a hotter planet

Tailoring remained central to Milan collections, but in lighter, more relaxed forms.

Designers softened construction, opened necklines and experimented with fabrics and construction that allowed more airflow. The result was tailoring designed for rising temperatures without abandoning formality. U.S. designer Thom Browne, now under Zegna ownership, returned to Milan for the first time since 2008 with layered suiting that drew heavily on summer-friendly seersucker and pleated skirts for men, long a brand hallmark.

The message from Milan was clear: the suit isn’t going anywhere, but it is adapting.

Of course, restraint is not for everyone

While much of Milan embraced restraint, some designers doubled down on decoration.

Philipp Plein presented a crystal-encrusted denim ensemble that takes days of handwork to complete. Dolce & Gabbana also leaned into embellishment, including beaded accents that recalled coral.

If Prada’s vision was reduction, these designers unapologetically offered maximalism and glamour.

Space for new voices

A lighter Milan calendar created opportunities for emerging designers to gain attention alongside the industry’s biggest names.

Martin Quad made his Milan debut with unusual tailoring tricks that got him noticed in his native Copenhagen, while Domenico Orefice embraced leather and richly woven textiles for his co-ed collection.

Japanese designer Shinya Kozuka's Shinyakozuka label made its Milan debut with one of the most poetic and summery collections of the season, epitomized by a bare-chested model in a billowing sheer coat in teal worn baggy white trousers.

A small fly has the potential to impart a big impact on Texas’ beef and agricultural industry.

On June 3, the New World screwworm was detected in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, the agency reported more screwworm infestations in Texas.

The fly poses a multibillion-dollar crisis for the state’s cattle industry, which generates $41 billion a year. It could also increase already record-high beef prices nationwide.

It’s unclear how many cases could hit Texas. Nearly 28,000 cases have been detected in Mexico since November 2024, according to Mexican officials.

State and federal officials are working together to stop the northern migration, which they have tracked since 2023. In response to the cases, USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission have ramped up animal surveillance of animals near the confirmed detections by setting up zones around each infestation. Animals are not allowed to leave infested areas without being properly inspected.

Officials are also increasing fly traps, surveillance of wildlife and releasing sterile flies, which are used to break the reproduction cycle of the parasitic screwworm fly.

What is New World Screwworm?

New World Screwworm is a parasitic fly that is attracted to living tissue, burrowing their larvae into open wounds. After they hatch, the maggots then feed off that living flesh, causing damage to the animal. If untreated, the damage can even cause the animal to die.

Screwworm can also burrow through openings in the skin, such as the corner of an eye or through the nose.

From a biological standpoint, all mammals are vulnerable to screwworm, including pets and humans. However, livestock and wildlife tend to be the most susceptible because they spend their entire lives outdoors.

Dogs and cats are vulnerable through small wounds or scratches that break the skin. Health officials recommend pets be medicated for fleas and ticks year-round, said Casey Locklear, veterinarian and parasiticides lead for Elanco Animal Health.

“As a pet owner, if you were to notice that your dog or cat had a wound, especially if it’s foul smelling, it’s enlarging, you may actually see the maggots,” Locklear said. “If you see a wound, get treatment early. Whether that’s for yourself or your pet, early treatment is key.”

Read more about the screwworm here.

The blast at the Ras Laffan industrial area could cause further chaos in global energy markets, as Qatar remains one of the world's top natural gas producers. Qatar shut down its production after Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz meant it couldn't get shipments out to clients.

With Iran loosening its grip as negotiations continue over a permanent end to the war, Qatar began work to try to restart its export terminal. That sparked the explosion and fire at the Barzan gas supply facility, state-run QatarEnergy said.

“I would like to emphasize that this was an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature," Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told a news conference Monday afternoon in Doha, Qatar’s capital.

The minister gave the toll and said the dead came from India and Pakistan. The nationalities of the 66 injured included people from Qatar and a variety of African and Asian nations, al-Kaabi said.

The scale of the damage remains unknown.

The Barzan plant had a capacity of almost 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of sales gas per day, which Qatar used primarily for local electricity generation and to power its crucial water desalination plants in the desert reaches of the Arabian Peninsula.

Qatar owns nearly all of the plant, with a small share also held by ExxonMobil. The oil company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March, an Iranian missile hit Ras Laffan, sparking a fire that caused “extensive” damage before it was extinguished, authorities said. Qatar had already halted production there because of Iranian attacks.

Qatar shares its massive offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran. That natural gas production has made Qatar wealthy. It has used that money to raise its profile worldwide through hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, creating the Al Jazeera news network and funding its work as an international mediator, including the talks in Switzerland between Iran and the United States.

But in his first press conference last Wednesday, new chair Kevin Warsh began to reverse some of those steps. Warsh, like many economists, thinks the financial markets have become too dependent on Fed guidance, and that such direction is more effective in financial crises or economic downturns.

Warsh's changes to the Fed's communications represent something of a return to former chair Alan Greenspan's circumspect approach. Greenspan died at 100 on Monday. He is the only former chair Warsh praised at his swearing-in last month.

As chair, Warsh has rapidly delivered on his promise to slash the Fed's communications. He sharply cut the central bank's post-meeting statement and underscored at the press conference the removal of the guidance it formerly gave to financial markets about the Fed's next interest-rate moves. Yet such an approach carries the risk of more violent swings in stock and bond prices, analysts say, and ultimately could lead to higher interest rates for consumers and businesses.

“Forward guidance in general has served to suppress volatility and anchor market expectations,” said George Pearkes, global macro strategist at Bespoke Investment Group. “And that has led to lower borrowing rates, relative to alternatives.”

Still, the impact on consumers is likely to be modest, Pearkes added, with mortgage rates perhaps a quarter-point higher than they would be otherwise.

Warsh may be headed back to 1990s

Such swings could be a sign of things to come. Previous chairs have signaled the Fed's next moves clearly enough that financial markets have largely anticipated the central bank's actions. But Warsh appears to be following Greenspan, whose oracular comments often kept investors guessing.

Yet Greenspan, who served as chair from 1987 to 2005, also ushered in several changes that made the Fed more transparent. He began the practice of issuing statements after each Fed meeting to announce its interest-rate decision. He also began publicly releasing the minutes of each meeting and the full transcripts, after a five-year delay, though those moves came in response to pressure from Congress.

The first statement was issued Feb. 4, 1994, and said the Fed would increase its key rate for the first time in five years. The move caught investors off-guard and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2.4% that day.

The paring back of Fed communications is part of a larger package of potential reforms to the central bank's operations that Warsh signaled Wednesday. He announced that the Fed will set up five task forces to examine the Fed's communications, its balance sheet, how it analyzes and gathers economic data, the impact of AI on productivity and jobs, and the frameworks it uses to analyze inflation.

Warsh said the communications task force would consider changes to the quarterly economic projections the Fed issues as well as look at other recent innovations, including press conferences. Former chair Ben Bernanke was the first to hold them, though he did so only after every other Fed meeting. Warsh's predecessor, Jerome Powell, shifted to holding them after every meeting.

Such steps were a sharp contrast with the 1990s, when Greenspan never explained a Fed decision, on the record, to reporters. Warsh could ultimately dial back some of the Fed's increased transparency.

“This is a big change in how the Fed has conducted itself since the (2008-2009) global financial crisis,” Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, said. "Since then there has been a one-way train to greater communication, more transparency, and more forward guidance. Warsh has now put that train in reverse.”

Fed chairs have seen benefits to forward guidance

Previous Fed chairs, starting with Bernanke, have seen a clear benefit to more communication: It helps guide the markets in the direction the Fed wants. Fed officials control a short-term interest rate, but the rates that affect the economy — such as the yield on the 10-year Treasury — are heavily influenced by investors' expectations for inflation and economic growth. By telegraphing their next moves, policymakers can cause those longer-term rates to change even before the Fed adjusts its own benchmark rate.

Yet Warsh's view is that financial markets have become too dependent on Fed guidance. Instead, he wants investors to gauge where the Fed may move next by examining economic data and making their own judgments, which the Fed can then consider as part of their assessments of where the economy is headed.

“Financial market prices are probably the most important source of information to guide central bankers,” Warsh said at Wednesday's news conference.

Guidance can help with unexpected events

David Andolfatto, an economics professor at the University of Miami and former economist at the St. Louis Fed, said he agreed with Warsh that forward guidance has flaws. It can be easily upended by unexpected events, he said, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine or the Iran war.

But the chair should set out guidelines for how the Fed will react to unexpected events, Andolfatto said, or to challenges such as the persistent inflation it is grappling with now, yet Warsh so far hasn't done so.

“I’m with him on dispensing with forward guidance, but you have to replace it with a contingency plan,” Andolfatto said. “It's not enough to say, trust me, we'll keep inflation at target.”

Ironically, Warsh's decision to drop forward guidance may empower the other 18 members of the Fed's rate-setting committee, Pearkes said. Those officials — six members of the Fed's governing board, plus the presidents of the 12 regional Fed banks — frequently give public speeches, and their remarks will get even more attention as financial markets seek clues about what the Fed may do next.

A big challenge to Warsh's approach will come if there is a sharp financial downturn or economic crisis, as occurred during the COVID pandemic. In those circumstances, economists said, forward guidance can play an important role calming markets.

“Whether it will stand the test of time and he will behave this way for five years is a very different question, but one that we're going to have to wait for events to unfold to get an answer to," Pearkes said.

Donaldson, 63, was found guilty at Newry Crown Court of one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 indecent assault charges involving two girls from 1985 to 2008.

He showed no emotion as the verdicts were read or when Judge Paul Ramsey said Donaldson would face a lengthy prison sentence later in the year and had him taken to jail. A pre-sentencing hearing was scheduled for Sept. 25.

Donaldson’s arrest two years ago ended his career as one of the leading Northern Ireland voices in favor of maintaining the historic ties with the United Kingdom. He resigned as leader of the conservative Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, and gave up his seat in the U.K. Parliament.

Donaldson testified — emotionally at times — over two days and denied all the allegations against him, saying he was “crystal clear” he did not rape one of the girls when she was a child decades ago.

Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was found to have aided and abetted her husband’s offenses for witnessing the abuse and doing nothing to intervene. Because of mental health issues, she faced only a fact-finding hearing that could not result in a conviction.

The two complainants, who said they were abused as children, testified that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age. The older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said he raped her.

“It just didn’t happen, I am absolutely crystal clear about that,” Donaldson testified. “It is not something I would ever have done, it is just simply not true.”

Complainant B said that in the 1990s, years after the abuse, Donaldson apologized “for what had happened in the past” at a meeting held at a Christian center where she had stayed while dealing with drug issues.

Donaldson testified that he had apologized for making her uncomfortable at the meeting.

Donaldson wrote a letter to Complainant A in 2020 to say he regretted “hurt, pain and distress” he caused. He claimed that the letter did not refer to sex abuse allegations but other behavior.

“I know how deep the wounds are caused by my sinful and selfish actions,” he wrote and said he hoped God would “lift a sinner out of the deep pit of sin.”