Almost daily long-range attacks on Russian oil facilities have created a fuel crisis and heaped political pressure on the Kremlin as its all-out invasion of Ukraine stretches into its fifth year.

Gov. Alexander Beglov said the city’s Kirovsky district on the Baltic Sea was hit. He also said that air defenses shot down 72 Ukrainian drones across Russia's second-largest city and the surrounding region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as part of Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” against Russia. He said that Ukrainian forces also hit a military target on the island of Kronstadt, just off the coast of St. Petersburg.

“The Ukrainian defense forces hit the port oil infrastructure, which earns money for the Russian war, and there were also hits on Kronstadt — an important military target,” he said in a post on Telegram.

St. Petersburg’s Kirovsky district was previously hit in June, ahead of Russia’s flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, has suffered particularly from heavy strikes, causing local authorities to suspend gasoline sales to civilians. A Ukrainian attack on Saturday killed one person and injured two more, including a 10-year-old child, the Moscow-installed Gov. Sergei Aksyonov said.

Ukrainian attacks bring the war home

Russian President Vladimir Putin has shrugged off Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s energy facilities as “not critical,” and insisted the war will continue until his goals are met.

He has described the attacks on Russian energy as an effort by Ukraine to distract attention from its losses on the battlefield, although analysts say the advance of Russian forces has been stymied in recent months.

On Friday, Putin visited the Russian military headquarters directing the war in Ukraine and received a report on the capture of the city of Kostyantynivka, after weeks of intense street battles. He hailed it as a key step toward capturing the nearby cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the key remaining strongholds in the so-called “forest belt” of heavily fortified cities in the Donetsk region that remain in Ukraine’s hands.

The capture of Kostyantynivka, a big transport and industrial hub, is of “major strategic importance,” Putin, clad in military fatigues, said in televised comments.

In a briefing Saturday, Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, said that Ukrainian troops had been pushed back several kilometers (miles) and that fighting was taking place on the outskirts of the nearby town of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka.

“The city is now under our full control. Units of the Southern Army Group are completing the clearance of city blocks, rooting out small groups and individual Ukrainian fighters who may still be hiding in basements and ruins,” he said.

Zelenskyy denied that Russia took control of the city. “It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story,” he wrote on social media Saturday. “If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war. But the fact is, he won’t cross the front line — reality is very different from Putin’s words.”

But the Kremlin quickly dismissed Zelenskyy's offer, with Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda on Saturday evening that Putin would meet the Ukrainian leader in Moscow once Kyiv was ready to make "important, consequential decisions.”

Putin appears to believe his government can keep the fuel crisis from eroding his authority and support for the war he launched more than four years ago. At the very least, the attacks have brought the war home even more poignantly for millions of Russians, shattering Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country.

The border city of Belgorod, which Ukrainian drone strikes have also repeatedly targeted, was left almost completely without power on Saturday due to overnight attacks, local media reported.

Meanwhile, eight people were wounded after a Russian attack struck residential buildings in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, including two children, local authorities said on Saturday.

___

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

The signing of the Declaration of Independence, one of history's most celebrated articulations of democratic ambitions, is being marked in myriad ways. President Donald Trump, set to take a central role in festivities, plans to speak on the National Mall in Washington ahead of what's being billed as a historically enormous fireworks show that will rain down over the nation's capital. The president was in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore on Friday, where he delivered a dark speech about the threat of communism in the U.S. as the chiseled images of four of his most prominent predecessors loomed behind him.

Elsewhere, fireworks are scheduled to be set off Saturday over Navy Pier in Chicago and against the skyline of New York City. New York hosted a ball drop at midnight to usher in the holiday with the same fanfare as New Year's Eve and saw tall ships parade pass the Statue of Liberty in a call back to the fanfare around America's 200th anniversary in 1976. Bristol, Rhode Island, describes itself as home of the nation's oldest Independence Day celebrations dating to 1785. In Los Angeles, Queen Latifah will host a concert featuring performances by The Smashing Pumpkins and Chris Stapleton. Chaka Khan is billed as a special guest.

Anticipation for the milestone holiday has been building for much of the year, serving as an opportunity for Americans to reflect on their complicated history as onetime colonists of an empire who became a superpower of their own. Celebrations months in the making had to adjust or cancel activities entirely as much of the East Coast sweltered under heat that approached and in many cases surpassed triple digits.

Heat is defining the big weekend in many places

In Washington, the Great American State Fair was closed for several hours Friday afternoon during the worst of the heat.

The city’s main Independence Day parade scheduled for Saturday was canceled, but a smaller one rolled along in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in the morning as onlookers sought shade under trees along the route.

To the chagrin of many on the East Coast, the weather was downright pleasant on the other side of the country. The Pacific Northwest enjoyed temperatures in the 60s on Friday with a few light showers.

Plenty of other American pastimes are overlapping with the holiday.

More than a dozen Major League Baseball games are on the schedule for Saturday. The World Cup, being hosted in the U.S. for the first time in 32 years, will have matches in Houston and Philadelphia on Saturday following a nail-biter overtime win by Argentina over Cape Verde on Friday outside Miami. Pop culture enthusiasts can obsess over Taylor Swift's Friday wedding to football player Travis Kelce at New York City's Madison Square Garden. And Madonna released her 15th studio album, a collection of dance tracks.

An uneasy nation gets ready to celebrate

The celebrations are unfolding against the backdrop of a deep divide this election year that has been expanding for years, visible in everything from political expression to cultural norms to age-old questions over race, class and immigration.

At Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump spoke of communism as a “mortal threat to American liberty” with the Republican president saying it was more dangerous than either World War or 9/11.

Without naming Trump, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who is also a democratic socialist and recently backed several successful congressional candidates in their primaries, appeared to reference Trump during a speech Friday.

“Those ideals upon which our nation was built — they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them,” he said.

To former Democratic President Bill Clinton, this anniversary milestone comes at a time of “renewed questions about America’s future and role in the world, and serious threats to our own institutions and to our democracy itself.” While critical of “the people in charge,” he said in a statement that “there is still nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what’s right with America.”

Vice President JD Vance said small but loud voices would speak on America's birthday about its imperfections instead of its greatness.

"They will tell you that America is just another country, where the weak struggle against the strong,” Vance said speaking aboard the USS Kearsarge in New York Harbor.

Photos and videos on social media showed dozens of members of a white nationalist group marching through Capitol Hill on Saturday morning, wearing face masks and carrying Confederate battle flags. No arrests were reported, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

___

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., and Will Weissert and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

While the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, history’s first U.S.-born pope traveled to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and celebrate a solemn Mass for the island's residents and newest arrivals.

A treeless strip of rock 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) long, Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and is the main port of entry into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often smuggled by human traffickers.

Leo met with some migrants at the port and then walked alone onto the jagged jetty rocks, the wind whipping his cassock and blowing his zucchetto skullcap off as he looked out to the sea. He then blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis, who visited in 2013, before celebrating Mass on land.

“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said. “But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.”

In making the visit on this particular Saturday, Leo was sending a powerfully symbolic message to the United States and Europe of the Christian obligation to uphold the dignity of every human being, migrants and the most vulnerable especially, while reminding the United States that it was founded by immigrants.

In a letter sent to Americans on the July 4 anniversary, Leo insisted that protecting the unborn and all human life also means “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning.”

“To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person,” Leo wrote.

A tiny island becomes Ground Zero for European migration

In recent years, Lampedusa has become Ground Zero of Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to police its borders while honoring its legal obligations to welcome refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty.

In his homily, Leo thanked the residents of Lampedusa for the “miracle of compassion” they have shown in welcoming migrants and urged Europe to rise to the challenge of the moment and assume its responsibility.

“Indeed, before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them,” Leo said, wearing vestments decorated with images of waves.

Preaching from “this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea,” Leo urged European leaders to address the migration phenomenon in a comprehensive way, integrating immediate relief with a long-term strategies to receive, protect, support and integrate migrants while developing their home countries so no one is forced to migrate.

“Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead,” he said.

Others have died making the voyage, he said, “yet we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid.”

The number of migrants arriving in Italy so far this year is significantly lower than in recent years, with the Interior Ministry reporting 14,464 arrivals as of Friday compared with 30,598 in the same period last year and 26,202 in 2024.

At the same time, the International Organization of Migration has recorded more than 35,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014, though the actual number of dead is believed to be far higher given the untold number of “invisible” shipwrecks that are never recorded.

Leo has strongly emphasized the need to uphold the dignity of migrants, especially amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation program in his native Chicago. But he has also directed his message to Europe’s Christian leaders.

Last month, Leo visited another European migration hot spot, in Spain’s Canary Islands, to shame leaders who turn migrants away indifferently while also warning people smugglers they will face God’s wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants.

Leo honors the dignity of the dead and recalls Francis

After arriving in Lampedusa by plane, Leo paid homage to the dead at the island’s migrant cemetery, laying a wreath of yellow and white flowers on their graves, marked by simple crosses made from the splintered wood of shipwrecked boats.

The gestures send a “strong message” of solidarity, said Tareke Brhane, a migrant from Eritrea and president of the October 3rd Committee, a nonprofit founded by relatives of victims of a 2013 shipwreck in Lampedusa that left 368 people dead.

“It is a strong sign for our battle with Italy and with Europe in order to register the deaths, because as of today we still do not have a registry (of those deceased),” he told The Associated Press.

Leo’s visit both honors the dead and “gives a message to the relatives, so many of them still waiting and suffering,” he said.

With his visit, Leo followed in the footsteps of Francis, who made the plight of migrants and refugees a priority of his pontificate. For the Catholic Church, welcoming and accompanying people fleeing hardship is part of the Gospel-mandated call to “welcome the stranger.”

Francis traveled to Lampedusa in July 2013, on his first trip outside Rome after his election. He tossed a wreath into the sea in memory of migrants who had died and denounced the “globalization of indifference” that the world shows migrants.

Salvatore Sortino, the IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, said despite the decrease in arrivals, the number of dead had increased proportionally, “in the sense that the diminishing numbers of arrivals hasn’t resulted in a lower number of deaths at sea.”

“That speaks about the vulnerability that remains,” he said. “So the visit of the pope here, where all this happens, I think is a very important reminder of that element.”

___

Winfield reported from Rome.

___

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

Still in need of plans? No worries - we’ve got you covered! We’re working for you to break down all the Fourth of July festivities that’ll help you celebrate the USA with a bang. If we missed any events, feel free to submit a Help Center ticket to let us know.

HIGHLANDS

• July 4 at 6:30 p.m: Independence Day Celebration: Concert & Fireworks (fireworks begin at 9:30 p.m.); 101 Maury River Drive in Buena Vista

ROANOKE VALLEY

• July 2 at 5 p.m: Rotary Independence Festival and Mullet Competition at the Franklin County High School Football Field
• July 3 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m: Roanoke Freedom Festival: Celebrating 250 Years of Liberty at River’s Edge Park - North (fireworks begin at 9:30 p.m.)
• July 3 and 4: Buchanan Community Carnival at Buchanan Town Park (fireworks at 10 p.m.)
• July 4: Four on the Fourth 4-Miler at 204 W. Lee Avenue
• July 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m: Craig County Independence Day Parade and Celebration on Main Street in New Castle.
• July 4 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m: Salem Fair 250 Celebration and Fireworks - Fireworks display from Williamsburg begins at 8 p.m., and the annual Salem Fair fireworks show begins around 9:30 p.m.
• July 4 at 5 p.m.: Buchanan Fourth of July Parade
• July 4 from 6 p.m.: Town of Vinton Fourth of July Celebration on the front lawn of the Vinton War Memorial (fireworks begin at 9:30 p.m.)
• July 4: 24th Annual Smith Mountain Lake Fireworks and Saunders Volunteer Fire Co Fundraiser
• July 5: Fincastle Celebration and Fireworks at Breckenridge Elementary School (fireworks begin at approximately 9 p.m.)

NEW RIVER VALLEY

• July 2 from 7 to 11 p.m: Fireworks at Mitchell’s Point Marina
• July 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m: Independence Day Celebration at Mountain Lake Lodge
• July 3 at 3 p.m: Independence Day Parade in downtown Pulaski
• July 3 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m: Radford Spirit of America
• July 3 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m: Olde Mill Golf Resort’s Independence Celebration and Classic Car Cruise-In
• July 3 at 6: Independence Day Celebration at Floyd County High School
• July 3-5: Rural Retreat Liberty at the Lake
• July 4: Independence Parade and Festival - Parade at 11 a.m., festival 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Town Park/1908 Courthouse in Grayson County
• July 4: Carroll Wellness Center’s 4th of July Freedom Run & 1-Mile Fun Run/Walk
• July 4: Christiansburg Fourth of July Celebration and Fireworks at Christiansburg Huckleberry Park (Festival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and fireworks at 9:15 p.m.)
• July 4 from 2 to 7 p.m: July 4th America 250th Celebration Cruise In - downtown Wytheville
• July 4 from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m: Downtown Wytheville July Fourth Celebration and Street Festival
• July 4 at 4 p.m: Town of Hillsville Independence Day Parade
• July 4 from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m: Red Hill Independence Day Celebration at 1250 Red Hill Road in Brookneal
• July 4 at 6:30 p.m: Lovingston Fourth of July Parade
• July 4 from 9:15 p.m. to 10:30 p.m: Lovingston fireworks at Nelson County Middle School
• July 5 at 3:30 p.m: Ivanhoe Jubilee Park/Show Grounds Red, White & Blue Barrel Race

LYNCHBURG

• July 3: Fireworks on the Riverfront; fireworks begin at approximately 9 p.m.
• July 3 from 8 p.m to 10:30 p.m: America’s 250th in Appomattox at Appomattox County High
• July 3 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m: Freedom Fest at City View Venues
• July 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m: Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest Independence Day Celebration
• July 4 at 6:30 p.m: Hill City Howlers America’s 250th Independence Day Celebration at Lynchburg City Stadium

SOUTHSIDE

• July 4: SoSO Brew Fest 5K & Block Party in downtown South Boston
• July 4 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m: Galax Independence Day Celebration - fireworks at 10 p.m. at Felts Park
• July 4: Danville Celebrates Fourth of July

The funeral for Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades before he was killed at age 86 in a Feb. 28 airstrike in the opening moments of the Iran war, could provide a boost for the country's theocracy and its new supreme leader, his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

That is important as Iran tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war and as concern lingers that Israel could attack again. The funeral was delayed as the war raged, and talks appear to be on hold until it is over.

During the ceremony, Iran's top negotiator warned France and the U.K. over their comments about potentially launching joint patrols in the waterway, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.

Mourners wept at the sight of Khamenei's coffin alongside those of his family members also killed in the airstrike, with some chanting: “Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!” Some carried banners and flags. Billboards across the city bore Khamenei’s image. Crowds of men rhythmically beat their chests in mourning, a common practice at Shiite funerals.

“Imam Khamenei was our heart, our father, our everything,” mourner Masoumeh Mohammadi said. “I still can’t believe they martyred him. We will not rest until we avenge his death.”

Coffins on display at Grand Mosalla

An outdoor stage at the Grand Mosalla resembled the stage where Khamenei once gave his speeches at a husseiniyah at his compound in downtown Tehran. There was a chair like the one he once sat in while giving his sermons, complete with a microphone on a stand and a table next to it. Above it hung an image of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989.

Khomeini's funeral saw chaotic scenes as millions thronged his mourning ceremony and trip to the cemetery. Khamenei's death was only the second time Iran has lost a supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Saturday, volunteers sprayed cooling water on crowds in the summer heat. Men and women congregated separately inside the Grand Mosalla after being checked by metal detectors and body searches. Police with assault rifles stood guard on surrounding streets. Many people stayed outside in the street, lounging under the shade of trees because the city had shut down.

The caskets of his dead family members sat beneath Khamenei's, which had his black turban atop it, identifying him as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The dead included the wife of Mojtaba Khamenei, whose possible appearance at the funeral remained unclear. He reportedly was wounded in the attack that killed his father and has not been seen publicly since the war began.

“We attended the funeral to show that we are all committed to defend our country and religion,” said one mourner, Ali Kazemi.

As sunset approached, the streams of people continued. “Authorities advised not to rush to the sites,” said a later visitor, Mohammad Barati. Mourners had also been advised not to stay too long, to allow others to come.

Funeral starts as US marks its 250th anniversary

Iran chose July 4, the 250th anniversary of the creation of the U.S., to begin the funeral. While authorities did not acknowledge the timing, crowds at the ceremony in Tehran chanted: “Death to America!” The refrain has been common in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis. They also cried: “Death to Israel!”

“We knocked the hell out of Iran,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a speech at the same time in South Dakota in front of Mount Rushmore. “They want to settle so badly. We gave them a week off for a funeral.”

The U.S. president was not forgotten in Tehran. In the crowd in Grand Mosalla, several mourners held a large flag that read: “#KillTrump.”

As the ceremony went on, Iran's chief negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi criticized a joint statement overnight from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron which suggested their militaries stood ready to patrol the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has suggested it wants to charge vessels passing through the strait, upending decades of it being widely considered an international waterway.

“The security of Hormuz lies with the coastal states — the crisis-makers will be held accountable for the consequences of their adventurism,” Gharibabadi wrote on X. “This is a serious warning.”

Khamenei to be buried in Mashhad

Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq. Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which will end Thursday as he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei's place of birth.

Authorities offered no immediate attendance count for the event Saturday. Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.

On Sunday, a prayer for the dead is planned at the Grand Mosalla. On Monday, Khamenei's body and those of his family will be taken through the streets of Tehran, which likely will draw large crowds.

“I am here to say goodbye to my beloved leader Ali Khamenei,” said a weeping Hananeh Mousavi, 27, who attended alongside her mother. “I never expected to see such a day. I wish I had died before this tragedy.”

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Eala is the first Filipino player, male or female, to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles tournament.

The left-handed Eala dropped to her knees and rolled onto her back on Centre Court after hitting a forehand winner on her third match point.

“It’s incredible to have my countrymen cheering me on and knowing that we’re all in this together,” she said in an on-court interview as she looked around at the Philippines flags.

“This goes out to them, this goes out to my family, this goes out to all the little girls with ruffled socks and chubby cheeks. It means the world,” said Eala, who saved two set points in the first-set tiebreaker.

The third-seeded Swiatek earned her first Wimbledon women’s title a year ago when she beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

Eala, who has trained in Mallorca at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, gained worldwide support last year on her breakthrough run to the Miami Open semifinals, which included an upset of Swiatek.

2022 champion Rybakina also out

Shortly before Swiatek's exit, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina was upset in the third round by Elise Mertens 7-6 (4), 6-1.

At No. 2, Rybakina is the highest seed on the women’s side to be eliminated and her loss ensures that Aryna Sabalenka will keep her No. 1 ranking after the tournament.

Mertens faces Naomi Osaka in the fourth round on Sunday.

Belgium’s Mertens is the No. 25 seed at Wimbledon, where she’s won two doubles titles.

Serena and Venus withdraw from doubles

Serena Williams withdrew from her doubles match with sister Venus due to a right knee injury. The 44-year-old Serena was injured during her singles return earlier this week.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said in an Instagram post that she was “heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles.”

___

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

A Weather Authority Alert Day remains in effect as dangerous heat continues across the region. Heat index values climb above 100 degrees for many locations, with parts of the piedont approching 110 degrees. Limit time outdoors, apply sunscreen frequently, stay hydrated, and take frequent breaks in shade or air conditioning.

A slight risk for severe weather is in place today as scattered thunderstorms develop during the afternoon and evening. Most storms will be hit-or-miss with the majority of more concentrated storm potential to our noth. Though, since yesterday, our storm potential has appeared to decrease.

Futurecast shows isolated storms beginning around 2PM before tapering off into the evening. Not everyone will see rain, but any storm that develops could bring gusty winds with some downpours.

Most firework displays this evening should stay dry, but temperatures will remain very warm even after sunset. It’s still expected to be in the mid 90s around 7PM before slowly falling into the upper 80s by 9PM, so continue practicing heat safety if you’ll be celebrating outdoors.

Extreme heat remains the biggest weather story heading into the holiday weekend. Much of our region will experience a major to extreme heat risk, meaning prolonged time outdoors can quickly lead to heat related health risks without proper percautions. Reflief is on the way! Temperatures gradually trend closer to normal early next week.

Friday Morning Update

Our Extreme Heat Warning has now been extended into Pittsylvania, Halifax, Charlotte, Appomattox and Campbell counties. This warning, along with the heat advisory is in effect from 11AM to 8 PM tonight.

The reason that portions of Lynchburg and Southside Zones are now included in this warning is the heat index value reaching above the 110 degree mark. Below are the peak heat index values that we will reach in each zone today.

It will be the hottest day of the year so far, please be sure to pack extra bottles of water and take breaks if you are outdoors for a long period of time.

Tomorrow we need to stay weather aware not just for the heat, but also for the chance of strong to severe thunderstorms. Nearly the entirety of the viewing area is in a slight risk zone tomorrow. Any storms that develop could produce damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

Futurecast shows the storms becoming widely scattered from noon to 2 PM across all of our zones. This is typical each 4th of July just due to the nature of the summertime forecast, however these storms coupled with the heat give us an extra reason to have our eyes to the skies tomorrow afternoon.

By 8:30-9:30 tomorrow evening we clear out the bulk of the precip, which is great news for everyone heading out for fireworks around dusk!

Stay cool the next couple of days and be sure to download the Weather Authority mobile app for updates sent directly to your phone.

Thursday Morning Update

Heat alerts have been expanded. As of Thursday morning at 10 AM, the heat advisory is now expanded to the Lynchburg and Southside Zones, and portions of the NRV.

Nelson County is the only area within our viewing area under a Extreme Heat Warning where heat indices will reach up to 110 degrees.

Today will likely be record breaking for not just us here in Southwest Virginia, but into portions of New England and the Great Lakes region.

Yesterday we broke Roanoke’s previously held record of 99 degrees set back in 1954, hitting 100 degrees during peak daytime heating.

Try to stay cool today and remember to stay hydrated!

Wednesday Morning Update

Day 2 of our heat wave today and we already have alerts in place! A Heat Advisory will go into effect by 11 AM Wednesday morning and expire by 8 PM. This advisory includes the Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg and Southside Zones. Nelson county is the only area within our viewing area, as of this morning, that has a Extreme Heat Watch in place for that same time frame.

Be sure to stay inside if possible today, and if you are outdoors for long periods of time take frequent breaks and stay hydrated.

We will likely tie or break records for most of our area in Southwest and Southside Virginia.

While this Weather Authority Alert Day seems to be for “boring weather” because there is no major storm system, this heat wave is just as important and dangerous as a big storm system. Heat illness can come on quickly without noticing. It is important not just to stay weather aware, but to check in on your elderly neighbors during the heat wave.

We are not looking to see a break from the heat anytime soon. The latest outlook from the Climate Prediction Center shows above average temperatures expected through Mid-July. If we stay above 90 degrees during this stretch, we may see this heat wave lasting through mid July.

Try to stay cool and hydrated today!

Tuesday Morning Update

Tuesday kicks off our heat wave, but when we take a look at heat stress over the next couple of days, today is just the start of a long term pattern.

The heat dome that is building over the east is more focused into the Southeast.

Here in Southwest Virginia we have much higher heat stress Wednesday.

You’ll want to pack the extra water bottle and plan breaks if you are outdoors for a long period of time as the heat stress increases the next several days.

Wednesday, it will easily feel like we are reaching the triple digits, even though our air temperatures only reach the upper 90s. This is because of the combined heat and humidity bringing the heat index values into the triple digits. We will keep the dangerous heat index values around for the latter half of the week and into the Fourth of July weekend as well.

Futurecast shows the high pressure building in the heat dome will stick around for the next couple of days. While we have a chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm in the mountains this afternoon, most of us will stay hot and dry as this high pressure dominates the area.

Please stay weather aware the next couple of days and be safe out in the heat!

Monday Afternoon Update

A Weather Authority Alert day has been issued for the beginning of July due to an expected heat wave that could result in record-breaking temperatures.

A high-pressure system has already formed to our southwest and is already providing above-average temperatures for much of the eastern United States.

That high pressure will hold its position over the next few days, continuing to pull in warm, moist air from the Gulf.

The forecast is currently toeing the line with high temperature records and has the capability to surpass those numbers.

As of now, it seems like the skies will be relatively cloudy over the next few days, meaning it will be hard to break those records; that being said, it is still possible.

Dew points are going to be high, in the upper 60s to low 70s all around. This will mean that it will be exceptionally muggy, raising the heat index into the triple digits for some.

This heat wave has the potential to result in heat-related illnesses, ranging from heat cramps to even a life-threatening heat stroke. It is imperative that you stay hydrated, dress properly, and avoid strenuous activity.

As always, we will keep you updated on this week’s forecast, so stay tuned with your Local Weather Authority!

“My heart and soul are with them,” he said in an emotional postgame interview.

Egypt won its debut in the elimination round of the World Cup by beating Australia 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in the round of 32 Friday.

The victory comes in Egypt’s fourth World Cup.

A video of Hassan on social media shows him walking around the pitch holding the flag as people chanted “Free, free Palestine!" The video went viral.

“It was the most significant scene,” Yahia Qalash, former head of Egypt’s Journalists’ Union, said of Hassan’s move. “It was a telling scene in an exceptional moment.”

The fate of more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, largely displaced and living amid ruins, remains uncertain after a war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s retaliation has killed a total of 73,066 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The war has sparked pro-Palestinian protests around the world, with some athletes also expressing solidarity.

Earlier this year, Lamine Yamal waved a Palestinian flag during celebrations of the Spanish league title. The act caused backlash from Israel's defense minister, who criticized Barcelona’s teenage star and said his action “incites hate.”

Hassan is not known to be religious or connected to any political group. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was adored by the youth, a street footballer who played in the slums.

He said Friday he was dedicating the game to the “good and noble” Egyptian and Palestinian people.

It wasn’t immediately clear if FIFA would seek to take any action, and it didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously sought to restrict what it sees as political statements on the pitch.

During the Qatar World Cup in 2022, some European teams were prevented from wearing armbands in support of the “One Love” campaign, an international anti-discrimination initiative.

During Iran's matches in this World Cup, some Iranian Americans in Los Angeles sought to display the country's pre-revolutionary flag and block a FIFA ban on that flag. They lost in court, and the ban was upheld.

The 44-year-old Serena was injured during her singles return earlier in the week — in a three-set loss.

“I’m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles. Coming back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside (at)venuswilliams once more meant the world to me. I did everything I could but unfortunately my knee just isn’t ready to compete,” Serena said in an Instagram post.

The post included images of four syringes that Serena said “shows the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match.” An accompanying video showed her walking with strapping up and down her right leg and what appeared to be one of her daughters holding a cane for her.

However, with the U.S. Open approaching, Serena indicated she could play again somewhere else soon.

“All I can say,” Serena said, “is stay tuned to a city near you.”

The Williams sisters — Venus is 46 — were scheduled to play Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra. It was the only first-round doubles match that wasn't scheduled earlier in the week, having been pushed back to give Serena more time to recover.

Serena was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 by 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia on Tuesday.

Venus played in the mixed doubles tournament on Friday together with Kevin Krawietz, losing in straight sets to Tereza Mihalikova and Lloyd Glasspool.

The Williams sisters are six-time champions as partners in women's doubles at Wimbledon.

___

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

The couple did not have bridesmaids or groomsmen, instead having Swift’s younger brother Austin Swift serve as her man of honor with Kelce’s big brother and podcast co-host Jason Kelce his best man, Swift's publicist Tree Paine said in an email.

The bride and groom’s outfits came from Christian Dior Haute Couture and its designer Jonathan Anderson with shoes custom-made by Christian Louboutin. She wore Cartier jewelry.

An almost-royal wedding

The long anticipated union of sports and song brought hype to new heights at a venue made more for historic NBA games and bucket-list concerts. The Kansas City Chiefs' superstar tight end and the music megastar married as fans and spectators gathered outside in blistering heat, eager to be part of the occasion, even though the event was almost entirely hidden.

Actors Bradley Cooper, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Grant and Ethan Hawke; models Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss; comic Chris Rock; director Steven Spielberg; singer Camila Cabello and author Jenny Han were among the guests from the world of arts and entertainment. Kelce's coach Andy Reid and Chiefs teammates including running back Kareem Hunt were among the sports figures in the arena, along with retired NFL superstar Tom Brady, Seattle Seahawks receiver and recent Super Bowl champ Cooper Kupp, New York Giants receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and ESPN personalities Joe Buck and Stephen A. Smith.

In a culture obsessed with famous couplings it may have been the apex celebrity wedding, with perhaps only royal unions getting more attention. Holding such a ceremony in a huge, iconic space that sits at the center of the U.S. media universe while keeping all the details secret made for a surreal scene, but it was a mix of hype and hush that is not out of character for Swift.

A shrouded ceremony headed by Happy Gilmore

An Associated Press camera outside the arena showed a long line of black SUVs dropping off wedding-goers in tuxedos and evening gowns, surrounded by New Yorkers in shorts and Swifties amassing for the occasion. Rain briefly cut the heat shortly after the marriage was announced.

There was a seemingly total lack of social media posts from guests once they had entered the arena, with phones apparently banned.

However, on Saturday, hosts of Good Morning America who had been invited to the wedding, confirmed that Nicks performed and described the space as “intimate.”

“As intimate as it could possibly be given it was Madison Square Garden. Really this garden inside the garden, just so beautiful,” said George Stephanopoulos. “It's hard to imagine a place that big and a wedding with such stars could feel so personal and so intimate.”

Robin Roberts added that both Swift and Kelce wrote their own vows.

Weddings have been a constant subject in Swift’s songs since she was a teenager, and her actually walking the aisle for the first time at age 36 added to the drama. It was also the first marriage for the 36-year-old three-time Super Bowl champ Kelce, who could have been one of the jock characters in Swift's early hits.

Sandler, star of “The Wedding Singer” and many other hit comedies, can’t have been high on anyone’s betting list for who would marry the couple, though he’s become an increasingly warm and paternal cultural figure with age. The email announcing the marriage described him as “a friend” of the couple. Kelce was one of the many athletes who appeared in “Happy Gilmore 2,” Sandler's 2025 sequel to one of his first hits, and Sandler appeared last year on the Kelce brothers' “New Heights” podcast.

Welcome to New York — Taylor's version

The Swift-Kelce relationship has thrilled and fascinated millions around the world — particularly the Swifties, the pop star’s enormous and ardent fan base — ever since the pair first started dating in 2023 after he showed up at her Eras Tour concert at the Chiefs stadium.

Happy fans mixed with frazzled tourists outside the arena.

Lori Powers, who lives an hour north of Manhattan and rode the train in to be near the nuptials, said Swift's “music is the soundtrack behind so many amazing moments in my life. Relationships, friends, like my husband and my kids.”

She stood outside the arena before the marriage was announced with her friend Cecily Hall.

“Just being here and witnessing all the energy and the excitement, it’s so much fun,” Hall said. “The combination of sports and music makes perfect sense as to why they’re at Madison Square Garden today.”

___

This story corrects that it was Robin Roberts who said the couple wrote their own vows.

___

Dalton reported from Los Angeles. AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno and AP Associated Press video journalist Emily Wang Fujiyama contributed from New York.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for ​the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), said in a Facebook post that the town of Anefis was being targeted by the separatists.

Mohamed Cissé, a resident of Gao, told The Associated Press that the army is going door to door searching for attackers who are still in the city.

“For the moment, the calm has returned. But I learned that the attackers are still in a part of the city, so I stay inside the house with the family,” said Ousmane Maiga, another resident.

In a later statement, the Malian army claimed that “the situation is completely under control.” It added that in Sévaré, “20 terrorists on motorcycles and equipped vehicles were neutralized.”

But Rawani Ahmed Bouya, a member of the FLA and head of the National Office of the Azawad diaspora, told the AP that Anefis was under FLA control and that the fighting was almost over. His claim could not independently verified.

In late April, a coordinated attack by the FLA and the regional al-Qaida affiliate JNIM killed the defense minister in his home and took control of several key towns in the north of the country.

Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy project director for the International Crisis Group think tank, said that while the latest attacks are “nothing comparable” to those in April, reports of attacks across the border in Burkina Faso as well as across Mali could indicate an attempt to divert the attention of the army to secure more limited gains in northern Mali.

Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, said the targeting of Anefis was strategic because any Malian attempt to reverse the territorial gains from April would have been staged in Anefis.

Mali has previously faced insurgencies by militants affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist rebellion in the country’s north. The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali.

Along with Mali, neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso have also been battling al-Qaida and IS affiliates.

Following military coups, the juntas in the three countries turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating Islamic militants. But the security situation has worsened with a record number of militant attacks. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.

—-

Wilson McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, sought to show unity as it voted to extend the terms of Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have headed it for four years as co-leaders and ran unopposed Saturday. Weidel was reelected with 81% of the vote, while Chrupalla earned 70%. German parties elect their leaders every two years.

The demonstrations outside the convention in the eastern city of Erfurt reflected how AfD has divided Germany even while becoming the biggest opposition party nationally and the strongest political force in Germany’s formerly communist east.

Saturday's event was able to start on time despite the protests, which party officials hailed their “fundamental, legally guaranteed right to hold party conventions.”

“There are no peaceful seated blockades. There are no democratic roadblocks. Nor are there any gangs of thugs who deserve the harmless label ‘civil society.’ These troublemakers are the last resort of our political rivals,” Chrupalla said.

The weekend convention drew additional controversy by coinciding with the 100-year anniversary of a Nazi Party meeting held nearby that consolidated Adolf Hitler’s power over the fascist movement. Historians and political opponents say the timing carries powerful symbolism, an accusation the AfD rejects.

AfD fights ‘firewall’ as its support rises

AfD achieved second place in the February 2025 national election with 20.8% of the vote, the best showing by a far-right party since World War II. Since then support has risen to first among the nation's political parties.

Despite the growing support, some want to see the party banned and protesters this weekend are likely to underline those calls. But Germany’s supreme court previously has set a very high bar for banning parties.

Although Weidel said recently that “2026 is a year of destiny for AfD,” mainstream parties say they won’t work with AfD in a stance often referred to as a “firewall” against far-right parties.

Police said some 31,000 people attended Saturday's protest rallies, German news agency dpa reported. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, with protesters holding signs such as "Stop AfD Nazis” and "For Diversity, Against Nazis.”

Lena Raupach, spokesperson for widersetzen, an anti-fascist alliance whose name translates to “resist,” said the group had hoped to block the convention.

“The AfD pursues fascist policies: It wants mass deportations and terror on the streets. At the same time, however, it doesn’t solve a single real problem," she said. “It pursues policies that benefit the rich, not ordinary citizens. And we at widersetzen want a society in which all people have equal opportunities and equal security. We want a society based on solidarity.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, announced last year that it had classified AfD as a proven right-wing extremist group, but suspended the designation after a legal challenge. In February, a Cologne court said the agency can’t use the designation while the court evaluates the party’s lawsuit.

AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism and argues the agency is being used as a political instrument by mainstream parties.

Upcoming state election could bring a major win

AfD is capitalizing on the unpopularity of a government that is trying to reform the sluggish economy. The party has become adept at harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its signature theme of curbing migration, which powered its rise in the mid-2010s.

AfD hopes to win 40% or more of the vote in a Sept. 6 state election in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt. That could put the party on course for an absolute majority or in a position where it might try to attract defectors from other parties, paving the way for its first state governor.

“We will win. Maybe we’ll be able to govern alone soon,” Chrupalla said. “That would send the right message to the enemies of democracy out there who wanted to prevent our party convention from taking place.”

The party, which has long called for lifting sanctions against Russia and opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine, also has supported the general approach of U.S. President Donald Trump while criticizing the war in Iran launched by the Trump administration and Israel.

Björn Höcke, one of the party’s regional leaders, repeatedly said in his speech Saturday that AfD wants to make Germany great again, a reference to Trump's MAGA platform, and at least one attendee wore a hat with a “Make Germany Great Again” logo.

___

Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Philipp Reissfelder in Berlin contributed to this report.

“When drowning occurs, seconds matter,” said Dr. Rohit Shenoi, the lead author of a recent American Academy of Pediatrics warning. “Quick rescue and resuscitation can mean the difference between life, death and lifelong disability.”

About 4,000 to 5,000 Americans drown each year. Most are adults who die in natural bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds or oceans.

But statistically speaking, drowning is a much larger danger to children. It’s the No. 1 cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4, and one of the top killers of children ages 5 to 14. The drowning rate is higher for white kids in the younger group, but much higher for Black, American Indian and Alaska Native children in the older group.

Drownings of very young children sometimes occur in bathtubs. But most, like Stewie Leonard's, occur in swimming pools.

A family tragedy leads to a foundation for water safety

The Stew Leonard’s grocery chain offers a Disney-like shopping experience, featuring food-promoting animatronic characters like a dancing banana, a mooing cow and singing avocados. But several of its stores also have an animatronic creature that seems out of place: a life-jacketed duck named Stewie who sings about how not to drown.

The duck is named for the son of Stew Leonard, the grocery chain’s chief executive. The boy was 21 months old when he drowned during a family vacation on the island of St. Martin in 1989.

More than a dozen adults and kids had gathered at a birthday party for Stewie's older sister, who was turning 3. Stew Leonard was outside hanging balloons and his wife was inside baking a cake.

“I saw Stewie outside and I assumed that he (Leonard) was watching him,” said his wife, Kim, noting that other relatives also were in the area of the pool.

“We never communicated with each other; ‘You’ve got him?’” said Kim Leonard, now 65. “When everyone’s watching, nobody’s watching.”

“There were a couple of balloons floating in the water,” Leonard, 71, recalled. “And you know after a few minutes, sort of everybody was like, ‘Where’s Stewie?’ Unfortunately I was the one who found him. He was face down in the pool.”

His death led the couple to start a foundation that pays for children’s swimming lessons and promotes drowning prevention.

Why are more kids drowning?

Unintentional child drowning deaths in the U.S. fell from around 2,000 a year in the 1980s to below 1,000 a year by the early 2000s, thanks in part to public awareness campaigns, expanded access to swimming lessons, and adoption of pool fencing laws. Between 2000 and 2019, health officials saw a 38% drop.

But then the trend reversed, with the number of child drowning deaths rising from 756 in 2019 to 865 in 2024, the most recent year for which complete data is available. The bulk of them were children younger than 5. The child drowning death rate also increased slightly, from 1.1 to 1.2 per 100,000 children.

What happened?

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted swimming lessons and lifeguard training programs, and contributed to a national lifeguard shortage. Meanwhile, some data suggests an increase in swimming pool construction and increases in unsupervised swimming, said Tessa Clemens, the CDC Foundation’s senior director for drowning prevention initiatives.

Kym Roberts studies drownings in Australia — where child drownings have been either level or decreasing in recent years. She said “drowning in young children is often associated with falls into water and lapses in direct supervision.”

Some possible good news: Preliminary U.S. data for last year suggests child drownings declined. But it's not clear whether that's the start of a trend, and the deaths still remain higher compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, Clemens said.

Pediatricians push for standards and regulations

Inventors have recognized a need for child water safety measures, and recent years have seen the emergence of immersion alarms that sound if the wristband a child is wearing goes underwater. But manufacturers of such devices note they can serve as an extra warning system, but should not be considered a primary way to keep children safe.

The federal government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid off Clemens and the rest of the staff of its drowning prevention program last year. But new guidance and drowning prevention support continues to come out of other organizations, including the CDC Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

A CDC Foundation program has paid for basic swimming and water safety skills training for over 35,000 students since 2024. The program operates in 11 states with higher drowning rates: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Ways to prevent drowning

The AAP says research shows that policies can make a difference, including lifeguard standards, life jacket regulations and requirements that swimming pools be completely surrounded by fences with self-closing, self-latching gates.

Stew Leonard emphasizes two other approaches — swimming lessons for young kids and complete focus by caregivers when young children are around water.

“I mean, I love ballet. I love karate. I love tennis lessons. You know, all the activities that kids can do,” he said. “But the only thing you can do to save their life is put them in swimming lessons.”

His foundation has funded over 250,000 swimming lessons for children and opened two swimming schools — one of them across the street from his company's headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Also, “shut your cellphones off when you're around the pool, watching the kids. Don't sit there reading a book. Don't sit there talking to your friends, neglecting your child that's near the water,” he said.

“This happens in the blink of an eye.”

___

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

The reported boost to domestic tourism, though anecdotal, comes as higher airfares and gasoline prices have made vacations more expensive. The FIFA World Cup soccer tournament and celebrations of the nation's 250th birthday have given some U.S. residents additional incentives to create summer memories without going far.

Motor club federation AAA estimated that 72.2 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from home between June 27 and this Sunday. That's 0.5% more than the number who got away during last year's July Fourth travel period, but the forecasted increase is almost all due to people taking cruises, buses and trains; AAA expects no change in the number driving or flying to their destinations.

A meaningful reduction in summer globetrotting might have an upside for businesses that depend on tourists, said Tarik Dogru, an associate professor at Florida State University's Dedman College of Hospitality. Fewer U.S. residents heading abroad or flying across the country means more of their vacation budgets are staying local too, Dogru said.

“The current economic and tourism dynamics are likely to redirect spending toward small businesses, such as regional restaurants, local attractions, Airbnb hosts, and roadside businesses along drive routes that serve budget-conscious and close-to-home travel,” he said.

If the trend holds through the summer and the rest of the year, it could reduce a travel and tourism trade deficit the United States has run since the COVID-19 pandemic. Each year since 2020, Americans spent more on foreign travel than international visitors spent on travel-related goods and services in the U.S., according to the National Travel and Tourism Office.

Morgan Kain, a teacher in Baltimore, said her family is among the ones keeping their travel bugs in check for financial reasons. Kain, her husband and three children usually take multiple trips each summer, including a weeklong stay at a Virginia lake house. Last year, they spent six weeks traveling around Italy.

“This summer, we’re still doing a couple overnights and the lake house, but nothing else,” Kain said. “Things are crazy expensive, from travel costs to food costs to gas.”

Vacationers are taking trips within driving distance

Despite gasoline costing more than it did a year ago, 85% of Independence Day week travelers were expected to drive to their destinations, AAA said, noting that car trips still are cheaper than flights for the most part.

Around Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada, several businesses reported spotting more visitors driving in from cities along the West Coast.

Ron Williams, who owns Tahoe Sports, said he worried at the beginning of the season that customers might not show up to rent boats and Jet Skis due to economic concerns. Like the gasoline that powers cars, the price of boat fuel went up during the Iran war.

But Williams so far is “pleasantly surprised with how well the business is doing across the board.” His future bookings are 10% higher compared to the same time last year, he said.

“I think people are probably sticking close to home, and being in Lake Tahoe, we have such a huge drive-up market,” Williams said.

Increased demand for the three Lake Tahoe area rental properties that Jerry Bindel manages for Pyramid Global Hospitality also came as a relief. Ski season bookings petered out along with the snow during an unusually warm winter, but “we just saw that flip” with the arrival of hiking and boating weather, he said.

Bindel, an area general director for the property management company, said he spotted a possible sign of Tahoe visitors watching their spending: more of them skipping restaurants and using the kitchens in their rental units or outdoor barbecue grills to prepare their own food.

“We’re seeing a lot of additional use on those items this summer,” he said.

Locals still want to have memorable summer experiences

In Asheville, North Carolina, small business owners have hoped tourism would rebound since Hurricane Helene and flooding from days of torrential rain caused widespread destruction to the city's landscape, buildings and infrastructure in September 2024.

Aubrey Anderson, who owns a river tubing outfitter in Asheville, reduced her summer staff from 100 people to 25 after Helene. After reservations picked up earlier this year and she noticed “a lot new people coming into town,” Anderson felt encouraged enough to hire 50 workers for Zen Tubing's current season.

The unfamiliar faces include day-trippers driving in from South Carolina, Tennessee and other parts of North Carolina to spend several hours floating down the French Broad River for around $30 per person, Anderson said. After tubing, customers from around the region often grab a meal, stop at a brewery, shop or visit other local attractions before heading home, which is “a win for Asheville as a whole,” she said.

“We’re definitely seeing a lot of locals, so to speak," Anderson said. “People are maybe skipping the long drive to the beach this year, and they’re kind of doing just something close by so that they can save a little money and still enjoy a family outing.”

Factory tours offered by French Broad Chocolate have surged this summer, according to Jael Skeffington, the Asheville chocolate maker's CEO and co-founder. Tour-takers often stop in the on-site cafe for ice cream or coffee and buy a box of chocolate bars or bonbons before they leave, she said.

“So it’s good for business, but it also seems to be what people are looking for is something to do, not just something to eat — something to experience." Skeffington said.

Cities are getting a World Cup boost

Soccer enthusiasts have poured into Kansas City, Missouri, just like other North American cities hosting World Cup matches.

Made in KC, a chain of four cafes and 11 shops that sells locally made sauces, Kansas City-themed gifts and T-shirts for fans of the city’s professional sports teams, has gotten “really noticeable spikes of traffic” at all its locations during the tournament, co-owner Keith Bradley said. World Cup-related merchandise, including $40 hats featuring the team colors of this year’s competitors, have been a big hit, he said.

American tourists from other Midwestern cities — Des Moines and Omaha both are within a three-hour drive from Kansas City — seem to outnumber U.S. visitors from farther away, Bradley noted.

“We have a couple locations that are in tourist parts of Kansas City. ... But then we also have little shops that are just in suburban neighborhoods in Kansas City, and those have also seen World Cup traffic of people going to watch parties, people coming in town to go to the games, and then tourists just exploring Kansas City on their own.”

Mollie Lothman, co-owner of McLain’s Bakery, a family-owned cafe with five locations, said she thinks the cost of food and lodging in Kansas City compared to bigger or better known host cities has helped.

“We’re one of the smaller markets who got the World Cup in Kansas City, but we’re also probably one of least expensive markets, in terms of family budgeting, to try to come and experience the World Cup," Lothman said. “So I think that’s been a huge draw for people."

His hopes of a second consecutive World Cup title also lived on — and that accomplishment was anything but easy.

Messi’s goal in the 29th minute was the 20th of his World Cup career, extending his record and moving him two ahead of France’s Kylian Mbappé on the all-time list. It was the opener of what became a wild night, with Argentina escaping with a 3-2 win over Cape Verde in extra time against a huge underdog.

Messi was pictured later at his media conference with a large bump on his head after apparently being hit with a knee during a collision with a Cape Verde player.

“It hurts a little but I’m good," he was quoted in comments translated from Spanish about the goose-egg over his right eye. A FIFA post on X showed a definite welt.

Messi — who now has goals in a record eight consecutive World Cup games going back to Argentina's run to the 2022 title — seemed relieved after the match, and lauded Cape Verde’s defense.

“We did good things,” Messi said in his native Spanish, “and we have to correct the bad things.”

Messi has seven goals in this World Cup — one more than Mbappé in the race for the Golden Boot as the top scorer of the tournament — and has scored 12 times during his eight-game World Cup streak. He has been great, and Argentina has needed him to be great.

“For me, it represents a lot to be friends with him,” said Rodrigo De Paul, Messi’s teammate with Argentina and Inter Miami. “For me, friendship is one of the most important things that we all have and I consider myself fortunate to be there, to share these moments with him.”

And there has been no shortage of moments.

Messi had the game's first good chance Friday, his all-world left foot sending a shot skidding across the goal mouth but outside of the right post in the 15th minute. After getting taken down, he had a 25-yard free kick three minutes later that was easily gobbled up by Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha.

But the momentum was shifting, and before long, Messi broke through for a 1-0 lead. He timed his run perfectly on a ball played into the box by defender Lisandro Martinez to stay onside, controlled the pass and then lifted a shot over Vozinha's left shoulder from close range for his 124th international goal. Only Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 146, has more.

Messi stretched his arms and pointed to Martinez, saluting the pass, before teammates mobbed him in celebration.

Argentina was a huge favorite — some sportsbooks had the defending champions at minus-3500 to win, meaning bettors would have to wager $3,500 to profit $100 — and the Messi goal probably had some thinking the scoring dam was about to break.

It wasn't.

Cape Verde scored to knot the game at 1-1 and 2-2, and Messi set up the eventual winner with a corner kick that bounced off some heads and into the net midway through the second half of extra time.

“As this team has demonstrated many times, and as I’ve said many times, it competes,” Messi said. “And we competed to the end.”

The Golden Boot race may go down to the end as well, with the four leaders now all safely into the Round of 16.

Messi and Mbappé are far from the only contenders in the Golden Boot race: Norway’s Erling Haaland and England’s Harry Kane each had five goals entering Friday, while four players — France’s Ousmane Dembele, Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal, Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior and Senegal’s Ismaila Sarr — had four. Sarr is out of the running since Senegal has been eliminated.

Norway, England and France have advanced to the Round of 16; Argentina and Messi, the Inter Miami star who is widely considered the greatest player ever, now join them — barely.

“Our team did everything we could to win the game,” Cape Verde goalie Vozinha said.

Messi has never won the Golden Boot. He finished second with seven goals — one behind Mbappé — while leading Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title, and he tied for third with four goals in 2014.

If there’s a tie atop the goal list when the tournament ends, FIFA will use assists as the first tiebreaker and fewest minutes played as the second tiebreaker. Entering Friday, that meant Mbappé would have had the edge over Messi based on his 2-0 lead in assists.

But for now, Messi leads the scoring race. Most important, he's still in the race for another World Cup title.

“I hope you now realize, there is no easy opponent," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The two-way superstar was hitless in three at-bats before being lifted as a precaution. On the mound, Ohtani allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out nine and threw a season-high 110 pitches before Los Angeles rallied for a 4-3 victory.

Ohtani said he felt the biceps issue during his at-bat in the sixth, when he flied out to right field.

“It’s the same location that I felt a couple months ago,” he said through a translator. "It went away pretty relatively quickly, so I expect that to happen again.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani would be given Saturday off to recover and receive treatment.

“He's a quick healer and finds a way to get back,” said Roberts, who added that Ohtani's previous biceps issue was "so benign that I didn't hear about it until tonight.”

Ohtani has primarily been starting on the mound every Wednesday, but the team pushed him back to Friday this week to manage his workload.

Asked if that meant Ohtani was unlikely to pitch in the All-Star Game, Roberts said before the game: “I haven't formally said it, but if you just kind of do the math, it would be hard to imagine. But I don’t have to make that decision quite yet.”

Roberts will manage the National League All-Stars in Philadelphia.

He said the possibility of Ohtani skipping his last pitching start before the All-Star break should “be on the table.”

Ohtani is already penciled into the All-Star starting lineup as the NL designated hitter because he was the overall leader with 3,341,257 votes after the first phase of fan balloting.

The right-hander is a strong candidate to be selected to the NL pitching staff as well, but Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sánchez seems most likely to start in his home ballpark. Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski leads the majors with a 1.45 ERA but is on turn to pitch for the Brewers two days before the All-Star Game, which would make him unavailable against the American League.

Ohtani's ERA rose to 1.79 from 1.58 after his start Friday.

The Dodgers wanted Ohtani to get additional rest during a stretch of 13 games in 13 days. If he makes his final scheduled start before the All-Star Game on July 10, that would give his arm only three days of rest prior to the Midsummer Showcase.

“Shohei hasn’t had his best stuff recently and that’s the truth,” Roberts said. “The fastball command hasn’t been what it was earlier in the season, the sweeper hasn’t been the same.”

Ohtani has been bothered by left knee soreness and has a blister on the middle finger of his right hand.

“He feels good, the body feels good,” Roberts said before Friday's game. “The knee feels as good as it’s felt in quite some time, so that’s encouraging.”

___

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

The Boston Red Sox's 38-year-old left-hander didn't do it with one of the triple-digit fastballs that have made him one of the most imposing pitchers of his generation and one of the most accomplished relievers in baseball history.

Instead, his high pitch to the Angels' Denzer Guzman was clocked at a mere 98.6 mph — and Guzman still couldn't get around in time.

“I feel very happy, very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish,” Chapman said through an interpreter. “I just feel very satisfied right now.”

The strikeout was the 1,364th in Chapman's 17-year career. It broke the record long held by Hoyt Wilhelm, the Hall of Famer whose 21-year career ended back in 1972, just five days shy of his 50th birthday.

Chapman paused and soaked in the moment only briefly after fanning Guzman, aware of the significance of the strikeout while also knowing he still had to get two more outs. He promptly gave up two hits, but escaped the jam with a double-play grounder to secure Boston's 5-2 win over Los Angeles and his 383rd career save.

The Red Sox celebrated Chapman’s achievement in their Angel Stadium clubhouse, showing a video retrospective of Chapman’s career to his younger teammates — everything from his debut with Cincinnati in 2010 to his two World Series championships with the Cubs and Rangers.

“It’s cool. We’ve been waiting for that one,” Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said. “What a career he’s had. The cool thing is watching the video, and you’re seeing him at a young age throwing 102, and he’s still doing it. It’s just incredible.”

In his 889th major league appearance — all of them in relief — Chapman saved a deserved victory for Red Sox rookie Jake Bennett, who was making his seventh appearance.

“It’s incredible,” said Bennett, who tired in the eighth. “It’s incredible to even just be a part of a team that it happens on.”

Chapman hadn’t pitched since he tied the strikeout record last Sunday while blowing a save against the Yankees, with whom he spent parts of seven seasons before an acrimonious split four years ago. He has pitched for seven teams since he defected from Cuba in 2009, earning eight All-Star selections and moving up to 10th on the majors' career saves list.

This record spanned across a half-century of baseball history and a fundamental change in the way pitchers are used.

Among the 14 pitchers in major league history who have recorded 1,000 strikeouts as a reliever, only Lindy McDaniel was a contemporary of Wilhelm, a World War II veteran and a pioneer in relief pitching. The crafty knuckleballer was among the first pitchers to be used regularly as what's now known as a high-leverage reliever, coming into close games and tight situations regardless of whether the starter was tired or not.

Chapman has spent his entire career in those tight spots, and he has usually excelled when healthy, often with a fastball that has topped 105 mph at times during his career.

He has even been in a renaissance since joining the Red Sox before last season. After earning AL Reliever of the Year honors in 2025 with a minuscule 1.17 ERA, he has 17 saves in 19 chances this season, still taking high-leverage assignments and usually succeeding.

“I was just focused on doing the job, day in and day out over the course of the last few weeks, getting to this point where I had the opportunity to break the record,” Chapman said. “I had some highs and some lows, but I've just tried to stay positive throughout.”

___

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

That plan also went by the wayside when Jhon Córdoba appeared to hurt his groin.

Forced into making a rare early move, Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo sent Luis Suárez onto the field, and he promptly delivered a sharp cross that Jhon Arias flicked into the net, resulting in the only goal on a sweltering night at Arrowhead Stadium and sending Los Cafeteros into the Round of 16 at the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over the Black Stars.

“I think football is a team sport,” Lorenzo said. “Ultimately you do have little groups in certain areas, but you have to have a unit — a whole — and I think our squad has been working on that from the very onset. That was the goal from the very beginning.”

The early goal was a good omen: Colombia has won 11 consecutive World Cup matches when scoring first. Now, it will play Switzerland on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a spot in the quarterfinals.

“We have won absolutely nothing,” Colombia star Luis Díaz said. “These games are very difficult. Every game we've seen has been tight. The good thing and the positive thing is that we're playing very well, we feel comfortable, we are being a family, we are working as a team, and that will work for what is coming.”

Los Cafeteros thought they had doubled their lead in the 56th minute, when Díaz found the back of the net only to see the offside flag raised, and the fleet-footed Colombia forward had a point-blank shot saved by Lawrence Ati Zigi a few minutes later.

Zigi wound up making seven saves to keep Ghana in the game.

“Sometimes it happens in football,” Ghana defender Jerome Opoku said, “that it doesn’t go your way.”

It was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 Celsius) with a heat index of 96 when the game kicked off at 8:30 p.m. local time, the late start intentional due to the expected heat of Midwestern summers. The hydration breaks that have been controversial in so many matches suddenly became a blessing as players from both sides fought through dehydration and cramps.

Ghana was one of a record nine teams from Africa to escape the group stage of the World Cup. And while many gave fits to some of the tournament favorites — hello, Cape Verde against Argentina — only Morocco and Egypt were able to reach the Round of 16.

“It's always great to get out of your group,” Opoku said. “Obviously we wanted to go further.”

Colombia had breezed through the group stage, conceding only a single goal in wins over Uzbekistan and Congo and a draw with Portugal. In fact, Los Cafeteros had been so impressive that Spain coach Luis de la Fuente — whose own team is considered among the tournament favorites — tapped them as “a candidate to win the World Cup.”

Their fans certainly believe in them.

The home of the NFL’s Chiefs has three levels of seats with a band of yellow ones sandwiched between red. Yet the entire bowl of the stadium just east of downtown Kansas City was awash in the vibrant yellow of Colombia some 2 hours before kickoff.

Ghana knew it would be an underdog. Yet the team that failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations last year for the first time in nearly two decades had already answered plenty of critics by surviving a difficult group topped by England and Croatia.

The question as it faced Colombia: Could Ghana mount enough offense?

As expected, Los Cafeteros dominated the ball — the Black Stars had possessed it just 36.1% of the time in the group stage, second-least of any team that advanced, and those offensive issues continued against Colombia. Even when Ghana managed to put together an attack, Colombia was there to quickly counter with the speed of Suárez, Díaz and its midfielders.

Ghana wound up taking eight shots against Colombia. None of them were on goal.

“Intense game. Tough game for both teams, I guess, as I expected,” Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said. “Colombia started the game as we expected, full speed, a lot of intensity, passing. We tried to answer and stop them, but unfortunately the goal came too early for us.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

“Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” he said from Mount Rushmore. “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11."

While the language was similar to several other speeches Trump has given in recent days, it was notable for being delivered in a national park that commemorates some of America's most prominent presidents. And it swerved from the typically apolitical, unifying speeches past presidents like Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan have delivered during earlier high-profile Independence Day celebrations.

Indeed, Trump's language evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America, from Washington to Hollywood.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, delivered his own address that cast America as a nation of contradictions “working each day towards the perfection in which it was conceived.”

The president's speech capped an Independence Day eve that was otherwise most notable for a brutal heat wave the gripped much of the eastern portion of the country. Officials have warned those celebrating the holiday to stay hydrated and take air-conditioned breaks as needed.

Philadelphia canceled its Salute to Independence parade Friday. The Great American State Fair in Washington shut down in the early afternoon before reopening at 5 p.m. The Capitol Fourth concert, a mainstay of the holiday in Washington, opened its gates a little later than normal but ultimately moved forward with appearances from Patti LaBelle, Trace Adkins, members of the Artemis II space mission and fireworks over George Washington’s Mount Vernon. An Independence Day parade scheduled for Saturday in Washington was canceled.

Looking for a place to cool off

By early afternoon Friday in Washington, hundreds of people were roaming the grounds of the National Mall, home to The Great American State Fair. They snapped photos of the flyovers and tried to cool off inside tents that offered $9 lemonades and $23 turkey legs. Many were dressed in patriotic colors, their faces glistening with sweat.

Glenn Brooks, who was pardoned by Trump for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said he was “thankful to be participating in this grand event.”

The activity culminates in the main event Saturday, when fireworks will erupt in communities across the U.S., along with backyard cookouts and block parties. Trump will deliver another speech at the National Mall in Washington before what is being billed as a historically massive fireworks show.

As the rest of the country struggled under stifling heat, the Pacific Northwest enjoyed temperatures in the 60s with even a few light showers.

World Cup soccer fans in Seattle were staying cool Friday as they got psyched up for Monday’s big game between the U.S. and Belgium. In the nearby suburb of Issaquah, Megan Kurowski, 31, brought her two dogs to the dog park so they could get some exercise before she went to work.

Kurowski said she was feeling positive about America’s 250th anniversary and was planning a possible paddleboard to watch the fireworks.

“Everyone’s just, from what it seems, been pretty excited about celebrating 250 years,” she said.

The holiday is unfolding at a unique time in the U.S. The anniversary has served as an opportunity for the country to reflect on its history while also reminding it of the political polarization of the moment.

On a holiday of unity, there is an undercurrent of division

In New York, Mamdani, a Democrat, did not mention Trump by name, but parts of his speech appeared aimed at the president’s divisive rhetoric.

“For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best,” Mamdani said in an apparent reference to a common criticism from Trump. “Those ideals upon which our nation was built — they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them."

Freedom 250, an organization aligned with the White House, has come to rival America250, a bipartisan group founded by Congress a decade ago. Freedom 250 has organized much of the activity in Washington, including the Great American State Fair. America250 is behind the ball drops unfolding in many cities, including New York, and will host a concert in Los Angeles on Saturday.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults feel “proud” about the country’s 250th anniversary, according to an April survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly 3 in 10 said “excited” describes their emotions.

Ahead of the holiday, auto technician Joe Fuqua-Bejarano in Topeka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awesome” as a people. It is clearly not the politics, in his view, but rather resilience.

“We’ve just all got to find unity somewhere, whether that’s in laughter or perseverance, and keep everybody cool,” he said from the fireworks stand where he is doing a booming business as a side hustle.

Christina Zhou, a 25-year-old research assistant from Cambridge, Massachusetts, said she would aim to “think about just things that are happening locally.”

“It feels a little bit more like within our own personal control," she said.

Jerry Chin of Newcastle, Washington, said he wasn’t aware that the U.S. was celebrating its 250th anniversary and planned to stay low-key around the holiday. He and his wife generally skip the fireworks and instead stay home with their fearful dogs to keep them calm.

“America’s a great place, but there are some concerns,” he said. Chin, 55, and his wife worry about healthcare and issues around staying healthy, but they also stress about politics.

“We’re Democrats, so kind of given up hope,” he said. “Just feel that it is the way it is. I don’t know if there could be change.”

At the National Archives in Washington, visitors made their way through the Rotunda to look at the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- and to escape the heat outside.

Michael Dresdner, 60, traveled from West Orange, New Jersey, with his wife, Cindi, 57, and about two dozen other people to be part of the America 250 celebrations. He said their group of travelers included people on both sides of the political aisle -- and that is what gave him hope for the future of American democracy.

“We are all here, and we all love America,” he said.

___

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Martha Bellisle in Seattle, Anthony Izaguirre in New York, John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Michael Casey in Cambridge, Mass., and Calvin Woodward, Didi Tang, Gary Fields and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

Contest sponsor Nathan's Famous was sold in January to packaged meat giant Smithfield Foods. A few months later, reigning men's champ and record-holder Joey Chestnut was accused of slapping a man in an Indiana bar and pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor battery charge.

But the frankfurter fest rolls on, with Chestnut and Miki Sudo set to defend last year's wins in the men's and women's divisions, respectively.

Competitors consume as many hot dogs and buns as possible in 10 minutes, usually dunking the wieners in water first to make them easier to swallow.

Sudo is an 11-time winner and holds the women's record of 51 dogs.

Chestnut has taken the so-called Mustard Belt 17 times and notched the men's record: 76 franks. He's still on probation in the battery case but is allowed to travel outside Indiana. His lawyer has said that what happened in the bar was a misunderstanding and that Chestnut accepted responsibility for his actions.

Hot dog contest organizer Major League Eating, which oversees the Nathan’s Famous contest, said the criminal case didn't affect Chestnut’s eligibility for the competition.

The event, which dates to 1972, is held in front of the original Nathan’s Famous’ restaurant in New York’s Coney Island.

Hossam Abdelmaguid scored the deciding goal in a shootout, and Egypt won its debut in the elimination round of the World Cup by beating Australia 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in the round of 32 Friday.

Australia goalkeeper Mathew Ryan didn't stop any of Egypt's four shots after replacing starter Patrick Beach late in extra time.

The victory comes in Egypt's fourth World Cup, the first one with an expanded field of 48. Australia is now 0-3 in the knockout round.

Egypt will next face defending champion Argentina, which beat Cape Verde 3-2 in extra time Friday night, in the round of 16 on Tuesday in Atlanta.

“Me feeling today is that it's incredible,” said Salah, the 34-year-old former Liverpool player who is one behind national team coach Hossam Hassan's Egyptian record of 69 international goals. “I always like seeing the boys happy and enjoying the moment. Nothing can match that. So today was one of the best days of my life.”

Harry Souttar opened the shootout by missing high for Australia, and 18-year-old Lucas Herrington hit the crossbar with the fourth attempt to set up Abdelmaguid’s clincher for the Pharaohs.

The 25-year-old Abdelmaguid, who doesn't have an international goal in 15 appearances, went low left as Ryan dived to the defender's right, setting off a raucous celebration among 70,244 fans at the sold-out home of the Dallas Cowboys, plenty of them wearing Egyptian red.

Egypt didn't even have a victory in the World Cup before beating New Zealand 3-1 in the group stage less than two weeks ago.

“I was only thinking about the Egyptian fans,” Hassan said through an interpreter. “During the entire time and during the penalty shootout, I was just praying, ‘God, please make the Egyptian people happy.’ Even before the penalty shootout, to be honest.”

Egypt’s other shootout scorers were Mahmoud Saber, Ramy Rabia and Salah, who played every minute of regulation and extra time despite a hamstring injury sustained in the team's group finale.

Jackson Irvine and Awer Mabil scored in the shootout for Australia.

“When I went to the players and talked to them, I wanted to take some pressure off,” Hassan said. “Do not look at the pressure. Just let everything out, don’t think about anything. Think about your penalty kick. Don’t even think about the goalkeeper. Just think about your kick.”

Emam Ashour gave Egypt the lead in regulation by scoring in the 13th minute with a header that beat Beach just inside the near post. Australia evened the match in the 55th when Egypt defender Mohamed Hany became the first player to score two own-goals in the same World Cup.

The own-goal came when Aiden O’Neill took a free kick from left of the penalty area and Hany headed the ball past goalkeeper Mostafa Shoubir for a spot in World Cup infamy. His other own-goal came in a 1-1 draw with Belgium in the group stage.

Less than 10 minutes earlier, Hany was down near the same spot after colliding with Connor Metcalfe on the Australia midfielder’s header attempt. Medical personnel tended to Hany with a stretcher waiting nearby, but he was helped up and stayed on after what appeared to be a concussion check.

Australia’s only scoring in World Cup knockout rounds has been two own-goals. The Socceroos lost to Italy 1-0 in 2006 and lost to Argentina 2-1 four years ago in Qatar. The goal against Argentina was an own-goal.

“It hurts when you get that close,” Australia coach Tony Popovic said. “Unfortunately, we bow out in a penalty shootout, so it’s difficult to take right now.”

Omar Marmoush had a great chance to give Egypt a two-goal lead in the opening seconds of the second half, but he sent a shot wide.

The late goalkeeper switch to the 34-year-old Ryan, for his 105th international appearance, came despite several strong saves from the 22-year-old Beach, who was playing in only his sixth game for the Socceroos.

Beach made a sprawling save on a header from Rabia in the waning moments of regulation, and seconds later had a much easier stop on Salah’s shot.

Egypt had one more chance before the end of regulation, but Haissem Hassan was turned away by Souttar, who deflected the shot with his knee.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Roanoke County officials said Friday night that approximately 100 acres have burned, but crews have contained 80% of the fire.

Officials say that people may see heavy smoke into Saturday. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but it is not believed to be intentional; no structures are affected.

3 p.m. Update:

Roanoke County officials said that the fire has grown to approximately 10 acres in a heavily wooded area, producing heavy smoke. Fire and Rescue personnel from three stations are on the scene, including the Department of Forestry.

Officials say no structures are threatened and the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

10 News will continue to update this story with information as it becomes available.

Original:

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue crews are responding to a brush fire to the Havens Wildlife Management area in the Fort Lewis area for a brush fire, according to officials.

Roanoke County officials say there are no structures in the area and no threat to the public at this time.

An estimated 1-2 acres have burned and it will likely grow in size. There is a lot of thick brush in the area, which will produce heavy smoke. Currently, the cause of the fire is unknown.

The Department of Forestry has been contacted, and crews are working to put in a containment line around the fire.

He got that — and so much more.

Cape Verde didn’t win a match at the World Cup, and somehow, that didn’t seem to matter. The African team's debut on this stage was unforgettable, thanks largely to the 40-year-old goalkeeper who nearly engineered a soccer story that would have been counted among the greatest upsets in sports history.

Cape Verde’s magical ride ended Friday in the Round of 32, with the Blue Sharks falling to Lionel Messi and defending World Cup champion Argentina — as most expected. Final score: Champions 3, Cinderellas 2, in extra time — as probably very few expected.

“We have dignified Cape Verde as a national team in most parts of the world,” Vozinha said in Portuguese. “Today, we fought on an equal footing against Argentina.”

Fight, the Blue Sharks did. But the journey still ended. There was a scoreless draw against Spain to open the tournament, with Vozinha leading the way, which led to the captivating tale surrounding the global collaborative effort it took to get his mother to the U.S. to watch matches in the group stage. There were two more dramatic draws that were good enough for Cape Verde to reach the knockout round.

It took a goal from Messi, then a corner kick from the legend midway through the second half of extra time that set up what became the game-winning tally, to save mighty Argentina. The match lasted more than 2½ hours in real time after the David-vs.-Goliath showdown started. Goliath was pushed to the brink, with Vozinha standing tall against the team that entered the tournament ranked No. 1 in the world — and the player regarded by many as the best ever — time and again.

“He's a quality, quality goalkeeper,” said Cape Verde defender Pico Lopes, who was recruited to the team with a LinkedIn message — another made-for-Hollywood story for this squad. “Probably hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves before this. ... He's a legend in Cape Verdean football.”

There were no fewer than four elite saves by Vozinha against Messi alone in the final 60 minutes:

— A point-blank stop in the 63rd minute after Messi tried to power a right-footed shot past the keeper, who came off his line to cut down the angle and absorbed the shot with his body. “Not many people stop Lionel Messi from three or four yards out,” Lopes said.

— A free kick from Messi in the 73rd seemed destined to curl into the right side of the net; Vozinha got just enough of an outstretched gloved hand on that one to knock it away to preserve what was then a 1-1 score.

— Messi went low with a free kick in stoppage time; Vozinha managed to see the ball through a wall of bodies and dropped to his knees to make a save.

— Late in the first 15-minute extra time period, Messi collected a deflected ball at the top of the penalty area and fired. Vozinha dove to his left, punching that one aside as well.

He did all he could. Everyone in his country's colors did. It was almost enough.

“Argentina is a world champion and they have one of the best players in the world, so that in itself speaks of the challenge it was for our team to overcome them,” Cape Verde coach Bubista said. “Above that, there’s the fact that we’re here for the first time. ... We want to evolve so that we can have more opportunities to face the so-called big dogs of the tournament.”

Cape Verde, the smallest nation in terms of land area to make the World Cup, with a population about 1% the size of Argentina's, will get $11 million from FIFA for making it this far in the tournament.

Of course, the Blue Sharks got a lot more than money. They became known on soccer's biggest stage, with fans from around the world reaching out during the World Cup run to say they had earned their support.

“Nobody has to ask where Cape Verde is now,” Lopes said. “They know where we are.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

A thrilling, unforgettable World Cup match with underdog Cape Verde was over — and the defending champions survived after being pushed to the brink.

Cape Verde equalized in regulation and again in extra time, but the Blue Sharks could not respond to Argentina's third goal, and La Albiceleste advanced to the Round of 16 with a 3-2 victory on Friday.

Even in defeat, the performance by Cape Verde — a tiny island nation off the western coast of Africa — will stand as one of the most remarkable stories of this, or any, World Cup.

“I have to give credit to our opponents,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “The truth is, when people say there’s no such thing as an easy opponent, today (Cape Verde) proved they’re a great team.”

The go-ahead score for Argentina was credited as an own-goal after Cristian Romero's header deflected off Cape Verde's Diney Borges in the 111th minute. Messi scored early in regulation, his record-extending 20th career World Cup goal. Lisandro Martinez scored in the 92nd to put Argentina ahead 2-1.

Sidny Lopes Cabral and Deroy Duarte scored for Cape Verde — both equalizers that stunned the pro-Argentina crowd in South Florida. Cabral's goal — a curling, right-footed strike past goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez in the 103rd minute — made an already wild game even more incredible, tying it at 2-all and raising the possibility of Messi facing standout Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha in a penalty shootout.

Argentina pushed back in front eight minutes later, held on from there and advanced to face Egypt — which beat Australia in a shootout earlier Friday — in Atlanta on Tuesday.

“As this team has demonstrated many times, and as I’ve said many times, it competes,” Messi said in Spanish. “And we competed to the end.”

Cape Verde’s memorable World Cup debut had been a stunning run that few outside the country of 525,000 could have predicted. Behind the stellar play of the 40-year-old Vozinha, Cape Verde became the smallest country to reach the knockout round, securing surprising draws against former champions Spain and Uruguay and another against Saudi Arabia.

Vozinha had 10 saves against Argentina, including five against Messi.

“We dignify what our country is. We drew twice against the world champions, we took it to extra time,” Cape Verde coach Bubista said. “More than anything, it’s being proud of our players who were dignified in the World Cup. We showed our identity.”

Messi added another brilliant goal to his resume, sneaking behind the Cape Verde defense on a well-timed run as Martinez lofted a pass toward him, taking a quick touch and hammering a finish into the roof of the net for a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute.

The Argentina captain has seven goals in this tournament — one more France’s Kylian Mbappé in the Golden Boot race as the top scorer in this year’s World Cup — and extended his World cup record, moving two goals ahead of Mbappé on the career list. He has 12 goals during his record eight-match scoring streak.

Messi had the game's first chance that he sent skidding across the goal mouth but outside of the right post in the 15th minute. After getting taken down, he had a 25-yard free kick three minutes later that was easily gobbled up by Vozinha, who came up with a marvelous save nearly every time his team needed one.

“We came so close, we pushed them right to the end,” Cape Verde defender Pico Lopes said. “But in the end, it wasn’t to be. Disappointed ... but I think we showed great character today, a great quality to get back into the game twice. They’re the world champions for a reason.”

Bubista and players remained on the pitch well after the final whistle. Some sat with their heads nestled in their chests. Other shared tearful embraces before waving to their small crowd of supporters, reality sinking in at the end of a ride that almost no one outside of their fearless island could have predicted.

“We showed that we may be a small country,” Bubista said, “but we can play against some of the best teams in the world.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Trout has been out since June 17, when he strained his right hamstring while running the bases against Arizona. He performed his normal pregame routine Friday before the Angels opened a series against the Boston Red Sox, and he expects to hit on the field this weekend.

Trout said he is optimistic about playing early next week, and manager Kurt Suzuki didn't disagree.

“He looks good," Suzuki said. “I saw him today when I first came in. He was working out. He was obviously on the road trip, doing his thing. He’s getting really close. Really, really close.”

The 34-year-old Trout hasn't been officially selected for the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, but the two-time All-Star Game MVP is expected to be elected to the AL's starting outfield in what would be his 12th All-Star nod.

The honor would be particularly special this year for Trout, who grew up 40 miles from Philadelphia in Millville, New Jersey.

The three-time AL MVP hasn't participated in the All-Star festivities since 2019. He wasn't able to play due to injury after being selected from 2021-23, and he injured his knee early in the 2024 season before not being selected last year.

Trout has bounced back and stayed mostly healthy for the last-place Angels this season, posting a team-leading .866 OPS with 17 homers and 36 RBIs in 74 games.

He said last week that he probably wouldn't participate in the Home Run Derby as he tries to stay healthy.

___

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

The acts of clemency come as Trump has issued a slew of pardons in his second term, particularly for allies, public figures and those seen as politically aligned.

His use of the presidency’s sweeping ability to unilaterally grant pardons and commute sentences is among the ways the Republican’s return to office has featured an expansive use of executive power.

Trump earlier on Friday announced some of the pardons on social media, without identifying any of the recipients by name.

“It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for ‘fixing their car,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network.

“I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!” he said.

In a list provided Friday evening by the White House, Trump pardoned 11 people, including nine who faced charges related to violations of the Clean Air Act by disabling emissions monitoring systems on vehicles or selling devices that enabled emissions systems to be bypassed.

The pardons come after Trump on Monday signed a memo telling the Environmental Protection Agency that Americans can fix their own vehicles as they see fit. As he signed the memo, Trump referenced a diesel mechanic he pardoned last year who disabled emissions monitoring systems.

The memo also addressed aftermarket auto parts and would supersede the ability of the California Air Resources Board to evaluate parts that affect vehicle emissions.

The White House, in releasing the list of those pardoned, described Trump having “relieved consumers from these regulatory burdens.”

Beyond the emissions-related pardons, Trump on Friday also issued a pardon for Adam Kidan, a former business partner of Abramoff.

Kidan pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy related to the purchase of a fleet of gambling boats, and in 2006 he was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

The case was part of a broader investigation of the early 2000s lobbying scandal involving Abramoff, Capitol Hill, the Interior Department and members of President George W. Bush’s administration.

After leaving prison in 2009, Kidan began working at a staffing agency, went on to found a staffing business, Chartwell Staffing Solutions, and now serves as president of Empire Workforce Solutions, the White House said.

In March, the newspaper Newsday reported that Kidan was among the hosts of a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for a Long Island Republican congressional candidate.

A message sent to Kidan’s business seeking comment was not immediately returned Friday evening.

Trump on Friday also pardoned ranch owner Jack Harvard, citing an “upstanding record” post-conviction and praising him for allowing the U.S. military and NATO troops to train on his land free of charge.

The White House did not immediately release additional details about Harvard, including his conviction.

As the country rapidly approaches the Fourth of July, many people are going out to buy fireworks so they can take part in some patriotic festivities.

However, you need to be careful when handling those fireworks in the summer heat before those fireworks blow up in your face... literally.

Fireworks can be kept in your car for a short period of time, but they shouldn’t be a permanent storage option.

“I would recommend putting it in a shaded and cool area, maybe your garage or somewhere just not directly in the sunlight or near any lighters or lighter fluid, anything that might be sitting in the sun,” Karston Rindorf - who has owned a TNT Fireworks stand for over 15 years - said.

Fireworks also remain hot even after they’ve been used. Keeping a hose or a bucket of cold water to let them soak in is a good way to prevent any fires from springing up.

You should also give it a few minutes before picking up a used firework.

“Whenever you finish up with your fireworks, give it some time to cool down,” Rindorf said. “Don’t throw it in a bag and throw it around any wood piles or any dry grass; I’d definitely give it time to cool down.”

Make sure you know which fireworks are legal, such as fireworks that stay on the ground, like pinwheels, fountains and sparklers.

FIFA had been looking at the possibility of starting the round of 16 game at the Azteca Stadium earlier than the scheduled 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. EDT), a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

But a Mexican federation official told the AP that after deliberation FIFA decided the match would remain unchanged.

That person also spoke on condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Among the reasons for exploring the change was because of possible disruption caused by flooding.

Mexico coach Javier Aguirre criticized the proposed change earlier Friday.

“It’s a kick in the gut; now we must change everything. It’s not that all the work goes down the drain — though it’s close — because you’re having to scrap six hours of scheduled planning. I don’t like it at all,” Aguirre told Radio Formula. “Obviously, we’ll abide by what FIFA says, but neither my players nor I are happy about it.”

Rescheduling the match also could have affected England’s preparations. The Three Lions are scheduled to arrive late Friday and will hold their Saturday training session at the grounds of UNAM Pumas in the southern part of the capital, leaving them with significantly less time to acclimate to Mexico City’s high elevation.

The Azteca Stadium sits at more than 7,300 feet (2,200 meters) above sea level. For elite athletes to perform at their peak at high altitude, a period of adaption is required to reduce fatigue caused by lower atmospheric pressure and reduced oxygen availability, experts say. Sports scientists generally recommend an extended acclimation period of at least two weeks, or the “fly-in, fly-out” method of arriving as close to game time as possible before acute symptoms set in.

England coach Thomas Tuchel has already spoken about the difficulties his team faces in Mexico City.

“My understanding is that we cannot adapt to the altitude. That is just a huge advantage that Mexico will have,” Tuchel said this week. “It just takes too much time.”

The game will be Mexico City's fifth and final match of this year's World Cup.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Larson has a successful history on the bumpy asphalt of Chicagoland, a D-shaped oval circuit. He has four top-five finishes in six Cup Series starts at the speedway about 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. His 6.17 average finish is tops in track history among drivers with multiple starts.

Sunday's eero 400 is the first Cup Series race at Chicagoland since 2019, but Larson participated in two days of testing at the track in April. He had one of the fastest cars in practice on Friday.

“I felt like we learned a lot about our race car at the test that has benefited the four of us as we’ve moved on from it,” Larson said, referring to fellow Hendrick drivers Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman. “So yeah, I think just extra laps here gives some confidence, but everybody’s so good, they’re going to get the speed fast.”

The 33-year-old Larson is looking to stop a 42-race drought dating to his win at Kansas in May 2025. It looks as if the two-time Cup Series champion is rounding into form midway through the season, posting top-five finishes in five of his last six races, including fourth at Sonoma last weekend.

Larson was second in the previous two Cup races at Chicagoland, losing to Bowman in 2019 and Kyle Busch in a memorable finish in 2018. When it comes to NASCAR’s top series, he remains in search of his first win at the speedway.

Larson rewatched his last-lap duel with Busch before he tested at the track in April, and he watched the highlights again ahead of his return this weekend.

Busch died in May at age 41, and Larson said watching the end of the race has a different meaning for him now.

“It was a really neat battle and it’s always fun to be a part of battles that still to this day get replayed, and I’ve been a part of a few,” Larson said. “So yeah, just wish he was here for obvious reasons and we could have another battle.”

Larson is taking on Byron this weekend in one of the most intriguing matchups for the second round of NASCAR's In-Season Challenge. The winner of the five-race, bracket-style tournament receives $1 million.

There were no signs of any awkwardness as Larson and Byron discussed their own duel within the race on Friday.

“It would be fun to go heads up with William but it’s really not something that you’re too focused on in the race,” Larson said. “I think you’re always just kind of focused on winning and if you win, I mean that takes care of it. Yeah, as it gets closer to the race, I think you pay a little bit of attention to it, but I'm just trying to do a good job."

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The annual competition begins Aug. 1 and runs through Aug. 31. Participants can earn points by visiting designated locations across the region, completing outdoor activities and uploading photos to the Blue Ridge Games category on WSLS’s Pin It platform.

To participate, players must register online. Registration is available through a free WSLS Insider membership.

This year’s format combines several categories into a single competition. In previous years, activities were divided into separate categories, but organizers have consolidated them into one large scavenger hunt designed to encourage exploration throughout the Blue Ridge region.

Participants can earn points by visiting landmarks, completing outdoor recreation challenges and stopping at participating businesses.

Several well-known attractions are worth 50 points each, including the Roanoke Star, Hotel Roanoke and Taubman Museum of Art. Players can earn points by taking photos at those locations and submitting them online.

Participating Dunkin locations across the region are also included in the competition. A photo taken outside a Dunkin location is worth 50 points. Participants can earn an additional 50 bonus points by taking a photo inside the store.

Outdoor recreation challenges offer even more opportunities to score. Water sports, hiking and biking activities are worth 100 points each.

Water recreation locations include Carvins Cove Natural Reserve and the Roanoke River.

Hiking challenges feature trails and parks such as the Mill Mountain Greenway, Explore Park and Carvins Cove.

Cyclists can earn points by completing biking challenges along the Roanoke River Greenway.

Participants earn points by visiting challenge locations, taking photos and uploading them to our Pin It platform. Each completed challenge adds to a participant’s overall score.

At the end of the competition, the participants with the highest point totals will win cash prizes.

Organizers say the games are designed not only to create friendly competition but also to encourage people to discover new destinations, spend time outdoors and experience the communities and attractions that make up the Blue Ridge region.

How to participate

• Register through a free WSLS Insider account.
• Visit designated challenge locations beginning Aug. 1.
• Take photos at challenge sites.
• Upload photos to the Blue Ridge Games category on WSLS.com’s Pin It platform.
• Earn points throughout August for a chance to win cash prizes.

Key dates

• Registration: Open now
• Blue Ridge Games begin: Aug. 1
• Blue Ridge Games end: Aug. 31

Resources

• Blue Ridge Games Page
• Registration and challenges
• Photo submissions on Pin It

The Aspen Acres fire is one of about 40 uncontained large blazes burning mostly in the West, fueled by months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter in some places.

Fire personnel were scooping water from the Pueblo Reservoir to fight the Aspen Acres fire, which had expanded to about 115 square miles (297 square kilometers) by Friday afternoon with zero containment.

All of Colorado City, an unincorporated community of about 2,200, was ordered evacuated as well as the towns of Beulah, Rye and San Isabel, according to the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office.

About 50 National Guard soldiers were being sent in Friday to help with staffing checkpoints on roads in Custer and Pueblo counties.

Guard members would also help State Park Rangers as they bring on additional boats to keep boaters clear of water-scooping operations.

Fire crews on the western side of the Rocky Mountains had contained about 65% of the Snyder Fire on the Colorado/Utah border, where three members of a helitack team were killed and two others injured last weekend when they were overcome by flames.

The Cottonwood fire in southwestern Utah had grown to about 147 square miles (380 square kilometers) by Friday while the Babylon fire in the southeast corner of the state was up to 133 square miles (344 square kilometers).

Balogun was sent off Wednesday for stepping on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemovic.

Before practice at Husky Soccer Stadium, Balogun said a yellow card for the illegal tackle would have been fairer.

“There’s nowhere else to put your leg. It’s going to be unavoidable,” Balogun said. “So, I’ve seen many different opinions and takes. But, for me personally, I think a yellow card would have been fair. It’s something that’s happened, so we have to move forward and I have to accept it.”

Balogun has to serve an automatic one-game suspension and will miss Monday’s Round of 16 game against Belgium. There is no appeal process for a red-card suspension unless FIFA assesses a penalty of more than one game, which was not the case with Balogun. He will be eligible to return for the quarterfinals should the Americans advance.

Balogun has three goals in the tournament, including one to give the U.S. the lead against Bosnia. He has matched Landon Donovan in 2010 for the second-most goals by an American in a World Cup, behind only Bert Patenaude’s four in the initial tournament in 1930.

The 25-year-old striker celebrated his goal against Bosnia with the “Silencer” move used by the NBA’s LeBron James, which the league’s career scoring leader also celebrated on social media. Balogun, who became the first U.S. player to score two goals in a World Cup match since 1930, said he has experienced a “roller coaster” of emotions as of late.

“Been upset, I’ve been happy. It’s been surreal, to be honest,” Balogun said. “But for me, I think it was just important to stay calm. I never want to react out of anger and out of emotion. There’s still lots of people who are inspiring little kids, boys and girls who are watching. We have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it’s unjust.”

It's not yet clear who U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will select to replace Balogun in the starting lineup. Ricardo Pepi and Haji Wright are the most likely candidates.

When Christian Pulisic sat out the 2-0 win against Australia in group play because of a calf injury, Pepi started in his place.

“When you miss a player like Balo, things change a little bit, but we’ve been flexible,” teammate Tyler Adams said. “Guys have shown that they’re ready to play. If it’s Pepi, if it’s Haji, we go a different direction. It should be an exciting opportunity for whoever has to step up.”

Belgium is aware of the Americans' offensive capabilities outside of Balogun. Pulisic has 33 goals in 89 international appearances, fifth most in U.S. history. Five players other than Balogun have scored for the U.S. in the tournament.

“They have a lot of danger in the team,” Belgium defender Maxim De Cuyper said. “Lot of quality. I don’t want to say too much, which qualities are the best. But, I think they grew a lot in this tournament. You see they are in good flow. They play at home, I think it’s very dangerous for us. So, we will be prepared.”

To be without Balogun for one of the most significant matches in U.S. history is still a significant blow. A victory on home soil would secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the World Cup for only the second time for the Americans. The first was in 2002.

“I love seeing how engaged the country is in our journey and what they’re doing,” Balogun said. “So, my role is just to continue supporting everybody, to keep morale high. And, I’m sure for the game against Belgium we can really create a great atmosphere to win.”

Injury notes

Midfielder Cristian Roldan trained on his own again as he continues to rehab a quad injury. Defender Mark McKenzie trained in full after dealing with a foot injury that sidelined him for the Bosnia match.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Powell was one of scores of Taylor Swift fans and inquisitive passersby who braved the New York City heat Thursday to satiate their curiosity about what many are calling the wedding of the century and the American equivalent of royal nuptials.

The couple are "literally the king and queen of America,” said Kristen Donohue, who stopped by the area surrounding Madison Square Garden Thursday with a fellow Swiftie co-worker on their lunch break.

A law enforcement official briefed on the security plans confirmed to The Associated Press Wednesday that Swift and Kelce will have their wedding at Madison Square Garden on Friday night with a smaller rehearsal dinner planned for Thursday night.

The couple themselves have been mum on the wedding details. Neither has confirmed the festivities will happen on the bustling and hot weekend that coincides with World Cup matches and Fourth of July celebrations. A representative for Swift has not responded to multiple inquiries, including on Thursday.

About 100 guests began arriving at the famed venue at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday — when temperatures were still near the triple digits. The event was for a “pre party celebration,” according to a copy of a city permit obtained by The AP. Heavy security was in place as black sport utility vehicles drove into a large tent to drop off passengers, who then walked through a tented area into the arena.

Several fans stopped by in passing or even made trips to midtown Manhattan expressly to scope out the scene hours before those expected arrivals.

Crews have been seen unloading equipment from trucks this week — much of it covered or obscured — and barricades have been placed near the perimeter of the arena. The aesthetic details of what will happen beyond the loading docks have been shrouded in mystery.

Madison Square Garden sits next to New York Penn Station, one of the nation’s busiest transportation hubs, so it is naturally a lively area on any day. But Thursday afternoon, people lingered longer than usual as they passed through, and there was an increased police presence in the area.

Rachel Latchford and Linda Solano, nurses in a hospital in central Pennsylvania, made the trip to New York to see a Broadway show this weekend, but they said they had to go “see what all the buzz is about," Latchford said. “We’re going to the wedding, baby,” Solano joked on a FaceTime call with a friend.

Latchford acknowledged the heavy police presence, but she said she felt “very protected” and added that “there's been police all over the city this week with Fourth of July.”

A large tent was erected Thursday on 31st Street outside of an entrance to the arena. Tarps were hung to cover the walkway, so the couple and their guests will presumably be blocked from view as they enter and exit. In one spot where glass windows offered a peak inside, pink curtains were hung around 5 p.m., completely obscuring any of the exclusive happenings indoors.

By 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, 31st Street was completely closed off to pedestrians between 7th and 8th avenues. Some disappointed fans lingered near the barricades and boundaries police had set up and were enforcing. They were still hoping to see anything from their limited vantage point.

While many there earlier on Thursday were keeping their eyes peeled for any decor, florals or anything that could give them a sense of what and who might be inside the arena this weekend, much of the motivation to be there for fans was purely out of excitement for Swift herself.

“She's just so important in everyone's life,” said Alyssa Heinen, who was outside the arena Thursday afternoon. “We grew up with Taylor Swift, and just seeing her now find love — I feel like it's inspiring to so many women. It's so nice to see her so happy.”

“When they started dating, it was super exciting and cute and adorable,” said Brittany McCusker, who was with her colleague Donohue on their scouting mission. “It’s really amazing that they don’t have to broadcast anything, they can have it super private. I really respect that, but it’s a bummer that we don’t get to see it too.”

___

Associated Press journalist Ted Shaffrey contributed.

The Festival of Balloons is set to take off starting at 2 p.m. Saturday. Organizers expect roughly 20 balloons for this year’s event, which will be part of dozens of activities including tethered balloon rides, entertainment for kids, music and food galore.

Despite the heat, organizers say preparation will help you enjoy a wonderful time at the festival.

“We’re going to have plenty of water on hand; all of our vendors are going to be selling drinks and water.... Come out, bring your chairs; we’re going to have tents that are going to be set up to keep you out of the direct sunlight. It’s going to be a great time for everyone.” Robert Foresman, Balloons over Rockbridge Board Director, said.

Proceeds from the festival go to local charities, including the Mary Carroll Moore Scholarship and Lampstand.

Area leaders are encouraging voluntary water conservation to bridge the gap until the situation improves.

Rockbridge County leaders are gauging the Maury River to get an idea of water levels and say it is about a foot and a half lower on average for the year. The summer season has also produced minimal rain chances to improve this trend.

“Over the last 8 years, we have not seen it this low, but there has been times in the past where it has been lower than this, but I think you’ve got to go back to that early 2000s drought that had significant impacts on all of Virginia as well,” Jordan Combs, Maury Service Authority Executive Director, said.

Some methods Combs says to consider are watering lawns early in the morning or later in the evening every other day and holding off on car washes.

Friedman, a dedicated public servant, was highly respected in Lexington and surrounding communities, having served as the mayor of Lexington for nearly a decade.

Carroll said Friedman passed away with loved ones by his side.

“Lexington has lost a great man and a great leader,” Carroll told 10 News.

This comes after the Lexington City Council cancelled its regularly scheduled and public meeting on Thursday.

Stay with 10 News as this breaking news story continues to develop.

State television showed people rallying at night in various Iranian cities, chanting slogans in support of the country's theocracy and against America and Israel.

The government expects to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent of the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

That could provide a boost for Iran's government, particularly as it tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the United States over a permanent end to the war, and as concern still lingers that Israel could attack yet again.

Despite that, a powerful general who leads Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard emerged publicly for the first time in months for the funeral. Other top government officials will also likely will be on hand alongside foreign dignitaries in a show of strength by Iran.

“As long as these people, who are chosen (by God), are on the field, we will definitely continue the same ‘no to humiliation’ policy that was founded by the Islamic Republic,” said Mohammad Hossein Rezaei, a volunteer preparing for the funeral Friday.

“We will continue our policy of pursuing independence, and decisions will be made inside the country, and the people will decide their own fate,” he said.

Caskets displayed in Tehran

Khamenei's flag-draped coffin sat at Tehran's Grand Mosalla alongside family members killed in the Israeli airstrike that came in the first moments of the war on Feb. 28.

The dead being honored include a son-in-law, his eldest daughter, a 14-month-old granddaughter and the wife of Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the previous leader who remains in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the attack.

Religious leaders and foreign dignitaries walked up to Khamenei’s casket as a military band played or a man sang prayers. Iran's Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian, key leaders in the country's civilian government, all paid their respects.

Video published by Iranian state media showed an earlier mourning ceremony Thursday night for Khamenei. The black-clad mourners, whom state media identified as coming from families of those who lost loved ones in the 12-day war in 2025 and the recent Iran war, threw scarves and other items for attendants to brush against the coffin, a common practice in Iran seen as a blessing.

Later, state media showed images of Khamenei’s casket draped by a red flag with white calligraphy reading “Ya Hussein,” a Shiite expression in remembrance of the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. It had been flying over the Imam Hussein golden-domed shrine in Karbala, Iraq. The flag also traditionally symbolizes both the spilled blood of someone unjustly killed and a call for vengeance.

Top general appears for first time in months

Photos published online by Iranian state media showed Gen. Ahmad Vahidi attending a meeting Thursday about the funeral of Khamenei, then sitting alongside his casket as Iran's theocracy held a smaller service for him Thursday night near the supreme leader's former home in downtown Tehran.

“They must know that the pure blood of our martyred imam will mark another turning point in the victories of beloved Islam across the global arena,” Vahidi told state television in comments aired Friday. “They will take to their graves the wish to see this nation surrender. This nation will rise higher day by day through this pure blood.”

Vahidi has become a major player in formulating Iran’s tough stance in negotiating a possible permanent end to the war with the United States, experts say. He had not been seen publicly since Feb. 8, weeks before the Iran war began. Israel killed top leaders in Iran’s military and government during the war, and has threatened the life of the new supreme leader as well. Vahidi is believed to be part of a small clique in direct contact with the younger Khamenei.

It remains unclear whether Khamenei will appear at his father's funeral. His father appeared in 1989 at Khomeini's funeral, weeping visibly, as he began his journey to lead Iran for decades with an iron fist while confronting the West.

Israel's repeated threats to kill Khamenei drew a warning from Iran's joint military command Thursday, which told Israel and the U.S. “to avoid any miscalculation" over the coming days.

Funeral to go on for days

Beginning Saturday, Iran will hold the dayslong funeral for Khamenei and his body will be transported to cities in both Iran and neighboring Iraq. Authorities plan to shut down streets, airspace and daily life in Tehran as mourners commemorate the life of Khamenei.

In Tehran, images of the late Khamenei's fist could be seen in banners and in a giant statue in Enghelab Square, framed by what appeared to be ballistic missiles flying through the air. In his first message to the nation, read by a state television anchor, Mojtaba Khamenei said he saw his father’s body after his death with raised, clenched fist.

The banners read in Arabic, English and Farsi: “We must rise.”

“This fist is the clenched fist of all us Muslims,” taxi driver Jafar Javadi said. “The leader’s fist is a sign all our fists are clenched and they (the enemies) will be destroyed with these fists, God willing. We will continue chanting death to America and death to Israel with the same clenched fist.”

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Flyers tendered the five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Carlsson on Friday, which would require four of the Flyers first-round draft picks in each of the next four seasons as compensation.

The Anaheim Ducks have seven days to exercise their right of first refusal on the player, per the NHL collective bargaining agreement.

The Ducks announced they would not make an immediate decision. General manager Pat Verbeek will not comment until the process is complete.

The offer sheet comes 14 years after the Flyers, under previous management, offer-sheeting Nashville defenseman Shea Weber for $110 million over 14 years, which the Predators matched.

The 21-year-old Carlsson had 29 goals, 38 assists for 67 points in 70 games last season with the Ducks. He added 11 points in 12 playoff games to help lead Anaheim to the second round.

A native of Karlstad, Sweden, Carlsson has 141 points (61 goals, 80 assists) in 201 regular-season games with the Ducks. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound center was selected by Anaheim second overall in the 2023 draft.

The Minnesota Wild in September signed Kirill Kaprizov to an eight-year, $136 million extension, giving him the richest contract in NHL history.

Kaprizov will count $17 million against the salary cap beginning next season, through 2034. That’s the highest annual average salary of any player since the league’s cap era began in 2005, surpassing Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl at $112 million over eight years, a $14 million annual average. Alex Ovechkin’s 13-year, $124 million contract signed with Washington in 2008 was previously the highest total value.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Victims reported waking up to find their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards emptied just hours after their monthly benefits were deposited. Transaction records reviewed by 10 News showed purchases made in locations including Philadelphia, Brooklyn and New Jersey.

“It’s like they’re just throwing us off, like we’re nothing,” Danville resident Briana Williams said. “It’s not right. It’s not fair because it’s no fault of ours.”

Williams said the stolen benefits represented one of her family’s only source of food assistance.

“Someone took our only comfort of knowing we could feed our kids,” she said. “I know my baby’s going to be able to eat tonight or have breakfast in the morning. Now parents and grandparents and people are just worrying day after day after day for this entire month.”

The thefts come as recipients have few options for recovering their lost benefits.

An executive order that took effect in late 2024 ended a temporary program that allowed states to use federal funds to replace SNAP benefits stolen through card skimming, cloning and other forms of electronic theft. As a result, Virginia does not currently have a state-funded program to reimburse recipients whose benefits are stolen.

That means affected households generally must wait until their next monthly SNAP allotment unless they can find help from charitable organizations or other community resources.

Finding emergency food assistance over the Independence Day holiday weekend proved difficult. Multiple organizations contacted by 10 News were either closed for the holiday or did not answer their phones. Virginia 211, which connects callers with food, housing and utility assistance, said available emergency resources were limited and suggested reaching out to friends or family for help.

“We shouldn’t have to be the ones suffering when we have nothing else in place to help us,” Williams said.

In a statement, the Danville Department of Social Services urged anyone who believes their SNAP benefits were stolen to report the incident immediately and request a replacement EBT card.

“Any SNAP recipient who believes their benefits were stolen should contact their local social services department immediately to report the incident and request a replacement EBT card,” the department said. “To help prevent future theft, all SNAP recipients are strongly encouraged to use the Lock/Unlock feature available through their EBT account. Locking an EBT card when it is not being used is one of the most effective ways to prevent unauthorized transactions and protect benefits from ongoing scam activity.”

Food resources for Danville residents

Residents needing food assistance after the holiday weekend may be able to access the following resources:

• House of Hope (open this weekend): Serving free meals throughout the holiday weekend on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Danville Department of Social Services: Report stolen SNAP benefits, request a replacement EBT card and receive guidance on available assistance.
• Virginia 211: Call 2-1-1 or visit Virginia 211 to search for food pantries, meal sites and other emergency assistance programs operating after the holiday weekend.
• God’s Storehouse: Provides emergency food assistance during regular operating hours.
• Salvation Army of Danville: May provide emergency food assistance and referrals based on availability.

NFL players and other prominent sports figures made up part of the star-studded crowd for Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's wedding at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Kareem Hunt was one of Kelce's many current or former Kansas City Chiefs teammates spotted in New York ahead of the wedding, which was expected to also be attended by Kelce's retired Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl-winning brother Jason, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and others from football, golf and beyond.

Soccer even had a presence, albeit in the form of “Ted Lasso” actor Jason Sudeikis, himself a big Chiefs fan.

The wedding is taking place at the home arena of the NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s Rangers. Swift attended Game 4 of the NBA Finals there, sitting courtside as the Knicks pulled off the biggest comeback at that stage of the playoffs in league history by rallying from down 29 to beat San Antonio.

MSG has been the site of some iconic sports moments since the current version opened at this location atop Penn Station in 1968.

The Knicks won their first NBA title there in 1970, when Willis Reed famously returned from injury to spark their Game 7 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali there in the first of the legends' three boxing matches against each other, the “Fight of the Century,” in 1971. Ali won the rematch in '74.

The Rangers ended their 54-year championship drought at the Garden in 1994, defeating the Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup.

Kelce is a three-time Super Bowl champion with Kansas City and a four-time AP All-Pro selection at his position. Jason was a seven-time All-Pro center who helped Philadelphia win the Super Bowl in the 2017 season.

___

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

The four-time Grand Slam champion reached the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time Friday in a tidy 6-1, 6-3 victory over Daria Kasatkina on No. 1 Court.

An on-court interviewer then asked Osaka about her daughter Shai's third birthday on Thursday, as the Japanese player had said they would celebrate by going to a nearby park. But apparently that didn't work out as planned.

“I don’t think I should be telling you this, but she was kind of bad yesterday,” a smiling Osaka began. “We tried to take her to the park but then she needed to go to timeout, so we’re going to try to take her to the park again today.”

As fans chuckled, Osaka added: "It was an awesome birthday. She blew out her candles. She made a wish — I hope her wish is to behave better. Today’s a new day for her.”

Osaka will next face No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

___

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

The signs would be in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. A message seeking comment was left Friday with the National Park Service.

The new educational panels were designed to replace ones put up in 2010 that told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation's capital.

Their removal stemmed from Trump's 2025 executive order calling for federally owned or controlled historic sites not to display information to “disparage Americans past or living” and to focus on the “greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”

Friday's ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit of Appeals, which is based in a courthouse across an intersection from the President's House site, was a technical one to allow implementation of a ruling made last month.

That ruling — by one judge Trump nominated, one nominated by former President George W. Bush and one chosen by former President Barack Obama — said a lower court was wrong to force the federal government to take down its new panels.

The government asked Thursday for the go-ahead to put them back up, saying that the panels were ready to install and that they should go up “without further delay.” The administration has said in court filings that its information also discusses slavery.

Advocates, academics and officials have been concerned for months that the version that complies with Trump’s order could give a history that downplays the pain in the nation’s past in favor of a more triumphant view.

A government website with images of the new panels shows they would still have information on enslaved people who lived in the home, plus details on the abolitionist movement, how the Constitution treated slavery, the end of slavery in Pennsylvania and how Washington and his successor, John Adams, viewed and treated slavery, as well as information about the 20th century Civil Rights movement. The replacement panels do not include some of detail in the earlier ones, such as a map of slave trade routes and a timeline on slavery. They also avoid critical headlines such as “The Dirty Business of Slavery.”

The City of Philadelphia, which sued over removal of the previous information, is trying to put the brakes on the new installation. The city on Friday asked the appeals court to recall its order from earlier in the day — at least long enough to allow the city to respond to the request Trump's administration made on Thursday.

Philadelphia said in its filing that it would be hurt if the new panels go back up: “The President’s House is a site of exceptional importance to Philadelphia and the Nation, developed through years of federal-local collaboration to tell a historically significant and long-suppressed story.”

About half the previous panels were reinstalled earlier this year before a court ordered that work to stop.

He has shrugged off the setback for one of the world’s leading oil-producing nations as “not critical,” dismissed ceasefire proposals and insisted the war will continue until his goals are met.

Putin has described the attacks on Russian energy as an effort by Ukraine to distract attention from its losses on the battlefield, although analysts say the advance of Russian forces has been stymied in recent months. The Russian leader appears to believe his government can keep the fuel crisis from eroding his authority and support for the war he launched more than four years ago.

The Russian military unleashed a massive 11-hour barrage on the Ukrainian capital overnight into Thursday morning that killed at least 30 people. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Here's a deeper look at the latest exchange of strikes and Putin’s refusal to halt the fighting:

Gas shortages worsen in Russia as more oil facilities are hit

There have been more than 50 reported Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries and other energy facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea since March — a barrage Ukrainian leaders have said is intended to pressure Moscow to end the war.

At the very least, the attacks have brought the war home even more poignantly for millions of Russians, shattering Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country.

An estimated one-third of Russia’s refining capacity has been cut off, according to Chris Weafer, CEO of the consultancy Macro-Advisory. The attacks have inflicted lasting damage that will be costly to fix.

Despite significant air defenses protecting Russia's capital, a top refinery in Moscow has been hit twice. The second strike on June 18 set it ablaze, damaging key equipment that will reportedly take until the end of the year to repair.

With gasoline production in Russia reduced by roughly 17% to 850,000 barrels a day, according to government statistics, rationing has been introduced in many regions, and motorists have had to wait in line for hours to refuel.

In an effort to ease the fuel deficit, the government has allowed production of lower quality gasoline with higher sulfur content through the year's end.

Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has faced the worst fuel shortages. Gasoline sales to individuals have been periodically halted there altogether.

Putin downplays the impact of Ukrainian strikes

Putin chaired a meeting of government officials last weekend to discuss the fuel shortages.

In televised statements, he acknowledged the country was going through a “difficult period.” He pledged to accelerate repairs of energy facilities and said Russia would consider importing gasoline to help make up for what he described as “temporary” shortages. He also said Russia's arms industry will boost production of air defense systems to fend off future Ukrainian attacks.

Putin portrayed the Ukrainian strikes as an attempt to divide Russian society, halt Moscow's offensive and try to force the Kremlin into negotiations on “terms advantageous to our adversary.”

“We will not give them that chance,” he said.

While Putin said Ukraine's long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities “have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front,” Western military analysts say midrange strikes on the Russian army in recent months have hampered military logistics and slowed the tempo of its advance, leaving the battlefield in a stalemate.

On Friday, Putin visited the Russian military headquarters directing the action in Ukraine to receive a report on the capture of the city of Kostyantynivka after weeks of intense street battles. He hailed it as a key step toward capturing the nearby cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the key remaining strongholds in the so-called “forest belt” of heavily fortified cities in the Donetsk region that remain in Ukraine's hands.

The capture of Kostyantynivka, a big transport and industrial hub, is of “major strategic importance,” Putin, clad in military fatigues, said in televised comments.

There has been no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials on the Russian claim. Earlier Friday, the Ukrainian military's General Staff reported repelling 24 Russian assaults near Kostyantynivka and other settlements.

Putin also warned Friday that “the more strikes Kyiv launches on our civilian facilities ... the bigger security zone we will need to create” in Ukraine.

He issued another threat to Ukraine's Western allies, saying that Russia will look into the details of their “engagement in hostilities,” adding that "we will need this analysis for making possible responsible decisions in the future."

Putin dismisses Ukraine's ceasefire offers

The Russian president has responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's offer to meet by challenging him to come to Moscow, a non-starter to Ukraine.

Putin has rejected a truce that Kyiv and its Western allies have proposed. He says it would only give Ukrainian forces time to rest and regroup.

He has made any ceasefire conditional on Ukraine's withdrawal from the part of the Donetsk region it still controls, a demand rejected by Ukraine. Putin has said that a final peace deal must oblige Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO, reduce its military and protect Russian language and culture.

In last Sunday's interview, Putin claimed that Ukraine had offered to limit the fighting to the four regions that Russia annexed but never fully captured: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He said he rejected the proposal because it would free up Ukrainian forces from other areas where Russian troops have made inroads and let them focus on fending off the Russian attacks in the four southeastern regions.

“Faced with a catastrophic shortage of personnel, the armed forces of Ukraine apparently believe this could be their salvation,” Putin said. “Saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans.”

The Kremlin said the offer was made via confidential channels; Ukrainian officials have not publicly discussed any such proposal.

Putin also dismissed a Ukrainian proposal to mutually halt strikes deep into each other's territory. Russian attacks deep into Ukraine are “much more powerful, sensitive and, frankly speaking, destructive,” he said.

In Thursday's deadly barrage on Kyiv, Russia once again hit residential areas even as it claimed to be targeting military sites. By contrast, the vast majority of Ukrainian strikes in Russia have hit oil facilities, weapons factories and other military targets.

A United Nations tally says more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the war.

___

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

Fujimori, 51, the daughter of a disgraced former president, was running for the presidency for the fourth time. She will be Peru’s ninth president in 10 years when she takes office later this month.

Fujimori’s victory, along with that of Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia and José Antonio Kast in Chile, confirms a regional shift toward the conservative wing, a stark contrast from the panorama of a few decades ago when left-wing leaders such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela or the current Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva emerged.

The election win was certified Friday by the country's top election authority. Figures released by election officials earlier in the week showed that with 100% of ballots tallied, Fujimori received 9,223,000 votes, or 50.135% of the total, while nationalist congressman Roberto Sánchez earned over 9,173,000 votes, or 49.865%.

Fujimori and Sánchez made it to the June 7 runoff election after defeating 33 other candidates in an April vote.

Voters were primarily concerned with increasing levels of crime, especially extortion by violent organized crime gangs, and Fujimori pledged to combat crime with an iron fist.

Fujimori said on social media Friday that “each day of this process of transition is an opportunity to listen, discuss and arrive prepared for the start of a new government.”

The winner is the daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, the former president whose government in the 1990s defeated the Shining Path extremist rebel group but also took an authoritarian turn. He was convicted in 2009 of human rights abuses in the fight against the rebels, and later of corruption charges.

Keiko Fujimori promised to build four prisons and another similar to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center known as the CECOT, and to force prisoners to work in the prisons. She also announced plans to militarize the borders to curb crime and deport undocumented migrants.

___

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

A day after Rodríguez angrily defended the competence of her government's relief effort at her first news conference since the June 24 disaster, her main rival, exiled Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, issued her own appeal.

Machado on Friday argued that the government's quake response exposed its critical weaknesses and that she should return to Venezuela to help "the transition process, especially after the tragedy.”

"My presence stabilizes the situation; it is part of the organizing forces that the country needs at a time when the total absence of the state has become evident," Machado said, referring to widespread criticism of the government’s earthquake response as slow and disorganized. “The country needs figures it can trust.” She spoke to reporters from Panama.

The quakes have killed 2,645 people and injured over 12,500 others, according tallies released Friday by the government. Machado's opposition movement has set up an online database to locate the missing — a list of 36,000 people as of Friday. The party has mobilized volunteers to collect donations in Venezuela and solicited aid from the country's vast diaspora.

Machado was barred from running in a 2024 presidential election in which President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory. Vote tallies that the opposition collected from voting machines used in the election showed that the candidate Machado endorsed, Edmundo González, beat Maduro by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

The US praises Rodríguez, blocks Machado

When the earthquakes hit, Machado saw an opening to return home for the first time after fleeing in December to accept a Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Ever since the United States captured Maduro in a brazen military operation in January, Machado has been seeking a comeback and calling for a democratic transition.

But the Trump administration has thrown its support behind Rodríguez since Maduro's ouster, praising her business-friendly reforms of the country’s lucrative oil sector.

Two senior U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose private diplomatic discussions, told The Associated Press that the Trump administration has grown frustrated with Machado and dissuaded her from returning to Venezuela in the aftermath of the earthquakes.

One official said that Machado had sought assistance from Washington for ferrying her to Venezuela from the Caribbean island of Curaçao and also from Panama.

The second official said the U.S. suspected she wanted to return to lead protests against Rodríguez and push for political change at a time when the focus should be on quake recovery. This official added that the Trump administration could not prevent Machado's return but was not in a position to facilitate it.

Earthquake fallout becomes political

Upon learning of Machado’s plans, Rodríguez shut down commercial air traffic into Caracas, the U.S. official said. Those canceled flights were set to bring hundreds of relief workers to assist with earthquake recovery efforts, the official said.

Seemingly concerned that anger over the earthquake response could jeopardize her leadership, Rodríguez on Thursday blamed any criticism of the government on what she called “narratives manufactured in propaganda laboratories."

She claimed that rescue crews deployed immediately with adequate equipment to disaster zones — contrary to complaints by residents that they were left alone to search for their loved ones without official teams or heavy machinery for the first 48 hours.

“Those propaganda operations, driven by partisan political interests, are despicable,” she said. “We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately.”

Rodríguez went on to say that thousands of civil and military rescue workers as well as 11 international field hospitals had been deployed to quake-affected areas, adding that the government had approved the creation of a fund to receive donations for reconstruction.

On Friday, state-run media broadcast her visiting Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, a 43-year-old security guard pried from a collapsed basement after surviving nearly eight days under the rubble, in his hospital bed. His dramatic rescue Thursday served as a rare bright spot in the days since the earthquakes.

Unclear what happens when mandate expires

Under Venezuela’s constitution, temporary absences are to be filled by the vice president — which was Rodríguez’s former role under Maduro — for up to 90 days, after which they can be extended by the national assembly for an additional 90 days.

On Friday, that 180-day interim period expired. There was no immediate comment from authorities on what, if anything, they would do in response to the expiration of Rodríguez’s mandate.

The National Assembly, controlled by Rodríguez’s party, can trigger a snap election if lawmakers declare the post permanently vacant.

A humanitarian crisis brews

International organizations and governments, including the U.S., have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency relief aid to stave off a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe in Venezuela. With infrastructure and sewer systems damaged, aid workers are scrambling to prevent the spread of disease through contaminated water.

But nine days after the quakes, the scale of human suffering is still coming into focus.

“We know that there are still dead bodies under the collapsed buildings, and it's difficult to give a number on this, but several thousands for sure,” said Andreas Spaett, the Venezuela country coordinator for international aid group Doctors Without Borders. “I do believe this is one of the major natural catastrophes in the history of humanity.”

___

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The Frenchman did — and 39-year-old Djokovic dove to hit a backhand volley winner on match point for a 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) record-equaling victory in the third round at Wimbledon on Friday.

Djokovic's 105th match win at the All England Club ties Roger Federer on the men's list for most singles match victories. Martina Navratilova won 120 singles matches at Wimbledon.

By next weekend, Djokovic would love to equal Federer's men's record of eight singles titles, but reaching the fourth round will have to suffice for now.

“Today, I was quite stressed out, more tension than usual,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “I knew it was going to be a very challenging match for me.”

The 24-time Grand Slam champion overcame a blip — dropping the third set in 18 minutes — and held his nerve in the fourth-set tiebreaker by hitting back-to-back aces before Rinderknech's forehand went wide to set up match point.

“I saw him slip and kind of fall down. And I was just like ‘please stay down’ for that last shot,” said Djokovic, who had repeatedly punched his left thigh after losing the third set.

Joining Federer on 105 singles match wins is “a huge honor and privilege,” Djokovic added. “I propose a matchup for me and Roger for 106.”

Djokovic will face Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin in the fourth round. Safiullin, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2023, beat Brazilian rising star João Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

Sinner finds his groove

Defending champion Jannik Sinner beat Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on No. 1 Court to advance to the fourth round.

The Italian, hoping to put his French Open meltdown in the rearview mirror, finished off Brooksby in two-plus hours after his opening-round five-setter was followed by a second-round win over Nuno Borges in straight sets but with two tiebreakers.

“I'm trying to find my way in. Felt better today, which was my main goal,” the four-time Grand Slam champion said. “Trying to move better. Return today was a little bit better. All things considered, was a small step forward.”

Sinner will next face Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki, who stunned 23rd-seeded Rafael Jodar of Spain 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4 to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time. Mochizuki, ranked No. 151, won the Wimbledon boys' title in 2019.

Also, third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime beat American qualifier Michael Zheng 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-1 in the Canadian's Centre Court debut. Jan-Lennard Struff upended eighth-seeded Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-5.

Sabalenka vs. Osaka in 4th round

No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka meet for a spot in the quarterfinals after both players won in straight sets.

Sabalenka beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court and declared herself ready for the 14th-seeded Osaka in what will be a battle of four-time Grand Slam champions.

“She's (a) very aggressive player, serving well,” Sabalenka said. “I watched a couple of her matches. ... I’m ready to go out there and to bring the fight and to do anything it takes to get through this difficult match.”

Osaka eliminated Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-3 on No. 1 Court. Osaka is into the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time.

Coco Gauff got past fellow American Claire Liu 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2 after having three match points at 5-4 in the second set. Gauff will next face 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic.

Other winners in the women’s draw included fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, 10th-seeded Karolina Muchova, and 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova.

___

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

All told, 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds and six rubies encrust the watch-sized gold ring presented this week to Bill White, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, to give to U.S. President Donald Trump.

“A very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring,” Trump said in a prerecorded video message during an event marking America’s 250th birthday in Brussels.

Isidore Mörsel, president of the Antwerp World Diamond Center, or AWDC, gifted the ring on behalf of the centuries-old diamond community in the Belgian port city, a central node in the worldwide trade of the precious stones that found itself struggling last year under the weight of Trump’s sweeping trade war.

“May this ring serve as a lasting reminder that true partnership, like the finest natural diamonds, are formed under pressure, endure the test of time, and shine brightest when built on trust,” Mörsel said. The ring's interior is engraved with the phrase “Crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump.”

In dollar terms, the ring’s value pales beside gifts like the $400 million plane donated by Qatar that Trump ordered converted into a new Air Force One. But it’s a glitzy window into the role that ostentatious – and almost always gilded — gifts are playing by those seeking to curry favor with the U.S. president.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said Thursday that the ring has not been presented to Trump yet.

The ring is latest in Trump's historic break with White House custom

The gift comes months after Belgium’s diamond industry won the removal of U.S. tariffs on diamond imports. In September, AWDC said it had “succeeded in securing a zero percent import tariff” on Antwerp’s annual export of more than $2 billion of polished diamonds to the U.S. A spokesperson for the group said on Thursday that the AWDC provided “input” to the European Commission as it negotiated with Trump on a broad deal on tariffs in 2025, but did not itself lobby the administration.

U.S. presidents have considerable discretion to accept gifts from domestic and foreign sources and may determine themselves whether a gift was meant for them personally or the nation. The exception is those from foreign governments, which are prohibited by the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution without congressional assent, though presidents could use personal funds to reimburse the Treasury for the full value of an official gift if they wish to retain it.

Personal gifts are also supposed to be registered on the president’s annual financial disclosure. Trump’s 2025 disclosure, released this week, revealed a $250,000 gift of a sculpture depicting his triumphal gesture after surviving a 2024 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and tickets to 10 sporting events, including 10 to the upcoming World Cup final in New Jersey from FIFA’s Gianni Infantino, valued at a collective $15,000.

Four U.S. ethics experts told The Associated Press that Trump has broken with decades-old custom in the White House to avoid accepting such gifts.

The ring's value estimated at $25,000-$35,000

To forge the ring, the AWDC turned to David Gotlib, an Antwerp-based high-end jeweler whose cufflinks can sell for more than 15,000 euros ($17,000).

Neither AWDC nor Gotlib would provide a valuation of the ring, but two independent jewelers told AP they estimated the value at between $25,000 and $35,000.

Paris- and London-based jewelry consultant Alexander Levinson calculated the cost at $25,928, while David Saad, a third-generation luxury jeweler in Canada, priced the ring between $33,000 and $35,000. Both said half the cost was in materials, half in labor.

After the ring was presented on a star-spangled stage in Brussels, musician Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, sang the U.S. national anthem to more than 8,000 people drinking Budweiser and bourbon from Tennessee and Kentucky.

Ambassador White said he raised more than $5.5 million for the 250th anniversary event from corporate sponsors like defense industry titans Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, tech firms like Intel, Google and Meta, as well as the European chocolate companies Leonidas and Ferrero. AWDC said it contributed funds, too.

“The media was asking, ‘Why does it have to be so big?’” White said of the event. “Because we are the United States of America!”

The ambassador posted on social media Friday that after he gives the ring to Trump, it will be displayed in the Oval Office.

In Trump's appearance on Vance's “Storytime with the Second Lady,” podcast, which was posted online Friday, the president read “Presidents Play!” a children's book from the White House Historical Association that features illustrations of the presidents enjoying sports and using the White House and its grounds for recreation.

Trump pretaped the appearance in mid-June in the White House's Oval Office, where the abundant gold accents he added were supplemented for the occasion with a bald eagle stuffed animal, tables made up of stacks of oversized books and a globe made out of Legos.

When Vance asked Trump if he has much time to read for fun while serving as president, he replied that he ends up mostly reading newspapers.

“I usually read stories about myself,” Trump said.

As Trump turned through the children's book, he made observations about past presidents, cracked some jokes, and threw in a plug for the extensive ballroom he's building on the White House grounds.

He described Lyndon Johnson as a “tough cookie,” Ronald Reagan as a “high-quality person” and “like your father was president,” and John F. Kennedy as “the second-most good-looking president.” Left unsaid was who Trump felt was the best-looking president.

Richard Nixon, the only president to resign the office after he became embroiled in the Watergate scandal, “got himself into trouble, I guess.” Herbert Hoover, who was president during the Great Depression, was depicted in the book playing a game he made up called “Hoover Ball.”

“That worked out better for him than the economy,” Trump quipped.

Barack Obama, who has been a longtime object of Trump's derision, was illustrated playing basketball.

Trump, calling him “Barack Hussein Obama,” said he doubted Obama was a good basketball player. He then shared that Obama's favorite sport is golf, but added, “He won’t be in the Masters anytime soon," referring to the professional golf tournament.

When he reached a page with a drawing of Bill Clinton running on the jogging track the former president installed at the White House, Trump remarked, “I don’t think I’ll ever do that.”

But he added that he likes Clinton “a lot.”

Trump mused about riding a horse after seeing a picture of Abraham Lincoln riding one.

“That's great. I'd like to ride horses, too,” Trump said. “In fact, it gives me an idea, but when you fall off a horse... I've seen too many things happen. Falling off horses is not good.”

The solution he suggested was “A nice old horse that's extremely slow, lazy” and that he would “maybe ride it.”

A picture of John Quincy Adams swimming in what was then the Tiber Creek that ran past the South Lawn of the White House prompted Trump to remark, “I think we’re building a beautiful ballroom on top of it.”

Some of the other presidents' physical activity prompted some reflection on his own physique.

When he saw Gerald Ford swimming in a pool, Trump said: “I don’t know if I look good in a bathing suit. I haven’t had a bathing suit in a long time.”

William Howard Taft, who was known for his girth, “was our heaviest president,” Trump said.

“I have to be careful because I don’t want to supersede his record,” Trump said. “And a thing like that would be possible if I allowed it to happen. For all of you out there watching, keep yourself in good shape.”

In addition to encouraging young viewers to stay in shape, Trump offered a somewhat cloudy message when the second lady asked him for his advice to children on why they should celebrate the country on July 4th.

“We have a great country,” Trump said. “We have a country that, it’s on a little bit of a ledge right now. It can go one way or another, you understand that. But we’re going to make it go the other. And we're going to make America greater than ever before.”

Officials say that the carnival ride promotion of $25 that was valid between the hours of noon and 5 p.m. on Saturday will now be sold between the hours of 4 and 5 p.m. on Saturday and will be valid until the close of the fair on July 4 at 10 p.m.

The ride promotion for Sunday that needed to be purchased before 4 p.m. will now be available for purchase between 4 and 5 p.m. on Sunday. This ride offer will be valid until the closing at 10 p.m.

Now Heliovaara, the No. 1 ranked doubles player in the world, is among those fearing for the future of the format.

Doubles players are up in arms after being told by the ATP Tour this week that prize money and tournament sizes will decrease significantly starting in 2028.

“There has been instances in the past where the future of doubles was very (uncertain),” Heliovaara, the 2024 Wimbledon doubles champion, told The Associated Press at the All England Club on Friday. "This is one of the key moments again.”

Leading doubles players issued a statement Friday condemning the ATP's plans, saying they are not “a carnival sideshow” and that it will be impossible for anyone outside the top 30 in the doubles rankings to make a living if the new proposals are adopted.

The statement came after doubles players met with ATP officials at Wimbledon this week to discuss the future of a format that is struggling to draw an audience.

“The ATP is proposing to slash doubles draws, gut doubles prize money, and hand Challenger entry to singles players ahead of specialists who have built their careers in this discipline,” the players' statement said.

They said the proposal would give doubles players just 10% of the prize money at ATP tournaments — down from 20% — while halving the size of the doubles fields.

At the premier Masters tournaments, that would cut the doubles draw to 16 teams, while at the smaller ATP 500 and 250 events it would consist of just eight teams.

“Do the math on what that means for anyone outside the top 30: it will be impossible to make a living,” the statement added.

“This is not a minor adjustment. It is a plan to end doubles as a viable profession, dressed up as a cost-saving measure — and it is being pushed through with almost no transparency and almost no consultation with the players whose careers and livelihoods are on the line.”

Asked about the statement, the ATP said it was “assessing the doubles product, draw sizes and player compensation distribution with the aim of creating a more sustainable long-term model while maintaining doubles’ important role on the tour.”

It added that changing the doubles model could help increase early round singles prize money, “helping more players at the highest level to better meet the costs of competing on tour and build sustainable professional careers.”

The proposal does not affect Grand Slam tournaments. At Wimbledon, there are 64 doubles teams in both the men's and women's draw and winning pairs split 760,000 pounds (about $1 million), compared to 3.6 million pounds ($4.8 million) for the singles champions.

Doubles has always taken a back seat to singles tournaments when it comes to popularity and TV audiences, and the format has already faced several changes in recent years. In 2023, Wimbledon joined the other Grand Slam tournaments in shortening matches from five to three sets.

The U.S. Open last year introduced a new mixed doubles format that was played before the singles tournament started, in order to draw top names like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka. That was criticized by traditional doubles players, however, as it largely excluded them in favor of attracting more famous singles specialists.

Heliovaara said one of the problems for doubles is that most of the well-known singles players have almost completely abandoned the format.

“We are losing the singles stars from the doubles game, and we have not been very good at making the doubles stars known to a global audience,” the Finnish player said.

The women's doubles at Wimbledon received a boost when Serena and Venus Williams accepted a wild-card entry. They are set to play on Saturday after doubt caused by Serena tweaking her knee during her first-round singles in her first appearance at the All England Club in four years.

Heliovaara did not take part in the meetings with the ATP this week, but has previously been part of a player council that tried to find solutions to the problems facing doubles.

“It was very difficult to find answers," he acknowledged. "But I still believe someone might have them. But it’s a very money-driven world.”

The men's players said part of the problem in attracting an audience was due to the ATP's “lackluster marketing of doubles, failure to exploit broadcast and other commercial partnerships, and poor event staging and promotion.”

“Doubles is not an afterthought we fell into,” the players' statement said. “It has always been part of this sport’s identity, not a discount version of it.”

___

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

Officials say that crews responded to a residential structure fire at 5:44 p.m. Thursday. Units could see heavy black smoke from Rocky Mount and Mt. Pleasant while en route to the fire.

When first arriving, crews from Franklin County Fire and EMS, Scruggs VFD, Burnt Chimney VFD, and Westlake Station 15 got to the scene; they marked the scene as a working fire and requested tankers to respond for additional water supply.

Tankers from Rocky Mounty FD, Glade Hill VFD, Boones Mill VFD, Mt. Pleasant FD, Roanoke County FD, Hardy FD and Bedford County FD responded to the scene.

Officials say that due to extreme temperatures, firefighting conditions were extremely challenging. Several firefighters were taken out of operations during the fire to cool down and be checked on by medical personnel.

Franklin County Fire and EMS said one firefighter was later transported to the hospital due to heat-related issues and was later released.

Officials say the house was deemed a total loss and the cause of the fire is under investigation. The Red Cross is also assisting the family at this time.

Here’s a look at where you can find cooling centers in our region. If we missed any in our list, please contact us through our Help Center.

Alleghany County

• The Clifton Forge Fire Department
• • 701 Church Street
  • Tuesday through Saturday
• Clifton Forge Volunteer Rescue Squad
• • 1610 Hickory Avenue
  • Tuesday through Saturday

Danville

• The Redemption Center Church
• • Location: 625 Shelton Street in Danville
  • The Temporary Relief and Counseling Center will open its cooling station when temperatures reach 90 degrees or higher.

Lynchburg

• Department of Human Services Lobby
• • Location: 99 Ninth Street
  • When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and closed Friday
• Miller Center
• • Location: 301 Grove Street, 2nd Floor Customer Service Desk
  • When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and closed Friday]
• Miller Center
• • Location: 301 Grove Street, 1st/Ground Floor Entrance to Library Hub (back parking lot)
  • When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and closed Friday
• Lynchburg Public Library, Downtown Branch
• • Location: 216 12th Street
  • When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday
• Salvation Army
• • Location: 2215 Park Avenue
  • When: 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday-Friday
• The Refuge on Memorial
• • Location: 2220 Memorial Avenue
  • When: 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday-Friday

Roanoke

• Belmont Presbyterian Church
• • Where: 1005 Ninth St. SE
• Belmont Library
• • Where: 1101 Morningside St. SE
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Gainsboro Library
• • Where: 15 Patton Ave. NW
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• The Hope Center
• • Where: 510 11th St. NW
  • When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Main Branch Library
• • Where: 706 S. Jefferson St.
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Melrose Library
• • Where: 2502 Melrose Ave. NW
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Raleigh Court Library
• • Where: 2112 Grandin Rd. SW
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Williamson Road Library
• • Where: 3837 Williamson Rd.
  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A map of cooling centers throughout Virginia is available on the Virginia Department of Health’s website.

The defending champion was asked why his mother and father weren't in attendance for his opening match on Centre Court on Monday, when last year's women's winner Iga Swiatek had her father and sister in the Royal Box the next day.

Turns out Sinner's parents were also invited, but that kind of fancy affair apparently isn't their thing.

“I know my parents. I asked them, but it was impossible,” Sinner said in Italian on Friday after reaching the fourth round with a straight-sets win over Jenson Brooksby on No. 1 Court.

Sinner grew up in a small Alpine village in northern Italy where his parents, Hanspeter and Siglinde, worked in a ski lodge. His father was a chef and his mother was a waitress.

“We hardly even discussed it,” Sinner said of the Royal Box invite, laughing. "They have other things to do and I understand that.”

His parents did come to last year's final and sat in the player's box to watch their son beat Carlos Alcaraz for the title.

There was a famous parent in the Royal Box to watch Sinner on Monday, though. David Beckham took his mother to the match.

___

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

The report issued Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board also did not flag any other serious safety or mechanical failures that could have led to the crash, which happened just after takeoff on a clear day.

The NTSB released the findings based on initial inspections of the badly damaged wreckage and flight records. The report said there were no indications of any precrash mechanical malfunctions or failures in the engine that would have prevented the normal operation of the plane.

In fact, NTSB said it appeared that the engine of the single-engine turboprop plane had been producing power at the time of the crash.

“I was surprised that they had determined that the engine was producing power,” said Jeff Guzzetti, president of Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery, an aviation safety consultancy. “Initially I thought it smacked of a potential engine problem and that the pilot had been trying to return to the airport.”

The federal agency also said a post-accident sample from the fuel truck found the fuel to be free of sediment or debris, and a review of the skydiving business operators’ software showed that the airplane had met the weight and balance limitations for the flight.

The report raised no concerns about the weather or the pilot, who had accumulated over 4,100 total flight hours and was in his second consecutive jump season working for the operator, Skydive Kansas City.

The airplane was not equipped with a crashworthy voice or data recorder, like those that record flight data on commercial planes, nor was it required to be, investigators said. The NTSB report did note, however, that its investigators had recovered damaged GoPro cameras from the wreckage.

The federal agency's investigation into the accident was ongoing, and a final report often takes a year or more to complete.

The June 14 crash happened about an hour south of Kansas City, when the Pacific Aerospace 750XL carrying a pilot and 11 skydivers took off from Butler Memorial Airport at 11:25 a.m. on a clear day.

During the initial climb, the airplane began a gradual turn to the left, with both wings eventually becoming almost perpendicular to the ground before it slammed into a field, nose down, and burst into flames, investigators said.

The straight up-and-down position of the wings meant they could no longer produce enough aerodynamic lift to keep the plane in the air and the NTSB will have to figure out why that happened, Guzzetti said.

The fire inflicted significant damage to the aircraft's major structural components, as well as the cockpit, the cabin and the fuel system, investigators said.

Some family members of those who died were at the airport to watch the jump and witnessed the crash, authorities said. The United States Parachute Association, skydiving’s governing body, said its technology director, Jen Sharp, was among those killed.

Skydive Kansas City called the crash a “devastating loss."

Poor maintenance is often a factor when skydiving planes crash and the NTSB has previously raised concerns about the weak oversight for skydiving operators in past crash investigations. The agency said after a 2019 crash that killed 11 people in Hawaii that the FAA’s regulatory system isn’t strong enough to ensure the safety of skydiving flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to adopt the NTSB’s recommendations, but said it established a committee in April that will recommend ways to increase skydiving safety and will consider the safety board’s proposals.

The United States Parachute Association said that Skydive Kansas City adheres to the safety standards set by the largest skydiving organization in the world, including all FAA maintenance requirements. The skydiving industry says it has a strong safety record. The association said that last year nearly 3.5 million jumps were completed and that 16 civilians died, the majority from human error.

The plane that crashed was built in 2010, according to FAA records. It made two successful flights the morning of the crash, the NTSB said. It is popular for skydiving and certified to be operated by a single pilot.

___

Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter

When playing outside or spending time at the lake or beach, it is crucial to practice heat safety with the family.

According to Ryan Fulton, the section chief for outpatient pediatrics at the Carilion Clinic, dehydration and heat exhaustion are especially dangerous with children because the symptoms are harder to detect.

“For a child, it can be very dangerous, primarily because they’re not going to be able to tell you what symptoms they have,” Fulton said. “In adults, you’re looking at fatigue, early exertion, exertional fatigue, not able to speak clearly, confusion. But in kids, it could just look like they’re wanting a nap.”

The symptoms of heat exhaustion in children include elevated body temperature, unusual tiredness and excessive sweating. Fulton said parents should pay close attention to a child’s body temperature, as it can be an important indicator they are becoming overheated.

Symptoms in infants will present differently. Fulton said babies experiencing heat exhaustion may develop cold, clammy skin, which should be a warning sign for parents.

Dehydration is also very common among children and infants who spend time outdoors and is one of the leading causes of heat exhaustion, according to Fulton.

To help prevent dehydration and heat-related illness, Fulton suggested drinking plenty of water and taking frequent breaks in the shade or air conditioning.

For more heat safety tips and information, please visit the Carilion Clinic’s Heat Safety Page.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the voting. It's unclear why so many players didn't cast their votes. However, the Los Angeles Sparks were one of the teams that didn’t have all of its players vote due to some operational errors.

“Players were sent ballots via email,” the Sparks said in a statement. “Some players indicated that they didn’t receive the email or weren’t aware of it until after the voting period had closed. That’s something we take responsibility for as an organization, and we’ll have a more robust process going forward.”

Fan vote accounts for 50% of the overall vote while players and a media panel each are 25%. It's been that way since 2017.

New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said her team has never had an issue getting players to submit their ballots.

“We always vote. But I do think especially if they’re weighed as much as they are, like teams should be making sure that their players are voting like it is important. There should never just be a team that like, doesn’t get the ballot. ...That’s something that every player should be getting the opportunity. And if the player doesn’t want to vote, then that’s on them.”

The league announced the All-Star starters on Thursday.

ESPN was the first to report the lack of ballots.

Like the media, each player is given a link to a voting site as well as an individual username and password. Those are supplied by the league to the teams who distribute them to the players.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum was lower in the player balloting than she was from the media and fans. She is second in the WNBA in scoring, but has only played in a dozen games because of injuries. She was 12th among players votes after ranking sixth by the fans and fifth by media.

She finished seventh in the voting overall for the guards. Even if the Sparks had all voted, it wouldn't have been a guarantee that Plum moved up to the top four spots. In the past, players have said that they have either voted for their entire team on the ballot or for friends or college teammates which has led to some skewed results. Some do take it seriously and pick who they think are the best players.

All-Star starter Caitlin Clark was right in front of the player balloting finishing in 11th. She was picked as an All-Star starter as she was second in the fan vote and third in the media rankings.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

“I would not have gone for most people,” Trump said last week. “But he called me up. He said: ‘Please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be in there.’ And so I’m going out of respect to President Erdogan.”

Leveraging that respect has helped Erdogan avoid the disarray that Trump's absence would cause the alliance, particularly at a time when the Republican president has been repeatedly threatening to pull U.S. forces from Europe and scale back America’s role in NATO, unsettling allies.

Trump, who has frequently praised Erdogan and has called him a “hell of a leader,” has long rebuked other NATO countries over their defense spending. He claimed last year’s pledge to collectively boost it as a major personal win. More recently, he has clashed with alliance members for failing to back his war against Iran.

But Trump has sweetened the deal for Erdogan by also hinting that he could make news during his visit related to jet engines and the potential sale of F-35 fighter jets barred for years because of Turkey’s closeness with Moscow.

Trump's affinity for strongmen leaders has long made him an admirer of Erdogan, who amassed power in Turkey first as its prime minister and now in his 13th year as president.

“His relationship with Erdogan, which is pretty strong, is consistent with what seems to be a pattern of his preference,” said Philip Gordon, who served as national security adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris. “It has often been pointed out he seems to have better relationships with adversaries and autocrats, and he certainly says nicer things about them than with allies.”

Gordon, now at the Brookings Institution, added, “Erdogan is taking full advantage of it.”

Erdogan snubbed Biden but bets on Trump

Trump, who is expected to have a bilateral meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit, will be the first U.S. president to visit Turkey since Democrat Barack Obama in 2015. By contrast, Democratic President Joe Biden kept Erdogan at arm's length over Turkey’s democratic backsliding and close ties to Russia.

Opposition parties and human rights organizations have accused Erdogan of undermining democracy and curbing freedom of expression. They say baseless investigations and prosecutions of human rights activists, journalists, opposition politicians and others remain a persistent problem in Turkey.

Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute said Erdogan and Trump “clicked” personally during Trump’s first term. When Biden extended an invitation in 2024 for Erdogan to visit the U.S. after Turkey endorsed Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, Erdogan decided not to go.

“That was Erdogan’s way of signaling to Trump, ‘Hey, you are going to probably win the elections,'” Cagaptay said. “I think Trump saw that as a giant gesture.”

Trump signals steps toward jet sales for Turkey

During a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte last week, a reporter asked Trump whether he was taking “a big gift bag for Erdogan” on the trip, noting that Ankara wants F-110 jet engines and F-35 fighter jets.

“Yeah, I think so,” Trump responded. “Yeah, I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make him very happy.” Trump had also suggested September that the U.S. could soon start selling F-35s to Turkey.

Turkey was barred from the program in 2019, after it purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. U.S. officials have feared that Turkey’s use of the Russian system could enable Moscow to gather information on the F-35’s capabilities.

At the Oval Office meeting, Vice President JD Vance said Washington was exploring ways to sell ⁠Turkey the jets, emphasizing that any sale would ensure Turkey has complied with U.S. law. There is significant bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill, including from influential Republicans such as Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to selling the F-35s to Turkey as long as Ankara is in possession of the Russian missile defense systems.

Meanwhile, the F-110 jet engines that Turkey is seeking to purchase would power its domestically produced KAAN fighter jets. The State Department last week took a step toward making those sales, sending key lawmakers a notice that it planned to bypass congressional opposition to more than $700 million of the jet engine sales to Ankara, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss details of a nonpublic notification.

“In this case, the State Department did not even attempt to justify its decision,” New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement last week. “It did not invoke any emergency authority, did not present a written rationale, and for months refused to make a good-faith effort to brief me on implications of the sale for the U.S.-Turkey relationship, Turkey’s continued possession of the Russian S-400 system, and other regional security concerns.”

The relationship between the U.S. and Turkey is thawing in other ways, too. Earlier this year, Trump's Department of Justice dropped a major case against Turkey’s state‑owned Halkbank, which had been accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.

Erdogan lauds Trump's friendship and phone calls

When he returned to the White House for his second term, Trump appointed a close friend as ambassador to Turkey: Tom Barrack, a longtime ally who also served as the chairman of his inaugural committee. “Barrack is playing a crucial role as a facilitator in the relationship,” said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s TED University.

Erdogan and Trump have frequently held telephone calls to discuss Syria, Gaza and the wider Middle East, and Turkey joined Trump’s Board of Peace aimed at overseeing the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump claimed this month that he asked Erdogan to stay out of the war in Iran and that the Turkish leader complied, though there is no indication that Turkey had ever intended to get involved.

Trump expressed admiration for Erdogan even while standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint news conference last year. Netanyahu, whose government is at odds with Ankara, had hoped to win Trump’s support for pushing back on Turkish influence in Syria, but instead found himself watching as Trump showered praises on Erdogan and urged Netanyahu to be “reasonable.”

Last year, after meeting with Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague, Erdogan told reporters that the U.S. president is quick to return his calls, an anecdote that illustrated their close ties.

“With my friend Trump, we are opening the door to a new era in Turkish‑American relations,” Erdogan said. “The process of telephone diplomacy between us has never exceeded 24 hours so far. When we call, the other side responds within 24 hours.”

___

Fraser reported from Ankara.

As of 2:30 p.m. most outages have been resolved according to APCO’s outage map.

Original:

If you’re without power, you’re not alone. Appalachian Power is reporting more than 3,500 customers experiencing outages in the Roanoke area and Franklin County.

The power outage began around 8 a.m., and power is expected to be restored around 1:30 p.m., according to the APCo power outage map.

At this time, the exact cause is unclear, but crews are working to resolve the issue.

Click here to see the areas that have been affected.

Justice Patricia Smyth regretted that her verdict would bring “little if any comfort or relief” to McKee’s family, but said the circumstantial evidence was insufficient for a conviction, following a nonjury trial held intermittently over the past two years in Belfast Crown Court.

“Lyra McKee’s murder was an act of senseless violence," Smyth said. “The gunman has never been brought to the court and the evidence against those accused of assisting or encouraging has fallen short of that required for conviction."

McKee, 29, was shot while standing near law enforcement officers observing an anti-police riot in Londonderry, also known as Derry, on April 18, 2019. Protesters had tossed fire bombs at police and torched a car before four shots rang out and a bullet fired by a masked gunman struck McKee.

No one was ever charged with pulling the trigger, but three other men, Paul McIntyre, 58, Peter Cavanagh, 37, and Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, were charged with murder as accomplices for encouraging or assisting the shooter. The three denied the charges but none testified.

The New IRA, a small paramilitary group that opposes Northern Ireland’s peace process, said one of its members accidentally shot the reporter while aiming at police.

McKee wrote about the challenges faced by the generation of “ceasefire babies” raised after the 1998 Good Friday peace accord ended three decades of sectarian violence. She was becoming an influential voice chronicling the legacy of the years of paramilitary violence carried out by Irish nationalists and supporters of remaining part of the U.K.

The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland and political leaders from Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities were among the hundreds who attended her funeral. Her death helped feuding politicians revive Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, which had collapsed in 2017.

The judge found McKee was murdered by a gunman who acted with intent to kill or seriously injure police to “guarantee the oxygen of publicity” from the fiery riot.

McKee's sister said that the system had failed her family and vowed to relentlessly pursue justice. She railed against a culture of silence in Northern Ireland, saying that not one of the 150 people who witnessed the shooting spoke out.

“People are afraid to speak out, they are afraid to tell the truth, they are afraid to share information that they have,” Nichola Corner said. "That culture of silence needs to stop in Northern Ireland. It is unfair to victims and it completely allows people with blood on their hands to walk free.”

The National Union of Journalists, which McKee was a member of, and Reporters Without Borders expressed their sympathy with her family and friends and said they were concerned someone got away with the killing.

“The authorities must continue to pursue all legal avenues to establish accountability and ensure that those responsible for Lyra’s death are brought to justice,” Felicity Garvey of Reporters Without Borders said. "Journalists cannot work freely and safely if those who kill members of the press can do so with impunity.”

Six other men were also on trial for charges related to the riot, but not for having a role in the killing. Four were acquitted of rioting while one, Christopher Gillen, 45, was convicted of riot and tossing fire bombs. Kieran McCool, 57, was convicted of assaulting a community worker.

Hamilton coped best with adapting his driving style around Formula 1's new reliance on battery power to take pole position in qualifying for Saturday's sprint race.

Despite a slight wobble in the final corner, Hamilton held on to take pole by just 0.011 of a second at a track where he'd predicted he and Ferrari would struggle. The seven-time world champion stood atop his car and soaked in the applause as he waved to the crowd.

“I love this place, I love this crowd and I can’t express how big a dream it is,” he said.

Standings leader Kimi Antonelli was second fastest, with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull ahead of Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc.

George Russell was only fifth after winning last week's Austrian Grand Prix, while McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh in a throwback green-and-white livery.

The battery challenge

Setting fast times at Silverstone is very different this year because of how the cars struggle to recharge their batteries around the high-speed circuit. Having only a single practice session on Friday, topped by Hamilton, made it crucial to adapt quickly.

With nine wins there, the most of any F1 driver at a single track, Hamilton knows his home circuit inside out.

Ahead of this weekend's race, he outlined how the 2026-specification F1 cars will struggle with Silverstone's long straights and fast corners.

The Ferrari star predicts cars running at reduced speed with empty batteries, because they need heavy braking zones to recharge the electrical power that's crucial to how they operate.

“This is going to be the most unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment," he said Thursday. “All of us drivers have been talking on the drivers’ chat just how poor the power is going to be through this track. We run out of battery power.”

The fastest way around Silverstone now involves easing off the power to recharge in what would normally be some of the most exciting corners, Hamilton predicted, adding it could be a setback for him and Ferrari.

“Normally the engine’s screaming as you’re going into Copse, and you’re holding on for dear life as you go through there flat out. This year, the engine will be coasting down,” he said. “Maggotts and Becketts is just not going to feel the same because I think you have to lift and coast or something through there for a period of time. It’s just a completely different track.”

Even before Friday practice, drivers spent plenty of time practicing for Silverstone on advanced simulators that mimic the behavior of the cars. Hamilton's comments line up with predictions by Verstappen, who said he “just started laughing” when he tried it out.

Despite the changes Norris, who won a thrilling British Grand Prix on his way to the title last year, says F1 can still put on a good show.

“I think Sunday will be exciting. On the outside I think it’ll be great," he said. "Certainly there’s going to be less challenges on the track itself comparing to what you’ve seen in the past few years.”

Home race curse

Racing at home has been bad luck in F1 recently. No driver has scored a point in his home race since Antonelli's ninth place at the Italian Grand Prix in September.

So far this year, Piastri failed to make the start in Australia and Leclerc crashed out in Monaco, leaving 12th for Carlos Sainz, Jr. the best by any driver on home soil.

Where better for that streak to end than Britain? Besides Hamilton's nine wins, Norris is the defending champion and Russell is coming off the victory in Austria last week.

To top it off, those three combined for the first all-British podium since 1968 at last month's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

“I’ve said up here and said before, the harassment, the hate, none of that is OK,” Clark said at practice Friday “That goes for the opposing team we play, that goes for my teammates, that goes for my coaches. There should never be question of character. None of that is OK, and I don’t want anybody to ever experience that.”

The WNBA has gotten a lot more attention the past few seasons with the addition of Clark and Angel Reese among others to the league. A multi-billion dollar media rights deal, million dollar salaries and higher attendance have been the positives. An increase of social media vitriol toward players and teams has been the negative.

Social media hatred is nothing new and isn't just directed toward the WNBA and its players. It's been going on for more than a decade toward the league and its players. However, it has gotten worse lately with players and coaches receiving threats for things that happen on the court.

Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said Tuesday that she received death threats and had been called racial slurs in the aftermath of her one-game suspension after she made contact with her fist to Clark’s throat in last week’s matchup against Indiana.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert issued a statement on Tuesday condemning “any and all forms of hate.”

The WNBA has been trying to do what it can to make the players feel more protected and combat its social media problem.

The league has made a major push with security over the past few seasons. Teams travel with more security on the road and there are enhanced protocols at arenas, hotels and when traveling. Franchises now take charter flights, which makes it easier on the teams.

The WNBA also has implemented initiatives that combat online hate and threats to players. Some of that includes artificial intelligence software to identify and respond more quickly to threats, harassment and hate directed at players and teams across social media platforms.

Unfortunately, nothing is foolproof in stopping online hate spewed by anonymous people who hide behind their keyboards.

“I think for the league as a whole, there’s been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia — straight-up hateful nonsense, and it is absolutely unacceptable,” Fever coach Stephanie White said during a two-minute opening statement at practice Wednesday. “Most of it is coming from the online community. In my heart of hearts, I believe most of it is not coming from WNBA fans or Indiana Fever fans."

White coached Thomas in Connecticut two years ago and saw the social media vitriol there, as well.

“AT is exactly right: We get to play a basketball game,” White said. “Yes, that’s going to come with criticism and yes, that’s going to come with fans and the love-hate relationship they have with players and teams. But it’s not hard to not be a jerk. And if you’re one of the people who’s online doing this, do not call yourself a WNBA fan.”

Clark said she’s been hurt by all of the narratives created online and in the media about her and her Fever teammates.

“It can be really frustrating to me at times and it’s difficult,” Clark said. “A lot of people sometimes think I’m a robot. I’m not a robot. I have emotions, I have feelings. And it can be really difficult to go through a lot of that. I’m 24 years old, trying to navigate a lot ... there are times that it is hard, and there are times that, you know, it probably affects me a little bit more than I do put on."

To try and help the players deal with the hate they receive, the league also has expanded access to confidential mental health resources and support.

The union sent a letter to its players last week that was obtained by The Associated Press that included points on social media vitriol.

“We know spirited debate and passionate fandom are part of sports. Threats, harassment, and especially death threats directed at any player or members of her family are not. It is completely unacceptable and must be unequivocally, publicly and immediately condemned,” the letter said. “If you experience any threatening or concerning communications, please remember that both your team and the WNBPA have security resources available to support you. Your safety and the safety of your loved ones remain our highest priority.”

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Giannis Antetokounmpo got traded to Miami for Tyler Herro. Jaylen Brown got traded to Philadelphia for Paul George. Kawhi Leonard got traded back to Toronto, Ja Morant got traded to Portland, LaMelo Ball got traded to Minnesota and Dusty May left NCAA champion Michigan to coach Dallas.

There have been some huge moves in the NBA in the past few days. But everybody, it seems, is waiting for James — again.

“He's still the face of the league,” James' agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said.

If there was any question about whether the league's oldest active player and NBA's all-time points leader still moves the needle, that's been answered.

Soccer's World Cup is going on, the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden — the home of the NBA champion New York Knicks — is commanding global attention, it's a holiday weekend in the U.S., and yet there's still all sorts of intrigue surrounding where James will decide to play next season.

This much is certain: James, who turns 42 in December, will play a 24th season and it won't be for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Officially, that's the full list of what is known. Paul dropped some clues on the “Game Over” podcast that he shares with Max Kellerman — indicating by showing a whiteboard filled with scrawled-out possibilities that James is looking at a slew of teams, including and probably not limited to Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami, Minnesota, Denver, Golden State, San Antonio, Dallas, Boston and New York.

“If the Knicks hadn’t have won, there would be no board,” Paul said on the podcast. “He'd be going to the Knicks.”

When does LeBron have to decide?

The decision can come whenever he wants.

It can't be announced or commented upon by a team before Monday at 12:01 p.m. Eastern — unless James signs for the minimum salary, which in his case would be about $3.9 million.

Will he make his announcement Saturday, on July 4 amid a celebration of the nation's 250th birthday? Will he do it on July 8, the 16th anniversary of the famed “The Decision” broadcast?

Nobody knows. Nobody even knows if he knows. And nobody also knows if James intends for 2026-27 to be his final season.

“No one said this is going to be his last year,” Paul said. “Nobody said that.”

That raises the possibility of a 25th season — a quarter-century of LeBron, when nobody else in league history made it past a 22nd season.

What is LeBron looking for?

It's pretty clear that money won't be a huge factor here. James has earned nearly $600 million in gross salary on the court in his first 23 seasons, while his net worth is generally believed to exceed $1 billion.

Golf will matter. James is an avid — perhaps even rabid — golfer now, and Minnesota, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Denver, New York and Boston aren't exactly places known for great golf offerings in January and February. That said, they all surely have great indoor facilities. It won't be a deal-breaker.

He'll want to play for a team that can contend for a title, not present quality-of-life issues, and appeals to his wife and daughter. Every spot on his list will be able to make a good case on all those fronts.

So, who is the front-runner?

The podcast had a ton of news and a ton of insight. Paul laid out how James would fit into the lineup of most of those teams, how acquisitions such as Philadelphia acquiring Brown changes dynamics, then talked about some of the reasons why James might be leaning toward — or away from — certain clubs.

But in the end, he didn't provide any real hint.

"You can think whatever you think,” Paul said. “This is just my board. You decide what you want to think.”

And the wait continues.

___

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

It canceled Croatia's late equalizer deep in added time against Portugal by detecting a touch that was undetectable to the naked eye and even video replays late Thursday.

Portugal won 2-1 in Toronto and advanced to the round of 16, leaving Croatia players and fans devastated in the belief Josko Gvardiol's goal was wrongly called offside by the VAR and referee Espen Eskås.

FIFA is relying on a high-tech soccer ball fitted with “advanced sensors” and insisted it got it right when determining Croatia's Igor Mantanovic got the slightest of glances with his head, meaning Mario Palasic was in an offside position during the buildup to the goal.

The in-ball sensors were so finely tuned, FIFA said, they were “capable of determining any slight contact ... allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions.”

Here's the science bit

The official “Trionda” World Cup ball, manufactured by Adidas, is fitted with a “small inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor,” which FIFA says operates at around 500Hz and captures data 500 times per second.

FIFA says it can track ball acceleration and granular movements in three dimensions and can detect the exact moment a player makes contact.

The ball technology is combined with in-stadium cameras for tracking data that is transmitted in real time to video assistants.

As well as helping to determine offsides, the touch data can also be used for incidents such as handballs and penalties.

How reliable is it?

The reason the call was so contentious was because even slow motion replays from numerous angles were visually inconclusive that Mantanovic made contact with Ivan Perisic's in-swinging cross.

That is where reliance on the technology came in. Referee Eskås was instructed by the VAR to review the sideline monitor. Replays showed what FIFA calls a “heartbeat graphic” to indicate the moment the ball was touched and there was a clear spike as it apparently grazed Mantanovic's head.

“No matter how fast the ball is moving or the spin of the ball, you can track it really effectively,” The AP was told by professor Manos Tentzeris from Georgia Tech's school of electrical and computer engineering. "The position of the ball is 99.99% accurate ... you know exactly where the players are, even the tip of a shoe, which sometimes determines if someone is offside or onside."

FIFA also used connected ball technology at the 2022 World Cup, and it was deployed at the most recent men's European Championship in 2024.

Tests were carried out from 2020-22 and the technology trialed at tournaments such as the Arab Cup and the Club World Cup.

This is not the first time

The ball sensors also had a decisive impact at Euro 2024 by detecting Denmark's Joachim Andersen handled in the box against host Germany. After a VAR review a penalty was awarded and Kai Havertz scored and Germany won 2-0.

“In my opinion this is not how football is supposed to be,” Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand said after his team also had a goal ruled out by VAR.

Those sentiments were echoed by Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić after his team's painful exit.

“All these decisions take the joy out of football," he said.

___

AP sports writer Maura Carey in Atlanta contributed.

___

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Northrop Grumman launched Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link spacecraft from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The Pegasus rocket blasted off from the belly of a modified airplane, putting Link on course to reach and capture NASA’s Swift Observatory in about a month.

Launched in 2004, Swift is sinking faster than ever because of recent solar storms. NASA is paying $30 million for Katalyst to capture the telescope and boost its orbit so it can continue tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe, like gamma ray bursts and exploding stars.

If all goes well, Swift could be back scanning the cosmos by September. Observations are currently on hold to preserve the telescope’s orbit as long as possible.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could be a candidate for a similar salvage operation in a few years. It’s also slipping in altitude because of increased atmospheric drag caused by the sun’s outbursts.

The 1.6-ton (1.4-metric ton) Swift currently is circling 224 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth. Katalyst aims to raise the telescope’s altitude by 150 miles (240 kilometers), back to where it all began. Link’s thrusters will fire to boost Swift slowly, so there's no heavy jostling.

Katalyst threw the mission together in just nine months. NASA insisted on a rush job because the telescope will be too low to recover by the fall. Without a boost, it’s predicted to plunge to its demise in October.

Bad weather and technical issues caused a series of last-minute launch delays.

“This is a high-risk, high-reward mission,” Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said ahead of liftoff. “The biggest danger was always we don’t launch anything and we let Swift burn up in the atmosphere. So we were always trying to avoid that risk, and our team has done that.”

___

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

The U.S. match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night was the most-watched soccer telecast in English language history with more than 24.4 million viewers, according to Fox Sports.

The peak audience was 31.8 million.

The United States won the game 2-0 in Santa Clara, California, to advance to the round of 16, marking its first knockout win since 2002.

The match topped the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final telecast in which 22.3 million viewers on English-language TV tuned in.

By comparison, the most-watched Super Bowl of all time came in 2025 when an average of 127.7 million viewers watched the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs across FOX, FOX Deportes, Telemundo, and Tubi. The peak average audience of 137.7 million viewers during the second quarter.

The most-watched combined U.S. audience during the World Cup so far was Mexico-Ecuador game with 29.3 million viewers overall.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The head of the Society of St. Pius X wrote to Leo a day after the Vatican excommunicated the group’s bishops and priests and warned its faithful they too could be excommunicated for participating in the schism, or rupture in church unity.

The society, known as SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church. On Wednesday, it consecrated four new bishops without papal consent during a massive ceremony at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, committing one of the gravest crimes in church law.

Leo had begged the SSPX not go ahead with the ceremony, but the SSPX defied his will. Within 24 hours, the Vatican declared an exceptionally harsh punishment that surprised even the SSPX’s toughest critics.

In his letter to Leo, the SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani cast the SSPX as the defiant guardian of the church’s tradition and the victim of an unjust sanction by Rome.

“What the Society of Saint Pius X has done, and will continue to do, is nothing other than an extraordinary initiative for the salvation of souls, amidst the doctrinal and moral confusion into which the church is plunged,” he wrote.

Despite the “unjust and invalid” sanctions, the SSPX will love the church even more and “offers up the suffering caused by these new sanctions for the good of the universal church and of Your Holiness,” Pagliarani wrote.

French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the SSPX in 1970 in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which revolutionized the church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

While now a fringe movement on the Catholic right, the SSPX has been a thorn in the Vatican’s side for five decades because it claims to be even more Catholic than the Holy See. The harshness of Vatican’s response suggested that after trying to negotiate with the SSPX over three pontificates, the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV had had enough.

The Rev. Robert Gahl, an ethics expert at The Catholic University of America, said the speed and decisiveness with which the Vatican responded to the consecrations was significant in clearly alerting the SSPX faithful that they were participating in a schism. Doing so, he said, exposed how the SSPX falsely claims to be “more Catholic than the pope.”

The SSPX claimed it had to proceed with the consecrations, "that they had a case of necessity because of the need of the faithful to receive their sacramental care, while claiming that their sacramental care is somehow better than what the rest of the church offers,” Gahl said. The Vatican's decisive response "calls them out and says, 'If you want the salvation that the church offers, you have to belong to the church, and you stepped out of full communion by disobeying the pope’s explicit command.”

___

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

As Argentina rides World Cup fever and dreams of beating Cape Verde in the round of 32 on Friday, a dog walker has added his pack to the local fanbase.

Nahuel Meneghini, 33, walks the streets of the capital’s city center with the dogs wearing the team’s jerseys, leashes and collars in support of Lionel Messi ’s squad.

“I did it out of love for them and for Argentina. And for the World Cup,” said Meneghini— known as “Nano” — while speaking to The Associated Press on Thursday during a walk with the canine group.

The dog walker, also dressed head-to-toe like a fan, skilfully managed all the leashes, guiding the dogs along the narrow sidewalks of the capital’s San Cristóbal neighborhood.

As they passed, smiles lit up the faces of onlookers who pulled out their phones to snap pictures. “Let’s go, Argentina!” a woman shouted.

“These are the only joys we have because nothing ever goes our way, not for workers or retirees. Everything is against us,” said 80-year-old Edgardo Pérez, who was taking photos of the group known on social media as “La Perroneta.”

The name alludes to “La Scaloneta,” the nickname of the national team aiming to retain its title at the World Cup under coach Lionel Scaloni.

Scaloni is admired in Argentina following the team’s triumphs at the World Cup and the Finalissima in 2022, as well as the 2021 Copa América.

Meneghini developed the idea of ​​dressing the dogs in Argentina colors last week as it advanced from the group stage.

Two of the dogs he regularly walks, Sirio and Roberta, were wearing jerseys featuring Messi’s No. 10. Their owners bought them after catching World Cup fever.

Meneghini loved the idea and decided to dress the rest of the dogs the same way. He stopped by a pet store and picked up jerseys in various sizes. The owners readily accepted the outfits.

The same went for the collars and leashes he crafted in light blue and white. He added three rivets to the leashes — one for each of Argentina’s World Cup titles in 1978, 1986 and 2022 — while hanging tags reading “Los perros de Nano” (Nano’s Dogs) from the collars.

Meneghini offers the pet owners a good price for all the items. Other people in the neighborhood have started placing orders for their own pets.

The dogs and their walker cover around 60 blocks almost every day and have become local celebrities and social media stars.

“Now that is patriotism," the 73-year-old Dora Maisano said as she watched the group pass by. "Not just peeing and pooping. Everyone wearing the No. 10. Well done, congratulations — they look so cute!”

The pack will continue to wear the national colors “forever,” even if Argentina is eliminated from the competition, Meneghini said. “But I have faith that we’ll win a fourth cup. After the fourth one, I’ll add another rivet to the leashes.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

He's giving his harvest away rather than watching it rot as he's locked in a legal battle with a company that claims exclusive rights over the variety of white nectarine he grows. He's shared more than 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) since Monday.

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora said. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

The legal dispute highlights the tension that can emerge between farmers and the plant breeders and large industrial food marketers that create new varieties of plants and obtain the exclusive rights to sell them.

Since 2023, the third-generation farmer in the agricultural community of Reedley in California's Central Valley has been fighting a lawsuit filed against him by Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. The suit centers on the company’s claims of exclusivity over a variety of white nectarine and accusations that Mora broke their contract by selling the fruit to other packers. A trial has been scheduled for later this month.

“At its heart, this is a disagreement involving two written agreements, and it is being resolved the right way — in court and on the facts,” the company said in a statement emailed by one of its attorneys.

Mora has accused the company of unfair and fraudulent business practices.

Fruit patents are becoming more common

The fight centers on a white nectarine variety known as “Monalise,” which has a sweeter, less tart taste.

In its court filings, Giumarra says all rights to the Monalise variety are owned by Star Fruits Diffusion, a French company that works with plant breeding programs, while Giumarra holds the right to sublicense the variety for testing, production and sale. Star Fruits Diffusion did not respond to a request for comment.

Plant breeders, including universities, have long experimented with breeding new crop varieties, and some have become household names. Washington State University developed the Rainier cherry in the 1950s, while the University of Minnesota released the Honeycrisp apple in the 1990s. Both varieties are now in the public domain and can be grown and sold by anyone.

Fruit patents are becoming increasingly common, said Bradley Rickard, professor of food and agricultural economics at Cornell University. A patent allows a breeder to collect a royalty from the fruit trees it sells, the fruit that the trees produce, or both.

In 2010, more than a dozen apple growers sued the University of Minnesota for awarding exclusive rights to its SweeTango apple to an orchard that organized a cooperative of growers to market the variety. A settlement maintained the university's license agreement with the cooperative while also allowing more Minnesota orchards to lease the trees that bear the apple variety.

The white nectarine battle in California

California's Central Valley, stretching some 20,000 square miles (51,800 square kilometers), is an agricultural powerhouse that's estimated to produce 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts and other table foods, including most of its nectarines.

Court filings show Mora signed a sublicensing agreement with Giumarra in 2017 allowing him to grow and sell the Monalise. He entered a marketing agreement in 2019 requiring the fruit to be packed and sold through Giumarra. He said Giumarra recruited him to grow it.

Under the agreements, Mora was to pay Giumarra a royalty of $2.50 per tree and a 4% production royalty based off the gross sales of the fruit the trees produced, as well as a sales commission.

“They sold me hope and a big dream that I thought I could participate in with them," he said.

Mora alleges that up to half of the nectarines he provided to Giumarra in 2020 were thrown away, reducing his profits. The company disputes this, and the judge overseeing the case found that the statute of limitations for those claims had passed.

In 2022, Mora alleges the company sold his nectarines to Taiwan in violation of the contract, which states Giumarra will market and sell them in the U.S. and Canada. Giumarra also disputes that claim.

Mora later sought to terminate his relationship with Giumarra, and he sold his nectarines to another fruit packer in 2023. That's when Giumarra sued him for breach of contract, leading to his inability to sell the fruit at all while the court battle plays out.

Mora’s attorneys say Giumarra has not provided documents regarding its license to the nectarine variety. The company said in court filings the Monalise is not covered by a U.S. plant patent. Mora’s attorneys claim in court filings that “Giumarra promised and represented that the Nectarines were an ‘exclusive variety’ of fruit, and thus Giumarra held patents and related legal rights over these nectarines,” and that because it was exclusive, the fruit “would be sold for top dollar.”

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jon Skiles in May ruled that Giumarra's breach of contract claim can go forward, saying that the agreement between Giumarra and Mora is valid whether there is a patent for the fruit or not.

“The sublicense agreement does not expressly state that its validity is dependent on the existence or issuance of a patent for the fruit,” he wrote.

He added that Giumarra “does not have to prove the existence of the underlying license agreement in order to prove that it has a valid contract with defendant regarding growing and selling the fruit."

Legal battles can discourage farmers

Mora said the yearslong litigation has left him feeling frustrated and defenseless. He also grows peaches and plums that are not subject to agreements with Giumarra, but he has lost a quarter of his income by not being able to sell his nectarine crop. Mora says he hopes his case results in more legal protections for growers, while Giumarra says it will let the evidence speak at trial.

“It's been discouraging to even want to go out and farm,” he said.

On Wednesday, locals wore T-shirts that read “No Nectarines Wasted” as they bagged up the free fruit, with some staying to help Mora serve the large crowds. He's raised more than $17,000 through a GoFundMe page.

“The only saving grace through all this is being able to share it with the public,” Mora said of his nectarines, “and having everybody enjoy it."

The police organization named Anastasiia Berezovska, who remains at large, in a Red Notice seeking her arrest on charges of attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.

Monaco authorities haven’t identified any of the three people wounded in Monday’s explosion at an apartment building entrance but said they are a family and that they appear to have been specifically targeted.

Media reports named Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the wounded. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia.

A woman and a child were also hurt. One of the victims is still in a life-threatening condition, prosecutors said Friday, also mentioning two other “collateral victims” who were slightly injured in the attack.

Investigators are also seeking to establish whether the suspect had accomplices or acted on behalf of someone else.

“The relative sophistication of the explosive device and the modus operandi suggest that the person who planted the device did not act alone,” Monaco’s deputy prosecutor, Morgan Raymond told a news conference.

He said the bomb was detonated from a distance, using a remote control, and its remains are being analyzed in neighboring France.

The attack shocked Monaco, a coastal playground for the rich and famous known for its tax-friendly incentives, royal family and Formula 1 Grand Prix. Its head of state, Prince Albert II, described the blast as “an odious act” and said all public services were mobilized to ensure security.

Prosecutors have not yet given a motive for the attack.

The Interpol notice says the suspect has a tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow. It says she was born in Ukraine, has dark hair, and speaks German.

Raymond said the suspect was initially identified as a heavily built person appearing to be male, wearing a dark long-sleeved top, light-colored shorts and a black bucket hat. A broader review of CCTV footage from previous days and testimony from a witness redirected the investigation toward a woman disguised as a man.

The Interpol Red Notice includes two photos of a woman wearing a white T-shirt with dark stripes, one of them in a street where she’s holding what appears to be some sort of electronic device, trailing a cable, in her left hand.

Two male individuals were taken into police custody as part of the investigation, but both were subsequently released.

Investigators also identified a rented vehicle fitted with German license plates used by the suspect in Monaco. The suspect’s escape route was traced, including the journey from France into Italy, and then across several European countries up to her country of residence. Raymond said that her last known address is in Germany, “a country with which judicial cooperation is particularly active.”

German police, including special forces, on Thursday searched the rented apartment near Frankfurt of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman in connection with the investigation, police and prosecutors said in a statement Friday.

A vehicle used by the woman also was searched and secured, they added, and evidence will be handed over to authorities in Monaco. They said that the woman is on the run and they can’t give more details at present.

Ukraine is believed to have carried out attacks and targeted killings of Russian figures in the course of the war, although those attacks have largely been confined to Ukrainian or Russian territory.

In December 2024, Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for killing the head of nuclear, biological and chemical military protection forces for the Russian military.

Western intelligence officials have recently said that Russia has ramped up a campaign of targeted killings since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

It wasn’t some toxic jab from a volatile actor to his director and co-star after a difficult shoot; They really have found a kind of magic in screaming at each other on screen, first in the Chinatown-ish “Missing Reel” episode of “The Studio,” in which Wilde plays a satirical version of herself as the crazed director, and then as a couple on the rocks in the acerbic chamber dramedy “The Invite,” which expands nationwide on July 10.

“There’s nothing precious about either of us really,” Wilde said. “There was, like, a permission speak — permission to scream — freely.”

Rogen, 44, and Wilde, 42, came up in the same class of sorts, with memorable roles on television, in the late 90s and early-aughts, that blossomed into movie stardom and, eventually, directing. But until recently, they’d only ever really crossed paths meaningfully once: At a table read for Judd Apatow’s slacker pregnancy comedy “Knocked Up” over 20 years ago. Wilde did not get the role, and they went their separate ways.

And perhaps it was for the best. “Knocked Up” might not have been the right use of Wilde and Rogen together. They seem to excel not as a traditional romantic comedy duo, but in a realm that’s more prickly, more abrasive.

In “The Invite,” tensions are already simmering between Joe (Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) when their more liberated upstairs neighbors, neighbors Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), arrive for dinner, and stir things up over one booze, and a revelation-filled night.

Wilde and Rogen spoke to The Associated Press about how the cast got Wilde to act in the movie, studio productions and not taking casting too personally. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: You both have been in this business long enough that I’m sure if someone says they’re thinking about you for a role, it’s ultimately flattering, but is there a part of you that wonders “Oh, do you see me like this?”

WILDE: I loved the opportunity on “The Studio” to make fun of myself, like what a thrill, and to just make fun of this business in the most loving way. I loved getting to play in that world, but there was no part of me that was like, wait a minute, do you think I’m (expletive) insane?

ROGEN: Thank God.

WILDE: Did you feel offended that I wanted you to be a sexless dad?

ROGEN: A sexless sad man? No, I got it. I give that: Sexless sad dad.

WILDE: This role was like the best of Albert Brooks and a little bit of a ‘70s Richard Dreyfuss or maybe like ’80s Richard Dreyfuss. And I felt like there is a bit of Albert Brooks and Richard Dreyfuss in you, which is high praise.

ROGEN: Hey, I can only hope.

AP: Did the actors really gang up on Olivia to get her to act in this movie as well?

ROGEN: Very much so. We overtly pressured her to do it. We had a side text chain between us where we would strategize about how to do it and how to launch a multipronged attack on her to back her into doing it. Thank God it worked. And I just kept saying no to every other option she put on the table. I literally made it impossible to hire another person because everyone else you suggested I was like, “I don’t think they’d be good at this.”

WILDE: Meryl Streep?

ROGEN: Yeah, that wouldn’t work.

WILDE: It did take encouraging because I just for whatever reason had real impostor syndrome about it because I just revere them so much. I felt capable of directing this and holding it all in place and I really felt a strong connection to the story and everything that needed to happen to make it good but the idea of jumping in the ring was intimidating. I never would have suggested myself. I’d rather die than be like, “What if it was me, you guys?”

ROGEN: I’m the exact opposite, I’m always like, “We need a tighter shot of me, I don’t think we’re featuring me enough in all this.”

WILDE: It was the best experience of my career for every reason, but certainly as an actor. I’ve never had that much fun acting. And it made me think that maybe I don’t hate it.

AP: This was inspired by a Spanish movie that has been adapted in different languages too. Is there something uniquely American about this version?

WILDE: I think so. I think that there’s an attitude about marriage in American culture that is very much very reflective of our like, can do attitude, like you’re gonna do it and you’re just gonna stick to it and you’re going to grin and bear it. There’s an American energy to that that I think is part of what keeps people in really rough places and relationships for a long time and in this version of the story, in our version, these people, if they hadn’t been confronted with this evening that the movie’s about, would have just stayed in this kind of difficult conflict-ridden kind of passive-aggressive zone probably forever because they just aren’t people who like to give up. I also think there’s an American puritanical attitude toward sex in general that we are definitely dealing with in the movie, because it’s about people who haven’t talked about sex with each other in a way that they have desperately needed to for years.

ROGEN: Felt American to me, as a Canadian, the most sex-liberal people on the planet.

AP: Your last film (“Don’t Worry Darling”) was a studio production. What did you learn from that experience?

ROGEN: They would have been way more stressed out that the movie was completely rewritten in the weeks leading to shooting. They don't like that much.

WILDE: Working for a studio, you don’t get the opportunity to be as — this is like the most obvious statement on the planet — but typically, unless you’re Paul Thomas Anderson, I feel like you don’t get the opportunity to be as specific and, in some ways, hopefully a little bold. I think that we wouldn’t have had the same amount of creative ownership as a group and that was what made the experience so valuable. I’m very happy this wasn’t like a hundred billion dollar Sony movie.

ROGEN: We could have done it. We could find a way to spend it. You give me a budget, I will blow through it.

“With fireworks, we see all sorts of injuries from sparklers, small first degree burns to more severe, larger degree burns, and other injuries as well. The most important thing about fireworks is they can be lots of fun, and they should be fun, but they should be done properly. They should not be handled by young children in any circumstances,” said Purva Grover, MD, emergency medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic Children’s.

Dr. Grover said if your older children are going to use fireworks, they should be supervised by an adult.

She also recommends making sure all fireworks are set off in an open area away from cars or houses.

A bucket of water or garden hose should be on hand as well, in case a firework malfunctions.

On a similar note, never try to re-light or examine a firework that doesn’t work the first time around.

It’s also important to handle fireworks with care and avoid throwing them around.

“Even if it’s not lit, there is a potential that can explode because of the force you’re throwing it with. So, I always encourage very gentle handling, very careful handling of fireworks and crackers and sparklers in general.”

Dr. Grover said if your child suffers a minor burn, from a sparkler for example, you can run it under cool water for about 20 minutes.

After that, let the area dry out and use plastic wrap to protect it.

For more serious injuries, it’s best to seek medical attention.

Deniz Goktas was detained Thursday for questioning at Istanbul’s main airport on his return from a trip abroad, days after prosecutors launched an investigation into his comedy show, which had been widely viewed online. He was formally arrested following questioning by prosecutors on Friday, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The routine, recorded in Istanbul last month, drew some 9.5 million views after being uploaded to YouTube on June 24. The pro‑government newspaper Sabah said dozens of viewers were offended by jokes on religion and filed complaints, prompting the investigation.

During questioning, Goktas, 32, said he had no intention of degrading religious values or insulting the president, stressing that his approach was satirical.

Asked about a quip in which he described Erdogan as having evolved from a “shy dictator” to one “confident in his identity,” the comedian said the remark reflected a topic widely debated in Turkey, according to excerpts of his testimony published by the rights‑focused news portal Bianet.

Insulting the president is a criminal offense in Turkey, punishable by up to four years in prison.

Erdogan has consolidated power during more than two decades in office, and critics say he has steadily narrowed the space for free expression. Journalists and government critics frequently face investigation, detention or prosecution.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main political rival, has been imprisoned since March last year and is on trial on corruption charges. Hundreds of mayors and other officials from the main opposition party are also under prosecution over corruption allegations while the party's leader was deposed by a court order — moves critics say are aimed at neutralizing the party ahead of the next elections.

Erdogan’s government insists that Turkey’s courts are impartial and act independently of political pressure.

Dozens of people gathered at the courthouse in solidarity with the comedian on Friday, chanting anti‑government slogans, according to the opposition‑leaning newspaper Cumhuriyet.

While prices are still higher than last year, the average national price for a gallon of regular gasoline is down nearly 50 cents from a month ago at $3.83. That marks a significant dip from previous months, when the national average got as high as $4.56 on May 21. Another thing worth noting is that crude oil prices have dropped to the $ 60-a-barrel range, the lowest levels we’ve seen in months, according to AAA. Gas prices are still the highest they’ve been in four years, but prices have been declining for five weeks straight.

As of Friday, July 3, the average price of regular gas per gallon in Virginia is $3.64, according to AAA. Premium averages $4.55 per gallon, while diesel averages $4.77 per gallon.

Taking a closer look at our region, here’s a look at the average price of gas for localities in our area:

• Lynchburg:
• • Regular: $3.53
  • Mid: $4.04
  • Premium: $4.48
  • Diesel: $4.79
• Roanoke:
• • Regular: $3.56
  • Mid: $3.99
  • Premium: $4.43
  • Diesel: $4.80
• Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford (New River Valley area)
• • Regular: $3.59
  • Mid: $4.06
  • Premium: $4.50
  • Diesel: $4.68

Count on 10 News to bring you the latest price at the pump every morning.

To find out where the lowest fuel prices are near you, visit GasBuddy’s website.

More than half of us say high fuel prices are impacting summer travel plans. Could renting an E.V. save you money on the open road?

“Charging an E.V. is almost always going to be cheaper than filling up a gas car, but how much you save, it really depends on a lot of different factors,” Keith Barry with Consumer Reports said.

Keith Barry is an auto writer and E.V. expert at Consumer Reports.

Before you put the pedal to the metal, find out these things: Are there chargers where I’m staying? Will the car’s battery range match my driving? And how long will charging take?

“A Level 2 charger, these are the type you’ll find at most homes and hotels, and some businesses that offer free charging,” said Barry. “These are great for charging overnight. But a DC fast charger, which you’ll probably see at a highway rest area right off a major road, these tend to be a little more expensive to use, but they could recharge your E.V. in under a half hour.”

For long road trips, especially if you’re going off the beaten path where chargers are scarce, a hybrid might make more sense. You can still use less gas, without having to plan your route around charging stops.

Consumer Reports also says to watch out for rental deals that look cheap upfront. Some companies and third-party sites offer lower rates if you pay in advance or agree to a “mystery car,” but those deals may come with fewer options if your plans change.

And if you book through a third-party vendor, such as AAA, Costco, or Priceline, you may have to make changes on that site rather than directly with the rental car company.

No matter what kind of car you rent, pay close attention to the return rules.

“Some car rental companies will charge you a fee if they have to recharge a rental car,” said Barry.

One more tip before you return any rental car: delete your personal data. Bluetooth, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay are helpful tech during your travels, just make sure to unpair your phone and delete any data. Otherwise, the next driver could see information you meant to keep private.

Jason Webb, owner of Vinton Roof, knows that feeling well.

“Sweltering, it’s like working in an oven,” Webb said.

Webb’s crew spends hours on hot shingles every day. To stay safe, they’ve adjusted their workflow — scheduling more breaks, increasing fluid intake and continuously monitoring one another for signs of heat stress.

“Drink lots of electrolytes. Stay away from sodas. They’ll dehydrate you. Eat watermelons and freezy pops. Just constantly keep fluids in, because if you look at my guys, they’re soaked right now. They get soaked,” Webb said.

The approach to sun protection has also evolved over the years.

“Back when I did it, we all skinned down, we were topless, but with skin cancer being a very real thing, we all cover up now,” Webb said.

The crew follows a few core rules: hydrate often, rotate workers and watch each other for signs of heat stress.

“Constant monitoring, constant checking with them, constant reminding them, take breaks. It’s okay. We want you to take breaks,” Webb said.

Surfaces spike, risks rise

While the air temperature may hover near 100 degrees, surfaces like asphalt roads and rooftops can climb far higher — reaching temperatures of 135 degrees or more. For workers spending hours on those surfaces, the heat becomes a constant physical challenge.

First responders face the same dangerous conditions. Travis Griffith, chief of Roanoke County Fire and Rescue, said awareness and preparation are key.

“But it’s just something, you know, you have to be self-aware of this and be ready for it ahead of time,” Griffith said.

‘Rehab’ on the front lines

When calls become intense, fire and rescue departments deploy a strategy called “rehab” — a shaded area where crews are pulled from duty, rehydrated, cooled down and evaluated before returning to work.

“We will try to send extra personnel on calls just to try to help people get out. We call it rehab. If you have a bad call, get them in the rehab, get them out of the heat, help them hydrate. You know, that’s the biggest thing, is just having enough people on scene to be able to proactively do the job and mitigate the incident,” Griffith said.

Whether the job involves shingles or a fire hose, the message is the same: drink water and electrolytes beforehand, take regular breaks, watch your partner and get out of direct sun when possible.

To stay safe in the heat this weekend, you can follow this link to find more about heat risks, illnesses, and tips to keep yourself safe.

"It’s greasy, it’s disgusting, but it’s absolutely glorious," Jack Goodwin, a soccer enthusiast from London, said about the American food he has tried in Dallas, Boston, New York and Atlanta.

“I don’t want to say this because it’s a little bit harsh, but the portions are a little bit larger — a lot more tastier — so I can understand the, um, obesity here. I don’t want to be harsh, but yes, the food is fantastic here.”

International visitors want to try popular fast-food chains and local gems

Many fans are making a point to try regional specialties or chains they can’t find where they live, like In-N-Out Burger or Buc-ee's convenience stores. Erling Haaland, a striker for Norway's World Cup team, posted a photo on X of himself outside Katz's Delicatessen in New York.

Harrison Murphy, who was traveling from London with his brother for the knockout rounds, had breakfast at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta this week.

“Have you had Chick-fil-A? It was fantastic and so cheap. The sauces are free! It was remarkable,” Murphy said. "I said, ‘This is my first time, what should I try?’ The woman said, ‘You’ve got to try the Chick-fil-A sauce.’ My God, was it fantastic.”

Gary Bishop had never heard of poutine — often considered Canada's national dish — until he arrived in Toronto for the World Cup. But the Glasgow, Scotland, resident proclaimed it “absolutely delicious.”

“It was like chips with gravy, cheese. But it was a really thick gravy. Different from back home. Vinegar, there was lots of vinegar through it,” said Bishop, who was sporting a Scotland jersey on a recent stroll through Toronto’s FIFA Fan Festival. “Really nice.”

Others are looking for a taste of home. Texas beer distributor Andrews Distributing welcomed a bus full of Dutch fans to its Dallas warehouse for Heinekens and dancing.

Host city restaurants are eager to introduce new customers to old favorites

It’s a thrill for restaurant owners, from Cuban spots in Miami to barbecue joints in Kansas City and taco trucks in Mexico City.

“I have not seen anything like this ever in my life,” said Paul Barker, the principal and founder of Pauli’s, a Boston restaurant known for generously filled sandwiches and comfort foods. Fans from Scotland, Brazil, England and elsewhere have lined up for his famous lobster rolls and taken photos with staff members, Barker said.

“Food becomes a natural conversation starter,” he said. “It’s just been incredible for us to be part of this.”

Some chains are leaning into the World Cup. Waffle House, the all-day breakfast chain with 2,000 restaurants across the South, opened a pop-up shop in downtown Atlanta to sell branded soccer balls, jerseys and patriotic gear. In a statement, the chain said it was “honored by the enthusiasm and curiosity" shown by visiting fans.

For other restaurants, World Cup fever has been a delightful surprise. Whataburger, a Texas-based chain with 1,100 locations, found itself in the spotlight after fans from Japan and elsewhere posted on social media about their visits.

“The attention has been completely organic and honestly pretty entertaining,” Whataburger President and CEO Debbie Stroud said. “We knew the World Cup would bring the world to Texas and our footprint across 17 states. We just didn’t realize so many visitors would leave talking about a patty melt.”

Eating barbecue is high on the bucket lists of foreign foodies

Terry Black’s Barbecue, a small Texas chain, figured authentic barbecue would be on many fans’ must-try lists. It started sourcing extra meat more than a month ago for its locations in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, which are each about 20 minutes from the stadium where World Cup matches are played.

It takes Terry Black’s four days to season and prepare its beef brisket and 12 hours to barbecue it. The chain also smokes turkey, pork and sausages on its pits, which run 24 hours a day.

The crush of World Cup fans has meant a lot of extra planning, said Darien Kapture, the chain’s senior vice president of food and beverage operations. But it's also meant a lot of excitement, like the night Argentina supporters packed Terry Black's Dallas location to celebrate the team's victory over Austria, Kapture said.

“They were hooting and hollering and praising the brisket,” Kapture said. “It’s great to see that these folks are coming to America and getting to experience what we experience every day.”

Goodwin, the visitor from London who said he “blew his mortgage” on a U.S. World Cup tour with his dad, deemed Terry Black's barbecue “the most gorgeous food ever.”

“The best food we’ve had here is in Dallas," Goodwin said. “Texas barbecue. Unbelievable.”

TSA reminds ranch dressing converts not to pack bottles in carry-on bags

Not every review has been positive. Some fans have complained about the high price of food in World Cup stadiums, for example. A British fan told the BBC that the breakfast tea he bought from Dunkin' was “not great.”

But for the most part, there have been more thumbs up than thumbs down. So many World Cup visitors expressed love for ranch dressing, for example, that the Transportation Security Administration issued a light-hearted reminder that tourists should pack bottles of dressing in their checked bags.

___

AP Sports Writer Maura Carey contributed from Atlanta. AP Video Journalist Mike Householder contributed from Toronto.

U.S. Gen. Alex Grynkewich urged Europeans to make more equipment available after the U.S. signaled on June 3 that it would no longer supply an aircraft carrier and support ships, aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets, among other assets, to the continent.

He also began weighing back up plans in case of an attack against Europe.

The so-called NATO Force Model is the alliance’s Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets that commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.

“In a matter of weeks, European Allies have largely filled the gaps left by U.S. reductions to the NATO Force Model,” Grynkewich said, days before President Donald Trump and his counterparts gather for a July 7-8 summit in Turkey, where force planning will be high on the agenda.

“And in those few areas where they haven’t, where they do not currently have a like capability to replace, we are looking at alternate capabilities with matching effect,” Grynkewich said. He provided no details.

In a decision that took many allies by surprise, the Pentagon informed its NATO allies that it would no longer provide as much as it focuses on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

European allies and Canada scoured their inventories to see what could be offered should one of them come under attack. Britain, for example, has put a second aircraft carrier and F35 fighter jets on a higher level of readiness for use in emergencies.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has played down the impact of the Trump administration’s decision. He believes the United States would shift more resources to Europe should conflict arise, just as it did for the war on Iran.

“This is not about where forces and assets are currently located,” Rutte said last month. “It’s about who would do what if our defense plans were activated. So, let’s say in case of an Article 5 situation.”

Under NATO’s collective security guarantee — Article 5 of its founding treaty — the 32 allies pledge that an attack on one of them will be considered an attack on all. It does not oblige them to provide military support, although many likely would.

They would like to expand their farm's reach beyond their farm stand, but it's challenging. Like many small food producers, the Spears have sought financial assistance through federal programs. Some have been cut or significantly scaled back under the Trump Administration, including U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that helped tribal farmers.

Tribes relied on these programs to grow and distribute culturally-significant foods locally.

“When we go into these federal programs, we’re hoping that they’ll last long enough,” Cassius Spears said. “They usually start out with a good song and dance. And they’re going to last a long time. And then something happens where they get cut.”

Programs help state and tribal governments purchase local food

The Biden administration started two programs during the pandemic to help states and tribes purchase local food from nearby farmers for food banks and schools: the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS). These programs offered farmers, including tribal farmers, reliable markets for their products. Tribal governments received assistance to purchase food from local producers to distribute to tribal members.

This allowed tribes to get federal dollars directly to small-scale producers, said Carly Griffith Hotvedt, executive director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative and a member of Cherokee Nation. The Spears' farm provided food for a tribal farm in nearby Connecticut that used LFPA funds, after an agreement was signed in August 2022.

In some instances, tribes used those dollars to source culturally-significant foods for tribal members such as bison meat, certain types of berries and wild rice that were included as part of a food box distribution. For some low-income tribal members, it was the best way to access these types of foods, Hotvedt said.

“It wasn’t just commodity foods in that box. It was highly local, traditionally relevant, culturally relevant foods that were included,” Hotvedt said.

In March 2025, under the Trump administration, the Agriculture Department ended the two programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks, saying that they no longer aligned with the agency's goals.

Congress considers new funding for farmers

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Sen. Jim Justice, a West Virginia Republican, introduced a bill they say takes the best from the two programs and creates a permanent grant program. It would allow state and tribal governments to buy local foods from local and regional producers to distribute to nearby hunger relief programs and schools.

Reed said he feared that when the USDA programs were cut, families across the country would have a more difficult time getting access to food. And, he said, the access wouldn't be to nutritious, freshly grown produce.

Reed said he’s hoping to get the legislation passed as part of the Farm Bill, the massive, multi-year law that governs agricultural and food programs. The House passed its version of the bill in April, and a Senate committee released its draft in late June. The House version also includes a bipartisan proposal for a permanent program modeled after the Local Food Purchase Assistance program. It would allow states, through the USDA, to establish cooperative agreements connecting local farmers and producers with local food distribution organizations.

Both proposals would set aside 10% of the program’s funding for tribes.

For a new program to succeed, Congress must include mandatory funding in order to help farmers better plan, purchase supplies and hire staff because they know they’re going to sell products through those programs, said Hannah Quigley, a policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. The House version would require Congress to agree on funding annually, she added.

Reed said he's advocating for mandatory funding in the Senate because without it very little is funded these days, and because farms are under so much pressure economically. An optional program wouldn't help them as much, he said.

“We really want to punch through the existing obstacles for small farmers and Native American farmers,” he said.

Teaching the next generation about where food comes from

Dawn and Cassius Spears would like to see Indigenous producers prioritized when tribal entities purchase food. And they said they think having dedicated programs that Indigenous producers can access outside of their tribal government would help more Indigenous producers.

Under the canopy of one of her farm’s high tunnels at the start of this year's planting season, Dawn Spears carefully organized her tomato crop, separating the tiny plants before moving them to a field outside. The name of the 6-acre farm is an homage to the Narragansett name of the river that flows through town. It started as a small community garden and food sovereignty project.

One of her grandsons, 9-year-old Giizhig, walked in to ask if she needed help.

“Only if you want to,” Spears replied. “It’s always good to know how to do it, right?”

Teaching the next generation about where food comes from and how to grow responsibly is key for her. But her culture isn’t just about cultivating crops. It’s also about gathering foods they eat from the wild and being able to preserve and access land where those foods are.

She's working to protect the land around their farm as development grows with the hope of introducing native plants into that area that can be foraged for food. Federal funding programs can also help with securing access to land, she said.

“If you take a person away from the land that they come from, then it’s like they’re not whole,” she said. “We have to eat the food that’s naturally from that space that we come from.”

___

McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

___

Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

___

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

The match, which was the 44-year-old Williams’ first singles contest in nearly four years, had a peak of 2.1 million viewers despite being played on a Tuesday afternoon in the U.S, the network said Friday.

Williams was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 by 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia but showed she could be competitive with an opponent less than half her age after being away for so long.

The viewing figures were higher than for last year's men's semifinals, which averaged 1.3 million viewers on ESPN. Last year's men's final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz averaged nearly 2.9 million viewers.

Williams was given wild card invitations to play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon and it remains to be seen whether she will still play doubles with older sister Venus.

Serena announced on Wednesday that she tweaked her right knee toward the end of the first set against Joint.

For the entire day on Tuesday, ESPN’s Wimbledon coverage averaged 937,000 which was an increase of 55% compared to last year and the highest ever for a Day 2.

Overall, for Monday and Tuesday, it marked ESPN’s most-viewed first round for Wimbledon with an average of 734,000 viewers. Monday featured a five-set victory for defending champion Sinner and a four-set victory for seven-time champion Novak Djokovic.

___

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

Officers responded to the 200 block of Main Street around 8 p.m. Thursday after receiving a report about an intoxicated man. According to police, the caller said the suspect, 25-year-old Richard Omar Morales of Sharpsburg, Kentucky, had inappropriately touched a woman at a restaurant. Morales then reportedly left the scene in a truck, hit the JTI fountain and sped away westbound on Memorial Drive in a white 2019 GMC Denali.

After passing the intersection of Primrose Drive and Memorial Drive, Morales allegedly passed another vehicle on the right at a high rate of speed, hit a guardrail and lost control of the truck. Police say he crossed into oncoming lanes and struck a 2013 maroon Kia Optima head-on. The driver of the Kia, identified as 23-year-old Brandon Lovelace Martin of Clover, Virginia, died at the scene, authorities said.

Morales was taken to SOVAH Danville for medical treatment and later released.

He has been arrested and charged with the following offenses:

• Involuntary manslaughter
• Two counts of hit and run
• Two counts of property damage
• Trespassing
• Assault and battery
• Sexual battery

Morales is being held in the Danville City Jail without bond. The Danville Police Department said additional charges are pending.

The Furka Pass, at an altitude of 2,431 meters (7,976 feet), is among Switzerland's highest Alpine passes and famous for its hairpin curves featured in the 1964 James Bond “Goldfinger” movie. But long before 007 actor Sean Connery filmed a harrowing car chase scene there, a steam train first traversed the steep and winding route in a continuous journey on July 3, 1926, kicking off a vital rail link between the regions of Uri and Valais in central Switzerland for decades.

In the early 1980s, a tunnel at the base of the Alps diverted rail traffic and prompted the closure of the historic mountain route until volunteers stepped in. Hundreds of them, nicknamed the railway's “pioneers,” have spent hours to restore, maintain and operate the historic tracks and trains so they run the same as a century ago.

The first section of the line reopened as a heritage railway in 1992, and the 18-kilometer (11-mile) track was ready for travel in 2010. The steam trains now operate exclusively as a tourist attraction in the summers between the stations of Realp and Oberwald, where visitors can hop aboard vintage carriages and marvel at the scenery of rivers, Alpine meadows and lush green pastures where patches of snow still linger.

Tourists last month enjoyed their trips through the German-speaking region aboard the “dampflokomotive.” Passenger Stephan Willareth called his journey “wonderful,” while Kurt Guldemann, a former employee of the Swiss railways, heralded the history of the machines.

Bernhard Lang, one of the many enthusiasts who volunteer to drive the vintage steam trains, said it can take years to master the skill.

“It’s something like a living machine, so you have to get kind of the feeling for it," he said. “To feel how it behaves, how it moves, how it smells, how it sounds.”

Jacob Kallert, a 21-year-old German transport engineering student and the youngest train manager, said it's important to listen to the locomotives.

“You hear every sound, you hear if everything is right," he said. “You can pretty much feel how it was then and how it is now.”

Volunteer Sergio Rovelli said anyone who has dedicated their time to the project gets hooked.

"We say, in German, that everyone who works here has the ‘Furka Virus, the Furka disease,’" he joked. “Once you come here, you like it, and you stay.”

A one-way ticket starts at 46 Swiss francs ($56.82) for a journey that lasts just under 2 1/2 hours. The anniversary celebration began Friday and continue through the weekend.

The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% while that for the Dow slipped 0.2%. U.S. markets will be closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

In European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.4% to 25,667.73 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% lower, to 8,471.19. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4% to 10,613.55.

In Asia, South Korea's Kospi, which sank nearly 8% on Thursday, gained 5.8% to 8,088.34. Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company and a major maker of computer chips, gained 8.2%, while its smaller rival SK Hynix jumped 10.9%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.5% to 69,744.07. Chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 0.4%, while memory maker Kioxia jumped 9.2%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.3% to 23,350.03 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.4% to 4,043.64.

Taiwan's Taiex edged 0.1% higher, while the Sensex in India rose 0.4%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 1.4% to 8,844.40.

“Asian stocks found some footing after two bruising tech-led sessions, with the Korean market once again showing how quickly a stretched rubber band can snap back when everyone leans the same way,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

On Thursday, most U.S. stocks rose as the Dow snagged another record, gaining 1.1% to 52,900.07.

Drops for computer chip companies and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom kept indexes mixed.

The S&P 500 finished the day virtually unchanged and edged up by less than 0.1%, even though seven out of every 10 stocks within the index rose. It closed at 7,483.24.

The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.8% to 25,382.67.

Stocks broadly got some help from a report showing U.S. employers added 57,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That’s good for the economy, but it was also short of the 100,000 jobs that economists expected and a slowdown from May’s hiring pace.

The weaker-than-expected result could relieve pressure on inflation, which has been accelerating worldwide because of jumps in oil prices caused by the war with Iran. Now that oil prices are back below where they were before the war, if inflation slows in upcoming months, the Federal Reserve may feel less need to raise interest rates several times this year.

That would be a boon for investors, who tend to love lower interest rates because they make it less expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money and spend. Lower rates also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other investments.

Stocks of companies in the crypto industry were also strong after the price of bitcoin rose roughly 2%, a day after dropping near its lowest level since 2024. Robinhood Markets rose 3.8%, and Coinbase Global gained 3.9%. Bitcoin rose 0.9% early Friday.

Selling of computer chip companies' shares has weighed on indexes. They’ve come under pressure because of worries that their stock prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI and that all the spending on chips and data centers may not yield as much profit and productivity growth as hoped.

Memory maker Micron Technology erased an early gain to drop 5.5%, a day after plunging 10.6%. Nvidia fell 1.4%, and Lam Research sank 10.2%. They were some of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 because they’ve grown so huge in size amid AI mania.

Nvidia has a total value of nearly $4.7 trillion, so its stock’s movements have more weight on the S&P 500 than any other.

In other trading early Friday, Brent crude, the international standard, shed less than 0.1% to $71.76 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude gave up 0.2% to $68.48 a barrel.

The dollar rose to 161.14 Japanese yen from 161.11 yen. The euro rose to $1.1451 from $1.1431.

“We saw a lot of bodies that had not yet been identified,” López said.

The rush is on across La Guaira, the state on Venezuela’s northern coast hardest hit by the powerful back-to-back June 24 earthquakes, to identify loved ones before it’s too late. With at least 2,295 people killed, Venezuela is overwhelmed with bodies that officials are struggling to collect, identify and preserve for loved ones to claim. Thousands are still missing.

José Antonio Toledo, López's 25-year-old son-in-law, was found under the building where he was working as a security guard when the quakes struck. Crews took his body to a local hospital, where staff turned them away because there was no space. The body was sent to another facility and eventually transferred to an open parking lot.

A forensic doctor helped the family find him days later, on Saturday. But once they identified his body, they didn’t know what to do with it because they couldn’t afford the $450 that a funeral home was charging.

At almost midnight on Saturday, López got word that the mayor’s office was offering them a free space at a local cemetery, but they had to move quickly to not lose the spot. An hour later, López and her daughter trudged up a hill leading to the cemetery and buried Toledo.

“He was an exemplary person, a boy who liked helping people,” López said.

They saved him from a mass grave that many fear is coming as they search for the bodies of their loved ones.

The number of bodies found is expected to soar

Forensic technician Joel Mirabal has worked for seven days straight since the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck.

The 45-year-old estimates that in 60% to 70% of cases, there’s a relative or neighbor available to identify a body when he comes to pick it up. Even so, it’s a struggle, he said, with many relying on tattoos, scars or familiar clothing.

“They don’t look even 10% like what they were in real life,” he said of the victims.

If a body cannot be identified, it goes to forensic specialists working at La Guaira seaport. Private companies have donated large cooling containers to help preserve the bodies, but the number of dead keeps growing.

“Obviously, mass graves will have to be created,” Mirabal said. “The collapse is massive, and the bodies are buried under many layers of debris.”

Mirabal said he and other forensic technicians anticipate spending up to three months collecting bodies.

They drive around the affected areas every day, led by rescue crews and civilians who have recovered or spotted bodies.

“Many of the rescues are carried out by the people,” he said of the thousands of ordinary Venezuelans who have pitched in for the recovery effort.

A dog trainer by profession who once helped the government locate drugs and missing people, Mirabal finds solace in the 12 dogs waiting for him at home, not counting the puppies. One of his favorites is Mila, a young black Dutch Shepherd who lay by his side on Thursday as he rested.

“It’s not easy at all to witness the suffering and tragedy of your fellow human beings,” he said.

Venezuelans wait in line to try to identify loved ones

Over the weekend, crews took dozens of bodies recovered from flattened buildings to a government-run health care facility in the city of La Guaira. They were left on a sweltering parking lot until families identified them, with funeral home workers estimating that more than 200 bodies were kept there at one point.

On Thursday, those who lost loved ones waited outside La Guaira seaport to identify bodies that authorities continue to pick up across the coastal state. Cars, including trucks and vans from funeral homes, formed a line outside a makeshift morgue.

Among those waiting was Robert Rodríguez. He sat on a concrete block, crestfallen, his legs dangling, waiting for his daughter to identify the body of his son-in-law. Rafael Alvarado died trapped inside a grocery store where he worked at the deli counter.

“He was her best friend,” Rodríguez said, referring to the couple as tears soaked his blue face mask.

Rodríguez said the family found Alvarado in the rubble on Wednesday, his body freed and transported to the port on Thursday.

“I saw his shoes and knew it was him,” Rodríguez said, adding that he warned his daughter. “I told her, ‘Prepare yourself.’”

He said the family plans to cremate Alvarado and scatter his ashes on Isla de Margarita, the Venezuelan island that was his home.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Hoffman, who won the Academy Award for best actor for his role in “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979) and “Rain Man” (1988), will be honored for his outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema on the opening night Friday.

On Saturday, Hoffman will present “The Graduate,” his big movie from 1967 that earned him his first Academy Award nomination.

Binoche, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in “The English Patient” (1996) and a number of other prizes, will receive the same award as Hoffman at the closing ceremony on July 11.

The festival will screen three of her movies: “Certified Copy” (2010), “Three Colors: Blue” (1993) and In-I in Motion (2025).

American cinematographer Robert Richardson, who is known for his work for directors Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, will be the third guest of the festival to receive the award.

Richardson, the three-time Oscar winner for best cinematography, will introduce his feature documentary portrait “Robert Richardson: The White Devil” on Saturday.

The grand jury of the festival, which takes place in the western Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary, will consider 12 movies for the top prize, the Crystal Globe.

When Is Independence Day Observed in 2026?

Independence Day falls on a Saturday this year, which means many government offices and agencies, including post offices, along with most financial institutions that aren’t already closed for the weekend, will be closed.

Because the federal holiday lands on a weekend, Independence Day will be observed on Friday, July 3. Typically, when a federal holiday falls on a weekend, it’s observed on either Friday or Monday.

Is July 3 a Federal Holiday?

With the holiday observed on Friday, July 3, many are wondering what will be open and what will be closed. Here’s what you need to know as you plan your weekend.

Government Offices and Agencies

Most government offices and agencies in Virginia, including federal and state offices like the Virginia DMV, will be closed on Friday, July 3.

Banks

Most credit unions and banks will be open during their standard operating hours on Friday, July 3. However, some branches may have adjusted hours or may close early ahead of Independence Day, so it’s a good idea to confirm local hours before visiting. Banks and other financial institutions will be closed on Saturday, July 4, and will not reopen until Monday, July 6.

Mail Delivery

The U.S. Postal Service will be business as usual on Friday, July 3, with regular mail delivery and post office services available. Post offices will be closed on Saturday, July 4, and there will be no mail delivery that day.

UPS will also pick up and deliver as usual on Friday, but will not operate on Saturday, July 4.

FedEx is expected to pick up and deliver on Friday, though some locations may have modified services, including early on-call pickups and drop box pickups. FedEx retail locations may also have adjusted hours on July 3, so it’s best to check with your local FedEx Office before stopping by.

All mail services will return to normal operations on Monday, July 6.

Retail Stores

Most major retailers and grocery stores, including Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco, will remain open, though hours may vary by location.

Stock Market

All New York Stock Exchange markets will be closed on Friday, July 3, and trading will not resume until Monday, July 6, at 9:30 a.m.

In June, the bellowing and blubbery 5-year-old mammal hauled himself onto land for his twice-yearly tour of beachside towns in southern Tasmania state after months of feeding at sea. That's posing problems now that he weighs as much as a small car and has a social media following more than double Tasmania’s human population.

His rampage through local infrastructure has claimed bent traffic bollards, a sign warning the public about seals and a fence that did not survive Neil’s attempt to vault it. The rest of the time he lies placidly any place he likes, which is sometimes the middle of the road, bringing towns he visits to a standstill.

But officials say their biggest concern is that Neil's popularity could lead to ill-advised human-seal encounters that are dangerous for both sides.

Neil is a bad boy with a long rap sheet

Neil, the only male elephant seal to visit Tasmania in years, has commanded an enthralled TikTok following of 1.4 million in part because he acts like kind of a jerk. During this visit to shore, his 12th, his crimes have included picking fights with parked cars and smashing through barriers erected to keep him off roads.

Those antics have prompted some online to hail Neil as a kind of anti-authoritarian hero. But experts say it's normal experimentation for a growing seal.

Juvenile male elephant seals need to practice for dominance battles in which adults rear up and crash their chests together as they compete for breeding opportunities, said Sophia Volzke, an elephant seal scientist based at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

With no other juveniles to practice with, Neil can only rehearse on Toyotas.

Officials plead for fans to leave Neil alone

Local officials fear that Neil is the latest wild animal whose social media stardom has outgrown what’s good for him.

“Neil’s fame is a bit of a double-edged sword,” said Kris Carlyon from Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, at a news conference in Hobart on Thursday in which he asked the seal’s fans to give him privacy.

“We have had some pretty silly behavior, instances with people carrying their small babies up close to him and simply trying to get that shot for Instagram,” he said.

Officials have urged the public to refrain from identifying the town Neil is currently delighting or terrorizing, depending on who you speak to. They fear a disastrous encounter between the seal and an admirer could force rangers into a risky operation to move him elsewhere.

Carlyon also warned of worse. In a 2023 episode, a walrus known as Freya who drew huge crowds in Norway was euthanized after officials cited a growing risk to human safety.

“There is a risk here of essentially loving Neil to death,” Carlyon said.

Neil’s problems will get bigger as he does

It’s usual for seals to return biannually to the place they were born to rest, fast and shed fur. Many species roam inland during visits to shore, sometimes leading them into beachside towns.

What’s unusual about Neil is that he's the only male elephant seal hauling ashore in Tasmania.

Sub-Antarctic islands south of Tasmania are home to breeding populations of elephant seals and Neil’s mother would have arrived from one of them to give birth, Volzke said. Females have been spotted ashore in Tasmania before, but topping out at the size Neil reached when he was a year or two old, they don't cause the same kind of chaos, she added.

“Humans got rid of those animals and now maybe they are coming back and repopulating areas that they were previously seen in,” she said. “We do need to find a way to coexist.”

That could prove tricky for Neil, and for the rangers, police officers and security guards who follow in his wake. If he survives to adulthood, Neil could measure up to 5 meters (16 feet) in length and weigh triple what he does now.

However, about 90% of male elephant seals die before they reach a breeding age of around 10, Volzke said.

For now, Neil the seal is occupying a stretch of sidewalk, unmoving and unbothered. Sometimes he canoodles with an orange traffic cone, to the delight of his online followers. It isn't clear why he prefers that location, which he has returned to even after being ushered away by rangers.

“He’s obviously decided this puddle surrounded by bollards, which are horizontal at the moment, is his spot,” said Carlyon on Thursday.

His fans can relate. The locals have mixed feelings.

“He’s one of our biggest exports at the moment,” said Dale Creamer, a resident of the town that the seal is currently trashing, who has not been personally inconvenienced. “It’s Neil’s world and we’re just living in it.”

Belgium rallied from 2-0 down to secure a dramatic 3-2 win, with a goal deep into extra time, on Wednesday and next faces the United States on Monday in Seattle.

Senegal led 2-0 with five minutes remaining but late goals by Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans pushed the round of 32 match into extra time. Tielemans then scored a penalty in the 125th minute.

Garcia was interviewed on television moments after the game. He said: “We know those teams, they lose their tactical structure toward the end of the match."

He then added: "We also knew that at 2-0 (up) they would do everything to protect their goal, which in my opinion is a grave mistake. Remind me when we're leading 2-0 not to do that."

Garcia's comments were perceived by some observers to be aimed at shortcomings of African soccer. The 62-year-old Frenchman posted a message on Instagram on Thursday night to clarify his words and said they were in no way a criticism of African teams.

“When I spoke of ‘those teams,’ I was referring to teams unaccustomed to managing a lead in high-level World Cup matches. My comments were by no means aimed at African teams," Garcia said.

"They could just as easily have applied to Asian, South American or European teams unfamiliar with that kind of pressure. As a less experienced coach myself, I learned the hard way that stopping play to defend a result at all costs is counterproductive.”

Statisticians Opta reminded Garcia of that by posting a message on X saying that, when he was coaching in French soccer, he lost three Ligue 1 matches after leading 2-0.

Garcia coached Lille to the league and French Cup double in 2011. He went on to lead Marseille and Lyon, as well as Roma and Napoli in Italy, before taking charge of Belgium in January last year. ___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The states and federal government accused Cal-Maine Foods, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch of a behind-the-scenes arrangement to “artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs" between June 2022 and March 2025. In particular, their investigation found that the companies coordinated on what bids they would submit to Urner Barry Publications, a company that runs an index key to determining how much grocery stores, restaurants and others pay for billions of eggs each year.

In turn, that meant “higher prices for eggs sold to consumers,” alleged the complaint, which was filed in Iowa on Monday, the day the settlement terms were announced.

“When powerful corporations collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families suffer the costs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who helped lead the investigation, said in a statement. “These egg producers manipulated the market to squeeze even more profit out of consumers and businesses."

None of the companies admitted wrongdoing under the settlements. But to settle the states' claims, Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman's will collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and 53 million eggs, James and others said. Those eggs would be donated by the companies and make their ways to food banks and nonprofits. The money will be distributed to the states.

The Justice Department and the states also outlined actions the companies will need to take, including adopting antitrust compliance programs and banning communicating with competitors on pricing and bidding strategies.

The settlements would still need court approval. The Justice Department's Omeed A. Assefi said Tuesday that the proposed settlements “resolve years of conduct that dragged on Americans’ finances and their everyday lives.”

Average U.S. egg prices soared to a record high of about $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, amid a bird flu epidemic that forced farmers to slaughter millions of egg-laying chickens. Egg producers blamed price spike on the outbreak, but critics accused big companies of taking advantage of their market dominance and the government began its investigation.

Monday’s complaint notes that price quotations “dropped significantly” after Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s learned of the Justice Department’s investigation and were instructed to preserve documents in March 2025. Consumer egg prices also later tumbled — to under $2.20 per dozen as of May 2026 — as replenished flocks caught up despite the ongoing outbreak.

Cal-Maine maintained Monday that allegations of price manipulation were “baseless” and that it believes its conduct has been legal. It also noted that while it was part of a cooperative with the other egg producers, it left the group in May 2024.

Still, Cal-Maine CEO Sherman Miller said the company's settlement agreement “enables us to move forward so we can devote our full attention to what matters most: delivering affordable, high-quality eggs and egg-based prepared foods to consumers nationwide.”

Miller added the period the Justice Department reviewed “was a particularly challenging time” — noting that, beyond avian flu, the COVID-19 pandemic, weather and other market conditions have contributed to temporary supply shocks and high prices in recent years. He said Cal-Maine “took numerous steps to protect and grow its hen flock” in that time.

Versova echoed a similar sentiment, particularly pointing to the toll the bird flu has had on its farmers, who it noted “don’t set the wholesale price of eggs.” Instead, Versova said the price of most of its eggs depends on cost fluctuations of grain used in hen feeds.

Meanwhile, Hickman's owner Mantiqueira USA, which acquired the egg producer in November, said the “conduct referenced in the complaint predates our acquisition," noting that it is committed to complying with the law.

Some advocacy groups say the proposed settlements aren't enough.

“Consumers paid record prices while dominant egg producers reported extraordinary profits, yet the result is another settlement that corporations can treat as the cost of doing business rather than meaningful accountability,” said Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action.

Cal-Maine — the only of the three companies that is public and reports quarterly financials — reported a profit of $1.22 billion for the 2025 fiscal year. Under its settlement agreement with the states, the company would pay $1.5 million and donate 30 million eggs.

Meanwhile, per court documents, Versova would provide 20 million eggs and $800,000, and Hickman's would be on the hook for 3.25 million eggs and $1 million.

In addition to New York, these states were party to the settlement agreements: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The news agency didn't give a cause of death but said the 70-year-old Lam had a cancer relapse last year and was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday. He fell into a coma on Wednesday and died Thursday evening, according to the report.

Lam, who was the manager of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, moved to Taipei in 2019 over fears of legal troubles and reopened the bookstore under the same name in the Taiwanese capital in 2020.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te offered his condolences in a Facebook post.

“The passing of Mr Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade,” Lai wrote. “Taiwan will remember that a Hong Kong bookstore worker once told us in the most ordinary yet most steadfast way how precious freedom is and reminded us that democracy requires the efforts of generation after generation to defend it.”

Lam was one of five people affiliated with Causeway Bay Books who disappeared in late 2015. The store sold books and magazines that were not available in mainland China, including some that purported to reveal secrets about the inside lives of Chinese leaders and the scandals surrounding them.

The disappearances raised concern about Beijing's growing reach into Hong Kong and the erosion of freedoms in the city, which is part of China but has its own legal system and laws.

One of the five, Gui Minhai, a publisher who was a part-owner of Causeway Bay Books, went missing from his holiday home in Thailand. He was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in prison in China on a charge of illegally providing intelligence overseas.

In an act of defiance, Lam gave an explosive account of his experience in 2016 that contradicted official Chinese accounts of what happened to the five booksellers.

He said that he was seized by Chinese authorities in October 2015 after crossing the border from Hong Kong to the city of Shenzhen on China's mainland, and that he was blindfolded for a 13-hour train ride to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was kept under 24-hour surveillance in a room for five months by rotating two-person teams.

Speaking to a packed news conference in Hong Kong, he said he was later forced to appear on Chinese television to confess to crimes.

Last month, Lam told the Central News Agency that he had temporarily closed the bookstore in Taipei because of his health and that he couldn't say when it might reopen. A man from Hong Kong, who did not give his name, left a white rose outside the entrance to the shop on Monday.

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have further tightened control over the city, shutting down virtually all dissent, following massive anti-government protests in 2019.

Hong Kong police, acting under a 2024 national security law, arrested two people in June who reportedly own a bookstore. They are suspected of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organizations, police said.

Yet the anti-migration nationalist party is as polarizing as ever. Its meeting is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters to the eastern city of Erfurt.

An established political force

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is meeting to elect its leaders, which German parties do every two years. It will aim to put on a show of unity as it extends the terms of Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have run the party together for four years.

In last year's national election, AfD achieved the best showing by a far-right party since World War II. Its second-place finish left it as the biggest opposition party nationally and the strongest political force in Germany's formerly communist east. Its support has since climbed above the 20.8% it won then, with recent assessments putting it in first place.

Weidel said recently that “2026 is a year of destiny for AfD.” Mainstream parties say they won’t work with it, a stance often known as a “firewall.”

But it hopes to win 40% of the vote or more in a state election Sept. 6 in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt. That could put it on course for an absolute majority or in a position where it might try to attract defectors, paving the way for its first state governor.

Another eastern state election follows two weeks later in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and AfD is optimistic there too.

A slice of power

“AfD is standing before the gates of power, to some extent,” said Albrecht von Lucke, a political expert who edits the magazine Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik.

AfD's first head of a county administration was elected in 2023 in Thuringia, the state where Erfurt is located. No more have followed since, as enough voters rallied around mainstream candidates to prevent a repeat.

But leading a state administration would be a far bigger prize. Germany's 16 states have extensive powers, for example in running the education system and in overseeing security matters.

Opponents worry about the prospect of AfD replacing large numbers of civil servants if it governs Saxony-Anhalt, and about the possibility of confidential information ending up in far-right circles or even Russia. “An AfD interior minister would be a security risk,” Gregor Maier, Thuringia's center-left interior minister, told ARD television.

AfD rejects concerns about it running a state government. “We will prove that we can do it better, and that is exactly what the old parties are afraid of,” Chrupalla said this week at a rally in Berlin.

Von Lucke, however, said it would be “a huge challenge” for the party to show it can govern Saxony-Anhalt well, with internal conflicts likely. “A lot speaks for this not succeeding,” he said.

A government under pressure

AfD has been helped by the deep unpopularity of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's national coalition government, which took office 14 months ago with pledges to reform and turn around Germany’s economy, Europe’s biggest. It is now embarking on potentially painful change after a long period of economic stagnation, but has yet to persuade voters that it can produce results.

Merz has pleaded for patience.

“It is unrealistic always just to lament decline, mope and wait for a big bang,” he said at an industry meeting recently. “There isn't going to be one. We are in a reform process ... and we are moving forward in this process.”

“We want to show that solutions are possible from the political center of this country, that we also recognize the problems correctly,” he added.

But AfD has long become adept at harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its signature theme of curbing migration, which powered its rise in the mid-2010s.

It has been supportive of the Trump administration's general approach, while criticizing the war in Iran. It also has long called for lifting of sanctions against Russia and opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Merz, Chrupalla said, “thinks he has to escalate against Russia, like in the Cold War. He should be building bridges.”

A party under scrutiny

AfD is locked in a battle with Germany's domestic intelligence agency over the latter's assessment of the party. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced last year that it was classifying AfD as a proven right-wing extremist group, but suspended the designation after a legal challenge. In February, a Cologne court said the agency can't use the designation while it considers the party's lawsuit in detail.

Some want to see the party banned, and protesters expected to turn out in force on Saturday and Sunday likely will underline those calls. But Germany's supreme court has set the bar for banning parties very high in the past.

Opponents of the idea are wary of handing AfD a victory by having a plea for a ban rejected after lengthy proceedings. Merz and conservative allies say the priority should be for the government to prove it can improve Germans' lives.

In a 2025 report issued on Tuesday, the intelligence agency said there were no indications that the party had backed off its problematic views.

“Many statements by the AfD and its representatives reflect an understanding of the nation that is based on ethnicity and ancestry and contradicts the understanding of the nation enshrined in Germany's constitution,” it said. It pointed to calls for the “remigration” of millions of people and to regular talk of an allegedly planned “great replacement” of the population.

AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism and argues the agency is being weaponized by mainstream parties.

___

Kerstin Sopke in Berlin contributed to this report.

A heat wave is expected to continue across the eastern and central U.S. through the end of the week, with peak heat indexes — which combine air temperature with humidity — between 100 F to 115 F (37.78 C to 46.11 C), according to the National Weather Service. High night temperatures will bring little relief and records could be broken.

Earlier this week, French players cooled off from temperatures that hit 90 F (32.22 C) with field sprinklers during their match against Sweden in New Jersey.

Concerns about extreme heat during the games in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been growing for months, with some scientists saying that FIFA's heat safety guidelines are “inadequate” and “impossible to justify," even for heat acclimatized players. For spectators, that could mean games are slower and less intense.

The world has warmed roughly 1.26 F (0.7 C) in the last three decades since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, according to the climate monitoring group Berkeley Earth. Global temperature increases intensify and make heat waves and other severe weather more common.

The humid heat engulfing the country, as well as parts of Canada, would've been “virtually impossible” without climate change, scientists with the World Weather Attribution said Friday.

The 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar was moved from summer to winter because of the extreme heat threat, and last year, temperatures soared at the Club World Cup. The soccer players’ global union warned that extreme heat would likely be a bigger problem at this and the next World Cups.

One of the hottest World Cup games was in 1994 in Orlando, Florida, when temperatures hit 110 F (43.33 C).

Heat is a leading killer of athletes

Heat hits people from both their surroundings as well as while their bodies warm during exercise. That makes it harder to cool down when it's really hot and humid, said Bharat Venkat, director of the Heat Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“So when you’re exerting yourself on a particularly hot day, the likelihood of experiencing heat related illness or even death is much higher,” he said.

Intense exercise on a sizzling day can lead to extreme fatigue, impaired performance, headache, irritability, nausea, dizziness, cramping and dehydration, all symptoms of exertional heat illness.

Exertional heat stroke requires immediate medical attention and is the third leading cause of death in athletes.

When the wet bulb globe temperature — which includes temperature, humidity, cloud cover and wind — reaches above about 95 F (35 C), people lose their ability to cool off quickly, said Ryan Calsbeek, professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College, and "the physiological mechanisms just break down.”

Heat-induced confusion could also influence a player's decisions and could determine a match's outcome, he said.

Are FIFA's heat safety rules enough?

Mandatory three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half are to protect players, and referees, from extreme heat illness. But they've sparked criticism from different groups: some say they're interrupting the game’s flow and give coaches a chance to shift momentum in their team’s favor, while some scientists have said the breaks should be longer to allow players to meaningfully cool and rehydrate when heat is extreme.

Matches outdoors during peak heat hours have also been limited, and those expected in warmer windows are prioritized for covered stadiums, FIFA said.

FIFA's guidelines say a match could be postponed if the wet bulb globe temperature reaches 89.60 F (32 C). But that temperature is “so extreme that in the military, at our basic training facilities in America, if it reaches 32, it’s black flag and all training has to be canceled and stopped," said Douglas Casa, CEO of the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute.

Temperatures are forecast over 100 F (37.78 C) during Saturday's game in Philadelphia. The player’s union FIFPRO, as well as the American College of Sports Medicine, has called for matches to be delayed at 82.40 F (28 C) for safety.

Players can train for heat stress during exercise

Guilherme Passos monitors and prepares Brazil’s national team for extreme heat as a sport scientist at the Brazilian Football Federation.

He's helped the team acclimate to the U.S. heat. “If you expose them straight to the hottest time of the day you can lose a bit of training quality," he said. They use saunas or hot baths as they heat train during the competition.

When Brazil hosted the World Cup in 2014, Passos said, players covered less distance and reduced high-speed running, and instead increased their technical and tactical precision.

“Soccer players are a really unique mix of athletic attributes," said Calsbeek. “They have to have extreme endurance and explosive speed. And then on top of that, they have to make really critical decisions. All of those different facets of the sport will be affected by the temperature."

But soccer players aren't the only ones at risk. Many soccer fans are drinking alcohol and watching the World Cup. In heat, doing that is risky. Cities and stadiums have increased access to shade, cooling areas and water, and medical personnel are stationed in FIFA Fan Festivals and around stadiums.

“People are going to be dehydrated, super excited, and not wanting to leave the match,” said Calsbeek. “We’re likely to see, in those extreme temperatures, spectators pay the price as well.”

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

The government this week introduced to Parliament amendments aimed at increasing powers of the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, to enforce the ban on Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube that has been in place since December.

The amendments would have given Inman Grant power to demand documents as well as information from platforms about their efforts to exclude young children. She can currently only demand information.

But the conservative opposition Liberal Party and minor Australian Greens party referred the draft legislation Thursday to an eight-week Senate inquiry. The center-left Labor Party government does not hold a majority in the Senate.

“It is outrageous the delay because what the eSafety Commissioner has said very clearly is that that will allow the platforms to go and just delete a whole lot of material,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“Whereas if it was passed yesterday, that would have been the date from which these demands could be made by the commissioner. So then fines can be issued,” he added.

The amendments would also give the commissioner power to demand information from third parties, including age assurance technology providers, to test claims made by platforms about how children continued to circumvent the ban.

The bill would double the maximum fine to 99 million Australian dollars ($68 million) for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children.

Greens Sen. David Shoebridge, who has always opposed the social media ban, questioned why a fine that had never been issued needed to be doubled.

“Doubling penalties that they've never used doesn't seem to me to be a meaningful measure,” Shoebridge told Sky News Australia. “Is that really going to be the thing that keeps kids safe online?”

Opposition communications spokesperson Sen. Sarah Henderson said the amendments needed to be tougher.

“This is a social media ban which is failing; a half-baked law which is poorly designed, which was rushed, which is badly implemented and which is not working,” Henderson said.

“We will interrogate this bill properly and, frankly, I think the amendments before the Parliament need to be tougher,” she added.

Parliament passed the initial legislation with overwhelming support in 2024. The 10 targeted platforms were given more than a year to implement the ban.

Many countries who have implemented or are planning similar restrictions have been closely watching progress of Australia’s ban.

The government initially reported more than 5 million children had accounts removed, deactivated or restricted after the ban became law.

But eSafety reported in March that seven in 10 children who held accounts on restricted platforms on Dec. 10 when the ban took effect remained on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

Inman Grant said in April she was considering court action against those platforms and YouTube, alleging they were not taking reasonable steps to exclude children.

She had been satisfied with progress made by the remaining restricted platforms: X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said this week she had received monthly updates from eSafety since March and “we are not seeing improvements.”

The right-hander struck out seven and walked none through six innings, throwing 50 of his 69 pitches for strikes. The only baserunner for the Angels had come when Denzer Guzmán reached second on a throwing error by Mariners third baseman J.P. Crawford with two outs in the fourth.

Guzmán followed Schanuel with a single of his own in the seventh, but Miller got through the inning with a 1-0 lead.

The 27-year-old Miller took a 3-2 record and 1.97 ERA into the game. His season debut was delayed by a strained left oblique muscle sustained in spring training, but he joined the rotation in mid-May.

Angels rookie Walbert Ureña also had a no-hitter going through five innings, before Crawford led off the sixth with a double.

James Paxton pitched the most recent no-hitter for Seattle in a game at Toronto on May 8, 2018. Paxton was born and raised in Canada.

The Angels haven’t been no-hit since Sept. 11, 1999 — the longest active streak in the majors. In that game, they lost 7-0 at Minnesota, shut down by Twins left-hander Eric Milton.

___

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

The 16-count indictment against Republican Liz Murrill, handed up by a New Orleans grand jury, charges Louisiana’s first female attorney general with intimidation and malfeasance. At the center of the case are deepening rifts between state leaders in Louisiana, which is heavily Republican, and Democrats who control the state’s most prominent city.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill would not have her reputation tarnished by an “Orleans Kangaroo court.” Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat, was among those who had accused the state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials.

Murrill called the case against her “retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional." Late Thursday, Murrill said she had filed for an emergency stay with the Louisiana Supreme Court.

“I will not back down. I will continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do,” she wrote on X.

For months, political tensions intensified between Louisiana Republicans and New Orleans officials over a new law that abolished a court clerk office won by an exoneree, Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison. The change consolidated that job with another clerk's office, which Republican supporters said would make the local judicial system more efficient.

The change was staunchly opposed by New Orleans leaders, and in May, the city council set a special election that would have given Duncan a chance to win the newly combined job. Murrill responded by warning local officials in letters that they could lose their offices for violating state “usurper” laws, which forbid support for an unauthorized officeholder.

“We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” special prosecutor Laurie White told reporters.

Bond set for Louisiana attorney general

Bond for Murrill was set at $400,000 on Thursday, according to court records.

Landry said he was ordering state police to investigate what he called “alleged improprieties” of the grand jury and those who ran it.

“The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” he wrote on X.

The Republican Attorneys General Association said that making statements to local officials — in writing — was simply “issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law” as part of her official duties. It called the indictment “as outrageous as it is dangerous.”

Moreno, who was elected in January and was defiant after Murrill sent the letters, on Thursday called it a “matter for the courts” and did not directly address the allegations.

“My focus, as always, remains on fulfilling the responsibilities the people of New Orleans elected me to carry out,” Moreno said.

Elected clerk says state targeted him

Duncan has said he believes state officials were retaliating against him in eliminating the job he won with 68% of the vote. Murrill and Landry have long refused to acknowledge his innocence, though he’s listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.

Republicans have said the change was not personal and supporters have noted that the offices of criminal and civil clerks of courts are combined in other parishes.

Duncan was a jailhouse lawyer who later graduated from law school. He founded a nonprofit dedicated to expanding incarcerated people’s access to the court system and was the driving force behind a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended nonunanimous jury convictions.

Duncan spent more than 28 years in prison over a fatal shooting during a robbery in 1981.

The night before a 2011 hearing to consider new evidence, prosecutors offered to reduce Duncan’s sentence to the time he’d already served in prison if he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery. Duncan took the deal and was freed but didn’t give up on clearing his name.

In 2021, a judge agreed that Duncan had been unjustly convicted and vacated his sentence altogether. Landry and Murrill have pointed to the 2011 plea deal in objecting to Duncan calling himself exonerated.

___

Associated Press reporter Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed.

“The Tale of KAHO” is the Japanese author's first full-length novel featuring a lone woman protagonist, according to Shinchosha Publishing Co.

“Kaho, a picture book author, is just an average young woman. But truly bizarre things start happening around her,” Murakami said in a brief message posted on the publisher’s campaign website. “I wrote this novel as I put myself in her shoes.”

His statement drew the attention of many fans, because most of Murakami's protagonists are young or middle-aged men.

“I'm excited about finding out how the story evolves around a female main character,” said Naoyuki Yamano, the first customer to buy the new Murakami novel.

Initially, the novel started as a short story titled “Kaho,” which Murakami rehearsed at a book reading event two years ago at Waseda University, his alma mater in Tokyo, with Mieko Kawakami, a renowned female author and fan of his work. The story was published in the June 2024 edition of Shincho magazine.

Takumi Hashimoto, a 33-year old office worker who attended the launch event with three fellow members of a Murakami book reading club, said he hopes to read a story from a female protagonist’s perspective and find out how the story evolved from a series of magazine stories into a full-length novel.

His companion, Mizuki Shirota, 33, said she was struck by the way Murakami portrayed the female protagonist’s emotions in the magazine version.

“The story was written in a way that makes you very aware of lookism, or how I, as a woman, am perceived by men ... there were parts that I even felt startled a bit," Shirota said. “So I want to read that again in the book."

Beaming and in all smiles, the group headed to a coffee shop open all night to immediately start reading the book.

One day, 26-year-old Kaho goes on a blind date arranged by her book editor. Over dinner, her date tells her that, although he has dated a number of women, “I’ve never seen one as ugly as you.” Baffled rather than outraged, curious Kaho tries to uncover the meaning of his words. Soon, bizarre things begin happening to her, including encounters with other mysterious characters, such as an anteater and a jaguar.

Murakami has since released three subsequent “Kaho” stories in Shincho magazine, most recently in the March edition. He weaves the four stories into a 352-page new novel with four chapters: “Kaho and the Motorcycle Man,” “The Anteater of Musashi-sakai,” “Kaho and the Termite Queen” and “The Guardian Angel, Elephant Egg and Scarlett Johansson.”

The magazine version of the first “Kaho” story has been published in English in The New Yorker, but the novel for now is available only in Japanese. Translation plans have not been disclosed.

The new book comes out three years after his previous novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” which follows a male protagonist navigating love, loss and the boundaries between real and subconscious worlds.

The self-described socialist government of Rodríguez, striving for legitimacy months after the United States removed former President Nicolás Maduro from power in January, has come under fire for what residents have described as a sluggish and haphazard response to the quakes.

Residents of the hardest-hit state, La Guaira, have complained that the initial absence of a serious government search-and-rescue operation left them alone to scour for neighbors and loved ones with their bare hands. Rescuers have lamented the country's shortages of specialized equipment. Experts have warned that substandard construction of social housing projects — a hallmark policy of former President Hugo Chávez — left neighborhoods vulnerable to quakes.

At a press conference for foreign journalists in the capital of Caracas late Thursday, Rodríguez, wearing a black ribbon as a symbol of mourning, refused to accept the criticism.

“We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately,” she said, lacing into media outlets that she accused of spreading misinformation. “To politicize a humanitarian tragedy like this — when the Venezuelan government and its authorities have spared no effort, public, private, national, or international — is disgraceful."

Authorities have counted at least 2,295 people killed by the earthquake as of Wednesday — a number that’s expected to rise. They did not offer an updated death toll on Thursday, and have maintained tight control over public communications and relief efforts.

A rare bright spot in the misery

The stench of decomposition hung heavy over streets of flattened buildings as rescue missions to find survivors of Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes increasingly turned to the recovery of corpses.

Desperate for good news, Venezuelan and international emergency workers celebrated the near-miraculous rescue of a 43-year-old security guard found alive after nearly eight days under the rubble — five days beyond the critical 72-hour mark following a quake when experts say finding survivors is most likely.

National broadcasters reran footage of the exuberant moment he was pried free from the collapsed mall and lifted onto a stretcher as crowds cheered. Trapped in an air pocket beneath the concrete, Hernán Alberto Gil Flores survived on the food and water that rescuers managed to pass him through crevices.

Elsewhere across La Guaira, an air of hopelessness was setting in. The port city of Catia La Mar teemed with officials carrying body bags and stacking wooden coffins.

More than 38,000 reports of missing people — many of them likely buried beneath the rubble — have been sent to a website set up by the Venezuelan opposition, as the government has not given official figures for those missing.

When one journalist asked Rodríguez about the true, still-unknown toll of the disaster, citing reports that the United Nations is procuring 10,000 body bags, Rodríguez defended the government's tally.

“We do not want to speculate," she said. “The numbers we provide are rigorously verified.”

In La Guaira, several of Chávez's signature social housing projects were razed by the earthquakes, prompting suspicions of flawed construction. Rodriguez deflected the accusations, claiming on Thursday that about 80% of the collapsed buildings were privately developed. She did not offer evidence.

Rodríguez’s denies a slow government response

Pressed on reports that residents were on their own in the first 48 hours after the quakes, with heavy machinery and official aid scarce, Rodríguez acknowledged that “naturally, at the sites where the building collapsed, the first people to arrive were survivors of the collapse itself, relatives and neighbors."

But she railed against what she called “narratives manufactured in propaganda laboratories" and claimed that a day after the quakes, “We had already mobilized the full capacity of the Venezuelan state together with the private sector.”

The disaster has evolved into the biggest test of competence yet for Rodríguez, who served as deputy to Maduro until his ouster and became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration.

Her comments Thursday came a day before the extension of her 180-day mandate as acting leader was set to expire. It was unclear what would happen once the deadline passes Friday.

Under Venezuela’s constitution, temporary absences are to be filled by the vice president — which was Rodríguez’s former role — for up to 90 days. These interim appointments can be extended by the national assembly for an additional 90 days. The National Assembly, controlled by Rodríguez’s party, can trigger a snap election if lawmakers declare the post permanently vacant.

U.S. support of a government under fire

In contrast to the aftermath of Venezuela's catastrophic 1999 landslides, when then-President Chávez rejected offers of assistance from an adversarial U.S., Rodríguez has publicly welcomed aid and rescue teams from governments across the political spectrum — including the Trump administration and its regional allies.

In expressing thanks for the foreign help, Rodríguez singled out Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Venezuela. She praised President Donald Trump and Secretary State of Marco Rubio, saying they “remained constantly attentive and offered support.”

Washington has thrown its support behind Rodríguez in its bid to open up Venezuela’s lucrative energy industry and largely turned its back on opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, who this week accused Rodríguez’s government of blocking her return to the country.

The U.S. has committed over $300 million and deployed some 900 military personnel to support rescue operations. On top of that, John M. Barrett, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Venezuela, said the U.S. would make revenue from Venezuelan oil production, controlled by the U.S. Treasury since Maduro’s seizure, available for relief efforts. That promise has made demands for more transparency in U.S. management of Venezuelan oil sales all the more urgent, analysts say.

“Venezuelans really need that money to be used for the protection of Venezuelans,” said Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela program director at the independent human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America.

___

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press journalists Ben Finley in Washington, Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego, Gisela Salomon in Miami and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.

___

Corrects that the deadline for the acting president expires on Friday, not Thursday.

Portugal advanced to the round of 16 after a 2-1 win against Croatia at Toronto Stadium on Thursday.

That doesn't even begin to tell the story of the most dramatic of clashes that relentlessly swung back and forth and ended in the cruelest way for Croatia when Josko Gvardiol's would-be game-saving equalizer 13 minutes into added time was ruled out for offside after video review.

Croatia legend Luka Modrić, age 40 and likely playing for the last time at a World Cup, looked crestfallen at the final whistle.

The 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo lives to fight another day and couldn't hide his relief when just moments earlier he stood helplessly on the sidelines in anguish, believing Portugal had blown it.

Here's how it all happened:

The First Goal in Added Time

After 90 minutes of play, the electronic board signaled 10 minutes of added time, and it was difficult to imagine at that point just how much drama would be packed into the coming minutes.

At the 94-minute mark, Rafael Leao sends a curling cross, and substitute Gonçalo Ramos rises highest to meet it, powering a header beyond the dive of the Croatian goalkeeper.

Cue wild celebrations from Portugal’s players. They now had to just ride out the final minutes and advance to the next round.

Croatia Strikes Back

As the clock ticks into the 103rd minute, Croatia knows it is nearly out of time.

From the left wing, Ivan Perisic hits a right-footed, in-swinging cross into the box.

Igor Mantanovic makes the slightest of glances with his head — and this is crucial — to flick the ball on. It bounces off the thigh of Mario Palasic and rolls across the face of goal.

Gvardiol lunges and sends the ball crashing into the back of the net.

Now it’s time for Croatia’s players and fans to go crazy. Ronaldo, meanwhile, shakes his head in disbelief.

But wait ...

While celebrations are ongoing, replays show Palasic was in an offside position when the ball came to him. However, it hit Portugal defender Renato Veiga on the way, which raises the possibility of him being onside because a Portugal player made the last touch.

VAR quickly starts to review the footage. Croatia’s hopes lie in the hands of the video assistants.

Portugal’s staff, meanwhile, have seen replays on the sideline and are convinced it's offside.

The crucial question is whether Mantanovic actually made contact with the ball before it hit Veiga.

This is because Palasic was standing in an offside position when a Croatia player last played the ball forward.

Sensors inside the World Cup ball can detect the slightest of touches and Eskås was instructed to go to the sideline monitor where he confirmed contact by Mantanovic.

“Croatia player number 20 touched the ball ... final decision: offside,” he announced over the stadium speaker system.

Portugal’s players cheered as if they’d scored a goal. There were tears in the eyes of Croatia players. Perisic dropped to his knees. Modrić threw his hands in the air.

In fury, Croatia fans threw bottles onto the field, delaying the restart by a couple of minutes.

What happened up to that point ...

There was nothing to separate the teams after a first half that failed to catch fire, but that all changed after halftime with Perisic firing Croatia in front in the 53rd minute.

Leao almost leveled for Portugal with a long-range curling shot that came back off the bar. Ronaldo then thinks he has scored for the first time in a World Cup knockout game, but his is ruled out for marginal offside, something that would become a theme of the match.

Portugal makes lots of changes. Ronaldo stays on

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez makes four substitutions at once in an attempt to turn the game. Crucially, he keeps Ronaldo on despite the veteran forward's struggles to make an impact.

From a Portugal corner, giant defender Veiga tumbles to the ground under the challenge of Nikola Vlasic for a penalty. Ronaldo steps up to fire down the middle of the goal, level the game and finally score in the knockout round of the World Cup.

Heroic goalkeeping by Diogo Costa

Croatia, which reached the final and the semifinals of the last two World Cups, has a slew of chances. Portugal keeper Diogo Costa blocks Matteo Kovacic's long-range shot and then stops another effort from the same player. He then makes a sprawling save to block Igor Matanovic from close range.

Petar Sucic does beat Costa, but his celebrations are cut short by the offside flag.

In the 81st, Portugal made another change, taking off Ronaldo for what could have been the last appearance at the World Cup.

At some point after leaving the contest, Ronaldo donned a jersey of Diogo Jota, the former teammate who died in a car crash exactly one year ago. He and his teammates basked in the emotion of the win and thought of their dear friend.

Meanwhile, Croatian coach Zlatko Dalić was left wondering what could have been, and he had some harsh words for the video replay rules and decisions.

“All these decisions take the joy out of football. I’m not saying VAR can’t sometimes be of help, but it kills the emotion of the game. It kills everything within you. It kills what you are experiencing in the moment. Football should be fair. We’ve gone too far about VAR.”

___

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

With four months to go until November’s elections, it's still unclear how much MAGA Inc., the country's largest political war chest with $382 million in the bank as of last month, plans to spend on key races. The silence has persisted even as Senate Republican leaders have urged Trump’s team, both privately and publicly, to pick up the tab for the president’s decisions.

Front and center is Texas, where Trump successfully endorsed fiery conservative Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, a choice that some Republicans grumble has turned a safe election into a toss-up that will drain resources away from other battlegrounds. Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker, has made Paxton's history of corruption allegations a central target of his campaign.

“The president picked Paxton, and he’s got $350 million dollars," Cornyn recently told Semafor. “I think he can spend his money.”

Another challenge has emerged in North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis declined to run for reelection after feuding with Trump last year over healthcare spending. Trump backed Michael Whatley, his former handpicked chair of the Republican National Committee, to run instead, and Democrats hope to flip the seat with former Gov. Roy Cooper.

Some in Republican campaign leadership are expecting MAGA Inc. to pitch in for Whatley in North Carolina, where the state’s several metro media markets can be pricey.

Republicans will likely be able to count on generous support from well-funded official party committees, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this week should be allowed to make unlimited direct contributions to candidates’ campaigns. But even that sum falls short of what Trump has stockpiled in MAGA Inc. Even though the president is constitutionally barred from running again, he began raising money shortly after winning a second term, and he's regularly held fundraisers at his resort properties where tickets cost $1 million per person.

James Blair, the former White House political director who left his government job to coordinate the president's midterm efforts, was evasive in an interview with Sean Spicer, a former Republican spokesman who hosts a podcast.

“The president is going to expend substantial resources to win the midterms,” said Blair. “He cares deeply about the party winning.”

As a super PAC, MAGA Inc. can raise unlimited money from individuals and corporations. However, it is barred from coordinating with individual campaigns or national Republican committees, which adds to the sense of mystery surrounding its plans.

It’s been more than two months since Blair, along with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, pollster Tony Fabrizio and political adviser Chris LaCivita huddled at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria to discuss MAGA Inc.'s strategy.

The huddle was focused on assembling teams of vendors, such as advertisers, canvassing providers and digital media company leaders who had worked with the Trump team in key states during previous elections and who would be dispatched once plans were in place.

The president has spent much of the year waging a war of retribution against Republicans who have crossed him. He viewed Cornyn as insufficiently loyal, held a grudge against Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana for voting to convict him in an impeachment trial and assailed Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky as the “worst Republican Congressman in history." All of them lost their primaries to Trump-backed challengers.

Cornyn's loss weighs heavily on Senate Republicans, who suggest that Paxton could cost the party an extra $100 million to defend the seat.

Senate Leadership Fund, the principal super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, is still expected to spend money on advertising in Texas but not play a central role given its obligations elsewhere.

Democrats must net four seats to take the majority, and they see Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio as their best opportunities. The Senate Leadership Fund has already committed to spending $342 million across these four states, plus Iowa, Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

When Paxton came to Washington after winning the nomination on May 26, he had a cordial meeting with Thune focused on moving forward together, according to people with knowledge of the conversation who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Later that day, Thune suggested that Trump should be putting up money for a candidate whom Senate Republicans hadn’t asked for.

“We will do what we need to do to make sure the state stays red," Thune told reporters. "But I’m certainly hopeful the president and the resources he can bring to bear will be engaged.”

“It’s going to be an expensive race,” he added.

___

Associated Press White House correspondent Seung Min Kim contributed from Washington. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Ramos headed in the winner as Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 in a wild finish that also included a Croatian goal disallowed for offside just before the final whistle in a World Cup round of 32 match on Thursday night.

The game featured a matchup of 40-somethings — Ronaldo, in his sixth World Cup, and Croatia's Luka Modrić, making his fifth bid for a tournament title.

Ronaldo tied things up in the 68th minute on a penalty kick that gave the megastar his first knockout stage goal at the World Cup before being subbed out in the 81st minute.

“I never felt any of that (fear),” he said. “Yes, nervous. But as always, you have to be very positive for things to go well.”

Still, it was Ramos who gave Portugal the victory and a berth in the round of 16.

“I love that type of moment, I love that type of games,” he said. “I want to play every game like that.”

Portugal moves on to face Spain on Monday.

“First half we dominated the game. In second half after the goal we get a little bit panic, but this is football,” Ronaldo said. “After the penalty, I think it was a little bit better for us. We created a few chances and I think at the end of the day we deserved to win the match.”

In a postgame interview with Fox, Ronaldo proudly turned around to show that he was wearing a Diogo Jota jersey and his No. 21, one year after his teammate died in a car crash. “We knew this before the game. It was a so special moment. We speak today to our group, the coincidence of life. It’s unbelievable.”

Things got weird after Ramos scored. With Portugal and its fans still enthralled with his goal, Croatia thought it had tied things up 2-2 in the very last moments. But after a 2 1/2-minute delay, Mario Pasalic was called offside as VAR ruled no goal. Croatia fans threw bottles on the field and whistled in protest.

Croatia midfielder Petar Sucic said, “the referee said he didn’t see (anyone) touch the ball, he said that he had a sensor in that ball,” that caused the offside ruling. “For me, it's a regular goal.”

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said it was, indeed, the chip in the ball that triggered the decision.

“I need to tell them (Croatia fans) the message is very clear: The balls now have a chip, and it’s very clear that’s why the VAR intervened," he said. "It's not a subjective opinion."

Croatia opened the scoring in the 53rd minute when Ivan Perisic scored off a cross from Josip Sanisic.

Ronaldo, booed loudly by Croatia fans every time he touched the ball, got his chance from the spot after Nikola Vlasic was called for a holding foul inside the box. Portugal’s megastar hitched his step and converted down the middle as the goalkeeper went to his right.

Modrić led Croatia to second- and third-place finishes in 2018 and 2022, and the match carried the weight of the two aging stars each trying to realize the dream of winning the World Cup. Modrić is 40.

The men, who were teammates at Real Madrid, shared a few smiles and an embrace ahead of the coin toss before the match. The two met on the pitch after the match, hugged and exchanged a few words.

“I played with Luka so many years,” Ronaldo said. "We’re nearly the same age. I think he’s a legend of football. He’s still a legend of football.”

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić said this was “probably” Modrić's last World Cup, but added, "only God knows what will happen in the next four years. We’ll see. We’ll talk about it in Croatia.”

__

Lexie Linderman is a student in John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

—-

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here