With storms gathering near Washington before a court-ordered deadline to remove references to Trump, workers were seen building scaffolding around a section of the building that includes the president's name. A crowd gathered nearby and cheered their work as Trump's name moved closer to being taken down.

Yet the Kennedy Center's leadership didn't abandon its legal efforts to keep Trump's name in place. The institution appealed the ruling denying it request for a stay and requested action by the court by 7 pm ET.

“This appeal raises serious questions about Article III standing and about the powers of the Center’s Board," the filing read. "Major physical changes to the Center should await this Court’s resolution of those issues; as an equitable matter, it does not make sense to alter the Center’s name and signage now, only to potentially revert the name again after what should be a successful appeal.”

Last month, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Trump’s name was illegally added to the iconic Washington performing arts facility and ordered it removed by Friday. Late Thursday, Trump’s handpicked board at the center mounted a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility, a request that Cooper denied.

A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump's name. And an earlier email sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman.

In his earlier ruling, Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

___

Associated Press journalists Mark Sherman and Emily Wang in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

The center’s bird room is filled with baby birds from a range of species that require timed feedings. Staff members are also caring for hawks, and multiple owls, some of which are especially vocal.

The Wildlife Center is also taking in mammals like bobcat kittens, foxes squirrels, opossums and a number of reptiles, including a few large snakes.

Watch behind the scenes of what it takes to rescue bobcat kittens here.

Chester Leonard, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center, said the late spring and summer months bring a steady flow of patients and plenty of unpredictability.

“This is our busiest time of year. We don’t know what’s going to come through the doors right now,” Leonard said. He added the center is seeing “everything from screech owls and barn owls, and songbirds, and maybe mammals, foxes, bobcats, of course, snakes.”

Leonard said the center has admitted more than 1,300 animals so far this year, representing 155 different species.

What to do if you find wildlife

If you find injured or orphaned wildlife, the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center says to call the center for guidance at 540-798-9836.

If you get voice mail, you’re asked to leave your name, number(s), location, and brief description of your situation.

There is some basic information and advice here for information on common scenarios until the center can get back to you.

It’s usually best not to feed injured or orphaned wildlife or give it water unless a licensed/experienced wildlife rehabilitator tells you to.

How to help

The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center is accepting donations to help cover the cost of the kittens’ care. Donations can be made online at swvawildlifecenter.org/make-a-donation or by mailing a check to:

Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center

5985 Coleman Road

Roanoke, VA 24018

Watch more rescue stories

Watch more about the bobcat kittens and other conservation work happening in SWVA in the Emmy nominated 10 News Special Vanishing Voices: Saving Virginia’s Wildlife.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Friday after oil prices fell again, and SpaceX soared in its highly anticipated debut on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 added 0.4% and was heading toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 382 points, or 0.8%, as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.

Stocks got a lift from a 3.4% drop for the price of Brent crude oil to $87.29 per barrel, deepening its loss for the week. Oil prices have come down since President Donald Trump on Thursday called off his threat to launch strikes on Iran and said a potential deal with Iran may be imminent.

A deal to end the war could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to once again deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Its near closure since the war began has sent the price of Brent up from roughly $70 per barrel and caused a wave of painful inflation for the world.

Of course, financial markets have rallied in the past on hopes that an end to the war with Iran was near, only to get disappointed each time.

The bigger factor for Wall Street over the last week has actually been artificial-intelligence stocks, and how they have gone from roaring to records to suddenly turning lower. The concern is whether such stocks shot too high, too fast because of AI mania, and their careening moves have sometimes reversed direction by the hour.

SpaceX suggested plenty of demand still exists among investors for AI after its stock soared 24.3% in its first day of trading. That gave Elon Musk's rocket company a total value of $1.9 trillion, making it bigger than such behemoths as Broadcom, Tesla or Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook.

AI-related stocks otherwise were mixed following their roller-coaster moves over the last week. Broadcom's drop of 1.3% was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, but CoreWeave jumped 8.1% after learning it will join the Nasdaq 100 index later this month.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Adobe dropped 7.5% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Its stock has lost 42% so far this year, and it announced its chief financial officer is leaving the company on Monday. Adobe is already looking for a CEO to replace Shantanu Narayen, who announced in March that he is stepping aside after 18 years as Adobe’s leader.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose to regain some of their sharp slide from the day before, when oil prices dropped following Trump’s announcement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.47% from 4.45% late Thursday.

High yields can slow entire economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. They hit investments seen as the most expensive in particular, and some critics are calling the AI industry a bubble where investment inflated too far.

Yields got a boost after a report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is not as bad as economists feared. The preliminary survey from the University of Michigan said sentiment improved by more than expected. U.S. consumers said they were feeling some relief after gasoline prices eased a bit early in the month.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rallied as they caught up to Thursday’s big gains on Wall Street.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 4.6% and trimmed its losses from earlier this month taken because of sell-offs for AI-related stocks. The Kospi has nearly doubled since the start of the year.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.8%, and France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

___

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, became a symbol of middle-power resistance in January, when he declared the global rules-based order over and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries. But this summit comes as tensions have been ramping up between Trump and Canada.

Carney met Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, a few days before the summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.

He didn’t mention the U.S. directly but referenced artificial intelligence and said both Canada and France “are determined to act in this way to strengthen our strategic autonomy in a world dominated by hegemonic powers and hyperscalers.”

Macron said the two countries “share the same view of the world.”

The Group of Seven summit of industrialized democracies that begins Monday in France comes ahead of the scheduled July 1 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a crucial moment in trade talks for the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the three countries since the early 1990s. Trump said this week that he may not renew the deal.

Preserving the accord is critical for Canada, where 70% of exports go to the U.S.

Canadian historian Robert Bothwell said Trump is more of a problem for Carney “than anybody else because we are more exposed to the United States.”

Trump leaves for the G7 summit right after he hosts UFC fights at the White House on Sunday for his 80th birthday.

Carney downplayed the notion that it could be six countries against one at the summit, saying there will be some issues where each country has more extreme views compared to others.

The summit comes amid strain in the Canada-U.S. relationship — one of the most durable and amicable alliances.

Trump’s actions, including launching a trade war and suggesting Canada become the 51st U.S. state, have infuriated Canadians and created the political environment for Carney to win the job of prime minister in 2025 after promising to confront Trump.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canada's most populous province, had a reception with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington canceled Monday at the last minute, although one of his ministers called it "a badge of honor.”

Trump said again this week that the U.S. doesn't need anything that Canada has. Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports in the next decade, saying Trump’s trade war is causing a chill in investment.

On Thursday, the opening of a major Canadian bridge across the Detroit River that Trump previously threatened to block was delayed due to unresolved issues.

Trump administration officials keep noting that only two countries, China and Canada, retaliated against America in the trade war. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says Canada’s retaliatory measures are a major issue in talks.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Carney seems to have moderated his tone toward the Trump administration to avoid worsening relations.

“There is a clear tension between what Prime Minister Carney said in his Davos speech about middle powers standing up to hegemons and his attempt to nudge the U.S. administration ‘in the right direction’ with regard to the USMCA review and trade policy more generally,” Béland said.

Carney has downplayed Trump’s most recent comments about Canada becoming the 51st state.

Canada and Mexico want the USMCA to be renewed for another 16 years. More likely it will be subject to annual reviews for the next 10 years.

Carney will also travel to Ireland this weekend to meet with the Irish prime minister in a bid to diversify trade away from the U.S.

This is Carney's ninth trip to Europe in the 15 months since he became prime minister in March 2025.

The comments were made in response to speculation that the bullet fragment could exonerate defendant Tyler Robinson. Conjecture over the evidence in Kirk’s killing has fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that there might have been a second shooter or that his death was staged.

Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted. The 23-year-old from southwestern Utah is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk, a conservative activist who was shot in the neck while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University. Robinson has not yet entered a plea.

Robinson’s attorneys accused prosecutors of going on a “media tour” to discuss expert reports about the bullet fragment, violating the judge's restrictions against speaking about the case outside court.

Prosecutors countered that they had a right to speak to the press to correct misinformation about a preliminary finding by ballistics experts. Those experts' initial tests did not match the bullet fragment with a gun that investigators believe was used to kill Kirk.

In court filings, defense attorneys made public a federal agency's failure to conclusively link the bullet fragment with the rifle. They said it appeared to be “exculpatory evidence” — information that tends to absolve a defendant of guilt — without noting that the finding was preliminary and that further testing was planned.

That spurred stories by some publications raising questions about the prosecution's case: A March 30 headline in the U.K.-based Daily Mail reported that the bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match” the rifle investigators say was used to kill Kirk.

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

“The rules expressly allow lawyers to set the record straight,” Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard wrote in a court filing.

Ballard argued Friday that he didn't speak to the media about case specifics and only spoke generally about how ballistics testing can be inconclusive. He said his goal “was to respond to the substantial undue prejudicial effect of the media stories.”

Defense attorney Richard Novak disagreed, saying Ballard did not speak to the media using general terms and tried to “influence public perception” of the case.

“What was going on here was an attempt to influence the jury pool,” Novak argued.

State District Judge Tony Graf said he will issue his decision about the contempt allegation on June 22.

Earlier Friday, Graf declined a defense request to halt the proceedings while they appeal a June 1 order in which the judge declined to bar cameras from the courtroom.

The ruling comes ahead of a key hearing scheduled to begin July 6, when prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial. That would mark the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case, which has so far focused on matters of media access.

Before Friday's hearing, the defense team pointed to another criminal case in which prosecutors were accused of contempt and suggested that one potential remedy would be to bar the state from seeking the death penalty.

While the judge in that earlier case disagreed that an order barring the death penalty was merited, Robinson’s attorneys noted that “the court did not conclude that such a remedy was beyond its authority where the facts support it.”

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Those were some of the UFOs described in documents released Friday by the Pentagon, the third release since President Donald Trump directed his administration to give the public full disclosure around what it knows about alien life and mysterious objects in the sky.

The 72 files released on Friday don’t include the kind of blockbuster revelation that Trump has teased. There’s no conclusive evidence of alien life or government cover-ups. But the files reveal new details about some recent sightings, along with the government's efforts to explain what many find inexplicable.

Take, for instance, the potato.

It happened in 2022, on a brisk February morning in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Five U.S. Army members at Fort Carson walked out of an office building and saw something strange hovering over Cheyenne Mountain, a few miles to the west.

“The object was ‘potato’ shaped with distinct edges and appeared to look painted in a creamy/whitish opalescent color,” according to an account in an FBI document. It was made up of “articulating fish scales or panels that were non-symmetrical, non-overlapping and irregular shaped.”

It stayed motionless, shimmering, for about two minutes, the men recounted to the FBI. Then it vanished in the blink of an eye. None of the men had phones on them. There's no video, no photos.

Report says ‘potato’ could have been a trick of light

Authorities tasked with investigating the episode said they couldn't explain it easily. Their report found — with “low confidence" — that it may have been “backscattering of sunlight." Low light from the rising sun could have reflected off the mountain's snow and illuminated low clouds above, it said.

The men insisted it was a clear, cloudless day. No aircraft or balloons were believed to be in the area. The four-page report, heavily redacted and attributed only to an “intelligence community partner,” said it didn't appear to be technology from a foreign adversary. An FBI rendering looks just like one might imagine — like a scaly, pale potato above a low mountain.

The case remains unsolved.

A similarly inclusive report examined a series of sightings in October 2023, this time by six federal law enforcement agents. Multiple times, the agents said, they saw a bright orange orb appear above a ridgeline and spawn two to four smaller red orbs.

The orbs disappeared quickly most of the time, but in one instance, the agents said an orb hovered motionless in the sky for several hours. There's no video or photo evidence of the sightings, the report said.

An analysis dated this month goes through a series of possible explanations. Military aircraft were conducting exercises in the area, and some deployed flares. There could have been other testing of developmental U.S. technology nearby, the report said. It listed those as “plausible” but not conclusive explanations.

Yet it didn't rule out the possibility that it was some “unrecognized technology." With relatively little evidence to work from, it called for more investigation into the case.

White House boosts video of red orb

The analysis was conducted by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which Congress created in 2022 to investigate reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as UAP. Previous reports from the agency say it has not found any evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Among the most recent files is an FBI report from February detailing a sighting in an undisclosed part of the Northeast United States. A person whose name is blacked out reported coming home and seeing an intense light hovering below the trees in their backyard. It was described as a sphere of a “brilliant and beautiful” red, which the person had never seen.

“Inside the red sphere, at the center, there appeared to be what (redacted) described as a ‘white plasma sun’ about the size of a basketball,” according to the FBI file.

A second sphere appeared, and both silently flew out of sight, the file says. Cellphone footage shows two glowing red orbs floating across the sky. The White House shared the video on social media on Friday with no message beyond the file’s name: “‘NORTHEASTERN ORB SIGHTING,’ 2025.”

Zimbabwe sighting included ‘beams’ from a disc

So far, the Trump administration's transparency campaign has led to the release of about 300 files dating to the 1940s, some brand-new to the public and some adding detail on previously known cases.

The newest batch includes a 2008 CIA report from Zimbabwe labeled as “never before released.” On a July day above the country’s main airport, observers reportedly saw something straight out of a Hollywood movie: It was “disc-like in shape with a hollow center, and had a series of rotating lights on the underside of the airframe.”

“At one point during observation, ‘beams’ were observed emanating from the object,” the CIA report said.

The lights changed colors, and the aircraft ascended high out of view, the report says. There was debate about where it came from, according to the report, with some suggesting a foreign government and some positing “extraterrestrial origins."

Judge Lewis J. Liman said in a written decision that Lively can recover legal fees and costs related to her defense against a countersuit Baldoni brought against her after she sued him in December 2024.

In his written ruling Friday, Liman cited a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence victims.

The judge said the law requires that the plaintiff must pay the defendant’s legal fees and costs if a defamation claim made in response to a lawsuit is dismissed, even if the facts of the case have not been developed through the gathering of evidence.

Liman said an exception would be if Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, could prove malice fueled Lively's claims, but that Baldoni and Wayfarer had produced no evidence to show that.

The judge rejected her claims to triple any damages and pursue punitive damages as well under the California law, saying that they did not fall within “carefully crafted federal procedural rules designed to protect the rights of the parties.”

Lively and Baldoni settled the bulk of their dispute last month just as a trial was about to start on Lively’s retaliation claims. She received no money from the deal but was permitted to pursue legal fees.

In their statements, both sides cast Liman's ruling as a victory.

Lively lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said the award of legal fees “makes it clear that Ms. Lively brought her claims in good faith, that there was no evidence she acted with malice, and that she is the prevailing defendant.”

Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, said Lively failed to get her demands for $300 million in fees and damages, with 10 or her 13 claims tossed out by the judge before the settlement was reached, and then “pivoted to exploit a California law” to get damages.

“Once again, she failed,” he said, noting that she was entitled now to limited attorney fees for a single claim in a portion of the litigation that existed for only a few months.

The lawyer said his clients were “threatened by one of the most famous movie stars, who tried to rip away their life’s work and pristine reputations.”

“Throughout this process, innocent people had their reputations unfairly tarnished. There was no sexual harassment. There was no retaliation. There was no smear campaign. The court recognized it, the record reflects it, and we have maintained it from the very beginning,” Freedman said.

Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation, along with his production company, in late 2024. She said the actor engineered an effort to damage her public reputation and credibility.

Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with Lively, denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie. He countersued, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.

Liman threw out Baldoni's countersuit last year and then dismissed Lively's sexual harassment claims weeks ago, saying she could not bring them because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

Three regional officials say the emerging deal is expected to pave the way for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the phased lifting of sanctions on Iran, and the release of frozen Iranian assets. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

A senior U.S. administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said that technical details on how to remove Iran’s enriched uranium, according to the emerging memorandum of understanding, would be worked out during a 60-day period following the two sides signing off on the agreement.

Here's the latest:

As Trump again says the Iran war could soon end, some objectives are unfulfilled

The Trump administration has said its war aims are clear and unchanging, however the list has expanded and shifted as the president and his administration have spoken about the conflict , now in its fourth month.

All the while, the war has battered the global economy, tested alliances and raised unanswered questions about the planning for the conflict, its justification and its aftermath.

By most accounts, the strikes by the U.S. and Israel have significantly degraded Iran’s military capabilities and killed scores of senior leaders. But those tactical successes don’t necessarily translate into achieving all the president’s strategic aims, even as the administration said Friday that it was meeting the goals it had laid out.

Here’s a look at the objectives laid out by Trump at various points during the war, and what we know about where they stand:

▶ Read more

The rise of UFC: Dana White’s path from ‘human cockfighting’ to the White House starts with Trump

Dana White and the UFC’s journey to the White House began 25 years ago with a modest event in Atlantic City called “Battle on the Boardwalk.”

At the time, White was a new UFC president who said his goal was to make the fledging promotion “the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts.”

The site of this seemingly absurd proclamation: Trump Taj Mahal.

After larger fights outside the cage for legitimacy and legalization, UFC is back at Trump’s home this weekend, though both the promotion and the businessman have long since leveled up in status and stature.

▶ Read more

White House is trying to assure Netanyahu about emerging deal

Trump spoke on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the latest efforts to reach an agreement with Iran, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said that the U.S. administration is stressing to Israeli officials that any deal will require Iran to begin delivering on concessions in the deal before Tehran receives any potential benefits from the settlement.

— By Aamer Madhani in Washington

Cuban president announces economic reforms amid tensions

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday announced a package of economic reforms aimed at attracting investment, expanding participation by Cubans living abroad in the economy and decentralizing parts of the country’s administration.

The president did not provide details during remarks to state media.

“Every opportunity in the midst of a crisis must be seized as a moment for takeoff, as a moment for growth,” Díaz-Canel said, according to a statement from the presidency that was republished by state-run media.

The reforms come amid heightened tensions in U.S.-Cuba relations. The U.S. has pressed for economic reforms since launching a blockade that has deprived Cuba of fuel since February.

Technical details are still in flux for emerging Iran deal, US official says

A senior U.S. administration official said that a deal with Iran was 80% to 85% done, and the U.S. side believes “most of the people who have authority” in the Iranian government want to sign onto to the deal “but not everybody.”

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said that technical details on how to about removing Iran’s enriched uranium, according to the emerging memorandum of understanding, would be worked out during a 60-day period following the two sides signing off on the agreement.

The official did not detail who the U.S. envisions taking charge of removing the uranium, which is believed to be entombed under three nuclear sites that were battered by U.S. strikes last year.

— By Aamer Madhani in Washington

Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights at the White House this weekend

A federal judge has refused to stop the White House from staging a UFC mixed martial arts event this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on Trump’s 80th birthday.

The nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event.

The White House calls the lawsuit baseless, saying it’s no different from many other events hosted at public forums in the capital.

▶ Read more

Judge denies Kennedy Center request for pause in ruling ordering Trump’s name removed from building

That denial came Friday. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last month Trump’s name was illegally added to the iconic Washington performing arts facility. Cooper ruled only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump to be removed by Friday.

’A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

▶ Read more

Pakistan says US and Iran agree on ‘final’ text of a peace deal

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday that a “final, agreed upon text of the peace deal” between the United States and Iran has been reached and that Pakistan is now working with both sides to finalize the next steps.

“Peace has never been this close as it is now,” he added.

In a post on X, Sharif said Pakistan was engaged in “ongoing intense mediation efforts” and accused unnamed actors of spreading “incessant misinformation” aimed at undermining the process.

The U.S. and Iran did not immediately comment on Sharif’s statement.

Thunderbirds and Blue Angels fly over White House before Sunday’s UFC matches

Dana White, president and CEO of UFC, was on hand to watch as the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and U.S. Navy Blue Angels did a practice run over the White House, where the lawn is set up for Sunday’s matches.

White is a big Trump supporter. Sunday is also Trump’s 80th birthday.

Trump’s name remains on Kennedy Center as removal deadline approaches

Yet there were signs of activity on this steamy summer afternoon, as workers put up scaffolding around a section of the performing arts venue that includes Trump’s name.

Workers have appeared in the area before so it’s unclear whether they were preparing to immediately take down his name.

Much of the attention is on U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who must decide whether to grant a last-minute pause for his earlier ruling to remove Trump’s name. The judge ruled in May that only Congress could make such changes.

U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, made a filing earlier Friday opposing the request. An ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, she filed the lawsuit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the institution.

▶ Read more

Iran’s top diplomat says a deal with the US is close

Striking an unusually optimistic tone, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that a Pakistan-brokered agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end their war “has never been closer.”

He added that the media should not speculate about the deal’s content, apparently in reference to reports circulating with lists of points purportedly included in the agreement.

“All details will be shared with the public in due course,” Araghchi said in a post on X.

Trump shared Araghchi’s post on his own social media account.

Official details US reductions to NATO resources in Europe

The U.S. notified NATO in early June that it’s reducing the American military assets that would be available to Europe in case of attack, according to a NATO official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The reduction included an aircraft carrier strike group as well as a number of submarines, fighter jets, maritime patrol aircraft, air refueling planes and drones, the official said. However, U.S. space capabilities that help with targeting are not being drawn down.

The official said details are still being worked out on exactly when those assets are being reduced and when other NATO countries will step in to fill gaps left by the U.S. The timeline will be discussed further at the NATO summit in Turkey in July.

German news outlet Die Welt earlier reported some details of the cuts.

— Ben Finley

Vice President JD Vance pushes back on critics of in-the-works Iran deal

Vance in a social media post appeared to be chiding some of the president’s supporters who “said Donald Trump was a historic president a month ago” were now “criticizing a deal based on unconfirmed media reports.”

“The president is going to get us a good outcome, one way or the other,” Vance said.

The vice president in his post said the Iranians “are not receiving any cash,” but that Iran would receive “economic benefits” if it meets obligations.

“This deal has the potential to remake the region and lead to lasting peace,” he said, without releasing details.

Judge extends block on Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund

The federal judge agreed Friday to extend a court-ordered block on the Trump administration’s creation and operation of a $1.8 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.

Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the government is scrapping its plans for the fund in the face of a fierce bipartisan backlash. Government attorneys have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot, but plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the fund won’t move forward.

President Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly and unequivocally endorsed its cancellation.

▶ Read more

US official says Iran deal has five key terms that include destroying and removing nuclear material

A senior U.S. official said there are five key terms in the agreement: Iran’s nuclear material will be destroyed and removed, its nuclear program will be dismantled, none of its frozen money will be released until it meets certain demands, the Strait of Hormuz will be open, and Iran must not fund terrorist groups.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the sensitive talks.

Trump on Friday lashed out at Iranian officials on social media and said, “They better get their act together, and FAST!”

— Collin Binkley

NATO weighs options to defend Europe as the US plans for conflict elsewhere

NATO’s top military officer is weighing alternative plans to defend Europe should it come under attack from Russia, after the United States announced it’s cutting the number of aircraft and warships it would provide in a security crisis.

The so-called NATO Force Model is Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.

But last month, the Pentagon warned its NATO allies it would be scaling down its commitment to focus on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

European countries and Canada had waited impatiently for over a year for the Trump administration to detail its plans after it warned that Europe is no longer a top U.S. security priority. They knew cuts were coming, but not how big, fast or what kind.

▶ Read more

Tensions between Trump and Macron could be on full display at next week’s G7 summit in France

The relationship between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron started simply enough, with a handshake, nearly a decade ago.

But even then, there were signs of strain in their relationship — tensions that could be on full display during next week’s G7 summit in France.

Back in 2017, Trump was a brash businessman just elected to America’s most powerful office, and Macron was an upstart politician who had won his race in a landslide. At a NATO summit in Brussels, they clinched hands far longer than most people do when they meet for the first time. Neither seemed to want to be the first to break a grip so tight that it exposed white knuckles.

Nevertheless, a friendship was born. And early on, Macron seemed to be the one European leader with a knack for managing his mercurial, three-decades-older counterpart.

But by the end of Trump’s first term, the bromance had faded. And in his second term, the leaders now openly trade barbs, disagreeing over tariffs, Ukraine and the Iran war.

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A key US government surveillance program is set to expire

The surveillance tool seen as vital in preventing terror attacks and catching foreign spies is set to expire Friday after congressional efforts to temporarily extend it failed in bipartisan fashion.

It’s a significant lapse for the program known as Section 702, and even as President Donald Trump nominates a new national intelligence director more palatable to both Republicans and Democrats than his initial pick, it’s unclear how soon lawmakers — set for recess — would be able to revive the spy program.

Still, there may not be an immediate drop-off given that a court order from March authorized these government surveillance powers to remain in effect for another year.

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Ahead of G7, Carney softens tone toward Trump with trade talks at stake

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became a symbol of middle power resistance after a celebrated speech earlier this year, but he is expected to be more muted in his criticism of Trump at an upcoming summit in Europe.

Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, helped make him an international political star in January, when he declared the global rules-based order over and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks and upstaged Trump at the gathering.

But the Group of Seven summit of industrialized democracies that begins Monday in France comes ahead of the scheduled July 1 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada since the early 1990s. It is a crucial moment in trade talks, and Trump said this week that he may not renew the deal.

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Kennedy Center board seeks pause of ruling ordering removal of Trump’s name by Friday deadline

Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.

The board voted Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The formal request was filed late Thursday.

Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

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Where Trump has lost support with independents, according to AP-NORC polling

Independents have grown increasingly unhappy with Trump during his second term, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds, particularly those without a college degree.

The analysis from researchers at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that while about half of independents without a college education had a positive view of Trump around the 2024 election, his approval with that group fell to about one-quarter this spring. That shift has erased the large education gap that existed among independents in the months before Trump took office for his second term, with independents now holding similarly negative views of the president regardless of their level of education.

The analysis was conducted by aggregating nearly two dozen AP-NORC polls conducted between July 2024 and April 2026, allowing for a deeper look at how support for Trump changed during several distinct periods, including the last six months of 2024, the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, the summer of 2025 when the Big Beautiful Bill passed, last fall’s government shutdown and the beginning of the Iran war.

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Trump is raising expectations that this time he really will close deal with Iran to wind down war

Trump has long been looking for this weekend to be a big one for his presidency.

The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday for the first time in 32 years after Trump threw himself into winning the bid to co-host the soccer tourney during his first term. He’ll be feted Sunday, his 80th birthday, during a UFC fight night that’s expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds. Hours after the final bout, he’s scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he’s been beefing with over war and tariffs.

But Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced Thursday that the U.S. and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war that’s been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets. He said he plans to dispatch Vice President JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.

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The Southside Health District is asking for the community’s help to stop the spread of measles in the area. Health officials are encouraging people to skip large, crowded events in the Buckingham area if they are unvaccinated or if they are experiencing symptoms of measles.

Currently, the VDH Southside Health District says the Buckingham outbreak has 88 cases.

The VDH issued the following statement:

Vaccination remains the best protection against measles. If you or a loved one has not had two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, contact your healthcare provider or call your local health department to schedule a vaccine appointment today.

To check your immunization status, call your healthcare provider or request records through the VDH Record Request Portal.

If you have been exposed to measles, watch for symptoms of measles for 21 days after the potential exposure. If you notice symptoms of measles, immediately isolate yourself by staying home. Contact your healthcare provider right away. If you need to seek healthcare, call ahead before going to your healthcare provider’s office or the emergency room to notify them that you may have been exposed to measles and ask them to call the local health department. This call will help protect other patients and staff.

For more information about measles, visit www.vdh.virginia.gov/measles/. For additional questions, contact VDH’s Call Center at 877-829-4682 (Option 2), The VDH Call Center is available Monday–Friday (except holidays) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

VDH

But some of the key objectives Trump laid out for the conflict seem to remain unfulfilled. And while the Trump administration has said its objectives are clear and unchanging, the list has expanded and shifted as the president and his administration have spoken about the war since it started Feb. 28. All the while, the conflict has battered the global economy, tested alliances and raised unanswered questions about the planning for the conflict, its justification and its aftermath.

By most accounts, the strikes by the U.S. and Israel have significantly degraded Iran's military capabilities and killed scores of senior leaders. But those tactical successes don’t necessarily translate into achieving all the president’s strategic aims, even as the administration said Friday that it was meeting the goals it had laid out.

Here’s a look at the objectives laid out by Trump at various points since the outset of the war and what we know about where they stand:

1. Destroy Iran's ability to fire missiles

One of the prime objectives laid out by the administration was to “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground."

Trump said in late March that Iran's missiles “are mostly decimated" and that 90% of their missiles and launchers were knocked out.

By mid-May, that shifted to a more conservative estimate, with the president saying that 82% of Iran's missiles were gone.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, told lawmakers in mid-May that Iran maintains a “very moderate if not small capability to continue strikes” in the region.

Iran proved as recently as this week that it still had the ability to launch missiles when it attacked three Gulf allies of the U.S.

2. Destroy Iran's defense industrial base

Early in the war, the president and his administration sometimes listed this as a standalone objective. Other times, it has fallen off their list.

U.S. Central Command has said its targets for strikes in Iran have included weapons production and missile and drone manufacturing facilities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in early June that Iran has had “massive destruction” of its defense industrial base and “80 to 90% of attrition. It will take years for them to rebuild it.”

Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday: “Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity.”

3. Eliminate Iran's navy and air force

The U.S. and Israel quickly established air superiority in the skies above Iran, where they flew largely unchallenged.

Rubio told lawmakers that Iran still has drone capabilities, but it lacks the ability to use swarms of drones to attack targets, as it did at the start of the war.

He also said Iran does not have a navy but small crafts outfitted with machine guns that harass ships and sometimes drop mines in the water.

Iran has shown its ability to still launch attacks in the region, such as a deadly June 3 attack of drones and missiles at Kuwait that led to the brief closure of its main airport. The U.S. and Bahrain also said they intercepted missiles and drones fired at the Gulf kingdom by Iran.

And on Tuesday, Trump blamed Tehran for the downing of a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz after it collided with an Iranian drone.

4. Obliterate Iran's nuclear program for good

Trump made a marked shift over the last year after declaring that the U.S. had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program in June, only for his aides to warn that Iran was just weeks away from a bomb to justify the current operations.

One of the most pressing questions is what will be done with about 970 pounds of enriched uranium that Tehran has that could potentially be used for a weapon. The material is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. and Israel last year. Trump said in a May 29 social media post that it will be retrieved by the U.S. “in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”

Iran has not said whether it would consent. Without permission from Iran, seizing it would be a dangerous mission, experts say, and would require a sizable deployment of U.S. troops into the country.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that there was an agreement “conceptually” on the uranium, but he did not offer details and Iran has not yet confirmed it.

A senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity on Friday to provide an update on negotiations, said that Iran has agreed that the uranium will be destroyed and removed, but details of what that looks like have not yet been hammered out.

5. Protect America's Middle Eastern allies

Trump, in a March social media post, added a fifth objective for the U.S: “Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others."

The U.S. maintains thousands of troops on bases and other installations in the region, but Trump has been unclear on how far he'd be willing to go to protect Middle East allies from threats.

As Trump said the U.S. was nearing a deal with Iran in recent weeks, he's said that any agreement should somehow bind many of the Gulf allies to join the Abraham Accords, agreements from Trump’s first term that seek to normalize relations with Israel. But that seems exceedingly unlikely as Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip have created a bigger distance from Gulf Arab states and the wider Muslim world.

As the U.S. and Iran traded back-and-forth strikes this week, Tehran’s targets included attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, prompting the U.S. to respond with a fresh round of strikes.

The Trump administration has begun exploring whether to let Gulf allies use Iran's frozen assets to pay for damages sustained in the war, but officials have not said whether they are moving forward with that plan.

The senior administration official said Friday that the memorandum of understanding would guarantee a long-term peace in the region, but did not offer details on what that would look like or how it would be achieved.

6. Reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Keeping shipping traffic flowing through the vital waterway was not one of the reasons for launching the war, but after Iran leveraged its ability to effectively shut traffic through the strait, it has become a key problem to tackle in the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz is a chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas and its effective closure since the war has spiked global energy prices, along with the costs of other goods. Iran had allowed ships seen as friendly to pass through, while charging considerable fees.

Trump has said that a proposed deal with Iran would include the reopening of the strait and the U.S. ending its blockade of Tehran's ports.

7. Cut off

support for Iranian proxy groups

In March, Trump and his administration repeatedly included degrading Iran's proxy terror networks as a key goal of the operation.

As time has gone on, administration officials have offered fewer updates about this objective, which the president described as ensuring that “the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces” and “ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

The U.S., early on, struck Iranian-aligned militia groups in Iraq. But the biggest question has been Israel's deepening war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which Iran backs. Iran has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon must be stopped as part of any deal with the U.S., but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.

Israel said Thursday that it was not a party to the agreement that the U.S. had reached with Iran.

The administration official said Friday that the U.S. was confident that broad regional peace terms in the memorandum of understanding would include both Hezbollah and Israel. If the Iranians hold up their end as it pertains to constraining Hezbollah, the Israelis would not feel a need to respond, the official said.

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Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

“The league notified Stefon Diggs today that it concluded its investigation and there is insufficient evidence to support a finding of a personal conduct policy violation,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in statement to The Associated Press.

ESPN was first to report the league's finding.

Diggs was found not guilty last month of assaulting his personal chef. The charges stemmed from a Dec. 2 incident at his house in Massachusetts where Jamila Adams, a former live-in personal chef, testified that Diggs slapped and choked her during an argument. He had pleaded not guilty to a felony strangulation charge and a misdemeanor assault and battery charge. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before clearing Diggs of all charges.

Diggs spent last season with the New England Patriots, helping them reach the Super Bowl, where they lost to Seattle. He was released in March and remains unsigned.

Several NFL players, including Ben Roethlisberger, Jameis Winston and Ezekiel Elliott, have been suspended for violating the personal conduct policy despite not being arrested or charged with a crime.

Diggs led New England with 85 receptions and 1,013 yards receiving with four touchdowns in his only season with the team. He was the go-to option for Drake Maye, who finished runner-up to Matthew Stafford for the AP NFL MVP award.

Diggs, who turns 33 on Nov. 29, has played for three teams in the past three seasons. He began his career in Minnesota in 2015 and went from fifth-round pick to No. 1 receiver in five seasons with the Vikings.

He was traded to Buffalo for a first-round pick in 2020 and had an All-Pro season that year. Diggs spent four seasons with the Bills. He played for the Texans in 2024.

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

Shares in SpaceX jumped 24% after opening for trading at noon Friday, a sign that investors are looking past the billions the company is losing and instead betting that its massive investments in satellites, orbital data centers and artificial intelligence will pay off in the future.

SpaceX opened at $150 a share, then jumped to around $168 around 2:.20 p.m. ET. That price gave the company a market value of $2.2 trillion, making it the sixth largest public U.S. company — larger even than its founder and CEO's other big business, the electric vehicle maker Tesla.

Between his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, where he is also CEO, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.2 trillion, according to Forbes.

Why SpaceX is going public now

Musk says SpaceX, founded in 2002, is going public now because it needs money to fund its ambitions of putting satellites and data centers in space and eventually establishing a colony of people on Mars.

He marked the opening of trading on Nasdaq by joining a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the South Texas home of SpaceX.

He reiterated his lofty goals “to make life multiplanetary.”

“Not just a few astronauts, I mean literally you,” Musk said. “Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars and ultimately beyond.”

Known for his technological breakthroughs, as well as wild claims and missed deadlines, Musk was able to whip up enthusiasm for the IPO.

Institutional and retail investors alike jumped at the opportunity to buy a piece of the company at $135 per share before trading began. The $75 billion in proceeds SpaceX raised easily topped the previous record IPO from oil giant Saudi Aramco in 2019.

In addition to establishing a one-million person Martian colony, the company has promised to save humanity by establishing other outposts in space, launch data centers the size of football fields into orbit and outdo rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the race to make money from artificial intelligence.

To reach its goals, SpaceX needs billions more than it currently takes in from its rocket and satellite business. Between the start of 2025 and March 31, 2026, the company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., lost $8.7 billion.

Pros and cons for investors

Betting on SpaceX is in many ways a bet on Musk himself. In an unusual arrangement that has drawn criticism from shareholder watchdogs, he holds 82% interest in a special B class of shares, giving him sweeping power to control the company even though his ownership stake is about half that.

“There’s a lot of hype, but I see the faith that investors have in Musk,” said Yordys Coro, an IT support contractor in Miami as he watched his $14,000 investment in SpaceX shoot up to $17,000 in just a few hours. “I’m going to hold on.”

Wall Street bankers that helped take SpaceX public are also enthusiastic about the company — and the big fees they will earn — but not everyone thinks the stock price is justified.

Analysts at research firm Morningstar, which doesn't earn any investment banking fees, wrote that the IPO is “significantly overvalued." Citing SpaceX's unproven technology and massive capital needs, they estimated the company is only worth $780 billion — less than half its IPO value.

SpaceX itself has hinted at the challenges, conceding in regulatory documents that some of its business plans rest on “unproven technologies.” It also indicated that another part of the company, its artificial intelligence business called xAI, has no clear path to profitability and is burning cash to catch up with rivals.

On a livestreamed conference Thursday with the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, one of the investment banks making big money off the IPO, Musk offered few details.

He entertained the crowd with talk of “moon hotels,” a future Martian colony and a network of Earth-orbiting data centers powered by the sun. But when asked about plans for his flagship chatbot offering Grok, he pivoted to talking about his satellites.

How Elon made his fortune

Still, Musk has pulled off the seemingly impossible before.

The now-trillionaire — on paper at least — made his initial fortune by creating two companies, Zip2 and PayPal, that netted him about $200 million at sale. He used that money to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla, and defied the odds by creating a space company that figured out how to reuse rockets and a car company that made electric vehicles cool.

Musk has realized vast sums of wealth for himself, much of it in stock he has yet to cash in or grants for shares he’ll only receive if Tesla or SpaceX hit ambitious performance targets.

His recent pay package from Tesla was so large it even drew criticism from the Vatican. At Tesla, he’s worried shareholders by fighting with regulators or dividing his attention between multiple companies and last year by taking a role in the Trump administration.

But a rising stock price has cured all ills: Since it went public in 2010, Tesla has returned 20,000% for shareholders, or more than $1.2 trillion in investor wealth.

SpaceX is the first of three “megacap” companies expected to go public this year, with Anthropic and OpenAI to follow. Nasdaq even revised its rules to allow SpaceX to gain entry into funds tied to its indexes in 15 days, which means investors will end up buying the rocket maker's shares much earlier.

Not all investors are thrilled about SpaceX potentially showing up in their holdings of index funds.

Officials from pension funds for firefighters, teachers and other workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX last month decrying some of the provisions in its IPO, including mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims and how much power Musk will hold over the company.

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AP reporters Stan Choe and Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed from New York and reporter Matt O'Brien contributed from Providence.

The suspect, 45-year-old Victor Mata Villarreal, already was being sought by authorities when he began firing at officers and bystanders in Midland on Friday before barricading himself in an abandoned veterinary clinic, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Police were called to the area after getting reports about an active shooter, authorities said.

Villarreal was found dead inside the building just a few hours after the shooting began, police said. They did not say how he died.

Midland Mayor Lori Blong said authorities used robot and drone footage to confirm that the shooter was dead.

Villarreal, of nearby Odessa, was wanted for attempted capital murder of a peace officer after firing multiple times at a Midland police officer on Wednesday, the state’s public safety agency said.

The officer who tried to pull over Villarreal fired back, but Villarreal drove away and his vehicle was found empty a short distance away, investigators said. The officer was not injured, authorities said.

As police responded to Friday's shooting, dozens of squad cars and law enforcement vehicles descended along what’s normally a busy roadway lined with hotels and auto businesses a few miles west of Midland’s downtown.

Andrea Mendias said she heard what sounded like a small explosion at the closed veterinary clinic next to the body shop where she works and saw a number of heavily armed police officers rush into the parking lot. Some appeared to go inside the building.

Mendias said she earlier heard what sounded like at least 40 gunshots.

Video from Mendias showed officers pouring out of the back of an armored police vehicle and police deploying robots into the area.

Midland Memorial Hospital said four people underwent surgery and that five had been treated and released.

The city with about 140,000 residents sits in the heart of the state’s oil and gas region and was near the site of a deadly shooting rampage in 2019.

In that shooting, a gunman who had been fired from his oil services job killed seven people and wounded two dozen others while firing at random as he drove around the Odessa and Midland areas. The two cities are more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) west of Dallas.

According to officials, at approximately 10:15 a.m., LPD and the Lynchburg Fire Department responded to the intersection of 13th and Buchanan streets.

The crash involved an adult man operating a bicycle and a City of Lynchburg Public Works vehicle. The driver of the Public Works vehicle remained on the scene and fully cooperated with law enforcement.

It was determined that the bicyclist did not stop at the stop sign and was issued a summons; the bicyclist was transported to the hospital for treatment.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the LPD Traffic Safety Unit at (434) 455-6047 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 798-5900. Tips can also be submitted anonymously online at www.p3tips.com, via the P3 app on a mobile device, or by texting CVCS to 738477 to receive a link to the anonymous tip form.

If you’re heading southbound on Interstate 581 in Roanoke, expect delays.

VDOT is reporting a multi-vehicle crash near the 0.9 mile marker. Traffic is backed up for about 2 miles, and the south left shoulder and left lane are closed.

Stay with 10 News for the latest traffic updates.

The president did not provide details about the measures or a timetable for their implementation but said during remarks to state media that it is now “time to change” and that the country “simply cannot continue on its current course.”

“Every opportunity in the midst of a crisis must be seized as a moment for takeoff, as a moment for growth,” Díaz-Canel said, according to a statement from the presidency that was republished by state-run media. “We have established a group of priorities to confront this situation,” he added without offering specifics.

The announcement comes as Cubans have struggled with fuel shortages as a result of the U.S. oil blockade and food insecurity. In January, the United States tightened restrictions on Cuba’s oil supplies in an effort to pressure the island’s government to change its political and economic model, exacerbating challenges that have persisted for about five years.

Díaz-Canel said officials are evaluating measures related to foreign trade, exports, supply chains and logistics. Without elaborating, he suggested the government could eliminate mandatory state intermediaries in import and export operations and grant tariff benefits to those who bring raw materials into the country for production.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier Friday, a ship carrying nearly 100 tons of food and essential goods arrived from Colombia as part of the humanitarian aid that several countries have sent to Cuba in recent months as a U.S. energy embargo persists.

The ship, which departed Cartagena in early June, crossed the Havana Bay channel early in the morning flying the Colombian flag and escorted by a small Cuban auxiliary vessel, The Associated Press confirmed.

The Colombian Presidential Agency for International Cooperation said that, on orders of President Gustavo Petro, the shipment included nonperishable food, medicine, hospital supplies, electrical materials, solar panels and other items.

The ship also carried seven tons of goods collected by solidarity groups.

Last weekend, another ship carrying 1,700 tons of essential goods from Mexico and Belize arrived in Havana.

In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The move has deepened a preexisting crisis caused by U.S. sanctions. Washington is pressing the Cuban government to release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions.

Cuba produces only 40% of its oil, leaving the island semiparalyzed and subjected to severe power outages.

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

The races set up significant tests of whether Democrats' redraw of California's House maps will pay off for the party.

Several other major U.S. House races also were set Tuesday as California's protracted vote count from the state's June 2 primary ground on. Two Republicans will face each other in a Southern California House district drawn to end one of their careers. And a Sacramento seat will become a high-profile generational clash between two Democrats.

But the most attention was on two districts in the vast midsection of the state that will help determine whether Democrats can claim victory in California's role in the mid-decade redistricting wars. Both will be crucial to determine which party controls the U.S. House in this year's midterm elections.

Democrats hope to pick off a perennial GOP target in the Central Valley

Progressive Randy Villegas, a political science professor and school board member, on Tuesday beat the favored pick of establishment Democrats, moderate Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, to advance to the November election against Valadao, a perennial target whose district Democrats redrew to shift further to the left.

Democrats narrowly beat Valadao in their 2018 wave, only to see him win back the seat in 2020. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw its weight behind Bains, but Villegas won the primary and will test whether progressives or moderates are best positioned to face the resilient Republican.

"Voters in the Central Valley have spoken and they have declared that the Valley is not for sale,” Villegas said in a statement.

Republicans had hoped to face Villegas.

“Socialist Randy Villegas clawed his way out of a bruising Democrat primary by sprinting to the far left and embracing the same failed policies that made California unaffordable for working families,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a statement.

An independent hopes to keep Democrats from winning redrawn district

For a few days after last week's primary, California's 6th District near Sacramento was a possible warning sign for Democrats, as Kiley and a long-shot Republican who ran on peace in the Mideast held the top two slots in the nonpartisan primary. But the state's slow but regular tally of late Democratic mail ballots catapulted Pan onto the November ballot.

Democrats broke up Kiley's conservative Northern California district, so the congressman opted to run in the new, Democratic-leaning district, left the GOP and became a vocal opponent of partisan redistricting.

“This race will be a choice between the extreme partisan politics that have made California the most unaffordable state in the country, and the independent leadership that allows our local communities to thrive,” Kiley said in a statement.

California Democrats scrambled their map to counter gains Republicans made in Texas and elsewhere after President Donald Trump called for the GOP to create as many conservative seats as possible in its bid to hold onto the House of Representatives in November.

California’s 52 House races provided a miniature of national trends. That included the fallout from redistricting ahead of this year’s midterm elections, this time with Democrats redrawing the map, the generational battle among Democrats and questions of whether moderates or liberals are better positioned to win in swing districts.

New districts set up clashes between members of the same party

In more fallout from redistricting, Republican Rep. Young Kim on Tuesday advanced to the November election. She will face fellow Republican Rep. Ken Calvert after Democrats drew them both into a single district, guaranteeing that one would not return to Congress next year.

“Throughout this campaign, we made the case that after more than three decades in Washington, it is time for fresh conservative leadership, and I look forward to continuing that conversation with voters in the months ahead,” Kim said in a statement.

Calvert replied in his own statement: “Voters throughout the district recognize I'm an effective member of Congress with a history of delivering results, cutting taxes and making life more affordable.”

Also on Tuesday, a major generational Democratic clash was set up as Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang advanced to face longtime incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui on the November ballot.

The 81-year-old congresswoman has held the Sacramento-based seat since the death of her husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in 2005. Bob Matsui had represented the district since the 1970s.

Vang, 41, is one of a slew of Democrats across the nation mounting an explicitly generational challenge in the wake of Joe Biden’s presidency.

“People are tired of leaders who answer to their biggest donors instead of the families they represent,” Vang said in a statement after the race was called. “The squeeze on working families doesn’t check your party registration — and neither will I.”

Matsui released her first ad of the general election Tuesday night, focusing on a local mother whose son had muscular dystrophy and who praised Matsui for legislation funding therapies for the disease.

Veteran Democrats survive challengers as others vie to replace Pelosi

Two other veteran House Democrats in California also made it past younger challengers to the November ballot. Rep. Brad Sherman, 71, a 15-term congressman representing part of Los Angeles, will face a Republican in the fall. Mike Thompson, 75, is seeking his 13th term in a Northern California district.

In San Francisco, a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Instead, state Sen. Scott Wiener and city Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.

The 7th District seat held by Matsui is considered a safe one for Democrats, but was redrawn as part of the party’s bid to add five more U.S. House seats elsewhere. Voters signed off on the changes with a constitutional amendment last year.

Democrats initially were concerned about getting locked out of the general election in a San Diego-area seat under the state’s primary system, which sends the top two vote-getters to the November ballot regardless of party. But San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert managed to emerge from a large field of other Democrats and will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.

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In this story first published June 9, 2026, The Associated Press erroneously reported Rep. Brad Sherman’s age as 72. Sherman is 71.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal advocacy group's request to block organizers from using the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday’s planned UFC mixed martial arts event.

Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don’t have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in suing to challenge an event that’s been in the works for months.

“In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.

Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s “UFC Freedom 250” event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called The Claw.

The plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic harms,” the judge noted, are temporary since The Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official’s clear representation,” the judge wrote.

The White House called the lawsuit a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that’s no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.

Trump's administration can’t issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a press conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars.

“The President’s administration is granting the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity it may not lawfully grant, and in exchange the UFC is throwing an event at which its leadership, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will all pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

Public Integrity Project attorney Brendan Ballou said the plaintiffs were disappointed in the judge's decision but respect it and intend to "keep bringing cases to raise the cost of corruption in America.”

“This isn’t a case about a sporting event, it’s about corruption, as a handful of people and companies stand to profit from our public monuments," Ballou said in a statement.

The National Park Service and the Interior Department are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is a friend of UFC president and CEO Dana White.

Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other Trump-related cases, including civil litigation accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The free contest gives children the chance to express their creativity, while getting excited about this highly anticipated family-friendly event. Contest winners will be recognized during Touch-A-Truck NRV, and will receive a custom prize pack from the coloring contest sponsor, Forest Design Service.

“Touch-A-Truck is about creating memorable experiences for families while helping children discover careers they may never have considered,” said Stephanie Bell, Office Manager for Foresight Design Services, member of the Touch-A-Truck committee, and Board Member of the NRVHBA.

The coloring contest is open now, and rules and entry forms can be downloaded from the event website, www.touchatrucknrv.com. Submissions must be uploaded by July 31st, and winners will be announced by August 8th.

This year’s Touch-A-Truck NRV will take place on Saturday, August 15th at Uptown Christiansburg from 10am-3pm. Admission is free for children, and adults are just $5.

The event is horn and siren-free from 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. Proceeds from this event benefit the Building Futures Foundation, the NRVHBA’s new charitable arm. Learn more about the foundation at www.buildingfutures.org.

The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center in Roanoke is building a statewide reputation for rehabilitating Virginia’s only wildcat: the bobcat.

The center recently took in two orphaned bobcat kittens transferred from another rehabilitation facility in Lee County. Staff members say bobcats are among the most complex — and expensive — animals to rehabilitate, in part because the goal is to raise them without making them comfortable around people.

Read original story here.

“Luckily these guys are already really, really feisty,” said Katherine McGrath, the center’s director of operations. She’s become an expert on what it takes to rehabilitate bobcats. At about 5 weeks old, she said, the kittens are already growling and swatting — behavior the staff wants to encourage.

That means some unusual rules for anyone who gets close.

On an exclusive visit, 10 News was required to wear a KN95 mask (felids are highly susceptible to covid-19) and a bobcat mask to keep faces covered and remain completely silent to avoid imprinting the animals.

“We essentially don’t want them to associate people with food,” McGrath said. If the kittens learn that humans bring meals and attention, she said, “they lose that fear that they have of us.”

That fear is key to survival in the wild — and it has been a focus of previous bobcat releases the center has handled in recent years.

In April the SWVA Wildlife Center released two adult bobcats in Floyd County after successfully rehabilitating them. 10 Mews followed them during their entire journey. Watch their story here: Bobcats released into Virginia wild after nearly year-long rehab at Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center

The new kittens arrived underweight and dehydrated, said Executive Director Chester Leonard. The center believes their mother may have been hit by a car, leaving the kittens on their own for a day or two before a rescuer found them.

The good news: They are already gaining weight. Leonard said each kitten arrived a little over 500 grams, and within about three days had gained another 100 to 150 grams.

Many people ask about the markings on their foreheads or ears. This is something you’ll find on almost every mammal at the center. The kittens have colored dots on their ears, a system staff uses to tell them apart while tracking weight, medication and overall health. It is also one of the only times the bobcats will be handled by humans during their roughly 10-month rehabilitation.

McGrath said it is unusual to receive bobcat kittens in back-to-back years, but habitat loss and increasing development can push wildlife into closer contact with people.

“As their population declines, as urbanization increases and their habitat declines in size, there’s not really a lot of places where we can find these guys, where they’re getting into contact with people enough that they’re coming into us,” McGrath said. “So we usually get them every other year, so one year after another is sort of a surprise to us.”

Rehabilitating the kittens will be a lengthy and expensive process. The center estimates the total cost of rehabilitation to exceed $20,000 before the animals are released, likely sometime next spring — making it one of the longest and most expensive rehabilitations the center has ever undertaken.

That cost covers staffing, medicine, veterinary exams, enclosure maintenance and food. As the kittens grow, each will consume the equivalent of one whole chicken per day, at approximately $10 per chicken. In the final months of rehabilitation, staff will need to introduce prey the bobcats would naturally find in the wild, such as quail and rabbits. A single large rabbit costs $23, and each kitten may eat at least one per day — sometimes more.

What started as a small rescue, has grown over the past decade to a true wildlife veterinary hospital. Now, it’s clear they have earned a statewide reputation for their ability to successfully rehabilitate bobcats.

“It’s been a challenge learning to care for these guys, but it’s something we’ve actually become experts at doing and we look forward to welcoming them every year because it’s becoming a tradition it seems like,” Leonard said.

For now, bright blue eyes peek out from behind a carrier hole and an enclosure gate. If rehabilitation goes as planned, the next glimpse will be a fleeting one — disappearing back into the mountains.

How to help

The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center is accepting donations to help cover the cost of the kittens’ care. Donations can be made online at swvawildlifecenter.org/make-a-donation or by mailing a check to:

Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center

5985 Coleman Road

Roanoke, VA 24018

Watch more about the bobcat kittens and other conservation work happening in SWVA in the Emmy nominated 10 News Special Vanishing Voices: Saving Virginia’s Wildlife.

Two teens have been arrested as part of an investigation into a series of robberies and assaults that occurred in Roanoke last week Roanoke Police Department said.

RPD said they arrested a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old for their alleged involvement in multiple assaults and robberies that occurred in Roanoke over a five-day period last week.

Both teens are now being held at the Roanoke Valley Detention Center.

This investigation is still ongoing.

UPDATE:

The Roanoke Police Department announced Wednesday that it had arrested a man and charged him in connection with the incident that occurred Sunday.

According to officials, Malik Johnson has been charged with aggravated assault and robbery. Investigators are also seeking the identity and whereabouts of a juvenile subject who was seen fleeing the scene.

The individual was last seen wearing a black sweatsuit with a white shirt.

Anyone with information regarding this incident or the identity of the second subject is encouraged to contact the Roanoke Police Department at 540-344-8500.

Original:

A man was injured in a shooting incident that occurred in Roanoke on Sunday afternoon, Roanoke Police Department said.

RPD said they responded to the 700 block of Fairview Road NW around 12:48 p.m. on Sunday after receiving a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, they found an 18-year-old man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Authorities said they are now investigating. If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact the Roanoke Police Department at (540) 344-8500.

We will update you with more information as it becomes available.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the U.S. and Iran have reached a “final, agreed upon text.” He said Pakistan, which has taken the lead in mediation efforts, was working with the warring countries on next steps.

“Peace has never been this close as it is now,” Sharif said in a post on X.

The apparent breakthrough in negotiations comes after Iran exchanged fire with the U.S. and Israel over three days this week, threatening to return the Middle East to full-scale war.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Iranian leaders on Sharif’s statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday an agreement “has never been closer” in post on X. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said multiple times in recent weeks that the countries were on the cusp of a deal, shared Araghchi's post on his own social media.

None of the leaders gave details about the emerging agreement.

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28 has rattled the Middle East and virtually shut down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 7.

Official says emerging deal would reopen strait, remove nuclear material

The U.S. and Iran were making progress Friday toward completing a deal that could effectively end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin the process of destroying or removing Tehran’s highly enriched uranium, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said a deal was 80% to 85% done and that the U.S. side believes “most of the people who have authority” in the Iranian government want to sign onto the deal “but not everybody.”

The official said technical details on how to remove Iran’s enriched uranium, according to the emerging agreement, would be worked out over 60 days after both sides sign it. The official did not detail who the U.S. envisions taking charge of removing the uranium, which is believed to entombed under three nuclear sites that were battered by U.S. strikes last year.

Three regional officials said the emerging deal is also expected to include the phased lifting of sanctions on Iran and the release of frozen Iranian assets. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Underscoring the fragility of the negotiations, Trump on Friday lashed out at Iranian officials on social media and said: “They better get their act together, and FAST!” That was before he shared Araghchi's post.

Officials say a deal could be signed in the coming days

Iran's nuclear program has been a key point of division. The U.S. and Israel fear it could lead to an atomic weapon — a main reason their leaders cited for going to war. Tehran has insisted its nuclear efforts are for peaceful purposes.

Also critical is Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for oil and natural gas. Disruption of transit through the strait has crimped global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.

The U.S. has responded since mid-April with a naval blockade of Iranian ports to choke off Iran’s own oil exports.

The regional officials said they expect a signing ceremony for the agreement in the coming days after officials in Washington and Tehran approve it.

Trump on Thursday claimed significant progress in the negotiations, just hours after he threatened to escalate attacks and seize Iran’s oil industry. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said on state television that mediators were active and the text of a deal was “mostly finalized.”

There was no immediate comment Friday from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, which has been leading efforts to mediate a deal between the U.S. and Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi had said Thursday that Pakistan remained involved in negotiations.

Israel expects Trump to advocate for its interests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is not a party to the deal being negotiated. He said in a statement Friday that he and Trump were in “full agreement” that Iran must not have nuclear weapons.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a separate statement that Israel also expects Trump to uphold key Israeli interests, including weakening Iran's missile program and proxy network.

Katz warned that Israel could still act independently toward Iran and that the country would not pull out of the zones it is occupying in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, nor would it withdraw from the northern refugee camps of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel. Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group, complicating negotiations between Iran and the U.S.

The deal was largely being brokered by Pakistan, led by its army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, the regional officials said, with backing from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar.

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Price reported from Washington and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, and Collin Binkley and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

It's the latest action by the Trump administration connected to voting or election operations in the states, and it comes in a state that is expected to have hotly contested races this fall for governor and U.S. Senate.

Federal agents showed up at the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on Thursday and spent hours questioning staff, said Prentiss Haney, a board member of the grassroots organization. The organization was founded in 2007 and describes its mission as fighting for criminal justice reform, racial justice and an expansion of voting rights.

Federal agents also went to the homes of people who have worked with the organization, seeking interviews and information about alleged voter fraud, Haney said. He accused the agents of “intimidation tactics and harassment" and expressed concern that the investigation was designed to sow doubt in the coming elections.

The focus of the probe was unclear, but a person familiar with the matter said Friday that investigators were examining potential fraud violations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Friday, and a spokesperson for the FBI in Cleveland did not respond to messages seeking comment.

To obtain a search warrant, federal authorities must convince a judge that probable cause of criminal activity exists. Though the information authorities presented was not immediately released, Democrats expressed skepticism about the basis of a search that unfolded against persistent concerns of a politicized FBI and Justice Department.

The party's nominees for the state's top races issued statements Friday saying they were troubled by the FBI raid.

“Any attempts by federal law enforcement to intimidate eligible Ohioans from registering to vote are unacceptable,” said Dr. Amy Acton, the state’s former public health director, who won the state’s Democratic primary for governor and is challenging Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.

Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted in the fall, called on the FBI to make public “any and all activities around these raids.”

He added, “Any attempt to intimidate Ohio voters is wrong, and will not work.”

Republicans have held the state's top elected seat for 20 years and hold both U.S. Senate seats but are concerned that Democratic momentum in this year's midterms could make them vulnerable.

The Justice Department during President Donald Trump's second term has launched several legal actions or investigations related to voting or state election operations.

The FBI has seized ballots and other records from the 2020 election for Georgia’s Fulton County and Arizona’s Maricopa County and from the 2024 election in Michigan’s Wayne County. It also has been questioning election workers in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County. All four are in presidential battleground states.

The Justice Department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia after they refused to hand over detailed voter data that includes dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers. It has said in court filings that it wants the information so it can run it through a Department of Homeland Security program that checks U.S. citizenship, although the program's accuracy has been questioned. The Justice Department has so far been on a losing streak in its lawsuits seeking to extract the data from the holdout states.

Early in his second term, Trump, a Republican, also ordered the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the top fundraising platform for the Democratic Party.

Allegations of fraud in voter registration efforts are typically investigated by states and usually involve people working for groups that pay for sign-ups. Earlier this year, California officials opened an investigation into whether signature-gatherers were offering to pay people for signing a ballot petition. In 2025, Pennsylvania officials brought criminal charges against seven people for submitting fraudulent voter registration forms.

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Lauer reported from Philadelphia, and Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.

That level of wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable. Before Friday, the trillion dollar mark was reserved for measures like the GDP (or staggering debt ) of a handful of major economies — and, in the last decade alone, the value of some of the biggest companies to ever trade on the stock market.

Musk's new title arrives amid a wider acceleration for the richest of the rich. Year after year, his former (although now very distant) billionaires club has reaped a growing number of members — from tech titans to celebrities. All the while, more and more people worldwide are struggling to pay their everyday bills. Many have decried the arrival of the first trillionaire as the latest and most alarming example of that wealth gap.

The number “one trillion” is hard in itself for the human mind to comprehend. One trillion dollars is a thousand times greater than $1 billion. And a million times more than $1 million.

According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth actually hit $1.1 trillion as of midday Friday, after SpaceX soared in its first moments on the market. Still, here’s some ways to think about how far $1 trillion of that money could go.

To the moon and back, over 200 times

Thinking about what $1 trillion looks like is almost as astronomical as the interplanetary — and at this point, still far from realized — goals SpaceX has laid out for itself.

In terms of physical cash, one trillion U.S. dollar bills laid end to end would stretch nearly 97 million miles (or almost 156 million kilometers). That would account for the distance of more than 200 round trip journeys to the moon — which NASA says sits an average of 238,855 miles (nearly 384,400 kilometers) away from Earth. It would also surpass the roughly 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) between Earth and the sun.

$122 for every person on Earth

There are nearly 8.2 billion people living on Earth today, per the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. If $1 trillion was divided among the entire population, each person would receive almost $122.

Double the GDP of South Africa

One trillion dollars is more than double the annual GDP of South Africa, the country where Musk was born. According 2026 numbers from International Monetary Fund, the nation’s output of goods and services stands at nearly $480 billion.

Only about 21 countries in the world have a GDP over the trillion dollar mark today. The U.S. and China lead the pack at more than $32.38 trillion and $20.85 trillion, respectively, but that's far ahead most other economies.

2.5 million homes in the US

Houses sold in the U.S. have a median sales price of about $403,200, per the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. With $1 trillion, you could buy nearly 2.5 million homes at that cost.

243 billion gallons of gas

At current U.S. gas prices — which averaged at nearly $4.11 a gallon Friday per AAA — $1 trillion could buy more than 243 billion gallons of regular fuel.

To help put that in context, that far surpasses the nearly 137 billion gallons Americans used on finished motor gasoline all last year. And prices at the pump were much less expensive in 2025. Steep oil prices, spanning from the U.S. and Israel's ongoing war against Iran, propelled the national average above $4 a gallon for the first time in four years.

Over $700 billion ahead the world's second richest person

According to Forbes, the second richest person in the world today is Google co-founder Larry Page — who carried a net worth of nearly $295 billion as of midday Friday. That's $705 billion under the trillion dollar mark.

In fact, the combined net worth, as of Friday, of the four men following Musk on Forbes' richest list — which, beyond Page, includes fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($272 billion), Amazon's Jeff Bezos ($247 billion) and Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($228 billion) — amounted to just over $1.04 trillion.

Those fortunes can oscillate by tens of billions of dollars by the day, or even a matter of hours. Musk's own net worth has rapidly ballooned in value. Just last year, his net worth sat at $342 billion per Forbes — up from $195 billion in 2024.

It's a significant lapse for the program known as Section 702, and even as President Donald Trump nominates a new national intelligence director more palatable to both Republicans and Democrats than his initial pick, it’s unclear how soon lawmakers — set for recess — would be able to revive the spy program.

Still, there is not expected to be an immediate drop-off in intelligence collection given that a court order from March certified that government surveillance powers under the law could remain in effect for another year.

Section 702 allows for sweeping powers to sift through foreign communications

The provision is a part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, and grants American spy agencies sweeping powers to collect and examine the communications of foreigners located outside the United States without first getting a warrant.

U.S. officials see the law as an invaluable national security tool that has helped disrupt potential acts of terrorism, yielded valuable insight into ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure and contributed to the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a 2022 drone strike.

The law was passed in 2008 as an effort to codify key aspects of a predecessor spy program created by President George W. Bush's Republican administration.

Since then, officials across administrations of both major political parties have warned that without the law the government won't be able to collect crucial intelligence overseas.

The program's renewal historically has been contentious

The periodic need to reauthorize the law has prompted protracted debate in Congress well before this year, including discussion over whether additional guardrails are needed to protect the privacy of Americans and their personal data.

That's because when the government eavesdrops on foreigners abroad, it also sweeps up the communications of American citizens and others in the U.S. who are in contact with those surveillance targets.

Civil liberties advocates have raised concerns over revelations that FBI analysts over the years have improperly queried the vast repository of intelligence collected through the program for information about Americans, including related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters and the racial justice protests of 2020, as well as about state and federal political figures.

Some of those advocates have said the government should be required to have a warrant before examining communications collected from Americans. U.S. officials have said that a warrant would be legally unnecessary and overly cumbersome and that corrective measures have been implemented to reduce the number of improper queries.

Complicating the debate is the unlikely political alliances it has produced, uniting a coalition of lawmakers skeptical of government surveillance that includes both privacy-minded liberal Democrats and Republicans who still regard the intelligence community with suspicion over the investigation of ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 Republican presidential campaign.

The holdup this time is tied to pushback over acting intelligence pick Bill Pulte

Democrats balked when Trump picked Bill Pulte to serve as acting national intelligence director and refused to support a FISA extension until the selection was withdrawn. Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no known national security experience, has set off alarms by using his perch as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to facilitate dubious mortgage fraud investigations of perceived Trump adversaries.

A House vote this week that would have temporarily extended the program collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. A Senate effort to approve its own versions also failed.

After those votes, Trump announced he was tapping Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick for director of national intelligence, or DNI. The pick was warmly received on Capitol Hill, but it was not enough to break the impasse before Friday's scheduled expiration.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he has “known and respected” Clayton for decades and that had he been tapped a week ago, “lots of pain might have been avoided.”

“His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI,” Himes said.

The next steps for the spy powers provision

Before the congressional votes, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had warned the Trump administration to prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection." Other lawmakers since then have voiced similarly dire concerns.

The expiration is likely to be the first meaningful lapse of Section 702 since the law was created more than 15 years ago. In 2024, the Senate barely missed its midnight deadline before voting to approve a bill that was then signed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, creating a brief lapse.

Despite this year's sunset of the statute, there's no expectation of any immediate halt to intelligence collection as the U.S. hosts a series of events this summer with potential national security concerns, including the World Cup and festivities surrounding the 250th birthday of the United States.

A March opinion from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court certified the program's renewal for another 12 months, meaning that Section 702's authority is expected to remain intact through then. Even so, it's conceivable that without congressional reauthorization, communications companies forced to provide data to the government under the law could try to cease that compliance and argue that they cannot be compelled to cooperate.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund in the face of a fierce bipartisan backlash, and government attorneys have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot. But plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the fund won’t move forward.

Neither was U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who ruled that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will remain blocked until further notice from the court.

“The (government's) mootness argument, in my view, doesn't go anywhere,” the judge said.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly and unequivocally endorsed the fund's cancellation. He has continued to express support for it in remarks to reporters.

Brinkema gave the parties a week to negotiate an agreement for Trump administration officials, including Blanche, to submit a sworn declaration that the administration won't revive the fund.

Brinkema previously agreed to temporarily block the administration from proceeding with the fund for at least two weeks. Her May 29 order was due to expire on Friday.

Trump's Republican administration created the fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Plaintiffs who sued to block fund payouts argue that the government can’t legally divert taxpayer money into what they argue is a slush fund for compensating Trump’s allies.

In a separate case on Wednesday, a different judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a government watchdog’s parallel request for a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from forging ahead with the fund. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said he accepts Blanche’s representation that the fund is now moot.

Leon had asked Justice Department attorney Andrew Block why Blanche doesn’t formally rescind his May 18 order establishing the fund. Block said he didn’t know. He still didn’t have an answer to that question when Brinkema posed it two days later.

“It’s a huge gap in the record that we don’t have an answer to that question,” said Brinkema, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

Block said he couldn't provide her with a “concrete answer” because he doesn't have direct access to Blanche.

“All I would be doing is speculating,” he told the judge.

In the Virginia case, attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward asked for an order to temporarily suspend the fund’s implementation and stop the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it.

The plaintiffs include a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest. Also named as plaintiffs are the government watchdog Common Cause; the city of New Haven, Connecticut; and the National Abortion Federation, an association of abortion providers.

Even before the Trump administration said it was dropping the fund, the Justice Department did not form the five-member commission that would decide on payout criteria, so no money was paid out nor claims accepted.

Many of the Republican president’s allies are opposed to compensating rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. In May, however, Blanche wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Capitol rioters who engaged in violence could be eligible to apply for payments from the fund.

Trump issued mass pardons to Capitol rioters on his first day back in the White House last year. More than 1,500 people were charged in the Jan. 6 attack before Trump erased every case with his sweeping act of clemency.

Democracy Forward attorney Pooja Boisture said reviving the fund would irreparably harm the lawsuit's plaintiffs. A court order to block it wouldn't harm the government if the administration is truly abandoning it, as Blanche testified, Boisture told the judge, who agreed with that argument.

Thursday's storms ripped roofs off of buildings, flattened homes, brought down scores of trees and power lines and caused hundreds of thousands of power outages and major air traffic disruptions. Officials said there were no reports of deaths or life-threatening injuries, though there were several people treated for minor injuries.

Tornado damage was reported in several towns including Merrillville and Hebron in Indiana and Streator, Illinois. Authorities were surveying the damage Friday and preparing to issue emergency declarations needed to get recovery funding.

Marsha Smith was in her apartment building in Merrillville, about 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, when the tornado struck the complex, tearing roofs off three buildings, knocking down trees and breaking car windshields before heavy rain caused more damage to the homes. She and some neighbors huddled under an indoor stairwell holding hands and praying.

“The louder the tornado got, the louder I started praying,” said Smith, 54, a CPR instructor. “I said, ’Oh God it’s here.′ I said, ’Lord Jesus make it pass, let it pass, let it pass over. I said, ’God give us the strength to make it through this.’ And it just started wrecking.”

Smith said there was an eerie calm just before the tornado struck. Then it sounded like a freight train smashing into her building, she said. She thanked God no one was hurt. Friday morning, she surveyed her neighborhood and described it as a catastrophe.

Officials in Merrillville said more than 200 buildings were damaged, including some that were destroyed. Downed trees and power lines blocked streets, and part of a high school's roof was ripped off. Cleanup crews were out working Friday.

Multiple agencies from the region helped local first responders search and assessed damaged areas, town officials said on social media. Crews worked into the night clearing roads. The American Red Cross set up a 700-bed shelter.

In and around Streator and Hebron, photos and videos posted on social media showed damage in those areas similar to that in Merrillville. The National Weather Service said tornadoes hit those areas as well, and it was surveying the damage to determined exactly how many tornadoes touched down.

In Streator, a manufacturing and farm city about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, emergency crews were inspecting the damage. Officials said nearly a dozen homes were damaged, including some that were destroyed. A reunification center for displaced residents was set up in its city hall and the Red Cross opened a shelter.

Streator Mayor Tara Bedei said there were no reported deaths. “We are incredibly grateful for the safety of our residents and the quick action of emergency personnel,” she said in a statement. Officials said four people were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

First responders also worked through the night in Hebron, a small town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, officials said in a Facebook post. Damage assessments were underway.

Jennifer Hall was in her garage in Elkhart, Indiana, as the winds and rain picked up Thursday evening. Suddenly, she said, she heard a loud crash and discovered a tree limb had gone through the roof of her rental home. She used buckets to catch the rain coming in from the hole.

“I’m just nervous because it’s just been one thing after another,” said Hall, explaining she just had surgery and her husband is out of town.

The tornadoes came after severe storms swept through the Midwest on Wednesday, knocking out power, damaging buildings and canceling flights.

There were nearly 180,000 power outages in Illinois on Friday afternoon, down from more than 200,000 earlier in the day. Nearly 115,000 homes and businesses in Indiana were in the dark, down a few thousand from earlier Friday, according to poweroutage.us.

Commonwealth Edison, a major electricity provider in Illinois, said it expected to restore 80% of the power outages from Wednesday's storms by Saturday night, and 80% of outages from Thursday's storms by Sunday night. In Indiana, NIPSCO said it was working to restore power as fast as possible but did not provide a timeline.

The storms delayed or halted flights at airports in some cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York on Thursday. Parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also strained under high heat and humidity. Dozens of flights were canceled or delayed Friday at Chicago’s O’Hare International and Midway International airports, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.

During Wednesday's storms, a 54-year-old man died at a homeless encampment in a park in Des Moines, Iowa, after being hit by a tree that “broke apart and fell during strong storms,” police said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of other deaths or injuries from those storms.

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Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed.

Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing.

Hockney was born in the north of England but lived much of his life in Southern California, making its sun-drenched suburban views a major motif.

Later in life he returned to Europe, finding renewed inspiration in the wooded hills of his native county of Yorkshire and the fields and trees of France’s Normandy region. One of the most popular and critically lauded British artists of his generation, his works sold for record prices at auction.

Historian Simon Schama said it's no mystery why the appeal of his work endures.

“His work is admired — loved is not too strong a word — by the millions who, worldwide, flock to see it because it presupposes an expectation of pleasure,” Schama wrote in an essay accompanying a 2025 Hockney exhibition in Paris.

Hockney’s publicist, Erica Bolton, said he died at his home in London on Thursday, less than a month short of his 89th birthday. She did not give a cause of death.

He is survived by his longtime partner, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima; his great-nephew and studio assistant, Richard Hockney; his brothers Philip and John; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Hockney was an icon of the swinging 60s

With his trademark round glasses and bleached-blond hair, Hockney was a well-known figure in the swinging British and American art scenes of the 1960s, even before he reached the age of 30. His paintings were just as distinctive, many of them creating a dreamlike world of patterned light bouncing off water and windows, and human forms rendered in flattened, simplified shapes in matte acrylic paint.

“I’m excited every day,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1979. “London has lots of dreary parts, but I never find anything dreary in Los Angeles.”

Hockney was born July 9, 1937, in Bradford, a large industrial city whose chief export was woolen textiles. He spent his first two decades there before going to London’s Royal College of Art. He made an impact even before his graduation, and art dealer John Kasmin took him into his stable of artists in 1961.

His artistic influences ranged widely, including Renaissance portraits, 18th-century English artist William Hogarth's satirical drawings, 19th-century English painter J.M.W. Turner’s landscapes, Pablo Picasso’s experiments in Cubism and 20th-century American pop art.

He shared with other pop artists an interest in the polished surface of modern life. And, like Andy Warhol with his Brillo boxes and Campbell’s soup cans, Hockney occasionally incorporated advertising labels, such as a British Typhoo Tea box used in his 1961 “Tea Painting in an Illusionistic Style.”

He saw success early in his career

He told The New York Times in 1964 that he enjoyed the burgeoning pop art scene in New York but wasn’t sure he was part of it.

“I’m just an ordinary artist,” he said. “I do admire American pop — in fact it seems that everything fresh-looking and vital in England these days has been coming from the U.S.”

Nonetheless, he said in 1995 that he still considered himself “very much an artist in the English tradition.”

Hockney, who was out as a gay man long before it was common, explored erotic themes, giving youthful male bodies the same tender scrutiny that artists had been giving the female nude for centuries.

Early works like “We Two Boys Together Clinging” and “Two Men in a Shower” celebrated gay relationships when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain.

Early in his career, two of his drawings were bought for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“The moment I first sold pictures to earn a living, I felt rich. I’ve been rich ever since,” he told The Associated Press in 1995. “I didn’t have much money, but I did what I wanted. ... You are a rich man if you do the things you want to do.”

In 2018, his 1972 painting “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” sold at a Christie’s auction for $90.3 million, at the time a record for a living artist.

While many of his best-known paintings had American scenes, he also tackled British subjects. He immortalized his parents in several portraits and his friends Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell in “Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy,” a 1971 portrait voted one of Britain’s greatest paintings in a 2005 BBC poll.

Hockney's work went beyond drawing and painting

Like many traditional artists, he considering drawing a fundamental skill and lamented that it wasn’t taught as rigorously as it used to be.

“Human beings are the most interesting things we see, so they’re the hardest to draw,” he said in a 1996 AP interview.

Hockney also embraced other media, including printmaking, photo collage and video. He contributed costume and set designs for the theater and opera, including a celebrated production of “Tristan und Isolde” first staged in 1987 at the Los Angeles Opera.

When he took up photography, he fused genres, assembling individual photos into elaborate collages like “Pearblossom Highway, 11-18th April, 1986,” built up of individual views of a desert highway intersection.

“My photographer friends said it was a painting,” Hockney told the AP in 2001. “I said it’s a photograph; I used a camera.”

Later he began to draw on iPads, which became his favorite tool.

In the early 2000s, he looked afresh at the fields and forests of Yorkshire in a series of landscape paintings that combined bold color with minute attention to the texture of snow on a hillside or a blossom on a hawthorn hedge. They featured in a 2017 exhibition at Tate Britain in London that was visited by half a million people and moved to the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Hockney used the English landscape for inspiration in his design for a stained-glass window installed at Westminster Abbey in 2018 to celebrate the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

King Charles III paid tribute to “one of life’s true originals” as he mourned "a man whose irrepressible charm, talent and constant innovation will be most sorely missed, but whose dazzling creativity lives on in galleries and museums around the world.”

He worked right up until his death

In 2019, he moved to Normandy, where during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown he produced joyous iPad drawings of springtime for his friends. His message — “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” — was emblazoned in neon across the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris when it hosted a huge Hockney exhibition that opened in April 2025.

Art critic Estelle Lovatt said Hockney “changed how we see the world.”

“He was one of the first artists to use a fax machine,” she told the AP. “He was one of the first artists to use the Polaroid camera to make collages. He was one of the first artists to use really, really vibrant colors.”

An unrepentant cigarette smoker who railed against government anti-smoking rules, Hockney complained when a poster for the 2025 exhibition was banned from the Paris Metro because it showed him holding a cigarette.

The announcement of his death from his publicist noted that Hockney was “a committed life-long and defiant smoker, expressing the pleasure in life it brought him. ... He smoked up to the end.”

Hockney had a minor stroke in 2012 and was increasingly deaf in later years — something he said improved his visual perception.

“If you lose one sense, you gain other senses, and I feel I could see space clearer,” he told the AP in 2017.

He never stopped working.

“It’s my work that keeps me young,” Hockney told the Sun newspaper in 2017. “I’ve been a professional painter for 60 years. Sixty years of getting up every day and doing exactly what I want to do.”

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Associated Press journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report.

Results are expected sometime next week, the secretary of state’s office said.

Maine and Alaska use ranked choice voting for some statewide elections. Voters in ranked choice elections are allowed to rank the candidates on their ballot in order of preference.

Under that scenario, if no candidate breaks 50% of the popular vote, the bottom finisher is eliminated, and voters’ second choices come into play. The tabulations continue until a candidate achieves a majority of the total votes.

No candidates exceeded 50% in Tuesday’s Republican and Democratic primaries for governor or the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District. The Maine Secretary of State Department said Friday that the counting the ballots would begin that afternoon and would be open to the public and available on the secretary of state’s YouTube page.

A busy governor's race

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has served since 2018, is termed out of office, and that created a wide-open field for both parties. Democrats had five candidates actively campaigning in the June 9 primary and the Republicans had seven. The Democratic race was especially close, with the top four candidates within a few percentage points of each other.

Democrats chose between Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson; former state House Speaker Hannah Pingree; energy executive Angus King III; and former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah.

Bellows, whose office is running the ranked counting, “has stepped aside from this part of the process and has delegated to her staff,” said Jana Spaulding, the deputy secretary of the office.

Republicans chose between former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Bobby Charles; healthcare executive Jonathan Bush; former Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason; former Paris, Maine, selectman Robert Wessels; and businessmen Owen McCarthy, David Jones and Ben Midgley.

Mills ran in the primary for U.S. Senate in Maine this year, but suspended her campaign in April. That primary was won by oyster farmer Graham Platne r, who will run against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Key House race

In the 2nd Congressional District, former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, former U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud were on the ballot for the Democrats.

The winner faces Republican former Gov. Paul LePage, an ally of President Donald Trump who was unopposed in the Republican primary. LePage served as governor from 2010 to 2018, during which time he fashioned himself as a vocal critic of liberalism and a staunch defender of Trump.

The 2nd District seat has no incumbent in the November election because Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who has held the seat since 2018, is stepping down.

The district has consistently voted for Trump but also elected Golden four times.

The Central African Republic, a deeply impoverished country plagued by conflict, is one of at least nine African nations with this type of agreement.

Under a series of often-secret agreements that are part of a broad U.S. crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say.

The Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries, immigration lawyers said.

It was unclear exactly how many migrants were on the deportation flight that left Louisiana late Thursday on the way to the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui.

Among those set to be deported Thursday were people from Iran, Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan, according to Ali Rahnama, interim executive director of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, who has been in touch with some of the migrants.

Three Iranian women in the U.S. were originally scheduled to be sent to the Central African Republic, according to Sahar Jalili Pawelski, one of their immigration lawyers, who said two of them received emergency court orders temporarily stopping their deportation while judges reviewed whether the government was acting legally.

All had been granted court protection against deportation to Iran after judges ruled they faced credible fears of persecution on the basis of politics or religion, Rahnama said.

“Despite being granted withholding of removal, these individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection and no support network. We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled,” Emily Trostle, an attorney representing two of the women, said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday would not comment on the case, saying it would not confirm future removal operations for security reasons. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Central African Republic has been plagued by years of conflict between pro-government forces and armed groups and is one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite vast reserves of gold, one in three people live on less than $2 a day.

It also is one of the countries where Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, was first active in Africa. The group has been responsible for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s security and fighting rebel groups.

The country remains one of Russia’s closest allies in Africa, despite recent tensions between Touadéra and Moscow over Russia’s push to replace Wagner with the state-controlled Africa Corps.

Rahnama of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund expressed concerns about an Iranian asylum seeker being sent to the Central African Republic, noting Russia’s influence in the country and Moscow’s close security ties with Iran.

The International Organization for Migration, a U.N.-affiliated agency, will “provide post-arrival humanitarian assistance” to the migrants at the request of the Central African authorities, a spokesperson said.

The U.S. earlier this year awarded $85 million to ⁠the IOM for ​operations in the Central African Republic to provide "assistance to migrants” and promote “community stabilization.”

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Washington and Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco contributed to this report.

For the second day in a row in the Canary Islands, the American pope insisted on the inherent dignity and rights of migrants and demanded they be welcomed and integrated into society, in some of his strongest comments on the politically divisive issue.

“Break those chains and free those you hold in bondage,” Leo said in a message to human traffickers that he delivered during a meeting with humanitarian aid organizations that help migrants on the island of Tenerife.

Leo was wrapping up his weeklong trip to Spain in the Spanish archipelago, which is closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and is a key point of entry for migrants who make the perilous Atlantic crossing from West Africa.

His return to Rome was delayed when his Iberia charter flight developed a technical problem. King Felipe VI offered his private plane instead, and Leo accepted. The problem couldn't be fixed, so Iberia said it was sending a separate aircraft from Madrid to fetch the journalists and Vatican officials left behind in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

It was the first time in decades that a papal flight had experienced a problem so serious that it required the pope to deplane and change his travel plans.

The pope had been fulfilling a wish of Pope Francis to visit the islands to commemorate the thousands of lives lost at sea. He is also drawing attention to the Catholic Church’s biblically-mandated mantra to “welcome the stranger,” amid anti-migrant sentiment in Europe and the Trump administration's mass deportation program in his native United States.

During the encounter with aid groups in Tenerife, Leo implored receiving communities to integrate people fleeing war, poverty and climate change and spare them from the “silent shipwreck” of abandonment when they are left on the streets with nothing after surviving perilous crossings.

“A human conscience, and even more so a Christian conscience, cannot remain indifferent in the face of these graveyards of the sea, to the victims of shipwrecks and the lack of aid,” Leo said. “Every life lost on these routes is a failure for the human family.”

A deadly passage and a warning to traffickers

The Canary Islands have long been a stepping stone for migrants trying to reach Europe from West Africa and Morocco.

While people smugglers and human traffickers operate the Atlantic route, there are also many self-organized boats of migrants, including many former fishermen from Senegal who were left without income due to overfishing in recent years.

Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000. They have fallen dramatically, with over 3,000 people landing there in the first five months of 2026.

Because of the vastness of the ocean and scarcity of rescue ships or monitoring, some experts consider the Atlantic route more deadly than the more well-known central Mediterranean smuggling route from Libya and Tunisia to Italy. Since 2020, several West African boats have been found in the Caribbean and Latin America with only dead bodies on board after drifting across the Atlantic, pushed by trade winds and currents.

Leo directed his remarks Friday to the criminal organizations and individual smugglers who organize these “death routes” to Europe. Such smugglers charge thousands of euros a person and often force their passengers into prostitution or other forms of black market labor by withholding their documents to pay off the debt.

“Stop. Repent,” Leo said in his message to traffickers, emphasizing each word in Spanish and drawing a sustained applause from the crowd. “For every life lost, every family deceived, every body subjugated, every woman threatened, every worker exploited, you will have to appear before divine justice.”

“Repent while there is still time, for God’s mercy can reach even the most hardened sinner, but it enters only through the narrow gate of truth, justice and conversion,” he said.

With his two-day visit to the Canary Islands, Leo has confirmed himself as the heir of Francis’ migration preaching, which was a priority of Francis' 12-year pontificate and often caused friction with U.S. and European powers.

History’s first U.S.-born pope has not only echoed Francis’ message and gestures, he has expanded and amplified them during a deeply symbolic visit. Upon arrival on Thursday, Leo threw a bouquet of flowers into the sea from a port nicknamed the “Dock of Shame” in 2020, when migrants were forced to live in squalor during a spike in their arrivals.

Leo’s gesture mimicked the one Francis made in 2013 when he visited Lampedusa, Sicily, another flashpoint in Europe’s migration drama, and denounced the “globalization of indifference” that the world showed asylum seekers.

But in a sign Leo is making the papacy his own, the 70-year-old pope has added a new gesture to his repertoire: After a onetime migrant offered his testimony during Leo's encounter Friday, the pope did the viral “6-7” hand gesture that's popular with young people as he joked alongside him. That earned the pope cheers and applause from the crowd.

Leo meets with migrants at reception center

In the Canary Islands and in remarks on the Spanish mainland, Leo reaffirmed the right of migrants to flee but also to stay home, demanding their countries of origin provide the necessary economic and security conditions. He shamed European countries that turn their back on migrants' plights, and said Christian cannot remain indifferent.

On Friday, he noted that for the Catholic Church, the process of integrating migrants into a community can become a chance at spreading the faith, “without imposing” it and in respect of the migrants’ own beliefs.

Leo opened the final day of his trip by visiting the Las Raíces migrant camp. Leo drew a round of applause when he went off-script to tell migrants that he would speak in French and English, the language spoken by many of the people living in the camp.

One woman told him of the desperation that drove her to leave her homeland and family, the trauma of the crossings, and her gratitude at finding safety and a new life.

“We aren't asking for privileges. We aren't asking for compassion. We just want respect, humanity and the chance to live with dignity,” said the woman, identified as Bousso Diouf.

Next month, on July 4, the American pope will spend U.S. Independence Day on the island of Lampedusa, where Francis in 2013 first denounced the “globalization of indifference” the world shows migrants.

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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 perfectly-timed as Morenatti's photo was, what happened after made it even more captivating. Its publication and a post by Morenatti on the social platform X set off a search by internet sleuths for the boy's parents, who believed they had witnessed a miracle and likewise were trying to find Morenatti.

A photo transcends a moment

The pope shares moments with individuals all the time, especially on trips abroad, but there was something about this particular instance that stirred emotion. Here's what Morenatti, a two-time Pulitzer-winning photographer, had to say about this extraordinary photo:

“In photojournalism, a photograph should do more than document an event. It should convey a feeling, evoke an emotion and hold the viewer’s attention long enough to spark a thought, even if only for a brief moment.”

“I have always believed that if a photograph moves me while I am making it, there is a good chance it will move others as well,” he added. “When that happens, the image transcends the simple recording of a moment and gains a deeper power.”

A family prays to Gaudí

When Montse Martínez, 36, and her husband first heard of Leo’s upcoming visit to the Sagrada Familia basilica, it felt like stars aligning. Such is their devotion to the Catalan architect who designed the church, Antoni Gaudí, that they named their newborn after him. For nine straight days they prayed before an image of Gaudí, who’s on the path to possible sainthood, asking him to grant them tickets to see the pope.

Their wish came true, and they were among the 40,000 faithful gathered for Leo’s prayer vigil on Tuesday. A security guard noticed their baby and handed him to the pope, who gave the crying infant a blessing. The guard came back for 7-year-old Joaquim.

“He was so moved that he could only smile, he couldn’t speak,” Martínez said of Joaquim’s few seconds with the pope in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

And it was at that precise moment that Morenatti snapped his photo.

How this photo was made

This photo was only possible because Morenatti felt compelled to seek out a unique angle.

“Covering a papal visit is often frustrating for photographers. We are usually confined to positions assigned by the organizers, with little freedom to move in search of better angles," he said. On this occasion, however, he managed to get past the security cordon and join a crowd gathered along one section of the route to watch the Popemobile pass by.

“Standing on a chair among the crowd, I could see the Popemobile approaching through a sea of waving hands and flags. Then I noticed a small gap in front of me — a narrow opening through which a photograph might be possible."

“My 50–150 mm f/2 lens was already zoomed to its maximum focal length and opened to its widest aperture. I quickly checked that both faces were sharp and that the frame was clean, with everything positioned neatly beneath the windshield of the Popemobile. I pressed the shutter for a few seconds and immediately sensed that I had the photograph I had been searching for,” he said. “A wave of emotion washed over me, followed by relief. The image I had imagined was finally there, safely stored on my memory card.”

The search for a family, and a photographer

Morenatti didn't just publish the photo for AP clients. He also posted the image to X, asking for help finding the boy's family so he could give them a printed copy.

“They had to see this photo. And I needed to tell them how moved I was by their son,” Morenatti said.

His post went viral, racking up more than half a million views and hundreds of comments. Even the Catholic Church in Barcelona chimed in, asking — in the local Catalan language — for people to assist. And one of the region's most-read newspapers wrote a story about the search.

Joaquim's parents were unaware of this campaign. But they had seen Morenatti's photo on the website of top local newspaper La Vanguardia and started working to track him down. They found his name with the help of ChatGPT and messaged him directly on Instagram. Morenatti responded and they spoke by phone, touched by the speed with which they found each other.

The family is thrilled they will soon obtain the printed image, which they will hang in their home in a village outside Barcelona.

“We haven’t figured out yet where to place it, but it will be in a very special place,” Martínez said, adding that she hopes it will help plant the seed of faith in her five children. Perhaps, she said, her son's short private audience with the pope could even be included in Gaudí's canonization dossier.

“For us, it’s a miracle of Antoni Gaudí. It’s a gift of God, who has these tender gestures of love for his children.”

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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.

Today’s storms will be a bit different in their development than what we witnessed yesterday. Let’s chat about the recap!

Yesterday and today we had what is called a cap in the atmosphere. A cap is what prevents the warm, moist air from rising to meet the fuel source higher up in the atmosphere.

This atmospheric feature is basically like a pot of water boiling on a stove with a lid on. When you take the lid off of the pot, the water is allowed to boil over and the steam rises higher. This is what happens when the cap breaks, the lid is taken off of the pot.

In order to take the “atmospheric lid” off of the pot, we need something that is a strong forcing mechanism. Today we have a cold front that will do exactly that. Yesterday, we relied on daytime heating alone to break the cap, which was unsuccessful due to the lack of energy.

Today not only are we watching for those strong storms, but dangerous heat as well. A heat advisory has been issued for portions of Southside and Lynchburg Zones until 8 PM Friday night.

Thanks to the heat, humidity and strong cold front, the same threats for yesterday are still in play today. A slight risk has been expanded to the entirety of the viewing area.

The more concerning threats will be wind and hail damage, as hail could reach up to 1″ in diameter.

Please stay weather aware today and download the weather authority mobile app to have weather alerts sent to your device!

Thursday Morning Update

This afternoon kicks off our severe risk. The threats we are watching for include damaging winds, hail, flash flooding, and a very small tornado threat.

Hail, wind damage, and flash flooding are the most concerning of these threats. Power outages are possible because of the wind threat.

It is a good idea to plug in extra batteries and have the flashlight ready just in case of a power failure this afternoon or evening.

The slight risk from the SPC has been moved a bit further north. However, the entirety of the viewing area is included in at least that marginal or slight risk. The slight risk area will have the better chance to see those strong to severe storms this afternoon.

Futurecast shows these isolated strong storms pick up in speed around, I believe, around 5 PM. This futurecast model shows 8 PM. This particular model is typically around 2-3 hours late.

Be sure to stay weather aware today and download our weather authority mobile app for any updates and NWS alerts. These alerts will be sent out directly when hose watches and warnings are issued.

Wednesday Evening Update:

Some slight changes have happened in ,terms of our severe risk.

Heading into tomorrow, the level 2 of 5 risk has shifted more northward. This will mean that these areas will have a higher likelihood of having any storm cells that occur develop into severe ones.

Friday on the other hand, had the opposite effect. Now, the risk has shifted and expanded southward and includes all of our area in the 2 out of 5 risk. Between tomorrow and Friday, Friday will still have the most widespread of impacts, including a higher chance of seeing hail.

Alongside the storms, temperatures and humidity will be up. Areas in the Lynchburg and Southside could experience heat indices in the triple digits, with the Highlands and the Roanoke Valley toeing the line.

Wednesday Morning:

A Weather Authority Alert Day has been issued for June 11th and 12th for the risk of strong storms throughout the region.

The Storm Prediction Center has placed us under a slight and marginal risk for strong to severe storms both Thursday and Friday.

The main threats with these storms will be damaging wind, hail, and heavy rainfall; however, an isolated tornado can’t be ruled out entirely.

Portions of all 5 zones are included in the 15% probability of wind damage, with southern portions of NRV and Southside in the 5% risk area.

The hail risk will also be on the map for Thursday and Friday, with the entirety of the viewing area in that 5% risk zone for hail damage.

Some of these storms that pop up both Thursday and Friday will start out quite isolated. In this case, there is a better chance of rotation and the storm being able to quickly strengthen when these storms form as loners.

Thursday, as these storms fire off, a small tornado threat can not be ruled out for the Highlands Zone, especially. The threat is very small, but not zero.

Each day, storms will fire up in the afternoon and evening. The start time is looking to be around 1-3 PM on Thursday and 2-4 PM on Friday.

Be sure to stay weather aware and download the Weather Authority mobile app to have alerts sent directly to your phone when any warnings are issued.

The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday for the first time in 32 years after Trump threw himself into winning the bid to co-host the soccer tourney during his first term. He’ll be feted Sunday, his 80th birthday, during a UFC fight night that’s expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds. Hours after the final bout, he’s scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he’s been beefing with over war and tariffs.

But Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced Thursday that the U.S. and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war that's been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets. He said he plans to dispatch Vice President JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.

Trump has said on several occasions in recent weeks that he's on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted Friday on X that an agreement “has never been closer.” He gave no details, saying a final deal was still pending.

Still, Trump is claiming this time might be different.

The breakthrough comes after he threatened to escalate the conflict with more intense bombardment of Iran and by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry, including capturing Iran's vital Kharg Island oil facility. The president's threats followed back-and-forth strikes this week that had rendered a temporary ceasefire agreed to in early April all but meaningless.

“They’ve taken a pounding like very few people could take," Trump said in an Oval Office exchange with reporters as he explained why he was confident that, this time, a deal would come through. "And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do.”

Trump offered scant details about the settlement he says is taking shape, but told reporters that he believed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was thought to have been wounded on the first day of the war and has not been seen in public since, is ready to sign off on the deal.

Underscoring the fragility of the talks, Trump on Friday lashed out at Iranian officials on social media and said: “They better get their act together, and FAST!”

The White House on Friday signaled that efforts on landing the deal continued. The contours of the emerging agreement call for Iran’s nuclear material to be destroyed and removed and its nuclear program to be dismantled, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Iran is expected to receive sanctions relief if a deal is reached, but Vance stressed its government would only receive “economic benefits” if it meets obligations.

“The president is going to get us a good outcome, one way or the other,” Vance said in a posting on X.

Trump's heightened threats are aimed at creating an off-ramp

With the conflict intensifying over the past week, Trump’s threat to escalate U.S. military action seemed in part aimed at demonstrating to the hawkish flank of his political base that he was willing to play “hardball” with the Iranians if they didn't come to a deal soon, said Ali Vaez, Iran director at the International Crisis Group.

Trump in March warned he would target Iran’s infrastructure and put American troops on Kharg Island before he ultimately backed down, and the two countries agreed to the temporary ceasefire.

Almost immediately after raising the idea again on social media Thursday, Trump appeared to back away. He called into a morning show on Fox News Channel and questioned whether Americans had the “stomach" for an option that would require putting U.S. troops in harm's way.

Hours later, Trump announced he had decided to cancel orders for “very hard” strikes on Iran and said a deal was close.

Vaez said even as Trump was posting on social media Thursday about escalating strikes, mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar had been making progress in their talks with Iran.

At the same time, Iran also may have reset the equation for Trump with its decision last weekend to attack Israel directly for the first time since the ceasefire after Israeli forces carried out military strikes on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

With the move, Iran signaled that Israel could no longer bomb Lebanon without facing a meaningful reaction and in the process also raised the cost for the U.S. to follow through on its commitment to help safeguard Israel.

“It really does appear to me that Trump wants to bring this to an end, but his real challenge is that he’s looking for a victory lap and an exit ramp and those two things are not necessarily compatible,” Vaez said.

Trump expresses frustration with war narrative

Trump has been boasting since the early weeks of the conflict that he'd already won the war — much of the Islamic Republic's leadership has been killed in the bombings and the Iranian navy and air force have been severely degraded.

But Iran continues to effectively keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, choking a waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil supply passed before the war, and has yet to agree to restart negotiations with the U.S. over its concerns about Iran's nuclear program, the main reason Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to justify launching the war.

But the real problem, Trump grumbled Thursday, was largely a public relations issue.

"They could wave the white flag of surrender. They could say: ‘We surrender, we surrender, we’re finished, we’ve had it. The United States is the greatest power, praise be to Allah,’" Trump said on Fox News. “They could say it loud and clear. And the fake news would say it was a great victory for Iran.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump has grown impatient with Iran and the renewed strikes and threats on Kharg Island and Iran's energy sector were intended to get the negotiations back to the “right place.”

Polls show that the conflict is largely unpopular with Americans. McCaul said he believes the Iranians want to “try to drag this out as long as they can,” closer to the midterm elections in November, because they see that as being to their benefit.

War will be high on agenda at next week's G7

Deal or no deal, the war will loom large during next week's talks at the Group of Seven summit in bucolic Évian-les-Bains, France.

Trump has frequently criticized some of the group leaders — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — for resisting his calls to aid the U.S. and Israeli war effort.

The four leaders have also angered Trump by criticizing how he's gone about executing the war and his lack of consultation with allies before jumping into a conflict that's hurt the global economy as oil prices have surged.

But Trump said he is optimistic he could have an agreement before his talks with leaders in France.

“The strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon — maybe over the weekend in Europe,” Trump said.

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Amiri reported from New York. AP writer Collin Binkley contributed reporting.

That won't change now, with the Golden Knights facing their first elimination game and dealing with an injury to center William Karlsson.

The Golden Knights lost 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Thursday's Game 5, moving the Hurricanes within a victory of claiming the Stanley Cup. The series shifts to Las Vegas for Sunday's Game 6, with the Golden Knights aiming to force a Game 7 back here Wednesday.

“They've been through it all," Tortorella said in a Zoom news conference Friday morning. "They know what's at stake here. We need to win one game. They'll be ready to play.”

Vegas — featuring numerous holdovers from the team that raised the Cup in 2023 — had only gained momentum since the abrupt firing of coach Bruce Cassidy in late March to hire Tortorella.

The Golden Knights won seven of eight to close the regular season. They faced 2-2 playoff series in Round 1 against Utah and Round 2 against Anaheim, and won Games 5 and 6 to close out each. They swept the Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche. And they held a 2-1 lead on Carolina after a double-overtime victory in Game 3.

But the Hurricanes have gradually begun to turn the series.

Since trailing 4-0 entering the third period of Game 3, the Hurricanes have doubled up the Golden Knights (13-6) while finding a spark with Brandon Bussi taking over in net. In Game 5, the Hurricanes got two more power-play goals from a unit that had sputtered through the Eastern Conference playoffs while also reversing Vegas' second-period dominance.

Vegas had compounding mistakes like getting a kill only for Brayden McNabb to immediately go to the box for cross-checking Jackson Blake in the second period. Or there was Mark Stone's high stick on Jalen Chatfield in the third, leaving Chatfield bleeding from a cut above his right eye for a double-minor penalty.

Carolina's Andrei Svechnikov scored after both, coming amid a postseason of questions as to when he and fellow top-liner Sebastian Aho would get rolling.

“Anytime you give the other team’s best players the opportunity to be on the ice on the power play and feel good about themselves … you stack that up and it definitely can be challenging and tire guys out,” center Nic Dowd said afterward.

Svechnikov's scores pushed the Hurricanes to 6 of 16 (37.5%) on the power play this series, coming after they were at 12.5% (7 of 56) in a 12-1 push through the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“One of the areas that we've lost a little bit is special teams, a couple of power-play goals last night,” Tortorella said Friday. “Like I said after the game, I thought at times we were killing, we had some good times as far as moving, being aggressive with our penalty kill, and are doing the job. Other times, not so good.”

Then there's Karlsson, who missed nearly six months with a lower-body injury before returning for his playoff debut to start the Anaheim series. He had three goals and six assists through 14 playoff games to elevate the Golden Knights, including goals in Games 1 and 4 against Carolina.

But Karlsson appeared to injure his left arm or shoulder after getting knocked into the boards by Hurricanes defenseman Sean Walker midway through the second. He got medical attention on the bench briefly, skated off and never returned.

Tortorella said Thursday that Karlsson was “not going to be with us, probably” and Vegas needed a collective effort to replace him. He offered no additional details Friday morning.

Still, he has defiantly promised the series would “be back here” for a Game 7.

“We know what we have to do to beat this team," McNabb said Thursday night. "It's a matter of going home and winning one game. That's all it is, and hopefully we're back here for Game 7.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) says the crisis has exposed its heavy dependence on imported refined jet fuel, leaving airlines vulnerable to global shocks.

African carriers were already paying about 17% more for jet fuel than the global average before the Iran war, according to AFRAA. The new price pressures are adding to already thin margins across the sector.

“The impact is dire and a major shock for our members,” AFRAA Secretary-General Abderahmane Berthe told The Associated Press. “Fuel represents between 30% and 40% of airlines’ operating costs. Any increase directly affects their balance sheets.”

The aviation industry is closely watching the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy corridor through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and fuel flowed before Iran effectively closed it for shipping at the start of the war in February.

For African airlines, the effects are amplified by structural constraints, including higher procurement costs and a weaker ability to absorb shocks.

Berthe said some carriers have introduced fuel surcharges, but most cannot pass on the full increase to passengers, forcing them to absorb losses.

“They cannot pass these costs to passengers as this will affect demand,” he said.

Supply disruptions have also raised concerns at major hubs including Nairobi, Kenya, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where consistent jet fuel availability is critical to regional and international operations, Berthe said.

Some airlines have already begun adjusting networks, cutting frequencies and reviewing routes to manage rising costs and fuel uncertainty, he said.

The crisis has renewed calls for Africa to strengthen domestic refining capacity and reduce reliance on imported jet fuel.

“We need African solutions,” Berthe said. “Many African countries produce oil, but we still depend on non-African suppliers for refined jet fuel.”

Attention is increasingly turning to projects such as Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery, which is expected to play a growing role in supplying refined fuel across the region, including to countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa.

“We have seen hubs like Addis (Ababa) turning to Dangote for supply,” Berthe said. “This is expected to ease pressure on fuel supply chains during this period.”

Despite the pressures, demand for air travel in Africa remains strong. AFRAA projects passenger growth of about 6% annually, outpacing many global markets.

But Berthe warned that sustained shocks could weigh heavily on profitability and connectivity.

“If this continues, the impact on African airlines will be very severe,” he said. “If Africa wants a resilient aviation sector, it must secure its own fuel future.”

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he called off fresh strikes on Iran as he claimed a deal to end the war was imminent. Back-and-forth strikes earlier this week pushed a shaky ceasefire to the edge of collapse, which, if it happens, would inflict more havoc on Iran’s battered economy.

Strikes on steel and petrochemical industries and energy infrastructure earlier in the war have spurred a wave of business closures and job losses in Iran, where people now struggle to afford groceries in the face of triple-digit food inflation.

Many Iranians are desperate for peace

Along with the cratering economy, the specter of war has left many people desperate for an end to the turmoil and deeply anxious about the future. Huraz Ahmadi, a 19-year-old street vendor in the capital of Tehran, said he feared renewed fighting.

“I don’t think they will reach an agreement, given the way things are going. But I hope they make a deal. An agreement is much better than war,” Ahmadi said. “In wars, innocent and good people die. I personally lost a relative.”

In the past year, Iranians have faced two wars – first Israel’s 12-day war in 2025 against Iran followed by a joint assault with the U.S. that began on Feb. 28. Both attacks were launched in the middle of talks about Iran’s nuclear program.

Fresh U.S. strikes on Monday sowed confusion in Iran’s capital following growing optimism that Tehran and Washington were nearing a deal. One Tehran resident in his late 20s said the echo of explosions and air defenses in the capital triggered “maybe a half hour of panic." Long lines formed at gas stations, but people returned within hours to “living normally,” he said.

“War is also becoming normal. And that is very upsetting,” the resident said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.

“Everybody is stressed out for a thousand reasons,” he added. “Our lives are constantly in this political game where we can’t plan anything or know what’s going to happen.”

A country ‘tired of instability’

A critical demand in talks for Iranian negotiators is that the U.S. deliver some kind of sanctions or economic relief, besides lifting a naval blockade that has throttled Iran’s oil exports as well as imports of raw materials and other goods.

Many business owners are struggling to survive, a member of a council representing Iranian industrialists said.

“The main concern of many industrialists and entrepreneurs is the survival of their businesses and production. The concern is about the disruption of the supply chain of raw materials, parts and machinery due to the cruel U.S. blockade,” Mehdi Bostanchi said.

Tehran-based Bostanchi, who owns a company that makes ventilation systems, is part of a trade group for factory owners across Iran. Its members include textile, food and metal producers and printing firms.

Bostanchi said uncertainty over any deal to end the war is stifling the ability of businesses to plan ahead and look toward any kind of recovery.

“Society is tired of instability and does not want a wider war to break out,” he added.

Iran’s rial currency has also lost over half its value in the past year. Exchange rates have crashed to around 1.8 million rials to the dollar, compared with 41,600 rials 10 years ago.

Economic woes stoke unrest and fear

The deepening economic problems have stoked unrest in Iran. In January, security forces shot thousands of anti-government protesters in the streets. Arrests of protesters and those expressing support for them has continued through the war.

Alongside fear of their own leaders, Iranians who oppose the government also fear a return to open war, said a social media influencer and therapist who lives in central Tehran and has participated in past anti-government protests.

“The war isn’t anything but destruction for us. And in reality, the attacks that happened killed a number of ordinary people and destroyed a number of homes and residential buildings,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.

Residents contacted by The Associated Press also expressed worries that renewed conflict would lead Iranian authorities to cut internet service again. Repeated blackouts since the January protests have crippled what was a strong digital economy and stoked job losses. A partial restoration has seen a limited uptick in connectivity.

Next steps are unclear

A few hours after threatening to launch further attacks, Trump posted on social media that significant points in the negotiations “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.” But a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a live phone call on state television that mediators were active and nothing had been finalized to end the conflict.

Iran’s ability to withstand U.S.-Israeli assaults and to close the globally strategic Strait of Hormuz has also rallied the Islamic Republic’s hard-liner base. Authorities have organized nightly rallies in past weeks as they try to project popular support for a tough stance in U.S. talks.

Hamid Reza Bani Ebrahimi, a 47-year-old merchant, said he opposed any agreement that would limit what he sees as Iran’s right to enrich uranium and develop nuclear technology. Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly struck sites and figures linked with the country’s atomic program.

“Our scientists worked so hard to acquire this technology, and then they came and martyred them,” Bani Ebrahimi said.

Abdullah Hosseini, a 45-year-old university professor in Tehran, said Iranian strikes on Gulf states and Jordan this past week were part of an effort to deter further attacks.

“I don’t like war. I am extremely worried about people and children being killed,” Hosseini said. “But sometimes war is necessary, and now is the time for Iran to stand against its enemy."

But Tehran-based analyst Rahman Ghahremanpour said the back-and-forth strikes this week had deepened concerns in Iran that the conflict “could turn into a crisis without end and in reality make running the country more difficult” in the face of economic pressures.

“Both America and Iran are looking for a way out of this situation with honor and claiming victory so they can strengthen their own domestic situation,” he said.

The 19-year-old Mboko, who is ranked No. 9, slipped and appeared to strain her knee during a match against Karolina Pliskova at the HSBC Championships. She retired from the match and later pulled out of the doubles event.

“Unfortunately, my fall on Wednesday caused an injury to the MCL on my left knee, which sadly means I will miss the remainder of the grass season. This unfortunately means Wimbledon too, a tournament I had been so looking forward to playing this year,” Mboko wrote on Instagram.

Williams and Mboko had won their opening doubles match Tuesday — in the 44-year-old Williams’ first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open.

While trying to return a shot in the second set against Pliskova, Mboko slipped behind the baseline and immediately grabbed her left knee. She told a physiotherapist there was “no stability" in it.

In her Wimbledon debut last year, Mboko reached the second round where she lost to Hailey Baptiste.

Mboko gave a special thanks Friday to Williams “for giving me this incredible opportunity to play alongside you. I learnt so much from you and am so sorry our tournament came to an end prematurely, but I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started.”

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

In a new blow to the Kremlin's narrative that Moscow is winning the 4-year-old war in Ukraine, Kyiv's forces have targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The persistent attacks reflect the growing intensity and efficiency of Ukraine’s drone strikes and have caught Russia off guard and struggling for a response.

As the country marks the Russia Day national holiday on Friday, signaling the start of summer vacations, the gas shortages are threatening to cause further disruptions to the tourism-dependent region with its beaches and resorts.

In a rare public acknowledgment, the Kremlin has recognized the scope of the problem and promised to address the issue quickly.

Ukraine's successes have highlighted its ability to inflict painful damage on Russia and change the course of the conflict while Moscow’s advances recently have ground to a near halt. On Thursday, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reached its 1,569th day, surpassing the duration of World War I.

Crimea has special importance to Russia

Crimea has been a jewel in Russia’s imperial crown since it was seized from Turkic-speaking Tatars in the 18th century after Moscow defeated the Ottoman Empire.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 when both republics were part of the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the diamond-shaped peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.

Russia kept a naval base in Sevastopol, and when a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president was ousted by a popular uprising in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent in troops to overtake Crimea. Weeks later, Moscow annexed the peninsula following a referendum that most of the world refuses to recognize.

Soon afterward, a Moscow-backed separatist insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine, and fighting there raged with varying intensity until the February 2022 invasion. Russian troops concentrated in Crimea quickly seized large parts of southern Ukraine early in the war and secured the land route to the peninsula.

Since early in the war, Ukraine has fired missiles and drones to try to dislodge Moscow’s hold on the territory. The Ukrainian military sank several Russian warships in the Black Sea and at their Crimean bases, crippling Moscow’s naval capability and forcing it to redeploy its fleet to Novorossiysk.

Ukraine also methodically targeted munitions depots, airfields and Putin’s prized asset, the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The span was struck by a truck bomb in October 2022 that killed five people, blew up two sections of the bridge and required months of repairs. More attacks on the bridge followed in 2023 and 2025.

Ukraine has attacked the land corridor to Crimea

Since the Kerch Bridge attacks, Russia has channeled most fuel and other supplies along the highway and railroad via the occupied territories along the Sea of Azov coast. Those shipments were interrupted last month, when Ukrainian drones hit fuel trucks on the highway that Moscow once deemed safe, leaving behind dozens of burning vehicles.

Other relentless Ukrainian strikes hit refineries, oil depots and pipelines deep inside Russia, hurting its oil exports and causing domestic fuel shortages.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted the synergy between the longer-range attacks and those disrupting supplies to Crimea and other occupied regions.

“The long-range strike campaign is therefore reducing Russia’s production capacity, while the midrange strike campaign is hurting Russia’s ability to transport the gasoline Russia is still able to produce,” it said in an analysis.

Making matters worse, Ukrainian drones this week repeatedly hit the Chonhar Bridge, which links mainland Ukraine and Crimea over a shallow strait. Authorities deployed pontoon bridges, but they have a limited capacity.

Oleksandr Nastenko, commander of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment, which hit the bridge, said the attacks on the crossings will continue to disrupt supplies to Russian forces operating in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

Natia Seskuria, of the Royal United Services Institute in London, observed that the latest attacks on Crimea’s supply lines have exposed Russia’s vulnerabilities and inflicted significant damage, allowing Ukraine to reclaim momentum.

Seskuria said Ukraine's attacks have both a political message and a strategic aim. They underscore that it has “the capabilities and intent to contest Russian control in Crimea," while also depriving Russia of an important logistics hub.

Crimea is seeing lines for fuel and gas rationing after Ukrainian strikes

It's not immediately clear how the fuel disruptions will affect Russian military operations, but residents of Crimea and other occupied territories are keenly feeling the blow.

The peninsula has had periodic fuel shortages from Ukrainian strikes before, but this crisis is the worst since its 2014 annexation.

At the end of May, authorities restricted the sale of gasoline to 20 liters (5 1/3 gallons) per vehicle owner per week using prepaid coupons. Those were snapped up immediately following their release on an official messaging app channel, and motorists lined up for hours, waiting to refuel.

Social networks have been abuzz with requests and advice on where to find fuel, and authorities launched a hotline for tourists who have found themselves trapped.

While fuel shipments over the Kerch Bridge long have been suspended for security reasons since the Ukrainian attacks, fuel also has been carried by ferries. Those shipments are expected to increase.

Some motorists bring their own gas over the bridge from the mainland, but they are restricted to carrying 100 liters (about 26 1/2 gallons) per vehicle. Some speculators are selling gas at double the market price.

Crimea attracted nearly 7 million tourists last year, and it had hoped to top that number this year. The business daily Kommersant reported that nearly 80% of hotel bookings were canceled in late May and early June.

Some hotels offered gasoline as a bonus for new bookings, offers that were quickly snapped up.

Some travelers were unsettled by a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week on a passenger train traveling from Moscow to Crimea, injuring its driver and killing his assistant. That led to a brief suspension of service, with passengers taken by buses. An earlier attack on a commuter train in Crimea killed one person and injured three others.

The Kremlin pledges action

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the Crimean fuel shortages earlier this week and promised that “measures were being taken” to deal with them.

The Russian Defense Ministry has been silent about the Ukrainian attacks on the land corridor, while some war bloggers have harshly criticized the military for failing to anticipate the strikes and its slow response.

Some suggested military escorts for fuel trucks while others urged stepping up strikes on Ukrainian bridges, fuel storage sites and other infrastructure.

Amid the fuel crisis and the finger-pointing, Ukraine dealt another symbolic blow to Russia, striking a historic Sevastopol building that houses a huge panoramic painting that depicts the defense of the city during the 19th century Crimean War. The painting was effectively destroyed by fire during the attack, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea's largest city.

Given Putin’s focus on Crimea, military blogger Valery Shiryayev said the attack would certainly anger the Russian leader.

“It’s hard to find another work of art, another part of national heritage, whose destruction would be as painful for Putin,” he said.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Friday the government's evidence against the once high-profile player in the cryptocurrency industry was “conservatively stated, robust.”

A jury found that Bankman-Fried defrauded customers and investors of billions of dollars while he operated FTX, once the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The appeals court said the evidence proved that Bankman-Fried reassured FTX customers while also transferring billions of dollars for his own use and falsifying business records to conceal transactions.

“While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors, and regulators that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, political contributions, and investments,” the appeals court wrote.

The 2nd Circuit, which heard oral arguments in November 2025, rejected the defense’s argument that his trial was unfair because of a series of rulings by the judge that limited the evidence he could present. Judge Barrington D. Parker wrote the three-judge panel's opinion.

Bankman-Fried, 34, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 2023 after a meteoric rise and then dramatic fall in the cryptocurrency universe, where his company once advertised during the Super Bowl. Bankman-Fried testified before Congress and enjoyed celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball point guard Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David.

FTX collapsed in November 2022, leaving customers, investors and lenders short over $11 billion.

At Bankman-Fried's sentencing, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan criticized the entrepreneur's trial testimony, saying he repeatedly committed perjury on the witness stand in testimony that was “often evasive, hair-splitting, dodging questions.”

Kaplan also said Bankman-Fried should not be credited because some investors and customers might recover some money. He noted that customers lost about $8 billion, investors lost $1.7 billion and lenders were shorted by $1.3 billion.

A request for comment was sent to Bankman-Fried's lawyer. A prosecutor’s spokesperson declined comment.

Musk, already the world's richest man, could become its first trillionaire. Ahead of the first trade, Forbes puts Musk's net worth at $981 billion.

SpaceX is likely to become the biggest IPO ever, with proceeds of around $75 billion. SpaceX hopes to become the first company to send people to Mars. In fact, part of Musk’s future compensation depends on SpaceX eventually establishing a colony of at least 1 million people on the red planet.

Why SpaceX is going public now

In a video conference on Musk's social media platform X, he told JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon that people have suggested for the last 10 years that he take SpaceX public. He's doing it now because the company plans to put 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit. Deploying AI data centers in space is a “massive new growth base and you need capital for that,” he said.

Going public provides access to the capital that SpaceX needs. But it also exposes it to more scrutiny from shareholders and more regulatory oversight. That includes filing quarterly financial reports, which critics say incentivizes short-term thinking over longer-term planning and creates unnecessary costs for a company. Securities regulators are currently soliciting public comment on a proposal to require public companies to file the financial reports only twice every year.

How the IPO impacts the company

Musk will hold the majority of a special class of shares, giving him control over decisions related to company strategy, finances and personnel. On the latter, because of his ownership of most of these Class B shares, the only person who can fire Musk as CEO ... is Musk.

The company credits Musk with being the “driving force” behind its growth, innovation and success. But what happens if Musk is no longer in the picture? SpaceX warns that the loss of Musk could disrupt its ability to execute its strategy as well as hurt its “reputation and relationships with customers, partners and other stakeholders.”

The company also warns that finding a replacement with the same skills and experience as Musk would be time-consuming, if not nearly impossible. As Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote Wednesday, “At the end of the day Musk is SpaceX and SpaceX is Musk.”

Some big investors are unhappy. Officials from pension funds for firefighters, teachers and other workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX last month decrying some of the provisions in its IPO, including the “super voting shares,” mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims instead of the possibility of lawsuits and how much power Musk will hold over the company.

They said they could become owners of SpaceX stock because they hold index funds, which automatically buy stocks after they get included in certain indexes.

What could make or break SpaceX

Currently in the test phase, the gigantic reusable Starship rocket is key to SpaceX realizing Musk's ambitions. Much of the commercial space business hinges on SpaceX developing Starship’s capability to be fully reusable and hearty enough for a quick turnaround between flights. If that doesn't happen, SpaceX warns that putting data centers and satellites in space will take longer and cost more money, meaning it risks customers bailing on the company.

Analysts say that by pioneering reusable rockets, SpaceX has established a clear lead on competitors such as Blue Origin, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Starlink satellite business competes with, among others, AST SpaceMobile – which is relying on a SpaceX rocket to send its latest generation of satellites into orbit next week.

The prospectus filed last week says SpaceX’s biggest potential market is the sale of business-oriented artificial intelligence products designed to transform how people get work done. It’s an opportunity SpaceX predicts would be worth $22.7 trillion if it could somehow dominate rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft in a highly competitive industry. But the prospectus shows no clear path to profitability for the xAI business, which merged with SpaceX earlier this year.

Why Wall Street is paying attention

If the SpaceX IPO is as successful, the stock could quickly join the Nasdaq 100, a widely followed index that tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies in the composite. That's important because some popular funds, such as the $460 billion QQQ exchange-traded fund, mimic the index and will automatically buy whatever is listed in the index.

Nasdaq recently changed its rules to allow select companies to enter the Nasdaq 100 after just 15 trading days.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, on the other hand, is sticking to established and more traditional thresholds that will not allow SpaceX or other companies with gargantuan IPOs faster entry into its S&P 500 index. That means even high-profile companies will still need to wait for their stocks to trade a full 12 months before they can enter the index.

Companies want to be in the S&P 500 in particular because it's arguably the most important index on Wall Street, with trillions of dollars either mimicking it exactly or benchmarked against it. Vanguard's VOO fund that tracks the S&P 500 has roughly $950 billion invested in it, for example.

The justices decided not to lift an injunction blocking Alabama from carrying out what would have been the nation’s ninth execution by nitrogen gas, rejecting a last-minute legal battle by the state as it sought to carry out the sentence in the evening. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the execution was off for the evening and the state would not try another method.

The high court voted 6-3 and did not explain its reasoning. Three of the conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — said they would grant Alabama’s request to lift the injunction and let the execution go forward.

In a statement the legal team for Lee, 49, hailed the decision and noted that his jury had voted for a sentence of life, which a judge overruled.

“His jury voted for life. Two courts ruled the method unconstitutional. Today, the Constitution prevailed,” the statement said. “Now Governor Ivey can finish what the jury started: restore the jury’s verdict of life without parole.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall promised the families of the victims that authorities will continue to seek justice, saying in a statement: “The State is prepared to do whatever is necessary to see Mr. Lee’s lawful sentence carried out.”

“Tonight’s ruling is a miscarriage of justice, not for us, but for Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson, who Jeffery Lee brutally and senselessly murdered and left on the floor of their place of business,” Marshall said. “Tonight I am also keeping their families in mind, many of whom were prepared to witness the final act of justice be served.”

Prison officials said Lee did not request a final meal Thursday but had potato chips, Skittles, water and a Sprite in the hours ahead of his possible execution.

The ruling was at least a temporary, rare victory for opponents of capital punishment in a state that has had one of the busiest death chambers in the country. And it capped an extraordinary legal back-and-forth over the humaneness of nitrogen gas as an execution method.

Legal challenge wended its way through the courts

Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s protocol as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled the method constitutional in May.

But a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision Monday, saying the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an “intolerable” time frame “given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.”

Marks reevaluated the case and ruled again Tuesday saying Lee had shown “that the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” The state appealed to the Supreme Court.

“If that ruling stands, it would be unprecedented in American history. Not only does it portend the first-ever permanent ban on a legislatively enacted method, but it would expand the concept of cruelty well beyond the bounds of the Eighth Amendment,” lawyers with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office wrote.

Lee’s lawyers asked the high court to keep the execution on hold, saying in a response that Alabama was asking it to intervene at the eleventh hour “to allow an execution that has been found unconstitutional to proceed.”

The decision blocks Lee’s execution in the immediate future, but it is unclear how long the reprieve will last. The state maintains that the nitrogen method is constitutional.

Marks did not block the state from executing Lee with one of Alabama’s other approved methods, the electric chair or lethal injection.

Nitrogen executions introduced in the state 2 years ago

Alabama began using nitrogen gas to carry out some executions in 2024. The method involves strapping a respirator to a person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen.

Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth.

During the previous Alabama nitrogen executions, the inmates shook, pulled at the restraints and exhibited labored breathing. During the state’s last execution by nitrogen gas, 30 minutes elapsed between Anthony Boyd exhibiting signs of being impacted by the gas and state officials closing the curtain to the viewing room to signal the execution was complete.

The state has maintained that the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods.

Lee, who is currently housed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Ellis and Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998.

Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner, and Thompson, an employee.

Alabama no longer allows judicial overrides in capital cases

A jury voted 7-5 to give Lee a sentence of life imprisonment. However a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death.

Alabama ended the practice of judicial override in 2017 and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases.

Bestselling author John Grisham called on Gov. Kay Ivey to honor the jury's decision and commute Lee's sentence to life without parole.

“The practice of a judge overriding a jury was declared unconstitutional and so indefensible that Alabama itself abolished it in 2017,” Grisham said in a statement. “Jeffery Lee’s jury made its decision, the Alabama Legislature later agreed that juries, not judges, should decide life or death sentences.”

Ivey, for her part, said Thursday night: “While I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed with Lee’s chosen method of execution, I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims.”

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This story was first published June 11, 2026. It was updated June 12, 2026, to correct the judge's ruling on execution methods. The judge did not block the use of the electric chair or lethal injection.

The protest was held after the prices of some fuel jumped 32% this week for the first time since the United States launched its war against Iran more than three months ago.

About 1,500 protesters attempted to march toward the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, a key Jakarta landmark, after Friday prayers. Anti-riot police blocked many of them from reaching the site, which has long been off-limits for rallies because of its location at the heart of the city's main business and commercial district.

More than 6,000 police and soldiers were deployed to secure key sites, including the presidential palace, and directed the protesters toward areas near the parliament building and the National Monument park. But many demonstrators resisted, saying they wanted to hold their protest in the business district due to their concerns about economic conditions.

“People will not be silent, they will speak out when they cannot eat, cannot work, cannot have a decent life. That is the simple reason why we are taking to the streets today,” said Jordan, a student protester who goes by a single name.

Some protesters forcefully kicked a line of large black metal police shields in an attempt to break through a strong barricade of anti-riot officers, others chanting “Revolution!”

Amid the signs of economic pressure, Indonesia’s rupiah currency has also come under pressure recently, hitting a historic low of 18,000 rupiah to the U.S. dollar earlier this month.

Demonstrators demanded cuts to what they called wasteful state spending, lower prices for fuel and staple goods, and a halt to major government programs such as a free meals program and a plan to revitalize rural areas.

The food program, costing about 268 trillion rupiah ($15 billion) for this year alone, is aimed at alleviating poverty and malnutrition. Prabowo recently fired the head of the program amid a massive graft probe.

They also called for an end to what they described as the growing role of the military in civilian affairs, something they view as a threat to the young democracy.

“The government is in denial about the current situation," said Yatalathof Ma’shum Imawan, who chairs the student organization that organized the rally. “We urge Prabowo to have the courage to acknowledge his mistake and stop denying it."

Friday’s demonstration marks one of the largest student mobilizations since nationwide protests erupted last August, when thousands took to the streets and clashes with security forces left at least 13 people dead.

The noisy demonstrators dispersed peacefully as night fell.

Similar protests were also held in other cities, including West Java's Bandung city and in Pontianak, a city on Borneo island.

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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Dita Alangkara in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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.

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 Friday
• Miller Center
• • Location: 301 Grove Street, 2nd Floor Customer Service Desk
  • When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and 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 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. Friday only

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.
• Click here to find more cooling stations in the Roanoke area

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

Pino defeated attorney Tiffany Burress in the northern New Jersey district, where Pou is seeking a second term. The Associated Press called the race for Pino on Friday.

The district is being watched closely in this year's hotly contested midterm elections, with Republicans in particular drawing a target on the longtime Democratic-held seat.

The GOP saw an opportunity there after the 2024 election was closer than expected and Donald Trump won in places where his party hadn’t been victorious for decades.

Pino, a former Democrat, said she left the party for the GOP and criticized Democrats in the campaign for their longtime control in the region.

In a statement, Pino emphasized that she would work for those who disagree with her sometimes.

“I extend a hand to everyone across our district — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats, as well as those who have never voted before,” she said.

Pino had been critical of the slow pace of vote counting in her district, where the election ended June 2, and across the country.

“In Congress, I will help lead the fight to secure our elections,” Pino said in a statement this week. “We need mandatory Voter ID nationwide and strict limits on late mail-in voting."

In a statement Friday, Burress said she was grateful to her supporters but stopped short of backing Pino.

Pou is in her first term in the House, where she was elected after years in the state Legislature, succeeding longtime Democrat Bill Pascrell Jr., who died in 2024.

Each one of the 49 people killed, now known as the 49 angels, on June 12, 2016, left behind a legacy.

To honor their memories, News 6 journalists compiled stories about every victim through interviews, news articles and social media. All 49 articles can be found at ClickOrlando.com/Pulse49.

[WATCH: News 6 special on Pulse]

Before they were victims, the 49 were mothers, fathers, recent graduates, veterans, breast cancer survivors, dreamers, artists, and so much more. Here are some of the stories.

Those stories include 33-year-old Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala’s who was known as “Rody” by friends. Ayala served as the platelet supervisor at OneBlood, the center that collected blood donations for many Pulse shooting survivors.

“He was the sweetest, most genuine person. (He) cared for everyone and would do anything for you, and he’ll be sorely missed here,” Kelly Gollert, the director of manufacturing for OneBlood, said after his death.

Brenda Marquez McCool, 49, was a mother to 11 children, beat cancer twice and often went dancing at the Pulse nightclub with her son. She was at the nightclub with her son, Isaiah Henderson, on June 12, 2016.

More than anything, Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19, dreamed of traveling the world after he finished a degree in accounting.

“He would just look at you and laugh,” his mother, Myrlande Bébé, said. “He loves to smile. He was just fun.”

Two days after the shooting, Luis S. Vielma’s co-workers and friends at Universal Studios Orlando raised their wands near the Hogwarts castle in the 22-year-old’s honor. He was studying to be a physical therapy assistant at Seminole State College.

Xavier Emmanuel Serrano-Rosado, 35, was at home on stage. A video on YouTube viewed thousands of times shows Rosado gracefully gliding across the stage of Orlando’s Parliament House in a leather cape and top hat, to the delight of the audience.

Amanda Lizzette Alvear Benabe dreamed of becoming a nurse and helping to deliver babies. She inspired thousands on Instagram by documenting her weight loss journey.

Antonio Brown, 29, was a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve who spent a year serving in Kuwait and won several awards. He was two months away from getting his doctorate when he was killed.

To read about all 49 angels click here.

The analysis from researchers at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that while about half of independents without a college education had a positive view of Trump around the 2024 election, his approval with that group fell to about one-quarter this spring. That shift has erased the large education gap that existed among independents in the months before Trump took office for his second term, with independents now holding similarly negative views of the president regardless of their level of education.

The analysis was conducted by aggregating nearly two dozen AP-NORC polls conducted between July 2024 and April 2026, allowing for a deeper look at how support for Trump changed during several distinct periods, including the last six months of 2024, the first 100 days of Trump's presidency, the summer of 2025 when the Big Beautiful Bill passed, last fall's government shutdown and the beginning of the Iran war.

The compiled polling shows a steady decline among independents throughout Trump’s second term. His standing has also dropped among several small but important groups that moved toward him in the 2024 presidential election, including Black and Hispanic independents.

More Americans than ever consider themselves independents, and they are among the groups that shifted toward Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Any erosion in that support could signal trouble for Trump and Republicans headed into the midterm elections, which are often seen as reflection of how voters feel about their governing party.

Tafari Torres, a senior research associate at NORC who co-authored the analysis, noted that while Democrats' and Republicans' views of Trump have held largely steady in his second term, independents' opinions are still moving. “Independents are, broadly, the people who are reacting to the events and dropping in their support,” he said.

Dramatic declines during Trump's first 100 days

Trump's return to the White House was fueled, in part, by independent voters who saw him as the stronger candidate on key issues like the economy. The new analysis, which looks at Trump's favorability and presidential approval ratings, shows that once he took the helm, their views soured quickly.

Independents without a college degree had a much more positive view of Trump than college-educated independents did during and just after the 2024 election, but that shifted in the first few months of his term. Positive views of Trump among independents without a college degree fell from 48% in the months before he returned to office to 31% in polling conducted during Trump’s first 100 days back in office. Those warm views declined even further, to about one-quarter, during the government shutdown and the early months of 2026.

Only about 3 in 10 college-educated independents, by contrast, had a positive view of Trump before he returned to office, making their drop to about one-quarter much less dramatic.

“The decline among no-college independents was steeper and it was greater than the slight decline in college independents," said Sean Collins, a research associate at NORC who co-authored the analysis. "That was surprising, especially given, when you think of Trump's coalitions, those without college degrees is usually one of the ones that that stands out.”

Hispanic, younger independents grow disenchanted

Americans without a college degree have long been a key part of Trump's coalition. But Trump also won in 2024 by making gains among groups that tend to support Democrats, including Hispanic adults.

About 4 in 10 independent voters — 42% — voted for Trump in 2024, up from 37% in the 2020 presidential election. Independent voters without a college degree were a little more likely to back Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election, according to AP VoteCast, and Hispanic independents were about evenly split between the two.

The picture looks much bleaker for the president now.

Nearly half of Hispanic independents — 46% — saw Trump favorably in the polling conducted around the presidential election. His approval among these adults dropped quickly in his second term, falling as low as 15% during last fall's government shutdown before landing around one-quarter in the spring.

Younger independents also became less supportive of the president, while independents age 60 and older remained mostly stable. Other AP-NORC polling has pointed to Trump losing ground among younger Republicans over inflation concerns and Hispanic Americans growing increasingly discontented.

“The gains Trump appeared to make during the election, I don’t know if they’re sticking around. He’s experienced some significant shifts among those people,” Torres said. “From our research, they don’t appear to be permanent gains.”

The economy is frustrating many independents

Polling suggests that the economy is at the root of many Americans' frustrations with Trump, including independents.

About half of independents who supported Trump in 2024 said inflation was the single most important factor for their vote, AP VoteCast found, and most expressed high levels of concern about the cost of food and gas.

More than a year into Trump's second term, inflation remains high, fueled by gas prices that remain elevated as the Iran war continues. An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that about 3 in 10 independents were “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford groceries in the last few months, and a similar share were worried about being able to afford gas.

The analysis found that Americans' views of the U.S. economy tend to align with their view of the president. Those with negative views of the country's economy tended to have negative views of Trump, and about 8 in 10 independents described the U.S. economy this spring as poor.

The latest AP-NORC polling from May found that only about 3 in 10 independents approve of how Trump is handling the economy, in line with the roughly 3 in 10 who said that at the beginning of his second term. The April poll found only about 1 in 10 independents — 12% — approved of how Trump was handling the cost of living.

——

This AP-NORC analysis of 4,836 independents was conducted over 21 AP-NORC surveys, blocked into five time periods before and during President Donald Trump's second term. Independents are classified as panelists who do not select that they identify with or lean toward either the Democratic or Republican Party.

Starmer has seen the departure of several junior and senior ministers in recent weeks, as Labour Party lawmakers revolt and rivals plot, in despair at the government’s relentless unpopularity.

But the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey is a heavy blow. Healey quit Thursday, warning that the government is not spending enough on the military to keep Britain safe “at this time of rising threats.”

His departure hits Starmer in the one place the often embattled prime minister has won consistent praise: the world stage.

Since taking office after a landslide election victory in July 2024, Starmer has bolstered support for Ukraine, working with French President Emmanuel Macron on a multinational “coalition of the willing” to help guarantee the country’s security if a ceasefire is reached.

France and the U.K. also have put together a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends.

Starmer has also argued strongly that European nations must do more to fund their own defense in response to President Donald Trump ’s criticism of the United States’ NATO allies.

“Starmer has been consistently staunch about warning of the security risk from Russia,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, head of the U.K. in the World program at the Chatham House think tank. “He’s been given quite a bit of credit by the public for having to deal with Trump and doing so with a level of steadiness and calm. And he has been, in line with previous U.K. governments, a close and consistent ally of Ukraine.”

At issue is money for defense

At issue is the government’s long-awaited Defense Investment Plan, a road map for how the U.K. will increase military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The U.K. military is also seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

Healey says defense spending must reach 3% of GDP by 2030. He quit in frustration after Treasury chief Rachel Reeves refused to budge on a plan that falls short of that.

He cited a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country as soon as 2030 and said a lower-than-needed spending plan “could make the country less safe.”

Critics argue that military spending can be a bottomless pit, and point out that procurement projects regularly run over time and over budget.

Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who quit on Thursday a few hours after Healey, said it is not just a question of spending more money, but spending it wisely. He said the investment plan was not “transformative enough.”

“I want to see a higher percentage for uncrewed systems, AI, data — data is the new gunpowder — and we’ve got to move that forward if we are going to win the next war,” he told the BBC.

Resignations could hasten Starmer’s exit from office

Healey is not the first government minister to resign. Last month Starmer lost several junior ministers and then Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who quit so that he can run for party leader if a contest is triggered.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership if he is elected to Parliament in a special election on Thursday.

But the departure of Healey, long seen as a loyal minister without personal leadership ambitions, “suggests that Starmer’s credibility, even with his inner circle of ministers, is perhaps draining away,” O’Sullivan said.

Starmer insisted Friday he is staying put, saying it’s his job to make “hard-edged decisions.”

He told the BBC that defense is “my number one priority. And I have taken the difficult decisions to make sure that we are safe as a country.”

“I’m not going to go away. I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election,” he said. “I don’t think it should happen, but if it does, then I will fight.”

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Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story.

RINGANA is set to launch its first U.S. headquarters in Roanoke, bringing hundreds of new jobs to Virginia. The company, known for its skincare and nutritional products, will be located at Blue Ridge Commerce Park near the DayTec Career Center in the 2000 block of Frontage Road NW.

“RINGANA’s investment in Roanoke is an investment in the future of dynamic advanced manufacturing and workforce opportunities,” Roanoke Mayor Joseph Cobb said. “RINGANA is a creative and environmentally friendly workplace, and their presence will inspire students to consider new pathways to success. We are excited to welcome RINGANA to our city and region.”

The City of Roanoke partnered with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to bring RINGANA to the area. Gov. Abigail Spanberger also approved a $5 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to help support the project.

“RINGANA’s decision to establish its first U.S. facility in Virginia underscores the Commonwealth’s reputation as a welcoming, premier destination for international investment,” said Governor Abigail Spanberger. “With our world-class workforce, strong apprenticeship and career training programs, and unwavering commitment to supporting global companies in a global marketplace, Virginia offers the ideal environment for businesses to grow and succeed in the United States. We are excited to welcome RINGANA to Roanoke and look forward to the hundreds of career opportunities this partnership will create for Virginians.”

Learn more about job opportunities at RINGANA’s Roanoke facility here.

But even then, there were signs of strain in their relationship — tensions that could be on full display during next week’s G7 summit in France.

Back in 2017, Trump was a brash businessman just elected to America's most powerful office, and Macron was an upstart politician who had won his race in a landslide. At a NATO summit in Brussels, they clinched hands far longer than most people do when they meet for the first time. Neither seemed to want to be the first to break a grip so tight that it exposed white knuckles.

Nevertheless, a friendship was born. And early on, Macron seemed to be the one European leader with a knack for managing his mercurial, three-decades-older counterpart.

Macron invited the Republican president to join him for Bastille Day celebrations in July 2017, including an Eiffel Tower dinner date with their wives. Trump reciprocated by making Macron the guest of honor the following year at his first White House state dinner, the highest diplomatic honor the United States can extend to an ally.

But by the end of Trump's first term, the bromance had faded. And in his second term, the leaders now openly trade barbs, disagreeing over tariffs, Ukraine and the Iran war. That dynamic will be scrutinized next week when Trump and the leaders of Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan join Macron in the French lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains for the G7 summit.

Trump's long-simmering frustrations with US allies could be on display

There could be awkward moments between Trump and Macron, as well as among Trump and the other G7 leaders he's criticized for not joining him in Iran.

“But I also think European leaders are quite professionals when it comes to politics, and in some ways diplomacy at this point, and will maybe see it as an opportunity as well,” Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview.

Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said the Trump-Macron relationship has been further complicated by the Iran war and Trump's complaints “that Europeans weren't helping, when they hadn't been consulted, and their interests are very much affected by this.”

“I think that was a negative for Macron,” Volker said.

Trump joined Israel in a war against Iran over its nuclear program back in February without consulting other U.S. allies. He then complained publicly when European countries spurned his requests for their help.

Waning support for Ukraine in its war against Russia from the Trump administration “has really irritated the French,” Volker said. “They feel this is important and we're not paying attention to it.” Macron invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to join the leaders’ discussions on Tuesday.

Macron is the G7 member who has dealt with Trump the longest

In Trump's first term, Macron appeared confident that he could persuade and influence the U.S. leader, but the relationship increasingly has come to be defined by their disagreements.

Macron now says he is “careful” about Trump's statements, suggesting he no longer takes them at face value. Their relationship remains cordial as each calls the other “my friend.” But the relationship has also experienced some ups and downs.

As president-elect, Trump attended the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in late 2024 at Macron's invitation. After Trump began his second term in 2025, Macron was an early Oval Office visitor. The president wrote on social media that he was “delighted” to welcome Macron back to the White House and said the relationship with France has been “very special.”

But at one point during the meeting, the French president publicly corrected Trump after he wrongly suggested that Europe would recover the money it had provided to support Ukraine. With a smile, Macron touched Trump's forearm and replied, “We provided real money.”

Macron also condemned as “brutal and unfounded” new tariffs that Trump slapped on steel, aluminum and a broader range of European imports in early 2025.

But there have also been some lighter moments mixed with the tensions.

A documentary aired last year on French television showed Macron telling Trump during a phone call that Zelenskyy had agreed to a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal. Trump replied, “You’re the greatest.”

Macron has often said he can reach Trump directly whenever he needs to — and proved his point during last year’s U.N. General Assembly session in New York. After police officers blocked the French leader from crossing a street because traffic had been halted for Trump’s motorcade, Macron whipped out his cellphone and dialed the U.S. president.

“How are you?” Macron said. “Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you!”

‘This is not a show,’ Macron has said about Trump's NATO ambiguity

Macron has argued that Trump’s “America first” policies bolstered his case for a stronger European defense capability that would lessen reliance on the United States.

In April of this year, as Trump sent mixed signals about Washington's commitment to NATO after the start of the war in Iran, Macron delivered some of his sharpest criticism of the U.S. president.

“There is too much talk, and it's going in all directions,” Macron said. “We all need stability, calm and a return to peace. This is not a show.”

“You have to be serious, and when you want to be serious, you don't say the opposite every day of what you said the day before,” he said.

Trump, while mimicking a French accent, recently has taken to reenacting a conversation he says he had with Macron over drug prices and tariffs. Trump also poked Macron by telling a private luncheon in April that his wife, Brigitte Macron, treats her husband badly. The comments were in a video the White House had posted on its YouTube channel before blocking access.

Macron didn't see any humor in Trump's comments. “The remarks I heard were neither elegant nor appropriate,” he said. “They do not deserve a response.”

Still, Macron has tried to accommodate Trump's schedule to ensure his presence at the summit in Evian-les-Bains, knowing that he has a record of leaving such gatherings early.

Macron originally had set Sunday, which is Trump's 80th birthday, as the opening day of the summit, but he pushed the start back a day because Trump is celebrating the occasion with a UFC show staged on the White House grounds.

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Corbet reported from Paris.

On the eve of Friday's match between Bosnia and Canada, members of the genre-bending rock group met The Associated Press in the Sarajevo neighborhood where they filmed the new music video for the accordion-heavy earworm, now titled “I Am From Bosnia, Take Me to America.” In less than three weeks, the video celebrating soccer's working-class roots has notched nearly 2 million views on YouTube — on top of the 26 million views the original “USA,” released in 2011, has amassed over the years.

“It’s an interesting story how this song got its second and third and fourth incarnation in these 15 years,” muses Vedran Mujagić, bassist for the band that has woven political and social causes into its identity. “It evolved from this satirical take on immigration and (the) American Dream and it was translated into (an) American football dream for the entire nation.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina is making only its second appearance at a World Cup, a goal that once seemed improbable as more traditional soccer powers stood in the way of qualification. At the end of April, though, Bosnia's late goal against Wales propelled the team to a victorious penalty shootout, a feat it would replicate days later against Italy. The band members were surprised when fans unfurled a banner emblazoned with their lyrics, singing them as a rallying cry.

“First, it was working as a joke, but what I like the most is the supporters kind of loaded completely new meaning to the old song, and this is the best thing for the band or for the song: when people take over and load new meaning and then it becomes theirs,” keyboardist Brano Jakubović says. “It’s not ours anymore.”

An own goal lament turns joyous

The original “USA” is as up-tempo and catchy — it's hard not to wander around muttering, “I can no longer wait, take me to United States / Take me to Golden Gate, I will assimilate” — but its protagonist's eagerness to flee slides quickly to disenchantment with life outside the Balkans.

The band decided to deliver an updated version of what Jakubović describes as a “typical immigrant song,” writing new lyrics befitting a soccer anthem. While “USA” is in English, this version is mostly in Bosnian — “so people will understand,” he says — and mostly about the sport. The language switch has done nothing to lessen its global appeal, as a quick perusal of the YouTube comments suggests, though there are some jokes Jakubović acknowledges would be inscrutable outside Bosnia. (See: burek without cheese.)

Jakubović’s favorite new line is a chance to excise something that has haunted the country since the 2014 World Cup: “And that goal against Nigeria, that was never offside.”

“So this is like a big national trauma in Bosnia, so I used the song and lyrics to kind of release this trauma,” he says.

He's being wry there, but trauma has been a mainstay since Bosnia's independence amid the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992. Interethnic war almost immediately broke out, leading to genocide. More than 30 years after the Srebrenica massacre, deep division between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniak Muslims persist.

“Football in this moment is much more than just a game, it's a hope and it’s very basically (a) political thing because it brought all the people from Bosnia together, which is usually not the case,” Jakubović says.

I am from Bosnia, take me to ... Canada?

Bosnia's first match is in Canada, but the team will indeed be taken to America. Their base camp is in Sandy, Utah, and the other group stage matches — against Switzerland and Qatar — are in the States. And, as Mujagić points out, many of the players were born in the U.S. or elsewhere in the diaspora.

“They are children of those people who went outside in search of a better life or as refugees or whatever their story was. And they kind of see and hear these lyrics and this song entirely differently from us,” he says.

Mujagić thinks the original message of “USA” endures as Bosnians still emigrate. Once they leave, he finds, “they encounter this hostility of the locals, right-wingers, and they just don’t want them there.”

“So it’s this schizophrenic situation in which you want to go there, but you somehow know that you won’t have it good on the other side as well,” he concludes. “So in that sense, this song still works perfectly well as it worked before.”

In St. Louis, home to a thriving Bosnian community, Admir Hodzic is one of the founders of the supporter group BH Loyals. The 40-year-old business owner was born in Bosnia and has moved back and forth between his homeland and the U.S., not unlike the protagonist of “USA.”

“I think every Bosnian that lives here and understands how the system works and everything else, I think they will find the truth in that song, and that song is honestly nothing but the truth,” he says. There are more opportunities in the U.S. than elsewhere, he says, but “it's a matter of biting your teeth and pulling through the worst times possible.”

He and his fellow supporters are big fans of Dubioza Kolektiv and sing their anthem at matches and watch parties. More often than not, though, it's the original “USA.”

“It’s engraved in their brain and their hearts,” he says, “and no matter what, they just go back to the old lyrics, you know?”

___

Sen reported from New York.

___

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

Scottie Scheffler will try to take his place in history when the No. 1 player goes after the final leg of the career Grand Slam. Should he win, he would be the seventh player to win all four majors and join Tiger Woods as the only players since 1960 — the modern era of the slam — to get it done on his first try.

That ordinarily would be the sole focus of the 126th U.S. Open, to be played June 18-21, except for the recent history at Shinnecock Hills.

It has not been smooth sailing off the Great Peconic Bay on Long Island.

“It's hard when you run one tournament a year — and you run it on a different golf course every year — to get it just right,” Scheffler said. “And you're trying to make it hard. I think in the U.S. Open, they push the boundaries. If they're going to continue to push the boundaries, eventually they'll screw up and then they'll dial it back.”

The 2004 U.S. Open already was brutally tough when the USGA failed to account for the strength of the warm wind. The par-3 seventh, with its Redan green, became so impossible to hold that officials had to douse it with water between groups on the final day. No one broke par, and the average score was 78.73.

Among the blistering comments came this from Jerry Kelly: “I think they’re ruining the game. They’re ruining the tournament. This isn’t golf.”

When the U.S. Open returned to this New York gem in 2018, the greens were so glassy from sun and wind the last 45 players on the tee sheet Saturday failed to break par. Phil Mickelson staged a bizarre protest by swatting a moving ball on the 13th green. Brooks Koepka saved the week by becoming the first repeat champion in 29 years.

So a return to the fabled course evokes one thought: What will go wrong this time?

“Hopefully, they get the balance right of all the different challenges, and it’s not contrived,” Adam Scott said. “These great tracks, they’ve gotten into trouble when they’ve been manipulated.”

Wider fairways planned for this year

John Bodenhamer, the USGA's chief competitions officer, was asked to take a hard look after 2018 to see what went wrong and why. The short answer was greens not properly hydrated.

The real answer comes over four days at Shinnecock Hills, the sixth time for it to host the U.S. Open, never under this much scrutiny. The early scouting report from Scheffler and Rory McIlroy was wider fairways than they are used to seeing at a U.S. Open. That wasn't a mirage.

Bodenhamer said the USGA wanted to present a course the way William Flynn designed it in 1931 when he was brought into reshape a course that first opened in 1891, the oldest golf club in America still in the same location.

That means an average fairway width of 48 yards, compared with 42 yards in 2018 and 32 yards wide last year at Oakmont. He anticipates slower green speeds to account for so many putting surfaces perched on a hill and exposed to the wind.

“The way we're thinking about this year is to let Shinnecock be Shinnecock,” Bodenhamer said.

That should be enough. In the five U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills, three players have finished the tournament under par — Raymond Floyd in 1986, Retief Goosen and runner-up Mickelson in 2004.

McIlroy said the green speeds were just over 11 on the Stimpmeter — slightly under the target speed the USGA has in mind — and the Masters champion doesn't thing they need to be much fasters.

“If they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens,” McIlroy said. “If it's set up the right way, I think it's one of the best championship tests in the country. It's an amazing golf course.”

Scheffler goes for the career Grand Slam

McIlroy became the most recent player with the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in 2025. At the time, Scheffler had two green jackets but only one leg of the career slam. And then he steamrolled the competition at the PGA Championship and British Open.

“Fixed that,” Scheffler said with a laugh at the start of the year.

Now he's on the cusp of the most elite club in golf. McIlroy had to wait 11 years to get the final leg. Jack Nicklaus (1966 British Open) and Gary Player (1965 U.S. Open) each waited three years for their final pieces. Scheffler is the betting favorite, even though he hasn't won in five months.

He was runner-up in 2022 at The Country Club, his best chance. He was in the mix at Los Angeles in 2023 and on the fringe of contention at Torrey Pines.

“I like the challenge of playing a really hard golf course against a really good field,” he said.

Adam Scott playing his 100th straight major

Scott is among three players — potentially four depending on alternates — who is playing a third time at Shinnecock Hills, though he has yet to make the cut there.

He still has cause of celebration. Scott is playing in his 100th consecutive major, dating to the 2001 British Open, the second-longest streak behind Nicklaus and his incomparable run of 146 in a row.

“It's crazy," said Jordan Spieth, next in line at 52 in a row. “It's not only playing at a high level, it's take care of yourself the right way. Almost every single person you think of that could have reached 100 missed it because of injury.”

The toughest test

Players were due to start arriving around the weekend to prepare a major with a reputation as being the toughest test in golf. For Shinnecock, the test starts with wind on a course that more closely resembles a Scottish links than any other in America.

Flynn created a series of triangles — holes that run in that shape so players are forced to cope with different wind direction no matter which way it's blowing.

And for the players, the test can be what goes on between the ears. Nicklaus once said he could rule out most players having a chance when he hears them complain. And there's been a lot of complaining the last two times at Shinnecock Hills.

“Your acceptance meter, you've got to add some at the top end,” Xander Schauffele said. “If it's 100, you need to make it 150 because 100 is not enough. It might be the second or third hole of the day and you might have already had four bad breaks. It's really penalized. It's the most tired I am of the four majors.”

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

"It was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it," she said of songwriting through a raspy voice she attributed to screaming along to the night's performances and Wednesday night's historic NBA game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

She told the room about her family uprooting their lives to move her from Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, as a tween.

“I will never be able to express my gratitude,” the singer-songwriter said while holding back tears — crediting their sacrifice for her career.

She offered young songwriters advice: “You really have to prioritize what you love, down to your very core. Because you'll need that."

Steven Spielberg introduced Swift with a surprise speech about the power of songwriting. “There is something undeniable about how songs imprint on our souls,” he said, before changing his focus to Swift. “Somehow Taylor knows us all too well.”

Swift started her speech by acknowledging Spielberg. “Because of examples like Steven's, I trusted my imagination," she said.

The Gen Z singer Sombr launched Swift's segment by performing “Cardigan” and “Dear John" in front of her.

Swift has brought new eyes to this year’s ceremony and undeniably shaped contemporary pop music trends with her songwriting. Swift is the youngest woman inducted, but Stevie Wonder, who started his recording career at 13, was the youngest ever inducted, it was announced on stage.

It was a notable moment in an evening full of them, where Swift, Kiss’ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, Alanis Morissette, Kenny Loggins and more were honored.

A night of celebrating songwriters

Tamar Braxton opened the gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City with a spirted tribute to a new inductee — the game-changing R&B songwriter, producer and rapper Christopher “Tricky” Stewart — with one of the biggest songs he's known for: Beyoncé's “Single Ladies.”

He's also responsible for singer-songwriter Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Mariah Carey's “Touch My Body” and Justin Bieber's “Baby.”

Dallas Austin, a songwriter and producer known for work with Boyz ll Men and Madonna, introduced Stewart. “Think about that catalog,” he said, listing off those zeitgeist-shifting records. “Those are cultural moments."

Stewart thanked God, his family, artists he's worked with and mentors — giving a special shout out to Grammy award-winning music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid and the iconic singer-songwriter Babyface. “I wanted to be like L.A. and Baby,” he reflected.

Kiss founders Simmons and Stanley — two and a half years after the band’s farewell — were also recognized for their glam rock classics “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “I Love It Loud.” The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan covered the former, a fittingly fiery introduction for the band. He was joined by Goo Goo Dolls’ frontman John Rzeznik for the latter.

Simmons wasn't present; Stanley said that he had a family emergency.

“Songs are the messenger,” he said — the foundation of “every show.”

Soft rock legend Kenny Loggins (“Footloose,” “Danny’s Song”) and the alt-rock icon Morissette were also inducted.

For the latter, Brandi Carlile performed “Uninvited” alongside SistaStrings, before introducing Morissette.

“Writing to me is not a hobby,” Morissette said, it’s critical. “It’s write or die.” Then she performed “Mary Jane” and "You Oughta Know" from her 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill.”

For Loggins, Gavin DeGraw performed “Danny’s Song,” before Loggins told the story behind the tune in his acceptance speech.

Acknowledging writers and their hits

Taylor Dayne and Madison Cunningham performed Tina Turner classics written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle in honor of their induction; John Fogerty was honored with the Johnny Mercer Award.

“I got my songs back!” Fogerty said, ending a nearly 30-minute speech, referencing the fact that he won the rights back to his catalog at age 80. Then he ran through a medley of his hits: “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” among them.

The songwriter Walter Afanasieff (Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”) was also recognized, a segment that began with an introduction by actor Jeremy Renner and included a monster medley of his biggest songs by R&B singer Sheléa, kicking off with his Christmas classic six months early.

“I wanted to be The Beatles,” he said of falling in love with songwriting in his speech. “Sixty years later, I got to produce Paul McCartney.”

An established tradition

British singer-songwriter RAYE received the prestigious Hal David Starlight Award. She ended her speech by stating that songwriters deserve a cut of master royalties.

Last year's inductees included George Clinton, The Doobie Brothers, Ashley Gorley, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love and Tony Macaulay.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1969 to honor those creating popular music. A songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the first commercial release of a song.

Some already in the hall include Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Bill Withers, Neil Diamond and Phil Collins.

The West African nation is the latest to criminalize homosexuality, following similar measures earlier this year in Senegal.

The new penal code punishes anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts” with between five and 10 years in prison and a fine, according to the text of the new penal code.

“This same penalty is applicable to persons who officiated the marriage, to the witnesses of the alleged spouses, as well as to persons who have given their consent for the celebration of the marriage and to the organizers,” the new penal code said.

Hamidou Julien, an adviser to the justice minister, confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the law took effect on Thursday.

Previously, homosexuality wasn't illegal in Niger, but has been heavily stigmatized.

Laws prohibiting homosexuality are common across Africa: more than 30 of the 54 countries criminalize same-sex sexual acts. Niger has joined countries like Senegal, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, where penalties can include 10 or more years of imprisonment. In Somalia, Uganda and Mauritania, the offense can carry the death penalty.

And Ira Parker, showrunner of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdom,” HBO's latest entry to the “Game of Thrones” universe that has charmed and disarmed viewers with its humble story of big, raw, aspiring knight Dunk and his tiny, cue ball-bald squire Egg, says it's going to stay that way.

“If anything, I’d say Season 2 might feel even smaller,” Parker said. “It’s not at all busy and everything. There’s almost some loneliness creeping into this.”

Parker spoke to The Associated Press from the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, where he's making the second season of the show based on George R.R. Martin's series of novellas about the journeys and adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his sidekick whose nickname obscures his true identity.

After eight sprawling seasons of “Game of Thrones” and two seasons of the almost-as-epic “House of the Dragon,” some worried about Westeros fatigue when “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” arrived in January. Instead, it was enthusiastically embraced by fans and plenty of newcomers. People seemed to want a world with no dragons or clashing kings, just an overgrown orphan without a last name trying to become somebody.

Everything about the show is scaled down. Season 1 had just six episodes averaging about 35 minutes, all of them centered entirely on Dunk and Egg.

“It is 100% a function of the underlying material,” Parker said. “We don’t want to have to stretch the story. We like building out the world and hanging out with our characters and having some fun in Westeros. But we don’t want to have odd little side quests.”

Smaller stories may be having a moment in elite TV. “The Pitt,” last year’s best-drama Emmy winner and a favorite to repeat the win, is set almost entirely in one part of one hospital. “Pluribus,” the acclaimed Apple TV+ show that will give it Emmy competition this year, has a single main character.

“Game of Thrones” was also the mother of all Emmy contenders, getting more nominations during its full run than any drama ever.

This little brother of a show could get a little Emmy attention too when nominations are announced next month after a voting period that started Thursday. Its two stars, each as unlikely to find themselves in the spotlight as the characters they play, could both get acting nominations.

Peter Claffey, who plays Duncan, is a 6-foot-5, 29-year-old former professional rugby player who has had a steady stream of supporting roles since switching to acting in 2019 but nothing remotely like the title role in a franchise series.

When he got the Egg gig, Dexter Sol Ansell was plenty experienced for a 9-year-old. (He’s 11 now.) But now he’s become a memeable charmer as the little hairless scamp who’s devoted to Dunk but sitting on big secrets.

They were both big, and lucky, finds for Parker and his team. Dexter was the first kid they looked at for Egg. And he and Claffey have established an off-screen rapport that translates to the screen.

“They’ve just been growing up together and they’re coming up together and they really do talk to each other like brothers now,” Parker said. “There’s an aspect of that that you just can’t create.”

Parker himself has a humble background and isn't used to being the center of such attention. He wrote for shows including “The Last Ship,” “Better Things” and, crucially, “House of the Dragon” before having this gig, and a sort of stardom, fall into his lap.

The sophomore year, however, is going a little roughly.

“Worst experience of my life,” Parker said, smiling but not entirely joking.

Season 2, based on Martin's 2003 novella “The Sworn Sword,” is set in a drought that they’re supposed to be recreating in Spain. But Gran Canaria is getting historic downpours.

“The whole story is about the drought,” he said. “The whole story is somebody damming the water to keep it from someone else.”

But he spoke to AP after a day of sun, with hope for more.

“If we can somehow manage to corral this thing back into its box of sunshiny-ness,” he said, “I think we’re going to have something special.”

The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake, which struck Monday off Sarangani province, injured at least 688 people and displaced more than 45,000 people, about half them still in emergency shelters, after the quake damaged more than 12,600 houses across farming towns and cities.

The numbers of dead and missing were considerably lowered after multiple verifications, the Office of Civil Defense said in a statement.

Many of the displaced were still too traumatized to return home because of strong aftershocks, officials said.

Days after the earthquake hit, more videos of the chaotic moments have been posted on social media showing horrified crowds witnessing the collapse of small buildings, and flag-raising ceremonies turning chaotic when the ground started to shake on the first day of school after a long summer break.

Students are seen on videos screaming in panic, but staying seated or standing still outside school buildings, with some covering their heads with their hands as teachers admonished them to calm down.

One video, which has gone viral on Facebook with millions of views, showed dozens of grade-schoolers screaming and breaking into tears as they sat on a tree-ringed school ground, which visibly swayed them from side to side. A tin roof shed nearby later collapsed with a loud thud, prompting many to dash away, but were asked by teachers to return and stay seated.

The grade school in the coastal town of Malita in Davao Occidental province reported no injuries from the quake.

“This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of earthquake preparedness and the value of regular disaster response drills,” the Mahayahay elementary school said in a statement.

Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said years of disaster-preparedness drills helped people anticipate and brace for extreme events like Monday’s quake, one of the strongest to hit the archipelago in a half-century.

He said that it was also fortunate that the quake hit at 7:37 a.m., a few minutes before work and classes were to start indoors.

“It’s good that our efforts to educate people on what to do when earthquakes hit somehow paid off,” Bacolcol told The Associated Press.

He expressed concern, however, over the collapse of some buildings that he said should have withstood the powerful quake, if construction standards based on the country’s building code were followed.

Ednar Dayanghirang, director of the Office of Civil Defense in a quake-hit region of about 5 million people, said that regular disaster-preparedness drills helped reduce casualties in many ways, including by preventing deadly stampedes.

“We required all school principals to take one-day courses on incident management, then they appointed disaster-response teams among teachers to deal with earthquakes, tsunamis,” Dayanghirang said. “They listened and they learned.”

The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

The first-ever Fiddle and Fork Festival will take place across the music center’s museum and outdoor grounds along the Blue Ridge Parkway, bringing together musicians, storytellers, farmers and artisans to celebrate the traditions that helped shape the region.

The festival is one of many nationwide participating in the Smithsonian’s “Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals” initiative as part of the lead-up to America’s 250th anniversary. The program highlights local traditions that tell the nation’s story through music, food and community heritage.

“We are really hoping to showcase the unique hyper local significance,” said Corinne Bass, Blue Ridge Music Center director.

At the Blue Ridge Music Center, attendees can enjoy live music, storytelling, traditional crafts and hands-on cultural demonstrations Saturday and Sunday.

At the Bluffs Restaurant, the focus shifts to Appalachian foodways — with cooking demonstrations, heritage recipes and the stories behind foods of the Blue Ridge on Friday and Sunday.

Organizers say the festival is about more than looking back — it’s about keeping traditions alive as the country approaches a major milestone.

“I hope that they learn new things about the music and the food that are such a key part of our region. I hope that they see some craft work that is inspiring to them and that they meet some amazing people from their community and travelers on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” Bass said.

All daytime activities are free, with a ticketed meal Friday night and a concert Saturday night. The festival runs through the weekend with events taking place at both the Blue Ridge Music Center and the Bluffs Restaurant on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Schedule: June 12–14, 2026

Friday, June 13 — Kickoff Dinner (SOLD OUT)

• Where: The Bluffs Restaurant (45338 Blue Ridge Parkway, Laurel Springs, NC)
• When: 6-9 p.m.
• What: Dinner party with locally sourced ingredients and recipes
• Tickets: $100 (includes food, alcohol, beverages, tax and gratuity)

Saturday, June 13 — Music & Foodways Day (FREE)

• Where: Blue Ridge Music Center
• When: 12–5 p.m.
• What: Live music, foodways presentations, beekeeping, farming, seed preservation & cultural demonstrations.

Saturday, June 13 - An Evening with Steep Canyon Rangers (TICKETED)

• Where: Blue Ridge Music Center
• When: 7–9 p.m.
• What: Live music with Steep Canyon Rangers
• Tickets: $39.25 for adults, $19.36 for children 12 and under, buy tickets here.

Sunday, June 14 — Foodways Fair (FREE)

• Where: The Bluffs Restaurant (45338 Blue Ridge Parkway, Laurel Springs, NC)
• When: 12–4 p.m.
• What: Demos/presentations on traditional domestic crafts + regional food production/prep; restaurant open first-come, first-served.

Sunday, June 14 — Midday Mountain Music Celebration (FREE)

• Where: Blue Ridge Music Center (Music Center Rd, Galax, VA)
• When: 12–4 p.m.
• What: Performances/interviews honoring the Music Center’s Midday Mountain Music groups.

But Spielberg is hardly the only one making headlines of late about UFOs and the possibility of life on other planets.

What was once considered fringe or conspiratorial has in recent months popped up everywhere from the White House to the Catholic Church, as public fascination with unidentified anomalous phenomena — or UAPs, as the government calls them — becomes more mainstream.

The Pentagon in May made public large swaths of UFO files with very little context, leaving curious sleuths to piece together their own interpretations. The dump came just weeks after former President Barack Obama set off a media frenzy for stating unambiguously in an interview that aliens are real, though he later tempered that take.

“Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” the former president, who made a surprise visit to the “Disclosure Day” set, posted on social media. “I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

Some religious adherents, as well as some nonbelievers, maintain that the existence of life on other planets might undermine many faiths because it would complicate assertions that humans are unique. But others argue the opposite.

“Belief in UFOs is really one of the best things that’s happened to religion in a long time,” said Diana Walsh Pasulka, a religion scholar at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “It’s a blow to the secular, materialist worldview.”

An intersection of aliens, demons and Catholics

Even if broad interest in UAPs bolsters the case for an enchanted universe, some believers in religions such as Christianity think they are something to be wary of.

“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons,” Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, said in a recent podcast interview.

That sentiment was echoed by Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, formerly an exorcist with the Archdiocese of Washington. He was removed last week by the archbishop, who said statements by Rossetti “gravely undermine” Catholic teaching on demons and the devil.

“It’s my personal belief that probably many, if not most, of these UFO sightings are in fact demons,” Rossetti said in a May 29 video posted on his Facebook page. “Aliens, if there are aliens, don’t possess people.”

Christopher Baglow, who heads a science and religion initiative at the University of Notre Dame, was surprised by the firing given that Rosetti made clear in the video he was expressing his own opinion. Baglow speculated that there may be other factors behind the decision.

“I ask forgiveness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium,” Rosetti said in a statement online.

Despite the assertions by Vance and Rossetti about demons, Baglow maintains the Catholic Church has long been open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. “Theologians have been speculating about this for centuries and the church has never ever taught one way or the other,” he said.

While meeting with astronomy students last year at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the “ancient light of distant galaxies” and the “mysterious joy” provoked by the study of outer space. Some interpreted these remarks as tacit speculation about the possibility of life on other planets.

Extraterrestrials, old and new

In one sense, the idea of otherworldly beings coming to Earth can be traced back millennia.

“People would call it the plurality of worlds. So even back in the time of Socrates and Aristotle, there were Greek philosophers who talked about beings on other planets and other stars,” Walsh Pasulka said.

But it wasn’t until after 1945 that modern conceptions of UFOs began to develop, according to Jeffrey Kripal, a historian of religions at Rice University. “The flying saucer and the alien and the UFO — it’s definitely a Cold War invasion narrative,” he said.

That narrative explains why UAPs are often perceived as hostile to humans. But it’s also evolved over time and led to the formation of some religions — like Scientology, which counts many a Hollywood celebrity among its adherents — that see extraterrestrials as good or even part of a divine plan. Some adherents to the Nation of Islam, for example, believe that its founder will inaugurate an apocalyptic return to Earth on a spaceship.

The International Raëlian Movement, also know as Raëlism, is a UFO religion that was founded in France in the 1970s. It is still practiced today, with its strongest followings in parts of Asia, Africa and Canada, according to Susan Palmer, a sociologist who studies new religious movements at Concordia University in Montreal.

Its founder, Raël, claims he is a direct descendant of Yahweh, whom Raël visited on the planet of Elohim in 1975. Raëlism claims the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad are all hybrids of humans and extraterrestrials, as well as Raël’s half brothers.

Of the groups she has studied, Palmer argued Raëlism is the most sympathetic toward UFOs. “They’re not interested in extraterrestrial wars,” she said.

But some think that sentiment might be growing.

Kripal, who heads Rice’s archival collection of reported paranormal experiences called the Center for the Impossible, perceives an increasing openness to these kinds of conversations about the existence of UFOs — and the possibility that they are not hostile.

“People are reporting these experiences or these encounters with entities and they’re religious through and through,” he said. “My colleagues in the academy, they’re really starting to listen in a different way.”

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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.

The sport is so popular it has surpassed hockey and all other sports in youth participation, according to a recent report by Jumpstart, a Canadian charity that helps low-income youth play organized sports. It said half the nation’s youth participate in organized soccer.

Reece was one of many locals sporting Canada soccer gear on Thursday ahead of their nation’s World Cup opener Friday against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“Wish I had tickets to the game tomorrow, but I don’t,” Reece said. “I’m going to a game in Vancouver. It was cheaper to get a ticket out there.”

Is Canada about to have a soccer moment?

“It already has a good hold in this country in terms of participation. I think we all expect that to grow. These tournaments inspire so many next-generation people to find their heroes, play the game,” said Christina Linz, president of the women's Northern Super League. “I think (it) will really draw those emotional connections.”

Thursday in Toronto looked a bit like wear-your-favorite-soccer-jersey day as the tournament opened in Mexico. Canada’s red tops, like the one worn by Reece, were among the most popular.

Mexico (No. 13) and the United States (No. 17), the other co-hosts for the World Cup, each sit higher in FIFA’s rankings than Canada, which is 30th, but that means there’s more to gain for the Canadians. Especially when it comes to generating passion for the sport.

Canada coach Jesse Marsch said Thursday he has “felt a real momentum behind this team and behind this moment” as Canada Soccer, the sport’s national governing body, looks to capitalize on hosting the World Cup for the first time.

“Canada has become more and more multicultural, and I think the excitement for so many different nations to be here in North America and in Canada, and to be playing with all of the greatest players in the world and some of the greatest coaches, I think that there’s real excitement behind what this will be,” Marsch said.

Potentially stalling the potential of Marsch’s squad is the absence of star defender Alphonso Davies, who was ruled out for Friday’s match as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury sustained during Bayern Munich's Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain on May 6.

Marsch is hopeful that Davies will be able to return at some point in the group stage. He said Davies had an MRI on Wednesday.

“We’re getting ready to ramp things up,” Marsch said Thursday.

Davies is one of many Canada players fighting injuries. Defender Moise Bombito is recovering from a broken leg, but Marsch said Bombito is “ready to contribute.”

Regardless of who’s on the pitch for Canada, it’s ready to make a statement, and players are eager to prove their country is a soccer nation.

“Every one of these boys is incredibly Canadian, and the pride they have in putting on the jersey, representing the country, hearing the national anthem,” Marsch said. “These guys sing the national anthem, belt it out to the top of their lungs, because they want to show the country how proud they are to be here, to be Canadians, and to represent what Canada is.”

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Lexie Linderman is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

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

But picking the wrong one or skipping basic maintenance on the one you have can leave you hot, uncomfortable, and melt money right out of your pocket.

The experts at Consumer Reports tested air conditioners in extreme conditions and are sharing their advice to keep cool all summer long.

Consumer Reports’ Arianna Coger spent the winter months sweating it out in CR’s air conditioner test lab – designed to mimic a hot, sticky summer day.

“This is where we do our main performance test, where we try to cool off this room,” Coger said.

The best air conditioners cool CR’s test chamber quickly, quietly, and efficiently. And when it’s time to buy a new air conditioner, CR says the first step is matching the AC to the room. A unit that’s too small may never cool the space. One that’s too large can cycle on and off too quickly, leaving the room humid while also wasting energy.

For mid-sized rooms, this LG model scores well.

If you’re tired of installing and removing window units every year, there is another, more expensive option: a ductless mini-split. These systems have an outdoor unit and one or more indoor wall-mounted units.

“Mini-splits are a good option if you lack the ductwork for central air conditioning,” said Yasmeen Khan with Consumer Reports. “Mini-splits can cool large spaces. They’re very efficient, too, sometimes more than central AC. As a bonus, they can also heat rooms.”

In CR’s tests, this Mitsubishi earned top scores for cooling, efficiency, and heating, too. Keep in mind

Finally, CR says three simple steps can help your AC run better: vacuum and wash the filter, gently vacuum the coils, and keep the outside side of the unit free of leaves, dirt, and debris. CR recommends doing this about once a month during heavy use.

Back in July 2025, firefighters rushed to the intersection of Moneta Road and Whitehouse Road after a two-car crash left several people trapped. Both the woman and her husband were stuck inside their vehicle, and the firefighters worked tirelessly to get them out safely.

Today, the woman walks with a cane and has metal rods and pins in both legs. But thanks to the quick actions of the Moneta crew, she’s here to tell her story of resilience.

Her visit meant everything to the department.

“In the fire service, we witness a lot of difficult situations, and often we never know the final outcome,” the department said. “Seeing someone walk back through our doors, able to share their story and offer a hug and heartfelt thank you, reminds us why we do what we do.”

They added, “Thank you for taking the time to visit us today. Your strength, determination, and recovery are truly inspiring. Moments like these are a blessing to our members and serve as a reminder that every call matters.”

The scholar, Min Zin, was suspected of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security,” said China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian.

It is uncommon for Beijing to arrest a U.S. citizen on national security allegations. The case comes just a month after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing as the two countries aim to reset a tumultuous relationship.

A Burmese activist who knows Min Zin said he disappeared June 3 after going to Kunming, in China’s Yunnan province, for a conference. The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of government retribution and arrest, said Min Zin had visited China multiple times before.

Min Zin was a student activist in Myanmar’s 1988 uprising, a student-led movement that the government at the time reacted to with military force. He eventually sought asylum in the U.S. He was not engaged in any direct activism work currently, said the activist.

Min Zin is the founder of a think tank called ISP Myanmar, which in recent years has written about Chinese foreign policy and trade with Myanmar, located on China's southwest border. The think tank was involved in regular exchanges with Chinese think tanks, and had published on issues such as Myanmar's rare earth exports to China.

Min Zin is also a Ph.D candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

Amnesty International, the human rights organization, called for Min Zin’s immediate release.

“The circumstances around Min Zin’s mysterious arrest are extremely concerning, as is the apparent charge of espionage,” said Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher for the group.

The remains of the girls, who were students at Utumishi Girls Academy, were placed in white coffins adorned with flowers and topped with their portraits. The coffins were lined up in front of their families, schoolmates, community members and local leaders, who called for justice.

The nine accused girls, who were students at the school, remain in police custody, with interrogations revealing that the May 28 blaze was started by lighting a mattress at the dormitory’s exit using a matchstick and paraffin. No motive has been revealed so far.

During the memorial service, hundreds of students from Utumishi Girls Academy sang a somber hymn declaring that all shall be well. One of the presiding officials reminisced about being a victim of Kenya’s deadliest school fire in 2001, when 67 boys died in a dormitory blaze in Machakos County in eastern Kenya.

Mourners called for accountability and justice as dozens of schools have closed in recent days because of student unrest. The Kenya Red Cross said that it had responded to 37 school fires since the beginning of the year.

School fires are common in Kenya, with some linked to arson attacks by students protesting disciplinary measures or scheduled examinations, while others are caused by electrical faults.

Congested dormitories, a lack of emergency exits and insufficient firefighting equipment have often contributed to loss of life and extensive damage.

Last month, Kenya's Education Ministry suspended the principal of Utumishi Girls Academy for failing to comply with school fire safety regulations. The ministry also said that it had closed more than 300 schools following a 2024 fire tragedy that killed 21 boys in central Kenya.

During the Friday memorial service attended by Kenyan first lady Rachel Ruto, the presiding bishop questioned how much longer Kenyan children and families would continue to suffer from school fires.

The school captain, Abigael Wanjiku, eulogized the girls as “friends, study partners, teammates and companions.”

“The pain of losing them is one that we will carry for a long time,” she said.

A mother representing the parents broke down in tears during her speech as she called for accountability and justice, while reassuring the surviving students that ensuring their safety remained a priority.

A region that has often been considered minor league in comparison to bigger California markets like the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego is relishing its role as a way station for the vagabond A’s and hopes one day to have a Major League Baseball team to call its own to go along with the NBA’s Kings.

“It would mean everything,” McCarty said. “I think we’ve always fancied ourselves as a big league city. Having a team here in Sacramento would mean a lot to our city, bring a lot of economic groups to both sides of the river.”

The region is making what it has dubbed the “Sacramento Pitch” to be considered for expansion, announcing late last month a commitment of $1 billion in public funding and nearly $800 million more in private investment to the effort.

There are still major parts missing in the plan. Most notably, the search for a lead investor to own the team has just started with several candidates expressing interest. There's also uncertainty about if and when MLB plans to expand, and where Sacramento stands on the list of possible candidates.

“What we have is just only one major league team here. So we have definitely room for having another team," West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero said. ”We have a strong media market, the population is growing. We have a good economic growth here as well. We have the potential to develop a strong market for a Major League Baseball team here."

Sacramento has one major team in US's 20th biggest market

Sacramento is the 20th biggest television market in the country and is the largest with only one team in either MLB, the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS and WNBA. There are about 2.7 million people in the metropolitan area that is still viewed by some as an offshoot of the more glamorous San Francisco Bay area.

The region is getting a trial run as a major league city as the temporary home of the A’s, who are playing their second of three planned seasons in West Sacramento after leaving Oakland and waiting for their new stadium to be built in Las Vegas. The A's are set to play one more season here before the move, and the team is already playing two series this week in the Las Vegas area.

Attendance has risen from 9,487 fans per game last season to 10,820 through 28 home dates this season, with 12 announced sellouts in a ballpark that can fit a little more than 12,000 fans a game. But local officials are confident a full-time team would have even more support at a new stadium built right next door to the existing Triple-A park.

“From our perspective, landing Major League Baseball is really a market demonstration statement about who we are,” said Barry Broome, the President and CEO of Greater Sacramento Economic Council. “We do love baseball. Everybody deep down inside prays we’ll get a phone call from (A's owner) John Fisher and he says, ’Psych, I’m staying.' No one wants to admit they pray for that every day. But we love the Athletics. It’d be awesome, but we didn’t. They’re going to Vegas, so we have to bring in our own team which is fine with us.”

Sacramento has $1.8 billion in commitments for a new stadium

The group in Sacramento has raised $800 million in land near the current minor league ballpark and private investment and has access to $1 billion in public funding that comes mostly from property taxes in the area.

While economists have expressed doubts about the value of public investment into stadiums and McCarty himself voted against funding Sacramento's NBA arena when he was on the city council, he believes this plan makes more sense.

“That was more of an impact on the general fund,” he said of the plan that led to building Golden 1 Center that opened in downtown Sacramento in 2016. “This one I think is the fairest deal for taxpayers and partners to do big projects that we have on the books.”

There's no timeline yet for MLB expansion

MLB's first priority is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the union. Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that MLB has told interested cities that a decision on whether to expand won't come until the CBA is complete.

Among the other cities vying for a team if it does happen are Charlotte, North Carolina; Montreal; Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; and Salt Lake City. Sacramento's biggest competition would likely be the other cities out West.

“I think the size and scope of the market is really our key advantage,” Broome said. “We’ve also demonstrated we have a turnkey stadium deal now. That can happen under the mayor and the city manager’s signature. We don’t have to pass a bond or anything like that. It took us four months to raise $800 million. I think people underestimate Sacramento. There’s a lot of money in this town. There is a lot economic power in this town. We can do this.”

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

“We need them to get going,” Brind'Amour said early in the Stanley Cup Final.

Maybe now, with a maximum of two games left to determine who will hoist the Cup, they've found a breakthrough.

Svechnikov scored twice on power plays and Aho had just his second goal since April as the Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Thursday night, moving within a victory of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

“It is the biggest game. It was for me,” Svechnikov said. “The mentality was great. I couldn’t sleep for the night (before).”

Game 6 is Sunday night in Las Vegas, with Carolina having a chance to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since Brind'Amour captained the Hurricanes to it the title in 2006. The goal now is for Svechnikov and Aho to carry the momentum forward from Game 5.

Svechnikov had the first two-goal performance of the playoffs and the fifth multi-goal playoff game of his career. He had wanted to be a bigger part of the production this spring, though that hadn't mattered as much with the Logan Stankoven-centered second line featuring Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall cooking throughout the playoffs.

Brind'Amour kept saying the two mainstays of the current eight-year playoff run were doing enough to contribute, it was just a matter of time before they'd score more. But as the Hurricanes pushed to the Stanley Cup Final, time was running out for Aho as the team's highest-paid player ($9.75 million this year) and Svechnikov as the team's third-highest ($7.75 million this year).

“Quite a decent (amount) of pressure, to be honest this playoffs,” Svechnikov said. “It’s just a new day was today.”

Aho and Svechnikov each had four goals through 17 postseason games entering Thursday. Five teammates had more goals. So having them beat Carter Hart three times for goals was like a long-waited bonus.

“That hasn’t really happened, and we’re still here,” Brind’Amour said. “So it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way, but they have to have an impact in the game, whether it’s on the scoresheet or doing other things. It certainly makes it a lot smoother if they’re scoring. It takes a lot of pressure off other guys to do that, and I guess that’s what happened tonight.”

The game was tied 1-1 before second-period goals from Svechnikov and Aho in a six-minute stretch. First there was Svechnikov whippping the puck past Hart on the power play, followed by Aho scoring for the first time in this series and for only the second time in the last 14 games.

“Getting on the score sheet, he knows he needs to do that,” Brind’Amour said of Aho. “He’s playing all the power plays, getting all that time to cash in. It doesn’t mean you’re not playing well. And he was doing, all playoffs, he’s done, I think, really well. But man, if we can get that out of him, that’s just a big bonus for our team.”

Svechnikov followed with a second goal for a 4-1 lead, a putaway at the right post off a sharp feed from Nikolaj Ehlers for one of his three assists.

“We know it’s going to be hard,” Svechnikov said about closing out the series. “That’s the hardest trophy to win, and we just kind of got to play our game and keep the pressure on and hopefully we’re going to keep the momentum.”

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

Cy Young Award winners Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell let doctors use the instrument on their prized elbows. Connor Hellebuyck, the 2025 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP, trusted it to address issues in his knee. Several NFL players have turned to it, too.

It’s called the NanoNeedle scope 2.0, a miniaturized, flexible version of the traditional arthroscope. It's very early — there is little published research on the model — but it is accumulating an impressive list of proponents.

“Every time I’ve used it, including when I started using it in the lab, different types of procedures occur to me that we could do,” said Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Rams.

An arthroscope is a pencil-like tube with a camera that goes into joints, expands the area with salt water or saline, and projects an image onto a screen. Then doctors insert secondary instruments in the same area to perform the surgical procedure.

With the diminished size — 1.9 millimeters in diameter, compared to 4 millimeters for a traditional scope — the NanoNeedle is designed to cause less pain, inflammation and tissue damage, leading to a faster recovery. It uses much less fluid than a traditional scope, and it also is proving to be a valuable tool when it comes to diagnosing the extent of certain injuries.

“Basically, we’re able to accomplish anatomic type of work and repair with far less surgical trauma,” ElAttrache said.

Star athletes have returned ahead of schedule after NanoNeedle procedures

The NanoNeedle was used when Skubal had a loose body removed from his left elbow by ElAttrache on May 6, and again when Snell had a similar elbow surgery on May 19.

When Skubal — a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner who is eligible for free agency after this season — was placed on the injured list, the Detroit Tigers said the ace would be sidelined for two to three months. But he is expected to return on Saturday after pitching five scoreless innings in a rehab start on Sunday — a turnaround of about 5 1/2 weeks.

ElAttrache said he has used the NanoNeedle scope with four patients, but he declined to identify the other two cases. Snell had a bigger operation that also involved the sculpting of a spur, but ElAttrache is optimistic about the timeline for the left-hander's return to the Dodgers.

“The percentage of time out, I think, is going to be about half the time for Snell,” ElAttrache said.

Hellebuyck, a three-time Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie, had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Nov. 22. He was expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks, but he was back in net for the Winnipeg Jets after three weeks.

Dr. James Voos, the head team physician for the Cleveland Browns, said he has used the NanoNeedle during procedures on five Browns players, including center Luke Wypler's ankle fracture surgery.

“Ankles and elbows I think are areas where it has had very great utility and then rapidly adopted,” said Voos, who also serves as the president of the NFL Physicians Society. “And we’re finding more and more uses in the knee and shoulder.”

In addition to his duties with the Browns, Voos is the chair of the orthopedics departments at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He already has seen benefits when it comes to the treatment of younger athletes.

“There are some very challenging elbow injuries in gymnasts and baseball players that the previous cameras were too large for the joint,” Voos said. “They’re designed for adult joints. So the smaller camera allows us to see and work in these smaller spaces. In pediatrics and adolescence, that was more challenging and potentially caused more damage before, some more soft tissue damage.”

NanoNeedle has been in the works for a few years, and it's still evolving

The NanoNeedle was developed by Arthrex, a Florida-based company that makes medical supplies. Voos is an educational consultant for Arthrex, and ElAttrache has worked with the company for more than 30 years.

The initial version was created in 2019, according to Ryan Kellar, a senior product manager at Arthrex. There was another version that came out in 2023 before the current model — with upgraded visualization, processing and imaging — was released in August.

“This is our third iteration,” Kellar said. “We already have the fourth iteration coming in the fall. That fourth iteration is going to be everything that this conventional scope is at all the less invasive benefits of nano arthroscopy. So we really believe that nano is the next foundation of less invasive orthopedic care for general population, as well as kind of a gold standard for athletes.”

Dr. Kyle Hammond, the head team physician for the Atlanta Falcons and head orthopedic surgeon for the Atlanta Hawks, has used the NanoNeedle in a teaching setting as an orthopedic surgeon at Emory Healthcare and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. But he hasn't used it on a patient yet.

Hammond said other companies have made similar devices for needle arthroscopy, but he praised the quality of the camera and the video feed with the NanoNeedle, along with its ease of use.

“It really has basically become very similar to what our standard arthroscopy equipment is,” he said. “It’s just on a smaller scale.”

The current version of the NanoNeedle is disposable, raising questions about cost versus the expense of sterilization for the reusable traditional arthroscope. Like anything in science, Hammond said, more usage and research are needed to assess the benefits of the new design versus the standard version of the scope.

“To kind of determine if they have true efficacy over the standard of care, they have to be used for a long period of time and you have to collect data and you kind of have to prove that from a statistical model,” Hammond said.

Dr. Brian Cole, the head team physician for the Chicago Bulls, said the level of adoption will depend in large part on the willingness of clinicians to incorporate the scope into their workflow.

“There’s a sort of econometric analysis on top of a healthcare analysis at the same time,” said Cole, who also is a consultant for Arthrex. “But I would say directionally, this is where we’re going. Less invasive, cost-effective, predictable, eliminating problems that we might or could have with existing technology. So, in that regard, this is very innovative, you know, in my opinion, and it’s consistent with the direction we’re going in.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

But on Saturday?

“We got to watch the Knicks,” he said.

In most nations hosting the World Cup, soccer is a fixation. But with the New York Knicks holding a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals against San Antonio and one win from their first title since 1973, attention is surely going to be split this weekend. The Knicks can clinch with a victory in Game 5 on Saturday night. Tipoff will come shortly after Brazil and Morocco wrap a World Cup match in New Jersey, and it will directly overlap with a showdown between Scotland and Haiti.

“I want to watch all the World Cup games, but for us, the Knicks is still a priority,” the 38-year-old Carson said while he and a friend viewed the World Cup opening ceremony at The Football Factory at Legends, a soccer bar near Madison Square Garden. “I’ll probably catch the (soccer) recap after.”

The Knicks have gripped New York, but even some diehard fans already have divided attention. Hours before sitting courtside for the Knicks' historic Game 4 rally at MSG, film director Spike Lee was clad in green and gold for a visit to Brazil's training facility in New Jersey on Wednesday.

Brazil plays Morocco in its opener at East Rutherford, New Jersey, at 6 p.m., a match slated to end about 30 minutes before the NBA game starts in Texas. Scotland-Haiti in Massachusetts starts at 9 p.m.

The Football Factory has 20 screens, enough to satisfy all fandoms.

“I hope they put it to bed Saturday night, so we can just say, well done, Knicks. Have your parade, and that’s it. Now we can concentrate on the soccer," said Jack Keane, the Irishman who owns The Football Factory.

Keane's bar hosts supporters groups from Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Leeds and AC Milan. He estimated more than 2,000 people come through his bar on Wednesday night, when the Knicks won Game 4.

“The Knicks crowd was the same as the Champions League final crowd," he said.

Keane's bar was charging a $20 cover, with one drink included, for the Mexico-South Africa opener.

A 10-minute walk south and east, fans also were lined up to enter Smithfield Hall, which hosts the supporters clubs of Manchester United, West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Roma and Marseille.

“Usually for American sports, because they’re longer, people don’t like to stand,” said Kieron Slattery, an Irishman who is Smithfield's co-owner. “For the Knicks right now, they’re standing. It’s like a soccer game atmosphere.”

Most of the fans watching Thursday were New Yorkers, many of them originally from elsewhere.

Ryan Cole, a 44-year-old from Britain's Southampton who has lived in New York for a dozen years, wore an England jersey and hopes to come up with a ticket for The Three Lions' group-stage game against Panama on June 27. His grandfather, William Cole, was an English League linesman — he has a program with the grandpa's name from a Manchester-Chelsea match in 1952.

“You just see a wave of jerseys everywhere, which is amazing,” he said of the soccer kits and Knicks gear. “It’s just amazing to be in New York all the time, but now in particular with the Knicks, with the World Cup, with summer, couldn't be happier.”

One of his friends, 46-year-old Joel Ramirez, is a New York transplant from Dallas with Mexican parents. During the 2022 World Cup, he watched games at different ethnic restaurants that had ties to a team involved in the match, such as Brooklyn's Sunset Park for Mexico. He thinks the soccer supporters will have greater numbers in the bars Saturday than Knicks fans.

“There's going to be pound for pound a lot more football fans in the city,” he said. “I'll be watching both."

New York City soccer bars open early on weekends for fans to watch lunchtime matches in England and Europe. The World Cup is different.

"When you look at the Premier League, it’s a niche market, still. There’s people who watch it, people who don’t,” Keane said. “The World Cup is the big one. It’s the big party. Everyone’s got a shirt in the closet. Everyone’s going to claim either their own identity or a parent or a grandparent, get on the bandwagon.”

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

Since the June 4 update to the measles dashboard, there have been 15 additional cases, all linked to the outbreak in Buckingham County. That brings the total number of outbreak-associated cases to 83, health officials said. So far this year, the Virginia Department of Health has reported 106 measles cases statewide.

“VDH advises anyone who is not vaccinated against measles, is unsure of their immunity status, or is experiencing symptoms consistent with measles to skip large gatherings, crowded settings, and community events in the outbreak area until the outbreak subsides,” the department said.

If you live in or plan to visit Buckingham County, health officials urge you to talk with your healthcare provider about vaccination recommendations. This may include considering an early MMR dose for infants older than six months, as measles continues to circulate in the area.

Measles symptoms typically appear about seven to 14 days after exposure and can include:

• Fever
• Dry cough
• Runny nose
• Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)

“While we continue to see measles cases increase across Virginia, VDH is actively responding to help contain spread, connect individuals to care, and protect communities most at risk,” said State Health Commissioner Dr. Cameron Webb.

“Measles is one of the most contagious diseases, but it’s also one of the most preventable. The MMR vaccine provides the best protection against measles. With summer travel and gatherings ahead, now is the time to make sure that you and your family are up to date on vaccinations. If you have questions, your healthcare provider or local health department is a great place to start.”

During the Revolutionary War, danger didn’t always come from the battlefield - sometimes it followed soldiers home.

William Strother Madison was a young lieutenant serving in what would become the Montgomery County militia, under the command of his own father-in-law.

“They’re kinda sweet and romantic,” Education Director at Wilderness Road Regional Museum April Martin said.

Madison and his wife Elizabeth had two young daughters, when prisoners of war were brought into Montgomery County late in the conflict.

“Towards the end of the war, prisoners of war - British prisoners of war - were ordered to come to Montgomery County,” Martin said.

Madison escorted some of those prisoners back, unknowingly exposing himself to disease.

“He contracted smallpox and came home and was very sick,” Martin said.

To protect his family, Madison isolated in a small shed along the Roanoke River.

Recovery wasn’t going well, but Elizabeth came every evening.

“She would come down every evening and bring him food, then she would sit and sing for him while he ate dinner,” Martin said.

William Strother Madison died in 1782.

Elizabeth never remarried - raising their children and managing the plantation on her own.

“Women technically didn’t have power, but you still see it come through in these instances,” Martin said.

As Virginia approaches its 250th anniversary, their story reflects the personal cost of the Revolutionary War, far from the front lines.

Want to discover more stories that make Virginia unique? Visit the Patchwork 250 page to explore the full quilt of our region’s history, one patch at a time.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children could land on a dive stick in shallow water, potentially causing serious piercing injuries. There’s also a risk of facial and eye injuries when kids try to retrieve the sticks underwater.

The recalled dive sticks are model number 40041, which is printed on the back of the box next to the bar code and on one end of the dive stick itself, along with Joyin’s name and tracking information. Each toy package contains 30 pieces, including five dive sticks. The affected dive sticks are made of hard plastic, are cylinder-shaped and measure about 7 inches long. Only dive sticks with model 40041, sold as part of Sloosh water toys before Oct. 23, 2025, are included in this recall. The pool toys were sold online through Amazon, Temu, Wayfair, Target Plus and SHEIN between 2019 and 2025.

If you have these dive sticks at home, you’re urged to take them away from children immediately and throw them out. Joyin asks that you take a photo of the dive sticks in the trash and email it to support@joyin.com. The company will then send you redesigned dive sticks that meet federal safety regulations.

Blood donations are important year-round, but even more so in the summer.

“In the summer months, donations often decrease for multiple reasons. One, donations oftentimes happen at places like colleges or schools, and those are closed in the summer months with less people available to donate,” said Bryan Baskin, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic. “In addition, the summer months are busy. Kids are out of school, people are traveling, so donations naturally decrease for that reason. Also, some donors are disqualified due to dehydration occurring in summer months and defer to the fall, but the need for blood remains constant.”

Dr. Baskin said unlike medications and IV fluids, blood cannot be manufactured.

It has to come from a human.

Blood donations also have a short life span.

For example, red blood cells can only be stored for 42 days, while plasma can be frozen for up to a year.

So, how exactly does the blood donation process work?

Dr. Baskin said you’ll first fill out some paperwork and then be asked a series of questions before a technician draws your blood.

Altogether, it takes about 15 minutes.

“It’s natural to have some fear about a needle and the donation process. But it’s important to note the needle stick itself only lasts a second. You can distract yourself by looking away from the needle, squeezing your hand on the opposite arm, or thinking about something you enjoy,” he said. “And I think it’s important to note if you remember that the donation you’re giving, that singular donation, will save and help multiple patients and affect those patients, and their families, and their lives. It will keep you positive about the donation process itself.

Reports show a single blood donation can save up to three lives.

Currently, the average price of regular gas in Virginia is $3.88, according to AAA. Premium averages $4.77 per gallon, while diesel averages $5.12 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: $3.77
  • Mid: $4.32
  • Premium: $4.70
  • Diesel: $5.16
• Roanoke:
• • Regular: $3.87
  • Mid: $4.32
  • Premium: $4.74
  • Diesel: $5.11
• Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford (New River Valley area)
• • Regular: $3.87
  • Mid: $4.33
  • Premium: $4.72
  • Diesel: $5.04

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.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline, has spiked and swung rapidly. That’s because the conflict has caused deep supply chain disruptions and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.

Trump has said multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a live phone call on state television that mediators were active and nothing had been finalized to end the conflict that began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran.

Trump opened an Oval Office event Thursday afternoon saying: “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran.” He offered scant details, other than to say he expects an agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire that started in April to be finalized “over the next few days.”

Extending the terms of the ceasefire gives U.S. leaders more time to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program, the main reason Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used to justify launching the war. Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Israel is not a party to the emerging agreement between the U.S. and Iran.

The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran had pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.

Trump had threatened further escalation earlier Thursday, posting on social media that the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and take “total control” of its oil and gas industries. A few hours later, Trump posted on social media that significant points in the negotiations “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in his phone call on state television that the text of a deal is “mostly finalized.”

"The problem is that the contradictions in America’s position have caused turbulence to this process,” he said Thursday night.

A major sticking point in negotiations has been Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel fear could lead to an atomic weapon, but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Another key issue is Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for transporting oil and natural gas.

Trump again moves quickly from threats to negotiating

Trump's rapid shift Thursday from dire threats to promoting peace negotiations again underscored his whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.

Then back-and-forth strikes rattled the Middle East this week. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which targeted countries where U.S. troops are based. The U.S. strikes began after Trump blamed Iran for downing an American attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Both pilots were rescued safely.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.

After Trump threatened more attacks were to come on Thursday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, responded on social media that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”

It wasn't the first time Trump threatened escalation before giving negotiations another chance. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it didn’t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.

Trump threatened to seize Iran's main oil terminal

Iran’s monthslong disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has crimped global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.

Trump had threatened Thursday to seize Kharg Island, the heart of Iran’s oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass.

But Trump himself soon voiced doubts about taking over the oil terminal, saying in an interview with Fox News: “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest.”

“I don’t want to have boots on the ground," Trump said. "But if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.”

Tensions persist over Iran's nuclear program, Strait of Hormuz

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the U.S. would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies and any tolls Iran imposes for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran's nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful. The U.S. and Israel fear Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium could be used to build an atomic weapon.

Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel. But Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.

Iranian student says hope dwindles as attacks escalate

A 25-year-old student in northern Iran says Iranians are fearing “chaos” amid the war with the U.S. and Israel and multiplying crises at home.

The student, who lives in the city of Babol, said many Iranians are struggling to afford groceries in the face of mass job losses and triple-digit food inflation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.

“Everything is going wrong and there is no hope among the people,” the student added.

The student first spoke to The Associated Press before the war when he participated in widespread anti-government protests. He now says his chief concern is that Iran “maintain territorial integrity and deterrence” in the face of attacks by the U.S. and Israel.

US fires on another merchant ship to enforce blockade

The U.S. military's Central Command said Thursday that it struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker attempting to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. It said the M/T Jalveer was transporting Iranian oil when it was disabled late Wednesday after its crew failed to obey U.S. orders.

It's the ninth merchant vessel the U.S. military says it disabled to enforce the blockade.

Three Indian sailors were killed when American forces struck the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello on Tuesday, India's minister overseeing ports and shipping said Thursday on X.

U.S. Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship, which it accused of trying to evade the blockade.

The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack.

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Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Collin Binkley, Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Victoria Eastwood and Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon and his ex-defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, guilty of aiding an adversary and abusing their power, saying they sought to provoke North Korea into launching armed attacks or other serious retaliation against South Korea to manufacture a national emergency. It said the moves harmed South Korea’s military interests by exposing its capabilities, undermining its ability to conduct future operations and prompting North Korea to strengthen its defense posture. Yoon’s lawyers appealed the ruling.

The same court earlier sentenced Yoon to life in prison for a rebellion conviction over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.

North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Kim, who was South Korea’s defense minister at the time, issued a vague denial before the Defense Ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the allegations. Tensions rose sharply but did not lead to any military clashes.

Yoon’s lawyers criticized the latest ruling, saying the drone flights were a response to North Korea flying thousands of trash-carrying balloons into the South earlier in 2024. They argued that a guilty verdict would undermine South Korea’s security interests.

Investigators led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk had sought a 30-year prison term for Yoon, accusing him of trying to create a warlike situation between the Koreas while plotting an authoritarian push to remove his political opponents and “monopolize” power. They had sought a 25-year prison term for Kim, a key confidant of Yoon who helped plan and mobilize forces for Yoon’s martial law declaration.

Yoon proceeded with the declaration late in the night of Dec. 3, 2024, delivering a televised address in which he accused liberal lawmakers of being North Korea-sympathizing “anti-state” forces. He cited a range of grievances, but particularly the opposition’s impeachments of senior officials and cuts to his government’s budget bill.

Martial law lasted about six hours until lawmakers broke through a blockade of soldiers and police at the National Assembly and voted to overturn it, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift the measure.

Yoon was quickly impeached, suspended from office, and formally removed by the Constitutional Court. He was arrested in July 2025 and several criminal trials are ongoing.

The verdict in the most serious case, of rebellion, has been appealed both by Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought a death sentence.

Officials have not publicly pinpointed the cause, with shortages largely affecting some areas in the island's most populated cities, including the capital San Juan. The island's utilities company extracts water from rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers that have in the past provided sufficient supply for the island's 3.2 million people.

Residents are being forced to buy potable water, spend money at laundromats and haul heavy buckets up several flights of stairs to wash dishes, flush toilets and take showers. The elderly and disabled struggle the most, with community leaders noting that some have been hospitalized as water shortages persist.

Jorge Figueroa, a community leader for several impoverished San Juan neighborhoods, stood by his car one recent morning fielding questions from residents wondering when the next water truck would swing by.

“They are playing with people's health and lives,” Figueroa said.

Shortages are widespread

Some customers in San Juan began reporting intermittent service more than a year ago, with the governor acknowledging the infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.

The water outages have grown so severe that Mayor Miguel Romero sued Puerto Rico’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May.

People like Jeannette Mercado Rodríguez have spent up to two weeks without water as Puerto Rico's searing summer starts and meteorologists are already issuing heat advisories.

“This is really exhausting; it’s maddening,” she said.

The 52-year-old is among the lucky ones: a water truck is stationed near her public housing complex, Las Margaritas. But she still has to haul five buckets and 10 2-liter (half-gallon) bottles up to her third-floor apartment every day. She recently injured her shoulder doing so.

“We can’t take it sometimes,” Mercado said, confiding that she has broken down and cried. “There are older people here, bedridden people.”

Nearly 40,000 customers were hit with water outages on the first weekend of June. That prompted Gov. Jenniffer González to activate the National Guard, which began distributing water via four trucks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) each.

Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company brought in additional water trucks with a capacity of 12,800 gallons (48,453 liters) to help serve hotels and short-term rentals.

The need for water is so great that even Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture sanitized two large trucks that transport milk and instead used them to deliver potable water.

Despite those measures, water remains scarce for many in San Juan and beyond. At least one stationary tanker in an impoverished community sat empty for a couple of days, with residents cheering the water truck when it arrived, calling municipal workers “heroes.” Other residents also complain that the government doesn't inform them when a water truck will stop by, with those at work missing out.

“This has been a disaster,” said Luz Laborde, president of a neighborhood association in Santurce, a working-class community in San Juan. “This is inhuman … It’s destroying the emotional state of a people.”

Puerto Ricans demand water

Dozens of Puerto Ricans young and old crowded into a courtroom on a recent morning, eager to hear a ruling on the lawsuit that San Juan's mayor filed against the island's water and sewer company as they questioned when their water would return.

“We are exhausted,” said Marcia Soler París, a 61-year-old community leader. “We shouldn’t be living this way. We don’t deserve this.”

Every day at dawn, phones ping as people in San Juan and elsewhere share whether they have water, just a trickle or nothing at all.

Soler calls the emergency management office every other day to request a water truck for her and her neighbors. She lives with her daughter, who has three boys ages 13, 10 and 4, and they play soccer every day. Like many, they don't have a cistern.

“I don’t know what it is to see a stream of water,” said Soler, who recently spent $40 at a laundromat and was forced to buy plastic cups and plates for her family.

The extra costs are straining the budgets of many on the island of 3.2 million people where more than 40% live below the poverty line.

Soler said some of her neighbors bedridden and caregivers are forced to use towels and wet wipes to clean them. Another neighbor is blind, so people ferry water up to her apartment.

For years, chronic power outages have been a big frustration for many Puerto Ricans. Water woes also are at the top of the list now.

At Villa Kennedy, a nearby public housing complex, Elizabeth Sánchez, 79, explained how she injured her waist carrying buckets of water. Her husband can no longer help because he injured his back for the same reason.

“What we are going through is horrible,” she said as she began to cry.

Judge orders experts to investigate water woes

In February 2025, Puerto Rico's governor appointed Luis González Delgado as executive president of the island's Water and Sewer Authority.

Months later, former regional director Roberto Martínez Toledo was replaced. But Martínez was recently appointed to a new committee ordered by a judge to work with the agency to investigate and solve the chronic water shortages.

The mayor of San Juan, who is a member of the governor's party, said that if Martínez hadn't been removed from his position, “we wouldn't be here talking about this issue.”

The new head of the water and sewer agency blamed Martínez for some of the problems.

“(The crisis) could have been avoided if Roberto Martínez had answered the phone the first day I called him,” González told reporters this week, adding that he is willing to work with him.

Some Puerto Ricans are demanding González resign as they clamor for Martínez to return to his old job, while a growing number are blaming the governor for the situation. On Wednesday night, the governor announced that all projects aimed at fixing water-related infrastructure have started with an investment of $217 million.

Those without water say they are still being billed for it.

“That's another outrage,” said Laborde, the community leader. “You lose no matter what.”

As a large column of air descended on Merrillville, Indiana, a town about 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, the city’s police warned residents to take cover. By the evening, downed trees and power lines blocked the streets, homes were torn up and part of a high school's roof was ripped off.

Meanwhile, emergency crews were in the nearby manufacturing and farm city of Streator, Illinois, as the community reeled from tornado damage. A reunification center for displaced residents was set up in its city hall and the Red Cross opened a shelter.

Streator Mayor Tara Bedei said there were no reported deaths. “We are incredibly grateful for the safety of our residents and the quick action of emergency personnel,” she said in a statement.

Strong storms delayed or halted flights at airports in some cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York on Thursday. Parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also strained under high heat and humidity.

The tornadoes came after severe storms swept through the Midwest Wednesday, knocking out power, damaging buildings and canceling flights.

In Des Moines, Iowa, a 54-year-old man died at a homeless encampment in a park Wednesday after being hit by a tree that “broke apart and fell during strong storms,” police said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of other deaths or injuries from the storms.

Tree limb breaks through roof

Tornado warnings were also in place in Chicago and in parts of Indiana and Michigan Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. In Chicago, a series finale between the White Sox and the Atlanta Braves was postponed due to rain.

Jennifer Hall was in her garage in Elkhart, Indiana, as the winds and rain picked up Thursday evening. Suddenly, she said, she heard a loud crash and discovered a tree limb had gone through the roof of her rental home. She used buckets to catch the rain coming in from the hole.

“I’m just nervous because it’s just been one thing after another,” said Hall, explaining she just had surgery and her husband is out of town.

A home vanishes before residents' eyes

Shane Tipton stepped out of his truck in Unionville, Missouri, Wednesday afternoon to find a twister bearing down, said his daughter, Kylie Rouse. He rushed to get his 87-year-old dad out of his mobile home.

They made it back to the truck, drove just far enough away and watched as the tornado obliterated the home. Shattered cabinets, furniture and appliances littered the ground. Clothes hung in trees. They believe they lost one of their hunting dogs, who has been missing since it struck.

“Everything's destroyed,” Rouse told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. “It was scattered clear for miles. If my grandpa would have been in there, there's no way that he would be alive.”

Storm damages animal shelter in Illinois

Residents of Springfield, Illinois, believe a tornado touched down in their area late Wednesday. Two buildings at the Animal Protective League shelter in Springfield were heavily damaged, but none of the nearly 150 cats and 28 dogs housed there were injured, said Deana Corbin, the group's executive director.

“It pretty much wiped out our shelter facility, took the roofs off both of our buildings,” Corbin said. “It’s a miracle. We were so blessed to not have any injuries of either people or animals.”

The community pitched in to take in all the cats and dogs temporarily, including a local animal control center, veterinarians and residents, she said.

Damage also was reported at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield.

Weather service meteorologist Frank Pereira said the system that produced the storms, including high winds and hail, was moving eastward Thursday, fueled by cool air from Canada clashing with warm, humid air from the South.

Record high temperatures expected along East Coast

Potentially dangerous heat and high humidity arrived Thursday and was expected to continue Friday for a swath of the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, where daily high record temperatures could be broken in numerous places, the weather service said. Temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) were expected, but with the humidity it could feel like 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or more, the service said.

Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency for Thursday and Friday, activating cooling centers, home visits by field teams, outreach to people experiencing homelessness and other services. New York City officials were also urging residents to take precautions, including drinking plenty of water and finding a cool place to stay if they do not have air conditioning.

Severe weather wreaks havoc on air travel and power

At various points Wednesday and Thursday, ground stops were issued at Chicago's O’Hare International and Midway International airports, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The Pittsburgh International Airport experienced a temporary power outage after a storm produced an “extraordinary” power surge, the airport said.

More than 1,000 flights going into and out of Chicago had been delayed or canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.

Commonwealth Edison Company, which provides electric service across northern Illinois, said the storms had downed poles and wires. On X, it wrote that it expected “80% restoration” by late Saturday.

___

Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed.

After a lackluster first half in which both teams were jeered as they left the field, the Czech Republic took the lead in the 59th minute on a header by captain Ladislav Krejci after a long throw-in into the penalty area.

South Korea equalized in the 67th, when Hwang scored after faking a shot with a nifty move to clear two Czech players. The midfielder who plays for Dutch club Feyenoord then made the cross from the right flank for Oh Hyeon-gyu's decisive strike in the 80th in a match played in front of hundreds of empty seats at Guadalajara Stadium.

The South Korean squad celebrated with its fans behind one of the goals after the final whistle. Players later posed for a photo with the fans behind them.

“It was our first game and a very difficult one,” South Korea coach Hong Myung-bo said. “The win itself makes me happy, but what’s even more positive is that our boys won by not giving up. I knew that we were more than capable of winning, so at 1-1, I told the boys to keep playing the way we’ve been playing.”

It was South Korea's first opening World Cup win since it beat Greece in 2010 in South Africa. South Korea beat European opponent in the tournament for a third straight time, following wins over Portugal in 2022 and Germany in 2018.

Let by star forward Son Heung-min, South Korea controlled possession and outshot the Czechs, who were making their first World Cup appearance since 2006. The Koreans, ranked 25th by FIFA, had most of the significant scoring chances against the 38th-ranked Czechs but failed to capitalize early.

Son was looking to become South Korea’s top goal scorer at the World Cup and the Asian player with the most goals in the tournament. The 33-year-old former Tottenham star, who now plays for Los Angeles FC of Major League Soccer, entered Thursday having scored three goals over three prior World Cups.

Appearing in his fourth World Cup, Son had a couple of good opportunities to add to his tally but missed wide in the first half and had a close-range shot saved in the second.

The Czechs thought they had retaken the lead with another set piece in the 77th, but Tomas Soucek was ruled offside on his header.

Czech Republic coach Miroslav Koubek said “probably the better team won.” But he said his team could have had a better outcome if it weren’t for “some mistakes.”

“We played very well, it could have been a draw and we could have won as well,” Koubek said.

The announced attendance was 44,985 at the 45,664-capacity Guadalajara Stadium, a crowd that included FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Sections in the middle of the stands had many unoccupied seats and there were other empty seats scattered across the stadium.

South Korea is making its 11th straight World Cup appearance and 12th overall, the most of any Asian country. Its best result was a fourth-place finish at the tournament it co-hosted with Japan in 2002. Since then, the South Koreans have never gone beyond the round of 16.

In the other Group A match on Thursday, co-host Mexico defeated South Africa 2-0 in the tournament opener in Mexico City.

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

She died Thursday evening at a Bangkok hospital where she had been cared for since falling unconscious due to illness three years ago, according to the statement issued Friday.

“This loss is not merely bad news announced to the people, but an immeasurable grief in the hearts of the entire nation,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a televised speech. He said the princess was “a pride of Thailand,” and that “her commitment to building a society of kindness, justice, and equality, will forever remain as a moral legacy for the nation, a guiding light for generations of Thais.”

A small group of mourners gathered in an atrium at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, where the princess had been treated. Most held framed or laminated photos of her throughout the years.

Pattamaporn Kaewkityakorn said she had arrived Thursday and spent the night there to show her support for the princess, unaware that the announcement of her passing would come the following morning.

“I know she was sick, but I wished there were a miracle,” she said, her voice trembling. “I was saddened and shocked.”

Bajrakitiyabha was active in justice reform efforts and best known for her Kamlangjai, or “Inspire,” project to help rehabilitate incarcerated Thai women ahead of their release.

Bajrakitiyabha was hospitalized in December 2022 after falling unconscious while training dogs for an army exhibition. The palace said she had a mycoplasma infection, a bacterial infection usually associated with pneumonia.

Her father's New Year’s greeting card for 2023 showed King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida garbed in somber black, which many Thais saw as confirmation of the gravity of her condition.

The princess was born on Dec. 7, 1978, to Vajiralongkorn, who was the crown prince at the time, and his then-wife, Princess Soamsawali. Vajiralongkorn has seven children by three of his four successive wives. Bajrakitiyabha was also known by the royal name Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, used in formal state settings.

Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the youngest of the king’s children, is the presumptive heir because sons take precedence in Thailand's line of succession. But Bajrakitiyabha's experience in public service raised speculation she was set to hold an important role in any future succession, perhaps as regent to a youthful monarch.

Bajrakitiyabha studied law at Thammasat University then went to Cornell University in New York state, where she earned a master’s degree in law in 2002. She earned a doctorate at Cornell in 2005 with a dissertation concerning the protection of the rights of the accused. Scholarships to Cornell Law School and a program for the exchange of legal scholars between Thailand and Cornell were later established in her name.

After working briefly at the Thai Mission to the U.N. in New York City, she returned home and worked as a public prosecutor. She renewed her diplomatic career with an appointment as Thailand’s ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014 before returning to her homeland to concentrate on criminal justice issues. In 2017 she was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

In addition to working for the rehabilitation of female convicts, she was involved in other projects including a campaign to enhance the living conditions of women prisoners and promoting efforts to stem violence against women as an honorary U.N. goodwill ambassador for women. Her efforts led to the U.N. General Assembly adopting the “Bangkok Rules” on care and conditions for female prisoners.

“Society cannot grow if there is instability and injustice,” Bajrakitiyabha said in a 2013 interview with The Associated Press.

“Without the rule of law, without a good justice system, it’s always chaos,” she said. “I think the rule of law is a very important pillar to development, to economic growth, and of course to human rights.”

Bajrakitiyabha is survived by her parents and siblings.

——

Associated Press journalist Anton L. Delgado contributed to this report.

And they had spent the first four games of the Stanley Cup Final being outplayed in critical second-period sequences.

On Thursday night, it all came together, aligning to bring the Hurricanes within a victory of winning the Cup.

Svechnikov scored twice and Aho added a second-period goal in a breakout offensive game for both, helping the Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 for a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“I liked our effort for sure, and I hope we're getting better,” coach Rod Brind'Amour said. “I think there's certain areas of our game that are starting to look a lot like we need it to look. But I do think there's still another level that we're going to need to get to find that next one.”

Captain Jordan Staal found the net again for the fifth straight game in this series after Vegas had taken a 1-0 first-period lead, while Brandon Bussi finished with 23 saves in his second career postseason start.

Game 6 is Sunday night in Las Vegas, with the Hurricanes playing for the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time since Brind’Amour captained them to the title in 2006.

Aho's goal in the second period marked his first of the series, coming when Sean Walker found him cutting to the left side after Jordan Martinook — swapped with Seth Jarvis to work alongside Aho and Svechnikov on the top line — won a puck battle behind the net on the forecheck.

Then there was Svechnikov, who entered Thursday with four postseason goals before striking twice on the power play. On the first, he whipped the puck past Carter Hart on the right side for a 2-1 lead in the second period. On the second, he had a short putaway at the post off a sharp feed from Nikolaj Ehlers for a 4-1 lead, one of three assist for Ehlers on the night that included him having two delay-of-game penalties for putting a puck over the glass.

Before those second-period scores, Vegas had outscored Carolina 9-1 in the second period during the series.

And unlike most multi-goal leads in what has been a wild and thrilling series, this one held up with Bussi doing enough to stave off Vegas' late push to climb back in it.

“It required everything we have,” Staal said on the ESPN broadcast.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice for Vegas, finding the net for the first time since Game 1 of the Western Conference Final sweep of Presidents’ Trophy winner Colorado.

“I thought we were still doing some good things,” Vegas’ Jack Eichel said. “We had chances.”

Hart entered this one as the first goaltender in Stanley Cup Final history to give up at least four goals in each of the first four games, then did it again to continue a difficult series while finishing with 20 saves.

Asked if he considered swapping to backup Adin Hill, coach John Tortorella responded: “That could be the stupidest question I've heard.”

Vegas had twice before been in a 2-2 series in these playoffs, in the first round against Utah and the second round against Anaheim. Both times, the Golden Knights won Game 5 and closed out the series in Game 6.

This time, they’ll have to win on home ice to force the series back to Carolina for a Game 7 on Wednesday night. And they'll have to take two in a row against a Hurricanes team that hasn't suffered consecutive losses since mid-January.

Not that Tortorella was fazed.

“We'll be back here,” he said confidently, saying he would leave his clothes behind at the team's hotel in expectation of returning to North Carolina.

Vegas played much of the night without center William Karlsson, who was being checked out on the bench for an apparent upper-body injury. Karlsson skated to the tunnel midway through the second period and didn’t return. Tortorella said the center was “not going to be with us, probably" in the coming games.

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

With Karlsson knocked out of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final because of injury, the Golden Knights took four penalties that turned into two power-play goals against. Carter Hart allowed four goals for a fifth consecutive game in the series, and now his team is on the brink of elimination after losing 4-2 to Carolina on Thursday night.

“When we lose Bill, it kind of screws things up," coach John Tortorella said. “We lost momentum when we went back to back in penalties. It was about the same time that we lost Bill. We’ve got to find a way.”

Karlsson appeared to injure his left arm or shoulder after getting knocked into the boards by Hurricanes defenseman Sean Walker a little over eight minutes into the second period. He got medical attention on the bench briefly, skated off and never returned and Tortorella foreshadowed that being the end of Karlsson's series.

“He’s not going to be with us, probably,” Tortorella said. "We’ve got to find a way to fill that void, not with just one guy but as a team.”

Karlsson making his playoff debut at the start of the second round changed everything for Vegas, shifting Mitch Marner to the wing and providing the kind of strong, reliable center depth needed to win this time of year. Karlsson had nine points in 14 games after missing the previous six months because of an undisclosed injury.

But the void left by Karlsson’s departure was all too clear, especially on the penalty kill. Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov scored the first of his two power-play goals less than four minutes after Karlsson left, then added another in the third.

“He’s an important piece to us: up the middle of the ice, a penalty killer, power play guy," Tortorella said. “He’s a winner."

Fourth-liner Nick Dowd called Karlsson one of the team's best players. Defenseman Brayden McNabb, who along with Karlsson and Shea Theodore are the only players who have been around for Vegas’ entire nine-year existence, said Karlsson was a big leader in the locker room.

Karlsson is also nearly impossible to replace.

“He means so much," fellow center Jack Eichel said. "He’s a world class player. He plays in all situations. He’s extremely reliable in our own zone, and he creates a lot of offense. ... It's tough. You lose someone like Karl who’s so valuable to our team and playing so well. But it just means everyone else has to step up.”

Tortorella expects that to happen, promising there will be a Game 7 in Raleigh on Wednesday night.

“We’ll be back here. We’re just going to do it in a different order," Tortorella said. "I’m going to leave my clothes here, that’s for sure. They’ll be in the hotel.”

To do that, they'll have to win Game 6 back home in Las Vegas on Sunday. Hart is expected to be in net again despite a save percentage of .856 in the final.

Asked if he considered going to backup Adin Hill — who backstopped Vegas to the Cup in 2023 — in the third period, Tortorella scoffed and said, "That could be the stupidest question I’ve heard.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The board voted Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's May 29 ruling that said Trump's name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The formal request was filed late Thursday.

Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center's name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The board move marks a shift from a June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel saying email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center's website has dropped the president's name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump's name.

“The Trump administration’s 11th hour gambit after waiting nearly two weeks evinces desperation," Norm Eisen, a board member at Democracy Defenders Action, and Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, said in a statement. "That is what they should be feeling because they don’t have a legal leg to stand on. We will be vigorously contesting this latest ploy as we have throughout the case on behalf of Congresswoman Beatty and the American people.”

They represent Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center's board who filed the lawsuit seeking to remove Trump's name from the institution.

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a hand-picked board of trustees that named him chairman. He brought in Richard Grenell to serve as president, a position he held until March when Matt Floca assumed the role.

The center’s lineup has included more Trump-friendly programming, serving as the venue for events such as the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania.”

The board also announced it had renamed the facility the Trump Kennedy Center, a change scholars and lawmakers say must be initiated by Congress, and physically added the president’s name to the building’s facade.

The fallout from the arts community was swift and intense. Actor Issa Rae, musician Bela Fleck and author Louise Penny were among the numerous artists who withdrew from appearances, while consultants such as musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned. Earlier this month, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Jean Davidson, left to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to voting on the stay on Thursday, the board backed a resolution recognizing Trump's “commitment to uphold this cherished American institution.”

Constantino, a political newcomer and candidate in the June 23 Republican primary to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik, boasts a giant “Vote for Trump” sign atop his successful sticker business in the city of Amsterdam. He recorded a hip-hop album titled “Thank you President Trump." He even gifted Trump a big bronze statue of Trump himself last year at his West Palm Beach golf course.

Constantino's antics have not earned him fans among local party officials, who overwhelmingly support his opponent, state Assembly Member Robert Smullen, in the 21st Congressional District race. But Constantino has won over one powerful Republican who still has the power to sway primaries: Trump.

“Anthony is strongly supported by many of the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in our Movement, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone!” Trump wrote in an endorsement of Constantino.

The president added: “The sign is still there!”

Constantino's battle against Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel, is shaping up to be another test of Trump's pull at the ballot box, pitting the brash MAGA disciple against a more traditional conservative in the solid-red district.

Constantino has relentlessly attacked Smullen, calling him a “Trump hater” and giving him a derisive nickname out of the Trump playbook — “Slimebob.” He also doesn't miss a chance to feud with the state's Republican leadership.

“The New York GOP is a failing establishment, it’s a losing establishment,” Constantino said in an interview. “They reject outsiders. This happened with Donald Trump. The Republican Party tried to keep Donald Trump out, as well, because they knew he was going to reform things.”

Smullen has cast himself as the adult in the room, stressing his experience in the state Legislature, his military service, and his own ties to Trump.

“I think I directly represent the vast majority of the people in this district, their values, what they think about issues,” he said.

The district is 'not your country club Republican party’

The largely rural district sprawls across most of New York’s northern tip and includes the Adirondack Mountains, the U.S. Army's Fort Drum, dairy farms and dozens of small cities, towns and villages.

It's solid GOP territory — Stefanik won her last race by 24 points — with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats 215,000 to 134,000. Voters there skew older and white, with many prison guards, police officers, farmers and devoutly religious people, according to Jack McGuire, an associate professor of politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

“It’s not your country club Republican party,” he said.

Stefanik shocked the New York political world when she announced late last year that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would not seek reelection to the House.

Her decision came after she didn't get full-throated support from Trump in the governor's race, and it followed an episode where Trump withdrew her nomination to be his ambassador to the United Nations over concerns about Republicans' threadbare majority in the House.

Local Republicans first began angling for the seat after she was tapped to head to the United Nations, only to begin circling again when she launched her run for governor.

A clash of candidates and styles

Smullen, who represents parts of the district in the state Assembly, is running a traditional campaign, chatting up voters at volunteer firehouses and community events.

He highlights a 24-year military career that included three tours of Afghanistan and combat experience, along with his more than seven years in the state Legislature. His 2018 appointment by Trump to serve in the White House Fellows program, along with attending both of Trump's inaugurations, was a go-to line when Constantino moved to cast himself as the Trump candidate during a recent debate.

“The idea that I have never been a supporter of President Donald Trump is a lie, it really is,” Smullen said during the debate. “And what's happening here is that if you say it long enough and if you say it hard enough then it's going to be true. But it's not true.”

Local GOP officials and committees are backing Smullen, as is the chair of the state Republicans. He also has the support of the state Conservative Party, which guarantees him a line in the general election even if he loses the GOP primary.

Matt Capano, who owns a hardware store in Gloversville, a small city in the district, said he knew Smullen as his local state lawmaker and had to “give him a lot of credit” because of his experience.

Constantino — who found success with his company Sticker Mule — is more of a showman. His style has forced his buttoned-up opponent to let loose. Smullen's campaign launched an anti-Constantino website that excoriates him for, among many other things, his past registration as a Democrat.

“I am the conservative Republican in this race,” Smullen said at the debate.

Constantino responded that he registered as a Democrat to vote for a childhood friend who was running for political office while calling himself a “lifelong conservative."

It didn't take long for him to steer the conversation back toward the president.

“I've always had his back through the whole thing,” he said of Trump. “In fact, in 2020, when he nicely exited the White House and a terrible person named Joe Biden entered, I went and I supported the president quietly by buying a Mar-a-Lago membership."

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said the notice came shortly before the start of the league's executive board meeting to discuss its options in the Sorsby situation.

The temporary injunction issued Monday by a Texas district court prevents the NCAA from enforcing its permanent ban of Sorsby, a decision that sent shock waves across college sports. The transfer QB had been ruled ineligible after he acknowledged years of gambling that included at least 40 bets on his own team while he was a freshman at Indiana. Texas Tech said he has completed a month-long inpatient treatment program and will continue to receive treatment and support while being monitored.

What was the AG's warning to the Big 12?

The letter from the Texas AG's office was addressed to Yormark and Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod, the chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. It specifically references a conference bylaw that, with a supermajority vote, could result in sanctioning a school that has "engaged in any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the conference taken as a whole.”

The AG's office said any sanctions against Texas Tech for “acting consistent" with the district court injunction “would be a per se violation of federal and state antitrust laws — a naked horizontal agreement among competitors to disadvantage Texas Tech by cutting off access to the resources it needs to compete.”

Beyond any antitrust exposure, the letter said, the Big 12 would also face liability for “breach of contract and tortious interference" for any sanction that results in the alteration of Texas Tech's scheduled games.

The letter was signed by Thomas York, chief of the antitrust division, and Kimberly Gdula, chief of the litigation division. The attorney general, Ken Paxton, is the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas this fall.

Yormark said the conference is taking time with its legal counsel to understand the concerns of the state.

Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who represents Sorsby in his case against the NCAA, sent a separate and similar letter Thursday to the Big 12, according to multiple reports. That letter reportedly referenced the same Big 12 bylaw and warned the league that it is bound by the court's ruling this week.

The NCAA has said it will appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas, seeking an accelerated decision to overturn the injunction and again make Sorsby ineligible.

Big 12 is still considering all options

Since NCAA rules call for a permanent loss of eligibility for any player who wagered on his own team, the judge’s decision brought sharp criticism from college sports leadership, including in Texas Tech’s own league. The executive board met as planned Thursday in preparation for a meeting Monday of the Big 12's full board of directors, which is made up of presidents and chancellors from the league's 16 schools.

“We had a good and informative discussion. Sentiment among the executive board was no different from what we heard from the ADs earlier this week,” Yormark said. "Our discussion with the full board will determine our course of action, and all options remain on the table.”

Big 12 athletic directors in a conference call Tuesday expressed strong opposition to Sorsby playing for the Red Raiders in what will be his final college season. Some of those ADs even suggested maybe not playing Texas Tech if he does.

Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech in January for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing the past two seasons at Cincinnati, another Big 12 school. The 22-year-old Texas native first spent two seasons at Indiana.

The warning from a big booster

The threat of legal action came one day after Texas Tech billionaire booster and regents chair Cody Campbell mentioned that possibility during a podcast appearance with Dan Dakich. Campbell was addressing reports of schools talking about boycotting the Red Raiders.

“I love when the Big Ten or the K-State AD comes out and says we’ve all gotten together and we’ve talked about how we’re not going to play Tech, because guess what? That’s collusion,” Campbell said. “That’s an antitrust violation. So have fun with that one, guys. You can’t do that.”

Campbell, a former offensive lineman at the school, has been a key figure in helping Texas Tech land top players over the past two years.

The Red Raiders, with one of college football's most expensive rosters, won their first Big 12 title last season, setting a school record with 12 wins and making the 12-team College Football Playoff. Sorsby was brought in to be the starting QB after hometown favorite Behren Morton exhausted his eligibility.

A message from Texas Tech leadership

The school posted a 21-minute video message Thursday night to Red Raiders fans that included school president Lawrence Schovanec, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and coach Joey McGuire talking about how the university is addressing the situation.

“I believe that every person at this table is looking at the student first. And that student is a football player. And that student is where he, I think, feels the safest and also feels to where he can deal with this the most is in this building at Texas Tech,” McGuire said. “And I think that’s where he should be and I’m glad he’s back. I know his teammates are glad he's back.”

Hocutt spoke about the NCAA twice denying Texas Tech's petition to have Sorsby reinstated. The AD also reiterated that the school wasn't a party in the quarterback's separate legal case and didn't pay any of his legal fees.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts downplayed the significance of the injury.

Roberts said the move was precautionary because the Dodgers did not want to risk Ohtani being injured further.

Roberts also said he is optimistic that Ohtani will be ready to play Friday night when the Dodgers meet the White Sox in Chicago to open a three-game series between division leaders.

“We tried to be smart about it and get him out of the game,” Roberts said. “He told the trainer that he felt a little something behind his knee and I just didn’t see any sense in risking it.”

The reigning NL MVP hit his 13th homer of the season, a solo shot, in the third inning. He also had a single and walked twice, reaching base in all four of his plate appearances.

Ohtani was not made available to the media following the game. He is hitting .305 with 40 RBIs. As a pitcher, he is 6-2 with a 1.06 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 67 2/3 innings.

Starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski left the game in the fifth inning with a left hamstring contusion. The left-hander was hit by a line drive off the bat of Bryan Reynolds. The ball ricocheted off Wrobleski to first baseman Freddie Freeman. Wrobleski collided with Reynolds while taking Freeman’s toss at first base.

“I’ll get some treatment on it and I’ll be fine,” Wrobleski said. “I don’t think it’s a big deal. Just a little frustrating.” ___

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

Jurors found Alvin Campbell, 45, guilty of 21 out of 22 counts for sex assaults from 2017 to 2019, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said. He was found guilty of charges including aggravated rape, kidnapping and photographing an unsuspecting nude person.

The jury was deadlocked on one of the rape charges.

“We will determine our action, if any, at a future date on that charge,” the district attorney's office said in a statement.

Campbell faces up to life in prison for aggravated rape when he is sentenced on June 29.

Campbell posed as a rideshare driver to target women outside bars or other locations, prosecutors said.

His younger sister became the first woman of color to win statewide office in Massachusetts when she was sworn in as attorney general in 2023. A spokesperson for the attorney general's office didn't immediately return an email from The Associated Press late Thursday seeking comment on the verdict.

Andrea Campbell has spoken previously about her family's troubled history in the criminal justice system, including her brother's rape charges.

“One thing I do frequently is share my story because I think there are so many who carry their story with a sense of shame and don’t want to talk about it, including the criminal aspects of my family,” she said in a previous interview with the AP. “But there is no shame in one sharing their story. There is power in it.”

The attorney general is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer in the state.

After the verdict, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden told reporters he hadn't spoken with the attorney general.

Alvin Campbell “deceivingly and calculatedly” preyed upon women in their most vulnerable moments, Hayden said. “I can't imagine what that horror must have been like for them.”

Campbell's defense attorney didn't immediately respond to a phone message and email from the AP.

Hayden expressed gratitude to the women who testified: “We’re happy that we were able to secure justice and accountability for them and so we thank them.”

Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation last month. Trump faced intense pushback over his decision to name Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director. The job oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.

The resulting uproar led to a standoff in Congress after Democrats said they would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers unless Trump pulled Pulte’s nomination and named a permanent nominee.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”

Speaking later Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump said he still plans to keep Pulte in the role “for a little while” after earlier saying he wants Pulte to downsize the office. He called Clayton an “incredible talent” and said, “Nobody has better credentials.”

As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees the most prestigious of the Justice Department’s prosecution offices, with a vast portfolio ranging from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.

He took over from interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned in February after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.

Republicans hope to move quickly on nomination

The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Clayton on Wednesday, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss it ahead of an official notice.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the Senate hopes to receive Clayton’s nomination paperwork from the White House as soon as Thursday. “We will move quickly,” he said.

Democrats are holding up the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump’s decision to temporarily tap Pulte. They say they won’t support an extension of the law, which expires at midnight Friday, until Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment.

Trump previously said Pulte would take over on June 19. It is unclear whether the Senate could move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that date.

“I don’t know what realistic is, but we’re gonna probe the limits of it,” Thune said.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he has “known and respected” Clayton for decades and that if Trump had named him as the DNI nominee last week, “lots of pain might have been avoided.”

“His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI,” Himes said.

Asked about Clayton’s nomination, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Pulte has to go.”

“He cannot be in the DNI role,” Schumer said. “It’s too important.”

Trump's pick has led SDNY during a tumultuous period

Clayton navigated his way through a 14-month tenure in the Southern District of New York without clashing with the federal judges in the busiest court in the nation, unlike his counterparts in upstate New York and New Jersey. After his interim term expired after 120 days, the judges of the Southern District appointed him as U.S. attorney.

Clayton was sworn in April 2025 on the same day three prosecutors resigned, saying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret about prosecuting the case against Adams.

Then, weeks later, the office had to withstand controversy over the Trump administration’s firing of one of its most respected and successful prosecutors, Maurene Comey. She claims she was fired because of Trump’s dislike of her father, former FBI Director James Comey.

Under Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office facilitated the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — documents that were made public as part of the Justice Department’s release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.

Clayton filed documents with the court explaining the process the government followed in releasing the materials.

Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.

Clayton has overseen cases involving national security threats

Several recent terrorism cases brought by Clayton’s office touch on the global threats and influences that he’ll be navigating if confirmed as director of national intelligence.

They include the May arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi and Iranian citizen accused of plotting 20 attacks in Europe and Canada and planning to attack a Manhattan synagogue and Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, in retaliation for the U.S. war on Iran.

“There are foreign nations and terrorist organizations that see our success as a threat. A threat that they want eliminated,” Clayton said at a recent press briefing. “That is a stark truth.”

“And don’t take my word for it,” he added. “Take their words and their actions. When your enemies tell you something, and when they act, you should know that they mean it.”

The first Trump administration tried in June 2020 to install Clayton, then the chairman of the SEC, as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, but backed down and instead allowed Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss to serve in the post. The reversal came after then-U. S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman agreed to step down, following assurances that probes into Trump allies would not be disrupted and that Strauss could lead the office.

At the time, the office was looking into dealings by Rudy Giuliani, who was serving as Trump’s personal attorney, and was also investigating the actions of a state-owned Turkish bank.

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Neumeister and Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

No World Cup match has had that many players ejected since a 2006 game between Portugal and the Netherlands, when four players received red cards — a World Cup record.

The last World Cup in Qatar in 2022 had only four red cards in the entire tournament.

On Thursday at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane were sent off for South Africa while César Montes was shown a red card for the tournament co-host.

It’s the first time three players have been sent off in the opening match of a World Cup – and all three were straight red cards, meaning none of the ejected players were given two yellows.

Mexico won the match 2-0.

Sithole was red-carded after taking down Mexico’s Brian Gutierrez on the edge of the box at the start of the second half.

Things got worse for South Africa when Zwane was sent off following a video review for striking Roberto Alvarado in the face in the 84th minute. Finally, in stoppage time, Montes saw red for bringing down Khuliso Mudau.

The red cards mean the three players will be suspended for at least one more match. South Africa’s next match is against the Czech Republic and Mexico next faces South Korea in Guadalajara.

The match between Portugal and the Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup in Germany stands out with its four red cards – two for each team. That game in Nuremberg also had 16 yellow cards.

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

Italian prosecutors are investigating Montgomery, Alabama-based Caddell Construction, a major builder of U.S. diplomatic missions. Two of its managers in Italy were arrested this month on suspicion of labor exploitation, one while boarding a flight to leave the country and another planning to flee, prosecutors said.

The investigation is led by prosecutor Paolo Storari, who also has spearheaded probes into sweatshops supplying luxury brands. So far only Caddell has been named as a target, not any of its subcontractors.

The consulate probe was launched about six months ago and involves some 70 workers, mostly from India. Prosecutors allege Caddell illegally deducted room and board from wages and forced them to work 10-hour days, six days a week. Some were paid as little as 500 euros (less than $580) monthly after room and board were deducted, prosecutors said. Minimum wage for construction workers in Milan starts at 13.39 euros (over $15) an hour, according to the Cassa Edile benefits fund.

Caddell and the U.S. State Department said they are investigating the allegations and cooperating with Italian authorities.

The consulate project is part of a construction boom in Milan over the past two decades that has modernized the skyline and raised the international profile of Italy’s fashion and finance capital.

Workers describe unpaid wages and threats

The AP spoke to four workers from Kenya and one from India at a trade union center where officials were organizing assistance, including legal help and housing. The workers provided documentation and spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to protect the ongoing investigation.

The Kenyan workers said they had been hired by Caddell after working on a multi-million-dollar extension of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.

Two showed employment letters on Caddell stationery signed by a company representative promising annual salaries topping 25,000 euros (nearly $29,000).

They said they were not paid anything close to that and were threatened by human resources personnel at the job site after they questioned management.

“When you go to the office to ask any question, you are being told, ‘Either you work or you will be returned to your country. That’s the amount you are supposed to be paid,’’’ one Kenyan electrician said. He added that he was paid just 800 euros ($925) a month after being promised 2,300 euros ($2,660).

Another Kenyan electrician said he was threatened with defamation after presenting an AI summary of Italian labor law and was told the 25,000 euros in the employment letter was “for visa purposes,” not a promise of payment.

US government and Caddell say they are investigating

The State Department said it is investigating the allegations made by prosecutors and that U.S. law enforcement is working with Italian authorities.

“The U.S. government does not tolerate labor exploitation,” the department said in a statement.

Caddell said it was “fully cooperating” with Italian authorities and conducting its own “comprehensive inquiry into this matter to ensure all our global subcontractors and consultancies are in compliance with all labor standards and legal requirements.”

“Caddell is committed (to) treating and paying workers fairly. We will continue to work with authorities in good faith to ensure the welfare of those who work on this important project,” the company said in a statement.

More than a decade ago, Caddell paid millions to the U.S. government to settle allegations it made false claims to gain access to government incentives. Caddell did not reply to a request for comment on that case.

Fired workers seek help

All five of the workers who spoke to the AP, ranging in age from their late 20s to early 50s, said they were fired without cause this year. One of them said he returned from visiting family in Kenya to find that he no longer had a job or place to stay.

Four of the workers were trained electricians, including the Indian worker whose resume showed he had more than a decade of experience working for other companies in Persian Gulf countries.

The Indian worker said he was promised a monthly salary of 2,500 euros (nearly $3,000). Instead, he had a pay slip showing his actual pay amounted to around 500 euros (less than $580) per month. It listed an hourly wage of 1.55 euros ($1.80).

The Kenyans said they reached out to authorities after learning of the investigation.

“I believe in justice,” one said. “Also the workers there should not be afraid. They should come and speak up.”

Two said they are currently sleeping in parks, while one is staying with a friend. One said he had been offered a job at a Caddell site in another country but declined after his treatment in Milan.

Caddell is a major diplomatic contractor

Caddell became a leader in building U.S. diplomatic missions when the State Department launched a major security upgrade after the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya killed more than 250 people.

“Very few contractors can meet the strict requirements to even bid on secure work necessary for diplomatic facility projects,” Caddell said on its website marking its 40th anniversary in 2023. At that point, the firm counted 39 projects in its embassy portfolio valued at $7.4 billion. It has added four projects since then.

The Milan consulate campus is being built on a 10-acre (40,000-square meter) site at a former shooting range. The current U.S. Consulate is in a high-rise building designed by acclaimed Italian architect Gio Ponti.

Plans for the campus called for about 500 “locally employed workers,” according to the U.S. State Department. The project includes restoration of a century-old building, along with a five-story consulate building, restored gardens, a reflecting pool and a large outdoor gathering area.

Work is continuing under court supervision. Workers no longer have their room and board deducted. They are limited to 45 hours and guaranteed two days off a week.

Pay records appear to bolster allegations

The pay stubs presented by the workers listed apparent charges of 510 euros (around $590) a month for housing and more than 300 euros (around $350) monthly for food. But those deductions only account for a portion of the difference between the promised wages and actual pay.

Unions intend to seek damages for the workers to recover at least what they earned “through hard work and commitment,” said Laura Malguzzi, a labor representative at the Fillea Cgil union federation representing construction workers.

Malguzzi said she was surprised that the pay stubs presented by the workers appeared to document the alleged exploitation. Union experts are still studying the documents, which do not conform to Italian standards, and could not verify their origins.

“They probably had in their minds the absolute certainty that they were untouchable,’’ Malguzzi said.

The Kenyan workers said they begrudgingly accepted a $200 monthly salary in Nairobi, where unemployment is rampant. But they expected better from a U.S. company operating in Europe.

“They can just hire you, and you just go running,” one worker said of the company. “Because you are poor you have nothing. And you have nothing you can do.”

The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake, one of the strongest to hit the Philippine archipelago in a half century, struck Monday off the southern province of Sarangani and has left at least 47 people dead and injured 688 with 31 still missing.

More than 45,000 people remained displaced, about half in emergency shelters, after the quake damaged more than 12,600 houses in farming towns and cities. Many were still too traumatized to return home due to aftershocks, provincial officials said.

Sarangani reported 20 dead from the quake, the highest toll from the affected provinces, mostly due to a landslide that buried houses in the coastal town of Glan, according to the government's Office of Civil Defense, which deals with major disasters.

Glan Mayor Victor James Yap said power has not been restored to his province and 10 of 31 villages in his town of more than 100,000 people remained inaccessible mostly due to landslides. He asked the government to immediately deploy air force helicopters to deliver food and other aid to the stricken areas.

“We need food and water but it’s difficult to transport them to some of our villages which remain isolated,” Yap told DZMM radio network. “Choppers are needed to transport food because people there are already very hungry.”

A key access road to the town has been reopened and will allow the delivery of fuel as early as Thursday, but the town remained without power and cellphone services were still spotty, according to Yap.

The Office of Civil Defense said more than 26 million pesos ($426,000) worth of food packs, cash and other aid have been provided so far and 180 government and military planes, helicopters, ships and trucks have been deployed to respond to the disaster.

About 3,400 government and military personnel were involved in search efforts for the missing, debris-clearing in roads, damage assessment and other disaster-mitigation work, it said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday visited the hard-hit city of General Santos city, where he inspected damaged hospitals and schools and discussed recovery efforts. He ordered the release of 100 million pesos ($1.6 million) for the repair of the partly collapsed city hall and 50,000 pesos ($820) for the families of each of the victims who died in the quake.

Most of the deaths from the quake were caused by falling debris from collapsed buildings and landslides in Sarangani, the coastal city of General Santos, and the outlying provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental.

Two swimmers drowned and one remained missing off General Santos after being swept out to sea shortly after the quake hit. Waves of up to 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) above tide level were measured in the country’s south and smaller waves washed ashore in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.

The earthquake was one of the strongest to hit the country since an 8.1 magnitude quake and tsunami on Aug. 17, 1976, that killed about 8,000 people.

The Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

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Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.

Canadian journalist Lyse Doucet won the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction with “The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan.”

Both prizes come with a 30,000 pound ($40,000) purse and are open to female English-language writers from any country.

Evans wrote fiction for two decades before writing “The Correspondent" during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was released quietly in 2025. A story told through years’ worth of letters from retired lawyer Sybil Van Antwerp to friends, family and famous writers, it gradually climbed bestseller lists and became a book club favorite. A film adaptation starring Jane Fonda is in the works.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who chaired the fiction judging panel, said the novel “captured our hearts” by “elevating an ordinary life in the most heartfelt of ways.”

Evans said she “developed a very thick skin for rejection and failure” during the years of writing without getting published.

“Why did I keep going? I didn’t know how not to, I guess,” she told The Associated Press.

“I was writing the book that I wanted to read,” she added. “I guess the book that I was wanting to read was the book a lot of people were wanting to read.”

She said “The Correspondent” is in part a cry against the loss of handwritten letters — “the real tale of history” — in our digital age.

“If you want to know what happened somewhere, you need to read somebody saying to their mom, ‘This is what happened to me today,'" she said. "And so I feel a grief about that. There’s something I probably was reaching for when I was writing the book, which was the preservation of the memory of that.”

Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, profiles staff and guests of Kabul’s once-glamorous Inter-Continental Hotel — scarred but still standing — to provide a microcosm of Afghanistan’s turbulent recent history.

Labour Party politician Thangam Debbonaire, head of the nonfiction jury, called it “a perfect work of narrative non-fiction” that is “informed by decades of excellent reporting.”

Doucet, who has been visiting Afghanistan as a journalist since the 1980s, said she wrote the book to provide a fuller picture than the “snapshot” of news coverage allows.

“My experience from decades of covering countries and people in the hardest of times is that people still have to get up every day and find an everyday courage to get through the day,” she said. "And even in the darkest of places … people find humor to bring light, they try to live with hope to bring some kind of relief and they try to live with humanity.”

Previous winners of the fiction prize, founded in 1996, include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Barbara Kingsolver.

The sister prize for nonfiction was founded in 2024 to help redress a gender imbalance in publishing. In 2022, only 26.5% of nonfiction books reviewed in Britain’s newspapers were by women, and male writers dominated established nonfiction writing prizes.

Last year’s nonfiction winner was British physician Rachel Clarke’s account of an organ transplant, “The Story of a Heart.”

The 33-year-old Endo posted his decision on his X account in Japanese three days before his team's Group F opener against the Netherlands. The Japan team has been training in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Since getting injured and up till this point, I’ve done everything I could and I have no regret,” said Endo, who underwent surgery on his left foot in February. He came off at halftime on his return in Japan’s 1-0 warmup match victory against Iceland on May 31 in Tokyo.

“With this campaign, I will be retiring from the national team. So from here on, I’ll be cheering for the Japan national team as one of the fans."

National team director Masakuni Yamamoto said Ajax defender Ko Itakura has been named the new captain, while Borussia Monchengladbach forward Shuto Machino has been called up as a replacement for Endo.

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

Ruggs, a former first-round draft pick and Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver, drove his sports car at speeds up to 156 mph (251 kph) in the city on Nov. 2, 2021, slamming into a vehicle that killed driver Tina Tintor and her dog, Max. Tintor was 23.

Prosecutors at the time said his blood-alcohol level taken within the required two hours after the crash was 0.16%, which is twice the legal limit for drivers in Nevada. Before the crash, he was at TopGolf, a sports entertainment venue in Las Vegas, according to prosecutors.

Ruggs pleaded guilty in May 2023 to felony DUI causing death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He was sentenced in August 2023 to a three- to 10-year prison sentence. The earliest he was eligible for parole was August 2026.

Ruggs will go before the parole board again three months before Aug. 24, 2027, his mandatory parole release date, according to Kathi Baker, executive director of the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners.

“Mr. Ruggs, and our office, continue to feel the grief and loss suffered by Ms. Tintor’s family,” Ruggs’ attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a Thursday statement, adding that they were disappointed by the parole board’s decision to deny parole.

The attorneys said there is “overwhelming evidence” of Ruggs’ accepting responsibility for his conduct and engaging in community outreach efforts related to DUI prevention, including completing educational programs while in custody.

Tintor's family could not be reached for comment.

During the May parole hearing, Ruggs said he took full responsibility for the actions that led to Tintor and her dog's death.

“Not a minute goes by where I don't think of the pain I caused her family, her friends and the Las Vegas community,” he said during the hearing, of which the AP obtained a copy.

He said he used his time in custody to educate young people and others about decision-making and the dangers of drinking and driving. He also said he met with Tintor's family to apologize.

“I know I can never alleviate the pain that I caused, but if released I plan to continue to do my work to educate young people on the dangers of reckless behavior and hopefully avoid future tragedies,” he said.

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This story has been updated to correct the day that Henry Ruggs' parole was denied. It was on Thursday, not Friday.

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher in a letter to challenger Dan Sullivan said her office had received two complaints regarding his eligibility and determined “that the preponderance of evidence does not support your eligibility for the office of United States Senator.”

She gave him a Thursday deadline to submit “any additional information and evidence" in response.

Sullivan, the challenger, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the letter from Beecher, a registered Republican who in the past has donated to Republican groups and campaigns. Her letter, dated Wednesday and published by the Anchorage Daily News, did not specify the evidence it found to potentially remove him from the primary ballot, and her office did not respond to requests for comment.

Sullivan's candidacy has caused a stir in one of the most prominent U.S. Senate races in the country. It's a seat Democrats have targeted as they try to regain the majority in the chamber in this year's midterm elections.

Sen. Sullivan has accused his namesake challenger of working with Democrats to try to trick voters and boost the chances of his top opponent, former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, a claim both deny. The challenger, who lives in the small fishing community of Petersburg south of Juneau, told The Associated Press earlier this week that the decision to run was “my choice." He said he had no contact with the Peltola campaign — “zero, none, zilch.”

This week, the challenger also pushed back in response to Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom's announcement that she was opening an investigation into his candidacy.

“The law forbids your office from denying me access to the ballot just because Senator Sullivan and the NRSC would prefer I not be allowed to run,” he wrote, referring to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

He called the investigation “an unprecedented affront to my rights as a candidate and the rights of Alaska voters to select their own representation in the U.S. Senate.”

It was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney to help him remain on the ballot.

Some attorneys also have raised questions about Dahlstrom's investigation, which among other things demanded that Sullivan explain his party affiliation, how long he had been going by the name Dan Sullivan, his affiliation with a consultant and any interactions he might have had with other candidates in the race or the Democratic Party.

Dahlstrom, who oversees elections, said in her letter to the challenger that the investigation pertained to “credible allegations” that he did not declare his candidacy “with a good faith purpose to seek office but rather with a purpose to confuse voters and have them mistakenly vote for you rather than the incumbent with the same name and same political party affiliation.”

The questions are in line with claims outlined in a letter to her and Beecher earlier this month from an attorney with the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The ACLU of Alaska, in a statement, said it is “unaware of any other instance where the Lieutenant Governor has investigated a specific candidate for reasons other than determining whether a candidate meets federal, state and local eligibility requirements.” The group said it was monitoring the situation.

Jahna Lindemuth, who was an Alaska attorney general under an independent governor, said investigating why someone would run for office “starts infringing on free speech concerns and other protections under the Constitution.” She said Dahlstrom could label the senator as the incumbent on the ballot if she were concerned about voter confusion.

The Constitution requires senators to be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years and live in the state they've chosen to represent at the time of election. Sullivan, who will turn 69 this weekend, told the AP he moved to Alaska in 1980 and worked for the U.S. Forest Service before switching careers and becoming a teacher. He's now retired.

The declaration that the elections division requires candidates to fill out asks for their name, the party affiliation they want on the ballot, their address and how they want their name to appear. In signing the declaration, candidates are asked to affirm they meet citizenship, age and residency requirements.

The division previously certified challenger Sullivan's candidacy, noting him on the candidate list as Dan J. Sullivan. The senator is listed as Dan S. Sullivan and as the incumbent.

At least one group running ads in support of the senator, One Nation, has begun referring to him as Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

In a statement released before a scheduled Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said that “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.” It didn't elaborate on what those issues are or how long the delay would last.

The 1.5-mile-long (2.4-kilometer-long) Gordie Howe International Bridge spans the Detroit River and connects the Motor City with Windsor, Ontario. The bridge is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan and was expected to open to traffic later this month.

But the opening had been thrown into question after Trump in February demanded in a social media post that Canada turn over at least half of the bridge’s ownership to the U.S. federal government and agree to other unspecified demands in one of the Republican president's many salvos over cross-border trade issues.

Michigan officials and the White House had been in contact for months about the bridge following Trump's post, with the understanding that the opening would move forward Friday. Invitations for the bridge’s opening went out this week following a conversation between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“This project is a powerful example of bipartisan and international cooperation, and the governor looks forward to attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony when it happens,” a statement from Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy said.

New bridge a “long-term play”

Internal disagreements within the Trump administration threw those plans into question, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pushed back on the opening, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday evening, “At the request of the United States we agreed to delay the opening and take the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues.”

He added, "There are some things that have been raised, a series of technical aspects, which we will work through with the United States.”

Even with the delay, officials remained optimistic that the bridge — a roughly $4.4 billion project — is still expected to open.

“We need to keep this very much in perspective,” said Sandy Baruah, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber and former U.S. assistant secretary of commerce. “Our organization, the state of Michigan and others have been working on this bridge for 20 years. If it opens July 1, Aug. 1 or Sept. 1, I’m not going to get overly agitated about it. This is a long-term play.”

Named after the late Canadian Hockey great Gordie Howe, who spent 25 seasons leading the Detroit Red Wings, the bridge is expected to be another vital economic artery between Canada and the United States.

The construction project was negotiated by Rick Snyder, the former Republican governor of Michigan, and paid for by Canada to help ease congestion at the existing Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Work has been underway since 2018.

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said she’s taking people at their word that the holdup is “a minor hiccup.”

“This is probably the most bipartisan issue in the state of Michigan, so it’s ridiculous that we can’t just seal the deal,” Slotkin said.

Commerce and border crossings

Detroit and Windsor have been neighborly for generations, with residents in both countries frequently crossing the shared river border for entertainment and shopping. Windsor's population in 2021 was about 230,000. Like Detroit, the Canadian city's economy has a strong focus on manufacturing and the auto industry.

Commercial trade between the two cities primarily has been across the nearly century-old and privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, which is closer to downtown Detroit than the Gordie Howe Bridge.

The Ambassador Bridge had been the busiest commercial border crossing between the United States and Canada until last year, when truck traffic along the Blue Water Bridge connecting Port Huron, Michigan, to Sarnia, Ontario, surpassed the Ambassador Bridge's numbers, according to the Bridge and Tunnel Operators Association.

In 2025, about 2.1 million trucks crossed the Blue Water Bridge compared to just over 1.8 million that used the Ambassador Bridge. About 3.5 million passenger vehicles used the Ambassador Bridge last year, while 1.6 million crossed via the Blue Water Bridge.

Combined, more than 9.2 million vehicles crossed the border on those two bridges in 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

More than 3.7 million cars and SUVs also traveled between the United States and Canada last year via the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

Both bridges and the tunnel are working at full capacity, and the new bridge will help improve the efficiency of commercial and personal traffic between the two countries, Baruah said.

“This is what government is supposed to do, make it easier for business to conduct commerce,” he said.

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Cappelletti reported from Washington.

On the girls side of Class 1, Bland County battled the defending three-time state champion Rappahannock. The Bears left no doubt from start to finish in what was a 5-1 victory--the first for the program.

Tinley Worley, Addison Myers, Kendall Worley, Alysia Lopez and Laiken Wolfe picked up the singles wins for the Bears. The Raiders lone win came from Ava Cleary who defeated Annabelle Rasnake.

“We haven’t had somebody in a state championship, state tournament even, in years,“ said Bland County senior Kendall Worley. ”So, this really sends a message to our county and to all the surrounding counties and all the surrounding schools that Bland isn’t somebody you can really just dismiss. We’ll always be there and it’s just so special to be here with this group of girls. We are all so close-knit and these are some of my best friends out here and I love them all so much and I’m so proud of us."

Bland County High School went without a girls tennis program for a decade until coach Jonathan Romano helped revive things just three years ago. The Bears victory on Thursday not only snapped Rappahannock’s championship streak but also a 73 game team win streak.

In Class 2 boys action, Floyd County put up a hard-fought battle but came up short to Bruton by a score of 5-2.

Individual scores included:

-Christoph Schweitzer (Bruton) def. Augie Biviano (FC), 6-0, 6-1

-Milo Grimes (FC) def. Bryson Jones (Bruton), 6-7(9), 4-6

-Forrest Radford (FC) def. Peter Henderson (Bruton), 6-3, 6-2

-Alek Rivera (Bruton) def. Nathan Metz (FC), 6-1, 6-4

-Noah Praszczalek (Bruton) def. Robert Disharoon (FC), 6-2, 6-2

-Tiernan Bradley (Bruton) def. Bryson Harrison (FC), 6-4, 6-4

-Doubles: Schweitzer, Rivera def. Biviano, Metz, 6-1, 6-1

Floyd County freshman Forrest Radford relished the opportunity to compete at the state level and even through a loss, sees the benefit of having a long season.

“Everything just helps us form stronger going into next year, no matter what happens this year,” Radford said.

Attorneys for former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez and other plaintiffs had questioned the process used by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to eliminate an income cap and co-pays for childcare assistance before the Legislature had a chance to weigh in or approve funding.

Attorneys representing Lujan Grisham and the state’s childcare agency argued that lawmakers have since authorized and funded the program’s expansion, rendering the legal challenge moot.

District Judge Elaine Lujan agreed, tossing the lawsuit and allowing the state to continue footing the daycare bill for families regardless of income. She also found that Rodriguez and his co-plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.

Rodriquez's attorneys indicated they will appeal the judge's decision.

"Just because (Lujan Grisham) thinks she has a great idea doesn’t mean she gets to write the law and enforce the law,” plaintiffs attorney Jacob Candelaria said after Thursday’s hearing.

Thursday’s ruling prevented a financial headache for many childcare businesses and for families who have rebalanced household budgets around free childcare.

Lujan Grisham applauded the ruling.

“Today, Second Judicial District Judge Elaine Lujan dismissed a frivolous challenge to New Mexico’s universal child care program. This program is lawful, and it will continue to serve New Mexico families,” she said in a statement on Facebook. “New Mexicans deserved better than a lawsuit that put them through weeks of unnecessary anxiety over a program they count on. The judge’s ruling makes it clear: New Mexicans can plan their families, finances and careers with the confidence that universal child care is here to stay.”

The challenge came as New Mexico looks to cement its place as the first U.S. state to cover daycare bills for all families regardless of income, provided parents or legal guardians are working, in school or qualify for an exemption. The stakes extend nationwide as policymakers from New York to California look for models to reduce costs for families and expand public investment in childcare.

During the hearing, Candelaria told the judge that the governor's move to establish the program without the Legislature weighing in was "a fundamental perversion of the separation of powers” and that New Mexicans' constitutional interests needed to be protected.

Holly Agajanian, the governor's chief general counsel, suggested that the plaintiffs were asking the court to referee a policy disagreement on the merits of universal child care.

“We are not in a constitutional crisis,” Agajanian said.

Lujan Grisham signed legislation in February enshrining the program into law, provided state finances remain healthy.

New Mexico’s program, which is financed in large part with revenue from oil and gas production in the state, was among the nation's most generous before November’s expansion, waiving costs for families making up to 400% of the federal poverty rate or roughly $132,000 per year for a family of four.

Legislative analysts have raised questions about the sustainability of New Mexico's expanded program, noting earlier this year that the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department started overspending just weeks into the November launch.

This week, the state agency proposed new regulations aimed at shoring up the program’s sustainability. Potential guardrails include copayments for higher-income families in the event of a significant drop in oil prices or enrollment in free childcare surging beyond state projections.

The league announced the news Thursday prior to Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Kucherov led all players with 1.71 points a game on 44 goals and 86 assists. With 130 points, he ranked second to only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who had 138.

McDavid was a close second by 10 points in voting by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon was third and San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini fourth.

Kucherov had 42 more points than his next-closest teammate, Jake Guentzel. He was third in Hart Trophy voting a year ago and second in 2023-24.

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

Mexico's players understood the intense pressure and high expectations they were facing on Thursday in the opening match of the first 48-team World Cup tournament. But they embraced their role and got off to a winning start by beating South Africa 2-0 in a match that also produced three red cards.

“I made an effort to explain to them what a World Cup and an opening match on home soil meant, but they are young and had to experience it for themselves," said Mexico coach Javier Aguirre, who played for his team the last time Mexico hosted the tournament in 1986. "I can no longer talk about having played in a home World Cup, because they already know what it’s like.”

Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez scored the goals for Mexico, which is co-hosting the 2026 tournament with Canada and the United States.

The Mexicans rebounded from the massive disappointment of being eliminated after the group stage four years ago in Qatar. That followed seven straight trips to the round the 16 — an achievement that became more of a curse for failing to reach the quarterfinals.

But there is hope this year. Mexico has reached the quarterfinals twice in its history, and both times it was the host country — in 1970 and 1986. Aguirre was on that team in 1986.

In front of a capacity crowd of 80,824, Mexico got working fast and took the lead in the ninth minute when Quiñones scored. Jiménez added the second goal on a header in 66th — his 46th for Mexico but first in three World Cup tournaments.

“We didn’t play well in the first half, but we could have gone into the break leading 3–0 and no one would have complained — we were far superior,” Aguirre said. “In the second half, it felt like we relaxed a bit, but starting with a win is good, and we can certainly improve.”

With his goal, Jiménez moved into a tie with Jared Borgetti for second place in scoring for Mexico's national team. He is six goals shy of leader Javier “Chicharito” Hernández.

Jiménez wears a protective headguard because he was seriously injured in November 2020 while playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Premier League match against Arsenal. He fractured his skull and had to have surgery. He was out for eight months and returned in July 2021.

South Africa players Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane were both given red cards, forcing the team to finish the match with only nine players. Mexico defender César Montes was then given a red card in injury time.

It was the first time there were three red cards given in the opening match of a World Cup tournament. And it’s the most in a World Cup game since four were handed out when Portugal played the Netherlands at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

“This level is much higher than whatever level we played before. We played a good team, and we played a good game. I saw a desperate Mexico,” South Africa coach Hugo Broos said. “We must improve in the next days. We’ll get over the disappointment.”

Quiñones, a 29-year-old forward who was born in Colombia, was the top scorer in the Saudi league this season. He was one of six starting players who made their World Cup debut for El Tri.

Mexico now has three points in Group A and will next play South Korea next Thursday in Guadalajara. South Africa will play the Czech Republic on the same day in Atlanta.

“It would be important (to win the group), but right now the only thing we’re thinking about is the match against Korea — being better than them and trying to win,” Aguirre said. “We’re going to take it step by step and see what the future holds.”

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

Shakira performed “Dai Dai,” the tournament's official song, with Burna Boy. The Colombian star had a hit with “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and now seeks to score again.

A good World Cup song, Shakira earlier told The Associated Press, “needs to definitely have rhythm. It has to be rhythmic. It has to make people want to dance. And it has to be an anthem as well. It has to make people want to sing along in unison, sing out loud at the top of their lungs.”

Shakira has performed at previous World Cups, too: 2006 in Germany, 2010 in South Africa, and 2014 in Brazil.

In addition, she will perform at the first halftime show of a World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey with Madonna and BTS. Mexico, the United States and Canada are co-hosting the 48-team tournament.

A welcome for all

Lila Downs welcomed fans and players in Spanish, English, and the indigenous languages Mixtec and Nahuatl.

“People of the world, welcome to Mexico,” said Downs, who wore a white indigenous huipil with a lilac edge. “Mexico welcomes you with smiles from our heart, we are a nation of diversity, heritage and pride in ancestral lands where movement and ritual spirit endure.”

Downs, who is a singer-songwriter, was born in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca. Her mother is Mixtec, and her father was American of Scottish descent. But her heart is green, white and red when it comes to the ball.

“It’s a great honor for me to represent my beautiful and diverse country,” Downs said in an interview with The AP. “Of course I’m going to root for Mexico’s team, Viva Mexico!”

Maná thrills fans

Maná electrified the stadium with “Oye Mi Amor” surrounded by pre-Hispanic dancers who moved their head plumes to the rhythm of rock while tens of thousands of fans chanted.

The band, founded in 1986, has sold more than 40 million records.

Shortly before their performance, they announced that they will be touring in Latin America, including stops in Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City.

From Iztapalapa to the World Cup

The Mexican cumbia group Los Ángeles Azules performed “Por Ella” with Belinda, one of the most danceable songs of FIFA's official World Cup album.

The band, founded in the mid-70s by the Mejía Avante brothers, is originally from the district of Iztapalapa, a working-class area of Mexico City, so their battle cry is “From Iztapalapa to the world!”

J Balvin had a dynamic performance — he started driving a cardboard car with “Que Calor” and then he was accompanied by Ryan Castro for “Una A La Vez” before ending with “I Like It,” a hit he originally released with Cardi B and Bad Bunny.

The Colombian star has experience on world stages. In 2020, he participated in the Super Bowl halftime as a guest of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.

Danny Ocean performed “Partidazo” — his collaboration for the FIFA album. Ocean was surrounded by dancers wearing a modern take on the traditional dresses of the Mexican state of Jalisco, modified to have hoodies on top.

Two Labubus could be seen wearing soccer jerseys after the presentation of Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda. One brown Labubu wore a jersey with the number 10 and the legend “The Monsters” and the other wore a shirt with the logo of the 2026 World Cup.

Hollywood power at the ceremony

Actress and producer Salma Hayek, a big soccer fan, gave a brief welcome speech during the first protocol parade of a World Cup in which the 48 flags of the participating countries could be seen.

“Mexicans are very honored that this is where the first match of this wonderful soccer tradition that unites us all begins,” Hayek, who is originally from the Mexican state of Veracruz, said in Spanish. “Long live Mexico and long live soccer!”

Hayek has been appointed an ambassador for the 2026 World Cup.

Opera and K-pop united

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and South Korean star EJAE performed “DNA,” the tournament's official anthem, with French DJ and producer David Guetta at the flag parade.

Bocelli has just performed for more than 130,000 fans in April at Mexico City’s Zócalo. EJAE is famous for being the voice of the character Rumi in the film “KPop Demon Hunters” and for being one of the composers of the Oscar-winning song “Golden” from the animated film.

South Africa and Mexico national anthems

Tyla and Alejandro Fernandez were the designated performers for the national anthems of South Africa and Mexico, respectively, before kickoff.

In 2024, Tyla won the first Grammy for best African music performance and, in doing so, became the youngest African artist to win a Grammy.

Fernández’s life has been dedicated to regional Mexican music. The so-called “Potrillo” is the son of the late star Vicente Fernandez. On FIFA's album” Fernández performs “Mi México Lindo."

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Associated Press writers Maria Sherman and Mallika Sen contributed to this report from New York

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

Trump had threatened major strikes on Iran and to seize control of its oil and gas industries as escalating attacks between the countries pushed the Middle East closer to full-scale war.

The threats to seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal came after the U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second straight day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East.

Here's the latest:

Trump touts Burt Jones, one of his 2020 alternate electors, for Georgia governor

President Donald Trump offered a last-minute boost for Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ bid for the GOP nomination for governor.

Trump spoke for about 10 minutes during a tele-rally with Jones’ supporters Thursday evening, much of it filled with recitations of his false claims of widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections.

Jones faces billionaire businessman Rick Jackson in a Tuesday runoff.

The president alluded to Jones being one of his alternate electors in the effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat in Georgia and nationally.

He said U.S. there are a “lot of rigged” results because of “corrupt” elections, and he said Jones was “fantastic when it came to election fraud.”

Jones, for his part, did not tout his role in the 2020 election fallout, though he praised Trump as “the greatest president this country has ever had.”

The runoff winner faces Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.

Trump says US representatives made a ‘great deal’ with Iran

During a telephone rally on Thursday for Rep. Barry Moore, his chosen candidate in Tuesday’s Senate runoff in Alabama, Trump talked about Iran, about which he said U.S. representatives had “made a great deal.”

“Today we settled up with Iran,” Trump said. “People will start coming home very soon. ... We got everything we wanted.”

That mirrored some of Trump’s comments earlier Thursday during an Oval Office event, when he said a “great settlement.” Iran has not yet confirmed that it’s agreed to settlement terms with the U.S.

Trump started the day by again threatening to hit Iran “very hard” with new strikes, hours later returning to to social media to say he canceled escalation plans due to progress in the talks.

Trump has claimed multiple times recently that the warring parties have been on a cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition.

Trump calls on Alabama voters to back ‘terrific guy’ Rep. Barry Moore in Senate runoff

The president made those remarks during a telephone rally on Thursday afternoon.

Moore, a three-term congressman, is a member of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus. He advanced to a runoff for the Republican nomination last month, set to face off with former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson on Tuesday.

Trump’s initial endorsement gave Moore a boost in a crowded GOP field. As he has with other candidates this primary season, Trump went on to talk about how his own electoral success in Alabama.

Of outgoing Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor, Trump said he was “a little disappointed he left the Senate, but you can have a replacement that’s going to be phenomenal.”

Trump again threatens federal takeover of DC

The president’s comments came in response to a question about the possibility of Janeese Lewis George winning the District of Columbia’s mayoral primary next week.

“I wouldn’t like it,” Trump said. “And maybe we’d take back Washington, run it on the federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.”

George is one of the front-runners vying to replace Mayor Muriel Bowser and identifies as a democratic socialist.

Trump has claimed the US has essentially reached a deal with Iran before, so why is this different?

“Because they’ve taken a pounding,” Trump explained Thursday when asked why he was confident.

But his answer was vague as he described it as a “very strong memorandum of understanding,” that he described as “a little conceptual.”

He said of Iran, “They want to make the deal a lot more than I do.”

Trump believes Iran Supreme Leader has signed off on emerging deal

“I understand the answer is yes” Trump said when asked if Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has agreed to the deal.

Khamenei was wounded in the opening salvos of the U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Iran and has been in hiding since.

Iran has not yet confirmed that it’s agreed to terms with the U.S. on a settlement to end the war

Trump says Pulte will continue to be acting director of national intelligence

Trump is insisting that Pulte will stay in the temporary role despite the president’s announcement earlier Thursday that he’s chosen Clayton as the permanent nominee.

“He’s only there for a little while,” Trump said of Pulte. Pressed on Pulte’s lack of national security credentials, the president responded “but he’s intelligent, unlike a lot of other people.”

Trump was also vague on whether he’ll take any executive actions to address the potential lapse in surveillance authorities after midnight Friday.

“Congress wants me to do it, and let’s see what happens,” he said.

Trump opens up more protected ocean areas to fishing

Trump opened three marine protected areas in the Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing with a proclamation Thursday that he said will boost the U.S. seafood industry.

Trump has targeted marine protections created in the era of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush that he said stifle the country’s ability to compete in the global seafood marketplace. He moved to reestablish fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off New England in February.

Thursday’s move focused on portions of Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. The monuments are protected zones in remote areas of the Pacific.

Environmental groups have criticized Trump’s moves to allow fishing in protected zones, which they said provide vital habitat for rare sea life.

US stocks jump and oil prices ease

U.S. stocks have rallied to their best day in two months and oil prices have fallen after Trump said he had called off new military strikes on Iran.

Trump’s comments raised hopes Thursday for a potential deal to get the global flow of oil going again.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.8%, coming off a back-to-back drop that had yanked it back to where it was in early May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1.9%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 2.5%. Strong gains for chip stocks helped offset a slide for Oracle. Treasury yields eased sharply in the bond market.

Rubio says UFC fights are a great uniter for a polarized America as White House prepares for cage match

“There are only a handful of things that bring people together in one place at one time, united by their interest in one thing. We need more of those,” Rubio said.

He lauded the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the diversity of fight audiences as he signed a sports diplomacy agreement with UFC president Dana White.

He said the White House event on Sunday could have been a concert or a “Shakespeare in the Park” production, “but this one will have people watching probably … a billion people over the world will be watching America celebrate its 250th birthday with the White House in the background.”

National Mall vandalism investigated

The U.S. Park Police is investigating after someone marked the numbers “86 47” on the grass of the lawn west of the Washington Monument.

“The cause of the discoloration has not yet been determined. Grass samples have been collected for testing,” Park Police said in an email.

The same numbers got attention after former FBI Director James Comey was indicted in April over a photograph he posted on social media of seashells arranged to say “86 47.” The Justice Department contends the numbers amounted to a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Comey has said he assumed the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence.

According to Merriam-Webster, 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.”

“The deranged vandalism on our National Mall will not be tolerated,” the Department of Interior said in an email. “Any threat against the President is taken very seriously by the Department.”

Trump claims he’s close to making a deal with Iran aimed at winding down conflict

“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump said at the start of an Oval Office event. “And we’re going to be, subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days, probably have a signing, maybe in Europe.”

Trump started the day by again threatening to hit Iran “very hard” with new strikes. Hours later, he returned to social media to say that he decided to cancel plans to escalate the fighting because progress had been made in the talks with Iran and suggested anew that a deal is within view.

But Trump on multiple occasions over the last several weeks has claimed that the warring parties have been on a cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition.

Taiwan’s opposition leader met US lawmakers

The leader of Taiwan’s opposition party met five U.S. lawmakers at a time when Washington is seeking to stabilize ties with Beijing despite their differences over the self-governed island, including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Cheng Li-wun, chairperson of Taiwan’s Kuomintang Party, is on a two-week trip to the U.S. to promote her party’s approach to peace in the Taiwan Strait through dialogue and to explain its stance on Taiwan’s defense budget and purchase of U.S. weapons. Her party opposes the formal independence of Taiwan.

Taiwan’s media reported that Cheng on Wednesday met with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. Mast chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Fleischmann’s office confirmed the meeting.

Thune says Senate could move ‘fairly quickly’ to confirm Clayton

“I don’t know what realistic is, but we’re gonna probe the limits of it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said after Trump announced on social media that he would nominate Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence.

Democrats are holding up the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump’s temporary pick for the job, federal housing regulator Bill Pulte. The law expires Friday at midnight.

Trump has previously said that Pulte will take over from the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, on June 19. It is unclear whether the Senate could move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that date.

Rubio signs sports diplomacy agreement with UFC ahead of cage fight at the White House

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signed a cooperation agreement with the president of the Ultimate Fight Championship that will pair the two institutions in providing fight training, health and diet regimes and promote teamwork and leadership for youths around the world.

Rubio signed the agreement with UFC chief Dana White at the State Department on Thursday, just three days before the UFC will stage a cage match at the White House. Sunday’s match will be held in conjunction with Trump’s 80th birthday and the celebration of America’s 250th independence anniversary.

The partnership will be part of a broader sports diplomacy initiative that has been operating for decades. It has involved golf, tennis, figure skating, American football, soccer and other athletes. Under the program, program, UFC athletes and coaches will serve as U.S. sports ambassadors, leading training clinics for young international athletes.

Trump picks Jay Clayton, ex-SEC head and current US attorney, as director of national intelligence

Trump says he plans to nominate Jay Clayton, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, as director of national intelligence.

Trump announced the nomination on social media on Thursday amid pressure from Congress to name Tulsi Gabbard’s permanent replacement. Trump faced intense pushback over his decision to name Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director after Gabbard announced last month that she was stepping down because of her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

The situation led to a standoff in Congress as Democrats said they would refuse to renew a foreign intelligence powers unless Trump pulled Pulte’s nomination and named a permanent nominee.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”

Pentagon ends lockdown over ‘air quality’ issue

The Pentagon has stood down from a lockdown over what officials described as an “air quality issue.”

“Subsequent testing confirmed no hazard exists, and normal operations have resumed,” the Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a social media post.

The lockdown lasted for about two hours and prompted a response from hazmat teams of the Pentagon’s internal police force as well as the team from nearby Arlington, Virginia.

Trump calls off threatened strikes against Iran after indicating progress in talks

Trump says he’s called off new military strikes on Iran hours after threatening to escalate the 3-month-old war.

The president said in a social media post Thursday that he made the move “based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

Trump also suggested that progress has been made in talks to extend the fragile ceasefire, writing that “discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail,” approved by United States, Israel, and other regional allies. He did not offer details.

Trump on multiple occasions over the last several weeks has claimed that the warring parties have been on a cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition.

Targeting Iran’s Kharg Island carries major risks

Kharg Island has emerged as a focus of the war launched by the United States and Israel. The Persian Gulf island is home to a terminal through which Iran exports most of its oil.

Strikes on oil infrastructure on Kharg — or a ground invasion — would severely curb Iran’s oil exports, a key source of revenue for the Islamic Republic.

An assault would also mark a major escalation that could provoke even heavier retaliatory attacks on Gulf infrastructure. That would further drive up oil prices that already threaten the world economy.

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A look at the scene on the White House South Lawn for Sunday’s UFC event

It looks from afar more UFO than UFC.

Maybe it’s the kind of contraption that has carried space aliens to the White House to force a meeting with America’s leader.

But come closer and you’ll see the contours of the eight-sided cage, 30 feet in diameter and shaped like the MMA league’s signature Octagon.

Overhead looms The Claw, a four-sided mass that arcs more than 90 feet into the air and features lights, speakers, thick snakes of wiring and four large screens so fans not seated right next to the Octagon can follow the fighting in the cage below.

And surrounding all that are risers filled with gray folding chairs forming a temporary arena expected to seat 4,000-plus for the seven UFC fights being staged on Sunday to celebrate the 80th birthday of President Donald Trump and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.

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Iran’s parliamentary speaker responds

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned in a social media post Thursday that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”

Iran’s monthslong stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.

Hazardous materials units respond to the Pentagon

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s hazardous materials team was responding to an unknown issue and parts of the Pentagon were under a shelter-in-place order while officials investigate.

“The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants. Those systems have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance,” Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Thursday. “The Department is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area.”

The Arlington County Fire Department also sent units, including its hazardous materials team, according to a posting on its X account. Questions to the media office were referred to the Pentagon.

Iranian student says hope dwindles as attacks escalate

A 25-year-old student in northern Iran says Iranians are fearing “chaos” amid the war with the U.S. and Israel and multiplying crises at home.

The student, who lives in the city of Babol, said many Iranians are struggling to afford groceries in the face of mass job losses and triple-digit food inflation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.

“Everything is going wrong and there is no hope among the people,” the student added.

The student first spoke to The Associated Press before the war when he participated in widespread anti-government protests. He now says his chief concern is that Iran “maintain territorial integrity and deterrence” in the face of attacks by the U.S. and Israel.

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

Tensions persist over Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the U.S. would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies as well as any tolls Iran imposes on ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful. The U.S. and Israel fear Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium could be used to build an atomic weapon. That was a main reason they cited for going to war Feb. 28.

Trump doesn’t back down on Bill Pulte

After bipartisan pushback to Pulte’s temporary appointment as director of national intelligence, Trump said last week that he would not permanently nominate him to the position. But Democrats, and some Republicans, want his appointment pulled immediately and for Trump to nominate a replacement that can be confirmed by the Senate.

On Tuesday, though, Trump announced that Pulte would not only take over as acting director — he’d also start earlier than expected, on June 19.

One of several possible replacements could be Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The White House has reached out to Hoekstra about the job and conversations are ongoing, according to a person familiar with the outreach who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

— Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim

GOP leaders lobbied the White House, to no avail

Congressional Republicans have lobbied Trump all week to quickly nominate a permanent replacement for director of national intelligence. But he said he needs more time to do so.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republican leaders have “made our views known” to the White House.

Trump has said he’s interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently, after the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the president has made it very clear that Pulte will serve a “very short term — a sort of renovation role” to help the Office of the Director of National Intelligence be “renovated and downsized.”

But Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee led by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said in a letter to the president that Pulte is a “uniquely poor choice” to serve even in the acting capacity.

House vote to extend FISA spy tool fails and it could lapse as Friday deadline looms

A rare lapse in a law that allows the United States to gather intelligence abroad appears likely after the House failed Thursday to temporarily extend the program, in a protest of President Trump ’s refusal to name a permanent head of the nation’s intelligence agencies.

Trump has doubled down on his temporary pick for director of national intelligence, federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, even though Pulte has little experience for the job. Democrats say they won’t support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, unless the Republican president withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

The House vote collapsed in bipartisan fashion, with some Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure. The Senate may try its own vote later Thursday, but hopes are dimming to prevent what could be an unprecedented lapse in the surveillance tool. The law expires Friday at midnight.

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