We are still seeing some light drizzle across the region due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur. Fortunately for us, it has taken a southern track, leaving us practically unscathed and traveling through the Carolinas.

As those showers wrap up in the next bit, sunshine will take over Friday afternoon and stick around through the weekend.

High temperatures will be warm for the day, and it will slowly get less muggy Friday afternoon.

The sunshine is coming soon, as well as these toasty temperatures. This will make for a great day to get outside; we suggest taking a look at your local park!

As for the wind, it will get quite gusty at times, mainly around dinner time. It will quickly taper off into the teens Friday night, leading us into a calm Saturday.

This weekend will have great weather all around. A few showers are possible Sunday evening, mainly for the mountains, ahead of more showers and thunderstorms on Monday.

After that, we continue with seasonable temperatures and have the potential for afternoon thunderstorms and showers.

“There has never been a more peaceful and calm place in the whole world than when I am strapped into a racecar, my helmet on. I am completely in control,” said Jordan.

But in 2013, he had to shift his attention from the track to his health.

“I started feeling super nauseous and just really something wasn’t right,” he said

Jordan found out he was in renal failure and had to get a kidney transplant.

“That time in my life was extremely difficult because of my age, being so young. It was hard to relate with anybody. But more importantly to me, it made racing much more challenging,” he recalled.

Fortunately, there was someone on his care team who could relate.

“I met Jordan at the track with his father. They used to race quite a bit, and I raced at that time as well,” said Kevin Stadtlander, MD, interventional radiologist at Cleveland Clinic.

He made sure Jordan was still able to race, even after he developed lymphoma following his transplant. 

“At that time, we had to place a port in the chest wall, and so we were very mindful of where the race car belts and safety harnesses would go,” said Dr. Stadtlander.

The now 38-year-old is cancer-free, happily married, and a proud father of two.

“Being a dad is probably one of the most amazing things I have done with my life,” he said with a smile.

Israel and the militant group later agreed to renew their ceasefire, three officials said.

Word of the ceasefire came from two regional officials and a U.S. official. The truce was mediated by Qatar, the U.S. and Iran, the regional officials said. The three officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A Hezbollah official said mediators attempted to implement a new ceasefire and that an agreement could be announced soon, but he stopped short of confirming it was in place. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the military has not received different instructions from the government. He said Israeli forces were operating in a “forward defense zone” and will continue doing so.

Iranian and U.S. officials cancel travel to Switzerland

Iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that the fighting in Lebanon must stop before the talks can take place, according to three regional officials and a fourth person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations behind the scenes. U.S. Vice President JD Vance also postponed his trip.

Israel’s military struck targets in southern and eastern Lebanon overnight, and Hezbollah reported intense fighting. Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least 21 people were killed, and Israel said four soldiers died.

The conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group is the most precarious part of the Iran deal. Neither Israel nor the militant group signed the agreement — but it is supposed to end their fighting, and Iran has signaled its willingness to risk renewed war in the region for the sake of its interests in Lebanon and its most important regional ally.

The interim deal has halted hostilities in Iran and the Gulf and reopened the Strait of Hormuz, after Iranian attacks and threats all but stopped the flow of oil and natural gas through the waterway, creating a global energy crisis.

But future talks are supposed to bring about a permanent end to the conflict, including addressing how to restrict Iran’s nuclear program — the core issue over which Israel and the U.S. went to war on Feb. 28.

The fighting in Lebanon could unravel the deal

The Israeli military said four soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, were killed in an attack on a tank in a village near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh. An explosive drone attack wounded another five, it added.

Israel then launched multiple strikes against “Hezbollah infrastructure sites” in Nabatiyeh and other areas, according to a military statement, which accused the militant group of “blatant ceasefire violations.”

Later, the military said it also struck targets in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, with Lebanese media saying the village of Douris was hit.

“Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or on our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Hezbollah acknowledged targeting Israeli tanks and said its attacks were in response to what it called Israel’s own violation of the ceasefire. It said the attacks came after Israeli forces attempted to reach the northern side of Ali al-Taher hilltop, a strategic point that overlooks Nabatiyeh and that Israeli troops have been trying to capture.

In southern Lebanon, many were forced to flee their villages.

“The situation is lawless, we couldn't stay,” said Mustafa Zain, who was with his six daughters in a pickup truck.

Beyond the fighting, Israel's occupation of large swaths of southern Lebanon is also a sticking point. Iran insists Israel must withdraw, but Netanyahu has said that forces would remain in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as “Israel’s security needs require it.”

Israel’s actions have created a rift between Israel and the U.S., with Trump becoming increasingly critical of his close ally Netanyahu, who is also facing increasing criticism at home.

Talks in Switzerland were postponed

Iranian officials balked at starting the talks with Vance in Switzerland because of the Israeli action in Lebanon, according to the person familiar with the White House and Iranian positions.

It was conveyed to Iran that Israel is ready to move on, and it’s up to Hezbollah to stop carrying out attacks, the person added.

Earlier, the White House blamed logistical issues when Vance put off his trip.

Two other regional officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, described Pakistan as being “stunned” by Iran’s decision not to go to the talks.

The strait is open but with new guidance

Oil tankers began freely moving through the Strait of Hormuz this week after months of being largely unable to use the critical channel. More than 12.5 million barrels of oil were shipped through the waterway on Wednesday night, the U.S. said.

Still, it is expected to take weeks or months for the normal flow of oil and gas to resume, even if traffic fully resumes.

The interim deal lays out that passage through the strait should be free for 60 days — as it was before the war. But the new Iranian authority charged with overseeing the waterway issued guidance Friday calling on ships to register with it — signaling Tehran likely intends to start charging.

The Persian Gulf Strait Authority said Friday that “during the 60-day period, tariffs for security, safety and environmental services, as well as related Iranian insurance, will not be collected from shipowners and will be borne by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Much still needs to be resolved

The discussions in Switzerland are expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran maintains it is peaceful, though it has highly enriched uranium that could be used to build multiple atomic bombs, should it choose to do so, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Those talks are expected to be extremely difficult. The 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped during his first term, took more than 18 months to negotiate.

The interim deal gives negotiators 60 days to come up with a nuclear agreement, but that can be extended. It outlines lucrative incentives if Iran does reach a new agreement, including the eventual lifting of all international sanctions and a $300 billion fund for postwar reconstruction.

Already Iran has won some concessions. Following the signing of the interim deal, the U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and is allowing it to sell its oil freely. The deal also calls for Iran’s assets to be unfrozen — though it’s not clear how quickly.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Madhani from Zurich. Associated Press journalists David Rising in Bangkok, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Malak Harb in Tyre, Lebanon, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to this story.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.

Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated" and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally. She concluded: “Italy and I do not beg.”

Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa.

According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.

Meloni is astonished and defiant

In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response."

“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni's refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn't respond publicly at the time.

By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.

“I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating," Meloni said Friday. "But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”

The White House did not return an immediate request for comment on Meloni’s remarks.

Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a “bridge” between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.

But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump’s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump's tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.

Italian officials close ranks around Meloni

By Friday afternoon, solidarity with Meloni had poured in from across the government and political spectrum, and included a call from President Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s widely respected head of state.

“Whoever attacks @GiorgiaMeloni attacks all of us,” posted Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio referenced the sacrifice of American troops in World War II in underlining the harm to U.S.-Italy relations caused by Trump.

“The thousands of crosses marking the graves of American soldiers who died to free us from Nazi-Fascist dictatorship did not deserve such a painful blow to our fraternal ties,” Nordio said on X.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he didn't believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, “not even under threat.”

“I can, however, imagine how much it cost her to set aside what Trump had said weeks ago, to serve the interests of Italy, of Europe, and of the West,” Crosetto posted on X. “Jokes of this kind do no good to anyone: neither to the USA, nor to Italy, nor to the alliance.”

Tajani had been due to travel to the U.S. on Sunday to take part in an Italy-U.S. business forum in Miami during which he was to have meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a U.S. State Department announcement of the meeting.

A ‘fantastic’ friendship frays

Meloni had long been considered one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, trying to act as a mediator between the often conflicting interests of the U.S. and the EU.

They had gotten off to a strong start, and the two leaders are ideologically aligned on many issues. As the head of a far-right party, Meloni backs curbing migration and promoting traditional values.

Weeks before Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Meloni met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat, a visit that she said went “beyond expectations.” It was, she said at the time, “an opportunity to confirm a relationship that promises to be very solid,’’ adding diplomatically, “I don’t know if I can say privileged.”

In the months after, Trump had praised her repeatedly, as “fantastic,” “incredible,” beautiful and a friend.

But stark differences emerged over Ukraine, after Trump wavered in his support while Meloni kept backing Kyiv after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

More recently, she sharply warned against U.S. threats to take Greenland by force, saying she didn’t believe Washington would go so far and that regardless Italy would never support such a move.

According to officials, at approximately 11 p.m., a physical altercation occurred at Danville’s Riverfront Park, located at 100 Memorial Drive, where videos have been shared on social media.

The DPD has investigated the incident and found that an adult, 25-year-old Christina Witherspoon of Danville, went to the location to confront two teenagers she knew and had ongoing issues with. The confrontation led to the physical assault seen on video committed by the 14 and 15-year-olds against Witherspoon.

Witherspoon has been charged with the following:

• Virginia Code § 18.2-371- Causing or encouraging acts rendering children delinquent, abused, etc.
• Virginia Code § 18.2-415.- Disorderly conduct in public places

Both the 14 and 15-year-old female offenders have been charged with:

• Virginia Code § 18.2-42- Assault or battery by mob
• Virginia Code § 18.2-415- Disorderly conduct in public places

The Danville Police Department would like to remind citizens that both juveniles AND their parents may be held criminally responsible for violating the City of Danville curfew hours for minors, 11:00 P.M. on any Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday until 6:00 A.M. of the following day; and 12:00 midnight until 6:00 A.M. on the following day on Friday or Saturday. The full ordinance is found in section 23-10 of the Danville, Virginia Code of Ordinances: https://tinyurl.com/3fpdrues

Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Danville Police Department by either calling 911, patrol at 434-799-6510 option 4, investigations at 434-799-6508 option 3, and option 1 again, contacting Crime Stoppers at 434-793-0000, approach any officer you see, through social media, via email crimetips@danvilleva.gov, or use our crime tips app CARE at www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=818#.

The additional two shots gave Niemann an 11 on the par-4 sixth round, a disastrous hole that began with two lost balls from tee shots that went well to the right in deep grass. He was even par for tournament going into No. 6, his 15th hole of the round.

He finished the first round Friday morning at 78.

The USGA cited Rule 1.2b on “Code of Conduct.” Among incidents that fall under this category are unacceptable language and abuse of clubs or the course.

While the rule has always been in place, the USGA and all the other golf organizations have met in recent years to develop consistent guidelines for a conduct policy, applied separately by each of the organizations at their tournaments.

The Masters used it for the first time in April when Sergio Garcia was issued a warning after a bad drive on the par-5 second hole in the final round. He slammed his club into the turf twice and swung his club at a table holding a green cooler. That left the head of his driver dangling from the shaft.

The PGA Championship also posted the policy in the locker room at Aronimink last month.

The general policy the majors are using this year typically starts with a warning. The second violation is a two-shot penalty, and the third violation leads to disqualification.

There was no warning issued to Niemann because of the serious nature of his outburst.

The USGA policy for serious misconduct says if a player's behavior (or that of his caddie) is “so far removed from what is expected in the spirit of the game of golf,” officials can assess a two-shot penalty or disqualify the player while considering “the frequency, impact, intent and severity of the misconduct.”

The incident happened on Niemann's final hole Thursday evening of fog-delayed opening round. While video has not surfaced of the club throw, the ShotLink tracer shows his first two tee shots well to the right. The third shot was in high grass short of the fairway.

From 238 yards away, Niemann hacked the next shot into the fairway, but came up short of the green from 113 yards away. This is where the play-by-play indicated he was penalized. He got down in two strokes from there for a 9, which then turned into an 11.

Niemann, who left for LIV Golf after the 2022 season, won in South Korea last month for his eighth career victory in the rival league that began with Saudi Arabia funding but now faces an uncertain future with the Public Investment Fund no longer supporting it.

___

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

Trump’s overnight social media post Wednesday that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to become national intelligence director, just hours before the U.S. attorney's confirmation hearing, further strained relations between the Senate and White House that have been worsening for weeks. Later that day, some Republican senators who have been hesitant to challenge the president directly on the Iran war were blunt in their criticism of his deal to end it.

“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a post on X.

The open tensions are an almost complete reversal from a year ago when Senate Republicans worked closely with Trump on a complicated effort to push through his massive package of spending and tax cuts.

At the time, criticism of the president was almost nonexistent among Republicans on Capitol Hill, and they planned to highlight passage of that bill in the midterms. But as the November election draws closer and Republicans are trying to defend their majorities, Trump is instead needling Congress with his demands and reversals, driving several Republican senators to disparage his actions publicly for the first time.

“I think somebody’s not dialing the president into the complexities of what he’s done here,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday after Clayton’s confirmation was postponed. “I mean, my God.”

The slow unraveling of what once seemed like an airtight alliance between the executive and legislative branches in a Republican-led Washington extends to their policy priorities.

Trump appears to have lost interest in most of the GOP agenda and has become almost singularly focused on his voting legislation to require proof of citizenship, which has almost no chance of passing. At the same time, he has asked members of Congress to fund parts of his White House ballroom project, allow a temporary intelligence director that none of them like and cede their powers on the Iran war.

The growing rift has brought much of the Senate’s business to a halt and put Republicans who are up for reelection this year on the defensive. It has also put pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has been up-front with Trump about what he can and cannot do in the Senate.

Trump pressures Thune on voting bill

Trump has pressured Thune relentlessly to scrap the filibuster and pass the strict proof-of-citizenship legislation, called the SAVE America Act. Thune, R-S.D., has told Trump publicly and privately that the votes are not there for either step. Still, Trump has kept up the push.

In a social media post Thursday, Trump said he would be “the last Republican president” if the voting bill does not pass.

“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, must not let this ‘carnage’ happen,” Trump said. “They will go down on the wrong side of History, as will all Republicans who just stood by and watched.”

Nonetheless, Trump has yet to go after the well-liked Republican leader on a personal basis, as he often did with Thune's predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.. Trump once called McConnell a “ dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”

Trump and Thune talk frequently, even as Thune is sometimes giving the president news he does not want to hear. As Trump pushed for the voting bill, Thune scheduled weeks of floor time to consider it, an effort to make clear that the Senate was supportive, even if the votes are lacking.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of the president’s closest allies in the Senate, said he has never heard Trump say anything negative about Thune.

“It’s a difficult position,” Schmitt said of Thune’s role in the Senate. “I think they have a good working relationship.”

One of Thune's closest allies, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, said the even-keeled leader is the “right person at the right time.”

“In the Capitol today, he is the stable force,” Rounds said. “In Washington, D.C., today, he is the stable force.”

No signs of revolt among Senate GOP

There were no signs of a revolt within the GOP conference, for now, despite Trump's pressure.

Thune “has managed it better than anyone else could manage it,” said Cassidy, who has become a more frequent Trump critic since a primary loss to a Trump-backed challenger.

Criticism of Trump has at times surfaced even among his closest Senate allies, especially with his proposed $1.776 billion settlement fund for his political allies and his pick for acting intelligence director, Bill Pulte, who has no known intelligence experience.

But the rift with Trump has also stoked some new internal tensions.

Several Republican senators criticized Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has waged an online campaign to eliminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, in a private conference lunch this week for stoking dissension within the party in an election year.

Trump's dwindling number of allies

Some Senate Republicans have made clear they have no plans to separate themselves from Trump.

As several of his colleagues criticized Trump’s agreement with Iran this week, first-term Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, aggressively defended it on social media.

“Let’s get the Nobel Peace Prize ready!” Moreno posted on X.

But Trump has far fewer of those Senate allies than he did when they narrowly passed the tax and spending cuts legislation a year ago. That is in part because he has picked off some of the most loyal Republican votes himself.

Both Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn lost in primaries last month after Trump endorsed their opponents. Tillis announced he was not running for reelection last year after Trump repeatedly criticized him on social media.

Now all three have become frequent critics.

Shortly after his election loss, Cornyn posted on social media a fable about a frog and a scorpion. The scorpion asks the frog to carry it across a river, according to the fable, and then stings the frog in the middle of the river, “dooming them both.”

“The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence,” Cornyn’s post read. “To which the scorpion replies: ‘I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.’”

The Bank King Card debit card will be offered beginning Friday in honor of Juneteenth by Redemption Bank, which will make a donation from every account opened to nonprofits that will steer the funding to needy families.

“Bank King Card represents a new regenerative banking model that starts with investing in mothers who are a few hopeful dollars away from breaking out of poverty, and opening up America’s vaults of opportunity that have been closed to too many for too long,” Redemption Holding Co. chair and Chief Executive Ashley Bell said.

A 2026 report by the Urban Institute and the Jeremiah Program says households led by single mothers experience widespread economic and caregiving hardship.

Redemption Bank, based in Holladay, Utah, says it intends to make fixed-amount donations based on new Bank King Card account openings. The amount will be determined annually by the bank’s board of directors and will not be based on the amount of card purchases, according to Redemption Bank.

Nonprofits that provide direct-cash services would apply for grants through a foundation developed to make sure the money gets to those who need it most.

“What we’ve seen is these guaranteed income programs have been a jolt out of poverty for women around the country, including many women of color,” Bell said.

Every dollar helps

Money given directly to needy mothers and children is overwhelmingly spent to cover necessary goods or services, according to Chastity Lord, president and chief executive of the Jeremiah Program, which works to improve economic mobility for single mothers.

But it also does so much more, she said.

“It provides dignity,” Lord continued. “It ensures summer learning, not leaving kids at home. It increases nutrition. It allows the mom to make powerful decisions that benefit their children and their families instead of making decisions to just get by.”

A pilot program through the Ohio Mother's Trust funneled $500 each month for a year to 32 single mothers in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

For Juanita Amakor of Columbus, the cash she received through the Ohio Mother's Trust allowed her to catch up on bills and pay rent.

“It's the breathing room it gives you, knowing there is something extra coming in. It relieves a lot of anxiety,” said Amakor, 36, who has a 7-year-old daughter. “This help goes a long way, even if it was for something as little as being able to take my child to the grocery store, to the clothing store.”

In Michigan, Rx Kids gives women a one-time allocation of $1,500 during pregnancy, followed by $500 per month throughout the child’s first months. The $1,500 can be used on food, prenatal care, rent, cribs or other needs. The $500 monthly stipend can be spent on formula, diapers or childcare.

Kinea Wright and her family received funding through the Rx Kids program in Flint. It helped with some bills, diapers for her newborn daughter and other needs, especially after her husband was injured in a forklift accident.

“Initially, (the money) was put up for a rainy day,” said Wright, 46. “I didn't know the rainy day would come sooner than we thought. It was a blessing in disguise.”

Juneteenth connection

A year ago, Redemption Holding Co. completed its acquisition of Utah-based Holladay Bank & Trust, making it the first time a bank has been owned by a Black-led investment group in the Western U.S.

At the time, Redemption Bank had roughly $65 million in assets. It primarily focuses on commercial lending and small business loans. Bernice A. King, the youngest child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is a co-founder and senior vice president of the bank.

“Economic opportunity must be practical, accessible and rooted in the needs of families,” King said. “Bank King Card is an innovative way to support that work. It creates a practical opportunity for people to align their financial choices with their values while supporting mothers, children and families working toward long-term stability.”

A Bank King Card credit card is expected to be introduced later with interest rates capped at 12%.

The announcement of the Bank King Card coincides with Juneteenth, which also is the one-year anniversary of Redemption's acquisition of Holladay Bank & Trust.

Juneteenth — which combines “June” and “nineteenth” — represents the date in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed. It came two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In 2021, President Joe Biden designated it a federal holiday.

____

Corey Williams is a member of AP's Race & Ethnicity team.

“The fact that this holiday has been preserved for thousands of years shows how much we value our traditional customs,” said Meng Dongmei, a retired resident of Beijing’s Tongzhou district.

Meng said her family observes the holiday through a variety of traditional customs. They prepare zongzi, the sticky rice dumplings associated with the festival, and children wear five-colored bracelets believed to ward off evil.

“We also learned online about a traditional recipe using mugwort leaves, red dates, brown sugar and ginger to boil eggs,” Meng said. “We heard that it could help ward off illness and keep people healthy throughout the year, so we hope that through this festival our family will enjoy good health.”

Thousands to gather for boat races

Beijing’s 2026 celebrations will continue through the weekend at the capital’s Grand Canal.

The three-day event features men’s, women’s and mixed dragon boat races over distances of 100, 200 and 500 meters. Teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangdong will compete throughout the holiday weekend.

More than 1,000 athletes and 200,000 spectators are expected to gather for the event, organizers said in a press release.

“The competition helped strengthen our team spirit,” said Li Maoshan, a participant in Friday’s races. “It also gave us an opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of perseverance and hard work.”

Beyond the races

Among the cultural features during Beijing’s Dragon Boat Festival were demonstrations of Wing Chun martial arts, a market featuring traditional handicrafts and a performance in which dancers mimic the movements of a lion.

Activities were intended to highlight cultural exchanges between northern and southern China, officials said.

Friday’s lion dance was presented by a group of performers from Guangdong province in southern China. “Wherever there is a festive occasion, you’ll find dragon and lion dances,” said He Weihong, founder of the group. “Dragon boat racing and dragon-and-lion dancing are inseparable, as they are both part of our intangible cultural heritage.”

Ancient customs on health and protection

The festival’s roots run deeper than sporting competitions. It is widely associated with the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who according to legend drowned himself more than 2,000 years ago.

Tradition holds that people raced out in boats to search for him and threw rice into the river so fish would not eat his body. That story is often linked to both today’s dragon boat races and the zongzi still prepared by families across China.

“The Dragon Boat Festival is probably the richest and most diverse of all traditional Chinese festivals,” said Tsinghua University history professor Liu Xiaofeng. “Across different regions, people developed a wide variety of traditions based on ideas connected to the summer solstice and the balance of yin and yang.”

The holiday falls in the fifth month of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, around the time of the summer solstice. Ancient Chinese viewed this as a period when insects, poisonous creatures and disease became more prevalent, giving rise to a wide range of customs aimed at preserving health and warding off misfortune.

“At its core, the Dragon Boat Festival is about disease prevention, warding off evil and maintaining health,” Liu said.

Some people wear sachets containing medicinal herbs during the festival. Others fumigate their homes with smoke, a practice intended to prevent disease by driving out things considered harmful.

“Chinese people have traditionally placed a special emphasis on happiness, well-being and living in peace and safety,” Liu said. “Nearly all of China’s major festivals are connected in some way to these aspirations.”

Evolving traditions

Participants in Hong Kong’s dragon boat races on Friday wore costumes including a cartoon version of Chinese Taoist deity Ne Zha.

Guided by the thunderous beat of their drummers, crews pulled their paddles through the water in unison, each boat surging toward the finish line as spectators cheered them on. Others watched the races at home as they enjoyed zongzi with their families.

“Today more than 64% of China’s population lives in urban areas and people’s lifestyles have been transformed,” Liu said. “In a large city, it’s difficult to celebrate the festival the way people once did in rural communities. Festivals evolve along with the times.”

Bao Nari, a Beijing resident who spent years away from home while she studied in Japan, said that while boat races were not part of her childhood celebrations, other long-standing Dragon Boat Festival traditions like wearing five-colored bracelets were passed down through her family.

“After coming back, I’m impressed by how much cultural development has progressed here,” Bao said. “This cultural heritage has become deeply rooted in our hearts and it inspires our generation to be more confident.”

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AP video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing and reporter Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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 56-year-old politician presents himself as an amiable northern everyman who prefers T-shirts to a suit and tie and spends spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

He’s also an experienced politician whose career has taken him from high-level government jobs to the mayoralty of Greater Manchester, and now to the cusp of the prime minister’s office.

Burnham is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer after winning a seat in Parliament in a special election he hailed as a “turning point” for U.K. politics.

His nickname is inspired by ‘Game of Thrones’

Burnham was born and raised in a pocket of northwest England between Liverpool and Manchester, the son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager, attended Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001.

He was a lawmaker for a decade and a half, rising through the ranks under Prime Minister Tony Blair and serving in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010.

He ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party, in 2010 and 2015, and lost badly each time, before quitting Westminster to run for Manchester mayor.

His tenure has seen him nicknamed the King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his barely disguised political ambition.

He gained the moniker during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis.

Burnham has led the Greater Manchester region since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. The city center has boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Many residents praise him for championing the city. He took a piecemeal public transport system under public control, branded it the Bee Network and improved its services.

He has also won praise for supporting the campaign for justice for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were killed in a crush at a game in Sheffield in 1989. Years of advocacy led by victims’ families exposed mistakes and wrongdoing by police – who initially spread a false narrative blaming drunken fans – and extracted an apology from the government.

He pledges to end trickle-down economics

Burnham is perceived to be to the political left of Starmer – an asset with Labour members – and is acknowledged as one of the party’s best communicators. The rather stiff public speaker of his earlier leadership bids has been replaced by a relaxed figure in jeans and open-necked shirts.

His three mayoral election victories and decisive win in Thursday's election in Makerfield, where he trounced the candidate of the anti-immigration party Reform UK, have cemented his status as a winner. Many in the party hope he can reverse Labour’s precipitous decline in popularity since Starmer won an election landslide two years ago.

Makerfield voter Ellen Picton, 66, said she was “absolutely thrilled” by Burnham's victory.

“I believe that he’s a man for the common people,” she said. “Andy is like one of us, and he understands what we are going through."

Burnham is pledging to repeat on a national scale his signature brand of “Manchesterism” – a politics that, he likes to say, puts people and place before party and centers on regions ignored by governments in London.

“What we’ve built in Greater Manchester needs to go national,” Burnham said during the campaign. “I know what it is to turn places around.”

But it remains to be seen whether he can have national appeal, said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

“Calling him King of the North in some ways, I think, raises the question of whether he can also be King of the South, King of the East and King of the West,″ Bale said. “However, he does seem to have the kind of X factor that encourages people to think of him as not an ordinary politician, somebody who can communicate with normal people, someone who can speak human.”

In a postelection speech to supporters, Burnham sketched out his priorities: better vocational education and jobs for young people, lower energy bills and rail fares and “an end to trickle down economics, which didn’t trickle down very much at all to places like this.”

Critics say Burnham’s politics are vague and fail to grapple with tough issues, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. And they note that running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a city region of 3 million.

Nonetheless Burnham now has momentum that could propel him into 10 Downing Street.

"Andy Burnham is probably one of the most popular politicians in the country,” Bale said. “Although, to be honest, that is not saying much.”

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Kwiyeon Ha in Ashton-in-Makerfield, England contributed to this story.

Dustin Johnson, in the final year of his U.S. Open exemption from winning at Oakmont in 2016, atoned for a double bogey late Thursday with birdies on two of his last three holes and a superb par save for a 66, keeping him in touch with Clark.

Gary Woodland — playing alongside Clark and Johnson — and Matt Fitzpatrick were at 67. Among those another shot back was Jon Rahm, who missed two good chances Friday morning but still managed a 68 without a bogey on his card.

The scores were surprisingly low for Shinnecock Hills, where only three players in the previous four U.S. Opens here have finished under par in the last 40 years. But the real surprise was fog at the start of the championship, which led to a two-hour delay.

That meant Clark and Johnson had the advantage of playing Thursday evening in far less wind. The USGA made sure Shinnecock was kind and gentle to account for gusts that consistently topped 30 mph. Without that wind late in the day, players could take advantage.

And they did.

Clark had a birdie-birdie-eagle stretch late Thursday that put him at 6 under. Johnson ran off four straight birdies until his blunder on No. 6, when he three-putted from 6 feet for double bogey.

They returned early Friday, along with 48 other players, to complete the first round. Clark faced Nos. 8 and 9, both with a favorable wind. Clark narrowly missed an 18-foot birdie putt on the eighth, and one from about 30 feet on the ninth.

The Shinnecock record is 63, set by Tommy Fleetwood in the final round of 2018 after the USGA soaked the course to make up for a third round that dried out and got out of control. The U.S. Open record is 62 by Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.

Clark was more than pleased with a 64. The lowest opening round at Shinnecock had been 66, by three players in 2004 and one player in 1995.

Rory McIlroy faced the worst of the wind on Thursday and thought he did well to post a 69. Scottie Scheffler was in the same wave and had to rely heavily on his short game to salvage a 72, his 10th consecutive round at the U.S. Open without breaking par.

Sam Stevens had the low round from those who faced the toughest wind at 68. He was joined later by Rahm and a group that included Ryder Cowan, who just finished his junior year at Oklahoma. Another Sooner alum, Max McGreevy, also was at 68.

Clark and Johnson had enough time to hit a few shots on the driving range before heading right back out for the second round.

At stake Friday was the 36-hole cut for the top 60 and ties. Scheffler was narrowly inside, but still looking toward trying to stay in range of the lead as he chases the one major keeping him from the career Grand Slam.

___

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

Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwestern England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK. He called his victory a chance for Britain “to turn the tide.”

The result cements the status of Burnham, a 56-year-old politician nicknamed the King of the North, as the top contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. Burnham won almost 55% of the 45,510 votes cast for a field of more than a dozen candidates, over 9,000 more than runner-up Kenyon.

Burnham’s acceptance speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the country, and not just be one of the more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.

“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working," he said. "Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.”

Starmer congratulated Burnham, writing on X that voters “chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”

But the prime minister insisted he would fight any attempt to oust him.

“Yes, I will run, I will stand,” if there is a Labour leadership contest, Starmer said. "I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to walk away from that.”

Burnham says he's the candidate of change

Burnham has led Manchester since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. He is pledging to repeat his signature brand of “Manchesterism” on a national scale.

Burnham said he would work to ensure that “the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs.”

He told supporters and campaign workers on Friday that "we are going to lay out a new path for Britain.”

“We need an economy that works for everybody, not a few in far-off places from here,” he said. “We have an opportunity to turn the tide, to make the country feel like it’s working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again.”

Earlier, in his victory speech, he said Labour had “a final chance to change" and win back voters' trust.

“But it is a chance now, from this result tonight, to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided, dark politics of the kind we see in the United States,” he said.

Voters in Makerfield, who have been the focus of international media attention during the five-week campaign, were aware their votes carried unusual weight.

“I voted Andy Burnham because I don’t believe Keir Starmer has done a good job," said Ernest Sherman, 70. "So I voted tactically knowing that Andy Burnham has a chance to replace Starmer. So it will still be Labour, but he will have different views.”

Labour is in power but unpopular

Starmer’s popularity has cratered since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

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

Labour is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party, and facing a rising Reform UK, which consistently leads in nationwide opinion polls. The Nigel Farage -led party has rapidly gained ground in post-industrial northern England areas like Makerfield, some 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of London.

Burnham’s resounding victory gives Labour new hope of stopping the Reform tide. Farage acknowledged he was “disappointed, no question about it,” with the result.

A dismal performance by Labour in May’s local elections spurred scores of lawmakers to demand Starmer’s resignation. Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary in May, saying that “where we need vision, we have a vacuum.” Streeting has said he will run in a leadership contest if there is one.

Then Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker for Makerfield, stepped down to trigger a special election and give Burnham the chance to return to Parliament.

Britain’s parliamentary system allows governing parties to change leaders midterm, with the winner becoming prime minister without the need for a national election. Under Labour rules, a lawmaker can challenge the leader if they have backing from a fifth of the party’s House of Commons lawmakers — a number that stands at 81.

Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said defeating Reform UK strengthens Burnham’s claim to be Labour’s biggest asset.

“The narrative he can bring is, ‘No one else could have won that seat. I won that. I bring something unique. I bring an ability to renew our appeal,’” Ford said.

Burnham’s victory piles pressure on Starmer to quit

Burnham will head to London to be sworn in as a lawmaker as soon as Monday. He’s likely to seek a meeting with Starmer to argue that the prime minister should exit gracefully and set a timetable for his departure.

Labour lawmaker Louise Haigh, a Burnham ally, said Starmer should “do what’s best for both the country and the Labour Party” and “consider an orderly and managed transition.”

“Andy won’t be doing anything rash or hasty,” she told Sky News. “I’m really hopeful the prime minister and Andy can come to an agreement.”

Starmer insisted on Friday that he was elected on a “mandate for change” and would carry on with it.

Earlier this week he suggested that he could offer Burnham a Cabinet post, an idea rebuffed by Burnham's allies.

Despite his stubborn determination, Starmer could be forced out if several members of the Cabinet tell him the game is up and quit, or threaten to quit, in protest.

There could then be a leadership contest, or a coronation, depending on whether other potential candidates think Burnham has an unassailable lead.

“When things begin to slide away from a prime minister, they begin to slide away very, very quickly," said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

“Over the weekend there will be all sorts of talks behind closed doors, mainly I suspect people trying to persuade Keir Starmer ... that the game is up."

___

Lawless reported from London. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story.

The poll points to just how unpopular the war, which began Feb. 28, has been with Americans even as the Republican president turned abruptly from threatening Iran to reopening negotiations. Support for his handling of the war remains lopsidedly partisan. About two-thirds, 65%, of U.S. adults disapprove of how Trump is handling issues with Iran. But while the vast majority of Democrats and independents view Trump’s actions negatively, only 28% of Republicans are unhappy.

Americans’ views on how the president is handling Iran are roughly in line with his overall job approval, which stands at 37%, unchanged from an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in May.

The new survey was conducted June 11-17, just after Trump called off threats to escalate the war with Iran. The poll was fielded as Trump announced a deal with Iran and authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, concluding just before the deal was signed Wednesday.

Approval of Trump’s actions on Iran has been low over the past few months. But in interviews, some Republicans also weren’t pleased with the outcome of this week’s agreement, which gives Iran an immediate benefit, allowing it to sell its oil freely again.

The deal also reopens the strait without tolls for two months, restarts talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program and calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

David Farrington, a 79-year-old Republican-leaning independent in Fort Worth, Texas, “doesn’t have any love lost” for Iran, but he’s frustrated the agreement focused on the strait and didn’t deliver more on the country’s nuclear weapons program.

“Any agreement regarding the strait is hardly what I would consider a recognizable concession on the part of Iran,” Farrington said. “So, I consider that some fluff that attempts to make this agreement look better when it’s not.”

Trump’s approval on Iran remains flat

Only about one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Iran in the new poll, in line with May.

Donald McBride, a 28-year-old independent in Plano, Texas, is frustrated that Trump has not maintained his campaign promise to keep America out of foreign wars. McBride voted for Trump but he opposed going to war with Iran.

“I would like the war to end,” he said. “The original objective of the war was to end the Iranian regime, and that’s just not possible. I don’t really know why we’d continue fighting.”

The poll suggests most Americans want action in Iran to wrap up. Even with an agreement on the horizon, 53% of U.S. adults said American military action against Iran had “gone too far,” only a slight decline from 59% in March.

About 4 in 10 Republicans, though, said in the latest poll that action has been “about right,” and 37% said it had not gone far enough.

Joan Jones, a 64-year-old independent in northwest Florida, believes the United States’ actions in Iran have been necessary to address the threat Iran posed.

“Those attacks are ultimately to protect us from nuclear attacks,” Jones said. “I think we have to go through that … and eliminate that worry so we don’t have that hovering over us.”

Few approve of Trump’s approach on Israel

About one-third, 34%, of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Israel.

Tensions have been rising between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump as the president criticizes recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which jeopardized negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

James Huffman, a 69-year-old Republican in Medway, Ohio, thinks Trump is taking the wrong strategy when it comes to Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is not going to do everything Trump wants. He’s going to do what he wants,” Huffman said. “I just don’t think it’s effective.”

Only about one-third approve on the economy

About one-third of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to the economy. That’s in line with last month, and continues a challenging stretch for Trump on the issue.

Jones, the Florida independent, is more optimistic than most. She said she can hardly leave the house some hours without getting stuck in the traffic of tourists headed to the beach on vacation. She also spots lines around the block for Starbucks, McDonalds and Chick-fil-A in her community — all signs to her that the economy is doing well overall.

“I think President Trump’s policies are contributing to a better economy,” Jones said.

Other Republicans are more skeptical, a troubling sign for a president who prides himself on his business acumen. Only 69% of Republicans approve of how he’s handling the economy, slightly lower than the 78% who approve of how he’s handling the presidency overall.

Patricia Bailey, a 42-year-old Republican in Parkersburg, West Virginia, sees an economy where prices have gotten out of control. “I just said the other night, ordering pizza is for rich people,” she said. Bailey voted for Trump but added, “He’s kind of let me down a little bit.”

Even if high prices preceded Trump, Bailey doesn’t think he’s lived up to his pledge to improve the economy.

“I think he got so distracted with the war that he forgot some old promises,” she said.

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The AP-NORC poll of 3,040 adults was conducted June 11-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

That’s why 10 News anchor Brittany Morgan wants to hear from you! She’s on a mission to highlight the “everyday heroes” who make our communities feel like home. Whether it’s a first responder, a teacher, a caregiver, or anyone working to make a difference, we want to know about the special people who inspire you.

So, who are the everyday heroes in your life? Nominate them using the form below, and they could be featured on WSLS 10! Just include their name, the area where they live, and a brief description of about 150 words explaining why you think they deserve to be recognized.

As of Friday, June 19, the average price of regular gas per gallon in Virginia is $3.72, according to AAA. Premium averages $4.62 per gallon, while diesel averages $4.97 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: $3.61
  • Mid: $4.14
  • Premium: $4.54
  • Diesel: $4.98
• Roanoke:
• • Regular: $3.71
  • Mid: $4.21
  • Premium: $4.61
  • Diesel: $4.99
• Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford (New River Valley area)
• • Regular: $3.73
  • Mid: $4.21
  • Premium: $4.62
  • Diesel: $4.91

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.

The increases come after city officials identified a roughly $4 million gap during the budget process earlier this year.

City Manager Rob Fincher previously told 10 News the shortfall was driven by the expiration of federal funding and rising operational expenses that had not been accounted for in previous budgets.

“What was budgeted before didn’t account for the future,” Fincher said. “Basically, to say that this funding is going to end one day.”

Under the adopted budget, the city’s real estate tax rate will increase by 9 cents per $100 of assessed value. Based on estimates, the average homeowner will pay about $67 more annually in property taxes.

Residents will also see trash collection fees increase by $5 per month, adding another $60 per year to household expenses.

Electric bills are expected to rise by an average of 47 cents per month through adjustments to the city’s electric rates.

Combined, the increases amount to approximately $11 more per month, or about $132 annually for the average household.

Not everyone agrees on what caused the budget challenges.

Councilman Aaron Rawls and Mayor LC Jones both voted against the budget. Rawls says he didn’t want to increase taxes again and believes political turmoil and infighting among city leaders contributed to the city’s financial problems.

“Corrupt people are going to cost you money,” Rawls said. “And so that’s where we’re at.”

Some residents say the additional costs come at a difficult time for many households.

“Ever since the election almost four years ago, we have had historic tax and fee increases,” said Martinsville resident Ural Harris. “We have the lowest income in the state and the lowest ability to pay of just about anybody in the state.”

Rawls said the city’s financial challenges may not end with this year’s budget. He said some equipment purchases and capital improvements have been postponed because of the deficit, potentially creating additional financial pressures in future years.

“All we’re doing is digging the hole even deeper,” Rawls said. “So it’s a guarantee there’s a tax increase next year.”

City officials have not announced any future tax increases yet.

As thousands poured into Atlanta Stadium on Monday to see Spain face Cape Verde in what turned out to be a remarkable scoreless draw, Ramroop stood outside, increasingly stressed as she went back and forth for hours between StubHub representatives on the phone and FIFA representatives in the ticket booth. Each blamed the other.

No one could figure out why the tickets Ramroop bought months ago on StubHub for $485 apiece couldn't be transferred from the original seller to the FIFA ticketing app. StubHub offered her a refund and, as Ramroop heard the crowd roar for the start of the match, she knew she had no choice but to give up and take the offer.

“I didn’t want a refund, I didn’t want my money back,” Ramroop said. “I wanted to go to the game.”

The World Cup has delivered thrills on the pitch, but fans have flooded social media with complaints about tickets that never arrived, orders that were canceled at the last minute and hours they spent trying to sort out problems between FIFA’s ticketing system and outside resale platforms. The vast majority seem to be about industry titan StubHub, but people who bought through competitors such as SeatGeek and Vivid Seats have also reported issues. Interviews with fans and industry experts show that some cases stem from technical glitches in the transfer process, while others could involve sellers who never had tickets to deliver in the first place, though StubHub denies such sales happen on its platform.

A grandmother's disappointment

FIFA has urged fans to buy resale tickets through its own marketplace, where it slaps a 30% surcharge on every resold ticket — 15% each from the buyer and seller. But many fans bought through other resale sites, either out of habit or because those sites have lower prices or are easier to navigate.

Ramroop didn't realize she was taking a risk when she bought through StubHub, which she had used in the past without issues.

As she and her grandson Elijah Gomes took the long, lonely train ride back to the Atlanta suburbs, Elijah followed the score on his phone. The match had ended scoreless, and he tried to cheer up his devastated grandmother by telling her they hadn't missed much after all (Cape Verdeans would beg to differ ).

“He’s telling me, ‘Grandma, it’s OK, Grandma.’ And he’s trying to console me,” Ramroop said the next day.

She was hardly alone. An Associated Press journalist witnessed more than a dozen frustrated fans at the match who said they were stuck in similar situations.

StubHub blamed FIFA for the transfer problems that buyers like Ramroop have experienced. In a statement, it said FIFA has “poor technology infrastructure,” enacted last-minute transfer restrictions and didn't launch its new ticketing app until a few weeks before the tournament. The company also called out organizers that “take anti-competitive actions” that limit where fans can buy and sell tickets.

Asked about the technical issues, FIFA on Wednesday reiterated that sales through its official site are guaranteed to go through.

An industry's longstanding problem

Industry observers say the problems appear to stem from more than one cause. For some, it may indeed be technical glitches — an issue that StubHub says is “very, very rare” and one that it is hard at work to solve. For others, they say it's likely a more longstanding scourge: speculative sellers.

Scott Friedman, an industry veteran and co-founder of a consultancy called the Ticket Talk Network, said some sellers list tickets before they actually have them, betting that prices will fall closer to the event so they can buy the tickets at a better price later. But because World Cup ticket prices have surged since the tournament began, those sellers have been forced to either buy expensive tickets to fulfill their orders or cancel and accept penalties from resale platforms. StubHub's penalties are typically 200% of the ticket price, Friedman said.

“This is not new at all,” said Friedman, pointing to other high-profile events where frustrated fans were left empty-handed, including Taylor Swift's Eras tour. “This has been going on, but it’s making global news because it’s the World Cup.”

StubHub says it requires sellers to prove they have tickets before they list them.

But regardless of the reason for the canceled sales, Friedman said “StubHub should fill every single order to make sure fans get in the biggest global sporting event that happens every four years.”

That’s what many fans say they expected when they purchased through StubHub.

StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee promises replacement tickets or a refund if tickets fail to arrive. But the policy repeatedly says those remedies are provided at StubHub’s “sole discretion,” meaning the company can choose a refund instead of securing replacement seats.

“That is pretty explicit language,” said Michael McCann, a sports law expert at the University of New Hampshire. McCann noted that a buyer could try to challenge the language under state consumer protection laws, but it would be an uphill battle.

A father's regrets

Pape Ndaw is crestfallen that the high school graduation gift he got for his son — tickets for them to see the Netherlands and Japan near their home city of Dallas — never arrived.

He bought the tickets for about $550 apiece in December. Then, two days before the June 14 match, he received an email from StubHub telling him, “The seller can’t deliver your original tickets.”

Ndaw accepted store credit rather than a refund, thinking he would use the funds to quickly get replacements, only to then realize that the cheapest last-minute tickets were going for more than $1,500 each. Not only were they not going to get to go to the game, but Ndaw said StubHub rejected his belated request for a refund instead of store credit.

Breaking the news to his soccer-obsessed son was brutal, Ndaw said.

“It was a disastrous thing,” he said. “He had told all his friends that he was going to that game. He literally cried. I mean, he is a 17-year-old kid, but he cried.”

A family's attempt to make the best of it

Others fared somewhat better.

Patrick O’Neil of Pittsboro, North Carolina, traveled to Atlanta with his wife, son and relatives after purchasing five tickets through StubHub for the Spain-Cape Verde match. Two tickets transferred successfully, but three never arrived.

O’Neil’s 15-year-old son and his uncle ended up using the two tickets, while O’Neil, his wife and another relative watched from a nearby bar.

After local media caught wind of their ordeal, O’Neil said StubHub contacted the family and offered tickets to another game. Since the family had already bought tickets to one, though, he and his wife asked the company to instead give the seats to local nonprofit Soccer in the Streets so they could go to people who otherwise might not be able to attend a match.

“StubHub is not evil, but they’re part of the whole system that makes it really hard for just normal kids and people who might want to see a match get to go,” O'Neil said.

On Thursday, a StubHub representative confirmed to the AP that the company would honor the O’Neils’ request and send tickets to the nonprofit.

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

Col John Ripley, who grew up in Radford and became a war hero in Vietnam, received his Medal of Honor Thursday. President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to the local veteran for Heroism during the Vietnam War.

10 News Anchor John Carlin was at the White House for the ceremony Thursday.

Original:

John Ripley, who grew up in Radford and later became a war hero in Vietnam will soon receive the Medal of Honor -- the highest military decoration.

In the eyes of many, this award is long overdue.

Grainy black and white network film footage from Vietnam shows then-Captain John Ripley speaking to network correspondents in Dong Ha, Vietnam in 1972. He was advising the South Vietnamese 3rd Marine Battalion on one side of the Cua Viet River, while enemy troops prepared to invade from the other.

It would come down to Ripley himself to prevent the invasion.

“By the last couple of days of March, it’s evident that this is a major invasion. All of the ground sensors are going off, there’s troop sightings, there are armored battalion and regiment sightings,” said Ripley’s son Tom, who has been working behind the scenes for years to get his father the recognition he believes he deserves.

As tanks and troops on the friendly side began to dig in, they knew they had little chance against the much larger North Vietnamese force.

“The Vietnamese Marine Battalion’s orders from the Vietnamese chain of command was to hold and die. And my father’s the advisor to this,” Ripley said.

The only way to hold off the enemy was to blow up the bridge. So, Ripley -- a trained demolitions expert climbs onto the steel beneath the bridge, rigging charges. Depicted in a diorama at the U.S. Naval Academy, He is seen hanging by his hands, explosive charges on his back while the enemy is shooting at him.

He had been ordered to do it by an officer who thought all was lost.

“He gives my father the order to blow the bridge, puts the handset down, and says, I’ve just sent John Ripley to his death,” Ripley recounted.

The orders like something from Mission Impossible.

“He put 500 pounds of explosives across nine girders, staggered them so that they would blow and twist the bridge between the caissons and make the bridge impassable,” Ripley said.

Capt. Ripley made multiple trips under the bridge. Crimping explosive blasting caps onto the time fuses with his teeth. It’s a dangerous exercise usually done with a specific tool. If a blasting cap is crimped too hard, it will explode immediately. If it is not crimped enough, it will not trigger the desired explosion once the charges are set.

“They’re shooting him with small arms fire. You know, medium and heavy machine guns and tank rounds are impacting the bridge trying to stop him from doing this,” Ripley said. He explained that his father was partially protected by the girders under the bridge. He said that his father would face the greatest exposure to enemy fire when he would swing down to maneuver to a different girder, to set the next charge.

“It took a lot of courage just to take that first hand grip and carrying all that equipment, all the explosives that you had to set. That alone would have scared off most people. And yet, he kept going,” said Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith the representative for Virginia’s Ninth District.

Miraculously, Ripley survived. The explosives detonated. And the invasion was stopped in its tracks.

Ripley Grew up in the New River Valley

Ripley had grown up in Radford in a house where the Dedmon Center now stands. The bridge to the Radford University athletic complex named for the war hero.

Ripley’s son said it was his family that drove him to survive.

“Part of the reason why men go overseas, men and women go overseas to do this is because they know they have something to come back to. And in my father’s case, he had three children at the ages of two, three, and six. And my mom, living in Blacksburg, that’s who he was thinking about undoubtedly when he was under that bridge,” Tom Ripley said.

“It means that you went not only above and beyond, but you went above the “above and beyond,” Griffith said.

Ripley’s heroic efforts were captured in a book -- The Bridge at Dong Ha, written by fellow Marine John Grider Miller.

Ripley received the Navy Cross for his efforts -- but the heroism was worthy of more -- The Medal of Honor.

But with the U.S. trying to hand the war over to the South Vietnamese in 1972, it seemed the wrong time to draw attention to American heroics. The optics were just wrong for the time.

But 2026 appears to be the right time. Tom Ripley had never given up trying to secure the proper honor for his father. Recently, Representative Morgan Griffith carried a bill calling for the Medal of Honor for Ripley to Congress, where it passed. Griffith was tapped because Ripley had grown up in his district. He says he was happy to carry the bill.

“There was live fire going on while this operation was occurring and he got it done - and came back home and lived an amazing life,” Griffith said.

Ripley would stay in the Marines, retiring with the rank of Colonel. In the late ’80’s, he headed the Navy-Marine Corps ROTC at VMI.

In 1992, he became president of Southern Virginia College in Buena Vista.

Later, president of Hargrave Military Academy.

In 2002, Col. Ripley became the very first Marine officer to receive the “Distinguished Graduate Award,” the highest and most prestigious award given by the Naval Academy. In June 2008, four months before his passing, he also became the only Marine to be inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.

There were many, many other accolades along the way -- but soon, in a White House ceremony, he will receive the highest honor of all. The family will accept the Medal of Honor at the White House.

“When the president calls, we’ll be waiting and ready,” Tom Ripley said.

The defender, who is currently playing with Morocco at the World Cup after winning the Champions League for a second straight year with PSG, had appealed a February decision by an investigative judge. That ruling followed recommendations from public prosecutors that Hakimi should face trial.

The decision was released just hours before Morocco takes on Scotland in their Group C match. Morocco drew 1-1 with Brazil in its opening game.

Hakimi, one of the best right backs in the world, denies any wrongdoing. He faced preliminary charges of rape in March 2023 after a 24-year-old woman said she was raped by Hakimi at his home in a Paris suburb.

The Versailles appeals court said in a press statement that it ordered that Hakimi be formally charged with rape. The court said that the investigations conducted during the inquiry and the judicial investigation led the investigating chamber to conclude that there is sufficient evidence against the player to stand trial.

Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the plaintiff, said that after more than three years of legal proceedings, “and after being defamed and dragged through the mud by Achraf Hakimi’s defense,” the court's decision “brings my client a sense of relief and hope."

“Relief that she has been heard by the justice system and will have her case heard at trial,” Pardo said in a statement to The Associate Press. "Hope that this trial will help other women and further weaken the fortress of denial and impunity surrounding sexual violence, including within the world of men’s football.”

Hakimi claimed in a message posted on X on Friday that his case would have been dismissed if he had not been famous, and that he sometimes feels he has become “an easy target.”

“Justice looked me in the eye and told me: ‘If you were not famous, there would never have been a case,’" Hakimi wrote. “I chose to remain silent for years. I believed that staying dignified, being patient, and trusting the justice system would allow the right decisions to be made.”

He added that the case has been detrimental not only to him, but also to his family, “and above all, to the truth.”

“I have been waiting for this trial since the first day. And I am now waiting for it impatiently,” he added. “Finally, I will be able to speak.”

A date for the trial has yet to be announced.

“The multitude of exculpatory elements uncovered during the investigation and judicial inquiry would, in any other case, have led to the dismissal of the proceedings," Hakimi’s lawyer, Fanny Colin, told the AP.

“Achraf Hakimi’s defense regrets that no consequences were drawn from the contradictions and false statements made by the complainant, her concealment of information from the judicial authorities, her obstruction of the search for the truth, and the psychological assessments noting both her ambivalence and her lack of clarity regarding the events she reported.”

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

U.S. markets will be closed Friday for Juneteenth.

Planned talks in Switzerland between Iran and the United States over their efforts to reach a permanent end to war were delayed, while Israel’s military said its forces struck targets throughout southern Lebanon overnight as Hezbollah reported intense fighting in the area.

“Both sides are trying to show some good faith,” Bas van Geffen of RaboResearch said in a commentary. “But even if the water appears calmer, there is still a strong undertow. The agreement remains fragile on multiple fronts.”

Germany's DAX rose 0.2% to 25,079.30, while the CAC 40 in Paris was nearly unchanged at 8,467.75. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.2% to 10,376.64.

The futures for the S&P500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 wavered between gains and losses but closed 0.3% higher at a new record of 71,250.06. The government reported that consumer prices excluding volatile fresh foods was unchanged, but analysts said it would likely pick up in coming months despite higher fuel costs.

Higher inflation was a factor driving the Bank of Japan to raise its benchmark interest rate earlier this week to a three-decade high of 1% as it gradually adjusts its policies after years of near-zero or negative rates.

In South Korea, the Kospi lost 0.1% to 9,052.42, just shy of its record set a day earlier. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia declined 0.9% to 8,828.70, while India's Sensex lost 0.8%.

Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan were closed for the Dragon Boat festival.

On Thursday, stocks rose on Wall Street, erasing most of their losses from a day earlier to notch weekly gains thanks to big advances for heavyweight technology companies. The decline on Wednesday was driven by anticipation that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this year in an effort to fight inflation.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1% and the Dow industrials added 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite surged 1.9%.

Technology stocks had some of the biggest gains and the most influence on the broader market's rise. Intel surged 10.6% after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the semiconductor giant will make chips for Apple in the U.S. Other big semiconductor companies gained ground. Nvidia rose 3% and Micron Technology jumped 8.7%.

On the losing end, SpaceX fell for the second straight day since its big debut on the U.S. stock market last week. The Elon Musk-led rocket maker and AI company was down 3.6% following a 4.9% loss Wednesday.

Oil prices wavered after the United States and Iran signed an agreement to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic. Brent crude, the international standard, spent most of the day lower before settling 0.4% higher at $79.85 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude fell 0.2% to $75.85 per barrel.

Early Friday, Brent crude was down 0.4% at $79.50 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude was flat at $75.85 per barrel.

Prices for crude oil are still above roughly $70 per barrel from before the war, but are well below the $100-plus price from a few weeks ago.

Rising energy costs have been putting more pressure on already hot inflation. The average price of gasoline in the U.S. has dipped below $4 a gallon, but is still 25% higher than a year ago. Prices have been rising for a wide range of goods because of higher shipping costs.

The Federal Reserve kept is key interest rate unchanged this week but hotter inflation means it will likely raise rates by the end of the year. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier for businesses and households, spurring growth, but they also tend to stoke inflation.

In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.31 Japanese yen from 161.38 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1458.

Manchester City, in its first season in 10 years without Pep Guardiola as manager, will host Bournemouth in its opener, and Manchester United will visit promoted Hull. Liverpool plays at Newcastle.

The season's fixtures were released by the league on Friday.

Chelsea and new coach Xabi Alonso visit Fulham in a west London derby on Aug. 24 that concludes the opening round of fixtures.

After facing Coventry, Mikel Arteta's team visits Aston Villa and then hosts Chelsea as it looks to repeat as champion after winning its first league title in 22 years last season.

Andoni Iraola, Liverpool's new manager, will get his first taste of the Merseyside derby on Nov. 28 at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Man United's second game of the season is also against a promoted team — Ipswich — this one at Old Trafford with coach Michael Carrick starting a two-year contract.

The first Manchester derby is scheduled for Sept. 12 at Old Trafford. United visits Anfield on Nov. 21.

The season starts one week later than the 2025-26 campaign, to allow for player recovery following the World Cup.

The final round will be played on Sunday, May 30 — six days before the Champions League final on June 5 in Madrid.

Frank Lampard, the Chelsea great who coaches Coventry, welcomes his old team to Coventry Building Society Arena on Boxing Day, Dec. 26.

Ipswich opens its campaign at home against Sunderland. Ipswich is looking for a new coach after Kieran McKenna stepped down just over a week ago despite leading the club to promotion.

Man City is also without a manager but is reportedly eying Enzo Maresca, the former Chelsea coach who was assistant to Guardiola at City in its treble-winning season of 2022-23.

The season's curtain-raising Community Shield between league champion Arsenal and FA Cup winner Man City will be on Aug. 16 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

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

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 25, spent two years in captivity in Gaza after Palestinian militants abducted him and 250 others during the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I feel like I have a mission to spread to the world, to use my voice and empower other victims of sexual assaults,” he said Sunday in a conversation with Israel's first lady Michal Herzog in Jerusalem. “I want people who have been through those experiences to know that they’re not alone.”

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.

According to the United Nations, conflict-related sexual violence is on the rise worldwide, with cases more than doubling in 2025, as state and non-state actors increasingly use it as a tactic of war, torture and political repression.

In Israel and the Palestinian territories, the use of sexual violence as part of the conflict has become highly politicized since the Oct. 7 attacks and the start of the war in Gaza. Rights groups and the United Nations have investigated and documented cases beginning with allegations of widespread rape during the initial Hamas attacks.

The U.N. also said last month that it has verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, "including as a form of torture” perpetrated by Israeli military and security forces against Palestinian men and women in Gaza and the West Bank, charges Israel denies.

This year, for the first time, the U.N. included Israel’s armed and security forces on a list of parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.” Hamas had previously been on the list.

In 2024, the U.N.'s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, said she “found clear and convincing information” that some hostages were subjected to such abuse, including rape and “sexualized torture.” But in a recent report, the U.N. said it was “not able to verify” public allegations made by former hostages accusing their Palestinian captors of abuse. It blamed the lack of verification on what it said was Israel’s denial for U.N. groups to carry out investigations.

On Sunday, Gilboa-Dalal recounted again the details of the abuse he said he faced and said he was frustrated by the U.N. In a short, separate interview following the conversation with Herzog, Gilboa-Dalal said: “They have no right to say what happened or what didn’t happen, I was there, not them.”

At least six of the released hostages have publicly shared experiences of sexual assault while in captivity. Gilboa-Dalal first spoke of the attacks in an interview with Israeli media last November, about a month after he was released.

Gilboa-Dalal said his abuse took place over two separate assaults, over a year after his captivity began. He said that he froze as it happened and was unable to resist, terrified and physically weakened after spending most of his time in a narrow cell, deep underground, with three other hostages. He said they were forcibly starved or given rotten food, and denied the opportunity to move around or bathe.

In both instances, Gilboa-Dalal said, he was naked and blindfolded. He said the captor threatened to kill him if he ever spoke about what happened, beating him and holding a knife to his throat and a gun to his head.

“He could do whatever he wanted. I was so weak, and he was so strong,” Gilboa-Dalal said. Because he and the other hostages were constantly monitored, he said, he didn’t tell either of them until just before one was released during a temporary ceasefire in Feb. 2025.

Now, he says he is trying to heal and spend time with family. He is also writing a book and an anime script about his experiences.

He said he worries that other sexual abuse victims are likewise isolated and unable to speak about their abuse. “They may think, ‘maybe it’s my fault maybe I could have done something different,’” he said. “But it wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t any of the victims’ fault.”

The result? Many riders saw very different prices.

“We had about 175 people from across the country look at different prices for the same ride at the same time,” said Consumer Reports Investigative Reporter Derek Kravitz. “People do get different prices for essentially the same ride.”

In a test near Florida’s Gulf Coast, two riders looked up the same ride between two towns at the same time. One was quoted close to 95 dollars. The other would have paid almost sixty-six—same trip, same time, same app—a difference of nearly thirty dollars.

The investigation also raised concerns about discounts and crossed-out prices. Consumer Reports found that in some cases, the higher “original” price did not appear to be a real starting price, meaning riders may think they’re getting a deal when they’re not.

“Where you might see a ride discounted from $80 down to $60—that’s not a real discount," said Kravitz. “That’s fictitious pricing.”

Uber and Lyft strongly dispute Consumer Reports’ findings and deny setting prices based on who you are. They say the different fares reflect a live marketplace: supply, demand, traffic, weather, and that prices can change by the second. Both companies also deny offering discounts that weren’t real.

Consumer Reports also found that the companies are keeping a bigger slice of every fare between forty-three to nearly fifty percent. Drivers say it leaves them feeling squeezed.

“They know they can manipulate us, and they basically take advantage of that,” Mario Antunez, a Lyft driver in Portland, said.

What can riders do? Consumer Reports says there are limited options, but it recommends comparing prices between Uber and Lyft before booking, being skeptical of crossed-out “discount” prices, and considering taxis, public transit, or other options if available.

In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday, though it has been celebrated by many communities for nearly 160 years. As the nation comes together to recognize this day, some businesses and services will close, while many others will remain open.

Here’s what you can expect on Juneteenth:

Postal Services

The U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail on Juneteenth. However, UPS and FedEx are expected to operate as usual.

Government Agencies

Nonessential government offices at all levels, including the DMV, city halls, courthouses, and many libraries, will be closed.

Retail

Most major retailers and grocery stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco, will remain open, though hours may vary by location. Major restaurant chains, including McDonald’s, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A, will also be open. It’s a good idea to call ahead to confirm hours.

Stock Market

The stock market will be closed on Juneteenth. The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and U.S. bond markets will not operate on the holiday.

Trash Collection

Most trash and recycling collection schedules ran as usual this week.

The holiday marks June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and publicly announced freedom for enslaved people in Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

But how much do you know about Juneteenth? Test your knowledge by taking our fact-or-fiction quiz below:

Whether it’s a throwback or a recent snapshot, now’s your chance to shine a spotlight on your special memories together.

Submit your favorite photo to Pin It under the “Holidays” channel and select “Father’s Day” as the category. You might even see your picture on TV this Sunday! Don’t forget to add a brief description or share who’s in the photo.

Let’s fill this Father’s Day with heartwarming moments and unforgettable stories. Upload your photo today and let everyone see how much your dad means to you! 📸💙

Vice President JD Vance had been prepared to make an overnight flight Friday to meet with his Iranian counterparts at a mountainside resort in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen and begin the technical talks.

His staff and a small pack of journalists had even gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Meanwhile, dozens of White House officials, advance staffers and more media gathered in Switzerland to prepare for Vance's anticipated arrival.

But then abruptly on Thursday evening the trip was called off — at least for the time being.

The White House issued a statement explaining Vance — who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the negotiations — and his delegation were prepared for talks, but they were unable to finalize plans and the vice president would remain in Washington.

“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the statement noted.

Fighting in southern Lebanon intensifies

The announcement followed a report from Al-Mayadeen, a Pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.

Fighting intensified with at least 18 killed by Israeli airstrikes, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as “Israel’s security needs require it.”

Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal doesn’t explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s “territorial integrity.”

Hours before postponing his trip, Vance gave some indication of the state of flux when he told reporters at a White House briefing that he was uncertain if the talks were going to happen this weekend.

“Our plan is to go to Switzerland, I don’t know exactly when,” Vance told reporters. “We think these technical negotiations start sometime this weekend. That’s still the plan. But that could change.”

Soon after Vance spoke to reporters, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei endorsed direct negotiations with the U.S. in a terse statement read by state media that appeared to signal to the Islamic Republic’s leadership that it could move forward with a first round of talks.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said in his statement.

The messaging seemed to give Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the Feb. 28 U.S. strike that killed his father, some maneuverability. Hard-liners in the Iranian government, including Khamenei’s father, have long opposed direct talks with the White House, especially after Trump, during his first term, pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama's administration.

More importantly for the White House, it appeared to create a permission structure for the talks to start.

The meeting was initially supposed to be a signing ceremony

Vance was initially expected to go to Switzerland to sign the agreement at a formal ceremony. Instead, Trump signed the document Wednesday during a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles with French President Emmanuel Macron. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian separately signed the agreement.

The agreement states that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under rubble left by U.S. military strikes last year targeting Tehran’s key nuclear sites, must at minimum be diluted under international supervision.

It also states that Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment it has made previously. But a range of other commitments remain to be worked out.

Iran believes it's in a strong negotiating position

Iranians would be going into the talks with a measure of confidence after effectively shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, causing global economic reverberations, said Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities in Washington.

She said the U.S. is now “essentially trying to negotiate our way back to the prewar status quo."

Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House think tank, said the “buoyant” Iranian leadership feels it has the upper hand. The endorsement of the talks by the Iranian supreme leader “sends a very strong signal domestically: ’We’re now on an equal footing with the U.S.'”

”‘Trump has gone from calling for regime change on Feb. 28 to this: Now they’re going to sit down with us directly and talk about these big issues,'” Quilliam said of the Iranians' thinking. “So it’s intended more for the domestic audience, and telling them: ‘We are firmly in control of this. There can be no protests, no revolution: We are a new regime and we’re staying put.’”

Trump's tone has also taken a notable shift.

For weeks, he's insisted the financial costs to Americans were less important to him than stamping out Iran's nuclear program. He irked some of his fellow Republicans when he indicated its potential impact on November's midterm elections wasn't a concern.

But this week, at the G7 summit in Evian-Les-Bains, France, he acknowledged that continuing the war could have led to “economic catastrophe” and that oil reserves were on track to run out in about four weeks.

“And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover,” said Trump, referring to the 31st president whose time in office was defined by the Great Depression.

Vance has to negotiate through political division

For Vance, a likely 2028 presidential contender, how the negotiations play out could have enormous ramifications for his political fortunes.

Vance's skepticism of foreign wars was a core part of his political identity during his political rise. But now he finds himself the chief defender of negotiating an endgame to Trump's conflict that Democrats have largely derided as a foolish gambit. Some hawkish Republicans are aghast that Trump is getting behind a settlement that could put billions of dollars into Iran's coffers.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that aspects of the deal are “completely out of step” with Trump's goals.

Trump had fiercely criticized Obama for the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Trump argued failed to stop Tehran from advancing toward a weapon and funneled billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic. The Republican exited the U.S. from the deal in 2018.

Trump has pushed back against comparisons to the JCPOA, saying he had “negotiated from strength” after a massive military campaign while asserting that Obama was paying the Iranians off and not receiving acquiescence.

Wicker was particularly concerned about the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran mentioned in the 14-point agreement, saying it "would make Iran’s payoff under Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison.” Trump and Vance have said no U.S. taxpayer money would go to such a fund and it would not come without concessions and reforms by Tehran.

The celebration began in Texas but soon spread nationwide and became a federal holiday in 2021. Juneteenth, which is short for “June 19th,” marks the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and announce freedom for enslaved people in Texas.

According to History.com, although General Robert E. Lee surrendered in Appomattox Court House in April 1865, slavery had remained relatively intact in Texas. Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation did not instantly free the slaves. The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union Control.

In Texas, slavery had continued as the state experienced no large-scale fighting or significant presence from Union troops. However, the arrival of the Union in June signaled the freedom for more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.

In 1979, Texas became the first state to mark Juneteenth as an official holiday and in June 2021, it was made into a federal holiday.

According to NPS, the day has held a special meaning for people of African descent and is celebrated throughout the United States with parades, family reunions, speeches and barbeques.

The decision against Rong Chhun, a top adviser to the Nation Power Party, was met with anger by some 300 supporters from around the country who had gathered outside the Supreme Court complex in Phnom Penh.

“Even though he is not in prison, I'm saddened that his freedom has been restricted and he has become a sub-citizen, meaning he has no right to vote or participate in politics,” said Nek Ratha, a 55-year-old from the capital.

“The verdict is hard for us to accept because he is not free, and he has done nothing wrong.”

The 56-year-old had been found guilty last year of inciting social unrest after meeting with villagers displaced by government construction projects, in what was widely seen as one of many legal moves taken by the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet to stifle criticism.

Rong Chhun told his supporters the verdict was “completely unfair” and accused the court of following orders of the government rather than the rule of law.

“If the powerful leader wants black, the court will paint it black for them,” he said. “And if the powerful wants white, the court will paint it white for them.”

Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the ruling demonstrates Cambodia's courts “lack of independence from the ruling party.”

"Hun Manet’s government should stop using the courts to silence the political opposition and instead reopen space for parties and civil society groups to operate freely ahead of next year’s election,” she said.

Cambodia’s Minister of Information Neth Pheaktra told The Associated Press that it was “not appropriate to characterize a judicial decision as an executive decision.”

“The Royal Government respects the separation of powers, the independence of the courts, and the rule of law,” he said in a written response to a query. “Any party who disagrees with a court ruling should address the matter through the legal remedies available under Cambodian law, rather than through political assumptions.”

Under almost four decades of autocratic former Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia was widely criticized for human rights abuses that included suppression of freedom of speech and association. He was succeeded in August 2023 by his American-educated son, Hun Manet, but there have been few signs of political liberalization.

Sophal Ear, a Cambodian political scientist in the U.S., called the decision against Rong Chhun “evidence of continuity rather than change under the transition from Hun Sen to Hun Manet.”

“A high-profile case like this inevitably becomes a test of how much political space exists under the current leadership and whether the transition has produced any meaningful changes in governance,” he said. “Many people will conclude that the leadership transition has so far produced more continuity than reform.”

Under the decision, Rong Chhun will be prohibited from any involvement in politics for five years, including voting or standing as a candidate, and will be banned from traveling abroad for three years, the remainder of his original four-year sentence, his attorney Em Chantha told reporters. He had also been free while his appeal was pending.

Supreme Court decisions are final, but Rong Chhun said he and his attorney would study the verdict in detail to decide whether there would be a chance to ask Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni for a pardon.

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Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press reporter Anton L. Delgado contributed to this report from Bangkok.

As thousands of fans streamed toward the stadium last week for the tournament opener, many stopped to snap photos, pet the dog and post videos online. Within hours, Osito was appearing on international broadcasts and spreading across social media, transforming the bicycle-riding dog into one of the World Cup’s most charming viral stars.

For his owner, Jorge Rangel, the attention is less about internet fame than the companionship he shares with the dog who accompanies him almost everywhere. For the past two years, Osito has joined Rangel on his daily rounds delivering household products across Mexico City.

“More than a dog, he’s my daily companion,” Rangel, 50, said.

They travel together on a specially adapted cargo bicycle, where Osito sits calmly in a back compartment, greeting passersby and drawing smiles from strangers.

The arrangement began by chance. One day, Rangel placed the dog in a delivery box attached to his bicycle and took him for a short ride. Osito seemed to enjoy it. Over time, Rangel added cushions, adjusted the setup and gradually brought him along on longer trips through the city. Before long, the pair became a familiar sight.

Now, children rush over to greet Osito, strangers stop to take photographs and some initially mistake him for a stuffed animal because he sits so still, often dressed in one of his many outfits.

“He has a very gentle temperament. Everybody wants to meet him,” Rangel said.

When the World Cup arrived, Rangel saw an opportunity to introduce Osito — whose name means “little bear” — to an even larger audience.

A devoted soccer fan, he spent weeks preparing for the tournament, gathering accessories and adapting a pair of sunglasses to fit the dog. He dressed Osito in a national team jersey and decorated the bicycle, hoping to stand out among the crowds heading to the stadium.

“It exceeded all my expectations,” Rangel said of the response.

What appears to resonate most with fans is not the costume or the viral fame, but the relationship between the man and the dog. Rangel adopted Osito years ago, during a difficult period in his life, and describes him as an emotional lifeline.

“I didn’t know what it meant to love an animal until Osito came into my life,” Rangel said.

Today, the two spend nearly every day together. If Rangel leaves without him, Osito protests with something he rarely does: bark.

Their bond is evident to the strangers who encounter them on the streets. Rangel recalls people approaching him to say that seeing Osito had brightened an otherwise stressful day. Some have thanked the pair simply for making them smile.

Now, as World Cup celebrations continue, videos of Osito keep circulating and requests for photographs remain constant. Yet each morning, Rangel and Osito climb aboard their bicycle and head back into the streets of Mexico City, where they continue working, greeting strangers and spreading moments of joy.

For Rangel, that remains the most meaningful part of the story.

The television appearances and viral fame are gratifying, he said. But what matters most is that people see the affection between a man and his dog — a bond that has unexpectedly become one of the World Cup’s most endearing images.

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

Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center for the nation's first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It's the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.

The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Texas at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state's enslaved people were free with “absolute equality” 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in the South.

“Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of Liberty.”

Obama's presidential center in Chicago

Several days of events have been planned for the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center, including a dedication ceremony held Thursday.

The center's public opening also arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy and liberation. The nation is grappling with deepening political division and renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political representation in Congress.

The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by former first lady Michelle Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library.

In addition to spaces designed to bring people together, the campus that's expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually aims to also encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director, has said they're “inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large.”

The museum lets visitors experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House.

The history of Juneteenth

This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama's vice president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts.

The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day that U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas port city of Galveston with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3.

As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a promise of freedom with a Union victory.

“It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said.

About six months after Granger's arrival in Galveston, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified.

Celebrations across the nation

Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth, is celebrating with a daylong gathering at a park with music and fireworks, a parade and a worship service in a historic Black church. In nearby Houston, there will be a lineup of musical artists and a domino tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of formerly enslaved men.

Other events across the U.S. over the long weekend include a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a festival on Martha’s Vineyard.

Several cities across the U.S. will host walks named for Opal Lee, the Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Participants will walk 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year.

A holiday for reflection

Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate, and by the 1880s, “it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said.

“They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and institution-building,” he added.

Corey D. B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school, said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially amid efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to undermine the retelling of Black history.

“I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s experiment with democracy,” Walker said.

Pingree and Charles won their primaries Friday, after the June 9 contests advanced to ranked choice voting.

In another ranked runoff in Maine, Democrat Matt Dunlap won the nomination in the 2nd Congressional District. Dunlap will face the state’s former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, for a seat Democrats are trying to hold in the fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The ranked counts conclude a busy primary season in Maine in which Democratic voters also chose oyster farmer Graham Platner to run against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner won that primary by a wide margin and it did not need to proceed to ranked choice.

New governor this year

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has served since 2018, is termed out of office, creating an open field for governor in both parties. Five Democratic candidates and seven Republicans actively campaigned in the June 9 primary.

That created a scenario in which no candidate in either party broke 50% of the popular vote, leading to the ranked choice runoff, which began shortly after the election. The Democratic race was especially close, with the top four challengers within a few percentage points of each other.

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

The Republican ballot for governor was even more crowded. Republicans chose between Charles, the former U.S. assistant secretary of state; healthcare executive Jonathan Bush; former Maine 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 but suspended her campaign in April.

“Throughout my two campaigns for governor and this one for Senate, what I have always loved the most is traveling across our beautiful state and getting to talk to Maine people,” Mills said on election night.

Key House race

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

LePage, an ally of President Donald Trump, 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 Trump defender.

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. Golden, a moderate who sometimes breaks from his party, said last year that he has “grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community.”

While Golden has won in the 2nd District, its voters have also shown strong support for Trump. He won an electoral vote in the district in three consecutive presidential elections.

The district is geographically large and includes much of Maine’s rural territory and logging country and some of its key fishing ports. It is expected to be among this fall's most competitive House races.

Ranked choice in play

Maine has used ranked choice voting since voters approved it 10 years ago. Voters were 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.

The 20-year-old man was one of three masked offenders who broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue, doused the interior with flammable liquid then set it alight in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2024, a police statement alleged.

The fire caused extensive damage to the synagogue and a worshipper sustained minor injuries.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which brings together federal and state police with a spy agency, charged the man, who has not been named, with offenses including arson.

He was charged in a Melbourne jail where he was already being held in custody on unrelated offenses. Police declined to elaborate on those offenses.

His co-accused Giovanni Laulu, 21, was arrested in July last year and another suspect, Younes Ali Younes, 20, was arrested a month later.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of directing the synagogue fire and an arson attack two months earlier at a Sydney kosher eatery, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, said the Revolutionary Guard used a “complex web of proxies to hide its involvement” in both antisemitic attacks.

Iran’s ambassador to Australia and another three Iranian diplomats were expelled. Tehran has denied Australia’s allegations.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier told reporters on Friday that investigators were working with international partners in the continuing investigation.

Police were also investigating whether the three alleged arsonists knew who ordered the attack.

“They may not actually be aware of the people who are directing or the principals of these investigations. That remains a key line of inquiry for us,” Crozier said.

Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran said police had informed the local Jewish community of the third arrest before the news was made public.

“Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident,” O’Halloran said.

“People deserve the right to feel safe and be safe in their community and particularly at their place of worship. Today's charges are a strong testament to this,” he added.

The latest suspect will make his first court appearance on the new charges next week.

The Australian government has established a public inquiry to investigate a rise in antisemitism across the country, including the killing of 15 people when two gunmen opened fire on a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December.

It marks a major triumph for a team that failed to get out of the group stage in 2022 and now has won twice on home soil in front of jubilant crowds. Mexico players celebrated at midfield and waved to the fans who cheered and sang from the packed stands at Estadio Akron.

As soon as the final whistle blew, the mariachis began to sing at the Ángel of Independence in Mexico City while thousands of people walked in from all directions. Some streets in Guadalajara were filled with drivers honking horns and fans chanting and waving Mexican flags.

Luis Romo scored in the 50th minute after South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu collided with defender Lee Gi-hyuk and dropped the ball inside the area. Romo easily found the open net after picking up the loose ball.

The South Koreans nearly equalized in the 87th minute when Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel stopped a header from close range by Cho Gue-sung, then made an even better save of Yang Hyun-jun's attempt on the rebound, extending his right arm to keep the ball from crossing the line.

“It was very quick, it was pure reaction,” Rangel said. “I couldn’t really tell you what I saw, because I remember the moment of impact with my teammate and me having the ball."

Mexico clinches Group A

Mexico won Group A with six points in two matches, three more than South Korea and five more than the Czech Republic and South Africa, who drew 1-1 earlier Thursday in Atlanta.

The top two teams from each group move on to the knockout stage, along with the best eight third-place teams. A round of 32 is being played for the first time at the World Cup after the tournament was expanded to 48 teams.

“We’ve been doing very well,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said. “It wasn’t a great match, but I think that our opponent didn’t let us do too much. But we still were able to score, on that mistake, in addition to another two or three opportunities.”

Aguirre said it felt good for the players to guarantee their spot in the next round back in Mexico City.

“It relieves some of the pressure,” he said. “But not for me, for the players. They are euphoric, they are very happy.”

Mexico opened with a 2-0 win over South Africa, while South Korea rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Czechs.

Mexico closes group play on Wednesday against the Czech Republic in Mexico City, while South Korea takes on South Africa in Monterrey.

Mexico had never won a World Cup game on home soil outside Mexico City. Before 2026, all but one of its nine World Cup matches at home, spanning the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, had been played at Estadio Azteca, with five wins and three draws. When it played in Toluca in 1970, it lost 4-1 to Italy in the quarterfinals.

Thursday's match got off to a lackluster start, with neither team creating significant scoring opportunities and both squads getting loudly booed after the halftime whistle.

Mexico, ranked 13th, was eliminated in the group stage four years ago in Qatar. That followed seven straight eliminations in the round of the 16.

South Korea star Son Heung-min had another disappointing game and was substituted out in the 57th.

Plaudits for Son

The 33-year-old Son is 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 former Tottenham star, currently with Los Angeles FC, entered with three goals over three prior World Cups.

Kim kept Mexico from adding to the lead by coming up with a tough save off a close-range shot by Raúl Jiménez in the 75th.

The South Koreans pressed through the end but could not equalize.

South Korea, ranked 22nd, 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.

“The mistake that we made was unfortunate,” coach Hong Myung-bo said.

This time there were not many empty seats in Guadalajara, contrary to what happened in the earlier match between South Korea and the Czech Republic. FIFA had blamed fans standing in the concourses for the empty seats. Thursday's crowd was announced at 45,522 for the 45,664-capacity stadium, which was hosting the national team for the first time.

Celebrations and protest

Fan zones across Mexico were packed ahead of the game. In the biggest one, in Mexico City’s Zócalo, chants of support for the national team, shouting “Olé!” with every pass, mingled with a homophobic chant — a one-word slur that literally means male prostitute in Spanish — that has previously led to sanctions against Mexico and could spur new punishments by FIFA.

There were peaceful protests in Guadalajara organized by the families of Mexico’s 130,000 missing people.

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Associated Press writers Refugio Ruiz, Alexis Triboulard and Maria Verza contributed to this report.

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

The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 211 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

As with most of the military’s statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. A video posted on X showed a boat speeding through the water before being struck and bursting into flames.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

Senators on Thursday demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the strikes. They have drawn intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars. The U.S. military’s first strike in early September drew particular concern from some lawmakers and those who study military law.

Two men on the boat initially survived the attack that killed nine others, and they were clinging to the wreckage when the vessel was struck again, killing them. The White House confirmed the follow-up strike, insisting it was done “in self-defense” to ensure the boat was destroyed and in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.

But some legal scholars said a second strike killing survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not.

The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May that it plans to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what’s known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.

Severe weather also pummeled parts of the Midwest, where a separate line of strong storms knocked down structures and left tens of thousands of residents without power.

Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, and although it quickly downgraded within a day of forming, the lingering system created dangerous conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi. In one rural Louisiana parish, more than 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours and most of that soaking came Thursday, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.

It flooded at least 200 homes in Avoyelles Parish, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Louisiana state Rep. Daryl Deshotel said.

“Even by this region’s standards, that’s catastrophic rain,” Jones said.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a social media post Thursday night that a worker on a county road crew in the southwestern part of the state had been killed while helping with storm cleanup operations. The cause of the death was not disclosed.

Thirty homes below the Anchor Lake dam in southern Mississippi were being evacuated as a precaution due to concerns that rising waters could overwhelm the spillways and compromise the structure, Reeves said. Residents in the area were being encouraged to seek higher ground.

Coni Dubois said several inches of water flooded her home overnight in Houma, southwest of New Orleans, but others in the community had worse damage. She’s lived through many hurricanes and other storms, but never witnessed thunder and lightning like this.

“It was unbelievable, it literally sounded like hell broke open,” Dubois said. “I thought for sure we had a tornado on top of us. The lightning and the thunder was so consistent, the whole house was lit up like daylight for about 20 minutes.”

The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue crews, officials said.

One tornado had been confirmed in Avoyelles Parish in central Louisiana, along with three others near New Orleans, the weather service said.

Louisana Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency for some storm-hit areas, and the town of Cottonport in Avoyelles Parish said it was turning off water service overnight “to manage our resources and allow our system to recover.” It urged residents to limit water use and to fill pots and other containers before the water was shut off.

Amid relentless rainfall in central Louisiana, Cody Coco said he rescued stranded workers — waist deep in water —- at a cypress sawmill operation he runs near his home in Avoyelles Parish. He said the water has continued to rise all throughout the day.

Coco, 40, said he also used a boat to rescue the four pigs he kept in a pen. Video he shared on his Facebook page shows the hogs swimming out of their enclosure in a torrent of murky water. Coco says they are now safe on higher ground.

“If I’d left them in the pen, they’d have drowned,” Coco said. “They were happy to see me.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno posted a video on Facebook describing relatively minor damage and cleanup efforts. Ahead of the storm, police prepared boats and set up barricades in flood-prone areas. They also opened sandbag distribution sites across Louisiana.

Just across the Mississippi River in Avondale, a tornado wrecked four homes, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Rachel Strassel said. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries and later released.

The Midwest was also dealing with damage after a strong line of storms.

A tornado was reported Wednesday evening near Effingham, Illinois, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Springfield. Several people suffered minor injuries, officials said.

Firefighters responded to damaged homes, collapsed structures, car crashes, downed power lines, gas leaks and blocked roads, Effingham Fire Chief Brant Yochum said.

The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, confirmed two tornadoes, including one Wednesday with maximum winds of 116 mph (186.8 kph) in the Charleston area. The EF2 tornado lifted the roof off a home and flipped a semi-truck, injuring one person.

Marla Washburn and her husband, Todd, hunkered down in their basement as a suspected tornado tore through their neighborhood about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north in Blue Mound. They could hear debris smacking into their house and a school across the street lost its roof, which came crashing onto their home.

“The whole house shook,” Washburn said in a phone interview, adding that the neighborhood looks like Armageddon.

“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but we’re OK,” she said. “You look at it and you go, ‘I don’t even know where to start to clean up.'”

Her unapologetically expansive, left-wing agenda includes subsidized or even free childcare, increased down payment assistance for homebuyers and community resources to reduce crime, plus a promise to aggressively confront President Donald Trump's attempts to reshape the nation's capital.

“People are tired of hearing what government can’t do. They want to hear what government can do,” Lewis George said in an interview before the city's primary, where she defeated her Democratic opponents and positioned herself to win the general election in November in a city dominated by Democrats.

Lewis George's victory signals a break with a quarter-century of centrist governance in Washington, and it puts her in the vanguard of democratic socialists who have ascended in urban politics over the last year. Zohran Mamdani toppled Andrew Cuomo, the scion of a political dynasty, on his way to becoming New York City mayor. Katie Wilson won an upset victory to lead Seattle last fall. And this month, Nithya Raman clinched a spot in the November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

All of them are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA. The political organization has seen its membership ranks swell from a few thousand to more than 100,000 nationwide over the last decade after an influx of younger Americans joined following the presidential bids of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a self-described democratic socialist.

There's little sign of national coordination among the candidates, and it’s unclear whether voters are gravitating toward their promises of improved government services, their vows to fight the Trump administration or their critiques of capitalism.

But from coast to coast, confrontational progressives are advancing in mayoral races. City leaders can draw outsized attention for their successes and failures, and democratic socialists will be under pressure from residents to deliver on their vows for a new kind of governance. Whether that translates to national politics is a next test for their movement.

“They are all channeling a displeasure with a status quo and a serious desire for economic populism that the establishment Democratic Party hasn't been preaching,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist with Fight Agency, a political consulting firm that strategized Mamdani's mayoral campaign.

Stern added that Democratic voters appeared more willing to support the most progressive candidate in mayoral races rather than in contests for the U.S. House. Candidates like Mamdani and Raman, Stern said, are “daring voters to dream and fall in love not just with the individual candidates but also the political process as a whole.”

A rising left navigates America's urban challenges

The trend of progressives surging in urban areas may have limits for its broader impact on Democratic politics. Democratic mayors in cities including Atlanta, Houston, Miami and San Francisco won on relatively moderate platforms in recent years.

Progressive have also faced noteworthy challenges. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was endorsed by the city's DSA chapter during his 2023 mayoral run but has since faced criticism from both moderate and liberal local leaders on issues such as immigration, the local budget and public safety. Recalls and public pressure ousted progressives elected to district attorney offices in multiple jurisdictions over the last five years, when criminal justice reform efforts ran into dissatisfaction over public disorder following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump's hardline immigration and law enforcement tactics have also become a challenge for liberal cities. The president's agenda poses an especially serious threat to Washington, D.C., because of its status as a federal territory.

“Maybe we take back Washington and run it on a federal basis,” Trump told reporters this month when asked about the potential election of a democratic socialist as the district's mayor. “We won’t put up with it.”

But progressives hope the current wave of anti-Trump furor in deep blue cities across the country will help buoy the chances of those on the hard left.

“It’s not folks looking for the leftmost option so much as looking for a candidate who’s gonna be on their side,” said Ravi Mangla, speaking for the left-wing Working Families Party. The party often endorses the same candidates as the DSA and is readying to target more mayoral offices in the country's biggest metropolises this fall and in 2028.

“It’s less about whether you are on the right or on the left so much as whether you are willing to punch up at the powerful,” he added.

Mamdani and Lewis George are both self-described “sewer socialists” who emphasize the need for responsive government services rather than critiques of market economics. The phrase recalls the socialist Gilded Age mayors whom critics derided as too preoccupied with managing public works projects.

The term's revival is partly a strategic move to align leftist ideas with concerns over affordability and the economy, voters' top concern in the midterm elections, and shift the public perception of democratic socialists from firebrands who support radical policies to independent-minded public servants.

“This is absolutely a change election and I’m excited to bring the change that people want, which is really putting people first in the city and having the moral clarity and courage to stand up to Trump,” Lewis George said.

For voters the ‘socialist’ label did not seem to matter

While conservatives have used the “socialist” label to attack Democrats as extreme or incompetent, some D.C. voters appeared ambivalent before Tuesday's primary.

Several lifelong residents said they believed Lewis George was a “fighter” but didn't think she'd have much of an impact on the local economy, given the city's status as a federal district.

“I go back and forth on my own labels and whether I am supportive of that movement or not, but I am supportive of making D.C. more affordable,” Owen Fitzgerald, a University of Maryland graduate student, said of his support for democratic socialism.

Fitzgerald voted for Lewis George because she would stand up to Trump and said he'd first learned of her campaign from friends in his neighborhood. But he didn't know she was a democratic socialist until he saw news reports describing her with the label.

“It sends a cultural message to this administration that the people who are surrounding them in the capital are opposed to their platform, opposed to their political agenda, and I think that it will send a message, both nationally and internationally,” Fitzgerald said.

“In years to come, as people walk down Hollywood Boulevard, they’ll come across my star,” he said to the assembled crowd. “And unless they’re related to me, they’ll ask: ‘Who the hell was that guy?’”

Yet at a time of perpetual upheaval in Hollywood, the unflashy Meledandri has created and shaped one of Hollywood’s most consistent blockbuster-making operations. Family-friendly movies are fueling the box office like never before, and Illumination is at the forefront of it.

Since Illumination’s first release, 2010’s “Despicable Me,” the animation studio has accounted for more than $11 billion in global box office. Its “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the sole $1 billion movie of 2026 so far. Illumination’s next release, “Minions & Monsters,” which premieres Sunday at the Annecy Film Festival in France, stands a good chance of equaling it.

The Minions — Illumination’s answer to Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny — have done a lot to drive that success. But the studio, a division of Universal Pictures, has expanded to include the “Mario” movies with Nintendo, an upcoming “Barbie” animated movie with Mattel and earlier franchises like “Sing” and “The Secret Lives of Pets.” If Illumination is synonymous with anything, it’s good cartoony fun.

“From the outset, we really wanted to make films that would be joyous above everything else,” Meledandri said in an interview. “I found myself working with filmmakers who appreciated that Looney Tunes style of cartooning integrated into the creation of these animated films today.”

“Minions & Monsters,” which opens in theaters July 1, may be Illumination’s ultimate goofy romp. In the seventh of the “Despicable Me” movies and the third “Minions” standalone feature, the Minions become filmmakers. “Minions & Monsters” has the gumption to give some of the most chaos-inducing creatures, who have mishandled every diabolical device ever handed to them, a camera.

Set in the 1920s Golden Age of Hollywood, the movie has a lot of fun putting the Minions alongside silent slapstick classics like Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last!” Jeff Bridges voices a studio head. It's the Minions' answer to “The Muppet Movie.” James, the most creative Minion, is listed as its director — at least in a first draft of the end credits.

The Minions go behind the camera

The movie’s real director, though, is Pierre Coffin, an Illumination veteran who has directed many of its movies and who famously voices the Minions. But Coffin has had a complicated relationship with the Minions ever-expanding world domination, and Meledandri knew he was reluctant to return. But this is an executive who, as a producer, managed to reunite the cast of DreamWorks' “Shrek” for a fifth movie due out next year.

“He called me one weekend and he said, ’You’re going to say no but I’ve got to ask,” Coffin, speaking from Paris, says. “He said: ‘It’s Minions wanting to make a monster movie. They conjure monsters but then that creation turns on them and the Earth.’”

“He got me at ‘Minions making movies,’” adds Coffin. “From that moment, I just had questions.”

The movie, opening two weeks after Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” will be a new test of just how much of a powerhouse Illumination has become. After a stint running Fox’s animation division and making the “Ice Age” films, Meledandri founded the company, relying heavily on a group of artists at a Paris animation company then called Mac Guff. While Illumination is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, much of its movie production takes place in Paris.

With its collaborations now stretching to Japan, via Nintendo, a globalization defines Illumination — fitting given the international word salad gibberish of the Minions.

“An objective from day one, when I started the company, was to have the complexion of creative leadership reflect our desire to make films for the entire world, as opposed to being so American-centric,” says Meledandri.

But Meledandri never set out to rival Disney or Pixar. “Those goals just felt unrealistically ambitious,” he says. Instead, Meledandri freed filmmakers and animators to make movies about antic antiheroes. He targeted subversive comedy, not poignancy. You’re likely to laugh at an Illumination movie. Crying? Not so much.

That approach has made Illumination a box-office behemoth. (Universal’s output deal with Netflix, after the movies first stream on Peacock, also boosts its films' audience.) But awards love has eluded the company. Illumination has never won an Oscar, a historical fact jokingly nodded to in “Minions & Monsters.” Only one release ("Despicable Me 2") has been nominated for best animated feature.

But with its abiding affection for moviemaking, “Minions & Monsters” could find wider industry support. Even George Lucas lends his voice to the film.

Making blockbusters on a budget

Regardless, “Minions & Monsters” is something rare in today’s movie world: It's almost certain to be profitable. Since producing the 2000 box-office bomb “Titan A.E.” at Fox, Meledandri has made fiscal discipline a religion. “Everyone’s expectation was that I would be fired,” he says. “I probably should have been fired.”

While $200 million-plus budgets still drive many blockbusters, even big-budget filmmakers like James Cameron have warned that production costs need to be scaled down for leaner times. “Minions & Monsters” cost a relatively modest $85 million to make. Illumination’s most expensive movie, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” cost a not-extreme $110 million. “Toy Story 5,” on the other hand, carries a $250 million budget.

“In 19 years, I cannot remember a single conversation where a director came back and said: We need more money. It’s just not part of our ethos,” Meledandri says. “It may be: How are we going to solve this problem? Or: We can’t get this done by this date. But it’s never: We need more money.”

Some in Hollywood see generative AI as a promising new way to keep expenses down, but Meledandri isn’t sold yet.

“My main focus right now is the preservation of jobs and at the expense of being the most technologically advanced,” he says. “It always feels better to be part of a front of a wave as opposed to a Luddite. But in this case, we’re not pushing AI into our pipeline.”

“I do not believe that a sufficient answer is, ‘Well, we’ve had technological advances before and people were worried yet it all was fine and things kept surging forward,’” Meledandri continues. “None of those other technologies had agency.”

Animation big wigs have often been ubiquitous presences. But neither Jeffrey Katzenberg, of DreamWorks, nor John Lasseter, of Pixar, remain at the animation studios they once defined. The 67-year-old Meledandri, who grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is the unlikely heavyweight — the “big boss” of the Minion empire.

His entry to the movie business first began when a customer of his father's men's clothing store hired him as an assistant on “Footloose.” His second big break came producing the 1993 Disney hit “Cool Runnings.” Now he finds himself running a once-underdog animation studio with an almost unblemished track record.

The competition that worries him isn't Disney or Pixar, though, but short-form content.

“It’s got to force us to be more imaginative and more surprising and to reach further than storytelling that could feel safe because it’s worked before,” says Meledandri. “In ‘Minions & Monsters,’ what Pierre Coffin has done is made a movie that is so wildly imaginative and unexpected that it’s exactly where I would wish Illumination to be in this moment in time.”

Dressed in military-style camouflage, the members of the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army placed their weapons on a table during a formal ceremony in the department of Putumayo, which borders Ecuador. The group is a dissident faction of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Now disarmed, the dissidents will enter a temporary resettlement zone where the government intends to facilitate their gradual reintegration into civilian life. The government in a statement explained that they “will have their freedom restricted and will be under the control and supervision” of authorities.

“We laid down the iron rifle because we understand that words are a more powerful weapon,” dissident leader Geovany Andrés Rojas said as part of the ceremony. He made the remarks remotely from jail, where he is being held after being captured last year when the group was engaged in peace talks with the government.

His arrest took place in connection with an Interpol Red Notice for drug trafficking charges in the United States. Rojas on Thursday said his capture undermined the confidence of the rank and file but did not derail the dialogue process.

Petro, a former rebel leader and Colombia’s first progressive president, is negotiating with the dissident faction as part of his signature “total peace” policy, which has opened parallel peace negotiations with multiple armed groups. The effort has largely failed.

The dissident groups emerged from factions that did not accept the historic peace agreement signed a decade ago by the state and FARC, formerly Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group. The country is estimated to have 27,000 illegally armed group members, according to a 2025 report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a think tank focused on the internal conflict.

Last week, Petro established a monitoring mechanism for the temporary relocation zone and ordered the suspension of offensive military and special police operations to allow the dissidents to enter the designated area.

This afternoon as pop up showers and storms move int the region, a few could be strong to severe. Be sure to stay weather aware and download our Weather Authority Mobile App for those weather alerts to be sent directly to your phone.

The threats this afternoon include damaging wind gusts and small hail. Our wind gusts will peak around 10 AM - 4 PM. We have the potential with a few of these storms to see wind gusts reaching up to 60 MPH.

The severe risk today stretches for the entirety of the viewing area. Most of the area is included in the Slight Risk, with southern Southside and NRV in the Marginal Risk zone.

Futurecast shows exactly how isolated these storms will be this afternoon, but this evening we will have the better chance for widespread showers. Don’t forget the umbrella as you are stepping outside. You’ll need it for later in the day!

We settle things down tomorrow morning, with only a few showers remaining around 7 AM Friday. For the remainder of the day Friday we stay dry and continue the trend all day Saturday, it will be a great day if you have any outdoor Father’s Day weekend plans!

The warnings were followed by sweeping airstrikes, which Israel said targeted the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

What Kaour found back in Tyre shattered his hopes. His dream family apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea was a heap of rubble and shattered glass.

His return came after the announcement of an agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East. The deal also calls for an end to the war in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Hezbollah, but it's unclear what that means in practice.

Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal doesn’t explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s “territorial integrity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as "Israel’s security needs require it.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri — a Hezbollah ally — said Thursday that the group was committed to the ceasefire, “provided that Israel adheres to it fully and comprehensively.” Hezbollah has said that it's committed to resisting any occupation by Israel. Fighting between the two sides, which was still underway in some parts of southern Lebanon, could derail the deal.

Many hope the US-Iran deal signals better times

For residents in the south of crisis-battered Lebanon, hopes of better times are mixed with skepticism after many ceasefire announcements previously failed to halt fighting.

Kaour lives in Germany but spends most of the summer in Tyre. Last month, when an Israeli strike hit their street without warning, he was abroad with his family.

When he returned, he saw his building, with a popular sweets shop and an electronics store on the ground floor, was still standing, unlike surrounding structures that were leveled to the ground.

But walls and windows had been blasted out. He was relieved his family had not been there, he said.

“I’m hopeful for peace, and God willing this is the end of the war, and everyone can go back to their homes," he said. “We are living abroad, but our minds are here in our country.”

Outside, the street filled with people trying to clear the rubble.

Kaour's neighbor one floor above, Samih Haidar, had also just returned and found his door bolted by wooden boards.

He tried to kick them down but failed, then anxiously waited as two men who had been clearing rubble on another floor came and unscrewed the bolts.

Through a gap, Haidar climbed in. He didn't know what to expect. He had rented the apartment out to a family displaced from another area in the south, people who came to him through a friend.

His anxiety turned into shock: broken furniture, shattered glass, rubble and a burned out kitchen that had caught fire after the strike. He slowly walked through each room, quietly filming with his phone. He doesn't know what became of the tenants — displaced from Tyre like scores of others, he presumed.

“We want things to work out and live in safety, so there can be stability for us and everyone else,” Haidar said.

An isolated enclave hopes for reprieve

Farther south, the Christian village of Ain Ebel is one of a few enclaves in Lebanon's border area where residents have remained during the war. Christian villages, where Hezbollah has little presence, have been largely spared the destruction of neighboring Shiite villages. But they have their own problems.

The village is cut off from the rest of Lebanon by fighting and Israeli checkpoints, relying on aid convoys that require extensive coordination to get through. One such convoy, organized by the Order of Malta, a Catholic lay religious order, arrived Thursday bearing emergency livestock feed and supplies for farmers.

Cattle farmer Boutros Maroun said people in Ain Ebel are exhausted.

“We don’t care about America and Iran, we want the Lebanese people to live comfortably and happily," he said. "Every two years there’s a new war, and we can no longer take it.”

The convoy was delayed in returning to Beirut because of explosives found on the road, which had to be cleared by U.N. peacekeepers.

Fighting pierces a tenuous ceasefire

The fighting subsided but did not stop Thursday. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli drone strikes, including one on a car in the town of Kfar Tebnit that killed one person and critically wounded another. Hezbollah later said in a statement that its fighters clashed with Israeli troops trying to advance on the town. Israel did not comment.

To the north, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, displaced families huddled along the waterfront in Beirut. Most of them have been sleeping in tents for months, living in limbo. For others, it's a bench or a mattress on the ground.

Many said they're not convinced that the U.S.-Iran deal will hold or that they will be able to return to their homes — if they still exist. In the border area close to Israel, many Lebanese villages have been almost completely demolished.

“I haven’t felt relieved at all,” said Mohammed Ashmar, displaced from the border village of Deir Seryan, holding a cup of coffee and sitting near his tent on the waterfront. “Until I get back to my home ... I won’t be convinced of anything.”

The Israel-Hezbollah war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon, and killed more than 3,900, according to Lebanese officials. About 30 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Speaking during a visit by foreign dignitaries on Thursday, Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said the country faces urgent humanitarian needs but also the daunting task of planning for the return of displaced families and reconstruction of the destroyed areas.

“The Lebanese people deserve peace," she said. “They deserve to return safely to their homes, rebuild their communities, and look to the future with confidence and hope.”

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Associated Press journalists Fadi Tawil in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report. Hussein reported from Ain Ebel, Lebanon.

The review was yet another surprise for European allies and Canada as they learn to deal with an increasingly unpredictable ally. U.S. officials and senior military officers had promised to coordinate closely with the Europeans as America draws down.

In recent months, U.S. President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have sent conflicting signals about whether America is reducing or increasing its military footprint in Europe, as well as threatening to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous island that is part of ally Denmark. Just weeks ago, the Trump administration said that it would no longer provide as much military support should any NATO member come under attack.

“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” Hegseth told his NATO counterparts. “It’s a review that some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colors.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said the allies have long been aware of U.S. plans to pull troops from Europe at some point and that they must take care of their own security.

“We know that we must do more and we are doing it,” Merz said.

Public dressing down over bases, gender and migration

In a fiery speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth lambasted European allies for failing to provide U.S. forces access to bases in Europe to launch attacks on Iran, calling it “shameful.”

“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,” he said. The review would also assess whether the U.S. has full access and overflight “when we need it.”

While defense ministers and military officers sat in silence, Hegseth railed against migration and gender equality policies in Europe, in remarks reminiscent to those of Vice President JD Vance in February last year that angered many Europeans.

“Instead of tanks and fighters and air defenses, the focus has been on gender equity and climate change and defense austerity. Europe’s borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defense budgets cratered, along with Europe’s belief in itself and its civilization,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth's comments largely mischaracterized European policies today. On defense, European allies and Canada have launched an unprecedented effort to boost defense spending and expand their armed forces. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte noted on Thursday that they spent $90 billion more on defense last year, a 20% increase over 2024. And while Europe accepted large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers more than a decade ago, most countries have tightened their borders since.

It does not augur well for a summit of NATO leaders in Turkey on July 7-8.

A rare and short visit to NATO

It was a rare visit to NATO by Hegseth, his first this year after skipping a meeting in February. The Pentagon chief did not stay long, leaving well before the gathering was over and hours before Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to press allies for more weapons for his country.

Speaking to reporters at Brussels airport before flying home, Hegseth said, “It was great to hear country after country say, ‘We’re going to meet our target. We’re going to meet our target.’ There are still a few outliers, and we will be clear with them as we do this review.”

NATO’s supreme allied commander, an American, is working on backup plans to defend Europe after the U.S. signaled on June 3 that it would no longer supply an aircraft carrier and support ships, aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets, among other military assets, in a crisis.

The Trump administration insists that it needs to be able to plan for two simultaneous conflicts and wants more military resources at hand should it clash with China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Under NATO’s collective security guarantee – Article 5 of its founding treaty – the 32 allies pledge that an attack on one of them will be considered an attack on all. It does not oblige them to provide military support, although many likely would.

In essence, the United States is scaling back how it might help should an ally trigger Article 5.

US nuclear weapons will stay

The U.S. has by far NATO’s biggest armed forces. It does not intend to withdraw its nuclear weapons in Europe, which are key to NATO’s deterrence. To underscore that point, NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group issued its first statement in 19 years after Thursday’s meeting.

In the statement, it “recalled that the strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance remain the supreme guarantee of Allied security and underpin NATO’s extended deterrence architecture.”

The ministers “agreed to continue enhancing NATO’s nuclear deterrence mission by modernizing NATO’s nuclear capabilities, strengthening its nuclear planning capacity, and adapting to achieve its security interests.”

Rutte played down the impact of the U.S. decision, saying that the NATO Force Model – the system for organizing what forces member countries will provide commanders in times of peace, crisis or conflict – is just “a planning tool,” and not a reflection of what would actually happen.

“If war breaks out, we will all max out what we need to do to make sure we can fight the war,” Rutte told reporters. “In the planning phase, it is important to know what we can count on. What is in theory there.”

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Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Jonathan David scored three goals and Canada won its first World Cup match while all but securing a spot in the knockout round with a 6-0 victory over Qatar on Thursday.

Qatar was reduced to nine players because of red cards in the chaotic match. Assim Madibo was handed a red early in the second half after a tackle on Ismaël Koné, who was stretchered off with a broken left leg. Homan Ahmed was sent off in the first half for a challenge on Tajon Buchanan.

With the outburst of scoring, Canada tripled its overall World Cup goal total. Cyle Larin scored in the Canadians' opening draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Alphonso Davies scored four years ago in a loss to Croatia in Qatar, where Canada also got on the board with an own goal by Morocco. The Canadians were shut out three times in the 1986 World Cup.

“No one will forget this, and no Canadian will forget this day,” said coach Jesse Marsch, who held up six fingers as he walked off the field. “It’s an incredibly seminal moment for everyone to understand that there’s talent in this country, that there’s mentality, that there’s desire, that there’s a lot of things that make this country special.”

And the supporters who packed BC Place were ecstatic.

“We’re soaking up history right here,” fan Matthias Kempe said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was among the 52,497 fans in attendance after missing the game in Toronto last week because of the G7 summit in France. He sat with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“It was amazing. After every goal it got louder and louder,” David said. “It gave us motivation to get the next goal and the next goal.”

Canada's triumph was marred by its anguish over Koné's injury. Teammates surrounded him in concern after he was tackled from behind and crumpled to the pitch with his lower left leg bent at a gruesome-looking angle. Madibo was clearly distraught before he was ejected.

Koné was taken to a hospital, were he was preparing for surgery. His family was with him, said Marsch, who confirmed the player's leg was broken.

Larin scored his second goal of the tournament on a rebound in the 16th minute. Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada punched away David’s volley but it fell to Larin, who pointed to his ears in celebration as the red-clad crowd roared.

David doubled the lead with a right-footed volley in the 29th, for his first goal in the run of play in more than a year.

Ahmed was sent off with a red card in the 33rd. The official initially pointed to the penalty spot, but after video review Canada was given a free kick just outside the box and the initial yellow card handed to Ahmed was changed to red.

Canada made it 3-0 in first-half stoppage time when David scored in a scramble in front of the net off a shot that caromed off the crossbar. Qatari players stood with their hands on their hips in frustration while Canada celebrated.

Nathan Saliba, who came in as a substitute for Koné, scored on a free kick in the 64th to make it 4-0. Mohamed Manai deflected a shot past his goalkeeper for an own goal in the 75th.

David completed the hat trick in stoppage time, joining Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the only players with three goals in a match in this World Cup.

“It was a very tough match for many reasons. The players did their best. It was very difficult to face this match with two players less with this environment,” Qatar coach Julen Lopetegui said.

Qatar scored a stoppage-time goal to earn a surprising 1-1 draw with Group B favorite Switzerland in its opener. The Persian Gulf country is still looking for its first World Cup win after losing all of its group matches four years ago as the host.

Switzerland defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-1 earlier in the day in Group B.

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

Romanch Mahajan, 18, died after he got off of the four-wheeled carriage as its horse sprinted through the park without the driver.

He is believed to be the first person to die in a horse carriage accident since they were introduced in Central Park more than 150 years ago, according to the labor union representing the industry and the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the 843-acre (341-hectare) park.

The conservancy was among those arguing Thursday that the carriage industry should be suspended until more protections can be put in place. Mahajan’s death was the eighth horse-related incident in the park over the past 13 months, the group said.

“The record is undeniable: crashes, runaways, horse deaths, injuries, and now a devastating loss of human life,” said Edita Birnkrant, head of the animal welfare group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets.

Animal rights activists have long said the carriage horses are overworked, can get easily spooked on city streets and live in inadequate stables while their drivers regularly flout city rules. All of those allegations have been denied by the horse and carriage owners, who say the animals are well cared for and the stables are fine.

The conservancy has argued that horses can no longer safely share park roads teeming with joggers, cyclists, pedestrians and motorized scooters, noting that other U.S. cities, including Chicago and San Antonio, have also recently done away with the nostalgic rides.

But carriage industry leaders said the fatal crash underscores the need for better protections, not outright elimination of the quaint attraction that harkens back to a romanticized, bygone New York.

“We’re absolutely gutted and stunned by this tragedy,” said Alexander Kemp, a vice president with the Transport Workers Union Local 100, the labor union representing carriage drivers and owners. “We have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions of safety protocols and how they can be improved.”

Horse carriages weren’t running Thursday and it was not immediately clear when the rides, which cost about $72 for the first 20 minutes, would resume.

The owner of the carriage involved in the fatal crash also suspended the driver indefinitely, and has plans to retire the horse from the business, according to the union. It said the driver improperly dismounted to take a photograph of his passengers.

Celebrating a high school graduation turned tragic

Mahajan had been on a family trip celebrating his recent high school graduation when the family decided to take a ride on one of the park’s often photographed, richly decorated carriages.

His father, Deepak Mahajan, told The New York Times the family had arrived from India on Monday, the same day Romanch learned he had been accepted to a university in Jaipur.

They had spent the trip visiting many of the city’s popular tourist attractions, including the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The carriage driver hopped off to take a photograph of the family near a fountain when the horse suddenly bolted, Mahajan said.

Romanch’s mother fell out of the carriage, and the teen jumped out in an attempt to save her, according to his father.

“He was screaming, ‘Mom!’” Deepak Mahajan recounted to the Times.

But Romanch hit his head on the ground before the carriage clipped another horse-drawn vehicle and eventually toppled over. The father, his wife and younger son escaped with minor injuries.

“This incident should be taken very seriously,” Mahajan said. “It took my son’s dream away.”

Carriage owners and drivers fear end to livelihood

New York City leaders vowed to work swiftly to end the industry in the wake of Romanch's death.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the legislative body would hold a hearing next month on a long-simmering bill that would ban horse carriages and help drivers transition into new jobs.

Last year, the park conservancy revived debate over the carriages when, for the first time, it threw its support behind what’s known as Ryder’s Law.

“The time to act is now,” she wrote on the social platform X.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani also reiterated his support for ending the industry, saying he’d work with the council, the industry and animal welfare advocates to “deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”

Other recent mayors have made similar pronouncements. Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to shut down the industry “on Day One" in office, only to come up against years of council opposition. Mayor Eric Adams, Mamdani’s predecessor, came out against the industry near the end of his single term.

Onur Altintas, who owns four horses and a carriage operating in Central Park, was among those worried about an end to their livelihood. He said the industry provides hundreds of jobs to drivers, stable hands, farriers, and others in horse-related trades.

“We are sad about what happened. Nobody wants that. But it’s not like this is happening every day,” said Altintas. “Car crashes and plane crashes are happening every single day. One horse makes an accident, and the world is destroyed? Come on.”

The longtime owner and driver said the industry needs better regulations to make it safer. He said “90%” of horse-related accidents could be avoided simply by installing hitching posts throughout the park so drivers could safely tether and secure their horses, including at popular tourist photo stops.

The Transport Workers Union on Thursday said legislation recently introduced into the council would do just that.

“Drivers can’t leave their carriage. They have to be on it all the time,” Altintas said. “But it’s impossible. We have to go to the restroom. We have to eat. We have to do things.”

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it didn’t sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday.

Visitors over the past two centuries who viewed the tree's gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy in Nottingham compressed the soil, making it difficult for rain to reach its roots, the conservation group said.

The forest has been under threat for years and the tree had been rumored to have died in the past — only to have the group confirm it was still alive.

That is no longer the case.

“The tree’s failure to produce leaves this year is heartbreaking for everyone,” Hollie Drake of the RSPB said in a statement announcing the death.

The tree is said to have sheltered Robin Hood, the legendary 13th-century bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor and took refuge in the forest when being pursued by the sheriff of Nottingham.

It got its name after being mentioned in a book on oaks by Major Hayman Rooke in 1790 that led to the first wave of fans who flocked to the forest.

It's impossible to say what killed the tree, but the footprints of millions contributed to its downfall, along with intervention to shore up its massive limbs using cables and poles. Climate change that has brought heat waves and drought was also blamed.

Tree experts found the root system strangled and starved.

“Ancient trees like the Major Oak are the ‘conservation white rhinos of the U.K.’ but their decline is far less visible,” said Ed Pyne, of the Woodland Trust. “Saving them is vital to the health of the world we live in and yet most disappear quietly, without the recognition or care given to the Major Oak.”

In addition to its place in folklore, the forest is known for Sherwood oaks that floated the ships of Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson’s Royal Navy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and as timbers in the roof of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The Major Oak was spared from the saw and has been protected by a fence since the 1970s.

“The Major Oak will continue to stand at the heart of Sherwood as a natural monument for visitors to come and see, living on in the legend of Robin Hood and continuing to provide as much support to the forest’s ecosystem in death as in life,” Drake said.

The proposal from the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West to impose a one-time, 5% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $1 billion faces staunch pushback from a wide swath of critics, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The union said Thursday that it would abandon the 5% tax proposal if Newsom would join them in supporting a 2% levy. The updated proposal would instead have to be passed by the Legislature, given a June 25 deadline for the measure to qualify for the ballot.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom, said scaling it back doesn't change its "fundamental flaws that harm working Californians.”

“The Governor supports making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share, but this poorly designed state-only measure will defund teachers, schools, clinics, and public safety,” she said in a statement.

The tax, to be paid by those living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026, is meant to generate $100 billion in revenue, mainly to counter federal cuts to healthcare for low-income people with some money going to food assistance and education programs.

“A 2% one-time tax on that accumulated wealth is modest by any objective measure especially if it means keeping emergency rooms open and saving patient lives,” backers wrote in a letter to Newsom.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, said Wednesday night that petitioners collected more than the roughly 875,000 signatures needed to place the original proposal before voters.

States have been debating how to respond to the major tax breaks and spending cuts legislation President Donald Trump signed last year. The proposal has already divided Democrats and major labor unions and triggered an expensive campaign to defeat it. The proposed tax is backed by prominent progressives including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Silicon Valley tech moguls have spent millions to defeat it, and prominent players in Sacramento have opposed it. They include the California Medical Association and California School Boards Association, which helped launch a committee this week urging voters to reject it if it ends up on the ballot in November. Newsom also opposed a ballot measure in 2022 to increase taxes on the wealthy, which would have funded programs that help people buy electric cars or install more chargers. Voters rejected it.

Critics say the original measure would decrease state revenue over time by pushing the ultrawealthy to leave, taking the money they would contribute in income taxes with them. That would deal a huge blow to a state that relies on its top 1% of earners for nearly half its personal income tax revenue.

“This flawed measure is the wrong approach for California’s small businesses and working families,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesperson for Golden State Promise, a political committee fighting the tax.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that the 5% tax would generate tens of billions of dollars in the first few years, but that income tax revenues could subsequently decline by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Since the proposal was announced in October, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated $82 million to a political committee called Building a Better California that backs a variety of initiatives designed to blunt the billionaire tax proposal. It has raised more than $118 million, counting Brin’s contributions, from fewer than a dozen donors.

State lawmakers passed budget bills this week that aim to raise revenue in other ways, including by extending a tax on healthcare providers. Newsom and legislative leaders agree to this approach, Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón said.

“The budget, as approved by the Legislature and now being negotiated with the Governor, does not include the billionaire’s tax,” the Democrat said in a statement. “Instead, it reflects additional revenues to address our long-term structural deficit.”

For Blanca Nubia Monroy, it’s a black-and-white scale of justice tattooed on her forearm, identical to the one used to identify her 19-year-old son's body after he was kidnapped and killed by Colombian soldiers in 2008.

For Sigifredo López, it's flashbacks from the seven years he was held captive by guerrillas in the South American country's dense jungles and the trauma of surviving after his companions were massacred in 2007.

Both have radically different views of who should win Colombia’s presidency on Sunday, with Monroy throwing her support behind peace activist Iván Cepeda and López backing Trump-endorsed Abelardo de la Espriella, who has promised a scourge on crime.

But their fear is the same: Returning to a more violent past.

“It all takes a toll, both physically and emotionally,” said López. “Emotionally, there’s the fear that still simmers deep down, something you don’t openly express, the fear that everything we’ve already lived through could happen again.”

Polarization ‘brewing for decades’

In Colombia’s most polarized presidential election in years, voters will choose between de la Espriella and Cepeda – two candidates with sharply different visions for how to find peace in a country long marked by war.

The armed struggle between Marxist guerrillas, Colombian military forces and right-wing paramilitaries has resulted in more than 10 million people — one in five Colombians — becoming victims of conflict, according to a government registry documenting killings, kidnappings, forced displacement and more.

The trauma of war and the fight for peace are embedded in Colombian politics. Despite a 2016 peace pact with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, conflict rages in many parts of the Andean nation, becoming a defining theme in Sunday's vote.

Polarization within Colombian society over how to handle violence has “been brewing for decades,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, Bogotá-based deputy Latin America director of International Crisis Group.

“Increasingly on both sides, there's an us and a them. That's very dangerous in a country like Colombia with a long history of political violence. ... The spark could light at any moment."

On one side is Cepeda, who has pledged to continue Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” agenda of negotiating peace pacts with a range of criminal groups, from drug mafias to insurgent fighters. That strategy sought to rewire how Colombia deals with conflict, but has largely failed, stoking a rebuke as armed groups have taken advantage of ceasefires to grow in strength.

On the other is de la Espriella, a lawyer who has promised an all-out offensive on crime, echoing El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s war on gangs. While Bukele’s crackdown has drawn attention across the region for sharply cutting homicide rates, it also fueled allegations of human rights abuses.

Fears of state violence

The 67-year-old Monroy is reminded of the civilian toll from past military offensives every time she thinks of her son, Julián Oviedo Monroy, or looks at the tattoo on her arm.

Her son, who had dreamed of joining Colombia’s military to lift his family out of poverty, disappeared in 2008 along with other poor young men on the fringes of Bogotá. Months later, his body was unearthed in a clandestine grave in the conflict-torn northeast. His body was identified by his tattoo.

“It’s like still having him here,” she said, looking down at the tattoo she got as an homage to her son and his photo that she keeps in her wallet.

Monroy's son became one of 6,402 victims in one of the worst atrocities of Colombia’s conflict. Colombian military officers carried out extrajudicial executions against civilians in a scandal known as “false positives” carried out largely between 2002–2008 under ex-President Álvaro Uribe. Officials then falsely said the murdered civilians were enemy combatants killed in the war with FARC rebels.

Around a dozen high-ranking security officers later acknowledged they killed Monroy's son and asked for forgiveness in a peace tribunal established after the 2016 peace pact to unearth the ugly truths of the war — a court that de la Espriella has promised to dismantle.

Monroy criticized the mounting violence under incumbent president Petro, saying Cepeda would have to come down with a heavier hand on criminal groups.

But what outweighed her criticism was fear of the military campaign promised by de la Espriella, who has vowed to wipe out “anyone who I’ve declared a military target like cockroaches, like rats.”

“God willing, this man doesn’t come to power, because ‘false positives’ will become a reality again,” she said of de la Espriella.

‘Colombia is being kidnapped’

For López, 62, the fear is returning to the “hell” he lived in for seven years from 2002-2009 when he was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas and held captive in the jungles they controlled.

López was working as a local assemblyman in western Colombia at a time when the rebels had declared politicians military targets. They kidnapped him and 11 other lawmakers.

López was being held in solitary confinement in 2007 when his companions were massacred by rebels. He heard the gunshots echo over the rebel camp, a memory that haunts him. The case turned López into a symbol — a survivor of the FARC's kidnapping of over 21,000 people over five decades of conflict.

Now in Cali, the city where he was kidnapped, he lives with a state-appointed security detail because of threats against his life. He's watched with fear over the past four years as violence has mounted. Because of that, López, a self-declared leftist, said de la Espriella has his support.

“Colombia is being kidnapped,” López said. “I’m with Abelardo because his priority is to restore safety to Colombians. He understands ‘total peace’ isn’t won by negotiating with criminals, but by exercising the legitimate force of the state.”

Under current president Petro, armed groups have used weapons like drones to wage war, bombings have racked up a civilian toll and one presidential candidate was assassinated in June 2025. In May, the International Red Cross said the impact of armed conflict on civilians in Colombia over the past year had reached the worst point in a decade.

This week, the country's largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), announced a temporary ceasefire in order to not interfere in Colombia's elections. Other criminal groups made no such promises.

With the wave of violence, López said, “victims are being revictimized."

Just as Monroy fears what could come from a sharp swerve to the right, López worries about what could happen if Colombia continues on its current path.

“My fear is for the new generation, that the same thing that happened to me could happen to them if the country keeps being handed over to guerrillas and organized crime,” López said.

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

Koné injured his left leg when Qatar midfielder Assim Madibo tackled him from behind in the second half, sending the 24-year-old to the ground. Koné grimaced and players rushed to his aid, calling for help from the sidelines.

Madibo was sent off for the tackle on Koné, who was protectively surrounded by his teammates while he was treated on the field before he was stretchered off.

“I saw his leg. I saw that something wasn’t right,” Canada captain Stephen Eustáquio said. He was among one of the first players to reach Koné.

Koné was whisked to a local hospital were he was preparing for surgery while surrounded by family, Canada coach Jesse Marsch said. He said the injury happened right in front of the bench, and you could hear the “bones snap."

“Everybody was crushed when it happened, but we had to find a way to stay focused, we knew that Ismaël wanted us to finish the job," Marsch said. "There’s a lot of thoughts that go through our heads right now, we’re all thinking about him, but we’re all very proud of what we are.”

Marsch added that Madibo personally apologized to Koné.

Madibo's red card left Qatar to play with nine men, after teammate Homam Ahmed was sent off in the first half.

Fewer than 10 minutes later, Koné’s replacement, Nathan Saliba, scored Canada’s fourth goal in the 6-0 win and held up Koné’s jersey in an emotional tribute.

Canada striker Jonathan David, who scored a hat trick, questioned the need for the tackle on Koné.

“If there’s a play where you cannot win the ball, there’s no point,” he said. “It’s just to hurt people.”

The details of Koné’s injury have not yet been disclosed. His lower left leg looked visibly broken in photos after the incident.

“We’re going to miss (Koné),” Eustáquio said. “He has that X factor that our team really needs.”

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Connor Joyce and Drew Renner are students in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

The team led by Vance had been ready to leave but was postponing, the White House said, citing difficult logistics for negotiations. The announcement followed a report from Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.

Vance, who was initially personally skeptical of the U.S. going to war with Iran, has increasingly become the administration’s face of the conflict and has been outspoken in defending the deal.

Earlier Thursday, he took the relatively unusual step of appearing at the White House to defend the initial deal to extend the ceasefire 60 days and allow for more negotiating — arguing that while it offers concessions, Iran first has to comply with U.S. demands.

“As they dial up their good behavior, we can dial up the economic relief,” Vance said. “If they dial down their good behavior, we can turn it off.”

But the vice president also had said during those remarks that he was not sure of the timing of his planned to Switzerland and that talks might not begin this week. The formal postponement now makes that even less clear.

Vance staying put in Washington came after the U.S. said it had lifted its blockade, allowing oil tankers to begin freely moving through the Strait of Hormuz after months of being unable to use the critical channel. Still, the tentative agreement has drawn sharp criticism from some in the U.S. — including a few congressional Republicans — who worry Washington ceded too much to Iran with relief from sanctions and a potential $300 billion fund to help with rebuilding.

Earlier, a top Trump administration envoy told U.S. lawmakers in a private briefing that Iran will invite the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear sites.

And Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had seemed to endorse direct negotiations for his officials.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” he said in a statement read by state media.

It was Khamenei’s first reaction to the agreement, and it was interpreted as a shift in Iran’s approach. Hard-liners, especially Khamenei’s father, the previous supreme leader, have long opposed direct talks, especially after the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war.

Lawmakers told Iran will invite UN inspectors to its nuclear sites

The agreement states that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium must at minimum be diluted under international supervision. It also says that Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment it has made previously.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told members of Congress that Iran will invite the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin work on identifying and uncovering the locations of Tehran’s enriched material, which is believed to be buried under rubble.

Witkoff's private briefing was described by two people familiar with the conversation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to share the closed-door details.

The agreement requires Iran to “commit to renounce their nuclear ambitions in writing,” said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales. The IAEA did not respond to a request for comment.

Witkoff told congressional leadership and members of national security-related committees that the agreement the U.S. struck with Iran did not include any side deals, but a side letter was drafted between Tehran and the IAEA extending the invitation.

Witkoff said the letter to IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi would enable him to bring U.S. nuclear inspectors to Tehran.

Vance defends US-Iran deal and has sharp words for Israel

Before Vance delayed his trip, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif postponed a planned visit to Switzerland, where Islamabad officials had originally planned to host a ceremonial signing ceremony for the agreement. That visit was postponed because the agreement had already been signed by both Iran and the U.S., said two senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

President Donald Trump signed the initial pact with Iran on Wednesday while dining with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The deal is slated to take immediate effect and extends a ceasefire while giving each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements on larger issues.

Vance, in his comments at the White House, shrugged off criticism about the confusing rollout of the initial deal, saying, “I don’t think our public messaging has been chaotic."

He also offered a blunt warning to Israel, which has pushed the U.S. to take a harder stance against Iran and launched attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon throughout the war, including just before the deal extending the ceasefire was reached. Those attacks complicated the peace efforts with Iran.

Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time," Vance said. “And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.”

Shipping starts to pick up

Trump said he signed the agreement to avoid “economic catastrophe” in the U.S., after the war caused oil prices to skyrocket, made financial markets skittish and fueled inflation. The deal caused gas prices to fall and stock markets to rise — though rallies could be threatened again depending on how the next round of U.S.-Iran talks go.

The vice president said more than 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night and said that the U.S. easing its blockade of Iran means “honoring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side.”

U.S. Central Command said American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”

Iranian state media said shipping had “normalized” at Iran’s southern ports but added that the strait remains supervised and under the control of the Iranian military, and transiting through the vital waterway still requires coordination.

Major shipowners began moving vessels through the strait after the agreement was signed, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, though Lloyd's did not give data on how many ships have passed through the strait as of Thursday.

In a media briefing, Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd’s List, said for the first time in 110 days, ships owned by major companies are transiting the strait after effectively being marooned there since February. It could take weeks or months to fully reopen the strait, and the two alternative routes do not have as much capacity as the strait's central passage.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Aamer Madhani in Zurich; Collin Binkley in Washington; Mae Anderson in New York; and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

A few minutes later, everyone knew the answer. There was Scheffler jumping up and down in a bunker situated 150 yards shy of the green — and 10 feet lower than the fairway — to catch a glimpse of the flag on the putting surface ahead.

What resulted was a rare bogey 6 for the world's No. 1 player on one of those rare par 5s in pro golf that wasn't remotely reachable in two — thanks to it being uphill and dead into a 25 mph wind. Even after the wind died down in the afternoon, the 16th played at 0.372 strokes over par with most of the first round over, making it the fourth-hardest hole on the course.

Welcome to Shinnecock.

“You had to be hitting a great shot if you wanted to avoid a punishment,” Scheffler said after walking off the windswept golf course at 2-over par, which was eight shots behind leader Wyndham Clark, who played in much tamer conditions in the afternoon. “I think ‘good’ would put you in some tough spots.”

Scheffler, who needs this tournament to complete the career Grand Slam, found plenty of those tough spots in his 10th straight round at the U.S. Open in which he has failed to break par. It began in the morning but bled well into the afternoon — a 5 1/2-hour grind through the wind that started late because of a two-hour fog delay. One of his playing partners, defending champion J.J. Spaun, fared even worse. Spaun shot 77.

Scheffler made double bogey on No. 8 after teeing off into the rough, hitting his second into a bunker some 40 yards from the hole, then three-putting.

He hit a wedge from 110 yards to the middle of the 13th green, but the ball spun and rolled off the front. That led to a bogey; blame it on the soft conditions the USGA has been trying to hang on to in wake of the wind forecast.

“Overall, yeah, it was a really challenging day,” Scheffler said. “If you told me when I was staring at my par putt on 9 that I would post 2-over today, I would definitely have taken it at the time.”

He made that putt, a 6-footer, to make the turn at 3 over. He sank a 9-footer for a sand save on No. 18 to walk away with his 72. Three of his four birdies came on the back nine.

“I feel like this course can change pretty rapidly from day to day,” he said. “I think that’s also part of the challenge of the tournament is adjusting to those conditions.”

Some 90 minutes after the round, Scheffler was still on the driving range, having an animated conversation with his coach, Randy Smith, while the wind picked up for the second wave of players, many of whom would be on the course at twilight.

As much as his swing, Scheffler knows this tournament will come down to who can untangle the conditions, then deal with them the best. He walked off the course in a tie for 75th place — not out of it, but still looking for answers.

“I think it’s a little easier sometimes in a U.S. Open,” Scheffler said, “because it’s happening to everybody.”

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

Morning fog led to a two-hour delay, and Clark had a feeling his late afternoon start would be an advantage as the wind began to subside with the setting sun. Good golf was still required, and Clark displayed every bit of that before he was stopped only by darkness.

By then, the former U.S. Open champion rode a birdie-birdie-eagle stretch to 6-under par through 16 holes and a four-shot lead.

“Everything was kind of clicking,” said Clark, who came into the U.S. Open playing as well as anyone. “We were definitely fortunate with the wind laying down. Overall a good round.”

The USGA set up a different golf course at Shinnecock Hills — slower, more receptive greens and reasonable pin positions — to keep it playable in strong wind. But when the wind subsided late in the day, Clark looked like he was playing in a different U.S. Open.

No one ever has gone lower than 66 in an opening round at Shinnecock Hills. Clark can go two shots lower if he can finish with two pars when he and 49 other players return Friday morning.

He led by four over seven players, one of them Oklahoma junior Ryder Cowan, another one the surprisingly resurgent Dustin Johnson. Four of them were former U.S. Open champions.

Rory McIlroy thought he had made a fine effort with a 69 in gusts that topped 30 mph in the middle of the day, when the scoring average was well above 74. The afternoon started tough until the wind kept subsiding, and players began taking aim at flags. The afternoon wave was playing at least a stroke easier than the early starters who faced relentless wind.

Shinnecock was still a brute of a test, but the red numbers on the white scoreboard was an unfamiliar site for this course. When play was suspended by darkness, 17 players were under par.

Cowan birdied his last hole for a 68 to join former Sooner Max McGreevy and former Oklahoma State player Sam Stevens of those who finished the round. Stevens was the only one of that trio who faced the harsh wind of the morning wave.

Johnson, in his final year of being exempt from the U.S. Open he won at Oakmont in 2016, ran off four straight birdies and was tied with Clark after 13 holes. But Johnson failed to get up-and-down for birdie on the easy par-5 fifth, where Clark made eagle. And then Johnson three-putted from short range for double bogey on the sixth to fall four shots behind.

Scottie Scheffler, who needs the U.S. Open to complete the career Grand Slam, battled all day and relied heavily on his short game to salvage a 72. It was his 10th consecutive U.S. Open round without breaking par, but at the time it left him only four shots out of the lead.

Clark, who won the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club three years ago, changed the look of the leaderboard with his late flourish. He was to return Friday morning to complete the round, then head out for the second round in wind expected to be not as strong as the full blast from Thursday.

“I would say when I got my tee times on Tuesday, I was like, ‘Oh, could be a tough draw,’” Clark said. “That two-hour fog delay was very helpful, and it was really nice it laid down. So it definitely helped those last six, seven holes we played.”

His golf wasn't too shabby, either. Clark started on No. 10 and opened with two quick birdies. He went out in 32 to get his name atop the leaderboard. And after missing an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 1 and failing to save par from a bunker on the long par-3 second, he took off.

He hit wedge to 5 feet on No. 3 for birdie, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the next and then from 207 yards with some wind at his back, he hit his second on the par-5 fifth to 3 feet for eagle.

When Johnson faltered, Clark had plenty of breathing room — and a quick turnaround.

The wind was so strong and the conditions so severe that it took Scheffler's group nearly three hours to complete nine holes. There was a question the round could have finished even without the fog delay.

Johnson was joined by three other U.S. Open champions — Matt Fitzpatrick (2022), Gary Woodland (2019) and Jon Rahm (2021) — at 2 under, with all still having holes to play.

Rahm, who had a chance in the final hour at the PGA Championship, was bogey-free and reached 2 under by making a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole.

Stevens overcame a double bogey to start his round — a hole that took him over two hours to play because of the fog — and strung together six birdies for his 68.

“The greens haven’t been too firm, the fairways haven’t been too firm, so I’ve really felt like it’s pretty scorable,” said Stevens, who had only his second sub-70 round in his fourth U.S. Open. “Obviously, it’s difficult, but overall it’s an awesome place. I think the setup is great right now.”

For half of the opening round, the USGA appeared to have the ideal test. Coming off two Opens at Shinnecock when the course got out of control, it slowed greens to 10 1/2 on the Stimpmeter — rare for any major, much less the U.S. Open — and keep plenty of water on the putting surfaces.

It was all due to the wind, which did not disappoint. The sustained wind approached 25 mph, and gusts were even stronger. And if that wasn’t enough, it shifted directions in the middle of the day.

“It was tough around here without wind, and then it was blowing pretty hard — really hard,” Keegan Bradley said after a 70. “The USGA did a great job setting the course up because if the greens were any faster or firmer, we might not be playing right now.”

But they played, it became more ideal with each passing hour late in the afternoon.

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

Midway through his round Thursday, the leaderboard showed that the amateur was playing the best golf of anyone at Shinnecock Hills.

Cowan, a 21-year-old who will be a senior at Oklahoma, briefly held the lead in his first major championship before finishing with a 2-under 68, matching the lowest round by an amateur at Shinnecock. He was tied for second when the first round was suspended because of darkness.

“Through nine, I looked up and I was 3-under par,” Cowan said. “I definitely looked at that leaderboard, and I saw it up there.”

A couple bogeys on his second nine knocked him back, but with the sun setting, Cowan finished strong shortly before play was stopped for the day. Playing the ninth hole, he hit his approach to 5 feet and knocked in the putt for his fourth birdie of the round.

Starting on the back, he had three of them in his first eight holes, moving to 3-under and into the lead after his birdie at the par-3 17th.

“I feel like I started well. I got some momentum from that,” Cowan said. "I knew, if I could get through those holes, I had a couple easy holes coming in.

"I hit it good all day, put myself in good positions throughout the day.

Cowan was four shots behind Wyndham Clark, in position to be the first amateur to finish a U.S. Open round in the top five since Brian Campbell was tied for fourth after the first round in 2015. The group he is tied with includes past U.S. champions Dustin Johnson, Matt Fitzpatrick, Gary Woodland and Jon Rahm.

Cowan earned his trip to Shinnecock through a qualifier at BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, shooting 6-under 138 and then surviving a three-man playoff for two spots. The other was earned by 17-year-old Miles Russell, who also played well Thursday and finished at 2 over while playing in a group with three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, 54.

Cowan said the practice he did to prepare had him believing he would play well. But playing on his home course looks and sounds much different than what he faced at Shinnecock.

“I think that I’ve really just been trying this week to focus on each shot, especially today. One at a time, not worry about what’s going on in the crowds or everything,” Cowan said. “I’m not used to all these crowds. We don’t ever really play with a lot of crowds.”

If he can keep up his strong play, he might have a big one following him around on the weekend.

“I feel like all the work I put in every single day gives me that belief that I can come out here and play with anyone and the guys that I surround myself with,” Cowan said.

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

In a rally with Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that drew thousands to a Brooklyn theater, the emboldened mayor delivered a fiery message to Democratic leaders in Washington — and even those considering 2028 presidential bids — as he worked to elevate a slate of likeminded candidates in Tuesday's New York primaries.

“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party. This slate here today is our answer," Mamdani declared. "The Democratic Party must change.”

“The party of the past will not be what leads us into the future. We need a Democratic Party with backbone."

He shared the stage with three congressional candidates, including two running against Democratic incumbents. All three identify, or have identified, as democratic socialists. They promised to “abolish ICE,” condemned the “genocide” in Israel and vowed to "tax the rich" if elected.

The collection of congressional candidates he’s backing represent a political gamble for Mamdani, whose picks may not win Tuesday, and a potential headache for Democratic leaders, who fear that Mamdani’s allies may push the party too far left. It's the latest way Mamdani is testing the limits of his newfound political muscle, even if it means challenging his own party’s leadership.

Sanders cheered him on Thursday night, noting that democratic socialists fighting for working-class voters like Mamdani have been elected across the country in recent months.

“The politics and the policies of the democratic establishment are no longer good enough,” Sanders charged. “In this dangerous and unprecedented moment in American history, tinkering around the edges just won’t work.”

The Mamdani slate

Establishment Democrats are not pleased with the mayor's decisions.

Mamdani endorsed political organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in New York's 13th District, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

Mamdani is also backing former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in New York's 10th District. And in New York's 7th, he's supporting democratic socialist state Assembly Member Claire Valdez against outgoing Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s handpicked successor.

All three congressional candidates stood arm-in-arm with the mayor Thursday and spoke from a podium emblazoned with the sign “Our team, our year.”

“Right now there’s really mass dissatisfaction with the way the party leadership has been operating and not standing up strongly enough to Trump,” Valdez told The Associated Press before the rally, where she promised to “Free Palestine” and “abolish ICE.”

She said she hopes to “bring a partner to Zohran to Washington.”

Valdez's primary opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, said he feels like the underdog in the race, even though he was endorsed by the outgoing incumbent. He said Mamdani “has a celebrity status that we haven’t seen the likes of since I’ve been alive.”

“He’s going to be our champion for the foreseeable future and he’s doing a great job, and when he says that he’s endorsing someone, it matters,” Reynoso said in an interview. “I believe that this community has seen me work, they know I’m a progressive champion, and in any other circumstance I would be a favorite to win this race, but I’m not because he has tipped the scale.”

The candidates are largely aligned on the biggest issues, although there are modest differences.

Israel’s war in Gaza has featured heavily among the Mamdani slate, with Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier casting their Democratic opponents as too soft on Israel. The mayor’s candidates also sought to replicate much of the platform that sent him to City Hall, focusing on the city’s high cost of living and framing themselves as fresh faces not beholden to powerful business interests.

Avila Chevalier went after Espaillat at Thursday’s rally for accepting major donations from real estate developers and Wall Street.

“You cannot take working people for granted. And you cannot outspend a movement whose time has come,” she said. “We are done being ignored.”

The view from Washington

On Capitol Hill, Democrats are pleasantly surprised that Mamdani has become less of a political liability for the party in swing district seats than they once feared.

But Mamdani’s endorsements have aggravated intraparty fissures, especially among moderates who worry that Mamdani's far-left brand may eventually tarnish the entire party.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New Yorker, has tried to push back against the Mamdani-backed democratic socialist challengers, endorsing and campaigning for the embattled incumbents in a proxy fight with the mayor.

But Jeffries and Mamdani have opted to wrestle only in primaries rather than bicker publicly and feed into GOP narratives of Democratic disarray.

“Democrats must understand, and both the leader and Mamdani appreciate this, how to yell in areas where we agree and whisper in areas where we diverge,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who works with House Democrats.

For now, Jeffries' allies acknowledge that Mamdani has energized Democratic voters and may be able to reach some Americans who have checked out of the political process. They also prefer that Mamdani is hyper-focused on New York City’s governance rather than traveling across the country.

And yet Mamdani made clear Thursday that he wants his message to be heard nationally.

He referenced the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination contest, saying it begins Tuesday when New York Democrats pick their general election nominees.

“For far too long our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire.”

Meanwhile, Republicans plan to elevate Mamdani's profile as well.

The GOP hasn't made Mamdani a central feature of its broader national messaging as it once threatened, but Republican operatives have sought to link Mamdani to Democratic House candidates in swing districts across California, Colorado and Wisconsin. They also believe the specter of the New York City mayor will loom large in pivotal House races in New York and New Jersey.

The Republican bet is that vulnerable Democrats cannot afford to break with Mamdani too cleanly for fear of alienating progressive voters, even as they cast him as a radical.

“Zohran Mamdani’s socialist brand is as toxic as it comes,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, House Republicans’ campaign arm. “And during a time when Democrats don’t have a leader or a message, he’s exactly the kind of bogeyman we can use against Democrats to truly show who is leading their party and the crazy policies they all support.”

Sanders' senior adviser Faiz Shakir encouraged the GOP to try.

He said “the crowd goes nuts” when Sanders mentions Mamdani in almost every speech as he tours the nation rallying voters ahead of the midterms.

“He’s seeing that opportunity — that we can radically change the Democratic Party,” Shakir said of Mamdani, whom he described as a friend. “He certainly is not a political liability.”

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Brown reported in Washington.

The team announced before Thursday night's game against the Athletics that the 11-time All-Star was placed on the 10-day IL due to a right hamstring strain. The Angels recalled infielder Christian Moore from Triple-A Salt Lake among a flurry of moves.

Trout told MLB.com that the injury occurred when he was running to first base Wednesday in the Angels' 8-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“From last night to today, it’s a night-and-day difference, so that’s positive for me,” Trout told MLB.com. “I was a little worried last night, but had a plane ride and just sitting down after playing, so that kind of came into effect. But feels way better today, so I’m not overly concerned about it. But I’m going to do everything I can in that training room and the weight room to get back.”

Injuries have hindered Trout for much of this decade. Since winning his third AL MVP award in 2019, Trout has played more than 82 games in a season just twice – 119 in 2022 and 130 in 2025.

The 34-year-old Trout had played in 74 of 75 games this year in a resurgent season. He's batting .234 with an .866 OPS, 17 homers, 36 RBIs and seven steals.

He entered Thursday with an AL-leading 54 runs, a total that was tied for second in the majors behind Washington’s James Wood. Trout's 66 walks also ranked second in the big leagues, behind the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz.

Trout had the second-highest vote count of any AL outfielder in the All-Star Game balloting totals that were released this week. He grew up near Philadelphia, where this year’s All-Star Game will take place next month.

The injury to Trout created an opportunity for Moore, who was hitting .333 with a .468 on-base percentage, nine homers, 45 RBIs and 10 steals in 51 games at Salt Lake while playing second base, third base and the outfield.

Moore hit .198 with a .284 on-base percentage, seven homers, 16 RBIs and three steals in 53 games with the Angels last season.

In other moves, the Angels recalled right-hander Ryan Johnson from Double-A Rocket City, released left-hander Drew Pomeranz and optioned right-hander Brett Kerry and catcher Logan Porter to Salt Lake.

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

State Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director who advanced Thursday, received the most votes in a crowded field of both Democrats and Republicans to move on to the Aug. 18 special general election.

Wahab had a lead in votes, but Hernandez said her path forward to August is “digging into the numbers, and going out to those areas where we know that we can secure votes."

“I connect to voters, and that’s one thing that is definitely different than my opponent," she said, reiterating her focus on bringing down costs for lower and middle class families. “We’re going to fight the good fight.”

Whoever wins the special election in August will fill Swalwell’s seat through January. At that time, the winner of the regular general election in November will take over for a full, two-year term. In this case, that will also be Wahab or Hernandez, who snagged the top two spots in the regular primary that was held on June 2, similarly locking out Republican challengers.

That means both candidates are running in two separate elections for California’s 14th Congressional District, which includes East Bay cities such as Fremont, Hayward and Livermore. It would’ve been an uphill fight for a Republican to win in the heavily Democratic district. The three top vote-getters in the special election were Democrats, with businesswoman and attorney Rakhi Israni Singh finishing behind Hernandez.

Whoever wins the special election in August will likely get a boost of visibility and a few months of experience in Congress that they can tout during the November general election campaign.

Wahab, who didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, is an established presence in California politics as the Senate’s assistant majority leader. She has campaigned on a more progressive platform and has detailed her track record in public office.

That includes expanding social safety net programs and renter protections, promoting social justice issues and pledging to support small businesses by cutting bureaucratic hurdles.

Hernandez, who was the former mayor of the East Bay city of Dublin, has highlighted similar goals while emphasizing a business-friendly approach. For lowering costs, Hernandez said she would “prioritize growing small businesses” and promote incentives to build housing. She also would push to lower health insurance premiums by restoring insurance subsidies.

One of them will replace Swalwell after he served for seven terms before resigning in April and dropping his bid for California governor. That was prompted by a San Francisco Chronicle report of allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman twice, including when she worked for him.

CNN later reported that other women accused him of sending inappropriate messages and nude photos.

Swalwell, a Democrat, has repeatedly denied the accusations but said it would be unfair to his constituents to remain in Congress.

Mitchell set a U.S. Open record Thursday at Shinnecock Hills when he became the only player to post a score in the 40s on nine holes, and follow that with a score in the 20s on the next nine.

He went 41-29. It added to an even-par 70, and Mitchell still isn't sure what happened. He was coming off a bogey on the par-5 16th, and his first thought was whether he would finish.

“I was thinking about trying to break 80,” he said. “I was just trying to keep in it in the fairway, on the green and maybe have a chance to make the cut. And then it all flipped.”

His 29 tied the Shinnecock Hills record for nine holes set by Neal Lancaster in 1995 (Lancaster is the only player to twice shoot 29 on nine holes in the U.S. Open).

How it started is something Mitchell would like to forget. He went over the par-4 10th green to start his round, took two chips and two putts and had a double bogey. He went over the green on the par-3 11th and made bogey. Going long is to be avoided on those holes.

“All week I've been told not to do that,” Mitchell said. “It's the sum of all fears.”

After a string of bogeys, he hit a good tee shot into the par-3 17th and two-putted for par. He hit another good iron on the 18th and two-putted for par, both of them in the 20-foot range.

Those pars sparked the turnaround.

“There's a lot less pressure when you're 6 over and you're just rocking and rolling,” he said.

He was rolling, all right. The wind switched and was at his back on the first hole, so his caddie suggested he hit driver.

“Best swing of the day,” Mitchell said. It led to birdie, and he was on his way.

He hit wedge to 3 feet on the third, holed a 10-footer for birdie on the fourth, and then hit his second shot to 12 feet on the par-5 fifth and made eagle. He closed out his remarkable round with an approach to 8 feet on the rough nine for his 29.

He might have taken a 70 at the start of the day. He certainly would have taken it after his opening seven holes.

“If you hit the fairway, you have a chance — I didn't do that very often on the back nine — and then you have a chance to get on the green,” Mitchell said.

He did that on the front nine, not missing a fairway and only missing the green on one of the long holes. And suddenly, the game felt easy.

“Fortunately, I hit it really, really well,” he said.

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

Every Brazilian fan — in Philadelphia to watch their team play Haiti on Friday at the World Cup — who stopped for a snapshot or a selfie with the 9-foot-11, 1,300-pound beast left the statue dressed in only his bronze trunks and boots.

No taking chances of getting hit by the Rocky curse.

Yes, the Rocky statue, long a symbol of resilience, heart and the unbreakable bond between Rocky and the people of Philadelphia, has taken a few more hits of late (even in retirement).

Visiting American sports fans have long learned the hard way that dressing the statue with colorful jerseys, scarfs, hats, anything found in your local Rally House, has only meant that team would suffer a knockout blow at the home of the local Philly team.

Scoff all you want.

The bad fortune stretched to soccer when Ecuador fans took over the Rocky steps and sang and danced and waved flags and ... dressed Rocky in a team jersey and tied the country's flag around the fictional fighter's neck.

It didn't go well.

Amad Diallo scored in the 90th minute to lift Ivory Coast to a 1-0 victory over Ecuador in its first World Cup appearance in a dozen years.

And there ain't gonna be no rematch.

Brazil fans noticed the outcome and one of their fan groups, the Green and Yellow Movement, urged visitors to keep their clothing to themselves.

"ANTENCAO TORCEDOR!" the Instagram post warned.

Everyone is paying attention.

The translated text read: “It's totally forbidden to put a Brazil shirt on the Rocky statue in Philly!!!!!”

Even Visit PA cheekily got in on the fun and tried to warn foreigners that — just like Ivan Drago learned the hard way — Rocky was not to be messed with.

“Countless football teams (as in American Football, not Fútbol — same curse, different sport) have all dressed the Rocky Statue in their colors and gone on to lose,” the Instagram post said. “Ecuador dressed Rocky last weekend Coincidence? Sadly, history says no.

“Philadelphia can't wait to host you! (but Rocky does not need your kit)”

Brazilian fans paid heed to the warning Thursday, and scores of fans simply took the spot in front of the statue and raised their arms in triumph just as Rocky did after so many fights, and many, many movies.

Hundreds of Brazilian fans swarmed the Rocky steps late in the day and left the statue bare. Rocky was roped off as if inside the ring and four “Rocky protectors” stood at each corner to keep enthusiastic fans at bay.

“This is a moment in Brazil,” said Lorival Guerreiro, who traveled from Limeira, Brazil. “They promote this place to celebrate before the game. The Brazilians come here to celebrate our team."

When the bronze statue was left on the steps after filming the “Rocky” movies, the museum fought to have it removed. It was eventually relocated to South Philadelphia before returning to the bottom of the steps in 2006. The statue was a huge hit and became a point of pilgrimage for people around the world.

According to the Philadelphia Visitor Center, about 4 million people visit the steps each year — rivaling the nearby Liberty Bell in annual foot traffic. The pop culture icon was recently moved to the top of the steps.

Roberto De Freitas, a native of Porto Alegre who now lives in Florida and is attending his third World Cup, climbed the steps for a photoshoot with perhaps Philadelphia's most famous landmark. He was dressed in Brazil's colors — down to the green sneakers — and was set to attend Friday's game.

He hoped five-time World Cup champion Brazil would take a page from Rocky's corner and win some more.

“We have five titles,” De Freitas said. “We are trying to get that sixth one.”

De Freitas had not yet heard of the Rocky curse but had no plans to tempt fate once he learned of the potential consequences.

“That's what they said,” he asked with a laugh. “I'm for sure not going to do it.”

For the record, De Freitas said “Rocky” was his favorite of all the movies in the series.

The Rocky Shop at the base of the steps was loaded with tourists who snaked their way through fighter T-shirts and plush offerings of Mr. T's character, Clubber Lang. Peruvian sports journalist Jampool Cuadros Estrada tried on a Rocky robe as a cameraman followed him around the store for their latest World Cup report.

Philadelphia, home to nearly 6,000 Brazilian-born immigrants, has a bit of a recent connection with the South American country. The Philadelphia Eagles opened their Super Bowl championship season with a win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil in 2024.

Facing pressure to win its first World Cup title since 2002, Brazil was outplayed early and needed Vinícius Júnior’s 32nd-minute goal to get a 1-1 draw with Morocco on Saturday.

Brazil now needs to beware Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation that qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974 and is a noted heavy underdog — just like Rocky.

“Brazil has the pressure. Haiti has the freedom,” Haitian singer Wyclef Jean wrote on social media. “And sometimes freedom is the most dangerous thing on the pitch. I can't wait!!!!”

___

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

Trump bestowed the military's highest honor on Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr. and Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery. He also awarded it posthumously to Marine Corps Col. John W. Ripley, who died in 2008.

“These are great men, great people,” Trump said at the ceremony. “We thank you and we will never, ever forget you.”

Capers led a selfless rescue after a deadly ambush

Capers, 88, was honored for risking his life to ensure the safety of his fellow Marines after they were ambushed in Vietnam in 1967. What was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission to find a suspected North Vietnamese base camp turned into days of bloody fighting in dense jungle, according to his citation.

On the fourth day, his team was ambushed and outnumbered by Vietnamese fighters. A mine explosion left Capers with a broken leg and serious wounds to his abdomen.

“After a shot of morphine, Jim asserted command of the firefight,” Trump said, drawing on accounts of the mission. “He took over like nobody’s ever seen before.”

Capers called in air support to repel the ambush. When a rescue helicopter arrived, Capers loaded all the wounded men before climbing aboard.

Trump shared a moving moment with Capers as the president pinned the Medal of Honor around his neck, clasping Capers by the shoulders and pulling him forward to make sure the medal was straight and level against his chest. Capers had been keeping a straight face but broke into a smile when Trump grinned.

Ripley single-handedly laid explosives to destroy key bridge

Ripley was honored for a heroic effort to halt the advance of North Vietnamese forces by blowing up a crucial bridge in 1972.

A force of more than 30,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and 200 tanks was approaching the bridge in the village of Dong Ha when Ripley single-handedly placed 500 pounds of explosives to bring it down, according to his citation.

Over the course of five hours, Ripley climbed back and forth along the bridge's steel beams, exposing himself to enemy fire as he placed the charges.

“John completed not one, not two, but five such trips,” Trump said, calling him a “very strong guy.”

Ripley said a prayer, then detonated the bridge, sending it into the water below and halting the North Vietnamese advance, Trump said.

Ripley died in 2008. His three sons and other family members attended the ceremony.

Dockery rescued wounded soldiers before coordinating rescue

Dockery's platoon members were guarding a compound in Afghanistan's Kapisa Province in 2012 when they were ambushed by an estimated 150 Taliban fighters. He raced across open ground to rally his scattered team then set out to find missing soldiers, according to his citation.

After carrying a wounded soldier away from gunfire, he spotted two enemy fighters heading toward another wounded soldier in an alley. Dockery killed the two fighters before performing CPR on the American soldier to get him breathing again, his citation said. Dockery called in mortar support, then shielded the wounded soldier from the blasts with his own body.

After hours of fighting in the close urban setting, Dockery used smoke grenades to signal enemy positions for American gunships. He refused to leave the village until all the wounded soldiers were taken to safety.

“You were the last man to depart the battlefield that day," Trump told him, “and you left it a legend and a hero."

According to an annual defense authorization bill, filed this week, much of the travel funds for the defense secretary’s office may not be spent until Hegseth submits "unredacted civilian harm investigations," including for the Feb. 28, 2026, strike on the Minab school. Officials have preliminarily said the U.S. was responsible for the strike, which was blamed on outdated intelligence.

Congress, which conducts oversight of the Pentagon, has not yet received the Defense Department's report on the investigation. It is believed to have been completed last month.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that this year's annual defense package “forces the Secretary to be more accountable to Congress and will prevent many errors of the past from being repeated in the future.”

Strike on elementary school became a flashpoint

The bombing of the elementary school on the first day of the U.S. war against Iran killed more than 165 people, many of them children, at the campus adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base. It quickly became a focal point of the conflict.

Outdated intelligence likely led to the United States carrying out the missile strike, according to those familiar with the preliminary findings in March. If so, it would stand among the highest civilian casualty events caused by American military operations in the last two decades.

Senators from both parties tucked the new provisions blocking Hegseth's travel funds into the National Defense Authorization Act to force release of the investigation.

The Senate bill text said not more than 25% of the defense secretary’s travel funds may be spent until he submits the investigations, "including all relevant supporting documents,” for several incidents of civilian harm.

The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senators also demand video of the boat strikes near Venezuela

Senators also are seeking to withhold Hegseth's travel funds until the Pentagon releases “unedited video” of the U.S. strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats near Venezuela.

The Pentagon has conducted a monthslong campaign of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 211 people so far. Many of the attacks have been captured on videos that the department announces by posting select footage on social media.

In at least one instance, survivors have been killed in follow-on strikes, which experts have said is at odds with military law and rules of engagement. Lawmakers also pressed for such video in last year's defense package.

Additionally, lawmakers are seeking three other investigations into a series of strikes in Yemen in April 2025. They were conducted during the U.S. military's campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who were attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea.

The list of requested investigations includes a strike on a port that left at least 70 dead and more than 170 wounded and a strike on neighborhood in Sanaa, the rebel-held capital of Yemen, that hit a house, killing at least four people and wounding 16 others.

The casualty figures for both were provided by the Houthis.

At the time, U.S. Central Command didn’t answer questions relating to the strikes in Yemen. Following the port strike, it said it “was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.” Central Command argued it was intended to “eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years.”

Senators conduct oversight as part of sweeping defense bill

The reports being requested from the Pentagon are to be submitted to the Armed Services committees in the House and Senate.

The directive comes as part of the annual defense bill, a sprawling 1,500-page document that sets policy for the coming year. The package is compiled by both parties — Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate, and Democrats in the minority.

It’s one of the rare bipartisan measures that is almost always approved by Congress.

The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the measure last week, and it is now headed to the full Senate for a vote.

The retraction came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Judge Gregory Carro that they planned to pursue a defense involving claims that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing.

A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the state case, declined to comment.

Mangione's lawyers had faced a deadline Thursday to provide prosecutors with information to support the emotional disturbance claim.

In another turn, Carro rescinded his order to unseal a transcript and other material from a secret hearing on the matter on June 3, citing the defense’s decision, but by the time he ruled copies of the transcript had already been provided to at least some members of the news media.

It contained no additional details about the emotional disturbance claim.

If Mangione were to have gone through with the extreme emotional disturbance defense, he would have effectively been admitting that he killed Thompson but did so because of mitigating circumstances. It wouldn’t have absolved him of responsibility, but could have led to less time in prison.

If a jury accepts the defense, it is obligated to convict a defendant of manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, instead of murder, which carries a potential life sentence.

In a letter to Carro on Thursday, Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the defense “respectfully withdraws” its notice under New York's psychiatric defense statute “at this time.”

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges. His state trial is scheduled to start Sept. 8. His federal trial, which involves stalking charges, is set to begin on Oct. 13.

At Wednesday's hearing, Friedman Agnifilo protested Carro’s decision to unseal materials related to his psychiatric defense, saying it will be “prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts” in his federal case, where an extreme emotional disturbance defense isn’t allowed.

An emotional disturbance defense is not the same as a not guilty by reason of insanity defense, which would allow a defendant to go to a psychiatric facility instead of prison.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

At a hearing last month, Carro ruled that a gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Mangione to the killing can be used as evidence against him.

The gun, a 3D-printed pistol, matches the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said. The notebook describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which has won court victories against identical digital identification laws in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia. The trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies said the Ohio decision went against “clear national consensus” and that it intended to keep fighting.

“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” said Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.

Netchoice brought suit against Ohio's law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.

The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit's panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law's enforcement vacated.

“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”

Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that “a statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.”

Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023.

The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children’s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, saying at the time that social media was “intentionally addictive” and harmful to kids.

The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.

Republican Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Thursday's ruling “a win for Ohio families.”

“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”

Fagan’s resignation was announced Thursday by Radford Athletics, ending a successful tenure that saw the program return to prominence in the Big South Conference. Fagan was hired in July 2024 as the 11th head coach in program history after previous stops at Emmanuel College and the College of Central Florida.

During his first season in 2025, Fagan guided Radford to a 30-26 overall record and a 14-4 mark in Big South play, helping the Highlanders capture the conference regular-season championship. He was named Big South Coach of the Year following the season.

The Highlanders followed with another strong campaign in 2026, finishing with 24 victories and a top-three conference finish while facing one of the toughest schedules in the Big South. Radford earned notable wins over Liberty, UConn, Boston College and Campbell, while pitcher Dakota Redmon repeated as the conference’s Pitcher of the Year.

In two seasons under Fagan, Radford earned multiple all-conference selections, player-of-the-year awards and national recognition in the D1 Softball Mid-Major rankings. The program also saw significant facility improvements, including the addition of a new turf field and videoboard at Radford Softball Stadium.

Before arriving at Radford, Fagan compiled a 121-96 record in four seasons at Emmanuel College and built one of the nation’s top junior college programs at the College of Central Florida. Prior to his softball coaching career, he played defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers and was a member of two Super Bowl-winning teams.

Chase's father, John David Schwallier, confirmed to The New York Times she died from complications of bacterial meningitis and a blood infection. She had been homeless in Los Angeles with her boyfriend near the hospital where she died, he told the newspaper.

TMZ first reported Wednesday that Chase died Tuesday.

She voiced the lead role of Lilo in the 2002 animated film, a role she auditioned for at age 8. Years later, a Hawaiian actress was cast as Lilo for the live-action remake.

For her role as long-haired Samara in the 2002 horror film, Chase won an MTV movie award for best villain.

Chase also voiced another lead in the 2001 animated film “Spirited Away.” She had roles in the 2001 movie “Donnie Darko” and the 2003 show “Oliver Beene,” according to internet movie database IMDb.com.

She was born in Las Vegas and raised in Albany, Oregon. In her small hometown, she began singing and dancing at age 3, according to IMDb.

Chase struggled with drugs since she was 13 years old, Schwallier said in an interview with the Times. He said his daughter was estranged from her parents, who are divorced.

Schwallier said he was in touch with Chase's boyfriend, and just before she died, arrived at the Los Angeles hospital where she was being treated.

Preston Tolth pleaded guilty to robbing Begay and was sentenced on May 8 to five years in prison with credit for three years already served. He was released Monday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Begay’s relatives, who expected Tolth to remain in custody until at least 2028, said they were shocked when they heard Monday. The eldest of her three children, Gerald Begay, learned of Tolth’s release while wrapping up his workday on a construction site and reflecting on the somber anniversary of his mother’s still-unsolved disappearance.

“This is just another slap in the face," Begay said.

Begay, a prolific weaver of Navajo-style rugs and a grandmother of nine, was 62 when she disappeared from Sweetwater on the Navajo Nation. Family and community members searched for her, pressured law enforcement for action and drew national media attention to the case that’s been symbolic of the crisis of violence against Indigenous people.

Shortened sentence

Scott Taylor, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said Tolth received credit for good conduct while incarcerated and under a statute that counts time served after the commission of a crime but before sentencing, including on unrelated charges.

“The release was calculated in full accordance with federal sentencing law and Bureau of Prisons policy,” Taylor said Thursday.

According to New Mexico court records, Tolth was incarcerated while facing multiple state charges between the time he robbed Begay on June 15, 2021, and his April 2023 arrest. Those separate charges ultimately were dismissed.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and a public defender who represented Tolth confirmed the conditions of release but otherwise declined comment.

Mark Osler, an expert on sentencing at the University of St. Thomas, said the Federal Bureau of Prisons routinely shortens sentences to reduce overcrowding and recidivism. The bureau has no obligation to notify victims and their families of releases.

“What’s unfortunate here is the lack of communication,” Osler said. “These are people that have been hurt and society owes more to them.”

An elder vanished

On the morning of June 15, 2021, Begay's daughter, who lived next door to her, called 911 to report a break-in at her own home, according to the Navajo Nation Department of Criminal Investigations. By the time officers arrived 90 minutes later, Begay told them the intruder had left and something else that struck her as odd: She had just seen her mother’s truck leave the driveway, even though it was well before sunrise.

According to the department, officers “checked on” Begay's house and noted that the doors were locked but did not confirm if Begay was home. Nine hours later, she was declared missing and tribal police began investigating.

Begay's family pointed law enforcement to Tolth, whose father was dating Begay's sister. Investigators twice interrogated him, and Tolth admitted stealing Begay's truck with her in it, repeatedly punching her in the face and leaving her on the road. He acknowledged he may have hit her hard enough to kill her.

But a federal judge later ruled that confession inadmissible, saying the FBI failed to honor Tolth's right to refuse questioning. Federal prosecutors then opted to negotiate an agreement rather than go to trial.

“A miscarriage of justice”

Court documents outlined an unstable childhood for Tolth, marked by homelessness, early substance abuse and parental neglect. A sentencing memo noted he planned to seek mental health treatment once out of prison. He is required to spend six months in a residential reentry center, better known as a halfway house, and will be supervised for three years, under his conditions of release.

The Associated Press left messages for several of Tolth's relatives on social media platforms this week seeking comment.

Begay's case received more resources and attention than most involving Indigenous people who are missing or have been killed, said Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Cherokee Nation citizen and attorney who has advocated for Begay's family. The timeline, however, is emblematic of widespread failures, she said.

“Most never have their case investigated at all,” Nagle said. “It’s troubling to see (Begay’s) case, even after making it this far, end in a miscarriage of justice.”

Begay has never been found. At the May sentencing hearing, Tolth's attorney said he made a good faith effort to lead investigators to where he left Begay when he fled in her truck.

On Monday, Begay's niece, Seraphine Warren, walked over 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Sweetwater to the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock, Arizona, carrying one of her aunt's weavings to mark the anniversary of her disappearance. The news of Tolth's release “gutted” her after an emotional day, she said.

“That date will haunt us forever,” Warren said through tears. “Now it’s not just the day my auntie went missing, it’s the day we were told, ‘You aren’t worth anything.’”

——

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

Switzerland used the break to seize it.

Coach Murat Yakin said he timed a triple substitution of speedy players for the second-half pause Thursday, betting that plucky Bosnia-Herzegovina couldn't handle an abrupt change of pace in what had been a nervy, scoreless match.

Johan Manzambi and Rubén Vargas made their coach look awfully clever while they led a spectacular barrage of goals that put the Swiss in control of the game and atop their group.

Manzambi scored his first World Cup goal on an outstanding volley in the 74th minute, and Switzerland erupted late for a 4-1 victory over Bosnia.

Despite controlling possession deep into the second half, Switzerland couldn't break through against the Dragons until Yakin used the FIFA-mandated pause to turbo-charge its attack with the 20-year-old Manzambi and the dynamic Vargas. Both substitutes immediately altered the tempo, and both played roles in multiple goals while Bosnia went down to 10 men.

“It was very important that after the second hydration break, we would change a few things, because then the opponent can’t react immediately,” Yakin said through an interpreter. “Maybe that was the edge we had. We brought in very fast players, and our opponent couldn’t run (with them), and it opened up gaps on the edge. That was my strategy. I waited until the break.”

Vargas scored in the 84th minute shortly after Tarik Muharemovic was sent off for a dangerous tackle. Manzambi scored again in the 90th on a pass from Vargas, and captain Granit Xhaka converted from the penalty spot with the final kick of the game in stoppage time.

Switzerland opened the World Cup with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Qatar last week, stoking concern about the team's mental state. The Swiss then struggled to get loose from the Dragons, who were unbeaten in their last nine competitive matches.

Backed by tens of thousands of raucous fans in the Los Angeles area, Bosnia capably hung with Switzerland into the second half — until the hydration break led to a moment of brilliance from Manzambi, a 20-year-old Geneva native who plays for German club Freiburg.

“This is probably the best moment of my career so far,” Manzambi said. “We knew we didn’t start the match in the best way, but we had to be patient. We know we’re a good team, and we showed it.”

Three minutes after Manzambi replaced standout winger Dan Ndoye, he jumped and connected perfectly on Amar Memic’s attempted clearing header. The volley set off a wild celebration in the nervous Swiss sections of SoFi Stadium.

“He’s a boy who learned how to play football on the streets, but on defense he also has a lot of discipline,” Yakin said. “He still needs to learn how to be more structured, but we are making progress. We try to give him a lot of freedom to play, and he handles it very well.”

Substitute Ermin Mahmic scored in second-half injury time for Bosnia, which still has a legitimate chance of reaching the knockout stage of only its second World Cup. Mahmic’s vicious goal in traffic salvaged some good feeling before a decisive showdown with Qatar next week.

“Maybe our start wasn’t that good, but from (first) cooling break until the goal, we were the better team,” Bosnia coach Sergej Barbarez said. “We had two or three excellent chances which should have ended in a goal. ... This is the first match we've lost in a while, and it is hurtful. It's quite painful, but we know that if we win the next game, we have an excellent chance of going forward in the tournament.”

Four minutes after Muharemovic was sent off for taking down striker Breel Embolo one step outside the penalty area, Embolo got the ball from Manzambi and slipped a pass across the front to Vargas for a no-doubt goal.

Xhaka then found Vargas in deep for another pass to Manzambi, who finished with aplomb.

Captain Edin Dzeko started and played 63 minutes for Bosnia, becoming the fourth outfield player to start at a World Cup in his 40s — a group joined by Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday. Barbarez said Dzeko didn't play in the World Cup opener last week because he wasn't fully fit.

___

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

Liu closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th at Blythefield Country Club. The 28-year-old player is winless on the LPGA Tour.

“Very happy I put myself on this position,” Liu said. “I think nothing to lose so I just do my best.”

American Jessica Porvasnik and Cassie Porter of Australia were a stroke back.

“Was definitely pretty windy, but kind of the wind direction I really liked out there,” Porvasnik said. “West-northwest kind of suited my game well.”

Jennifer Kupcho was at 68 with Youmin Hwang, Minji Kang, Nastasia Nadaud, Benedetta Moresco and Daniela Darquea.

“To start it was really windy," Kupcho said. “Had kind of bit of a stomach ache, so a little bit rough start to the beginning of the round.”

Amateur star Kiara Romero shot a 72 playing on a sponsor exemption. She's the No. 1 amateur in the world and was the low amateur at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she tied for sixth.

Defending champion Carlota Ciganda also opened with a 72.

Two-time winner Brooke Henderson had a 73. Second-ranked Jeeno Thitikul shot 74.

___

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

From a distance, Ivan Franco thought it must be a car. But as he approached in his tow truck, he saw it was a plane — broken in half, its fuselage resting on its side, bright fire beginning to rise above. He stopped and rifled through the rescue kit his company keeps in the truck, grabbing a sledgehammer as well as three fire extinguishers, which he handed off to police officers.

“At that moment, you don’t think much about what to do, because I knew the plane could explode since it was on fire,” Franco told The Associated Press in Spanish. “My idea was to try to break the windows because the pilots hadn’t come out yet.”

Franco was one of several motorists who happened across the crash in Laredo, Texas, late Tuesday night and rushed to help — putting their own lives in danger to help those on board escape as smoke filled the cabin.

Passersby helped save lives

Police were also on the scene quickly, and their teamwork with the good Samaritans undoubtedly saved lives, officials said.

“The officers and the good Samaritans that went to the scene, our firefighters that responded — I do also want to commend each and every one of them,” Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez said during a news conference Wednesday. He said he asked his staff to track down all the civilians who helped.

The Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound for Austin, Texas, the FAA said in a statement. The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement that it was cooperating with authorities.

The crash occurred after its pilots reported mechanical problems while requesting an emergency landing at a nearby airport. The fuselage came to rest across a concrete barrier, while its tail broke off and fell to a lower section of roadway.

One person was killed: Joshua Baer, 50, a leader in Texas’ technology and startup sectors. Three male teenage passengers and two pilots survived, as did a person in a truck struck by the plane as it crashed. Laredo police said one of the survivors, 16, was related to Baer but did not provide more details about him or the other passengers.

Investigators combed through wreckage Wednesday for clues to the cause.

It was the third significant aviation accident in as many days in the U.S. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

‘It looked like part of a movie’

Among the motorists who stopped in Laredo was Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she saw the wreckage. She recorded video as her husband ran to help.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said. Most worrisome was the fire: “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

Garza saw people leave their cars to try to smash the cockpit glass. Her video shows the aircraft's door popping open slightly from inside as a voice cries “Help! Help! Help!” The rescuers strain to lift the door farther open as the three teenagers dart out, followed quickly by one pilot and then by another.

Franco, a 23-year-old from Laredo, frantically swung the sledgehammer through heavy smoke. Others struck at the window with a shovel and tools from their own vehicles.

Cockpit windows are designed not to shatter

They accomplished little more than spiderwebbing the cockpit window with small cracks: Airplane windshields have multiple layers of glass and are designed to remain structurally sound even if the outer layer shatters. The windows must be able to withstand a bird strike at cruising speed and hold up to extreme pressure differences at high altitudes.

“They are basically bulletproof,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

Police officers tried to remove the final person inside — Baer — as the smoke grew thicker. Officers doubled over coughing after turning away from the smoke.

Eventually firefighters with oxygen masks were able to get inside.

Firefighters also removed a dog from the plane that was suffering from smoke inhalation. The dog was turned over to animal control and was expected to survive, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.

Five officers were treated for smoke inhalation; the five people who survived the crash were also released from a hospital.

As the plane crashed on the northbound lanes of the highway, its wing hit a truck traveling southbound. The driver of that vehicle also survived, Baeza said.

There has been an outpouring of support on social media for those who stopped to help, heralding their bravery and selflessness.

Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño called it “nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” thanks in part to the late hour when the crash occurred and the quick action of first responders.

Franco said that as he tried to help, all he could think of was getting people out of the plane. But to do it, he had to conquer another feeling.

“You’re in constant fear," he said. "You don’t know what situation you’re in.”

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Johnson and Golden reported from Seattle. Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. AP journalists Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.

Parker capped a standout career by leading Salem to a state runner-up finish and becoming the first boys lacrosse player in program history to earn VHSL state player of the year honors.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound attackman set a Salem single-season record with 113 points, including 54 goals and 59 assists. His point total ranks tied for ninth in VHSL history, while his 59 assists are seventh-most all-time in the state record book.

A Virginia Tech signee, Parker finished his career with 225 points on 119 goals and 106 assists. In addition to his state honor, he was named a USA Lacrosse Academic All-American, earned Region 4D Player of the Year recognition and was selected to the All-Timesland first team for the second consecutive season.

Ranuska guided EC Glass to a 16-3 record and the program’s second state championship this spring. The Hilltoppers captured the Class 4 title with a 10-8 victory over defending state champion Salem in the championship game.

Since taking over the program, Ranuska has built one of Virginia’s most successful boys lacrosse programs. In addition to state titles in 2018 and 2026, the Hilltoppers finished as state runners-up in 2017, 2019 and 2021. Ranuska has accumulated 207 career victories during his tenure.

An eight-time regional coach of the year, Ranuska also has been named a USA Lacrosse area coach of the year four times, including after the 2026 season.

State runner-up Salem led the area contingent with seven first-team all-state selections, including Class 4 Player of the Year Dallas Parker. The Spartans also placed Wade Marble, Ronnie Frith, Carson Garland, Oliver Farber and Richard Hof on the first team. State champion E.C. Glass was represented by first-team selections Landry McCall, Charlie Landes, Jude Haske and William Hooper. Jefferson Forest senior attackman Robert Vossen and William Byrd senior midfielder Justyn Rozenboom earned second-team honors, while Blacksburg junior faceoff specialist Granger Tucker was named to the second team.

Dr. White says the decision was her own and that her tenure was always dedicated to service.

“My leadership has always been about service. It’s important to me to be a servant leader,” Dr. White said. To our students, to our family, to our city as a whole.”

Roanoke City Public Schools issued the following statement:

 After more than three decades in public education — including soon to be seven years leading Roanoke City Public Schools through one of the most transformative periods in its history — Superintendent Dr. Verletta White announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of the 2026–27 school year.

Dr. White, who joined Roanoke City Public Schools in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, said the decision comes as she approaches her 35th year in education.

“This is not a decision I make lightly,” Dr. White said. “I will continue to lead throughout the next year with the same focus, passion, and commitment that have guided me throughout my career.”

She began her career as a teacher in Baltimore City before spending decades rising through Baltimore County Public Schools, the nation’s 25^th largest school system. She served as assistant principal, principal, executive director of professional development, assistant superintendent, and chief academic officer before stepping in as interim superintendent in 2017.

She came to Roanoke in July 2020 at the height of a global pandemic, but she did not let that stop her from hosting walking tours around the city, starting on day one, to listen to the community’s needs. She deliberately chose RCPS, submitting just three applications nationwide.

“Roanoke is a city that cares deeply about children,” she said at the time of her hiring. “I care deeply about children, so I believe we match.”

Her tenure in Roanoke has been defined by transforming the school division’s culture and stability, and by a series of long-term investments in students, families, and the community.

Under her leadership, the division leveraged one-time federal pandemic relief funds to make a generational impact by expanding access to career and technical education (CTE) with the opening of the Charles W. Day Technical Education Center. This project doubled CTE seat capacity and reshaped how the division prepares students for life after graduation. Dr. White has often said her goal is for every student to graduate with “both a diploma and a resume of rich skills and experiences that will benefit them for a lifetime.”

The division also reimagined how it connects with families, launching the Community Empowerment Center at Booker T. Washington, which provides families with a one-stop hub designed to connect them with critical services and support. In less than a year, the center has served more than 2,000 families and served as a conduit for the launch of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Roanoke City. Now, 100% of children across the Roanoke and New River Valleys have access to free, high-quality books every month, which directly aligns with RCPS’ early literacy goals.

At the same time, the division strengthened school safety measures and emerged from the pandemic with renewed momentum. Programs focused on attendance, early intervention, and student engagement — including the Community Builders initiative, which is now a statewide demonstration site — have contributed to improvements in academic performance and reductions in absenteeism and discipline incidents. Under Dr. White’s leadership, chronic absenteeism and discipline incidents have decreased, and students who complete a two-year CTE program have a 100% graduation rate. The 2026 graduating class of 930 students across both high schools also marked the largest graduating class in RCPS history.

Dr. White’s leadership has drawn statewide and national recognition. She was named Virginia’s 2024 Superintendent of the Year and Region VI Superintendent of the Year and was recognized by K-12 Dive as one of five superintendents nationwide to watch. The School Board twice extended her contract, with her current contract set to end June 2028.

School Board Chair Franny Apel said Dr. White’s impact will be felt long after her tenure ends.

“Dr. White has led with purpose and a clear belief in what our students can achieve,” Mrs. Apel said. “Under her leadership, RCPS is positioned for long-term success, and we are grateful she has given us the time to ensure a thoughtful and stable transition.”

Dr. White emphasized that she is not done serving yet.

“We have built a strong foundation, and I am committed to making sure this next year is one of continued progress for our students, our staff, and our families,” she said.

The Roanoke City School Board will conduct a national search for the division’s next superintendent. Dr. White will remain in her role through June 2027 and will assist with the transition.

Roanoke City Public Schools

The Roanoke City School board will now have a year to properly vet potential candidates.

“It gives us as a school board the time to be thoughtful, to be intentional, and deliberate as we begin the process of selecting the next superintendent, while still ensuring the stability our schools and our community deserves.” Vice Chariman Mike Cherry said.

Huxtable capped an outstanding high school career by leading Blacksburg to a state championship and an undefeated season. The attacking midfielder scored 31 goals and added nine assists as a senior, finishing his career with 72 goals and 35 assists.

The Roanoke College signee played a key role throughout Blacksburg’s postseason run. He scored the game-winning goal in the Region 4D quarterfinals and added another goal in the regional championship to help the Bruins advance to the state tournament. In the state quarterfinals, Huxtable recorded three goals and one assist. He followed with a goal and an assist in the state semifinals before scoring Blacksburg’s first goal in the state championship match.

Huxtable’s individual accolades include three first-team all-region selections, two River Ridge District Player of the Year awards and two first-team all-state honors. He also served as a team captain during his junior and senior seasons.

Blumenthal guided Blacksburg to a perfect 25-0 record and the program’s 14th state championship this season. The Bruins secured the Class 4 title with a 4-1 victory over Loudoun County High School after finishing as state runners-up in 2025.

Over 33 seasons as head coach, Blumenthal has compiled a career record of 637-56-25, establishing one of the most successful programs in Virginia high school soccer history. A member of the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame, he has led the Bruins to 13 state championships and 10 state runner-up finishes.

Among the highlights of Blumenthal’s tenure was an 87-match unbeaten streak that ended in the 2001 state championship game. Blacksburg also won 64 consecutive matches from 1998 through 2001.

In addition to his success at Blacksburg, Blumenthal served as an assistant men’s soccer coach at Roanoke College from 2007 to 2023 and again from 2024 to 2026. He also was an assistant coach for the Maroons’ women’s soccer program from 2001 to 2003.

State champion Blacksburg was well represented on the Class 4 All-State team, placing four players on the first team. Senior midfielder and Class 4 Player of the Year Craig Huxtable was joined by fellow senior midfielder Keanan Kopp, senior defender Ethan Eschenmann and senior goalkeeper Nathan Pratt. EC Glass also earned all-state recognition as sophomore defender Ebubenna Ogbu was selected to the second team. Additionally, Hilltoppers junior forward Cooper Napior received first-team all-state honors after helping lead Glass to another successful season.

Moldenhauer helped lead Nelson County to its first state championship in program history, finishing the season with 23 goals and 25 assists. The senior center attacking midfielder played a pivotal role throughout the Governors’ unbeaten campaign, including scoring two goals in a 3-0 state semifinal victory over Clarke County, which was seeking its fourth consecutive trip to the state championship game.

A versatile player capable of playing multiple positions, Moldenhauer was often tasked with defending opponents’ top attacking threats while also serving as the focal point of Nelson County’s offense. She concluded her high school career with 78 goals and 61 assists and earned Dogwood District and Region 2C Player of the Year honors. Moldenhauer will continue her soccer career at Western Colorado University, where she is expected to play as a winger.

Ferren guided Nelson County to a perfect 23-0 record and the Class 2 state championship. The Governors captured the title by playing defending champion Glenvar to a scoreless draw before securing a 3-2 victory in penalty kicks.

During eight years with the program across seven played seasons, with one season canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferren transformed Nelson County into a district and regional contender. Over the past four seasons, the Governors compiled a 57-17-2 record, winning Dogwood District championships in 2024 and 2026, the Region 2C title in 2026 and the school’s first VHSL girls soccer state championship.

Ferren owns an overall coaching record of 72-41-7 and has been recognized twice as Dogwood District Coach of the Year in 2024 and 2026. He also earned Region 2C Coach of the Year honors in 2026.

State champion Nelson County placed a Class 2-best four players on the all-state team, led by Player of the Year Clara Moldenhauer and first-team defender Mary Joe Allen. For state runner-up Glenvar, freshman forward Gabby Barba, junior midfielder Sawyer Wilson, sophomore defender Ryan Jones and junior goalkeeper Maddie Frackelton earned first-team honors, while junior midfielder Annie George was selected to the second team. Chatham also was represented on the first team by sophomore forward Leighton Johnston.

McKenna Wendel was reported missing March 13 and last seen alive in her hometown of Sioux Falls early on March 14. Her body was found outside Brookings, an hour's drive north of Sioux Falls, on March 19.

Wendel's uncle, Mark Milk, 51, also of Sioux Falls, now faces five counts related to her death. Milk was almost three decades into a life term on a manslaughter conviction when Noem commuted his sentence in 2023.

Wendel was raised by her grandparents, loved animals and had a “vibrant personality and a zest for life,” according to her obituary. She and her grandparents were Rosebud Sioux Tribe members and attended powwows often.

“She loved the singing and the beautiful sounds of the drums,” her obituary read.

Details about Wendel's death remained thin as authorities who announced the charges in a Sioux City, Iowa, news conference Thursday kept close what they knew to protect their investigation.

Authorities have said an autopsy was done, but the findings have not been released. The cause and manner of Wendel's death would not be released yet per Justice Department policy, said Leif Olson, U.S. attorney for northern Iowa.

Milk faces five counts including possession with intent to deliver cocaine that caused Wendel's death. He is also charged with transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to court documents.

Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings faces conspiracy and accessory charges in an alleged attempt to cover up the crimes. The counts against the men were the “most serious, readily provable” charges and all originated in Iowa, Olson said.

“This is a horrific case,” FBI special agent Gene Kowel said. “There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching and more tragic than the ones that involve children or the death of a child.”

Court records showed no lawyers listed for Milk and Rogness, and no relatives could immediately be located through phone records and social media to speak on their behalf.

In February 2023, Noem commuted Milk’s life sentence for a manslaughter conviction in an October 1993 stabbing death. Milk, then 19, had been involved in several altercations in the city of Winner that ended with the death of Shawn Peneaux, according to records.

Milk was in jail on unrelated allegations of driving under the influence and eluding police when Wendel's body was found. His name came up in public discussion about the case from the start. But prosecutors, who finished their investigation in late May, did not formally link him to Wendel's death until filing charges Wednesday.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a late March news conference the decision to commute Milk's life sentence was strictly Noem's.

“It is fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations," Jackley remarked without commenting further on Noem's decision.

The commutation documents were sealed and even he had not seen them, he noted.

The Associated Press left a message Thursday for Noem on seeking comment through NovaRed Mining, a Canadian firm she recently joined in a “strategic advisory role."

A Republican, Noem, 54, was South Dakota's lone congressperson from 2011 to 2019 and governor from 2019 to 2025. She was Homeland Security secretary before being fired in March by President Donald Trump amid criticism of her handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.

Trump praised Noem's leadership and said he was making her special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas." The new organization of Western Hemisphere nations is focused on supporting democracy and security in the region.

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Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado, and Billeaud from Phoenix, Arizona.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges at a news conference where he called Mencia “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws.”

The 58-year-old stand-up comic was charged with six felony counts of failure to file personal income tax with the intent to evade taxes — one each for the years 2019 to 2024 — and six similar counts for corporate taxes.

Mencia owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million, Hochman said.

He has not entered a plea, and emails sent to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.

Mencia was arrested at his Los Angeles home at about 7 a.m., authorities said. He remained in custody Thursday afternoon and was being held on $250,000 bail. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday. If he’s convicted of all counts he could get more than 11 years in prison, along with paying the tax bills and interest that will almost double the total.

The charges are the first filed under the new district attorney's new Business Tax Fraud Unit that was established in May by Hochman, a former longtime prosecutor of tax cases.

Mencia regularly paid taxes before 2019, Hochman said. He was sent 78 notices from the state about his delinquent bills, with no response. The charges deal only with state taxes. Hochman said the IRS has not informed his office of Mencia's federal tax status.

Born Ned Arnel Holness in Honduras and raised in East Los Angeles, Mencia began doing stand-up in LA clubs in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s, he became one of the most popular comics in the U.S. and also did some acting in film and television. He had his own TV series, “Mind of Mencia,” combining stand-up with sketches on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2008.

Hochman pointed out at the news conference that on the show in 2007, Mencia said, “Maybe I'm different, but I think taxes are a good thing.”

His comedy most often dealt with race, class and Latino culture. His career took a downward turn as he was hit with accusations from many fellow comedians of joke theft, which he always denied, from other comics. Joe Rogan, then best known as a stand-up comic, confronted him on a club stage on the issue in a video that went viral in 2007. Mencia had long discussions on Marc Maron's podcast on the alleged plagiarism, acknowledging that he may have absorbed others' material but denying outright theft.

He still does regular stand-up shows, touring clubs and small theaters. He's scheduled to do a series of dates in Southern California this week and Las Vegas next week.

The proposed constitutional amendment, which was approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger earlier this year, will appear on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot as a statewide referendum.

If approved, the amendment would remove language added to the Virginia Constitution in 2006 that bans same-sex marriage and replace it with language affirming that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender or race. It would also require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law.

Supporters launched the Virginians for Marriage Equality campaign this week, saying the measure is needed to protect marriage rights in Virginia even though same-sex marriage is currently legal under federal law.

The current constitutional provision, known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment, was approved by 57% of Virginia voters in November 2006 and took effect Jan. 1, 2007. It states that “only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.”

The amendment goes further, prohibiting Virginia and local governments from creating or recognizing legal relationships that “approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage” and bars recognition of any other union, partnership or legal status carrying the rights, benefits or obligations of marriage.

The provision became unenforceable in 2014 after federal courts struck down Virginia’s marriage ban. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

However, advocates note the language remains in Virginia’s constitution.

“Our concern is that if the Supreme Court were to go back and revisit Obergefell v. Hodges, which was the landmark decision that granted marriage equality nationwide, that if they were to go back and weaken that, overturn it, that Virginia’s ban in our constitution would immediately go into effect,” said Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia and a member of the Virginians for Marriage Equality campaign committee.

The campaign formally launched in Richmond with elected officials, faith leaders, advocates and families from across Virginia. Organizers say they plan to spend the next several months encouraging conversations with voters ahead of Election Day.

“We believe that this is really a campaign about our shared values as Virginians and those values are freedom and fairness,” Rahaman said.

The amendment would ask voters whether the Virginia Constitution should be changed to remove the same-sex marriage ban, affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender or race, and require all lawful marriages to be treated equally under state law.

For many supporters, the issue is personal.

Rahaman, who has been married to her wife for three years, said marriage provides both legal protections and a public recognition of commitment.

“It was so amazing to be surrounded by our friends and families and the people closest to us and share that just momentous occasion of committing to each other and making a promise to take care of each other,” she said.

Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb, who has been with his husband James for 25 years and married since 2017, said he remembers the disappointment many LGBTQ+ Virginians felt when voters approved the constitutional ban in 2006.

“Here we are 20 years later on the cusp of having that dreadful amendment removed from the Constitution. And I couldn’t be more excited about the progress we’ve made,” Cobb said.

He argued that language prohibiting same-sex marriage no longer belongs in Virginia’s governing document.

“Anytime you have language in a constitution that is prohibitive when the greater law is not, it needs to be removed,” Cobb said.

Supporters say the campaign is focused on protecting families and ensuring future generations retain the freedom to marry.

“So let’s stop trying to limit what love can do and let’s start trying to celebrate the magnitude of what love is capable of,” Cobb said.

Virginia voters will decide the amendment during the Nov. 3 general election. If approved, it would permanently remove the same-sex marriage ban from the Virginia Constitution and replace it with explicit protections for marriage equality.

The death of Kohen Wiley is the latest in a series of troubling encounters with police that have outraged community members in recent years. It has led to protests and calls for greater police accountability in the town of 8,000, with some civil rights activists pointing to Kohen's death as another example of a Black life lost over something of nominal value — in this case, allegedly stolen diapers.

“We are treating items on a shelf as more valuable than a child,” Bernice King, the daughter of civil right icon Martin Luther King, Jr., said in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “That is not just bad policing; it is a moral collapse.”

Differing accounts of what happened

There are still many unanswered questions about the shooting and what led up to it.

Senatobia police responded to the shoplifting call at a local Walmart on Sunday, where they found two women and a child leaving the store, getting into a car and driving away. According to a statement released by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation: “Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said her son and her friend, who was driving, were hit by gunfire. In a video posted on social media Wednesday by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Wiley said her friend was not driving toward the officers because they were “all on the right side and she was driving towards the left.”

She also disputes the shoplifting claim, saying in the video that she believes her friend paid for the diapers she was carrying.

Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said regardless of the circumstances, the officer should not have fired at the car.

“Modern policing knows that shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,′ Adams said. For one thing, ”vehicles have other occupants, which is obviously a concern here in the current case.”

Shooting revives racial justice concerns

Kohen was Black, as are his mother and her friend, and the circumstances leading to Kohen's death quickly drew comparisons to another Black mother shot during a response to a shoplifting accusation.

In 2023, Ta’Kiya Young, who was pregnant, was shot by police in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb, after they attempted to apprehend her. Police said Young, who was also the mother of two young sons, got into her car and accelerated in the direction of the officer who fired at her through the windshield. Both Young and her unborn daughter were killed.

The officer in that case was acquitted of criminal charges and found justified in his use of force by a review board.

The two deaths join a long list of other instances of Black Americans dying in interactions with police after accusations of petty criminal offenses. That list includes the murder of George Floyd in 2020, who was killed after police responded to a call that he used a fake $20 bill at a Minneapolis grocery store.

For some racial justice advocates, such cases serve as a constant reminder of the consequences of systemic racism in law enforcement.

“In the name of ‘law and order,’ a child was killed and family was shattered over items that could be restocked, written off, and replaced,” King wrote on Instagram. “Our charge is clear: until the sacredness of human life is the starting point of every police encounter, we must demand changes in training and work unrelentingly to reform policies around police accountability."

Tensions in Senatobia

Marquell Bridges, the president and founder of an advocacy group called the Building Bridges Coalition and who has been helping the Wiley family, said Kohen's death was “just the breaking point” after years of problematic interactions between Black residents and police.

Bridges pointed to an encounter last year in which an officer threatened Breshari Faulkner with a Taser, pulled her from her car onto the ground and arrested her during a confrontation over a handicapped parking space in the same Walmart lot where Kohen was shot.

Two years earlier, in 2023, a Senatobia officer was fired for his role in arresting a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in a different parking lot. The boy’s family settled a federal lawsuit with the city earlier this year.

“There is a culture there that they are above the law – just because they wear a uniform,” said civil rights attorney Carlos Moore, who has represented the 10-year-old boy and others accusing the department of misconduct.

Police did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The mayor and city aldermen also did not respond to messages.

About 40% of the city’s population of approximately 8,300 is Black, according to 2020 Census data. Police did not respond to questions about the racial makeup of the department, but the mayor and a majority of the Board of Alderman members are white. The city has elected only three Black aldermen since it became a municipality in 1860, according to the Tate Record, a local newspaper.

A toy lawnmower that blows bubbles

The officer who shot Kohen and the woman driving the car he was in has been placed on administrative leave, a standard practice, while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation looks into what happened. They have promised to release video of the shooting once the investigation is complete.

Kohen's grandmother, Veronica Roberson, was there when Kohen was born and babysat him often. She described him as a happy little baby with “the prettiest smile you could ever imagine.”

She said he was a sweet child and: “He just loved on me, and I loved on him. We loved each other.”

One of his favorite toys was a little lawnmower that would blow bubbles when pushed. Roberson would sit outside with him while he played with it. “He really thought he was mowing my yard,” she said, laughing a little at the memory. “That baby was my world."

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Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Jack Brook contributed from New Orleans. Aaron Morrison contributed from New York City.

With 894 confirmed cases so far, the current outbreak is three times worse than a previous outbreak in Uganda in 2000, which had 281 cases at the same point, said Dr. Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC.

The latest number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it was suspected to have begun. The number of cases has increased 38% since last week and is now in 32 health zones across eastern Congo, said Mankoula.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccines or treatments and was not tested for in the early days. The more common Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

So far 74 patients have recovered from the disease across eastern Congo and Uganda. Experimental treatments like monoclonal antibodies are being developed for Bundibugyo.

The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90% of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda, where 19 confirmed cases have been reported and two people have died.

Contact tracing remains an issue due to the area's remoteness and ongoing insecurity in Ituri province, Dr. Mankoula said.

“For those 800 confirmed cases, we should have between 17,000 to 35,000 contacts that should be in our contact list,” said Mankoula. Currently only around 4,000 contacts have been tracked and are being evaluated, less than 15%.

“We are still far from controlling the situation of this outbreak,” said Mankoula.

Nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.

Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of miners who regularly move among remote sites in the mineral-rich region.

Of the over $900 million pledged to fight the outbreak, only $90 million has been released to help fight the outbreak, further complicating the ongoing crisis, according to Mankoula.

Africa CDC estimates it needs 540 personnel to fight the outbreak and so far they only have 84.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed those new pledges will be fast tracked, and we’ll be following up with different member states and different partners about their commitment to turn those pledges into actual money released to their affected countries or partners,” said Mankoula.

“Damn, New York, we really did it,” Brunson, the finals MVP, said at a celebration at City Hall. “Somehow, someway, I knew we were going to find a way to get this done.”

Moments later, Mayor Zohran Mamdani presented keys to the city to the Knicks' players, coaches, owners and staff. Wearing a team jersey under his suit jacket, Mamdani said he and other fans “waited because we knew deep down in our sick, suffering hearts” the Knicks would someday win.

Blue and orange confetti swirled through the air during the parade. Massive cheers of “Let’s go, Knicks!” and “Knicks in five!” kept erupting.

And OG Anunoby, who scored the go-ahead basket in Game 4 of the finals on a tip-in with 1.2 seconds left, left his parade float to interact with fans, holding the NBA Cup in-season championship trophy in one hand and a bottle of Patron tequila in the other.

Director Spike Lee, perhaps the team’s most iconic fan, was on a float with Brunson, savoring the moment. “I’ve never been to a parade — ever — and I’m glad it’s this one,” Lee said.

The MVP’s mom, Sandra Brunson, wore a shirt with photos of Jalen and husband Rick, who played for the Knicks and is an assistant on coach Mike Brown's staff. She echoed her son’s words, saying, “It was all worth it.”

Karl-Anthony Towns hoisted the Eastern Conference championship trophy and a cigar on top of a parade bus while Mamdani danced. Later, Towns approached a group of kids with the NBA trophy to let them get their hands on it, bringing joyful screams.

Knicks fans turn out in force

Several blocks from the parade route, fans stood shoulder to shoulder — sometimes on each other’s shoulders — or climbed traffic lights and sanitation trucks. Far away on the Brooklyn Bridge, people gathered just to hear the loudspeakers.

“I had to be here today,” said Shareefa Wallace, 34, who got up at 3 a.m. to make her way from suburban Long Island. She grew up in the city going to Knicks games, and she sported the souvenir jersey of a legend from that era, Patrick Ewing.

Owner James Dolan thanked fans for waiting more than a half-century. Brown encouraged fans to keep their energy going “because this championship is about you guys.”

‘The New York vibe’

Nearby bars and delis filled with fans, some wishing they’d arrived at dawn. But many seemed at peace with only experiencing the parade from a distance.

“We just want to be with the New York energy and the New York vibe,” said Jean Strong, who came to the parade from Harlem with his nephew and sister.

Terrell Emerson, a chef who grew up in Queens, said he drove from Maryland with his daughter Madison — named in honor of the Knicks' home arena, Madison Square Garden.

Beaming, Madison held a handwritten sign announcing she’d skipped her fifth-grade graduation to be there.

Stars and Knicks legends

Knicks great Walt “Clyde” Frazier — a member of the ’70s champion teams — led the parade in a stylish convertible, wearing his NBA title rings. Frazier had late teammates and coaches on his mind.

“They would be amazed at what has happened to the Knicks and how they’ve really captivated the city this year,” Frazier said. “This has exceeded any expectations I ever thought that we’d have.”

Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Jon Stewart, Mariska Hargitay, Tracy Morgan and other celebrities joined the party, while Knicks play-by-play announcer Mike Breen emceed the City Hall ceremony.

Alicia Keys, the singer who collaborated with Jay-Z on the 2009 hit “Empire State of Mind,” performed a medley that mixed her song with the classic “New York, New York.”

A parade decades in the making

The mere fact that the parade is happening is historic in itself. Although the Knicks won the championship twice in the 1970s, the city didn’t host a parade for them either time. Then-Mayor John Lindsay had cut down on ticker-tape extravaganzas for financial and other reasons. Instead, he held a 1970 reception at the mayoral mansion and a jam-packed ceremony in 1973 outside City Hall.

This time, the city went all out. A police officer could be seen holding a sign reading, “This is really happening.”

And a massive security operation

Officials said 10,000 police officers were deployed to secure the event, which follows ebullient but sometimes chaotic street celebrations and some violence during the Knicks' title run, including a five-game final against San Antonio.

Police said 10 people in the area around the parade were arrested and three others were issued summonses, on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to felony assault. The Fire Department said it took 30 people to hospitals and treated 31 others at the scene for ailments that included heat-related emergencies, asthma and minor injuries.

Before the parade, a small group of people were crushed against a barrier near Fulton Street, a key subway hub, pinned between a swelling crowd and a group of police officers shoving the barrier.

Some 650 sanitation workers were assigned to clean up what could be tens of thousands of pounds (kilograms) of debris, if recent history is any guide.

Why does New York throw ticker-tape parades?

Ticker-tape parades derive their name from the narrow strips of paper used by telegraph-era “stock ticker” machines. New York brokerage firm workers tossed the paper from office windows during parades in the late 19th century, adding a swirling spectacle.

Over the years, especially up to the mid-1960s, the city rolled out ticker-tape parades for visiting foreign leaders, historic anniversaries and feats in aviation, war, sports, music, space travel and more.

The Knicks' parade was the 210th, coming after a bash for the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2024.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Julie Walker in New York and AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in Southampton, New York, contributed.

Michelline Hall, chief programming officer at the Academy Center of the Arts, described the significance of the day.

“Juneteenth is the commemoration of when the last folks who were still enslaved post the Civil War found out about their freedom in Texas,” Hall said.

Music, food, history mark the weekend

Organizers are blending celebration with education throughout the weekend. Attendees can expect family-friendly performances, block parties featuring local food, and workshops that explore local Black history — all designed to be accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.

The Legacy Museum and the Lynchburg Juneteenth Coalition are also hosting sessions focused on voter engagement and community leadership, making civic participation a central theme of the weekend.

Passing stories to the next generation

Organizers say Juneteenth is about more than a single day on the calendar. The events are built around three core ideas — remembering the past, strengthening community and encouraging civic engagement. That means children learning local stories, neighbors connecting with one another, and programs that empower residents to get involved in community decisions.

Hall encouraged families with young children to use the holiday as a teaching moment.

“If you have smaller children, let them watch an animation about what is the history of Juneteenth and why it’s important today, and what is the impact and implications of all of us being free mean,” Hall said.

How to find events

Events are taking place at several locations across Lynchburg, with times and addresses varying by venue. Residents can visit the Lynchburg Juneteenth Coalition or Legacy Museum websites for the full schedule, registration details and accessibility information.

The sticking point remains tax breaks for data centers.

But Senate leaders are now saying a budget deal is within reach and could come as soon as Thursday or Friday.

“The real loser in all of this is the Virginia taxpayer,” Senator David Suetterlein (R) said.

Suetterlein says the months-long budget stalemate continues to center on data centers.

“I think there’s something fundamentally wrong about offering huge tax relief to the largest corporations, and none to working Virginians,” he said.

At the heart of the debate are tax breaks for data centers. Currently, the incentives are worth nearly two billion dollars a year.

“We oppose the data center exemption, and we believe there should be tax relief for working Virginians,” Suetterlein said.

This isn’t a straight party-line issue. Democratic Representative Sam Rasoul also opposes the data center tax breaks.

“Many of them were developed with the promise that if they come here they would get these tax breaks. So, I can see both sides, but the reality is the price tag is way bigger than we ever thought,” Rasoul said.

But Rasoul says a compromise may be on the horizon.

“The House and Senate could agree to some kind of fee that they would be paying to pay their fair share, based upon the amount of electricity they’re using, so hopefully that will be the deal that’s struck here very shortly,” he said.

Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore, Democrat Louise Lucas, echoing optimism about a possible deal Thursday afternoon on the social media platform X.

Saying in part, “We will get a budget deal done, hopefully today but definitely by tomorrow! There will not be a shutdown!”

But Suetterlein says it shouldn’t have gone on this long to begin with.

“It’s a disaster. It’s very bad that it’s gone this long. This is not good when we’re trying to get folks to invest in Virginia,” he said.

Suetterlein tells me the Senate returns on Monday, while Rasoul tells us he’s hopeful for the House to return around the same time.

Election officials are encouraging residents to take advantage of the expanded voting period, which runs through Aug. 1, though turnout in primary elections has historically lagged behind general elections.

“It’s a privilege, it’s a right, it’s an honor, and it’s your duty to vote,” said Jane Hackenburg, who recently cast a ballot during early voting in Martinsville.

For Hackenburg and her husband, David, voting is often more complicated than simply visiting a polling place. The couple has spent much of the past decade living in China and typically votes absentee from overseas.

“We moved to China in 2012 and lived there a lot of our time,” Jane Hackenburg said. “You have to print the stuff and then fill it out and then put it in a special envelope and then special package it to get here. And it’s kind of expensive.”

The couple said they were excited to be back in Virginia during the early voting period and able to cast ballots in person for the first time in more than 10 years.

“It was so exciting today when I found out that we would be here during that window, because we’re back here visiting our son,” Jane Hackenburg said.

Living overseas has also given the Hackenburgs a unique perspective on the democratic process. Jane Hackenburg said friends in China have been fascinated by the opportunity Americans have to participate directly in elections.

“When I handed it to them, they were touching it like they couldn’t believe it,” he said of showing friends his ballot. “They’re like, ‘You get to do this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah. It’s a privilege.’”

Local election officials say they hope more voters will take part in this year’s primary.

“We always want to see a very, very high turnout,” Martinsville Director of Elections Sara Workman said. “But unfortunately, our primaries are not very, very big as far as turnout.”

Virginia voters must be registered by July 24 to participate in the Aug. 4 primary election. Voters casting ballots in person must also provide an acceptable form of identification, such as a driver’s license, voter registration card, passport, employee ID, student ID, utility bill or bank statement. Voters without an acceptable ID may still vote by signing an ID confirmation statement.

Because Virginia has an open primary system, voters do not register by political party and may choose which party’s primary ballot they wish to cast. However, voters may only participate in one party’s primary for a given office.

In Martinsville, for example, voters may choose between voting in the Democratic primary for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District or the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat. Voters are not required to be registered with either party to participate.

In addition to weekday voting, local registrar offices will be open for required Saturday voting days before the close of early voting on Aug. 1. Election Day is Aug. 4, when polls will be open statewide from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.

You can find your polling place and hours of operation here.

Merlin Lu admitted to a TV station this week that he was responsible for the recent cross burning in Grant Park. But he insisted that he was protesting President Donald Trump and Christian nationalists and was not using the cross as a historical symbol of hate against Black people.

Lu appeared in court Thursday on four felonies and four misdemeanors, including a hate crime, property damage and burning a cross to intimidate. A judge denied a request by prosecutors to keep him detained.

Defense attorney Alexander Michael told the judge that Lu was exercising free speech in a “foolish manner.” He also disputed that it could be a hate crime against certain Christians.

On June 9, in the middle of the day, Lu created a cross with two pieces of wood, wrapped it in toilet paper, doused it with kerosene and started a fire, Cook County prosecutors said in a court filing. The fire left burn marks on the trunk and limbs of a tree.

Lu told WMAQ-TV before his arrest that his intent was not to intimidate Black people. He said he was protesting the “ruling class” and Christian nationalists who support Trump, and attached a red hat to symbolize the MAGA hat favored by the president's allies.

“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” Lu said of a burning cross. “Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”

Someone put a large, multicolored, glass fiber heart with the word, “resilient,” in the place where the burning cross stood in the park.

Lu's LinkedIn page says he has attended college in Indiana and Chicago and was studying chemistry.

The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining session with the players' association. An identical 12-round draft would be started for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.

Starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class — a restriction that also would eliminate players who completed their first year of junior college.

The amateur draft started in 1965, high schoolers have been eligible along with college players who are in or have just finished their junior years.

Raising signing ages would likely lead to players being older when they become eligible for free agency, which currently requires six years of major league service.

MLB cited increased revenue in college baseball as reasoning. In addition, MLB said 75% of high schoolers signed from 2012-19 did not reach the major leagues.

“Expanded scholarships, NIL opportunities, revenue sharing and significant investments in facilities and player development have made college baseball an increasingly important pathway that is producing major league-ready talent at an accelerated rate," MLB said in a statement. “By creating a draft system centered around college-aged players and making most college players eligible one year earlier, more players will benefit from both a college education and an elite development environment while reaching professional baseball — and ultimately the major leagues — more quickly.”

The players' association claimed the plan would decrease compensation by $1 billion over five years, including $400 million from this year to 2027.

“MLB made another set of proposals that are flat-out bad for baseball, ones that would cripple the next generation of players and damage the future of our game,” the union said in a statement.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips supported keeping more prospects in college longer. He said in a statement that improvements in facilities, technology and scholarships “are creating more opportunities for student-athletes and providing additional pathways to develop at the collegiate level before taking the next step to the professional ranks.”

MLB said it will not seek to reduce the 120 minor league teams in the top four levels when it negotiates new professional development licenses in 2030 to replace expiring 10-year deals. It would cap bonuses for undrafted players at $10,000 — Middle Tennessee two-way player Trace Phillips was bypassed in the draft last July and signed with Tampa Bay for $629,200.

For international amateurs, the age to sign would be raised to 18 on the Sept. 1 of their signing year, up from 17.

“The game's greatest stars are precocious talents. We always want to have a great window for them,” said Scott Boras, baseball's most high-profile agent. “International markets recognize this, as well. When you bar a labor force from opportunity in America, it is not an American concept.”

Each separate draft would have $200 million in signing pools in 2027. There would be hard caps for each draft.

Teams would be able to trade draft picks but a club couldn't trade its first-round pick in consecutive drafts. A team couldn't acquire more than three additional selections among the first three rounds. In addition, MLB proposed requiring up to 10 prospects to attend the draft, and each would get a $50,000 draft attendance bonus.

Spending on signing bonuses for players eligible for the 2025 amateur draft have totaled $401.81 million and signing bonus pools for 2026 increased by 2.5%.

Each team would have the same amount to spend under the proposal rather than the current system which gives higher pools to teams with poorer records in the previous year. Pittsburgh is at just over $19 million this year and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at slightly under $4 million. Teams currently can go over their pools and often do as much as 5%.

Teams have spent $196.38 million on signing bonuses for international amateurs in 2026. The current signing period runs from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15 each year, but the initial international draft would be no earlier than September 2027 and no later than March 2028.

MLB proposed eliminating competitive balance round picks that began in 2023 and cutting the draft lottery that started in 2023 from the top six picks to four.

Bargaining began May 13 and the sides exchanged initial proposals two weeks later as management proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994, which resulted in a 7 1/2-month strike and the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.

Baseball's five-year collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 and management is expected to immediately impose a lockout, as it did in December 2021. An agreement was reached on the 99th day of the lockout, preserving a slightly delayed 162-game schedule.

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

The unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge wrongly interpreted Philadelphia's contract claims involving Independence National Historical Park, saying the city merely having standing to sue did not mean its arguments had merit. The panel also praised the plans for the replacement installation, writing that they were “full of historical context,” despite objections from historians and city officials that the content appears whitewashed.

The ruling comes a week after a Massachusetts federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore sites changed under an executive order calling for the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks to not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The federal government has asked for a stay on that ruling while it appeals.

It was unclear how the Massachusetts ruling would affect the restoration or replacement of the panels at the President's House Site. About half the large panels at the outdoor exhibit had been restored before a February pause in the work.

Messages to spokespeople for the Department of Interior and the National Park Service were not returned.

In a statement on Instagram late Thursday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker vowed to pursue legal avenues to reverse the decision.

“We cannot and WILL not rest until the full story of American history – including the existence of Slavery at the President’s House here in Philadelphia – is told, for our Nation and the World to see,” she wrote.

Dawn Chavous, a volunteer for Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, one of the advocacy groups that helped develop the site in the 2000s, said they are disappointed with the decision but are speaking to their attorneys and considering options.

“For decades, ATAC has worked to ensure that the stories of the enslaved African descendants who lived and labored at the President’s House are not erased, overlooked, or misrepresented,” the group said in an emailed statement. “That commitment remains unwavering. We believe that historical truth matters, and we will continue to advocate for the protection, preservation, and accurate interpretation of this important chapter of American history.”

The city of Philadelphia sued in January after the National Park Service, in response to President Donald Trump's executive order, removed the explanatory panels from the President’s House Site, where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.

The city had worked in tandem with the federal government, historians and private partners to create the exhibit in the early 2000s — as part of a longstanding cooperation agreement over the downtown historical park — and contributed $1.5 million toward its creation.

The city argued that the federal government must consult with the city before making changes to the President's House Site. Justice Department lawyers argued the administration alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties.

In its ruling Thursday, the appeals panel said the maintenance portion of the contract between the city and the federal government could not be interpreted to mean the site would remain as it was when it was completed.

“The duty to ‘maintain’ is better understood as a general management obligation that accompanies ownership, not a promise that the exhibits will forever remain in place regardless of the owner’s wishes,” the opinion said.

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Casey contributed from Boston.

“You guys were after me,” he told reporters. “I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter."

The incident, recalled in “Regime Change,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's new book on the first year of Trump's second term, encapsulates how different Trump's return to the White House in 2025 has been from his first term.

The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power.

Trump still falsely claims to have won in 2020. But a second term coming then might have been marred by pushback from members of his own administration, the coronavirus pandemic and the runaway inflation it caused, as well as an antagonistic Congress controlled by Democrats. He hasn't faced those issues this time.

Here are some takeaways from the book:

Vance or Rubio in 2028? Trump will loom large in the choice

The authors recount how Trump frequently quizzed aides about whether Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be better to succeed him.

Some donors promoted Rubio and some aides thought the secretary and the president had better personal chemistry than Trump and Vance. But Trump also indicated that he was impressed by Vance’s intellect and abilities during television interviews — particularly tough ones, the book says.

Trump is also said to be impressed by the background of Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants. The book describes how, after Trump redecorated the Oval Office to fill it with gold flourishes, someone asked the president about the likelihood that the next president would undo all that he had done. Trump retorted: “Cubans love gold.”

But, Haberman and Swan write, Rubio and Vance are also friends. An example they offer is Rubio texting Vance after the 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee's comments about “ childless cat ladies ” became a scandal. Rubio offered to campaign with Vance to show his support.

As those two men jostle for position before 2028, it’s possible Trump won’t soon yield the spotlight to them.

The president frequently talks about the two and a half years left in his term, a timeline that carries him right up to Inauguration Day 2029 — suggesting that he's unlikely to let the Republicans running in the presidential race overshadow him.

A case in point occurred during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, Vance and Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats. As Haberman and Swan recount, the president showed off “Trump 2028” baseball caps, prompting Jeffries to gesture at Vance and ask, “How does he feel about that?” Trump responded “Ah, he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” adding, “We’re giving him a little more training.”

Vance, speaking up for himself, offered, “No comment.”

Panic inside the White House over the Epstein files release

Haberman and Swan detail the deep level of alarm over the administration’s handling of the release of files from the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. That included White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles convening a crisis response meeting in the Situation Room and Vance suggesting enlisting friendly interviewer Tucker Carlson to sit down with Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

That revelation has now raised questions about whether the reporters got audio recordings of what was said in a secure area of the White House, which would be a security concern.

Trump redecorated while the first lady was away

The book details how the president and first lady are the first first couple to sleep in separate bedrooms since Richard and Pat Nixon, though Bill and Hillary Clinton slept apart briefly when his affair with Monica Lewinsky became public. First lady Melania Trump sleeps in the White House’s traditional master bedroom of the Executive Residence — Room 219 — while the president sleeps in Room 220, next to second-floor space known as the Yellow Oval.

The president fitted his bedroom with gold and other flourishes, carrying in some objects himself from the corridor where his wife had selected the decor during the first term, the book said. Because the first lady wasn’t in Washington much during the start of the second term, she wasn't there to stop the president from rearranging things.

Among the items moved was a gold-leaf-framed mirror that had been part of the first lady’s redesign of the second-floor Queen’s Bedroom. But that actually ended up outside, on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office, where it is used to facilitate selfies.

The first lady had also overseen first-term Rose Garden renovations and objected to Trump wanting to pave over the area for his patio space reminiscent of his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The president relented, and the surrounding grass was covered, but not the roses. She lost a larger battle, the authors write, as the East Wing was demolished to make room for the $400 million ballroom her husband is building.

Trump long had a Venezuela fixation

The president began his second term talking frequently about seizing Greenland and making Canada the 51st state, but was privately more focused on Venezuela — even suggesting it could become a state where he'd be allowed to appoint the governor.

Initially, Trump allowed special envoy Ric Grenell to negotiate with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but he was eventually sidelined as Rubio made the case that Maduro would string along the administration for years, in an attempt to wait until Trump was out of power in 2029, Haberman and Swan write.

Rubio told White House officials that Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was corrupt but serious and could most likely keep Venezuela together. Rubio spoke with Rodriguez on the night U.S. forces stormed into Venezuela and deposed its president. He told her she had to bring stability to her country and prevent mass migration and violence. Rodriguez remains head of Venezuela after Maduro's ouster.

Trump also told the authors during a March 2026 interview that he had a “love affair” with Venezuela that began with his years of owning the Miss Universe pageant and the beautiful women representing that country in it. That wasn’t enough to improve his opinion of Ukraine, though, which Trump said he didn't like, except for its women who kept winning Miss Universe, the book says.

Trump said he was talking to a historian. It was Gary Player's caddy

Haberman and Swan conclude with the president telling them about a historian introduced to him by golfer Gary Player who described the president as the most powerful man the planet had ever known — surpassing even Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror and Napoleon.

Trump, who promoted the anecdote himself on social media Thursday, was unable to recall the historian's name during that interview. However, a White House staffer later revealed to the authors who the golf legend actually had been talking about. It was Player's longtime caddy.

The letter from the Illinois senator, the top Democrat on the Senate's aviation subcommittee, adds to questions and concerns over Trump's proposed 250-foot (76-meter) arch for the nation's capital. Pushed by Trump to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary, it would be more than twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial.

Duckworth wrote that the FAA’s initial review of the arch appears to have been expedited and raised questions about whether the president or his White House aides are “already improperly pressuring FAA to prioritize rubberstamping Trump’s vanity arch over public safety.”

Officials are looking to complete the towering edifice within three years, possibly requiring 20 hours of work per day and cranes up to 320 feet (106 meters) tall, according to a National Park Service preliminary report, which Duckworth cited in her letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.

The agency said it would respond directly to Duckworth.

The arch's close proximity to the complex airspace of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a commercial jet last year, killing 67 people, was a key concern for Duckworth.

The crash “underscores the consequences of inadequate coordination and the need for extreme caution when evaluating any new obstruction in this environment,” she wrote. The FAA must be “firm in rejecting any improper or irresponsible pressure" from Trump on the matter.

In a previous statement, the FAA said that a preliminary feasibility study found “no adverse impacts to operations” at the nearby airport. The top of the structure, however, would need to be lit with red obstruction lights, which it called “a common safety tool.”

The agency said a full study in coordination with the park service would come next.

Duckworth added another concern in her letter, that the arch would interrupt the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, and thereby “offensively desecrate the hallowed symbolism.”

But that did not stop the community from gathering to honor the veterans who have defended our freedoms.

Historical displays set up throughout the event highlighted the role veterans played from the nation’s founding to today.

The 29th Infantry Division Band provided patriotic music while the American Legion Post 16 presented the colors.

Retired Colonel John Miller delivered remarks as the event’s keynote speaker.

Although the tentative peace deal between the U.S. and Iran and the resumption of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are pushing energy prices downward, the cost of gas is still much higher than before the war began on Feb. 28.

According to motor club AAA, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $3.999 on Thursday. It was the first time since late March that prices were that low. And the drop aligns with easing crude oil costs overall, with markets expressing optimism in recent weeks about the prospect of a peace deal.

Even with prices dropping, American drivers are collectively paying about $1 more per gallon than they were before the war, and gas is 25% more expensive than it was this time last year. That has caused many households to tighten their budgets and rethink how they want to spend their money.

More expensive bills beyond gas

Research has shown that short-term swings in the cost of gas leads consumers to adjust their driving and wider spending, with some even pulling back on core necessities such as groceries when gas prices get high, said Dylan Brewer, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Economics.

If costs continue to fall in the coming weeks, he said, more people may be able to “loosen their belts a little bit.” Businesses that rely on gas and diesel to transport their goods will also benefit, but it could take a few months for that to trickle through the supply chain, Brewer added.

Gas isn't the only thing that's gotten more expensive during the war. Groceries, airline tickets and even condoms and shoes cost more amid global supply chain disruptions. Even if oil and other core necessities such as fertilizer begin flowing from the Middle East again, experts warn that the high costs will likely persist long after the fighting ends.

“Product prices across the United States are projected to keep climbing for the rest of 2026," Pat Penfield, a professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University, said Thursday.

Penfield pointed to depleted inventories and supply chain problems caused by the war, noting that farmers, for example, had to pay more for fertilizer and other supplies this spring, which will “ripple through to increased food prices by autumn.” At the gas pump, meanwhile, limited refinery capacity in the U.S. “remains a significant bottleneck” toward bringing down prices further, he said.

What prices at the pump look like nationwide

Steep fuel costs have already pushed U.S. inflation to its highest level in three years. And many consumers are still paying much more than $4 per gallon to fill their tanks.

That price is a national average, with costs varying between states due to factors like proximity to supply and differing tax rates. In California on Thursday, the average price for regular gas was about $5.64, according to AAA. Next costliest was Hawaii, at $5.57. Meanwhile, prices in Indiana and Texas sat at about $3.40 and $3.49 a gallon, respectively.

Recent relief for fuel prices arrived with a drop in costs for crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline.

Brent crude, the international standard, sat under $80 per barrel Thursday. And U.S. benchmark crude tumbled to below $76 per barrel. That's still a little higher than the roughly $70 price tag before the war, but far below the $100-plus price from just a few weeks ago.

Why oil costs are falling

Prices fell overnight Wednesday into Thursday after President Donald Trump signed the tentative agreement with Iran. It calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and, in a significant concession from Washington, waives U.S.-backed sanctions on the country, immediately allowing Iran to sell its oil freely.

Major ship owners have also begun moving vessels through the Strait of Hormuz since the memorandum of understanding was signed Wednesday, according to maritime data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, although some reported that only more limited side routes were open. And U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. Navy has lifted its own blockade to allow some transit to and from Iranian ports.

Still, it could take weeks or months for traffic to return to prewar levels. Before the war, the strait carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil. And Gulf oil producers that throttled back production will need time to get the oil moving again.

Some ship captains may take their time to determine if the passage is safe. The agreement between the U.S. and Iran calls for a permanent end to hostilities and starts a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, though Trump left the door open to resume attacks.

Refineries also typically pay for crude oil a month or more in advance, so even after oil prices drop, they won’t immediately be processing cheaper products. Energy shocks have been even starker in places that rely more heavily on imports from the Middle East — notably countries across Asia and Africa.

The memorandum of understanding signed by President Donald Trump started a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. While Trump allies noted the agreement is not final, the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran’s sale of oil and the plan for a $300 billion fund to rebuild Iran and its economy were met with criticism from Republican leaders and conservative influencers, including some close Trump supporters.

“President Trump has pursued peace through strength. I hope the intermediaries working on this deal are not undermining that objective,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has urged Trump to keep up the pressure on Iran and last month warned against striking a bad deal.

“The $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran — though not funded by U.S. taxpayers — would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison,” Wicker said, referring to the Democratic administration's Iran agreement that Trump withdrew from during his first term.

The criticism from within Trump’s own party — though hardly unanimous — comes as he is trying to bring an end to the unpopular war fewer than five months from midterm elections, where Republicans are facing headwinds in their effort to hold their narrow majorities.

Trump calls his critics ‘fools’

Wicker’s points were backed by a number of his colleagues, many of whom supported the war when it began.

“History demonstrates giving billions of dollars to the theocratic lunatics who want to kill you is an exceptionally bad idea," said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a staunch supporter of the war. “And so I hope we don’t do that.”

Trump on Truth Social called his critics “fools” and said the $300 billion payment to Iran by the United States is “fake news.” The interim pact promises a $300 billion fund for postwar reconstruction. It’s not clear where that money will come from — but Trump said, as Wicker noted, the U.S. would not contribute.

“All there is for the U.S. is Success, Lower Oil Prices, and Victory,” he posted.

Some senators question financial provisions

As the memorandum was released to Congress on Thursday, several Republican senators said it left them with questions, many of them about its financial provisions.

Majority Leader John Thune and South Dakota colleague Sen. Mike Rounds were seeking clarity on how financial incentives to Iran and conditions barring funding terrorism would be enforced, because “right now, a lot of money's going to go to Iran,” Rounds said.

To be sure, there were Republicans more closely aligned with Trump's America First policies in the Senate and elsewhere who were giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Sen. Roger Marshall stressed the point in the memorandum that supporters say gives the U.S. the upper hand. In a social media post, the Kansas Republican said one of the most important provisions “lays out a key commitment that strengthens regional security and ensures that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

Louisiana GOP Senate candidate John Fleming, who has focused on Trump's most loyal supporters ahead of a June 27 Republican primary runoff, said that means Trump has suggested that the U.S. will strike Iran again if it does not live up to the agreement.

“The criticism may be worthy if there isn't follow-through,” Fleming said. “He's using the speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick in offering them plenty of help, but at the same time he's got that stick ready if they don't live up to their agreements."

MAGA voices send a warning

Still, some of Trump's strongest supporters in conservative media have warned against the agreement.

Conservative radio host Mark Levin suggested a strategic rethinking to hold off on an agreement with Iran until after the midterms.

“We should consider slow-walking the enemy, building up our munitions, our oil reserves, get the price of gasoline down, get through the midterms, then knock them out,” he said in a social media post. Instead, the U.S. seemed to be “rushing to a deal, building up their oil industry” and agreeing to governments “transferring billions to them.”

Right-wing social media influencer Laura Loomer, who has long supported Trump while also promoting conspiracy theories, was more pointed in her criticism.

“Who is giving the President tainted, pro-Islamic intel?” she posted on X.

What all the critics shared is an abiding distrust of the Iranian regime, no matter their relationship to Trump.

“It does smack of the kind of appeasement," said former Vice President Mike Pence, whose relationship with Trump was fractured after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “Bottom line. I don’t trust the Iranians.”

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Churchill Downs Inc., which runs the Kentucky Derby to open the Triple Crown, announced in April it was buying the branding rights to the second leg, as well as the race for fillies the precedes it by a day, from 1/ST Racing with the intent of licensing it back to Maryland annually to stage the races.

"The Preakness Stakes is more than just a race: It is a cornerstone of Maryland’s history, culture, and economy," Moore said in a statement. "This decision secures a vital asset for our state, allows Maryland to shape its horse racing destiny, and by leveraging the Preakness’s iconic status and partnering with industry experts to enhance the fan experience, preserve Maryland’s position as a key power player in the Triple Crown for generations to come.”

Moore said no general fund tax dollars would be used, with the $85 million cost instead being funded by a tax-exempt revenue bond issuance, which would be paid back by money generated by the race through ticketing, wagering and sponsorships. The state expected the fee paid to Churchill Downs Inc. would escalate over time.

Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association President Katharine M. Voss called the decision a defining moment for Maryland racing.

"Ownership ensures that the decisions shaping the future of the Preakness are made in the interest of Maryland," Greater Baltimore Committee President and CEO Mark Anthony Thomas said.

It is Maryland's latest investment in the industry, in the middle of a massive reconstruction project at Pimlico Race Course, the traditional home of the Preakness and the Black-Eyed Susan in Baltimore. The races moved down the road to Laurel Park this year on a one-time-only basis while Pimlico work is being done.

“We plan to be back there next year,” Maryland Jockey Club president and general manager Bill Knauf told The Associated Press in an interview last month. The expectation is for the full grandstand to be ready by May 2028.

The Maryland Jockey Club is the nonprofit organization set to take over for 1/ST Racing, which is transferring control to the state. The plan is for year-round racing to take place at Pimlico.

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

The decision announced Thursday marks the third such fake elector case filed by states to be dismissed, though the Democratic attorney general is vowing to bring it back to a grand jury in hopes of securing another indictment.

The legal maneuver is aimed at getting around a Friday deadline for starting new grand jury proceedings after Mayes lost an appeal earlier this month. The appeal was filed after defense attorneys argued successfully that the original grand jury hadn’t been shown the relevant parts of a law that governs how presidential contests are certified.

“This case is complex and will require substantial presentation of evidence and time to accommodate defendants’ request to testify and present evidence,” prosecutors wrote, explaining the new presentation of the case to a grand jury won’t happen by the deadline. Mark L. Williams, an attorney for Giuliani, said his client and the others charged in the case did nothing wrong and were only exercising their rights to free speech and to petition the government.

“This action was brought to punish Mr. Giuliani and the other Republican defendants for exercising their constitutional rights,” Williams said. “It’s appropriate that it’s being dismissed.”

Kelli Ward, the state GOP’s chair during the 2020 election season and one of the 18 defendants in the case, wrote on social media that Mayes had damaged the reputations and finances of those charged and “certainly seems unwilling to admit her overreach & put this behind us. She wants to keep persecuting her political opponents.”

Mayes’ office has declined to comment on Ward’s criticism.

Courts have dismissed similar cases in Michigan and Georgia, and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Those cases ended after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Cases related to the fake elector scheme remain in Nevada and Wisconsin.

The Nevada charges were dismissed in 2024 after a judge concluded Clark County, the state’s most populous county and home to Las Vegas, was the wrong venue for the case. Later that year, though, the case was refiled in Carson City, Nevada’s capital.

The Arizona case had been stalled for well over a year while Mayes pursued the appeal.

In Arizona, defense lawyers argued the law allowed for multiple slates of electors to be submitted to Congress in case the results were disputed. Federal law was amended in 2022 to specify that any given state could put forward only one slate of electors and that state governors are responsible for signing off.

Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by 10,457 votes.

The state attorney general has faced steep challenges in making her case.

It was filed nearly three and a half years after the 2020 election and levels complicated conspiracy charges against the 18 defendants. A dozen dismissal requests filed by defense attorneys have slowed progress in court.

The first judge on the case recused himself in late 2024 after an email surfaced in which he told fellow judges to speak out against attacks on Harris’ campaign for the presidency. The next judge ordered the case to be sent back to a grand jury.

Of the 18 Arizona defendants, two were former Trump aides, five were lawyers working for Trump and 11 were Republicans who submitted a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona.

Three defendants have resolved their cases, including one who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge.

The rest pleaded not guilty. Some said they signed the certificate in case Trump won court challenges and a new slate of electors was needed urgently before Congress’ Jan. 6 deadline to tally votes.

The case has factored into Arizona’s attorney general race, where both Republicans vying to challenge Mayes in the Nov. 3 general election have publicly said they would dismiss the charges if they were elected to the post. Mayes is running unopposed in the July 21 primary.

Mike O’Neil, an Arizona pollster and political analyst, said he believes Mayes would face criticism from Democrats if she had decided to abandon the case altogether. “People who are upset about this aren’t the people who would vote for her anyway,” O’Neil said.

A 22-year-old male suspect, described as armed and dangerous, remained at large Thursday.

The five shootings occurred Tuesday between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m, in a 5-mile stretch of Kansas City, three of them on Interstates 70 and 670 as they cut through downtown. All of the shootings were at least 4 miles away from Arrowhead Stadium, where Argentina won its first match against Algeria.

Two American fans of Argentina's team, arriving for Tuesday's match, told Argentine outlet La Nación that someone in a car came alongside and fired two shots at the Uber they were riding in, hitting the driver in the leg. They said they first thought the sound was a car tire popping until they saw the driver had been hit.

They had to go to the police station to provide statements about what happened. Officers then took them to the stadium in patrol cars, they said. The driver's injuries were not life-threatening, police Capt. Jacob Becchina said.

That shooting and two others on the interstates occurred while cars were traveling east, one of them from neighboring Kansas, police said. The others occurred further east on Truman Road, a major thoroughfare through the city.

Police said three adults and a minor, a teenager, were injured, and all were hospitalized, though only one adult had life-threatening injuries, Becchina said.

About 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a report of a vehicle crashing into a pole along Truman Road, east of the other shootings. The driver was taken to a hospital, and workers there discovered what appeared to be a gunshot wound while treating him. He died of his injuries.

“Victims all indicated they were driving down the highway or roadway when one or more shots were fired into their vehicles,” Becchina said in an email.

Becchina said detectives believe the non-fatal shootings occurred “in close succession,” from west to east, connected by the one suspect.

Police later tracked the suspect to a home in the suburb of Independence, about 2 miles further east of where the fatal shooting victim was found, and a standoff ensued. But when police entered the home about 8 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect was not there.

Officials across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas, also have a warrant out for the suspect over a June 11 incident involving an illegal discharge of a firearm, Nancy Chartrand, the spokesperson for its police department said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright had urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act in an effort to help the United States better compete with China for superiority in the fast-growing AI sector.

Tech companies and data center developers welcomed the chance to connect faster to the country’s power supply for the biggest energy users ever built in the United States, including some that consume more electricity than a small city.

Utilities, states and regional grid operators had worried that the Republican administration’s plan would remove their authority to manage the process, but FERC said the order leaves states in control of retail electric rates, terms and conditions. Clean energy advocates have urged regulators not to undermine state-level efforts to require the use of renewable energies.

The commission’s actions come as a backlash grows against data centers over concerns about the massive amounts of energy and water they use and fears about noise and air pollution, water shortages and a loss of open space or farmland.

Unanimous vote and affordability

FERC members voted unanimously to direct six regional grid operators to ensure that AI data centers and other large power users are “able to connect to the transmission system in a timely and orderly manner.”

Laura Swett, an appointee of President Donald Trump who chairs the commission, called the vote “historic” and said it would push the country’s electricity market into the future while respecting states’ rights, protecting reliable electric service and shielding ratepayers from shouldering the costs of connecting big power users to the grid.

“I know that Americans across the country are concerned about affordability, and so are we,” Swett said, referring to the five-member commission. As chair, “I am taking extremely seriously the mission that Congress has entrusted us to ensure that rates are reasonable,” she said.

The vote comes eight months after Wright asked the independent agency to take more control over ensuring that the vast network of massive computing warehouses needed to power AI are connected quickly to high-voltage transmission lines.

Wright hailed the commission's action, saying it would "remove barriers, accelerate development and ensure America has the affordable, reliable and secure energy needed to power a new era of prosperity."

Data centers would pay the full cost of any grid upgrades needed for their connection, under the commission order. But that order can do little to address the tightening energy supplies that are driving up electricity bills in some areas and raising warnings of blackouts as the construction of data centers outpaces the speed of new power plants coming online to serve them.

Robert Montejo, a lawyer who represents data centers, said the most important message from FERC’s action is that AI “has fundamentally changed the electricity landscape. The grid and prior policy were not built for the pace and scale of demand we’re seeing from AI infrastructure, and FERC is signaling that standing still is no longer an option.”

The six regional grid operators under the order serve 200 million Americans, or two-thirds of FERC’s jurisdiction. FERC, meanwhile, invited utilities that handle their regional transmission systems to also participate and analysts said the agency could eventually pressure them, too.

A search for power

Tech giants are scrambling to find enough power for their data centers and report that, in some places, it will take years to connect to the electric grid.

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric utilities, said FERC’s order builds on regional and state processes already underway while “supporting flexibility and innovation.”

Besides power bottlenecks, the tech industry is running into widespread opposition from communities where residents don’t want to live next to or near a data center.

More than 4,000 data centers now operate in the U.S., according to one estimate, with an additional 3,000 planned or under construction.

Trump has tried to deflect public concerns about AI, seeing the fast-evolving technology as crucial for the U.S. to attract foreign investment and maintain its economic and military prowess. He signed an executive order this month establishing a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.

In December, FERC took an earlier step to help data center operators get electricity quickly, voting to allow tech companies to effectively plug a data center directly into a power plant and Thursday’s order sought to ensure that option is accessible around the country.

Power demands from data centers

FERC told grid operators to respond within 30 days on how they will ensure there is adequate power supplies for new and future data centers, and within 60 days on plans to integrate large power users in line with the new guidelines. Swett told reporters after the meeting that she hoped faster connection processes are in effect in “as little time as possible.” She didn't set an exact timeline.

Jeff Dennis, executive director of the Electricity Customer Alliance, said FERC’s order is responsive in particular to big power users and state regulators.

Tech giants are confronting unclear rules to connect data centers to high-voltage transmission systems, while states need more clarity on who should bear the cost of regional transmission projects approved at the federal level, he said.

Rob Gramlich, a Washington-based energy consultant, said states should quickly develop rules to accommodate large power users and prevent cost shifts to residential and business customers. FERC could assert broader jurisdiction over interconnection issues if states don’t act quickly, he said.

Data from the Electric Power Research Institute shows that data centers now account for about 5% of U.S. electricity demand, but could triple by 2035.

Tech companies have continued to raise their spending on building and equipping data centers, but there is evidence that construction is lagging and projects are hitting roadblocks, including permitting delays, growing local opposition or bottlenecks around gas turbines, transformers and skilled labor.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pa.

The market's reversal was powered by sharp gains for big technology companies. The decline on Wednesday was driven by anticipation that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this year in an effort to fight inflation.

On Thursday, stocks faced less pressure as bond yields eased and oil prices spent most of the day falling.

The S&P 500 rose 80.48 points, or 1.1%, to 7,500.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.15 points, or 0.1%, to 51,564.70. The Nasdaq composite surged 496.28 points, or 1.9%, to 26,517.93. Every major index notched weekly gains.

U.S. markets will be closed Friday for Juneteenth.

Technology stocks had some of the biggest gains and the most influence on the broader market's rise. Intel surged 10.6% after President Donald Trump announced that the semiconductor giant will make chips for Apple in the U.S. Other big semiconductor companies gained ground. Nvidia rose 3% and Micron Technology jumped 8.7%.

On the losing end, SpaceX fell for the second straight day since its ballyhooed debut on the U.S. stock market last week. The Elon Musk-led rocket maker and AI company was down 3.6% following a 4.9% loss Wednesday.

Oil prices wavered after the United States and Iran signed an agreement to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic. Brent crude, the international standard, spent most of the day lower before settling 0.4% higher at $79.85 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude fell 0.2% to $75.85 per barrel.

Airlines had some of the bigger gains. American Airlines rose 3.7% and United Airlines rose 2.1%. Cruise line company Carnival jumped 3.2%.

Energy companies lost ground. Exxon Mobil fell 2.1% and Chevron fell 2.2%.

Prices for crude oil are still above roughly $70 per barrel from before the war, but are well below the $100-plus price from a few weeks ago.

Higher oil prices have been weighing on markets throughout the U.S. war with Iran. The current deal between the nations waives sanctions against Iran and allows it to sell its oil freely. It also opens up the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil supply is shipped.

“While investors are welcoming the agreement as a constructive step for geopolitical risk, uncertainty remains elevated around potential flare-ups, the pace of shipping normalization, control of the waterway, the cost of access, and the path forward for Iran’s nuclear program.” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, in a research note.

Rising energy costs have been putting more pressure on already hot inflation. The average price of gasoline in the U.S. has dipped below $4 a gallon, but is still 25% higher from a year ago. Prices have been rising for a wide range of goods because of higher shipping costs.

Hotter inflation prompted the Federal Reserve to shift course from cutting its benchmark interest rate to likely raising rates by the end of the year. Lower interest rates can boost the economy by making borrowing easier for businesses and households, but it also tends to stoke inflation.

The Fed has been trying to balance its job of curbing inflation while supporting employment growth. The jobs market has remained relatively strong amid rising inflation, with low unemployment and solid job growth.

The central bank closed its two-day meeting on Wednesday by maintaining its benchmark interest rate at its current level. But it signaled that it might raise the rate at least once by December.

“This shift in the risk distribution helps explain why around half of the committee thought that an interest-rate hike this year might be needed,” said James McCann, senior economist at Edward Jones, in a research note.

The Fed's stronger signal for an eventual rate hike prompted a jump in bond yields on Wednesday, but they eased on Thursday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.45% from 4.49% late Wednesday. The yield on 2-year Treasury, which more closely tracks action by the Fed, fell to 4.18% from 4.20% late Wednesday.

Markets were mixed in Europe after closing lower Asia.

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Senior Producer Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.

The justices decided unanimously in favor of Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man who argued that a law barring guns from anyone who regularly uses illegal drugs violates the Second Amendment.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that his opinion narrowly limits the government's power to take guns away from drug users who are not considered dangerous. Hemani, who was not charged with any other crimes or accused of using the weapon under the influence, is thankful he “finally has closure,” lawyer Zachary Newland said.

The decision is a loss for President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, which had defended the 1968 law despite arguing against other gun restrictions. Its core argument “fails under every measure,” Gorsuch wrote.

The law was originally meant to keep guns away from dangerous people, but the millions of people who now use marijuana can't all be characterized that way, Gorsuch wrote. While recreational use is illegal under federal law, about half of states allow it and cannabis use for health purposes is widespread.

“Whatever one thinks of these developments, the federal government has not just tolerated them; it helped fuel them,” Gorsuch wrote. “All of which leaves it awkwardly positioned to suggest that the millions of Americans who now regularly use marijuana are categorically and unusually dangerous.”

The law was also used in a case against Hunter Biden, who was convicted in Wilmington, Delaware, of buying a gun while addicted to cocaine in 2018. He was later pardoned by his father, Democratic President Joe Biden.

Someone addicted to an illegal drug could potentially still be prosecuted after Thursday’s decision.

“We do not address efforts to ban addicts, or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm,” Gorsuch wrote. Prosecutors could charge a marijuana user if they had evidence the person was dangerous, he said.

Recreational use remains illegal on a federal level even after the Trump administration reclassified medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug in April.

Gun rights and pro-cannabis groups join forces

The case made for some unusual political alliances.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association supported Hemani’s case, as did cannabis legalization groups such as NORML. On the other side were gun safety groups including Everytown that usually oppose the administration on Second Amendment issues.

The ACLU applauded the ruling, saying that nearly half of Americans have reported using marijuana at some point in their lives.

“The court has sent a strong message that the government cannot criminalize the conduct of large numbers of people by making categorical and unfounded assumptions about whether they are dangerous,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director at the ACLU.

NORML applauded the decision as a “vindication of personal freedom” and the Second Amendment Foundation called it a “major victory for gun owners.”

The group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization of the drug, condemned it.

“While the justices in this case appear to be most concerned with historical battles over Second Amendment rights, public health and safety are the collateral damage in this decision,” said CEO Kevin Sabet.

Gun control groups were more measured, with Everytown saying the decision still recognizes that “drugs and guns can make for a dangerous mix.”

It is rare to see standalone criminal charges filed against people accused solely of owning guns and using drugs, though they are more often filed against people also accused of other crimes.

The opinion is the latest in a series of firearm cases to reach the Supreme Court since its landmark ruling expanding gun rights in 2022 led to a wave of challenges around the country.

Since then, the high court has upheld a law aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence and strict regulations on ghost gun kits but has struck down a ban on bump stocks, an accessory that enables rapid fire. The justices are also considering a second firearm case this term over strict regulations on carrying guns in Hawaii.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

“I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is and remind us what we can achieve when we embrace our shared responsibilities as citizens,” the nation’s first Black president told the crowd.

Bono, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony and Eddie Vedder took turns on the stage ahead of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder, who closed the show singing “Higher Ground” as the former presidents, world leaders and others danced along.

President Donald Trump was conspicuous both in his physical absence and by not being mentioned by any of the speakers or performers. Trump called the $850 million center a “total disaster” in a social media post in February.

Obama voiced his support for character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion and sense of duty, praising both Democrats and Republicans, including those he defeated.

“Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did,” Obama said. “It is our greatest inheritance.”

Reflecting on his arrival in Chicago in 1985 as an untested political organizer, he said he could not have built the Obama Presidential Center anywhere else. He met his future wife Michelle nearby, their wedding reception was within walking distance, his children were born in the neighborhood and he launched his first candidacy not far away.

“It’s an expression of thanks, an acknowledgment that so much of what I hold most dear I owe to the people of this city and the people of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Obama said.

Michelle had some emotional words for her husband

The Obamas and their daughters shared the stage with former presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton along with former first ladies Jill Biden, Laura Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and many other leading Democrats were in the audience.

Michelle Obama spoke directly to her husband when she stepped up to the podium. “Eight years in the crucible and not once did you melt in the heat. Not once did you let it harden you.

“Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence,” she said. “Your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency. Your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first.”

She ticked off highlights from her husband's eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, “standing up for marriage equality” and “listening to science.”

“And you did it all with such grace and class and cool,” she said. “You made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.”

Obama appeared to wipe away a tear as she praised him.

Michelle Obama also referenced the current “anxious and divisive times” and warned against being cynical or complacent as “everything feels so upside down.” She pitched the center as “a respite from all that.”

A-list entertainers sang inspirational anthems and protest songs

Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem and Aguilera delivered a rousing rendition of “What a Wonderful World.” Pearl Jam’s Vedder, joined by Chicago teenagers in the nonprofit Guitars Over Guns program, sang an original song called “Better Believe,” written just for the dedication.

Legend sang “Someday We’ll All Be Free” and was joined by the rapper Common and Uniting Voices Chicago for their Academy Award-winning song “Glory.”

Bono, who said he was representing the Irish, joined with The Edge in singing the U2 song “City of Blinding Lights.” The Roots served as the house band. And Springsteen sang “Land of Hopes and Dreams” before turning to the Obamas and saying “I love you.”

Wonder sang “All I Do” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)” before the grand finale, joined by the performers who preceded him.

The VIP crowd included several potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates; civil rights leaders Andrew Young and Al Sharpton; Oprah Winfrey; comedians David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert; actor Tom Hanks; tennis legend Billie Jean King and Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts.

Former world leaders in attendance included former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Event kicked off weekend of celebration

The three-hour invite-only celebration included commentary from a nearby park where thousands gathered, and it was livestreamed to many more. It kicks off a weekend of events as the center opens to the general public on Juneteenth.

“This is not a monument to the Obamas,” said Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Foundation’s chief executive and former Obama top adviser. “This is a tribute to all those who made this journey possible.”

The opening, like the ribbon-cuttings of other presidential libraries over the years, had a heavy focus on accomplishments. This former president also expressed some regrets — such as the increase in political polarization during his two terms. “It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency — that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” Obama said in his final State of the Union.

“Some of the exhibits reflect unfinished business,” Obama said Thursday. “In some cases, my own shortcomings and mistakes.”

General admission tickets for the center are sold out through the end of October. More than a million visitors a year are expected at the nearly 20-acre campus.

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Associated Press writer Mike Catalini contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

Even one of golf's elder statesmen and a three-time major champion could learn something from the way the 17-year-old played Thursday in the first round of the U.S. Open.

Russell rarely looked like a rookie while shooting a 2-over 72 that left him five shots ahead of his 54-year-old playing partner.

“He played lovely, 2-over par was the worst he could’ve shot,” Harrington said. “He hit it dead straight all day, didn’t really have himself in too much trouble at all. And then, you know, probably could have been a couple better.”

Russell is a Florida State-bound amateur who was making his U.S. Open debut. He is so young that he said this week he couldn't even remember if he watched when Shinnecock Hills last hosted the U.S. Open in 2018.

The left-hander has a thin build and could probably be mistaken for closer to 12 from far away. Harrington, with some grey hair showing from beneath his blue hat, looks every bit the age of someone who qualified for this event by winning the U.S. Senior Open championship last year.

So Russell wasn't surprised to hear that spectators were frequently asking each other how old he was.

“That was the first time I’ve played with somebody maybe that much older than me,” Russell said. “Usually I’m playing Korn Ferry events, so they’re not too much older, maybe a couple years.”

Harrington won his first major title at the British Open in 2007, then repeated and added the PGA Championship in 2008, a few months before Russell was born.

Harrington was a fair amateur himself. The native of Ireland played on three straight Walker Cup teams for Great Britain & Ireland, including one that beat a U.S. squad featuring Tiger Woods in 1995.

But he wasn't sure his game was as developed as Russell's is now.

“I can’t remember what I was doing when I was 17 years of age,” Harrington said. “But yeah, I’m sure it’s all ahead of him.”

Russell, ranked No. 1 in the American Junior Golf Association and No. 7 among all amateurs in the world, earned his spot in the U.S. Open through a 36-hole qualifier — where Charlie Woods, his future college teammate and Tiger's son, was his caddie.

He quickly was ahead of Harrington, who bogeyed six of the final seven holes on the front. Harrington said there wasn't much talk between them, even when they stood just a few feet from each other in the 10th fairway after both hit their tee shots 307 yards. He said the lack of conservation wasn't because of the age difference, but rather because the conditions made it tough to hear anything.

“It was very windy out there. Your head's down, getting your work done,” Harrington said. “There wasn’t a great deal of chat. A lot of good shots for him, as I said, but not a great deal of chat.”

Still, there was enough interaction that Russell was able to learn something from the owner of 43 worldwide victories.

“It’s always good to play with a guy like that and he’s done really well for himself,” Russell said. “He’s played a lot of good golf. So I mean, anything you can pick up from them, whether it’s just the way they act, or the way they walk, or the way they interact with people.”

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

Instead, the rollout of Vance’s second book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” has been largely crowded out by something else he’s put his name on: the deal to end the Iran war.

The Republican vice president has embraced the role of chief defender of the agreement he and President Donald Trump signed with Tehran, giving a series of interviews touting it as a success, releasing a video championing it and parrying questions about it during a briefing at the White House.

It’s a striking emergence for a politician who's known for his skepticism of foreign military interventions and who seemed reluctant to speak on the conflict when Trump launched it in February.

The vice president is poised to yoke himself further to the conflict’s outcome, when he’s expected to kick off a new phase of negotiations with Iran — though when that will occur was still up in the air Thursday.

Vance becoming a hype man for the agreement seems to be an all-in gamble that, should he decide to seek the White House in 2028, voters will reward him for being the face of ending an unpopular conflict.

It’s also setting Vance up as the presumptive fall guy should the deal with Iran falter.

Trump joked about such a possibility on Wednesday.

“If it works out, I’m going to take the credit," Trump said. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.”

Officials release text of the deal after backlash

Vance on Thursday referred to Trump's comment as a joke and said he wasn't worried. He added: “Look, the entire team has worked very well on this, and we’ve got this thing to a very good place for the American people.”

The White House in a statement called Vance the president's “right-hand man and an invaluable member of the President’s talented national security team.”

"That’s why the Vice President was trusted to lead these negotiations alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner," White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said. "What President Trump and his team achieved on the battlefield and at the negotiating table is nothing short of remarkable and will strengthen American security for years to come.”

But backlash, including from conservatives, began growing this week after the U.S. digitally signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran on Sunday.

Vance spokesman Luke Schroeder said in a statement: “It’s unfortunate that some Republicans are attempting to undermine the President’s efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East and ensure Iran never has a nuclear weapon.”

Officials gave shifting answers about when they would release the text, but leaked copies of a draft were quickly met with anger and skepticism from Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers, as well as Israel and pro-Israel advocates. Their criticisms included concerns that the deal, meant to open a two-month negotiating period, seemed to offer Iran wins up front while guaranteeing little in return and that Trump’s stated reason for launching the conflict, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, remains unresolved.

Vance has reiterated that Iran must meet its obligations.

In response to the backlash and mounting questions, the U.S. on Wednesday provided the text of the agreement to journalists.

The agreement states that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under rubble, must at minimum be diluted under international supervision. It also states that Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment it has made previously. But beyond stating that the U.S. and Iran will negotiate over Iran's nuclear program, other commitments still need to be worked out.

Criticism on the right persisted after the text was released.

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, a hawk who has defended the war, said Wednesday: “This is an American surrender.”

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, another potential 2028 presidential candidate, criticized the agreement and said to reporters, “I think the president, unfortunately, is receiving bad advice.”

Trump's Operation Epic Fury has angered wings of his movement

The conflict, which has stretched into its fourth month, has cleaved Trump’s broad Make America Great Again coalition and angered both those who favored a harder line against Iran and those drawn to Trump’s “America First” foreign policy underscored by a message of “no new wars.”

Critics, including Republicans, have already started pointing fingers in Vance's direction, questioning whether the deal resembles the 2015 nuclear agreement struck by Democratic President Barack Obama and whether this new agreement achieves Trump’s stated objectives for launching the war, dubbed Operation Epic Fury.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally and Iran hawk, had been skeptical of the agreement and referred to Vance on social media as “the architect of the deal."

After the agreement was released, Graham issued a tepid statement of support, saying, “I see little downside to trying.”

Ben Domenech, The Daily Wire’s opinion editor, said on Fox News that everything he was hearing about the deal “seems bad” and appeared to cast blame on Vance by alluding to his first book, “Hillbilly Elegy."

“Are we going to backslide into being some kind of ‘hillbilly Obama’ kind of GOP?” Domenech said.

GOP allies say Vance can navigate the politics

The Trump administration has not offered formal briefings to Congress on the details of the memorandum, but Vance has quietly started doing outreach to some Republican senators on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a close ally of Vance's, said the vice president would be able to assuage even critics within his own party who are skeptical of the deal because “JD is just the president’s messenger, and the president’s going to prove them all wrong.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the deal “certainly adds to the national security and geopolitical chops” of Vance, who spent two years as a U.S. senator for Ohio before ascending to the vice presidency.

But Cramer acknowledged the risks if the agreement goes awry.

“I guess the nice thing is, if you’re not the No. 1 person, you can take credit and avoid risk, avoid the criticism, but probably not so easily,” Cramer said.

Vance argues Iran is not a quagmire like the Iraq war

In interviews this week, Vance has sought to speak directly to the skeptics in his party, a preview of the difficult explanations he may be pressed to make as a candidate on the war.

On Megyn Kelly's show, the vice president said the critics “believe Iranian propaganda” about the deal. But he acknowledged some of the frustrations on the hawkish right while trying to reassure the anti-interventionists that the Iran conflict isn't the war in Iraq, where he served as a Marine.

Democrats have stressed that even as Vance becomes the face of the Iran deal, the fate of any administration official who harbors presidential aspirations — particularly hawkish Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has largely been quiet in the agreement's final phases — will be tied to its outcome.

“I think any member of this administration is going to rise or fall on the basis of the Iran war and the handling of the economy,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

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Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Moderna's new shot, dubbed mFlusiva, for older Americans ahead of the winter flu season. Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine's use in people ages 50 to 64 — along with authorization for use in those 65 and older while it conducts additional testing.

The FDA's independent advisory committee evaluated Moderna's studies of the vaccine and voted unanimously that its benefits appear to outweigh any risks for both age groups. The FDA will consider that recommendation in making a final decision by early August.

Tens of thousands of Americans die from influenza every year, and older adults are among the most vulnerable. There are various types of flu vaccines already available in the U.S., including three specifically recommended for people 65 and older. But vaccines made with the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology are faster to manufacture than other types — something experts say might help if the shape-shifting flu virus mutates in a way that requires suddenly brewing new doses to match.

“Having this technology available puts us in a better position to be prepared for emerging strains in the future,” said Dr. Flor Munoz-Rivas of Texas Children’s Hospital, one of FDA's advisers.

In a study of 40,000 people age 50 and older, Moderna’s mRNA vaccine reduced flu cases by about 27% compared with those given another routinely used vaccine brand. In a smaller study of people 65 and older, Moderna's shot also generated a strong protective immune response compared with a high-dose flu vaccine already recommended for that age group.

Data showing strong immune reactions “were very compelling,” said FDA adviser Dr. Anna Durbin of Johns Hopkins University, adding that "the vaccine looks very promising.”

Moderna’s Dr. Rituparna Das told panelists that the company’s ability to quickly manufacture mRNA vaccines that closely match the latest flu strains could prevent thousands of hospitalizations in older Americans.

Severe flu cases in the U.S. generally rise in years when the flu shot doesn’t closely match the circulating virus. Moderna officials noted that flu strains for each fall's vaccines now are chosen several months earlier than the yearly recipe update for COVID-19 shots that mostly are mRNA-based — and there can be a mismatch if the flu virus mutates after the recipe is made.

At the meeting, FDA vaccine reviewer Dr. Timothy Brennan suggested the agency was open to approving the vaccine for older adults ahead of the coming flu season, despite the need for more information about its use in frail seniors or people with weak immune systems.

If it's approved, Moderna is planning its required next-step study to include 400,000 people 65 and older, half given the mRNA vaccine and the rest given one of today’s special-for-seniors shots. It's supposed to repeat that study for two flu seasons.

Moderna's data showed no major safety issues although the shot did cause some temporary reactions including injection-site pain, fever, headache, tiredness and aches. The latter reactions are common in a variety of vaccines, but occurred somewhat more often than with today's flu shots. The FDA said that's typical of mRNA vaccines.

Those temporary reactions can be a signal that “your immune system is responding,” said Dr. Hayley Gans, a Stanford Medicine pediatrician and FDA adviser who stressed it will be important to explain that to vaccine recipients.

Earlier this year, Moderna’s data was at the center of a highly unusual public dispute as a then-top FDA official blocked the company’s application for its first-of-its-kind shot.

The embattled vaccine chief at the time, Dr. Vinay Prasad, said the company should have compared its shot to a high-dose flu vaccine recommended for seniors rather than a standard-dose brand. It was a sign of FDA’s heightened vaccine scrutiny under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Moderna challenged that decision, noting that FDA staff had approved that main study’s design and citing a separate, smaller study comparing the mRNA shot with a high-dose vaccine for seniors. Days after the spat, the FDA accepted Moderna’s application.

Moderna also is studying the vaccine in younger adults and plans a separate study in 9- to 17-year-olds this fall.

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

The law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026, prohibits state-regulated health insurance plans from charging copays, coinsurance or deductibles for diagnostic and supplemental breast imaging, including diagnostic mammograms, ultrasounds and breast MRIs.

Lynchburg patient surprised by $300 bill

Debbie Farrago of Lynchburg said she had a routine mammogram and was told at the front desk that a follow-up ultrasound would be covered at no cost.

Weeks later, a bill for more than $300 arrived. Farrago says the charge was tied to her insurance deductible. Centra was the facility where she received care, but the billing determination was made through her insurance provider.

“And I said, ‘Hey, you know, why am I getting billed this when they told me at the desk I shouldn’t?’” Farrago said.

It took her months and hours of research and phone calls with her insurance provider to get the charge removed.

“Why is it not being filed, and why do we even have to go through this first of all?” she said.

Farrago said she worries others across Virginia are quietly absorbing costs they were never required to pay.

“I think a lot of people might not even know. So, they would just pay it,” she said.

Not all insurance plans are covered

The Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, which helped advocate for the legislation, says the new law comes with an important caveat — it does not apply to every insurance plan.

The law covers only state-regulated health insurance plans, which most commonly means plans purchased through the Virginia Marketplace. Patients who receive health insurance through an employer are likely not covered, as federal, out-of-state and employer-sponsored self-insured plans are not required to comply with Virginia state insurance laws.

“VBCF knew there would be a learning curve in terms of awareness of the new breast imaging law,” the organization said in a statement.

To help patients navigate the new rules, the foundation created an online resource page with detailed information about the law and guidance on whether it applies to a specific plan.

What patients should do

The Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation recommends that patients take the following steps:

• Before your appointment: Call your insurance provider and confirm whether you have a state-regulated health care plan covered under the new law.
• If you receive a bill: Do not pay immediately. Contact your insurance plan first, point out that you believe your plan is covered by the new law and file an appeal if necessary.
• If asked to pay upfront: It is acceptable to ask the provider to bill your insurance company first or send a bill later. Providers may not yet be aware of the new law.
• If all else fails: If you have exhausted all options with your insurer and believe your plan is covered, the Virginia Bureau of Insurance may be able to help resolve the situation. The number is 804-371-9631.

Farrago said her experience reinforced the importance of pushing back.

“Reach out for help to organizations that can help you out with it and be your own best advocate for sure,” she said.

Farrago’s case was not an isolated one, according to the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, which says many patients have already paid bills they were never required to pay.

The James River Batteau Festival is returning to Lynchburg this week, offering more than just a scenic float down the river. This annual event is a living tribute to a pivotal piece of Virginia’s history, dating back to the 1700s, when the James River served as one of the state’s main trade routes.

A Glimpse Into Virginia’s River Past

Long before highways and railroads crisscrossed the Commonwealth, the James River was the lifeblood of Virginia’s economy. The boats that powered this trade were called batteaux, shallow, flat-bottomed vessels specially designed to navigate the rocky, shallow waters of the James.

“Batteaux are the semi trucks of the early James River,” explained Dan Tucker, chairman of the James River Batteau Festival Board.

Without engines, crews would use long poles to push off the river bottom, guiding these boats as they carried goods, especially tobacco, downriver to Richmond.

The batteau was invented by brothers Anthony and Benjamin Rucker in the 1700s. Their design helped connect Central Virginia’s tobacco growers to larger markets, fueling economic growth throughout the region.

Stories of the River: The People Behind the Batteaux

But the story of the batteau is also a story of the people who powered them. Tucker notes that many of these boats were operated by both enslaved and free Black boatmen. Recent research has even suggested that the James River may have served as a route for freedom seekers escaping slavery.

One remarkable story is that of Frank Padgett, an enslaved man who used a batteau to rescue people during a flood near Balcony Falls. Padgett lost his life during his final rescue mission, and his bravery is commemorated by several historical markers, including a stone monument in Glasgow’s Centennial Park.

Reviving a Lost Tradition

By the 1840s, the rise of canals, railroads, and other forms of transportation led to the decline of the batteau. But in the early 1980s, history resurfaced when construction crews in downtown Richmond uncovered old boats in the canal basin. These discoveries inspired the creation of modern replicas and, eventually, the James River Batteau Festival.

Today, more than four decades later, crews still launch from Lynchburg to recreate the historic journey down the James River.

“It is an excellent event to get out on the water and enjoy a unique local history to Central Virginia,” Tucker said.

A Living History on the Water

For Tucker and many participants, the festival is more than just a celebration; it’s a chance to see a piece of Virginia’s past come alive once again. As the batteaux glide down the river, they carry with them the stories, struggles, and triumphs of generations past.

Festival Details

The James River Batteau Festival launch party kicks off June 19 at Percival’s Island, with the batteaux launching the next day. Both events are free and open to the public, offering a unique opportunity to witness history in motion and connect with Virginia’s river heritage.

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.