“There’s a potential in that we can finally start to deliver for working-class people across this country,” Mamdani said. “What we heard today was the fact that so often what’s described as a natural crisis here in Puerto Rico is in fact a political crisis, one that is the result of political choices.”

Hochul said the election results represent “a whole new day” for Puerto Rico and warned that the federal government will be held responsible.

“What we’ve seen over the last two years is really an abandonment of that commitment," she said. "And we hope to have all those wounds heal, making sure that we continue bringing resources for resiliency, energy projects, building up the grid, as well as healthcare being restored, nutrition programs.”

Mamdani and Hochul are part of a group of New York government officials who are in Puerto Rico for a four-day, annual conference. They met with local nonprofits on Friday as officials announced a $280,000 partnership to help the island confront emergencies.

Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from crises

The partnership between Hispanic Federation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York comes as Puerto Rico struggles with chronic power outages and intermittent water shortages while it tries to rebuild from Hurricane Maria and other disasters.

The nonprofit Hispanic Federation said the money would equip 10 community-run resiliency hubs across the island with increased water storage capacity; some also would receive rain-collection systems, kitchen infrastructure and solar power with battery storage.

“We have to start working with the leadership to make sure that the Puerto Rico agenda is not forgotten,” Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, told The Associated Press.

“In Puerto Rico, there are still some huge challenges," he said. “All the public policies have been so harmful to Puerto Rico.”

The announcement comes months after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump canceled solar projects in Puerto Rico that were supposed to help thousands of low-income families. One project, worth $400 million, would have seen the installation of solar and battery storage systems in low-income homes and those with medical needs.

The U.S. Department of Energy has said the money initially slated for solar projects would instead be used to help maintain Puerto Rico’s crumbling power grid, which was razed by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The grid, however, was already weakened given a lack of maintenance and investment.

The decisions prompted outrage on the island as federal support for solar projects fades.

Puerto Ricans sue US government

Last week, six Puerto Rico residents sued the U.S. Energy Department and its secretary, Chris Wright, following the scrapping of a $1 billion federally funded program to provide solar power and battery storage to those who most needed it.

“The cost of such systems remains out of reach for the majority of Puerto Ricans,” the lawsuit stated.

Among those suing is 63-year-old Arecibo resident Ileana Ríos, who is diabetic and needs to refrigerate her insulin. Meanwhile, her son has asthma and needs to use a nebulizer, which requires electricity.

The lawsuit noted that Ríos “regularly loses power when the weather is stable and always loses power during storms, sometimes for several weeks at a time.”

The other residents who sued also have serious health conditions and need equipment or medications that rely on electricity.

The lawsuit requests that a judge order the U.S. Energy Department to reinstate the grant program, among other things. The agency said in a brief statement Friday that it is working closely with Puerto Rico's governor to stabilize the island's power grid as it criticized the previous administration for “advancing their Green New Scam agenda over helping Puerto Rico build an affordable, reliable, and secure electrical grid.”

The funding loss has been a blow to nonprofits and others who faced months of uncertainty and confusion as they awaited the Trump administration’s decision on whether and how it would continue the program.

“We had a lot of uncertainty. ... At some points it just felt like we were talking to no one," said Sybelle Rodriguez del Valle, director of operations at the energy resilience nonprofit Barrio Eléctrico, which was part of the U.S. Energy Department program.

Barrio Eléctrico provides electric service to more than 500 families and was poised to provide resilient energy for 1,200 families with funds from the federal program. It had only completed about one-third of its projects before the program ended, losing an estimated $16 million to $20 million in funding.

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Associated Press reporter Gabriela Aoun Angueira contributed to this report.

Local 4’s Karen Drew stopped by to see it. You can watch her visit in the video at the top of this article.

The colorful, interactive display features festive artifacts from the Parade Company archives and highlights parade milestones, including Santa’s First appearance in 1935.

You can learn about the marching bands, the distinguished clown corps, and the big heads, and watch footage of the parade decade after decade. You can even pose for a photo on Santa’s throne.

Admission is free on Sundays -- a great place for a family visit.

Pena had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph) and was centered about 650 miles (1,046 kilometers) southeast of South Point, Hawaii, and about 1,350 miles (2,173 kilometers) east-southeast of Johnston Island, according to an advisory from the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Pena was moving west at 12 mph (19 kph). It was forecast to strengthen over the next day or so, then have no significant change through next week.

The system is expected to remain offshore of Hawaii. No watches or warnings were in effect, and no hazards were affecting land.

The Pacific Ocean has had an active hurricane season due in part to El Niño.

A handful of remaining Senate and House races, still to be called by The Associated Press, will determine the strength of Democrats’ majority in Congress. Democrats will hold at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate next year, and as many as 56 depending on final results in Alaska and Mississippi — where contests remain narrow with votes still outstanding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is likely to return as majority leader next year, promised in an interview with the AP that Democrats will prevent the Republican president from installing a “right-winger” on the Supreme Court or “crappy nominees” elsewhere in the federal judiciary or in Trump’s Cabinet.

The Latest:

US coordinates with Canada to target Iranian digital asset providers

The Treasury Department on Friday targeted several firms exchanging Iranian rials and other currencies for allegedly helping Tehran evade sanctions and fund its proxies.

Some of the providers dealt with Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges already sanctioned by Washington.

The latest targets were coordinated with the Canadian government as several of the individuals and entities named are based in Vancouver and Toronto.

“Anyone, anywhere in the world, who helps Tehran evade sanctions risks being held accountable,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

The actions are part of the Trump administration’s economic campaign to cripple the various financial networks that help sustain Iran as the longtime adversaries struggle to find a diplomatic resolution to a more than eight-month long conflict.

Ukraine welcomes more help from Melania Trump in the future

Ukrainian officials have praised first lady Melania Trump for her role in a humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky and hope for more of her help going forward.

Davyd Arakhamia, head of the parliamentary faction of Zelenskyy’s party, and Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, spoke to reporters in Washington a day after a White House event recognizing the recent six-day truce between Russia and Ukraine in Oleshky.

Lubinets says he thinks of the first lady “as a heavyweight” in negotiations, saying her office was instrumental in getting the Russians to open negotiations.

Asked about a greater role for Melania Trump in talks between Russia and Ukraine, Arakhamia said, “we would appreciate it.” He says he wants to expand the ability to get truces in other parts of the war-torn country.

Ukraine expects to see more support from US after midterms

A Ukrainian official says with Democrats winning control of Congress in the midterm elections, they expect American support to surge next year.

Davyd Arakhamia, head of the parliamentary faction of Zelenskyy’s party, told reporters in Washington that he sees “the chances for us to get better U.S. support” financially and generally is “at least double” with the new Congress.

Arakhamia said he and other Ukrainian officials know newly appointed White House chief of staff Stephen Miller “well” and were broadly optimistic about his new role.

But before the congressional changes, “we have the hardest winter ever,” Arakhamia said.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. He said the country’s supply of missile interceptors is all but depleted.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair says promoting Miller is ‘putting lipstick on a pig’

Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York said Trump’s decision to name Miller the White House chief of staff “is a desperate and irresponsible cry for attention.”

He said Miller has been the architect of Trump’s immigration policies and voters have “rejected mass deportations, the targeting of Latino communities.”

To give Miller “a fancier title is just putting lipstick on a pig,” he said.

‘I wanted to make a change,’ Trump says, explaining chief of staff shakeup

Trump praised both Wiles and Miller to reporters but said it was time for a change.

“Susie has done a very good job. Great job,” Trump said as he left the White House to travel to Florida. But he said, “We’ve got to make moves sometimes.”

Trump said Miller is great.

“He gets it” and is “very good politically. And he’s a very good man. He’ll do a great job, great manager,” Trump said.

House Oversight’s Garcia warns Stephen Miller: ‘Lawyer up’

Rep. Robert Garcia, who is in line to become chairman of the Oversight Committee, said Trump is “doubling down” on the administration policies that voters just rejected in the midterm election.

“Stephen Miller is the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids that have terrorized our communities and kidnapped and killed American citizens and immigrant families,” said Garcia of California.

Garcia said the committee continues to investigate Miller “for his misconduct, and we will fight against his hateful policies in Congress and the courts.”

Wiles is the first woman to ever serve as White House chief of staff

Announcing her departure on social media, Wiles called serving Trump “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America First,” she wrote. “More than anything, I’m grateful for the extraordinary people I’ve had the privilege of working alongside.

“While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will,” Wiles said.

Wiles steered Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. She has long been seen as a check on some of his most destructive impulses.

Who is Stephen Miller, Trump’s new chief of staff

He’s one of Trump’s most loyal and longest-serving advisers. He came aboard Trump’s longshot 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter and has remained in the president’s orbit.

Miller, 41, currently serves as White House deputy chief of staff and, though his portfolio is wide-ranging, Miller is most closely aligned with Trump’s actions and rhetoric on immigration.

He’s a former Capitol Hill staffer who worked for former Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who was Trump’s first attorney general.

During the midterm campaign, Miller took frequent partisan swipes at Democrats, calling them “extremists, freaks and America-hating lunatics” on social media. He also promoted unfounded theories about election fraud in California and Alaska

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy discharged from hospital after stroke

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy says he will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital Friday after suffering a stroke.

Murphy said the doctors are encouraged by the progress he’s made and the time at the rehabilitation center will help him get back to work on the quickest timeline possible. He expects to miss the next several weeks of votes as he continues his recovery.

“I want to be direct with you,” Murphy said in a statement. “So here is my diagnosis. Last Saturday afternoon, I felt something was not right with my body and called 9-1-1 out of an abundance of caution, and I’m glad I did. I was diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.”

Murphy says he’s staying engaged with his colleagues and staff remotely to ensure the work of his office continues.

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Rubio will venture to France for first post-midterm global trip as questions about Trump policies swirl

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to embark on his first post-midterm foreign trip to attend a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in France next week.

He’ll likely face questions about the Trump administration’s policies, namely in Iran, after huge Republican losses in elections that gave Democrats control of Congress.

The State Department said Friday that Rubio would travel to Paris to meet his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Monday and Tuesday.

The G7 nations will confront a number of unresolved world crises, including the Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars. They must also cope with Trump’s often antagonistic approach to allies and concerns that the election results may harden his attitude.

Rubio is often seen as presenting a gentler side to Trump’s belligerence in foreign policy. He may get questions about speculation he might leave the administration to prepare for a 2028 presidential run, which he has adamantly denied.

Susie Wiles, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, is leaving the administration

President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, mere days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.

On his social media site, Trump praised Wiles and said she’d continue to work for his political organization.

Miller, long a key member of Trump’s inner circle, is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

Wiles, the steely political operator and longtime adviser to Trump, was the first woman to ever serve in that post.

Wiles’ departure comes almost immediately after the GOP’s midterm thrashing on Tuesday. She will be replaced by Stephen Miller, a longtime trusted aide to Trump.

The departure also came months after Wiles indicated she no longer showed evidence of breast cancer after she underwent months of treatment for the disease, a diagnosis she went public with in March 2026.

Wiles is the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Trump, who cycled through four of them during his first four-year term.

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Democrats win the Arizona House, Senate and governor’s office for the first time since 1966

Democrats in Arizona won control of both legislative chambers and retained the governor’s office, giving the party its first trifecta in the state since 1966 as Democrats made major gains nationwide in this week’s elections and took control of both chambers of Congress.

In her first term, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs had vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature on policies including taxes, immigration and voting laws. Hobbs has said she’s looking to address water issues and affordability, and take on fraud and abuse in the state’s school voucher program.

The Associated Press called enough legislative races to confirm that both chambers flipped on Friday. The news organization calls races individually and it can take several days after voting, depending on when election officials tally the votes and how close the elections are. There have not been major disputes or disruptions this year.

In Arizona, Republicans have held the House for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.

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Trump says he wants Gruters to stay on as head of RNC, despite losses

In a Truth Social post, Trump is praising “MAGA Warrior Joe Gruters” and says Gruters should continue to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“As Chairman, Joe turned the RNC into an efficient, focused, and powerful machine that will continue to empower the America First Agenda for many years to come,” Trump writes, endorsing him for a second term.

“Joe Gruters should return as Chairman of the RNC to continue to build our Party, and be a trusted partner as we MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and ensure Free and Fair Elections,” he says.

“Joe is 100% America First, the Grassroots LOVES him, and I know he will do an incredible job in 2028, and secure Great Success for Republicans all across our Country. Joe has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Beijing confirms it’s discussing a Xi-Trump-Putin summit

Beijing confirmed for the first time that it’s discussing a possible meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a regular briefing that China “is in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state.”

The three-leader meeting would be historic if it happens during a regional economic summit this month in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. But experts say the trio may not agree on what to discuss when their interests are at odds.

Trump has said he wants to discuss nuclear arms control, while Putin is interested in discussing the war with Ukraine without Kyiv at the table.

If it happens, the meeting is certain to upset Europe, while China hopes to score a diplomatic win by facilitating the summit.

Amazon releases trailer for the follow-up to Melania Trump’s documentary about herself

The minute-long trailer promoting the two-part series features Melania Trump in never-before-seen moments in her roles as wife, mother and first lady.

It will be available on Nov. 20. Amazon Prime Video also produced “Melania,” the documentary, which was in theaters in January.

The first lady said in a September interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that “Melania: The Series” is different from the documentary “because it’s more conversation, one on one with me.”

She said the docuseries will have some surprises, too.

“So when I was traveling and doing all of the filming, the director was asking me questions, and there are some private questions that I will answer that people never heard before. So it’s kind of exciting,” Melania Trump said.

Houston mayor signs order to limit cooperation with ICE, says ‘elections matter’ after Democrats win

The mayor of Houston on Friday said the city would limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, heralding “a new model” of immigration enforcement after Democrats swept statewide offices in Texas.

Mayor John Whitmire said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education.”

“Traffic incident will not even ... you write a citation or you warn them and they go about their way. No contact with (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) over nonviolent, non-jailable offenses. it reduces the fear and anxiety.”

Details of the change were to be spelled out in an executive order but the move by the nation’s fourth-largest city is one of the first steps to curb ICE’s powers since Tuesday’s election.

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DHS says it acted lawfully in talks with Iran on deportations

Court documents Thursday showed that the Trump administration held secret talks with Iran to deport Iranians during the war.

In its first comments since the revelation, the Department of Homeland Security justified the ongoing contacts in a statement Friday, saying that it’s common practice for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to work with countries to get travel documents.

It said it follows all “established protocols” to allow people to meet with consular officials from their country.

“As promised, the Trump Administration is employing all lawful options to execute the largest deportation operation in history,” the department said.

The judge in a lawsuit challenging the deportations questioned how the U.S. could send people back to a country where they could face a “serious threat of certain death.”

DHS did not respond to a question about the potential danger the deportees might face.

Protesters break into Microsoft data center site as Europe backlash spreads

Some of the protesters climbed a construction crane and set off flares while others clashed with police Friday at the Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam. More actions were planned in other countries after U.S. elections ushered in a wave of Democrats promising to clamp down on data centers.

“We don’t want it to be built. Nobody needs it,” Nathan Timmer of the Push Back group told local broadcaster AT5. “The only thing this will be used for is AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance, and committing genocides. We don’t want that.”

A Microsoft spokesperson said “we understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully. However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk.”

Sununu points finger at Trump for midterm losses

The New Hampshire Republican, who fell short in his comeback bid for the Senate on Tuesday, blamed Trump’s failure to deliver on his “drain the swamp” promise for the catastrophic results.

“Now it seems like he or his family is in on every transaction and deal that goes on in Washington,” Sununu told former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, according to a transcript released by Kasich’s SiriumXM show.

That, along with Trump’s handling of the Iran war, “caused people to say, ‘You know, I just can’t vote for a Republican while he’s still in office,’” Sununu said.

Colorado Republican Jeff Hurd wins reelection to the House

Republican incumbent Jeff Hurd defeated Democrat Dwayne Romero Friday in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

Hurd was first elected to the House in 2024, representing Colorado’s rural Western Slope. He was a lawyer before entering Congress. Democrats had targeted the Republican-leaning district as a potential pickup opportunity. Romero is a retired Army officer and former state economic development official. The Associated Press declared Hurd the winner at 11:24 a.m. EST.

New York Republican Anthony Constantino wins House election

Constantino defeated Democrat Blake Gendebien on Friday in New York’s 21st Congressional District,

Constantino took over his father’s printing business and later founded his own, Sticker Mule. He prominently advertises his support for Trump on one of the company’s buildings. He says he was recruited to run by Trump ally Roger Stone and touts a stint as a professional boxer. He’ll replace Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. The Associated Press declared Constantino the winner at 11:23 a.m. EST.

White House highlights website for Trump’s proposed arch after judge delays construction

The new website features a series of slick renderings showing the proposed 250-foot (76 meter) arch from multiple angles where Trump wants to build it between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

The White House highlighted the website the morning after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from breaking ground on the arch for 14 days.

The judge’s decision followed a vote to approve the arch by a federal planning commission stocked with the Republican president’s allies. Thursday’s 8-4 vote came after hours of public testimony in opposition to the arch.

A group of veterans joined the District of Columbia and Virginia as plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to block the arch.

The resolution passed 75-50, with five faculty senators abstaining and five others not voting, according to an email sent to Faculty Senate members on Friday afternoon.

The vote followed weeks of debate among professors over whether Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and other administrators handled the woman’s allegations properly and have done enough to curtail sexual misconduct at the prestigious university.

While the faculty body has no power over the university's top leaders, backers of the resolution had said they hoped it would pressure Cornell's trustees to address longstanding institutional failures they identified.

The board of trustees said Friday that the vote reflected deep anger on campus and sent a “clear signal that what happened to Jane Doe is unacceptable,” but added that Kotlikoff and his administration were the right leaders to “thoughtfully and comprehensively” address the issue.

“The Board fully supports President Kotlikoff and his administration as they continue to listen and act decisively in support of students,” board chair Anne Smalling said in a statement. She cited expanded sexual assault prevention education, additional victim advocates and more staff at the university’s Office of Civil Rights as evidence of the administration’s response.

Thomas Giuffra, Jane Doe's attorney, said in a statement Friday that “we are hopeful that this will be yet another step forward to educate and support the Cornell community by addressing the longstanding scourge of sexual assault on campus.”

Lawsuit sparked outrage on campus

The Cornell community has been distressed since mid-September, when a former student filed a lawsuit against the university and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity, saying she was given ketamine and raped at a fraternity house in October 2024.

All of the men have denied her allegations, saying the sex was consensual or that they weren’t involved. The local district attorney initially decided the woman had consented to the encounter and that no crime had been committed, but the investigation has since been reopened and handed to New York’s attorney general.

Cornell disciplined several of the accused students following a monthslong Title IX investigation. Two were expelled, two received suspensions and probation, and two were required to write “reflection” papers and complete bystander training. A seventh man had already graduated and was barred from campus, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

Kotlikoff also convened a task force to study the problem of sexual misconduct on campus, which released certain recommendations.

Some faculty members have criticized Kotlikoff for not acting more forcefully to strengthen the school's disciplinary process, push for criminal investigations and change campus party culture.

Paul Ortiz, a labor history professor who co-sponsored the no-confidence resolution, said last week that hundreds of students, staff, alumni and faculty approached the resolution’s sponsors to emphasize that “the Jane Doe case is but a tip of the iceberg” and that “a veritable fortress of silence has been breached” around sexual violence since the resolution’s introduction.

Cornell's president defended his leadership

Speaking to Faculty Senate members on the first day that they debated the no-confidence resolution, Kotlikoff pledged to make the university a leader in addressing sexual assault and asked for more time to make changes.

Kotlikoff defended his leadership, arguing that replacing him would do little to solve complex problems and could damage Cornell’s reputation. He acknowledged he had not read the campus police report, explaining that university policy barred top administrators from interfering in criminal investigations. He also rejected suggestions he had been indifferent to the woman’s case, though he acknowledged only recently learning she had left Cornell.

Kotlikoff said the university needed to determine whether fraternities could operate safely and left open the possibility of sweeping restrictions on Greek life. He argued that decisions should be based on research and evidence rather than emotion.

Some professors had said faculty should wait to vote until the release of an independent investigation by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, whom the university hired to examine both how Cornell responded to the woman's initial rape report in 2024 and its overall procedures for handling similar reports from other students.

The no-confidence resolution did not call for Kotlikoff's resignation.

Peña is accused of using his political influence to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds into Ueno Bank while regulators overlooked risky insider lending. The central bank’s seizure of Ueno this week sent shockwaves through Paraguay’s financial and political system and locked nearly 3 million customers out of their savings, prompting mass demonstrations.

Senators voted 39-3 to reject Peña’s request for another 72 hours to prepare his defense. He said he received the summons only hours before the session, along with some 300 pages of accusations and evidence, which left him no time to review the case. Presidents impeached in recent years in other countries, including the United States and Brazil, have had weeks to prepare.

The Senate wrapped up closing arguments late Friday afternoon and moved to a final session to deliberate and vote on whether to remove Peña from office.

His lawyers, Ricardo Preda and Adolfo Ferreiro, argued that senators should have accepted the resignation that the president submitted Thursday instead of pressing ahead with the trial. Opposition lawmakers insist Peña be removed through impeachment to be held accountable, a choice that could decide whether he retains immunity from prosecution.

“He must go, but not home. He must go to a maximum-security prison,” opposition Sen. Yolanda Paredes told reporters. “The public is fed up with impunity.”

Under Paraguay’s Constitution, elected presidents who resign receive a lifetime Senate seat that comes with parliamentary immunity. Prosecutors have already opened criminal investigations into the bank’s collapse targeting Peña, current and former central bank and pension fund officials and Vice President Pedro Alliana, who is next in line for the presidency.

Public outrage has become more thunderous by the day. Thousands of protesters demanding their frozen savings back and accountability for Ueno’s failure have clashed with police firing rubber bullets and pepper spray this week. Paraguay’s largest teachers’ union, which has more than 40,000 members, plans to begin an indefinite national strike Monday to press for protection of public pension funds.

“This was an enormous betrayal of trust,” said Yinal López, a worker at the state electricity company, whose employee pension fund also had money at Ueno. “The president made a mockery of the people. He used their money, the people’s money, to do whatever he wanted.”

A bank collapse becomes a political reckoning

Ueno’s implosion has plunged Paraguay into its deepest political crisis in more than a decade — and at dizzying speed. Regulators seized the bank before dawn Tuesday. By Thursday afternoon, Peña had offered to resign as his conservative Colorado party turned on him, led by former President Horacio Cartes, the party chief and Peña’s longtime mentor. By Friday, his interior minister, chief of staff, legal adviser and political adviser had all quit.

It was a staggering reversal of fortunes for Peña, a telegenic technocrat and former International Monetary Fund economist who owed his rapid political ascent to Cartes. The tobacco magnate, among Paraguay’s richest men, made Peña his finance minister and twice backed him for president over rival factions’ objections.

Once in office, though, Peña quietly amassed a rival power base, analysts say. Ueno Bank, flush with public deposits, became the centerpiece of both his business empire and his effort to win over provincial governors as he sought to escape Cartes' shadow.

“It's like a Shakespearean drama. He tried to displace his mentor, his political patron,” said Miguel Carter, director of DEMOS, a Paraguayan research center. “But he did so on very fragile grounds.”

Cartes struck back. In September, senators loyal to him demanded answers from the central bank about Ueno’s lending, citing leaked internal reports that warned its loans to related companies put its solvency at risk. When Ueno collapsed this week, so did Peña’s leverage, and Cartes, once sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury over alleged corruption, publicly called for the ouster of his erstwhile protégé.

“Cartes put the nail in the coffin,” said Andrew Nickson, a Paraguay expert at the University of Birmingham. “Peña had no political base to rely on, and he was left high and dry."

A bank built on public money

Ueno rose from obscurity to become Paraguay’s fifth-largest bank by deposits in just a few years, with more than $800 million in public money turbocharging its expansion. It signed up more than two-thirds of the country’s adults, its splashy logo appearing everywhere from the national soccer stadium to street vendors’ bank cards.

The impeachment charges cite Peña’s stake in Ueno’s holding company, which he divested under pressure last year, and his appointment of a former Ueno executive to run the central bank that regulated it. Lawmakers also accuse him of letting the state pension fund deposit $355 million at the bank, beyond legal limits.

Analysts say those high-level connections helped shield Ueno from regulatory scrutiny even as concerns about its finances grew.

“For the last 20 years, the central bank has been one of the two pillars that gave Paraguay international credibility in managing its economy," said José Tomás Sánchez, a political theory professor at the National University of Asunción. “And under Peña, it began to lose credibility, lose neutrality and then relax all its control mechanisms to favor the business group that had Ueno Bank as one of its pillars.”

Frozen accounts, rising anger

Overnight, Ueno customers could no longer withdraw cash, access their savings or use their cards to buy anything. The digital lender had aggressively courted the poor and unbanked with generous supermarket rebates, and more than 1 million Paraguayans opened their first bank account there, according to Ueno. Even players on the national soccer team, which Ueno sponsored through its run to a World Cup upset of Germany this year, say their accounts are frozen.

"The ripple effect on the general population has been immense," Nickson said. “That has fueled the ire of many people in Paraguay who are not particularly politically aware or very interested in politics."

Some depositors began recovering their money Thursday, starting with those holding up to 10 million guaraníes (about $1,600). Deposits are insured up to about $37,000, which the central bank says covers nearly all of Ueno’s customers. It calls the collapse an isolated case and insists the broader financial system is safe.

Prosecutors have charged 27 people, including Ueno’s controlling shareholder, Miguel Vázquez, with crimes including breach of trust and attempted fraud, and six bank directors are in pretrial detention. Authorities have seized nine luxury cars from Vázquez’s home, along with a yacht and small planes linked to him, and searched executives’ homes in a gated community outside the capital.

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DeBre reported from Salto, Uruguay, and Batschke from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Miller, long a key member of Trump’s inner circle, is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. He is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, joining his long-shot 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter. He most recently has served as White House deputy chief of staff for policy and oversees a broad portfolio, though he is best known for his role in Trump’s immigration policy.

The staff shuffle signals that Trump, whose Republican Party was handed monumental defeats in Tuesday's midterm elections, is resisting a conciliatory approach to Democratic lawmakers who are eager to investigate the administration — including Miller himself as a top target. Miller, 41, is a dogged defender of Trump and has built a deep and sophisticated understanding of a president's executive power and how the federal government operates, portending a potential burst of executive actions in the final two years of Trump's presidency.

Wiles gave Trump her resignation on Thursday night, a person familiar with the events told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation. Trump praised Wiles and said she’d continue to work for his political organization.

Wiles, the steely political operator and longtime adviser to Trump, was the first woman to ever serve in that post and the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Trump, who cycled through four of them during his first four-year term.

“Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime. I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America First,” Wiles said in a social media post shortly after Trump’s announcement.

The departure also came months after Wiles indicated she no longer showed evidence of breast cancer after she underwent months of treatment for the disease, a diagnosis she went public with in March 2026.

Miller is tied to immigration policies that voters said went too far

During the midterm campaign, Miller took frequent partisan swipes at Democrats, calling them “extremists, freaks and America-hating lunatics” on social media and promoting unfounded theories about election fraud in California and Alaska.

He has been a major part of the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force targeting benefit programs and a decision to suspend Microsoft and others from a green card program. He also served as homeland security adviser at the White House, giving him a perch from which to coordinate with other agencies across the government.

He joined Trump on Friday for his trip to Florida, and the president noted to reporters that "Stephen has been with me from the beginning.

"He gets it; very good politically," Trump said as he departed the White House. "He’ll do a great job. Great manager.”

But the immigration policies that Miller is so closely associated with were a major liability for Republicans during the just-wrapped election. The midterm AP Voter Poll found that most voters, about 6 in 10, said the administration’s immigration enforcement actions had gone too far and that they “somewhat” or “strongly” disapproved of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement had handled its responsibilities.

“Just days after the American people rejected his corrupt and lawless presidency, Donald Trump is doubling down,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is set to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee. “Stephen Miller is the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids that have terrorized our communities and kidnapped and killed American citizens and immigrant families.”

In a statement, Garcia added: “Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”

Wiles brought order to Trump’s campaign

Trump on Friday praised Wiles, the veteran Florida operative who joined Trump’s team during his 2016 presidential bid, as having done a “very good job, great job.”

But he added, “Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.”

Wiles, 69, is the second woman to lead Trump’s presidential campaign to victory, although she never embraced the formal title of campaign manager.

She has been credited with steering the most disciplined of his three presidential bids, and Trump himself has said he was often told that Wiles led his “best-run campaign.” Often called the “ice maiden” by the president, she was seen as the no-brainer choice to serve as White House chief of staff at the start of his second term.

Wiles stuck with the job even after her breast cancer diagnosis. Deep into the midterm campaign, six months after having revealed her diagnosis, she said she was “cancer-free,” indicating she no longer showed evidence of cancer after her pathology results came back clear.

In a rare interview, Wiles told Fox News Digital last month that she hadn’t been planning on getting the mammogram that ultimately detected her cancer. Her doctor suggested she do the exam anyway, because a mammogram machine was available that day and her schedule was too busy and unpredictable.

Wiles, the daughter of the late NFL player-turned-broadcaster Pat Summerall, cut her reputation as someone who brought discipline to the president’s chaotic style and shunned the spotlight, so much so that at Trump’s 2024 election night victory party, she repeatedly shook her head and avoided the microphone as Trump tried to coax her to speak to the crowd.

In addition to Trump, Wiles also ran incumbent Sen. Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign. She spearheaded Ron DeSantis ’ successful run for governor in 2018, but DeSantis would eventually urge the Trump campaign in 2020 to cut ties with Wiles, creating a rift that led to a particularly vicious effort by those in Trump’s orbit to mock DeSantis throughout his failed run for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump in 2024.

Wiles once said Trump had ‘an alcoholic’s personality'

But in December 2025, nearing the end of Trump’s first year back as president, Wiles became the headline when Vanity Fair magazine published a series of interviews with her and other top Trump administration officials conducted by the author Chris Whipple, an expert on White House chiefs of staff.

The Wiles interviews stuck out for their candor, which is unusual for a sitting White House chief of staff. She said Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” although the president does not drink, and said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi had “whiffed” in her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files while remarking that Vice President JD Vance has been a “conspiracy theorist for about a decade.”

Trump and other administration aides rushed to defend Wiles, who, in turn, disparaged Vanity Fair for publishing what she called a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” though she did not deny making the comments.

In the interviews, which were conducted over a period of several months, Wiles also revealed a bit of her management style, saying she was “not an enabler.”

“I try to be thoughtful about what I even engage in,” Wiles said. “I guess time will tell whether I’ve been effective.”

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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and trimmed its loss for the week to 2.7%, which was its worst since President Donald Trump shook markets in April 2025 with his “Liberation Day” tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 237 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1%.

The relative steadiness for Wall Street halted what had been a worldwide tumble for stocks. Indexes dropped 6% in Tokyo and in Seoul following the U.S. market’s plunge on Thursday. European indexes have fewer stocks tied to the artificial-intelligence industry, but Germany’s DAX nevertheless lost 1.9%.

Friday’s biggest lift for the S&P 500 came from Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the face of the boom and possible bust of the AI frenzy. Its stock climbed 2.8%, coming off drops of 9.3% and 3.2%.

It and other companies tied to the build-out of AI data centers tumbled this week on worries that Democratic victories in statehouses across the country could mean a slowdown in further construction, particularly in Texas. Voters across political parties say they’re wary about AI and don’t like increases to power bills caused by data centers.

That built on top of worries already rattling the industry that further construction of AI data centers may slow because of how expensive it’s become to borrow money. Before that, even, critics were saying AI stock prices had shot too high and were in a bubble.

But political power in Washington will still be split between a Democratic Congress and a White House run by the Republican Trump, who retains the power to veto. That could limit federal efforts to rein in the AI industry.

In the meantime, companies in the industry still see strong growth.

IREN, a company that delivers data centers, compute and software for AI training, reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock jumped 20%, and it also announced two new contracts signed since the end of the quarter.

Lam Research, a company whose equipment and services help make semiconductors, climbed 8.2% after announcing a program to send up to $25 billion to its investors by buying back shares of its own stock.

That helped other stocks that have benefited from the build-out of AI data centers recover some of their own sharp losses. CoreWeave, which rents out access to AI chips to customers over the cloud, rose 6.3%. Micron Technology, which sells memory for computers, climbed 5.1%.

Outside of AI, the U.S. stock market was mixed, and more stocks fell within the S&P 500 than rose.

Axon Enterprise tumbled 18.2% after the seller of Tasers reported weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also announced a $1.2 billion investment in Skydio, a drone technology company.

Charter Communications sank 6.2% after the internet and video provider reported a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts were expecting a profit.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 23.13 points to 7,376.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 237.33 to 51,285.73, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 264.43 to 24,579.42.

Despite all its vicious swings this week, the S&P 500 remains only 5.7% below its all-time high, which was set last month.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held firmer following sharp drops earlier in the week triggered by tumbling stock prices and hopes that split control of Washington could limit how much more the U.S. government adds to its debt.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.86% from 4.84% late Thursday. It had topped 5.30% last month when worries about inflation, higher interest rates and rising government debt were spiking.

Helping to support yields was a report released Friday morning showing U.S. employers hired many more workers last month than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the U.S. economy continues to chug along despite high inflation.

On one hand, the encouraging data could mean the U.S. economy may be able to absorb a slowdown in construction of AI data centers. But at the same time, the strong growth in jobs could push upward on inflation. Following the report, traders saw a greater probability of the Federal Reserve hiking its short-term interest rate at its next meeting in December, according to data from CME Group.

Rate hikes by the Fed can rein in inflation, but they do so by making borrowing money more expensive for everyone and slowing the overall economy.

A separate report, meanwhile, suggested that sentiment among U.S. consumers unexpectedly improved. The preliminary report from the University of Michigan said sentiment rose for lower- and middle-wealth Americans but fell for those with the largest stock portfolios.

Perhaps more importantly for the bond market, the survey also suggested expectations for inflation in the coming year eased for Americans. That could prevent a vicious cycle where expectations for high inflation drive behavior that only worsens inflation.

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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

Thomas Markle Sr. was in a wheelchair wearing handcuffs when he was transported by ambulance with federal agents, according to video posted by The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper.

Markle's arrest followed the seizure of "approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books” that contained suspected child sexual abuse images in storage in the Los Angeles area, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.

Some images appear to depict him with children, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.

“These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr. Markle to the fullest extent of federal law,” Essayli said.

Phone and email messages seeking comment from his court-appointed attorney were not immediately returned. After his arrest in Polk County, Markle appeared in federal court in Tampa and was released with the condition that he be electronically monitored.

Court hearings will eventually move to California “but likely won’t happen for several weeks at least,” the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said.

Materials found overseas led to US investigation

Markle's arrest followed reports by The Sun, another British tabloid, that Meghan’s half brother found a collection of child sexual abuse images while clearing out their father’s home in the Philippines. That discovery led to information about two U.S. storage units in the Los Angeles area, which Markle has rented since 2008.

Essayli told The Associated Press that there's no evidence of victims in the United States, based on the seized material, but the investigation was ongoing.

Markle was living in the Philippines earlier this year when he suffered a stroke and had his left leg amputated. That forced him to return to the U.S.

The Sun reported that Thomas Markle Jr. found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sex abuse images in boxes at his father’s home in Cebu City. Markle Jr. told The Sun that he reported the images to police in the Philippines and contacted the FBI.

“I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years — but that stops now,” Markle Jr. said. “I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.”

Meghan has distanced herself from her father

Meghan, an American citizen who starred in the U.S. television drama “Suits,” married Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018. They have two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

She recently said she was “deeply distressed” by allegations that a collection of child sexual abuse images had been found at her father’s former home. She also revealed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about him had been sent to police in London in 2019.

“It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” Meghan said of the letter. “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them.”

There was no immediate comment from Meghan’s representative on Friday, and Buckingham Palace is not expected to say anything about the arrest.

While Harry is the second son of King Charles III, he and Meghan are not working members of the royal family, meaning they don’t carry out public engagements on behalf of the king. They walked away from royal duties when they moved to California in 2020. After they returned to the U.K. in August, Charles issued a statement saying their status had not changed.

Thomas Markle Sr., a retired television lighting and photography director, has never established a relationship with Meghan’s in-laws. He didn’t attend the wedding after a scandal that emerged when he posed for pictures that were staged by a British tabloid newspaper. Their estrangement has continued ever since.

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This story has been corrected to show Meghan said the letter was sent to police in London in 2019, not 2018.

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Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C., and White reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists Danica Kirka in London; Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; and Safiyah Riddle in Los Angeles contributed.

Though no timeline was provided, a formal decision on the agreement will come following the review, the CFP said. The media rights deal would cover the nine-figure sums the major conferences would lose by eliminating their respective title games.

ESPN previously reported offering an additional annual payment of $345 million to the CFP to double the playoff field from 12 to 24 teams. The current six-year deal which begins this year is worth $7.8 billion.

The parties have been discussing a format in which the Power Four conference champs and the highest-ranked team from the Group of Six earn automatic bids, with the other 19 teams being chosen by a selection committee.

The first two rounds of the expanded playoff would be held on college campuses, with the top eight teams getting a first-round bye and hosting games the following week.

The major bowls would continue to host the quarterfinals and semifinals, with the championship game behind held in late January.

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The shift in the nation’s fourth-largest city is one of the first actions to restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in response to Democrats’ rout in Tuesday’s midterm elections. It is also a sign the results are already having an impact in Texas, where Republican leaders have enthusiastically embraced President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

The stunning victories included Democrat Gina Hinojosa ousting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, which will make her Texas’ first Latina governor and the first member of her party to hold the office in more than 30 years. Abbott, a Trump ally, has threatened Texas cities over attempts to curtail immigration enforcement.

“I’ve said many times, elections matter,” Mayor John Whitmire said.

ICE would only be contacted for jailable offenses

Whitmire, a Democrat, said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education.” In the case of a traffic incident, “you write a citation or you warn them and they go about their way,” he said.

Under the mayor's directive, Houston police should contact ICE only if the person it stops is arrested on a charge that is subject to jailing or if ICE issues an administrative warrant, meaning that the person is wanted by immigration officials.

Houston has been a recurring scene of protests to Trump's immigration crackdown in the wake of one ICE officer fatally shooting a Mexican homebuilder and another striking a man with a car. Last week, a grand jury in Houston indicted the ICE officer who was inside the vehicle on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

ICE has denied that the officer intentionally struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, whose leg was broken, and criticized Whitmire over making the policy change.

“We remain disappointed that sanctuary politicians seek to limit cooperation with ICE, as our law enforcement are simply fulfilling their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities," the agency said in a statement.

Texas has closely aligned with Trump on immigration

Despite a one-time $75 billion infusion from Congress, ICE remains heavily dependent on local police to find people subject to deportation and turn them over. It has done so partly by signing about 2,600 agreements — many in Texas — to deputize local police and other state and local agencies to enforce immigration laws. Texas has been a primary target for ICE arrests.

Abbott has closely aligned the state with the Trump administration to collaborate on enforcing federal immigration laws. In April, he had threatened to take away nearly $200 million in public safety grants from Austin, Dallas and Houston after city officials in Houston tried to limit police officers’ cooperation with ICE.

Though Trump’s promise to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country illegally was popular during his campaign, Americans now disapprove of his approach to immigration enforcement.

In Texas, more than half of voters in the state’s Senate race said the Trump administration’s actions on immigration enforcement had “gone too far,” according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 5,000 voters in Texas. About 2 in 10 voters said it had “not gone far enough,” and a similar share said it’s “been about right.” That was roughly in line with what voters said nationally.

Advocate calls the change a ‘sigh of relief’ for immigrant communities

The change was celebrated by immigrants' rights activists in Houston who have been critical of Whitmire. Collaboration between local police and federal agents has made people afraid of getting stopped for a traffic ticket or calling for help, said Cesar Espinosa, executive director at FIEL, an immigrant rights group in Houston.

“It means that the mom taking her kid to school is not going to have a panic attack every time she sees HPD,” Espinosa said.

Ruby Powers, a Houston immigration attorney, said trust won't be restored right away.

“It will probably take some time for the Houston immigrant community to truly feel a little bit safer than they did before this executive order took place,” Powers said.

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Wilder reported from Austin, Texas, and Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Jesse Bedayn in Austin and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

The State Department said Friday that Rubio would leave this weekend to attend a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in France. He will have plenty of opportunities to explain whether President Donald Trump will adjust his often-aggressive approach to both allies and foes in the aftermath of massive Republican losses in Tuesday's vote.

In a terse statement, the department said Rubio would use the meeting to “advance American interests in engagements with his G7 counterparts.” The top U.S. diplomat is seen by many as presenting a gentler side to Trump’s approach, but there has been speculation — that he and aides have vehemently denied — that he might choose to leave the administration early to prepare for a 2028 presidential run.

The G7 meetings on Monday and Tuesday follow a larger diplomatic gathering that Rubio hosted in Atlanta just last weekend for G20 foreign ministers — a meeting that produced little in the way of consensus on any of the major issues the world is confronting. The Atlanta meeting, which included Russia and China, ended without a joint communique and instead a chairman’s statement from Rubio.

The G7, which comprises the world’s biggest industrialized democracies rather than the 20 largest global economies, is made up entirely of U.S. allies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Yet the differences that prevented broad agreements in Atlanta will likely again confound top diplomats in Paris, especially on global security.

In Paris, the foreign ministers will again confront a number of unresolved world crises, including the Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars as well as deteriorating energy and food security. Already the French have signaled that this meeting also will not produce a joint communique.

The French hosts, who have invited Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to participate in some of the discussions, have numerous priorities, including Ukraine, Iran and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea. The French also are looking to address the broader Middle East — including Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria — Africa, the Indo-Pacific and China, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.

They also will convene a meeting on artificial intelligence and a separate session on support for Ukraine, according to the French foreign ministry.

Trump and his administration have rattled the nerves of its G7 partners on issues like support for Ukraine, NATO and defense spending as well as trade and tariffs, the Iran war and opposition to the International Criminal Court. All of the G7 members — except Japan, which has a separate treaty alliance with the U.S. — are in NATO.

To the consternation of Europe, Trump has scaled back U.S. military assistance to Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia and repeatedly suggested that America might not come to the defense of another NATO member under attack unless all allies step up their defense spending. He also has proposed reducing the U.S. military footprint in Europe, which has been a constant reassurance for the continent since World War II.

The American military presence also plays a role in the administration’s battle to dismantle the ICC, the world’s first war crimes tribunal to which all G7 members but the U.S. belong. The Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions on the ICC and a number of its employees, while next year it could add penalties on governments, companies and individuals that do business with the court.

The European Union is considering what's called a “blocking statute” that would protect EU institutions from U.S. secondary sanctions. It's a step the Trump administration has said would be hostile and have potential consequences for relations with the United States.

María Montserrat Alvarado, the Mexican-American former head of the Washington, D.C.-based EWTN Catholic broadcasting empire, took over as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications on Nov. 1, succeeding Paolo Ruffini.

Alvarado is the first woman to lead the office, one of the largest and costliest parts of the Holy See bureaucracy. Its size reflects the Vatican's mission to communicate the Catholic faith around the world.

But the office has long faced criticism from Vatican financial officials over its budget and staffing, and from journalists who complain that it is too slow to respond to requests for information and comment — if it responds at all.

Overall, Vatican communications is very much beholden to the generally secretive and defensive ethos that guides the Holy See, where the concept of the public’s right to know is unheard of and there is often a general distrust of secular media.

Already a new style on display

Alvarado offered a glimpse of her communications style at her inaugural press conference this week, joining Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni for the traditional briefing to journalists ahead of Leo’s three-nation tour of Latin America.

Bruni provided details on Leo’s schedule and fielded questions, particularly about his health. Alvarado made clear that she had access to Leo and could speak for him, including about how he felt about returning home to Peru and what he wanted people to understand about the trip.

“Certainly the homecoming piece is very important to him. He feels that very deeply. This is a place that gave him his ministry and inspired who he is as a pastor,” she said.

She relayed a message he had prepared for journalists and asked her to share, as if to assert a degree of proximity that Vatican spokespeople haven’t necessarily enjoyed since the era of St. John Paul II’s spokesperson Joaquín Navarro-Valls.

In the message, Leo said he hoped the media would help him show the world how the diversity of the Latin American church can be a force for healing and peace.

Alvarado spoke casually and even sparked a minor media kerfuffle when some Spanish-language outlets took too seriously her quip that Leo would, eventually, go to Mexico. It was something the Vatican foreign minister had said the previous week, but nevertheless caught some by surprise.

Gone were the careful and sometimes stiff institutional responses that usually characterize Vatican communications. In their place was a looser style of informality.

“He is so excited,” she said. “He knows these streets.”

Leo has wanted to reboot church communications

The American pope, who has long expressed appreciation for the work of journalists, told reporters Friday that Alvarado’s arrival would address some of the “challenging” concerns facing Vatican communications.

“And so now we have the wonderful experience, the creativity and the life and liveliness of Montse, who will be accompanying us on this trip and helping the Vatican and myself in the very important dimension of communication,” he said, using Alvarado's nickname.

Leo has said he wants to reform the way the Catholic Church in general, and the Holy See in particular, communicates to make it come from more of an "explicitly missionary perspective."

In an interview with EWTN before leaving, Alvarado said she believed Leo tapped her because “we are in a moment where digital communications and traditional communications are coming together.”

She said Leo “was looking for a next-generation professional, thatʼs clear, and God willing, I'll be able to fill those shoes.”

EWTN News, which Alvarado had led since 2023, describes itself as the world's largest Catholic media organization. Its operations include television, radio, online and publishing operations in seven languages. The EWTN family, which generally skews conservative, includes the Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register and ACI Group news agencies, among other branches.

Born in Mexico City, Alvarado moved to the United States as a young girl. She joined EWTN as a news anchor in 2021 after holding leadership positions in the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has waged church-state legal battles in the U.S. to protect religious freedom.

Alvarado is taking on a demanding job. The dicastery controls the Vatican press office, the television, radio, online, publishing, photographic and newspaper operations, all working in multiple languages. Vatican Media has modernized much of its content in recent years, but not all of it: the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano still publishes a print afternoon edition.

In the EWTN interview, Alvarado said her main priority would be to communicate the Catholic faith and what is in Leo’s heart, not her own vision.

“Communicating Christ to the world is the mandate of the communications dicastery, and it will be done in concert with the Holy Father,” she said. “In no way am I imposing a vision. Iʼm very much receiving one and executing it.”

With Uruguay’s President Yamandú Orsi on hand at Carrasco International Airport to welcome him and bells pealing at parishes and churches across the nation, the pontiff landed in Montevideo after a nearly 14-hour flight from Rome. It is the first papal visit in nearly four decades to Uruguay, Latin America’s most secular country; Pope John Paul II last visited in 1988.

Under cloudy, windy skies, throngs of people lined Leo's motorcade route along Montevideo's waterfront, with huge crowds cheering as his open-sided popemobile brought him into town for his first events.

“I am very happy, and I am certain that his visit will bring us much good fortune and many blessings,” said retiree Marie Hernández, a 75-year-old Catholic. “We are a secular country, and it is truly beautiful to see the unity among all religions, whether Catholic or otherwise.”

Leo's packed three-day itinerary in Uruguay includes a visit to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence, a Mass in Paysandú, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, and another Mass in the city of Florida, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Montevideo.

After Uruguay, Leo will travel to Argentina, the homeland of the late Pope Francis, who never visited during his 12-year papacy. His last stop is Peru, where Leo holds citizenship and spent two decades as a missionary and bishop.

The trip to Latin America marks the longest and farthest of his pontificate, all being undertaken as the 71-year-old pope continues his recovery.

“His stamina is fantastic. The way that he's singing is incredible. And you can only sing if your lungs are really strong,” said María Montserrat Alvarado, the Vatican's new communications chief. She noted that Leo has passed the 14-day convalescence period required by doctors after his Oct. 13 surgery and is eager to get on the road.

“His doctors are very confident and he'll have plenty of medical care on board should something happen, but we don't see that in his prognosis or even in the way that he's acting,” she said.

Secularism rules in Uruguay

In Uruguay, which hasn’t had a papal visit since 1988, Leo is expected to try to remind the 3.5 million people of their strong Catholic heritage stemming from the times of Spanish colonial rule. He's likely to propose the faith anew as an answer to today’s challenges and problems.

Leo will meet with Orsi, leader of the center-left alliance that assumed power in March 2025, and then deliver his welcome address to government officials and diplomats. He finishes the long day with a vespers service at the city's cathedral.

Latin America is home to around 40% of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, but Uruguay is considered the most secular country in the region. Only a fraction of people who identify as Catholic actually go to Mass regularly.

Uruguay’s secularism has roots in the weakness of its colonial church. With no gold or silver to mine, Spain valued the land of cattle ranches mainly as a buffer against Portuguese Brazil and left it largely unsettled. Montevideo was founded only in the 1720s, roughly two centuries after Mexico City and Lima.

With few priests and no local bishop, the church never became the powerful institution it was elsewhere in the empire. “Uruguay was colonized late, and that made Catholicism weaker,” said Gerardo Caetano, a Uruguayan historian.

The origins of the separation between church and state can be traced back to the 19th century, particularly to the spread of liberal ideas promoted by European intellectuals, who viewed religion as a symptom of backwardness or a lack of rationality, said Luis Bahamondes, a professor at the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Chile.

“While Latin America also experienced a separation of church and state, the Catholic Church has nonetheless maintained strong ties with the various states in the region,” he said. “In this context, Uruguay stands out as a paradigmatic example of how secularism can be implemented.”

This process went so far as to include the renaming of certain holidays to reflect their secular character — such as “Family Day” and “Tourism Week” — signaling that the “inherent weight of Catholicism had no place within the State’s official framework,” Bahamondes added.

Since then, Uruguay has become the first country in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the second country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion, and the third country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage.

More recently, it became the first country in the region to approve assisted dying legislation despite the strong opposition of the Catholic Church.

Montevideo awoke to its usual calm Friday. Along the waterfront, joggers were out for their morning runs and residents walked their dogs along the very same promenade that the pope is set to visit just a few hours later.

“We still don’t understand why he chose Uruguay, given that it’s a secular country, but we hope he leaves something positive behind,” said Mary Fernández while drinking mate, Uruguay’s beloved beverage.

Uruguayan church officials have marveled at the apparent enthusiasm that the visit has provoked, with reports that tickets to Leo’s prayer vigil at Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium were snapped up after two days.

“It seems that the pope’s presence is shifting something here and is gradually breaking down this veil that has always sought to obscure and diminish the presence of the Catholic tradition that lies at the country’s foundation,” said Guzmán Carriquiry, the Uruguayan former head of the Vatican’s pontifical commission for Latin America.

Recalling the Catholic origins of independence

Carriquiry said that he expects Leo will seek to revive the Catholic roots of Uruguay, especially when he travels to the city of Florida on Sunday to mark an important Catholic feast day.

The Nov. 8 feast commemorates the Virgin of the Thirty-three, a small wooden icon of the Virgin Mary that is intricately connected to Uruguay’s independence movement. According to tradition, 33 independence patriots acquired the Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in Florida on Aug. 25, 1825.

Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies and an expert in the Latin American church at Virginia Commonwealth University, said that he wasn’t surprised that Leo’s visit had generated enthusiasm and that he will be welcomed warmly.

“But that’s not necessarily going to translate into folks in the pews,” he said. “If the overarching goal is trying to revitalize Catholicism in the most Catholic region on Earth, Uruguay is kind of a lost cause, and it has been for decades.”

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

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This story has been corrected to show that the last name of the Vatican’s new communications chief is Alvarado, not Alvar.

Jack Campbell is recovering from a neck injury sustained during the second half of Sunday’s win over the previously unbeaten Vikings at Ford Field. He tackled tight end T.J. Hockenson and then remained on the turf for several minutes.

He was eventually taken off the field while strapped to a board on the medical cart. He was brought to the hospital for evaluation.

Previous coverage --> Jack Campbell injury update: Detroit Lions head coach says status improving every 8 to 10 hours

The Lions team has been providing daily updates on Jack Campbell’s recovery. The linebacker and his family even posted an update through the team’s social media page on Nov. 4.

During a media briefing on Friday, Nov. 6, Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell said Jack Campbell’s recovery continues to improve and that the team owes it to him to win the game against the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 8.

“Jack continues to improve, which is all great news,” Dan Campbell said. “How would he prepare? How would he play? Those are the standards for us going into this game. We owe it to him.”

On Tuesday night, she stood in Montgomery, Alabama, to celebrate a resounding political victory for Black voters and others who refused to accept the law’s recent diminishment by the U.S. Supreme Court and several state legislatures across the South.

“I think a new movement has started,” she said after U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures won another term in Congress despite Alabama Republican lawmakers reshaping his district with the intent of making his reelection more difficult.

Strong turnout among Black voters helped propel Figures, 41, over his Republican opponent in a new district that President Donald Trump won by double digits just two years ago. It was among several victories for Black Democrats across the South — including the governor's race in Georgia — along with near-misses in places like Florida where Republicans have been dominant.

Party leaders and activists framed the results as a repudiation of Trump and of the Supreme Court's decision this year that gutted the Voting Rights Act and allowed Republican-led states to redistrict in a way that weakened Black congressional representation.

The Republican president’s crackdown on diversity initiatives in his second term and his efforts to limit how the U.S. government tells the nation’s history on race and civil rights also motivated Black voters, said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

“We can smell racism. We can see it … we can feel it, and we know how to respond to it,” Brown said. “Our survival has been based on our ability to resist it and respond and navigate around it.”

Motivation among Black voters put GOP-leaning states in play

The surge helped Georgia's Keisha Lance Bottoms become the first Black woman in U.S. history elected as a governor. Black women also won races for Georgia attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner and school superintendent.

In North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Black Democrat, won reelection in a district Republicans had redrawn to be favorable to the GOP.

In Mississippi, where Black voters make up a larger share of the population than any other state, Scott Colom was locked in a razor-thin battle with Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that hasn’t sent a new Democratic senator to Washington since the era of Jim Crow segregation.

“Unlike all the people across the country that might be surprised, our campaign, our volunteers, the people of Mississippi are not surprised,” Colom said Wednesday.

Polling and the results from Election Day showed an uptick in Black turnout and support compared with recent election cycles.

In Georgia, about 9 in 10 Black men voted for Bottoms, according to The AP Voter Poll. By comparison, about three-quarters supported then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her 2024 presidential loss to Trump. In Clayton County in metro Atlanta, where about two-thirds of the population is Black, Bottoms received almost 86,000 votes — about 13,600 more than Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is also Black, received in her 2022 race for governor.

The changes among Black men this year were big enough to shift Black voters overall. About 9 in 10 Black voters supported the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race this year, up from about 8 in 10 who supported Harris in 2024.

Black women’s support stayed steadier because they were one of the few groups that didn’t shift meaningfully toward Trump in 2024.

Result should be a ‘wake-up call’ to Democratic leadership

After slavery was abolished, Black Americans entered Congress and other elective offices during Reconstruction, but disenfranchisement, violence and discriminatory laws helped severely erode that representation. Now, more than 160 years since Reconstruction and 61 years since the Voting Rights Act, they are serving in more statewide positions in which diverse voting blocs are their constituents.

This year, the Supreme Court's weakening of the Voting Rights Act led Congressional Black Caucus leaders to warn they could lose up to 19 seats, roughly a third of their total roster. But with votes still being tallied, their potential losses nationally appeared well short of that.

Harris, the first Black woman to hold nationwide office, said the results should be “a huge wake-up call” for the Democratic Party.

“I’ve long believed that we have failed to put the resources into Southern states” because of a “misdirected perception of who the people in those states are and what they want,” Harris told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Abrams, who twice lost races for Georgia governor, said the results — the wins and the losses — validate what she’s argued for nearly two decades about investing in organizations in Southern and Sun Belt states.

“You weren’t talking about massive margins,” she said of losses in Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee. “When we underinvest, especially states with significant populations of color, we throttle our own ability to expand the map.”

Some Black candidates fell just short of pulling an upset

The celebrations didn't extend everywhere.

Tennessee Republicans split a congressional district representing Memphis, a majority Black city, into three. Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson ran for one of them and conceded in a close race that the AP has not called.

“We knew from the beginning the race would be extremely close,” said Amber Sherman, lead Tennessee organizer for Black Voters Matter, which helped educate voters about the role of congressional representation in their area.

She said the higher voter turnout across the South in particular proved that Black voters believed the “redistricting was wrong, and it was racist.”

In Florida, Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon, a progressive who identifies as a democratic socialist, had been largely written off by national party leaders as a hopeless cause in a state where Republicans romped by nearly 20 percentage points four years ago. Nixon lost by fewer than 3 percentage points.

In Louisiana, Trump-endorsed three-term congresswoman Julia Letlow barely eked out a victory in the U.S. Senate race against her Democratic opponent, Jamie Davis, a Black farmer who launched his campaign with virtually no statewide political profile. In a state that Trump carried by a 22 percentage point margin in 2024, Letlow won Tuesday by fewer than 2 percentage points.

Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines said he sought national party financing. Davis raised more than $4 million from individual contributions, but his campaign says it received nothing from the Democratic National Committee or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“We were within striking range of victory, and additional funding would have guaranteed it,” Gaines told the AP.

In Alabama, Figures knew he was in for a challenge

Republicans reduced the voting-age Black population in Figures' district from 48% to 40%. But he did not flinch from running or dwell on the circumstances as he campaigned. Instead, he focused on voters' economic struggles and broader frustrations with Trump.

“People are just tired, man. They’re tired of the lack of decency. They’re tired of the lack of integrity. They’re tired of the lack of honesty,” he said.

Figures' victory was propelled by heavy turnout in Montgomery, a predominantly Black city and Democratic stronghold. Some polling places saw lines that stretched blocks for much of Election Day.

Bottoms, who did not face redistricting challenges running statewide, also focused on the economy and helping voters of all demographics. But she also embraced the significance of the moment, recalling that she traced her family lineage to an antebellum plantation in Crawfordville, the Georgia town that produced the vice president of the Confederacy.

“Tonight should remind us all that no matter what community we come from, Georgia is not defined by one moment in time or by one person,” she said. “It’s been defined by all of us, and I will be a governor for everyone in this state.”

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Barrow reported from Washington and Brumback from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Gary Fields and Linley Sanders in Washington and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

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In a story published Nov. 5, 2026, about Black voter turnout, The Associated Press misstated the relationship between Black Voters Matter in Tennessee and the campaign of state Rep. Justin Pearson. The group did not help organize for Pearson’s campaign, but did educate voters about the impacts of Republican redistricting in Memphis.

CEO Elon Musk announced the model’s demise Friday with a curt post on X, his social media site, simply noting production of the vehicle “will be winding down” around the middle of 2027 at its facility outside Austin, Texas. Musk said the move was to allow increased production of its Cybercab robotaxi.

For the Cybertruck, a pet project of Musk who insisted it was Tesla’s best product, it marks an unceremonious end to one of the auto industry’s most ballyhooed debuts.

“Few vehicles in history have generated as much attention,” said Armen Hareyan, whose Torque News site covers autos. “The Cybertruck became a cultural symbol – loved, mocked and impossible to ignore.”

The Cybertruck rolled onto the scene in a dramatic unveiling in 2019, when a Tesla designer hurled a metal ball at the vehicle to demonstrate its supposedly unbreakable glass, only to see it shatter. He repeated the stunt on another window of the truck only to shatter that one, too.

Even as some critics scoffed, Musk was steadfast.

“I just wanted to make a futuristic battle tank — something that looks like it could come out of ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Aliens’ or something like that but was also highly functional,” he told Automotive News. He called it “a better sports car than a Porsche 911” and “a better truck than an F-150.”

It struck some as the perfect vehicular reflection of the brash, convention-busting Musk.

“A really controversial vehicle unveiled by a controversial individual into a market where none of the electric trucks have been able to really capture demand,” said Spencer Penn, a former Tesla executive who left the company before the Cybertruck’s launch and now heads software developer LightSource.

Penn remembered watching the unveiling and feeling initially revolted by the sight of the Cybertruck, calling its appearance “madness.” But the more he looked at it, the more his opinion changed. He signed up for a pre-sale reservation, though ended up not getting a Cybertruck when Musk’s promises of a price tag under $40,000 went unmet and the first trucks sold for double or more. Penn called the Cybertruck part of Tesla’s adventurous spirit that drives innovation.

“Some of these bets work and some of these bets don’t,” he said.

While the decision to end Cybertruck production may be driven by sales realities, it's also a reflection of Tesla’s shift to autonomous vehicles, on which Musk is betting the company’s future.

Musk once forecast he’d make 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. Kelley Blue Book estimated Tesla sold just 20,237 of the vehicles last year, down about half from the year prior. Sales through the end of September this year were down another 28%, according to Kelley Blue Book.

If the imposing, sharp-angled, dystopian appearance of the Cybertruck weren’t enough to turn many potential buyers away, Musk did so himself by allying with a panoply of right-wing figures, most notably U.S. President Donald Trump. He alienated some customers as his image morphed from eccentric innovator to polarizing force trading his billions for political influence.

Once-passionate Tesla drivers rushed to sell off their cars, or slapped stickers on the bumper declaring, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” Organizers staged demonstrations outside Tesla showrooms and urged investors to dump shares of the company’s stock. Anger spilled into violence, with Molotov cocktails hurled at Tesla vehicles, charging stations set ablaze, and dealerships covered in graffiti.

Lovers of the Cybertruck became targets, too, subjected to shouts of “Nazi!” and extended middle fingers.

Ross Blankenship is one of them. When he first laid eyes on the Cybertruck, he felt transported to a world from his childhood, when he would play “Halo,” the sci-fi video game. He had to have it.

“I had that sort of child in me wanting to be part of something cool that would change the future of automotive,” Blankenship said in a call from his Cybertruck as he drove through Sunnyside, Colorado. Even as Blankenship found he agreed with Musk on politics, he hated seeing a vehicle he loved turned into a political symbol. “I never bought it for any other reason than the fascination with the future technology of trucks … so that was a little heartbreaking.”

He would buy another Cybertruck again in a heartbeat, calling its end “a sad moment.”

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

Demarcus Vines of Roseville was arraigned in 38th District Court on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, on one count of fleeing in the 3rd degree, one count of resisting or obstructing an officer and two counts of assaulting an officer with a motor vehicle.

Previous coverage --> Man wanted in alleged Macomb County stabbing arrested after police chase

According to Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation started in Roseville when Vines was allegedly wandering through a parking lot with a knife, chasing after someone.

The prosecutor says, Roseville Police were called to the scene of the parking lot and went after Vines.

Vines then fled from Roseville into Eastpointe, where officers saw the suspect on westbound 9 Mile Road from I-94.

As a result of fleeing from Eastpointe police, Vines crashed his car into one of the patrol cars and another vehicle.

He then ran away before being arrested by Warren Police.

A judge set Vines bond at $750,000 with a referral for a mental health evaluation. He will also be on a cuff tether.

Vines is due back in court on Nov. 17, with his preliminary examination scheduled for Nov. 24, 2026.

His family announced his death Friday in an Instagram post, citing health reasons but not specifying the cause.

“His memory will remain forever among us,” the family said. “He was a beautiful person who contributed to Chilean culture in great moments of its history.”

Lelio won the 2018 Academy Award for best international film (formerly known as foreign language film) for “A Fantastic Woman," starring trans actress Daniela Vega as a waitress and nightclub singer whose life is torn by the death of her boyfriend.

It was Chile's second Academy Award, following the animated short “Bear Story” in 2016.

Lelio’s other films include "Gloria," "The Wave," "The Wonder," “Disobedience,” and “The Year of the Tiger.” Throughout his career, he collaborated with Julianne Moore, Rachel Weisz and Florence Pugh.

Lelio had begun filming “Poeta Chileno” (Chilean Poet) based on the book by Alejandro Zambra in September.

He was born in the Argentine city of Mendoza and moved to Chile at the age of 2. He studied journalism for a year before enrolling at the Chilean Film School.

No suspicious items have been found and no one has been injured, but the threats have raised concern because they came on the heels of other European disruptions — including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions.

Overall, the threats have caused minimal disruption to aviation, according to the European air traffic authority. Eurocontrol said it was aware of bomb threats against 14 flights on Thursday — only 0.05% of all of the nearly 26,300 flights across the European network that day — and seven on Tuesday. The European Union's transportation commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, said there were 11 more on Friday.

Even so, airlines have to take every threat seriously because they are ultimately responsible for the lives of their passengers, said Robert Jordan, research director at Britain's Royal United Services Institute think tank.

Jordan told the BBC that there are more ways than ever to make threats against flights, and secure messaging apps have allowed for greater anonymity.

“The risk appetite for airlines is always going to be incredibly low,” he said, noting the great strides that have been made in airport security in recent years. “It is baked into their safety procedures, and it’s baked into their security procedures.”

Tzitzikostas said after a meeting with Eurocontrol and the EU’s Aviation Safety Agency in Brussels that security experts will meet in the Belgian capital next week to discuss measures needed to deal with the bomb threats.

“Our priority here is clear. The safety of passengers and the smooth functioning of European aviation,” he said.

Fighter jets are scrambled

In Hungary, the defense minister said fighter jets escorted three passenger planes Friday through the country’s airspace within an hour after each received a bomb threat. Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said the escorts were for flights from Brussels to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and from Prague to Cyprus and Romania.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office said four bomb threats were made against aircraft flying over France. The planes landed safely at Paris’ Orly Airport and bomb disposal experts conducted inspections. The office didn’t specify which flights were affected.

Threats were also made against a Prague-to-Bucharest, Romania, flight operated by Romanian carrier Tarom, and a Ryanair flight from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, to Rome. A WizzAir flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice after a bomb alert, and passengers were evacuated after the aircraft landed.

Eurocontrol said Friday it was monitoring the situation and working closely with airlines, airports, navigation service providers and other groups across Europe “to mitigate any disruption to air traffic flows.”

Nine of the affected flights were coming or going from Václav Havel Airport in Prague, airport spokesperson Denisa Hejtmánková said. They included flights from Denmark, Spain and Britain, and departures to the Netherlands and Britain, in addition to the ones to Cyprus, Italy and Romania. Czech police said security measures were taken that had “a minimal impact on the normal operations at the airport.”

Diverting and inspecting flights is costly, though.

“I think it’s a big problem for aviation that this is happening," Torstein Nymoen, a 52-year-old Norwegian traveler, said at the Prague airport. "It must cost a lot for the companies, the aviation companies. And I think that it’s sad that some people are doing this.”

In Denmark, police deployed to Copenhagen airport for a second consecutive day as a precautionary measure over threats directed at air traffic, and deemed there was no danger to passengers or others at the airport.

No clear evidence on who is behind the threats

More than two dozen flights were affected by threats earlier in the week, with some diverted as authorities scrambled to rule out any danger.

Fake bomb threats are relatively common but it is unusual to see so many in such a short period.

It remains unclear who is behind the airline threats, which come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and warnings from authorities that Russia may be ramping up so-called hybrid threats in Europe.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Friday that the recent cyberattacks and bomb threats are cause for concern.

“Today we are not in a position to say whether these events are all connected,” she said on the sidelines of an event in Verona. “But they certainly tell us the same thing: that civilian infrastructure is under attack.”

Authorities haven't attributed the threats to any group or state actor, and no evidence has emerged linking the hoaxes to a government. An email containing the threat sent Thursday to airport authorities in Rome and reviewed by The Associated Press purported to come from a group describing itself as anti-feminist and claiming it was targeting a “feminist regime.” Another European airport received a threat with similar wording, but it was unclear if it came from the same sender.

Bomb threats are on pilots’ minds and create unnecessary tension, but crews are prepared to respond professionally, said Paul Reuter, vice president of the European Cockpit Association. Pilots review procedures with cabin crews, identify airports where they could divert and may carry extra fuel, he said.

Reuter called the use of civil aviation for geopolitical disruption or hoaxes “totally unacceptable.”

Broadcasters also received threats

In Ireland, the Dublin headquarters of national broadcaster RTE was evacuated Friday because of a bomb threat, and live broadcasts were replaced with prerecorded programs. Staff returned to the building after a few hours, once police with sniffer dogs had searched the area and declared it safe.

Ireland’s police force, An Garda Síochána, said it has been liaising with Irish media organizations and that the threat will be investigated.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the threats to RTE and others “just illustrates how relatively simple it can be to cause disruption and to undermine the normal operation of society through unconventional activities of this kind, which are designed to cause fear and anxiety.”

He said there would be a “very significant security operation” in place next week when Dublin hosts meetings of the European Political Community and European Union leaders.

Separately, U.K.-based broadcaster Sky said it had also received a “security threat.” In a statement reported by Sky News channel, it said that “we are working closely with authorities to ensure our people and operations remain secure.” Sky News remained on air.

Meanwhile, NOVA TV, a private broadcaster in Bulgaria, said it received an email Friday threatening it with a bomb. It said the sender claimed to be behind the threats to European air traffic, and that the broadcaster implemented its standard safety measures without any interruptions to its TV and radio broadcasts.

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Moulson reported from Berlin. These Associated Press reporters also contributed: Jill Lawless in London; Suman Naishadham in Madrid; Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England; Jamey Keaton in Geneva; Giada Zampano in Rome; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; and Mark Carlson in Brussels.

Federal prosecutors say Matthew Farwell killed Sandra Birchmore, 23, and tried to stage her death as a suicide on Feb. 1, 2021, after learning she was pregnant with what he thought was his child. At the time, Farwell was a married detective with the Stoughton Police Department, where Birchmore had participated in a youth program as a child.

“You know on Feb. 1 Matthew Farwell didn’t go to Sandra Birchmore’s apartment for a clean break,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Fogarty told the jury. “He went to clean up the mess he created for himself years earlier, a mess that could bring serious charges and destroy his life. He cleaned up the mess by taking Sandra's life.”

Lawyers for Farwell, who is now 40, acknowledge he had an extramarital relationship with Birchmore. But they say he didn't kill her and didn't have sex with her until she was old enough to consent under Massachusetts law. They also argued that Birchmore had threatened suicide before and took her own life after Farwell left her apartment the night of her death.

Massachusetts State Police officers and investigators, some with personal connections to Farwell, quickly concluded Birchmore’s death was a suicide after she was found slumped on her apartment floor with a strap around her neck.

“When all is lost and all hope is gone and you're alone in the world, are you going to pick your phone up or did she sit down and take that strap and make the pain stop?” Farwell’s attorney, Kimberly Stevens, told the jury in closings.

The nearly monthlong trial — with about 50 witnesses and 500 exhibits — has unfolded in federal court in Boston, partly because local prosecutors never brought criminal charges.

The defense contends there is no evidence that Birchmore was going to tell law enforcement about his alleged crimes.

One of the investigators, Fogarty said, saw nothing suspicious in Birchmore's apartment and concluded this was a “troubled girl who killed herself.”

The state’s medical examiner, relying partly on information from police, initially ruled that Birchmore died by suicide. The office has since changed the official manner of death to “undetermined.”

But Birchmore's friends and family never believed the teacher's aide had killed herself.

She had told dozens of friends about her pregnancy and, according to prosecutors, was thrilled to start her next chapter as a single mom. A stroller, still in the box, was found in her apartment along with an ultrasound photo pinned to her refrigerator.

The FBI began looking into Birchmore’s death in 2023, partly at the urging of a former deputy chief at the Stoughton Police Department who had led an internal affairs investigation into Farwell and several other officers accused of misconduct.

Federal investigators concluded the local probe was rushed and compromised. Farwell was interviewed for just 15 minutes in a parking lot, they said. Investigators didn’t take notes, examine him for injuries or sample his DNA. Police did look at Farwell’s phone, but only after he had deleted texts with Birchmore.

Farwell’s twin brother, Billy Farwell, testified that the lead investigator — a longtime family friend — told him he wanted the case closed and needed the investigation like he needed a “bullet in the head.”

The FBI investigation uncovered about 40,000 texts between Farwell and Birchmore, including some in which they reminisced about having sex when he was 27 and she was 15.

The text exchanges also showed how their relationship grew contentious as Birchmore pressed Farwell to get her pregnant and threatened to tell his wife about their relationship. Texts in late 2020, after she was pregnant, showed they argued over what role, if any, Farwell would play in the child's life.

A paternity test later revealed a different man had gotten Birchmore pregnant.

At trial, a digital forensics expert testified that Birchmore’s phone stopped moving three minutes before the lobby security camera recorded Farwell leaving her building on the night of her death.

An expert hired by prosecutors, Dr. William Smock, testified that Birchmore’s injuries indicated she was strangled with a duffel bag strap and that she struggled before dying.

A defense expert, Dr. Thomas Andrew, the former chief medical examiner in New Hampshire, dismissed Smock's determination that it was a homicide.

Murphy, 53, said in a statement that doctors are “very encouraged by the progress I've made so far" and that the stay at the rehabilitation center will get him back to work on the quickest timeline possible.

Murphy said doctors diagnosed him with a small hemorrhagic stroke, which is a bleed in the brain. He said he called 911 on Oct. 31 out of an abundance of caution after feeling that “something was not right” with his body.

“This has been a scary experience for me and my family, and I appreciate the continued respect for our privacy,” he said.

The press release updating Murphy's condition included a statement from Dr. Jose Suarez, chief of neurosciences critical care at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Suarez said the senator has shown tremendous progress and “we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation.”

In the Senate, Murphy serves on the Appropriations Committee and is a leading voice on immigration and gun policy. He is considered a contender for more senior leadership positions in the Senate and among the many Democrats seen as potential 2028 candidates for the White House.

Murphy said that he has been staying engaged with his team and colleagues remotely and that his staff continues to ensure the work of his office continues uninterrupted.

“I want to extend my deepest thanks to the excellent doctors and staff at Johns Hopkins who have treated me and cared for my family,” Murphy said.

Murphy had been traveling the country in support of House and Senate candidates as his party raced for majority control, which it secured in Tuesday’s midterm elections. A day before the stroke, he posted that he had been campaigning in his home state for Gov. Ned Lamont. The week before, he posted from Minnesota campaigning with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee for the Senate.

Lamont won reelection on Tuesday, and Flanagan won her race, becoming the first Native American female U.S. senator.

The final sprint before Election Day capped Murphy’s whirlwind trip to the Middle East at the start of October for meetings with several leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In early September, Murphy completed his annual “walk across Connecticut,” covering about 70 miles (113 kilometers) over four days, talking with residents about their concerns along the way.

Three other Senate Democrats have had strokes in recent years.

Sens. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland had strokes in 2022 and have since recovered. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman had a stroke while campaigning for his seat that year and now uses adaptive technology in the Senate, including live captioning on a phone or tablet that transcribes words as people speak to him and helps him process the conversation.

Fetterman said on social media the day after Murphy's stroke that his family was “rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery.”

Meanwhile, deadly airstrikes at a popular market in a city in neighboring Yemen killed at least 30 people Friday, the health ministry run by the country's Houthi rebels said.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Read our full coverage here.

Trump discusses de-escalation efforts with Qatar's emir

The telephone call between Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani centered on international efforts to end tensions, according to a statement from the Qatari ruler's media office. The two discussed in particular Qatar’s mediation efforts aimed at reaching “a comprehensive agreement that ends the crisis and achieves security and stability in the region.”

Qatar has been mediating between the United States and Iran to end the war. Qatar and other U.S.-allied Gulf Arab countries came under heavy fire by Iran earlier in the U.S.-Iran war and have been anxious to avoid a new escalation that could leave them vulnerable to attacks.

During the call, Sheik Tamim “stressed the importance of continuing dialogue and adopting diplomatic means to resolve disputes, sparing the region further escalation, and ensuring freedom of maritime navigation and the security of energy supplies,” according to the statement.

Iran's foreign minister continues telephone diplomacy with regional counterparts

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held separate phone calls with his Iraqi and Tunisian counterparts on Friday to outline diplomatic progress aimed at easing tensions in the region.

Araghchi outlined in his call with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein the Islamic Republic’s vision to resume negotiations with the U.S., according to Iraq’s News Agency.

Araghchi said Iran’s vision, which he said was presented to the U.S. before the midterm elections, includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, setting a timetable for the start of negotiations, and adding issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, Iraq's state media said.

Earlier this week, he talked with Turkey and Gulf leaders about regional developments and securing freedom of maritime navigation.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed the need to prioritize diplomatic solutions during a call Thursday with Araghchi.

Abdelatty urged all sides to display flexibility and compromise to reach a political solution and avoid further escalation, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nader Zaki said.

One of the deadliest strikes in Yemen since fighting resumed

Airstrikes hit a popular market in southwestern Yemen on Friday, killing at least 30 people, according to an official with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

If confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest attacks since fighting resumed between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed military and the Houthi rebels traded accusations over responsibility for the deadly airstrike on the market. The Associated Press could not independently verify their claims.

Another eight people were wounded in the airstrikes on the market in al-Waziyah in the province of Taiz, a Houthi health ministry spokesperson, Anees Alsabahi, said on X.

Taiz is mostly controlled by the Houthis, who have besieged the provincial capital, where the Saudi-allied government and its forces are based.

Italians detained in the West Bank

Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it was seeking the release of several Italians detained by Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank while assisting Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.

The ministry said the group may include four Italian activists and two Italian journalists, though officials were still verifying the number and identities of those involved.

Italy’s embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem have asked Israeli authorities for their immediate release and for consular access. The detainees are being held at a police station in the Israeli settlement of Modi’in Illit and are expected to be transferred to a holding facility at Ben Gurion Airport pending deportation on the first available flights.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Rockefeller died Thursday night at his home in Washington, said Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA, the public broadcasting station where Rockefeller’s wife, Sharon, serves as president and CEO.

Rockefeller came from one of the nation’s richest families to spend a half century in public service in one of the poorest states. He arrived in 1964 as a worker in an anti-poverty program, was elected governor a dozen years later and served two terms, then spent 30 years as a U.S. senator.

“I could not imagine a more rewarding career,” Rockefeller said upon his retirement in 2015.

He was born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City. His great-grandfather, Standard Oil Co. founder John Rockefeller, died a month before Rockefeller’s birth. His father, John D. Rockefeller III, was a well-known philanthropist. Uncles Winthrop (Arkansas) and Nelson (New York) were Republican governors. Another uncle, David Rockefeller, ran Chase Manhattan Bank.

A detour from his family's path

Jay Rockefeller went in a different direction.

A few years out of college at age 27, Rockefeller moved to the West Virginia mining community of Emmons to participate in the Volunteers in Service to America program, a time that Rockefeller said proved transformative.

“It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast. It was where my beliefs were bolted down, and where my passions met my principles,” he said in an emotional farewell speech from the Senate floor on Dec. 4, 2014.

While he intended for his stay in the state to be brief, Rockefeller broke from his family’s Republican tradition and was elected to the state House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966. By combining money with hard work in a traditionally Democratic state, Rockefeller overcame suspicions of political opportunism and rose from state legislator to secretary of state to governor.

A turning point came after Rockefeller’s only political defeat in the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., whose daughter, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, was elected in 2014 to Rockefeller’s Senate seat upon his retirement. Capito on Friday called Rockefeller “a true gentleman" who treated her with respect, kindness and encouragement.

“Over the years, we developed a wonderful friendship that transcended politics, and I will always be grateful for that,” she said in a statement.

After the defeat, Rockefeller remained in West Virginia, a decision he called the most important of his career. He became the first without a theological degree to become president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973. His popularity there — and a change in his stance to embrace strip mining — translated to a landslide win over Republican Cecil Underwood in the 1976 governor’s race.

As governor, Rockefeller emphasized development of the state’s infrastructure, such as roads, sewers and bridges. Those issues, he said, are “not very sexy things, I grant you but very, very necessary in West Virginia.”

Current Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Rockefeller helped shape the state and left a lasting mark on the lives of generations of West Virginians.

“From his early work in some of our state’s most disadvantaged communities to his efforts to strengthen healthcare, protect coal miners and their families, and support our veterans, Senator Rockefeller demonstrated a deep commitment to the people of West Virginia,” Morrisey said in a statement.

Onward to Washington

After Rockefeller defeated Arch Moore in a rematch in 1980, he won a U.S. Senate seat in 1984 after the retirement of longtime Democrat Jennings Randolph. It came despite a landslide victory that year for Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon, daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, fit easily into the capital’s social scene, purchasing a multimillion-dollar estate for their family. Never shy or apologetic about using his inherited $150 million fortune to win his races, he spent millions upon millions from his own pocket. He won by comfortable margins in each of his five terms.

Rockefeller’s vast wealth was always a source of conversation and an undercurrent in his political races. He spent at least $21 million of his own money in his political campaigns, including $9 million to win a close 1984 Senate race against Republican novice and fellow multimillionaire John Raese. In Rockefeller’s 1980 gubernatorial race against Republican Arch Moore Jr., bumper stickers appeared saying: “Make Him Spend It All, Arch.”

The state’s junior senator for 25 years, Rockefeller carved his own path of influence in Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s immense shadow. Byrd died in 2010 as the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, winning an enduring reputation for steering billions of dollars over many decades to boost his impoverished state.

Rockefeller’s influence was less showy. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, he championed consumers’ rights, upgrading broadband infrastructure and sponsoring a bill to block companies from tracking online activity of their customers. He authored legislation in 1997 that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which assists poor families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid.

He also was head of committees on Veterans' Affairs and Intelligence, frequently sparring with President George W. Bush over foreign policy. Rockefeller said he regretted his 2002 vote to authorize the war against Iraq.

But Rockefeller also differed with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama over mining-related regulations. With his state the nation’s second-biggest coal producer, Rockefeller was among several West Virginia officials who opposed the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the mountaintop removal method of surface mining.

College studies in Tokyo laid the groundwork for Rockefeller’s efforts to bring business from Japan to West Virginia. He had known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s and was instrumental in helping the Japanese automaker pick a Buffalo, West Virginia, cornfield for an engine parts plant in 1996. The $2 billion plant now employs about 2,200 workers.

___ An earlier version of this report had an incorrect spelling of West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s last name.

___

Associated Press writer Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez sentenced Brown to three years of probation, during which time he will have to attend weekly counseling sessions and not possess a firearm, among other conditions.

Wearing a black leather jacket and white pants, he spoke sparingly and in a low voice during the brief proceedings in Miami state court. As he entered his guilty plea, the judge asked him to speak up.

Outside the courtroom, Brown thanked God and said he wanted to “get back to life” and his family.

He declined to answer other questions, but his lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said they were “extremely grateful” the case was behind them.

“My client was facing 30 years in prison with a 20-year minimum mandatory, and he was given an offer he just couldn’t refuse,” he said. “Probation was too good to turn down, and we’re both very excited about the outcome.”

The plea to the reduced charge allows the All-Pro wide receiver to avoid prison time and a criminal conviction.

Brown had initially been charged with attempted murder after police say he grabbed a handgun from a security staffer at the event and fired two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier.

Brown, 38, maintained he was defending himself from an attack as others were trying to steal jewelry from him.

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.

Prosecutor Howard Rosen said in court Friday that his office was seeking to reduce the charge against Brown because there was “a question” of whether he was actually attempting to shoot the victim, who had been walking away from the altercation at the time.

He noted the victim, who was grazed in the neck, was in court for the hearing and has said publicly that he wouldn't cooperate with police and didn't want to press charges.

“Rather than the entire case going away and there being no opportunity for Mr. Brown to receive what's ultimately going to be some therapeutic treatment, we all came together — the defense and the state — and decided that this was in the best interest of everybody,” Rosen said.

The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, has said previously that he’s since forgiven Brown.

“We are grateful to the Court for ratifying this carefully crafted agreement,” Richard Cooper, his lawyer, said in a statement. “We have maintained that we wish Mr. Brown healing and a path closer to God.”

Brown spent 12 years in the NFL, most of it with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 under quarterback Tom Brady.

The following season, though, Brown effectively ended his career when he inexplicably took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field during a game. The Buccaneers released him after the incident.

Brown has dealt with other legal problems in recent years.

He previously was accused of battery on a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.

Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June of the same year.

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Marcelo reported from New York.

Sanders will get the start with Deshaun Watson in concussion protocol. Watson was on the field for Friday's practice, but did not do any team reps. There is a chance Watson could be cleared on Saturday after being listed as questionable on the injury report.

Coach Todd Monken said that Watson not being able to do any team reps during the three days of practice made it any easy decision to go with Sanders.

“I liked his confidence and the way he operated. He looked very comfortable in terms of getting our guys in and out of the huddle and I thought he threw the ball extremely well,” Monken said about Sanders.

Sanders was in for four plays last week against Pittsburgh after Watson took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Steelers safety Jaquan Brisker. The second-year quarterback and son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders completed both of his passes for 2 yards.

Watson went back into the game after being cleared by the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant. The 10-year veteran began experiencing concussion symptoms Monday night when he was placed in the concussion protocol.

Sanders started the final seven games of his rookie season last year, going 3-4 with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He showed steady improvement throughout the offseason, but was unable to beat out Watson for the starting spot.

“It was valuable, just tapping back into that memory bank, having those reps and everything," Sanders said. "That’s why I’m thankful for this whole offseason and everything and just being out there with the guys each and every day, being able to still get some throws in with them. So I don’t think we lost a step."

Sunday’s game will be a matchup of quarterbacks from the 2025 NFL draft class. The Saints bypassed Sanders and took Tyler Shough with the 40th overall pick. The Browns ended up trading up in the fifth round to select Sanders.

Sanders will face a Saints defense that is 28th in the league in total defense and 23rd against the pass.

“The offense is going to remain mostly the same but some elements with the quarterback run game that might be different," New Orleans defensive coordinator Brandon Staley said. "Shedeur has done the same thing. You're seeing a player that has experience.”

Cleveland (5-3) is looking to avoid consecutive losses for the first time this season while New Orleans (2-5) is coming off its bye week.

Browns defensive tackle Maliek Collins, second on the team with 3 1/2 sacks, will miss Sunday's game due to an elbow injury.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

“Live in the D” took the show on the road to discover all that Zehnder’s has to offer — from the fresh bakery smells to the famous chicken dinners.

“We started serving our world-famous family-style chicken dinners on Mother’s Day of 1929, so we’re closing in on 100 years,” explained Zehnder’s president Nick Shelton, who represents the fourth generation of family leadership.

Zehnder’s has continued to grow over the years with new additions, such as Splash Village, where kids can enjoy water park adventures and The Mill at Zehnder Park, a luxury boutique hotel.

Watch the videos below or click here to get a taste of all that Zehnder’s has to offer.

Meeting with journalists en route to Latin America, Leo declined to comment on the outcome of the vote and pointed to a statement that the Vatican issued last week in confirming he had submitted a mail-in ballot in his hometown of Chicago.

In the Oct. 30 statement, the Vatican said that Leo had voted “whenever he was eligible to do so” as evidence of his belief in civic participation. The statement also said that Leo believes “in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”

It noted that the pope, who also has Peruvian citizenship, had exercised his right to vote while he lived in Peru. Leo said Friday that he hadn’t been able to vote in Peru’s recent election since absentee ballots “aren’t possible.”

“But I would have done it. It’s a good thing,” he said. To another reporter, who asked him about the significance of his Chicago absentee ballot, Leo pointed to the Vatican statement but said: “I’m proud to be an American and to exercise the right.”

Leo’s vote sparked some debate, given Leo is head of a foreign country — the Holy See — and assumed a new persona — Pope Leo XIV, the 266th successor to St. Peter — after his election as pope on May 8, 2025.

U.S. federal law allows American citizens, even those who work for foreign governments, to retain their citizenship. But as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, he is Leo, not Robert Prevost, the name on his voter registration.

The pope, however, likes to shape-shift a bit when it suits him on particularly delicate matters. He did so last weekend, in hosting basketball players from his alma mater Villanova University and rival Notre Dame. Leo joked that “the pope” doesn’t take sides, but that “Prevost” was a Villanovan.

Leo's first trip after surgery

Leo made the comments en route to Montevideo, Uruguay, the first stop of a three-nation, 12-day tour that is coming just three weeks after the 71-year-old pope underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his right lung.

“I’m very happy to be here myself,” Leo told reporters when he came to the back of the plane to greet them. Asked if he felt as good as he looked, he quipped: “Maybe better.”

Leo acknowledged that some people had doubted he would be able to make the trip, which will also take him to Argentina and Peru, after he revealed to the world on Oct. 11 that he had a nodule on his lung and then underwent the surgery two days later.

“I confess that from the first day, I had no doubt and was convinced that this trip had to go forward,” he said.

“Praise the Lord and thanks to wonderful medical assistance, I’m here today, I think, in fairly good shape.” He acknowledged though that he hadn’t had a chance to play tennis.

“Not yet, but I will,” he said.

Doctors confirmed that Leo had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. They removed the lower lobe of his right lung and, after further tests, said that he required no further treatment and could make the trip.

The nodule was detected during a routine exam, sometime between Leo’s Sept. 25-28 trip to France and the Oct. 11 announcement.

“Early detection is obviously the best way to go, and so regular checkups are a blessing,” Leo said.

He credited his rebound to “Trusting God, good doctors, good surgeons, and overall I think a healthy lifestyle.”

Leo said that his takeaway from his diagnosis was that he feels a sense of commitment “of wanting to continue to be close to those who are sick,” but to also highlight the need for healthcare to be a right for all people, a message he's expected to emphasize during his trip.

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

While the tests results have been what he called “reassuring” in coming back positive, the cause of the medical condition remains unknown, Henderson said in a lengthy post on his Instagram account.

“I will continue working closely with my specialists and physical therapists to focus on my recovery, as these symptoms have affected my strength, coordination and some of my physical functions,” Henderson wrote. “I am committed to doing everything necessary to return to full health. My health and long-term well-being remain my foremost priorities.”

The 24-year-old Henderson has not practiced since Oct. 29, when he was listed as having an illness, and was ruled out of playing in 24-19 win over Miami on Sunday. The second-year NFL player has been limited to 203 yards rushing and a touchdown, with 45 yards receiving, in six games this season.

That’s a considerable drop off for a player who combined for 1,131 yards from scrimmage (911 rushing) and 10 TDs in his rookie season last year.

With no timeline on Henderson's recovery, coach Mike Vrabel said he's focused on providing whatever emotional and informational support to the player and his wife Mackenzie.

“I know he is well-loved and respected on our football team. My support shows up in a lot of different ways,” Vrabel said Friday. “To support him the best way I know is to care for him, listen to him and do whatever we can to get him healthy and get him back and help this football team, and do what he does best.”

Aside from ruling him out from playing against Green Bay on Sunday, Vrabel added it would be premature and unfair to the player to discuss any plans of placing Henderson on a long-term injured list.

Led by Rhamondre Stevenson, the Patriots are carrying three running backs on their roster rounded out by Corey Kiner and Lan Larison.

Vrabel also ruled out receiver A.J. Brown, who has not practiced this week because of ankle and knee injuries. Tight end Hunter Henry (foot) and cornerback Marcus Jones (foot) will be listed as questionable to play, Vrabel said.

Henderson thanked his wife, medical team and the Patriots for their support.

He closed his message by writing: “We respectfully ask for continued prayers and privacy as we focus on my health and recovery. Love Trey.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Allan Filgueiras, a pilot who helped teach his daughter to fly, was searching for answers as to why the plane plunged from the sky on Sunday. Instead, he found immense pride in how his daughter, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, handled the crisis.

“I did listen to that many times trying to find a clue. In my head. How’d that happen? And wow, she’s tough,” Allan Filgueiras said at a news conference Friday.

“I wanted to be by her side,” he said, at times holding back tears. “Inside the plane. To help.”

In her conversation with air traffic control, Nathalia Filgueiras can first be heard calmly reporting ice buildup on the plane as it flew into a thunderstorm and turbulence tossed it up and down by 700 feet (200 meters). The situation quickly escalated as the aircraft fell at breathtaking speed. “Declare an emergency 722-Bravo-Delta. We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute!” she said.

Her father and aviation safety experts are impressed that Filgueiras continued to call out updates on what was happening even as she realized the plane's fate was sealed.

“For the family — it’s like having the heart torn from my chest,” her father said in Spanish. “I have to find a way to go on living.”

The family wants to push back against online criticism over whether she had enough experience to be in the cockpit of a high-performance business jet. She had more than 1,300 hours of experience and completed extensive training to earn her commercial pilot’s license and get certified for a Learjet. The plane’s captain, 55-year-old Jeff Gregory, is believed to have been at the controls in the aircraft's final minutes.

So, on Friday, her father held a news conference that his lawyer said was intended to “preserve not just her memory, but her reputation.”

“She was at the top of her class in everything that she did, and she was perfectly qualified to be the co-pilot on this flight, despite her tender years,” attorney Stuart Grossman said, noting there were no immediate plans to file a lawsuit over the crash.

It's far too early in the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation to know what caused the crash. As it fell, the Learjet accelerated beyond its design limits and pieces of the plane’s tail were found miles away from the crash site.

Allan Filgueiras said he first took his daughter flying at age 12 and later started teaching her to fly. After she got a job as a pilot, she told her dad she couldn’t believe she was getting paid to do something she loved.

“It was her happiest moment, to fly,” he said.

Retired airline pilot John Cox, who is now the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said earlier this week that his career began similarly to Filgueiras, as he started flying professionally at age 19. He said she was doing quite well to earn that co-pilot's seat.

“To be in the right seat of a Lear 60, she had to impress somebody, because that’s a good ride. I mean, that’s great. I know she loved it,” Cox said.

Her father believes she handled the crisis better than most.

“She showed me what it is to be a hero because once you see that coming, a lot of the big boys — military or whatever — they can’t handle. And she was the one over there to the last minute fighting,” Allan Filgueiras said.

The crash victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson; his wife, Helen Sharp; and their two young children, relatives said. The family’s nanny, Ana María Ramírez Cetina, was also killed.

A tougher regulatory environment for AI giants and data center developers is expected to follow, even if President Donald Trump — perhaps the industry’s biggest champion — stalls any federal crackdown.

Data center regulation itself was not on most midterm ballots, and it wasn't among the top issues for most voters. But hard-line stances against the server warehouses were woven into the platforms of many candidates, including the Democrats who upended longtime Republican control of the governorships in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa, many of which are data center hot spots.

Skepticism of data centers, and their impact on electricity prices, often blended with the fight for affordability — a key campaign talking point for Democrats.

In Texas, Clayton Tucker, the first Democrat elected state agriculture commissioner since 1986, said his pledge to fight data center development was critical to his victory. Everywhere he went, he said, ranchers worried that data centers posed an existential threat to their dwindling water supplies.

“You know, there’s an old saying around here that ‘whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,’” Tucker told The Associated Press. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

Data centers were a persistent bogeyman in attack ads

According to data from AdImpact, campaigns large and small spent more than $380 million on television ads mentioning data centers. Democrats outspent Republicans on the topic by a more than 3-to-1 ratio.

Sweeping wins by Democrats could have far-reaching implications for data centers. Besides taking control of Congress, Democrats flipped at least five governors’ offices and took full control of state governments in six more states: Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan.

Data Center Watch, a project of AI security consultancy 10a Labs, said it tracked winning candidates for Congress and governorships and found the vast majority had expressed support for stronger regulation or even a moratorium.

Among governors, 32 of the 34 victorious candidates in races where AP called a winner support stronger regulation or restrictions. Twelve of the 34 support bans or moratoriums, it said.

During the campaign, Wisconsin Gov.-elect David Crowley, a Democrat, changed his position under pressure from his Republican opponent to take a harder line against data centers. Initially opposed to any moratorium, Crowley later said he supported one as well as abolishing the state’s sales tax exemption for data center operators and developers.

In an interview Thursday with AP, Crowley said he’s having discussions now about what he'll propose once he takes office.

In the mix are things like requiring developers to disclose more about their water and energy consumption, ensuring a community supports a project before it can go forward and insulating ratepayers and taxpayers from the energy costs of the projects, Crowley said.

The industry sees a need to build trust

AI giant OpenAI published a framework Thursday enumerating new commitments to the communities where it develops data centers. The company said it was asking federal, state and local policymakers to write “clear rules for how the industry builds.”

“Lawmakers should establish rules to advance responsible investment, protect residents, and ensure that the benefits of AI infrastructure are broadly shared,” the post said.

An industry association, the Data Center Coalition, echoed the sentiment that developers need to keep trying to build trust with public officials and communities. A coalition official, Dan Diorio, said the industry is aware many midterm winners have vowed to impose a moratorium.

“We should expect them to want to deliver on those promises, but there are going to be real-world consequences of that,” Diorio said in an interview.

Those consequences, Diorio said, could include host communities missing out on tax revenue or payments from tech companies. Data centers are also driving a broader economic expansion that encourages investment in domestic manufacturing, he said.

Wall Street sees red lights ahead after the election

The election of data center skeptics adds challenges to stock markets riding high on the AI boom.

On Thursday, the Nasdaq, which is full of AI-related and other tech stocks, sank 11% below its all-time high amid worries that data center construction may slow because it’s getting costlier to borrow money.

AI data center construction is driving much of the U.S. economy’s growth, and any slowdown could have a broader chilling effect.

In an analyst report, Morgan Stanley said decisive results for Democrats carry "greater expectations for data center restrictions" that, under new state regulations, could “split the country into areas that are open to new data centers and those without.”

It singled out Texas' election of Democrat Gina Hinojosa for governor as the “most important election result" for data center development. Hinojosa has said she’d block a permit for a data center if it wasn’t a good deal for Texans or residents hadn’t gotten a say in the matter. She defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had touted Texas as "the epicenter of AI development” before trying to clamp down on it late in the campaign.

Morgan Stanley also said Ohio's election of Democrat Dr. Amy Acton as governor “creates significant risk of data center project delays in the state.” Acton has pledged to block a data center project unless it meets certain standards.

Local elections didn’t go well for data centers, either

Voters in local referendums cast ballots overwhelmingly in favor of restricting data centers, according to an analysis by polling and data science firm Redbud Consulting.

Redbud tracked 47 referendums in 44 municipalities in 12 states, including 21 in Ohio alone, eight in Maine, seven in Illinois and four in Kansas. Restrictions were approved in 44 of the 45 elections where counting was complete, Redbud reported.

Most voters don't want a data center built near them

About three-quarters of U.S. voters oppose the construction of a new data center in their community, according to The AP Voter Poll.

In red and blue states alike, majorities of voters were opposed to adding a data center where they live.

Support was higher in some traditionally red states, including Wyoming, West Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi. In Texas, voters in the Senate race were similarly likely to say they oppose a new data center being built in their community.

Despite voters’ deep opposition to data centers near them, The AP Voter Poll suggests it was not a particularly motivating issue in this election.

About one-quarter of U.S. voters said AI data centers were “crucial” to their vote for Congress, which is well below the shares that said government corruption or the cost of living were highly important to their vote.

The stakes were especially high in Texas

Texas is poised to overtake northern Virginia as the largest global data center market by 2030, according to a report by commercial real estate giant JLL.

In the campaign, Hinojosa aggressively attacked Abbott as having rolled out the welcome mat for data centers.

Stephen Sanders, a Republican who co-founded a data center protest group in Lubbock, said Texans were especially attuned to the issue because of talk that data centers pose a threat to their electricity and water in the drought-stricken state.

“I would say data centers were on the ballot,” Sanders said.

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Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Kaitlyn Huamani in Los Angeles and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Marc Levy at http://x.com/timelywriter

Coach Sean McVay announced Garrett's likely availability, barring a late setback, on Friday before practice. The Rams (4-4) acquired the two-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year in a trade over the summer, but he has played in just one game for his new team.

“I’m just grateful that he’s back and that he’s feeling really good,” McVay said.

Garrett hasn't played since the Rams' season opener, when he made no tackles in their blowout loss to the 49ers in Australia. Afterward, Garrett revealed he wasn't fully fit due to a knee injury that limited him throughout training camp.

Garrett underwent surgery when the Rams returned from Melbourne, and he was sidelined until he returned to practice this week. McVay acknowledged that the Rams will examine whether Garrett should have had his surgery earlier in the year, but the Rams aren't looking back.

“You always want to reflect back on what we would do differently,” McVay said.

Garrett finally will get to play with Aaron Donald against the Commanders. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year was tempted out of his 2 1/2-year retirement by the Rams' acquisition of Garrett, but Donald didn't make the trip to Australia while ramping up his fitness.

The Rams' pass rush hasn't been great in Garrett's absence. Although Los Angeles is pressuring quarterbacks at a reasonable clip, the team is tied for 26th in the league with just 12 sacks, leading to frustration.

“We keep attacking, but we're not finishing off all the plays,” said edge rusher Byron Young, who leads the Rams with 4 1/2 sacks. “I think we've been getting good pressure, but not getting the quarterback down and finishing games ... Having MG back will help that for sure.”

Tight end Terrance Ferguson also is expected to return to the Rams' lineup against Washington. He has been out since September with an ankle sprain.

While Garrett likely returns to the defense's front line, the Rams' secondary is hurting. Jaylen Watson is out for the season with a shoulder injury, and fellow starting cornerback Trent McDuffie missed the entire week of practice with a back injury.

McDuffie is questionable for Sunday, as is safety Kam Curl, who has a foot injury.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

According to the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Drive Map, the crash occurred some time before 6:35 a.m. on SB I-75 at Front Street (Exit 13).

The freeway has since reopened.

Officials say the facility will be closed next year so they can complete extensive repairs — which are expected to cost around $1 million to get the aquatic center operational by 2028.

A review of the water loss by both Department of Public Works and Recreation staff and outside leak-detection specialists in summer 2026 revealed the source to be “multiple failures throughout the facility’s aging underground systems,” rather than one or two isolated leaks.

The city projects it would cost approximately $15 million to “significantly extend the infrastructure’s use,” requiring city officials to evaluate possible long-term solutions for keeping the community space operational well into the future.

“TFAC has been a gathering place for Troy families for generations, and we do not take these decisions lightly,” said City Manager Frank Nastasi, in a news release. “Because repairs can only be done in the summer, the pool will be closed for the 2027 season. We will keep evaluating its long-term future, and we hope community partnerships can be part of the solution.”

City officials say the city has invested more than $1.6 million in capital improvements at the aquatic center since 2020, including more than $487,000 in Fiscal Year 2026 to resurface the pool with marcite, helping to prevent leaks .

The indoor leisure pool at the Troy Community Center will remain open during the repairs, according to the city.

Nathan Timmer of the protest group Geef Tegengas, a phrase that translates as Push Back, told local broadcaster AT5 that protesters were occupying the site in an effort to stop construction.

Campaigners against data centers in Europe are expected to stage protests and other actions in several countries on Friday and Saturday, demanding a moratorium on large-scale developments to address social and environmental concerns around the energy-hungry behemoths.

“We don’t want it to be built. Nobody needs it,” Timmer said. “The only thing this will be used for is AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocides. We don’t want that,” he added, vowing to continue protesting until construction is halted.

Pro-Palestinian activists also joined the demonstrations in the Dutch capital. By late afternoon police were escorting activists off the construction site, though some still remained, local media reported.

Dutch police said Friday evening that they detained 150-200 people suspected of trespassing during the protest.

Microsoft said it was aware of the Amsterdam demonstration. “We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully," a spokesperson said. “However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk.”

The demonstrations come days after the U.S. midterm elections ushered in a wave of Democrats promising to clamp down on data centers, which face resistance around the world due to the massive amounts of computing power and water they use.

Dozens of civil society and grassroots groups have said they will join the “Stop Dirty Data Centres” events on Friday and Saturday in 15 European countries, including Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and the U.K., organizers said.

“There’s a gulf between where elected leaders are at in terms of buying into the hype about AI and where people are at,” said Owen Espley, coordinator of StopDirtyDataCentres.eu.

In Germany, a dozen protesters gathered in front of a data center on the outskirts of Berlin on Friday.

“We want to put a stop to this blind construction of data centers around Germany, regardless of any environmental concerns,” said the protest spokeswoman Caro Weber. “This is really, really dangerous for our future.”

Around 100 people also protested against data centers in front of the Polish parliament on Friday, representing communities around Warsaw where new centers are planned.

In Italy, the fast-growing data center industry faces an equally rapid rise in grassroots opposition, particularly in the northern Lombardy region, the country’s main hub for digital infrastructure.

Activists argue that the boom in facilities serving cloud computing and artificial intelligence is moving faster than public consultation and environmental oversight.

The movement reached a milestone on Oct. 10, when more than 1,000 people and representatives of around 40 local committees gathered in Milan’s Piazza della Scala for what organizers described as Italy’s first national demonstration against data centers.

Protesters called for a moratorium on new projects and demanded a national strategy governing the industry’s growth. The demonstration followed a series of increasingly large mobilizations in towns around Milan.

Europe is projected to attract $5.6 trillion in cumulative data center capital expenditure from 2026 through 2050, accounting for around 18% of global investment, according to PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook 2026–50.

The U.S. is forecast to attract $15.1 trillion in capital spending on data centers during that period, the report said.

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Naishadham reported from Madrid. Associated Press journalists Giada Zampano in Rome, Pietro De Cristofaro in Berlin and Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw contributed to this report.

The site's debut is yet another sign of how much Trump is leaning into his efforts to make over the White House and Washington to his own gilded tastes, even after his party lost control of Congress in a midterm-election drubbing. It was the fourth day this week alone that the administration promoted his projects.

The website declares that the 250-foot (76-meter) structure — which is slated to rise in a mass of blindingly gold ornamentation and stately gray granite between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery — will be formally known as the United States Military Triumphal Arch.

Describing the arch as “an American vision finally realized,” the site offers bird's-eye views of the proposal from many angles and shows off the declarations it will feature: “One Nation Under God” on one side and “Golden Age of America” on another. It's also set to have towering gold doors complete with panels of sculptures at its base.

At its very top, the structure features a golden-hued cherub hoisting a flaming torch that recalls a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty.

The website does not say how much the project will cost or how it will be paid for, although some estimates have reached as high as $100 million.

The White House highlighted the website the morning after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits work on the site for 14 days. That order followed a vote to approve the arch by a federal planning commission that is stocked with Trump’s allies.

With Democrats taking control of Congress in January, Trump’s renovation projects will encounter far more scrutiny and roadblocks — from his effort to put his own name on the Kennedy Center to remaking a public golf course and building his massive White House ballroom and the arch.

The arch will feature an event space — and ‘provisions for a sniper nest’

The president on Monday focused his final remarks before the midterm elections talking up his costly and problem-plagued effort to overhaul the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool. The day after the losses, on Wednesday, he took reporters on a tour of the ballroom's construction site. And his first official action after his party lost control of Congress was to declare, on Thursday, that the Oval Office would become a national monument.

The arch website features the word “Triumph” in gold cursive script recalling the typeface used at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and similar flourishes that have been affixed to the White House as part of his overhaul of the Oval Office and West Wing.

The arch plans feature an event space in the horizontal part of the structure reached by elevators and stairs.

But inside its “massive columns will be storage for munitions,” the site states, as well as areas on the pedestal and observation deck that will be “set aside for snipers, countersnipers, and provisions for a sniper nest.”

An open ground area at the monument's base “will be designed for launching drones and other homeland security assets,” the site says, while also noting that the arch “will be Highly Secretive but, at the same time, a Top Level and Lethal structure, the likes of which has not been seen in this Country before.”

“It is long overdue, and has been sought for many years, especially by the Military,” it says.

Trump has said for months that the monument would be inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and that Washington has wanted a similar structure for centuries — even though that's not true. He previously joked that it might be called the “Arc de Trump.”

The website repeats Trump's inaccurate claims. It also features a picture of the president and quotes him as saying, “This will be the greatest and most beautiful triumphal arch, anywhere in the world.”

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that no charges will be filed against the Washtenaw County deputies who killed John Jenuwine, 34, after a police chase in Ypsilanti on Jan. 6.
• Deputies said they believed Jenuwine had a gun; after a 14-minute chase, three deputies fired about 34 shots into his van over seven seconds.
• Investigators found no guns in the van, though they reported debris that may have looked like a weapon. Jenuwine had seven gunshot wounds and high levels of cocaine in his system.
• Nessel said the deputies’ belief that they faced an imminent threat was reasonable under the circumstances, and Michigan law permits self-defense even when that belief later proves mistaken.

WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich. - No charges will be issued against the Washtenaw County deputies who shot a man over 30 times in January because they believed he was “armed with a shotgun,” the Michigan Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday.

John Jenuwine, 34, of China Township, was killed by Washtenaw County deputies in a shooting after a police chase in Ypsilanti on Jan. 6.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Nov. 5 that no charges will be issued against the deputies involved in the shooting, saying they lawfully acted in self-defense.

Previous coverage --> Driver shot, killed by Washtenaw County deputies in Ypsilanti had no gun, sheriff says

What happened?

Around 2 a.m. on Jan. 6, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies tried to pull over a white construction van after receiving multiple 911 reports of it being driven erratically and speeding in Ypsilanti.

Dispatch told officers over the radio that the multiple calls referred to “likely the same van” and reported that there was a gun in the van.

When police activated their lights behind the van, the driver, later identified as John Jenuwine, allegedly sped away and initiated a police chase.

The police chase lasted about 14 minutes. During the chase, Jenuwine allegedly put the van in reverse several times in an attempt to ram it into deputies’ cars, then drove on the wrong side of the road at times.

• Washtenaw County sheriff releases dashcam video after fatal police chase in Ypsilanti

At around 2:06 a.m., a deputy ended the chase using a PIT maneuver on the van, causing it to partially roll onto its side and stop.

When deputies approached the van, one suddenly announced, “he’s got a gun, he’s got a gun, he’s got a gun, gun, gun.” Another deputy also repeated the call of “gun.” Three deputies then fired their weapons into the van, firing about 34 times over seven seconds.

The deputy who first reported there was a gun then declared over the radio that the driver was “armed with a shotgun.”

Deputies saw movement inside the van and treated the situation as a barricaded gunman, leading to additional law enforcement to respond. Officers tried to contact Jenuwine, but later found him dead inside the van at around 4 a.m.

Michigan State Police responded to investigate the shooting. They found no guns inside the van, but said that the van had “significant debris, some of which was long and black, likely dislodged and scattered when the van rolled onto its side.”

The Washtenaw Medical Examiner’s Office determined that two of the seven gunshot wounds on Jenuwine would have caused his death within seconds to minutes and also noted that he had high levels of cocaine in his body.

Why were no charges issued in the shooting?

According to the attorney general’s office, the law states that a person may act in self-defense, “even if it turned out later that [he/she] was wrong about how much danger [he/she] was in.”

Nessel said the officers were wrong about the presence of a gun in the van, but it’s not unreasonable “based on the totality of the circumstances as they knew them.”

The Michigan Self Defense Act states that a person, including a police officer, may use deadly force against another, “without any duty to retreat, provided they were not engaged in the commission of a crime and they honestly and reasonably believe that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the imminent death of or imminent great bodily harm to himself or herself or to another.”

The attorney general’s office said the law allows for situations in which the officers wrongfully thought there was a gun and perceived the situation as a danger to their lives.

The full report can be viewed here.

Family suing Washtenaw County, deputies

Todd Flood, of Flood Law, is representing Jenuwine’s family and filed a civil lawsuit on their behalf against Washtenaw County and the eight deputies and sergeants in federal court on allegations of excessive force and failure to provide medical aid.

“They shot John, and then they did nothing while he begged for his life,” said Todd F. Flood, the family’s lawyer. “The Attorney General’s own memo admits they could have gone to him sooner. The law says police may shoot only to stop a real threat, may use only the force that is necessary, and must get help to the person they shoot. These deputies did none of those things.”

Flood Law said the attorney general’s decision has no effect on the civil lawsuit.

“John screamed for help, and the people sworn to protect him stood there and listened,” Flood said. “His family will not let Michigan look away.”

Jason Reding Quiñones' resignation follows frustrations among Washington officials with his management of the office assigned to lead the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The Justice Department’s top national security official, John Eisenberg, also resigned on Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche said. On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led a radical overhaul of the department's Civil Rights Division, also announced her departure.

Quiñones was confirmed by the Senate last year as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where the Justice Department had centered its meandering probe into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.

His departure comes as the investigation has shown signs of faltering amid a spate of staff turnovers and delays. Investigators in recent weeks have put off scheduled grand jury testimony of several witnesses, according to multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Blanche said in a social media post that the department is grateful for Quiñones' "leadership in combating violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and transnational crime, including the indictment of Raúl Castro."

Castro, the former Cuban president, was indicted by Quiñones' office in May on charges related to the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles.

Quiñones said Friday that he is leaving with “immense pride in what we accomplished together and profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve our great Nation.”

“I am grateful to President Trump for his trust and to the extraordinary men and women of the great Southern District of Florida for their dedication, friendship, and unwavering commitment to justice and the rule of law,” Quiñones wrote in a social media post.

The “grand conspiracy" investigation has proceeded in fits and starts for over a year with repeated setbacks and departures. Last April, a lead national security prosecutor in the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan was replaced on the team after raising questions about the strength of the case.

Shortly afterward, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, took over the probe. DiGenova resigned from the Justice Department in September without bringing any criminal charges.

Eisenberg was sworn in as assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s National Security Division in June 2025 and oversaw cases involving espionage, terrorism, export control violations, cyber crimes and other matters.

Among the division’s most high-profile cases under his watch was the prosecution of former national security adviser John Bolton, who pleaded guilty this year to allegations of mishandling classified information and is awaiting sentencing.

“He has served with distinction, strengthening our nation’s ability to address threats, both foreign and domestic,” Blanche said in a statement.

In her first term, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs had vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature on policies including taxes, immigration and voting laws. Hobbs has said she's looking to address water issues and affordability, and take on fraud and abuse in the state's school voucher program.

The Associated Press called enough legislative races to confirm that both chambers flipped on Friday. The news organization calls races individually and it can take several days after voting, depending on when election officials tally the votes and how close the elections are. There have not been major disputes or disruptions this year.

In Arizona, Republicans have held the House for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.

Overall, Democrats took full control — both statehouse chambers and governors’ offices — in at least six states where they previously shared power with Republicans. Besides Arizona, those wins were in the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.

The flips weren't just in states that are normally competitive. Democrats won control of the Texas House, which Republicans have held since 2003, and elected Gina Hinojosa as the state's first Democratic governor since George W. Bush ousted Ann Richards in 1994. Republicans held onto the state Senate.

Democrats also flipped the lower chambers of the legislatures in Maine and North Carolina and both chambers in New Hampshire, where Republican Kelly Ayotte was reelected. The count could grow as results are tallied in additional states.

The National Council of State Legislatures says it's likely to end up as the election with the most legislative seats and chambers changing parties since the 2010 election, when Republicans took over governments across the country amid the Great Recession.

Democrats will also hold the governor's office in at least 28 states. Results are still pending in Alaska and Kansas.

Shelton, with 19 aces, won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 under the roof at Plenitude Arena after converting two of four break points. It was his third win in five meetings between them.

The third-seeded Shelton ended Paul's hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin this month.

As a result, another American player, Frances Tiafoe, clinched a spot and will debut at the season-ending tournament.

“Frances has had an outstanding year. One of my best friends, and to see him make Turin for the first time is amazing,” Shelton said. “I’m super happy for him. We have had a lot of Americans competing for that spot, it’s been a big year from all of us, and it’s cool that we are all in the mix.”

Only one singles spot remained open at the Finals. The qualifiers so far were top-ranked Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Shelton, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Arthur Fils.

Taylor Fritz could join them if he defeats Alcaraz later Friday. If Fritz loses, Rafael Jodar will qualify.

Shelton will next play local Luca Van Assche, who took almost three hours to defeat qualifier Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-5.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

The Marquette Police Department received a 911 call around 2:53 p.m. Nov. 5 stating that the man had been swept into the lake near the Black Rocks, an ancient outcropping off Lake Superior and popular spot for visitors in the area.

According to witnesses, the man was last seen being pulled southbound out of the Black Rocks cover. Initial attempts by first responders to locate the man were unsuccessful due to difficult lake conditions.

Around 8:20 a.m. Friday morning, the man’s body was discovered a few miles east of Marquette off a beach near Lakewood Lane in Harvey, Mich.

Police identified the man as a 62-year-old from Calumet.

The police department is using the tragic incident as a reminder for the public to avoid areas near the lake during inclement weather due to hazardous conditions that can change in seconds.

Marquette police received assistance in the search from the Marquette Fire Department, Marquette County Sheriff’s Office, Northern Michigan University Police Department, Michigan DNR Conservation, UPHS-Marquette EMS and the US Coast Guard.

It was a striking midterm victory that demonstrated the strength of the religious left as a counter to the stalwart evangelical support for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans.

“This attempt to corner the market on Christianity by evangelicals was repudiated,” said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and editor of a progressive faith and politics site.

Instead, American mainline Protestantism, with its less-strident theology, took the election spotlight.

Seminarian James Talarico in Texas, megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Iowa ministers Sarah Trone Garriott and Lindsay James flipped key seats in the U.S. Senate and House. They’re part of the mainline Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran branches with moderate or progressive beliefs.

Unlike the nationalists wanting America to privilege a particular Christian worldview in public life, the mainline candidates in keeping with their Christian values backed church-state separation and sought common ground across religions, Kaylor said.

"There were so many people in our country who felt so strongly that what was happening in D.C. was not moral,” Hamilton told The Associated Press. "It didn’t reflect our national values."

That’s why he and the other candidates ran, he said, and why they were elected.

Mainline denominations have historically been part of the country’s civic establishment as the church home of most presidents and other elites. But membership has been sliding for decades. Despite that shift, the wins show these Protestants can still have significant influence — though not with white evangelicals.

Across the board, white evangelical Protestants stayed consistent in their overwhelming midterm support for Republicans. Most Protestants who identify as “liberal” or “moderate,” about 7 in 10, voted for Democrats, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of roughly 100,000 midterm voters.

The four mainline candidates also got a big boost from voters who reject organized religion. At least 7 in 10 religiously unaffiliated voters supported Democratic Senate and House candidates in Texas, Kansas and Iowa, The AP Voter Poll showed.

Others said being a progressive pastor wasn’t the prime factor in these victories.

“If I hear a story about the Democratic Party scouting out pastors to run in 2028 based on Talarico and Hamilton, I think they’ve totally missed the upshot from this election,” said Ryan Burge, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies religious demographics. “It’s about economic issues. It’s about disdain for Trump. It’s about high prices.”

Talarico takes Texas as critique of his Christianity continues

In the longtime GOP stronghold of Texas, Talarico flipped a U.S. Senate seat — the first election in 30-plus years that Democrats won statewide races — by defeating Republican Ken Paxton, an evangelical.

Voters also ousted Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who chaired Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and declared, “There is no separation of church and state.”

In Talarico’s acceptance speech, the 37-year-old state legislator recounted how his grandfather, a Baptist preacher, taught him about Jesus, a “barefoot rabbi” who commanded people to love God and neighbor. And not just the neighbor who looks, prays or votes like him, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminarian and former middle school teacher said.

“Two thousand years ago, when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power, and he flipped over the tables of injustice. … Texas, it’s time to start flipping tables," Talarico said.

A longtime Texas Trump supporter and Southern Baptist pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, maintains that the pluralistic religion promoted by Talarico and other candidates is not actually Christianity, a criticism raised by others during their campaigns.

“People want to choose a religion that’s nice and warm and fuzzy, whether it’s built on truth or not,” said Jeffress, who leads First Baptist Church in Dallas. “What James Talarico believes, according to the words of Jesus, is not true.”

He attributes the Democrats’ success to a trifecta of inflation, the Iran war and “less than ideal candidates.” Jeffress also suspects many evangelicals stayed home.

White evangelical Protestants made up a slightly smaller share of the electorate than in 2024, when Trump was running for president: 21% in 2024, compared with 17% in 2026, The AP Voter Poll showed. That could be due to lower turnout among white evangelicals or higher turnout among other groups. About 2 in 10 voted for Talarico in Texas and Hamilton in Kansas.

Kansas pastor candidate says kindness doesn't require religion

Burge, the professor who studies religious demographics, asserts that the Democratic clergy members who won were strong candidates but also benefited from very favorable political winds.

“If you ran Adam Hamilton in 2024, he’s beat by double digits and we’re not having this conversation,” Burge said.

Hamilton, pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation, called for “decency” in politics, drawing on Jesus’ Golden Rule in his victory speech: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“I can’t not talk about my faith. It’s just, it’s my life. It’s what I eat, sleep, drink and breathe,” he told the AP. But being religious isn’t required to follow biblical injunctions "to do justice, to love kindness."

While campaigning for Hamilton’s Republican opponent, Sen. Roger Marshall, Vice President JD Vance questioned Hamilton’s religiosity.

“It was so ridiculous that there was no reason to even respond to it,” said Hamilton, who welcomes a conversation with Vance and other critics about faith and theology.

Iowa pastor candidates prioritize coalition building

Democrats Sarah Trone Garriott and Lindsay James, who flipped U.S. House seats in Iowa, didn’t have political ambitions when they pursued ordination.

Trump’s 2016 election sparked James’ involvement. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) chaplain sees her ministry experience — from church potlucks to the pews — as a strength when connecting with all voters.

“I spent time bringing people together across difference,” she told the AP in March.

Trone Garriott, a state senator and a pastor in the mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, thinks the religious right’s high profile in national politics has made some progressive Christians wary of sharing their faith publicly.

But she sees the power in diverse coalition building. In her acceptance speech, she evoked hope and the power of loving your neighbor. “When people come together on our common ground, we will do powerful things,” she said.

Midterm successes for other Christian candidates

Among Republicans, clergy candidates for Congress also prevailed, including Mark Harris of North Carolina, a Southern Baptist pastor, and Tim Walberg of Michigan, a former pastor.

Black Protestants vote overwhelmingly Democratic and have long comfortably talked faith and politics in a way white mainliners have not. This year, victorious Democrats included at least two Black clergy members — the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a Baptist from Texas, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, a United Methodist minister from Missouri.

In North Carolina, Democrat LaKesha Womack unseated a Republican incumbent in the U.S. House. She is an ordained deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a historically Black Protestant denomination.

Womack told the AP her faith prompts her to advocate for “policies that address poverty and immigration and making sure everybody has access to healthcare.” And she defends religious freedom for all.

“With the white Christian nationalists almost taking over the narrative of what it means to be a Christian, I think there are a lot of people of faith in this country who wanted to reclaim that narrative,” she said.

Womack said that Democrats shouldn’t read too much into this year’s clergy victories.

“I don’t think we should go out and try to recruit ministers to become politicians if that’s not what they’re called to do,” she said. “It has to be authentic.”

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AP reporter Tiffany Stanley contributed to this report.

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

Au’s arrest last year was the first publicly known prosecution under Macao’s national security law since it was enacted in 2009. A Macao court found him guilty of subverting state power, breaching confidentiality and establishing contact with organizations, groups or people outside Macao to commit acts endangering national security.

Critics said that his case reflected Beijing’s emphasis on security and intolerance of dissent, even though Macao’s pro-democracy movement has never been as influential as that in neighboring Hong Kong.

The 69-year-old assisted and cooperated with “hostile organizations” outside Macao for a long period of time in collecting and disseminating political views laden with ideas of subverting state power and false information, according to a court statement. They conspired to incite hatred among Macao residents against the central government, with an intent to overthrow and undermine the country's fundamental system, it said.

“Although the defendant is a first-time offender and admitted to a considerable portion of the criminal facts, he demonstrated a high degree of intent. The degree of unlawfulness and the potential consequences of his crimes are both very serious,” the statement said.

Macao is a former Portuguese colony that has operated, like Hong Kong, as a special administrative region since its return to Chinese rule in 1999.

Au's wife says it's a groundless persecution

In a public letter, Au’s wife, Virginia Cheang, wrote that she only hoped authorities would allow his family to exchange letters with Au and visit him regularly without conditions.

“From a closed-door trial to a public verdict, what kind of operation is this? It's a political trial and it's a groundless persecution to humiliate one's character,” Cheang said.

Au’s daughter in London, Au Hon I, told The Associated Press that her father is a peaceful family man who cares deeply about Macao, and the thought of him spending more time in prison without having done anything criminal was unbearable. She said that a lawyer earlier arranged by her family wasn't able to see him.

She felt that the ruling was setting boundaries of what citizens can do and what rights they have, saying “it’s a very scary chapter that they’re starting.”

“It just doesn’t feel like a safe space anymore being in Macao. And it’s very heartbreaking,” she said.

The court said that a lawyer approved by Au was appointed to act for him during the legal proceedings, and that he had exercised his right to a defense. The court also approved his family’s request to visit him regularly.

Jorge Menezes, a Portuguese lawyer who practices in Macao, said that the trial was held in secret and that specific details — which organizations were involved and what information Au had provided to them — weren't revealed. Menezes noted that the statement said that Au had acknowledged some facts, which might have led people to believe that he had confessed to the crimes.

“From what I see, he did not plead guilty. Otherwise, they would have said. So this is misleading and unfortunate,” he said. “It violates his dignity.”

He said that Au's case was used to send a message to Macao residents that it was about anyone who challenges the authorities. The case could also carry a message for Hong Kong, because Macao is “a sort of laboratory” for the financial hub in situations like this.

Michael Polak, Au's international counsel, urged Portugal and the European Union to demand that Au, a Portuguese citizen, be allowed to leave Macao.

“A sentence like that for someone of that age is a sentence for life,” he said. “If he was left in Macao, he could die in prison.”

The EU deplored the sentencing, saying the conviction confirmed the erosion of the city's political pluralism and freedom of speech. Au had spent almost a year in incommunicado detention after his arrest, it said.

The court found Au colluded with multiple overseas groups

Macao has its own political and legal systems and Macao is the only Chinese city where casino gambling is legal. It has resorts run by affiliates of the American gaming companies MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts.

The court found that Au helped overseas organizations spread false and distorted information between 2023 and 2024 to induce foreign countries to take hostile actions against China and Macao, incite hatred against the central government and undermine the smooth running of the 2024 city leader election.

As a lawmaker in 2021, Au leaked to overseas groups confidential information obtained during closed-door committee meetings over the renewal of gaming licenses, it said.

Au’s trial was held behind closed doors in September.

The court earlier said that the judge decided against an open trial to ensure that national security interests wouldn't be undermined.

Au was seen as a mild pro-democracy activist

Au, a teacher-turned-lawmaker, served in the legislature dominated by Beijing loyalists for 20 years before stepping down in 2021. Au was also an organizer of Macao’s commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

Au said that he entered politics because he saw many social problems in daily life that required people to speak out. He said that the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement in 1989 brought him and his like-minded friends together, and he later felt Macao needed people to push forward an open and democratic society.

Before his arrest, Au was a rare voice in Macao who regularly criticized government measures and political developments on Facebook and in interviews, although many considered his critiques to be mild.

But the Macao government supported the ruling, urging all sectors to respect it. It said that the government would continue to strictly enforce the security law.

Beijing's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said that the ruling demonstrated Macao's firm resolve in safeguarding national security, adding that it also reminded people to remain vigilant about the risks even in times of stability.

China's Foreign Ministry said that it firmly opposes any external forces using individual cases as a pretext to interfere in Macao's affairs.

Another eight people were wounded in the airstrikes on the market in al-Waziyah in the province of Taiz, a Houthi health ministry spokesperson, Anees Alsabahi, said on X.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed military and the Houthi rebels traded accusations over responsibility for the deadly airstrike on the market. The Associated Press could not independently verify their claims.

Taiz is mostly controlled by the Houthis, who have besieged the provincial capital, where the Saudi-allied government and its forces are based.

Footage aired by Al-Masirah showed plumes of smoke rising from the site, with a damaged building containing canned food, destroyed vehicles, scattered fruit boxes and rubble and debris.

The authorities affiliated with the Yemeni government in Taiz blamed the Houthis for the attack and said that no airstrikes were carried out in the area.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said three airstrikes hit the al-Hadara market in al-Waziyah in the province of Taiz at around 7 a.m.

He blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks and claimed warplanes took off from the Khamis Mushait air base and left Taiz province around 8 a.m. He did not provide evidence.

Saudi Arabia’s information ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It wasn't clear how many people were at the market early in the day, though markets tend to be busy on Fridays, a day off in much of the Arab world.

The provincial media office acknowledged in a Facebook statement that there had been an attack on the busy market and said that there were casualties, but didn't provide details.

The media office added that “indiscriminate Houthi missile attacks,” including the use of ballistic missiles, endanger civilian lives. It said markets and populated areas must be protected.

Last month, the Houthis struck Yemeni government forces with ballistic missiles, killing at least 75 soldiers at a military camp and wounding around 200 recruits in the southern province of Shabwa. The rebels acknowledged targeting the camp at the time.

Houthi rebels accused Saudi Arabia in September of striking a prison in the country’s north. The prison in Hazm, the Jawf provincial capital, collapsed when coalition strikes hit the area, killing at least 23 people.

In September, the Houthis ramped up their advance on Taiz, a strategic gateway to southern Yemen, after a lightning-fast capture of the port city of Mokha, an area about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away that is vital to controlling shipping through the Red Sea.

The rebels have tightened their encirclement of the city of Taiz, which is controlled by the internationally recognized Yemeni government, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation among civilians. Residents are struggling to secure drinking water and food supplies as the Houthis restrict movement into the city.

In the hills surrounding Taiz, government forces are trying to repel the Houthis, but face stiff resistance, especially east of the city. Gaining control of Taiz city is vital to the Houthis if they seek to advance south toward Aden and Lahj, analysts say, but that won’t be easy, experts previously said.

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Associated Press writer Toqa Ezzidin contributed.

The investigation began on Friday, Nov. 6, at 2:32 a.m. when Eastpointe Police were alerted about a wanted male suspect in Roseville.

Police said the man had “committed a felony assault with a knife” and drove away from Roseville Police in a blue Dodge Caliber.

At 2:37 a.m., an Eastpointe officer saw the suspect on westbound 9 Mile Road from I-94.

The officer began following the car, then the suspect began driving erratically before driving away from the attempted traffic stop.

Eastpointe officers pursued the suspect on 9 Mile Road, as police said he drove across lanes, into incoming traffic and attempted to hit a cruiser head-on.

The chase continued southbound on Gratiot Road until the suspect hit an Eastpointe police cruiser at 8 Mile Road.

According to Eastpointe police, the Sergeant handling the pursuit disabled the suspect’s vehicle to prevent the escalating danger to officers and the public.

The man then allegedly ran away from officers with a knife in hand.

He was located shortly after and arrested without issue.

He is currently being held at the Eastpointe Police Department and is expected to be arraigned in court on Nov. 6 at 1 p.m.

Eastpointe officers were assisted by Warren Police, a Michigan State Police K9 Unit and members of the Wayne County Auto Theft Unit.

Aiyuk’s new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said earlier this week that Aiyuk had officially submitted his paperwork to the NFL to get back and was planning to report to the 49ers on Friday.

A person with knowledge of the situation said the league sent Aiyuk and the NFLPA a letter Thursday saying that he owes the 49ers the money based on bonuses he was paid after signing a four-year, $120 million extension just before the start of the 2024 season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the letter was not released.

The Ringer first reported that the Niners were seeking the money back from Aiyuk.

San Francisco general manager John Lynch told the team's flagship radio station KNBR on Thursday that it was a “unique” situation that the team was trying to work through.

“My job is to look out for the best interests of the 49ers, and as such, in this particular situation, we’re working with the NFL management council to navigate through kind of a different situation," Lynch said. “It’s fluid. I’m going to kind of leave it at that because I’ve been recommended to do so, and I think it’s the right thing to do. We’ll look for a pathway for both sides here that works.”

Aiyuk hasn’t played a game in more than two years since going down with a knee injury in October 2024 and has been on the reserve/left squad list after leaving the Niners late last season.

He fired agent Ryan Williams during his long-running dispute with the 49ers and was without representation until he recently hired Rosenhaus.

Aiyuk will remain under contract with the 49ers after he is reinstated by the NFL. Lynch previously has said he doesn’t expect Aiyuk to play for the Niners again, while coach Kyle Shanahan said on Wednesday when asked if Aiyuk could play for San Francisco again that “there are no absolutes in life.”

The 49ers previously voided $27 million guaranteed in Aiyuk’s contract for 2026 for failing to participate in meetings and other team activities last summer when he was rehabilitating his knee injury.

Aiyuk signed the big extension just before the start of the 2024 season following a lengthy contract hold-in that kept him out of training camp. He was coming off a 2023 season when he had 75 catches for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns and was a second-team All-Pro.

Aiyuk had only 25 catches for 374 yards in seven games in 2024 before getting injured. The 28-year-old has 294 catches for 4,305 yards and 25 TDs since being drafted in the first round in 2020.

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Tillman's ideals, the ability to recognize something bigger than himself, still resonate 22 years after his death, a legacy pushing ahead in the millions of people he inspired.

“I believe Pat impacted people because he lived his life to its fullest, always setting goals for himself and working hard to attain them,” said Mary Tillman, Pat's mother. “Pat made mistakes, but he tried to learn from them. He was harder on himself than he was on other people. He was kind and respectful to people he met, and he didn’t take for granted the people who put effort into him.”

Tillman's 50th birthday was Friday. It's impossible, perhaps even unfair, to project what his life would have been like had he not been killed by friendly fire serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan.

We can only peer back to project forward.

Tillman excelled on the athletic fields of San Jose, California, continued to thrive playing football for Arizona State and the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.

Sports fans admired that part of his life.

Tillman's crossover outside the sports world goes beyond his athletic prowess: unpretentiousness, intellectualism, thoughtfulness, curiosity, a selflessness epitomized by his decision to leave behind a lucrative NFL contract and a new bride to fight for his country in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

His legacy carries on in the places bearing his name and the people who view his life as a call to action.

“We never try to speak for Pat because we don’t know, but I'm sure that he would have been doing something to solve a problem, whatever that problem might be” said Katherine Steele, CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation. “He showed up for people constantly when he was alive and I’m sure he would have continued to find ways to show up for people if he was still here with us.”

Tillman Foundation

In the aftermath of Tillman's death in 2004, his friends and family gathered to celebrate his life. Tillman loved athletic challenges, so they opted to run in his honor.

The first Pat's Run drew 5,000 people.

In the wake of that inaugural run, Tillman's widow, Marie, co-founded the Pat Tillman Foundation.

The foundation's goal is to invest in leadership and, in 2008, it created the Tillman Scholars program to bridge gaps in the GI Bill.

Now more than 1,000 members strong, the Tillman Scholars embody their namesake's pursuit of knowledge and achievement. They are doctors, higher education leaders, scientists, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Adrian Perkins, former mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, is a Tillman Scholar. So is NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim.

“They see a problem and they want to run towards it and try to solve it,” said Steele, also a Tillman scholar.

Pat's Run, the main fundraiser for the Tillman Foundation, further encapsulates Tillman's impact.

The 4.2-mile run/walk — Tillman’s ASU number was 42 — annually draws 30,000 people to Tempe, with an additional 30-plus satellite runs around the country.

They come from all walks of life — blind runners, amputees, parents pushing their children in strollers, firefighters in full gear, disabled veterans, out-of-shape people pushing themselves in Tillman's honor. Tillman Scholars serve as corral leaders, joining the masses for the run that ends inside Arizona State's football stadium, the spirit of Tillman pushing each one across the finish line.

“They come to feel a part of a community of people that lost something, but also to honor his (Tillman's) story and his legacy,” Tillman Scholar and corral leader Amber Manke said.

The statue

Jeff Carol Davenport's New River studio in the hills north of Phoenix is filled with ceramic and wire figures, plates and bowls, a service dog made of clay. Small paint containers sit on a shelf, cups and buckets hold countless brushes and sculpting instruments.

At the edge of the large table in the center of the room is a roughly 18-inch figure of a football player in full uniform, Arizona State and 42 across the jersey.

Known as a maquette, the figure is a scaled-down version of the bronze statue of Tillman inside Arizona State's football stadium. Davenport's original design showed Tillman without a helmet, but Mary Tillman suggested basing the statue on a photo showing the back of her son walking out of the locker room — a photo she uses for Christmas cards.

“I'm very happy with it — it turned out nice,” Davenport said. “It was an amazing experience to be involved with someone like Pat.”

Tillman tributes crisscross Arizona.

The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge above Hoover Dam honors Tillman and the former governor of Nevada. Schools and streets are named after Tillman. Multiple schools have Tillman scholarships.

The Pearl Jam song “World Wide Suicide” is, in part, about Tillman.

The Arizona Cardinals erected an eight-foot tall Tillman statue near the north gate of State Farm Stadium in 2006. Located in Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza, it depicts Tillman holding his helmet, long hair flowing, mouth open in a yell.

The 6-foot-2 statue at Arizona State — after the expected 12% shrinkage — peers onto the playing field inside Mountain America Stadium. Funded by Arizona State alum Arthur Pearce, the Tillman statue draws visitors from around the world and is a rallying point for Sun Devils players, who touch it coming out of the locker room tunnel on game days.

“It’s one of those things where the Cardinals and Sun Devils have built statues for him, but it’s not praise, it’s not something uncomfortable,” Arizona State alum Jeff Okrepkie said. “It’s they’re proud that he was a part of what they’re a part of.”

My name is Tillman

Tillman Okrepkie is a typical 11-year-old, a fifth grader who plays Little League Baseball, travel soccer, loves math and science.

His name stands out.

"Every now and then people will know he was name after Pat, but it's more: 'Oh, that's a cool name. Is that a family name? Where did that come from?'” said Tillman's father, Jeff, who lives in Santa Rosa, California. “Then we kind of explain the story.”

Alabama is full of Bears and Bryants, named after former Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant. Texas is loaded with Landrys, after former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.

In Arizona — at least outside of Tucson, home to rival University of Arizona — Tillman is a favorite. Some parents chose Tillman as a first name, others the middle. Untold numbers of kids have been named Patrick. There was even a skateboard-riding Bulldog named Tillman in California.

Jeff Okrepkie is an ASU alum who watched Tillman from the stands. Stephanie Okrepkie's father was an Army sergeant.

The name was a perfect fit and Tillman Bruce Okrepkie was born Nov. 10, 2015 — 11 years to the day Stephanie’s father, Michael, was killed in Iraq.

In the 11 years since, Tillman Okrepkie has learned about and embraced the man who inspired his name. His room is filled with Pat Tillman jerseys and photos.

“When we travel to Arizona, people ask my name and when I say Tillman, they act surprised,” Tillman Okrepkie said. “They congratulate me on having a really good name.”

Pat Tillman accelerated through life. The way he lived it keeps pushing his name and legacy forward.

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• Sterling Heights is looking into whether an existing freight rail corridor in Macomb County could be preserved for future passenger rail service to downtown Detroit, Detroit Metro Airport and connect to the broader rail network
• A white paper presented to city officials this week explores the feasibility of retrofitting existing tracKs before they’re permanently removed
• The project remains in the early stages as city officials are only beginning the process of kickstarting discussions with regional partners to gauge support and interest

STERLING HEIGHTS — City officials in Sterling Heights are exploring ways to transform an existing freight rail corridor into a new public transit route, connecting residents to downtown Detroit, Detroit Metro Airport, and the broader passenger rail system.

In a white paper presented to city council this week, City Management representative Nahro Matti shared potential options for preserving the Macomb County-Detroit Conrail corridor before additional rail segments are permanently removed.

“If the line continues shrinking over time, and if more segments are removed like portions north of about 22 Mile Road that appear to already be gone, the region could lose a rare north-south rail corridor that would be very difficult to rebuild later,” the white paper states.

Possible sites for future stations identified in the white paper include stops in Sterling Heights near M-59 and near the General Motors Technical Center in Warren.

The goal of the project would be offering Macomb County residents “practical connections” to the existing rail network, especially for trips to Chicago and other cities are already served by Amtrak — potentially operating about once per hour during the main service day, according to the white paper.

“We are beginning a regional conversation about whether this existing asset could support future passenger rail service and meet Sterling Heights and the surrounding area’s long-term transportation needs,” said City Manager Mark Vanderpool in a news release. “While we are not committing to a rail project today, we recognize that losing portions of the corridor would make that opportunity much more difficult to pursue.”

City officials say they are only beginning the process of having preliminary discussions about the plans with Warren, Detroit, Macomb County, Conrail, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, SMART, Amtrak and other stakeholders, to get an idea of regional interest and potential support for a feasibility study.

The study would help officials evaluate passenger demand, track conditions, coordination with freight operations, station locations, safety, costs and funding options.

Public input would also play a role in any future passenger rail proposal, and any next steps will require further review and coordination with regional partners, according to the city.

“If the corridor is preserved, the region keeps its options,” the white paper states. “If it is allowed to keep shrinking, Macomb County may lose one of its few realistic opportunities to connect Sterling Heights and Warren to the passenger rail network.”

You can read the full Macomb County Conrail Downtown Detroit white paper here.

The changes that took effect this fall include caps on loans for particular programs as well as limits on the amount parents can borrow to pay for their children’s schooling. Up until weeks before Frabotta, 25, started her program, it was up in the air whether it would count as a “professional” program with higher loan limits.

Amid the uncertainty, she borrowed around $6,000 in federal loans for her first trimester, taking out private loans for the rest with her mother as a cosigner.

“At least in my circles a lot of people were like, ’I guess that’s what I’m going to have to do, and I’m going to try to make it work,’” Frabotta said.

Students have been turning to private lenders to make up the difference between the cost of their educational programs and the amount they can borrow from the federal government, which offers more flexible repayment terms, the possibility of forgiveness after 10 years in public service, and — for many — lower interest rates.

It's showing up in banks' bottom lines. Private lender SoFi reported in late October that student loan originations hit $2.9 billion in the third quarter, nearly doubling from a year earlier. Days earlier, Sallie Mae, which controls more than half of the private student loan market, said graduate loans were up 119% year-over-year.

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ put new caps on student loans

President Donald Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” slashed the amount new graduate students can borrow. Programs designated as professional degrees face federal student loan caps of $200,000, while other graduate programs are capped at $100,000. Previously, graduate students had been able to take out federal loans up to the full cost of their degree.

For new borrowers, the changes include an overall lifetime borrowing cap of $257,500 and limits to the amount parents can borrow to pay for their children’s schooling.

When all the changes are fully phased in, more than half a million borrowers are going to need to borrow an extra $20,000 a year from somewhere other than the federal loan program, estimated Jordan Matsudaira, the director of the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University. The hardest-hit students are in expensive programs like medicine, law and dentistry, an analysis by the center found.

The Trump administration has argued the new limits will curb “excessive borrowing” and force schools to evaluate their costs. Since the loan caps took effect, at least 40 schools have cut the cost of at least some programs, according to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

But critics say most colleges cannot afford to lower tuition and have raised concerns that the changes will add hurdles for students from poor families.

After being denied by several private lenders, 25-year-old Darian Bogie started a crowdfunding campaign to raise some of the tens of thousands that federal loans didn't cover for his first year of dental school at Howard University. Donations totaling around $76,000 poured in — something he described as “beautifully overwhelming.”

“It was really my absolute last option,” he said.

Students with limited credit histories often rely on family to cosign their loans. But Bogie's father, a sanitation worker, paid out of pocket for everything until last year, and didn't have a strong credit history either.

Colleges are stepping in to help

At South Carolina Student Loan, graduate student borrowing increased 400% this year as it rolled out more options to help students. Some schools, like the law school at the University of Kansas, got into the lending game, too. So far, it has approved eight loans, with more in process.

Steven Freedman, associate dean of admissions at the University of Kansas School of Law, said the loans are important to help provide access to all students.

“Now, frankly, private banks get to choose who goes to law school,” he said.

At Lewis & Clark College, a private liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon, the student aid office has been seeing more private student loans. Its graduate school of education and counseling also began offering a new scholarship this fall for students in financial need because of the loan caps.

Anastacia Dillon, associate vice president for financial aid, described the changes as “really disruptive.”

The private loan market boomed in the 1990s and early 2000s during an era of loan limits. After Graduate PLUS, a federal program, extended how much students could borrow up to the full cost of attendance, private lending began to collapse. But critics argue that Graduate PLUS ushered in new problems, contributing to high default rates because students were borrowing more than they could repay.

Some groups predicted the new loan caps could lead to large numbers of borrowers being denied loans from traditional lenders. But students on the whole appear to be finding ways to finance their education, even if they are turning more to private lenders, said Marc Schoonover, general manager of the lender ELFI.

“What we’re hearing and seeing now is that the number of students who truly can’t find an option is a lot smaller than many initially feared,” Schoonover said during a media call organized by the National Council of Higher Education Resources.

Students struggle to understand changes

A legal fight over which graduate programs would be deemed professional — and therefore eligible for larger loans — extended until just days before the new rule was set to take effect. Ultimately, students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing, physical therapy and several other fields were deemed eligible to take out higher federal student loan amounts — at least for now — after a federal judge blocked part of a Trump administration rule that held them to lower limits.

The last-minute changes caused schools to delay delivering financial aid packages, Jon Witter, the CEO of Sallie Mae, said on an earnings call with investors. He said the peak lending season extended into October as a result.

Dr. Robert Harrington, dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and provost for medical affairs of Cornell University, said the school received dozens of calls from confused students and their families.

Frabotta’s physician assistant program was ultimately deemed professional and eligible for up to $50,000 annually in federal loans. But she decided to borrow just a fraction of that from the federal loan program, fearful of other changes that might be in store.

“This is what I want to do, so if this is the means of how I get there, then if I have to sacrifice at some point,” she said.

Madison Jessen, another first-year Weill Cornell Medicine physician assistant student, said the uncertainty around loan caps prompted her to use most of her savings to pay for her first semester out of pocket. Jessen said she has several younger friends who had planned to go to PA school but pivoted when the loan caps took effect.

That's Harrington's biggest fear.

“What we don’t want to see," said Harrington, himself a first-generation college graduate, "is our programs just becoming the purview of people whose family can afford to pay that bill.”

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

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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

“We said, ‘Who?’” Caddix CEO Jack Rasmussen recalled. “And he said, ‘I’ll tell you later.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, this is a fun conversation.’”

It turns out the fun was just beginning.

Gormely's client was Chicago Bears star Caleb Williams, and the call marked a watershed moment for Caddix — even if no one knew exactly how it was going to go at the time. Williams started using the cleats this season, and he was fined $11,941 by the NFL for wearing an unauthorized logo in Week 6 at Atlanta and $23,882 for the same infraction in Week 7 against New England.

It was quite a moment for Baltimore-based Caddix, which has four employees and earned just under $2 million in revenue last year.

“To be able to turn around with this press from Caleb Williams and to get what would be tens of millions of dollars in free advertising and conversation, that is a cash cow for a small company,” said Peter Stolpe, a professor in the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon. “That is fantastic news. And it’s even more fantastic news that the player of record is saying, I feel better in these cleats.”

NFL policy prohibits players from displaying unapproved logos on their footwear. The three authorized footwear suppliers for the league are Adidas, Nike and Under Armour. If players decide to use shoes or cleats from another company, all visible third-party names, logos, brands or other commercial identification have to be removed or covered.

Caddix doesn't have a sponsorship deal with Williams — the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft — but Rasmussen has offered to pay the NFL fines. Caddix also provided a blank pair of cleats that Williams used in Monday night's 34-17 win at Seattle, staving off any further punishment from the league.

“Just to calm things down, man,” Williams said.

Caddix cleats have flexible studs that are designed to reduce strain on knees and ankles. Williams helped develop his model with Gormely and Rasmussen, who flew to Florida in June to watch the quarterback throw and work on the final details.

“The cleats, they’ve been great, they’ve been super comfy and they’ve worked,” Williams said. “They are a science type of cleat. ... They call them smart studs, and they move when you move in these hard plants so they take tension off of your tendons and your joints.”

More than 80 NFL players are using Caddix cleats, according to Rasmussen. The list includes Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp, Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey and Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid.

Kayla Sharples, a defender on the NWSL's Kansas City Current, is an investor in Caddix, and the brand also is popular in women's lacrosse.

San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk said he has been wearing the cleats for two years, and he whites out the logo to avoid a fine.

“I’ve genuinely never slipped since I’ve worn these,” he said.

Carolina Panthers cornerback Will Lee said he started using the cleats after he saw teammate Jaycee Horn wearing them in the offseason.

“They got the rotational studs in the bottom of them, so they help a lot with cuts, breaks on grass fields and turf fields,” he said.

The origins of Caddix trace back to former Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles tearing the ACL in his right knee in October 2015. Rasmussen and his father, Jeff, were watching the game, and they thought it looked like a solvable footwear problem.

Jack Rasmussen was 19 at the time. He was a college dropout and worked as a housekeeper. But he studied biomechanics and physics and applied for a patent with his dad while they developed their idea for cleats.

He eventually went back to school, playing college football as a punter for Missouri Western State and Western New Mexico.

“Honestly, I didn’t play football till I was 23 years old, so I didn’t know much about it,” Rasmussen said. “I didn’t play in high school or anything. ... So being on the football field and watching my teammates complain about their cleats, it was so informational because the best part about cleats is taking them off, you know. So I had testers at my disposal all the time.”

Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco was among a group of roughly 25 NFL players who started wearing the cleats in 2024, and they were approved for on-field use by the league before last season. Flacco and former Baltimore Ravens tight ends Todd Heap and Dennis Pitta are all investors in the company.

Pitta introduced the cleats to Kincaid, who was slowed by knee injuries the past two years. The 27-year-old Kincaid started wearing them during offseason workouts.

“I love them. I’m going to continue to wear them,” Kincaid said. “I actually just texted Dennis, I was like, I need a new pair. They’ve been great to me.”

Rasmussen said Caddix has been selling cleats for 19 months, and the company is working on raising money through a funding round. It could make a recovery or lifestyle shoe down the road.

“It’s pretty rare air that we’re breathing, but it’s exciting,” Rasmussen said. “It’s really tough to quantify. ... It’s an exciting ride.”

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AP Pro Football Writers Rob Maaddi and Josh Dubow, and AP Sports Writers John Wawrow, Steve Reed and Will Graves contributed to this report.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is likely to return as majority leader next year, promised in an interview with The Associated Press that Democrats will prevent the Republican president from installing a “right-winger” on the Supreme Court and that they are “not going to allow any crappy nominees” elsewhere in the federal judiciary or in Trump's Cabinet.

Democrats will hold at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate next year and as many as 56 depending on final results in Mississippi and Alaska, giving them a significant majority to block Trump's nominees or just ignore them outright.

After years of being on the losing end of highly partisan confirmation fights against Republicans, especially on Supreme Court nominees, Democrats will be under considerable pressure to wield the same type of aggressive tactics.

This all but erases any prospect that Trump could add to his imprint on the court he established in his first term by naming three of the current justices. In the past, Trump had mused privately that he could end up nominating up to seven people for the nine-person bench by the end of his second term, according to a person with knowledge of those comments.

Schumer declined to say specifically whether he would hold any Supreme Court vacancy open until after the next presidential election, as former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell did in 2016, clearing the way for Trump to nominate the first of his three Supreme Court picks.

“The bottom line is, we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court,” Schumer said.

The White House said Thursday that “extreme Democrats have a history of politicizing the Supreme Court, even entertaining plans to pack the Court with liberal justices.”

“President Trump will never let them pack the Supreme Court and ruin the independent judiciary," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.

Neither of the court’s two oldest justices, Samuel Alito, 76, or Clarence Thomas, 78, has publicly indicated an imminent retirement. Lifetime appointments typically come with a remove from political upheaval, even of the scale of Tuesday’s elections in which Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate.

“I think the justices must know that if they were to retire now, at this moment, right before Democrats take the Senate, there would be an enormous amount of pressure unlike any we’ve seen to make serious change to the court,” said Dale Carpenter, a law professor at Southern Methodist University’s law school.

Alito has publicly mused about retirement in recent months, telling The Associated Press that he’s not sure “how long I’ll be able to continue to do this job.” But he’s also said he’ll stay on the court through the end of the term next summer and told Bloomberg he would not step down during a lame-duck period.

Meanwhile, Thomas is closing in on a record-setting tenure and would become the longest-serving justice in the nation’s history if he served until May 2028.

Trump has shown unusual deference to Alito and Thomas, even as he’s attacked other justices who’ve ruled against him, praising both for their legal acumen and declining to say whether they should step down so the president could nominate their successors.

In a Fox News Channel interview in April, Trump said he has a shortlist of potential nominees but said he did not know whether he would have another vacancy this year, citing Alito’s “very good physical health.”

The Democrats' sizable margins in the Senate also will hamper the Republicans' effort to regain ground in the 2028 elections, in which the GOP will be defending states such as Wisconsin, North Carolina and Iowa where Democrats made significant gains on Tuesday.

“Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or Alito during President Trump’s term: Zero,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X after Tuesday’s elections. “Chance of confirming a worthy successor during a hypothetical GOP admin 2029-2033: probably zero (GOP won’t be able to recapture enough seats in 28).”

Historically, some justices have timed their retirements with the president who would name their successor in mind, but it’s far from the only consideration in their decision-making.

Former liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously resisted efforts from progressives to retire when President Barack Obama, a Democrat, was in office and died in the last year of Trump’s first term, allowing him to replace her with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Barrett would go on in 2022 to join the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which erased the constitutional right to an abortion.

Even if there were a surprise Supreme Court vacancy in the coming weeks, lame-duck confirmations while Republicans still remain in power aren’t a sure thing.

Trump effectively forced Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina out of a reelection bid. That seat was won Tuesday by one of the state's former governors, Democrat Roy Cooper. The president also opposed two Republican incumbents in their primary races, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Democrats flipped the seat in Texas. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican who lost, attributed her defeat in part to Trump.

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This story has been corrected to show Democrats flipped a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, not a seat in Texas and a seat in Louisiana.

Curl Fletcher Cole Jr. was reported missing Thursday, Nov. 5 after leaving his home in the 60th block of Stegman Lane in Pontiac.

His current whereabouts remain unknown.

Deputies believe Cole may be in the area of Kentucky Street in Detroit, where he has family connections.

Investigators are asking residents in that area, as well as anyone who may have had recent contact with Cole to come forward with information that could help locate him.

According to investigators, Cole previously attended Mumford High School in Detroit where he was enrolled as of Sept. 23, 2026. On Oct. 19, he transitioned to online schooling.

He is described as weighing approximately 180 pounds, 5 feet 10 inches tall with brown eyes and brown hair styled in locs.

He was last seen wearing all-black clothing, with black shoes and carrying a black backpack.

Anyone who has been Cole or knows about his whereabouts is urged to contact the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office at 248-858-4950.

Sixteen people were injured, three of them seriously, the prefecture in Ain said.

Tabarot visited the scene in a rural area northeast of Lyon, where he described the crash as a “tragic accident” and expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

“This is a bus operated by the regional authority that was transporting about 15 students” and other passengers, he said.

Ain prefect Louis-Xavier Thirode told news broadcaster BFM that preliminary blood tests carried out on the bus driver found “no traces of alcohol or drugs."

Bus passengers included children traveling to middle and high schools in the area. A photograph from the scene showed that the bus had veered off the road, struck trees and landed in a ditch.

Lent Mayor Yves Cristin told broadcaster Franceinfo that “the road was a little wet, there was no fog, and we don’t understand why the bus ... veered off the road.”

“My thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X. "The nation stands with them. My gratitude goes to the emergency crews responding to the accident.”

“It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this,” Education Minister Édouard Geffray told reporters during a visit to a high school in the Paris region.

Zelenskyy's comments in an interview aired late Thursday followed two days of discussions among allies in Brussels that focused on postwar security and reconstruction. They also came before planned three-way talks next week in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, the first trilateral peace discussions since February.

While talks on the contours of peace continue, the grim reality of war remained front and center Friday in Ukraine, with more Russian drone attacks and a rising death toll from Moscow's guided bomb strike Monday on a former school operating as a humanitarian aid distribution center.

Russian overnight drone strikes caused extensive power outages in several regions, including the Kyiv area, while Bulgarian authorities found what they identified as a Russian drone in the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy seeks security guarantees for Ukraine

Two days of talks in Brussels discussed postwar reconstruction, funding for 2027 and security guarantees backed by the Ukrainian government’s Western allies. The meetings brought together officials from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and the European Union, along with representatives from the World Bank and the U.S. investment group BlackRock, Ukrainian lead negotiator Rustem Umerov wrote in an online post.

“We separately discussed the threats from Russia to Ukraine and all of Europe, as well as joint steps to counter them,” Umerov wrote.

In his television interview, Zelenskyy said he wanted to see tangible results.

“What matters is that it’s clear on paper,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukraine’s private 1+1 television broadcast late Thursday. “The question isn’t dozens of points, but simply an understanding of the outcome: If Russia starts (attacking) again, what will happen? Who will do what, with what means, and when?”

Zelenskyy said it was important to maintain bipartisan support for Kyiv in the United States but acknowledged Democrats’ sweeping victories in this week’s midterm elections could have a positive effect on U.S. assistance, including the faster delivery of Patriot missile interceptors that Kyiv says are vital to fend off Russian airstrikes.

“I believe our chances of getting additional assistance from the United States may now grow,” he said.

Trump met a Russian envoy in Washington

President Donald Trump met Thursday with Moscow envoy Kirill Dmitriev but declined to give details of what they discussed.

“There’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that it might include all of Europe.

Trump's son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner said in a social media message that the goal of the Brussels talks was to “develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”

European Union is skeptical

The European Union played down expectations for an agreement anytime soon.

“We look forward to seeing it materialize, but there’s a lot of work that needs to go into it,” European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said. The commission hosted the first day of talks Wednesday at its Brussels headquarters.

“Above all, there needs to be a willingness on the side of the one who first started the war, the one who aggressed,” she told reporters, in a reference to Russia. “There’s a very long way to go there because we haven’t seen much movement on that side.”

Moscow awaits details on possible deal flagged by Trump

The Kremlin on Friday did not comment on Trump’s remarks about a possible deal.

“There are no details,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Russia had received no ideas from Europe on security guarantees, but added that any discussion of security between Russia and Ukraine would at some point be “impossible” without Europe’s involvement.

The Kremlin spokesman accused the European side of “persistent indecisiveness and a lack of readiness,” adding that European leaders “haven’t even managed to decide who is authorized to speak on their behalf.”

Death toll climbs above 50 following Russian attack on aid location

The death toll from a Russian bomb attack this week on a shelter and a former school now being used as an aid distribution center rose to 53 after more bodies were recovered from the rubble, Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, said in an online post.

Ten powerful guided bombs destroyed the facility at Komyshuvakha, a village in southeast Ukraine. Several dozen people are still believed to be missing after what was one of the deadliest attacks in the region in nearly five years of fighting.

Relentless drone war continues

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused extensive power outages in seven regions of the country overnight and Friday morning, the Energy Ministry said.

The Kyiv region was hardest hit, with damage forcing continued grid restrictions and crews working on day and night shifts to restore power.

Zelenskyy said the electricity outages and resulting water cuts were worst in the Kyiv area, where “the challenges are very serious” for the capital’s residents and industry.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 227 attack drones, including 86 jet-powered ones, with strikes reported at 14 locations and falling debris at eight more. Overall, Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or suppressed 196 Russian drones overnight into Friday.

In Bulgaria, authorities found and destroyed a Russian Gerbera-2 drone, which was not carrying explosives, in the waters of the country's northern Black Sea coast, the Defense Ministry said Friday. Drones or drone parts have been found numerous times in the sea or on the shore in Bulgaria following the escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine this year.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Friday that it shot down 142 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Elise Morton in Thessaloniki, Greece; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed.

Hiring was far stronger than the 65,000 new jobs that economists had expected.

The jobs report comes three days after voters delivered a stunning defeat to President Donald Trump and his Republican Party in midterm elections. Frustrated with the state of the economy — and especially the high cost of living – Americans handed full control of Congress to the Democrats.

But the latest jobs report looked solid. Labor Department revisions added a combined 84,000 new jobs to the August and September totals.

The unemployment rate fell even though 421,000 people entered the labor force.

Average hourly wages rose 0.4% in October from September, the biggest month-over-month gain since January.

"This was a blowout jobs report,'' said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global strategist at Edward Jones. "Payroll growth exceeded expectations, revisions were positive, the unemployment rate fell, participation improved, and wage growth strengthened.''

The strong job gains will likely make Federal Reserve policymakers more confident in the health of the labor market, giving them leeway to focus on persistently high inflation and raise their benchmark interest rate at their next meeting in December.

The central bank typically seeks to bring down inflation by lifting its key interest rate to cool borrowing and spending. The Fed raised the rate in September but left it alone at its meeting last month. Wall Street investors now see the chance of a December rate hike at 77%, up about 10 percentage points from Thursday, according to CME’s FedWatch.

“For sure, we’re looking at another rate increase in December and possibly another one in early 2027,’’ said Boston College economist Brian Bethune.

Solid hiring also underscores a concern among many Fed officials that their key rate isn’t high enough to slow inflation.

Hourly wages were up a meager 3.1% from October 2025. That means many workers have seen their purchasing power decline over the past year, despite continued hiring.

Professional and business services – a broad category of administrative and managerial workers – added 70,000 jobs. Healthcare companies hired nearly 42,000. Factories added 19,000 jobs. But hotels, restaurants and bars cut 10,600.

The job market has been solid but unspectacular.

So far this year, employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — have added an average of 86,000 jobs a month. That is modest by historic standards but an improvement over 2025, when monthly job creation averaged 9,700. That was the weakest performance outside of a recession since 2002. Last year, high interest rates and President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policies discouraged hiring.

Despite recovering this year, hiring remains well below the average of 166,000 jobs created monthly in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns.

Economists see a “low-hire, low-fire’’ environment in which employers are reluctant to let go of existing workers but aren’t in any hurry to hire new ones. Young people entering the workforce, or those who’ve lost their jobs, can struggle to find work.

The United States doesn’t need as many new jobs as it once did to keep the unemployment rate from rising. That's because baby boomer retirements and Trump’s immigration crackdown mean fewer people are competing for work.

In late 2023, the so-called break-even point was around 166,000 new jobs a month. It’s now just over 5,000, according to an estimate by Yale University’s Budget Lab, which drew on an earlier Federal Reserve report.

The American economy and job market have proven resilient in the face of a series of shocks — Trump’s double-digit tariffs on imports and the war with Iran, which has driven U.S. gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and pinched family budgets.

Gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — advanced at a sprightly 3.4% annual pace from July through September, lifted by strong consumer spending and booming investment in artificial intelligence.

But AI can also mean that businesses need fewer workers.

At SharkNinja in Needham, Massachusetts, sales jumped 21% in the latest quarter as budget-minded shoppers brought the company's appliances – such as coffee- and smoothie-makers-- to save money on dining out.

But CEO Mark Barrocas says he’s slowed hiring – to 5% next year from 8% to 10% the previous two years. The reason: AI. SharkNinja, which has a total global work force of 4,200, has implemented AI tools in such areas as product innovation, media planning and finance.

“It’s allowing people to work on much more higher impact initiatives as opposed to more tedious tasks,” he said. But AI has also created new jobs for people with expertise in using AI to increase efficiency.

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AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this story.

Researchers in Canada captured images of an unidentified baby North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest sea mammals in the world, off Anticosti Island in Quebec in September. Scientists with the New England Aquarium in Boston said this week that after analyzing photos and data about right whales, they have determined it was a calf likely born months ago that went unseen during winter surveys for the giant animals.

The discovery puts the number of baby right whales discovered from the most recent birthing season at 24, the most productive year for the whales since 2009 and the fourth-highest count on record, the aquarium said. The whales number only about 380 in the world, and their population has fallen since 2010.

The whale was seen with its mother, a 38-year-old whale known to researchers as Silt, scientists said. Right whales give birth off the southeastern U.S. in winter before venturing north to New England and Canada to feed.

The whales are extensively cataloged with photography by researchers because they are so rare. It's also rare for the researchers who study the whales to miss a baby, but the discovery was a welcome surprise, said Amy Warren, a scientist at the New England Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center.

“Silt was briefly seen in the southeastern U.S. calving grounds in February 2026, so it’s possible she had the calf there but snuck away before they were documented together. This is an exciting discovery for us so late in the year,” Warren said.

Baby right whale births are closely tracked by scientists because the tiny population needs successful calving years to remain viable. There are only about 70 reproductive-age females left in the population, and scientists have said the whales have reached 20 calves in a season only a few times since 2010.

That was when their numbers started falling, as they lost about 25% between 2010 and 2020. The whales are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear, and the warming of the ocean has heightened those threats because they have strayed from protected areas, scientists have said. They also suffered a disastrous year in 2018 when no babies were born.

Recent years have been slightly more encouraging, as the whales have gained back some of their population since 2020. But conservationists have decried recent moves by the U.S. government to delay new protections for the whales for a decade in favor of commercial fishing interests.

The baby whale sighted off Quebec was spotted by researchers with Mingan Island Cetacean Study, a nonprofit research organization in the province's coastal Côte-Nord region. The whale wasn't seen by researchers despite boat-based and aerial surveys along the U.S. East Coast all spring and summer, the New England Aquarium said.

Scientists are celebrating the animal's addition to a successful breeding season for the rare whales, said Richard Sears, founder and director of Mingan Island Cetacean Study.

“It just goes to show you how big the ocean is, and how those animals can get lost out there,” he said.

Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Francesco Laporta were all 12-under overall to share the lead after two rounds at Yas Links.

McIlroy had said even if he were three shots behind it's still "a much better position than I thought I would be.”

On Thursday, McIlroy was handed a two-shot penalty after his first round when officials ruled he had improved his lie on a hole where he made double-bogey. He posted a 2-under 70 to be eight shots back of first-round leader Laporta of Italy.

“Before I left the course, I made peace with it. I didn’t dwell on it,” McIlroy said Friday. “I’d much rather be two shots worse off than be called a cheat. At least I went out today (and) it wasn’t playing on my mind. I had a clear conscience and I could just go and play.”

The Northern Irishman's second round started with a bogey but he made three birdies through the next six holes before five straight birdies from No. 9.

McIlroy's second bogey — on the 14th — was followed by three birdies on the final four holes.

“I did everything well again. I drove the ball well. I hit my irons well. I putted a little bit better,” he said. “I saw a few more putts go in, which is something that I haven't been seeing for the last couple months.”

He said he worked on his putting last week with Brad Faxon.

Hatton made eight birdies in his round of 65 but missed a par putt on the 16th.

“Obviously there's been a couple of mistakes, but overall compared to where I've been at over the last month and a half, it's nice to put a couple of decent scores together again,” the Englishman said.

Alongside McIlroy one shot back were Englishmen Matthew Jordan and Sam Bairstow, as well as Poland's Adrian Meronk, a recent winner at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The two-week postseason playoffs on the European tour began with the 224th-ranked Laporta shooting 10 under to take a three-stroke lead over three players. Laporta managed just a 70 on Friday.

The subplot in this next-to-last event of the 2026 season is the fight for the Race to Dubai title, which crowns the No. 1 player on the European tour each year.

It looks to be down to McIlroy, Patrick Reed (71) and Eugenio Chacarra (71), the current leader in the standings.

McIlroy is seeking a fifth straight Race to Dubai title to move level on the all-time list on eight with Colin Montgomerie, who won the award when it was called the Order of Merit.

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

The team issued the statement after Santander posted the videos in the aftermath of the U.S. midterm elections. He deleted them on Thursday.

The videos included a Christian preacher saying, “There is no such thing as kind Muslims,” with another suggesting Sharia law would be imposed on the U.S. after Abdul El-Sayed was elected to the senate in Michigan.

El-Sayed is the son of Egyptian immigrants and will become the first Muslim American U.S. senator. He was the target of Islamophobic rhetoric on the campaign trail, and often mocked his critics on the right while championing the Palestinian cause and leaning into his faith and heritage.

“Baseball is for everyone, and the Blue Jays have created an inclusive experience where all fans feel welcome at our ballpark,” the team said. “Individual comments do not represent our organization’s values and beliefs.”

The 32-year-old Santander is from Venezuela and missed the entire year after having shoulder surgery following his first season in Toronto. He spent his first eight major league seasons with Baltimore before signing a five-year, $92.5 million contract with Toronto.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

• Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate victory is being viewed as a milestone for Arab Americans and American Muslims, bringing renewed attention to their political influence in Michigan and nationally.
• Arab American voters played an important role in the election. Michigan has an estimated 400,000 Arab American voters, with a large concentration in Metro Detroit, according to Maya Berry of the Arab American Institute.
• El-Sayed won Dearborn by 65 percentage points, according to unofficial election results.
• Dearborn recorded historic voter turnout. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said 45,464 residents voted, the highest turnout in the city’s history.

DEARBORN, Mich. — Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate win, part of a historic “Blue Wave” that swept across Michigan and the rest of the country, has put a renewed focus on the voices and votes of Arab Americans.

“I went to vote on Tuesday, and for the first time, I walked in, people recognized who I was, and the support that I got from people who were voting there is incredible,” Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Arab American News, said on Wednesday. “That is something that makes me happy because people did not buy the hateful messages that they were disseminating.”

Siblani came to the United States from Lebanon in 1976 and started the paper in 1984.

Like many Arab Americans and American Muslims, he is celebrating El-Sayed’s victory as a landmark moment in American history, even as he navigated an often bigoted campaign against him.

“Even on September 11, after the attacks on our nation, I have never seen this kind of hate being disseminated and spread in a way at the highest level from the President of the United States and the ads that they ran,” Siblani, who was the subject of one of the Rogers ads, said. “The stuff that they said is so divisive, so hurtful and hateful.

“We saw it across the board.”

El-Sayed won in big cities and small towns, outperforming Kamala Harris’ 2024 numbers and flipped four counties that Rogers won two years ago – Eaton, Muskegon, Isabella, and Grand Traverse.

El-Sayed won Dearborn by 65 points on Tuesday, according to unofficial results. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud tweeted that the city’s voter turnout of 45,464 was the highest ever.

“You’re talking about, you know, roughly 400,000 Arab American voters in the state of Michigan with a concentration in Metro Detroit,” Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, said. “Historically, it’s about a third Democrat, a third Republican, and a third independent.”

“That does mean if you want to win an important state like the state of Michigan, you need to be concerned about what do Arab Americans think about my positions on these issues,” she said. “It is a constituency that really is available for smart candidates.”

Berry, like Siblani, noted that the open bigotry toward El-Sayed and other Arab and Muslim candidates across the country was too loud to ignore.

Berry says they likely activated a higher turnout in favor of El-Sayed.

“This time, it happened to be the fear of an American Muslim candidate serving in the Senate,” she said. “We have Republicans who’ve decided that trafficking in their anti-Muslim bigotry is now a feature of their campaigns.

“We’ve gone from attacks on DEI and attacking the Black community to attacking the trans community to attacking Muslims,” she said. “It’s not just Arab Americans or American Muslims that said ‘no, thanks’ on the bigotry; I think we saw it across the board.”

The rhetoric was particularly pronounced from Donald Trump, who on multiple occasions called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” claimed that the Senate would need to install a metal detector if he won, and routinely mocked El-Sayed’s middle name, Mohamed.

Assorted mailers went out with El-Sayed’s face next to the World Trade Center towers, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s email newsletters about El-Sayed were titled the “Terrorist Watchlist.”

“I did not think for a minute that he would be subjected to this kind of attack because of his religion and because of where he came from, and his ancestors came from,” Siblani said. “I have been in this country for 50 years, and the country that I came to is not the same country that I am seeing today.”

“When the President of the United States starts making fun of your name and fun of the way you look and fun of the way you pray, that is not America,” Siblani said.

Siblani first came to this country with $185 in his pocket and built a life for himself.

He was inducted into Wayne State University’s Journalism Hall of Fame in 2013.

He said the thing people are missing about the needs and concerns of Arab Americans comes down to wanting a better life.

“We want a country that offers opportunities for people who want to come in and excel,” he said. “This is what America was, and this is what America will be after this election.”

Amiyah Jade Younan has been missing since Sept. 20.

She’s described as 90 pounds, 5 feet 2 inches tall, with brown eyes and brown hair with purple highlights.

The family is offering a $250 reward.

Anyone with information or tips on her whereabouts is asked to reach out to Warren Police Department at 586-574-4700.

Detroit fire investigators said Deashawn Victor Harrison was caught on camera going inside Huntington Place just before 9 a.m. on April 28, dousing the carpet with gasoline, walking toward the exit and setting a fire before leaving.

Harrision was arrested on May 8 after surveillance images and case details were shared publicly and a tipster who spotted the man contacted authorities. He was initially charged with third-degree arson and preparation to burn real property, however the third-degree arson charge was dropped when he entered his plea.

No injuries were reported in the fire, which was quickly extinguished and caused minimal damage.

In addition to serving two years probation, Harrison will be required to pay more than $6,000 in fees.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told a ministerial meeting Friday that a rapid response to potential attacks is essential in the era of AI-generated attacks. She urged both government agencies and companies to step up their preparedness.

The emergency package comes after dozens of companies and government agencies were hit by unauthorized access to their systems and leaks of client data, prompting uneasiness across Japan.

"At this very moment, cases of unauthorized access and data breaches are occurring, causing a major impact on daily lives of the people and corporate activities,” Takaichi said. “Let us increase the response capability across Japan by devoting all government resources.”

Measures in the 10 billion yen ($63 million) package are designed to build a resilient society in which the public and private sectors share information, provide swift assistance to the affected and recover from damage.

It aims to acquire one of the world’s highest levels of cybersecurity.

The government will enhance its capability to access servers used by hackers as a preemptive measure known as “active cyber defense,” which was legalized in October.

In case of a possible challenge to Japan’s national security, the government will deploy a support team of officials from the Defense Ministry, the National Police Agency and the National Cybersecurity Office.

Under the measures in the package, a “top gun" team of cybersecurity experts will be set up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry by the end of November. Team members will use AI to counter hackers and detect weaknesses in network systems. They are to cooperate with technology companies and advanced AI developers of friendly nations to keep Japan's security expertise up to date.

There will also be a “cyber rescue team” of experts from the public and private sectors to provide initial responses to companies affected by cyberattacks. A separate team will help vulnerable companies to strengthen their defenses.

Despite Trump’s affinity for project management, though, with Democrats taking control of Congress, the work his administration is doing to change the physical face of the District of Columbia is sure to encounter far more roadblocks than it did for the first two years of his second term.

From the renaming of and renovation plans for the Kennedy Center to remaking a public golf course and erecting an arch 100 feet (30.48 meters) taller than the Statue of Liberty without its pedestal, Trump has been deeply involved in how D.C. looks. Democrats have voiced opposition but, in terms of power, have been in the wilderness.

The potential collision point between opposition oversight from Democrats and the Republican president's preoccupation with the projects was evident in his last message to the American public before the election — and in his first afterward, too.

Both focused to some degree on his projects. On Monday, it was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial; on Wednesday, it was a tour of the under-construction White House ballroom, where he talked columns and steel beams and Corinthian designs.

The clouds of scrutiny are already gathering

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee with jurisdiction over the Interior Department that is involved with operations at parks and federal lands, spent much of the past year probing and questioning Trump’s projects, laying the groundwork for this moment.

“We’ve pushed back against vanity projects that seek to transform treasured public spaces into gaudy tributes to Trump. We exposed corruption, uncovered the efforts to hijack America’s 250th birthday, demanded accountability, and offered a compelling alternative governing vision grounded in science, fairness, environmental responsibility, and the rule of law,” Huffman said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support to be chairman.

As chairman with a strong Democratic majority, “I will ensure that the Committee’s full investigative and oversight authority is leveraged to uncover wrongdoing, demand accountability, and protect the public interest," he said.

Trump has been rushing the various projects, a point Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer made Thursday at a public hearing when he opposed construction of the memorial arch the president has planned in Memorial Circle directly across the Memorial Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial.

"The appropriations process beginning Jan. 3 will be controlled by Democrats. That will be one of the ways Congressman Beyer will step in,” said Beyer’s spokesman Aaron Fritschner.

A less appreciated impact will be the change in who names the general counsel of the House. The House Speaker has that role, presumably Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

While Democrats have joined in lawsuits opposing the various projects, their filings don't carry the weight of Congress as the minority. “You’ll see the new majority pulling back the balance of power that (House Speaker) Mike Johnson was willing to cede,” Fritschner said.

A planning commission hearing for the arch featured dozens of witnesses

Beyer has already been a critic, Fritschner said, and cited other members who have signed on in amicus briefs. More than 120 witnesses were on hand for the National Capital Planning Commission meeting, which ran for 9 ½ hours late into Thursday night.

The commission gave the 250-foot (76-meter) arch its final approval on an 8-4 vote, before a federal judge stepped in before midnight to block the Trump administration from breaking ground for 14 days.

The remote, call-in commission hearing — which crashed repeatedly and was accompanied by a nearly universally negative comment section — drew witnesses who gave impassioned, three-minute comments opposing an arch they said will destroy the solemnity of nearby Arlington National Cemetery.

The Trump-appointed chairman of the commission, however, launched into a gushing appraisal of the towering monument and lauded Trump for wanting to build it.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is considering a motion from three veterans and an architectural historian to stop any work until the lawsuit is resolved. A separate lawsuit filed Saturday by the District of Columbia and Virginia has been consolidated with the existing one. D.C. and Virginia have asked for a temporary restraining order, which Chutkan granted late Thursday with her 14-day delay.

At Wednesday's ballroom construction site tour, Trump spoke about the ballroom, the East Potomac Golf Links and the National Garden of American Heroes proposed for West Potomac Park and the arch. All four have been, or are currently in, litigation.

One of them, the golf course, has turned into an undertaking beyond the potential construction. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes has said she plans to open a “formal inquiry” to investigate if attorneys for the Trump administration violated ethical boundaries during a legal dispute about that project.

Beyond the courts, Congress is now an added bulwark

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the plaintiffs in several of the lawsuits, said the switch of control means the organizations that have filed lawsuits and challenged the administration will now be joined by Congress.

Organizations like hers will continue challenging the administration in court, she said, but “the important thing now is that the American people now have a tool that’s not just in the courts.”

Added Perryman: “We hope and we anticipate Congress will fulfill its constitutional duty of checking executive branch excesses.” That includes hearings and investigations into funding plans and sources, she said.

Information about estimates for work on the projects has been slim, even in court, with assessments trickling out during testimony in some cases. One number, for example, revolves around the seawall at the golf course, which would exceed $300 million. Congress appropriated $257 million for the renovation of the Kennedy Center.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Another area that could impact the District of Columbia is the change in governorships. Texas, Georgia, Iowa and Nevada all have Democrats coming into power as a result of Tuesday's elections. They account for more than 600 National Guard members who are part of the mobilization that Trump ordered in August 2025.

Democrats who provided troops during the celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary were roundly criticized for their participation and removed their troops and airmen months ago. Nearly 3,100 are stationed in the city now, up slightly from last month.

Instead, it was another improving skater who took the lead as Kao Miura delivered a clean short program featuring two high-scoring quadruple jumps to score 102.90.

That was 30 more than the erratic short which placed him ninth in the Grand Prix opener in France two weeks earlier, before he bounced back in the free skate for silver.

Miura's Japanese teammate Shun Sato is second on 101.97, with Russian Evgeni Semenenko, competing as a neutral athlete, third on 99.72.

Shaidorov of Kazakhstan avoided the falls that troubled him in France last month, but stepped out on the landing of his opening quad lutz on his way to a score of 94.87.

Chiba leads and Ignatova returns

World silver medalist Mone Chiba led the way in the women's short program as Russian Alexandra Ignatova made a long-awaited return to the figure skating Grand Prix series.

Chiba took the lead on 76.08 points with her James Bond-themed program, despite an error on a double axel, in her first skate since the world championships in March following an offseason ankle injury.

It was just enough to keep Chiba ahead of Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia, who celebrated a personal-best 75.05 with a double fist pump as her score was announced.

Ignatova, skating as a neutral athlete, was third on 72.37 in her biggest international event since the 2022 Olympics. The 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova who raged rinkside at her silver medal in 2022 is now 22, competing under her married name, and mother to a one-year-old son.

The International Skating Union has approved neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus to enter a wider range of events this season after they were only eligible to enter the Olympics and one Olympic qualifier last season.

British team leads ice dance

Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson lead the way in ice dance after scoring 80 points in the rhythm dance to beat Georgia's Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin on 79.31. Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler of the Czech Republic are a distant third on 73.10.

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, Russians competing as neutrals, have a big lead in pairs with 74.69. European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava are second on 67.06 after dropping valuable points when a spin was ruled invalid. Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin are third for Armenia on 66.34.

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

Then, twice over the last two weeks, the river surged through his home and outbuildings in far southwestern Colorado, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the resort town of Pagosa Springs. Now a horse is missing, his barn is damaged and the river swallowed a corral. The house is strewn with mud. His tools washed downstream.

“We’re in trouble, all of us are. Not just me, everybody,” Martinez said through tears when he returned Wednesday. He said several families that go back 100 years in the same canyon had similar damage. “Nobody expected this.”

The Navajo, San Juan and Animas rivers are among those that surged beyond their banks when round after round of storms dumped heavy rain across the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

Scientists say a supercharged El Niño event — when warm water in the Pacific disrupts weather patterns — is making heavy rainfall more likely and increasingly intense across the South.

Recent flooding has struck Flagstaff, Sedona and Tucson in Arizona; Pagosa Springs and Durango in southwestern Colorado; Farmington in northwestern New Mexico; tiny Bluff in southeastern Utah; parts of the vast Navajo Nation.

With a break in the weather at last, some evacuees are returning home.

For Martinez, who was out of town for knee surgery, getting back meant navigating a mucky mess with a four-wheel drive vehicle and a lot of patience over beaten gravel roads. And he's finding his struggles may have just begun.

Martinez said he doesn't have flood insurance because insurers wouldn't provide cover for a house so near the water. He estimates at least $200,000 in losses.

He and his fiancée first stayed with one of his sons, then moved to a hotel. Both places subsequently flooded. Now they're in an Airbnb, but he worries they could end up homeless when his emergency voucher runs out in a few days.

"The government spends, you know, just millions and billions of money on overseas and everything. Right now we need that money on this side,” he said. “We need to get this, you know, all this put back together.”

A FEMA representative came to his property and took photos after the first flood. The second flood hit three days later and was twice as bad, he said.

“I know we’re on some list right now,” Martinez said. “So we’ll listen every day and we’ll see what options we have and go from there.”

As he heals from the knee surgery, he's considering whether he should ask family and friends for help cleaning up.

Hauling debris to the dump would cost $300 per load and ultimately could total thousands of dollars he does not readily have, he said.

The flooding did help end months of drought in the Four Corners area, but the raging torrents washed away rich topsoil on his land, leaving just sand and rock. Now he wonders how he'll feed his remaining animals without pasture next year.

“The normal might not ever be normal again,” Martinez said.

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Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado.

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

The High Court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa issued the sentence for Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

Mackenzie is also facing terrorism and manslaughter charges for the more than 200 other victims, as well as child abuse and torture charges in two other courts.

Justice Diana Kavedza said that Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, bore the “primary criminal culpability” for relocating his followers to a remote location and ordering them to fast to death.

Mackenzie was charged with the murders alongside 28 of his followers, including guards who enforced his fasting directives and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves. All denied the charges, except for one person who confessed and pleaded for leniency.

On Oct. 19, the court found all 29 of them guilty of the murder of 191 people.

In 2023, more than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves on the 800-acre (320-hectare) Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, where Mackenzie’s followers lived in mud huts, away from the scrutiny of local communities and authorities.

More than 60 bodies were positively identified and reburied by their relatives, while many others remain unidentified and unclaimed.

During the sentencing, Kavedza said that 183 victims died of starvation, defined as a complete lack of food, and the deaths of the other eight were classified as murder by direct homicide.

Kavedza said the killings were “cold and calculated” and dismissed claims by some of the accused that the loss of their own children altered the fact that they had participated in the killings of many other children.

The justice said that the perpetrators didn't show remorse and declared they were ready to fast to death as well. During the sentencing, Mackenzie often smiled and chatted with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, who was sentenced to 160 years in prison.

All of those who were convicted have been granted 14 days to file an appeal.

The prosecution had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.

Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and several others who were convicted, told The Associated Press that he had already launched an appeal. He said that the decision was “circling around the constitution to give a sentence that is unattainable” since the sentences of between 160 and 200 years amount to life sentences.

A father of seven, Suleiman Ziro, who traveled 120 kilometers (75 miles) for the sentencing, lost six of his children and his wife to the cult in 2023. He said that the sentence wasn't enough especially because he has yet to recover the bodies of his loved ones, calling for the death penalty in the case.

Mackenzie's son, Dan Mackenzie, said that he felt sorry for his father over the conviction, but it was “justice served to the victims." He said that he escaped by “rebelling” against his father's teachings and was often punished for it, but was glad he survived. Two of his younger brothers and three sisters were rescued and are currently at a children's home.

Those sentenced to death in Kenyan courts serve a life sentence. Kenya’s last execution was in 1987.

It's a remarkable pivot for a demographic that had shifted toward President Donald Trump just two years ago.

“We showed our power and flexed our muscle during this election,” said Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who won his battleground district in New Mexico by around 17 percentage points after winning by less than 1 percentage point in 2022.

Democrats capitalized on voters' angst over rising prices and government corruption, riding a wave of frustration to retake control of the House and the Senate.

Hispanics joined in that decisive repudiation of Trump and his Republican Party. In Texas, every county voted more Democratic than it did two years ago, when Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race. But the more heavily Hispanic the county, generally the heavier the shift.

“This is our lightning-in-the-bottle moment, that we were able to make such historic gains that we probably never conjured, especially here in Texas,” said Johnny Garcia, a sheriff's deputy who won a newly created House district in the San Antonio area where Trump won by 10 percentage points in 2024. “The only way we did that is by going after the issues that were meaning the most to people.”

Republicans lost the gains Trump made with Hispanic voters in 2024

About one-third of Hispanic voters said they backed the Republican in their local U.S. House race, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters, while roughly 4 in 10 voted for Trump two years ago.

The shift was especially pronounced in Texas, where voters flipped a Senate seat and the governor's office to Democrats along with every statewide office on the ballot.

Roughly 7 in 10 Hispanic voters supported Democrat James Talarico in the U.S. Senate contest, while only about 3 in 10 voted for Republican Ken Paxton. The group was essentially split in the 2024 presidential election, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of voters and nonvoters.

Younger Hispanics’ shift was even more pronounced, with swings of around 20 percentage points toward Talarico among Hispanic voters in Texas under 65 years old.

Cindy Candia, a 56-year-old lifelong Democrat, was thrilled to see her party find success for the first time in her 20 years living in Texas. She was especially excited about the incoming governor, Gina Hinojosa, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, where Candia lives now.

“She’s a woman, she’s Hispanic, she is from Brownsville, and I don’t think anybody thought that Texas would vote for that, for that type of person,” Candia said.

Democrats won every House district that touches the U.S.-Mexico border — which includes seats in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California — for the first time since 2008.

Even in the Senate race in Florida, where Republican Sen. Ashley Moody managed to narrowly win reelection, less than half of Hispanic voters supported Moody, while Trump definitively won this group two years earlier with 55% of Hispanics’ support.

In southwestern Kansas, three Hispanic-majority counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump flipped to backing Adam Hamilton, who became the first Democrat in nearly a century to win a U.S. Senate contest in the state. Turnout also surged 27% over 2022 in the three counties, Finney, Ford and Seward.

Fourteen Hispanic Democrats were newly elected on Tuesday, 10 of them in districts that are currently represented by Republicans or were redrawn to favor the GOP. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus will have more members than ever before, said Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, chair of the caucus' campaign arm, CHC BOLD PAC.

Latino voters want someone who is “understanding of their issues” to represent them on Capitol Hill, said Leticia Gutierrez, a Democrat who won a Houston-area House district that Texas Republicans redrew in a failed attempt to pick up five more seats in the state.

“I’m gonna carry all of those things with me to Washington to be able to have that lens,” Gutierrez said.

Manny Rutinel, a Democrat who defeated Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado, said voters responded to his life story, trusting that he understands their economic concerns after growing up in a family that sometimes struggled to make ends meet.

“I think that they elected me because they know that for me it’s deeply personal,” Rutinel said.

Democrats can't take Latino voters for granted

In House districts where at least a quarter of the citizen voting-age population is Hispanic, the Democratic share in Tuesday’s midterms averaged about 11 percentage points higher than Harris' 2024 performance. By contrast, other House districts saw a 7-percentage-point gain on average.

In majority-Hispanic counties, Democratic Senate candidates exceeded their party's 2024 results by more than 15 percentage points.

Latinos have been especially affected by Trump's immigration crackdown, which was a prominent issue alongside economic concerns in some of the most heavily Latino districts.

Though Trump's promise to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country illegally was popular during his campaign, Americans now disapprove of his approach to immigration enforcement.

“Everybody voted for him, but the people that voted for him, he’s locking them up," said Elton Reid, a 44-year-old Latino voter and full-time caregiver for his father in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Like he promised them the world, and he didn’t come through with it, and now he’s locking them up.”

Reid voted for Democrats in his battleground district, where Democrat Bob Brooks defeated Republican Rep. Ryan McKenzie.

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, a Latino Democrat, warned that the shift toward Democrats hinges on the party keeping campaign pledges.

“They saw betrayal from Trump after they gave him a chance in 2024,” Tuerk said. “And they went with the Democrats, and they’re giving them a chance now.”

“But," he added, "they’re on probation.”

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Catalini and Cooper reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Linley Sanders, Aaron Kessler and Humeri Lodhi in Washington; John Hanna in Topeka, Kan.; Erik Verduzco in York, S.C.; Fabianna Rincon in New York; and Tassanee Vejpongsa in Allentown, Pa., contributed.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the 2026 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/elections.

The year was 2001. Spears, then just 19, was one of the most famous people on the planet, championed as the ultimate teen dream by legions of fans across the globe and a leering celebrity industry. That year, she'd performed during the Super Bowl halftime show and changed the course of fashion forever — first, showing up with beau Justin Timberlake in matching denim at the American Music Awards and then with an albino python around her neck during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

She was entering adulthood, full steam ahead, after enjoying a meteoric run with her first two albums, 1999's “… Baby One More Time” and 2000's “Oops! … I Did It Again.” Her third album, “Britney,” was being released just ahead of her 20th birthday and would prove transformative.

Legacy Recordings on Friday is releasing “Britney (25th Anniversary Edition),” an expanded reissue of her pivotal record, which went quadruple platinum in less than two months. The collection features two remixes and five previously unreleased songs from that era, her first new (or is it old?) music since she announced she would “never return to the music industry” in a 2024 Instagram post.

The release is an opportunity to reflect on the album and Spears' unique position in popular culture's imagination — particularly following the news of the last few years. In 2021, she was released from a court conservatorship that controlled the pop singer’s life and money for nearly 14 years. And in February, it was announced that she had sold the rights to her music catalog to Primary Wave for an undisclosed sum.

Listening to ‘Britney,’ 25 years later

The album opens with a spoken-word declaration. Back in 2001, it was considered a provocation — as it often is when a young woman expresses her own prerogative.

“I know I may be young,” Spears seduces over choppy R&B production, courtesy of The Neptunes, the award-winning duo of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. “But I’ve got feelings, too.”

The song is the single “I'm a Slave 4 U,” where Spears made it clear that the bubblegum pop of her previous releases had been traded in for something decidedly more mature. And that's true even of the album's songs written and produced by previous collaborators Max Martin and Rami Yacoub — tracks like “Bombastic Love” still sparkle, but with newfound edge.

If Spears was borrowing from the teen-to-adult pop star trajectory laid forth by forebears like Madonna or Janet Jackson on “Britney,” she did so while keeping it PG-13 — hinting at developed sensuality as a means to express self-definition, but remaining accessible and agreeable to her younger audience. To put it another way, she toes the line: “I'm not a girl, not yet a woman,” as the single goes.

That's all while proclamations of autonomy — sexual and otherwise — punctuate the album. “Say hello to the girl that I am,” she invites on “Overprotected.” “Now I live for me,” she flips the script on “Lonely.” “She's in control,” on the funky, erotic “Boys.”

A sense of self-reflection is amplified by the fact that the album is self-titled, and that Spears co-wrote five songs on the original album: “Lonely,” “Anticipating,” “Let Me Be,” “That's Where You Take Me” and the spiky “Cinderella.”

The previously unreleased ‘Britney’ songs add to Spears' mythology

The first of the five archival tracks is “She’ll Never Be Me,” co-written with Timberlake, her then-boyfriend, who also sings background. Timberlake cowrote a track on the original album, but the new release comes after Spears wrote about their relationship in her 2023 memoir, sharing deeply personal details about a pregnancy, abortion and painful breakup.

As far as how it fits in with the rest of the album, the song slots in nicely with its vocal effects and propulsive Y2K production — by any measure, it makes for a fine B-side.

The same could be said of the rest, from the slow-burn fake-out “Am I A Sinner” and Latin pop-informed rhythms of “Right Now (Taste the Victory)” to the glitchy, proto-hyperpop “When I Say So” and soulful, unusually lengthy “My Big Secret,” which features Spears' strongest vocal performance of the whole album. It's a stunning falsetto.

Thematically, a number of these tracks could be read as a response to the tabloid press' obsession with Spears' virginity at the time of its release. “I don't want to mislead you,” she sings on “When I Say So.” “You'll get some when I say so.”

And on “Am I A Sinner” she may very well be reflecting back on an unjust media — or any bad relationship: “Tell me, am I a sinner? / Tell me, am I wrong? / Something's wrong with the picture / This is not my fault.”

Since the release of her bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me” — which details her childhood, rise to stardom, marriages, motherhood and conservatorship — fans have worked to recontextualize how Spears was portrayed early on in her career. These songs will no doubt inspire more detective work. But others may approach it more simply, through the rose-colored glasses of easy nostalgia.

In the end, it is an album written and recorded in the space between adolescence and adulthood, from the woman a generation looked to for guidance on doing the same.

“I thought he would return. I certainly intended to call him up,” Jesus said when he presented his Nations League squad on Friday, a day after Ronaldo announced that he was ending his long and illustrious career for his country.

“He felt that this was the right moment to leave, and that must be respected. We can never overlook what he has meant to Portugal, what he has contributed to the country, or the fact that he serves as a symbol for younger players.”

Ronaldo’s final appearance with Portugal was on Sept. 24 in a 1-0 home win over Wales in the Nations League.

Jesus kept Ronaldo on the bench for the following match and said he didn’t plan to start him in the next one. Ronaldo responded by leaving the team’s training camp.

Ronaldo later apologized. But the Portuguese soccer federation fined him and suspended him from the team for 30 days.

In a long video posted on his social media accounts on Thursday, Ronaldo said “the day has come for me to hand back the No. 7 shirt of our national team.”

The 41-year-old Ronaldo will still play at the club level in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr. He is in pursuit of his 1,000th career goal and sits on 985. Of those, a men’s record 146 goals came in 234 appearances with Portugal.

The Portuguese federation said on Thursday that it intends to organize a tribute to Ronaldo, who played in six World Cups and helped his nation win the 2016 European Championship.

Portugal hosts Denmark in Braga on Nov. 14 and three days later visits Wales in Cardiff. Portugal has already qualified for the Nations League quarterfinals.

Jesus took over Portugal from Roberto Martínez after a disappointing World Cup when Ronaldo featured as the point of the attack.

Questions about Ronaldo dominated Friday’s press conference, even though Jesus said he wanted to focus on his team.

He also said he did not take the public split with Ronaldo, an icon in Portugal, personally.

“As for any hard feelings? There are none. Why? Because all of my decisions were made with the team in mind,” he said. “As a coach, I’ve always advocated for what was best for the team, so I’m completely at ease with everything.”

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Portugal squad:

Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), Rui Silva (Sporting), Samuel Soares (Benfica).

Defenders: Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Alberto Costa (Porto), Ruben Dias (Manchester City), Tomás Araújo (Benfica), Renato Veiga (Villarreal), António Silva (Bournemouth), João Cancelo (Barcelona), Nuno Tavares (Lazio).

Midfielders: João Palhinha (Benfica), Ruben Neves (Al-Hilal), Mateus Fernandes (Tottenham), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain), João Neves (Paris Saint-Germain), Bernardo Silva (Real Madrid), Pedro Neto (Chelsea), Francisco Trincão (Al-Ahli), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United).

Forwards: Carlos Forbs (Club Brugge), João Félix (Al-Nassr), Rafael Leão (Galatasaray), Geovany Quenda (Chelsea), Rodrigo Mora (Roma), Gonçalo Ramos (AC Milan), Fábio Silva (Borussia Dortmund), Gustavo Varela (Monza).

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Some walk around the cafeteria with buckets collecting leftover lunch scraps. These apple cores, banana peels and grape stems ultimately head to Lovin's outdoor compost bin. Others put unopened milk in a shared refrigerator for students to grab as a snack or take home. Uneaten salad scraps are dumped into the school's chicken coop.

Lovin Elementary, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Atlanta, is one example of the many U.S. schools composting, using share tables and tailoring food choices to cut how much cafeteria food ends up in the trash.

“Now there's not a lot going to the landfill, and there's not just scraps everywhere,” said student Aissatou Brown. “And it feels like we're saving the planet.”

Public schools serve more than 30 million lunches each day, according to federal figures. The vast majority come from the Agriculture Department's National School Lunch Program. But experts say tons of cafeteria food is wasted each year, costing the schools and contributing to methane in landfills. Recovery, recycling and composting have cut waste, despite challenges.

Sometimes the solutions are as simple as picking better chicken nuggets, or using clear trash bags to make the waste more visible, said Carmen Byker Shanks, director of scientific strategy at the Center for Nutrition and Health Impact.

“The reason why food waste might be happening in one school is probably different than other schools,” she said.

“When everybody’s at the table and the students are coming up with solutions, and the nutrition staff are responding to them, and the teachers are helping facilitate the conversations, I think those interventions have been pretty successful,” she added. “When we reduce food waste by helping kids eat more of their meal, we’re essentially supporting learning.”

Putting solutions into place

Lovin, which serves around 900 students, conducted its first food audit in 2018 after receiving funding through the World Wildlife Fund’s Food Waste Warriors program. Students who sorted cafeteria waste found 589 pounds (267.2 kilograms) of discarded food, including 74 pounds (33.6 kilograms) of fruit and vegetable waste and 120 pounds (54.4 kilograms) of recoverable items during one two-hour lunch period, said Gerin Hennebaul, who leads agriculture and science initiatives at Lovin.

In response, students brainstormed announcements and posters to reduce waste. Lovin introduced the designated table and refrigerator for sharing unopened cafeteria items. Food waste dropped by nearly one third in its next food audit months later.

In fall 2021, Lovin received a grant for on-site composting. Now, students collect and weigh their scraps, and Lovin’s master gardener takes them to the bin outdoors.

Volume grew as composting was expanded to each grade level, so Lovin built vermicomposting bins — using worms — and began sharing its waste with a local nonprofit, Creative Enterprises, for use in its garden.

Shared items that are unclaimed at the end of the week now stock Lovin’s food pantry for community members in need. Now, it’s not unusual for Lovin to compost around 100 pounds (45.4 kilograms) of produce waste in a week, and students often collect around 100 share table items each lunch.

“Our cafeteria, it’s just really turned into another classroom and ... they don’t realize they’re even learning, but they’re learning every day,” Hennebaul said. “Hearing the kids come in and say, ‘we’re composting at our house now,’ or ‘we built a chicken coop at our home,’ or ‘hey, my family brought in XYZ for the food pantry today’ ... that’s been the biggest thing, and we want to see this happen in other schools all over.”

Starting education before food even hits the plate, and other initiatives

Many schools in Baltimore City Public Schools, a district serving more than 76,000 students, have share tables, and some have composting.

Its biggest initiative is a 33-acre (13.4-hectare) learning farm that encourages students to be less wasteful by teaching them about what resources go into making food.

“It’s not really fair to expect students to be curious or excited about fruits and veggies in their cafeteria or healthy options in the cafeteria in general, if they’ve never really had a hands-on experience to interact with fruits and vegetables, harvesting, planting, tasting them right out of the ground,” said Anne Rosenthal, a farm-to-school specialist for the district.

She said many students are familiar with environmental justice issues and pollution, so reducing waste hits close to home.

“We see this as a really important step in empowering students to be part of the solution, and we’ve seen them pick it up really, really quickly in the cafeterias,” she said.

The district is also a participant in the Food Waste Warriors program, which is one of the larger independent resources helping schools fight food waste. The World Wildlife Fund program has worked with more than 1,000 schools, and it says that some have cut waste by as much as 70%.

In 2019, WWF analyzed the food waste of 46 schools in eight states, and used the data to estimate that schools nationwide could be wasting about 530,000 tons (480,807.5 metric tons) of food per year, costing them $1.7 billion, though it acknowledged it was extrapolating from a small sample of schools.

School districts are limited in what they can implement

The Agriculture Department also provides resources for schools to reduce waste, and many of the approaches overlap with those used by the schools in Baltimore and Lawrenceville. Its website includes guides for conducting food waste audits, creating share tables and giving students greater choice. Other tips include scheduling recess before lunch and extending lunchtime.

A spokesperson for the department said in an email that it also recommends schools reassess how they buy and prepare food to reduce waste.

School budgets can be a barrier to implementing new strategies, with administrators already facing tough choices on teacher salaries and classroom materials. Composting, especially when required under some state laws, might also necessitate extra staff.

Districts are also bound by federal requirements for well-balanced meals and food safety rules. Experts say those rules are important but can lessen flexibility in trying new approaches.

“There’s a ton of constraints and a ton of reasons why this doesn’t get a lot of attention,” said Pete Pearson, a World Wildlife Fund vice president. He said the current cafeteria setup doesn't always prevent kids from throwing edible food away — even as millions of children are food insecure across the nation.

Bringing students into the process is a key part of the solution, Pearson said.

“The more that we involve the students in this whole journey, the more it’s just going to really light up.”

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

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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

The short-video sharing platform must change the design of its “For You” feed so that users have more control over opting out of seeing certain content, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm said Friday.

The platform failed to assess how its recommendation systems could lead people into “rabbit holes” that threaten their well-being, regulators said, by feeding them similar video clips based on what they've previously viewed or liked even if they are "triggering" such as clips about weight loss and mental health struggles.

TikTok said the European Commission's findings are “fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform’s architecture and our commitment to user safety.”

“We have a strong record of protecting our community while giving users direct and intuitive control over their content experience,” the company said in a statement.

The company will have a chance to respond before the European Commission issues its final decision, which could include a fine of up to 6% of TikTok's total annual revenue.

“Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same, leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees tech sovereignty, said in a statement.

"Today’s preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users’ well-being, including those of minors.”

TikTok has added some measures, such as a “not interested” button to reduce the “rabbit hole effect,” but the commission said they're ineffective in reducing how often harmful content is recommended.

European regulators said they want TikTok to make changes to its “For You” feed, including giving more weight to ‘explicit preferences’ of people using the platform, stopping reliance on viewing time as a metric for recommending content, and making user controls more accessible.

It's the latest in a series of enforcement actions targeting TikTok by EU regulators using the bloc's Digital Services Act, a wide-ranging rule book that requires tech companies to adhere to a framework under threat of hefty financial penalties.

The commission opened its investigation into whether TikTok violated the DSA more than two years ago. This year, it has already issued two other sets of preliminary findings, accusing the platform of breaching the rules with “ addictive design ” features that lead to compulsive use by children and charging it with failing to adequately protect children's privacy rights.

• Michigan opened its 2026-27 season with a historic victory, defeating No. 2 UConn, 77-66, at Crisler Center.
• The No. 5 Wolverines earned the highest-ranked win in program history by taking down the No. 2 Huskies.
• The game remained close through the first three quarters, with neither team leading by more than six points.
• Michigan pulled away in the fourth quarter, getting key contributions from its experienced players.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines women’s basketball’s first game of the 2026-27 season became one of the biggest wins in program history.

The No. 5-ranked Wolverines beat the No. 2-ranked UConn Huskies, 77-66.

The win against the Huskies is Michigan’s highest-ranked win of all time.

“It’s early in the season, so it’s not like we won the national championship, but we had one of the best teams in college basketball come to Ann Arbor, and we were able to get that victory,” Michigan head coach Kim Barnes-Arico said after the win.

Through the first three quarters, neither team led by more than six points.

That changed in the fourth quarter when the Wolverines started to pull away with some key performances from their experienced core.

Te’Yala Delfosse had a career night in the top-five showdown at Crisler Center.

The junior finished with 22 points (a career-high) and a team-high nine rebounds.

“We all leaned into each other and told each other to have fun,” Delfosse said of her team’s approach against the Huskies. “Whatever way this game goes, at least have fun in it. That’s where I was throughout the game.”

Junior Olivia Olson stepped up in the season opener, too. Olson finished with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting.

The Wolverines are back in action on Sunday (Nov. 8) against Wright State at 2 p.m.

The last-minute intervention came after local media reported that Najib had left the prison, after his political party paid a 50 million ringgit ($12.3 million) fine required under the terms of a royal pardon allowing house arrest.

The attorney general's office said in a statement that Najib would remain in prison until the legal matters were resolved.

Najib has been imprisoned since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld his conviction in his first graft trial linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state investment fund 1MDB. Malaysia’s king in September granted Najib clemency, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest once he pays the court-imposed fine.

The house arrest applies only to his reduced six-year sentence in the first trial. It doesn’t cover a separate 15-year prison sentence imposed in December 2025 for corruption and money laundering in a second major trial tied to the 1MDB scandal. He's appealing that sentence.

The attorney general's office cited legal ambiguities in the house arrest order and raised concerns over how it could affect Najib's consecutive 15-year prison sentence. It said the delay was not to meant to contest the royal pardon allowing house arrest but to ensure it was implemented accurately and in line with the law.

Local media reported that Najib was returned to prison later Friday, after undergoing medical checks.

Police were earlier stationed at Najib's house in Kuala Lumpur and the road leading to it was blocked. Najib's lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

Asyraf Wajid Dusuki, secretary-general of the United Malays National Organization, said in a statement that the party had collected sufficient funds through its donation drive for Najib. He said the party had completed payment of the fine at the High Court earlier Friday.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier said that he disagreed with UMNO’s decision to settle Najib's fine because it risked sending the wrong message about large-scale corruption offenses. But he acknowledged it was the party's right.

“That should not give the public the impression that acts of corruption involving billions of ringgit can simply be overlooked," he was quoted as saying by the national news agency Bernama.

Najib could be imprisoned again if his second appeal fails

Najib set up the 1MDB development fund shortly after he took office in 2009. Investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through layers of bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries. The funds were allegedly used to finance Hollywood films and extravagant purchases that included hotels, a luxury yacht, art and jewelry.

He was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 210 million ringgit ($51.5 million) in 2020 for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million) channeled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

In January 2024, the Pardons Board halved his sentence to six years and reduced his fine to 50 million ringgit.

King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar subsequently granted Najib a conditional pardon, paving the way for house arrest until Aug. 23, 2028, provided he paid the fine. If Najib fails to win appeal in the second case, he could face a further 15 years in prison after the current sentence ends.

Public outrage over the 1MDB scandal led to the historic 2018 election defeat of the ruling coalition, which had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957. Despite his conviction, Najib still wields influence in his party, UNMO, which is now part of a new government that took power in 2022.

“Every time I got on a Zoom with her I was somewhat intimidated,” Heder recalls. “She had a way of asking you questions that immediately put you on your back foot. She would go: ‘How are you? How’s your family? Have you talked to so-and-so yet?’”

When Heumann died at the age of 75, she left behind a towering legacy as the so-called “mother of the disability rights movement.” Debating how to follow up her best picture-winning family drama “CODA,” Heder at first didn’t know what to do.

“I wondered whether I could continue to make the movie without her,” says Heder. “At that point, I had so many connections with her family and friends and other protesters. It felt very important to carry on and make the movie.”

In making “Being Heumann,” which opened in theaters Friday and premieres Nov. 13 on Apple TV, Heder set herself a tall task. She wanted to tell the story of a crucial historical moment in the disability rights movement: when Heumann led some 150 protesters in a 1977 sit-in occupying the San Francisco offices of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The demonstration led to the U.S. secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo in the film), finally enacting the Rehabilitation Act, which four years earlier had made accessibility a requirement of federal buildings but had gone unenforced. Heder, imagining her film as a “Dog Day Afternoon” for disability rights, aimed to capture the collective thrall of a protest that, considering the disabilities of its demonstrators, was exponentially more challenging.

But none of that story would work without an actor capable of leading the film and channeling the spirit of Heumann.

It's hard to overstate Heumann’s importance. In 2010, President Barack Obama selected her to lead international disability rights diplomacy for the State Department. The Oscar-winning 2020 documentary “Crip Camp,” produced by Obama, derived much of its power from Heumann’s tough Brooklyn charisma.

Heumann’s legacy made the role for Ruth Madeley both profoundly meaningful and extremely daunting. By Madeley’s own account, Heumann was “the queen of our community.”

A leading role for Ruth Madeley

Madeley, 39, is from near Manchester, in the U.K., but, like Heumann, has used a wheelchair most of her life. Heumann contracted polio as an infant; Madeley was born with spina bifida.

“I grew up never seeing anyone who looked like me on screen,” Madeley says. “It wasn’t whether I could do it. It was a subconscious thing: It’s not even an option.”

Yet Madeley has established herself in Britain as an acclaimed actor. She was BAFTA-nominated for 2015’s “Don’t Take My Baby,” about a couple with disabilities fighting to prevent their baby from being taken from them.

“I’m in a position now where people listen to me, but at the beginning of my career, I wouldn’t have said anything,” Madeley says. “If there was no ramp, I would have said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s fine.’ Now, I want to encourage so many disabled people to not do that.”

But “Being Heumann” is Madeley’s biggest role to date. For Heder, she was the clear choice. On “CODA,” a landmark movie for deaf representation enlivened by the performances of Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant, Heder saw the power of casting authentically.

“The real lived experience of being in a disabled body is something that’s very hard to capture if you haven’t lived it,” Heder says. “Every disabled experience is different. I think generality is the enemy of representation.”

Still, disabled characters rarely appear prominently in popular films, and even more seldom get the big-screen biopic treatment of a movie like “Being Heumann.” The Apple production features the largest-ever ensemble cast of disabled actors. At the film's Toronto International Film Festival premiere, just their collective presence on the red carpet made a potent statement.

“The majority of sets I’ve been on, I’ve literally been the only disabled person, whereas this is most of the cast,” says Madeley. “Being on the set of ‘Being Heumann’ really healed part of my acting journey. To have that on a Hollywood movie, that was my dream.”

Thinking: ‘What would Judy do?’

Madeley stood out to Heder for what she calls “a very earthy, blunt, grounded vibe” that reminded her of Heumann.

“Ruth is an incredibly deep actor and she’s also really funny. That combination was important to me,” Heder says. “Judy had an incredible sense of humor and wit and yet she also had a ferocity where she scared people. There were protesters who told me they were more scared of Judy Heumann than they were of the FBI. It was finding someone you felt like people were going to follow into that building.”

Heumann’s legendary stubbornness is a big part of “Being Heumann,” both in her ability to drive the movement forward and in how her hard-headedness sometimes chafed with her protesting colleagues. For Madeley, it was crucial that Heumann not be turned into a saint, as can often be the case with disabled characters.

“She could be hard work, and I love that,” says Madeley. “She wasn’t perfect. She wasn’t the perfect disabled person. She went about things a certain way.”

Madeley understood that quality because it’s one she shares, and has needed, herself, in an industry so averse to those with disabilities.

“I’m very stubborn, very determined,” Madeley says. “If I want to make something happen, I make it happen. I would love to say I’m as good as Judy. I’m absolutely not and I’m still working on that. But she said so many things in the book where I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ve said that several times in my life.’”

The movie’s title comes from Heumann’s 2020 autobiography, “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.” It was one of many resources for Madeley, who filled her days, and sometimes nights, with videos of Heumann speaking.

“I listened to her before I went to sleep,” she says.

Heumann remains much on the minds of Madeley and Heder. The movie's release has been an ongoing negotiation of accessibility for her cast, in promotional appearances and theater showings. Heder has continually asked herself: “What would Judy do?”

“I think about her all the time,” says Heder. “I hope she would be proud of the movie and the way that we made it.”

• Major Michigan utilities are suing: CMS Energy, Consumers Energy, DTE Energy, DTE Electric and DTE Gas filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 5 challenging Michigan’s new campaign finance law.
• The lawsuit targets Proposal 2: Approved by Michigan voters Nov. 3, the ballot initiative added Section 30a to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, restricting political contributions by utilities and their affiliates.
• The restrictions cover more than utility companies: The law also applies to certain executives, board members, owners, agents, immediate family members, and affiliated organizations.
• Political contributions are at the center of the dispute: The law prohibits covered utilities and individuals from making direct or indirect contributions to certain candidates, political committees, political parties and affiliated organizations.

Two of Michigan’s largest utility companies, along with their political action committees and two individuals linked to utility executives, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a voter-approved campaign finance law that prohibits utilities and their affiliates from making certain political contributions.

CMS Energy Corp., Consumers Energy Co., DTE Energy Co., DTE Electric Co. and DTE Gas Co. filed the lawsuit Nov. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, seeking to block enforcement of Section 30a of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.

The lawsuit also names CMS Energy’s political action committee, Employees for Better Government; DTE Energy’s political action committee; DTE Treasurer Case Lancaster; and Lancaster’s mother as plaintiffs.

The defendants include Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, all named in their official capacities.

The challenge centers on Proposal 2, a ballot initiative approved by Michigan voters Nov. 3 that amended the state’s campaign finance law.

Among its provisions, the measure added Section 30a, which prohibits electric and gas utilities, their principals and entities affiliated with them from making direct or indirect political contributions to a broad range of candidates, political committees and organizations.

Under the new law, prohibited recipients include candidates for governor, attorney general and state legislative offices; state and local political party committees; certain political committees; members of the Michigan Public Service Commission; and organizations affiliated with covered elected officials and candidates.

The utilities argue the measure violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments by restricting political speech based on the speaker’s identity and limiting individuals’ ability to participate in elections.

“The First Amendment forbids the government from silencing disfavored speakers or viewpoints in this fashion,” the companies’ complaint states.

The lawsuit alleges the ballot initiative was specifically designed to limit the political influence of Michigan’s utilities because of disagreements over energy policy, rates, reliability and corporate profits.

The plaintiffs contend the law allows labor unions, advocacy organizations and other political groups to continue making contributions while imposing restrictions on utilities and people associated with them.

The complaint also argues the measure lacks evidence of the type of corruption that could justify restrictions on campaign contributions.

The companies say the initiative’s supporters relied on broad concerns about “pay-to-play politics,” corporate influence, and special interests but did not identify specific instances of bribery or exchanges of campaign contributions for official government action involving the utilities.

Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the lawsuit argues that restrictions on campaign contributions must be closely drawn to address the government’s interest in preventing actual or apparent quid pro quo corruption.

The plaintiffs also contend existing Michigan campaign finance regulations already address potential corruption through contribution limits, disclosure requirements, restrictions on contributions made in another person’s name and other safeguards.

The new law, they argue, goes significantly further by imposing a blanket prohibition rather than narrower contribution limits.

--> Jocelyn Benson’s campaign promises as Michigan governor

Law could affect employees, families and political committees

A central part of the lawsuit challenges how Section 30a defines a utility’s principals and affiliated organizations.

The law’s definition of a principal includes members of a utility’s board of directors, majority and substantial owners, senior officers, certain agents and immediate family members of specified utility executives.

The plaintiffs argue the language could extend restrictions beyond utility employees and executives to attorneys, accountants, consultants, contractors, and family members with no involvement in utility business decisions.

The lawsuit specifically argues that DTE Treasurer Case Lancaster’s mother is covered by the law solely because of her relationship with her son, despite having no role in a utility.

Lancaster also contends the law prevents him from making personal political contributions with his own money because of his employment as a utility treasurer.

Both individuals say they want to continue supporting candidates and political causes of their choice.

The companies’ political action committees also argue the law effectively eliminates their ability to contribute to many Michigan candidates.

Employees for Better Government is a separate segregated fund associated with CMS Energy and Consumers Energy.

DTE PAC is a similar organization associated with DTE Energy and its subsidiaries.

According to the complaint, both committees are funded through voluntary contributions from eligible employees and shareholders, not corporate treasury funds.

The plaintiffs say Michigan law has historically permitted such committees to solicit voluntary employee contributions and participate in elections.

Employees for Better Government contributed to state political candidates and committees in 2025, including the Michigan Senate Democratic Fund and House Republican Campaign Committee, according to the lawsuit.

DTE PAC also contributed to organizations representing both major political parties, including the Michigan Senate Democratic Fund and Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

The lawsuit alleges more than 90% of DTE PAC’s contributions go to state candidates and committees, while essentially all of Employees for Better Government’s contributions fall into categories prohibited by Section 30a.

The committees say the restrictions will prevent them from representing their members’ political interests and reduce their ability to solicit contributions.

Companies challenge scope and penalties

The lawsuit raises additional concerns about the law’s definition of affiliated organizations.

Section 30a prohibits utilities and covered individuals from contributing to certain organizations connected to elected officials or candidates.

An organization qualifies as affiliated if an official, staff member, agent, or immediate family member helped establish, finance, maintain, or control it; solicited funds for it within the previous two years; or served in an executive or managerial role.

The law also covers certain organizations that spend more than $500 during an election cycle on contributions, expenditures, or election-related communications referencing a covered official or candidate.

The utilities argue the definitions are too broad and difficult to interpret, potentially making it impossible to determine whether an organization is eligible to receive a contribution.

They also contend the law could impose liability retroactively if a recipient organization later becomes affiliated with a covered official or makes a qualifying election-related communication.

Under Section 30a, a utility that violates the provision could face a civil fine of up to 10 times the amount of the prohibited contribution or donation.

The complaint says the law contains no knowledge requirement, safe harbor, good-faith defense, or opportunity to correct a violation by returning a contribution.

The plaintiffs argue those provisions create uncertainty and could discourage otherwise lawful political activity.

They also maintain that Michigan’s restrictions are unusually broad compared with other states.

The complaint identifies Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi as states with certain utility-specific contribution restrictions, but says those provisions are limited to elections involving utility regulatory commissions.

The lawsuit notes that Michigan’s Public Service Commission members are appointed rather than elected.

Four constitutional claims

The complaint outlines four primary legal challenges.

First, the plaintiffs argue Section 30a discriminates against specific speakers and viewpoints by restricting utilities and people associated with them while leaving other political participants free to contribute.

Second, they argue the law is not closely tailored to preventing corruption and imposes a broader restriction than necessary.

Third, the lawsuit alleges the law is unconstitutionally vague because terms such as “affiliated,” “indirectly financed,” “agent,” and “immediate family” are not sufficiently defined.

Finally, the plaintiffs claim the law violates the Equal Protection Clause by treating utilities and their affiliates differently from other regulated industries, corporations, labor organizations and advocacy groups.

The companies are seeking a declaration that Section 30a is unconstitutional, both facially and as applied to the plaintiffs.

They also are asking the court to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing state officials from investigating or enforcing the provision against them or collecting fines for alleged violations.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys with Grand Rapids-based Miller Johnson.

Law’s implementation is approaching

Under the Michigan Constitution, an initiated law approved by voters takes effect 10 days after the official declaration of the election results.

The plaintiffs estimate the official declaration will occur Nov. 23, which would make Section 30a effective around Dec. 3.

The companies argue they face immediate harm because they will have to suspend political contributions or risk substantial financial penalties once the law takes effect.

They contend the loss of First Amendment rights, even temporarily, constitutes irreparable harm and warrants court intervention before enforcement begins.

The lawsuit does not establish that the challenged law is unconstitutional.

The federal court will decide those questions as the case proceeds.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to preserve their ability to make political contributions while the constitutional challenge is litigated.

Scattered rain showers will remain on and off throughout today and tonight as a slow-moving area of low pressure tracks across the region. High temperatures will struggle to reach the upper 40s, putting readings below average for the first time this month.

Rain Showers Continue, Wet Snowflakes Possible Up North

Periods of rain will remain possible across Southeast Michigan through tonight. Farther north, colder overnight temperatures could allow a few wet snowflakes to mix in with the rain across Northern Lower Michigan later this evening. There is no significant accumulation expected especially given how warm the ground is, but it is a reminder that winter weather is beginning to make occasional appearances across the state.

More Seasonable Temperatures This Weekend

Temperatures will rebound slightly this weekend, returning to a more typical early-November range. Highs will reach the 50s on Saturday, although overnight lows will dip into the 30s. It will still feel chilly during the mornings and during the MSU vs. Michigan night game at the Big House, so plan on bundling up if you plan to be outside.

Sunshine and a Warmup Next Week

The forecast improves heading into Sunday as drier weather and more sunshine return to Southeast Michigan. Temperatures will climb a few degrees above average, with highs approaching 60 degrees Sunday into early next week.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters that the Japanese government is aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin's order imposed on the Japanese cigarette maker's subsidiaries that operate in Russia.

Japan sent senior government officials to Moscow, where they joined the Japanese ambassador to Russia to lodge a protest and demand the retraction of the measure “to make sure the legitimate interests of Japanese nationals and businesses are not violated,” Kihara said.

The takeover is the latest dispute between the two countries. Tensions have risen since Putin made a visit in August to Iturup, one of four Russian-controlled islands off Japan’s northern coast that Tokyo also claims.

The Soviet Union seized the Kuril Islands from Japan in the final days of World War II. The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Tensions escalated in mid-October over the arrest of a Japanese journalist in Russia on suspicion of spying. Following Tokyo's demands that Moscow provide an explanation, consular access and humane treatment, Japanese consulate officials were allowed to meet the Hokkaido newspaper journalist in late October and confirmed he was in good health.

Japan Tobacco said in a statement Friday its four manufacturing subsidiaries in Russia have been placed under the temporary management of a Russian firm by presidential order.

The Japanese tobacco company said it was gathering more information, considering its response and assessing the potential impact on the group.

The move follows a growing number of cases since September in which Russia placed the assets of Western companies operating in Russia under temporary Russian control, Japan's Economy and Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa said.

“To be honest, we have been cautious," Akazawa said. “We will continue to communicate with the Russian government in order to protect the assets of the Japanese companies.”

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, whose ministry holds a 37.55% stake in Japan Tobacco, told reporters Friday that she planned to “respond appropriately by cooperating closely with relevant ministries and JT, while watching the development.”

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton signed an act establishing the National Automotive Heritage Area in Southeast Michigan, celebrating the state’s rich automotive history and role in putting America on wheels.

Here are a few things to know for Friday, Nov. 6, 2026:

🌥️ 4Warn Weather: Southeast Michigan is waking up to a much colder start this morning, with wind chills in the 30s across Metro Detroit. Check out the 10-day forecast.

🏷️ Name Change Saga: Voters in Flint Township recently rejected a proposal to become “Oak Hill Township,” deciding one name is plenty. But one Michigan community took that identity question much further, changing its name six times before settling down. Learn more.

🚧 Detroit Freeway Closure: A stretch of I-75 in Detroit will be closed for construction beginning this evening, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. Get the detours.

🗳️ Mayor ‘Mama Shu’: Shamayim “Mama Shu” Harris, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Avalon Village, defeated incumbent Highland Park Mayor Glenda McDonald by 27 votes in Tuesday’s mayoral election. Hear her priorities for the city.

💍 Distraction Theft: An 86-year-old Troy woman lost more than $20,000 in gold jewelry in a distraction theft on Halloween — and she didn’t realize it until it was too late. How the suspects did it may surprise you.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

CMS Energy Corp., Consumers Energy Co., DTE Energy Co., DTE Electric Co. and DTE Gas Co. filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, seeking to block enforcement of Section 30a of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.

The lawsuit also names CMS Energy’s political action committee, Employees for Better Government; DTE Energy’s political action committee; DTE Treasurer Case Lancaster; and Lancaster’s mother, Ayesha Lancaster, as plaintiffs.

The defendants include Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, all named in their official capacities.

The challenge centers on Proposal 2, a ballot initiative approved by Michigan voters Nov. 3 that amended the state’s campaign finance law.

Among its provisions, the measure added Section 30a, which prohibits electric and gas utilities, their principals and entities affiliated with them from making direct or indirect political contributions to a broad range of candidates, political committees and organizations.

Under the new law, prohibited recipients include candidates for governor, attorney general and state legislative offices; state and local political party committees; certain political committees; members of the Michigan Public Service Commission; and organizations affiliated with covered elected officials and candidates.

The utilities argue the measure violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments by restricting political speech based on the speaker’s identity and limiting individuals’ ability to participate in elections.

“The First Amendment forbids the government from silencing disfavored speakers or viewpoints in this fashion,” the companies’ complaint states.

The lawsuit alleges the ballot initiative was specifically designed to limit the political influence of Michigan’s utilities because of disagreements over energy policy, rates, reliability and corporate profits.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy also filed a lawsuit challenging two of the Proposal 2’s campaign finance provisions.

Read more about the utilities’ lawsuit here.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• Parts of Michigan could see snow today -- here’s what to know about timing, chances
• No charges issued against deputies who shot, killed man after chase in Ypsilanti -- here’s why
• Detroit mother of 2-year-old shot with unsecured weapon at home facing charges
• Detroit restaurant owner, Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles, charged in Michigan tax case
• Eastpointe massage parlor shut down after police find alleged illegal sexual services
• Sumpter Township police millage passes by 96 votes, saving department from deep cuts
• Gorilla photo. Racial slurs. Sexual advances. Southfield woman sues over alleged harassment at work
• A behind-the-scenes look as Detroit prepares for NCAA Men’s Final Four
• Her nonverbal son wandered off school. Westland mom says staff didn’t know how long he was gone.
• Estrogen patch shortage leaves women scrambling for menopause relief
• Central Michigan men’s basketball coach placed on leave
• Man, 11-year-old relative injured in accidental shooting in Warren
• Gov.-elect Benson pledges no middle-class tax increases in first interview since election victory
• 2 arrested after Meijer theft leads to police chase, crash in Monroe County
• Music, Magic, and More This Weekend in Metro Detroit
• Detroit restricted trucks from some neighborhood streets -- Here’s how it’s going
• MSU And UM to hold ‘Piss Off’ contest at rivalry game
• Oakland County Sheriff seeks help finding missing 15-year-old
• Sterling Heights man charged for allegedly firing gun at another vehicle while driving, injuring 1
• Find more Local News headlines here
• Find more Entertainment headlines here
• Find more Health headlines here
• Check out the latest ClickOnDeals here
• Introducing the ClickOnDetroit Help Desk: How it works and how to use it

🌎 Meanwhile

News from around the world via the Associated Press:

After a campaign season filled with outrage against data centers, the midterm elections ushered in a wave of Democrats pledging to clamp down on the energy-hungry behemoths.

A tougher regulatory environment for artificial intelligence giants and data center developers is expected to follow, even if President Donald Trump — perhaps the industry’s biggest champion — stalls any federal crackdown.

Data center regulation itself was not on most midterm ballots, and it wasn’t among the top issues for most voters. But hardline stances against the server warehouses were woven into the platforms of many candidates, including the Democrats who upended longtime Republican control of the governorships in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa, many of which are data center hotspots.(Read more)

----

New limits on federal student loans filled Chloe Frabotta with anxiety as she began studying in New York City to become a physician assistant.

The changes that took effect this fall include caps on loans for particular programs as well as limits on the amount parents can borrow to pay for their children’s schooling. Up until weeks before Frabotta, 25, started her program, it was up in the air whether it would count as a “professional” program with higher loan limits. Amid the uncertainty, she borrowed around $6,000 in federal loans for her first trimester, taking out private loans for the rest with her mother as a cosigner.

“At least in my circles a lot of people were like, ’I guess that’s what I’m going to have to do, and I’m going to try to make it work,’” Frabotta said. (Read more)

----

Latino voters moved sharply to the left in the midterm elections, propelling Democrats to an improbable electoral sweep in Texas and in battleground House races from coast to coast.

It’s a remarkable pivot for a demographic that had shifted toward President Donald Trump just two years ago. “We showed our power and flexed our muscle during this election,” said Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who won his battleground district in New Mexico by around 17 percentage points after winning by less than 1 percentage point in 2022.

Democrats capitalized on voters’ angst over rising prices and government corruption, riding a wave of frustration to retake control of the House and the Senate. (Read more)

---> Find more headlines from around the world right here <---

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Obdurate /ˌa-nə-ˌmad-ˈvər-zhən / (noun) -- defined as “stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing; resistant to persuasion or softening influences.”

Example: “My neighbor maintains an obdurate refusal to use a smartphone, clinging instead to his old flip phone.”

🧹 Housekeeping

Hey, if you like this newsletter, let us know. We’d love your feedback. We also offer several other newsletters, including 4Warn Weather, All 4 Pets and more. Hopefully, we have one that caters to your interests — unless you’re only interested in absolutely crushing someone in ping pong. We don’t have one for that, sorry.

✍🏽 Written and curated by: Jenny Sherman (Have something to say? Feel free to send an email here.)

“If I had told myself like a year or so ago that I would be looking at ingredients to make a soup, that would be like insane,” she says, laughing. “Like, a soup? ‘Hell, no, it’s just a hot liquid.’”

The actor-comedian-rapper's 180-degree shift is largely thanks to her latest project: Putting together a menu and finding a location and staff to open her own restaurant.

The eight-episode Apple TV series “Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook” premiering Friday follows her journey, from learning to make stir-fry at the Culinary Institute of America to waitressing in downtown L.A. Along the way, she turned herself into a pretty good cook.

“I have these friends that are cooking up all kinds of stuff all the time. And I always felt like I was never going to be really a member of that club,” she says.

“But it’s so accessible. It really is a world that you can step into anytime. No one’s going to tell you that you can’t do it or you’re not good enough.”

Awkwafina comes from restaurant royalty

It turns out that the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Awkwafina, born Nora Lum, comes from restaurant royalty.

Her family ran Lum’s, an iconic Cantonese restaurant in the New York borough of Queens that closed in the 1990s after four decades.

Awkwafina's plan to reopen the restaurant — as a pop-up for one night — sent her across America to find dishes to honor her past: To Texas to do her own twist on Lum's barbecue spare ribs, and to Hawaii for a pupu platter.

Martin Yan, the first breakthrough Chinese TV chef, teaches her how to make chicken chow mein, and she learns to make Peking duck in San Francisco, first carefully plucking out the feathers by hand. “I love giving ducks Brazilians,” she jokes on the show.

The mission was to do something that would make her family proud, especially for her father and grandmother, who helped raise her when her mother died young.

“I feel connected to my ancestors because I’m repeating dishes in a process that they did,” she says. Making food, she adds, “is an act of love in every way.”

Executive producer David Brindley says Awkwafina and the filmmakers didn't intend to end with a pop-up. The series was initially pitched as an exploration of Asian American food but, things grew more personal and meaningful.

“It sets it apart, I think, from lots of other food travel shows because it’s got an authenticity at the heart of it,” he says.

Awkwafina learned the business, all of it

Awkwafina waitressed at the Golden Dragon banquet hall in Los Angeles, learnt to make Korean-style dumplings from chef Roy Choi and collaborated on a logo and font for the menu. She chose a pizzeria in Manhattan as the site for the pop-up, which fed 50 guests.

Awkwafina leaned on a lot of Asian American food specialists during the series and was struck by how many are reentering an industry their parents didn't want them to work in.

“Their parents came here and worked in kitchens, started restaurants and takeout places so that their kids could become lawyers and doctors,” she says. “And so to see people go back to their roots, it’s almost like rebellious.”

Pulling it all together was stressful — especially nailing the show-stopping duck dish with pineapple salsa cooked in a pizza oven at the end — and Awkwafina saw a new side of herself.

“I had never seen myself ever be flustered, be serious, rushing around,” she says. “That was really weird to see. It was a version of myself that I’d never noticed before.”

Viewers watch a woman who started the series struggle to make ramen with Spam be able to master complex meals by the end, even suggesting a dish be more tangy or that a sauce should be added to the shrimp.

So complete is the transformation that Awkwafina is in the process of reopening Lum's for the long-term, not just as a pop-up.

“Without the show, I don’t think I would have been able to do that confidently,” she says. “I would not have been able to just dive into that.”

Brindley says viewers will delight in seeing the host go from zero to hero — starting with knowing very little about food and ending up in command, opening a restaurant.

“What the show does is say to the viewers that it’s never too late to try something new, try something different, and you, too, can master that. That might be food, it might well be something else,” he says. “That is, I think, really inspiring.”

At least one coach was fired by Week 9 in each year since 2022 but there haven’t been any dismissals so far. The Colts fired general manager Chris Ballard, though.

Several coaches could be in trouble if they don’t turn things around quickly.

A total of 24 teams have made coaching chances since 2023.

Here are some of the coaches on the hot seat:

Aaron Glenn

Glenn is 5-20 with the New York Jets. Unless the Jets go 7-2 or 8-1 the rest of the way, it’s unlikely he’ll be back. The Jets own three first-round picks in 2027 and could accumulate more draft capital before Tuesday’s trade deadline.

Jim Harbaugh

The underachieving Los Angeles Chargers are 0-7 after going 11-6 in each of Harbaugh’s first two seasons. The decision to hire Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator has been a disaster and Justin Herbert has regressed. If Harbaugh stays, he’ll have a new offensive coordinator.

Dan Quinn

Led the Washington Commanders to the NFC championship game in his first season just two years ago but they were 5-12 last season and are 2-4-1. Jayden Daniels missed several games last year and has dealt with injuries this season. In a weak NFC East, the Commanders are only two games behind the Giants.

Todd Bowles

His seat was scorching hot when the Buccaneers started 0-4, but Tampa Bay has won two in a row and three of four to get back in the race in a wide-open NFC South. Bowles won the division in each of his first three seasons but the Bucs collapsed last season after a 6-2 start and finished 8-9. A one-and-done playoff appearance might not be enough for Bowles to stick around.

Shane Steichen

Steichen’s situation in Indianapolis is interesting because the GM was fired and the Colts (2-6) shifted into rebuild mode. All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner already were traded. Jonathan Taylor could be next to go. It’s unfair to evaluate Steichen in a season where the team is focusing on stockpiling draft picks for the future. But he didn’t do any better than 9-8 in his first three seasons and didn’t make the playoffs.

Brian Schottenheimer

The Cowboys (3-5) were supposed to be contenders this season and they can’t even blame injuries for their inconsistencies. Their defensive struggles weren’t solved with a new coordinator. Jerry Jones doesn’t like to fire coaches he still has to keep paying but Dallas needs a strong finish.

Nick Sirianni

A coach with Sirianni’s resume shouldn’t have to worry about job security but the Eagles have lost six in a row and Philadelphia doesn’t tolerate losing well. Sirianni has won three division titles, two NFC championships and one Super Bowl while making five playoff appearances in five seasons. He entered this season with one of the top five winning percentages in NFL history. And, he has excuses. Jalen Hurts is out for the season. Lane Johnson retired. Saquon Barkley and DeVonta Smith missed several games. The team is turning to QB Joe Milton III, who was on Dallas’ practice squad, to lead a depleted offense. But that might not save Sirianni. Doug Pederson was fired three years after he won a Super Bowl. The Eagles have high standards and impatient management.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The 29-year-old Bulgarian tested positive last year for mesterolone and was banned for four years to November 2029, the International Testing Agency said.

“Mesterolone is known for its potent androgenic properties by increasing testosterone levels and enhancing male sexual characteristics,” the ITA said in a statement.

Andreev took bronze in the 73-kilogram class at the 2024 Paris Olympics and placed fifth in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. His Olympic medal is not affected by the doping conviction.

He can appeal against the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Andreev won the gold medal at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and was twice a European champion.

___

AP Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

The rain mix started late Thursday night in parts of northern Michigan, but could turn to snow on Friday, Nov. 6.

Here’s what to know:

Areas with highest chance of seeing snow

Higher elevations in Marquette and Baraga counties have a higher chance of seeing snowflakes mix with rain.

Little to no snow accumulation is expected across most locations, according to NWS Marquette and Gaylord. However, NWS Marquette says some residents in the higher terrain of Marquette and Baraga counties may need snow brushes Friday morning.

Gusty winds could bring wind chills into the 20s across parts of northern Michigan Friday morning, although wind chills do not determine whether precipitation falls as snow.

Timing

The rain-snow mix could continue through midday Friday across portions of northern Lower Michigan. Precipitation gradually diminishes across the Upper Peninsula Friday morning.

Will there be snow in Metro Detroit?

Snow is not expected with this system. Rain remains the primary precipitation type across Southeast Michigan.

According to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the freeway will be closed for pavement repairs.

Northbound I-75 will be closed between the Lodge Freeway and I-375. Southbound I-75 will be closed between I-375 and I-96.

The closure will begin at 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, and the freeway will reopen at 5 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 9.

What are the detours?

Drivers heading northbound will be detoured to I-96, then I-94 to I-75.

Drivers heading southbound will be detoured to I-94, then I-96 to get back on I-75.

• Two people were arrested following a police pursuit that began after a reported theft at a Meijer store in Frenchtown Township.
• The incident happened Thursday, Nov. 5, around 6 p.m. at the Meijer store at 1700 N. Telegraph Road.
• Police say the suspects broke into an electronics display case inside the store.
• Investigators believe the suspects may be connected to other retail thefts at Meijer locations across the Downriver area.

MONROE COUNTY, Mich. —Two people were arrested after a vehicle pursuit that began following a reported theft at a Meijer store in Frenchtown Township, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The incident occurred on Thursday (Nov. 5) around 6 p.m., when police said the two individuals broke into an electronics display case at the Meijer store at 1700 N. Telegraph Road.

The sheriff’s office also believed the suspects were connected to several other recent retail thefts at Meijer locations across the Downriver area.

Police said they located the suspects’ vehicle traveling northbound on Monroe Street near Mall Road. When they attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver accelerated and fled northbound.

The vehicle continued onto southbound I-275 before transitioning to southbound I-75.

The pursuit ended when the vehicle left the roadway and crashed in a construction zone near South Otter Creek Road.

Both occupants exited the vehicle and fled on foot, according to the sheriff’s office.

Officers established a perimeter and used an aerial drone to locate the suspects hiding in a nearby field.

Officers took the driver, a 27-year-old man from Fairmont, West Virginia, into custody and lodged him at the Monroe County Jail.

The passenger, a 17-year-old boy from Detroit, was also arrested and lodged at the Monroe County Youth Center.

The suspects’ names are being withheld pending formal arraignment in the 1st District Court in Monroe.

The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with additional information is asked to contact the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office at 734-240-7758.

• A 10-year-old nonverbal boy with autism left Johnson Upper Elementary’s playground during recess Monday and was found safe minutes away on Newburgh Road.
• Surveillance-based timeline shared by his mother shows the last sighting at 12:38 p.m.; staff began searching at 12:52, called police at 1:09, and notified his mother at 1:20.
• His mother, Kassandra Richards, says conflicting information and the delay shook her trust and raised serious safety concerns.
• Livonia Public Schools confirmed the incident, said it is investigating, and indicated staff would adjust coverage near the playground and parking lot; the district declined further public comment.

WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. - A Westland mother said her 10-year-old, who is nonverbal and has autism, wandered off the playground at Johnson Upper Elementary in Westland. She said the school first told her he’d been missing for ten minutes, but later admitted it didn’t know how long he’d been gone.

It happened Monday during outdoor recess, according to the boy’s mother, Kassandra Richards.

The school is in the Livonia Public Schools district.

Richards said she received a call from school staff telling her that her son was missing. At first, she said, staff told her he had been gone about 10 minutes. Later, in a meeting with administrators, she learned the school could not say for sure how long he was off school grounds.

“They said they think he went through the woods, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Richards said. “I didn’t know if he’d be, you know, gone forever. I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think.”

Richards said her son was eventually found safe minutes away from the school on Newburgh Road.

Richards recorded a meeting with school administrators Wednesday and shared audio from that meeting. In the recording, a person she identified as an administrator outlines a timeline based on school surveillance cameras:

• At 12:24 p.m., video shows her son going from lunch to recess.
• The last camera image of him is at 12:38 p.m.
• At 12:52 p.m., staff realized he was missing and an official search began.
• Police were called at 1:09 p.m.
• Richards said she received a call at 1:20 p.m.
• Administrators told her he was back at school by 1:22 p.m.

Richards said the shifting information and length of time deeply shook her trust.

“I’m extremely angry and upset about it, and yeah, there’s just a loss of trust,” Richards said.

While she is grateful her son was found unharmed, Richards said the situation exposed serious safety concerns, especially given her son’s disabilities and the school’s surroundings.

“They need to have a clear, immediate response when a child goes missing like this,” Richards said. “They clearly took too long to notify the police because, again, there are pools and everything there, and all that time he could have got hit by a car because he did go in the road.”

In the recording, a person Richards identified as a staff member can be heard saying the school will make adjustments, including positioning more people near the playground and parking lot.

A district spokesperson confirmed the incident and said officials are addressing it, but did not answer specific questions about whether safety procedures will be updated, citing limitations on what they can say about student matters.

Their full statement is below:

“LPS is actively addressing a situation involving a student leaving school grounds during outdoor recess. Appropriately, we have been working directly with the parents of the child involved and will not have further comment publicly on this matter. 

LPS is focused on thoroughly investigating, understanding, and responding to all concerns shared with us.  This is consistent with the District’s overall commitment to the health, safety, and well-being of all our students.  

As part of this assurance, LPS always carefully reviews policies and procedures, as appropriate, to meet the needs of our students and our school community."

Livonia Public Schools

• Michigan and UConn meet again Friday, Nov. 6, seven months after the Wolverines defeated the Huskies to win the 2026 NCAA national championship.
• The matchup features two nationally ranked teams: No. 16 Michigan and No. 4 UConn.
• Michigan enters 1-0 after opening its national title defense with an 84-68 victory over Oakland on Nov. 2. UConn also enters Friday’s game 1-0.
• Michigan beat UConn 69-63 in the 2026 national championship game, earning its second NCAA title and first since 1989.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Seven months after winning the national championship against UConn, the No. 16-ranked Michigan Wolverines will face the No. 4 Huskies at TD Garden in Boston.

The matchup on Friday (Nov. 6) is part of the Hall of Fame Series Boston, with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m. EST, and will air nationally on TNT and truTV and stream on HBO Max.

Michigan enters the matchup 1-0 after opening its national title defense with an 84-68 win over Oakland University on Nov. 2.

UConn also enters Friday’s game at 1-0.

The Wolverines defeated the Huskies 69-63 in the 2026 NCAA championship game, securing Michigan’s second national title and its first since 1989.

→ Michigan basketball returns home to hero’s welcome at Crisler Center after title win vs. UConn

In that championship matchup, Elliot Cadeau led Michigan with 19 points and earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors.

Trey McKenney also delivered a key three-pointer and two late free throws to help seal the victory.

Friday’s game marks the 11th time since 1996 that the previous season’s national championship finalists have met the following season again.

Defending national champions have won six of the previous 10 rematches.

Michigan and UConn have combined to win three of the past four NCAA championships.

UConn captured back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 before Michigan claimed the 2026 championship.

Michigan leads the all-time series against UConn, 3-2. The programs previously met in November 2015, when UConn won 74-60 at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Michigan looks to build on season-opening win

Michigan opened the season with a balanced offensive performance against Oakland.

Roddy Gayle Jr. and McKenney scored 17 points apiece, while Tennessee transfer J.P. Estrella contributed 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds in his Wolverines debut.

The defending champions return seven players from last season’s title-winning team, including preseason All-Big Ten selections Cadeau and McKenney.

Michigan also added four transfers and six freshmen while replacing three players selected in the NBA draft lottery: Morez Johnson Jr. (No. 9), Yaxel Lendeborg (No. 11) and Aday Mara (No. 12).

Friday’s matchup will also be a homecoming for Michigan freshman Quinn Costello, a Medford, Massachusetts, native.

Costello scored 13 points and made three three-pointers in his collegiate debut against Oakland.

UConn enters matchup ranked No. 4

UConn returns guards Silas Demary Jr. and Braylon Mullins from last season’s national runner-up team.

Demary, the preseason Big East Player of the Year, averaged 10.1 points and 5.9 assists last season.

Mullins averaged 12 points per game.

The Huskies also added several transfers, including Nik Khamenia from Duke and Na’Jai Hines from Seton Hall.

UConn coach Dan Hurley enters his ninth season with the program. He has led the Huskies to three Final Four appearances and two national championships over the past four seasons.

UConn finished 34-6 last season and enters the 2026-27 season ranked No. 4 nationally.

Next week

After Friday’s game, Michigan returns to Crisler Center on Wednesday, Nov. 11, to host Marquette at 7 p.m.

The Wolverines will then host William & Mary on Nov. 15 inside Crisler Arena before traveling to Philadelphia to face Villanova on Nov. 21 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Romanian-born Eva Geller died Thursday night in a Sydney hospital, Executive Council of Australian Jewry director Evan Zlatkis said.

She was one of around 40 people wounded when two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group opened fire on a crowd at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. Fifteen victims aged 10 to 87 died. One of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police at the scene.

Rabbi says victim was ‘strong and pretty healthy’ before she was shot

Rabbi Aron Moss said Geller had been “strong and pretty healthy right up until the Bondi attack where she was shot.”

She had been admitted to the hospital several times in recent weeks due to surgery complications, Moss said.

“She’s a proud mother, grandmother and great grandmother. A beautiful, positive person who even in these difficult months maintained her positivity,” Moss said on the family’s behalf.

“She was told after being shot that she will never walk again by the doctors. But through sheer determination, she got back up and she did walk again,” Moss added.

She walked with a cane following the leg wound, he said.

The surviving alleged gunman, Naveed Akram, the 25-year-old son of the dead gunman, has been charged with 15 counts of murder, 43 of attempted murder and one of committing a terrorist act. He has yet to enter a plea.

It was not yet clear whether Geller’s death would change the charges Akram faces.

Police said in a statement they were awaiting advice from a state coroner, who would investigate the circumstances of her death.

Akram is scheduled to appear in court next on Feb. 24, when prosecutors expect to finalize what charges will go to the New South Wales state Supreme Court for trial.

State government leader says death is ‘heartbreaking’

State Premier Chris Minns offered his condolences to Geller’s family.

“After everything Geller endured, the news of her death is heartbreaking,” Minns said in a statement.

“Almost a year on, we are still living with the pain and aftershock of that evil act. We will never forget Eva or any victim whose life was changed forever,” Minns added.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the devastation of the Bondi attack continued to cause pain for families.

“Eva should have been able to celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah) in peace and safety and instead, her life was changed forever by an act of terror and antisemitism,” Albanese said in a statement, using a different spelling of Hanukkah.

Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya resigned as the deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party in September, shortly after allegations emerged that she had sold shares worth tens of millions of dollars just before regulators decided to liquidate the investment funds over alleged manipulation.

Kaya, who served as family and social affairs minister from 2016 to 2018, was taken into custody late on Thursday pending a possible trial on charges of membership in a criminal organization and violating Turkey’s Capital Markets Law, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Her husband was released on condition that he regularly report to police, following a second round of questioning for the couple.

Turkey’s main opposition party has accused Kaya of receiving 2.17 billion liras ($43 million) after reportedly investing 163 million liras ($3 million) in one of the funds.

The couple have denied any wrongdoing but have transferred some of the profits to an account designated by the banking regulators, according to media reports.

More than 430 people are under investigation over suspected market manipulation and insider trading, including 112 who have been arrested as part of the scandal, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said this week.

World leaders are due to arrive next week in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, and Turkey’s hosting of the annual environmental conference has thrown a spotlight on its own coal, oil and gas usage.

Turkey is Europe’s largest coal power generator, according to energy think tank Ember. The Turkish Energy Ministry says coal remained its largest source of power last year, accounting for 33% of generation. The share of solar and wind in electricity generation stood at nearly 23%.

Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar revealed the National Energy Plan 2040 to reporters in a presentation made public Friday, in which he said Turkey would aim to transition from coal to cleaner energy sources — a process known as electrification. This would help it fulfil its pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2053.

“When we reach 2040 we are going to reduce our emissions by 40%. This big change in electrification will make this happen,” he said, adding that the use of solar and wind energy sources would more than quadruple over the next 13 years.

“Our aim is to reach 36% electrification by the year 2040,” he told a news conference in Istanbul. Using transport as an example, Bayraktar said the number of electric cars on Turkey’s roads would increase from around 500,000 to 20 million in the next 13 years.

The aim of the plan is to produce a “paradigm shift” in how energy is used in Turkey. “We have a huge project list ahead of us,” the minister added.

Huge level of investment needed

Such a shift, however, would require a huge level of investment — $500 billion in the next 13 years, some $210 billion of which would come from Turkish public sector companies with much of the rest from foreign investment.

“If the world is serious about carbon neutrality and if we would like to fund (fighting) climate change and global warming, we need to find the money,” Bayraktar said. “Everyone needs to take some responsibility and provide money for that.”

He also emphasized the importance of a transition from coal to clean energy that would not negatively impact communities reliant on mines and power stations for employment.

“We are looking for a just transition from coal to relatively cleaner sources of energy… but we need coal for security of supply,” he said.

“Equally important is that (coal mining) is providing at least 30,000 to 40,000 people with employment and labor opportunities. How are we going to make these miners into AI experts or high-tech experts? It’s not going to be easy. We need a just transition period.”

Despite aiming to break away from coal, Turkey will remain tied to other fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, for the foreseeable future.

Turkey recently started drilling gas reserves in the Black Sea and Bayraktar said production would double to 7.5 billion cubic meters annually in the coming years.

Growing nuclear power

Another key area would be nuclear power. The Akkuyu nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast is nearing operation and there are plans for another nuclear station by the Black Sea.

These would contribute towards the “very ambitious target” of Turkey becoming energy independent by 2040, Bayraktar said.

Turning to the “turbulent times” facing energy markets, Bayraktar described how sanctions around the wars in Ukraine and Iran were impeding efforts to fight global warming.

“We are trying to become carbon neutral in less than three decades’ time and with all these difficulties it’s very difficult to achieve this,” he said.

According to the Climate Action Tracker, which measures countries’ progress against goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, Turkey’s climate targets and policies are “critically insufficient.”

The agreement set a target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with the early 1800s.

Looking ahead to COP31, Bayraktar said his key message would be for countries to adopt “responsive and realistic policies” to achieve carbon neutrality.

The men agreed to be added to a co-defendant’s court petition seeking Attorney General Letitia James' removal from the case because of social media posts she made prior to her involvement in which she condemned the alleged assault and expressed support for the accuser.

The development comes a day after James appointed Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw a sex crimes case against music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, as outside counsel for the investigation. She and a team of lawyers and investigators will be responsible for evidence gathering, witness interviews and other investigative steps. They will report to James.

A judge heard arguments last week on one accused man’s request to remove James but said he wouldn't rule without knowing if the six other lawsuit defendants backed the effort. He gave the man’s lawyers until Thursday to try to get them to join.

Four agreed to join, including one whose lawyers had previously filed court papers seeking to have James removed. The two others didn't have lawyers and did not respond, court filings said.

James' office declined to comment.

A former Cornell student identified in court papers as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit in September alleging that several men raped her at a fraternity party in 2024. The woman said some of the men pressured her into using ketamine and marijuana and that she drank alcohol that left her too intoxicated to consent. Not all of the men named were accused of rape.

James, a Democrat, posted about the case on X and Facebook on Sept. 28, linking to a news article about the lawsuit. “I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”

On Oct. 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed James as special prosecutor overseeing the criminal investigation, saying that she had lost faith in the local district attorney, who declined to bring charges in 2024 but had said he would restart the investigation following the former student’s lawsuit.

James initially declined to comment about her social media posts but addressed them at an Oct. 8 debate, saying: “Those comments demonstrate empathy, and what we need now more than ever in our body politic is more empathy."

In court, the state’s lawyers argued that Hochul has wide latitude to appoint special prosecutors and said she picked James because of her track record handling sensitive cases in the national spotlight.

In a statement on Wednesday, James said she is confident that Kelly “will lead a fair and comprehensive investigation.”

Andrew Miltenberg, a lawyer for the man spearheading the removal effort, said in a court filing that Kelly's appointment “changes the face of the investigation" but "does not establish any change in ultimate authority.”

The temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan halting the work represents a major setback for one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent projects in his vision to remake Washington.

The decision followed a series of steps taken earlier Thursday by the government, including the final approval of the arch by the National Capital Planning Commission in an 8-4 vote after a 9 ½ hour hearing where scores of witnesses opposed the construction.

The administration said the work could begin as soon as the approval and the Interior Department issued a final decision authorizing construction and the proper notification was published by the National Park Service.

In approving the temporary stop, Chutkan said Virginia and the District of Columbia had shown that the immediacy of the construction would cause real harm to the plaintiffs.

“The harm is certain," she wrote. "Defendants initially notified the court that construction could begin as early as November 5, 2026, if the NCPC approves the project at its meeting that day and the Department of the Interior authorizes construction.” In their filing, Virginia and D.C. warned of traffic pattern distortions as well as concerns about the impact on mutual aid emergency calls if the arch were to proceed.

“Second, the District and Virginia will incur significant unrecoverable costs. As soon as construction begins, DDOT will need to expend staff time and operating resources to affirmatively and proactively manage temporary detours, crashes or disabled vehicles,” Chutkan wrote.

The judge ordered the government to provide a status report next Monday to ensure they are complying with the order.

The judge's decision came just over an hour after the National Capital Planning Commission hearing ended. The vote by the commission broke along federal and local lines. Those in favor work for the administration or are connected to the president, who was pushing for the immediate construction. Opponents represented the city of Washington.

The remote, call-in hearing — which crashed repeatedly in the first few hours and was accompanied by a nearly universally negative comment section — drew witnesses who gave impassioned comments opposing an arch they said will destroy the solemnity of the nearby Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of fallen service members and military veterans are buried.

The panel's Trump-appointed chairman launched the meeting with a gushing appraisal of the towering monument and lauded Trump for wanting to build it.

“President Trump understands as president and a superb builder that it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments,” said Mark Paoletta, the commission's chairman.

As Trump has often remarked, “the great cities around the world have arches: Paris, Rome, London,” said Paoletta, who also serves as general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Commissioner Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for the General Services Administration, said the arch was “not about politics. It’s about remembrance. It’s about celebrating our history. It’s about commemorating veterans. And it’s really something that’s a noble tribute to our nation and something that we can all rally behind.”

But D.C. City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who also serves on the planning panel, said the project has not received required approval from Congress, nor has Congress appropriated any money for it. The plan submitted to the commission does not include a reference to military use cited by Trump and other administration officials, Mendelson said.

“We cannot approve final site and building plans until we have the final site and building plans,” he said.

The commission oversees construction on federal land in the city and began reviewing the arch plan in June.

The arch is one of several projects around Washington that the Republican president has undertaken as he alters the capital to his tastes — from renovating one of its storied public golf courses to threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Those projects could soon face intense scrutiny after Democrats gained control of Congress in the midterm elections this week.

Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is set to chair the House Natural Resources Committee, called the project ill-advised and illegal.

“This arch would dishonor America,” Huffman told the commission. He called the proposed arch “a tribute to Donald Trump,” not veterans as Trump administration officials claim. The monument is similar to those built for emperors or kings, Huffman said, adding that Trump was using veterans as a pretext to build a memorial to himself.

Other critics, including the plaintiffs, argue that the Trump administration must seek congressional approval. The administration maintains that Congress cleared the way for a monument at Memorial Circle decades ago.

Several members of the Planning Commission used that logic in approving the project. Paoletta said it was a “national disgrace” that a memorial arch had not been placed there, despite a 1925 law that designated such a memorial, he said.

Chutkan rejected that argument in her ruling: "The sheer improbability that a 100-year-old statute would contain authority, unknown to every previous administration, to erect a 250-foot arch at a principal location in the Nation’s capital indicates how far defendants must stretch to justify this project."

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Associated Press videographer Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

During the Baltimore Ravens’ 33-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night, it often looked like it.

Summoned into duty with two-time MVP Lamar Jackson and backup Tyler Huntley hitting injured reserve, Fagnano completed 10 of 18 passes for 60 yards and threw two interceptions in the Ravens’ fourth straight defeat.

“I think anytime you’ve got a quick turnaround, it (poses) its own challenges,” the 25-year-old undrafted rookie said. “But I’m not here to sit up here and make excuses. I mean, they were on a short week as well. Credit to the Jaguars, they played well. Just didn’t execute today.”

Before Tuesday’s trade deadline, the Ravens are expected to add Jacoby Brissett, who started Arizona’s first eight games before losing that job to Gardner Minshew. That likely means Fagnano will go back to the bench before Baltimore’s Monday night Week 10 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I know that our front office and ownership are going to do what’s necessary to give us a chance,” Ravens coach Jesse Minter said. “Tons of respect for Joe and how he operated and how he played. … Anybody that comes in, we’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see where it takes us.”

The Ravens leaned heavily on a Wildcat formation led by running back Derrick Henry to protect Fagnano, who entered training camp fourth on Baltimore’s quarterback depth chart before Skylar Thompson’s season-ending injury.

That mostly worked until Trevor Lawrence connected for a 50-yard touchdown to Parker Washington to stretch Jacksonville’s lead to 17-3 shortly before halftime.

“I thought the team was ready to play, and from a competitive standpoint, I really think the explosive play before the half really kind of broke the game open,” Minter said.

Asked to do more after halftime, Fagnano threw picks to Montaric Brown and Jourdan Lewis on similar out routes toward Zay Flowers.

His teammates displayed similar sloppiness, committing four false-start penalties. Tight end Mark Andrews also fumbled a snap on a fourth-down attempt in the third quarter.

Fagnano believed the altered game plan in a short week made sense after Jackson and Huntley both exited early in Sunday’s 36-10 loss at Buffalo.

“Derrick Henry, you want to get him to the ball anyway, so that was just part of the plan,” Fagnano said. “It was obviously to run, and I feel like we did that pretty well there in some spurts. We’ve got to be able to sustain some drives, whether that’s me making a play or making a better decision or not shooting ourselves in the foot.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

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This version has been corrected to show the Ravens had four false starts.

The Jaguars were ready.

“We practiced Wildcat a ton,” Jacksonville coach Liam Coen said.

Trevor Lawrence threw for 242 yards and a touchdown, and the Jaguars had little trouble with Joe Fagnano and the Ravens in a 33-10 victory. Normally, a Thursday night game presents a preparation challenge for the visiting team, but it was Baltimore that looked like it could have used a longer break with quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley injured.

There was little the Ravens could do but start Fagnano, a 25-year-old rookie who made his debut last weekend against Buffalo. He threw for only 60 yards against the Jags. Baltimore (4-5) has lost four straight.

With their top two quarterbacks on injured reserve — and Fagnano has been dealing with an ankle issue — the Ravens now await Jacoby Brissett's arrival as they try to prevent their season from falling apart completely.

“Tough situation for our guys. But I just told them, there’s no excuses,” Baltimore coach Jesse Minter said. “There’s no, ‘Whatever, we don’t have this guy, we don’t have that guy.’”

Jacksonville (6-2) did not need to do anything extraordinary to beat a badly weakened Baltimore team. The Jaguars mostly took care of the ball on a rainy night and avoided any extreme risks. The Jags have won five of their last six to take command of the AFC South, where they have a 3 1/2-game lead.

Jacksonville drove 77 yards on the game's first possession, taking a 7-0 advantage on a 1-yard touchdown run by Bhayshul Tuten.

“That opening drive was huge, just to set the tone,” Lawrence said. “Especially when you get the ball first ... that's something that's important, is to be able to go and get points right away.”

The Ravens tried to be creative, repeatedly running Wildcat-style plays with Henry. Baltimore managed a field goal on its first drive but nothing more until late in the game.

It was still close near the end of the first half, but Lawrence found Parker Washington for a 50-yard scoring strike with 58 seconds left in the second quarter. That made it 17-3 at the half.

“I just think he was very on when it was really a game,” Coen said of Lawrence. “When it was mattering and things were going and it's a back-and-forth football game early on, he was extremely sharp, accurate and played, again, a really solid football game for us.”

It was 20-3 when a fumble gave Baltimore the ball at midfield in the third quarter, but the Ravens immediately turned the ball over on downs and the boos came cascading down from the crowd.

“They have every right to boo or do whatever they want to do. Obviously, us in here, we have to stay together, be on one accord, and just keep on relying on each other,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “You’ve got to be there for your brother. And that’s what we’re going to do is keep it in house and continue to fight for one another. And we’ll see how this thing shakes out.”

Fagnano went 10 of 18 with two second-half interceptions. Baltimore also lost a fumble on a kick return, which led to Chris Rodriguez Jr.'s 2-yard touchdown run with 7:26 left in the game that made it 33-3.

Justice Hill broke free for a 65-yard touchdown run 11 seconds later — Baltimore's first TD after halftime since Week 5. Hill finished with 85 yards on nine carries, snapping Jacksonville's 24-game streak of not allowing a 75-yard rusher.

Not competitive

It's the first time in franchise history the Ravens have lost three straight games by at least 20 points. In 2015, Baltimore was routed 35-6 by Seattle and 34-14 by Kansas City in consecutive weeks, but the Ravens won the game after that.

Baltimore lost 35-13 to Cincinnati and 36-10 to Buffalo before Thursday's game.

Injuries

In addition to their problems at quarterback, the Ravens were without starting cornerback Nate Wiggins, who had been listed with an illness earlier in the week.

Baltimore also lost star safety Kyle Hamilton to a hip injury.

Up next

Jaguars: At Tennessee on Nov. 15.

Ravens: Host the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 16.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The crisis at Ueno Bank turned Peña’s long-ruling Colorado Party against him, a stunning reversal for the former International Monetary Fund economist who had enjoyed the backing of the country's most powerful politicians and was welcomed in Washington just weeks ago as a key ally of the Trump administration.

In a day of lightning-speed developments, Peña offered his resignation Thursday via X, with the lower house voting unanimously to impeach him moments later. Both houses declined to accept Peña's offer to resign, with the Senate instead deciding to press forward with a trial that could result in the president's removal from office.

Opposition senators are continuing to demand that Peña be removed from office, arguing that allowing him to resign would preserve his eligibility to become a senator for life, with legal protections that could prevent his prosecution, should Paraguay’s Attorney General Emiliano Rolón Fernández opt to file charges.

Rolón has ordered three criminal investigations into the Ueno Bank crisis, including allegations involving Peña and other current and former government officials, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

The investigations will examine authorities’ oversight of the bank, their handling of its failure and the placement of public funds in the lender.

Peña said he would cooperate with investigators.

“Whatever the outcome of this process, I will act with responsibility and respect for the Constitution,” he said on X.

Earlier Thursday, Peña said in a video posted to X that he was stepping down in the interest of “the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”

Peña, who until last year held a stake in a company linked to Ueno, expressed contrition. But he stopped short of accepting responsibility for the turmoil, which has left millions of depositors, retirees and workers scrambling to recoup their frozen savings and unpaid wages. If he's removed from office, Vice President Pedro Alliana would replace him as Paraguay's leader.

“I want to apologize to the people if I have failed them at any point,” he said. “It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me."

From star lender to seized bank

Ueno Bank, which exploded from an obscure finance company to a household name in less than five years, claimed more than 60% of Paraguay’s adults as customers. Many Paraguayans are left asking how a bank linked to the president could grow so rapidly in size and importance despite repeated warnings about its lending practices.

The answer lies in the uncomfortable proximity of Peña’s Colorado Party to the country’s regulators and business elite, a weakness that has endured even as steady economic management and rapid growth recently earned Paraguay coveted investment-grade credit ratings.

“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” said Luis Pineda, one of the protesters marching to Congress on Wednesday. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”

Soon after winning its banking license in 2023, Ueno seemed to be everywhere in Paraguay. The digital lender, a rebranded version of a decades-old finance company, lured customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries as it grew to more than 70 locations, sponsored Paraguay's national soccer team and plastered its name on the country's main stadium.

Government money poured into Ueno’s coffers under Peña. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, president of Financiera Ueno, the predecessor to Ueno Bank, to run the central bank, the agency charged with supervising the digital lender.

As of last month, Ueno reported holding roughly $800 million in public deposits, about a quarter of its total, including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay’s giant hydroelectric dams.

But worries were escalating inside the central bank. In June, its inspectors found a pattern of risky lending to insiders, reported ABC Color, a leading Paraguayan newspaper. Ueno had extended large sums to companies tied to its owners, beyond what the law allows and without enough collateral to cover the debts if they went bad.

As recently as last month, Peña defended Ueno and the central bank’s oversight, dismissing the concerns as a smear campaign that was spooking the public.

Long lines outside branches but customers are locked out

But on Monday, it all came crashing down. Regulators investigating Ueno’s loans to companies linked to its owners found poorly documented lending, the central bank said, as well as expenses the bank had wrongly counted as assets.

Once the books were corrected, Ueno’s capital, the cushion banks must keep to absorb losses, fell to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank announced the lender’s seizure Tuesday, beginning a process to transfer deposits and recoverable assets to other banks before liquidating what remained.

Ueno’s app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors, leaving desperate depositors lined up outside. On Wednesday, a rush to open new accounts elsewhere crashed other banks’ mobile apps, fueling public panic.

Officials have appealed for calm. Under a law rushed through Congress on Wednesday, a state guarantee fund must repay stranded depositors within five business days, starting Thursday with small accounts of up to about $1,600. The fund insures up to about $36,000 per customer, which the central bank says will cover the full balances of an estimated 97% of clients.

On Thursday, a judge ordered six Ueno executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale, jailed pending trial and two others placed under house arrest. Prosecutors have charged 27 bank officials and associates with breach of trust and attempted fraud.

Gustale’s lawyer pushed back on the charges, arguing that senior executives had relied on staff for lending decisions. “The president or board is not responsible for deciding who receives a particular loan,” José Fernández Zacur told local media.

Protesters in the streets

Still in their Ueno uniforms, young employees burned their credit cards and cursed Peña outside the Labor Ministry on Thursday, demanding severance and unpaid wages. Peña’s resignation did little to calm them.

“Let the impeachment process take place and let him lose his immunity,” said Adolfo Villalba, one of the protesters on Thursday.

The Labor Ministry estimates the collapse has affected about 7,000 direct and indirect jobs at the bank and its related businesses.

Many saw Ueno’s collapse as a case study in official corruption. Only Venezuela ranks worse in South America on Transparency International’s latest index of perceived corruption.

“This is yet another assault on honest, hard-working citizens, people whose small savings are the fruit of years of labor,” said Belarmino Balbuena, one of thousands who marched on Congress in the capital, Asunción, on Wednesday.

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Jorge Sáenz contributed to this story. Batschke reported from Montevideo, Uruguay and DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His last film, “Burning,” a meditative thriller about three young people, was the first South Korean feature to be shortlisted for an Oscar, and was singled out by many critics as the best of 2018. And though South Korean cinema has soared at the Oscars since, Lee didn't feel rushed to get back in the mix as quickly as possible. This, he said, is not patience, exactly, but more of a pathological timidness.

“This is a big problem of mine,” the 72-year-old filmmaker told The Associated Press earlier this year, with the help of a translator. “With every film I do, I constantly ask myself, what meaning does this have? Is this a story worth telling?”

Lee was inspired by mass autoworker layoffs

This time, he found himself drawn to the story of mass layoffs in his home country. In 2009, the Ssangyong Motor Co. laid off about one-third of its workforce, which led to a high-profile confrontation between police and workers who occupied the company’s plant south of Seoul for more than two months. A spate of suicides among Ssangyong workers and family members also followed the automaker’s restructuring.

“I thought that that particular event not only was going to change the labor market of Korea, but also Korean society as a whole,” Lee said. “I thought that it was going to be, indeed, a significant turning point, and I thought it was going to fundamentally change not only the lives of those laid off workers, but also just everyday ordinary people’s lives as well.”

Others have taken on the effects of the mounting debt, unemployment and desperation in the country in fiction before, including the brutally violent “Squid Game," and Park Chan-wook's satirical “No Other Choice.”

Lee's approach wasn't going to be either of those, but he couldn’t run away from the nagging question of whether or not he was worthy to tell this story. Was there meaning, he wondered, in making it a dramatic film and not a documentary? Then, about two years ago, his cowriter Oh Jung-mi had a breakthrough: Why not connect this story with the story of a filmmaker trying to capture it? And suddenly, it started to make sense.

The story focuses on two couples, one wealthy, one not

But he’d been talking about it for so long that actor Jeon Do-yeon was a little suspicious when he reached out and asked if she wanted to be in the film. Jeon had starred in his 2007 drama “Secret Sunshine,” playing a young widow consumed by grief and anger after her son is murdered that would win her a best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

“I’m personally such a big fan of his. I adore his films and I think his films are really precious,” Jeon said. “When he suggested that we work together on this film, we had been having discussions about it for about 10 years so I couldn’t actually really believe him … I kept asking for the script and only by reading the script would I truly believe that he was going to make this film.”

The script, she was happy to discover, was real, and her part was another special one: This time she would be playing Mi-ok, the optimistic spouse of a laid off autoworker, Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu). When a well-heeled documentary filmmaker Ye-ji ( “Parasite's” Cho Yeo-jeong ) approaches them about capturing their life and telling the story of laid off workers, she’s openhearted and eager to talk. Ho-seok, who is dealing with depression, is less open.

“She’s not able to get her husband the psychological help that she wants him to have in order for him to heal and recover, so she’s hoping by getting the help of the documentary filmmaker that he will get better in this way,” Jeon said.

Exploring two kinds of masculinity in South Korea

Mi-ok is also entranced by Ye-ji’s husband, Sang-woo (Zo In-sung), a handsome and wealthy businessperson who, at least on the surface, seems to be a kind of ideal. At one point, Mi-ok fawningly compares him to Steve Jobs. And while Ye-ji and Mi-ok might appear to be developing a friendship, the fact that it’s in service of a documentary makes it less pure.

Lee, though in part telling a story about himself telling a story, made his filmmaker character a woman. In South Korea, he said there are many female documentary filmmakers.

“I think they also have a stronger sense of empathy and great emotional intelligence,” he said. “I also wanted her husband to be representing that force, that power of wealth and capital.”

The film also provided a chance to talk about masculinity through two different characters. Ho-seok, Lee said, “embodies a masculinity that really belongs to the typical Korean male. He has a very heavy sense of responsibility for his family. He treats his co-workers as his brothers.”

When he’s laid off from his job and beaten by the police, his loss of identity is profound and intense.

“He finds himself feeling completely empty, that he has nothing to offer,” Lee said. “On the other hand, Sang-woo represents a new kind of masculinity, one that maybe belongs to the new era, I would say. He is very kind, very humane. He’s also very soft. He’s the ever-helpful husband to Ye-ji, he’s also a good listener. However, all of that with a very, very tightly masked sense of violence.”

‘Possible Love’ is a possible Oscar contender

“Possible Love” has been racking up accolades and acclaim since the Venice Film Festival, where it won the runner-up prize. South Korea has also selected it as its official submission for best international feature at the 99th Academy Awards.

But before the film’s premiere in Venice, Lee brushed off the suggestion that people are eagerly awaiting new films from him, saying he doesn’t think that people place that much interest in his work.

“He really said that?” Jeon asked later.

When I assure her that he did, she paused and smiled and switched, ever so briefly, to English for the first time in the interview: “Liar,” she said.

Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills lead the league in scoring at 33.3 points per game. The Minnesota Vikings are giving up the fewest points at 13.3.

The two 6-1 teams meet Monday night in a prime-time showdown.

The Bills won’t need to reach the 30s against Minnesota’s pedestrian offense that ranks 29th in yards (279.4) and 27th in scoring (20.0). But Carson Wentz could give the Vikings an offensive jolt filling in for Kyler Murray, who is out because of a hamstring issue.

The Bills are 3-point favorites on the road. Pro Picks, which kicked off Week 9 with a win when the Jaguars routed Baltimore 33-10, likes Buffalo.

BILLS: 23-17

CINCINNATI (5-2) vs. ATLANTA (3-5), in Madrid, Spain

Line: Bengals minus 3

Joe Burrow leads the NFL with 20 touchdown passes and the Bengals have scored more than 30 points in three straight games — all wins. But their defense gave up 36 against the lowly Titans last week. The inconsistent Falcons beat the Packers and 49ers but were shut out by a team that didn’t complete a pass last week. Bijan Robinson leads the NFL with 780 yards rushing. Michael Penix Jr. threw a career-high four picks against Tampa Bay. The Bengals are 1-4 against the spread over the last five games.

BENGALS: 27-20

CLEVELAND (5-3) at NEW ORLEANS (2-5)

Line: Saints minus 2½

Deshaun Watson ran out of comebacks and the Browns were routed by the Steelers. Watson entered concussion protocol on Wednesday so Shedeur Sanders would start if he can’t play. The Saints are winless at home (0-3) and coming off a bye after losing to Pittsburgh in France. QB Tyler Shough followed up an excellent performance in a road win over the Giants with a 30-for-38 game in the loss to the Steelers.

SAINTS: 20-17

DALLAS (3-5) at INDIANAPOLIS (2-6)

Line: Cowboys minus 5½

Dallas blew a 14-point lead late against Arizona and pressure is on coach Brian Schottenheimer. The Cowboys still have a shot in a wide-open NFC East but their defense has to play better. The Colts are looking ahead to 2027 and eyeing more moves ahead of next week’s trade deadline. Jonathan Taylor will possibly play his final game for Indianapolis. Colts are 0-4 ATS in the last four games.

COWBOYS: 27-23

DENVER (6-2) at CAROLINA (3-4)

Line: Broncos minus 2½

Bo Nix led another comeback and Denver keeps finding ways to win late. The Broncos have to put together a complete game. The Panthers are reeling and fired their defensive coordinator after two straight losses. Bryce Young struggled in both of those games after a hot start. Denver has covered four straight games.

BRONCOS: 23-19

DETROIT (5-2) at MIAMI (1-6)

Line: Lions minus 7

Detroit’s defense made significant improvements during a three-game winning streak, allowing just 17.7 points per game. But the Lions have lost key players to injury, including All-Pro linebacker Jack Campbell. The Dolphins made things tough for the Patriots and covered the spread last week. Small victories for a rebuilding team.

LIONS: 26-20

LOS ANGELES RAMS (4-4) at WASHINGTON (2-4-1)

Line: Rams minus 4 1/2

The Rams could finally have Myles Garrett back to bolster a defense that was expected to be dominant with the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and Aaron Donald’s return. They have to take advantage against inferior opponents before the schedule gets much harder. Jayden Daniels and the Commanders beat up on depleted Philadelphia but face a more difficult challenge this time.

RAMS: 26-17

NEW YORK GIANTS (4-2-1) at PHILADELPHIA (2-6)

Line: Giants minus 3 ½

J.J. McCarthy vs. Joe Milton III. Two quarterbacks who were on other teams at the start of the season face off. The Giants got McCarthy from the Vikings after losing Jaxson Dart and he’s helped them to the top of the NFC East. The Eagles have lost six in a row and are turning to Milton, who was signed off Dallas’ practice squad after Jalen Hurt was placed on injured reserve last month.

EAGLES: 23-22

NEW YORK JETS (2-6) at KANSAS CITY (5-2)

Line: Chiefs minus 9½

The Jets don’t have a chance against a Chiefs team that’s coming off two losses and trying to get back on track. New York has to focus on stockpiling picks before next week’s trade deadline. Kansas City needs a receiver to help Patrick Mahomes and Kenneth Walker III after losses to Seattle and Denver exposed their weaknesses.

BEST BET: CHIEFS: 27-13

HOUSTON (2-5) at LOS ANGELES CHARGERS (0-7)

Line: Texans minus 5½

The underachieving Texans have no margin for error after starting 0-4. C.J. Stroud has played well but a talented defense has been the biggest issue. The Chargers are having a disastrous season. Justin Herbert’s regression is stunning. They’re also 0-7 ATS.

TEXANS: 20-17

LAS VEGAS (4-4) at SAN FRANCISCO (6-1)

Line: 49ers minus 10

Kirk Cousins is second in the NFL with 19 TD passes and the Raiders got the run game going last week behind Mike Washington. The 49ers are coming off a bye following their first loss and needed some time away for injured players to heal up. It may not have been long enough. Christian McCaffrey opened the practice week questionable along with Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa.

49ERS: 27-20

ARIZONA (3-5) at SEATTLE (4-4)

Line: Seahawks minus 8 1/2

The Cardinals have Minshew Mania after Gardner Minshew led a stunning comeback at Dallas. But Seattle’s defense is much tougher and they’ll be motivated after giving up 34 points to the Bears. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks are turning to Drew Lock again with Sam Darnold dealing with an injury. They need their run game to get going.

SEAHAWKS: 23-14

GREEN BAY (5-3) at NEW ENGLAND (5-3)

Line: Patriots minus 3

Micah Parsons is nearing a return that will be a major boost for a defense that’s been playing well. If Green Bay starts to run the ball better, that’ll help Jordan Love and a potent passing attack. Drake Maye and the Patriots need a healthy A.J. Brown to have a chance to repeat in the AFC. Brown is dealing with a knee injury and didn’t play last week.

UPSET SPECIAL: PACKERS: 24-23

TAMPA BAY (3-5) at CHICAGO (6-2)

Line: Bears minus 6

The Buccaneers became the first team to play an entire game without completing a pass and still won thanks to 324 yards rushing against Atlanta. The Bears’ addition of All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons already paid off vs. Seattle, and he’ll face a resurgent offensive line and run game. Baker Mayfield will have to keep up with Caleb Williams and Chicago’s potent offense. It’ll benefit Tampa Bay that Chicago has a short week after a road game in Seattle.

BEARS: 27-22

Last week: Straight up: 11-3. Against spread: 10-4

Overall: Straight up: 76-45-1. Against spread: 67-52-3.

Best Bet: Straight up: 5-3. Against spread: 4-4.

Upset Special: Straight up: 3-5. Against spread: 3-5.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

• B&W Comfort Spa on Kelly Road in Eastpointe is facing complaints from neighboring businesses over suspected illegal activity and alleged sexual solicitation.
• The massage parlor is located in a strip mall alongside a hair salon, clothing store, and day care center.
• Nearby business owners say the alleged activity has been happening for years, despite ownership changes.
• A neighboring hair salon owner says the situation is hurting the shopping plaza’s reputation and making businesses worry about customer safety.

EASTPOINTE, Mich. — A massage parlor on Kelly Road in Eastpointe has been rubbing the neighboring businesses and residents the wrong way.

The B&W Comfort Spa – which is located in a strip mall that also includes a hair salon, a clothing store, and a day care center – says that alleged sexual solicitation has gone on here for years. The other business owners are sick of it.

“Our strip is busy, and there are real businesses here,” Stefani, who owns a hair salon two doors down from the spa, said on Thursday. “We can’t afford to have anything negative where we work, because we don’t want to get caught up in anything, and we don’t want our customers to feel unsafe.”

Stefani and others we spoke with said this has gone on for years at the spa, which they also said has had multiple owners.

She said that there will be certain days where the parking lot in the strip mall will have constant traffic of men coming out of the spa.

“There was quite a bit of what they determined was short-stay traffic,” said Eastpointe police Chief Corey Haines. “A man would go into the business, come out a very short time later, and leave.

“The business was not supposed to be open,” he added. “They never had a business license to be operating to begin with, and then we’re doing sexual acts as part of their services.”

When we went by the spa on Thursday, a yellow sticker from the city was on the door saying they could not operate their business.

The business owners there, speaking through a translator, said that they had passed an inspection, but that was not why they were closed.

“We actually sent our undercover officers down to that location,” Haines said. “They went in and were offered to receive sexual services as part of their massage.”

It is one of a number of businesses that the Eastpointe police have been trying to shut down, including a BP gas station and a pair of smoke shops that they found were serving as a front to sell drugs.

“Those products range from THC products to THC-A products to suspected psilocybin mushrooms, the whole gamut of the different drugs that were being sold, and they were being sold over the counter,” Haines said. “They can’t be selling this stuff.”

Haines says the city has spoken to the business owner, warning them that they are not to operate.

The people who have previously run the illegal massage parlor had been set up by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, and felony warrants were issued.

For business owners like Stefani, she wants to see that parlor shut down for good.

“If they’re doing what we think they are, they are sex trafficking young girls. I mean, it doesn’t matter where they’re from. At the end of the day, there’s somebody’s loved ones.”

• More rain ahead: Showers become more widespread Thursday night, with additional rounds possible Friday and Friday night.
• Cooler Friday: Temperatures reach only the upper 40s to 50 degrees, with breezy northwest winds.
• Weekend improvement: Rain moves out by Saturday morning, setting the stage for a drier weekend with increasing sunshine.
• Warm-up next week: Highs rebound to near 60 degrees Monday and the lower 60s Tuesday.

4Warn Weather — Metro Detroit’s weather has certainly changed since Election Day.

After enjoying unusually warm temperatures earlier this week, Southeast Michigan is settling back into a more typical November pattern.

The warmth has given way to cloudy skies, cooler air, and several opportunities for rain.

Showers returned Wednesday and continued into Thursday. And according to the latest forecast, the unsettled weather is not finished.

Another cold front moves through Thursday night, followed by a strengthening upper-level weather system that could bring additional showers Friday afternoon and Friday night.

But there is good news for weekend plans. Drier weather and sunshine are on the way, along with another warming trend.

Showers increase Thursday night

Showers become more widespread Thursday night as another cold front moves across Southeast Michigan.

For Metro Detroit, the best opportunity for rain arrives between midnight and 5 a.m.

Temperatures fall to around 40 degrees in Detroit, while some communities north and west of the metro could dip into the mid-30s.

Despite the colder air arriving, temperatures should remain warm enough for precipitation to fall as rain.

Friday brings another round of rain

Do not put the umbrella away just yet.

Friday looks chilly, mostly cloudy and breezy, with afternoon highs generally in the upper 40s to around 50 degrees.

Northwesterly winds could gust to around 20 to 25 mph, adding to the colder feel.

A powerful upper-level disturbance moving across the Great Lakes will help produce additional showers throughout Southeast Michigan.

Scattered to numerous showers are possible Friday afternoon as the weather system moves across southern Lower Michigan.

Another increase in shower coverage and intensity is possible Friday night as the system shifts east.

Not everyone will experience rain continuously, but periods of wet weather remain possible through the end of the workweek.

What should you wear Friday?

Friday calls for layers, a warmer jacket, and something to keep you dry.

A waterproof or water-resistant jacket with a hood may be especially useful for anyone spending time outdoors.

Closed-toe shoes that can handle wet pavement are also a good idea.

With temperatures near 50 and northwest winds increasing, conditions could feel considerably cooler than earlier this week.

If you are heading to work, school, or outdoor activities, plan for occasional showers and changing conditions throughout the day.

A brighter weekend ahead

The weather begins improving Saturday as the storm system moves east and drier air returns.

Saturday features a mix of clouds and sunshine, with afternoon temperatures near 52 degrees.

Northwest winds remain breezy, with gusts potentially reaching 20 to 25 mph.

Saturday night turns chilly, with temperatures falling into the 30s. Some outlying communities could approach freezing.

Sunday offers even better weather for outdoor plans.

Mostly sunny skies and afternoon highs in the upper 50s will make for a more pleasant finish to the weekend.

Whether you are planning yard work, a fall walk, or cheering on the Pistons at Little Caesars Arena, Sunday looks like the better day for sunshine and milder afternoon temperatures.

Another warmup next week

The return of sunshine also helps temperatures rebound early next week.

Highs climb to around 60 degrees Monday and 62 degrees Tuesday, several degrees above the average for early November.

The latest forecast favors a stretch of dry weather through the middle of next week.

Veterans Day on Wednesday looks mostly sunny, with highs in the mid- to upper 50s.

So while Metro Detroit may need umbrellas and warmer jackets to finish the workweek, the chilly, wet weather will not last long.

Another round of sunshine and temperatures near 60 degrees is already on the horizon.

Share your weather photos with Local 4 at MIPics.

• Voters in Sumpter Township narrowly passed a police millage in the November general election by just 96 votes.
• The millage had previously failed in the primary election. Township officials warned that if it failed again, the department was at risk of closing.
• Township officials have said the millage is expected to raise more than $2.4 million in its first year.

A high-stakes police millage in Sumpter Township narrowly passed in the November general election by just 96 votes — a razor-thin margin that township officials say saved the police department from potentially closing its doors.

The proposal to raise the police levy from three mills to five mills had failed in the August primary election.

Township leaders voted unanimously to put it back on the November ballot, giving the measure a second chance.

“I can tell you the board of trustees here, there’s seven of us in Sumpter. We didn’t get much sleep Tuesday night,” Trustee Tim Rush said.

What was at stake

Had the millage failed again, the Sumpter Township Police Department would have faced a 41% cut to its operating budget — a reduction Police Chief Eric Luke said would have been impossible to absorb.

“We wouldn’t have had a police department basically,” Rush said.

Luke said the department currently employs 17 officers — one short of its budgeted 18 — after a retirement earlier in the summer left a vacancy that went unfilled because of uncertainty surrounding the August vote.

“We’re budgeted for 18. Right now, we’re running with 17 due to a retirement earlier in the summer. That position was not filled due to the issue with the August vote,” Luke said.

The department serves approximately 12,500 residents and responds to calls ranging from property damage to violent crimes.

Luke said calls for service have nearly doubled over the past five years as the township’s population has grown by about 25%.

15 years without a millage increase

Rush said Sumpter Township had not raised its police levy since 2011.

He said the township had been drawing on royalty funds from the Carleton Farms Landfill to cover police costs without passing increases on to residents — but rising expenses made the status quo unsustainable.

Luke said the millage was essential to maintaining the level of service residents have come to expect.

“This is to keep the standards that we set here and make sure that we’re responsive and continue to do what we do,” Luke said.

Township officials have said the millage is expected to raise more than $2.4 million in its first year.

Why the primary failed — and why November was different

In the August primary, 57% of voters rejected the millage.

Township officials estimated turnout at around 24% to 25%, meaning roughly 14% of the total voter population voted it down.

The board voted unanimously on Aug. 8 to place the measure back on the November ballot with revised language.

This time around, Rush estimated around 4,600 people turned out to vote in the general election, roughly 36% of the 12,500 population.

Rush said earlier this summer that reduced staffing could have led to longer response times and a reliance on outside agencies.

“If we’re waiting on MSP or short-staffed here, that could be a great delay,” Rush said, referring to the Michigan State Police.

He added that a failed vote would have left the department with no viable path forward.

“We’d probably just have to close the doors on the Sumpter Township Police Department. You can’t have a partially staffed police department,” Rush said.

Sumpter Township was not alone in bringing a failed police millage back before voters in November.

Residents in other townships, including Orion, Waterford, and Independence townships, also approved police millages that had previously failed in the August primary.

• A 10-year-old nonverbal student with autism left Johnson Upper Elementary’s playground during Monday recess and was later found safe on Newburgh Road.
• Surveillance footage placed his last sighting at 12:38 p.m.; staff began searching at 12:52, called police at 1:09, and notified his mother at 1:20.
• His mother, Kassandra Richards, says conflicting information and the delay in notifying police have shaken her trust and raised serious safety concerns.
• The district confirmed the incident and said it is addressing it; staff reportedly discussed adding more adults near the playground and parking lot.

WESTLAND, Mich. - A Westland mother is demanding answers after she says her 10-year-old son, who is nonverbal and has autism, was able to leave his elementary school playground and walk off campus earlier this week.

It happened Monday at Johnson Upper Elementary School in Westland during outdoor recess, according to the boy’s mother, Kassandra Richards.

The school is in the Livonia Public Schools district.

Richards said she received a call from school staff telling her that her son was missing. At first, she said, staff told her he had been gone about 10 minutes. Later, in a meeting with administrators, she learned the school could not say for sure how long he was off school grounds.

“They said they think he went through the woods, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Richards said. “I didn’t know if he’d be, you know, gone forever. I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think.”

Richards said her son was eventually found safe minutes away from the school on Newburgh Road.

Richards recorded a meeting with school administrators Wednesday and shared audio from that meeting. In the recording, a person she identified as an administrator outlines a timeline based on school surveillance cameras:

• At 12:24 p.m., video shows her son going from lunch to recess.
• The last camera image of him is at 12:38 p.m.
• At 12:52 p.m., staff realized he was missing and an official search began.
• Police were called at 1:09 p.m.
• Richards said she received a call at 1:20 p.m.
• Administrators told her he was back at school by 1:22 p.m.

Richards said the shifting information and length of time deeply shook her trust.

“I’m extremely angry and upset about it, and yeah, there’s just a loss of trust,” Richards said.

While she is grateful her son was found unharmed, Richards said the situation exposed serious safety concerns, especially given her son’s disabilities and the school’s surroundings.

“They need to have a clear, immediate response when a child goes missing like this,” Richards said. “They clearly took too long to notify the police because, again, there are pools and everything there, and all that time he could have got hit by a car because he did go in the road.”

In the recording, a person Richards identified as a staff member can be heard saying the school will make adjustments, including positioning more people near the playground and parking lot.

A district spokesperson confirmed the incident and said officials are addressing it, but did not answer specific questions about whether safety procedures will be updated, citing limitations on what they can say about this matter.

Their full statement is below:

“LPS is actively addressing a situation involving a student leaving school grounds during outdoor recess. Appropriately, we have been working directly with the parents of the child involved and will not have further comment publicly on this matter. 

LPS is focused on thoroughly investigating, understanding, and responding to all concerns shared with us.  This is consistent with the District’s overall commitment to the health, safety, and well-being of all our students.  

As part of this assurance, LPS always carefully reviews policies and procedures, as appropriate, to meet the needs of our students and our school community."

Livonia Public Schools