The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a motion Monday to dismiss its case against David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, which has more than 750,000 members including janitors, security officers and other workers. The government will seek to have the case permanently withdrawn within weeks if Huerta continues to comply with the terms of his pretrial release and stays out of trouble, prosecutors said.

Huerta said in a statement that he was tackled, pepper-sprayed and detained for exercising his constitutional rights to protest and cast the case against him as part of a broader “weaponization of the judicial system.”

“There was never a real case, only an attempt to punish and silence me for exercising my constitutional rights,” he said in a statement. “I will keep exercising my constitutional rights and protest every abuse this administration commits, and I will keep working to build a country that treats immigrant families and all workers with the dignity they deserve.”

The Justice Department had earlier reduced the felony obstruction charge to a misdemeanor, and in moving to dismiss it entirely, is now backing away entirely from a prosecution that had been announced with fanfare on social media after Huerta's arrest more than a year ago. It's the latest courtroom setback for a department that has struggled, in offices across the country, in its prosecutions of people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles signaled in its own statement that law enforcement was justified in arresting Huerta, noting that he was charged with interfering with a judicial search warrant and asserting that the Justice Department does not arrest people for simply peacefully protesting. The office also said that Huerta has complied with the terms of his bond for more than a year and was prepared to dismiss the case if he continues to do so.

“Pursuant to an agreement entered into with our office, if Mr. Huerta continues to comply with his pretrial release terms, we expect the criminal case against him to be fully dismissed by the end of next month,” the statement said.

Huerta was arrested in June 2025 while protesting outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. The incident occurred amid widespread protests over the federal immigration crackdown that drove Trump to take the extraordinary move of deploying the National Guard to the nation’s second-largest city.

Authorities said Huerta sat down in front of a vehicular gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, and he pushed back when an officer told him to leave and put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle.

Union leaders and immigrant advocates rallied in cities across the country demanding Huerta's release, and he became the face of the pushback against the Republican president's effort to drive up immigration arrests. Top Democrats also fired back. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and California’s two Democratic senators wrote a letter to federal officials demanding answers regarding Huerta’s arrest. California Sen. Adam Schiff attended Huerta’s bond hearing.

“It is deeply troubling that a U.S. citizen, union leader, and upstanding member of the Los Angeles community continues to be detained by the federal government for exercising his rights to observe immigration enforcement,” the senators wrote.

Federal prosecutors initially charged Huerta with felony obstruction, with Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, saying that it didn't matter who was protesting "if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted.” In October, prosecutors reduced the charge against Huerta to a misdemeanor.

Huerta’s lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, said in a statement that the case against their client had no legal basis.

“This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration’s improper immigration actions. Today’s filing is proof that David and other critics will not be silenced,” the lawyers said.

The Justice Department asked the justices to halt for now lower court decisions blocking work to implement the sweeping changes in nearly half the country.

The request comes shortly after Trump delivered a primetime address elevating his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of elections, and could be one of several voting-related challenges before the court ahead of the high-stakes midterm contest.

Trump ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, saying the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president. Their attorneys have said Trump's proposed changes are ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

A judge in Massachusetts blocked the order for the plaintiff states, and a divided 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel left her ruling in place over the weekend.

The executive order issued in March calls for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a federal list of eligible voters. It tells the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

The order also calls for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking. Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply.

The appeal argues that Trump's order lays out “general policy guidance” and doesn’t directly dictate how states run their elections. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to freeze the judge's order as lawsuits play out, calling it indefensible.

“And the injunction is especially indefensible because the agencies are still deliberating over how (if at all) to implement the Order, yet the district court preemptively decided that whatever the agencies may choose to do will necessarily be unlawful,” Sauer wrote.

He urged the high court to move quickly, arguing that any new policies would have to be in place as soon as August to be effective for the November elections.

A response to the appeal is due Aug. 3.

Trump promoted the proposed changes as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, agreed in June to halt implementation for the Nov. 3 elections.

Her ruling differed from that of another federal judge based in Washington. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, found in May it was too early to block the order because it had not yet been implemented.

The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the lawsuit, did not immediately comment on the Trump administration’s appeal. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office declined to comment.

The Postal Service also would not discuss its plans regarding implementing Trump’s order or its rule, citing the ongoing litigation. In Kansas, Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office said it has not yet heard from the Postal Service about plans going forward.

___

Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this story.

The ruling over the weekend rejected the Trump administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Also, the Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Here's the latest:

Trump talks up tariffs as he claims to have saved the American auto industry

Speaking to workers at a GM facility in Milford, Michigan, Trump touted steep tariffs that he says have protected the U.S. auto industry and revived production in the United States.

He pointed to a 25% tariff his administration placed on foreign cars, “something that no other president had the courage to ever do.”

Speaking on stage alongside a blue muscle car, Trump told workers that the industry was in peril until he took office and removed regulations passed by Democrats.

“I’ve done more for you than your parents. OK?” Trump said. “Your parents are good. I’m not going to knock your parents. But I have been better to you than your parents.”

Trump administration urges Supreme Court to allow order targeting mail-in voting before midterms

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to clear the way for an executive order from President Donald Trump that could dramatically change mail-in voting.

The emergency appeal comes after an appeals court upheld a ruling blocking the president’s order in nearly half the country ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the proposed changes to move ahead while lawsuits play out.

Trump ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, saying the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president. Attorneys have said Trump’s proposed changes are ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

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Thune responds to Trump’s escalated calls to pass the SAVE Act: ‘Show me how this ends’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded to Trump’s escalating calls to cancel the August recess until the Senate passes a proof-of-citizenship voting bill by again challenging the president and other supporters to show him a path to passage.

“If I thought there was a path to getting a result, I’m all for it,” Thune said.

“We voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already,” Thune added, counting each number on his hand for reporters. “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

Thune said he plans to “have some conversations” with senators in the coming days about a possible path forward. He said he would be open to keeping the Senate in Washington if there was a path forward, but also noted that some senators need to return home to campaign.

Caine noted impact of munitions availability in advice to Trump

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Trump that the state of the country’s munitions stockpile could have an impact on military operations in Iran, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, said this message was delivered as part of Caine’s regular duties of providing military advice and options to Trump.

The Associated Press has reported that Trump met Friday with top national security aides to discuss the situation with Iran. After nearly two weeks of strikes, the U.S. military has not attacked targets in Iran for three nights.

The Iran war has drawn down the U.S. stockpile of key weapons systems like missiles and interceptors, analysts say.

Caine told lawmakers at a hearing last week that “airpower has its limits” in achieving military objectives.

The U.S. military has employed airstrikes almost exclusively against Iran.

—- Konstantin Toropin

Trump claims his tariffs have helped General Motors

Trump was led on a tour of General Motors vehicles from different era. He was accompanied by CEO Marry Barra and other GM executives and sat behind the wheel of some of the automobiles.

“They’ve come a long way,” he said to reporters about the Detroit-based automaker. “It’s amazing what tariffs are doing for GM.”

Trump said he’s been good to the company but declined to say more.

“The rest of the world doesn’t love me, but that’s OK,” he said, alluding to the tariffs. “It’s called ‘America first.’”

New rule aims to speed up asylum decisions

A new rule going into effect Tuesday gives asylum officers discretion to send cases of immigrants seeking asylum directly to a judge for a final decision without doing an interview.

Historically, immigrants can ask for asylum either through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or from a judge in immigration courts, depending on their immigration status.

USCIS asylum officers would interview everyone who applied with their agency. If they think someone doesn’t qualify for asylum, the case goes to an immigration judge who ultimately decides.

Now, USCIS says asylum officers can look at the person’s file, decide they don’t qualify and send the case directly to a judge, without an interview.

The agency says this shortens the time it takes to decide asylum cases.

Groups that advocate for immigrants say it’s part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the asylum system.

“The impact of this rule could be disastrous for people in need of safety.” said Beth Oppenheim, President & CEO of HIAS.

Trump says no one tells him what the US should be selling

Trump hasn’t ruled out selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, which is not a friend of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump are meeting at the White House on Tuesday, and the prime minister has made clear he does not want Turkey to get the American-made jets.

Trump was asked about such a sale to Turkey as he flew to Michigan and said, in an apparent rebuff of Netanyahu, that “nobody tells me what we should be selling.”

“Turkey’s been a great ally for me,” he said of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “I think he’s done a very good job, did a good job with Syria. He’s a friend of mine,”

Asked if he and Netanyahu are on the same page when it comes to the war against Iran, Trump replied, “We have a little difference but pretty close, yeah.”

Trump says US and Iran are having ‘good talks’ but keeps strikes on the table

The president insisted that new meetings were requested directly by Iranian officials, saying they reached out directly “because we’ve been hitting them very hard.”

“We’re having good talks, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Monday on Air Force One. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen. And if it does, good. if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Trump rejected a suggestion that his patience with negotiations could be wearing thin.

“I have plenty of time,” he said.

Trump continues to needle Thune

The president insisted that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader — but that he’s just “got to get his job done.”

Trump has been escalating pressure on Thune to pass his voting restrictions bill before senators leave Washington for the August recess.

“The SAVE Act has to be done,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “They shouldn’t leave town.”

Trump also insisted that he hasn’t “even thought” about potential replacements for Thune.

US walks out of UN meeting when France is speaking to protest its criticism of US human rights

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where “their freedom has been imperiled,” U.S. deputy ambassador Dan Negrea told the U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine after the brief U.S. walkout Monday, accusing France of “disingenuous grandstanding.”

He was apparently responding to a post from France’s U.N. Mission in Geneva on Friday criticizing U.S. opposition to a second four-year term for U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk. The General Assembly voted 144-10 with 13 abstentions to extend his term with the U.S. voting “no.”

The French Mission said: “The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it.”

Negrea shot back, calling the U.S. “the beacon of liberty for the world” and dismissing France’s ”political drivel.”

Trump says US stockpile is in ‘very good shape’ but he wants more

Asked about suggestions that the U.S. munitions are running low, Trump said stockpiles are in good shape and production needs to ramp up.

“We have a lot. I’d like to have more, to be honest,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

He blamed former President Joe Biden for giving U.S. technology to Ukraine. Trump said some more “sophisticated” weapons have been in shorter supply but he added that production has been accelerating.

“Every one of our contractors is building four to five plans right now, and we’re in very good shape,” he said.

Trump dismisses Russian efforts to help Iran in war

Ahead of his visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserted that Russia has been offering satellite images of U.S. bases in the Gulf region to Iran.

Asked about that Monday, Trump downplayed the impact of that assistance, saying the Russian help hasn’t had much impact.

“They may be giving, but if they are, it hasn’t worked out,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, en route to Michigan.

Trump also said he would ask Russian President Vladimir Putin about it. Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump on Tuesday.

A large crowd of supporters waits for Trump speech

The president was set to address a crowd of more than 1,000 at a General Motors proving ground in suburban Detroit, where the company tests vehicles before they are sold.

Some GM employees joined larger groups of Trump supporters, many wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps or t-shirts celebrating the president.

Behind the stage where Trump will speak later hung blue and white banners reading “American Cars. American Jobs.” Various models of cars and SUVs were parked nearby.

GM says the proving ground in Milford Township has more than 150 miles of test roads and was opened in 1924. That makes it the world’s oldest dedicated vehicle testing facility.

Trump’s new Canada tariffs could hurt Michigan

Michigan was one of the 2024 battlegrounds Trump flipped after it backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. But the state has also seen parts of its economy affected by the president’s tariffs, including on imported cars and auto parts.

A new round of steep import levies is taking effect on dozens of U.S. trading partners. But Trump has singled out Canada with tariffs as high as 50% on a wide array of its products, including cars.

The president is visiting Oakland County, which encompasses much of Detroit’s northern suburbs. Once a Republican stronghold, it has increasingly leaned Democratic, backing Biden against Trump in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump four years later.

Stocks open higher on Wall Street and crude oil prices drop 5% as Mideast tensions cool

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The index is coming off two weekly losses in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518 points, or 1%, as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%.

Oil prices reversed course from a week ago, when a sharp escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran worsened worries about global oil supplies. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 5.4% to $86.74 a barrel for October delivery. Prices surged to over $100 a barrel last week before easing.

The war between the U.S. and Iran has sharply curtailed, and at a times halted, traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. That has had a ripple effect throughout the world’s economy.

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Mediators see progress in efforts to halt Iran war as drone attacks rattle region

Mediators have achieved progress in getting the United States and Iran back to negotiations, regional officials said Monday, after both sides paused attacks following a period of rapidly escalating tensions. But scattered attacks by armed groups across the region underscored the lingering tensions.

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq that had targeted its petroleum facilities.

Two drone attacks were reported against a Kurdish Iranian dissident group in Iraq, and Jordan said it had shot down two drones, without saying where they originated. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Neither the U.S. nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

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Trump is set to defend his economic policies in Michigan, where new Canadian tariffs may sting

President Trump plans to tout his handling of the economy during a visit to suburban Detroit on Monday, defending sweeping tariffs in a swing state where their effects have hurt many businesses as midterm election season heats up.

Trump is visiting a General Motors facility in Milford, home to tracks and proving grounds for new models and vehicles. Early voting is underway for Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary, which features fierce nomination fights in both major political parties.

Republican Mike Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits Trump-backed Rep. John James against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who’s launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.

Johnson is now trying to style himself in the president’s mold — despite missing out on his endorsement. He’s even holding a “Trump Tailgate” outside the president’s GM event.

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Pentagon’s official Iran war death toll no longer lists 4 troops killed during renewed fighting

The four American troops killed during renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the Iran war death toll in the Pentagon’s official casualty count but have been placed in a new, separate category.

It's raising questions about properly counting the impact to U.S. service members as the Trump administration has escalated strikes on Iran in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while providing little indication of how it intends to wind down a conflict that's unpopular with many Americans.

The Defense Casualty Analysis System, which Pentagon officials have repeatedly pointed to as the definitive source on the numbers of dead and wounded from the conflict, removed the four fallen soldiers as well as dozens of wounded troops from its Iran war tally last week.

On Sunday, a new category called “Overseas Operations” emerged on the system’s website, listing the four Army deaths by name as well as 207 wounded. It was unclear if all of the wounded were injured in the Iran conflict.

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Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.

Democrats and environmental groups seized on the court filing Friday, saying the administration had “weaponized” the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families because of their political views.

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US appeals court upholds injunction that blocks Trump’s order to create a federal voter list

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that halted Trump’s executive order to create a federal list of eligible voters and limit delivery of mail ballots only to people on that list.

The ruling Saturday by judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Trump issued an executive order in March for the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters. It also ordered the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

While Trump touted the proposed changes as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting, state election officials argued they were ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

▶ Read more

Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo decided the evidence prosecutors presented at a preliminary hearing that spanned five days provided probable cause for a trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

D4vd, the 21-year-old singer born David Burke whose career was steeply rising before the allegations emerged, has pleaded not guilty.

“The people have met their burden on all counts,” Olmedo said. She ordered that Burke continue to be held without bail.

Olmedo emphasized that the probable cause standard for a preliminary hearing like this is much lower than the threshold at trial.

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

Prosecutors on Monday gave a moment-by-moment account of the last night of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, showing that after a stream of text messages with singer D4vd, her phone went permanently silent when she arrived at his home.

The texts were shown in court on the fifth and likely final day of a Los Angeles hearing to determine whether he'll go to trial in her killing.

As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10 a.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”

Prosecutors allege D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, stabbed her to death when she came through the door.

The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profane text saying she will tell her dad so many lies about him and “i will end ur career and ur life.”

Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department, under questioning from the prosecution, read the texts that were obtained from warrants on Burke's iPhone and iCloud accounts.

After the hearing ends, Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether to put the 21-year-old Burke on trial on charges of murder, sexual abuse of a child under 14 and mutilation of a body.

He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said he didn’t cause her death.

Defense argues there's insufficient evidence for murder

After the final witness on Monday, the defense argued that the evidence was insufficient and the murder charge should be dismissed. The defense did not address or contest the sexual abuse of a minor or mutilation charges during the multiday hearing, and instead focused their attention on the murder charge.

“There’s no evidence that Mr. Burke harbored a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez,” said Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.

She said the communications between Burke and Rivas Hernandez showed “no threat, no evidence of a history of violence” and that he had “the opposite of homicidal malice” toward her.

She argued that a medical examiner ruling that her death was a homicide from two puncture wounds was too vague and inconclusive to be evidence of murder. The defense did not directly give an alternative theory on how she died and isn't required to.

The defense showed several other texts from Rivas Hernandez threatening him about their relationship, and saying she would go to Burke's mother, talk to his friends and “leak” information about them.

Under questioning from defense attorney Blair Berk, Farrell said he saw no indication that she ever threatened to go to police or pursue any legal action against him.

The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he reluctantly agreed only after she demanded it, and that she had threatened to kill Burke and to mutilate him.

The defense argued that all of the malice had come from her.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told the judge that “the defense tried numerous times throughout these proceedings to dirty up the victim” despite her being a child.

The detective also said under questioning from Berk that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he had attended church with members of her family and that her parents had given their consent for her to go to London with him for a week.

Prosecution alleges D4vd immediately began covering up the killing

After her phone went silent, Burke sent her several other messages that night asking where she was, and expressing concern. Prosecutors allege those messages were sent as cover after he had killed her.

Prosecutors allege Burke dismembered the body in his garage. A police analyst testified earlier in the hearing that samples pulled from apparent blood stains there matched her DNA.

Her body was found in a Tesla registered to him nearly five months later.

Detective documents sexual abuse

In earlier testimony, Farrell recounted dozens of sexually explicit photos of Burke and Rivas Hernandez and years of text messages that described the same things, along with conversations that indicated she had gotten an abortion in 2024 at 13 after he got her pregnant.

Farrell described the photos that could not be shown in court, material so graphic that it left Rivas Hernandez's mother in tears and prompted both parents to leave the courtroom on Friday. They were back in court Monday.

D4vd's career was reaching new heights at time of killing

D4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2024 he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.

The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% after spending much of the day bouncing between small gains and losses. The benchmark index was coming off two weekly losses in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%, its fourth straight loss.

The three major stock indexes are on pace to close out this month in the red. It would be the second straight monthly loss for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Oil prices reversed course from a week ago, when a sharp escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran worsened worries about global oil supplies. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 6.3% to settle at $85.87 a barrel for October delivery. Prices surged to over $100 a barrel last week before easing.

U.S. crude oil for September delivery fell 7.5% to settle at $82.61 a barrel.

The war between the U.S. and Iran has sharply curtailed, and at a times halted, traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. That has had a ripple effect throughout the world’s economy. Gasoline prices have surged and shipping costs for most goods are rising, with businesses typically passing those costs along to households.

Markets closed higher in Europe and Asia.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.65% from 4.69% late Friday.

Technology companies were behind much of the shifts in the market, with gains and declines for a mix of big companies resulting in uncertain trading.

Nvidia fell 5% and Micron Technology slumped 2.3%. At the same time, Microsoft rose 1.9% and Apple rose 1.2%. They are all among the most valuable companies in the world, and those huge valuations give them more influence over the direction of the broader market.

The mix of gains and losses from a variety of those companies had more impact in pushing and pulling the market, even as the majority of companies in the S&P 500 gained ground.

Communications company stocks were among the gainers Monday. Google parent Alphabet rose 2.1%, while Charter Communications jumped 6.7% and Comcast rose 2.3%.

Credit card issuers and payment processors also notched gains. American Express climbed 2.8%, Capital One Financial added 2.1%, Visa rose 1.9% and rival Mastercard gained 2.2%.

In Asia, Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT soared in its debut in Shanghai. The company jumped to become China’s most valuable listed company with an estimated market capitalization of 3.3 trillion yuan (nearly $490 billion).

All told, the S&P 500 added 1.20 points to 7,413.18. The Dow gained 262.83 points to 52,210.08, and the Nasdaq dropped 43.74 points to 24,932.08.

Wall Street has a busy week ahead with several potentially mark-moving updates on the economy and company earnings. Reports are due out on consumer confidence Tuesday and inflation on Thursday.

“This is a week with more than its fair share of potential surprises, good and bad," said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

The big focus will be on the Federal Reserve, which will give an update Wednesday on its interest rate policy. The central bank has been grappling with the impact from rising inflation because of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. It also has to contend with a fresh round of U.S.-imposed tariffs globally, which could further worsen inflation.

Wall Street anticipates a nearly 36% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting this week. Higher rates can help cool inflation by making borrowing more expensive and slowing economic growth.

The central bank has been holding rates steady throughout the year as it monitors inflation’s direction and impact, but Wall Street expects at least one rate hike by the end of the year.

Stubbornly high inflation has been squeezing households and fuel costs have hit budgets and spending particularly hard. Gasoline costs are taking a bigger chunk out of household budgets, and that could mean tighter spending on other things like clothing and travel.

Investors are monitoring the latest round of corporate earnings for signs of consumer stress along with whether the yearlong jump in stock values throughout Wall Street is justified by profits and forecasts for profit growth.

Investors also have a heavy round of corporate earnings to review this week. Many of those reports could provide more clues into the health of different areas of the economy. Paint and coatings maker Sherwin-Williams, aircraft maker Boeing and payments processor Visa will report their latest results on Tuesday.

Starbucks and Chipotle will report results on Wednesday.

Technology companies are being watched especially closely because their sharp gains throughout the year have been behind Wall Street's record run. Microsoft will report results Wednesday. Amazon, with its growing cloud services business and AI focus, will report results on Thursday, along with Apple.

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The video released Monday is the latest public plea from the journalist about 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie since her disappearance on Feb. 1 from her home just outside Tucson, Arizona. Savannah Guthrie said her family will never stop looking for her.

“The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way,” she said. “So I’m asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing.”

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will on Feb. 1. They found blood near the front doorstep of her home just outside Tucson, and the FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night.

Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the weeks after she vanished. A volunteer group recently searched for her body near the Arizona-Mexico border. Authorities have not said how many purported ransom demands were made after Guthrie’s disappearance, though three news organizations reported receiving such notes and turned them over to investigators.

The FBI has discounted some of the ransom notes as nothing more than extortion attempts, but said it’s still evaluating others that might be legitimate. The federal agency hasn’t specified which ransom notes might be genuine.

Savannah Guthrie has previously made a series of social media postings about her mother after she went missing. In the days after the disappearance, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings acknowledged they were aware of media reports of a supposed ransom letter and were ready to talk and listen, but wanted proof their mother was alive. Weeks later, Savannah Guthrie said her family was offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her mother. She also acknowledged for the first time that her mother might not be alive, but added that there was still hope.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado in Winnebago County, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee. Damage was reported in cities including Appleton and Menasha, where Police Chief Matt Albrecht said a number of businesses and homes were “severely impacted.”

The tornado ripped the roofs off homes and flipped over vehicles in one neighborhood in Menasha, just blocks from the shores of Lake Winnebago. Video showed a trail of destruction, with some homes reduced to their outer walls.

Greg Van Driest was working in downtown Appleton when the sky got as dark as night.

“The word we all were using was ‘ominous,’” he said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa, look at that.’ ... You looked outside and you thought it was three in the morning, it was that dark.”

Gordon Hintz, the top elected official in Winnebago County, said he wasn’t aware of any fatalities or injuries, but emergency officials were still searching.

“Obviously, the footage looks devastating,” Hintz said. “Clearly some significant damage done with power lines down and things like that.”

Hintz said he’s heard multiple reports of buildings that were completely destroyed and vehicles overturned on roadways. All storm warnings that could be made ahead of time to get people to safety were activated, he said.

“Obviously when you look at the damage, Mother Nature doesn’t really care,” he said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Holley Kamba said the agency was receiving reports of a variety of damage in southern Outagamie County and eastern Winnebago County,

“We have been receiving calls of damage with a lot of trees down, power lines down,” Kamba said. “We’ve been searching for some pictures of the structural damage.”

So far, there have been no reports of injuries, she said.

The twister was moving over Lake Winnebago and moving southward toward Fond du Lac County around 12:25 p.m., the National Weather Service said.

National Weather Service meteorologists in Green Bay issued a tornado warning for the Fox Cities region, which includes Appleton, Menasha and Neenah, at 11:59 a.m.

“Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely,” the alert said.

The area had already been under a severe thunderstorm warning for about 45 minutes, and meteorologists indicated the storm was capable of producing winds of up to 60 mph (97 kph).

Images posted to social media showed extensive damage in Appleton, including homes stripped of roofs and siding, a car tossed onto a lawn, and streets littered with tree limbs.

The Appleton Police Department said on social media that it was aware of “several downed trees and large tree limbs throughout the city." Some traffic signals were out, and some roads were “heavily backed up,” the department said.

Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said he did not yet have any confirmation of fatalities or injuries in the county, which includes Appleton. But he said there was “extensive and severe damage” in Menasha and Fox Crossing with reports of collapsed buildings.

“All indications are that this was a devastating system that has caused extensive damage,” Nelson said.

In Menasha, about 30 miles south of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field, the electric utility said the entire city of about 18,000 people was believed to be without power because of a downed transmission line. Authorities were opening a shelter at a church there for people seeking temporary safety or can’t remain in their homes.

The storm hit Menasha and the east side of neighboring Fox Crossing at around 12:20 p.m., Albrecht said.

“At this point, we are unaware, unsure of how bad the damage is because many roads in those same areas are impassable,” Albrecht said. First responders were working to get into the affected area to “look for injuries, look for victims” and clear the roads, he said.

He urged people to shelter in place. “Right now, there are many downed power lines, downed trees, multiple hazardous situations. Please stay out.”

The National Weather Service said severe weather is forecast to continue in east central and southeastern Wisconsin through Monday afternoon. Storms are expected to bring strong winds along with hail and the possibility of an isolated, brief tornado, the National Weather Service said.

__

Mayes-Osterman reported from Chicago. John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

In a document filed in juvenile court in Seattle, where a 15-year-old arrested in the case was making an initial appearance Monday, police said they believe there were at least three shooters: the 15-year-old; an acquaintance who died at the scene; and “at least one other unknown suspect.”

“Based on the evidence at the scene, investigators believe” the 15-year-old “and one of the deceased engaged in a gunfight with at least one other unknown suspect,” the document said.

The teen was being held in juvenile detention for investigation of firearms violations and first-degree assault ahead of the afternoon court appearance, Mayor Katie Wilson said at a news conference.

Authorities said earlier Monday they are still looking for an additional suspect, but could not rule out whether that individual was among those killed.

“We are trying to identify who that person is,” said Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes.

Investigators had said they believed the two suspects were shooting at each other. Police said late Sunday night it was not clear whether any of the victims had been involved in the confrontation between the two shooters.

Two people died at the scene and a third died at a hospital. They were described as two men, ages 19 and 44, and a woman, 56.

The four wounded included a 2-year-old boy, who was in satisfactory condition Monday. The others — two men, ages 23 and 27, and a woman, 39 — were discharged, a hospital spokesperson said.

Vendors were allowed to return to the sprawling campus Monday morning to clean up and collect their equipment and merchandise. Skewered squid on grills, roasted ducks in ovens and plates full of food were among the items left behind as people fled the gunfire.

Near the spot of the shooting, a stain of what appeared to be blood was still visible in the morning. A candlelight vigil was planned Monday night at the center’s International Fountain.

The gunfire erupted around 6 p.m. Sunday in the waning hours of the Bite of Seattle. The annual three-day festival draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers to Seattle Center, a sprawling park and event space in the shadow of the Space Needle. Many attendees rushed into campus buildings or ran from the park at the sound of the shots.

Dozens of officers were providing security at the event and some saw one of the suspects firing, authorities said. A large number of police and emergency crews responded and began evacuating the area. Police then searched an IMAX theater on the grounds where they initially believed a second shooter had fled.

Adam Lombardo, who had a Burmese food stand at the festival with his spouse, described the panic of fleeing people as a “stampede.” As he gathered his equipment Monday, he described how police escorted them into the crime scene to turn off their ovens and stoves.

“It’s really sad because you think that three innocent people aren’t getting up with their families,” he said. “They just came to enjoy a food festival with people, with friends, with new friends, and they lost their lives in just what sounds like meaningless bloodshed.”

Festival attendee Faith Adia Hunter said she and her friends had just gotten food from a crepe vendor when gunfire broke out nearby. In the scramble to find safety, she and others ran into the nearby Seattle Children’s Museum.

“We were about to start eating, then heard someone yell something, then we saw people start to run,” Hunter said. “So we took off running, too.”

Roberto Ramirez, a vendor at the event, said he heard what sounded like firecrackers before people began yelling “shooter” and frantically running.

“Suddenly everything was empty,” he said. “People were freaked out.”

After the initial panic, new guests continued to arrive, unaware of what had happened. Police told them to leave, he said.

Estan Wakonabo said he and his girlfriend were waiting in line for a photo booth when he was shoved from behind and turned to see a rush of people fleeing.

“People were hiding, were pushing, people were falling on the ground, baby strollers were falling,” Wakonabo said, adding that was when he heard gunshots.

“Once I heard a ‘pop, pop, pop,’ that’s when I knew it was a shooter,” he said.

After he escorted his girlfriend to safety, he returned to the scene to take photos and saw multiple victims on the ground, Wakonabo said.

The festival started in 1982 and draws 350,000 attendees, according to its website.

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Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes and Lindsey Wasson in Seattle, Annika Wolters in Bangkok and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Trump defended his policies while visiting a General Motors facility in the Detroit suburb of Milford that is a testing ground for its vehicles. He pumped a fist after watching Corvette, Cadillac and Hummer vehicles compete in a series of drag races.

In a speech, Trump cheered GM's plans to expand production domestically in coming years and declared himself a president who was standing up for auto workers “at long last.”

“I’ve done more for you than your parents, OK?" he joked.

After being led on a tour of vehicles from different eras of GM, some of which he sat in, Trump claimed the tariffs have helped the automaker.

“They’ve come a long way,” he said to reporters about the Detroit-based automaker. “It’s amazing what tariffs are doing for GM.” Trump said he’s been good to the company but he declined to say more.

“The rest of the world doesn’t love me, but that’s OK,” he said, alluding to tariffs. “It’s called ‘America first.’”

Trump's visit is close to Michigan primary on Aug. 4

Trump called out several Republican candidates and invited them onstage during his remarks Monday.

Republican Mike Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits Trump-backed Rep. John James against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who has launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.

Johnson is now trying to style himself in the president's mold — despite missing out on his endorsement. The Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive Abdul El-Sayed has drawn national attention for the right to face Rogers, who was narrowly defeated by Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024.

Early voting is underway.

Trump's new Canada tariffs could hurt Michigan

Michigan was one of the 2024 battlegrounds Trump flipped after it backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. But the state has seen parts of its economy affected by the president's tariffs, including on imported cars and auto parts.

A new round of steep import levies is taking effect on dozens of U.S. trading partners. But Trump has singled out Canada with tariffs as high as 50% on a wide array of its products, including cars.

The GM facility is in Oakland County, which encompasses much of Detroit's northern suburbs. Once a Republican stronghold, it has increasingly leaned Democratic, backing Biden against Trump in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump four years later.

GM says its facility is the oldest dedicated vehicle testing operation in the United States, where 4,200 employees work to refine nearly every vehicle the company makes before they reach consumers.

Michigan's economy relies heavily on Canada, however, meaning the new tariffs — coupled with inflation still running high and gas prices rising again as the already unpopular war in Iran escalates — have created additional economic concerns statewide.

Those come at a time when voters across the country were already increasingly dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the economy.

Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who tried unsuccessfully to distance it from Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement in 2021, said that more than coinciding with his new round of tariffs, Trump's visit is a function of Michigan's relatively late primary and is meant to ensure that James secures the nomination.

But Roe also said it was a risk for the president to tie himself too closely to top Republicans before the general election, calling it “kryptonite to November voters.”

Trump, who won the White House on a promise to lower the cost of living, also has seen his approval ratings sag, meaning kitchen table issues could be a liability for Republicans trying to hold control of Congress in the Nov. 3 elections.

“We’re happy to have the president here, campaigning with Republicans. We think it highlights the fact that the only thing they care about is Donald Trump and refuse to stand up to him," said Curtis Hertel, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. "It’s good for us every time the president is here because he’s incredibly unpopular.”

The US and Canada have squabbled over a new border bridge

The Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, but his administration has tried to find ways around that, including by arguing that he can impose them on Canada because that country is discriminating against American exports of products including automobiles.

But Trump’s latest round of tariffs came after he voiced frustration with Canada for having retaliated and imposed its own levies on U.S. imports in response to Trump’s initial tariffs last year. Trump launched the first round after alleging Canada should do more to stop fentanyl smuggling.

It is Trump's third trip to Michigan in his second term.

In January, he visited a Ford plant in Dearborn and addressed the Detroit Economic Club, offering a defense of tariffs even as auto industry leaders blamed them for increasing the cost of doing business.

The president marked his second term's first 100 days with a rally in Warren, where he mostly mentioned grievances left over from the 2024 campaign,

His latest visit coincides with tensions between his administration and Canada that have marred the opening of a new bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

Canada on Friday held its own event hailing the opening of the $4.7 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge instead of a planned celebration with officials in the U.S. after Trump announced the new Canadian tariffs.

An earlier, joint ceremony had been set for June but was scrapped after Trump suggested the U.S. wanted a “better” deal on the bridge it co-owns with Canada.

That eventually led to an agreement on splitting tolls that was supposed to allow for the rescheduled joint U.S.-Canada celebration — until the new tariffs derailed that, too.

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Superville reported from Washington.

The surprise move during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine followed U.S. opposition to giving U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk another four-year term. The reappointment on Friday got overwhelming support, including from France.

The U.S. walkout reflects not only the more strained relations between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, but also wider tensions between the U.S. and Europe. These include questions over Trump's commitment to NATO, possible changes to U.S. troop deployments in Europe, and Trump’s desire to control Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark.

Trump has complained that Europeans, who weren't consulted, did not help the U.S. during the Iran war. Amid the tensions, Macron has taken a lead in trying to build up Europe's military and ensure a nuclear umbrella as one of the continent's two nuclear powers, along with Britain.

After Monday’s brief walkout, deputy U.S. ambassador Dan Negrea accused France of feigning “moral outrage” and pretending to lecture the world about every topic, including human rights.

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where its "freedom has been imperiled” and tolerated its grandstanding “out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect,” he said, but no more.

What sparked the walkout was a social media post Friday from France’s U.N. Mission in Geneva criticizing U.S. opposition to a second term for the U.N. rights chief. The General Assembly voted 144-10 with 13 abstentions in support of Türk, with the U.S. among the “no” votes.

“The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it,” the French Mission tweeted.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in responding on X, accused France of coddling ”some of the worst human rights abusers” and voting “for someone who has been lecturing, free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world’s worst oppressors.”

Türk’s job as the U.N. rights chief, by its nature, is tricky: It requires speaking out against rights violations by the governments of the countries that make up the membership of the world body.

For instance, Türk has sharply criticized Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza as well as having urged a “massive rethink” of U.S. immigration policy before the World Cup, citing issues around “racial profiling, surveillance and immigration enforcement.”

At Monday’s meeting, Negrea drilled in on France.

“Today, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world,” he said. “As such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicized drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council.”

France’s U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont never mentioned the walkout when asked to take the floor at the end of the council meeting to respond.

Instead, he noted that France — which helped the United States gain its independence — took part in the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

“The United Nations was created with the goal of working towards international peace and security, human rights and development,” he said. “All of that forms the spirit in which France works within the United Nations … to preserve this institution, its independence, its ability to act in service of the charter and act to serve human rights and peace.”

Carter Camacho, 18, of Smyrna, Georgia, told police officers who apprehended him outside the Capitol on Feb. 17 that he intended to confront members of Congress and “scare them into speaking the truth,” according to federal prosecutors. But he didn't make it into the building, and nobody was injured.

Camacho is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. He has remained jailed since his arrest.

Camacho pleaded guilty to two counts: illegal possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds and receipt or distribution of child pornography. The latter charge stems from a search of his phone after his arrest.

Surveillance video captured Camacho exiting a parked car and running toward the west side of the Capitol with the shotgun in his hands. He complied with Capitol Police officers' commands to stop and get down on the ground.

Camacho told police that he purchased the shotgun for “home defense” less than a week before he drove from Georgia to the Capitol, prosecutors said. He also said he had left pepper spray and other tactical gear in his car “just in case I don’t want to shoot anyone,” according to prosecutors.

“He further indicated that he considered using the shotgun to breach a door to be able to enter the Capitol,” they wrote.

Trump is visiting the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, one of the nation’s most expansive testing sites for new vehicle models, on July 27.

--> Trump visiting Metro Detroit on Monday as Gordie Howe Bridge prepares to welcome travelers

You can watch the livestream when it begins at the beginning of this article.

Friday was “Donate Life Night” at Comerica Park and the family of Colin Aronson, a 25-year-old Lincoln Park man who died on March 17, met a man who is alive thanks to their son’s incredible gift.

“It’s a little overwhelming, but this was one of Colin’s absolute favorite places in the world to be,” Tricia Aronson, Colin’s mother, said on Friday night. “He loved his Tigers and getting to meet Andy and his family is a wonderful thing.

The “Andy” she’s referring to is Andy Uyttenhove, who received Colin’s pancreas through organ donation. Colin was a registered organ donor and helped save six lives through his decision to donate his organs after his death.

One of the people who received one of Colin’s kidney attended his funeral.

“It was six major organs and also tissue, bone, corneas,” she said. “So, he’s out there. He’s still saving lives and still helping people.”

For Colin, who grew up playing baseball, the Tigers were his life.

He and his father, Paul Aronson, had season tickets and would often go on road trips with the team.

“We went to 30 games last year,” Paul said. “We’d go to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. He just loved baseball.”

Colin’s love of the Tigers was so deep that he was laid to rest wearing his favorite Tigers jersey. His family and friends also honored him by wearing Tigers gear at his funeral.

“The last game I think we went to together, it was freezing cold,” Tricia said. “He said he didn’t need a warm coat, but I had my long winter one on.”

“So about halfway through the game I took it off and covered both of us to get through the rest of that freezing cold April game,” she said. “That was my that was probably one of my favorite memories of him – just him and I freezing and watching the Tigers.”

“This was his choice”

Tricia and Paul repeatedly describe Colin as kind and generous, and they say it was a trait that followed him his entire life. Making the decision he made nine years ago ended up helping so many people, even if it was much sooner than anyone would have wanted

“He chose on his own at 16 to become an organ donor,” Tricia said. “That was his choice and we made sure that we honored that choice the best we could.”

For Colin’s family, seeing Andy in person brought a mix of emotions. They continue the arduous grieving process while simultaneously witnessing the impact of Colin’s immense generosity.

“Donors, donor families, and recipients don’t always get the chance to meet, but when they do, it’s special,” Melissa Foster, a spokeswoman for Gift of Life Michigan, said. “It’s an opportunity for the recipients to thank the donor family for helping save their life and making it possible for them to be here.”

The Aronsons first made contact with the Uyttenhoves through email and later on social media. Their meeting on Friday night was full of tears and stunned disbelief.

“Emotions are high right now,” Andy Uyttenhove said. “As soon as I saw Paul standing next to me, I started breaking down.

“I get very emotional when I see his mother, as it makes me think of Colin and all of the grief that they are going through right now,” he said.

Autumn noted that they have two sons of their own, and couldn’t imagine being the position the Aronsons have been in. She marvels over how this tragedy has brought them together and bonded their families for life.

“You can’t help but put yourself in their shoes,” Autumn said. “We have boys that are his age, so you put yourself in their shoes.”

“It’s amazing that science has this way of turning something positive out of such a tragic loss and bringing us together,” she said. “I feel like I’m a part of their family and I hope they feel the same.”

According to Gift of Life Michigan, more than 2,600 people in the state are currently waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.

The organization says that Colin’s story demonstrates how one selfless decision can create a lasting impact for a multitude of people.

“They’re amazing people and if Colin can’t be with us then knowing that he was able to save six lives is a positive,” Tricia said. “Andy is definitely a positive.”

Click here to learn more.

The Czech capital has a movie theater that's among the few dozen in the world equipped with the coveted 70 mm IMAX screen to watch the first feature made entirely with IMAX film cameras.

“It completely changed my experience about the movie," said Nicolas Walak from Poland, who also saw the movie before on a normal screen before viewing it in Prague. "Everything was great. It was a great movie.”

Czech cinema adapts to meet demand for rare IMAX format

There are only 41 70 mm IMAX screens worldwide, with most in North America. Montpellier in France and the Belgian capital, Brussels, are the only other two in the European Union countries. Britain has another three.

To meet massive demand, the Czech branch of the Cinema City offers four to five screenings a day, one starting after midnight, and the majority are sold out.

Film fans from about 15 European countries, from Scandinavia to Spain, have been coming to watch “The Odyssey” in Prague, Cinema City said. Their number reached 22,000 by Monday, it said.

The 70 mm IMAX film presentation is Nolan's preferred format. The Oscar-winning filmmaker calls it the “best possible experience.”

Moviegoers travel up to three days to Prague

Daniel Jung drove with his two teenage sons, Felix and Leo, for three days from Norway through Denmark and Germany "just to see this movie. Tomorrow, we’re going back.”

Leo was in touch with Cinema City by email half a year before the July 16 premiere and followed the cinema operator on Instagram. He managed to book the tickets immediately after they became available.

“We were in the 11th row, right in the middle. We had the very best seats,” Leo said, calling the effort “absolutely worth it.”

“It’s just so big. We come from Norway, the screens we have are much smaller,” he said. “Now, we watched it in this huge format. I will always remember this experience.”

Felix said they had a good time on the way, visiting some places in Germany, but it would be worth it even if they just drove straight there.

Few IMAX left because of costs and other challenges

Due to the cost and other challenges, productions made using large format film are rare. The IMAX cameras are heavy and new versions with reduced noise had to be developed to be usable for making “The Odyssey.”

The film print sent to theaters is so big — weighing some 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and 18 kilometers (11 miles) long — that it has to be delivered to theaters in parts. The movie and the projector have to be in a climatized room and the projectionists need to be approved by IMAX for the job.

As movie theaters around the globe were acquiring digital IMAX equipment around 2008, the Cinema City decided not to get rid of the original analog projector in Prague. It was placed in a corner for three years until 2012 to screen Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”

It was used to show several others, including Nolan's “Interstellar” in 2014 and “Oppenheimer” three years ago.

“We’re really grateful to him for that,” projectionist Tomáš Vyšinský said about his predecessor who saved the equipment.

One of the men charged, 29-year-old Marquez Christopher Pinder, works in the Secret Service's Miami field office and is described in an arrest warrant as a “dean of pledges” for a Miami chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

The Secret Service said it’s cooperating with investigators and has placed Pinder on administrative leave. He was released from jail after posting a $75,000 bond Monday and faces arraignment before a judge Sept. 24.

The three men were charged last week after police uncovered evidence of “alleged hazing incidents involving prolonged and repeated beatings with canes and paddles,” the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office said in a news release.

Police said in court documents that a University of Miami graduate student and another young man had injuries that could have been fatal had they not been treated. One required skin grafts to his backside and suffered kidney damage, the documents said, while the other had a tube placed in his windpipe to help him breathe.

Accused agent has worked for Secret Service since 2023

Charges against the three men include felony counts of hazing with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with great bodily harm and attempted manslaughter.

“In Florida, hazing is abuse and it is a crime,” Katherine Fernandez Rundle, state attorney for Miami-Dade County, said in a statement Sunday. “Its victims too often lie in their graves and in hospital beds.”

An attorney for Pinder, Justin Beckham, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Monday. Court and jail records did not list attorneys for the other two men.

Pinder has worked as a Secret Service agent since 2023, agency spokesman Matt Fagiana confirmed Monday.

"Any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process,” Michael Townsend, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Miami field office, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Kappa Alpha Psi did not immediately return a phone message left at the fraternity's Philadelphia headquarters.

Arrest warrant describes bloody paddling, emergency medical care

According to Pinder's arrest warrant, the graduate student told police that he and another young man had their backsides beaten by Pinder and the other defendants during four nights in early April at an apartment and a home off-campus. The paddling started when the victims failed to correctly answer questions about the fraternity and its history, a police investigator said in an arrest warrant filed in court.

The warrant did not name either victim.

The beatings stopped on the fourth night when one of the victims had blood seeping through the seat of his pants, according to the warrant. It said fraternity leaders ordered both victims to strip off their clothes and place them in garbage bags before going home.

One of the victims suffered vomiting, fevers and intense pain before being admitted to a hospital, where he required skin grafts on his buttocks and treatment for kidney damage, according to police.

Without emergency medical treatment, the warrant said, “his injuries would have resulted in renal failure leading to death.”

The second victim told police he knew the other victim from the fraternity. He denied being paddled, the warrant said, but acknowledged receiving emergency medical care in April.

That person's medical records showed he had been hospitalized with injuries to his backside and “was intubated during his stay in the hospital to prevent further physical deterioration and death,” the arrest warrant said.

Florida lawmakers in 2005 made hazing a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if it results in serious injury or death. The law was spurred by the 2001 death of Chad Meredith, a University of Miami freshman who drowned after drinking alcohol and then attempting to swim across a lake at the urging of campus fraternity leaders.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

Nineteen days after she was discharged, she strangled her three children at their Massachusetts home.

A jury heard opening statements Monday in Clancy’s murder trial, which is expected to feature dueling views about her mental state. Both sides agree she killed her children. They disagree over whether she should be held criminally responsible for their deaths.

The first witness was Patrick Clancy, her former husband, who found the children's bodies after returning home on the day of the killings in January 2023. He has said in interviews that he forgives his wife, and will testify for both the prosecution and the defense.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Patrick Clancy told prosecutors on Monday that a month before the killings, his wife began to describe intrusive thoughts of harming the children and of suicide, but she denied having plans to hurt them or herself. He said the situation was “very confusing” because moments later, she would be making the children lunch or playing with them.

“I never saw Lindsay harm the kids,” he told jurors.

Despite months of psychiatric care, changing medications and new providers, her condition worsened, he said. She became increasingly depressed, struggled to sleep and lost weight.

A grieving father testifies about their last days as a family

Patrick Clancy breathed heavily as photos of his children were projected for the jury.

Cora, 5, was shown in one image wearing a red bow and skirt. Her dad said she loved princesses. Dawson, 3, loved firefighters, fire trucks and “Paw Patrol.” Eight-month-old Callan “was just a happy baby,” his father said.

Clancy worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Patrick testified that her anxiety about being separated from her children would increase as she got closer to the end of her parental leave.

Patrick Clancy testified that after his wife was discharged from the psychiatric hospital, the family tried to carry on with everyday life. They celebrated Cora’s birthday and visited the Museum of Science and a water park, where jurors saw video of Lindsay Clancy playing with the children. Patrick said she had returned to the gym and her moods appeared steadier.

However, on the day of the killings, “she was having one of her best days,” Patrick said. She took Cora to a doctor’s appointment while he stayed home with Dawson and Callan. The couple exchanged photos of the children by text — Dawson had just dressed himself for the first time — before she returned home to build a snowman and work on art projects.

Prosecutors say Lindsay Clancy strangled her children with exercise bands after sending her husband out on errands. She then used multiple methods to try to end her own life. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from a second-story window.

That day, Clancy said she heard voices telling her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyer.

Seated in a wheelchair, Clancy wiped her eyes with a tissue at times as lawyers discussed her children.

Competing narratives in the Lindsay Clancy trial

Defense lawyer Kevin Reddington said Clancy had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. He argued she had bipolar disorder and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition.

“She loved those children right up to the time of their death,” he told jurors, saying they would hear from family, friends, neighbors and teachers about her devotion.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham argued Clancy “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” and bears full responsibility for the deaths.

“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis," Buckingham said. “This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women. This case is about this defendant, Lindsay Clancy.”

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

The trial will hinge on Clancy's mental state

Elyse Hershon, a Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, said the verdict will likely depend on how the jury views Clancy’s “intent and mental capacity.”

“Whenever there are deaths of children, it rattles emotions,” Hershon said. “Some people naturally will identify and sympathize with Clancy and her postpartum depression, and others will not be able to understand how one could end their children’s lives, and demand responsibility.”

While postpartum depression is fairly common among women who have given birth, postpartum psychosis affects an estimated 1 to 2 women per 1,000 births and can include hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. Most women with the condition do not harm their children.

Similar cases have led to insanity verdicts

Possibly the best-known is Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in a bathtub in Texas in 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from postpartum psychosis and believed killing her children would save them from hell.

Her initial murder conviction was overturned, and in a retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.

Dr. Nicole Cirino of Baylor College of Medicine said women in the grip of postpartum psychosis often believe they are helping their children.

In their own minds, “they may be saving their children from damnation,” Cirino said.

Awareness of postpartum psychosis has grown since the Yates case, but Cirino and other maternal mental health advocates said it's rarely considered in criminal prosecutions. Illinois is the only state with a law allowing for undiagnosed or untreated postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis to be a mitigating factor in sentencing.

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Willingham reported from Boston.

On Monday, there's a preliminary hearing for singer D4vd in Los Angeles; Andrew and Tristan Tate are fighting extradition in Miami; and a woman who killed her three kids is on trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the man accused of murder in the 1996 death of Tupac Shakur are scheduled to appear in court in Las Vegas and a convicted school shooter could be sentenced in Winder, Georgia.

Also this week, a trial over the man accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie continues in Buffalo, New York.

Here's a look at the cases, what's happening this week and what's at stake:

D4vd is charged with murder. If there’s enough evidence, he will go on trial

Prosecutors say the singer, whose legal name is David Burke, killed a 14-year-old girl after she threatened to reveal their sexual relationship. Burke has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said they will vigorously defend him.

The indie-pop musician's online presence has brought him a huge following. His breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify.

A preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for Burke to face trial could conclude Monday.

Andrew and Tristan Tate fight extradition

The social media influencers are accused of rape and sex trafficking in the United Kingdom, but are currently in the United States.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The Tates promote their wealth, male dominance and misogyny through a social media empire that's made them some of the world’s most polarizing internet personalities. The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie is on trial

Prosecutors have charged Hadi Matar with terrorism. Matar was previously convicted of a state-level attempted murder charge in the 2022 attack at a cultural institution where Rushdie was poised to speak about threats to writers and artists.

Rushdie testified against him last week in federal court in Buffalo, New York. Matar's attorneys have said their client may testify.

Trial begins for Massachusetts woman who killed her 3 kids

Lindsay Clancy strangled her 8-month-old, 3-year-old and 5-year-old children on Jan. 24, 2023 at her Massachusetts home. Prosecutors have charged her with murder.

The case casts a spotlight on postpartum mental health. Clancy’s attorneys say she sought help for postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Prosecutors say she carefully planned the killings.

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Georgia school shooter to be sentenced to life in prison

Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at a high school north of Atlanta that left two students and two teachers dead. A judge must now decide whether he will have the possibility of parole.

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gray after the shooting at the request of the teen’s attorney said Monday that Gray had a chaotic, lonely upbringing.

A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said he gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.

Judge to consider evidence in the killing of Tupac

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to go on trial in August over the killing of the rap icon. He's accused of orchestrating the killing.

His attorneys are scheduled to ask a judge on Tuesday to exclude an interview he conducted with police in 2008.

Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur.

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq that had targeted its petroleum facilities. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen meanwhile claimed to have attacked Saudi oil facilities as part of a separate but related conflict. It was unclear if they referred to the same attack.

Neither the U.S. nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran had asked for more discussions, reaching out directly “because we’ve been hitting them very hard.” Iran has said there are no direct talks underway.

“We’re having good talks, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Monday on Air Force One. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen. And if it does, good. if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

The two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan were working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire deal that had collapsed after exchanges of fire.

No strikes over the weekend

In addition to the attack on Saudi Arabia, two drone attacks were reported against a Kurdish Iranian dissident group in Iraq on Monday, and Jordan said it had shot down two drones, without saying where they originated. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Iran and Ukraine, meanwhile, have been publicly feuding since Ukraine fired on at least one Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend. Iran, which said a sailor had been killed in the attack, is an important ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.

The U.S. paused attacks after targeting Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure in a nearly two-week escalation sparked by Iran’s firing at ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil shipments. Iran had responded to the strikes with missile and drone attacks on countries hosting U.S. troops, killing at least three service members at a base in Jordan and one in Iraq.

Iran halted its attacks following the American pause, Tehran’s army spokesperson told Iranian state TV on Sunday.

Questions about US munitions stockpile

The Iran war has drawn down the U.S. stockpile of key weapons systems like missiles and interceptors, analysts say.

Asked if the U.S. munitions stockpile was running low, Trump said both that it was “in very good shape,” and “I’d like to have more, to be honest.” Experts have questioned how long both the U.S. and Iran can afford to keep up attacks.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Trump that the state of the country’s stockpile could have an impact on military operations in Iran, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, said this message was delivered as part of Caine’s regular duties of providing military advice and options to Trump.

Caine told lawmakers at a hearing last week that “airpower has its limits” in achieving military objectives. The U.S. military has employed airstrikes almost exclusively against Iran.

Regional officials cite progress in talks

One of the regional officials who spoke to AP on Monday described the progress made in mediation efforts as “significant.” He said mediators were working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the flashpoint for the latest strikes and counterstrikes.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran on Monday that “mediators may convey messages to us from the American side” but that there were no direct negotiations.

He said Iran and Oman, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, had already held talks on Friday and Saturday on how to manage ship traffic through the waterway.

Their aim is to “develop mechanisms to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights and sovereignty of both coastal states, as well as Iran’s security and national interests” Baghaei said. He stressed that the waterway remains closed.

Tehran has asserted that the interim deal with the U.S. allows it to manage shipping on the waterway and potentially charge fees, and it has objected to U.S. efforts to support an alternative route that passes close to Oman. The strait was open to all without fees before the war.

The U.S. military on Monday said its recently reimposed naval blockade against Iran continued, with 17 commercial ships redirected, two disabled and two boarded.

The 60-day period established by the interim deal in mid-June is now well into its second half, and major issues that were meant to be negotiated — notably Iran’s nuclear program at the heart of tensions — have been set aside as mediators try to keep both sides talking.

Shipping traffic on the strait is at a 3-week low

Concerns have grown about shipping through another crucial waterway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea. The Houthis last week threatened a blockade of Saudi shipping there, and fired on at least one Saudi tanker, setting it alight.

Global energy supplies and the economy remain in the balance as gasoline prices have risen again.

Commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was at a three-week low, a maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that no new attacks had been confirmed in the past 72 hours. It said traffic remained steady through Bab el-Mandeb.

Netanyahu says he ‘fully’ backs Trump’s efforts

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to meet with Trump in Washington on Tuesday. They last met in Washington in February, weeks before they launched the war on Iran that killed senior leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon fired at Israel two days after the war began, and Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion. Since then, the U.S. has supported landmark direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to try to calm that front and find a way to disarm Hezbollah.

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press reporters Cara Anna in Lowville, New York; Konstantin Toropin, Darlene Superville and Ben Finley in Washington; Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

Descendants of Gordie Howe, the hockey legend whose name is on the bridge, were among the first to cross over the Detroit River, which separates the Motor City from Windsor, Ontario. U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., rode a motorcycle, while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drove a Ford Mustang with the top down.

The six-lane span, which was built by Canada at a cost of $6.4 billion Canadian, now becomes a less-expensive alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which had a monopoly on big trucks carrying goods worth billions between the two countries, especially in service to the auto industry.

“There are thousands of trucks that go over” daily, said Kevin Ketels, a business professor who teaches supply chain management at Wayne State University.

Jim Pereira, who was hauling auto parts for Ontario-based Onfreight Logistics, was recognized as the first trucker to arrive in Detroit. He blasted his air horn a few times and stepped down from the wheel to take selfies with customs officers and exchange high-fives.

Pereira, 58, said he anticipates faster travel times on both sides as trucks approach the wide bridge.

“It's just a beautiful piece of architecture,” he said.

Canada’s minister of infrastructure noted that the bridge resembles the curve of a hockey stick blade. Steel cables, stretching from towers to the deck, look like giant music harps.

Freddie Garrett, 81, said he regularly watched construction “ever since they put the foundation in” back in 2018. So naturally he showed up at Delray Park in Detroit to see the first vehicles moving overhead.

“It was amazing to see how they did it,” Garrett said. “They put up one section at a time and then they met together in the middle. I'm sure it will be there longer than I'll be around.”

Last week, Canada celebrated the Gordie Howe International Bridge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Windsor. U.S. and Michigan representatives were uninvited after President Donald Trump suddenly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods entering America.

More than 70% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S., making America its largest trade partner, and Detroit is the No. 1 port for truck traffic on the U.S.-Canada border, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Animosity between the governments of the two countries “has been very challenging for us in this region,” Ketels said. “Many feel it's unneeded and unnecessary.”

The span is 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and rises 151 feet (46 meters) above the river at its highest point. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to cross it for free, starting Aug. 5.

Howe is a Canadian icon known as “Mr. Hockey” who wore No. 9 while playing for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. He died in 2016.

A recent agreement between Canada and the Trump administration says Canada will share some toll revenue with the U.S. government for 15 years. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in 2012 separately negotiated a share for the state, but it won't be paid until Canada’s costs are recovered, likely decades from now.

“The same way that you want to season a steak or a pork chop, you want to add multiple layers. And I think spice does that if you do it the right way,” says Turner Greaves, bartender at New York’s Sip and Guzzle.

He makes a tequila highball called Doctor Green, which he describes as “super-herbaceous, vegetal, a little bitter. It’s got tomatillo, green apple, shiso, horseradish, and then you can make it spicier with a little serrano pepper on the side.”

Customers get to add more spice with a little spice dropper delivered with their serving.

Cocktail tastes are changing from sweet to savory

James Stevenson, co-founder of Brutes of Mayfair cocktail bar in London, says drinks were very sweet when he started out 20 years ago, and now consumers’ tastes have shifted.

“I think there’s a real movement toward savory cocktails,” he says. “Every drink we put on the menu that is more savory or has a pickled element or spice element tends to be our bestseller.”

Stevenson makes a mezcal-based Bagheera, which he describes as a turbo-spiced margarita.

“We juice (blend) rather than shaking the drink, with fresh chile and coriander,” he says. They make a fresh syrup, adding tequila and freshly squeezed lime, and finish off the drink with a house-made Tajin salt rim.

Agave spirits are a good match for spicy and savory

It’s no coincidence both bartenders picked agave-based spirits — tequila and mezcal — for their spicy offerings.

Stevenson explains that a lot of the flavor profiles you get from agaves are fresher, more vegetal than other spirits. “They’re just very akin to chiles,” he says. Noting that tequila pairs well with salt, he adds, “Spice and savory flavors are just a natural kinship.”

Alex Lyoness, bar manager at London’s FlipDog, makes his Late Night cocktail with a hint of an after-hours kebab and pickles. He uses a white tequila and a raicilla (an agave similar to mezcal). Soy sauce brings a deep flavor, he says, and a homemade chile tincture spices things up.

He then adds an onion and olive brine “like the ultimate dirty martini,” and garnishes with a bright pink pickled turnip.

Looking for a tingly feeling

But chiles aren’t the only way to add spice. Lyoness says you’re looking to create a “mouthfeel.” He uses Sichuan peppercorns and the Timur berry, which he says has a cool, numbing quality. “What you’re looking for is that tingling across the palate,” he says.

Greaves recommends bringing a little classic cooking into your drinks.

“You can add ginger, you can add garlic cloves, and star anise and fennel into these drinks, and it adds so many different elements of pepper, of spice. Go home and then throw cayenne into a margarita,” he says.

How hot is too hot?

To judge the heat, try to read it on your palate, says Greaves: “If it starts creeping all the way down to your esophagus, I think that’s definitely a spice level that you can loosen up a bit.”

A good spicy drink should “give you the itches on the sides of your mouth” but not overwhelm, he says.

And don’t forget that no two chiles are the same.

“It’s all about tasting, trying and tweaking,” Anderson says.

Adding a spicy rim to your glass is an easy way to get extra kick

For a spicy rim, mix any spices from your cupboard with a good rock salt, says Anderson. (You can freshly grind the spices for a more aromatic and vibrant mix.)

He recommends coriander seed for a more citrusy mix, and black pepper or cardamom powder for a savory feel. You can even try adding fruit powders.

“Something like a freeze-dried strawberry, freeze-dried raspberry, with a little bit of spice. It’s great,” Anderson says.

Then, simply run a lemon or lime wedge along the rim of your glass and gently roll it in a shallow plate of the salt mix.

Recipes

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Late Night, from FlipDog, London

Ingredients

1 oz. Tapatio blanco (tequila)

0.4 oz. La Venenosa Costa Raicilla

0.4 oz. Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe Fino (dry sherry)

0.7 oz. brine mix (onion, olive, sivri pepper)

2 drops chile tincture

Directions

Stir together all the ingredients with ice. Serve in a chilled martini glass. Add a pickled turnip to garnish.

CHILE TINCTURE

Submerge chiles in a sealed jar with a high-proof neutral alcohol like vodka (approx. 1-2 small chiles per 3.5 oz. of alcohol) and leave to steep for up to two weeks, shaking the jar occasionally. Then strain and transfer the contents into an eyedropper bottle.

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Bagheera, from Brutes of Mayfair, London

Ingredients

1.75 oz. Lost Explorer mezcal

0.75 oz. fresh lime juice

.67 oz. Bagheera syrup

Small pinch of salt

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over cracked ice. Rim the glass with Tajin.

BAGHEERA SYRUP

Ingredients

275 grams simple sugar syrup (roughly 7.5 fl. oz.)

½ supermarket bunch of fresh cilantro, including stalks

1 small Thai green chile

3 jalapeno chiles

¼ teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder), to stop the cilantro from turning brown

½ teaspoon green cardamom powder

1 thumb-size piece of peeled fresh ginger

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large container or blender. Blend until the coriander and chiles have completely broken down and the mixture is well combined. Strain through a fine mesh strainer bag or muslin cloth. Transfer to a clean container and refrigerate.

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Doctor Green, from Sip & Guzzle, New York

Servings: 20

Ingredients

34 oz. green apple juice

34 oz. tomatillo juice

24 oz. green tequila

6 oz. Sauternes

Directions

Juice tomatillo and green apple and whisk in 2 grams ascorbic powder and 4 grams pectinase powder per liter of juice until dissolved.

Rest at room temperature or in the fridge for at least one to two hours until the juice splits into clear liquid and sediment layers. Combine all ingredients and strain through a fine mesh strainer until clear. Carbonate using a specialist drinks carbonator.

GREEN TEQUILA

3.4 oz. Patron tequila

0.25 oz. shiso

0.25 oz. fennel

0.25 oz. horseradish

2 pieces star anise

Directions: Combine the ingredients and allow to infuse at room temperature for 24 hours.

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5 songs to drink spicy cocktails to:

“Hot Stuff,” Donna Summer

“Hot in Herre,” Nelly

“Spice Up Your Life,” The Spice Girls

“Feeling Hot Hot Hot,” The Merrymen

“Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell Williams

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This story was first published on July 22, 2026. It was updated on July 27, 2026 to correct erroneous measurements in the drinks recipes.

A new survey highlighted by Forbes found that younger workers are openly discussing their paychecks, debt, and financial stress with friends, and even coworkers. 27% of Gen Z say they have shared exactly how much they make, compared to just 3% of baby boomers.

This was the topic of discussion for “Live in the D’s” What’s The Buzz segment with friends of the show, Vanessa Cohen, Founder of the Cohen Brand and Motor City Date Night, and Lauren Crocker from “Blaine and Lauren” on 96.3 WDVD.

To see the full conversation, please click the video above.

U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The brothers weren’t in court Monday or required to be there and have remained in jail since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest.

The Tates have become among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Attorneys for the brothers said Monday that they want the U.S. government to turn over documents that U.K. officials submitted to secure their arrest.

“They don't have anything but the accusations,” attorney Joseph McBride said after the hearing. “It’s just their word against our word right now.”

The U.K. has until mid-September to turn over all of its materials to the State Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra López said in court.

The brothers have long claimed that their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

Jackie Perczek, another one of their attorneys, said the Tates have shown they are not a flight risk by returning to Romania every month after they were accused there of luring women for sexual exploitation.

“For three years they have not fled,” she said. “They've traveled the world and every month they return to Romania.”

The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. The White House has said the brothers shouldn't expect any help from the president.

McBride said shortly after the Tates were arrested that "they’ve never done nothing wrong. They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit," he said.

McBride said the extradition attempt was politically motivated, though he provided no details.

Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new accusers and were brought after authorities received evidence from police in Bedfordshire, in southeastern England. The allegations, which span from 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

The brothers are already charged with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other accusers in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

The brothers moved to Romania in 2016 and were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations, and the Romanian case hasn't gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Andrew Tate, 39, became known a decade ago when he was a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother.” He was booted from the show when a video appeared to show him assaulting a woman.

He has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from other platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, for violating hate speech guidelines. He has made widely condemned comments, such as saying women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks and sharing graphic descriptions of how he might attack women.

Trump has repeatedly urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which effectively sets a 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act. But Republicans hold only a 53-47 majority, and Thune has consistently said they don’t have the votes to pass the bill or change the rules to get around the filibuster.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump wrote on social media.

He later insisted to reporters Monday that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader but said Thune has “got to get his job done.”

It's the latest escalation in a monthslong pressure campaign by Trump and others in the GOP base to pass the SAVE Act ahead of the midterms. A small but vocal group of Republican senators has also increasingly pressed Thune to find a way forward.

Thune responded Monday afternoon, telling reporters he would be supportive of cancelling the break if there was a path forward on the legislation.

“We voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already,” said Thune, who counted each number on his hand for reporters. “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

House Republicans have also attempted to create another path for the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow grant money associated with voting rules to pass the Senate with a simple majority.

The House last week approved a budget framework that included $10 billion for voting-related changes aligned with the SAVE America Act. But Thune has said Republicans don’t currently have the votes for that approach, either.

Trump's pressure comes during an important period

The fight threatens to complicate the Senate's final legislative sprint before the August break, when Thune had hoped to focus on a long list of priorities that includes government funding, cryptocurrency legislation and sanctions on Russia. The August break, scheduled to start on Aug. 7, is a pivotal stretch for senators to return home and campaign ahead of the midterm elections.

Several Republican senators are facing competitive races, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Republicans are confronting broader political headwinds as well, including an unpopular war in Iran, surging gas prices and costs that remain high for voters.

Thune has enjoyed broad support from his GOP conference all year as he’s pushed back on Trump’s demands. He previously kept the SAVE Act on the Senate floor for weeks in an effort to build additional support, but was unable to secure the votes needed to advance it.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has led the push for the bill in the Senate, escalated his pressure late last week, warning that how Republicans handle the SAVE America Act “could impact not only the November midterm elections, but also the Senate GOP leadership elections.”

“Leaders must lead. And if they don’t, they’re not leaders,” Lee wrote on social media Friday.

Frustrated by the pressure when he doesn’t have a route to pass the bill, Thune has urged Trump, Lee and others to help him find the votes. Trump on Friday said he'd “certainly be willing” to help call senators.

Asked last week if Trump is frustrated with Thune, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "his patience is running out.” But Trump told reporters on Air Force Once Monday while traveling to an event in Michigan, that he hasn’t “even thought” about potential replacements for Thune.

The late-summer dispute echoes a similar fight before last year’s August recess, when Trump pressed Thune to keep senators in Washington to clear a backlog of his nominees. The Senate ultimately left town without a deal after negotiations with Democrats collapsed.

The SAVE America Act would create new national rules

The SAVE America Act, which stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.

Voting experts have said the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available.

Trump has made it his legislative priority in 2026, saying it would “guarantee the midterms" and falsely claimed that election cheating is “rampant.” He previously declined to sign any other legislation until it was passed.

Police previously called the fire that killed a family of 8 – including 6 children -- “suspicious.” Investigators say the case is being treated as a murder-suicide.

The deaths of Amanda “Mandy” Karolkiewicz, 39, and six children were ruled homicides, while 47-year-old Kristopher “Kris” Karolkiewicz’s death was ruled a suicide, police said.

Capt. Jake Sparks said after forensic autopsies were completed at Corewell Health–Blodgett, they’ve concluded that Kris Karolkiewicz killed his wife and six children before taking his own life. They said all eight deaths were caused by gunshot wounds.

Kris Karolkiewicz and Mandy Karolkiewicz were married and had four boys, ages 15, 12, 11 and 5, along with two girls, both 11. Four of the children were biological, and two were adopted, police said.

Firefighters and deputies said they were called to a house fire Friday morning on Riverside Trail. But when first responders went in to try to fight the blaze, they said they found the family dead inside.

Michigan State Police arson investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire and origin, but Sparks said preliminary information shows it was intentionally set in numerous places inside the home. Police also said the fire was started after the killings. Family pets also died due to fire and smoke.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office or Silent Observer at 1-877-88-SILENT (745368) or mosotips.com.

Grand Haven Area Public Schools Superintendent Kristin Perkowski is calling the tragedy “a devastating incident.”

In a post from earlier this year, Grand Haven Public Schools recognized Mandy Karolkiewicz as “a Premier Substitute Teacher at Peach Plains,” saying that she “goes above and beyond for students, especially when they’re having a hard day.” The school said that she responds with “empathy, patience, and care,” and “pours her heart into her work.”

After the shooting and fire, Perkowski sent a letter to families of the Grand Haven community.

“Regardless of the details that may emerge, this is a devastating incident and a tragic loss for our community,” Perkowski said, in part. “Our team is preparing to deploy support for those who may need it. Although school is not currently in session, we will be ready to respond if and when additional information becomes available.”

“We ask everyone to respect the privacy of those involved and avoid speculation or sharing information that has not been officially confirmed,” Perkowski said. “Please continue to care for yourselves and one another as our community processes this news together.”

“Our daughter Mandy was a kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students. We treasured every moment we had with her and her six children, and words cannot adequately express our devastation. We pray for God’s peace and comfort as we grieve their deaths and honor their lives. We ask that the media give our family space in the weeks and months ahead, and that they respect the privacy of all who loved Mandy and the children.”

Steve and Becky Lawwill, Amanda “Mandy” Karolkiewicz's parents

A GoFundMe was created to support the family during this difficult time. You can view the GoFundMe here.

Paul Harris, who represents Wu, told The Associated Press early Tuesday that immigration authorities had sent a letter to his attorneys saying Wu, the former chairman of Hong Kong's once-biggest pro-democracy party, was being granted permission to remain as a visitor for six months. Wu’s family resides in the U.K.

Wu declined to comment.

The British authorities' decision came after Wu's entry on a seven-day immigration bail last week raised widespread concerns from rights groups and Hong Kongers living in the U.K. and the Chinese territory.

Wu was one of 47 activists charged in 2021 in Hong Kong’s biggest case under a Beijing-imposed security law that crushed a previously thriving democracy movement. He was sentenced in 2024 to four years and five months in prison for conspiracy to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election.

Wu said in an AP interview Sunday that he was only allowed to stay in Britain until Wednesday as U.K. border authorities believed he might have other goals beyond just visiting, including seeking long-term residency. He worried that would cut short his plans to spend time with his family after years of separation. He also feared the immigration record could affect his future visits to his family in the U.K. again.

The Home Office confirmed Monday local time that Wu will not be removed on Wednesday and that he has permission to enter the U.K.

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Associated Press writer Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

Infantino praised FIFA for “delivering the best show in the world” and spoke of the World Cup bringing “joy and togetherness,” in a 900-word statement published across a 15-page post on his Instagram account and on FIFA’s website late Sunday.

“Sorry that you were so consumed by hate and criticism that you missed it all,” the FIFA leader wrote, addressing his comments to “those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumors.”

FIFA and Infantino faced criticism during the World Cup for Iran team officials, a Somali referee and fans being denied entry to the United States; alleged political influence by U.S. President Donald Trump in letting Folarin Balogun avoid a ban for a red card; unprecedented high ticket prices and commercialized breaks in play midway through each half of all 104 games.

“Every city was packed with fans from all around the globe,” Infantino wrote. “While they celebrated, you were busy planting seeds of hate.”

“While you hide, we are exploring the streets of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, talking with fans, engaging with people, and ensuring everyone’s safety.”

Testy media relations

Infantino has an increasingly testy relationship with media during the 11th year of his presidency. His eve-of-tournament news conference in Mexico City was his first with a full gathering of international media since March 2023.

The previous such news conference in Rwanda, after his reelection by acclaim from FIFA member federations, saw Infantino ask his audience: “Why are you so mean?”

In Mexico City last month, Infantino suggested critics should “chill, relax.”

And he's coming under scrutiny from some in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent Infantino a letter on Sunday seeking documents detailing ties between FIFA and the Trump administration. A representative for FIFA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

FIFA uniting the U.S. and Iran

Iran’s ability to play at least three games in the U.S. was a key pretournament issue, and the squad made a late switch to a training camp in Tijuana, Mexico instead of Tucson, Arizona.

“Iran entered the United States without incident or conflict,” Infantino noted in his statement. “While you spread hatred, we worked tirelessly to unite two countries at war.”

Fans denied visas to enter the U.S. included Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, the celebrated statue supporter of Congo which was dealing with an Ebola virus outbreak. He attended one game in Mexico.

“You mentioned the few people denied visas and overlooked the millions who were approved, from all parts of the world,” Infantino wrote. “Countries facing serious health issues or other challenges were granted visas.”

Infantino defends Balogun decision

On fallout from the red card for U.S. forward Balogun, Infantino claimed “subsequent decisions not to ban players in certain situations are routine.”

FIFA did not overturn Balogun’s red card, which does occur in domestic club competitions, but instead took the more unusual step of deferring the one-game ban for a probationary period. FIFA has yet to publish the written verdict of its disciplinary judge.

“To those spending their time and energy hating us, please take a moment to reflect, meditate, pray, or watch a football match and truly observe the faces, the eyes, the emotions,” Infantino wrote.

He signed off his statement: “Much love to all.”

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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Lasko had surgery June 30 to address a fractured C6-C7 vertebra. Lasko collided with Double-A Midland teammate Devin Taylor during a game in Frisco, Texas. Both dove for a flyball, and Lasko remained motionless on the field after the play.

“I'm currently feeling much better,” Lasko wrote on X. "I have sensation from my feet up to my knees, along with a lot of involuntary leg movements. I also have been getting some sensation in the side of my thighs, hamstrings and back. I currently have about 75% usage of my left hand and about 50% in my right.

“I'm very happy with my progress and once again, so very thankful for all the love and support. It has continued to help me get up everyday and work my hardest.”

The 24-year-old Lasko was selected by the Athletics in the second round of the 2023 amateur draft from Rutgers. He was batting .209 with six homers, 34 RBIs and a .635 OPS for Midland this season.

Lasko appeared in 13 games at Triple-A Las Vegas last year. He also played 21 games in the Arizona Fall League for promising prospects, batting .357 with nine stolen bases.

___

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

Comey's lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47" constituted a “true threat" against the Republican president, who fired Comey in 2017 and has publicly called for his prosecution. The slogan — which has long meant to "get rid of" or “eject" — has been featured on thousands of items sold online and regularly displayed at protests, defense lawyers wrote in court papers.

"But the government now singles out Mr. Comey to prosecute one of the President’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition," his attorney's wrote. “That attempt to suppress core political speech contravenes both the statutes at issue and the First Amendment.”

The seashells case against Comey was the second in months targeting the ex-FBI director, a long-running Trump foe whom the president over the years has called a “corrupt piece of garbage” and other pejorative names.

An earlier case in Virginia accusing Comey of lying to Congress was dismissed last November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged him and another Trump adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was illegally appointed to the job.

More broadly, the case is part of a retribution campaign by the Trump administration Justice Department, which has initiated investigations across the country into individuals the president does not like. Comey has long drawn Trump's ire for his role overseeing the early months of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon” Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence that Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since Comey has said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat.

Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service last year over the post after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

“Even if ‘86 47’ could implausibly be read to suggest violence, a reasonable observer would still understand Mr. Comey’s post as mere political hyperbole, not a true threat,” Comey's lawyers wrote. “The Supreme Court has rejected threats prosecutions based on speech far more directly threatening than Mr. Comey’s seashells post here.”

The Justice Department has not elaborated on any evidence of intent the government has. But acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this year that prosecutors in every case prove intent with “witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it’s appropriate.”

“And that’s how we’ll prove intent in this case,” Blanche said in April, shortly after he was elevated to lead the department after Pam Bondi's firing.

Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview last year, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant.”

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

Lopes Cabral’s curling shot into the far top corner of the Argentina net was a standout moment at the World Cup where the unheralded African team made a stellar debut.

His goal tied defending champion Argentina at 2-2 in extra time of their thrilling round of 32 game in Miami Gardens. Cape Verde would eventually lose 3-2.

Lopes Cabral’s goal was voted best of the 308 goals scored at the tournament, ahead of Eldor Shomurodov's delicate lob for Uzbekistan against Congo and Wilson Isidor of Haiti scoring with a powerful rising shot against Morocco.

FIFA drew up a shortlist of 12 goals for public voting that closed Monday.

Lopes Cabral’s celebration also entered World Cup lore as he broke free of teammates reaching to grab him before climbing into the tribune to hug his girlfriend and look for his mother.

“Before the game, I’d told my mom and my girlfriend that if I scored, I’d run over to them,” he said. “When I got there, I saw my mom crying. She hadn’t even realized I was right there. Everyone was busy tending to her because she had fainted when I scored.”

Cape Verde defied both World Cup finalists in its four games, after goalkeeper Vozinha’s standout display saw his team open with a 0-0 draw to stun eventual champion Spain.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Although the Democratic Socialists of America’s Workers Deserve More platform doesn’t necessarily line up exactly with the candidates’ own agendas, prominent Republicans over the weekend decried it. The DSA platform proposes drafting "a new constitution” with significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, including abolishing the Senate, replacing the president and the Supreme Court with leaders picked by Congress and allowing all permanent U.S. residents to vote. Alongside those changes, the platform, published earlier this month, calls for a number of social reforms.

“The barbarians are inside the gate — and Democrats are WELCOMING them in,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote on X. “Communism is no longer a far fetched threat. It is here on our SHORES!”

The Wall Street Journal’s conservative-leaning editorial board also warned about the agenda, calling it radical and writing that the job of Republicans and willing Democrats is to educate the country about it. But it cautioned Republicans to avoid communism attack lines, saying they wouldn't resonate with younger generations.

Progressive and DSA-backed candidates running in Democratic primaries across the country don’t all subscribe to the group’s full agenda. The left is also split between progressive and moderate wings that have different ideas about the best policies to carry the Democratic Party forward. But the DSA platform has created an opening for Republicans to attack Democrats with a broad brush as they look for an edge in races that will determine which party has a majority in Congress next year.

President Donald Trump this year has returned to an old habit of calling Democrats communists, saying they want to “destroy the traditional American way of life.” Other Republicans have followed suit, turning to more comfortable territory after months spent defending their party as disgruntled Americans fume about foreign wars and the high cost of living.

DSA agenda calls for dramatic overhaul of government and society

The DSA’s vision for the country laid out in mid-July proposes major changes that the group says can in part be achieved under the current system but ultimately would require “building a new society from the ground up.”

Among the suggested changes are expanding voting rights, publicly financing all elections, replacing the two-party system with a multi-party democracy, establishing public ownership of large corporations and expanding rights for immigrants while ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions and deportations.

In a recent appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the group’s co-chair Megan Romer confirmed various aspects of the agenda while acknowledging that some of the proposals, like abolishing borders and prisons, would be considered parts of a long-term plan.

The Republican National Committee over the weekend called attention to the platform in a post that several GOP lawmakers seized on to raise alarm.

“These people are insane,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz replied on X.

“Watch this clip closely,” wrote Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican. “These ideas could be coming to your community sooner than you think.”

Progressive candidates have succeeded in recent races

The DSA's agenda comes as aligned candidates have triumphed in several recent Democratic primaries. They’ve capitalized on voter anger at the party establishment and rising skepticism of the U.S. alliance with Israel to edge out moderates in House races in New York and Colorado.

Democratic socialist candidates also have succeeded in mayoral elections in major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., New York and Seattle. An upcoming Missouri primary pitting a DSA-backed former congresswoman against the moderate Democratic incumbent will further test the movement’s momentum.

In other elections, progressive candidates have outlined where they differ from the DSA's agenda. In an upcoming Michigan Senate primary, for example, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed has distanced himself from socialism, saying that he believes in capitalism but that it needs to be regulated.

Meanwhile, establishment Democrats including former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison have forcefully pushed back against DSA candidates who run in the party’s primaries while criticizing the way the party is going.

“I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Harrison wrote in a social media post in June. “Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support.”

On a visit to a coordination center for the massive firefighting effort in southwest France, Macron heard how the blaze raging since last week has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding fire storm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to flee their homes.

“We're facing a completely unprecedented fire,” Macron said, describing the situation as France's worst fire-related crisis since World War II.

He praised firefighting teams who stopped the inferno's progression Monday after days of spreading flames that edged toward the wine region city of Bordeaux. But with woodlands still smoldering, he and other government officials cautioned that the battle isn’t yet won, with forests turned tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year and another forecast for this week.

“The weeks ahead will be hard. We must hold firm,” Macron said.

Fire crews racing against feared next heat wave

With thousands of firefighters on the ground and rotations of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft, it became a race against time Monday to contain the blaze before temperatures soar, with national weather service forecasts of 35 C (95 F) and above in southwest France from Tuesday.

Authorities also are working to feed, shelter and care for evacuees who fled in staggering numbers: 250,000 in the southwest, driven away by two fires.

Macron spoke of displaced people “traumatized” by the upheaval and “who sometimes have lost everything.”

No new evacuations were announced Monday. But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux worked to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities. Government ministers also urged people not to travel to the region that is popular for its Atlantic beaches, famous wines and some of France's largest expanses of forests.

Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to block the flames that officials said had come within 15 kilometers (10 miles) of Bordeaux's outskirts. Farmers kept fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks.

Briefing Macron, the Gironde region's fire chief explained how crews had wrestled with the blaze unlike any they'd previously tackled, extraordinarily virulent and capricious, “a fire that's going everywhere” and which generated electrical storms that sparked more flare-ups.

“The last 24 hours went well, thanks to your work” Macron told firefighters. “Doubtless, tomorrow will be more complicated than today.”

Spain is also battling fires

Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to both France and Spain, which is also fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in the two countries have forced more than 330,000 people to flee.

In Spain, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region. Authorities evacuated 79,000 people and confined 30,000 others to their homes.

In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fueled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.

“What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. That's five times the size of Barcelona.

“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people," said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to run supplies to firefighters in Ávila.

"We are feeling lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman,” he said.

Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.

The minister said that another heat wave forecast from Tuesday — which would be Spain’s fourth so far this year — could ratchet up the fire danger. Spain’s weather agency forecast temperatures above 40 C (104 F).

Water-dropping planes combat fire in Italy

A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy’s southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.

The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.

Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the same coastal area in 2007.

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Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Iain Sullivan in El Tiemblo, Spain, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

ICE plans to extend the no-bid contract of the firm that runs Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, through Sept. 30, 2027, at a potential additional cost to taxpayers of $776 million, the notice says. This is on top of a $452 million initial contract that the firm, Amentum Services Inc., was awarded in March when it was hastily installed to take over the camp’s operation from a contractor removed for poor performance.

For months, Democratic members of Congress and several advocacy organizations have called for Camp East Montana to be closed, citing reports that detainees have been routinely mistreated since its opening in August 2025.

A report released earlier this month by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that staff routinely beat detainees, denied them medical care, made them live in filthy conditions and fed them inedible meals. Reports by federal agencies have also found unsafe detention conditions and that the Army and ICE have wasted millions of dollars paying for unnecessary services. At least three Camp East Montana detainees have died.

The facility at Fort Bliss, an Army base near the U.S.-Mexico border, has housed an average of more than 2,000 male and female detainees a day since Oct. 1, though its population has declined significantly in recent months, according to ICE data.

“Extending Amentum’s contract while ignoring well-documented abuses is reckless and demonstrates the Trump administration’s full-scale assault on human rights,” said Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who was a lead researcher for the report. “Instead of holding private contractors accountable, DHS is choosing to perpetuate a system of harm and abuse.”

Chanel Mann, a spokesperson for Amentum, referred questions to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

ICE's notice was a justification for extending Amentum Services’ contract for a year without a competitive bidding process.

The agency argued that relocating detainees to other facilities would be “impracticable” due to a lack of available bed space elsewhere. Transitioning to a different contractor would require replacing Amentum’s “proprietary infrastructure” and finding new workers, which would lead to duplicative costs, it said.

“Any lapse in contract coverage would directly threaten the life, safety, and well-being of detainees, severely disrupt law enforcement operations, and expose the government to substantial operational, legal, and humanitarian risks,” the notice says.

ICE's notice said the Army's initial contract, awarded to Acquisition Logistics LLC, “did not accurately reflect ICE's operational needs or the actual usage of the facility.” Acquisition Logistics had no prior experience operating detention facilities.

In all, Virginia-based Amentum stands to be paid more than $1.2 billion if it operates the camp from March 2026 through September 2027, the notice says.

Terms of the settlement were not made public.

“The recent resolution of this matter allows everyone to move forward, and I welcome that opportunity,” Agugua-Hamilton said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Monday. "I am proud of my career, grateful to every player and coach whose path has crossed mine, and excited for what is to come next. My passion for coaching has always been less about wins and losses and more about making a positive difference in the lives of young people. That passion remains as strong as ever.”

Agugua-Hamilton was fired on April 4, a week after she led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. She went 70-58, including a 29-42 mark in ACC play. Virginia became the first double-digit seed to reach the regional semifinals since 2022 and pulled off the upset of the tournament, knocking off No. 2 seed Iowa on the road in double overtime in the second round.

They became the first First Four team to advance that far before falling to TCU.

“It was a privilege to coach the remarkable young women who wore the Virginia jersey," Agugua-Hamilton said. "Thank you for your commitment, your resilience, and allowing me to be a part of your journey. The relationships we built and the memories we created will always hold a special place in my heart.”

The school declined to comment on the matter.

Before coaching at Virginia, Agugua-Hamilton led Missouri State to a 74-15 record from 2020-22, which featured two NCAA Tournament appearances.

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Zelenskyy’s visit was the first by a foreign leader since Burnham took office a week ago, and the prime minister said it signaled the U.K.'s “unwavering” support for Kyiv to defend itself against Russia's 4-year-old, full-scale invasion.

His predecessor, Keir Starmer, was in the Ukrainian capital less than two weeks ago in his last overseas trip before leaving office, and Burnham said he planned to visit soon.

Burnham is the fifth British prime minister Zelenskyy has dealt with since Russia launched the war in 2022.

"You are the first leader I have welcomed in person since taking office, and that is no accident,” Burnham told Zelenskyy. “It is intended to send a very clear message: we are with Ukraine 100%, I am personally with you 100%, and I will honor every commitment this country has made to Ukraine in full.”

Zelenskyy said the two countries' relationship was “stronger than ever.”

The meeting, aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth docked at Portsmouth on England’s south coast, came a day before Zelenskyy is expected to visit U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

Burnham said they had “talked at length” about Kyiv's need for more interceptors to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, “particularly in terms of Ukraine protecting critical national infrastructure during the winters.”

“We’ve taken away some things that we will now follow up with our partners,” Burnham said after the meeting.

Russia has intensified strikes on gas stations, power facilities and other infrastructure this year in a broad campaign to strain Ukraine’s logistics and energy networks.

Zelenskyy said on X that the leaders also discussed “joint defense production.” Britain and Ukraine already have a deal to work together on new drones, and Zelenskyy told Sky News beforehand that he hoped to build a “big, big factory” in Britain.

They also met more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have spent three weeks in Britain for an exercise aimed at strengthening their fighting capabilities and measures to counter mines in the Black Sea, the U.K. government said.

Burnham announced that the U.K. will give Ukraine the intellectual property behind its new “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system, which is capable of jamming Russian air defenses to stop drones from being detected.

Ukraine has expanded its campaign of frequent drone attacks deep inside Russia that have targeted oil facilities, military factories and, most recently, logistical centers, bringing the war home to millions of Russians and raising pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

The raids have shattered Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country. But he has remained undeterred and Russia has ramped up its aerial campaign, regularly bombarding Ukraine with missiles and drones.

Russia and Ukraine trade drone attacks

Russia again attacked Ukraine overnight with 147 long-range drones, according to Ukraine's air force, which said it intercepted or jammed 123 of them.

In Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and two injured in attacks on the city that damaged a residential high-rise and several private homes overnight, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.

A Russian strike on the town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region killed one person and wounded eight, according to Vitalii Karabanov, head of the city military administration.

In the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian strikes damaged a kindergarten, residential buildings and infrastructure, injuring a woman and a 6-year-old boy, according to administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, regional council member Oleksandr Skoryk said Russian forces destroyed every gas station along the highway between Kharkiv and Poltava, a distance of about 150 kilometers (93 miles). The highway is a key supply route linking Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a regional hub close to the Russian border, with central Ukraine.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said a drone briefly entered its airspace before crossing the river border into Ukraine, where explosions were subsequently reported. It said two F-16 fighter jets were deployed to monitor airspace.

The drone’s incursion into Romanian airspace marked the fourth such incident in as many days. The three previous drones were all shot down by the NATO member.

In Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 276 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said five people, including a child, were killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in Rostov-on-Don. Ukraine’s military General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck an export terminal in Rostov-on-Don, setting it ablaze.

The Ukrainian military said other strikes in the Moscow-held part of the Kherson region targeted a ground relay station used to control drones and a bridge over the Henichesk Strait that Russia uses for military logistics. Russian fuel and supply depots were also hit.

In the city of Belgorod in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone attack injured 12, including two children, according to regional emergency officials.

Iran vows retaliation after Ukrainian attack on a ship

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing a sailor.

In a statement on X on Sunday, Araghchi denounced the attack as a “blatant U.N. Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.” He said he made it clear in calls with the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the attack “can't go unanswered.”

Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea over the weekend achieved “very good results,” adding the targets included “vessels involved in transporting military cargo linked to Iran, as well as a warship.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Iran’s threats of retaliation as unjustified and groundless, saying Tehran's weapons supplies to Russia have made it a direct accomplice to Moscow's aggression. “Iran has no standing to pretend to be a victim,” he posted on X, and called its references to the U.N. Charter “absurd.”

Sybiha said Iran’s statements were an attempt to divert attention from Russia’s attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea, which would be a focus of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.

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Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.

The “Harry Potter” themed drone show is specially choreographed to bring together colorful aerial displays, music, and an unforgettable experience.

The drone show will take place at the Wayne State University Soccer Field on Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1.

Watch the video above and click here for more information.

On July 24, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reported 9,253 cyclosporiasis cases since June 22, up from 8,176 on July 24. Of those reported cases, 160 were hospitalized as of July 23.

--> Michigan couple sues Taco Bell, Taylor Farms over Cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce

The CDC said cases have been identified in 34 states and expects illnesses to continue increasing through the end of August, when the typical Cyclospora season ends.

“Anyone experiencing gastrointestinal illness, such as sudden and ongoing diarrhea, should contact their health care provider and their local health department,” MDHHS said in a statement last week.

While MDHHS and local health officials are still working to identify the direct source of the growing outbreak, they said lettuce or salad greens could be a possible source.

Related --> FDA confirms cyclospora-linked lettuce sample from Taylor Farms was false positive

What is cyclosporiasis?

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a parasite and infects the small intestine.

Healthcare providers can diagnose the illness by testing a stool sample.

If infected with cyclosporiasis, people may experience watery diarrhea with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements. People can also experience symptoms like fatigue, nausea, stomach cramps and loss of appetite.

The illness can last from a few days to over a month if the illness is not treated. Symptoms could relapse.

The timeframe from becoming infected to becoming sick usually takes about one week but can range from two days to two weeks or more.

In the US, outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been linked to various types of fresh produce. People can get infected with Cyclospora more than once.

Anyone who experiences symptoms of cyclosporiasis should see their healthcare provider.

Related --> 6 things Michiganders are getting wrong about the cyclosporiasis outbreak

Precautions with lettuce, salad greens

MDHHS said, based on early information in the outbreak investigation and the historical link to Cyclospora and pre-packaged salad greens, they recommend people practice the following safety measures with lettuce:

• Purchase whole heads: Buy whole heads of lettuce rather than pre-washed, bagged lettuce or pre-mixed salad kits. 
• Discard outer layers: Before preparation, throw away the outer two to three layers of leaves. 
• Wash inner leaves: Thoroughly wash the remaining inner leaves under clean running water. 
• Prioritize cooking: For any greens that can be cooked, cooking to a temperature of at least 158 F (70 C) is the safest option, as the parasite is resistant to routine chemical disinfection and washing alone cannot guarantee its removal. 

Produce linked to previous outbreaks

Health officials said the following foods have been previously linked to Cyclospora outbreaks in the United States and Canada:

• Bagged salad mixes and kits (pre-cut lettuce blends with romaine, iceberg, red cabbage, carrots)
• Fresh cilantro (coriander leaves)
• Fresh basil
• Raspberries
• Snow peas
• Green onions (scallions)

Produce recommendations

MDHHS provided a list of recommendations on preparing, processing or serving raw produce, including restaurants and other commercial kitchens.

Health officials said to take the following steps to reduce risk of exposure:

• Cilantro, basil: Wash thoroughly under running water, separating the leaves. Safest when cooked.
• Green onions: Trim the root end and remove the outer layer, wash thoroughly under running water. Safest when cooked.
• Raspberries: Their bumpy surface makes them especially hard to clean; the parasite can hide in the tiny crevices. Safest when cooked (pies, jams etc.). Consider frozen raspberries as an alternative (freezing may reduce but does not guarantee elimination of the parasite).
• Snow peas: Wash under running water and rub the surface. Safest when cooked.

MDHHS said the recommendations are essential for people who have a higher risk of dehydration or weakened immune systems, such as patients on chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients, infants and young children and elderly people.

General rules, routine food practices

Health officials said general rules of thumb to reduce the risk of getting the illness are to cook food -- when you can -- to 158 degrees or higher to kill cyclospora, and wash all fresh produce under clean running water, even if you plan to peel it.

Food safety reminders

Here are some reminders on food safety practices, according to the MDHHS:

• Wash hands with soap and water before and after handling or preparing food.
• Scrub firm fruits and vegetables, such as melons and cucumbers, with a clean produce brush.
• Cut away any damaged or bruised areas on fruits and vegetables before preparing and eating.
• Wash and sanitize utensils and surfaces before and after handling food. Wash and sanitize display cases and refrigerators where fresh produce is stored.
• Wash and sanitize cutting boards, surfaces and utensils used to prepare, serve or store fresh produce.
• Refrigerate cut, peeled or cooked fruits and vegetables as soon as possible. 

“Awestruck” is set to premiere on Tuesday, July 28th.

Martin is also behind a unique in-person magic experience. He stars in “Drinks & Deceptions,” which is a magic show performed in both metro Detroit and Grand Rapids.

Watch the video above to see Daniel Martin’s appearance on Live in the D where he performed a magic trick for hosts Tati Amare and Kim DeGilulio.

Volker Türk spoke to The Associated Press as he wrapped up a visit to Lebanon, his second in just over a year. He met with government officials, civil society representatives and Lebanese people displaced by the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.

The visit came about a week before Lebanese and Israeli officials are to meet in Rome for talks on implementing a framework deal reached June 26. It laid out a plan for the deployment of Lebanese military forces in areas in southern Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, alongside the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and says it will not disarm.

Türk said some Israeli actions in Lebanon could amount to war crimes, echoing criticism from other human rights groups over the widespread destruction of towns and villages, and the dozens of medical workers and journalists killed.

“Demolition of this type raises huge flags about compliance with international humanitarian law,” Türk said, describing what has happened as a “wholesale destruction” of civilian homes.

Israel has said that its attacks target Hezbollah personnel and infrastructure. It accuses the group of hiding among civilians, and says its troops in occupied parts of southern Lebanon have revealed weapons warehouses and tunnel networks belonging to the group.

The latest conflict started March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel after the U.S.-Israeli February attacks that set off the Iran war. Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing 1.2 million others. The Israeli military still occupies dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Türk, who is based in Geneva, also met with a visiting team from his office investigating attacks in Lebanon during the war.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who met with Türk on Monday, said Lebanon remains committed to the agreement, but warned that Israel’s continued military presence and demolitions may “undermine its effectiveness.”

Lebanon "will not accept ongoing violations of its provisions,” Aoun was quoted as saying during the meeting from his office.

The agreement controversially includes both sides withholding from pursuing any form of legal accountability, a move widely criticized in Lebanon.

Türk, who has also criticized Hezbollah for its attacks on northern Israeli towns, called for an end to Israel's occupation in southern Lebanon, and for displaced people to return safely to their homes.

“I met yesterday a man who told me that he returned to his village in this zone ... south of this so-called yellow line,” he said. "The Israelis were there, they prevented him from going anywhere close to it, and he saw how the village was demolished.”

Türk said he had contacted Israeli authorities hoping to conduct a similar visit, but had received no reply. Israel was among 10 countries that voted against appointing Türk to a second term, alongside the United States and Russia, at the United Nations General Assembly.

Saxophonist Daryl Beebe joined us on Live in the D for Music Monday to perform and discuss his new single, “I-75.” He shared the passion behind his musical journey, the inspiration that shaped the track, and how his experiences influenced its sounds and story.

Watch the segment above to hear Beebe’s new single, “I-75.”

The bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor officially opened to traffic on July 27.

Gordie Howe’s family was among the first to cross the bridge over the Detroit River.

Here’s a look at how much the toll is to cross the bridge:

Related --> Comparing toll prices as Gordie Howe International Bridge opens to traffic

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also drove across the Gordie Howe Bridge in a Ford Mustang to celebrate its opening.

Related --> Here’s why the Gordie Howe International Bridge was built

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield released a statement following the bridge’s opening:

“Today marks a historic moment for Detroit, for Windsor, and for the lasting friendship between the United States and Canada.

This new connection between Detroit and Windsor will strengthen our economy, support jobs, and bring lasting benefits to communities on both sides of the river. I’m grateful to the thousands of skilled workers who built it, and to the many partners whose years of effort made it possible.

Detroit is proud to welcome this landmark, and we look forward to the opportunities it will bring for generations to come."

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield

--> From the vault: An inside look at Gordie Howe International Bridge while under construction

Javares Dobbins and Charles Smith Sr. with OhMyHarvest appeared on Live in the D to share some tips on how you can spot the perfect watermelon and to explain what sets a great watermelon apart from the rest.

They also discussed how their business connects local farmers with communities by delivering fresh, farm-grown produce, traveling across the country to source high-quality watermelons and other seasonal favorites.

Watch the segment above to see more.

Cracker Barrel said Monday that CEO Julie Masino will step down next month but remain with the company until Oct. 9 in an advisory capacity.

David Deno will succeed Masino on Aug. 10 as CEO. Deno served as the CEO of Bloomin' Brands, which owns Outback Steakhouse and other chains, from 2019 until he retired in 2024. He has also held executive roles as Best Buy and Yum Brands, which is the parent company of KFC and Taco Bell.

Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel hired Masino, a longtime Taco Bell and Starbucks executive, in July 2023. She was chosen for her record as an innovator with the hope that she would attract new customers to Cracker Barrel, which operates nearly 660 restaurants in 43 states.

Masino introduced updated menu items, like Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd’s Pie, to increase Cracker Barrel’s dinnertime traffic. She also started remodeling the company’s dark, antique-filled restaurants, lightening the walls and installing more comfortable seating.

Then, last August, Cracker Barrel announced plans to ditch its longtime logo, which features an older, overall-clad man leaning on a barrel as well as the words “Old Country Store.” The company said it would continue to honor Uncle Herschel — the man in its logo, who represents the uncle of Cracker Barrel’s founder — on its menu and on items sold in its stores. But the new logo would be simpler and easier to read on road signs and in phone apps.

The backlash was immediate. Fans didn’t like the new logo and also rebelled against the store redesigns. Even President Donald Trump weighed in, saying in a Truth Social post that Cracker Barrel “should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before.”

Masino reversed course within a few days, but the damage was done. Cracker Barrel's same-store restaurant sales plunged 5% last fall and 7% in the quarter ending Jan. 30, 2026. Same-store sales at the retail stores connected to its restaurants dropped even further.

Still, the company's shareholders voted in November to keep Masino in place as CEO, and sales trends had begun to improve in recent months. In the quarter ending May 1, same-store restaurant sales were down 2.6% and the company raised its full-year revenue and profit forecast.

Masino also helped sharpen the company's focus on the Cracker Barrel brand with the sale of the company's Maple Street Biscuit Co. stores. Cracker Barrel acquired Maple Street in 2019 and operated 50 locations around the country.

Citi analyst Jon Tower said in a research note Monday that the news of Masino's departure was surprising given those recent improvements.

Cracker Barrel shares fell 2.7% in early afternoon trading.

The update comes shortly before his home state's annual Fancy Farm picnic, which features speeches from politicians throughout the state seeking elected office. McConnell said in a written statement that he won't be able to attend the event.

“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton," McConnell said.

He said that when he first attended the event 42 years ago, Fancy Farm was a lonely place for Republicans, but times have changed.

“So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic,” McConnell said.

McConnell, 84, was admitted to the hospital on June 14 and revealed weeks later that it was due to a fall. He had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs.

The statement from the Office of the Attending Physician said McConnell has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation since he left the hospital, which includes multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.

“His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office,” said the statement from the physician’s office in Congress.

McConnell said he appreciated the well wishes he has received in recent weeks, and "I’m looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky soon.” McConnell is not seeking reelection but intends to finish out his term.

Every major index lost ground overall for the week amid increasing pressure from a sharp escalation in the U.S. war with Iran. Investors are also contending with new tariffs from the Trump administration and worries about the economy suffering under the weight of stubborn inflation.

The S&P 500 barely budged in a day of uneventful trading. It rose 3.68 points, or less than 0.1%, to 7,411.98. The index notched its second consecutive losing week, which hasn't happened since March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 235.60 points, or 0.5%, to 51,947.25.

The Nasdaq fell 161.87 points, or 0.6%, to 24,975.82. It was weighed down by sharp losses from several big tech stocks.

Micron Technology fell 7% and Broadcom fell 2.7%. Both companies have large market values that tend to weigh more heavily on the market. They were big reasons for the technology-heavy Nasdaq lagging the market, and also why the market's gains were kept in check despite more stocks rising than falling within the S&P 500.

Heavy fighting in the Middle East throughout the week again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas. It has been an ongoing concern for Wall Street, and now many of the buffers in the energy market from earlier in the year, including strategic reserves in the U.S., have been weakened.

“If escalation continues and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the impact will land on an energy market with far less resilience than in the spring,” wrote Theodore Bunzel, head of geopolitical advisory at Lazard, in a report.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.9% to $96.78. It rose the first four days of the week and moved back above $100 on Thursday. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around $72 per barrel.

Bond yields also eased and relieved some of the pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.68% from 4.71% late Thursday.

Markets in Europe gained ground, while Asian markets closed lower.

The U.S. is also ramping up its global trade war with a fresh round of tariffs on dozens of nations. The new round of tariffs impacts nearly all U.S. imports and they are paid by companies importing those goods, who then typically pass the added costs along to consumers. That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other tariffs at the Supreme Court.

Rising energy prices and fresh tariffs could result in hotter inflation, which has been squeezing consumers and looming over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

The Fed meets next week and has been closely monitoring prices and their impact. Rising inflation dashed hopes earlier this year for an interest rate cut. Wall Street has since leaned more toward a potential rate increase, which the central bank can use to help cool inflation.

Wall Street is anticipating at least one rate hike by the end of the year, with a nearly 38% chance that could happen at the upcoming meeting next week, according to CME FedWatch.

Higher energy costs threaten to take a bigger chunk out of household budgets, which means a shift in spending toward more basic needs, like gasoline. Nationally, a gallon of gasoline costs $4.10 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s still lower than this spring as the conflict in Iran expanded, but it’s almost a dollar higher than last year at this time.

Investors are worried about the impact to companies profits. Those profits and expectations for more growth are what typically justifies a stock's value. The latest round of corporate earnings showed that companies are still notching growth, but concerns are growing.

American Express fell 4.3% despite reporting a jump in profit during its most recent quarter. AmEx maintained its profit forecast for the year and has been spending more heavily to keep wealthy individuals amid more competition.

Worries about the sustainability of broader profits are on top of lingering concerns about AI-focused tech companies. Companies like Alphabet and Nvidia have been spending heavily on AI technology. Investors are increasingly questioning whether those investments will produce profits to justify the large stock values that have been steering the broader market higher throughout the year.

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AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The school announced the move with a statement Monday morning, coming days before the Tar Heels open preseason camp. The school didn't provide details as to the reason, noting that employees and athletes aren't permitted to address the topic “as is standard procedure with personnel matters.”

Lombardi joined Bill Belichick in making the NFL-to-college move when the school hired the former New England Patriots coach in December 2024. Lombardi's career as an NFL executive had included being the GM of the Cleveland Browns in 2013, and he was an immediate hire by the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach in Chapel Hill.

The school had hired Belichick to jolt a football program that had largely been an Atlantic Coast Conference also-ran while making periodic but unsustained climbs into national relevance.

A few months into Belichick's tenure, Lombardi said the goal was running a college program in a way similar to the NFL, saying the Tar Heels “consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team” due to the staff connections to the pros.

The Tar Heels went just 4-8 in Belichick's first season. They open his second against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 29.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Loudon County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded late Sunday to a shooting in Ashburn, Virginia, where the couple still had a home from Bieniemy's time coaching the Washington Commanders. They found the 57-year-old Mia Bieniemy with multiple gunshot wounds, and she was transported to a hospital where she was in stable condition Monday.

Elijah Zion Bieniemy, the 27-year-old son of the couple, was arrested early Monday in connection with the shooting. He has been charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling, and is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

The sheriff's office said the investigation was ongoing.

Eric Bieniemy was with the Chiefs at training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri, earlier Sunday. He was not present for Monday's workout involving rookies, quarterbacks and a few veterans, which was closed to the public.

“Our hearts go out to Eric Bieniemy and his family. Thoughts and prayers with them,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said afterward. “I can't get into details on it, but things happen sometimes, and Eric will work through it. He has a great support group here, as does his family, as needed, and we'll just let time take care of it from there. But Mia is stable, which is a plus.

“She's a saint, we all know that, those of you that know her. One of God's great blessings,” Reid added. “But things happen. And you have to work through it. That's where we're at right now. Time will have to be involved in this to help heal."

Reid did not know how long Bieniemy would be away from the team. Pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier and offensive line coach Andy Heck will take over his duties as the Chiefs continue with offensive installations during training camp.

“On these things, real life. So you take care of that,” Reid said. “We'll be able to keep it moving here, but the most important thing is EB has an opportunity to spend some time there are take care of that business."

Eric Bieniemy was part of Reid's initial staff in Kansas City in 2013, and spent five seasons as the running backs coach before he was promoted to offensive coordinator. Over the next five seasons, the demanding but popular Bieniemy helped the Chiefs to reach three Super Bowls and win two of them while directing one of the NFL's best offenses.

He interviewed for several head-coaching jobs but was continually skipped over, so Bieniemy went to the Commanders in 2023 in hopes of burnishing his resume. But the team struggled and coach Ron Rivera's staff was let go, and Bieniemy spent one season as the offensive coordinator at UCLA before spending last season as the running backs coach with the Bears.

Bieniemy returned to the Chiefs this season to replace Matt Nagy as the offensive coordinator. He was present for offseason workouts in Kansas City over the summer, and he was with the team when it began to report to training camp last week.

The Chiefs are off Tuesday. The first full-squad workout at Missouri Western State University is Wednesday.

“It's great to have (Bieniemy) back in the building,” Reid said last week. “He always brings great energy. I've told you, he's one of the more phenomenal guys I have been around at being a leader of men. He is doing that. He's in there cranking — works his tail off, and I appreciate that. Doesn't let anything slide by. Does a good job with that.”

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

“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease,” Simon's statement on Monday read.

The singer, 83, had been experiencing arthritis in one of her hips and both her knees, resulting in replacement surgeries for those three joints. But her mobility continued to decline. At times, she said, she could not walk without “considerable help.”

“My family and I knew that something more was going on. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” she said.

“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly,” she explained. “Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”

Parkinson’s is a neurologic disease that robs people of control over their movements. It typically starts with tremors and is characterized by slow movement, a shuffling gait, stiff limbs, balance problems and slurred speech.

About 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, and 10 million people worldwide, the Parkinson’s Foundation estimates. It usually appears after age 60, though it sometimes develops before age 50.

The exact cause isn’t known, but Parkinson’s develops when cells that produce one of the brain’s chemical messengers — dopamine — begin to deteriorate and die.

There is no cure, but there are treatments including medications that affect dopamine levels and a surgically implanted tremor-blocking device. Patients also can benefit from physical and occupational therapy.

“I began treatment, including taking medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms,” Simon said. “There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have.”

She also shared that she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer, on her face at the same time. She had surgery, and the cancer was removed, “but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” she said.

She said music has been a salve, and on Aug. 14, she will release “Comes in Waves,” her first album of original songs since 2008.

“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape. It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room,” she continued. “It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”

She fulfilled her wish to ride a horse again through the “Adventure by Waltonwood” program.

The initiative helps seniors achieve lifelong dreams, and Karen’s horseback riding experience took place at Willowtree Stables in Romulus.

Local 4’s photojournalist Jacob Nagel captured the special bucket list experience. You can watch the full report in the video at the beginning of this article.

CFBPA executive director Jason Stahl said the goal is for other Atlantic Coast Conference schools join Stanford in forming chapters. That would create momentum for unionization and the ability for players to bargain with conferences over working conditions.

Stanford players elected offensive lineman Fisher Anderson and linebacker Ernest Cooper as their representatives.

“Stanford has been a pioneer and innovator not just in football but as a school in general,” Cooper said “This first-ever current player-led chapter at Stanford is just another example of this innovation. We want to be leaders in college football and show other schools how they can create a chapter on their campus because we believe this is the future of college football.”

Anderson said the CFBPA will play a role in giving players a voice in all aspects of governing college football.

“Over the past five years, college football has been rocked back and forth by the waves,” he said. “When a CFBPA chapter becomes a reality on every college football team, it would put down an anchor where there isn't one right now for the sport. The chapters can then become the building blocks for conference-wide collective bargaining agreements, which would bring sustainability, transparency and player protections to a sport in need of all three.”

The NCAA and conferences have been working with federal legislators on a Senate bill that would grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption to be able to enforce rules such as a salary cap and transfer restrictions. Some athletic directors have suggested collective bargaining as an alternative if federal legislation is not passed, but a number of obstacles related to giving college athletes employee status would have to be cleared.

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

James' blue No. 23 jersey hangs in a locker with a crown as a nod to his King nickname on the shelf.

The 76ers and James announced Monday their two-year deal on the veteran's minimum for $8 million total was official and that the four-time NBA MVP was indeed a Sixer.

“There is no doubt LeBron is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball and there are no words to measure the impact he’ll have on this organization," team president Mike Gansey said.

The NBA’s career scoring leader, James revealed his choice on social media Friday, saying it will be his “last decision” and that it came after he strongly considered retirement.

“I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time,” James said.

James posted videos on his Instagram story Monday morning with the caption: “It's that time again. 4:12 AM. Let's get it.” He posed workout videos from the gym throughout the weekend.

A four-time NBA champion, James wrote he was “done” when his 23rd NBA season ended and that it was his last with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He instead reversed course and signed with a Sixers franchise that's loaded with All-Star starters in Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown yet has failed to win an NBA championship since 1983 or even advance out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs since 2001.

James, who turns 42 in December, appears up for the challenge of turning the Sixers into champions much as he did when he ended a 56-year championship drought for Cleveland by leading the Cavaliers to the title in 2016.

“I cannot wait to see LeBron alongside Jaylen Brown, VJ Edgecombe, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and our talented roster as we work to deliver a championship for Philly," team owner Josh Harris said.

The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round by the eventual NBA champion New York Knicks.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He is a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP and a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He also is coming off a season in which he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he has averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two NBA titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, including that title run in 2016, and left in 2018 for the Lakers and won a championship in 2020.

James is the first player in NBA history to be named an NBA Finals MVP with three different franchises.

James is set for a reunion with Gansey, who was hired in late May after the Sixers fired Daryl Morey.

Gansey joined the Cavaliers in 2011 and had worked as their general manager since 2022. His and James' ties were first forged as Ohio basketball stars more than two decades ago. Gansey at Olmsted Falls High School was runner-up in 2001 for Ohio's Mr. Basketball award to James — who won it three times for St. Vincent–St. Mary High School before bypassing college and going straight to the NBA.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing LeBron since high school and have seen the high-level impact he’s produced at every stop of his basketball journey," Gansey said. “He is a consummate professional, the ultimate competitor and a tireless worker. But he is also an incredible person with natural leadership traits, a family man, and someone who possesses unwavering commitment to community and those around him.”

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

Genevieve was briefly a Category 5 hurricane early Monday, the first in the East Pacific region in two years, the National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to stay far out to sea on a course roughly parallel with the Mexico coast.

Genevieve had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph), according to the Miami-based hurricane center. Genevieve’s center was located about 520 miles (835 kilometers) south-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula and was headed northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, but the hurricane center said that swells from the storm — likely causing “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” — were affecting parts of Mexico’s southwestern coast and the Baja California peninsula.

Genevieve was expected to fluctuate in intensity before weakening later in the week.

Farther northwest in the Pacific, Hurricane Fausto was a Category 1 storm as it continued on a path in the general direction of the Hawaiian Islands. Forecasters said Fausto is expected to pass north of Hawaii, but residents should still monitor the progress of the storm for impacts.

Large surf and strong currents were increasing on east-facing shores along Hawaii's islands, the hurricane center said. Fausto had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph). It was centered about 580 miles (935 kilometers) east of Hilo, Hawaii and traveling west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).

The teen was reported missing on July 22 at around 3 a.m.

On July 27, police said the teen was located.

His information was removed from this article.

The foundation’s first new initiative in more than a decade, the Clinton Policy Institute has already begun convening political leaders from both parties, research experts, and Americans affected by the issues being studied to create new approaches to long-existing problems.

“Rising costs, economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and growing pressures on our public institutions are making it harder for families to get ahead,” former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We created CPI because we believe there are still practical, evidence-based solutions that can improve people’s lives.”

CPI is building on its work with New York state in banning cellphones from schools in the past academic year. Though the institute did not technically exist last year when it teamed with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration on creating distraction-free schools in the state, the Clinton Foundation saw promise in its approach and decided to expand it before publicly announcing CPI’s creation. It’s a strategy that the foundation, also led by former President Bill Clinton and public health expert Chelsea Clinton, used when it launched the Clinton Health Access Initiative in 2004.

Zayn Siddique, former principal deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, will serve as CPI’s chief executive officer. Jennifer Klein, who was director of the White House Gender Policy Council under former President Joe Biden, will be CPI’s chair.

In New York, CPI helped create the Teen Tech Council so that students could help make the phone-ban program more effective. The result, according to Hochul’s office, was that educators found a marked improvement in classroom behavior and engagement.

“CPI is bringing together policymakers, researchers, business leaders, and community organizations to identify what works, build stronger policy networks, and help turn those ideas into policy,” Hillary Clinton said. “We’re taking a particular focus on states and local communities, where so much innovation is happening.”

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly praises CPI's nonpartisan approach

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said a CPI conference on improving the lives of children earlier this month was “the best roundtable I’ve been involved with since becoming governor.”

Kelly, who will leave office in January due to term limits after serving two consecutive terms, said she was inspired by CPI’s nonpartisan approach to solving problems affecting children.

“I am a Democrat governor in what is considered a very red state,” Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview. “It became very clear to me that if I wanted to accomplish anything in my political life, I was going to need to do it in a bipartisan way.”

Kelly believes that, despite political polarization, CPI can succeed in finding nonpartisan solutions – especially to issues involving children and healthcare – and giving state leaders the research and other support to implement them.

“Every once in a while, you get people from both sides of the aisle who come together and crafted, maybe not sexy legislation, but something that really needed to be done,” Kelly said. “And they get it through.”

Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General in President Donald Trump’s first administration, agrees that nonpartisan solutions are possible to find. But he says the nonpartisan nature of the solutions has to be intentional.

“Health is inherently political,” said Adams. “When you talk about access to healthcare coverage, when you talk women’s health issues, particularly around the issue of abortion and contraception, when you talk about drug policy and whether you’re in favor of harm reduction, when you talk of firearm safety -- all of these are inherently political issues.”

Former Surgeon General Adams sees broad support for children's issues

That is complicated further, Adams said, because “we live in a country that is very binary, so every issue, no matter how nuanced, is, for purposes of elections, turned into black/white, yes/no, all or none.”

However, Adams said CPI has already found a way to get bipartisan buy-in for some of its solutions to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In 2020, the state of California launched the ACEs Aware initiative to begin screening for ACEs – which include abuse, neglect and household challenges – and treating them early to reduce the impact and the cost to the state later.

Through CPI, Adams was asked to become the co-chair of the National Leadership Council for the ACE Resource Network in June in an effort to bring California’s work treating ACEs to other states.

“I’m very interested in work that has proven and practical solutions,” he said. “We bring in states and say, ‘Hey, let’s look at the best evidence in terms of what works around adverse childhood experiences and state level policy and then try to implement it in your state’.”

That strategy has led Republican-led states like Utah and Georgia to consider parts of Democrat-led California’s work on the issue, Adams said.

He said it’s a sign that CPI’s approach works and can be expanded to other areas.

The Clinton Foundation hopes that will be the case.

“Too many people have lost faith that progress is possible,” Hillary Clinton said. “But across the country, leaders are developing innovative policies that are strengthening families and communities. Those ideas deserve to be shared and scaled.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Trump is expected to pay a visit to the GM Proving Ground in Milford, one of the nation’s most expansive testing sites for new vehicle models.

His visit will also align with the official grand opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Detroit’s second bridge crossing connected to Windsor, which has been under construction since 2018.

At an opening ceremony and ribbon cutting held on the Windsor side of the bridge Friday, U.S. officials and dignitaries were noticeably absent — as ongoing tensions between the two countries over tariffs compelled Canadian officials to celebrate the milestone alone.

Still, that didn’t keep President Donald Trump from chiming in about the event on social media.

“Canada disinvited the United States of America to the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is fine, considering they are paying substantial TARIFFS to the United States, but the original Deal on the Bridge, which was terribly negotiated by a previous Administration, no longer stands,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. “We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50% of the Profit. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

The toll-free multi-use path is expected to open to walkers and cyclists by Wednesday, Aug. 5.

From the Vault: An inside look at Gordie Howe International Bridge while under construction

Trump’s visit also comes as Michiganders gear up for the Aug. 4 primary election, which includes a heated contest between Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Abdul El Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens -- who recently received an endorsement from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers is running unopposed in the primary.

In the governor’s race, Trump has endorsed Congressman John James (R-Shelby Township), who’s facing Republican businessman Perry Johnson. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson are competing for the Democratic nomination, though recent polls show Benson ahead with a significant margin.

Early in-person voting began on Saturday statewide, which allows voters to cast ballots similarly to the process of voting in-person on Election Day.

It’s not clear whether Trump plans to visit the Gordie Howe Bridge as part of his visit to Metro Detroit.

That’s why we want to hear from you!

Every family seems to have their own tried-and-true way of stretching their back-to-school budget, and your ideas could help other parents who are looking for ways to save.

Do you shop clearance sales throughout the year? Wait for big sales before making your purchases? Use coupons, loyalty rewards, or cash-back apps? Have you found great deals on Facebook Marketplace, thrift stores, consignment shops, or local buy-and-sell groups? Do you shop at home first to see what you already have to avoid buying anything extra?

Maybe your family organizes clothing or backpack swaps with friends, passes school uniforms down to younger siblings, or reuses supplies from last year. Do you compare prices between stores, buy in bulk with other families, or have a favorite retailer that always seems to have the best deals?

We’re also curious about the little tricks that make a big difference. Are there certain items you never buy new? Is there a must-have app, website, or social media group you rely on every summer? Have you discovered a hidden gem in your community that helps families save money during back-to-school season?

Whether you’ve managed to cut your shopping bill in half or you simply have one great tip that works every year, we’d love to hear about it.

Share your best back-to-school shopping advice, your favorite places to find bargains, and any creative ways your family saves money. Your tips could help other families make their budgets go further this school year, and we may feature some of your ideas in an upcoming newscast.

Please let us know by filling out the form below:

Put another way, that means the inferno was no longer simply being propelled by the weather. It was making its own. The thundercloud also produced violent, erratic winds capable of driving the flames in new directions.

The phenomenon, called a pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb, is rare in Europe and more commonly documented in North America and Australia, where it occurs only over some of the most extreme fires. France’s national firefighters federation said it had never before recorded one in the country.

The blaze erupted near Saumos on July 22 and has since burned more than 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of forests and scrubland, damaged or destroyed more than 240 homes and forced 220,000 people to evacuate in Gironde.

At about 6:20 p.m. Friday, two days after the fire began, the departmental fire and rescue service said it had generated a pyrocumulonimbus. The cloud weakened overnight as humidity rose, then formed again several times.

An electrified black thundercloud

Repeatedly, heat and smoke have surged upward into a vast black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within.

“Imagine a campfire so large and hot that the smoke rising off it turns into a storm-like cloud,” said Theodore M. Giannaros, a fire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens.

“That is a pyroCb — a storm cloud born from the intense heat that a wildfire produces.”

It takes more than a big fire.

There is no set temperature at which one forms, Giannaros said; what is needed is the kind of atmosphere that breeds dry thunderstorms — very hot, very dry air near the ground, with cooler and moister air above it.

Hot air loaded with smoke and moisture then rises rapidly from the flames. As it climbs and cools, water vapor condenses around particles of ash.

Above the freezing level, droplets become ice crystals whose collisions separate electrical charges, as in an ordinary thunderstorm.

Lightning and more destruction follow

Beneath this storm lies a landscape already primed to burn. The cloud then amplifies the disaster that created it.

Rising air pulls powerful winds toward the fire, while downdrafts punch gusts back to the surface.

Those shifts can turn the flames, divide them into several fronts or send them racing in a new direction.

“It’s a feedback loop, not a one-way effect,” Giannaros said. “Once it forms, the cloud becomes its own weather system, sitting on top of the fire and making it harder to predict.”

The systems can also spin up whirling columns of flame — usually a fire whirl, which Giannaros describes as a dust devil made of fire and heat instead of dust.

True tornadoes are rarer, though one struck Redding, California, during the 2018 Carr Fire with winds equivalent to an EF-3, killing a fire inspector.

For firefighters, escape routes can close without warning as fresh outbreaks appear beyond their crews and equipment.

Direct attack may become impossible, forcing crews to retreat and defend communities.

The danger, Giannaros said, is fire moving faster than evacuations can be organized.

Until now, pyroCbs have been essentially an Australian and North American phenomenon. Canada alone produced a record 142 of them in 2023.

In Europe, pyroCbs have been rare

Portugal recorded one during its deadly 2017 fire season. France has now joined the list.

The continent is heating faster than any other on Earth — at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization — with heat waves growing more frequent and severe and drought spreading across the south, curing forests into fuel.

Hotter and drier conditions give extreme fires more opportunity to form them, Giannaros said, but scientists still lack enough long-term data to establish a trend.

The European research project ROSETTA aims to close that gap.

The most common misunderstanding, he said, is that the cloud is merely a side effect. As long as it hangs above the flames, it is helping decide where the fire goes next.

___

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 school announced July 20 that it would buy out the remaining three years on Manuel's contract and he will step down at the end of 2026. Manuel agreed to step down following investigations into former football coach Sherrone Moore’s relationship with his executive assistant and a probe into the athletic department.

In addition to the payout, Manuel will receive former athletic director perks such as being eligible for tickets to Michigan games and having golf privileges. The university also agreed to make a $108,000 contribution to his retirement account and pay his attorney fees of $82,000.

Manuel agreed to remain employed by the university until he voluntary resigns Dec. 31, and his personnel record will reflect a resignation. He also agreed to not be an athletic director or senior athletic adviser for any Big Ten school for two years from the date of his resignation. Manuel is allowed to accept employment outside the Big Ten with no penalty.

The agreement was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

___

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

On domestic issues, Marcos disclosed that a special anti-graft prosecutor would soon file charges against former House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, who has been implicated in a corruption scandal that the president exposed in his state of the nation speech last year.

Marcos highlighted China after media editorial he called racist

Marcos did not mention China by name or elaborate on his criticism of Beijing, which was applauded by many lawmakers. He said that “of late, our very humanity has been called into question” and reminded detractors that “Filipinos are a noble … and a great race. We are not greedy. We are not racists. We are not liars.”

Marcos summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan to his office in Manila last week after the China Daily, a Chinese state-owned media outlet, depicted Filipinos as monkeys in an editorial video and cartoons. The animations centered on Beijing’s rejection of the arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippine government strongly condemned the AI-generated images as “racist and dehumanizing” and demanded that they be taken down.

In Beijing, however, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said last week that the video “does not represent the official position and I have no comment on it.”

He said, however, that China viewed the South China Sea arbitration as “a political farce disguised as a legal proceeding.” He added that “the so-called award is illegal, null and void and has no binding force,” reiterating China’s longstanding position.

Marcos said the ruling, which he said was final and binding, was a “definitive benchmark for the interpretation and application” of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was the basis of the decision. The Philippines initiated the arbitration in 2013 after a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships in a disputed shoal, but China refused to participate and rejected the decision as a sham.

“Your government will do all that is necessary to continue upholding this award, utilizing every peaceful and legal means available to the republic against any attempt, foreign or domestic, to undermine this achievement,” Marcos said, adding that Filipinos “do not yield.”

Territorial confrontations in the disputed waters have become more prevalent in recent years, particularly among Chinese, Philippine and Vietnamese forces and fishing fleets. The long-simmering disputes in the strategic waterway, a key global trade route, also involve Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Marcos says being family won't protect his cousin and ally

Marcos did not identify Romualdez, his cousin and key political ally, by name but was obviously referring to him when speaking about the corruption charges to be filed.

“This is painful to me, but we have to do the right thing,” Marcos said. “I’m not a president for my family. I’m not a president for my friend.”

Romualdez, who resigned as House speaker last year but remains as a member of Congress, reiterated in a statement that he did not violate the law and he was ready to prove it.

Romualdez, along with several House members and senators, was accused of pocketing huge kickbacks from flood control projects in government and congressional investigations. Others have been charged and detained for large-scale corruption, including an incumbent and a former senator, a former public works secretary, who served under Marcos, and several government engineers and construction company executives, but to date not Romualdez.

Nearly 25 billion pesos' ($410 million) worth of cash and properties belonging to some of the suspects have been recovered or frozen by the government and some have been returned to the national treasury, Marcos said.

Marcos suggested Philippines should now reconsider nuclear power

Marcos also spoke at length about his administration’s efforts to cushion the impact of fuel price hikes caused by the war in Iran for ordinary Filipinos. In a bid to boost energy security, Marcos said that “perhaps it is time for us to revisit nuclear energy production.”

“We will make sure it’s safe,” Marcos said, without elaborating. “We will also make sure that we can explain well to the public the good benefits of nuclear power.”

The Philippines built its first and only nuclear power plant in Bataan, a coastal province in an earthquake-prone region about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Manila, in the 1970s but it was left idle due to safety concerns and corruption.

Von Hagens' family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday. A statement they issued on Monday gave no further details. Von Hagens had announced in 2010 that he was living with Parkinson’s disease.

Von Hagens trod a fine line between science, entertainment and commerce with his touring exhibits, as well as headline-grabbing actions such as a public autopsy.

At the heart of von Hagens’ work was the so-called plastination process — replacing body fluids with liquid plastic that then hardens. That technique, which he started developing in the 1970s, prevented decay, left tissues intact and allowed him to display preserved corpses and their inner organs.

The resulting exhibition, “Body Worlds,” first went on show in Japan in 1995.

Two years later, the collection of partly skinless corpses went on display in von Hagens’ homeland, overcoming an attempt by local church leaders to block its opening on the grounds that it was disrespectful. Von Hagens said he was helping viewers understand how their bodies work.

The anatomist “is forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead,” von Hagens said of his work.

“I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us,” he said.

The shows used the corpses of people who agreed to donate their bodies for plastination. Critics argued that von Hagens bordered on sensationalism with his works, which included a corpse riding a plastinated horse, and a pregnant woman with an eight-month-old fetus inside.

Von Hagens “plays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls,” the Rev. Ernst Pulsfort, spiritual rector of Berlin’s Catholic Academy, said when the show first opened in the German capital in 2001. He argued that it catered to a “public lust for sensation.”

During a “Body Worlds” show in London in 2002, the anatomist — wearing, as ever, his trademark black fedora — conducted Britain’s first public autopsy in 170 years before a sellout crowd of hundreds, defying government warnings that it might be illegal.

Von Hagens declared it a “huge success.” The British Medical Association’s head of ethics, Dr. Michael Wilkes, said it was “degrading and disrespectful.”

The “Body Worlds” exhibits were shown in several American cities after making their U.S. debut in Los Angeles in 2004.

Von Hagens' “Plastinarium,” where bodies are prepared, opened in the eastern German town of Guben in 2006.

The anatomist was born Gunther Liebchen on Jan. 10, 1945, in what is now western Poland.

He went to medical school in Jena in East Germany, but increasingly questioned the communist system and made a failed attempt to flee to the West. He was detained before West Germany bought his freedom in 1970, a regular practice at the time.

He continued his medical studies at the University of Luebeck and, in the 1970s, began working at Heidelberg University’s pathology and anatomy institute. He married a former classmate, Cornelia von Hagens, and took her surname.

His second wife, Angelina Whalley, heads his Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination and curates his exhibitions, and he had three children from his first marriage.

Monday's statement said it was von Hagens' wish that his body be made available for plastination and “his family will respect and carry out this wish.”

Timeline: Most likely window for strong storms Monday in Southeast Michigan

Possible severe thunderstorms are expected to move across Southeast Michigan on Monday, prompting a 4Warn Weather Alert. While the forecast continues to evolve, confidence is increasing that portions of the area could see strong to severe storms Monday afternoon and evening.

One of the biggest forecast challenges is the potential for clusters of showers and thunderstorms during the first half of the day. Those storms could influence the timing and intensity of additional storms later on Monday afternoon and tonight, creating some uncertainty in the overall severe weather threat.

Read more here.

Meet a former Metro Detroit nurse who switched to become a foreman on the Gordie Howe Bridge

Former nurse Jayne Griffor traded her hospital scrubs for a hard hat after working nearly 20 years caring for patients. She found her new purpose as a labor foreman on one of North America’s largest construction projects -- the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

“I loved being a nurse. Still love being a nurse,” Griffor said, “but I was getting tired of getting burnt out.”

Her move to construction wasn’t just about career fatigue -- it was deeply personal.

Read more here.

From the vault: An inside look at Gordie Howe International Bridge while under construction

 We’re taking a look back at 2023, when we had an inside look at the progress of the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, connecting Detroit and Canada.

Construction on the bridge broke ground back in July of 2018. The bridge was initially on track to open at some point in 2025, but is now opening on Monday, July 27.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is the second bridge connecting Detroit with Windsor. The Ambassador Bridge opened in 1929.

Read more here.

AAA: Michigan gas prices up 8 cents from last week

Gas prices across Michigan have increased 8 cents since last week, bringing the average cost per gallon statewide to $4.23 for regular unleaded.

Motorists are now paying roughly $63 for a full 15-gallon tank of gas, roughly $12 more than the highest price reported last August, according to AAA.

In Metro Detroit, drivers are paying around $4.22 per gallon — about 13 cents more than last week’s average — which rose above $4 for the first time since April — and about 1.01 cents more than the same time last year.

Read more here.

4Warn Weather Alert: Enhanced risk for severe storms across Southeast Michigan Monday

The 4Warn Weather Team is closely monitoring the potential for severe thunderstorms today as an active weather pattern moves across Southeast Michigan. While the forecast continues to evolve, confidence is increasing that portions of the area could see strong to severe storms this afternoon and evening.

One of the biggest forecast challenges is the potential for clusters of showers and thunderstorms during the first half of the day. Those storms could influence the timing and intensity of additional storms later this afternoon and tonight, creating some uncertainty in the overall severe weather threat.

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While the forecast continues to evolve, confidence is increasing that portions of the area could see strong to severe storms Monday afternoon and evening.

Full forecast --> 4Warn Weather Alert: Enhanced risk for severe storms across Southeast Michigan Monday

Threats

One of the biggest forecast challenges is the potential for clusters of showers and thunderstorms during the first half of the day. Those storms could influence the timing and intensity of additional storms later on Monday afternoon and tonight, creating some uncertainty in the overall severe weather threat.

Even with that uncertainty, the Storm Prediction Center has placed much of Southeast Michigan under an Enhanced Risk (Level 3 of 5) for severe weather.

The primary concern will be damaging straight-line winds up to 70 mph, capable of downing trees, producing scattered power outages, and causing property damage. However, all modes of severe weather remain possible, including large hail, torrential rainfall, frequent lightning, and even a few tornadoes.

Make sure to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings and to stay weather-aware throughout the day, especially if you have outdoor plans. Be prepared to move indoors quickly if a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Warning is issued for your area.

Timeline

Some high-resolution data has placed the most convective energy between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, this really is a fluid situation depending on how the day plays out.

Another model waits to pull storms across the area closer to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., with another robust round overnight.

Related --> A 4Warn Weather Alert has been issued for Monday in Southeast Michigan -- here’s what this means

A 4Warn Weather Alert has been issued for most of the day on July 27.

Full forecast --> 4Warn Weather Alert: Enhanced risk for severe storms across Southeast Michigan Monday

What is a 4Warn Weather Alert?

We issue a 4Warn Weather Alert when we’re expecting weather conditions that will be inconvenient to our viewers.

Why did we issue an alert for Monday?

While the forecast continues to evolve, confidence is increasing that portions of the area could see strong to severe storms on Monday afternoon and evening.

One of the biggest forecast challenges is the potential for clusters of showers and thunderstorms during the first half of the day. Those storms could influence the timing and intensity of additional storms later this afternoon and tonight, creating some uncertainty in the overall severe weather threat.

Enhanced risk

Even with that uncertainty, the Storm Prediction Center has placed much of Southeast Michigan under an Enhanced Risk (Level 3 of 5) for severe weather.

Timeline

Some high-resolution data has placed the most convective energy between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, this really is a fluid situation depending on how the day plays out. Another model waits to pull storms across the area closer to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., with another robust round overnight.

Threats

The primary concern will be damaging straight-line winds up to 70 mph, capable of downing trees, producing scattered power outages, and causing property damage. However, all modes of severe weather remain possible, including large hail, torrential rainfall, frequent lightning, and even a few tornadoes.

Make sure to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings and to stay weather-aware throughout the day, especially if they have outdoor plans. Be prepared to move indoors quickly if a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Warning is issued for your area.

The winner of the runoff will enter the general election against Democratic former state Sen. Dan Ahlers with a significant advantage in the reliably Republican state that hasn’t had a Democratic governor since the 1970s.

Rhoden was lieutenant governor when he assumed the top job in early 2025 after then-Gov. Kristi Noem stepped down to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. In addition to Rhoden and Doeden, the primary field included U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and state House Speaker Jon Hansen.

Doeden placed first in the primary with about 31% of the vote with a close three-way race for the second runoff slot. Rhoden received about 25% of the vote, followed by Johnson at 23% and Hansen at about 21%.

Two key counties to watch are on opposite ends of the state. Minnehaha County on the eastern border is home to Sioux Falls. Pennington County on the western border is home to Rapid City. Together, they are home to a third of the state’s registered Republicans and helped Doeden secure his first-place primary showing.

Doeden narrowly edged Johnson in Minnehaha County and had about a 7-point lead over second-place Rhoden in Pennington County. Doeden also carried most of the small, rural counties across eastern South Dakota.

Rhoden helped secure a runoff berth with his wins across central and northwestern South Dakota, including key leads in Meade, Lawrence and Hughes County, which includes Pierre, the state capital. The three counties combined are home to about 10% of the state’s registered Republicans.

Lincoln County in the suburbs south of Sioux Falls could be another key battleground in the runoff. It’s the state’s third-most populous county and has the highest population of any county where neither Doeden nor Rhoden placed first or second.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Polls in most of the state are in Central time and close at 8 p.m. ET, but some polls are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in the Republican primary runoff for governor.

Who gets to vote?

Only registered Republicans may vote in the Republican primary runoff for governor. Republicans who did not vote in the June 2 state primary may still vote in the runoff.

How many voters are there?

As of June 1, there were about 676,000 registered voters in South Dakota, including about 322,000 active registered Republicans, about 137,000 active registered Democrats, about 157,000 active independent voters or those not affiliated with any political party, and about 57,000 inactive voters not identifiable by party. The rest were affiliated with other parties.

How many people actually vote?

About 136,000 votes were cast in the Republican gubernatorial primary on June 2.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 19% of the 2024 primary vote and about 20% of the 2022 primary vote was cast before primary day.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In South Dakota, counties tend to release results from all voting methods together over the course of the night. Roughly four out of every five counties in South Dakota release at least some in-person Election Day results in their first vote updates, along with results from mail voting and early in-person voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the June 2 Republican primary for governor, the AP first reported results at 9:01 p.m. ET, or one minute after polls closed. About half the total vote had been counted by 10:57 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 3:36 a.m. ET with almost every vote counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts in South Dakota are automatic only in cases of tie votes. Losing candidates for statewide office may request a recount if the vote margin is 0.25% or less of the total votes cast. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 98 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Tremaine Jevon Love was charged with first-degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and two counts of felony firearm for the fatal shooting of Thomas Jerrell Washington, 26, of Auburn Hills in June 2025.

Witnesses told authorities that a man in a gray car fired several shots near Auburn Avenue and Russell Street in Pontiac before fleeing from the scene. Washington suffered gunshot wounds to his wrist, torso and back and was taken to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries. Multiple shell casings were found at the scene, police said.

Love was arrested hours later during a traffic stop in the area of Middlebelt and Long Lake roads in West Bloomfield Township. His trial began on July 14, 2026, and concluded on Monday. The jury found him guilty of all counts.

He is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 27.

The contest in the heavily Democratic district could have an immediate impact on the balance of power in the U.S. House, where Republicans cling to a thin majority.

Under Georgia law, the four Democrats and two Republicans running to succeed Scott will appear on the same ballot, and any of them could secure the seat outright by winning a majority of the special election vote. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters regardless of party will advance to an Aug. 25 special runoff election.

The winner will serve out the remaining few months of Scott’s current term.

Among the Democrats vying for the seat are former Gwinnett County School Board Chair Everton Blair and Marcye Scott, daughter of the late congressman. Democrats Tony Brown and Carlos Moore and Republicans Caesar Gonzales and Fayth Park are also on the ballot.

Blair is the only candidate in the field who also ran for the full-term seat set to begin in January 2027. He placed third in the May 19 Democratic primary with about 12% of the vote. State Rep. Jasmine Clark won the primary with 56% of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November. Chavez, who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination, challenged David Scott in the 2024 general election and received about 28% of the vote.

Clark did not file to compete in the special election. Doing so would have required her to resign from her seat in the state Legislature just as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was calling for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries in time for the 2028 elections. The state constitution bars state officeholders from seeking a different office with a start date more than 30 days before the end of the officeholder’s current term. The special session did convene, but Republican leaders opted not to take up redistricting.

In recent years, congressman Scott had faced questions over his age and health. At the time of his death at age 80, he was facing a tough primary challenge from Clark and others as he sought a 13th term.

Georgia’s 13th Congressional District is east and southeast of Atlanta and includes parts of six heavily Democratic counties: Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, Newton and Rockdale. Of the six, the district’s portion of Gwinnett County has the lion’s share of voters, about 46% of the district electorate in the 2024 general election. The district includes only a small sliver of DeKalb County, which plays a much bigger role in the 4th and 5th Congressional Districts.

Scott won his 2024 reelection bid with about 72% of the vote. That night, Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris received about 71% in the district, compared with about 28% for Republican Donald Trump, in the presidential election. Trump had his best performance in the district in Gwinnett County, although that still only amounted to about 35% of the vote.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in the special election for the 13th Congressional District.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in the 13th Congressional District may participate in the special election.

How many voters are there?

As of July 21, there were about 584,000 registered voters in the 13th Congressional District. Georgia voters do not register by party.

How many people actually vote?

About 358,000 votes were cast in the 2024 U.S. House general election in the 13th District. Turnout in special elections tends to be significantly lower than in regularly scheduled November general elections.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 78% of the total vote in the 13th District general election in 2024 was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Friday, nearly 8,700 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, with the largest share coming from Gwinnett County, followed by Clayton County.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All six counties in the 13th Congressional District tend to release most or all of their results from early in-person and mail voting in the first vote update of the night, usually before any in-person Election Day results are released.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 general election, the AP first reported results in the 13th District U.S. House race at 7:10 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. About half of the total vote had been counted by 9:31 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 2:21 a.m. ET, with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

There is no automatic recount provision in Georgia, but a losing candidate may request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 0.5% of the total vote. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 28 days until the Aug. 25 special runoff election, if needed, and 98 days until the 2026 midterm elections on Nov. 3.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Even with that uncertainty, the Storm Prediction Center has placed much of Southeast Michigan under an Enhanced Risk (Level 3 of 5) for severe weather. Some high resolution data has placed the most convective energy between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, this really is a fluid situation depending on how the day plays out. Another model waits to pull storms across the area closer to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. with another robust round overnight. The primary concern will be damaging straight-line winds up to 70 mph, capable of downing trees, producing scattered power outages, and causing property damage. However, all modes of severe weather remain possible, including large hail, torrential rainfall, frequent lightning, and even a few tornadoes. Make sure to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings and to stay weather-aware throughout the day, especially if they have outdoor plans. Be prepared to move indoors quickly if a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Warning is issued for your area.

Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 80s before thunderstorms develop. Behind the cold front, conditions improve on Tuesday with slightly cooler temperatures, gusty winds and highs around 80 degrees. Dry weather and seasonably cool temperatures will then dominate the middle of the week before the next opportunity for showers and thunderstorms arrives on Saturday.

Oddie first found fame as a member of The Goodies, a comedy trio that also featured Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. The team starred in an off-beat comedy series of the same name that aired from 1970 to 1982 on the BBC. He went on to host BBC wildlife programs, including “Birding With Bill Oddie,” “Bill Oddie Goes Wild" and “Springwatch."

“Bill was a multi-talented celebrity — wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist," his agent, David Foster, said in a statement. “Yet it was never fame that he valued. Instead he encouraged us to respect and protect the environment."

Born in 1941 in Rochdale, northwestern England, Oddie went on to study English literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He appeared in several productions of the Cambridge Footlights, a prestigious student sketch comedy troupe, alongside future stars such as John Cleese and Graham Chapman of Monty Python.

Those student productions led to work in London's West End and on Broadway, persuading Oddie to abandon plans to become an English teacher or warden of a bird observatory.

Oddie later transformed his birding hobby into a job, presenting multiple wildlife shows and writing books such as “Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book,” “Birdwatching with Bill Oddie" and “Follow That Bird.”

He is survived by his wife, Laura, and daughters Bonnie, Kate and Rosie.

Four years ago, George P. Bush went after Paxton by putting up billboards that said “he's a crook” next to his mugshot from when he was charged with securities fraud.

And earlier this year, U.S. Sen John Cornyn said “judgment day is coming” as he tried to fend off a Republican primary challenge from Paxton.

All of them lost. Now the question is whether James Talarico, who topped Rep. Jasmine Crockett in an expensive and fiercely contested Democratic primary, will have any more luck as he faces off against Paxton in one of the country's most closely watched U.S. Senate races.

“The guy’s ability to take shots and just keep moving on and stay in elected office is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my career, in 25 years of running campaigns,” said Ash Wright, who worked as a senior adviser to Bush.

Paxton has never been convicted, and he's survived by championing conservative legal battles over immigration, abortion and transgender issues in a Republican-dominated state. Much like President Donald Trump, he's long portrayed himself as the victim of political persecution.

Former Paxton challengers and a half dozen campaign strategists who worked against him warned that Texans may tune out any attempt to revive scandals that they've heard about for years, especially when rigid partisanship has convinced voters to be extraordinarily forgiving of candidates’ trespasses.

However, Talarico's team has studied the previous races and is attempting its own version of the playbook by trying to paint Paxton as part of a broader culture of corruption that has failed to improve people's lives.

Paxton’s campaign suggested Talarico's claims were aimed at distracting voters from a record of “out-of-touch views.”

“Every time a fighter, like President Donald Trump and now Ken Paxton, stands up to the permanent political class, even after they are completely acquitted of wrongdoing, people like James Talarico continue pushing the same accusations and claiming corruption,” Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy said.

Paxton won first reelection narrowly, despite indictment

Paxton was first elected as Texas attorney general in 2014, and Nelson ran against him in 2018. A Democratic lawyer from Austin, Nelson made Paxton's indictment on charges of securities fraud central to his campaign, and he poked fun at him for picking up another lawyer's $1,000 pen after finding it at a courthouse security checkpoint.

“Vote Justin Nelson for Texas attorney general,” the narrator said. “He will fight on behalf of all Texans. And he won’t steal your pen.”

Nelson argued that his approach was effective, reflected in Paxton's narrow margin of 3.6 percentage points in a year when Republican Greg Abbott was reelected as Texas governor by more than 13 percentage points. Nelson's campaign spent roughly $6.5 million, about half of what Paxton's campaign spent.

“My message was working," Nelson said. “I just needed to go louder and longer.”

In 2022, Paxton faced a Republican primary challenge from George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner and the grandson and nephew of two former presidents from the state.

The securities fraud case was ongoing, and Paxton was also under federal investigation over accusations that he abused his position to benefit an Austin real estate developer, took bribes and retaliated against whistleblower employees.

Paxton responded by portraying himself as a Trump-era Republican and Bush as the heir to a privileged political legacy.

Pro-Paxton organizations spent more than $20 million, about twice as much as Bush and his allies. The race went to a runoff, in which Paxton defeated Bush by 34 percentage points.

Paxton ran against Rochelle Garza, a Democratic civil rights lawyer from Brownsville, in the general election. She said her campaign had a 300-page opposition research file on Paxton but it was difficult to figure out how to approach his past because voters had heard about it for years.

“The amount of potential hits on Paxton can make message discipline challenging,” Garza said.

Paxton ran as the leading legal opponent of President Joe Biden, promoting a string of lawsuits against Biden's Democratic administration on immigration, abortion and gender policy.

Overwhelmingly outspent, Garza lost by roughly 10 percentage points.

Some supporters see Paxton as a ‘flawed’ fighter

There was more trouble ahead for Paxton.

He split with his wife, who later filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.” He was also impeached by the Texas House, although the Senate acquitted him in 2023 and allowed him to remain in office. The securities fraud case ended in 2024, and Paxton was directed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.

Throughout the years, he's maintained strong support from Republican voters like David and Nancy Lapp, a retired couple from the small town of Wolfforth. They described him as a conservative warrior who has been a victim of persecution.

“He’s had his share of scandals, and almost all of them have, so it’s not necessarily disqualifying anymore,” said David Lapp, 76. “He’s a flawed person, no doubt about it, but he fights for traditional American ideals.”

He added that "nowadays, as long as you’re not in jail, they’ll elect you.”

Biden's Justice Department in 2024 decided not to prosecute Paxton after the yearslong federal investigation, and Paxton went on to challenge Cornyn for his Senate seat.

Cornyn and his allies vastly outspent Paxton, blanketing the state with more than $90 million in advertising. After the race went to a runoff, Trump endorsed Paxton, and he won decisively.

Talarico hopes Waco case sparks new scrutiny

Talarico promised at a rally in Houston the day after the Republican runoff to “prosecute the case” against Paxton, whom he called “the most corrupt politician in America."

Since then, he has sought to introduce a newer question about Paxton, one that involves his office's handling of a child sexual abuse case this year.

The attorney general's office was assigned the felony case involving Waco lawyer Adam Hoffman after the county district attorney recused himself over a potential conflict of interest. After a hung jury trial last year, Hoffman agreed to state lawyers' offer in April to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Prosecutors said the victim did not want to testify a second time. Hoffman served 60 days in jail and was not required to register as a sex offender.

Talarico said the plea agreement shows Paxton is willing to allow preferential treatment at Texans' expense.

“He is everything that’s wrong with this broken, corrupt political system,” Talarico said of Paxton at a rally in Del Rio last week. “This is the rot at the core of this broken political system. It’s why we can’t get ahead, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we save, because the system is rigged against us."

Talarico reported having $21.5 million available last week, while Paxton reported having $7.5 million.

The Democrat's fundraising advantage could help him broadcast his message further than Paxton's previous opponents have been able to do, Nelson said.

“Even a little bit more money would have helped me,” he said. “I think James has a legitimate shot.”

___

Associated Press reporters Jesse Bedayn in Del Rio, Texas, and Marc Levy in Wolfforth, Texas, contributed to this report.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1951, Walt Disney released the animated musical film “Alice in Wonderland,” based on Lewis Carroll‘s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and its 1871 sequel “Through the Looking-Glass.”

Here are a few things to know about for Monday, July 27, 2026:

⛈️ 4Warn Weather: The 4Warn Weather Team is closely monitoring the potential for severe thunderstorms today as an active weather pattern moves across Southeast Michigan. Check out the 10-day forecast.

🌊 Detroit Maritime Legacy: The Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle marked its 65th anniversary Saturday, drawing families from across the region to celebrate Detroit’s rich maritime history. Read more.

💞 An Emotional Reunion: The Detroit Tigers game on Friday became the setting for an emotional reunion as the family of a young Michigan organ donor met one of the people whose life was saved by his donation. Read more.

💌 ‘Caravan of Love’: FORCE Detroit is launching a new monthly outreach effort that will bring violence-prevention resources and other services directly into neighborhoods on Detroit’s west side. Read more.

🎯 Gun Safety: Hundreds of women from across the region gathered in Taylor this weekend for a free, two-day firearms safety course hosted by Legally Armed — one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. Read more.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

After years of anticipation over the impending opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, motorists are expected to traverse the crossing by noon on Monday, marking a major milestone for cross-border travel and trade between Canada and the United States.

In Mexicantown, not far from the new crossing, one business owner was hopeful for what the bridge could mean for his area.

Inside La Fiesta Ice Cream, the clink of coins and the hiss of the grill cut through the steady Sunday afternoon crowd. The shop serves both sweet treats and chicken, something owner Juan Carlos is proud of.

“Right now it’s pretty good business,” he said.

He believes the bridge’s opening could make it even better.

“To open the bridge, I feel it’s going to have more people coming into this area, Mexicantown,” he said.

However, Sunday evening, the ramps on the freeway for the bridge on the Detroit side still had orange barrels blocking them.

Get the full story here.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• Trump challenges Gordie Howe Bridge deal as Windsor celebrates opening milestone
• Neighbors say vacant Detroit house has become ‘hazardous nuisance’ as city issues blight tickets
• 80-year-old dead after off-road crash in Oakland County
• St. Clair Shores church hit by repeated break-ins, graffiti
• ‘I know it’s wrong’: Feds say Roseville woman shared AI nude images of child
• Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorses Haley Stevens for Michigan US Senate race
• Department of Elections hosts block party in Detroit
• How to identify Michigan’s only venomous snake after an Oakland County man was bitten by one
• University of Michigan nurses approve contract with better pay, staffing ratios, safety protections
• Legasea Aquarium, Reptarium in Utica welcomes capybaras
• Man sentenced in Macomb County $80K senior fraud scam, victim gets full restitution
• Wayne County man had hundreds of child porn images, website tabs open on computer, feds say
• Police investigate fire that destroyed special needs playground at Dearborn elementary school
• What’s Going Around in Metro Detroit: Gastrointestinal illnesses, cyclosporiasis, breathing problems
• Man in his 50s found fatally shot inside vehicle on Detroit’s west side
• Jury finds man guilty in deadly Oakland County drive-by shooting
• Neighbors Say Dearborn Man Shot by Police Had Been Grieving Recent Losses
• Organization offering course to prepare teen drivers for real-life emergencies at Willow Run Airport
• 14-year-old killed after four-wheeler crash in Monroe County
• 8 found dead in Grand Haven home after fire
• 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:

Police arrested one suspect and were looking for another after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others injured, including a toddler.

Investigators believe the two suspects were shooting at each other and, although one remained on the loose, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told a news conference Sunday night that there was no ongoing threat to the public. Police did not have a description of the outstanding suspect, he said.

“We’re still trying to figure this out,” Davis said. (Read more)

----

Genevieve strengthened into a major hurricane in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and is expected to intensify well southwest of Mexico but stay far out to sea on a course roughly parallel to the coast.

Genevieve had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph), making it a Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. A major hurricane is Category 3, with winds of at least 111 mph (179 kph), or higher.

Genevieve’s center was located about 530 miles (855 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo, and it was headed west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph). (Read more)

----

French President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis meeting Monday focusing on monster, uncontrolled wildfires that have forced more than 250,000 people to flee their homes, amid a first glimmer of hope that the spread of the largest blaze may have slowed.

In the Gironde region of southwest France, where flames have burned an area four times the size of Paris, the prefecture said the situation overnight had remained “globally stable” — a change from previous days where the giant blaze raging since last week edged closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux. (Read more)

---> Find more headlines from around the world right here <---

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Cavil / ˈka-vəl / (verb) -- defined as “to raise trivial and frivolous objection.”

Example: “My mother-in-law will often cavil about the small font size of restaurant menus.”

🧹 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 Fruit Stripe gum. 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.)

The flap over Pirlo reportedly has Paolo Maldini considering stepping down just 16 days into his new job as the technical director charged with restoring order for the Azzurri.

This after Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti had already turned down offers to coach a national team that has failed to qualify for three straight World Cups.

The crisis surrounding Italy’s once-proud squad is expanding to new dimensions four months after the four-time World Cup champion was beaten by Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying playoff.

Pirlo himself confirmed that he was out in an Instagram post Monday, saying he “heard last night that I’m no longer the candidate for the Italy national team job.”

Several Italian politicians had raised concerns about Pirlo’s contract to be an ambassador for Fonbet, saying the national team coach should not have conflicting views on Italy’s support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Pirlo, who had been prepared to leave his current job as coach of Dubai United, was an unpopular choice after unsuccessful stints coaching Juventus and Sampdoria — despite having been one of the standout players when Italy last won the World Cup in 2006.

Pirlo said the Fonbet deal was linked to his job in the United Arab Emirates and is “exclusively for commercial and sports” purposes.

“Attributing a political significance to that collaboration means attributing beliefs to me that I have never expressed and don't belong to me,” Pirlo added. “My love for Italy doesn’t depend on a job. It’s part of my history, my identity and it will remain forever.”

Pirlo was a 3rd choice

Pirlo was at best a third choice after Brazil coach Ancelotti and former Manchester City manager Guardiola turned down offers from Maldini and special adviser Leonardo.

But Pirlo was preferred by his former AC Milan teammate Maldini ahead of figures like former Italy coaches Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte because he was seen as someone more willing to adapt to new policies and promote younger players in an attack-minded system.

Gennaro Gattuso, another former Milan player, left as Italy’s coach by mutual consent in April after the defeat in Bosnia.

Now Mancini and Conte are back being discussed for the job, while Maldini is reportedly upset that Pirlo was turned down.

The final decision lies with Italian soccer federation president Giovanni Malagò, who was elected in June after leading the Milan Cortina Olympics organizing committee and, previously, the Italian Olympic Committee.

Mancini and Conte

Mancini coached Italy to the European Championship title in 2021 then failed to get the Azzurri to the following year’s World Cup before bolting to take over Saudi Arabia’s national team. He left Saudi Arabia in 2024 and was most recently coach at Al-Sadd in Qatar.

Conte coached Italy to the quarterfinals of the 2016 European Championship and was most recently at Napoli.

Another option could be former Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi, who is currently coaching in the Saudi league.

Whoever gets hired will be Italy's fourth coach in as many years.

When Luciano Spalletti was fired after Italy lost its opening qualifier to Norway last year, Claudio Ranieri turned down an offer to replace him and the much less experienced Gattuso was hired instead.

Italy next plays in September and October, when it will face Belgium, Turkey and France in the Nations League.

___

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

CXMT's shares surged 466% in their first day of trading. The company has become the most valuable one listed on a mainland Chinese exchange, with an estimated market capitalization of about 3.3 trillion yuan (more than $487 billion). But that's still smaller than those of South Korean and American memory chipmakers like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology.

CXMT, or ChangXin Memory Technologies, is among many chipmakers that have profited mightily from the boom in artificial intelligence. Its business is thriving as China pushes for greater self-sufficiency in leading edge technologies while contending with limited access to advanced chipmaking machines due to American-led restrictions.

The company raised at least $8.6 billion with the offering, priced at 8.66 yuan ($1.3) per share, in its listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-like STAR market, also known as the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

It was mainland China's second largest IPO after the $22.1 billion share offering of Agricultural Bank of China in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2010.

Founded in 2016 in the eastern city of Hefei, CXMT is one of the world’s largest makers of DRAM, or “dynamic random access” memory chips, a kind of semiconductor used in everything from AI servers to autos and consumer electronics like smartphones and personal computers.

“CXMT plays a critical role in China’s AI push, particularly in the face of U.S. export controls,” said Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert in China’s technology policies. U.S. restrictions have also barred China from importing powerful HBM, or high-bandwidth memory chips – a high-performance type of DRAM.

The company’s revenue surged to 50.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) on jumping demand from the rapid rise of AI in the first three months of 2026, a more than 700% rise year-on-year.

Soaring use of AI has led to a global memory chip shortage, driving up prices for some computers and smartphones. One big question, Chan said, is whether CXMT could help with the broader shortage.

CXMT is seen as China's best shot at developing its own cutting-edge HBM chips to power Chinese AI models, Chan said. But it also faces many challenges, including supply chain bottlenecks in scaling up manufacturing capacity, since its access to the world’s most best chipmaking tools is highly restricted, forcing it to depend on Chinese equipment makers.

According to Counterpoint Research, a technology research firm, CXMT was the world's fourth biggest DRAM memory chipmaker in 2025 by shipments, taking up roughly 8% of the global market. Samsung Electronics accounted for 36%, SK Hynix 29% and Micron about 24%.

In the first three months of this year CXMT accounted for approximately 9% of global shipments. By 2028, its market share is forecast by Counterpoint Research to reach about 11%. But the research firm estimated CXMT will likely need at least a 15% global market share to be competitive in the long term.

“Trade restrictions on tools are remaining as the key challenge for CXMT,” said MS Hwang, a research director at Counterpoint who specializes in memory semiconductors. Some U.S. lawmakers have also recently called for President Donald Trump’s administration to block American companies from buying CXMT’s memory chips over national and economic security concerns.

CXMT is one of many Chinese companies the Pentagon says have links to the Chinese military. Beijing has rejected such designations in most cases.

CXMT's public share offering followed a $26.5 billion IPO by South Korea’s SK Hynix on the Nasdaq earlier this month.

___

AP journalist Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

Gas prices across Michigan have increased 8 cents since last week, bringing the average cost per gallon statewide to $4.23 for regular unleaded.

Motorists are now paying roughly $63 for a full 15-gallon tank of gas, roughly $12 more than the highest price reported last August, according to AAA.

In Metro Detroit, drivers are paying around $4.22 per gallon — about 13 cents more than last week’s average — which rose above $4 for the first time since April — and about 1.01 cents more than the same time last year.

The most expensive averages reported by AAA were in Ann Arbor ($4.30), Benton Harbor ($4.27), and Lansing ($4.26), with the least expensive averages reported in Traverse City ($4.08), Marquette ($4.12), and Grand Rapids ($4.21).

Domestic gasoline supply increased from 210.5 million barrels to 211.3 million, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), while gasoline demand increased from 8.84 million to 8.94 million. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day.

Daily national, state, and metro gas price averages can be found at Gasprices.aaa.com.

The regular season is still more than six weeks away, but some coaches already face questions about their job security.

For a few, such as the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor, slow starts could make their seats pretty toasty early in make-or-break seasons. For some others, such as Green Bay's Matt LaFleur and Philadelphia's Nick Sirianni, there's not immediate pressure, but that could change if their squads don't live up to lofty expectations and team owners ponder franchise-altering decisions.

Todd Bowles, Buccaneers

Through four seasons with Tampa Bay, Bowles is 35-33 in the regular season and has won three NFC South titles. But last season's collapse, during which the Buccaneers went 2-7 down the stretch to finish 8-9 and miss the playoffs, had some thinking Bowles' days with the team were done.

Instead, the Bucs opted to stick with him. He'll likely need double-digit wins, a rebound performance from quarterback Baker Mayfield under new coordinator Zac Robinson and some postseason success to stay around. The Bucs' defense — which Bowles calls himself — also must be much improved.

Dave Canales, Panthers

Carolina made the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season, but did so with an 8-9 record. The Panthers started 1-3 before three straight victories, and then alternated losses and wins over the next eight games before dropping its last two and backing into the playoffs, where the Panthers lost in the wild-card round.

Canales is 13-21 in his first two seasons in Carolina, which hired him in large part to develop Bryce Young into a quarterback worthy of his No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 draft. But Young has been up and down. Canales handed off play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and his job could depend on Young finally showing consistent progress this season.

Aaron Glenn, Jets

The former Pro Bowl cornerback returned to New York as a head coach to lead the Jets back to respectability. Instead, Glenn became the first in team history to lose his first seven games in his debut season with the team, which went 3-14 and missed the playoffs for the 15th straight year.

Glenn overhauled his coaching staff and hired Frank Reich to run the offense and Brian Duker was brought in as the defensive coordinator, but Glenn will now make the play calls for a subpar defense that became the first to not get an interception for an entire season. New York traded for Geno Smith as a bridge to the team's future QB. Another losing season will put the Jets in play to draft one early next year, but Glenn might not be around in that scenario.

Matt LaFleur, Packers

Wait, how's he on this list? LaFleur has made the playoffs six times in seven seasons, is 76-40-1 in the regular season and got a multiyear contract extension in January.

But he has only one playoff win since 2021 and his 3-6 record in the postseason has some Packers fans getting restless. A four-game losing streak to end the regular season and a first-round playoff exit at Chicago — during which Green Bay blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter — didn't help.

With the Packers expected to again be playoff contenders with quarterback Jordan Love leading the way, LaFleur's job status likely won't be an issue until January. Things could go from lukewarm to sizzling, though, if Green Bay doesn't win at least one postseason game.

Nick Sirianni, Eagles

Similar to LaFleur, Sirianni's job would seem to be in no immediate danger. He has a Super Bowl victory, two NFC championship wins, three NFC East titles and a 59-26 regular-season record in his five years.

There was major disappointment last season, though, after the Eagles lost at home to San Francisco in the wild-card round. A bounceback performance, including a solid postseason run, is expected, even without A.J. Brown as Jalen Hurts' go-to receiver in new coordinator Sean Mannion's offense.

Sirianni was on the hot seat entering the 2024 season after the Eagles started 10-2, faded down the stretch and got blown out by Tampa Bay in the wild-card round. He followed that by leading Philadelphia to a Super Bowl victory. Sirianni and the Eagles — and their fans — would certainly sign for a repeat of that rebound.

Shane Steichen, Colts

Steichen was mentioned as a potential AP Coach of the Year as the Colts got off to an 8-2 start. Then, quarterback Daniel Jones was lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon and Indianapolis lost its last seven games — even after bringing Philip Rivers out of retirement — to miss the playoffs.

Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon was encouraged by the team's strong first half, though, and decided to keep the coach in place. Steichen is 25-26 in his three seasons with the Colts, who have missed the playoffs the past five years. With Jones healthy and signed to a two-year extension, Steichen would feel a lot more secure if the Colts resemble the promising team through 10 games last season.

Zac Taylor, Bengals

The Bengals have been notoriously slow starters in September under Taylor, but opened last season 2-0 and appeared on their way to putting that narrative to rest. A turf toe injury sidelined quarterback Joe Burrow for nine games and Cincinnati crawled to a 6-11 finish and a third straight season without a playoff appearance.

A healthy Burrow is paramount to the success of the Bengals, whose Super Bowl trip in the 2021 season is becoming a distant memory. A revamped defense, including acquiring defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, should help. So it'll be on Taylor, in his eighth season with Cincinnati, to break the playoff slump or that might be someone else's task next year.

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

After throwing three scoreless innings in relief and earning the win at Baltimore, he was immediately designated for assignment.

“I hate it, to be honest with you,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “I wish the rules were different.”

What Atlanta did is fairly common now. If a pitcher works several innings of relief — even if he does so effectively — keeping him is essentially wasting a roster spot for the next couple days. So a fresher arm is brought in to replace him.

Baseball's union is proposing rule changes related to this type of roster churn. The players want pitchers optioned shortly after an outing of at least nine outs or 50 pitches to get major league pay and service time for the four days following the appearance. The union is also proposing to reduce the number of optional assignments to the minors from a maximum of five per season to three.

That wouldn't necessarily have helped Hernández, since he was designated for assignment, not optioned. Weiss didn't mention the option rules but instead took aim at the limit of 13 pitchers on a roster.

“I wish the number of pitchers weren't restricted,” Weiss said Saturday. “I think if you were able to carry an extra pitcher here and there, you wouldn't have to do those things — have to DFA a guy that was one of the heroes of the game last night. We want to be able to reward those guys, not DFA them.”

Trivia time

Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers struck out the first seven hitters he faced — and 12 of the first 13 — on Sunday against Colorado. He's now up to 185 strikeouts this year, an average of 13.88 per nine innings.

The single-season record for strikeouts per nine innings (with a minimum of 100 innings) is 13.82. Who holds it?

Performance of the week

Dylan Cease threw a one-hitter in Toronto's 6-0 win over Boston on Saturday. He was the first Toronto pitcher to throw a one-hit shutout since Brandon Morrow in 2010.

Cease threw a no-hitter two years ago, but he was with San Diego then.

Earlier this month, he took a no-hitter into the ninth at San Francisco, but he was pulled after it was broken up.

Comeback of the week

Houston trailed the Chicago White Sox 5-0 before scoring eight runs in the top of the sixth Friday night. The Astros went on to win 9-5.

Christian Walker hit a three-run double to make it 5-4, and one out later Cam Smith hit a two-run homer that put Houston ahead to stay.

Team of the week

(This honor goes to the team with the best record over the past seven days, using run differential as a tiebreaker if need be. A tiny sample, yes, but this is basically the amount of time it takes to win a playoff series.)

The Tampa Bay Rays went 6-1 this past week and are still holding off the New York Yankees atop the AL East. The Rays lead by three games.

Tampa Bay took three of four at Toronto before sweeping three against Cleveland, shutting out the Guardians in the final two games.

The Rays are extremely likely to make the playoffs in some fashion for the first time since 2023. The question now is whether they can pull off a deadline deal that helps them outlast the Yankees and the surging Red Sox for a division title and first-round bye.

Trivia answer

Gerrit Cole of the Houston Astros struck out 326 in 212 1/3 innings in 2019.

___

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

Construction on the bridge broke ground back in July of 2018. The bridge was initially on track to open at some point in 2025, but is now opening on Monday, July 27.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is the second bridge connecting Detroit with Windsor. The Ambassador Bridge opened in 1929.

When we interviewed the construction crews in 2023, they were focused on finishing the road deck before the bridge deck work began.

“Substantial work was completed on the road deck before bridge deck work began on the Canadian and US sides. Construction of the bridge and road decks occurs as crews continue to build up the massive towers located on both shores of the Detroit River, set to reach a final height of 722 feet later this year.”

“This work was underway as construction began on the main span over the Detroit River. Starting from the towers in Windsor and Detroit, the bridge deck is built outward toward the center of the river, one segment at a time using a crane on the deck, eventually meeting in the middle. Construction materials and equipment are transported over the back span to the construction zone, eliminating the need for equipment to operate from the water.”

(You can read more about the progress here)

Watch Rod Meloni’s full inside look at progress at the bridge when it was under construction in the video player below.

Bonus: Watch a time-lapse of construction in 2023

The new bridge connects I-75 in Detroit to Highway 401 in Ontario. The Detroit Regional Chamber called it “the most consequential infrastructure project in the state.”

---> Why the Gordie Howe Bridge was built

The Gordie Howe Bridge is owned by Michigan and Canada, but was paid for almost entirely by Canada.

According to officials, the new bridge connecting I-75 in Detroit to Highway 401 in Ontario will open to traffic as early as 12 p.m. on Monday, July 27. The toll-free multi-use path will open to walkers and cyclists on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

The bridge is designed with six bridge lanes, 16 toll lanes, and 60 Canada and U.S. inspection lanes. Its 720-ft towers are among the tallest structures in the region, and it’s the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.

--> New Gordie Howe Bridge expected to save truck drivers time, money at Detroit border

Here’s a look at how much the toll is to cross the bridge:

With Breakaway -- a toll discount program that allows vehicles to pass through toll lanes without having to stop and pay -- the toll for passenger vehicles is less than half the current price to cross the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, both of which raised their tolls this year.

Registration is available on the official Gordie Howe International Bridge website.

The following prices are listed in USD

The bridge is a $4.7 billion ($6.4 billion Canadian) project named after the legendary hockey player. It will provide a passageway for travelers between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

The Gordie Howe is owned by Michigan and Canada, but was paid for almost entirely by Canada.

According to officials, the bridge will open to traffic as early as 12 p.m. on Monday, July 27. The toll-free multi-use path will open to walkers and cyclists on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Under construction since 2018, it’s the first new crossing between Ontario and Michigan in over 60 years.

The bridge is designed with six bridge lanes, 16 toll lanes, and 60 Canada and U.S. inspection lanes. Its 720-ft towers are among the tallest structures in the region, and it’s the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.

Why the Gordie Howe International Bridge is important

The new bridge connects I-75 in Detroit to Highway 401 in Ontario. The Detroit Regional Chamber calls it “the most consequential infrastructure project in the state.”

About one-third of all trade between the United States and Canada goes through Detroit, primarily across the privately owned Ambassador Bridge. The nearly 100-year-old, four-lane toll bridge is the busiest international border crossing in North America.

It’s estimated that the Ambassador Bridge handles 40% of all trucking shipments from the United States.

Both the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel raised their toll prices last month.

In addition to providing another way to connect the two countries, the Gordie Howe Bridge will provide direct access to I-75 and I-96 in Michigan, as well as Highway 3 in Ontario, without cutting through city streets. Residents have complained about Ambassador Bridge traffic cutting through neighborhoods.

Timeline of construction

A second bridge proposal first gained traction in the early 2000s but faced legal opposition from the Ambassador Bridge owners.

Groundbreaking on the Gordie Howe International Bridge began in 2018.

“We let politics get ahead of common sense, and that’s what stopped this bridge from moving forward far too long,” said then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. “I’m for the Gordie Howe Bridge because we need it.”

Work on the bridge deck began in 2022 on each side. The decks connected as one span in 2024.

The bridge was expected to open in 2024, but multiple delays pushed it back to early 2026.

The Department of Homeland Security established the Gordie Howe International Bridge as a port of entry on Jan. 30, 2026.

The bridge was expected to open in spring of 2026, but there have been multiple delays. Now, it’s expected to open on July 27.

“I loved being a nurse. Still love being a nurse,” Griffor said, “but I was getting tired of getting burnt out.”

Her move to construction wasn’t just about career fatigue -- it was deeply personal.

Two decades ago, Griffor’s husband Phillip, a carpenter, was killed on a Detroit construction site.

At just 22, she was left to raise their two young sons alone.

“Is this what I ever dreamt my life would turn out like? No, never,” she said. “But once that happened, it wasn’t about me anymore. It’s about my boys.”

Determined to honor her husband’s memory, Griffor raised her sons to embrace their father’s work ethic and pride in the skilled trades.

“That’s his last name they carry, so it was very important to me to like -- you better respect that and represent him,” she said.

When she decided to leave nursing after the COVID-19 pandemic, Griffor made the bold choice to enter the construction industry.

For the past four years, she has served as a labor foreman on the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, which will connect the United States and Canada.

The historic infrastructure project has become more than a job for Griffor; it’s a tribute to her late husband’s legacy and a symbol of resilience for her sons.

Her journey has come full circle.

Her youngest son, Anthony, is now married with a baby boy named after his grandfather, Phillip.

Meanwhile, Griffor continues to build bridges, both literally and figuratively, between her past and future.

“Most people don’t think in their whole career in construction they’ll get to work on a project like this,” she said. “This is once in a lifetime. So for me to come out here so early in my career and be a part of it—and see and do everything that I have—it’s amazing to me. I’m very fortunate.”

To those considering a career change, Griffor shares advice passed down from her grandfather: “You only get one chance at life. You only get one go around. So go and do... meet as many people, learn as many new experiences. You can always leave it, but if you never try, you don’t know.”

Investigators believe the two suspects were shooting at each other and, although one remained on the loose, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told a news conference Sunday night that there was no ongoing threat to the public.

Police did not have a description of the outstanding suspect, he said.

“We’re still trying to figure this out,” Davis said.

Two people died at the scene and a third died at a hospital. The four wounded, including a 2-year-old boy, were hospitalized and in stable condition, said Grace Nuñez, spokesperson for the Seattle Fire Department. The rest of the injured were adults. Davis couldn't say if any of the victims were involved in the confrontation.

The gunfire erupted around 6 p.m. in the waning hours of the Bite of Seattle, an annual three-day festival that draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers.

Dozens of officers were providing security at the event and some saw one of the suspects firing, Davis said. One suspect surrendered at the scene, but the other fled. Law enforcement searched the grounds to no avail.

A large number of police and emergency crews responded and began evacuating the area around the sprawling Seattle Center campus.

Faith Adia Hunter said she and her friends had just gotten food from a crepe vendor when gunfire broke out. She realized a shooter was near them. She and others found shelter in the nearby Seattle Children’s Museum.

“We were right next to him when it started so we took off running,” Hunter said. “So we took off running too into the building with the crowd.”

In the chaos, many vendors bolted toward the exits, abandoning their food stands. Hours afterward, some milled outside the police tape, wondering when they would be allowed to return to collect their tents, food and cooking gear.

Roberto Ramirez, a vendor at the event, said he heard what sounded like firecrackers before people began yelling “shooter” and frantically running.

“Suddenly everything was empty,” he said. “People were freaked out.”

After the initial panic, new guests continued to arrive unaware of what had happened and were told by police to leave, he said.

Estan Wakonabo said he and his girlfriend were at the festival waiting in line for a photo booth when he was shoved from behind and he turned to see a rush of people fleeing.

“People were hiding, were pushing, people were falling on the ground, baby strollers were falling,” Wakonabo said, adding that was when he heard gunshots.

“Once I heard a ‘pop, pop, pop,’ that’s when I knew it was a shooter,” he said.

After he escorted his girlfriend to safety, he returned to the scene to make photos and saw multiple victims on the ground, Wakonabo said.

The annual festival started in 1982 and draws 350,000 attendees over “three days of food, drink, and community celebration,” according to its website.

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Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes and Lindsey Wasson in Seattle, Annika Wolters in Bangkok and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

After Sunday's 21st and final stage in Paris, the 27-year-old Slovenian joined Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain, and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to win five Tour titles.

Pogacar finished 6 minutes, 26 seconds ahead of Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, a time trial great, in the overall standings.

Jonas Vingegaard, who was once Pogacar's big rival, crashed out of the race on the 15th stage. Vingegaard, a former fish factory worker from Denmark, won the Tour in 2022 and ' 23. For his second title, he beat Pogacar by more than seven minutes in a result that put them level at 2-2 for Tour titles.

Pogacar has since won the Tour three straight times. Vingegaard, despite clinching the Spanish Vuelta last September and the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, barely mustered a challenge at this Tour. He did briefly wear the yellow jersey, but that was thanks to a team effort after Visma-Lease a Bike team won the opening-day team time trial in Barcelona.

Pogacar won five stages and now has 26 overall. He still needs 10 stage wins to break Mark Cavendish’s Tour record of 35. That may take two years given that Pogacar’s best in a single edition is six, during the 2024 Tour.

Can anyone challenge Pogacar?

Vingegaard is 29 and has time to win more Tours, but needs to find a way to challenge Pogacar again in the high climbs.

Otherwise, the list of contenders is slim.

Paul Seixas carries the renewed hopes of French supporters, 41 years after the last of Hinault's wins. The 19-year-old Seixas placed fourth on his Tour debut and fellow Frenchman Lenny Martinez, who is an excellent climber, placed fifth overall.

Both are riders of the future.

Martinez, 23, blew the chance of a stage win on the iconic Alpe d'Huez when he didn't work properly with Richard Carapaz to distance Pogacar lower down the climb.

Carapaz won two mountain stages but the 33-year-old Ecuadorian was not a threat for the title and Pogacar didn't need to chase him. The 2019 Giro d'Italia winner is an attacking rider, but advancing years — and the fact he placed 20 minutes behind Pogacar overall — diminish the challenge he poses to Pogacar in future.

Only the 26-year-old Evenepoel appears to have an outside chance of toppling Pogacar. The two-time Olympic champion can beat Pogacar in time trials and is young enough to improve in the mountains. He rode well to win the 15th stage, albeit after Vingegaard had crashed.

He is part of an ambitious Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team which has big financial backing and could yet build a winning team around him. However, the team must decide who to back as No. 1 rider between Evenepoel and German climber Florian Lipowitz, who was third on last year's Tour.

Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates teammate Isaac Del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut, placed third overall but remains under Pogacar's wing as his elite support rider.

Spanish Vuelta?

It has been a great year for Pogacar.

He won stage races at the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de Romandie, as well as stunning victories in one-day classics.

Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia by a huge margin in 2024.

But unlike Vingegaard, Hinault, Anquetil, and Merckx, he has not won the Spanish Vuelta for a hat trick of Grand Tours wins.

“Will I be at La Vuelta in a few weeks?” Pogacar said teasingly on Sunday. “Let’s see.”

Early-morning tests

This year's race made headlines when Pogacar and Vingegaard had unannounced anti-doping tests in the early hours: 5 a.m. for Pogacar and 2 a.m. for Vingegaard.

Some fans were outraged, and Evenepoel described the timing as “very disrespectful” to riders during an exhausting race.

Pogacar suggested fatigue may have played a factor in Vingegaard's crash later that day. However, Pogacar later accepted that random-hour testing helps improve transparency.

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has entrusted Tour testing since 2021 to the Swiss-based International Testing Agency, which said correct procedures were followed.

Armstrong's damage

The sport's reputation was badly hit when Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles (1999-2005) after confessing in 2013 to having used performance-enhancing drugs. Two years later, a 227-page report detailed cycling’s historic culture of drug use.

British rider Chris Froome, who won the Tour four times (2013 and 2015-17) when trust in cycling overall was very low following the Armstrong scandal, said he agreed with the early-morning tests.

“It is something that, as riders, I just think we have to embrace,” he said in an interview with British newspaper The Telegraph. “Our doors always have to be open, regardless of how inconvenient it is ... to inspire confidence and to act as a deterrent.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

But the 79-year-old retiree can’t help but worry for another family that, like her, fled the raging inferno.

“They have been left with nothing,” said about a young family that lives down her son’s street. “The house has completely burned down, and they have three children.”

The wildfires that have raged out of control in recent days in three provinces in central Spain have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares and forced nearly 90,000 people to flee their homes. In the southwest of France, more than 250,000 people have fled their homes as the fire rages through the wine region of Bordeaux.

Survivors face an uncertain future

For the hundreds of thousands of people in this situation, the question is the same: What will they find when they’re finally allowed to go home, or to what’s left of it?

With no word on when she’ll be able to return to Chapinería, her hometown west of the Spanish capital of Madrid, Menéndez will spend her third night on Sunday at the makeshift shelter set up in a sports complex in Villaviciosa de Odón, a 40-minute drive from the home she was forced to leave as the blaze neared.

“At least we’re all together,” said Menéndez, who is at the shelter with her family and their dog.

On Friday afternoon, two major fires near Madrid merged into a single, rapidly spreading blaze. It later combined with another that was already burning in Ávila, north of the capital. This forced the government to declare a national fire emergency for the first time. Since then, the flames have also spread to Toledo, a province southwest. In all, the flames have scorched 77,000 hectares in the central part of the country alone.

Menéndez’s anguish was shared by Rocío Domínguez, who fled her house with only the clothes on her back. “All the clothes, all the memories, everything, everything, everything,” were left behind, she told The Associated Press.

“The only thing I had time to grab was a kit I have for the dogs,” Domínguez added, surrounded by her two beloved pets. Everything else she has with her now — from the clothes she wears to her food and toiletries — she received at the shelter.

For many, it was a scene ‘like the apocalypse’

At the evacuation center, where cots have been set up for about 200 people, Domínguez still has the terrifying memory of their escape fresh in her mind.

“It was madness with cars going up and down, traffic jams in the village streets as people tried to get out. It looked like the apocalypse,” told Domínguez, 35 years old and unemployed, who is with her parents and siblings. “You couldn’t see anything.”

“Everything was covered in ash,” she added. “You could see all the burned animals.”

Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia heard more of those personal testimonies on Sunday as the royals visited another shelter in Villamartín, about 45 kilometers west of Madrid.

And those stories may not be the last — Spain's Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, later noted that “more evacuations are still expected” in that area.

Queen Letizia told reporters after meeting with the survivors that it was important "to hear how they feel and how they recount their hasty departure from their home. How they have felt the sadness they describe, the anguish, the uncertainty, and those questions they leave hanging in the air,.

Wildfire brought tragedy on the heels of Spain's World Cup

The wildfires have significantly shifted the mood in the country, where just a week ago huge crowds of people took to the streets to celebrate their second FIFA World Cup triumph.

As the echoes of those celebrations fade, head coach Luis de la Fuente — one of the driving forces behind the historic victory over Argentina in the final in New Jersey — visited those affected by the fires at a sports center in Las Rozas.

The Spanish Football Federation, which has its headquarters in the same city, has offered the facilities where the newly crowned world champions usually train for the vulnerable families who have been forced to evacuate from their homes.

The coach said all of Spain is rallying for the wildfire survivors.

“All of Spain is watching over them,” De la Fuente said in remarks to the national public broadcaster, TVE. “They have the support of the entire country, the same support we have when we play soccer. It’s exactly the same.”

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Medrano reported from Madrid.

The inside of the mound was tightly stacked with beech wood which smolders for weeks until it's been turned into charcoal — a craft that's been practiced in the Harz mountain region in eastern Germany for hundreds of years.

“We are making charcoal in traditional earthen kilns, just as it was done here in the Harz Mountains over 1,000 years ago,” Feldmer told The Associated Press in a recent interview as he stood between the mounds in the middle of the Harz forest near the small town of Hasselfelde.

Feldmer and his brother Sascha took over the Harzköhlerei Stemberghaus business of producing charcoal from their father. They also have a handful of workers as the smoldering wood inside the mounds needs to be attended to and carefully watched day and night so it won't start catching fire and burn down to useless ashes.

Once covered in earth, the beech wood — which is known for its high density and the high temperatures it creates once it's been turned into charcoal — burns from top to bottom with the help of air holes. The charcoal is then swept clean of soil, and when it has cooled down, it's packed into 10-kilogram (22-pound) bags for sale.

Charcoal production was essential for mining ore in the Harz Mountains. To extract valuable metals such as silver, lead, copper, and zinc from the hard rock, the ore was crushed and then smelted in a furnace using intense heat. The extremely high temperatures required could only be achieved using charcoal.

Over the centuries, hundreds of families in the Harz region earned their living as charcoal burners. These days ore is no longer mined there and only a few coal burners are left in Germany. The Feldmers mostly sell their charcoal to people using it for barbecues at home.

“Our charcoal is, first and foremost, made from pure beech wood,” Feldmer said, adding that most of the charcoal sold at hardware stores in the country is imported and made of “mixed woods, scrap wood, and waste wood so it can be produced cheaply.”

As Feldmer and his brother would not be able to live from the coal burning business alone — they produce around 40 tons annually — they've also opened a museum about the history of coal burning, a small store and a restaurant where guests can get local specialties including steaks grilled over homemade birch charcoal.

Though the craft of char burning has essentially died out in Germany, Feldmer hopes that his family will keep the tradition alive.

“Of course, we hope ... that our business here will be taken over by our children, that it will continue to operate, and that the traditional craft of charcoal burning will be preserved here," he said.

Park, the first Korean major league player who pitched 17 seasons (1994-2010), going 124-98, also will take on the title of senior adviser to owner John Fisher.

The investment group, Team61, announced Sunday night its investment will total $70 million, of which $55 million is committed with another $15 million if Major League Baseball approves the deal.

Actors Ken Jeong and Daniel Dae Kim also are part of the investment group.

“During my playing career, I introduced Korea to Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball to Korean fans, and I saw firsthand how even a small point of connection can create meaningful change,” Park said in a statement. “Korea is now a baseball powerhouse with outstanding fans and a strong player-development system.

"Through exchanges with Las Vegas, which is opening a new era in Major League Baseball, I hope more opportunities will be created for the next generation of players. We are grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with the Athletics to lift up Korean baseball to the next level.”

Fisher, in a statement, touted the international benefits to the club.

“South Korea is an exciting country for baseball, and we are thrilled to partner with Chan Ho Park and Team61 to support their continued future success,” Fisher said. “Just as he pioneered and broke ground for Korean and Asian baseball players in America, we believe that this partnership with Chan Ho to pioneer Korean ownership in baseball will have long and lasting positive impacts.”

Harbinger Sports Group, which includes former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, announced Thursday that it bought a minority stake in the A's, though details were not released. But Harbinger said it has raised more than $460 million in less than six months.

The A's are building a $2 billion, 33,000-person domed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. They are currently playing the second of three planned seasons in West Sacramento, California.

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

However, Sunday evening, the ramps on the freeway for the bridge on the Detroit side still had orange barrels blocking them.

In Mexicantown, not far from the new crossing, one business owner was hopeful for what the bridge could mean for his area.

Inside La Fiesta Ice Cream, the clink of coins and the hiss of the grill cut through the steady Sunday afternoon crowd. The shop serves both sweet treats and chicken, something owner Juan Carlos is proud of.

“Right now it’s pretty good business,” he said.

He believes the bridge’s opening could make it even better.

“To open the bridge, I feel it’s going to have more people coming into this area, Mexicantown,” he said.

Though Monday is supposed to be the first time vehicles can drive across the six-lane bridge, a few weeks later is when pedestrians can cross it.

Something downriver resident Marketta said she’s excited about.

“We’ve all been to Canada living in this downriver area hundreds of times, even from being a small child,” said Marketta. “But as far as being able to walk across, bike across, it’s something different that it’ll bring to the community. I love that.”

The debut of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, promoted as a trade and transportation link, has had some political drama.

Canada held its own ribbon-cutting Friday after pulling out of a joint ceremony with the United States. This followed President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods.

That’s something a trucker Local 4 spoke to said can’t dampen what this bridge will mean to drivers like him.

“You’re going to have more opportunity to cross over the bridge without the traffic, without the waiting so long at the bridge with the border patrol,” said Oybek, a truck driver.

The new tariffs announced in recent days take effect just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expired, and critics say they are less about cracking down on forced labor than they are a way to replace those tariffs. The expired tariffs were themselves a temporary replacement for worldwide tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February.

The tariffs were levied on countries that the U.S. says either don't have or don't effectively enforce a forced-labor import ban. The affected countries, which account for 99% of U.S. imports, were quick to protest, calling the Trump administration's claims unfounded and arbitrary, as nations with vastly different records on forced labor received the same tariff level. The U.S. spent four months investigating but gave few details on how it arrived at the tariff rates, which are either 10% or 12.5%.

Sidestepping Congress

The tariffs were levied under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on countries that the U.S. determined had failed “to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

During President Donald Trump 's first term, he cited Section 301 to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports amid a dispute over the sharp-elbowed tactics Beijing was using to challenge America’s technological dominance. The U.S. is also using 301 powers to counter what it calls unfair Chinese practices in the shipbuilding industry.

“The 301s allow a permanent tariff without going to Congress to settle the dispute,” said Barry Appleton, a law professor and co-director of New York Law School’s Center for International Law. “That’s what all of this is about. The president doesn’t want to knock on the front door of Congress, so he’s trying every side door and every unlatched window to get in.”

Little evidence that countries failed to enforce import bans

The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said it consulted with all 60 economies under investigation and held two rounds of public hearings, elicited more than 2,100 public comments, and had “engagement” with its trading partners about what they were doing to combat forced labor bans.

It didn't detail its talks with the countries, saying those were confidential. Experts say it is fairly straightforward to investigate whether a country has a ban or not, but it is difficult to determine the government's exact rationale for each country's failure to enforce import bans.

“There’s not a lot of hard evidence there,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president for general economics and trade policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “It’s pretty laughable on its face to think that a country like the ones in Europe or in Norway or Switzerland aren’t doing enough to police forced labor.”

And even if countries do enact and enforce the forced-labor import bans the U.S. wants, they would still need to prove that they’re enforcing them to Washington’s satisfaction before the tariffs would be removed, said lawyer Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.

“This suggests that no short-term path for countrywide relief from the new Section 301 tariffs will be available,” he said.

Countries and industries reject the forced labor argument

Many countries have pushed back against the Trump administration's findings.

Brazil, which faces a 12.5% forced-labor tariff, called the U.S. move “arbitrary and unjustified.” The U.S. “chose to manipulate an issue of great importance to human rights and the struggles of workers worldwide in order to accuse 59 countries and the European Union of unfair practices,” it said in a statement.

Australia also questioned the justification for its 12.5% tariff.

“We believe that amongst all of the countries in the world, Australia does take the issue of slavery, modern slavery, seriously, and will continue to do that,” Trade Minister Don Farrell told reporters in Adelaide.

Carve-outs have riled some industries. The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), which describes itself as the voice of the American textile industry, protested a mechanism that exempts the Section 301 tariffs for textile and apparel imports from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia based on those countries’ imports of U.S. cotton and textiles.

“No other industry has been more disadvantaged by forced labor than the U.S. textile industry, which employs 453,000 workers and has lost 41 plants over the past two plus years,” NCTO chief executive Kim Glas said in a statement. “We remain strongly concerned that USTR’s textile mechanism will harm the very domestic manufacturers the administration seeks to help.”

US forced-labor bans don't always work

The U.S. has two major pieces of legislation related to forced-labor import bans. The Tariff Act of 1930 gave Customs and Border Protection the authority to seize shipments where forced labor was suspected and to block further imports. But it had a big carve-out: If there was “consumptive demand,” meaning there wasn't sufficient supply to meet domestic demand, imports were allowed regardless of how they were produced. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act that took effect in 2016 eliminated that loophole.

In 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was passed. It blocks imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labor.

But goods made with forced labor can still make it into the U.S. In 2015, an Associated Press investigation found that slave labor was used in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The seafood they caught made its way to supermarkets and pet food providers across the U.S.

An investigation by The Associated Press in 2020 into the $65 billion palm oil industry found labor abuses among an invisible workforce consisting of millions of men, women and children in Asia. The fruit they harvested made its way into the supply chains of major companies, including Unilever, L’Oreal, Nestle and Procter & Gamble.

Calls for a more comprehensive approach to combat forced labor

During hearings on the tariffs this month, National Retail Federation vice president Jonathan Gold, who was representing the business coalition the Joint Association Forced Labor Working Group at the hearing, said that in order for the import bans to work, they would have to be much more extensive.

He said there need to be “clear, measurable benchmarks” tied to tariffs for countries to hit, and that the U.S. should help countries build enforcement programs.

Kenya Davis, a partner at the Boies Schiller Flexner law firm, said an effective ban needs a “comprehensive approach” that provides transparency about what the investigations consisted of, along with programs that provide countries aid in enforcing bans.

On a personal level, it also was an attack on everything the Berliner embodies.

“Born a Muslim, living as a gay man, working as a police officer," Darwich said, as he tried holding back the tears, “this terror attack touches so many aspects of who I am.”

Saturday night's van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others wounded was believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, authorities said.

The suspect in the attack was killed by police Sunday evening in a Berlin suburb. Authorities said Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese roots, apparently ran toward officers with a sharp instrument, and police fired at least one shot.

On Sunday, Darwich, 34, watched sadly as more and more members of the LGBTQ+ community came to Tiergarten park, where the attack took place. They put down flowers, hugged each other and looked in disbelief at the crashed van, which still stood cordoned off behind dozens of police officers.

Like Darwich, many of them had been celebrating life and love just hours earlier, protesting for equality and warning of an increase of hate crimes against their community.

“I was wearing my rainbow-colored shirt, carried a banner at the parade saying ‘Why are some people afraid of love but not of hate?,’ and was about to go to an afterparty last night, when friends started calling me to check if I was OK,” he said.

When he understood that there had been an attack, he canceled the party and went home filled with sorrow. But it was only after he woke up on Sunday morning that he truly grasped the significance of the attack.

“I asked myself, why as a police officer I did not run to the scene of the crash to help my colleagues. I asked myself as a gay if we will have to live with more fear now even though we are already experiencing bullying and hatred. I asked myself as a Muslim if our community will be exposed to even more racism now.”

Darwich, who was born in Berlin and has Lebanese and Palestinian roots, expressed worry that the attack would polarize German society even more.

“I’m actually feeling desperate this morning," said Darwich, who also works as a gay Muslim influencer and posts many videos on social media that usually try to strike a positive note. “We can’t get rid of the hatred some people feel, and it’s just getting worse and worse.”

But at the same time, he said he did not want to let hate win and that deep inside he still hoped that "the people of Berlin will make the best of it, that they will work together, and that, hopefully, all of this will lead to an even better Berlin.”

Others, who had come to the impromptu vigil at Tiergarten, also expressed anger and shock, but also resilience.

“We are simply stunned by what happened yesterday,” said Andre Lehmann, a top official with the main national LGBTQ+ association, LSVD+. “This suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.”

The attack “affects people who took to the street in Berlin this weekend to fight for their rights, their diversity and their rights, and of course with that it is a political act and does not just affect people celebrating,” he said.

Lehmann said that there has been “a tenfold increase of anti-queer hate crime in Germany within a few years.” He added that “for years, to be honest, nothing has happened and also, to be honest, for years there has been no outcry from society.”

Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old U.K. resident, had traveled to Berlin for Saturday’s Pride parade but had left the celebrations before the attack. Jump, still in shock, returned Sunday to leave flowers at a memorial near the crime scene.

“They’ll never erase us, we’ll never be gone,” they said, their voice shivering from pain. “As long as humanity has existed, we’ve existed. And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed.”

The experience left everybody on the field excited about what could be possible this season for the Rams.

“We’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time, and it definitely lived up to it,” defensive coordinator Chris Shula said.

Garrett is still in the process of getting settled in with his new team less than two months after the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Browns to the West Coast. But even with the Rams going less than full speed in shorts and no pads, Garrett's presence was unmissable — whether he was breaking into the backfield for a simulated sack or gracefully leaping to swat down a screen pass.

Even the highest-paid cornerback in the league was marveling.

“When he’s out there, you can just feel his aura,” Trent McDuffie said. “(It's just) this aura that this guy has. I mean, he’s gigantic. He’s a monster. But I’m just excited to get him out here and get him loose and get him going, because I know he has a little chip on his shoulder, and I know he’s excited about being here, so I think that just fires everybody else up.”

One year after winning 12 games and reaching the NFC championship game, the Rams added Garrett, McDuffie and cornerback Jaylen Watson to a defense that started last season strong, but faded down the stretch and ultimately couldn't match the performance of the NFL's top-ranked offense.

With three proven veterans installed as starters, the Rams are optimistic their revamped defense will allow them to live up to their preseason status as a serious Super Bowl contender. Los Angeles gave up significant assets and will be paying top dollar for all three newcomers, but the players and coaches see only positives in general manager Les Snead's aggressive moves.

“Honestly, I don’t know if many guys feel the expectation that everybody claims that we have,” McDuffie said. “For us, we’re here to play football, to enjoy the locker room, just to get to know each other. I feel like all the expectation, all that, we leave to you guys hyping us up. Whoever is on this field, whoever is on the team, whoever is in the locker room, I feel like we do a good job just enjoying each other’s presence and living in the moment.”

"Expectations are all the same,” Watson added. “All 32 teams have the same goal right now, and that’s to hold the Lombardi up at the end of the year.”

Even after winning two Super Bowl rings as teammates in Kansas City, McDuffie and Watson both said they haven't arrived in Los Angeles with a need to change the Rams' defensive culture. They think their new team already knows how to win in the culture set by coach Sean McVay, and they are attempting to build on it.

“The way we’re looking at it, it’s their team, and we’ve just got to learn the way they do things,” Watson said. “We can tell them things we did to be successful, get integrated, and hope it works out.”

Notes: NFL MVP Matthew Stafford skipped the opening practice as part of the Rams' plan to keep him fresh through camp. McVay says Stafford is fully healthy this summer after starting camp last season with a back injury that kept him out for weeks. Stafford is scheduled to practice Monday. ... Rookie QB Ty Simpson and backup Stetson Bennett appeared to split the snaps while the Rams went into 11-on-11 work on the first day of camp.

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

Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.

Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival Saturday night before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was an Islamic extremist terror attack.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the attack occurred a few hundred meters (yards) from a party near the Brandenburg Gate that was supposed to close out the city's Pride festival.

Ballout was tracked down around 6 p.m. Sunday at a garden in Spandau, a Berlin suburb, the city's police department wrote on X. They said he apparently ran toward officers with a sharp instrument, and police fired at least one shot. He died at the scene.

Ballout was born in Germany, the minister said. His mother was naturalized in 2002, three years before he was born.

Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old U.K. resident, had traveled to Berlin for Saturday’s Pride parade but had left the celebrations before the attack. They returned Sunday to leave flowers at a memorial near the crime scene in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

“They’ll never erase us, we’ll never be gone,” they said. “As long as humanity has existed, we’ve existed. And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed.”

Suspect convicted of ties to Islamic extremism

Ballout traveled to Lebanon in 2025 with the goal of going to Syria to join the Islamic State group, Berlin prosecutors said Sunday.

There, he made contact with several people who were presumed members of the militant group — or at least he believed them to be, prosecutors said. He was arrested in Lebanon last year and sentenced by a military court to three months’ imprisonment for offenses including incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.

He returned to Germany after completing his sentence, where he was arrested at the Berlin airport.

In May, a juvenile court in Berlin convicted Ballout of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, as well as publishing Islamic State propaganda on his Instagram account and other charges, prosecutors said.

The court handed down a suspended sentence of 1 year and 10 months in youth custody, which Berlin prosecutors had appealed.

The court said it took Ballout’s months of pre-trial detention in Germany and Lebanon into account. It also said it considered that Ballout had confessed to the crimes, appeared to distance himself from the militant group and no actual threat had ever materialized.

He was released from detention pending the appeal.

Berlin's Pride festival is one of Europe's largest LGBTQ+ celebrations

According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m. and hit several people before colliding with a tree. The closing party at the Pride festival, known as Christopher Street Day, was ongoing at the time next to the Brandenburg Gate, a short distance away. The party followed a parade with some 80 trucks that had made its way through downtown Berlin earlier in the day.

The attack did not occur at the festival, along its route or at the closing party. Rather, the violence took place a few hundred meters (yards) away on a track in the Tiergarten park. The van drove into a crowd that was likely a mix of festivalgoers and other locals or visitors.

Police said a woman was killed.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the iconic gate. They hugged each other and laid down flowers, candles, rainbow flags and homemade signs, including a cardboard one that said: “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Hundreds of thousands had come to Berlin to celebrate on Saturday, though it’s unclear how many were still at the festival by late evening. It’s one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations.

“We are simply stunned by what happened,” said Andre Lehmann, a top official with the main national LGBTQ+ association, LSVD+. “This suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.”

Amsterdam says it will celebrate freedom in the wake of Berlin attack

Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the nation to remain united in the aftermath of the attack.

“I would like to say this to Christopher Street Day participants here in Berlin but also across Germany: Don’t let yourselves, let us not let ourselves, be intimidated," he said. "These acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society. They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: Namely our openness and our freedom.”

Dobrindt said he expected security measures at other major events in Germany, including Pride events elsewhere, to be reviewed and if necessary significantly boosted.

Berlin has seen Islamic extremist attacks before. In December, 2016, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia plowed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. He was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

In February last year, a Spanish tourist was stabbed and seriously wounded at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, an attack that saw a Syrian man convicted in March and sentenced to 13 years.

This week, Amsterdam will be hosting World Pride alongside its own annual Pride celebrations. Mayor Femke Halsema said authorities and organizers “are closely monitoring the security situation” after the Berlin attack but aim to prevent any extra measures getting in the way of celebrating freedom and love.

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Associated Press reporters Fanny Brodersen and Pietro De Cristofaro in Berlin, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

The 35-year-old widow has worked at the site on Jakarta’s eastern edge for two decades, following her parents, who still earn a living there. The Bantargebang landfill has paid for food and rent while helping her two teenage daughters living with a relative in a rural village. She hopes her daughters will never have to follow the same path.

Living alone in a rented room near the landfill, Wencih earns about 200,000 rupiah ($12) on a good day collecting discarded toys, cardboard and plastic bottles before bulldozers bury them beneath fresh waste. Occasionally, she finds gold jewelry.

“It feels like hitting a jackpot,” Wencih said while taking a break from the sweltering July heat.

But those lucky finds, and perhaps her livelihood, may soon become far rarer.

Beginning Aug. 1, Indonesia plans to start transforming the site from open dumping to a more controlled system as part of a national waste management plan. The government last month announced it will shut down open-dumping operations at 343 of Indonesia’s 550 disposal sites, requiring them to transition to controlled or sanitary landfill systems and gradually accept only garbage that cannot be recycled or composted, such as diapers, dirty paper towels and stickers.

Meanwhile, residents are being asked to set aside organic waste and recyclables for separate processing, a practice many households have never been taught to do on a large scale.

Dudi Gardesi Asikin, head of Jakarta’s Environment Agency, said the policy aims to improve environmental health, reduce pollution and curb emissions of methane generated by decomposing waste.

Methane is responsible for roughly one-third of global warming and traps more heat than carbon dioxide, making it a key focus of worldwide climate efforts. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, for example, is urging governments to sharply reduce methane emissions, calling it one of the fastest ways to slow global warming.

A landfill at the center of the methane debate

Researchers say Bantargebang emits more methane than nearly any other landfill in the world, placing it at the center of Indonesia’s waste management reforms.

Asikin said Bantargebang opened in 1989 as a sanitary landfill equipped to collect methane. Unlike open dumps, sanitary landfills also cover waste with soil.

But after a private-sector contract ended in 2016, the facility gradually drifted toward open dumping.

"What was never intended to be open dumping became full open dumping,” Asikin said.

Only two of the landfill’s original 12 methane extraction wells remain operational, Asikin said.

Under the new plan, parts of Bantargebang are already being covered with tarps, and officials hope to cover much more. Asikin estimated that covering the rest of the disposal area could cost as much as 200 billion rupiah ($12 million).

Uncertain future for waste pickers

Indonesia faces a dilemma as it attempts one of its biggest waste-management reforms in decades while also protecting the livelihoods of an estimated 600,000 waste pickers.

At Bantargebang alone, officials estimate more than 4,000 registered waste pickers work among trucks, excavators and mountains of garbage each day. The materials they recover are sorted and sold to a network of traders and recycling businesses that have grown around the landfill.

“What worries me most is how I will feed my family,” Wencih said of the new plan, while excavators behind her pushed fresh waste onto exposed slopes.

Asikin said the government wants to improve conditions for waste pickers, who already receive some workplace protections and healthcare through a national social security program.

He believes the new policy will eventually create safer formal jobs in recycling and composting.

“Today they are practically racing against our excavators to grab recyclable materials. It is extremely dangerous," he said.

Bunin, a 53-year-old neighborhood chief who lives nearby, said while the landfill causes pollution, it also creates business opportunities including rental housing and food stalls catering to waste pickers.

“The landfill not only brings negative impacts, there are also economic benefits,” said Bunin, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

A landfill at its limits

Covering roughly 110 hectares (272 acres), Bantargebang has grown into a human-made mountain reaching as high as 60 meters (196 feet), roughly the height of a 20-story building. About 7,500 tons of waste arrive daily from the capital city.

“The waste people produce does not disappear. It is gathered in one place and has become a mountain," said Agung Pujo Winarko, who heads the facility.

A collapse triggered by heavy rain in Bantargebang in March killed seven people, underscoring the risks posed by the landfill’s sheer scale.

“This situation is extremely urgent,” Winarko said. “Its carrying capacity is reaching, or even exceeding, its limits.”

Satellite data analyzed by UCLA’s STOP Methane initiative ranked Bantargebang in 2025 as the world’s second-largest landfill methane emitter after a site in Argentina.

Evan George from UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment said reducing organic waste entering landfills could lower emissions, but that existing landfills will still require decades of monitoring and gas collection.

Changing Jakarta’s throwaway culture

Under the new approach, Jakarta residents are expected to separate food scraps and other organic waste from recyclables and residual trash before collection. New refuse-derived fuel plants are also part of the plan.

“What we are doing is somewhat revolutionary," Asikin said. "For decades, people were never asked to separate their waste.”

But many households are only beginning to learn the system, raising questions about whether enough public education has taken place.

“All we know is to throw the trash in the bin, not to sort it,” said Rukasih Wanti, a Central Jakarta resident. “The new rule is confusing us. It’s inconvenient, creates extra work and wastes our time."

Asikin said multiple government institutions, including education and health ministries, are supporting the efforts.

Environmental advocates say new recycling and composting infrastructure is also needed. The transition is daunting because government data shows only about one-quarter of Indonesia’s daily waste is currently handled by formal systems, with the remainder dumped, burned or otherwise unmanaged.

David Sutasurya, executive director of the environmental organization YPBB, said about half of Jakarta’s waste is compostable and another 30% recyclable, meaning up to 80% could be kept out of landfills.

“We delayed transforming our waste-management system for too long, and only realized the problem when landfills were already close to full,” Sutasurya said.

In a West Jakarta neighborhood, Monica T. Anggriani has spent more than a decade persuading neighbors to separate household waste, building a community waste bank that now processes about one ton of organic waste daily through composting, maggot cultivation and urban farming.

“Our generation was never taught to separate waste,” Anggriani said. “If we don’t start now, nothing will change in the future.”

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Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

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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.

Koivun won the 3M Open by three strokes Sunday in only his third start as a professional, holding off Scheffler with a closing 5-under 66 for a tournament-record 25-under 259 total.

“All throughout the crowd I kept hearing, ‘Scottie’s coming. Scottie’s coming,’” the 21-year-old Koivun said. “I just tried to tune that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could.”

Scheffler, who played five groups ahead of Koivun, surged into contention with a 63 but settled for his fifth runner-up finish this season. His lone win this year was in his first start at The American Express in California.

“We’re seeing a lot of really, really good young talent in the game today,” Scheffler said. “When you see the guys come out of college, they’re really, really prepared, even more prepared than we were coming out.”

Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman, Chandler Phillips and Denny McCarthy tied for third at 20 under.

Koivun played a safe and steady game on a 97-degree afternoon at the TPC Twin Cities, going bogey-free for the second straight day after a 61 in the third round gave him a three-shot cushion after 54 holes. His par-saving putt on the 9th green after his approach landed in the sand gave him an energy boost for the back nine.

“Might be the biggest putt I made all week,” Koivun said. “Scoreboard was right there, and I saw exactly how I stood. If I missed that, then I only had a two-shot lead — where last time I checked I had a five-shot lead. So making that was huge for my momentum.”

Lee Hodges held the previous 3M Open record, finishing at 24-under 260 in 2023.

Koivun, who became the fourth rookie winner this season, missed the cut at the John Deere Classic in Illinois and tied for 10th at the ISCO Championship in Kentucky earlier this month. He made 10 starts as an amateur on tour events.

Earning $1,584,000 for his win in Minnesota, Koivun also jumped 124 spots in the FedEx Cup standings into 70th, the last place above the cut for the playoffs with two regular season events remaining on the schedule.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better over the past couple years of being able to beat guys with my mentality,” said Koivun, who broke the NCAA career record for per-round stroke average (68.89) and helped lead Auburn to the national championship last month. “Sometimes I watch guys hit on the range and I don’t feel like I’m the most talented out there, but if I can go out there and believe and use my brain to my advantage, then that’s definitely kind of like a superpower.”

Scheffler, who began the final round six shots back, needed a collapse by Koivun to catch up. That never came.

Scheffler played a nearly flawless game, save for a 5-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole that lipped in and out. As he was conducting his post-match interview, Koivun birdied the 16th to go 25 under.

“Anytime you’re trying to win for the first time, it’s awfully difficult, especially for a young guy coming out of college,” Scheffler said. “I think that shows not only how talented of a player he is, but the mental strength he has as well.”

Koivun, who grew up in San Jose, California, before moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at age 17, got his start in the game on a public nine-hole course. After hugging his father, George, on the course, he got on a FaceTime call with his mother, Meghan, who was unable to attend the tournament.

“She was crying,” Koivu said. “I was trying to make out a little bit of what she said, but she kept saying how proud she was. Those two are just my rocks.”

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

MONDAY: Partly to mostly cloudy skies, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some could be strong to severe in the late afternoon and evening. High: 89.

MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some could be strong to severe early. Low: 68.

TUESDAY: Partly cloudy skies, a chance of a few rain showers. High: 84.

TUESDAY NIGHT: Mainly clear skies. Cooler temperatures. Low: 62.

Thunderstorms return to the forecast, looking ahead into the start of next week on Monday. The Storm Prediction Center has placed the entire region under a Slight Risk (2 out of 5) on our severe weather scale on Monday as we watch an area of low pressure work through the state. As of right now, damaging winds, large hail, and heavy rainfall would be the primary threats, but we will continue to fine tune that forecast as we look ahead into the weekend. There is the potential for an organized severe weather threat as we as look into Monday. With that in mind, we have declared a 4Warn Weather Alert for Monday afternoon & evening.

But, the threat for severe weather on Monday is also a “Conditional” threat, due to the fact that the forecast models are not agreeing on what we may see tomorrow. This is partly due to missing weather data, from weather balloons not being launched on Sunday morning, over portions of the Midwestern United States, and into the four corners region.

When the weather balloons are launched twice a day from various cities all across the country, that data is fed directly into the forecast models we make to use a forecast. If those are not launched, we do not have the “entire picture” on what is going on, and then we do not get the complete output, and in this situation, the forecast models are not agreeing with each other.

Stay tuned, as we need to see how this forecast plays out overnight Sunday night into Monday morning, then how that would impact us as we work through the second half of the day on Monday.

Once that system moves off to the east, we will keep the chance of a few showers and thunderstorms into the forecast on Tuesday, but I do not think the day will be a washout. High temperatures warming into the middle 80s by Tuesday afternoon, then expect more sunshine by the middle of next week on Wednesday. High temperatures warming into the lower 80s by Wednesday afternoon.

Drier weather continues into the second half of next week as well. Mostly sunny skies will give way to a mixture of sunshine and clouds looking ahead into the end of next week on Friday. High temperatures will cool down a bit as well. High temperatures into the low to mid 80s can be expected.

Our next chance of showers and thunderstorms after what we are looking at to start the week, doesn’t arrive until we look ahead to the start of next weekend on Saturday. High temperatures warming back up into the mid-80s by Saturday afternoon. We will also keep the active weather in the forecast for the end of the weekend, expect a chance of showers and thunderstorms next Sunday as well.

Both joined slugging second baseman Jeff Kent as the newest members before an estimated crowd of 12,000 fans at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, with 57 other Hall of Famers on stage — creating the largest gathering of current Hall of Famers.

Jones’ speech was almost like a love letter to his home country of Curaçao.

“There’s no easy way to get here from the small island of Curaçao, more than 2,000 miles away,” Jones said. “But today Cooperstown and Curaçao are forever joined together.”

The longtime Atlanta Braves outfielder, a 10-time Gold Glove winner and five-time All-Star, is the first player from Curaçao to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. But he said he doesn't plan on being the last. He pointed to players who have followed him, including Ozzie Albies and Kenley Jansen, as part of the Curaçao legacy started by Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens.

Among the highlights, Jones’ tribute to his late father, Henry Jones, stood out. He said his father used to hit him flyballs from foul pole to foul pole to teach him how to track the ball, and how to build strong wrists by rolling a sledgehammer.

“Everything he taught me had a purpose,” Jones said. “Henry Jones was a legend in Curaçao, a great player in his own right. And I’m not standing here in Cooperstown without his constant coaching. Dad, we did it.”

Chants of “Puerto Rico” broke out before Beltrán even uttered a word. And whenever he mentioned his home island, the crowd cheered for him and waved flags.

“Everywhere I played baseball, I always tried to represent my island,” Beltrán said. “I tried to do the best I could for the organizations that I played, but also I wanted to represent Puerto Rico.”

The 20-year veteran and 1999 AL Rookie of the Year ran through each organization he played for, thanking them for the different lessons each provided. The New York Mets received the most praise.

“When people ask me about why I chose (the Mets) cap, I have to say this,” he said. “Guys, it’s simple. Every organization shapes your career. New York shaped my life.”

When discussing the teams he played for, Beltrán gave specific examples from some of his stops, including watching teammates Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell “play with pain” in Houston. But he did not mention winning the World Series with the Astros in 2017. That title carries controversy because of an illegal sign-stealing scheme and Beltrán's involvement in it.

Beltrán did not directly address the scandal, but did comment on those who may or may not have voted for him for whatever reasons.

“To the Baseball Writers' Association of America, I want to say thank you for making me a Hall of Famer. ... And for those that didn’t (vote for me) — that saw things different — I want to say also thank you. I appreciate your perspective,” he said. “If baseball has really taught me something, I want to say is that I hope in life, we continue to measure ourselves by the same standard we have used to measure others.”

Beltrán earned 84.2% of the vote from the BBWAA to make the Hall on his fourth try. Jones garnered 78.4% in his ninth year of eligibility, eclipsing the 75% needed for induction. Kent was elected by a much smaller panel last December, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, after dropping off the BBWAA ballot when his eligibility ran out in 2023.

The 2000 NL MVP with the San Francisco Giants played for six teams over his 17-year career and set the all-time home run mark for second basemen. A hard-nosed player, Kent showed a softer side during induction weekend.

Before even speaking, Kent needed tissues to wipe the tears from his eyes after looking at his parents in the crowd, he said in a post-ceremony news conference.

“I was more emotional for the 35, 40 minutes of sitting down than I was for the speech,” he said. “I thought I was going to be a wreck and I’m glad it was only a half a wreck.”

In his speech, Kent told a story of how his baseball career turned when his father offered him a deal: if he earned a college scholarship, he would buy him a pickup truck. Kent quit racing motorcycles and shifted his focus to school and baseball and eventually earned a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley.

In turn, he got a pickup truck he still has.

“It sits in my garage as a simple reminder that some of the simplest things can change the entire direction of your life,” Kent said.

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

But there must be something to explain the way he dominated hitters Sunday as the Milwaukee Brewers’ hard-throwing right-hander reached a few more milestones.

“I don’t think there is a zone,” Misiorowski said Sunday after striking out 12 of the first 13 batters he faced in an 11-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. “I think it’s just pitching. I felt like myself and kept going.”

Misiorowski (11-4) set a Brewers franchise record by striking out seven straight hitters to open the game. He also broke his own record for the most 100-mph pitches in a single game since pitch tracking began in 2008.

The two-time All-Star reached 100 mph on 66 of his 83 pitches and hit a top velocity of 104.7. He had set the previous record June 12 by throwing 58 pitches of at least 100 mph during a 15-strikeout performance against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 12.

He threw 33 fastballs of at least 103 mph — more than twice as many as anyone else had ever thrown in a single game since pitch tracking began, according to MLB.com.

Misiorowski held the previous record with 14 pitches of 103 mph or greater, something he had done in two separate starts this season.

Misiorowski retired the first 14 batters he faced. According to Sportradar, he was the first person to strike out at least 11 batters and allow no hits through the first four innings of a game since the live-ball era began in 1920.

“His extension, his command of (the fastball) and the fact he’s got secondary stuff to go with it makes it even tougher,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Misiorowski didn't have to utilize his secondary pitches very often Sunday. With Gary Sánchez working behind the plate, Misiorowski threw fastballs about 80% of the time.

“I don’t think that was the game plan going in,” said Misiorowski, who increased his MLB-leading strikeout total to 185. "I think that’s just what happened. Me and Gary kind of just ran with it. You saw the swings that they were getting at the top of the zone and kind of were just like, ‘Here it is,’ until they hit it.”

Colorado didn't get anyone on base until Cole Carrigg hit an opposite-field homer off a 101.9-mph fastball with two outs in the fifth. No Rockies player had ever homered on a pitch that fast during the pitch tracking era.

Misiorowski then hit Willi Castro with a pitch before getting the final out of his five-inning stint.

Nobody from Colorado even put the ball in play until Misiorowski retired Troy Johnston on a fly to center for the second out in the fourth inning. The previous Brewers record for consecutive strikeouts to start a game had been set last year by Quinn Priester, who had six in a row to begin a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 18.

Pablo López owns the major league record for consecutive strikeouts to open a game. He fanned the first nine Atlanta batters he faced in the Miami Marlins’ 7-4 triumph over the Braves on July 11, 2021.

The MLB record for consecutive strikeouts at any point within the same game is 10. That record is shared by Tom Seaver, Corbin Burnes and Aaron Nola.

Misiorowski's outstanding performance comes as the Brewers remain careful with the two-time All-Star's workload. The NL Central leaders want to make sure their ace is in peak form for a potential postseason run.

He has pitched 120 innings this season. He worked 141 1/3 innings last year, including his regular-season totals in the majors and minors plus his 12 postseason innings during Milwaukee’s run to the NL Championship Series.

Misiorowski lasted just four innings in an 8-3 victory over the New York Mets on Monday in his first start since July 7. He left after a 30-pitch fifth inning Sunday as his ERA actually rose to an MLB-best 1.58.

Misiorowski said he believes he's strong enough to be “full go” for his next appearance, meaning he should go deeper into the game. Misiorowski said he used his legs better Sunday, which led to his consistent velocity.

“Sustaining the legs helps a lot,” Misiorowski said. “That’s where most of my velo comes from, is the lower half. It becomes a lot easier when you have all the pieces.”

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

Then he showed everyone — including his team co-owner Denny Hamlin — what he’d learned.

The 24-year-old part-time NASCAR Cup Series driver first made a daring outside move to pass Hamlin then slow him down on the final restart with 35 laps to go, then held off the hard-charging cars of Christopher Bell and Joey Logano to capture his first Brickyard 400 title.

Heim beat Bell by 0.287 seconds and Logano, last week's race winner, by 0.972 seconds to become the first Cup driver to win twice in his first 15 career starts since 1965. A.J. Foyt, one of four four-time Indianapolis 500 champions, was the last to do it and, like Foyt, Heim didn’t even need a full-time ride to finish the job.

“Just had to be aggressive, man, it's for the win,” he said after his second win of the season. “I would have to see it back to see if I really did anything wrong. You know, he has every right to be frustrated with me, but don't get me wrong, I just had to be on top of it. Got to go quick for the 22 (Logano) to be in position, so thanks to him. Man, it's crazy.”

Hamlin seemed more frustrated with Bell's mistimed push, which allowed Heim to get past him, and that was all Heim needed to take charge. Hamlin wound up falling from first to fifth, a descent he never recovered from as his winless streak at Indianapolis hit 18.

It's the only crown jewel race of NASCAR's four Hamlin hasn't won.

“I mean everyone's trying to fight to win the race, and you know you're clear by an inch, you're going to take that inch,” Hamlin said. “It's really the 20 and (Bell) and the 19 (Chase Briscoe) not orchestrating good pushes there and we came detached for a long time. I thought the 20 was on board with giving us a push, it was just way too early before the restart zone.”

With Hamlin fading, Bell and Logano spent the final 34 laps trying to catch Heim's increasingly loose car. Each driver consistently closed the gap by running consistently quicker lap times. but neither could get close enough to try to pass Heim.

And with no more caution flags to bunch up the leaders, the stage was set for Heim.

“It's a good second place," said Bell, Hamlin's teammate with Joe Gibbs Racing. "We've had a lot of bad second-place finishes, but this is a good one with where we were after qualifying. When we had the restart on the second row, I was really happy with our position. Really proud of our team, we pulled together a really good day."

Heim wasn't the only big winner Sunday.

Hamlin extended his points lead over Heim's teammate, Tyler Reddick, who was 10th. Ty Gibbs, who is fourth in points, clinched a playoff spot with a stage win and a 12th-place finish. And Todd Gilliland of Front Row Motorsports defied the odds by collecting the $1 million prize in the final round of NASCAR's second In-Season Challenge.

But nobody was more satisfied with the results than Heim.

“That was a damn handful,” the Georgian said. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up. My car got really loose and I never really got a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I’ve ever fought in my life to make sure I focused on the exits and get through dirty air.”

Larson's drought

Defending Cup champ Kyle Larson's winless streak hit 36 on Sunday, this time the result of a flat left rear tire that sent Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 Chevrolet hard into the wall coming out of Turn 3 during the first stage. He was the first car out and finished 39th.

“We just had a tire let go. I wouldn’t say pushing had anything to do with it," Larson said. “Just a little bit of bad luck, I guess.”

Larson has finished 39th, 15th, 34th and 34th over the last four weeks and is in the longest winless drought since he joined Hendrick's team in 2021. Yet Larson is still in eighth in points with four regular-season races remaining.

Surprise payday

Ryan Blaney's streak of consecutive top-11 finishes ended at 11 on Sunday and came with a hefty cost — missing out on the $1 million payday.

The 2023 Cup champ and Team Penske driver started and stayed ahead of Gilliland most of the race, only to see his hopes unravel when he was collected in a nine-car crash that damaged the right side of his car with 41 laps to go. Blaney's team got him back on the track and he wound up 26th, but finished two spots behind Gilliland.

Up next

After 16 straight weeks of racing, the Cup drivers will get a break to open August. The series then heads to Iowa's 0.875-mile oval Aug. 9. William Byron is the defending race winner. Blaney was the 2024 winner, a night race marred by tire problems.

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But first, he's looking forward to some quality rest.

“I'm pretty sure I'll probably sleep more than three hours tonight,” Brissett said with a grin.

Brissett and the Cardinals agreed to a reworked one-year deal Sunday worth a reported $15.5 million and LaFleur confirmed that the veteran is the team’s likely starter for Week 1.

The 33-year-old Brissett was unhappy with his previous contract, which included just $1.5 million of guaranteed money for the upcoming season. He reported for training camp last week, but was limited during practices while he and the Cardinals worked on the deal.

Brissett said it got “dark a couple times” during negotiations, but he had enough confidence in himself to persevere. This will be his 11th NFL season.

“It felt good to be back out there,” Brissett said. “Standing around wasn't particularly fun.”

Brissett was the team's starter for the final 12 games last year after Kyler Murray suffered a season-ending foot injury. He did well individually with a career-high 3,366 yards passing, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions, but the Cardinals had a 1-11 record in those games.

LaFleur confirmed that Brissett's deal was done before Sunday's practice and said that the quarterback would begin working with the starters soon. The team's other main options under center are veteran Gardner Minshew and rookie Carson Beck.

“It hasn’t been a distraction by any means — I think we’ve got some very mature and professional players,” LaFleur said. “But it’s just one more thing that we don’t have to talk about.”

Brissett is a popular presence in the Cardinals' locker room and some players — most notably eight-time Pro Bowl safety Budda Baker — were publicly supportive of a new deal for the quarterback.

“I think that’s the ultimate reward of this game, the respect of your teammates,” Brissett said. “That’s what I pride myself on. That’s the only thing I really value. Contracts come and go but your teammates and the people you work with, the ones who want to go bat for you, that’s what matters most.”

LaFleur said he wasn't worried about Brissett's lost practice time. The quarterback didn't practice with the team during the offseason because of the contract situation.

“He's got a level head about himself,” LaFleur said. “He's been in a lot of different systems and heard a lot of different things and seen a lot of different things. He's had the ups and downs with teams. He's in a good spot and I'm excited to really start working with him.”

The Cardinals open the preseason Aug. 6 against the Carolina Panthers in the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio.

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The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in September dropped 4.9% to $92.02 shortly after trading resumed. The decline followed a 3.9% drop on Friday.

Brent crude, the international standard, briefly hit $102 a barrel last week. That was $30 more than the most actively traded contract in the Brent market was going for early in the month, and the highest it had been since May.

Oil prices surged this month because of increased fighting in the Middle East and worries a return to all-out war would further slow the global flow of crude.

The ability of tankers to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz has been the central concern for the oil market since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. The narrow strip of water off Iran’s coast is the route through which a fifth of the world’s oil typically leaves the Persian Gulf and heads to customers worldwide, and the conflict has largely halted shipping traffic.

Oil producers have since searched for alternative routes, but those are under pressure too. Last week, attacks hit Saudi oil tankers that were using the Red Sea to leave the region. When less oil is available for customers to buy, the price goes up and fuel prices do as well.

In the United States, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline on Sunday was $4.11, up from $3.90 a month ago and just $3.15 a year ago, according to motor club AAA.

If oil prices stay elevated, it could lead to higher prices for every product that gets shipped, trucked or flown around the world, including groceries. Although the U.S. economy continues to grow, the ongoing conflict with Iran has dragged consumer confidence in it lower.

The reacceleration of oil prices this month took place just as inflation had begun to slow more than economists expected. Now, traders believe inflation pressures have grown enough that they’re betting on a 36% chance the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate at an upcoming meeting, according to data from CME Group.

Higher interest rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they could also slow the economy by making it more expensive for all kinds of Americans and businesses to borrow.

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates have already hit their highest levels in nearly a year, for example, chilling the housing industry. And more expensive borrowing could slow the boom in building artificial-intelligence data centers, which have become a big engine for the U.S. economy's growth.

While oil prices have given back some of their big July gains, much uncertainty still remains.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. oil to be delivered in September fell 5.6% to $84.34 on Sunday. It dropped 3.1% on Friday.

In the oil market, traders are buying and selling contracts for barrels of oil to be delivered many months in the future. The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in October, which is now the most actively traded part of the market, fell 4.6% to $87.48.

The event, held at Recoil Firearms in Taylor, drew lines wrapped around the building as women of all experience levels came to learn basic gun skills in both a classroom setting and on the range.

“I’m a little bit nervous to be honest. I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Savannah Lorenz, a Roseville resident attending for the first time.

That feeling of nervousness is exactly what instructors hope to address.

“We want to give them the opportunity that a gun is simply a tool. No different than a fork in your kitchen or a shovel in your shed,” said instructor Candy Petticord.

Confidence on the range

For many attendees, stepping up to the firing line marked a turning point.

“Once they fire those first rounds it’s like a light bulb goes off and you can see it as an instructor when it happens and it’s a very warm and endearing feeling,” said instructor Tanisha Moner.

Detroit resident Alexis Simmons said the event filled an important need.

“I think women need to protect themselves and I think it’s just a good thing to be safe and to know how to do things correctly,” Simmons said.

Community support

Beyond the safety skills, attendees said the sense of community made the experience stand out.

“Good to see a bunch of women coming out to support each other doing the same thing, protect ourselves,” said Hayley Delpier, a Roseville resident.

Many women left the event with a boost of confidence and a desire to return to the range. Now in its 15th year, Legally Armed in Detroit hopes to continue the event for many years to come.

The Yankees recalled outfielder Spencer Jones from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before Sunday night's game at Philadelphia to take Bellinger's spot on the roster.

Bellinger will have more tests Monday in New York. He said he woke up feeling similar to Saturday, but not well enough to avoid the injured list.

“Little tight,” Bellinger said. “I didn't wake up worse.”

He will stay out of cleats for at least four days and continue to do light jogging during that time, but there is no timeline for a return at this point.

“See how you feel, see how your body is recovering,” Bellinger said.

New York manager Aaron Boone sounded fairly optimistic about the injury.

“It's not something that seems terrible,” he said. “He's able to move around today. Just hope for something on the shorter side, but tough to know for sure.”

New York has been without slugger Aaron Judge since May 31 because of a fractured rib, and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton is still out with a strained right calf that's sidelined him since April 24. The Yankees entered Sunday's game 2 1/2 games behind first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East.

Bellinger said he felt tightness in his hamstring while rounding first on a double in the eighth inning of the Yankees' 3-1 win over the Phillies on Saturday night. He waved off Boone and remained on base for the rest of the inning but walked slowly off the field and down the tunnel to the clubhouse after the third out.

Max Schuemann replaced Bellinger in left field in the bottom of the eighth.

Schuemann was set to start in left and bat seventh Sunday night.

“Just got to mix and match and piece it together,” Boone said. “We have capable guys. We're going out there expecting to win.”

Bellinger is hitting .259 with 11 homers and 53 RBIs in 102 games this season. He entered Saturday with 19 defensive runs saved, most in the majors, and was MVP of the All-Star Game on July 14 in Philadelphia.

Bellinger re-signed with the Yankees last winter for $162.5 million over five years and has been a key part of the offense. He was hitting .280 through mid-June before a slump dropped his batting average to .254 heading into the All-Star break. He hasn’t homered in a month.

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Shanahan's presence that has been a constant the past decade was a welcome sight on Sunday for the first training camp practice, coming less than two weeks after he got into a car crash that left him with a concussion and other injuries.

“I know he can’t stay away,” star linebacker Fred Warner said. “I know he’s given up his duties for a little bit, but that guy’s obsessed with ball. I’m sure of course he’s going to be around.”

While Shanahan made a cameo appearance at practice on Sunday, the Niners began preparations for the 2026 season without their leader in charge. Shanahan has ceded responsibility over the team to assistant head coach/offensive line coach Chris Foerster temporarily as he recovers from the crash he got into on July 14 in nearby Palo Alto.

Shanahan suffered a concussion, broken ribs, a broken nose and broken hand in the crash and won't be back running the team until the concussion symptoms subside. Shanahan had a cast on his left hand, sunglasses to cover up his black eye and a new mustache that prompted Warner to complement him on his “disguise” as he watched practice.

Shanahan interacted with a few players, including Warner, Kyle Juszczyk, Christian McCaffrey and Dre Greenlaw before leaving the field.

“I knew it would be tough to keep him away from there,” star tackle Trent Williams said. “It’s going to be hard for him to get his rest. He’s not that type of person. It doesn’t surprise me at all to see him out there.”

With a veteran-laden team and several coaches who have been with the organization for years, Foerster and Williams said it's almost as if the team is on “auto pilot” and not thrown off by Shanahan's absence.

The training camp practice plan was put in place long before Shanahan's crash with the opening stretch of camp essentially a repeat of the installations from the offseason program.

Foerster said he is leaning heavily on his assistants, especially coordinators Klay Kubiak, Raheem Morris and Brant Boyer. He said not much has changed other than he had to break the team after practice, he did a news conference and he got to make the call on small parts of practice such as whether to repeat or skip a play following a pre-snap penalty.

Foerster has been in the NFL for more than three decades, starting as an assistant offensive line and tight ends coach in Minnesota in 1993 and had little problem taking command of the entire team.

“He’s been doing this longer than everybody in that locker room been alive, probably except for me,” Williams said. “It’s like a hand-in-glove fit. Me personally, I’m so proud of him just watching him even just be a head coach for a day, or no matter how long it is. We go so far back, he’s family to me. Just seeing him in that position, I’m just really proud.”

Foerster spent four seasons with Washington when Shanahan was offensive coordinator and Mike Shanahan was head coach and joined the 49ers in 2019. Foerster had resigned as offensive line coach in Miami in 2017 after a video on social media appeared to show him snorting three lines of white powder at a desk, but got a second chance with Shanahan.

“He’s one of my best friends in the world by far,” Foerster said. “There’s not many people that I call a friend for a lot of reasons, and Kyle’s one of them. He and his wife, Mandy, are like family to me. This organization did some things for me and pulled me in at a time in my life when nobody would really want to be with me. And Kyle, along with John and the whole York family have stood by me and that loyalty’s never going to be forgotten. He’s a close, close friend, and it scares the crap out of you when something like this happens to somebody so close.”

Bosa takes field for individual drills

Star defensive end Nick Bosa was on the field to start camp as he makes his return from a torn ACL suffered in Week 3 last season. Bosa only took part in individual drills and was working on his own on the side during team drills.

“I couldn’t even tell that he had an injury or he came back from anything," Williams said. “Most people with a knee injury that catastrophic, you come back, you can see something. You can see it in the atrophy in the muscle and the leg. You can see something. Bosa looks better than he did before he got hurt.”

News and notes

OL Vederian Lowe left practice early with an ankle injury. ... CB Nate Hobbs was the only active player not taking part in practice. ... The Niners signed DT Kevin Givens a day after releasing Evan Anderson. Givens has played 70 games for San Francisco from 2019-25. ... Foerster said Connor Colby will get the first shot to win the starting left guard spot after starting six games as a seventh-round rookie last season.

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

In the women's race at Icahn Stadium in New York — the site of Usain Bolt's first world record, back in 2008 — reigning world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden cruised to her second straight national title in a season-best 21.69.

Lyles, the four-time world champion at the distance, was in decent shape rounding the turn, but as he pulled into the stretch, he slowed and shut it down. He made it to the finish line to congratulate Kaalund, a 22-year-old who won NCAA indoors at the distance earlier this year. Kaalund's winning time was 20.04.

“I just felt a grabbing sensation. I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the time to stop. There’s no reason to push this,'” said Lyles, who stays tied with Michael Johnson with five U.S. titles at 200 meters. "It was a somewhat of a cramp. I’m fine. I just need to get stretched out, get some electrolytes in my system, but I’ll be good.”

This marked only the fourth time Lyles has lost a 200 since he started dominating the distance in 2018, shortly after Usain Bolt left the sport. Two of those losses have come at the last two Olympics. Earlier in the week, Lyles won the 100 meters, the distance where he is the reigning Olympic champion.

Kaalund said he came to nationals just “to train myself against the best.”

“I wasn't looking for (any) medals, I just wanted to see where I was,” he said.

Joining him at the top of the medals stand was Jefferson-Wooden, whose main challenger, Gabby Thomas, has been running well but decided not to run at nationals.

There are no world championships this year, though world athletics is introducing the Ultimate Championships, where a $150,000 first prize will be on the line in a race expected to feature Jefferson-Wooden, Thomas and Julien Alfred, who finished runner-up to Thomas at the Paris Games.

The LA Games are two years away.

“I feel like with women’s sprints today it's like that every single time we line up,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “I watch their races. They watch mine. These next few years are going to be interesting to see.”

Davis-Woodhall denied victory after protest of her final jump

In women's long jump, Olympic and world champion Tara Davis-Woodhall appeared to have won in dramatic fashion after her last of six jumps placed her in the lead, much the same as what happened at the Olympic trials two years ago. But a review after a protest showed she had fouled. Judges upheld that call after she appealed the ruling and she ended up third. Alyssa Jones won with a jump of 6.96 meters (22 feet, 10 inches).

Others winners Sunday were Nia Akins (women’s 800), Cooper Lutkenhaus (men’s 800), Emily Mackay (women’s 5,000), Vincent Ciattei (men’s 5,000), Jordan Geist (men’s shot put), Vashti Cunningham (women’s high jump), Chris Nilsen (men’s pole vault), Valarie Sion (women’s discus), Christopher Robinson (men’s 400 hurdles) and Anna Cockrell (women’s 400 hurdles) .

Cordell Tinch closed out the meet with a lean at the finish line to take the 110-meter hurdles title over Bradley Franklin.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports