More than 163,000 votes were cast this year during the finalist portion of Vote 4 The Best.

Voting was open for nearly a month, and now it’s time to reveal the winners for our 80 categories.

Eight winners will be revealed each weekday from Aug. 10 through Aug. 21. Here’s a list of the winners we’ve announced so far, as well as the schedule for the future announcements:

NOTE: If you click the link for each winner, you can see how the top five finalists finished for the category.

Aug. 10

• Best Burger: Miller’s Bar in Dearborn
• Best Detroit-style Pizza: Jet’s Pizza
• Best Bakery: Lil Daddy’s Cheesecakes Co. in Mount Clemens
• Best Dance Studio: Rhythm N Jump Dance Academy in St. Clair Shores
• Best Movie Theatre: MJR
• Best Mexican: Mojave Cantina in Clawson
• Best Ice Cream: Holy Cow! Creamery in Wyandotte
• Best Gourmet Market: Nino Salvaggio

Aug. 11

• Best Coney Dog: Lafayette Coney Island
• Best Pizza (all types): Green Lantern
• Best Sandwich/deli: Ventimiglia Italian Foods in Sterling Heights
• Best Coney Island: Leo’s Coney Island
• Best Sports Venue: Comerica Park
• Best Italian: Antonio’s Cucina Italiana
• Best Museum: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village
• Best Polish: Polish Village Cafe in Hamtramck 

Aug. 12

• Best BBQ: Bad Brad’s BBQ
• Best Fine Dining: Mr. Paul’s Chop House in Roseville
• Best Breakfast: The Original Pancake House
• Best Steakhouse: Mr. Paul’s Chop House in Roseville
• Best Tacos: El Charro
• Best Farmer’s Market: Eastern Market
• Best Cider Mill: Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill in Armada
• Best Concert Venue: Pine Knob

Aug. 13

• Best Fried Chicken: Detroit’s Original Chicken Shack
• Best Shawarma: Bucharest Grill
• Best Brunch: The Jagged Fork
• Best Soup/Salad: Red Olive
• Best Festival: Michigan Renaissance Festival
• Best Wings: Detroit Wing Company
• Best Donuts: Dutch Girl Donuts
• Best Middle Eastern: Malek Al-Kabob

Aug. 14

• Florist: VIVIANO Flower Shop
• Real Estate Agent: The Perna Team
• Fries: Vinsetta Garage in Berkley
• Bowling Alley: Imperial Lanes in Clinton Township
• Bagels: Eastside Bagel in St. Clair Shores
• Photographer: Ruff Life Photography
• Sushi: Noble Fish in Clawson
• Food truck: Uncle Honeys BBQ

Aug. 17

• Gyro: Pegasus Taverna in St. Clair Shores
• Tattoo parlor: Thistle and Thorn Ink in Chesterfield Township
• Haunted House: Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac
• Chinese: Mon Jin Lau in Troy
• Thai: Bangkok 96 in Dearborn
• Boutique clothing store: AnnMarie & Co. Boutique in Garden City
• Roofing: Schoenherr Roofing
• Book store: John K. King Used & Rare Books in Detroit

Aug. 18

• Coffee
• Hotel
• Sports bar
• Brewery
• Hair salon
• Law firm
• Irish pub
• Dog groomer

Aug. 19

• Comedy club
• Dive bar
• Margarita
• Rooftop Bar
• Live Music Bar
• Soul Food
• Indian
• Distillery

Aug. 20

• Wine bar
• Nail Salon
• Auto dealership
• Vegan/Vegetarian
• Golf course
• Karaoke Bar
• Pho
• Escape Room

Aug. 21

• Cannabis dispensary
• Cocktail bar
• Funeral home
• Barbershop
• HVAC Company
• Day spa
• Beauty Salon
• CBD Store

Click here to read the official Vote 4 The Best rules.

Thanks to our Vote 4 The Best sponsor, Wallside Windows!

Have a question? Email us at clickondetroit@wdiv.com, and we’ll get you an answer.

With two Democrats competing on the ballot, the seat in California’s 14th Congressional District is guaranteed to remain under Democratic control and further narrow an already fragile Republican majority in the chamber.

State Sen. Aisha Wahab and Bay Area Rapid Transit Board President Melissa Hernandez were the finalists in the June 16 special primary, in which the top two finishers regardless of party affiliation advanced to Tuesday’s special election. The two also will compete in the fall in a slightly redrawn district for a full term that begins in January 2027.

Wahab placed first in both the June 16 special primary and the June 2 primary for the full-term seat to replace Swalwell, who has denied the allegations against him. In both contests, Wahab led Hernandez by more than 20 percentage points.

Hernandez has more than doubled Wahab’s fundraising and spending for the campaign, but as of the end of July the two were on roughly even footing in terms of cash in the bank.

The race has also attracted the attention of several outside groups, including some affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization. United Democracy Project, a super political action committee backed by AIPAC, spent $1.2 million on the race in August in support of Hernandez and in opposition to Wahab, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Another group, Bold America, which has received funding from United Democracy Project, has spent about $1.7 million on the race since the special primary, also in support of Hernandez and in opposition to Wahab.

Collectively, outside groups have spent about $4.1 million on the race since mid-July. About $3.7 million was spent to benefit Hernandez’s campaign, compared with just shy of $400,000 to benefit Wahab’s.

The boundaries of the 14th Congressional District were redrawn as part of a new congressional map approved by voters in a 2025 statewide ballot measure known as Proposition 50. The map goes into effect for the full-term seat in January, while the winner of the special election will serve under the current boundaries for the remainder of the year.

Proposition 50 was placed on the ballot in response to mid-decade redistricting efforts led by President Donald Trump in several Republican-controlled states. While the plan created a congressional map more favorable to Democrats, no dramatic changes were made to the 14th District. Under the current boundaries, Democrats make up 50.4% of registered voters in October, compared with 17.6% for Republicans. Under the new boundaries, Democrats comprise about 49.7% of registered voters as of mid-May, compared with about 17.4% for Republicans.

In 2024, Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried the current 14th District with 65.8% of the vote in the presidential election against Trump. If the election had been held under the new boundaries, Harris would have received 65.4% of the vote.

Both versions of the district are contained entirely within Alameda County in the East Bay. The current district includes Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton and Union City, as well as parts of San Leandro, Fremont and Dublin.

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 8 p.m. PT, which is 11 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare a winner in the 14th Congressional District special election.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in the current version of California’s 14th Congressional District may participate in the special election.

How many voters are there?

As of May 2026, there were about 423,000 registered voters in the 14th Congressional District, including about 210,000 Democrats, about 73,000 Republicans and about 116,000 voters with no party preference.

How many people actually vote?

Nearly 124,000 voters cast ballots in the June 16 special primary. About 276,000 people voted in the regularly scheduled 2024 general election in the 14th District.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 98% of votes in the June 16 special primary were from absentee ballots delivered in person or by mail.

As of Wednesday, about 52,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, about 32,500 from Democrats, about 7,800 from Republicans and the rest from unaffiliated or third-party voters.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In Alameda County, the first vote update of the night usually includes only results from mail voting, but the county typically still has a sizable number of mail ballots left to tally by the next morning.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the June 16 special primary, the AP first reported results at 11:17 p.m. ET, or 17 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:03 a.m. ET, with about 87% of total votes counted. The vote count reached 99.9% complete at 7:26 p.m. ET on June 18.

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 are no automatic recounts in California. Any registered voter may request and pay for a recount. 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 77 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Russia has repeatedly battered the Ukrainian power grid since its all-out invasion more than four years ago. Moscow hopes to sap Ukraine’s will to fight by denying civilians light, heating and running water during the bitter winter months.

Ukrainian officials, who say Russia is “weaponizing winter,” fear Moscow will pursue its campaign through the coming winter, too.

Russian drones and missiles struck facilities in several regions of the country, with one asset hit multiple times during the week, Naftogaz said, reporting serious damage to equipment and production capacity. No employees were hurt in the attacks, the company said.

With troops largely bogged down by drones and robots along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, both Russia and Ukraine are expanding their aerial campaigns and devising new long-range weapons.

Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russia killed seven people, while four civilians died in Ukraine after strikes by Moscow’s forces, officials said Monday as they collated overnight attacks.

Ukraine depended heavily on foreign military aid after Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022 but has gradually increased its domestically produced firepower, firing a salvo of more than 800 long-range drones at Russia on Sunday.

Ukraine also has successfully targeted depots owned by Wildberries, Russia’s main online retailer, as far as 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from Ukraine’s border.

Russian forces have increasingly hit apartment blocks, ports, schools and hospitals, among other urban targets, killing close to 17,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. The death toll of 437 Ukrainian civilians in July was 70% higher than the same month in 2025, it said last week, as Russia's barrages intensified.

Russia has exploited Ukraine’s severe shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, which are the only way of countering ballistic missiles.

But Kyiv is swiftly innovating, with Ukraine now developing its own ballistic missile to hit back at Russia and working with European countries on developing more anti-ballistic air defenses.

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

Now, cybersecurity experts say parents should think about something else your child carries every day, even when they are not holding it.

Amelia Smith, an AI business analyst with STACK Cybersecurity, says it is no longer just about what kids physically take to school.

It is also about what they digitally bring with them.

Think of it as a digital backpack – a digital history students carry at all times, whether they are at home or sitting in a classroom.

What is a digital backpack?

Smith says a digital backpack can include a wide range of information connected to a student’s phone, tablet, or computer.

That can mean:

• Location history, if it is turned on
• App metadata and activity connected to what they download and use
• Connections to different networks, including public Wi Fi
• Digital achievements, like certificates and badges earned through school or college programs

The cybersecurity firm says those accomplishments can be a positive part of a student’s digital record. Digital certificates and badges, for example, can be tied to a unique code and shared later on platforms like LinkedIn or personal websites.

But she says the digital backpack also collects risks, and those risks can add up quickly if families are not paying attention.

Location sharing is one of the biggest concerns

One of Smith’s top recommendations is to check location sharing settings.

She says families should consider turning location services off completely in the general settings of the device, unless there is a specific reason to keep it on.

If a parent relies on tracking tools like Find My Friends or Life360, Smith recommends managing location settings app by app.

In other words, keep location turned on only for the apps you truly want using it, and turn it off everywhere else.

AI can be useful, but it can also create new privacy risks

Smith says AI tools can be valuable for research, depending on classroom rules and teacher expectations.

In her experience, using AI to gather information was encouraged, but using it to write assignments was not.

She calls AI an excellent research companion, but not a writer. She says students still need to do their own writing because the learning process includes figuring out what you want to say and how to communicate it clearly.

She also says families should understand the privacy risks that can come with using AI tools.

Smith warns that, by default, some AI platforms collect what users type and may use it in ways students do not fully understand.

Her advice is straightforward: never type sensitive personal information into a chatbot.

That includes anything you would not want exposed, like personal identifiers or private details.

Smith says the reality is kids are going to use AI, and adults need to accept that and put guardrails in place.

She compares it to earlier generations using study shortcuts like SparkNotes.

Teachers adapted then, and she says classrooms will need to adapt again by understanding how students might use AI and building expectations around it.

Gaming chats can expose kids to risky behavior

Another piece of the digital backpack many parents overlook is what happens during gaming.

Smith warns that gaming chats can be offensive and can encourage risky behavior.

She says slurs and age-inappropriate language can spread quickly when children have open access to talk to others online.

STACK says that’s why it matters for parents to monitor devices and settings, and to talk with kids about what is appropriate and what to do if they see something harmful.

Fake school accounts and phishing links can trick families

Families should also watch for misinformation tied to schools, especially on social media.

Smith says fake accounts can post false updates, including something as simple as a fake snow day. But she warns the bigger risk is when a message includes a link that looks official, but is actually a phishing attempt designed to capture personal information.

Smith recommends families rely on trusted school email accounts instead of social media posts when it comes to important updates.

She suggests saving official school domains to trusted senders in email settings and still staying cautious even when an email looks real.

If something seems suspicious, she says parents should call the school directly to confirm.

Cyberbullying can happen anywhere kids connect

Smith says bullying has not changed, but the platforms have.

Kids can bully through text messages, phone calls, social media accounts, and gaming chats.

Smith says the best thing parents can do is talk to their children and monitor their devices.

That means checking that your child is not bullying others, and if your child is being targeted, making sure they have support and that the school is involved in addressing it.

Smith adds that keeping an eye on a child’s device is not an invasion of privacy.

She says it is a necessary step of parenting in this digital age.

What parents can do right now

As families get ready for the first day of school, Smith suggests adding a digital checklist alongside the usual supply list.

Consider:

• Review location sharing and limit it to only the apps you truly need
• Talk about what should never be shared in AI tools or chatbots
• Remind kids that online messages and links can be fake, even when they look official
• Encourage kids to come to you if they experience harassment, bullying, or uncomfortable conversations online
• Monitor devices, apps, and privacy settings regularly, not just once a year

Smith says the goal is not to scare parents.

It is to make sure families understand that students are carrying a digital backpack every day, and that parents can help reduce the risks by taking a few simple steps before school starts.

Gakobe was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2022 at the age of 13. Despite the weight of that diagnosis, his family says he never lost his spirit.

“He kept strong and never lost the fight. Never lost anything,” said Kaleb Milton, Gakobe’s younger brother.

Though the family had relocated to Atlanta before his diagnosis, Detroit was always close to Gakobe’s heart. His mother, Kuleesha Milton, Founder and CEO of the Gakobe Strong Foundation, recalls the vision her son had even while undergoing treatment.

“He said mom when I’m done with treatment here in Atlanta I want to go all over the world and I want to spread the love and give love… but my first stop is Detroit,” Kuleesha said.

Turning pain into purpose

Gakobe passed away at 15, but his family is committed to making sure his legacy lives on. The Gakobe Strong Foundation was created to support other families navigating the devastating impact of cancer — financially, emotionally and beyond.

“I want to bring awareness, that’s my most important. Not just for pediatric cancer, but for anybody that has been affected by cancer. I want to give back to the community because I was a mom who faced hardships. I had to choose between work and my child,” Kuleesha said.

Saturday’s 5K brought that mission to life along the Detroit riverfront. Detroit Pistons mascot Hooper made a special appearance, and the foundation received recognition from Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield. For the Milton family, the moment was both emotional and empowering.

Gakobe’s twin brother, Gioni Milton, spoke directly to his brother’s memory.

“I’m going to be strong for him. I know he’s always with us. I love you so much Kobe and Kobe Strong forever,” Gioni said.

Kuleesha says she finds comfort in her faith and in knowing her son’s spirit is still present.

“He used to tell me, God got me and God got you,” she said.

Foundation eyes growth, more families to serve

The Gakobe Strong Foundation has a lot in the works, with the goal of helping as many families as possible. The organization is already making waves beyond Michigan.

A Georgia House bill was signed into law in Gakobe’s honor — known as the Gakobe Milton Act. The law allows local school boards across Georgia to award high school diplomas to terminally ill students receiving end-of-life care, even if they have not completed all graduation requirements.

To learn more or support the foundation, visit gakobestrong.org.

One person died in a landslide that struck an apartment building in the southern city of Geoje on Monday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said in a report. It said two people were injured in Geoje and two others in nearby cities.

The heavy rains that have pummeled southern South Korea since Saturday have forced about 390 people to evacuate to safe places and caused power outages at about 3,580 houses, the ministry report said.

In the Philippines, heavy monsoon rains flooded key streets and snarled traffic early Monday in the densely populated region of metropolitan Manila and a dozen outlying provinces, forcing the government to suspend government work and cancel classes at all levels starting at noon. Schools were asked to shift to online learning.

About three weeks of intermittent monsoon rains and a storm that lashed the main northern island region of Luzon two weeks ago left at least 23 people dead, mostly due to landslides and floods, and affected 5 million people, including nearly 25,000, who remained in government emergency shelters on Monday in several northern provinces, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

Among the dead were 10 people, including children, whose houses were buried by an Aug. 9 landslide in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio. Three others were dug out alive with injuries by rescuers from the avalanche of mud, rocks and debris that collapsed from a mountainside as people slept, officials said.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1969, one of the all-time grooviest events in music history—the Woodstock Music & Art Fair—approached its end after more than three days of peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll in upstate New York.

Here are a few things to know for Monday, Aug. 17, 2026:

🌥️ 4Warn Weather: Dry, seasonably average weather settles into Metro Detroit early this week, with a mix of sunshine and clouds today and more sunshine expected tomorrow. Check out the 10-day forecast.

🕊️ ‘It keeps me up at night’: More than two decades after Michael LeSean Stokes was killed on Detroit’s east side, his family is making a renewed push for answers — hoping someone who saw or heard something back in 2004 will finally come forward. Read more.

🏃‍♂️ Cancer Awareness 5K: About 1,500 people laced up their shoes on Belle Isle for the 13th annual Head for the Cure 5K — an event aimed at raising money and awareness for brain cancer. Read more.

🗑️ Smelly Eyesore: A Detroit neighborhood said their streets were saddled with trash that had been illegally dumped. Local 4 reached out, and the city stepped in to help. Read more.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

For about two decades, people driving near 7 Mile and Woodward have seen a construction site that, at some point, would be the new campus for Perfecting Church. Now, after years of waiting, financial roadblocks and lawsuits, the wait will soon come to an end. Kyla Russell reporting:

“The story is a long story, because we started out over 20 years ago,” Bishop Marvin Winans with Perfecting Church said.

As a refresher – in the early 2000s, Winans announced a massive plan for the space – one with a $60 million price tag.

But, for years, the site sat nearly empty.

“During the crisis of the financial institutions in 2008, it stopped. But our faith kept growing,” Winans said.

In 2023, the city of Detroit sued the church, saying construction had not been completed fast enough.

Neighbors in the area expressed frustration about the delays.

Both the city and the church later came to terms, and the lawsuit was dropped in turn for a schedule of goals and a timeline that had to be met.

“We’ve had to find financial institutions that would help us, and it’s just been one roadblock after the other,” he said.

Local 4 is told the building is nearly 170,000 square feet and over 16 acres of land.

Damon Tooles, president of Tooles Contracting Group, which is handling the build, says the sanctuary will seat over 3,000 people and the chapel will seat 500.

The church will include a 400-seat amphitheater in front, a grand staircase inside, large executive spaces, Sunday school rooms, and massive parking lots.

“It started off as an 18-month construction project,” Tooles said. “We are probably in month 23 now. So, one of the things that was significant to this project because it started 16 years ago was that in that timeframe, the stormwater retention system laws changed.”

As a result, they’ve put in a new water retention system.

“We are at a point now where we are on the line to completion, and all of the challenges have pretty much been met,” Tooles said.

Bishop Winans says although his congregation has been challenged throughout this process, he is hopeful for what’s to come.

Local 4 asked him what his vision is for everything ahead.

“Continuing to work and believe God,” Winans said. “To continue to inspire His people and to know that this building is going to be an asset to the city of Detroit.”

The church expects construction to be done by the end of the year, but they say the details for the grand opening are still being planned.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration
• This was just voted the best book store in Metro Detroit
• Hayden Panettiere, who starred in the television series ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville,’ dies at 36
• This was just voted the best gyro in Metro Detroit
• Kushner sits with Netanyahu to talk Gaza after 2-hour meeting with Hamas
• Murakami hits go-ahead 7th-inning homer as White Sox sweep Tigers with 7-5 win
• Detroit family honors teen lost to cancer with 5K, foundation helping families
• Trump orders Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea
• This was just voted the best Chinese in Metro Detroit
• 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:

Hurricane Lala weakened Sunday to a tropical storm after raking Hawaii without making landfall, its heavy rains and winds strong enough to sweep around 100 homes off their foundations on the Big Island, officials said.

Gov. Josh Green said no one is believed to have died when the homes washed away. Earlier, a search-and-rescue mission was launched in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the Big Island’s southern tip. (Read more)

----

It’s not all about short-legged speed when 150 corgis gather for an international race celebrating the little dogs. There’s a costume parade, the “smartest nose,” and — of course — the loudest bark.

The fifth Corgi Race Vilnius drew dogs and their owners to the Lithuanian capital’s Vingis park on Saturday for what organizers said was the biggest edition yet. There were competitors from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the United States and Britain — the country most closely associated with the breed, famously a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth II. (Read more)

----

Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the trial of a man accused of orchestrating the killing of Tupac Shakur, kicking off weeks of testimony that will revisit what happened on a Las Vegas nearly 30 years ago.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the rapper’s death. He pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, faces life in prison. (Read more)

---> Find more headlines from around the world right here <---

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Teetotaler /ˈtēˌtōdələr/ (noun) -- defined as “A person who never drinks alcohol.”

Example: “A teetotaler, he never joined his coworkers for drinks after a long week.”

🧹 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 mocktails. We don’t have one for that, sorry.

✍🏽 Written and curated by: Samantha Sayles (Have something to say? Feel free to send an email here.)

The announcement came as the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were two months ago.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran says it is near finalizing deal with Oman over plan for Strait of Hormuz shipping

Iran said Monday it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and the sides are now working to finalize details for a joint statement.

Iranian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”

He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports and it was not clear whether this would meet Washington’s expectations.

Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Baghaei conceded the talks with Oman have gone slowly, “but we had planned, and still plan, to finalize the understanding in the form of a package: the map plus a joint statement.”

His comments came as a 60-day deadline for finding an agreement to end the war expired, with no signs of a deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Kushner meeting with Netanyahu as he seeks approval of Gaza road map

Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was holding meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the day after he had talks with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament.

The meetings with Netanyahu come after the Israeli leader rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the truce deal forward in Gaza.

Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on as well.

But Israel, which under the road map must withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal will occur.

Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance further.

Iraqi officials targeted by drone attacks

Two officials in northern Iraq have been targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.

One was fired at the office of Masoud Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.

There were no casualties and it was unclear whether the buildings were damaged. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Iran war, Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militant groups have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday’s direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.

Barzani in a post on X called the attack “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region.”

The attack comes as U.S. forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Trump cited his good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the decision. The announcement baffled many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

The 11-day, summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began Monday morning as scheduled and it wasn't known which parts of the training were being downsized.

North Korea did not immediately respond to the announcement. North Korea previously threatened strong responses to the U.S.-South Korean exercises, which it views as an invasion rehearsal.

Experts say Trump's step signals his willingness to reengage with Kim, but the North Korean leader, now emboldened by his advancing nuclear arsenal and expanding military cooperation with Russia, won't likely return to talks unless he is assured of serious U.S. concessions.

Trump orders military to ‘substantially reduce’ drills

Trump said in a social media post that the exercises are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.

Trump instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the exercises, he said, adding that he recently asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung if they would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

Trump’s move is the latest example of the American president appearing to turn against an ally in favor of a leader cast by previous administrations as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration also have railed against NATO allies over a perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.

The trust many South Koreans have in the U.S. has eroded following a tariff war instigated by Trump’s administration and his transactional approach to security.

South Korea hopes for talks between US and North Korea

Lee's presidential office said later Monday that South Korea hopes “friendly relationship” between Trump and Kim would lead to “meaningful dialogue” between the U.S. and North Korea and start discussions on promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. It said that South Korea will make necessary diplomatic efforts for that.

South Korea and the U.S. are closely discussing practical and military contributions that can be made to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to South Korea's presidential office, which said the countries have been closely coordinating over their joint military drills and readiness.

Lee is a liberal who espouses improved ties with North Korea. Since taking office last year, his government has taken proactive steps to improve ties with North Korea, including turning off front line loudspeakers that blared K-pop music and world news and banning activists from flying balloons carrying propaganda leaflets toward North Korea.

On Saturday, Lee offered to hold talks to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

But North Korea has shunned any talks with South Korea and the U.S. since Kim's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump broke down in 2019.

Kim has since used the long-running diplomatic stalemate with the U.S. and South Korea to expand his nuclear and missile arsenals by accelerating weapons tests and ramping up production of nuclear materials. He also has bolstered his diplomatic credentials by aligning with Russia over its war against Ukraine and taking steps to deepen cooperation with China.

In September 2025, Kim said he held “good personal memories” of Trump but suggested he could only resume talks with the American president if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.

Experts say Kim likely aims to win major concessions like extensive sanctions relief in return for limited denuclearization steps.

“Trump’s recent social media posts about Kim Jong Un suggest a willingness to reengage, but North Korea is busy profiting from Russia’s war against Ukraine while modernizing its own military,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Downsizing the U.S. and South Korean drills “can damage alliance coordination, slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defense, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia,” Easley said.

Military drills test tactics and anger North Korea

South Korea's military earlier said the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises this year would be similar to previous years in scale, with about 18,000 South Korean soldiers taking part.

The U.S. military said the drills would incorporate lessens from recent conflicts such as North Korea's battlefield experiences in the Russia-Ukraine front, while including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing and distribution of prepositioned military equipment.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Friday accused the U.S. and South Korea of plotting more provocative drills this year and vowed to respond with “a new level of a deterrent.” Earlier this month, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea in a likely protest of the drills.

This is not the first time Trump has sought to suspend the drills. After his first summit with Kim in 2018, Trump unilaterally announced the suspension of the U.S.-South Korean summertime exercises, calling them “very provocative” and “tremendously expensive.”

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea feels less urgency to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea now than when it entered talks with its rivals in 2018, but is unlikely to completely ignore Trump's overture.

He predicted North Korea will likely say it has noted Trump's post but will wait for further action showing the U.S. intends to drop hostilities against North Korea.

Michael Stokes was 35 when he was killed on June 20, 2004, near East Warren Ave. and Conner. His homicide remains open and unsolved, according to Detroit Police.

His daughter, Doneicia Stokes, was only 8 years old when her father died. Now 31, she says the unanswered questions have haunted not only her, but her family for over two decades.

“It literally keeps me up at night, honestly,” she said. “We just miss him so, so much.”

According to the Detroit Police Department, officers responded to the area of Conner and East Warren for a reported shooting that day. When officers arrived, they found Stokes injured.

Emergency responders rushed Stokes to St. John’s Hospital, but he was pronounced dead.

Investigators learned that before the shooting, Stokes had been involved in an argument and physical altercation with an unknown suspect. Unfortunately, police said that suspect fled the area before officers arrived.

Stokes said she has learned that her father had been returning clothing at a store in the strip mall early that afternoon when he was killed.

“As far as I know… he was shot and murdered on Father’s Day,” Stokes said. “He was returning some work clothes. There was a witness that said he saw my dad and someone going back and forth. There may have also been a woman there.”

She said it was a busy strip mall at the time and believes someone else may have witnessed what happened.

“There was plenty of people out there,” Doneicia said. “Someone knows something, you know they do.”

According to Stokes, her father’s chain was also taken. She said it had a Libra scale on it, which held special meaning for her mother because of her birthday.

“That chain was never found,” she said.

Stokes also said someone tried to take her father’s truck. From her understanding, her father threw the vehicle’s keys, and the person or people involved were unable to find them.

‘My dad was amazing’

The details surrounding her father’s death are difficult for Stokes to try to piece together because she was so young at the time. Her brother was 3. Her sister was 5.

“I was so young then, and I’m just learning a lot more now and trying to do my research and trying to get this case solved,” she said.

What she does remember clearly is the man her father was before his death.

“My dad was amazing,” Stokes said. “Unfortunately… I only had him for eight years, but I have so many great vivid memories of him.”

She remembers her father spending time in his room with his collections and happily recording his children with his large camcorder. She said he loved spending time with his family and was a great husband to her mother.

“He was an… amazing father to us,” Stokes said. “We didn’t understand what was happening then. We were just asking our mom, ‘When is our dad coming home?’ We didn’t understand. We were so young.”

‘I just want justice’

Now, more than 20 years later, Stokes said she especially misses his playful personality.

“His silly moments,” she said. “He was such a silly guy. He was so outgoing — the fun times we had playing in the yard — it’s just so much.”

“I just want justice for my family,” she added.

Detroit police are asking anyone with information about Michael Lesean Stokes’ death to call 313-596-2260, 1-800-SpeakUp or submit a tip through DetroitRewards.TV. You can remain anonymous.

“I just pray constantly that someone will speak up, submit an anonymous tip,” she said. “We love him and we’re going to continue to fight for him. And in the name of Jesus I pray that we get justice.”

“I am stage four lung cancer and I don’t want the last of my life to be looking at garbage,” Caulette Djakonow, who lives on Dayton Street in Detroit, said.

For over two months, Djakonow walked out of her home to see trash piling up in front of a nearby lot.

“When people come to my home, and I have a nice home, the first thing they say is ‘Wow, it looks so nice,’ No. Now, it’s ‘What the hell is that?’ That’s everyone, family and friends. I shouldn’t have to live like that,” she said.

But, that view changed Saturday morning after she called Local 4 and Local 4 called the city.

“I got up and I opened up the front door and it just didn’t look right down there,” Djakonow said. “So, I opened up the door and said, ‘Oh my god! It’s gone.’ So, I called you right away.”

She’s grateful it’s gone, but wishes it hadn’t taken so long.

Djakonow’s home has been in her family for decades.

When the trash started piling up, she says she repeatedly called waste services.

“They have to be held accountable and they have to get it out of there,” she said, describing what the waste service told her about removing the trash. “And, if not, then it goes to court and that could take another two to three months. So, what you’re telling me is that I have to look at this garbage for another five months?”

With stage four lung cancer, she says the mess was more than an eyesore. She worried about the health hazards it could create.

Once the city got Local 4’s call, crews came out and cleared this pile, along with others nearby.

“The Department of Public Works came out this morning and picked it all up,” Eva Torres, the District six manager for the city’s Department of Neighborhoods, said.

Torres is glad the city was able to step in quickly, but she wants people to know how to report problems like this.

“One of the most important methods is the Improve Detroit app and so you can download the app onto your phone,” she said. “You can go onto your laptop. You can take a picture of whatever it is that is out and that is sent directly to whatever department needs to take care of the issue.”

She says you can also call your district manager directly with concerns.

Djakonow says she now plans to work with the city to make sure the dumping doesn’t return.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “I am so grateful, you just don’t even know. I was so happy when I woke up and saw that. I was like ‘Hallelujah!’”

Temperatures will remain in the low 80s today and Tuesday, keeping conditions comfortable for mid-August. A few scattered showers and thunderstorms could develop late Tuesday afternoon and evening, mainly closer to the Thumb. Most of Metro Detroit should remain dry during this time, but the chance for rain increases Tuesday night into Wednesday as the next cold front moves through. A line of showers with embedded thunderstorms will be possible before daybreak.

Behind the front, temperatures will trend slightly below average from midweek into the weekend. Highs will generally be in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees, providing a noticeably cooler feel. We could see another round on rain on Saturday.

Many residents on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province spent the day mourning victims and waiting for aid to arrive to communities still cut off by the deadly quake.

During Indonesia’s Independence Day ceremony in the capital Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence honoring the nation’s independence heroes.

More than 1,300 homes were damaged when the quake struck East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday, with nearly 250 destroyed on Flores alone. Some 5,000 people were forced into temporary shelters and 213 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency or BNPB.

The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities have since recorded 1,576 aftershocks into Monday, though only a small proportion were felt by residents.

Thousands await aid amid devastation

Thousands of people on Flores camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents overnight into Monday, sleeping outside because of the danger of more aftershocks.

An Associated Press photojournalist saw widespread devastation across the island, with fallen trees blocking roads, giant boulders hurled down slopes by landslides, and homes left shattered or heavily damaged. Buildings collapsed onto parked cars.

For many residents, the disaster revived painful memories of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores in 1992, killing about 2,500 people.

"My house is just rubble now,” said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in the village of Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency, ”We need food, medicine and clean water urgently.”

Nearly 1,500 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone, supported by 10 aircraft to distribute 275 tons of aid to the area as logistical challenges have slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities, said Abdul Muhari, the BNPB's deputy chief, in a video statement.

Authorities set up two emergency field hospitals in the worst-hit town of Ruteng to treat earthquake victims after local hospitals were damaged, with two crisis management teams overseeing a health emergency operation center, Muhari said.

He also said rescue teams continue searching for victims in the affected areas, although no residents have reported any family members still missing.

Rescuers struggle to reach isolated communities

Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the areas closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, late Sunday, after a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain, authorities said. Thousands of residents remained in urgent need of assistance after days of isolation.

"The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey,” said deputy police chief of Sikka regency, Marselus Yugo Amboro, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies.

He said initial assessments revealed extensive damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone.

___

Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan, Dita Alangkara and Andi Jatmiko, in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this story.

The 41-year-old superstar’s contract with Riyadh club Al-Nassr, signed in December 2022, expires next June, and he has told Vogue magazine that another is unlikely.

“This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy,” Ronaldo said.

The Portugal forward, who has scored 976 career goals, married long-time partner, Georgina Rodriguez, earlier this month.

“I have my future all mapped out,” he said. “I have so many things to keep me busy that to tell you just one thing is hard. Because football could leave a big hole, you have to fill your time in various ways, not just one.

“And also have more fun, travel more, watch and play padel, which I really like, and continue to enjoy what I’ve earned — what we’ve earned. Because after all, it’s been 25 years with a lot of sacrifice.”

The 2026-27 SPL season is Ronaldo’s 25th as a professional. During his career, he has won five Ballon d’Or awards and five UEFA Champions League titles.

Ronaldo’s 28 league goals last season helped Al-Nassr become champion of Saudi Arabia in May to secure his first trophy since arriving in Riyadh, and a first league title for the club since 2019.

After returning from his wedding, he missed Al-Nassr’s first game of its title defense on Saturday, watching from the sidelines as it opened with a 3-0 win over Al-Fateh.

“Cristiano is here today, and he is always present with us,” Al-Nassr coach Ange Postecoglou said after the game.

Ronaldo could play against Al-Diriyah in the King’s Cup on Tuesday.

“The most important thing now is recovery, especially as we have only two days after this match,” former Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest coach Postecoglou said.

Ronaldo’s comments came days after long-time rival Lionel Messi revealed that, following his father’s death, he may soon retire.

“I don’t know how to carry on,” Messi, 39, said. “I used to just play football, and now I’m really not sure if I’ll carry on doing it for much longer.”

__

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Oil prices also were mixed.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX was nearly unchanged at 26,438.04, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.1% to 8,628.32.

Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.2% to 10,766.46.

The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.7% to 69,220.25 after the Japanese government reported the economy grew slightly faster than forecast in the April-June quarter, expanding at a 1.1% annual pace even as private spending and investment stayed flat and export growth slowed. In quarterly terms, the economy grew 0.3% in the second quarter of the year.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng picked up 1.3% to 25,453.23, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.4% to 3,982.65.

Markets in South Korea were closed for a holiday.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5% to 9,073.20.

Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.1%, while the Sensex in India fell 0.3%.

On Friday, The S&P 500 fell 0.2% following a report that showed shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month. Such data could help the Federal Reserve keep interest rates low, which is positive for investors. But it also suggests growth may be slowing at a time when inflation is still high.

The Fed has no good tool to fix both a stagnating economy and high inflation at the same time, which is why what’s called “stagflation” is seen as a worst-case scenario.

The Dow industrials dipped 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite shed 0.3%.

Wall Street will get financial updates from some of the nation’s biggest retailers this week.

Home Depot reports its latest results on Tuesday, followed by Target and Lowes on Wednesday and then Walmart on Thursday. The results will help give investors a more detailed picture of how businesses and consumers are handling stubbornly high inflation.

Wall Street and economists will get more details about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy when the central bank releases minutes from the July meeting on Wednesday.

In other dealings early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.4% to $88.84 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude slipped 0.2% to $82.20 per barrel.

With prospects for a deal toward ending the war with Iran unclear, the stability of oil supplies remains uncertain with the Strait of Hormuz nearly closed, blocking a vital route for oil and gas tankers from the Middle East.

The U.S. dollar fell to 159.13 Japanese yen from 159.32 yen. The euro rose to $1.1601 from $1.1588.

Schoenherr Roofing is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best roofing in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Schoenherr Roofing.
2. Problem Solved Home Improvement.
3. Victors Home Solutions in Canton Township.
4. Kroll Construction.
5. Michigan Home Restoration.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

John K. King Used & Rare Books in Detroit is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best book store in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. John K. King Used & Rare Books in Detroit.
2. Brooks Books in Wyandotte.
3. Calliope Bookshelf in Washington Township.
4. Sidetrack Bookshop in Royal Oak.
5. Road Less Traveled Books in Farmington.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

Thistle and Thorn Ink in Chesterfield Township is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best tattoo parlor in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Thistle and Thorn Ink in Chesterfield Township.
2. Diamond Ink Tattoo in Waterford Township.
3. Tatt Ma’am Tattoos in Mt. Clemens.
4. Premier Tattoo Company in Westland.
5. Beyond the Chair Tattoo Studio.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

Mon Jin Lau in Troy is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best Chinese in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Mon Jin Lau in Troy.
2. Golden Chopsticks in St. Clair Shores.
3. Wing Lee Chinese Restaurant in Sterling Heights.
4. Lotus Pond Restaurant in Warren.
5. Lei Ting Blue Pearl in Milford.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best haunted house in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac.
2. Eloise Asylum in Westland.
3. Haunted Garage Productions.
4. Deranged Haunt in Romulus.
5. Rotten Manor in Holly.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

Pegasus Taverna in St. Clair Shores is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best gyro in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Pegasus Taverna in St. Clair Shores.
2. Golden Fleece in Detroit.
3. Zestia Greek Street Food in Warren.
4. Mitsos Greek Food & Coffee in Detroit.
5. Joe Jo’s in Macomb.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

AnnMarie & Co. Boutique in Garden City is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best boutique clothing store in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. AnnMarie & Co. Boutique in Garden City.
2. Freckles & Grit in Trenton.
3. The Peacock Room in Detroit.
4. VITRINE at The Baker House in Plymouth.
5. BB’s Belleville Boutique.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

Bangkok 96 in Dearborn is the winner of this year’s Vote 4 The Best category for best Thai in Metro Detroit.

Here are the results for the top five:

1. Bangkok 96 in Dearborn.
2. Coastal Thai in Wyandotte.
3. Thai Orchid Cuisine in Mt. Clemens.
4. Khom Fai Thai Dining Experience in Macomb.
5. Tam Sung Thai.

Congrats to all of our finalists.

This year’s Vote 4 The Best received more than 163,000 votes during the finalist phase, with Metro Detroiters supporting their favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses in 80 different categories.

Our winner reveal begins Monday, Aug. 10.

Click here to view a full list of this year’s Vote 4 The Best winners as they are announced.

In the latest round of meetings, the U.S. is angling for Israel’s approval of the road map. There is a lot at stake, including the lives of some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, the reconstruction of the demolished enclave and future control over the territory.

Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on as well. But Israel, which under the road map must withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal will occur.

Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Board of Peace Director Nickolay Mladenov were also in the meeting with Netanyahu, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Meeting follows Kushner conversation with Hamas

The meeting comes after Kushner spent over two hours meeting Sunday with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament, according to a regional official and a Hamas official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also were there.

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation.

The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza. In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

Regional neighbors increase pressure on Israel

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map, saying, “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers’ statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Israel had no immediate response.

The White House referred questions about Kushner’s meetings to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately comment. The Tony Blair Institute also did not comment.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza.

But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state and the road map entails the creation of a “credible pathway toward achieving Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” something Israel’s current government rejects.

Until the road map is agreed to, other elements of the ceasefire are on hold, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold onto power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza and it’s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then.

Also coming up is the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Collin Binkley in Washington and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

That idea drew the two-time Oscar nominee to “The Magic Faraway Tree,” a family adventure about Tim, a stay-at-home father whose family is forced to reconsider life after his wife, Polly, quits her job. They move to the countryside, where their children discover the magical Faraway Tree and its ever-changing worlds, sending the family into a series of fantastical adventures. The film, based on Enid Blyton’s children’s books, arrives in U.S. theaters on Friday.

For Garfield, the story’s themes of nature, imagination and community feel especially timely as technology increasingly shapes everyday life. “I think people are craving connection and community and a kind of reconnection to the earth and to each other,” he said.

Garfield said he became passionate about the project after reading Simon Farnaby’s screenplay. “I really just adore his sense of whimsy and heartfeltness and magic and joy,” he said. “I felt very, very passionate about it.”

Tim’s journey reflects the film’s larger ideas about finding wonder outside the routine and distractions of modern life. For Garfield, that sense of wonder extends beyond fantasy. “I think it’s all around us,” he said. “There are so many things to be in awe of on this planet.” The film, he said, is ultimately about recognizing that “there’s magic in the ordinary” as well as in the extraordinary.

Garfield, whose credits include playing Spider-Man, says he is drawn to roles with an element of play, community and the natural world. He focuses on “anything that keeps me awake to the remembering of the connection that we have to each other, the connection we have to nature, how we are all interconnected,” he said.

Garfield grew up reading Enid Blyton’s “The Famous Five” with his brother but did not read “The Faraway Tree” series as a child. His mother introduced him to another beloved literary adventurer: Bilbo Baggins, the hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.”

“Any underdog story, really, those are the ones that get me,” Garfield said.

Another childhood escape was the video store. Garfield remembers being fascinated by the rows of VHS tapes and the possibilities behind their covers. The habit has survived in a new form in adulthood: spending an evening browsing streaming services without picking anything, enjoying the feeling of looking “into the windows of all these imaginary worlds.”

That may help explain why Garfield welcomes the resurgence of VHS and other analog technology among younger audiences.

“I dig that,” he said. “The regression to analog is looking good to me.”

The deadline was Monday, and the two sides are further apart than they were then.

Talks, such as they are, have focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting a U.S. blockade on Iran, both of which were supposed to have happened under the interim deal. There has been no sign of any compromise on the strait, or that detailed nuclear talks have even begun.

The U.S., meanwhile, has no good options for getting out of the war it started alongside Israel.

Acceding to Iran's latest demands would mean giving it control over a critical international waterway that carried a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas before the war — and would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Escalating the deeply unpopular war would further draw down U.S. supplies of advanced missile interceptors, jolt the world economy, and drive up gas prices ahead of U.S. congressional elections.

So both sides have dug in, hoping the other will blink first. So far, neither has.

The interim deal collapsed weeks later

The June deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding, called for a halt to all military operations and set a 60-day deadline for an agreement to permanently end the war and resolve the longstanding dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.

It called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened but gave Iran a vaguely defined role in facilitating traffic, leaving open the possibility it could charge fees after the 60-day deadline. Iran has seized on that clause to claim control over the waterway.

A week after the deal was signed, Iran began firing on vessels using a route along the coast of Oman, on the other side of the strait, that is overseen by the U.S. military and intended to bypass Tehran's control.

The U.S. responded by striking Iran, which retaliated by attacking Arab countries hosting American forces, like Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. The U.S. canceled waivers issued as part of the deal that had allowed Iran to sell its oil internationally and Trump restored a blockade of Iran's ports.

Each side accused the other of violating the June agreement, of which almost nothing remains.

The fighting eventually died down. A related truce in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah has mostly held, even as Israeli troops occupy large areas in the country's south. Lebanon's "territorial integrity and sovereignty" were to have been ensured under the June deal.

Iranian officials say they stopped negotiating with the U.S. in June, while acknowledging that messages have been relayed by intermediaries. Trump says the talks have continued, occasionally claiming progress after pulling back from threatening major strikes.

Pakistan, which played a key role in brokering the June agreement, noted last week that the deadline was Monday while expressing hope it would be extended.

“We are not closing the chapter,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said. “Pakistan is making all-out efforts to bring the two parties to the negotiating table.”

Iran's leaders think they can force Trump to give up the strait

Earlier this month, Iran issued a list of demands for reopening the strait, including the lifting of the American blockade, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from around Iran and the payment of reparations for damage inflicted in the war started by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

Even then, Iran has said it would control the strait — and potentially charge fees — through an agreement it is negotiating with Oman, and that the strait will not go back to being an open, toll-free waterway as it was before the war.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have meanwhile begun attacking Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, threatening another crucial trade route that had been used to relieve some of the pressure from the strait being closed.

Trump has rejected Iran's demands — saying it's Tehran that should pay war reparations and claiming the U.S. controls the strait. He appears to be banking on economic pressure — in the form of the blockade and longstanding sanctions — to bring Iran's rulers to their knees.

Iran's economy has been battered by the war and isolation, and inflation has soared. The crisis could stoke renewed anti-government protests, like those that were brutally crushed in January.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which rose immediately after the interim deal, is back to a small fraction of what it was before the war. Rising prices of fuel and other goods are expected to climb further the longer this continues with effects far beyond the Middle East.

The clock is still ticking for both sides.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed.

Panettiere’s father, Skip, announced the actor’s death in a statement provided to ABC News on Sunday.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” his statement said.

No cause of death was announced, and a publicist for Hayden Panettiere did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.

Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Friday, began her career as a child actor in commercials and soap operas.

Her role as a cheerleader with superpowers in “Heroes” propelled her to fame in 2006, with the series revolving around the mantra “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

“I think ‘Heroes’ is really hot because it’s just a really great combination of everything that people love — they love reality, they love sci-fi and things like X-Men where they get to dream of something bigger,” Panettiere told The Associated Press in 2008. “And at the core of it are these human stories that people can relate to, very rugged. And it’s just grabbed everyone in every age group.”

She went on to win three Teen Choice Awards for that role and was a Grammy Award nominee for a children’s spoken word album recorded a few years after the release of the animated movie “A Bug’s Life.”

Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on country charts, spawned U.S. tours and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations. Panettiere had 11 songs recorded for “Nashville” appear on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts during the show’s run, including two featuring Britton.

Panettiere's younger brother, Jansen, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.

She had been open about her struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, including after the birth of her daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

In an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty after her memoir came out in May, Panettiere talked about the custody arrangement for her 11-year-old daughter, who lives full-time with Klitschko in Ukraine. News of the 2018 decision prompted headlines about Panettiere giving up custody of her daughter.

“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said. “That could not be farther from the truth.”

Panettiere said Klitschko suggested their daughter live with him full-time when the child was 2, as Panettiere struggled with mental health challenges and addiction. She said she was in a “horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse” while “just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness.”

She entered rehab in 2015, while filming “Nashville.”

“I was the one who put myself in the first treatment center. I was drowning,” she said in a 2023 interview with Women’s Health magazine.

On Shetty’s podcast, Panettiere recalled the explosion of her fame when she was cast on “Heroes,” including the first time she was tracked by the paparazzi. When she’d imagined the moment as a younger actress, she’d planned to look chic.

Instead, she said, “it was just sheer terror.”

Panettiere also appeared in two of the “Scream” movies, starred as the title character in the 2009 film “I Love You Beth Cooper” and played the young daughter of a football coach in “Remember the Titans.” She had spoken positively about her experience filming “Remember the Titans,” saying she felt so similar to the character she played — Sheryl Yoast, the opiniated, football-loving daughter of Will Patton’s Coach Bill Yoast.

President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced last week during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil, following Ecuador, which launched similar missions with the U.S. in March. Guatemala, however, has denied reaching such an agreement.

It will be “like you saw with the strikes on the drug boats,” Hegseth said during a military drill in the jungle in Panama. “Same effect on land. And so we’re working with Ecuador. We’re working with Colombia. We’re working with partners to bring the fight to the (designated terrorist organizations) on land.”

The expansion marks a new phase in the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure governments across Latin America to align with its security priorities and assert what it calls “American dominance over the Western Hemisphere."

Voters across the region are increasingly embracing Trump-aligned leaders, giving Washington more willing partners. But critics warn that the widening U.S. military campaign risks civilian casualties and a backlash against the U.S. that could outlast the Republican administration.

“What's going on is an attempt to legitimize the increased use of the U.S. military in the region,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin America expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. “It projects power, demonstrates military superiority and enables Washington to impose its agenda. This is not cooperation, it’s obviously a very asymmetrical relationship.”

Escalating unilateral boat strikes to joint land operations

The U.S. military has operated in Latin America for generations, supplying allies with weapons, intelligence and training to fight drug trafficking, while leaving a fraught legacy of support for military coups and dictatorships.

But since Trump returned to office in January 2025, Washington has pursued its most interventionist approach to the region in decades.

His administration has designated 20 Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” sent U.S. forces into Venezuela to capture its president and involved CIA agents in drug lab busts in Mexico. It has killed more than 200 people in over 60 boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, offering little evidence that those targeted were “narco-terrorists” and drawing questions about the strikes’ legality.

But sustained U.S. combat operations alongside local forces would be “new and different,” said William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist at American University, testing deep-rooted sensitivities over national sovereignty and the presence of U.S. troops.

Hegseth provided few details about what joint operations with Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras would look like. But in Colombia, where Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella took office this month, he raised the prospect of U.S. forces joining strikes against armed groups including the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s last major guerrilla group. Hegseth said de la Espriella had requested greater U.S. military involvement.

“Anywhere you traffic drugs or you threaten the American people or our partners, you are a target just like ISIS or al-Qaida,” Hegseth said, equating drug traffickers with Islamic extremist groups that dominated U.S. national security priorities for decades.

On Saturday, following a drone attack by the ELN on troops, de la Espriella vowed the rebels would “pay a high price."

Concerns over US military presence in Latin America

Ecuador has emerged as the clearest case of direct U.S. military involvement, launching joint raids with Washington despite voters overwhelmingly rejecting foreign military bases in a November 2025 referendum. A New York Times investigation found that one strike on an alleged drug lab in March instead destroyed a cattle farm.

The push to extend such agreements has gained the most traction among Trump’s ideological allies in the region — conservative leaders elected on promises of aggressive crackdowns on crime in recent months.

Guatemala stands out as an exception. Its progressive government has worked closely with Washington on security despite political differences. But President Bernardo Arévalo has denied agreeing to joint anti-drug operations, saying they would be illegal without congressional approval.

Honduras, Colombia and Ecuador did not respond to requests for comment on Hegseth’s remarks.

A notable outlier from the new U.S. anti-trafficking alliance is Mexico, a major source and transit point for fentanyl and other drugs entering the U.S. Progressive President Claudia Sheinbaum has cooperated closely with Washington on security but resisted mounting pressure for a U.S. military role in fighting cartels on Mexican soil.

“Ultimately, the United States will have to define what ‘joint operations’ means in each of these countries. It may discover pretty quickly that this is something most governments — even governments on the right — are quite uncomfortable with," said Adam Isacson, a defense analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America.

'There is only so much sovereignty they can cede'

Observers question whether a more militarized approach would produce lasting security gains. Shifter said the campaign may serve partly as a show of force, building on the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the Trump administration seeks to offset foreign policy setbacks elsewhere, including in the Middle East.

Others warn the strategy risks civilian casualties, particularly in Colombia, where armed groups operate among civilian populations and often function as de facto authorities in areas beyond the state’s reach. Rather than beating back those groups, military strikes are more likely to force them to adapt, said Jeremy McDermott, co-director of the Colombia-based investigative organization InSight Crime.

“The U.S. bombs an ELN camp in Colombia or in Venezuela, what is the first thing the ELN are going to do? They’re going to dismantle all their camps and move into the villages and towns,” he said.

In the long term, experts say, deeper U.S. military involvement could test how far voters are willing to go in putting security over sovereignty, potentially constraining even Trump’s closest allies.

“All of these presidents, no matter how far right they are, face pressure to do something about security and to make a show of pursuing the ‘bad guys’ who are making people feel unsafe. There is broad agreement on that," Isacson said. “But they also know there is only so much sovereignty they can cede before public opinion begins turning against them."

___

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press journalists Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Astrid Suárez in Bogotá, Colombia, contributed to this report.

That’s true — with a caveat. Wasserman Schultz is seeking her 12th term by running in a new district after Republicans scrambled the state’s congressional map earlier this year.

The fallout pushed Wasserman Schultz, a former national party chair with powerful ties in Washington, to cross district lines from her Fort Lauderdale exurb and be the only white candidate in an area of Broward County that has helped send Black Democrats to Congress since 1992. That’s yielded an uncomfortable fight following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act provisions undergirding minority voting strength and effectively cleared Old Confederacy states, including Florida, to reshape House districts.

“For her to come in like this is just another Broward seat, it's a complete erasure of our history, our fight for Black access,” said former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, who resigned from the seat in April while facing an ethics investigation but now wants it back.

Another candidate, 27-year-old progressive organizer and substitute teacher Elijah Manley, said Republicans’ redistricting ploy is not Wasserman Schultz’s fault. But she “had other options,” Manley added, including running in her new home district, which was gerrymandered to include the more conservative Gulf coast.

“Instead, she stabbed us in the back, trying to take away Black representation,” Manley said, pointing to Congressional Black Caucus warnings that it could lose more than a quarter of its 60-plus members this fall.

Wasserman Schultz, 59, is by far the best funded out of five Democratic candidates and benefits from Florida rules that do not require a majority to win primaries.

She argued that she can ably advocate for the whole region after representing wide swaths of Broward as a state and federal legislator across three decades. “I’m not air dropping myself into this district,” she told The Associated Press. “I have represented diverse communities. I know how to tailor my service to them and represent a district more broadly.”

A win by Wasserman Schultz would be a rarity

President Donald Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw House boundaries last year to help preserve the party's fragile majority. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded with an effort that clusters southeast Florida Democrats together, intending to reduce five Democratic seats to three. Broward, the state’s most Democratic county, situated between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, now has just one presumed-Democratic district anchored in and around Fort Lauderdale.

Nationally, white lawmakers typically hold some of the 115-plus House seats where the voting-age population is majority non-white. Wasserman Schultz does it in her existing north Broward-Palm Beach district, which was drawn after the 2020 census to be 42% Hispanic, 18% Black and about 6% Asian American. White voters compose the remaining third.

But a white lawmaker is a rarity for majority or plurality Black districts, like the new Florida 20th. The district is 42% Black, 23% Hispanic and 4% Asian, the rest white. The Black share includes a large Caribbean population, most notably Haitian Americans.

Going into November, an Associated Press analysis found that Wasserman Schultz is the only white Democrat positioned to represent any of the remaining districts with a Black majority or plurality.

Cherfilus-McCormick said she can win, despite losing Black constituents she previously represented in Palm Beach County. She dismissed concerns over federal criminal charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds. She has pleaded not guilty and has denied alleged violations of House rules.

The criminal case and redistricting fit together, she insisted, and “the people see what’s going on — them trying to silence the only Haitian member of Congress and take away our voice.”

Manley, though, was more circumspect about Wasserman Schultz’s status as the favorite. He mused about upsetting the veteran congresswoman on Tuesday yet looked ahead to the 2028 elections, hoping Black Democrats rally around one candidate rather than four. The current field also includes former 2 Live Crew rapper Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell and real estate broker and former local elected official Dale Holness.

Von Howard, a Black resident of Plantation, said the choice was wrenching. He declined to disclose his vote but said he wanted someone who “understands the totality of the district.”

“If you're not of the people, and you just want this for the clout, in some instances, that could be a turnoff,” the 47-year-old said.

Broward NAACP President Marsha Ellison was more direct, without endorsing any candidate.

“The whole mission was to take away Black power, so we don’t have representation to understand our lived experience,” she said. “That may not be important to Debbie, but it’s certainly important to us.”

There's a debate over what representation means

Wasserman Schutlz said she occasionally hears those concerns from voters. Her response is that “lived experience matters, but experience broadly matters" as well.

She notes her Appropriations Committee seat,which could be even more influential should Democrats win a House majority. She recalls programs impacting Black communities she helped create and fund since her first years in the Florida Legislature.

“I fight every single day to help improve the lived experience of the people that I represent,” she said.

Wasserman Schutlz also said she’s worked to connect across race and culture in Broward. Because of her existing district makeup, “I spent six years learning Spanish,” to converse with individuals and in town halls, news conferences and interviews broadcast on Spanish-language stations.

“Out of respect,” she said, “anything I can do to inspire people’s confidence that the person representing them understands them.”

Wasserman Schultz is a recognizable figure

Several times outside of early voting sites, Black, white and Hispanic voters waved or stopped to talk to the congresswoman. Among them were Broward County sheriff’s deputies who wanted photos and a trio of women who lamented they had been drawn into a new Republican-leaning district.

Yusdefs Delgado, a naturalized citizen from Colombia, told Wasserman Schultz that he enjoys her social media posts but wants to hear more about policy and less about the president.

“We know Trump sucks,” he told her, smiling and confirming that he voted for her. “I don’t agree with her on everything, but she’s closest to where I am, and I trust her to try to do the right thing for us,” Delgado explained later.

Cherfilus-McCormick and Manley said that’s not enough given the environment after the Supreme Court decision, Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives and his push to rewrite how the U.S. tells its history on race and racism.

“We’re not at a place in this country where we can be completely colorblind politically,” Manley said. “We’re just not.”

Wasserman Schultz said the new district “is drawn in a way that the plurality population has the ability to elect the person of their choice” — language that alludes to the now-diminished Voting Rights Act. Voters, she said, can “consider all of the qualities that matter to them.”

As for putting herself on the ballot again, she remained unapologetic.

“Trump and DeSantis did this to our community,” she said, adding, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them steal Broward’s political power, de-unify us and prevent us from standing up for our community’s values.”

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Associated Press journalist Matthew Klein contributed from Washington.

Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv’s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country’s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.

Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia’s economy. Wildberries has drawn massive loans from VTB and other banks as it expanded and likely will have trouble repaying them, putting more pressure on the financial system.

An online giant began in a Moscow apartment

Kim, 50, was born in Grozny, the capital of the province of Chechnya, to an ethnic Korean family of an engineer and a teacher. She launched Wildberries in 2004 from her Moscow apartment soon after giving birth to her first child while working as an English teacher.

“The idea was born from my own needs, and turned out to be needed by hundreds of thousands,” said Kim, now a mother of seven. “If a product or service makes your own life easier, you’re on the right track.”

Wildberries initially sold clothing before expanding to appliances, household items, cosmetics, books and more. The platform with its distinct purple logo has become an undisputed leader in e-commerce, accounting for about half of all online orders in Russia. Businesses big and small use it to store, ship and deliver merchandise across the country's 11 time zones.

An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 sellers use Wildberries, often described as Russia's Amazon. After Western brands fled following the war in Ukraine, online retailers filled the void with merchandise from China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

The company also acquired a bank, expanded to tourism and even considered buying an airline.

In 2024, Kim divorced her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, triggering a fight for control of the company. Bakalchuk sought the support of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his feared paramilitary forces but eventually lost the battle, which peaked in a shootout at a business center near the Kremlin that left two people dead and several wounded.

Wildberries depots are easy targets

The company has prided itself on relying on about two dozen mammoth warehouses as the core of its vast logistical network stockpiling the goods before shipping to about 100,000 storefront distribution points nationwide.

Rival online retailers Ozon and Yandex Market use smaller depots spread over a wider network.

As Ukraine embarked on a strategy of using long-range drones to attack deep inside Russia, it has expanded from striking military bases, oil refineries and other infrastructure to Wildberries warehouses, which provided particularly soft targets.

Since the first attack July 18 in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the southwestern Tambov region, Wildberries depots burned one after another in massive fires that flooded social media.

The depots, some as big as 300,000 square meters (about 3.2 million square feet) were unprotected and easy to set ablaze. It took three days to extinguish the fire in the Elektrostal depot, the Moscow region's main hub.

“These are not military and high-value political targets, therefore they’re not especially secured, they’re not really built to be able to shrug off drone strikes,” said podcaster Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert who heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

The strikes have stretched from the European part of Russia to Yekaterinburg, over 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) from Ukraine's border.

There's scarce public data, but some estimates indicate that up to 20% of the company's total warehouse space has been destroyed, with assessments of losses running as high as $6 billion.

Kim said Wildberries’ sites have been “reinforced and strengthened” defensively, but the attacks continued. Some warehouses suffered only minor damage, and Ukraine tried to hit them again.

Wildberries said it's rearranging supply chains to create “partner hubs” for storing merchandise — a long and challenging process, given its dependence on big depots.

Attacks cause a ripple effect

Ukrainian officials have said Wildberries sells gear and technical components, including drones, to the military. Moscow denied it, but such dual-use items as drone components, flak jackets or thermal weapon sights remain available on the platform.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks were designed to disrupt military supplies, breed popular discontent and cause a domino effect in the Russian economy by putting stress on major banks, including VTB and Sberbank, that made massive loans to Wildberries.

Wildberries’ debts were estimated at the equivalent of about $15 billion at the end of 2025.

Russia's small and medium businesses already have been hit hard by tax increases, regulatory hurdles and, most recently, a fuel crisis from attacks on oil refineries.

The strikes on Wildberries have further exacerbated the business environment, said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a nail in the coffin because we’re not there yet, but it’s certainly another enormous difficulty on top of what has already been a very difficult situation for small enterprises,” Weafer said.

Wildberries had recently changed its seller policy, exempting it from liability for stock damaged by a “force majeure” that includes drone attacks.

Kim pledged to support sellers with discounts on storage, free transfer of goods to other sites, discounted loans and other measures. Wildberries also issued some reimbursements but they covered only a fraction of the losses.

Russia’s Central Bank has asked lenders to restructure loans to small and medium businesses that lost merchandise.

Meanwhile, many owners of Wildberries pickup points face lost revenue amid the plunging deliveries. Some vented frustrations on social media about going out of business.

The lost goods mean tens of thousands of small businesses can't continue to operate, service their loans or pay taxes. Many are pleading for government support.

Galeotti said the strikes reflected Kyiv's effort to bring the war home to Russia.

“It’s not just about seeing great clouds of black smoke over your cities because of some oil refinery on the outskirts being hit," he said. "You might be a small business whose inventory has just gone up in smoke in one of the Wildberries’ warehouses. Or else you just simply might be an ordinary consumer who just suddenly is no longer going to get the goods that you plan to buy.”

Some analysts warn that instead of provoking discontent, the attacks could fuel stronger anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western fervor.

The Wildberries attacks have played into the hands of Russian hawks who urge escalating the war, said pro-Kremlin political expert Sergei Markov.

“It strengthens the view that it’s necessary to hit Europe,” he said. “And better sooner than later.”

Former President Dmitry Medvedev sought to stir up anger at Ukraine for trying to destroy an essential part of daily routine for millions.

“Our enemy is fighting not the Russian leadership or the army, but ordinary citizens,” he said.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the rapper’s death. He pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, faces life in prison.

The long-unsolved drive-by shooting gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.

Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

In recent years, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a street in Oakland named in his honor and inspired a character on the upcoming video game "Stranger than Heaven.”

Over the course of the trial, which could span weeks, prosecutors plan to call 35 to 45 potential witnesses, and the defense will call only a handful to testify.

Members of Shakur’s family are expected to be in the courtroom Monday. Shakur’s stepbrother, Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, recently told The Associated Press that sitting through the trial will be retraumatizing for the family, but it's important to be there.

“We’re gonna stand by Pac as we always have,” he said.

All eyes on Tupac

Along with Shakur's family, friends and fans traveled to Las Vegas to show their support during jury selection.

Darryl Harper, a veteran music producer who collaborated with Shakur at Death Row Records on songs released after the 1996 shooting, said he booked a plane ticket as soon as the latest trial date was set.

“He became a personal friend of mine as I worked with him almost every day of his last days here,” said Harper, who flew in from his home in Georgia.

Harper hopes the trial will reveal the truth about who was involved with the shooting.

“My prayer is that it’s the right person,” he said outside the court during jury selection. “If he’s the right person, then I’m glad that Tupac would get some kind of redemption finally. I think he deserves it.”

Shakur's cousins Kendrick Lesane and William Lesane flew in from Atlanta to watch jury selection. William Lesane said he wants someone held accountable.

“For me, justice has long left the station 30 years ago,” he said.

Prosecutors allege that Davis was the shot-caller

Prosecutors aren't claiming Davis pulled the trigger. Rather, they say he organized the shooting to get revenge after Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis' nephew at the MGM Grand hours before Shakur was shot.

The gunfire came from a white Cadillac that Davis was in with three others, all who have since died.

In 2008, Davis spoke to investigators looking into the deaths of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace. During the investigation, Davis was under an agreement that what he said about Shakur's killing couldn't be used against him. But nearly 10 years later, Davis published a book with those details and participated in media interviews in which he laid out his role in the shooting.

The book and his public statements revived the Las Vegas investigation and became key pieces of evidence, prosecutors say.

"Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo recently said.

Defense argues that the book is fictionalized

Davis' attorney Michael Sanft says Davis co-authored the book “Compton Street Legend” to make money, not to tell the truth. He argues it's impossible to tell which parts — if any — Davis wrote and which parts author Yusuf Jah penned.

Jah, who is on the list of potential witnesses, recently told an investigator that he didn't believe Davis fully read his own book, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say the book is sensationalized but that they'll show “what is true, what is exaggeration, and what is an outright lie,” they wrote in court documents.

Davis recently told Las Vegas television station Fox 5 that he actually wasn't there the night Shakur was shot. In his book though, he says he carpooled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that night to watch the same boxing match Shakur attended. It describes where he stayed, and the events before and after Shakur was shot. ___

Associated Press journalists Ty ONeil in Las Vegas and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

States are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total as much as $1.4 trillion, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram.

The lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that get children addicted to its platforms. It also claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains,” the lawsuit says.

Dozens of states filed the lawsuit three years ago. The trial set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, features four of the states as plaintiffs — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The other 25 states are expected to have trials later.

Meta said it disputes the allegations, and the trial evidence will show its commitment to supporting young people. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said in a statement.

States seek to land a major blow against Meta

For Meta, which already lost two pivotal cases over harms to children and teens this year, the stakes are high. The company reported a rare profit decline last month, in part due to $2.4 billion in legal expenses.

The $1.4 trillion figure, which Meta disclosed in a legal filing, is almost as high as the Menlo Park, California, company’s entire market capitalization — that is, the value of all its outstanding shares on the stock market. Paying it would inevitably put Meta Platforms in bankruptcy and perhaps put the company under state ownership.

“The state attorneys general are going for the gusto,” said Eric Goldman, a professor and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. “They are trying to set the definitive precedent in this case and they have asked for extraordinary damages and they are going to seek extraordinary structural remedies if they succeed.”

Meta calls the possible penalty “untethered to any claimed violation” by the states.

“A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” Meta said in a July 6 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

If Meta loses the trial, the court would have wide discretion over the size of any financial penalty, and legal experts say anything close to $1.4 trillion would be unlikely.

“It’s not plausible in the sense that Meta doesn’t have that much money and could not get it,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at Cornell Law School and Cornell Tech. “An award that large would put Meta into bankruptcy, wipe out its owners, and effectively result in the states owning Meta.”

As a practical matter, Grimmelmann added, “that seems extremely unlikely to happen.”

In other cases that have involved high potential damages for multiple individual offenses, he said courts have stopped short of imposing the maximum penalties. One example is the Anthropic artificial intelligence training case, where plaintiffs were claiming damages of $150,000 per book that Anthropic copied, but the penalty ended up being $3,000 per book, totaling about $1.5 billion.

Trial seeks to hold Meta accountable on state and federal statutes

The federal trial this week is more complex than one earlier this year, in Los Angeles, where a state court awarded $6 million in damages from Meta and Google’s YouTube to a single plaintiff, a young woman who testified she became addicted to social media as a child.

That case was a bellwether, or test case, picked from thousands of similar civil tort lawsuits to give both plaintiffs and the defendants an idea of how their arguments fare in court. The jury determined that Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design or operation of their respective platforms, and that the negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff. They also determined each company knew their platforms could be dangerous when used by a minor and that they failed to adequately warn of that danger.

The Oakland case, meanwhile, has state attorneys general as the plaintiffs and centers on state and federal statutes they allege Meta violated, which lay out potential penalty amounts for each violation.

“And there’s a lot of them because it’s four different states and at least three different kinds of statutes. There’s a child privacy statute, there’s a false advertising statute and there’s unfair competition statutes,” said Rebecca Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School.

Meta has added safety tools — but states want more

An outcome that leads to changes in how Facebook and Instagram operate could be as consequential as any financial penalty.

Meta has introduced a slew of new features in recent years designed to protect minors. In 2024 it launched teen accounts on Instagram, which are private by default and come with messaging and content restrictions, and parental controls. The company also uses artificial intelligence to determine if kids under 13 are using Instagram or if teenagers are lying about their age to access adult accounts.

Safety advocates have called on the company to do more. A New Mexico judge earlier this month ordered new safety measures on the platforms including time limits for minors, AI chatbot restrictions, and mandatory warnings on the platforms, but his order applied only to users in the state.

“These AGs have a real chance at fixing the product,” Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center said Friday in a virtual discussion with advocates hosted by the Tech Oversight Project. “For these companies, this is a real point of reckoning. As these cases go forward, this is a leap forward, folks, not a step.”

During jury selection last week, prospective jurors were asked whether and how much they believe Meta has contributed to the youth mental health crisis. While many agreed that it did, they also put responsibility on parents, and said things like climate change and the state of the world are also causing children's and teenagers' mental health issues.

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AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this report.

“The story is a long story, because we started out over 20 years ago,” Bishop Marvin Winans with Perfecting Church said.

As a refresher – in the early 2000s, Winans announced a massive plan for the space – one with a $60 million price tag.

But, for years, the site sat nearly empty.

“During the crisis of the financial institutions in 2008, it stopped. But, our faith kept growing,” Winans said.

In 2023, the city of Detroit sued the church, saying construction had not been completed fast enough.

Neighbors in the area expressed frustration about the delays.

Both the city and the church later came to terms and the lawsuit was dropped in turn for a schedule of goals and a timeline that had to be met.

“We’ve had to find financial institutions that would help us and it’s just been one roadblock after the other,” he said.

Local 4 is told the building is nearly 170,000 square feet and over 16-acres of land.

Damon Tooles, the president of Tooles Contracting Group, who is handling the build, says the sanctuary will seat over 3,000 people and the chapel will seat 500 people.

There will be a 400-seat amphitheater in front of the church, a grand staircase inside, along with large executive spaces inside, sunday school rooms, and massive parking lots.

“It started off as an 18-month construction project,” Tooles said. “We are probably in month 23 now. So, one of the things that was significant to this project because it started 16 years ago was that in that timeframe, the stormwater retention system laws changed.”

As a result, they’ve put in a new water retention system.

“We are at a point now where we are on the line to completion and all of the challenges have pretty much been met,” Tooles said.

Bishop Winans says although his congregation has been challenged throughout this process, he is hopeful for what’s to come.

Local 4 asked him what his vision is for everything ahead.

“Continuing to work and believe God,” Winans said. “To continue to inspire His people and to know that this building is going to be an asset to the city of Detroit.”

The church expects construction to be done by the end of the year, but they say the details for the grand opening are still being planned.

Rescuers dug through debris looking for anyone buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake across six regencies on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in the Muslim-majority country. They focused on three regencies that remained inaccessible: hardest-hit Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo.

“We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts,” said Fathur Rahman, head of the search-and-rescue office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

More than 900 homes were destroyed and 450 more damaged in East Nusa Tenggara province, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. At least 241 homes were damaged in the Flores region alone, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s chief for disaster prevention.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued and later lifted.

Authorities have since recorded at least 995 aftershocks, but only 46 were felt by residents, Muhari said, adding that 135 people were injured.

Many residents at Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo National Park, one of Indonesia’s best-known tourist destinations, spent the night outside because of the aftershocks.

“The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed,” said farmer Anastasia Imad, speaking from a makeshift green tent beside her damaged home. “We feared the aftershocks would bring it down on us while we slept.”

Landslides blocked sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) road linking communities across the mountainous island.

Meanwhile, relief workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets and medicine, while emergency shelters were set up for displaced residents. Authorities said restoring electricity and communications, as well as delivering aid to remote villages isolated by landslides, were among the biggest challenges.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

Flores has experienced some of the country’s deadliest disasters. A powerful earthquake and tsunami in 1992 killed about 2,500 people on the island.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

For Phoenix Mercury fans, that case is already closed: She's undeniably the G.O.A.T.

Taurasi was inducted into the Mercury Ring of Honor on Sunday at halftime of a game between the Mercury and Portland Fire, with the franchise retiring her No. 3 jersey and celebrating a superstar who has become synonymous with basketball in Arizona for more than two decades.

“This place has made me who I am,” Taurasi said just before her banner was unveiled in the arena's rafters. “You guys let me grow, you let me fall, you let me get back up and gave me the space to become who I am today. Through the championships, all the good times and all the bad times, the loyalty you have given me is something I will take with me forever.”

Two decades of excellence in Arizona

Taurasi, 44, played for the Mercury from 2004 to 2024 and won just about every championship and award that is possible for a player.

She's the WNBA's career scoring leader (by more than 2,000 points), an 11-time All-Star, a six-time Olympic gold medalist, a five-time scoring champion, a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, the 2009 regular-season MVP and the 2004 Rookie of the Year.

She said Sunday's honor ranks up there with her biggest accomplishments.

“Today's a big one,” Taurasi said before the game. “Today feels different. When your number goes up there, you can't use it anymore, it's done. So if there was any little competitiveness still in me, I think today it goes up in the rafters with the number and it feels really good.”

More than the sheer numbers, she's remembered for her fierce personality that resonated in Arizona, helping turn the Mercury into one of the WNBA's premier franchises. Taurasi was surrounded on Sunday by friends and family, including her wife, Penny Taylor, and their two children.

She said she's lucky to have 20 years of friendships to celebrate — including her long relationship with the “X-Factor," which is the nickname for the team's loyal fan base.

“When I walk into (the arena), I don't see strangers, I don't see employees,” Taurasi said. “I see friends, I see people I go to dinner with, I see people I text regularly with. This isn't just something where I showed up and said, 'Well, let's see what we can do here and then leave.'"

“I treated this like my extended family. I think that's why walking in today — I'm really emotional.”

Thousands of fans celebrate

Hundreds of fans had gathered in downtown Phoenix more than two hours before the game — many wearing the No. 3 jersey Taurasi donned for two decades — even on an August afternoon with temperatures topping 105 degrees. Some took pictures in front of a mural featuring Taurasi on the side of the arena.

The announced attendance was 16,513, a sellout and a testament to how much the WNBA has grown since she debuted with the Mercury in 2004 after a stellar college career at UConn.

A string of tributes flowed throughout the evening, including from Suns star Devin Booker, former teammate Brittney Griner and recent football Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Larry Fitzgerald. Three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes and 23-time gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps were also in attendance.

Taurasi’s name was in lights several feet off one of the baselines, with some real, live goats grazing on hay. There was also a “Goat Plush Toss” where game staff threw toy goats into the stands.

The celebration continued during a postgame ceremony that featured video tributes from Lisa Leslie, Paige Bueckers, Magic Johnson and LeBron James and in-person praise from several others, including a poem from her wife, Penny.

At the end of the evening, Taurasi stepped to the microphone one more time. It took her a little while to start speaking — the crowd gave her a 45-second standing ovation.

Her roughly 30-minute speech was half serious and half comedy routine, drawing multiple laughs from the thousands who stayed.

“Tonight feels like the end and the beginning of so many things in my life,” Taurasi said. "Driving to the game today, I didn't know if I was going to suit up and play, whether it was my funeral or a celebration.

“I've come to realize — it's all of it. And it's amazing.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Trump made the accusation in a social media post without saying why he believes it's the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. He posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation's capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. Trump lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed.

Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial, after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges are being brought against Melissa L. Farris.

Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had previously been arrested for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.

That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a July 4 event celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.

Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.

On Aug. 1, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” — which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump — emblazoned into the grass. He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro's conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass."

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote.

Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted to social media on Sunday.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the statement while speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski's podcast. The two were discussing Israel's recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel's recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister," he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

In the past, similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other Israeli officials were widely condemned. Many have been presented to the U.N.’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

Israel’s domestic media has made scarce mention of the statement, highlighting how once-fringe ideologies like Ben-Gvir’s are surging in the leadup to Israeli elections Oct. 27.

Figures like Ben-Gvir have become more popular among Israelis since Hamas’ brutal attack in 2023, when the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Many hostages have recounted long-term starvation, physical and psychological abuse and, in some cases, sexual abuse.

Ben-Gvir oversees Israel's police force and prisons

Ben-Gvir does not have power over the country’s military and cannot order strikes on Gaza. But, after operating for decades within Israel's far-right fringe, he is now one of the most influential people in the country.

He has substantial control over key parts of Israel’s security apparatus, running the country’s prisons — where thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank are incarcerated — as well as the national police force.

He has previously boasted of lessening food rations for Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s top court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under Ben-Gvir was depriving Palestinians of a minimum subsistence diet.

Ben-Gvir criticizes drawdown of Israeli strikes in Gaza

Until recently, Israel was striking Gaza nearly every day, attacks that have killed over 1,250 people since an October truce deal came into effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel's military, which says the strikes have targeted Hamas militants, appeared to ease off on the attacks in a quiet concession to U.S. President Donald Trump after Netanyahu rejected the president’s latest attempt to move the truce forward.

Israeli media last week reported that the authority for carrying out strikes has now been limited to the army’s chief of staff, raising the ire of right-wing lawmakers such as Ben-Gvir.

Ben-Gvir advocates mass emigration, expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

In the same taped appearance, the lawmaker advocated for mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza — a proposal that international lawyers say could amount to ethnic cleansing — and resettlement of Gaza by Israel.

Twenty years ago, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling a block of 21 Jewish settlements known as “Gush Katif” and pulling out its forces.

“I see all of Gaza as ours,” said Ben-Gvir in the interview. “Settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

Trump’s latest proposal involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt their attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas accepted the deal, although the group linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government and most of its political class adamantly reject.

Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any of its positions in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed. The stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including the deployment of international forces and any reconstruction of the devastated territory, on hold.

U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner had a rare meeting with the Hamas leader on the Gaza ceasefire. And the 60-day negotiating period that began with the June 17 signing of an interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran is set to end with no word of an extension.

Here’s a look at the latest developments on Sunday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

US Central Command chief visits aircraft carrier

Adm. Brad Cooper visited the USS Lincoln as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues. The Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, including the blockade on Iranian ports. It has spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said of the Lincoln strike group in a statement released Saturday. Extended deployments of carriers — which can have more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board — have raised concerns.

In a statement Sunday, Cooper praised the leadership on the carrier for making mental health and resilience a priority.

Cooper also went to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with civilian and military leaders, according to the Central Command statement.

The U.S. Navy's blockade is in response to Iran asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz after the war started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. Before then, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through what had been considered an international waterway.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled while Iran talks with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them.

US negotiator meets with the Hamas chief

U.S. negotiator and President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held a rare meeting with the Hamas chief in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The meeting in Egypt with Hamas’ Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also attending.

Mediators are pushing for the implementation of a road map that calls for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the handing over of power to Palestinian technocrats.

Netanyahu has rejected Trump’s latest plan to advance the stalled ceasefire, saying Israel will not withdraw from any of the roughly 60% of the territory it controls until Hamas has been completely disarmed — something the militant group controlling the rest has resisted.

Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans and a diplomat who both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Separately, Kushner met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The president’s office said the meeting called for Israel and Hamas to “fulfill their obligations under the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” without elaborating.

Israel targets two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday’s strikes

Israel’s military said it targeted two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday's strikes in southern Lebanon, the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect in June.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed.

Israel’s military said early Sunday one strike killed Abu Hassan Alaa, whom it described as a senior Hezbollah commander who had taken part in attacks against Israel’s soldiers in southern Lebanon. Earlier, the military said a strike killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, also described as a Hezbollah commander, adding that his family was with him.

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” in June, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament. Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the U.S.-mediated deal.

Iran insists Qatar is holding 3 of its pilots

Iran again on Sunday alleged that Qatar was holding three Iranian pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed, which Qatar has denied.

Iran’s state TV reported Sunday that the commander of the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff has urged Qatar to allow Iranian Air Force experts to conduct a field investigation.

This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters. Tehran has repeatedly targeted regional countries that are hosting U.S. military bases.

An Israeli strike in Gaza wounds five

An Israeli strike hit Khan Younis in southern Gaza and wounded five people, including a child who was seriously injured, according to the Kuwaiti and Nasser hospitals, where the casualties were taken.

Israel's military said it struck a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes, killing at least 1,262 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir advocates killing ’30 to 40′ people in Gaza nightly

An extremist Israeli lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition publicly advocated killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza each night in comments that surfaced Sunday.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski’s podcast. The two were discussing Israel’s recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel’s recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister,” he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

Similar statements in the past have been presented to the U.N.’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

The NFL's active leader in sacks has agreed to a one-year contract for what will be his third team in three seasons, and second consecutive NFC East home. Miller is expected to arrive on the West Coast on Monday.

Dallas has only have two full practices remaining in its annual three-week California excursion. The Cowboys break camp before their second preseason game at Arizona on Saturday. Camp practices will resume in Texas next week.

Miller, who has 138 1/2 sacks over 14 seasons, dropped the quarterback nine times in his only season with Washington a year ago. He joined the Commanders after he was cut by Buffalo in a salary cap move.

The 37-year-old went to high school south of Dallas and starred at Texas A&M before Denver drafted Miller second overall in 2011. He was the Super Bowl MVP when the Broncos won the 2015 title with a dominant defensive performance against Seattle. Miller won another championship with the 2021 Los Angeles Rams.

Miller was The Associated Press NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year with 11 1/2 sacks in his NFL debut 15 years ago and was an All-Pro three times in his first six seasons. His stint with the Bills was plagued by injuries and a Dallas domestic violence case that led to a four-game suspension.

Even though Miller has been mostly a backup the past three seasons, the nine sacks with the Commanders were his most since he had 9 1/2 in his second Super Bowl-winning season. The Rams acquired him from the Broncos in a midseason trade.

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

Back on the job the morning after the alert was lifted, Isidro threw a rope over an avocado tree about 20 feet (6 meters) high and climbed up. Fifteen minutes later, he had filled a box with avocados bound for the United States.

“Thank God ... and now we’re getting paid!” he shouted happily after several days without work.

Eight days after the alert affecting Michoacán state and the deployment of more Mexican troops in the region, U.S. authorities fully lifted the restrictions that spurred producers to shut down operations, and exports resumed. Michoacán is Mexico’s main avocado-producing state and a region where four cartels designated by the Trump administration as terrorist organizations operate.

By the weekend, orchards were operating again, packing plants were running at full speed and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors had returned to certify the fruit and ensure it was free of pests before entering the United States.

The workers were happy to get their daily wages back. Some producers hoped the increased security would reduce violence and extortion. Others feared the calm would not last long.

“We’ll be safe for a while, we’ll see what happens next,” said Valentín Rodríguez, a longtime avocado industry businessperson.

Many threats are possible in a violent state

The U.S. alert caught Isidro high in a tree in an orchard in Santa Ana Zirosto, an area of green, low hills in western Michoacán where criminal groups are very active. There were no explanations, just the foreman’s shout to stop cutting.

Isidro, 39 years old and with two decades of experience as a harvester, knew that this meant either starting to look for another job until the situation returned to normal — since they’re paid by the day — or supporting his family solely on what his wife earned from a small store.

More than 90 miles (145 kilometers) away, in the town of Tacámbaro, an engineer at an avocado packing plant received the alert in the early hours of the morning: The facility should be kept sealed and under quarantine.

Some 200,000 people employed by Michoacán’s avocado industry were left in limbo.

Authorities did not say what threat triggered the alert. But in a state where numerous local cartels make money not only from drugs but also from extortion, there are plenty of possibilities.

Some growers have come to consider extortion an unavoidable production cost. A producer from Michoacán told The Associated Press recently that he pays 1 peso per kilo exported in extortion fees and exports about 90 metric tons a day, which amounts to more than $5,000 in daily payments.

In March alone, Mexico shipped nearly 4,800 tons of avocados a day to the United States.

Trucks loaded with avocados are also sometimes robbed on roads in western Michoacán. And some farmworkers have been stopped and beaten by armed men near the border with Jalisco without being told why, according to one worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Mexican avocado production is US-controlled

U.S. inspectors have been assaulted and temporarily detained in the past, triggering similar export suspensions. On some occasions, threats arose after inspectors detected pests and were pressured not to report them, said an official familiar with their work who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The U.S. Embassy does not usually provide details about the incidents.

Inspectors now have less of a presence in the orchards, which are located in isolated hills where armed groups operate with little interference, and concentrate on packing plants.

“If the United States says that it is suspending technical services for security reasons, it’s impossible to export. If it's for a plant health, it’s the same,” said Rodríguez, who grows, packs and sells avocados. “We are at the mercy of whatever the U.S. market and government decide to do with the industry.”

There is also a political dimension, he said, adding that Mexico didn't export avocados to the United States for eight decades after a worm was found in an avocado pit in 1914. The U.S. ban was lifted in 1997 as domestic production could no longer meet growing demand.

Exports rely on inspection and certification

More than 80% of Mexican avocados are sold to the U.S. Thousands of tons of avocados travel daily to the United States, especially at the beginning of the year, when demand for guacamole surges ahead of the Super Bowl. To keep that volume moving, certification is key.

Isidro is a “certified” picker. He knows how to disinfect cutting tools before using them, handle the fruit quickly and carefully, and report any spots or damage. The orchards where he works are also certified, providing dining and bathroom facilities for workers.

Jesús Méndez, his supervisor, inspected the boxes before they were loaded onto a truck with the tracking details. The trucks wait until all those in the area are ready before traveling in convoys to packing plants, accompanied by police patrols to prevent robberies.

At the packing plants, inspections continue, checking quality, the fruit’s flesh and possible pests. The avocados then move along mechanical lines that sort them by size before workers place them into boxes.

Once labeled and sealed, the trailers head for the U.S. border. At the slightest security alert, every point along the route can be brought to a standstill.

Fears remain despite the return to work

The deployment of more than 1,500 soldiers to protect Michoacán’s avocado-growing region and recent arrests of people allegedly involved in extortion have eased concerns, but only partially.

Luis Manuel Soto, a 36-year-old grower and packer from western Michoacán, hopes the increased security will bring improvements. So far, he says, he has not felt them.

In 2024, he said, armed men pulled him from his vehicle and threatened to kill him unless he paid them and withdrew a complaint over extortion and an attempt to seize his orchards. The threats returned last July, even though one person involved in the earlier case has been convicted.

“They left me a funeral cross and ... a written message saying I had only days left,” Soto said from a town near Morelia, Michoacán’s capital.

The threats have continued by phone. Now he divides his time between occasional visits to his orchards, managing his businesses and social projects remotely, and going to prosecutors’ offices to request protection.

In Santa Ana Zirosto and surrounding communities, residents welcome the military presence.

“It gives us some peace, but it also scares us a little because it could lead to confrontations with some of the groups,” said Méndez.

A blaze in eastern Belgium burned about 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) in the High Fens, a large nature reserve, in one of the country’s worst wildfires in recent history.

About 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, in Liège province near the German border, were told to evacuate on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread through the area. Authorities also advised tourists to leave, while a nearby gymnasium was opened to receive evacuees.

Liège provincial governor Hervé Jamar said in a statement Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police and military officers and civil protection staff. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also helped.

Two killed as fires break out on a Greek island

In Greece, two people were killed in a wildfire Sunday on the island of Salamina, west of Athens, Greek firefighters said.

The bodies were recovered in the village of Peristeria, where strong winds fueled the rapidly spreading blaze. A second blaze was reported in the Selini area. Firefighting and coast guard vessels evacuated some 500 beachgoers in the area.

Some 260 firefighters were responding to the blazes, including 15 ground teams, 10 aircraft and eight helicopters.

The island had been placed at high wildfire risk on Sunday, with near gale-force winds. “These conditions enabled the fire to quickly reach dangerous proportions and spread rapidly within seven minutes toward nearby residential areas,” said Fire Brigadier General Vasileios Vathrakogiannis.

Dry conditions fuel record-breaking Belgium wildfire

The blaze now torching Belgium has far surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the same area and was previously the country's largest wildfire on record, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, said conditions were much worse this time. “We’re dealing with something much deeper because we have very dry soil,” he said.

René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forest, said the fire was still spreading Sunday in an area that was difficult for crews to reach.

“On the eastern flank, there’s a line at least a kilometer long where the fire is slowly advancing toward a municipal forest,” Dahmen said. “That’s the first priority now.”

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on X firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading towards the west and toward the German town of Monschau.

In Germany, local authorities warned Sunday that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the border.

Some farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled up tanker trucks, pumping water from a nearby lake before heading toward the fire area to help firefighters.

European countries send firefighting aircraft

Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive assistance from other countries, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of crisis management, said on X.

“The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Lahbib said. Sweden sent two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were also being deployed.

The fire follows weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The High Fens’ mix of heathland and peat bogs has complicated efforts to contain the flames.

Belgium was hit by another spell of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C (98.6 F) in parts of the country Friday.

Wildfires burn in France and the UK

In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region faced no major flare-ups overnight, Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul said. Authorities estimated the total area burned at 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles), while about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.

It was the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July. A massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and forced the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it spread toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.

In the U.K., emergency crews were fighting 14 wildfires in South Wales with the support of military personnel. Authorities warned that although the heat wave is easing, drought conditions mean the risk of wildfires remains high.

Fires gutted more than a dozen homes in the West Midlands in central England this week as officials recorded the hottest day of the year on Thursday, when temperatures reached 38.1 C (100.6 F).

In Germany, firefighters made significant progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing about 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home Saturday. Officials said Sunday there were no open flames and crews had established a cleared cordon around the affected area to prevent the fire from spreading.

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Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, contributed to this report.

Trump said in a social media post that the exercises, which began Monday, are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.

“Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. The president added that he recently asked South Korea’s president if they would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

The move is the latest example of the president appearing to turn against an ally in favor of a leader that previous administrations have cast as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration have also railed against NATO allies over perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.

It is also a sharp turnaround from how his administration has viewed South Korea in recent months.

In May, Hegseth praised the longtime ally for its “commitment to increase defense spending" and its "leadership in assuming primary responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula" during a meeting at the Pentagon.

“It demonstrates alliance burden-sharing that all of America’s partners would do well to follow," the defense secretary added.

What the US military says about the joint exercises

The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

The U.S. military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce “the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.” The exercises are one of the two main combined drills conducted by the South Korean and U.S. militaries annually, along with their springtime training.

U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military. South Korea's Defense Ministry confirmed that the exercises began on Monday as planned.

The joint training started days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities in defiance of U.N. bans.

Trump's decision was sharply criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, who said that “hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake” in a social media post made just hours after the president's own post. Earlier this month, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launches of two ballistic missiles from North Korea in what were the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activities since late June. The missiles landed in the waters off North Korea’s east coast.

North Korea threatens strong response

North Korea has been pushing hard to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say Kim likely believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase his chances for wresting more concessions from the U.S. in future negotiations.

North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as a “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.

The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to modernize weapons and promote public support for the reclusive North Korean leader.

Trump met with the North Korean leader three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions. In September 2025, Kim said he held “good personal memories” of Trump and suggested he could return to talks if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.

Trump's announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to North Korea's Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”

This is not the first time that Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term he also issued a surprise announcement that called the war games “provocative.”

“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim in Singapore.

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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

The fifth Corgi Race Vilnius drew dogs and their owners to the Lithuanian capital's Vingis park on Saturday for what organizers said was the biggest edition yet. There were competitors from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the United States and Britain — the country most closely associated with the breed, famously a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“In the first year, we gathered 40 corgis from one city. This year, it’s 150 from nine countries, and for the first time we have a participant from the place where the breed originated,” organizer Edvinas Miskas said.

“We call Vilnius the European capital of corgis, and when people from the breed’s homeland start coming to us rather than the other way around, that title begins to sound a little more serious.”

Ninety-four dogs took part in the main running event, competing in qualifiers, semifinals and the final.

In the final, which pitted corgis against each other over 25 meters (82 feet), the winner was American competitor GG, short for Gustave the Girl Dog. Another U.S. entrant, Mr. Corgington, finished a close second. Lithuania's own Moka, a two-time former champion, was third.

But much of the program dispensed with speed to explore the other skills of the dogs — and their owners.

There was a costume parade featuring 38 corgis in diverse outfits including a dinosaur suit, a dress and doggy sports gear. Amigo swept both the four-judge jury and the public Facebook vote for a flawless costume entry with a knight-like look.

In the “smartest nose” challenge, dogs searched for hidden treats. Latvian corgis Tora and Rusty shared the win.

And then there was the loudest bark competition. The first British competitor, 12-year-old Pembroke Welsh corgi Duke from Sedbergh in northwest England, didn't participate in the main race because of his stately age but was a hopeful in the barking stakes after, as his owner put it, training for his whole life.

It was Mr. Corgington who won the loudest bark contest, though.

He was one of the most traveled competitors. The final race offered him a rematch after he finished second against GG at a major race at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington — her second consecutive win there.

Half of the corgis registered in Vilnius this year were taking part for the first time. But six veterans — costume winner Amigo, Foksas, Foksis, Madeira, Bulka and Dziugas — have attended every edition.

If so, the Fever looked playoff-ready in their 95-91 overtime win over the Atlanta Dream on Sunday.

The Fever showed impressive depth with four players scoring 18 or more points. Perhaps of more importance, Indiana responded to a major challenge from an Atlanta team that began the day one-half behind the Fever for the important fourth-place spot in the playoff standings. The top four teams receive home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

“Coming into each night, we know how important that win is to hopefully get home-court advantage in the playoffs,” Clark said.

Atlanta led 72-64 entering the fourth quarter. Indiana held the Dream to nine points in the final period of regulation.

Despite giving the Fever an overall grade of only “B-minus” for the game, Clark had praise for her team.

“Just proud of our group,” Clark said. “Super resilient. ... Obviously, this was a big one.”

Clark scored 26 points with nine assists. After scoring only five points in the first half, Kelsey Mitchell had an important layup late in overtime to finish with 20 points. It was Mitchell's 19th consecutive game scoring at least 20.

“Kelsey struggled from the floor in the first half, and she found it in the second half,” White said. “I think that’s part of her growth, which is knowing to stay with it, that it’s going to come.”

White said Clark and Mitchell “were both terrific” and said Clark was effective in creating scoring opportunities for her teammates.

“The way that she’s getting us into offense, the way she’s using the floor to give her teammates shots ... she’s allowing the game to flow, and she’s doing a great job of finding her teammates in that,” White said. “The way she does that, it opens things up for her.”

Makayla Timpson delivered Indiana's first three field goals of overtime to score a career-high 20 points. Aliyah Boston added 18 points with 14 rebounds.

Clark said Atlanta, which had 32 points from Allisha Gray and 15 points with 14 rebounds from Angel Reese, “is a team that will be scary in the playoffs. They're great at what they do. They have a lot of different weapons.”

The Dream also had the support of a sellout crowd of 17,044 at State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and also the usual site of Dream games when Clark and the Fever are in town.

“For us, these are the games you get up for, that’s what’s fun about competition,” Clark said. “You know, you want to play the best. It brings out the best in you. Obviously, that’s been a challenge and we’re really good at that.”

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Lawyers for the BBC argued that Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr. have “personal knowledge" and likely have records relevant to elements of Trump's claims against the broadcaster, according to a filing Friday in federal court in Florida.

The broadcaster has been unable to serve subpoenas because the three have Secret Service protection and other security personnel around them, the filing says.

Trump filed the lawsuit in December seeking $10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing it of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.

The allegations center on the way a 2024 documentary edited a speech Trump gave on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington. The lawsuit accuses the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech” to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

It added that the editing was "a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The BBC has apologized to Trump for the misleading edit, but said it had not defamed him.

The latest court filing said that Trump's family members had knowledge of issues that were relevant to Trump's argument “that it would be materially false to imply that he incited violence" on Jan. 6, 2021.

It cited that Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump were both present in the Oval Office when Trump was still revising his speech, adding that Donald Trump, Jr. spoke directly with his father after violence had broken out at the Capitol.

The filing says the BBC asked Trump to accept the subpoenas on his daughter and son-in-law's behalf or to direct the Secret Service to allow the subpoenas to be served, but he refused. The broadcaster asked the court to allow the subpoenas to be served by email and certified mail.

The judge has given Trump's legal team until Friday to respond to the BBC's request.

Trump's legal team said that “the BBC is simply trying to distract away from their own obvious liability.”

“The BBC intentionally defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is seeking to harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process," according to the team.

A trial has been provisionally set for February in the case.

Last week, a federal judge in Florida granted Trump a temporary reprieve from an order that he provide details of his business empire’s financial performance as part of the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman agreed to put that order on hold while he considers an amended complaint from Trump that would narrow his claim that he suffered damage to both business and reputation.

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Associated Press journalists Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, the news agency LaPresse reported.

They removed all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their frame, but abandoned two behind a wall while fleeing.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen works at 70 million euros ($81 million) to 80 million euros ($92 million).

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.

Mercurio said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m., and that the alarms were working and the guards were on site. She described the works as central to the region's heritage.

“These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina,” she told Sky TG24. “They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value, because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”

Messina’s top culture official, Enzo Caruso, called the theft “more than a loss” and “a disaster.”

“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, calling for the swift recovery of the stolen works.

Caruso noted that international interest in the artist had intensified since Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s devotional painting “Ecce Homo” for $14.9 million through negotiations with Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.

Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

“Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Albertson, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another, serving as collateral for other illicit activity.

The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence. Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.

The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season, and was being celebrated in Messina with a procession that culminated in prayers and a blessing in the main Piazza Duomo around the time of the heist.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft from the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma province.

With his dad on the bag, Whaley fulfilled Andy Whaley's unwavering belief and capped the tournament victory of his life at Merion with a father-son embrace that put an exclamation point on a career that at one point seemed destined to dry up on English soil.

“He can actually see me happy, and I can see him happy coming off the golf course,” Whaley said.

Whaley played with double gloves, needed an umbrella, was stung by a wasp at rainy Merion Golf Club and still pushed through the inconveniences to cap a tremendous tournament and hold off Jay Leng Jr. to win the U.S. Amateur on Sunday.

Whaley should keep the rain jacket.

The 22-year-old Englishman gets to soak up the spoils that come with winning amateur golf's greatest prize.

With the sky finally clear on the rain-slogged course, Whaley sank his final putt for birdie to win the 36-hole final 4 and 3 and hugged it out with his caddie — his father. Whaley's mother ran out to join them for a family embrace while Andy gripped the famed wicker basket flagstick.

“This week it just clicked,” Andy Whaley said. “I can’t explain it. I don’t know why.”

His son broke down in tears as he held the Havemeyer Trophy and dedicated the win to his father, who never gave up on Jack, even as he kept missing cuts as a teenager.

“As we were driving back, I was looking at my dad with some of the names that are on this thing,” Whaley said after his win. “I never thought my name would among such impressive people.”

Whaley made a rapid rise from NAIA star to Florida State to amateur champion the college senior now has an exemption into the 2027 US Open, and the 2027 British Open at St. Andrews and the Masters should he remain an amateur. He wore his Florida State Seminoles cap and team colors for the championship round.

Whaley won the seventh U.S. Amateur held at Merion and is the first Englishman winner since Matt Fitzpatrick at Brookline in 2013.

Whaley shook off a wasp sting on the fourth fairway in the afternoon session before he rallied his way to the title. Leng, a Stanford junior, held a 2-up advantage through the first 18 holes after both players bogeyed the par-5 18th on an overcast and windy round.

Whaley pointed to a spot on his right ankle where the wasp got him and left him throbbing for the next two holes.

“I had to pull this stinger out,” Whaley said with a laugh.

Maybe the stinger will be immortalized down the line at Merion.

The U.S. Amateur does hold a special place in Merion history. Take a look at the rock near the 11th hole tee box at Merion and one of the grandest holes in golf is marked.

“On September 27, 1930, And on this hole, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., completed his ‘Grand Slam’ by winning the U.S. Amateur Championship.”

It was on that hole where Bobby Jones closed out Eugene Homans 8 and 7 in the 36-hole final and clinched golf’s only season Grand Slam with a win at the U.S. Amateur.

Ben Hogan also has a plaque that honors his 1-iron on the 18th hole of the 1950 Open.

“It's a huge honor to be part of the names of all the famous people,” Whaley said.

Aaron Rai used double gloves months earlier in his PGA Championship victory at nearby Aronimink Golf Club, just as Whaley did months later.

Whaley made the change after he sliced one out of bounds on six because the rain affected his grip.

“It seemed to work, so I kept going,” Whaley said.

Merion is set to host the US Open in 2030, 2040, and 2050, alongside the U.S. Women’s Open in 2034 and 2046.

Consider, Whaley will be only 46 years old in 2050.

Whaley is No. 90 in the world amateur golf ranking, while Leng is at No. 23.

Leng gets pretty nice consolation prizes. He also earned a spot on the 2026 U.S. Walker Cup team, in the Masters and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next year, provided he is still an amateur.

The other five players named to the Walker Cup team were Kihei Akina, Ryder Cowan, Josiah Gilbert, William Jennings and Stewart Hagestad.

“It shows I can compete with the best,” Leng said. “I can compete with anyone, honestly. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

For a player who has endured five runner-up finishes in nearly seven months of close calls, Scheffler had reason to wonder what was next to go wrong. He asked caddie Ted Scott as they walked over to take a penalty drop, “When is this going to stop happening?”

Almost immediately, as it turned out.

Scheffler drilled a mid-iron to 10 feet for birdie two holes later. He holed a 20-foot birdie on the next. A two-shot lead at the start quickly turned into a runaway. He closed with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory, the largest margin in 68 years at the TPC Southwind.

“I felt like I had some close calls this year, so it was nice to finish the tournament off,” Scheffler said.

It helped to post a 61 in the second round and keep the lead going into Sunday. This was his 11th straight time he converted a 54-hole lead into a win.

This victory was the 21st of his career — all since 2022 — and it ended nearly seven months without a title during a season that has been marked by astonishing consistency but only one trophy to show for it from his season opener at The American Express in the California desert.

“I felt like a week like this was coming,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like, ‘Hey, I’m playing solid. I’m close.’ It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week.”

He finished at 17-under 263, eight shots clear of his Dallas neighbor Si Woo Kim, who closed with a 68 to finish eight shots behind. The previous record was John Cook winning at TPC Southwind by seven shots in 1996.

Scheffler has now won 10 of his 21 tour titles by four shots or more.

Sam Burns, one of Scheffler's best friends in golf, played with him in the final group and took double bogey on the par-5 third hole. He shot 73 and tied for third with Alex Noren (69).

“I don't think it would have mattered if I played well,” Burns said. “He was going to be tough to beat today.”

Scheffler won $3.6 million from the prize fund, and he clinched an additional $23 million in bonus money for being No. 1 in the FedEx Cup through next week's BMW Championship. No one can catch him. No one is particularly close in the game at the moment, even when he's not piling up trophies.

Scheffler now has two victories, five runner-up finishes and five other top 4s in another stellar year that until Sunday was marked by his lack of winning compared with previous years. The TPC Southwind was the course he had played the most times without winning, and the FedEx Cup playoffs opener had been the only postseason tournament he had yet to win. All that changed.

Scheffler's most recent start was another runner-up finish at the 3M Open in Minnesota, another rally that came up short. But it was those two weeks at home that made the difference.

“I felt like I found something just getting my hands on the club,” he said. “I had a really good kind of prep week coming in, probably the best I played at home over the course of this year. I didn’t really feel like I needed to be on the range hitting balls. I was just getting out playing, competing.”

More than a few of those games were with Kim, who earlier this year said of Scheffler, “He calls me ATM.” Kim moved to a career-best No. 13 in the world.

Im wound up with a 75 to tie for fifth, but it was enough for the South Korean to move from No. 53 into the top 50 who advance to the BMW Championship next week in St. Louis. Im kept alive his chances of reaching the Tour Championship every year since he was a rookie in 2019.

Im bumped out Keith Mitchell, who stood in the water left of the 18th fairway to play a shot from the bank as he tried to give himself his best chance. That shot tumbled into the water, he made bogey and narrowly missed out.

So did Jordan Spieth, who needed to close with four pars to reach the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023, and finished with a bogey from the water on No. 15 and three pars for a 70.

The top 50 who advance also are assured of playing all the $20 million signature events next year.

Scheffler put himself squarely in the mix for a fifth straight PGA Tour player of the year during a season in which no one has stood out based on titles alone. The body of work has been impressive, and Scheffler still has two tournaments remaining.

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

Niland's daughter, Haven, said he died Saturday morning in McKinney, a Dallas suburb.

Niland made 111 starts in 124 games over nine seasons with Dallas. He played for Philadelphia for one year before retiring after the 1975 season.

Niland made the Pro Bowl for six straight years from 1968 to 1973. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 1969, 1971 and 1972.

He helped protect Roger Staubach when Dallas beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in the Super Bowl on Jan. 16, 1972.

Niland, a Massachusetts native, starred at Iowa before he was taken by the Cowboys with the fifth overall selection in the 1966 draft. He was inducted into the Hawkeyes' Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.

He is survived by Shaughn, his wife of more than 30 years, and daughters, Jordan and Haven.

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Spieth and Keith Mitchell, who was up to his knees in water on the 18th trying to salvage his postseason, narrowly missed out advancing in the PGA Tour postseason Sunday, losing a chance to be guaranteed to play in all the $20 million signature events in 2027.

One birdie over his last three holes would have done it for Spieth. Mitchell would have needed to shave two shots from his score. He made bogey from the water on the 18th.

“I just feel like I’m kind of getting back to playing really good golf, like it’s close to kicking off, and I’m not going to play a tournament for a long time,” Spieth said after closing with three straight pars for an even-par 70.

Spieth came into the first playoff event at No. 54 and was projected to need something around the top 15 — depending on others around him — to make it to the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023.

He made it through the worrisome stretch of holes — Nos. 11 through 14 at the TPC Southwind — with a pair of bogeys and a 30-foot birdie putt.

“If you can get through there unscathed, you know you're looking at some opportunities on the other side,” Spieth said.

But he tugged his tee shot on the 15th far enough to the left that it found the water, leading to bogey. His chip from behind the green on the par-5 16th was too strong and rolled off the green, and he missed a 15-foot birdie putt. He missed a birdie from about that distance on the 17th.

Needing a birdie on the 18th, he went from a patch of dirt right of the fairway just over the green, still a putter in hand from 35 feet. He started walking before the long birdie putt finished short of the cup, giving him a par.

“I just didn’t execute enough shots and ... a couple bounces could have gone one way or the other,” he said. “I needed to be almost flawless today.”

Mitchell, who has never been among the top 30 to reach the Tour Championship in his nine years on the PGA Tour, started at No. 49 this week and was on the bubble seemingly all week. He said he never looked at a leaderboard until walking off the 17th green.

If he was safe, he could have played out to the right, away from the water, knowing a bogey wouldn't hurt him. But he was right on the projected bubble of top 50. He took on the shot. He thought it was ideal, but it barely cleared the water, and hopped below the hazard line on the bank of grass.

For Mitchell, there was no option. He removed his shoes and rolled up his pants, took his stance in the water up to his calves and gave it a shot. It bounced short and took a hop to the left, riding the bank down into the water. He did well to make bogey for a 72. In the end, even a par would have left him less than a point short of Matt McCarty at No. 50.

“I thought it was perfect when I hit it. Caught a little bit of a gust, and it came up that short,” Mitchell said. “The second shot was obviously interesting, and I just didn’t play it far enough right.”

The new points system that puts an emphasis on season performance means the postseason is not nearly as volatile. Sungjae Im, who started at No. 53 and started the final round tied for second, comfortably advanced.

Mitchell was the only one from the top 50 to fall out.

Maverick McNealy came in at No. 50 and was on the bubble all afternoon, played bogey-free on the back nine with two birdies for a 69 to tie for 19th — same position as Spieth — to secure his spot among the top 50. McCarty figured he was out when he tied for 63rd in the 69-man field. He made it on the number when Mitchell and Spieth couldn't catch him.

“I think the top 50 number is probably the most important number on the PGA Tour right now,” McNealy said. “I’m excited to get to St. Louis and just take a Hail Mary swing to see if I can get into the Tour Championship, which is the goal every year.”

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Rain chances diminish into the late-night hours tonight as temperatures fall to the low to mid 60s.

Skies will be mostly cloudy overnight and into early Monday. Clouds decrease throughout the day tomorrow with highs around 80°.

We’ll see more low 80s Tuesday afternoon with a west-southwest breeze. The majority of the day will be dry with sun and clouds. Rain chances will begin in the evening, lingering into Wednesday thanks to a cold front.

This front cools us down a bit. Highs Wednesday will only be in the mid to upper 70s. Highs will be back around 80° for the rest of the week.

Southeast Michigan will see another rain chance Saturday.

Gov. Josh Green said no one is believed to have died when the homes washed away. Earlier, a search-and-rescue mission was launched in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the Big Island’s southern tip.

He spoke at a news conference as the storm continued to punish the islands with strong gusts and pounding rain, reaching a total of nearly three feet (one meter) in places.

Cynthia Channels, a local organizer who works with unhoused people and families in need, has been driving around Oahu in her pickup truck, assessing damage. For her, the wind has been the worst part of the storm.

“The winds are really bad, people’s shingles are falling off the roofs,” Channels said.

Green said its not clear if a vehicle wreck that killed one person Saturday in the South Point area of the Big Island was storm related.

Storm hits islands with flooding and power outages

Honolulu, on Oahu, was bearing the brunt of the tropical storm conditions spreading westward over the island chain. The Honolulu Fire Department had received more than 600 weather-related responses by noon local time Sunday, including 147 reports of downed trees. There were also roofs blown off, downed power lines and one swimmer who had to be rescued, a city statement said.

Much of the state remained under a flash flood warning, though the National Hurricane Center downgraded the Big Island to a flood advisory Sunday.

“Basically, the best thing to do right now is just stay home for a bit longer,” weather service meteorologist Stephen Parker said. “The storm won’t last forever and once those kind of threats get cleaned up, it will be safe to be out and about again.”

More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power by midday, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us. That included nearly two-thirds of customers on the Big Island. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, the governor said, adding damage to roads and several small bridges was making some places hard to reach.

“Everyone is safe and healthy,” said Green, a medical doctor who previously worked in emergency departments of remote hospitals on the Big Island. “But boy, a lot of work ahead.”

Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast. Just missing landfall, the eyewall didn’t weaken, and its winds pounded mountainsides as bands of rain blew nearly sideways. The storm came three years after the state experienced the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.

Lala isn’t losing strength as wind and rains lash Hawaii

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau, raising the possibility of destructive flooding.

The heaviest rain Sunday was falling on Lanai, Moloka’i and Oahu, while the highest wind gusts topped 100 mph (161 kph) at the towering Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island, Parker said.

As of 11 a.m. in Hawaii, Lala was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) west of Honolulu with top sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph (28 kph).

The advisory said the storm's strength is expected to change little through Monday and forecasters expect Lala could become a hurricane again on Tuesday or Wednesday when it has moved well west of the island chain.

Some higher-altitude places on the Big Island, dominated by Mauna Kea, have been hit with as much as 35 inches (89 centimeters) of rain. That’s enough to loosen steep slopes where some of the 210,000 islanders live off the grid in improvised housing.

As the hurricane approached, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures rather than structures that might collapse. Many residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March and took precautions.

A beloved bakery is damaged

The Punalu’u Bake Shop on in Naalehu, Big Island, a tourist hotspot and major local employer, was severely damaged. Zachary Kennedy, the manager of the Hawaiian sweet bread bakery, said water rushed through their factories and retail store, leaving behind around three feet (1 meter) of mud.

“This is a different level of damage, it’s literally catastrophic,” Kennedy said.

Kate McLellan, a resident on Oahu’s North Shore, was still waiting for the worst of the storm after her power went out Sunday morning, glued to the weather network.

In March and April, her community was hit by back-to-back storms with heavy rain and high winds, keeping residents on high alert. Memories of that storm were “giving that same uncertainty and hesitation and panic and anxiety,” McLellan said.

Nicole Clark has been sheltering in place on Kauai and is prepared to stay there after her school was canceled Monday for her kids because of a tree blocking a road. Still, she said she’s inspired and comforted by the sense of community established across Hawaii during storms like this.

“It’s a good feeling during hard times,” Clark said.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Geoff Mulvihill, Alexa St. John and Ed White contributed.

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Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

On Saturday the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and Project Play joined forces to get kids thinking about playing different sports. More than 30 organizations came out, from the familiar, like the Lions, Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons, to sports you may not have thought about.

“We have a number of partners in sports you haven’t tried like rugby, skateboarding, breakdancing, robotics and chess,” said Addison Mauck with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

Matthew Williams is the manager of baseball growth initiatives for the Tigers and says he’s passionate about paying it forward.

“I was born and raised in Detroit and my first love was baseball. Baseball kept me focused, made sure I had grades to graduate from Wayne State, now working for the team I grew up rooting for, is a blessing,” Matthew said.

“It was incredible, to see green and the tricolors all over the course,” the Irishman said. “The support kept me going. It was much appreciated. It was just a roar, ‘Go Ireland, go Paul.'"

Whether waving flags or roaring for their athletes, Irish fans have made their mark at the European championships in Birmingham. Ireland's athletes have taken note, as have broadcasters and organizers.

“It feels like a home championships,” O’Donnell, who finished 43rd, told The Associated Press.

The official Instagram account of the games, Birmingham 2026, posted: “Beginning to think the Irish fans are the best fans in Europe!" In another post, it added: “From Dublin to Birmingham and everywhere in between, they follow their athletes across the world, and the noise they bring is unmatched.”

Kate O'Connor won the heptathlon on Saturday to double Ireland's gold tally. Mark English had won the 800-meter final on Thursday, followed minutes later by a silver medal for Rhasidat Adeleke in the 200 meters. Andrew Coscoran picked up a bronze in the 1,500.

Husband-wife duo Eoin Murphy and Emma McNelis of Dublin were in Alexander Stadium to see O’Connor complete her heptathlon victory.

“It feels like there’s as many Irish as British here — at the stadium,” McNelis said as they watched the marathon.

Murphy bought an Irish flag at the Dublin airport for their weekend trip. For him, Coscoran's bronze was the highlight "because it was so surprising. He was in the middle of the pack for most of it.”

In interviews with Athletics Ireland, Irish competitors marveled at the support they’ve received in Birmingham.

O’Connor described the experience as “probably the closest we’ll ever get to a home games.”

“It’s a championships that I’ll obviously never forget for winning gold but also never forget the roars, the cheers, the support,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

“Seeing so many kids as well out there that are screaming for autographs and photos," O’Connor added, "it kind of makes you realize the effect that you have on the country by, I don’t know, running, jumping, throwing, doing all those events as well as you can.”

Ireland's medal haul for the championships stayed at four. Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan competed in the 1,500 final Sunday night but finished outside the top three.

National pride is a big factor

In an annual survey, champion boxer Katie Taylor regularly tops the list as Ireland’s “most admired athlete” despite boxing not ranking among the favorite sports. Gaelic Games topped the list just ahead of soccer, with rugby third and "athletics/tennis" fourth in the 2025 edition of the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index.

Athletics stars from this week will likely get some love in the next version.

Adeleke was second to Taylor in the 2024 survey after winning a gold medal and two silver medals at the 2024 European championships in Rome.

This week, the 23-year-old Adeleke said she felt like she was home thanks to the Irish fans.

“Definitely trumped any other nation that was out there. So loud, so supportive,” she said.

Adeleke's silver on Thursday came shortly after English's gold.

“Twenty minutes, two medals. That’s a great night out for us.”

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See full AP coverage of European sports here

Hunt had already won two individual titles — the 100 and 200 — and added a third gold Saturday in the women’s 4x100 relay at Alexander Stadium.

The team of Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith, Zharnel Hughes and Hunt won Sunday in a time of 39.97 seconds. Germany was second in 40.11 and Spain third in 40.42.

On the anchor leg, Hunt pulled away from Gina Lückenkemper to cross the line for gold.

“Oh my gosh, I'm over the moon,” Hunt told the BBC. “To finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport ... to do it all together is incredible.”

Asher-Smith won her career eighth European championships gold and became the competition's most decorated athlete with her 11th medal, moving one ahead of the late Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska.

This was the debut of the mixed 4x100 relay in the European championships.

“It’s good to get to try something new,” Asher-Smith told the BBC, although she added, “I was absolutely terrified.”

Four in a row for Duplantis

Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis earned his fourth consecutive European championship title by clearing 6.15 meters.

Duplantis is the world record holder — he vaulted 6.31 meters in March. That was his 15th world record. He first broke it in 2020 and has eclipsed his mark by 1 centimeter each time since.

The two-time reigning Olympic champion watched on as Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis (6.00) lost momentum after getting over 6.10 but knocking the bar off on his way down. Karalis took his second straight silver at the championships. France's Baptiste Thiery (5.85) earned bronze.

Italy wins medal table

Bragging rights were on the line in the last event of the week-long championships when Britain and Italy were tied at nine golds each atop the medal table.

The Italians pulled out the victory in the men's 4x400 relay final, and the home team settled for silver. That means Italy topped the table with 10 golds and an overall 22 medals, three more than Britain's total.

Italy also topped the medal table two years ago in Rome.

In the penultimate event of the championships, the Dutch women's 4x400 relay team won gold when star Femke Broeders-Bol held off Britain's Emily Newnham down the stretch. It was the third straight women’s 4x400 relay championships title and Broeders-Bol's sixth career gold at the championships.

In the women's 1,500 final, Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell improved on her silver medal from two years ago by crossing the line first in 4:07.78.

Larissa Iapichino had added to Italy's gold tally by winning the women's long jump, leaping 7.00 meters for the title.

Memorable marathons

Amanal Petros made sure there was no photo finish this time.

The German won the men’s marathon on Sunday morning by a whopping 7 seconds, less than a year after missing out on gold in a photo finish at the world championships in Tokyo.

Petros crossed the finish line in Birmingham in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 11 seconds — breaking the championships record in the process. Italy’s Pietro Riva took silver with his 2:09:18, three seconds better than Israel’s Gashau Ayale.

Last September, the Eritrean-born Petros settled for silver behind Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu in the closest marathon in world championships history. Both men were officially clocked at 2:09:48, but it was determined that Simbu crossed the line a fraction sooner.

In the women’s marathon Sunday, Finland’s Alisa Vainio dominated the field to finish in 2:22:26, nearly five minutes ahead of silver medalist Lili Anna Vindics-Toth of Hungary. Britain’s Abbie Donnelly took bronze. Vainio broke Christelle Daunay’s championship record from 2014 by almost three minutes.

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See full AP coverage of European sports here

Chicago trailed 3-0 and 4-1, but scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth to tie the game.

Tyler Holton (1-5) walked Sam Antonacci to start the seventh and Murakami followed with his 28th homer of the season to put the White Sox up 6-4.

The White Sox now lead Detroit by 5 1/2 games in the AL Central. Hagen Smith (2-0) went 1 2/3 innings for the win and Sean Newcomb pitched the final two innings for his fourth save.

Detroit left fielder Brett Callahan, making his major league debut, tripled and drove in two runs on the first pitch of his career. He’s the first Tigers hitter to triple in his first at-bat since Bill Irwin did it on May 18, 1912 against the Philadelphia Athletics.

Irwin, one of the emergency players when the team went on strike to protest Ty Cobb’s suspension, was playing his only MLB game.

The triple helped Detroit take a 3-0 lead in the second. Fellow rookie Max Clark also had an RBI single in the inning.

Antonacci’s RBI groundout made it 3-1 in the third, but Colt Keith led off the bottom of the inning with a homer.

Drew Romo’s two-run homer pulled the White Sox within 4-3 in the fifth, and Colson Montgomery’s RBI single tied it in the sixth.

Detroit’s Dillon Dingler snapped a 0-for-28 streak with an RBI double to make it 6-5 in the seventh. Miguel Vargas homered in the ninth.

Up next

White Sox: Retun to Chicago for a three-game series at Wrigley Field. RHP Luis Castillo (4-9, 4.96 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday against Cubs LHP Shota Imanaga (8-9, 3.74).

Tigers: Travel to Pittsburgh for a three-game series against the Pirates. Tigers LHP Framber Valdez (7-8, 4.26) will pitch Monday’s opener. The Pirates haven’t named a starter.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Cameroon finally won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over tournament debutant Malawi.

Marie Ngah Manga headed two goals and Naomi Eto scored the other while Cameroon kept Malawi’s Chawinga sisters in check to claim its first win in the final at the fourth attempt.

The Indomitable Lionesses, who failed to qualify for the previous edition of the tournament, had lost on their last three appearances in the final – all to 10-time winner Nigeria.

“I feel like it’s a dream because you know Cameroon have been working hard to have this moment and today for us to be champion of Africa is a very, very wonderful thing,” Ngah Manga said.

FIFA's under-fire president, Gianni Infantino, attended the game along with CAF President Patrice Motsepe.

Infantino later helped Motsepe hand out medals to the top three teams. Algeria defeated Morocco in the third-place decider on Saturday.

Infantino also posed with Motsepe and Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroon Football Federation, for a photo with Cameroon forward Monique Ngock after she received the player of the tournament trophy.

Cameroon too strong

Malawi made the better start but suffered a double blow when Ngah Manga headed the opener from close range in the 21st minute, shortly before Eto – who had her back to goal – turned brilliantly to send the ball inside the right post.

Eto was also involved in the first goal, forcing a save from Malawi goalkeeper Mercy Sikelo before Ngah Manga scored.

Malawi failed to muster a response and Ngah Manga effectively sealed the result on a break when Eto got to the ball before Sikelo and produced a perfect cross for her teammate to head her second goal of the game and fifth overall in the tournament.

Cameroon substitutes ran onto the field to celebrate with their teammates.

The Chawinga sisters had pushed Malawi after the break. Tabitha Chawinga felt she should have had a penalty, but a VAR check deemed otherwise. Then she drew a good save from Michaely Bihina, and her sister Temwa went close from the rebound.

Cameroon veteran Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné went on in stoppage time and duly scored, only to have the goal ruled out for offside. The 37-year-old Onguéné was part of the Cameroon team that lost the final at home to Nigeria in 2016. Despite her disallowed goal, this time she could celebrate.

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Frank Gounder was among the Indianapolis residents assessing the damage Sunday, which also happened to be his 37th birthday.

The furniture maker, who lives on the city’s hard-hit northside, less than a mile from the White River, had been at home as floodwaters crept up his driveway until they were about 2 feet deep (0.61 meters) in the house and his workshop.

Now Gounder is left to pick through waterlogged materials and handmade furniture in various stages of completion to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

“It’s a lot. Before the water had actually gotten into my house and I saw that it was going to happen, I started freaking out, getting mad,” he said. “But after you realize you can’t do anything about it, you kind of just have to let go and just continue, or else you’re just going to be miserable.”

Storm victims mourned

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Among the latest confirmed victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis.

Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Officials in Jennings County, in the southern end of the state, said the youngest victim reported so far was killed Tuesday when a tree crashed through his bedroom during strong winds.

“This is obviously unexpected,” Cody Low, chief deputy at the Jennings County Sheriff’s office, told the local ABC affiliate. “There’s nothing we can say that is going to make it any better. We’re going to push through this as a community.”

The other victims included a 19-year-old man whose body was recovered Saturday. Officials in Delaware County, located east of Indianapolis, said Matthew Morey had jumped off a bridge into the rushing waters of the Mississinewa River with friends three days earlier.

Family and friends gathered earlier in the week at the bridge to remember the recent high school graduate, who was headed to Purdue University, and warn of the dangers of swollen rivers.

“There are no words that can ease the pain of losing a child,” Delaware County Sheriff Tony Skinner said in a statement on Sunday. “Our hearts are with Matthew’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved him.”

Skinner's office also confirmed Stephanie Sallee and her dog were found dead in a cornfield Friday, not far from Sallee's car. They believe the 58-year-old had been driving on a flooded road when the vehicle was swept away.

In social media posts, Sallee's family remembered her as a sweet, kind and “spunky lady” who adored her grandchildren and other young relatives.

Recovery efforts are underway

In Indianapolis, flooding from the White River peaked early Sunday morning before receding, the city Department of Public Works said.

The agency reopened city floodgates Sunday, though they urged residents to be cautious as they returned to flood-damaged neighborhoods. Emergency shelters remained open after hundreds of homes along the river and its canals were evacuated. First responders used boats to rescue people stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters.

Recovery efforts were also underway elsewhere in the state.

“I must admit it is a good morning,” Christine Altman, president of the Hamilton County board of commissioners, said during a Sunday briefing. “It’s not raining, and the water is receding.”

She said the county, located just north of Indianapolis, escaped without any loss of life, though officials were assessing whether a significant bridge damaged in the flooding could be repaired or if it needed to be completely replaced.

While northern parts of Indiana dried out, a cluster of storms was expected to pass through the central and southern regions later Sunday, bringing the potential for heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging winds, the National Weather Service warned.

Nearly 130,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of late Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Storms brought historic flooding to Indiana

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.

The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the flooding was the worst the city has seen in more than 30 years.

Gov. Mike Braun’s office said more than 350 evacuations and scores of rescue and welfare checks have occurred elsewhere in the state, including at a senior mobile home community north of Indianapolis.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved Braun’s request for federal disaster assistance to help with flooding response and recovery efforts.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days.

Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

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Marcelo reported from New York.

Arenado pulled himself out of a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning Sunday with what was described as left trunk discomfort.

He only hopes it's not too serious, especially when the Diamondbacks are vying for a playoff spot. They came into the day in a three-way tie with San Diego and Philadelphia for the final two NL wild-card spots.

“I am worried,” Arenado said. “I’ve never had that before, so I don't know what it is.”

Arenado said he initially felt the pain while bending over in the batter's box and it felt worse after he swung. He slowed up noticeably while running to first and quickly decided to leave the game.

“I felt a little bit of pain in my intercostal area,” he said in the clubhouse afterward, pointing toward his left rib cage. “I don't know. It just didn't feel right. I haven't really felt that before, so I had to get get taken out of the game.”

With the team heading to Boston for the start of a three-game series on Monday, Arenado will have as MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

“It doesn't feel great,” he said. "I felt it before the at-bat, but it didn’t feel like pain or anything. Then, when I swung, I was like ‘ahh.’ It wasn’t getting drastically worse, but it doesn’t feel right. So I thought I would let them know.”

That raised the concern of manager Torey Lovullo.

“The last thing he wants to do is take himself out of the game,” Lovullo said. “That's just his mentality. He's ferocious. He wants to play every inning of every game. When I got that news, it wasn't great.”

While expressing cautious optimism that the injury isn't serious, Lovullo was taken aback when told by the media that Arenado described it as an intercostal issue, referring to the muscles between the rib cage.

“That's news to me,” the skipper said. “If he's concerned, then that will ramp up my concern. We care about each other in this clubhouse.”

The 35-year-old Arenado, an eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, has made a big impact in his first season with the Diamondbacks. He is hitting .241 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs after being acquired in a salary-dump trade with St. Louis during the offseason.

“He's having a tremendous year," Lovullo said. "I thought about giving him the day off, but he hit two home runs yesterday and had a really nice day. He didn't want it, nor did he ask for it, but it's one of those things where you're got to be careful in different situations. He's just been playing hard, but something didn't feel right, so he spoke up.”

Arenado said he's used to the normal aches and pains at this stage of his career, especially when playing the day after a night game.

“It's a day game, so it's hard to get going," he said. "You always feel things that don't feel quite loose, but you get loose as the game goes on. I didn't feel it hitting it the cage today getting loose for the game. I didn't really feel anything until I bent over to put my leg guard on. Then I felt a little something swinging and that was it.”

Arenado was replaced by Ildemaro Vargas, who homered in the seventh to tie the game at 2, before Atlanta's Matt Olson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the frame.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The alarming milestone at Lake Powell, reached Saturday, comes about a week after the river’s other major reservoir, Lake Mead, also hit a historic low. Plummeting water levels pose a major threat to the Colorado River Basin, which is a key resource for wildlife, hydropower and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states.

The historic lows come as the federal government and states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado — struggle to reach agreement on a long-term management plan for the dwindling resource. Persistent overuse combined with a record-dry winter and rising temperatures have been depleting both Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Lake Powell’s elevation dropped to 3,519.91 feet (1072.9 meters) above sea level on Saturday, dropping just slightly below a previous record set in April 2023, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake is more than 20 feet (6.10 meters) lower than it was at the start of the year, USBR data shows.

The reservoir is now about 30 feet (9.1 meters) away from the point at which turbines would stop producing hydroelectric power. Federal officials warned in April that a “major intervention” would be necessary to avoid reaching that threshold by the end of this year.

USBR in July proposed a 10-year plan that includes major potential water cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada.

The crisis has been in the making for years. Both reservoirs are at the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades, and levels may continue to drop, USBR data shows.

The last time their combined storage was this small was in May 1957 when Glen Canyon Dam that holds back Powell was being built, according to a recent paper published by a group of academics and retired water officials. Powell began to fill in 1963.

The depletion has also impacted Lake Powell’s substantial tourism industry, forcing marinas in the reservoir to adapt. Boat ramps have closed or moved, new ones are being added and marinas have been temporarily relocated to deeper waters.

The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations. A meeting between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped clinch the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas’ disarmament.

The more than two-hour meeting in Egypt with Hamas' Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there.

Hamas in a statement later called on mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to approve the road map for next steps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week rejected the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration, Israel’s closest ally.

Kushner, former British prime minister Tony Blair and the Board of Peace director, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Regional powers accuse Israel of obstructing peace efforts

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map, saying that “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers' statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Kushner’s meeting with the Hamas leader aimed at ensuring the militant group’s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said.

The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties' approval of the road map to begin.

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza.

In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

The White House had no comment on the talks

The White House referred questions about Kushner's meetings to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately comment. The Tony Blair Institute did not comment.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.

The road map involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. But Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any position in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed.

That stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas, on hold.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it's not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

Netanyahu's Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming that “Arab states want to topple” Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan "will give them everything they want. That will not happen.”

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Anna from Lowville, New York. Collin Binkley in Washington and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.

The clubs have agreed to a deal for Rodri worth 76.5 million euros ($88.5 million), a person with knowledge of the transaction confirmed to The Associated Press on Sunday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of the deal have not been made public.

Neither City nor Barcelona have made any official comment about the transfer.

The 30-year-old Rodri has played for City since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2019. He scored the winning goal in the Champions League final victory over Inter Milan in 2023 and won the Ballon d'Or as the world's best player the following year after being part of Spain's European Championship-winning team.

He was an integral member of Spain's team that won the World Cup last month and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.

Rodri had one year left on his contract with City.

His departure would further weaken City's midfield, with Bernardo Silva having left and joined Real Madrid this summer.

Rodri did not play Sunday in City’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield. He is currently recovering from minor back surgery that he underwent after the World Cup.

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The ferry capsized in strong waves on Tuesday. Police on Sunday said the death toll had risen to 84, from 72 the previous day as more bodies were recovered. Zimbabwe’s disaster management agency has said 77 people were rescued.

Estimates had put the number of passengers as high as 153 on a ferry authorized to carry 90 people, but the latest official figures now suggest the number of passengers could be even higher.

Police in the southern African country said “search efforts are still underway in a bid to recover victims identified as missing.”

The aging ferry was traveling from the town of Kariba to rural and fishing communities in the country’s northwest, where roads are damaged and public transportation is scarce.

Among the dead are 18 children, with the youngest just 1 year old. According to police, 16 of the victims were aged 10 or younger.

Kariba is the world’s largest human-made lake by volume, created by damming the mighty Zambezi River in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It stretches more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) and is up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in places.

Zimbabwe and Zambia share the lake, with their border running through its middle.

De la Espriella took office earlier this month just days before the 7.4 magnitude quake struck. He was backed by Trump in Colombia's closely contested presidential election, which was decided in a runoff on June 21, and has sought to emphasize his connections with the U.S. leader.

On Saturday night, de la Espriella wrote on X that he spoke with Trump and thanked him for aid sent by the U.S. in response to the earthquake. He added that he “asked him to consider the temporary suspension of the high tariffs that affect Colombian products, in order to provide relief to our businesspeople, who are facing very difficult times due to the effects of the earthquake.”

There has been no immediate response from the Trump administration to de la Espriella's request. The U.S. has offered a total of $26.5 million in earthquake aid, including food, shelters and health supplies, according to the U.S. State Department.

The earthquake that struck Monday morning devastated parts of western Colombia, hitting cities including Pereira, Cali and Quibdo. Cities along the country's Pacific coast were hit particularly hard. The president declared the quake a natural disaster.

The government has said that 143 people are missing, while other civilian-run databases put the number in the thousands.

The natural disaster, whose epicenter was in one of the poorest regions of the country, Choco, has so far left 3,937 people injured, according to the government. In addition, it destroyed 14,705 homes and damaged another 81,536.

In Cali, Colombia's third biggest city, workers searched for the more than 70 people reported missing in that city. Hope remained alive even after the key 48 to 72 hour window to find survivors beneath the rubble has long passed.

“Miracles do happen” even though more than 120 hours have passed since the earthquake struck, said Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder from the unified command post. "We are working where we know there are still victims; we are working in the hope of rescuing people alive.”

Moroccan state broadcaster Medi 1 TV said 294 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were arrested Saturday while attempting to enter Ceuta. Authorities also arrested 61 Moroccans accused of facilitating the migration attempts, the broadcaster reported.

The attempted crossings followed a surge in social media posts calling on migrants to make their way to Ceuta, a Spanish city on Morocco’s northern coast. In response, Moroccan and Spanish authorities beefed up security presence and limited movement toward the area.

The latest attempt comes two weeks after tens of thousands of would-be migrants, driven by poverty and misinformation, rushed toward Ceuta in one of the deadliest migration crises to hit the region. At least 90 people died on both sides of the border, according to official numbers, while human rights groups reported higher figures.

The interior ministry did not respond to AP’s questions about the latest arrests or the number of security personnel deployed around the border to prevent a new migration push.

A senior Moroccan diplomat previously said that more than 20,000 Moroccan security personnel are deployed along the border with Ceuta each day, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. The diplomat was not authorized to be publicly named speaking about the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Thousands of migrants from across Africa and beyond travel to Morocco each year, fleeing conflict, poverty and instability and seeking a route into Europe. Many attempt to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another Spanish exclave on Morocco’s northern coast, hoping eventually to make their way to mainland Spain and better economic opportunities.

He died at his home in Bradenton, Florida, on Saturday night, agent Mike Maguire said Sunday. He had been in hospice care.

On Aug. 8, the New York Yankees released a social media post in which John wrote that he wanted to say goodbye to everyone, including friends and fans who followed him throughout his career, saying, “I will never forget you.”

The Yankees called John “a bedrock of our rotation during his time in pinstripes and a longtime favorite of Yankees fans.”

John was a four-time All-Star with a record of 288-231 and a 3.34 ERA during a career that stretched from 1963 to 1989. He pitched for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees, the California Angels and the Oakland Athletics.

“Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” Stan Kasten, Dodgers president and CEO, said in a statement. "His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come.”

The left-hander was 31 years old when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow in 1974, a death knell for pitchers' careers to that point.

John allowed Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers’ team physician, to replace the ligament with a tendon from his right forearm. Jobe gave the surgery 100-to-1 odds of being successful.

John was a great pitcher, but his elbow surgery made him a baseball legend

The procedure had been done on others before, although it was usually performed on wrists and hands. John was the first pitcher to have it done on his elbow.

More than 2,600 big leaguers and thousands more amateurs have since had UCL reconstructions, better known as Tommy John surgery. It’s been a godsend for many of baseball’s greatest stars, including two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani, three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander and even Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper.

“If you put it in dollars and cents, I think there’s no question that Tommy John is the most valuable reconstructive procedure there is,” Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache told The Associated Press in 2024.

Born Thomas Edward John Jr. on May 22, 1943, in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was a top baseball and basketball player at the city’s Gerstmeyer High. He graduated in 1961 as valedictorian but did not give the commencement speech because of a stutter. Despite being recruited by the University of Kentucky to play basketball, John chose baseball and signed with Cleveland.

“The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me & said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it big in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.’ I’ve never forgotten those words,” John wrote in his Aug. 8 post.

John recorded 2,245 strikeouts but never led either league in wins or strikeouts. He had the second-most wins of any pitcher since 1900 not to be elected to the Hall of Fame. From 1995 through 2009, John was on the Hall of Fame ballot, but he never received more than 31.7% of the votes, falling well short of the 75% required for election.

“Tommy was a wonderful person who competed to the utmost and did what no player had ever done to save his career, in conjunction with the esteemed Dr. Frank Jobe,” former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti posted on X. “The HOF is missing Tommy John.”

John won more games after his eponymous surgery

Known for his longevity, John was the opening day starter for both the 1966 Chicago White Sox and the 1989 New York Yankees. He won 124 games before his UCL repair and 164 after. His final appearance came days after his 46th birthday.

“While his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes and trajectory of countless athletes around the world, it also overshadowed his excellence as a pitcher,” the Yankees said in a statement. “We pause to remember the totality of his legacy — his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer.”

John made his major league debut on Sept. 6, 1963, pitching one inning in relief for Cleveland.

He was traded to the White Sox in 1965 and worked his way into the starting rotation. The following year, he tied for the American League lead with five shutouts and in 1967, his six shutouts led the AL.

In 1971, he was traded to the Dodgers.

In 1974, John had a 13-3 record and led the National League in victories going into the All-Star break. He was pitching against the Montreal Expos when he permanently damaged the UCL in his left arm. After a month, the injury had not improved.

During the four-hour surgery on Sept. 25, 1974, Jobe made holes in the humerus and ulna bones of John’s left arm and used anchors to insert the tendon in a figure-eight pattern.

At first, John’s left hand was shriveled and he lacked feeling in several of his fingers because of damage to the ulnar nerve. Jobe performed a second procedure to reroute the nerve that was necessary to John’s full recovery.

John’s arm was in a cast for four months. He had recovered the full range of motion in his left arm by spring training of 1975 and spent that season resting, healing and rebuilding strength in his arm. John worked with fellow Dodgers pitcher Mike Marshall, who had a doctorate in kinesiology, on learning a different grip.

That September he made five appearances during an offseason instructional league, working his way up to seven innings by his final game.

John resumed pitching for the Dodgers in 1976 as the fourth starter in their rotation. He allowed three runs in five innings and took the loss in his first start against Atlanta, the first time any pitcher had started a game following UCL reconstructive surgery.

John donated the original cast from his surgery to the Smithsonian Institution in June 2022. His teammates on the 1974 Dodgers signed it, as well as Jobe and the team’s Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully.

The procedure has become so widely known that in 2019, Merriam-Webster added the term to its dictionary.

John made 31 starts for the Dodgers in 1976, posting a 10-10 record, a 3.09 ERA, 91 strikeouts, 61 walks and 207 hits allowed in 207 innings.

In 1977, he won 20 games for the first time in his career, finishing with a 20-7 record. He finished second behind Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton in voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

John and his family had mixed feelings about the legacy of his operation

Over 50 years later, Tommy John surgery is as much a part of baseball as peanuts and hot dogs. Advanced training methods are helping pitchers of all ages throw harder than ever. They take comfort knowing a torn UCL won’t necessarily end their careers.

“I am sick my name is attached to a surgery happening in kids more than pros,” John tweeted in July 2018.

John’s oldest son, Tommy III, became a chiropractor who wrote a book suggesting ways to prevent young athletes from having to undergo major sports-related surgery similar to what his father endured.

After his pitching career ended, John worked as a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins and Yankees in the 1990s. He managed the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Bluefish from 2007-09.

John was hospitalized in December 2020 because of COVID-19 and later had Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which a person’s immune system attacks their nerves. John told the New York Post in May 2022 that he was paralyzed in his lower extremities for several months.

John and his wife Sally Simmons had four children: Tamara, Tommy III, Travis and Taylor, who died of a prescription drug overdose at 28 in 2010. The couple divorced in 2013.

Besides his children, he is survived by his second wife, Cheryl, and son-in-law Patrick Mannelly, a retired NFL long snapper who played 16 years for the Chicago Bears.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Mariota, 32, will miss the remainder of the preseason, but Quinn is "optimistic that he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season.”

Mariota was injured during Washington's preseason opener against Miami on Friday night. Starter Jayden Daniels did not play against the Dolphins.

Quinn said the Commanders don't plan on bringing in another quarterback at this time. The only other QBs on the roster are Sam Hartman and rookie Athan Kaliakmanis.

“It will allow more reps over the next couple of weeks with Sam (Hartman) and Athan (Kaliakmanis) in that spot," Quinn said.

Quinn said Mariota's injury has impacted his thinking for how much Daniels and other starters will play for the remainder of the preseason, but he has yet to make any decisions. He plans to re-evaluate after two straight days of padded practice on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I’ve got a bunch of situations that I’m trying to work through — two minutes, four minutes, some goal-line stuff,” Quinn said.

"This is our most heightened training camp block coming up, so I’m excited to see that. We haven’t gotten to the planning of the game yet.”

The Commanders' next preseason game is on Saturday against the Lions before concluding the preseason on Friday, Aug. 28 against the Ravens.

Washington did receive promising news elsewhere on the injury front, as starting center Nick Allegretti and tight end John Bates are expected to return to practice on Tuesday. Cornerback Trey Amos remains out with an ankle injury, while running back Jeremy McNichols will miss a few weeks with a quad injury, according to Quinn.

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke with nostalgia to more than 10,000 supporters at the Vila Euclides Stadium outside Sao Paulo — a city where he rose to political fame 47 years ago as a metalworkers union leader during the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

The 80-year-old, wearing a hat after a skin cancer diagnosis, insisted Brazil needs more of his policies.

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of former President Jair Bolsonaro, gathered with thousands of voters on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. His father, under house arrest following his conviction for an attempted coup, did not attend the rally.

Lula echoed his own earlier comments denouncing foreign interference in Brazil's politics. His allies have accused the U.S. government of seeking to boost Flávio Bolsonaro's bid with measures such as raising tariffs on Brazilian exports and revoking the visa of Brazil's ambassador to Washington.

Speaking about Brazil's vast reserves of rare minerals, Lula said “no one (abroad) will tap our minerals. We are going to tap them for the benefit of the Brazilian people.”

Bolsonaro argued that he is “the only one who can sit with the United States, with China, with Israel, with the Middle East, with India and with Argentina to make the best and biggest trade deals for our nation.”

His party's convention was attended by Argentina's President Javier Milei. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several members of the Trump administration have expressed support for him.

Voters' attention is expected to perk up after TV ads start

Sunday was the first campaign day the 13 candidates in the running but many voters are expected to pay more attention once campaign ads start airing on TV and radio at the end of the month.

“It looks like we are starting slow this time,” said 68-year-old Flávio Alves, a Lula supporter who lives on the same street where the rally was underway. “We all expect a narrow election, but now Lula is in government, things are different.”

Four years ago, Lula beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro with 50.9% of the vote.

Another presidential candidate, Ronaldo Caiado, a former state governor and an agribusiness leader, toured the surroundings of Brazil’s capital Brasilia and reinforced his anti-Lula credentials.

Another Lula opponent, Romeu Zema, met voters and attended a Catholic ceremony in the countryside of Minas Gerais, considered a bellwether state for the elections — a state he had governed until recently.

Both top candidates appeal to women voters

Lula, who is seeking his fourth nonconsecutive term, and Bolsonaro each reached out to women voters, who account for nearly 53% of Brazil’s 158 million eligible voters, according to the country’s electoral court.

“Men need to learn from childhood that they are no better than women. We need to be equal,” said Lula, as first lady Rosângela da Silva stood by his side, nodding. She was one of the event’s main speakers in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where Lula lived a large part of his life.

Lula said he will launch his platform within 10 days, with more details to come about his policies to benefit women, including education initiatives and policies to prevent and punish violence against women.

Sen. Bolsonaro, with his mother and wife by his side, told supporters he would work to fight violence against women.

Flávio Bolsonaro seeks to distinguish himself from his father

In his speech, the younger Bolsonaro vowed to fight crime and to remove what he described as left-wing “ideology” from Brazilian schools. Every student “has the right to dream of being Elon Musk someday," he said.

Before his appearance on Copacabana beach, 45-year-old Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast that he has received 1,800 death threats, without offering evidence. The lawmaker noted that he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

His father was attacked by a man with a knife as he campaigned for the presidency in 2018, suffering internal bleeding and intestinal injuries.

Jair Bolsonaro chose his son to stand against Lula as the Liberal Party’s candidate. The younger Bolsonaro's campaign has faced headwinds since its start, with moderate political parties keeping their distance, a public rift with his stepmother and difficulties in finding a running mate.

The 45-year-old lawmaker, who bears a physical resemblance to his father, clearly sought to establish his own identity.

“I know I look like him. But it is hard to compare Pelé’s son with Pelé,” he said, referring to the three-time World Cup-winning soccer player who died in 2022.

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

Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant. Those attacks have brought the war home to the Russian public nearly 4½ years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine also came under Russian attack, with drone strikes destroying homes and torching Kyiv's landmark book market.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also confirmed that a Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk.

A drone attack targeted three towns in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, killing five people, local Gov. Yury Slyusar said. The attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.

Russian strikes kill 5 in Ukraine

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media Sunday. He also said that one more person had been killed in the city of Sumy.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, confirmed that one of its sites had been hit in a missile attack and that operations had been partially suspended.

Elsewhere, a man and a woman died when their home was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, said Ivan Fedorov, the head of the local military administration.

Russian attacks also sparked fires throughout the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wounding six people. A blaze took hold at one of the city's largest book markets, tearing through kiosks huddled close to the Pochaina metro station. Firefighters fought back the flames, which sent plumes of black smoke across the capital, and picked their way through rubble where the market's crowded pavilions once stood.

“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine's Flamingo missiles.

The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine's long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelenskyy announcing Saturday that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production center in Samara approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

NATO jet downs drone in Romanian airspace

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that a Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace.

The drone’s entry into the NATO member’s airspace was detected by surveillance systems at 4:44 a.m., the ministry said, about 24 kilometers (14.9 miles) north of the eastern city of Galati near the border with neighboring Moldova. Moldova is a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania.

A Spanish F-18 aircraft that was performing air policing duties “made radar contact with the target and received engagement approval,” the ministry said. “The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01.”

The ministry later said that drone debris was also reported in the Black Sea around 10 a.m. on Sunday, about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the coastal city of Constanta. Separately, another drone fragment was found on Sunday 1 nautical mile (1.85 kilometers) from Constanta.

Romanian officials did not specify the drone’s origin.

However, Moldova’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its Army surveillance systems had detected a Geran-type Shahed drone in Moldovan airspace, which entered from Ukraine and exited toward Romania.

The spate of drone incidents comes weeks after Romanian pilots shot down three drones over three days as Russia intensified attacks against Ukraine near the border. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romania has reported dozens of drone incidents, including some that have crashed and exploded on its territory.

Acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said in a post on X that the Spanish deployment in Romania was scaled up “at the request of Romania and NATO to bolster the Eastern Flank following prior drone incidents,” and that it was Spain’s fourth such deployment.

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

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” and “The End of Oak Street,” one targeted to very young children and the other an original PG-13 rated action movie, battled for third place in their first weekend in theaters. According to studio estimates on Sunday, the Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor movie had the slight edge, with a projected $21 million to the animated pups’ $20.5 million.

Neither stood a chance for first, however, while “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” continues to cast its sticky web around audiences three weekends into its historic run. The Sony Pictures release added another $70 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, bringing its domestic total to a staggering $785.8 million, making it the fourth-biggest domestic release ever. With $118.7 million from overseas markets, it surpassed $2 billion globally, only the eighth movie ever to achieve that landmark (not accounting for inflation) and the second-fastest to do so. “Avengers: Endgame” did it in 11 days in 2019. “Brand New Day” took about 18.

“The Odyssey,” now in its fifth weekend, also managed to stay in second with a $23.2 million weekend that pushed its domestic total to $504.7 million. With $98 million from international showings, propelled by $36.6 million from its first few days playing in China, Christopher Nolan’s epic has now made over $1.2 billion globally.

“The End of Oak Street” came in ahead of expectations with around $21 million from 3,446 locations. It also made $26 million from international screenings, adding up to a $47 million global opening against a reported $80 million production budget.

The film, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, stars McGregor and Hathaway as suburban parents in 1982 whose neighborhood is mysteriously transported to prehistoric times. It was well-received by critics and currently carries an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a less enthusiastic B CinemaScore. According to PostTrak exit polls, just over half the opening weekend audience said they would “definitely recommend” to friends.

Family audiences showed up for “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” which Paramount Pictures released in 3,545 theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. Carrying a PG rating, it’s the third theatrically released Paw Patrol movie since 2021. The opening weekend audience gave it an A CinemaScore. Globally, it has a running total of $69 million.

The Katseye documentary “Katseye: Wild Hearts” rounded out the top five with $4 million from only 724 screens. Several other newcomers also managed to get places in the top 10: “Six: The Musical Live” opened in sixth place with $3 million, followed by “The Brink of War” with $2.7 million. The Tamil-language romance “Vishwanath & Sons” made $1.6 million to take 10th place.

The Matthew McConaughey crime thriller “The Rivals of Amziah King” opened outside of the top 10 with just over $1 million from 632 theaters. The young Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony,” meanwhile, made $706,676 from 37 theaters in its second weekend. The A24 release is expanding in the coming weeks.

The box office is strong with the summer season, now over, accounting for over $4.2 billion in ticket sales — about 5.7% ahead of the pre-pandemic summer of 2019. Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, noted that the number to date is only about $130 million shy of the record 2013 summer, which was led by “Iron Man 3” and “Despicable Me 2.”

While this summer might not surpass 2013, which ended with just under $4.8 billion, Dergarabedian said, “This is going to be a top five summer of all time.”

The year overall is just under $6.9 billion.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $70 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $23.2 million.

3. “The End of Oak Street,” $21 million.

4. “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” $20.5 million.

5. “Katseye: Wild Hearts,” $4 million.

6. “Six: The Musical Live,” $3 million.

7. “The Brink of War,” $2.7 million.

8. “Toy Story 5,” $2.3 million.

9. “One Night Only,” $2 million.

10. “Vishwanath & Sons,” $1.6 million.

English soccer’s annual season curtain-raiser between the reigning champions in the Premier League (Arsenal) and FA Cup (City) offered a chance for an early assessment of the two teams most likely to challenge for the big trophies this campaign.

While Arsenal delivered a statement performance — not least by scoring after 23 seconds through Riccardo Calafiori — at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, there might be some early concerns for City and Maresca at the start of the post-Pep Guardiola era.

Kai Havertz headed home the second goal in the 28th through the grasp of City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Martin Odegaard ran unchallenged into City’s area, before sitting down Donnarumma with an outrageous dummy and slotting a finish into an unguarded net in the 48th.

Playful chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” came from Arsenal’s jubilant supporters toward Maresca for part of the game in which City rarely threatened opposition goalkeeper David Raya. Erling Haaland — only just back in training after the World Cup — was substituted in the 53rd minute after having just seven touches.

“The goal we conceded after 30 seconds affects the game,” Maresca said.

“It’s a defeat that hurts us, but it’s only the beginning.”

It was the perfect preparation for Arsenal ahead of the beginning of its Premier League title defense — at home to Coventry on Friday.

“I think we showed our level today, that we are ready,” Odegaard, Arsenal's captain, said. “We are serious and we want to do it again.”

City launches its league campaign two days later at home to Bournemouth and it remains to be seen if Maresca reacts to this defeat by changing his team around.

“It's part of any transition, for things to not be perfect in the beginning,” newly appointed City captain Ruben Dias said. “You need to keep on working … and there's going to be lots of challenges along the way.”

Explosive start by Arsenal

Calafiori ran on to Myles Lewis-Skelly's threaded throughball to give Arsenal an explosive start and score the first goal in the opening minute of the Community Shield since 1968. On that occasion, Bobby Owen netted for City against West Bromwich Albion.

Arsenal went on to record the biggest margin of victory in the season curtain-raiser since 2014, when the Gunners also beat City 3-0.

No Rodri but Grealish plays

Rodri, Spain's World Cup-winning captain, wasn't with the City squad in Cardiff as he continues his recovery from minor back surgery to the backdrop of a potential move to Barcelona.

His absence leaves a huge hole in Maresca's midfield that might only have been partially filled by Elliot Anderson following his $155 million move from Nottingham Forest.

One interesting selection by City's new manager was Jack Grealish, who came on at the start of the second half for his first appearance for the team in more than a year. Does it suggest his career at City could be reignited after he was sent on loan to Everton last season?

Maresca did little to clear up the situation.

“While he’s here with us, it’s my duty to help him,” he said.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The U.S. men beat Italy 46-26 to secure a sixth straight title and the women missed out on a fourth straight title after losing 27-20 to Canada.

“Gold is the only standard,” said men's quarterback Nico Casares, who threw two touchdown passes. “That's our motto. That's what we play by, that's what we live by.”

The U.S. women started strongly but it was tied 14-14 at the break after Caroline Moquin-Joubert caught quarterback Sara Parker's pass at the end of the first half. Parker set up Frederique Morneau at the start of the second half as Canada took control.

The U.S. had a fourth down, yards from the line, with three seconds left, but could not make the final play count. It was Canada's third title and first since beating the U.S. in the 2014 final.

“I feel so happy, I can’t believe it,” Parker said after hugging her mother. ”Literally the best day ever.”

The International Federation of American Football ran the championship tournament, which doubled up as a qualifier, in the German city of Düsseldorf.

The top two men’s and top two women’s teams earned a spot at the 2028 Games, along with the U.S. men's and women's teams because they already qualified as hosts.

Sunday's two other finalists — the Italian men and Canadian women — earned an Olympic spot by reaching the final against the U.S. teams, meaning that the bronze-medal games decided who joined them.

Mexico women cried with joy after a 20-19 win over Great Britain — which rallied from 20-6 down — for the women’s bronze and an Olympic spot.

But Mexico's men lost 34-26 in overtime to Canada, which claimed an Olympic spot.

Rules of the game

Flag football was among five sports given Olympic status for the 2028 Games back in 2023, with the game played five-on-five in two 20-minute halves, no tackling and an emphasis on speed and elusiveness.

The NFL has said it plans to launch women’s and men’s professional flag football ahead of the Olympics. ___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Medal ceremonies were postponed to Sunday, when West Midlands Police said a man in his 30s had been arrested on suspicion of fraud. Governing body European Athletics added “it is safe to attend the stadium” Sunday night for the concluding session of the week-long championships.

Police said in a statement that around 8:15 p.m. Saturday “concerns were raised after a man was found in an area of Alexander Stadium with the wrong accreditation.”

“As a precaution, security measures were put in place and transport for the championship staff and athletes were suspended,” the statement said. “This then led to delays to transport from the stadium for the wider public.”

Police said there was “no immediate risk to the public," and that the man remained in custody Sunday for questioning.

Fans had waited in long lines while transport was suspended. Just past 11 p.m. Saturday, organizers posted an apology on social media for “significant delays” and that bus service would “gradually begin to take place.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our spectators, athletes, workforce and the wider championships family will always be our first priority,” Birmingham 2026 said in a statement.

The stadium is located outside the city center.

“We recognize that the delays presented challenges for those affected and would like to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and cooperation throughout the evening,” organizers said.

European Athletics said the local organizing committee has worked closely with authorities “to ensure that all necessary measures are in place” for Sunday night.

“Any issues connected with last night have now been fully resolved,” it said Sunday. "Everything possible has been done to guarantee the safety and smooth running of tonight's competition.

“Fans can be reassured that it is safe to attend the stadium for the closing night of the championships.”

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See full AP coverage of European sports here

Runners and walkers of all ages and backgrounds took to the course together, united by a shared mission. Some came as survivors. Others came to honor someone they lost.

“To me it represents how I never got to meet him. It’s like walking in his name,” said Kaydyn Mack, who walked in memory of a loved one.

For survivors, the event carries a deeply personal weight.

“You know honestly I had a mysterious flare up around my last scan just a few weeks ago, so it really puts you in a sense of purpose,” said Molly Marco, a brain cancer survivor.

Fellow survivor Ryan Lafferty said the event gives people a way to contribute — even without a medical background.

“I’m not a doctor but I can help raise awareness and funding, so the experts can do what they do,” Lafferty said.

Organizers say the event raised more than $224,000 to support brain cancer research and patient programs. Henry Ford Health is among the event’s partners, and a portion of the funding will support their work.

Courtney Watson, director of Programs and Communications for Head for the Cure, said Detroit’s enthusiasm for the event never disappoints.

“People look forward to this every single year in every city we’re in and Detroit is none other you know, it’s amazing to be here,” Watson said.

For those walking in memory of a loved one, the sense of community made the morning all the more meaningful.

“We’re just happy to be a part of this really cool community of survivors, of fighters, of lovers,” said Paula Buckhaulter, who walked in honor of someone close to her.

The Head for the Cure 5K has become a Detroit tradition — and organizers say they hope to keep it going for many more years to come.

The historic gem designed by a Cuban refugee was the backdrop of Elvis Presley’s 1967 film “Clambake” and a beloved venue of Gloria Estefan and the late Jimmy Buffett, who performed on a movable, floating stage.

But since closing in 1992 after suffering serious damage during Hurricane Andrew, the 6,500-seat venue has fallen into disarray and today is fenced off and covered in graffiti despite being listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to allow the city to partner with a private company to return the unique stadium situated on Virginia Key across the water from downtown Miami to its former glory.

President Richard Nixon and Sammy Davis Jr. appeared together at the stadium during a 1972 campaign rally to support Nixon's reelection bid. And residents would gather for Easter sunrise services, as well as celebrate Our Lady of Charity, a representation of the Virgin Mary honored by many Cubans and Cuban Americans.

“It encapsulated a time period in Miami that’s incredibly unique with an incredible story that touches all Miamians,” Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo said. “So this is really a place that connects with Miami at a very deep and personal level.”

The stadium has a rich history in Miami

Hilario Candela was in his late 20s and a recent refugee from the Cuban Revolution when he designed the structure. He spent decades designing buildings around Miami and led community efforts to restore the marine stadium until his death in 2022.

When it was added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2018, then-Secretary of State Ken Detzner called the stadium “one of the state of Florida’s most unique architectural and historic resources,” and “an ambitious example of mid-century Modernist architecture” that represented the “multi-cultural influences evolving in the city of Miami during the 1960s.”

The year before his 2023 passing, Buffett wrote a letter to Miami officials, urging them to save the “little cathedral of musical fun.” The Mayor of Margaritaville described a 1985 concert at the marine stadium that ended with him jumping off the floating stage into the surrounding water, joining cheering swimmers and boaters.

“Those were the ‘Miami Vice’ days, and Don Johnson introduced us,” Buffett wrote of the actor in the popular 1980s television crime drama. “WITCO Desperadoes from Trinidad opened the show, and the Coral Reefer Band finished the night with what I think was one of the most fun shows, for band and fans, that I have ever done.”

Buffett's daughter, Savannah, continues to work with Restore Miami Marine Stadium. The group's co-founder, Donald Worth, began a mission to save the stadium in 2008, shortly after city officials at the time announced plans to tear it down.

“The architecture gives it the wow, the history gives it its soul,” Worth said. “It’s just a special, magical place, and so many people in Miami have had such memorable experiences there.”

Voters will help decide the stadium’s future

Breakwater Hospitality Group co-founder Emi Guerra, who's working with the company selected to partner with the city, said the stadium’s view of the city skyline and its location right off Biscayne Bay could make it an entertainment destination that rivals Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, an open-air venue built into the side of a mountain.

“There’s just something here that can’t be duplicated, and that’s the view,” Guerra said of the marine stadium.

Guerra said he can understand the cynicism felt by some voters, but he points out that this isn’t a developer land grab to build more condos. The city of Miami will retain complete ownership of the stadium and surrounding area, and the management company will be stewards of the city’s vision, Guerra said.

“When it’s something that’s historic, you have two options: restore it or let it rot,” Guerra said.

Ernesto Cuesta, head of the Brickell Homeowners Association, sees another option.

He said the group supports the preservation of a historical landmark, but members are worried about how noise and traffic from a large-scale event space will affect residents across the bay and nearby wildlife. He said he’d prefer a park with more green spaces.

Restoration plans aim to honor the stadium’s past

Despite sitting unused for more than three decades, multiple studies have shown that the stadium remains structurally safe.

Project architect Richard Heisenbottle, who has previously worked to restore other Miami landmarks, said he hopes reviving the marine stadium will honor its original architect.

He said renovations will have to include modern amenities and accessibility requirements, but the galvanized steel rebar used to reinforce the concrete during its original construction has protected the stadium from serious deterioration. Completed construction documents for the restorations have already been permitted by the city of Miami, he said.

Miami Commissioner Pardo said a significant hurdle to reopening the stadium previously has been the city government simply not having the capacity to properly run a major event space.

The referendum going before Miami voters on Tuesday would allow the city to enter into a management agreement.

The private company would develop the stadium’s large parking area into a flex park that includes public recreational facilities and a special events space. The city would collect revenue from events to fund the stadium repairs and upgrades, while paying the company a management fee. The total cost of the project hasn’t been determined, but Pardo insisted it will not be borne by taxpayers at all.

“It’s the right time to finally do this,” Pardo said.

His ability to paint portraits of the then-leader Pol Pot was why he was kept alive.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a U.N.-backed tribunal that sought to try Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and other crimes against humanity, said he died late Friday due to age-related illness.

“The passing of Mr. Bou Meng represents the loss of an important historical witness to the grave crimes committed during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, particularly to the history and tragedy that took place at the former S-21 Security Centre,” referring to the prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where he had been held for almost two years starting in 1977.

The Khmer Rouge group that ruled Cambodia from 1975–79 was accused of genocide for causing the deaths of so many of their countrymen from executions, starvation, and lack of medical care due to its radical policies. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect, and executions.

An estimated 16,000 women and children were kept at S-21 over the course of nearly four years before being killed. Now it serves as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, named after the high school it had been before the Khmer Rouge takeover.

Bou Meng, along with two other survivors, artist Vann Nath and mechanic Chum Mey, testified in 2009 at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who had been the S-21 commandant.

Duch was found guilty of crimes against humanity, torture, and murder in 2010 and ultimately received a sentence of life imprisonment. He died in prison in 2020 at the age of 77.

In 2010, Bou Meng testified that painting larger-than-life images of Pol Pot and portraits of other communist icons helped save his life.

It took three months to complete his first outsized work. Kaing Guek Eav then ordered him to make three more Pol Pot paintings and portraits of other communist leaders. These included Mao Zedong of China and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, as well as one mocking Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam’s communist revolution.

“I was ordered to paint a picture of Ho Chi Minh’s head on the body of a dog,” Bou Meng told the U.N.-backed tribunal. Cambodia’s archenemy was neighboring Vietnam, which eventually invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected voluminous archives about the Khmer Rouge tragedy, said on Sunday that Bou Meng’s life journey for justice has been documented and “will not be forgotten by genocide history around the world.”

“I urge action to preserve stories of the millions who survived the Khmer Rouge and provide them with both mental and physical health support,” Youk Chhang told The Associated Press in a text message.

Like many who were taken to Tuol Sleng, Bou Meng had joined the Khmer Rouge in its war from 1970–75 to unseat a pro-American government, but was detained in one of its many internal purges after victory. He was brutally tortured before being assigned his painting duties.

Bou Meng’s first wife was arrested with him and disappeared from the prison, and presumably was executed. He never found their two children, who were taken to the countryside, where they were likely killed.

In his later years, Bou Meng, who remarried, often spent his days at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where he sold copies of a book about his experience.

They started by using throwaway cuts of beef, but they soon became a Tex-Mex staple and expanded into the numerous versions we enjoy today.

Tuesday, August 18th is National Fajita Day. No doubt, many local restaurants are celebrating. Recently, the owner of the Blind Owl Restaurant appeared on Local 4 News to show us how they cook up their Blind Owl-style Sizzling Steak Fajitas.

To help with the celebration, if you go to the Blind Owl on August 18th and mention WDIV, you’ll get $10 off your meal. You can make reservations at blindowlrestaurant.com

Plus, if you’re a teacher, the restaurant will be holding Teacher Appreciation Week from August 24th to 28th with the same deal. Just show your teacher ID, and you can get $10 off your bill during that special offer.

On the other hand, if you want to try to make your own Sizzling Steak Fajitas at home, the restaurant has shared its recipe for you to use.

Blind Owl–Style Sizzling Steak Fajitas

Serves: 4

Prep time: 15 minutes, plus marinating

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Blind Owl’s menu features its “Sizzling Flamin Fajitas” with a choice of steak, chicken or shrimp, tossed with bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Blind Owl Restaurant

Ingredients

• For the steak and marinade:
• 1½ pounds skirt or flank steak
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of 2 limes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

For the vegetables:

• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

For serving:

• 8 warm flour tortillas
• Pico de gallo
• Guacamole
• Sour cream or crema
• Shredded cheese
• Fresh cilantro
• Lime wedges
• Sliced jalapeños, optional

Preparation

1. Combine the olive oil, lime juice, garlic and seasonings in a bowl. Add the steak, coat thoroughly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to four hours.
2. Remove the steak from the refrigerator approximately 20 minutes before cooking. Heat a cast-iron skillet or grill pan over high heat.
3. Cook the steak for approximately three to five minutes per side, depending on its thickness and desired doneness. Transfer it to a cutting board and let it rest for five to 10 minutes.
4. Add one tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Cook the peppers and onions for four to six minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato during the final minute.
5. Slice the rested steak thinly against the grain. Return it to the skillet and toss it briefly with the vegetables.
6. Serve immediately with warm flour tortillas and the desired toppings.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Low: 65.

MONDAY: Mostly sunny skies. High: 81.

MONDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Low: 60.

TUESDAY: Mostly sunny skies. High: 84.

TUESDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Low: 63.

WEDNESDAY: Partly cloudy skies, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. High: 79.

After more clouds than anything, with just a little bit of sunshine to start the weekend on Saturday, we bring the chances for showers and thunderstorms into the forecast looking ahead into the end of the weekend on Sunday.

Better chances for showers and thunderstorms are rolling into the forecast looking to head to the end of the weekend on Sunday, as an area of low pressure works just south of Metro Detroit. Any storm that develops could produce heavy rainfall throughout the weekend, so keep an eye on the radar and have your umbrella handy. High temperatures warming into the low to mid 80s by Sunday afternoon.

High pressure builds into the forecast, and dry weather moves into the region looking ahead of the first few days of next week. High temperatures remaining into low 80s for Monday and Tuesday.

Chances for showers and thunderstorms return to the forecast by the middle of next week on Wednesday, as another cold front rolls through the region. High temperatures warming into low 80s by Wednesday afternoon.

Dry weather returns to the forecast looking ahead into the second half of next week. Expect a mixture of sunshine and clouds on Thursday, giving away to plenty of Sunshine by the end of next week on Friday. High temperature is warming into the upper 70s by Thursday, and back into the low 80s by Friday.

Expect the dry weather to continue into the start of next weekend on Saturday. Mostly sunny skies can be expected. High temperatures heading back into the lower 80s by Saturday afternoon.

That's because California Democrats sliced Kiley's district six ways as payback for Republican redistricting in Texas and elsewhere. The chunk of the district that Smull, who identifies as a conservative, lives in is now grafted onto an overwhelmingly Democratic seat based in the state's wine country.

During a recent lunch at a cafe in Lincoln, a onetime agricultural town that has morphed into a bedroom community on the edge of Sacramento's exurban sprawl, Smull was heartbroken to hear she can no longer vote for Kiley.

“He believes in the same things I do,” Smull said. “It feels sneaky and underhanded.”

Republicans started the redistricting competition. Democrats might finish it

Democratic voters in several other states know how Smull feels.

President Donald Trump last year told GOP-controlled states to redraw their maps before this year's midterm elections to increase the number of winnable seats for Republicans in order to help the party hold onto the U.S. House. The effort was turbocharged by a U.S. Supreme Court decision this spring that neutralized a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for Republicans to redraw more seats across the South that had elected Black Democrats.

Democratic-leaning and heavily minority communities from Texas to Tennessee have been split into multiple congressional districts that dilute the Democratic vote by stretching deep into conservative areas.

In the future, it is likely that more Republican voters in other states will go through what Smull and other conservatives in Northern California are facing. Democrats in Maryland, New York, Illinois and other strongholds have pledged to retaliate in time for the 2028 elections and split Republican-leaning districts the way their California counterparts did Kiley's.

Democrats have been hindered nationally by stricter rules against partisan line-drawing in their states, but California showed a way around that. California Democrats won voter approval last year to redraw the state's congressional map, originally made by an independent commission, and formed five new Democratic-leaning seats.

‘We have zero voice,’ says voter angry at the Democratic drive for a new political map

Kiley's is one of them. The reworked political lines led the two-term congressman to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the slightly Democratic-leaning district that now includes his home.

He spoke out against partisan gerrymandering, even unsuccessfully trying to force the Republican-led House to allow a vote on a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting.

“We've seen partisan divisions really spin out of control in really harmful ways, and I think exhibit number one is the redistricting wars,” Kiley recently told a group of voters in the suburb of Citrus Heights.

Democrats contend Kiley's party switch is purely a political trick to survive in a more liberal district. They note he still caucuses with House Republicans, has voted for many of the GOP's priorities, including Trump's sweeping budget and tax cut bill last year, and that political organizations run by House Republicans are spending money to back his reelection.

Even some of Kiley's supporters think the election was a factor in the congressman's decision to become an independent.

“My original thinking was he did it because of redistricting — maybe it'd help him get reelected,” said John Coburn, a 68-year-old retired business owner, at the Citrus Heights event.

Coburn is furious at the Democrats’ redistricting and hopes Kiley wins. Coburn does not care that they did it in retaliation for Texas, where Republicans at Trump's directive revised that state's map to carve out up to five new winnable conservative seats.

“I don't care about Texas, I live in California,” Coburn said, adding that “40% of the state is Republican, and we have zero voice. Zero. It's not how our Founding Fathers intended.”

For Democrats in the district, a rare political opportunity

In an interview, Kiley said his switch to independent was no political gambit. If he wanted to stay in the House, he argued, he could have had an easier time staying in the GOP, moving to a more conservative district that included parts of his old one and running in a Republican primary there.

"I could have gone there and run and played the same game these other politicians are playing,” he said.

Kiley said he is caucusing with Republicans to avoid losing his seats on committees and that in the next Congress he will try to change rules so independent members do not lose committee seats because they do not caucus with one of the two major parties.

Among his backers, he noted, is onetime Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, a former technology entrepreneur who co-founded a centrist party for independents.

The Democrat running against Kiley, former state Sen. Richard Pan, scoffs at his rival's newfound independent status.

“He was a MAGA champion when he first ran for Congress, and now he's trying to say ‘I’m not,'” Pan told a crowd at a senior community in Roseville, referring to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement.

Earlier that day, Pan swung by the Placer County Democratic Party office, tucked away on the second story of a brick shopping arcade in Lincoln's compact downtown.

Placer is a Republican county that stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the northwestern shores of Lake Tahoe. The entire county is in Kiley's current district, but it will be divided among three districts in the new map.

Kathleen Crawford, chair of the county Democratic Party, was enthusiastic about the county getting carved up.

“It's worth it, because we have an opportunity to get Democratic representation, which has been missing from our county,” Crawford said. “I've been here 15 years, and this is my first real opportunity to elect a Democrat.”

A never-ending cycle that cuts out ‘the little people’

Lincoln's downtown is flanked by fruit, vegetable and flower farms, as well as new subdivisions. The community and its neighboring suburbs have become a destination for people fleeing the San Francisco Bay Area's housing prices. That has helped change the once solidly conservative area into a political battleground where skilled mapmakers can draw winnable seats for Democrats.

Ed Church, a 61-year-old risk manager, was eating lunch at Simple Pleasures cafe in Lincoln when he contemplated Kiley's shift. A Democrat, Church has not been a Kiley fan and he was bemused by the congressman's move.

“If that's how he'd been initially and not so MAGA, I probably could have supported him,” Church said of Kiley's independent status. Now Church, as a Lincoln resident, is in a purely Democratic district and will not have a say in Kiley's fate in November. His main criteria in the election will be “who's going to stand up to Trump?”

Across the street at a gun store, Wesley Johnson, 43, who considers himself a conservative independent, said he was dispirited by the state's redistricting.

“I feel Northern California is not represented fairly,” Johnson said. “San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles control everything.”

He acknowledged Republicans were doing the same thing in states they controlled and said he did not know how it could stop.

“You're just cutting out the little people,” Johnson said.

William Franklin was buried at the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church following his death in 1813, more than three decades after he was forced to leave America because of his service to the country his father fought so hard to win independence from.

His burial in the capital of what was then the British Empire is a reminder that the Revolution was as much a civil war as it was the founding act of the United States of America. It is also, historians say, a reminder that the conflict that destroyed friendships and ripped apart families 250 years ago continues today.

“Now especially, I think it is important for people to understand that American history is 250 years of everybody disagreeing with each other,” said James Taub, associate curator at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

“The American Revolution is an ongoing event. We are living it, right still to this day,” he said. “And we’re all taking part in it in one way or another.”

America's creation story is anything but simple

After President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, after the band concerts and barbecues and fireworks that marked Independence Day celebrations across the U.S., the country is still faced with the task of forming a more perfect union out of the anger and confrontation that have filled the period since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025.

It is a messy process that started amid the wreckage of the Revolution.

Often simplified as the tale of the plucky patriots who banded together to defeat the mighty British Empire, the revolution was more accurately an eight-year war fought by people who once saw themselves as British against the armies of their former sovereign.

As much as one-third of the population remained loyal to King George III and at times during the war loyalist Americans were the biggest contingent of troops in the British forces. Enslaved Black people fought on both sides of the conflict, as did Indigenous people.

People based their allegiances on who they thought was more likely to deliver freedom and justice.

That complicated reality played out in the Franklin family.

A revolution for the colonies and a tear in the Franklin family's unity

When Ben Franklin flew a kite into a thunderstorm in 1752 to demonstrate that lightning was essentially a massive electrical spark, young William Franklin was by his side.

Five years later, father and son traveled to London together after Ben Franklin was sent to the capital of the British Empire to represent Pennsylvania’s colonial government. As Ben Franklin settled into his home at 36 Craven St., which today serves as a museum of the Founding Father’s life in London, William studied law and married. Both enjoyed London's culture and nightlife.

William Franklin returned to America and became governor of New Jersey in 1763, a post he would hold for the next 13 years.

But father and son came into increasing conflict when Ben Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1775. While the elder Franklin backed growing calls for independence as a member of the Continental Congress, William rejected the authority of Congress and continued to represent the king.

William Franklin was arrested by the emerging American government's forces as “an enemy of the country’s liberty” in January 1776 and imprisoned until October 1778, much of the time in solitary confinement. After his release in a prisoner exchange, he became a leader of the loyalist community in the British stronghold of New York City.

Following the defeat of British forces, William Franklin sailed for London in 1782. He is believed to have had only one brief meeting with his father between his arrest and Ben Franklin’s death in 1790.

Franklin warned his son about the risk from the royal ties

The bitter split came about even though Ben Franklin repeatedly warned his son that if he did not step down as royal governor, the new government would arrest him, said Daniel Mark Epstein, who chronicled the relationship in his book “The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House.” But William Franklin would not relent.

“He was absolutely not gonna budge,” Epstein said. “He was the last governor to leave his office, and he had to be dragged away literally in irons.”

Epstein sees the Franklin story as cautionary tale for the angry citizens of 21st-century America, a country marked by easy access to guns and falling educational standards. By contrast, colonial America was a highly literate society where 90% of the population could read and people were more likely to argue out their problems than resort to violence.

Yet still the colonies’ differences with Britain descended into war.

“Our educational system has failed us here,” Epstein said. “We’re really in a terrible crisis in terms of education. People find it very, very difficult to have rational arguments because they don’t have the language and yet there’s this crazy availability of weapons.”

Taub takes a broader view, seeing echoes of the conflicts that ignited the Revolution in the tensions of today.

He said Americans need to understand the complexities of the Revolutionary era so they can see how unique the Declaration of Independence was in 1776 and why so many other countries have since modeled their founding documents on it.

“It makes me feel better about us today,” he said. “And I think it will show that we’re just part of 250 years of an ongoing story and 250 years of an ongoing mission that was laid down, a cause that was laid down by people in 1776.”

___

Part of a series of stories exploring life in the United States as the country marks its 250th anniversary. Click here for more. Take a look at some of the objects that have come to define America here.

Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James won their respective primaries Tuesday, Aug. 4, but in dramatically different fashions.

Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, defeated Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson with more than 83% of the vote, easily securing the Democratic nomination.

James, a U.S. congressman, won the Republican nomination with roughly half the vote, defeating businessman Perry Johnson, who said he spent $30 million of his own money on the race.

The victories set up a November matchup between two candidates with very different political profiles and messages.

For Benson, the primary was never particularly close. She said the result shows Michigan Democrats want a governor focused on delivering results.

“I think all citizens want leaders who can get things done. I mean, we need a governor who can get to work on day one to deliver results, to lower costs. And I’m the only candidate with a plan to do that and a track record of delivering results,” said Benson.

Benson has repeatedly pointed to what she describes as a transformation of the secretary of state’s office as evidence that she can deliver similar results as governor.

But the general election is expected to bring national politics into the race, particularly the influence of President Donald Trump.

Trump won Michigan in 2024 and is closely aligned with James, who received the president’s endorsement during the Republican primary.

Asked how much the general election would be a referendum on Trump, Benson pointed to her clashes with the president over election administration and government data.

“I have focused on what the people of Michigan need, including standing up to the president when he tries to overturn our elections or otherwise pressure me to turn over private citizens’ data. I’ll say no,” Benson said.

James, meanwhile, said his campaign would remain focused on Michigan voters and their concerns.

“Focusing on the needs of the people is what I’ve been doing from the very beginning. It’s why I was able to win the primary by such a large margin and is part of the reason why I’m excited for the coalition that we’re currently building here in the state of Michigan,” said James.

James faced a much more competitive Republican primary, including Johnson, who spent millions of dollars of his own money in an effort to defeat him.

James said the primary reinforced his belief that voters are looking for a candidate focused on their concerns rather than political division.

“I’d say that the biggest lessons that I learned is that the people want the same message. They want somebody who’s going to deliver for them, who’s gonna put their concerns first, and ultimately, I won by a majority and by double digits because people are rejecting the politics of bile and division,” James said.

The stakes are historic for Republicans.

The party has not won the Michigan governor’s race since Rick Snyder’s reelection in 2014.

For Benson, the challenge will be defending eight years of Democratic control of the governor’s office while arguing voters should choose continuity under a new leader.

The general election is Nov. 3, 2026.

Both Benson and James have said they are willing to debate. James said his campaign has proposed five debates and reached agreements on three.

The November contest is expected to be closely watched nationally, with both campaigns now turning their attention toward defining the race — and their opponent — before voters head to the polls.

Previous coverage

The 13-year-old boy is fighting for his life after a car hit him and his 15-year-old sister as they rode an e-bike Saturday night in Redford, leaving him with a brain bleed and his sister with multiple serious injuries, his family says.

Kanaei Harris, 13, is now in intensive care at Children’s Hospital in Detroit, where his mother, Raven Bryant, 32, says he is not responsive.

“He has swelling in the brain — a brain bleed… He doesn’t even know who we are,” Bryant told Local 4.

Bryant said her children had ridden to 7-Eleven around 9:20 p.m. They were on their way home when they stopped near Inkster Road and Clarita because “cars were speeding.”

Her daughter, Romance Brooks, 15, told her they were about to turn onto a side street to get away from the larger road. Then, she says, a car hit them. Moments later, Bryant says her phone rang.

“‘Ma, someone just hit us off the bike, someone just hit us off the bike,’” Bryant said her daughter told her.

Bryant was only minutes away when she got the call. She said she threw something on, ran outside and flagged down a passing driver, who thankfully took her to the scene.

Then, she learned the teens were in the roadway, and strangers stopped to help.

“They actually pulled [Kanaei] out of the street and turned him over on his back. The woman sat with them and kept them calm, and they had another person that stopped and called 911,” Bryant said. “I want to thank them.”

A neighbor later told Bryant about the moments that unfolded right after the crash.

The neighbor said her parents had driven past the crash before police and ambulances arrived. She said her father stayed with the siblings while another bystander called 911.

Her mother, she said, prayed with her over the phone as they waited for emergency crews.

“My parents did not see the person that hit them, but your baby boy was well loved and taken care of for the few minutes my dad was there - I promise you that. Praying so hard for you all,” the message said.

Bryant said her son passed out after hitting his head. He remains in a neck brace, Bryant said.

His sister survived with four fractured ribs, a liver laceration, scrapes and bruises.

Bryant said neither teenager was wearing a helmet when they were hit, although they do have helmets.

Kanaei was already facing major health challenges before the crash. He has polycystic kidney disease and undergoes dialysis three times a week.

Bryant said the crash damaged his dialysis port, meaning he needs surgery to have it repaired.

“They’re trying to come up with a plan that’s best for him to be able to do his dialysis, but not make the situation worse,” Bryant said. “It’s a wait-and-see. The part of the brain where he’s bleeding, he could be a completely different person after this.”

And before the crash, the family was preparing for a different kind of trip in California.

“[Kanaei] got a Make-A-Wish and was supposed to be getting ready to go to Disney,” Bryant said.

Redford Township police say the crash remains under investigation. The driver has been cited and could face additional charges because of the severity of the teen’s injuries.

Now, the family is asking anyone who saw the crash, or anyone whose cameras may have captured it, to come forward.

Dylan Scotten, 25, is facing felony charges of indecent exposure by a sexually delinquent person and aggravated indecent exposure.

According to Novi police, witnesses reported seeing Scotten allegedly masturbating in the common area of the mall at around 8 p.m. on Aug. 8. When he was confronted by mall security, he allegedly ran away.

Officers arrived and arrested him in the parking lot.

He was arraigned in court on Aug. 9 and was given a $250,000 bond.

He is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 19 for a probable cause conference.

The state has been hammered over the past week by heavy rains, resulting in rivers reaching record levels and sending residents in search of higher ground. More than a dozen counties have declared local disasters, with much of the latest damage concentrated along river corridors from Hamilton County heading into the northern Indianapolis suburbs.

President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Indiana, and federal disaster assistance is available to the state, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday.

Residents evacuate as water rises

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city was experiencing its most severe flooding in more than 30 years, noting that conditions were shifting rapidly. Hundreds of homes in neighborhoods that were located between the river and parallel canals were evacuated Saturday, as first responders used boats to rescue people who were already stranded.

Rita Reith, a spokesperson with the Indianapolis Fire Department, put the number of rescues at 95 people and 45 pets as of late afternoon. Dispatchers had received hundreds of calls for service throughout the day.

The governor’s office reported more than 350 evacuations have occurred in Delaware County and that a senior mobile home community in Tipton County was being evacuated. Rescues and welfare checks also were happening in Fayette County.

Indiana authorities said Saturday at least five people have died as a result of the severe weather over the past week. That includes a boy killed when a tree fell on his home, a woman who was swept away after driving into floodwaters and a teen who was reported missing after jumping in to a river on Wednesday.

“My heart is with the families and loved ones of the five Hoosiers we have lost and every family whose life has been changed by these storms,” Braun said in a statement issued Saturday. “Please continue to take flooding seriously and stay away from floodwaters.”

Rivers and creeks surge after days of rain

Jacob Spence, director of Marion County Emergency Management, called it a once-in-a-lifetime type flood.

“This is an unprecedented event, and unfortunately we’re setting some new records,” he told The Associated Press.

The National Weather Service reported that more than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain fell over a two-day period in some areas. The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

While some floodwaters were receding north of Indianapolis, flash-flood warnings and watches remained in place Saturday across a swath of central Indiana.

Forecasters expected the White River to crest Saturday evening in the Indianapolis area, where National Guard vehicles were among those helping with the rescue efforts. Rita Reith, a spokesperson with the Indianapolis Fire Department, put the number of rescues at 95 people and 45 pets as of late afternoon.

Earlier this week, severe storms wreaked havoc across other parts of the Midwest, causing tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding. Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area all the way to western Pennsylvania. Power had yet to be restored for some residents in other parts of Indiana.

Cleanup begins for upstream communities

Residents posted videos on social media that showed submerged homes, vehicles stranded in high water, a power pole being toppled by rushing water and roads being washed away.

There were ominous clouds over Noblesville on Saturday morning, but the river already had marked its historic crest the night before, leaving homes standing in water, parking lots flooded and corn fields saturated. The community's historic covered bridge — Potter's Bridge — was still standing.

“This is crazy for all of us,” said Matt Doudt, the city's photographer, who was out early to document the aftermath. He pointed to a grassy commons area that usually hosts farmers' market and concerts. That was under water. So was a brand new memorial and flower garden recently installed by the city.

He said Noblesville, with its historic charm and brick streets, didn't get much rain in recent days but that the flooding was caused by the downpours that happened in communities upstream. All that water had no where to go but rush down to Noblesville — and now Indianapolis, he said.

Still, Doudt and others are thankful.

“We have a lot of damage,” he said, “But we didn’t lose any lives and everybody got rescued and our city is taking care of people pretty well.”

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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The 24-time major champion fell to Thiago Agustin Tirante 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday in a match that took 2 hours, 44 minutes in hot and humid conditions.

A 25-year-old from Argentina, Tirante is ranked No. 50 in the world. Djokovic — a three-time Cincinnati champion and No. 5 in the rankings — was playing for the first time since his loss to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Up next for Djokovic is the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 30 in New York.

Djokovic appeared to struggle physically in the heat and had his 10-match winning streak in Cincinnati snapped. The 39-year-old told reporters that an unspecified health condition made it difficult for him to play in hot and humid weather.

“It’s just a condition that I have, health-wise, that has been bothering me for the past couple of years,” Djokovic said. “A lot of issues, especially when it is humid and it is hot. I did anticipate it (would be humid), but there are all these things, like nerves and everything involved that make it worse, and that’s what happened.”

Djokovic has had plenty of success in Cincinnati, with a 45-13 record and titles in 2018, 2020 and 2023. But he wasn't sure he would return.

“I certainly hope so, but it looks more likely not, unfortunately,” Djokovic said. “But let’s see what the future brings.”

Djokovic saved 13 of the 15 break points he faced. Tirante broke Djokovic's serve in the ninth game of the final set and then served it out.

“I think this is the best win of my career,” Tirante said. “I think I really did a good job inside the court. I managed very well the nerves of playing against a legend like Novak.”

In a rain-delayed match that ended at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, top-seeded Alexander Zverev rallied to avoid a third straight loss, beating Cameron Norrie 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. After losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, Zverev — the French Open champion — returned to play in Montreal and fell to Tallon Griekspoor in his opener Aug. 5.

Eala and Pegula win in women's draw

On the women's side, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines continued her run of strong play with a victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who lost the first set and stopped playing in the second with an ankle injury. Eala — who is No. 20 in the rankings — won her first WTA singles title in Washington earlier this month and has won eight of her last nine matches.

American Jessica Pegula beat Simona Waltert 6-3, 6-2, improving her record to 25-6 on hard courts in 2026. The third-ranked Pegula won the title in Cincinnati in 2024.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Pallister was under world-record pace for much of the race and touched in 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds to erase Ledecky's championship record from 2018.

“I was just so locked in and I've been really focused on what I want," Pallister said. “The 800 is my favorite event.”

Ledecky took silver in a season-best 8:07.26.

“That was definitely my best swim of the week, so I’m actually pretty happy with it,” she said. “If I was going to get second tonight, I wanted to make it a good one. Just wanted to make it hard for Lani.”

Ledecky is the four-time Olympic champion in her signature event. The American's lone previous defeat in an 800 free final since 2010 came in a small domestic meet in February 2024 against Summer McIntosh of Canada.

“Katie's such a dominant force,” a breathless Pallister said after the race.

Kate Douglass lowered her own world record in the 50 free for the second time Saturday, winning the final in 23.19 — one of three events on the final night.

“I was doubting myself, questioning my ability to do the triple,” she said. “My coaches and my teammates just really had a lot of faith in me and they really gave me a lot of energy.”

In the morning preliminaries, the 24-year-old American swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74.

Douglass returned 25 minutes later to finish second in the 200 breaststroke. She rallied from third down the stretch but couldn’t catch Alexanne Lepage of Canada, who led the entire race and touched in a lifetime best of 2:21.73. Douglass finished in 2:22.57.

“I feel like I’m just a little bit shocked,” Lepage said.

Walsh had owned the 50 free record of 23.55 since setting it in June at an international meet in Rome.

It’s the third time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.

Fourteen minutes after climbing out of the pool, Douglass appeared on the medals podium in her cap and goggles to accept her gold. The other medalists were dressed in their usual team sweats. Eleven minutes after that, Douglass dived in for the 200 breast final.

Douglass capped a busy night by anchoring the U.S. women to a dominant victory in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Their time of 3:50.43 was a championship record. Australia was second in 3:55.09.

Douglass is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn’t compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

Her 50 free was the second individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

The U.S. men also topped Australia in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Luca Urlando and anchor Jack Alexy swam a championship-record time of 3:29.06.

Sam Short of Australia won the 1,500 free to go with his earlier titles in the 400 and 800 free events. His time of 14:33.97 was the sixth-fastest in history and broke Grant Hackett’s 24-year-old championship record.

“That was actually so much fun,” Short said.

Kazushi Imafuku of Japan took silver in 14:42.59 and two-time defending Olympic champion Bobby Finke earned bronze in 14:44.26 on the same day he lost his world record to Johannes Liebmann of Germany at the European championships.

The men’s 50 free was won by Jamie Jack of Australia in a championship record of 21.35. American Jack Alexy took silver in 21.42.

Yu Yiting of China defeated a strong field including world record-holder McIntosh to win the 200 individual medley.

Yu was under world-record pace on the opening butterfly leg before American Regan Smith took over the lead on the backstroke. Yu moved back in front on the breaststroke and held off McIntosh in the closing meters. Yu’s time of 2:07.45 set a championship record in the outdoor pool in Irvine.

McIntosh, the Canadian star whose lone individual victory of the week was in the 400 IM, took silver in 2:07.47. American Alex Walsh, the older sister of Gretchen Walsh, earned bronze in 2:07.66. Smith finished fourth.

McIntosh claimed silver in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay. She surprisingly failed to qualify for the 400 free championship final, but finished first in the ‘B’ final.

“It wasn’t a horrible swim, but getting touched out is something that is never a good thing to feel,” she said. “Overall, the meet didn’t go the way I wanted it to, so there’ll definitely be a lot of reflection.”

Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia went from fourth to first in the 200 breast, winning in 2:08.09. American Josh Matheny earned silver. Shin Ohashi, who led until the final 15 meters, took bronze.

In the men’s 200 IM, Tomoyuki Matushita of Japan won in 1:56.02 over American Carson Foster.

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

He may not have looked the part, yet Makhachev was again a winner — all while toppling one of UFC's most enduring records.

Makhachev set the UFC record with his 17th straight victory, reaching the milestone with a unanimous decision over Ian Machado Garry to successfully defend his 170-pound championship in the main event of UFC 330 on Saturday night.

Makhachev won 49-46 on two scorecards and 48-47 on the third in a competitive five-round fight that never rose to the level of greatness.

“He gave me a hard time," Makhachev said, "but I still prove it every fight.”

Makhachev (29-1) was tied with UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva with 16 straight victories and has not lost since UFC 192 in 2015. Makhachev won the welterweight crown in his first attempt when he beat Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in November 2025.

He took his share of head kicks in his first title defense, notably in the third round that did most of the cosmetic damage, yet bested a record set by Silva that had stood for 13 years.

“If he keeps going like he says he's going to keep going, it might never be beaten,” UFC CEO Dana White said.

The 34-year-old Makhachev nearly ended the fight in the second when he threw his left foot and caught Machado Garry flush with a headkick that dropped the challenger to his rear end. Makhachev pounced with a series of punches that had the sellout crowd of 19,238 fans roaring in anticipation of a quick finish, only for Machado Garry — serenaded throughout with obscenity-laced chants — to hold on and finish the round.

Machado Garry (17-2) won the third round on all three scorecards and rallied in the fifth round with seven significant strikes landed to none for Makhachev.

Yet it wasn’t enough to topple one of UFC’s great fighters.

“I believed in my heart and soul I was better than him tonight, and he won," Machado Garry said. “No complaints, no excuses. I’m 28, I have a decade of domination already. This man won tonight.”

Makhachev — who held the lightweight championship and has seven total wins in title fights — continues to dominate no matter the weight class.

Dern defends 115-pound title on first try

Mackenzie Dern successfully defended the 115-pound championship in her first title defense with a unanimous decision victory over Gillian Robertson that could set her up for a fight with division great Zhang Weili.

Dern (17-5) won the vacant strawweight belt in her last fight at UFC 321 and won a lopsided and lackluster first defense against Robertson.

Dern won 49-46 on two scorecards and 48-47 on the third in the five-round fight.

“I wanted to get the submission with Gillian," Dern said. "I definitely wanted to submit her. That was the goal.”

Dern nearly made Robertson (17-9) tap in the first round with a choke hold that about turned the challenger’s face as pinkish-red as her braided hair. Dern might have won the bout had it stretched even another 30 seconds, but Robertson was saved by the bell.

Too bad the fight didn't end there.

The next four rounds were relatively uneventful, and the title match slowed to a near complete stop as they mostly locked up on the canvas with barely a strike thrown.

Dern's 7-year-old daughter peered her head over the barricade from her front row seat and shouted encouragement each time mom got close to her side of the cage. The little girl could be heard well over a rowdy crowd that had about been lulled into passiveness — and eventually, boos in the fifth round — in the humdrum title fight.

Barboza calls it a career after loss at UFC 330

Edson Barboza left his fight gloves on the mat and choked back tears as he retired following a lightweight loss on the main card to Esteben Ribovics.

The 40-year-old Barboza received a standing ovation and was flanked by his family as he officially called it quits after an MMA career that began in 2009. He made his UFC debut a year later and won multiple Fight of the Night honors. He lost the last four fights of his career.

“Every single fight, I promise I did my best,” Barboza said from inside the cage.

Barboza dropped to his knees and bowed his head as he lay down his gloves and was consoled by UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer as he made the final walk back to the locker room.

Different kind of Broad Street Bullies usher in UFC’s return to Philadelphia

UFC held only its third numbered card in Philadelphia and first fight event overall in the city since 2019.

UFC 101 was held in August 2009, and UFC 133 was in August 2011.

Philly fight fans were in the mood to make up for lost time and about packed the arena and were wild for the punishing action the preliminary fights delivered hours before the main card was set to start.

It’s a perfect fit for a city that loves their bullies.

The fans got an early reward when 39-year-old Philly fighter Jeremiah Wells — who was booed on his walkout — won via submission on the card's opening night and won over the inhospitable fans.

Tresean Gore won his middleweight fight, but lost his teeth in a unanimous decision victory over Vicente Luque.

Gore took a knee to his mouth and lost most of his bottom front teeth. They littered the cage and the fight official picked at least one up with his gloved hand. Gore pulled down his lower lip to show the bloody results as he talked to fight announcer Joe Rogan.

Charles Johnson celebrated his submission victory by leading the crowd in an off-key rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.” It helps to pander. He walked out of the cage to a big ovation.

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

The possibility the island could witness its first direct hit from a hurricane in 155 years faded as the eye of the storm passed the island’s southern tip. Landfall is not expected at this point, said National Weather Service meteorologist Joseph Clark.

However, hurricane-force winds are expected to continue into the overnight hours, with the strongest wind gusts likely in areas of higher terrain, the National Hurricane Center said. Heavy rainfall into Sunday could produce flooding and mudslides, while powerful waves pound the coast, the agency said.

Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau as the storm moves west. The Big Island is the state's largest, with a population of about 210,000.

Whitecap surf slammed ashore nonstop, howling winds whipped the tops of palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways.

Gov. Josh Green said at least one person died in a car accident in the South Point area of the Big Island, while 19 roofs were lost and 190 flights were postponed. “You definitely want to be home, do not be out on the roads,” he said.

Forecasters said higher elevations on the island, dominated by the towering Mauna Kea volcano, could get as much as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain. That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing.

Earlier the governor called it an “enormous storm,” capable of destructive flooding and even the possibility of wildfires kicked up by strong winds across the island chain.

Tens of thousands of homes were without power.

Residents prepare for the worst

Bobby Camara, a 75-year-old lifelong resident, said he planned to “hunker down, cross my fingers, hope the lights don’t go out” at a care home just outside Hilo. He said gas stations were busy as people sought fuel for chain saws and vehicles.

“I think stocking up is part of life over here. ... You learn to be self-reliant,” Camara said.

Mike Caputo, who lives in Keaau, near the Big Island's east coast, said his power generator was ready and a 10,000-gallon (37.8 kiloliter) home water tank was full. He said the main concern was flash flooding and fallen trees, especially albizia, a common tree.

“They’re not very sturdy, but they grow extremely large,” said Caputo, 50, a local fire captain. “They can make roads impassable."

Warnings posted everywhere

Lala intensified from a tropical storm into a hurricane early Saturday as its maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph (120 kph), the hurricane center reported, making it a Category 1 hurricane. The Big Island is Hawaii’s largest and has a population of about 210,000.

A hurricane last made landfall on the islands in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki — a Category 4 storm — lashed Kauai.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” said Green, the governor. “We just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

The Big Island was last hit directly in 1871, when a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner, according to research by a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist.

On Saturday, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures, rather than structures that might collapse.

Christine Matsuda, who lives in Waimea, on the northern side of the island, said “big gusts every few minutes rattle the whole house.”

“We're finding unexpected leaks in places that don't see water under normal conditions,” Matsuda said.

The hurricane center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of total rainfall across Maui and the lower elevations of the Big Island, and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) across the island chain.

Many Hawaii residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March.

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Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed.

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This story has been correctly attribute the quote about damage from Hurricane Iniki. It was said by Gov. Josh Green, not Steven Businger.

Athens’ U-shaped Panathenaic Stadium — made entirely of white marble — is getting its first systematic cleaning in more than a century.

Rebuilt for the first modern Olympics in 1896, the site is the ceremonial send-off point for the Olympic flame, including for Los Angeles 2028.

A fresh look in Athens ahead of LA 2028

The stadium is made of the same glittering marble used on the Acropolis, making the cleanup job delicate.

The work is revealing a monument changed by time, weather and millions of visitors. Cleaners in white and blue overalls move across the stadium’s 47 steep tiers with thin spray lances, using clean water at carefully controlled, low pressure. Machines vacuum up the runoff as they go.

“The goal of cleaning is not to make everything white. It’s to remove the dirt and the first layers of organic material that are deposited on the surface,” said Dimitris Selemis, a senior conservator at the site.

“The idea is to clean all the material that (contains) dirt from the surface, so we have a better understanding of the monument,” he said, noting that there is more weed growth and dirt in areas that receive less direct sunlight.

Dealing with chewing gum, high heels and soft-drink stains

Crews are also using steam to remove blotches of chewing gum, which have turned black over time. Stadium officials say chewing gum, high heels and soft-drink stains are among the main culprits that stain the marble.

Now slowly being revealed, the original gleaming look of the venue earned it the widely used Greek nickname “Kallimarmaro,” or beautiful marble.

“We call it Kallimarmaro because it is made of the finest marble, the best that was ever produced ... We are very proud of it,” Isidoros Kouvelos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press in an interview.

“It needed to be cleaned of everything that has accumulated over all these years," he said. "This way the Panathenaic Stadium will show all its brilliance and will once again be the foremost monument of humanity for the Olympic Movement.”

Built into a natural ravine, the stadium’s site was used for ancient Greek athletic contests and later Roman spectacles before falling into centuries of disuse.

An African celebration planned in Athens

Since its 1896 revival, it has staged fashion shows, rock concerts, boxing matches and national celebrations — as well as lavish patriotic ceremonies ordered by a military dictatorship in the 1960s.

Today, it’s a popular draw for tourists. Apart from the cleanup, the Kallimarmaro is also getting a new track, upgraded lighting and fresh support facilities. The project is privately funded by a shipping company and overseen by the Hellenic Olympic Committee with guidance from Culture Ministry experts.

The work will continue through 2026 but is currently concentrated on the stadium’s “sling,” or curved end, in time for the next torch-passing ceremony on Sept. 10.

That will be for the Dakar Youth Olympics, scheduled for Oct. 31-Nov. 13 in Senegal, which will be the first Olympic competition ever hosted in Africa.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry, a swimming gold medal winner from Zimbabwe, is due to attend the Sept. 10 ceremony, Kouvelos said.

Home Depot reports its latest results on Tuesday, followed by Target and Lowes on Wednesday, and then Walmart on Thursday. The results will help give investors a more detailed picture of how businesses and consumers are handling stubbornly high inflation.

The rate of inflation remains solidly above 3%. The ongoing U.S. war with Iran prompted a surge in oil prices, which jolted gasoline prices. Higher prices on everything from gasoline to groceries and any goods that are shipped could prompt people to shift or cut spending.

Results from Home Depot and Lowes could provide more insight into the housing market and whether people are spending more or less on home improvements. Results and forecasts from retail giants Target and Walmart could provide more insight into how households are budgeting and spending.

Wall Street and economists will get more details about the Fed's interest rate policy when the central bank releases minutes from the July meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed once again held its interest rate steady in July amid worries about stubborn inflation, the jobs market and the direction of the economy. But three officials dissented in favor of higher rates during the meeting. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh described the policy discussion to reporters as a “good family fight.” Wall Street expects at least one rate hike before the end of 2026.

“He’s understanding how his breaking stuff moves and what he can do with it on any particular day,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Misiorowski allowed one run on five hits in six innings, needing an expanded arsenal of pitches to get out of the fifth unscathed after the bottom of the Dodgers' order had three consecutive singles to bring up Ohtani with one out. The two superstars had already faced off twice, with Misiorowski throwing six straight fastballs over 102 mph to retire him on a popup leading off the game.

Misiorowski needed three pitches to fan Ohtani, and only one was a fastball. Instead, catcher William Contreras called for a curveball and slider to bookend that 102.4 mph heater.

“William took control and saw something, and we readjusted,” said Misiorowski, who improved to 12-5 while lowering his ERA to 1.75 with his 13th start this season allowing one or zero runs.

Misiorowski carried over the momentum to get Freeman swinging on five pitches, executing another slider to end the inning.

“I was trying to throw sliders down to get Shohei to bounce something, but, no, I got swings and misses. Kind of took that same approach into the Freddie Freeman at-bat, and was trying to get the same outcome, and it worked out,” Misiorowski said.

For Murphy, a growing repertoire of pitches is another indication of the 24-year-old Misiorowski's development.

“Proved to everyone out there thinking, like, ‘Hey, this guy can pitch. Is he just a heater?’ He executed pitches,” Murphy said.

Ohtani drove in the Dodgers' only run with a triple in the third inning, sending a choppy ground ball bouncing over first baseman Gary Sánchez into the right-field corner, but Murphy refused to call it a mistake by Misiorowski.

“You want Ohtani to hit one into the ground, you know what I mean?” Murphy said.

Misiorowski relished the challenge of facing Ohtani at Dodger Stadium for a national TV audience again, having done so in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series last October. He took the loss in a 3-1 defeat after allowing one run in five innings as the Dodgers went on to sweep the Brewers before claiming a second straight World Series title.

“That was fun. Being in the postseason, it was a different animal,” Misiorowski said. “Just gave me more confidence going into this year.”

It would not be a surprise if the Dodgers and Brewers meet up again this fall. Milwaukee is assured to come out of the four-game series with a better record that Los Angeles by having won two of the first three in the showdown of division leaders, a crucial result as they jockey for home-field advantage.

Having seen Misiorowski rise to the occasion on an August afternoon, Murphy expects his burgeoning ace will be ready should the teams face off again with greater stakes.

“Miz is very, very capable, and he's mentally ready for these challenges,” Murphy said.

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

“Don’t let the boys get hot,” the driver of Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford said after fending off a late charge by Chase Briscoe to earn his 39th career win by 0.392 seconds. “We’re pretty strong right now. It’s awesome to see the speed in the 22 again.”

After falling as low as 20th in the points standings at the season's halfway mark, the three-time Cup Series champion is surging toward the NASCAR Chase. Two races remain until the title run featuring the top 16 drivers.

With two victories in the past four races (after only one win in his previous 56 starts), Logano has jumped to ninth in the points standings and established himself as a championship contender again.

It’s no surprise given that it’s the 2026 season. Since 2014, Logano has either won the Cup title or advanced to the championship round in every even-numbered year, and he typically does it with a late-season spree. In his last title run, the 36-year-old won three of the final 10 races.

“We’ve seen it a lot over the years once he gets that confidence,” crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “He’s very good under pressure situations.”

Logano scored his third Richmond win Saturday but his first in nine years at the track.

“Gosh, it was a great car,” he said. “We’ve had a great car here the last five races, and we haven’t been able to capitalize on the win. We’ve been so close, but it was sweet redemption today.”

Logano capitalized on the final strategy call by Wolfe, who pitted his driver just after taking the lead from Briscoe with 39 laps remaining. Logano needed only 15 laps to retake the lead from Christopher Bell, who was trying to stretch his tires to the finish on Richmond’s abrasive surface over the last 57 laps.

Briscoe led a race-high 171 of 400 laps. He had a best finish of 11th in nine previous starts at Richmond, one of only three active tracks where he had yet to score a top 10. After qualifying second, he passed pole-sitter Ryan Blaney on the first lap to lead the first lap of his career on the 0.75-mile oval.

“This place has been a real struggle to me,” said Briscoe, who clinched a spot in the Chase with his sixth top 10 in the past seven races. “To get close and not get it done is so frustrating. We had a great points night, but just frustrating to say the least to have one slip away like that at the end.”

Austin Cindric finished third and credited his teammate Logano with providing the advice that helped him score his best result since an April 2025 win at Talladega Superspeedway.

“This is a racetrack that I feel like Joey Logano could finish top five in my rental car,” said Cindric, who. “It’s a place where I study him so much.”

Denny Hamlin took fourth, followed by Chase Elliott, who notched his first top five since winning at Texas Motor Speedway three months ago.

Hamlin family dedication

In an emotional ceremony Friday morning, Richmond Raceway dedicated the grandstand seats where Hamlin’s parents sat for years watching NASCAR races long before their son became a 64-time winner in the Cup Series. Hamlin’s father, Dennis, died in a house fire last December.

The track’s tribute was among the highlights of a homecoming weekend for Hamlin, who grew up about 20 minutes from the track.

“It’s really the time I get to see my brother and sister that still live up here,” said Hamlin, who lives in the Charlotte, N.C., area. “I’ve got lots of high school friends that have their own campsite here. It will be amazing if they don’t get arrested.”

Mirror driving

In an appearance on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast this week, Ty Gibbs lobbied for removing the digital rearview camera that NASCAR implemented four years ago. Gibbs joked that some Cup drivers would be out of the series without the high-tech device that makes blocking easier by anticipating an opponent’s move. He’s gotten no feedback from NASCAR but hopes a change could be made in the offseason.

“I didn’t hear anything on it, but I thought I’d recommend it,” Gibbs said. “I just think everybody probably agrees to it, too. I mean, a lot of people do, so I thought I’d say it. I think it could happen. They took windshield wipers off, and we run in the rain still, so I think it could happen.”

Another sellout

Richmond Raceway announced its grandstands were full for the second consecutive year, marking the 11th sellout in 24 Cup Series races this season. Many of those tracks have reduced seating capacities in the past 15 years, and Richmond is among the most notable. The track’s capacity is roughly half of its 112,000-seat peak in the mid-2000s.

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will make its annual stop at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a 301-lap race Aug. 23 at the 1.058-mile oval. Ryan Blaney is the defending race winner at the track.

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

The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln has had its time at sea extended from its original May return date to support operations against Iran.

The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.

“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the exact opposite" of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.

American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration, Poling said, while Beijing “is quite happy with U.S. distraction, with the frustration of U.S. allies and partners."

China may take advantage of US carrier's absence

Beijing sees the U.S. military presence in the region as a threat to China’s rise and an obstacle to its ambition to seize Taiwan, the self-governing island it claims as its own. But the United States has argued that the Pacific region is too important economically to lose.

No one expects China to invade Taiwan because an American aircraft carrier has left the region. But the carrier's absence gives the Chinese another opportunity to show its strength, said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

“They’re using this as part of the narrative to demonstrate to the Philippines, to Japan, to Indonesia and others that the U.S. is not the big dog in the western Pacific anymore,” Clark said. “They would just prefer that countries in the region decide that China is the bigger power and the U.S. is not able to guarantee their security anymore.”

China conducted naval exercises this week with Indonesia and recently has shown signs of aggression toward Japan and the Philippines, two key U.S. allies that also have territorial disputes with Beijing.

China carried out military drills this month near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both China and the Philippines have claims over the shoal. Last month, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori.

Adm. Frank Bradley, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, has been trying to reassure regional allies of Washington’s commitment. He was in Manila on Thursday, telling his Filipino counterparts that U.S. special operations forces are ready to step up joint exercises to strengthen the countries' alliance. He also is expected to travel to Japan.

“We have the ability to project force, the United States, anywhere on the globe,” Bradley told The Associated Press. “And when the threat in the region of the Middle East has been attended to, we will redeploy and reorient and be able to project that force wherever else it might be required.”

“I also feel very confident in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ ability to protect their sovereignty here and for us to remain close with them,” he said.

Evan Sankey, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute who focuses on U.S. policy toward China, said aircraft carriers provide psychological assurance to U.S. allies. The absence of carriers in the region, he said, “adds to the general sense that the U.S. is distracted by events in the Middle East.”

Trump has relied on aircraft carriers for military actions

Trump has relied heavily on aircraft carriers to support military operations during his second term. For example, the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. fight against Iran and the capture of Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The Ford had experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep. Meanwhile, the Lincoln has spent a record uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for investigations and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship.

Warships and their crews can only handle so much, said Robert Farley, who teaches national security and diplomacy at the University of Kentucky and often writes about aircraft carriers.

“People don’t get enough rest. It's psychologically exhausting. And R&R is part of keeping the crew healthy,” Farley said. “Sometimes it’s framed as, ‘These people haven’t had a vacation.’ But we are dealing with well-known limits on the capacity of a crew to operate at top efficiency over time. And that just declines."

Clark, of the Hudson Institute, said the squeeze on the nation's aircraft carriers stems from the lack of preparation and planning for the Iran war.

“If we were going to mobilize to do this kind of conflict, and we anticipated it might go this long, we might have done some changes to the carrier schedule to make sure more would be available,” Clark said.

Clark said the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time. But it could soon deploy four if the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaves San Diego for the Middle East, allowing the Washington to return to Pacific.

But the massive warships will need maintenance, likely causing a bottleneck at the nation's only two carrier shipyards.

“We’ll end up with a maintenance debt that needs to be paid for the next few years,” Clark said. “We’ll probably have less carrier presence than we’ve had in the previous years because carriers will be lined up to get into the shipyard.”

There are questions about the use of aircraft carriers in modern warfare

Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow in the Quincy Institute’s East Asia Program, questions the future need for aircraft carriers as warfare rapidly changes.

Carriers can be more easily targeted with drones and missiles, particularly by an adversary such as China, Swaine said, while smaller ships and submarines can be as effective in striking targets as the fighter jets that launch off a carrier.

Top Navy officials have indicated a desire to move away from a heavy reliance on carriers. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press in February that he wants to convince commanders to use smaller, newer ships and other assets instead of consistently turning to huge aircraft carriers.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

In the morning preliminaries, she swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74.

Walsh had owned the record of 23.55 since June when she set the mark at an international meet in Rome.

It’s the third time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.

Douglass, 24, is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn't compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

It was the second individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

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The sport has given so much to them, culminating with enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Parker carried a ball up to the podium for her speech as part of the 2026 class that also included the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, Chamique Holdsclaw, NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire, longtime NBA official Joey Crawford, NBA coaches Doc Rivers and Mike D’Antoni, and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

“It felt weird to walk on the stage without the reason I’m here today,' Parker said, talking to the ball. ”We did a lot together: dunk on UConn at UConn, shimmied over our right shoulder and hit that sick fadeway, had our own signature shoe, first woman to grace the cover of NBA2K. ... We stand on this podium as first-ballot Hall of Famers."

Parker, who won three WNBA titles, two MVPs, a pair of championships at Tennessee and two Olympic gold medals, then broke down while closing her speech, saying that “we were meant to be a love story that began 27 years ago.”

Delle Donne also used her speech as a love letter to the game with all the ups and downs she faced in her career. But she always kept life in perspective, thanks to her older sister Lizzie, who is blind and deaf.

“She never played in front of thousands of people, never had a standing ovation. never been interviewed after a big win. Yet I’ve never met anyone stronger,” Delle Donne said, choking up. “Thank you all for keeping me going.”

Delle Donne won MVP awards in 2015 and 2019, the second of which came when she led the Washington Mystics to their lone WNBA championship. Delle Donne became the first player in league history to shoot more than 50% from the field, 40% from behind the 3-point line and 90% from the free-throw line.

She started off her speech giving a shoutout to actor Larry David, who was in the audience. She told him that she hoped her speech was “pretty, pretty, pretty good.” using David's signature line. Delle Donne was introduced to him before the ceremony by Rivers.

Rivers, who won 1,194 regular-season games as an NBA coach, which is the sixth most in league history. He was emotional while talking about his brother Grady, who inspired him to be a better player.

Holdsclaw thanked all of her former teammates and coaches in her acceptance speech. She was best known for helping Tennessee win three straight titles from 1996-98, the first team to accomplish that, under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.

Summitt died in 2016 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.

“One person that I wish was here as my presenter was my demanding and wonderfully supporting college coach, Pat Summitt,” Holdsclaw said. “The one and only. coach Summitt allowed me to grow as a player and person. I miss her dearly.”

Holdsclaw’s 1998 team was Tennessee’s first undefeated season at 39–0 and the Lady Vols also set an NCAA record for the most wins in a season at that time. Holdsclaw went on to have an 11-year WNBA career.

She also thanked the 1996 Olympic team, saying she had posters of their players on her wall when she was in high school.

That team helped start the Americans’ 30-year Olympic dominance that has seen the U.S. win eight straight gold medals.

Few has been Gonzaga’s coach since 1999 and has led the team to the NCAA Tournament every year. He’s won numerous West Coast Conference championships and reached the NCAA title game twice.

“What a crazy, surreal moment for me,” Few said. “The town I grew up in had a population of 1,500 people and had one stoplight. To be standing where I am today is absolutely mind boggling.”

Crawford officiated more than 2,500 regular-season games in the NBA, nearly 400 more in the postseason and 50 of those were in the NBA Finals during his 39-year career. He said he first dreamed of officiating in the NBA when he was a teenager and did everything he could to make that possible.

D’Antoni really came into his own as a player and coach in Italy before he returned to the NBA. He developed a fast-paced style with the Phoenix Suns led by fellow inductee Stoudemire.

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AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this story.

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Driver and Navarrette were among the new cast members announced Friday night at Disney's D23 convention by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, along with Driver's “Girls” castmate Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier and Maya Boyd as Storm. The film is slated for release in May 2028.

The announcements were the biggest news to emerge from Disney Entertainment's D23 presentation that also brought updates on its forthcoming “Star Wars” titles and a song-and-dance that went sideways from the stars of “Frozen 3.”

Driver's name was often rumored and often dismissed as an “X-Men” possibility. Many thought he'd be playing the antihero Magneto. The rest of the cast appeared on stage at the Honda Center arena in Anaheim, California, while Driver appeared on a big screen.

“Kevin and I had been talking for years about my joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I think we finally found the perfect film,” Driver told the crowd of 12,000 via video. “So I’m very excited to be playing the role of Maaagneto!” he said before pausing, taking it back and saying, “even better, Nathaniel Millbury,” an alias for Mister Sinister.

Also on stage were previously announced cast members Samara Weaving, who is playing Emma Frost; Kit Connor, who is playing Scott “Cyclops” Summers; and Sadie Sink, whose role as Jean Grey was revealed by her appearance in this summer’s Marvel megahit “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

The castmates were as new to each other as they were to the fans.

“They’ve just met backstage for the very first time,” Feige said.

Navarrette had also been heavily rumored to have a role after fast becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors for her striking performance as a spellbound girlfriend in the indie horror hit “Obsessed” earlier this year.

The “X-Men” joining the MCU became possible with Disney's 2019 acquisition of Fox's film studio.

Director Jake Schreier is heading the reboot. and two writers from prestige TV — “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin and “The Bear” co-showrunner Joanna Calo — are working on the script.

Gosling cosplays as Kade Auberon in 'Star Wars' presentation.

Ryan Gosling and director Shawn Levy headlined the “Star Wars” part of the night with a presentation on their film “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is getting a May, 2027 release.

Gosling's appearance on stage was preceded by clips of him as a child cast member of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”

“I owe a lot to Disney," Gosling said. "Had they not looked far and wide and come to my hometown I would not be here today. Now, 30 years later, I'm back, and it's changing my life again.”

Shawn Levy put on Gosling a leather jacket with his “Star Wars” character Kade Auberon's skull-and-bones symbol.

Gosling described Auberon as “a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built,” before showing clips from the film.

Disney announced earlier this summer at its San Diego Comic-Con presentation that Gosling will play the character Ghost Rider in the MCU, first in a “Black Panther” sequel, then in a “Ghost Rider” film that Levy will also direct. Both are set for release in 2028.

“Star Wars: Ahsoka” star Rosario Dawson also appeared to promote the Season 2 return of her Disney+ series, as did Hayden Christensen, who will return as a force-ghost version of her mentor Anakin Skywalker.

More Marvel with classic stars Downey, Evans, Atwell and Bettany

Marvel veterans also took the D23 stage as past and future “Avengers” stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Hayley Atwell introduced a new trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday,” to be released Dec. 18.

The footage shows Downey, now playing Dr. Doom having shed his Iron Man suit, beating back Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and his hammer, and shows Evans, who is returning as Captain America, holding a baby. And it shows Ian McKellan as a long-haired, haggard, struggling version of Magneto.

Hugh Jackman appeared on the big screen to tell Feige he's willing to appear in “Doomsday” as Wolverine. Whether he'll be in the movie has led to heated fan speculation. His answer wasn't definitive, but most bets are now switching to yes.

Fans also got a glimpse of the soon-to-drop Disney+ series “Visionquest.” Paul Bettany, who returns to his Marvel role as Vision, and James Spader, who returns to playing Ultron, showed a trailer with oddly human and ordinary versions of their cybernetic characters. Bettany said it’s been a pleasure to play multiple versions of Vision, who has “rather inconveniently died several times.” But, he said, “I'm told in the Marvel Universe that no one is ever really dead.”

“Frozen 3” stars serenade fans, sort of

Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel sang an eerie new arrangement of “Frozen Heart” from their first film playing princess sisters Elsa and Anna as they introduced the forthcoming “Frozen 3.”

Or they tried to, anyway. The segment was plagued with malfunctioning audio, video, and a set of doors that failed to open.

They ad-libbed their way through it like pros.

“Should we go back and try it again?” Menzel asked at the song's end.

Bell described for the crowd everything that was supposed to happen and said, “You guys were gonna freak out.”

They found their way back to the script.

“Doesn't it kind of feel like the world of Frozen is a bit different?” Bell said. Menzel added, “Maybe a little bit more mysterious?”

“Yes, OK, we're back on track,” Bell said, to big laughs.

Their castmate Josh Gad followed with a rendition of “Oooh, Samantha,” a love song his snowman character Olaf will sing in “Frozen 3.”

The night's other big musical set pieces included songs and dance from the cast of “The Greatest Showman,” the stage musical adaptation of the 2017 Jackman film that is premiering on London's West End next year.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Inde Navarrette’s last name throughout the story and in headlines.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract, which would make Witherspoon the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, hasn’t been finalized. In a television interview during Saturday's preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, Witherspoon said he was grateful.

“It feels good,” Witherspoon said. “Long time coming, but we had to get it done, though. I’m thankful. All glory to God. Shoutout to (general manager John Schneider) and all the people that are upstairs for making this happen.”

The Seahawks exercised their fifth-year option on Witherspoon back in March. They finalized his long-term deal on the same day they began their preseason.

Witherspoon, 25, was selected No. 5 overall by the Seahawks in the 2023 NFL draft. In the same round of that draft, the Seahawks took wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who in March agreed to a four-year, $168.8 million contract with $120 million guaranteed.

Witherspoon has been selected for the Pro Bowl in each of his three seasons. He was a second-team All-Pro and helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl last season.

Witherspoon appeared in all three of Seattle’s playoff games during its Super Bowl run, making 17 tackles and defending four passes.

In 43 regular-season games, Witherspoon has 249 tackles, 32 passes defended, 16 tackles for loss, 4 1/2 sacks and two interceptions. Now he's ready to show he's worth what the Seahawks are paying him.

“Can you be consistent in what you do? That’s what defines greatness to me,” Witherspoon said. “That’s what I’m chasing right there.”

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A stray shower can’t be ruled out this evening but most will remain dry, particularly the further north you are.

We’ll be partly cloudy overnight with temperatures staying near 70°.

Southeast Michigan will see a better chance for scattered showers tomorrow. Spotty rain is possible in the morning with scattered showers and storms developing in the afternoon and evening.

This won’t be an all-day event for any one location, but if you have plans outdoors, you may want to have the umbrella just in case. Rain chances will diminish tomorrow evening.

High temperatures Sunday will be in the low to mid 80s.

Monday will be a bit cooler with highs closer to 80° under mostly sunny skies. We’ll continue to see plenty of sunshine Tuesday with highs closer to 85°.

A cold front crossing through the Lower Peninsula Wednesday will keep highs in the upper 70s. We also see the return of rain chances ahead of drying out to end the week.

Scheffler is trying to break a streak of five runner-up finishes and five other top 4s since his lone victory this year in his first tournament of 2026.

He was at 13-under 197 and will be in the final group with Burns, his closest friend in golf, who got back into the mix with a 62. His year has been marked by close calls in the U.S. Open and British Open, but Burns has no victories to show for it.

This will be the first time they are paired together in the final group.

“It's always a little weird just because I want him to have success so much and I think he wants the same for me,” Scheffler said. "Tomorrow we'll go out there and play our game and see where things finish up at the end of the day. It will be competition like normal.

“It will be fun being out there with your friend but it’s also a bit weird at the same time.”

And it's not just the two of them. Im shot 67 and was tied with Burns at 11-under 199. The next closest to Scheffler was FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood (68) and Jake Knapp (67), both five shots behind.

Jordan Spieth took another step back and gave himself another Sunday at the TPC Southwind filled with high stress. Spieth is at No. 54 in the FedEx Cup, and only the top 50 advance to the BMW Championship next week in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The top 50 is the magic number this week because those players are assured to getting into all the $20 million signature events next year. Spieth, who opened with a 65, didn't make a birdie until the 11th hole in his round of 72 that dropped him from a tie for fifth to a tie for 19th, which is projected to leave him out of the top 50.

He's not alone. Brian Harman came in at No. 65 and shot 69. He was in a tie for sixth, needing to move up a few spots to advance.

“That signature series, it's where you want to be,” Harman said. “It's where the best golf is played. I'd love to have a chance.”

He at least is in all the majors next year from his 2023 British Open victory at Hoylake.

Going into the final day, Im is the only player projected to move into the top 50 — he started at No. 53 and held his own in the final group Saturday with Scheffler.

“I just want to focus on each shot,” Im said. “Every shot matters.”

Scheffler only hit one green in regulation through the opening five holes. He was in the right rough on the par-5 third and had a clean enough lie to try to reach the green or at least advance it close. But it hit a tree right above him and dropped straight down. He pulled his short iron out of mangled rough to the side of a bunker and still had 111 yards. He hit that to 12 feet and made the par putt.

He bogeyed the next from behind the green, didn't get a birdie until the par-3 eighth and then ran off consecutive birdies early on the back nine that restored his lead. He also made a 12-foot par save on the 15th hole.

“Any time you’re holing those 10- to 15-footers, it’s really nice to keep the round going,” Scheffler said. “I holed a few of those today. It was definitely important to keep the momentum in the round.”

The heat index topped 100 degrees, and towels soaked in ice water were available on every tee. Keith Mitchell looked utterly exhausted walking out of scoring, from the heat and from the stress of projections that keep him right at No. 49 with one round remaining.

He was tied for 22nd, along with Maverick McNealy, who was projected at No. 50.

Burns is thinking only about winning, and that starts with making up a two-shot deficit on the No. 1 player in the world. The only other time they've played together on a Sunday was the 2021 Tour Championship — both out of contention — though Burns did beat Scheffler with a long birdie putt in a playoff at Colonial in 2022.

“Scottie is obviously playing great, as he always does. He’s not going to lay down,” Burns said. “He’s going to play great tomorrow. So you’re going to have to go out there and put a really good round together and see if you can catch him.”

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“There was a calmness and a smile, like, ‘I’m here,’” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s rare for me to pick my head up to enjoy parts of it. He didn’t exactly give us an option but to actually take a step back and enjoy the heck out of what was going on there.”

There has never been a show quite like it.

Báez became the first player to hit a home run in each of his first three at-bats in the majors, leading the Cardinals to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

Called up from Triple-A Memphis before the game, Báez had 30 members of his family in attendance at Wrigley Field. The traveling party, which included his mother, Yris, gathered on the field for photos afterward in spite of rain.

“It’s just unreal,” the 23-year-old Báez said. “To not only get a hit, but three home runs? It’s crazy.”

He did it with flair, too. The first came on the first pitch he saw from Matthew Boyd and landed an estimated 449 feet away in the bleachers in left-center. The left fielder's next at-bat ended with a solo shot down the left-field line and the third, on his ensuing at-bat, went the opposite way, giving him five RBIs.

Major League Baseball said Báez was the first player in modern baseball history to hit three home runs in his debut. The league cannot say with certainty whether the feat happened before 1901 due to a lack of game logs.

“He hit three different pitches for home runs. He had a great game. He beat us for sure,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.

Báez showed plenty of power in the minors this season. When he was called up, he was leading all Triple-A hitters with 34 home runs, including four multihomer games.

He’s the ninth player to make his major league debut for the Cardinals this season.

Báez also is the 11th St. Louis player to homer in his first career at-bat (the last was Lane Thomas in 2019) and sixth in club history to homer on the first pitch. Former pitcher Adam Wainwright last did it in 2006.

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