NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL may be headed to Texas. According to a source familiar with the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Houston and Austin are among the cities being considered as the league looks into the possibility of expansion.
The league’s Board of Governors gathered Tuesday in New York for their yearly meeting following the Stanley Cup Final and ahead of the draft. Because no official announcement had been made, the source declined to be identified. ESPN and Sportsnet were the first outlets to break the story.
There is no certainty that the NHL will add a 33rd franchise, but the exploration marks an early step in what could eventually make the league larger than the NFL — a title that would make it the biggest professional sports organization in North America. Commissioner Gary Bettman has said in recent years that the league has been open to hearing from potential ownership groups in cities like Houston and Atlanta, but stopped short of describing any formal expansion process.
The most recent expansion brought the total to 32 teams when the Seattle Kraken hit the ice in 2021. Before that, the Vegas Golden Knights launched play in the 2017-18 season. Prior to those additions, the league had operated with 30 teams since 2000, when Columbus and Minnesota joined the fold.
The financial success of those newer franchises, along with skyrocketing team valuations across professional sports, has fueled growing expansion chatter — particularly since expansion fees could now surpass $1 billion. Seattle’s entry fee was $650 million, while Las Vegas paid $500 million.
Over the past four decades, the NHL has built a strong following across the Sun Belt and in markets not traditionally associated with hockey. The league added teams in South Florida, Tampa, San Jose, Anaheim, Nashville, and Las Vegas, while franchise relocations brought teams to Dallas, Raleigh, Denver, and other cities.
Those Sun Belt and non-traditional market teams have dominated the Stanley Cup, winning it seven consecutive times and 13 times overall going back to Colorado’s championship in the 1995-96 season.
The Trump administration’s efforts to obtain detailed voter data from states have hit another legal wall, this time in Maryland.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher last week threw out a Justice Department lawsuit that had sought access to Maryland’s voter registration records. Gallagher, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump during his first term, wrote that she “joins every court to have addressed this issue” in concluding that the unredacted voter registration file “is not a record or paper that a state must produce to the United States.”
Thursday’s dismissal in Maryland makes nine states where the Justice Department has now lost similar legal battles. The department has filed lawsuits seeking detailed voter data — which includes dates of birth, home addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers — in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Beyond Maryland, courts have also rejected the Justice Department’s attempts in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a similar lawsuit because it was filed in the wrong city, leading the government to refile the case in a different location.
In the Maryland case, the Justice Department argued that an opinion from its own legal counsel’s office gave it the right to access the voter records under federal civil rights law. Judge Gallagher was not convinced, writing: “The Court will not interpret the (Civil Rights Act) contrary to its text simply because an office of the party advancing that interpretation has adopted it.”
Federal officials have argued they need the voter data to verify that states are following federal laws governing voter registration list maintenance, even though states already have their own detailed procedures in place. In the Rhode Island case, a Justice Department attorney acknowledged the department wanted the unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship status.
Earlier this week, a separate federal judge ruled that the Homeland Security program used to check citizenship — known as SAVE — violated federal privacy laws and was incorrectly flagging eligible voters as noncitizens. That judge ordered the program to stop being used.
Both Democratic and some Republican officials have pushed back against the Justice Department’s demands for detailed voter information, arguing the requests run afoul of state and federal privacy protections.
However, at least 13 states have either already turned over or committed to turning over their voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting. Those states are Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
FORT STEWART, Ga. — A military judge has sentenced an Army sergeant to life behind bars for a shooting incident last summer that left five people injured at a Georgia military installation.
Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 29, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole at Fort Stewart on Tuesday, according to local news reports. The sentence came following a court-martial last week in which Radford was found guilty of attempted murder.
Military prosecutors alleged that Radford deliberately targeted leaders within his supply unit when he opened fire using a personal handgun last August. Four of his fellow soldiers were wounded in the attack, along with his then-fiancé, Raekwon Smith. Smith testified that he had followed Radford onto the base out of concern that the soldier might harm himself.
Radford had previously admitted to the shootings in March when he entered guilty pleas to charges of aggravated assault and domestic violence. However, he maintained throughout the proceedings that he never had any intention of killing anyone, even as Army prosecutors pursued the more serious attempted murder charges.
Witnesses at trial described how Radford — a supply sergeant assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade — moved through two offices and a conference room, shooting four soldiers along the way. Fellow soldiers eventually restrained him and took away his weapon before military police took him into custody.
In addition to the life sentence, Radford was dishonorably discharged from the Army and had his rank reduced to private.
Prosecutors had pushed for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Radford’s defense team argued for a more lenient outcome, contending that he was in the midst of a mental health crisis at the time of the shootings and had since taken responsibility for what he did.
One of Radford’s defense attorneys read a statement on his behalf in which he apologized individually to each victim, expressed gratitude that they all survived, and asked for their forgiveness.
A physician from the Army hospital located on Fort Stewart testified during the trial that one soldier was shot in the face and another in the chest, while other victims sustained gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen.
Victims who spoke during the sentencing hearing said they continue to cope with both physical and emotional injuries stemming from the attack. Two of those wounded have since left military service.
Radford chose to have his case decided by a military judge rather than a panel of fellow soldiers.
Tuesday marked the latest round of primary elections across four states — Maryland, New York, South Carolina, and Utah — as voters began selecting the nominees who will compete in November’s midterm elections.
The November midterms will decide which party controls both chambers of Congress, along with dozens of governorships and other state and local offices. Primary elections are being held throughout the spring and summer in all 50 states to determine who will appear on the general election ballot.
In Maryland, all eight congressional districts are holding contested primaries. The state typically leans left — only one of its districts is currently represented by a Republican — meaning primary winners often go on to win the general election. Gov. Wes Moore is seeking the Democratic nomination for a second term.
In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been working to shape the city’s congressional delegation through a series of endorsements, including in Districts 7, 10, and 13. In District 12, several Democrats are competing for the party’s nomination, among them Trump critic George Conway and Kennedy family member Jack Schlossberg.
In South Carolina, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson are squaring off in a Republican runoff for the gubernatorial nomination. President Donald Trump, who had initially endorsed Evette earlier this month, said Friday that either candidate would make a good choice.
In Utah, voters are selecting congressional nominees under a newly drawn district map that created a more Democratic-friendly seat centered in Salt Lake City.
Here is the latest from Tuesday’s elections:
The newly redrawn Salt Lake City district — the result of a lengthy court battle over previous congressional boundaries — could prove critical for Democrats, who need to pick up only a handful of U.S. House seats in November to flip control of the narrowly divided chamber.
In the Democratic primary for that seat, former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, considered a moderate, is running against three candidates who are positioned further to his left. Progressive voters could divide their support among those challengers, potentially clearing the way for McAdams to return to Washington — or they could unite behind state Sen. Nate Blouin, Liban Mohamed, or Michael Farrell.
McAdams’ path to Congress has evolved since his first run in 2018, when he successfully convinced voters he was a sensible moderate capable of representing a swing district, defeating the Republican incumbent by a narrow margin. This time around, running in a heavily Democratic district, McAdams has pledged support for abortion rights and describes himself as only “moderate in tone” — a shift from his earlier self-described anti-abortion stance. His progressive opponents argue he is too conservative for the new district, a claim McAdams disputes, pointing to his record.
Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy is seeking reelection in a district that looks very different from the one that first sent her to Congress three years ago. She faces former state lawmaker Phil Lyman, who is running to her political right, in a redrawn district covering most of southern and eastern Utah. Maloy was first elected in a 2023 special election and won a full term in 2024. Lyman, who promoted false claims of fraud following the 2020 presidential election, is best known for organizing an illegal ATV ride to protest a federal land decision. A jury convicted him on misdemeanor charges, but Trump pardoned him in December 2020.
In New York, Mayor Mamdani made an appearance Tuesday morning outside a polling location on the Lower East Side alongside congressional candidate Brad Lander, a fellow Democrat. Mamdani described candidacies like Lander’s as “a referendum on whether the kind of leadership we have is the one that is serving the people of this city.”
“It’s not just a question of electing more Democrats. It’s a question of electing better Democrats,” the mayor said. He stressed the importance of putting “working people back at the heart of our politics” and championing freedom from fear and freedom of worship. “It’s time to bring some of those notions back so that working people can look at this party and see themselves, see their struggles, see their focuses,” Mamdani added.
The polling site appeared lightly attended, with voters trickling out every few minutes. One man leaving the building grumbled that the election had forced the cancellation of a lunch program for senior citizens. After the mayor departed, Lander recorded a video urging people to vote and reach out to friends. “We’re going to be calling people, knocking on doors, texting people all day long,” he said.
In New York’s 10th District, Rep. Dan Goldman — a former federal prosecutor who served as lead counsel during Trump’s first impeachment — is running for a third term in the heavily Democratic district covering parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. He faces former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has the backing of both Mayor Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Lander was acquitted earlier this month on charges stemming from a protest inside a building that houses an immigration court and has vowed to push back against the Trump administration, promising to “fight, not fold.”
A separate development involving Goldman emerged Monday when the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced an investigation into a Brooklyn coffee shop that said it would refuse service to the congressman over his support for Israel. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Poetica Coffee shared an image of Goldman in their Williamsburg location and wrote, in part: “We don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers or anyone in between. Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.” Goldman responded that he had purchased coffee from a barista who allowed his daughter to use the restroom and “could not have been nicer.” The top civil rights prosecutor at the Justice Department said on X that the coffee shop could face an enforcement action for discrimination. Goldman told CNN he was saddened by the post but did not believe it warranted a federal investigation. The coffee shop did not respond to requests for comment.
In New York’s 12th District, eight Democrats are running to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler in one of Manhattan’s wealthiest House districts. Four candidates have dominated the race. Jack Schlossberg, a 33-year-old Kennedy family heir, and George Conway, a former Republican lawyer turned prominent Trump critic, represent a newer social media-driven style of campaigning. The two front-runners are Assemblymember Micah Lasher — a childhood magician turned political insider endorsed by Nadler himself — and Assemblymember Alex Bores, a former computer engineer whose artificial intelligence regulation bill made him the target of more than $7 million in ads from AI industry supporters. Bores has turned the spending against him into a rallying point, attracting other donors to counter the effort and positioning himself as a national symbol of resistance to big money in politics.
Further north in New York, Anthony Constantino — a Trump-backed “Make America Great Again” supporter and head of the custom sticker company Sticker Mule — is facing off against conservative state lawmaker Robert Smullen in a Republican primary. Constantino is known for his public overtures to the president, including placing a large “Vote for Trump” sign on top of one of his company’s buildings. Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel and current state Assembly member, has broad support from state Republicans and presents himself as a steady, experienced choice for the House.
Back in Maryland, Republican voters are choosing a candidate they hope can unseat first-term Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, who has emerged as a rising figure in the Democratic Party. The GOP field ranges from ultra-moderate to staunchly conservative. Among the most closely watched contenders is Dan Cox, an attorney and former state delegate who ran unsuccessfully for governor four years ago. Cox has a photo of himself with Trump on his law firm’s website and has pledged to cut taxes and expand housing affordability programs if elected.
At one Maryland polling location at Bowie High School’s 9th Grade Center, turnout was light under overcast skies. Rodrick Greensword, 58, and his wife Natasha Greensword, 45, both voted for incumbent Gov. Moore in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and for Maryland State Delegate Adrian Boafo to be the Democratic nominee to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Steny Hoyer. “We know the governor is governed by the pillars on which his culture is built,” Natasha said, adding that he will work for the people and make moral and humane choices. She said Boafo appeared to share the same values as Moore and Hoyer, and that Hoyer’s endorsement of Boafo also carried weight with her.
In Maryland’s most crowded primary, 24 candidates are on the Democratic ballot to succeed Rep. Hoyer. Among them is Harry Dunn, a former police officer who defended the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riot. Dunn became an advocate for democratic institutions in the aftermath of that day. His campaign platform includes protecting democracy and holding Trump and his allies accountable for what he describes as misinformation and violence.
In South Carolina, Alan Wilson has served as state attorney general since 2011, building relationships with law enforcement officials across the state over more than a decade. Many of those officials endorsed his gubernatorial campaign. Since advancing to the runoff, Wilson has also received endorsements from three fellow Republicans who did not make it to the final round: state Sen. Josh Kimbrell and U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also endorsed Wilson, calling him “a proven conservative fighter who has spent years defending the Constitution.” Cruz traveled to South Carolina on Monday to appear at three campaign events with Wilson.
The South Carolina primary season was marked by months of sharp attacks between candidates competing for a rare open governor’s seat. Wilson acknowledged the tension but said the candidates’ relationship improved the more they encountered each other in person. “It’s easy to say things about people on social media, but when you start talking to them backstage, at forums and debates and things like that, you have conversations, you start to see a human being, not an avatar on a social media app,” he said. Wilson noted that he regularly checked in on Rep. Mace after her father died in April. After finishing last in the June 9 primary, Mace quickly endorsed Wilson, and Wilson said the two had “buried the hatchet.”
When the runoff was set, Lt. Gov. Evette wasted no time going on offense, calling Wilson a “career politician … who won’t take a stand and who does the political thing and not the right thing.” The crowd responded to Wilson’s name with boos. Wilson, for his part, did not mention Evette by name in his remarks and instead said he welcomed support from voters who had backed other candidates in the earlier primary.
After voting in Lexington on Tuesday, Wilson said it might take “a couple of weeks” for candidates on both sides to shake off the tension from a grueling year-long primary season. But he expressed confidence that “the Republican party’s going to coalesce around the candidate” ultimately nominated.
On the Democratic side in South Carolina, state Rep. Jermaine Johnson won his party’s gubernatorial nomination outright, defeating two other candidates. Charleston physician Annie Andrews also secured the Democratic nomination to challenge the incumbent U.S. senator. Democrats face a steep climb in the state — in the last governor’s race, the Republican incumbent won by nearly 18 percentage points, and Democrats have not won a gubernatorial race in South Carolina since 1998. No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in the state in decades either.
Cristiano Ronaldo had something to prove, and he delivered. After a largely forgettable performance against the Democratic Republic of Congo left fans and analysts questioning whether the 41-year-old still belonged at the World Cup, Portugal’s iconic forward stepped up in a big way against Uzbekistan.
Ronaldo, one of the oldest players competing in this year’s tournament, had been nearly invisible in Portugal’s earlier match, drawing criticism and fueling speculation about his effectiveness at this stage of his career. But against Uzbekistan, the veteran striker looked like a completely different player — sharp, involved, and dangerous.
He went on to score twice in the contest, silencing the doubters and reminding the world why he remains one of the most celebrated athletes in the sport’s history. The performance took place in Houston on Tuesday.
At 41, Ronaldo continues to defy expectations and push the boundaries of what is considered possible at his age in professional soccer. His two-goal outing gave Portugal a significant boost and reignited confidence in their World Cup campaign.
WASHINGTON — The United States government has relaxed travel restrictions for Iran’s World Cup soccer team, according to an announcement made Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.
Under the updated arrangements, the Iranian squad is now permitted to travel two days ahead of their next scheduled World Cup match, giving the team additional time on the ground before game day.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — June 23, 2026 — The National Pork Producers Council, which speaks for more than 60,000 pork producers across the country, spearheaded a massive coalition of 330 organizations representing millions of agriculture producers in urging Senate Agriculture Committee leaders to include a Proposition 12 solution in the final 2026 Farm Bill.
Shortly after the coalition’s call to action, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman released a discussion draft of the farm bill. The draft addresses several priorities championed by the National Pork Producers Council — including funding for the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan — but does not contain a fix for Proposition 12.
National Pork Producers Council President Rob Brenneman, a pork producer from Washington County, Iowa, responded to the draft’s release. “While there is certainly room for improvement, we appreciate the Chairman putting forward a discussion draft to guide a path forward. He is spot on when he says, ‘it’s the Senate’s turn to deliver’ on a farm bill for all of rural America,” Brenneman said. “America’s pork producers will continue to advocate for a Prop. 12 fix in the formal farm bill like our livelihood depends on it — because it does.”
Adding pressure to the situation, activists launched a $30 million advertising campaign aimed at swaying lawmakers, distorting scientific facts, and undermining years of effort that real pig farmers have invested in seeking a Proposition 12 fix.
Brenneman pushed back on that campaign: “Prop. 12 is creating an unpredictable, unavoidable wave of conflicting state laws and uncertainty — and farmers are the ones left to drown in its wake. We don’t have millions of dollars to spend on political advertising fighting these senseless ads aimed at intimidating our congressional leaders. We need those leaders to hear what we are asking over baseless ad campaigns because we still have to raise our pigs, pay our bills, and compete in a marketplace increasingly shaped by mandates coming from states with very few pig farmers.”
If the final farm bill fails to address Proposition 12, pork producers say they will be left navigating a confusing web of state-level animal housing regulations. Industry advocates argue this patchwork of laws disproportionately harms smaller farming operations, limits veterinarians’ decision-making authority, drives up grocery prices for consumers, and erodes the rights of individual states.
Efforts to resolve the Proposition 12 issue have drawn bipartisan backing, as demonstrated by the successful passage of the 2026 Farm Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The National Pork Producers Council expressed gratitude to its Senate supporters who have continued to champion the rights of American pork producers, including Senators Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley, Kevin Cramer, Ted Budd, Pete Ricketts, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, and Mike Rounds.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday that a recent auction of mid-band wireless spectrum generated more than $3.5 billion in proceeds.
According to the FCC, the majority of those funds — up to $3.3 billion — will be directed toward repaying money that was borrowed to support the agency’s so-called “Rip and Replace” initiative. That program is designed to remove Huawei and other Chinese-made telecommunications equipment from wireless networks across the country.
Bicyclists heading through the Lewes and Rehoboth Beach areas this summer will have access to free safety resources thanks to a new checkpoint program launching in Sussex County.
The Delaware Department of Transportation is teaming up with the Delaware State Police and Sussex Cyclists to operate Bicycle Safety Checkpoints at various locations in the region throughout the summer months.
Anyone stopping at a checkpoint can pick up free safety information, trail maps, bicycle lights, and helmets. Basic bicycle repairs will also be available at no cost to riders.
The program is aimed at making bicycle travel safer for the wide range of people who use bikes in the area, including local residents, tourists, and seasonal workers.
The owner of popular yoga and sportswear brand Alo has agreed to sell its wholesale T-shirt division, Bella+Canvas, in a deal that drew little excitement from Wall Street — but one that analysts say could be laying the groundwork for a major financial move involving the Alo brand itself.
While Alo’s founders have stayed quiet about the company’s future direction, equity analysts and retail merger-and-acquisition advisers believe the Bella+Canvas sale positions Alo for either a public stock offering or an outright sale. The deal has not yet closed.
According to Neil Saunders, managing director at research firm GlobalData Retail, offloading Bella+Canvas gives founders Danny Harris and Marco DeGeorge more room to maneuver with Alo, sharpening its identity as a focused, upscale athleisurewear brand in a crowded and competitive marketplace.
“Alo is a mature business, so it’s at the stage where you generally do something with it. You IPO it, you sell it off, you launch something else alongside it to grow another complementary area to Alo,” Saunders said.
Harris and DeGeorge, described as publicity-shy billionaires, have not made any public statements about whether a sale or IPO is on the table. Notably, when Bella+Canvas announced its sale, it made no mention of its connection to Alo — and that announcement was removed from its website shortly after Reuters reached out for comment last month.
Neither Alo nor Bella+Canvas responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for SanMar, which agreed to purchase Bella+Canvas for an undisclosed price, confirmed there have been no developments since the May 18 announcement that deal terms had been agreed upon.
Harris and DeGeorge built Bella+Canvas into one of the largest wholesale T-shirt and apparel manufacturers in the United States, starting the company out of a garage in 1992. It operates under the parent company Color Image Apparel Inc. and has long served as a steady, if lower-profile, revenue source for the overall business.
Alo — which stands for air, land and ocean — was launched nearly 20 years ago in Los Angeles and has since grown into a major force in yoga and sportswear. The brand has earned a celebrity following, with stars like Taylor Swift, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber photographed wearing Alo clothing during everyday activities and workouts.
As Alo’s popularity climbed, so did its revenue, eventually surpassing Bella+Canvas as the larger business, according to a source with knowledge of the company.
By separating itself from the wholesale T-shirt operation, Alo becomes a more straightforward company for investors or buyers to assess and put a value on — simplifying any potential IPO or sale process, according to about a dozen retail analysts, M&A advisers and investors.
This would not be Alo’s first brush with outside investment. The company held discussions with several private equity firms and other potential investors back in 2023, seeking its first institutional investment partner in a deal that could have valued it at around $10 billion. At the time, Wall Street feedback indicated that Bella+Canvas added little value and made the company’s investment story harder to tell. No deal was reached.
“It makes sense to clean up the model and financials for investors,” said Cristina Fernández, a managing director and senior research analyst at Telsey Advisory Group.
Founded in 2007 as a yoga clothing line, Alo has since branched out into skincare, footwear, beauty and wellness products. The brand has been increasingly targeting luxury consumers, highlighted by the launch of a $3,600 leather duffel bag last year.
Alo competes directly with industry leader Lululemon, as well as rising athleisure brands including Vuori, Fabletics and Gymshark — all of which have reportedly been exploring IPOs in recent years.
The athleisure market surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as people working from home reached for comfortable clothing. But as employers began calling workers back to the office, consumer preferences began shifting away from loungewear.
“[Athleisure] certainly peaked during the pandemic. Since then, it has lost a little bit of its casualwear share and a lot of that is due to the huge resurgence we’ve seen in denim,” said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst at Emarketer. “More broadly we’re seeing a period of normalization in athleisure wear growth in the U.S.”
Those market pressures have hit Lululemon hard. Several quarters of weak performance sparked a bitter dispute with company founder Chip Wilson, who claimed the brand had “lost its cool” and blamed the board for its declining stock price. The board, in turn, accused Wilson of holding outdated views and making damaging public attacks. The two sides reached a settlement last month. Lululemon’s stock has fallen 50% so far this year, leaving the company with a market value of roughly $12 billion.
Typically, founder-owned companies bring in institutional investors before going public in order to establish a valuation benchmark. However, companies can also list on a stock exchange without first taking on outside capital.
The co-founders’ recent comments suggest they have strong preferences about the type of investors they want involved. In the Bella+Canvas sale announcement, DeGeorge said, “It was paramount to my partner and me that Bella+Canvas joins a privately held, family-owned company rather than private equity.”
Harris and DeGeorge have built Color Image Apparel entirely without outside institutional investment. Forbes estimates each founder is worth $3.7 billion.
Alo currently operates more than 150 stores worldwide. Some locations include yoga studios offering classes, and the company maintains an invitation-only gym at its Beverly Hills headquarters where celebrities work out in the brand’s signature leggings, which retail for over $100.
“Alo is a little more exclusive and higher end with stronger ties to luxury that really speak to the affluent or highly aspirational consumer,” Canaves said. “Their most recent campaign was with a super yacht in the French Riviera.”
The Portland Trail Blazers announced Tuesday that they have chosen Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori to lead the team as their next head coach, following a playoff appearance this past season under interim coach Tiago Splitter — the club’s first postseason berth in five years.
Nori, 52, spent the last five seasons in Minnesota, serving as the lead assistant under head coach Chris Finch. During that stretch, the Timberwolves reached the playoffs each year, won five playoff series, and advanced to the Western Conference finals in both 2023 and 2024. When Finch was sidelined with a knee injury during the 2024 postseason, Nori took on an expanded role in managing games.
Before landing in Minnesota, Nori built a lengthy career across the NBA. He got his start in the league in 1998 as a scout with the Toronto Raptors and later served as an assistant coach for the Raptors, the Sacramento Kings, the Denver Nuggets, and the Detroit Pistons. He had also been considered for several other head coaching positions, including interviews with the Chicago Bulls earlier this month, the New York Knicks last year, and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024. On a personal note, his son Dante plays minor league baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin expressed strong confidence in the decision. “After an extensive search process, it became clear that Micah embodies the qualities we are looking for in the leader of this franchise,” Cronin said in a statement. “He has been a key contributor to successful organizations and brings a wealth of expertise, a proven ability to develop players and an authenticity that aligns with the culture we are building. We are excited about the future under his direction and look forward to what we can accomplish together.”
Nori steps into a role that became available under dramatic circumstances. Former head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested last October as part of a federal crackdown on a large-scale gambling operation. Billups has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Splitter, who was elevated from assistant to interim head coach following Billups’ departure, was hired last week as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.
Under Splitter’s guidance this past season, Portland finished 42-40 and returned to the playoffs for the first time in five years — also the first time in that span the team posted a winning record. Their run ended with a five-game first-round loss to San Antonio, which went on to become an NBA finalist.
The Nori hire is the first major personnel decision made by the Blazers’ new ownership group, led by Tom Dundon. The group purchased the franchise from the estate of Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who passed away in 2018. The NBA’s Board of Governors approved the sale — reported to be worth $4.25 billion — in April.
Nori spoke positively about his conversations with team leadership. “From my conversations with Tom and Joe, it was evident that there is a strong commitment to building a culture that values accountability, development and team success,” he said. “This is a team with tremendous talent, and I’m excited to begin working with our players and staff.”
The NFL delivered a clear message to quarterback Brendan Sorsby on Tuesday: there will be no supplemental draft this year. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the league told Sorsby he should instead set his sights on entering the NFL through next year’s regular draft.
Sorsby had sought entry into the supplemental draft following a prolonged dispute with the NCAA, which permanently banned him from college athletics after finding he had placed thousands of bets on sporting events — totaling at least $90,000 — throughout his college career. Among those wagers were at least 40 bets placed on Indiana games during his freshman year there in 2022, though none of those bets involved games in which he personally played for the team.
NFL attorney Lawrence P. Ferazani Jr. spelled out the league’s reasoning in the letter, writing: “The League has not conducted such a draft for several years and, prior to your submission, the League had no plans to do so this year, as no other player has sought entry. Your Petition — filed three business days before the deadline, without any supporting information or documentation, and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions — does not provide a basis for the League to alter those plans. The issues presented by your Petition are too significant, and too closely tied to the League’s core integrity interests, to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented.”
The letter also included this guidance for the 22-year-old quarterback: “We encourage you to focus on preparing for possible entry into the NFL through the 2027 NFL Annual Draft.”
The deadline to apply for the supplemental draft had been Monday. Sorsby had previously planned to hold a workout for NFL teams on July 10.
Sorsby’s path to this point has been a turbulent one. He transferred earlier this year from Cincinnati to Texas Tech, only to be removed from competition by the NCAA because of his gambling history. He then spent a month in a residential treatment program after being diagnosed with a gambling addiction that contributed to the extensive betting activity.
After completing that program, Sorsby took legal action against the NCAA and secured a court-ordered reinstatement to play at Texas Tech. That move triggered widespread backlash directed at the university, ultimately pushing Sorsby to pursue the supplemental draft — a process that has not actually been used to select a player since 2019.
Ferazani’s letter also addressed the substance of Sorsby’s petition directly: “The sole reasons identified in your Petition for seeking entry into the Supplemental Draft are that you have been ‘declared ineligible’ by the NCAA, have ‘exhausted all of (your) avenues to continue in the NCAA,’ and ‘want to now play in the NFL.’ The Petition provides no information regarding the basis for, or timing of, the NCAA’s decision. Public sources, however, indicate that in May 2026 the NCAA issued a determination declaring you permanently ineligible from participation in college athletics, based on a sustained pattern of improper gambling activity during your collegiate career at three different universities.”
With the supplemental draft off the table, Sorsby will have to wait until next year for his first opportunity to enter the NFL.
Technology giants are opening their wallets wide to build out artificial intelligence systems and massive data centers — but some of the investors who rode that wave higher are now having doubts.
Supporters of AI view it as the next major transformation of the global economy, but that transformation carries an enormous price tag. Four companies alone — Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft — are expected to spend a combined total of up to $720 billion this year, with the bulk of that money going toward AI data centers.
This week, investors began taking a harder look at those staggering figures and asking whether AI can realistically deliver the profits and productivity gains needed to make those investments worthwhile. Critics have raised the specter of an AI investment bubble. On Monday, shares of both Amazon and Alphabet dropped roughly 5%.
The pain spread on Tuesday, when chipmakers — including Nvidia, Micron Technology, Broadcom, and Lam Research — led the broader market downward.
Initially, companies like Microsoft and Alphabet used their own cash reserves to fund AI expansion. Increasingly, however, they are turning to financial markets to raise additional capital.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced earlier this month that it plans to raise $80 billion by selling shares of its stock to help cover its investment costs. In total, Alphabet is planning to spend up to $190 billion this year — a figure that exceeds the entire market value of The Walt Disney Co. The company has also signaled that its investment spending next year will “significantly increase.”
In March, Amazon raised $54 billion through bond sales in the United States and Europe as part of its plan to spend around $200 billion this year on AI-related projects.
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX had been on a three-day losing streak heading into Tuesday. The stock clawed back some ground during the session but remained only modestly above where it closed on its first day of trading on June 12. Musk has acknowledged that SpaceX will need to spend heavily to pursue its ambitions of launching AI data centers into space, and the company has said a portion of an upcoming bond offering will go toward that AI buildout.
Several chip companies have seen their stock prices surge as demand for memory and processing power — driven by AI data centers and other projects — pushed prices higher. As investors bid up those stocks in anticipation of growing profits, a key valuation measure known as the price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E ratio, has climbed sharply.
Marvell Technologies posted losses for five consecutive years before recording a profit of $2.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended in January, fueled by strength in its data center business. The stock has more than tripled so far this year, with its P/E ratio jumping from around 30 at the start of 2026 to nearly 100. Some data storage companies have posted even more dramatic gains. Sandisk shares have surged more than 700% year to date, with a P/E ratio of 68.
On Tuesday, investors shed at least some of their positions in these high-flying stocks. Sandisk plunged 12.2%, while Marvell fell 8.1%.
The selloff also hit exchange-traded funds with heavy tech exposure. The Invesco QQQ Trust Series ETF declined 2.6%, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped 7.1%.
While some investors may genuinely doubt that companies spending aggressively on AI infrastructure will be able to generate sufficient profits, analysts suggest that at least part of this week’s selling may simply be investors locking in gains after the stock market’s recent run of record highs.
“With no clear catalyst driving the move lower, we believe today’s pullback likely reflects profit-taking following a strong rally from the March lows,” said Brock Weimer, an investments strategy analyst at Edward Jones.
Big Tech’s gains have been a major engine behind record-setting runs in major stock indexes this year. Within the S&P 500, the technology sector alone has risen nearly 27% over just the past three months and about 18% for the year. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi index has nearly doubled so far in 2026.
Heavy selling on Tuesday triggered a trading halt in the Kospi, which Wedbush analyst Dan Ives noted in a research report set the stage for the wave of tech stock selling when U.S. markets opened. Despite the turbulence, Ives wrote that overall AI demand across Asia is “showing no cracks in the armor, which continue to make us very bullish on owning the tech AI winners over the coming year.”
Still, the technology industry’s race to build out AI infrastructure could be setting the stage for a future oversupply problem, according to Philip Straehl, chief investment officer at Morningstar Wealth.
“Periods of elevated capital investment have historically not translated into strong outcomes for investors, leaving us cautious on the outlook,” Straehl wrote in a report released last week.
He anticipates that the rapid expansion of AI computing capacity will put downward pressure on pricing, squeeze company returns, and eventually lead to a pullback in investment. Semiconductor companies are “particularly exposed to this dynamic,” Straehl wrote.
A shortage of computer memory and rising prices helped drive stocks like Sandisk higher this year, but Straehl noted that the same supply-and-demand conditions are likely to attract competitors — including companies like Nvidia — looking to capture a share of that market.
Straehl suggests that as AI-related companies claim a larger slice of major stock indexes, investors may be better served by spreading their money into sectors such as healthcare and other areas that are less tied to AI expectations.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has touched down in the United Arab Emirates, kicking off the first stop of a three-nation Gulf tour designed to calm the nerves of regional allies who are uneasy about a tentative agreement reached with Iran.
Rubio landed in Abu Dhabi late Tuesday, following two days of intense diplomatic exchanges between the United States and Iran in Switzerland. Those talks, spearheaded by Vice President JD Vance, produced what Vance describes as a major agreement — one that would bring all hostilities in the region to an end, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, and offer Iran sanctions relief, with nuclear negotiations set to wrap up within 60 days.
The tour will take Rubio to the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain — three countries that were struck by Iranian missiles and drones in response to U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. Leaders in those nations have, in some instances, taken a harder stance toward Iran than the Trump administration has recently.
Speaking briefly to reporters after landing, Rubio said he planned to lay out the benefits of the agreement to these skeptical Gulf partners — but only if the deal is actually put into practice. He noted that a proposed $300 billion investment fund for Iran would never materialize unless, as he put it, “its leadership makes a decision that they want to be a country instead of a revolutionary movement that exports terror.”
Gulf allies have also raised concerns that the agreement fails to address Iran’s missile capabilities, its backing of regional proxy forces, and that it delays the nuclear question to a later date.
Rubio pushed back on those concerns, pointing out that the memorandum of understanding signed last week calls for the “complete end of hostilities and conflicts in the region.” He argued that language effectively requires Iran to stop financing proxy groups such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.
“You can’t have the end of hostilities and conflicts in a region as long as Iranian proxies are launching missiles and drones from Iraq, and are participating in terrorism, like Hamas did, and like Hezbollah did,” Rubio said. “So, I do think it’s covered by the MOU, and it is an issue that will be gotten to at the appropriate time in these negotiations.”
The UAE has been especially vocal in pushing for firm action to guarantee the Strait of Hormuz stays open. There have been conflicting signals about what last week’s memorandum of understanding actually means for the strait — a critical waterway that global shipping depends on being able to transit freely.
While the U.S. has held a firm position on free passage, Iran has been moving forward with a plan that could impose service fees on ships passing through the strait — something many view as essentially a toll system. Rubio made clear the U.S. will not accept that under any circumstances.
“It’s an international waterway,” he said. “No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law. That’s the way it is.”
Rubio added that he doesn’t expect to have much convincing to do on that particular point among Gulf leaders. “I think all the countries in this region would agree with us,” he said.
Prosecutors in Kenya have prepared murder charges against a group of students accused of igniting a deadly dormitory fire last May that killed 16 girls at a secondary school, officials announced Tuesday.
The fire broke out on May 28 and swept through a dormitory at Utumishi Girls School in central Kenya, where 202 students were sleeping. When the blaze started, students were forced to escape through a single doorway after the school matron was unable to open an emergency exit.
Investigators later arrested nine suspects, alleging that they deliberately set a mattress on fire close to one of the exits. Those suspects are currently being held in custody during a 21-day investigation period, after which they will be formally brought before a court, according to Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
That same office raised alarm about what it described as a rising number of fire incidents at schools throughout the country, warning that anyone found responsible would face consequences.
By early June, the Kenya Red Cross reported that it had already responded to 37 separate school fire incidents since January.
Last month, Kenya’s Education Ministry suspended the principal of Utumishi Girls School, citing the administrator’s failure to follow fire safety rules. The ministry also revealed it had shut down more than 300 schools in the wake of a 2024 fire disaster that claimed the lives of 21 boys in central Kenya.
School fires remain a serious and ongoing concern in Kenya, where classrooms and dormitories are frequently overcrowded and firefighting equipment is rarely available on campus. Authorities often point to faulty electrical wiring as a contributing factor in many of these incidents.
The worst school fire in Kenya’s recent history happened in 2001, when 67 students lost their lives in a dormitory fire in Machakos County.
BOGOTA, Colombia — European Union election observers are defending the integrity of Colombia’s presidential vote-counting process, pushing back against repeated claims by President Gustavo Petro that the results were flawed after his preferred candidate fell short.
The independent EU monitoring mission sent approximately 150 observers to watch Sunday’s runoff election, which showed conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella holding a lead of about one percentage point — nearly 251,000 votes — with nearly all ballots counted. The same mission had also monitored the first-round vote held in May.
Mission chief Esteban González Pons addressed the situation directly, stating: “We have not observed any irregularities. And as far as we have observed, Colombian legislation has been followed.”
Despite those assurances, President Petro and his political ally, progressive candidate Iván Cepeda, are formally contesting the outcome. Petro had similarly alleged fraud after Cepeda failed to win the first round of voting last month.
Cepeda announced Sunday that his campaign would challenge results from more than 30,000 voting stations and would refuse to accept the final outcome until a recount is completed. Electoral authorities are expected to wrap up that recount by the end of this week.
Voter turnout for the runoff broke records, with more than 26 million Colombians casting ballots. Among those voters, over 426,000 chose a “no-name” protest option on the ballot — a way for voters to reject both candidates — while roughly 29,000 submitted blank ballots.
The deeply divisive election played out against a backdrop of public anxiety over the possibility of renewed internal conflict. Both candidates offered starkly different approaches to shielding Colombia from the brutal violence — including car bombings, kidnappings, forced disappearances, and mass displacements — that plagued the country in past decades.
Whoever is declared the winner will be sworn in to a four-year term on August 7.
In the weeks leading up to the runoff, the campaign grew increasingly bitter, with both sides trading sharp accusations of fraud, vote-buying, and voter intimidation. Petro also raised concerns about the software used to tabulate votes.
González Pons expressed puzzlement at the president’s behavior after presenting the mission’s preliminary findings. “It surprises us, and continues to surprise us, that the President of the Republic is denouncing irregularities that the candidates haven’t denounced,” he told reporters. “It seems pointless to point this out, but he’s not a candidate.”
The EU mission will continue monitoring the ongoing recount process and plans to release its full final report in September.
ATLANTA — Georgia will continue using its controversial QR code vote-counting system during this fall’s midterm elections after state lawmakers approved legislation Tuesday that delays any changes to the system until 2028.
Both chambers of the Georgia Legislature voted on the measure, which also scaled back an earlier proposal that would have required hand recounts of ballots in certain contests. Leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature said the plan to postpone changes to the voting equipment had the backing of Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Kemp had called a special legislative session partly to deal with a July 1 deadline that had been set to eliminate the use of QR codes in the official vote-counting process. Lawmakers had previously passed a law establishing that deadline two years ago, but never managed to identify a replacement vote-tabulation method.
Some voting rights advocates had actually encouraged lawmakers to hold off on any changes to the QR code system, arguing there was not enough time before the midterms to roll out something new without risking confusion at polling locations. Georgia is considered a key political battleground state, with major statewide races for U.S. Senate and governor on the ballot this fall.
Last week, legislators appeared to have struck a deal on a bill to extend the QR code deadline, but Senate Republicans added an amendment over the weekend calling for a complete hand recount of the top two races on every ballot. That addition sparked strong pushback from Democrats.
The version of the bill that ultimately passed Tuesday narrowed the hand recount requirement to eight statewide offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. However, those hand counts would only be triggered when the winning margin is within half a percentage point, and only for races appearing as the first or second contest on a ballot. Races for U.S. Senate and U.S. House seats would not fall under the hand recount rules.
Democrats opposed including any hand recount provision in the bill. Studies have indicated that counting ballots by hand is more error-prone, more expensive, and tends to slow down the release of results. Still, the idea has gained momentum among Republican lawmakers in several states as former President Donald Trump continues to make unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Democratic state Rep. Debra Bazemore noted that Georgia already has election procedures in place that include audits and recount provisions in applicable situations.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is gearing up for its tenth attempt to pass a war powers resolution that would put the brakes on American military involvement in Iran, as lawmakers keep a close eye on President Donald Trump’s push to wrap up a conflict his administration started without congressional approval — and now needs Congress to pay for.
Tuesday’s vote is not expected to produce a dramatically different result from the nine that came before it, all of which fell short. Still, a growing number of Republican members in both chambers have begun speaking out against both the war itself and the deal Trump reached with Iran to bring the fighting to a close. Democrats are pushing Republicans to join them in challenging the administration’s actions.
“Why is this vote different?” asked Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who has spearheaded his party’s efforts on the issue.
Kaine argued that the current pause in hostilities — while Trump’s team works to solidify a fragile ceasefire — is exactly the right moment for Congress to step back and consider “what should the next chapter be.”
The vote is also happening as the Pentagon is asking Congress for roughly $80 billion, primarily to restock weapons and supplies used during the Iran conflict.
President Trump is expected to head to Capitol Hill this week to meet with Republican senators, while Vice President JD Vance has been traveling abroad to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program — one of the key reasons the administration cited for going to war in the first place.
According to one Republican senator who was granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions, Trump is not happy with GOP members who have criticized the deal he made with Iran.
The specifics of the Iran agreement are laid out in a Memorandum of Understanding that Trump signed last week, which kicks off a 60-day window for both sides to hammer out a broader deal aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear program.
A major sticking point for Republicans has been a $300 billion fund included in the agreement to help Iran rebuild — a figure far larger than the $1.7 billion that then-President Barack Obama returned to Iran as part of his administration’s 2015 nuclear deal.
“I believe President Trump is getting very poor advice on Iran,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week on his podcast after the deal became public.
Senate Democrats have been pushing for these votes almost continuously since the United States and Israel launched missile strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. Nearly every week Congress has been in session, Senate Democrats have brought forward war powers resolutions, but they have repeatedly come up short of the majority needed to pass in the closely divided chamber, where Republicans hold the majority.
Earlier this month, the House passed its own version of the resolution, with four Republicans crossing the aisle to vote alongside all Democrats — despite opposition from House Speaker Mike Johnson and the broader GOP leadership.
It is that House-passed resolution the Senate will take up Tuesday. While war powers resolutions don’t go to the president for his signature and don’t carry the weight of law, a successful vote would send a strong symbolic message from Congress and serve as a rebuke of the administration’s military decisions.
In previous votes, as many as four Republican senators have supported the war powers resolutions — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has typically voted against the resolutions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also on Capitol Hill this week, requesting approximately $80 billion in supplemental funding to replenish military stockpiles following the Iran war — a request drawing scrutiny at a time when many Americans are struggling with high gas prices and rising costs of living.
Early Pentagon estimates put the cost of the war at $11.3 billion in just its first week, while outside experts have placed the total price tag at close to $100 billion.
The Defense Department’s funding request is part of a larger military spending push the White House is pursuing this year. The Trump administration is seeking $1.5 trillion in defense funding — a 50% increase — including $350 billion it wants included in a budget reconciliation package. Johnson and GOP leaders are working to pass that package without Democratic support, similar to how they pushed through Trump’s major tax cuts bill last year.
That 2025 tax cuts package also included a significant boost of around $175 billion for the military.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Tuesday that two Italian pro-Palestinian campaigners who had been held in Libya were released after spending approximately one month in detention.
The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla movement, which has been working to deliver humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip. Last month, Israeli forces arrested hundreds of people aboard dozens of ships in international waters in an effort to stop Flotilla volunteers from reaching Gaza.
The two Italians held in Libya, however, were part of a different group of Flotilla participants who had attempted to reach the Palestinian territory by land rather than by sea.
In a post on the social media platform X, Tajani confirmed that the two Italians had been transferred to Italy’s consul in Benghazi. A Uruguayan citizen who also holds Italian citizenship was released alongside them.
The Global Sumud Flotilla had previously reported that the detained activists launched a hunger strike to protest both their imprisonment and what they described as mistreatment while in custody.
Tajani said all three individuals were scheduled to travel back to Italy on Wednesday.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump will be present to hand over the World Cup championship trophy at the final match, scheduled for July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium.
Infantino, who leads the global governing body of soccer, has built a notably close relationship with the U.S. president. That relationship was on display in December when Infantino presented Trump with the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize — an award Infantino himself created — as Trump continued to seek out high-profile moments in the world of sports.
Speaking on the “Fox and Friends” television program, Infantino described the plan: “We will be together with the president enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course, together.”
FIFA declined to add anything beyond what Infantino said on television.
This won’t be Trump’s first time at the center of a major soccer moment. At the same East Rutherford, New Jersey, stadium last year, Trump presented the trophy to Club World Cup champions Chelsea, receiving a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd. He also stood among the players during their trophy celebration, a moment that left some players visibly puzzled.
Since then, Trump has made appearances at several other major sporting events in the greater New York area, including the U.S. Open men’s tennis final, the Ryder Cup golf competition, and the NBA Finals.
The World Cup is currently in progress, with games being played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. New York New Jersey Stadium is slated to host eight matches in total, including the championship final.
Investors betting against SpaceX are finding it increasingly convenient to borrow shares in the company, even as short interest in the stock has climbed to between 5% and 7% of its total float — representing roughly 40 million shares — according to data from S3 Partners.
Sam Pierson, director of research at S3 Partners, noted that conditions have become more favorable for short sellers. “Shares are getting easier to borrow,” Pierson said, adding that borrowing costs currently sit at around 60 basis points.
While that rate is higher than the approximately 30 basis points seen for stocks with the lowest borrowing costs, Pierson explained that the figure actually signals a healthier supply of available shares and suggests funds considering short positions are not worried about finding shares to borrow.
Short selling works by borrowing shares, selling them, and then repurchasing them later at a lower price to pocket the difference. When the supply of available shares is tight — as often happens with newly listed companies that have limited floats — borrowing costs can spike, making short positions more expensive to maintain.
The high valuation placed on Elon Musk’s rockets-and-artificial-intelligence company is expected to attract short sellers hoping to profit from a price decline. However, several factors may give those investors pause, including strong interest from both retail and institutional buyers, as well as Musk’s well-known history of publicly and aggressively going after those who bet against his companies.
On Tuesday, SpaceX shares climbed approximately 6%, reaching $164.04, though they dipped as low as $147.11 at one point during the trading session.
A new nationwide poll reveals that most Americans are skeptical about the value of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, and a majority doubt that the recently signed peace agreement will bring lasting stability.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which wrapped up on Monday after five days of data collection, found that only 24% of Americans believe the conflict with Iran was worth what it cost the country. Half of those surveyed said it was not worth it, and the remaining respondents said they were unsure.
The war also appears to be dragging down Trump’s standing with the public. His approval rating has dipped to 34%, tying the lowest point of his current term, which was previously recorded in an April survey.
When it comes to America’s global standing, just 23% of respondents — including only half of Republicans — believe the United States is now in a stronger position relative to Iran than it was before the fighting began. About 35% said the U.S. is actually in a weaker position, while the rest either weren’t sure or felt the situation was roughly unchanged.
Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian put their names to a preliminary agreement on June 17. The deal is designed to reopen oil and gas shipping routes that were frozen during the conflict and to ease U.S.-led economic pressure on Iran.
While the agreement has helped push global crude oil prices down, most Americans are still paying significantly more at the gas pump than they were before February 28, when U.S.-Israeli strikes launched the war. Iran struck back against those initial attacks, temporarily shutting down roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade and causing damage to energy infrastructure belonging to U.S. allies in the region.
Doubts about the durability of the peace deal are widespread. Some 63% of Americans said they consider it unlikely that the agreement will lead to a lasting peace between the two nations. That skepticism cuts across party lines — about half of Republicans and eight in ten Democrats said they don’t expect the deal to hold. Only 18% of Americans overall — including 34% of Republicans and just 10% of Democrats — believe lasting peace is a realistic outcome.
Trump entered his second term having campaigned on promises to bring down inflation and steer the country away from expensive foreign conflicts. He has long built his public image around his history as a businessman and television personality known for making deals.
His approval rating on economic issues, specifically the cost of living, stands at just 22% — near the lowest of his presidency and below the rating his Democratic predecessor held at the close of his time in office.
Trump began this term with a 47% approval rating, but his numbers have eroded amid persistent inflation and controversy surrounding his immigration enforcement efforts, which have included deadly clashes involving pro-immigration activists.
The decline in his popularity could create headaches for his Republican allies as they work to hold onto their congressional majorities in the November 3 midterm elections.
On immigration specifically, just 37% of Americans said they approve of how Trump has handled the issue — the lowest mark of his term and a drop from 40% in the previous Reuters/Ipsos survey.
The poll surveyed 1,262 adults across the United States and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
WASHINGTON — The United States government announced new sanctions Tuesday targeting nine individuals and 26 entities connected to the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate accused of running cybertheft and large-scale scam operations aimed at American victims.
The move expands on action the Treasury Department took in 2025 against the Prince Group, a sprawling Cambodian business empire with holdings in real estate, banking, and airlines.
“Scam centers in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement announcing the sanctions.
According to Treasury, transnational criminal organizations based in Southeast Asia are using massive cyber fraud and scam operations to target Americans. A government estimate found that Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to scam operations originating in Southeast Asia — a 66 percent jump compared to the previous year.
Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also proposed updating its 2025 Huione Group Final Rule to bring in HPay Service PLC and any organization that succeeds it. Officials said one of the most widespread and profitable schemes involves fraud centered on digital asset investments.
The Huione Group, also based in Cambodia, has played a central role in laundering money stolen through cyber heists and virtual currency investment scams, and was used by the Prince Group to move proceeds from its own fraud operations, Treasury said.
In a related action, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had seized a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group. Those subsidiaries helped funnel money from cryptocurrency investment frauds and cyber scams into the conventional banking system, the department said.
“The Huione Group used this cloud computing account as part of a technological backbone that allowed billions in fraud proceeds to be transferred, moved, and concealed — much of it stolen through Southeast Asian scam centers,” the Justice Department stated.
The seized account was connected to the operation of Huione Guarantee, also known as Haowang Guarantee, which is accused of using channels on the social media platform Telegram to facilitate illegal activity. That activity allegedly ranged from selling stolen credit card numbers and personal identity data to human trafficking, as well as laundering money from romance and investment scams.
Among those named in Tuesday’s Treasury sanctions is Hu Xiaowei, described by authorities as the Prince Group’s second-in-command and referred to as “big brother” to the group’s leader, Chen Zhi, who was sanctioned in 2025. Treasury said Hu Xiaowei controls three companies registered in the British Virgin Islands: Eagle Fortitude Limited, Leisure Focus Limited, and Future King Inc. Through Future King Inc., he is said to oversee a broad network of companies used to manage funds and properties.
Chen Zhi was arrested and extradited to China in January following a joint investigation by the United States and China into transnational crime. Beijing had been investigating the Prince Group since 2020 and maintains a close relationship with Cambodia.
Neither the Prince Group nor the Huione Group could be reached for comment.
Newark families, mark your calendars — the New Castle County Division of Police is heading to The Vinings at Christiana for a Pop-Up Play Zone event this afternoon.
The community gathering is designed to bring neighbors together for an afternoon packed with games, activities, snacks, and summertime fun for all ages.
Residents are encouraged to bring the whole family and connect with their neighbors while enjoying a free afternoon of activities hosted by local law enforcement.
Travelers on Delaware Route 26 westbound should expect slower-than-normal travel times between Route 1 and Route 17.
According to DelDOT, high traffic volume in the corridor is causing delays ranging from 5 to 10 minutes. No incidents or accidents have been reported as the cause — the slowdowns are attributed solely to the volume of vehicles on the road.
Drivers in the area are encouraged to plan ahead and budget extra time for their trips until conditions improve.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has announced $17.5 billion in federal loans to fast-track the construction of 10 new large nuclear reactors, as the country faces rapidly growing electricity demand driven largely by massive data centers.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright described “tremendous interest” from data center developers, utilities, and energy companies looking to participate in the initiative. Officials said Tuesday that construction on the new plants could begin as early as 2030, with the reactors coming online in the mid-2030s.
“This is the start,” Wright told reporters. “We’re going to move with the players that are ready to stand up and move quickly. Once that supply chain is up and running, do we think there will be dozens of these built going forward? I’d be very surprised if there were not.”
The majority of America’s existing nuclear power plants were constructed between 1970 and 1990. Only two brand-new large reactors have been built in the U.S. in recent decades — both at Georgia Power Co.’s Plant Vogtle — and those projects finished years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. All 10 of the newly planned reactors will use the same design: Westinghouse’s AP1000.
Wright acknowledged that the Plant Vogtle project ran into serious trouble due to poor planning, supply chain failures, and the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, he maintained that the reactor design itself is “robust and sound.”
“By building in volume and at multiple locations, we think we will create and stand up a large supply chain and build a lot of construction expertise,” Wright said. “We expect the timing and cost of these plants to well outperform what was done on Vogtle.”
According to the Energy Department, seven utilities and energy companies have signed letters of intent and identified potential sites. From those, five sites will be chosen, each hosting two reactors. The federal loan money would be used to purchase nuclear components that require long production lead times — not as direct construction loans.
The department has not yet disclosed which utilities are involved or which states the sites are located in, saying it would be premature to release that information before final selections are made. No timeline was given for when those decisions will be announced.
President Donald Trump has set an ambitious goal of quadrupling the nation’s domestic nuclear power output within the next 25 years and has signed executive orders intended to speed up development. The administration is also working to advance newer technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors.
Dan Sumner, president and chief executive officer of Westinghouse, argued that nuclear power needs to be built at a fleet scale for the United States to maintain leadership in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and the industries that will shape the coming century.
Not everyone supports the push for more nuclear plants. Critics argue they are too costly and carry greater risks compared to other low-carbon energy alternatives.
The urgency behind the initiative is partly driven by explosive growth in electricity consumption. Data centers accounted for 4% to 5% of total U.S. electricity use in 2024, a share that government estimates suggest could nearly triple by 2028. Some analysts project overall nationwide electricity demand could climb as much as 20% over the next decade, with data centers being a primary driver.
The Energy Department said the loans could shave up to three years off the development timeline and reduce construction costs. The goal is to have all 10 reactors under construction by 2030 and delivering power by the mid-2030s.
The utilities and Westinghouse are expected to contribute a combined total of up to $5 billion in equity across the five two-reactor projects. Wright said the federal government would provide up to $17.5 billion in loans — roughly $3.5 billion per project — to complement that equity investment. He described the arrangement as “very, very low risk to the American taxpayers.”
A stampede that erupted among World Cup fans gathered in Jordan’s capital city early Tuesday morning claimed one life and sent eight others to the hospital, according to the country’s state news agency.
Thousands of supporters had packed into Hashemite Plaza in central Amman to watch their national team take on Algeria, with the match broadcast on large screens set up for the occasion. As the crowd swelled, a dangerous crush developed, resulting in nine people being taken to the hospital, the Jordan News Agency reported, citing the Public Security Directorate.
One of those nine injured fans later succumbed to their injuries, according to the report.
The loss was especially painful for Jordan supporters, as this year marked the first time the country’s national team had ever qualified for the World Cup. Adding to the heartbreak, the team was eliminated from the tournament Tuesday after falling to Algeria by a score of 2-1.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that six people have been taken into custody for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a site that has become the center of growing controversy surrounding his administration’s costly and troubled renovation project.
In a post on social media, Trump claimed — without providing supporting evidence — that a “350 foot gash” had been made in the pool’s paint. The announcement comes as the administration faces a self-imposed deadline to address the failed renovation before the country’s 250th birthday celebration scheduled for next week.
Trump also said seven additional individuals were cited for causing damage to the pool. “It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition,” Trump wrote in his post.
Neither the Park Police nor the Interior Department responded to media requests for comment on Trump’s claims.
The Associated Press independently confirmed only one arrest — a man who touched the already-deteriorating paint while federal crews work to address an algae problem in the water. The liner was installed as part of the more than $14 million project to restore the century-old pool, which included applying a new bottom coating in a color Trump personally chose and has called “American flag blue.”
Trump indicated that “some of the water” would be drained from the pool “either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, to do the permanent repair.” His post did not clarify the extent, timeline, or cost of that permanent fix.
National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police have been stationed around the pool’s perimeter after Trump insisted that vandals were to blame for the liner damage.
Trump originally promoted the renovation as an effort to clean up, beautify, and strengthen an iconic American landmark that he said had been allowed to fall into neglect and disrepair by previous administrations. He promised that the newly applied “American flag blue” coating — which he personally selected — would transform the pool into a sparkling centerpiece along the National Mall.
However, within weeks of Trump declaring the project complete ahead of Independence Day, the pool was overtaken by a bright green algae bloom that obscured the new coating. A section of liner measuring roughly 4 square feet was spotted partially floating in the pool last Friday. The Associated Press then observed additional pieces of liner in the water the following Monday.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Washington has leveled new sanctions against a group of Cuban state-run companies, a move that economic analysts say will likely drive off foreign investors and push Cuba’s struggling economy even deeper into crisis.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the penalties target five Cuban entities, three of which are tied to a powerful business conglomerate known as GAESA — short for Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. The conglomerate is run by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and is believed to control nearly 40% of the island’s entire economy. As of early 2024, it held approximately $14.5 billion in liquid reserves.
“The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic well-being of the Cuban people,” Rubio wrote on social media platform X.
Rubio, who is himself the son of Cuban immigrants, charged that the “regime elites” were exploiting GAESA to “steal the island’s few resources, diverting them for repression, anti-American subversion and spying instead of schools, power plants, and basic necessities for the Cuban people.”
Cuba’s foreign affairs minister, Bruno Rodríguez, pushed back sharply, calling Rubio “dishonest and mendacious.” He wrote on X: “Cuba has proven stronger, more capable, and more effective than he anticipated in the face of the ruthless aggression and collective punishment inflicted upon its people and their living conditions. What this individual is promoting from the world’s greatest power is a crime.”
Under the sanctions, any person or business that provides services to the designated Cuban entities risks being penalized and cut off from the U.S. financial system.
Michael Bustamante, a professor and chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, explained the intended effect: “By designating specific entities, they’re making it clear to foreign investors: ‘If your business in Cuba touches any of these folks, you risk being banned.’” He added, “For most of these companies, it’s a bridge too far.”
One of the five sanctioned entities is Almacenes Universales S.A., also called AUSA, which serves as Cuba’s primary logistics and warehousing operation. It underpins the country’s entire import and export system and is the main storage provider used by Cuba’s government, its private sector, and international business partners, according to Bustamante. If companies begin avoiding this storage network, he warned, it could disrupt the flow of goods into the country and lead to humanitarian consequences.
Also on the sanctions list is Rafin S.A., which Bustamante described as a “very opaque” company he believes functions as the government’s corporate financial arm inside GAESA. While it is not a bank, he said it holds capital for both the government and GAESA and may be involved in financial transactions.
“That would also seemingly throw more cold water on the foreign investors that are already there,” Bustamante said.
A third GAESA-connected entity to be sanctioned is Banco Financiero Internacional S.A., a commercial bank that Bustamante described as a critical institution for foreign investors operating in Cuba. “If you don’t have a bank where you can go as a foreign investor, it makes your operations logistically quite difficult, to put it mildly,” he said.
Rounding out the list are Geominera S.A., a government-owned mining company, and Empresa Siderúrgica Jose Martí, which the U.S. identified as Cuba’s largest producer of raw steel. Additionally, sanctions were imposed on Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cardero, the daughter-in-law of former President Raúl Castro.
These latest actions follow a recent series of sanctions that have already targeted GAESA itself and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Bustamante raised broader questions about the administration’s long-term strategy: “It’s very, very hard to suss out what’s going on here. Is this setting the table for the great sale of Cuba state assets to the highest bidder or the lowest bidder?…Is this part of the recipe of a hostile takeover?”
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has continued to press for a transformation of Cuba’s political and economic structure, arguing that the island poses a threat to the United States due to its ties with American adversaries. Cuba’s government has repeatedly denied being a threat.
Separately, Cuba announced a set of economic reforms last week that Bustamante called “potentially the most significant liberalization of the Cuban economy in 60 years,” though he noted that significant questions and doubts remain about their implementation. Despite those moves, the U.S. is “giving no signal of encouragement that this is even vaguely, partially in the right direction,” Bustamante said.
Cuba is already grappling with widespread power outages, shortages of food and water, and a deteriorating healthcare system — conditions that stem in part from a U.S. energy blockade. In late January, President Trump threatened tariffs against any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba, which had been heavily dependent on oil shipments from Venezuela — shipments that were halted after the U.S. took action against that South American nation.
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic rolled out a new AI-powered agent on Tuesday that operates directly inside Salesforce’s Slack messaging platform, allowing it to participate in workplace group chats alongside human employees.
The new tool, named Claude Tag, is activated when a user types @Claude inside a Slack conversation thread. Once summoned, it can read through ongoing discussions, break tasks into manageable steps, and proactively surface relevant updates across an organization — even without being directly asked.
The agent is designed to remember context over time and is currently being offered as a research preview to Claude Enterprise and Team customers. Anthropic said it plans to bring the feature to additional platforms in the future.
The launch is part of Anthropic’s broader push to capture business customers, an effort that has helped drive the company’s valuation to $965 billion — surpassing that of rival OpenAI.
Company administrators will have the ability to closely manage what data and tools Claude Tag can access within each individual Slack channel, which Anthropic says will help keep sensitive company information protected.
Cat Wu, Anthropic’s head of product for Claude Code, described the announcement as a meaningful step forward because the agent acts on its own initiative within any Slack channel and can interact with multiple team members at once.
“A lot of the capabilities did exist, but actually the form factor of being able to tag it the same way that you would a coworker is really powerful,” Wu told Reuters.
As an example, Wu explained that she personally gave her own Claude Tag access to her Gmail account. The agent reads her incoming messages, identifies when someone important has reached out, and then notifies her through Slack — a platform where she said she tends to respond more quickly.
Wu added that Anthropic is working to extend this same functionality to other platforms in the weeks ahead.
Vancouver Whitecaps defender Joedrick Pupe is heading to Belgium on a permanent basis, with the club officially completing his transfer to Sint-Truidense VV on Tuesday.
As part of the agreement, the Whitecaps negotiated the right to receive a share of any future transfer fees should Pupe move on from the Belgian Pro League club down the road.
Whitecaps FC sporting director Axel Schuster expressed gratitude toward the departing player, saying, “We are thankful to Joedrick for his contributions to our club and wish him the best of luck with Sint-Truidense VV.”
The 29-year-old defender made two appearances for Vancouver during last season’s playoff run. Prior to the permanent deal being finalized, Pupe had already been playing for Sint-Truidense VV on loan, logging 10 appearances and finding the net once during that stretch.
Supply chain software company SPS Commerce is considering putting itself up for sale, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Minneapolis-based company has brought in investment bank Morgan Stanley to assist with exploring the potential transaction, the sources said. The move is expected to generate interest from private equity firms looking to acquire the business.
Neither SPS Commerce nor Morgan Stanley offered a response when contacted for comment.
SPS Commerce develops cloud-based software that helps retailers, suppliers, and distributors handle logistics, inventory management, and electronic data exchange throughout their supply chains. The company counts more than 50,000 clients around the world, among them major retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Macy’s, Best Buy, Adidas, and Hershey.
The push toward a possible sale comes after activist investors — including Anson Funds and Irenic Capital — revealed they had taken stakes in the company in late March and early April, respectively. Both firms called for significant changes, including new leadership and a full review of strategic options, with a sale being one possibility on the table.
Over the past year, SPS Commerce shares have tumbled more than 80%, leaving the company valued at approximately $2 billion. The broader pullback from software stocks has been driven in part by uncertainty surrounding how artificial intelligence will reshape the industry.
While SPS Commerce previously delivered strong growth — including 18% revenue growth in 2025 — the company is now projecting a much slower increase of 6% to 7% for 2026. That slowdown has made investors more cautious about software company valuations going forward.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has quietly assigned a small team within the company to develop a new smartphone application modeled after existing prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, according to a Tuesday report from the New York Times.
The newspaper said its reporting was based on information from two employees who had knowledge of the effort.
Millions of people across Europe are enduring dangerously high temperatures this week as an early summer heat wave takes hold, and climate scientists say a weather phenomenon called a heat dome is responsible.
So what exactly is a heat dome? According to Mireia Ginesta, a research associate at the Climate Litigation Lab at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, heat domes are high pressure systems that stall in place for several days, locking in dangerous levels of heat and humidity.
These events are triggered by a northward bulge in the jet stream — the band of fast-moving winds high in the atmosphere that drives much of our weather.
“High pressure system means that the air is sinking, and as the air goes down to lower altitudes, it becomes compressed,” Ginesta explained. “So the pressure increases and the temperature also increases.”
Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, described it this way: “The heat dome is really what the jet stream is doing. The heat wave is what we feel at the surface.” She added that those northward bulges in the jet stream are what create the conditions leading to extreme heat events.
France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom are among the nations being hit hardest by the current heat wave. France has been the most severely affected, with roughly half the country placed under a red heat wave alert by its national weather service. The country lacks widespread air conditioning, and approximately 40 deaths linked to drowning have been reported as people sought ways to cool off. Temperatures are expected to reach as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) and remain elevated for several days.
“In Europe, they’re just not used to this,” Francis said. “It’s really just in the last decade or two where these sorts of really brutal heat waves have been happening and killing a lot of people because they don’t have the means to stay cool.”
Liz Bentley, chief executive at the Royal Meteorological Society and a professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, warned that temperature records are in serious jeopardy. “We are going to see the June temperature records not just broken, but completely annihilated,” she said.
Experts are pointing to climate change as the driving force behind the increasing frequency of heat domes worldwide. Francis noted that as global temperatures rise, extreme heat becomes far more likely everywhere. “We’re warming the globe and that means we’re shifting the range of temperatures that any given place experiences,” she said. “And as you shift that range of temperature, you’re making the extreme temperatures much more likely.”
Bentley agreed, saying climate change is making these events worse in every way. “Climate change is definitely having an impact on the fact that they’re more frequent, they’re more intense, and they’re more persistent as well,” she said. “They hang around a lot longer than they used to do.”
Francis also highlighted a danger that many people overlook — the heat at night. “One of the biggest problems is the nighttime heat,” she said. “If you don’t give your body a chance to cool off at night, it just starts to accumulate in your body and that can really start to affect your health. And so figuring out a way to stay cooler at night is very, very important.”
Authorities in France have responded by canceling trains, concerts, and sporting events, and have placed restrictions on public alcohol consumption. Health officials are urging anyone facing extreme heat to stay hydrated, avoid physical activity during the hottest parts of the day, seek shade, and cool off safely in nearby bodies of water when possible.
The University of Delaware women’s basketball program has finalized its roster for the 2026-27 season with the signing of Ema Rychtecká, head coach Sarah Jenkins announced on Tuesday.
The addition of Rychtecká brings the Blue Hens’ roster construction for the upcoming season to a close, giving the coaching staff a complete group heading into the new year.
The Ocean City Police Department says its work alongside partner law enforcement agencies is paying off, pointing to a recent drug distribution arrest that grew out of an investigation into a social media-promoted ‘takeover’ event as proof that cooperation and online monitoring are essential tools in modern policing.
Authorities in Ocean City, Maryland, announced the arrest on June 23, 2026, framing it as a direct result of proactive information sharing between agencies and close attention to social media activity surrounding so-called ‘takeover’ style gatherings — a trend that has been spreading across the country.
These types of events are typically organized and promoted through social media platforms, often drawing large, unplanned crowds that can create public safety challenges for local law enforcement.
In a statement, the Ocean City Police Department stressed that keeping the public safe in today’s environment requires getting ahead of potential problems before they develop. As the department put it, ‘Public safety increasingly requires a proactive’ approach to monitoring how events are being organized and promoted online.
The case underscores what officials describe as the growing importance of inter-agency collaboration as law enforcement works to adapt to new ways that large gatherings — and criminal activity — can be coordinated through digital platforms.
TORONTO (AP) — A suspect accused of fatally shooting a Montreal police officer outside a hotel had left behind a written manifesto tied to the so-called “incel” movement, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who confirmed the information Tuesday.
The armed suspect opened fire on officers Monday using a long gun before police shot back, killing him. A civilian also lost their life during the incident, though it remained unclear Tuesday who fired the shot that killed them.
The official, who spoke only under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said the document connects the suspect to the “involuntary celibate” — or incel — ideology. The incel movement is largely an online community made up mostly of men who believe society unfairly withholds sexual or romantic relationships from them.
Authorities have not released the suspect’s name to the public.
The officer who was killed was identified by police as Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouan, 34 years old, who had served on the force since 2021.
The existence of the manifesto led to an alert being sent to police departments throughout Canada warning of the potential for similar attacks targeting officers.
A police spokesperson in British Columbia confirmed that law enforcement agencies throughout that province received a warning following the shooting.
Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Surrey Police Service said the alert was distributed Monday afternoon through an intelligence-sharing unit based at Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in British Columbia.
Quebec Domestic Security Minister Ian Lafrenière said he would hold back from discussing details about the suspect’s background or possible motives, noting that an independent police watchdog — which handles investigations into deaths and injuries involving police — is conducting its own inquiry.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said she was unable to speak to the specifics of the case, but stressed the importance of staying alert given the volume of hateful content circulating on social media platforms.
“A lot of people are being recruited, young people. They are not on the street, they are in a different space, which is much harder to control. That’s something that we’re going to have to be working on with the Montreal police in the future,” the mayor said.
The Montreal attack draws comparisons to a 2018 incident in Toronto, where a man used a van to mow down pedestrians, killing 10. That case, which brought widespread attention to the online culture of sexual frustration, rage, and misogyny associated with the incel community, ended in a 2021 guilty verdict. Alek Minassian was convicted on 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Eight individuals convicted on terrorism-related charges stemming from a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center last July 4th are scheduled to learn their fates in a Fort Worth federal courtroom Tuesday.
A federal jury returned guilty verdicts in March after a trial lasting nearly three weeks. The convictions included charges of providing material support to terrorists, among others. For most of the defendants, federal sentencing guidelines call for prison terms ranging from ten to sixty years.
Benjamin Song, identified by prosecutors as the demonstrator who fired a weapon and wounded a local police officer outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, was convicted of attempted murder. He faces a minimum sentence of 20 years and could receive up to life behind bars.
A second defendant, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was convicted of corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents. He could face up to 40 years in federal prison.
Several others who chose to plead guilty to providing material support to terrorists rather than go through a full trial are also being sentenced Tuesday. Those individuals face up to 15 years in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors contend that all eight defendants are members of antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement that has become a focus of the Trump administration. The defendants have rejected that characterization, saying they were at the demonstration simply to show solidarity with immigrants held inside the detention facility.
FBI Director Kash Patel has described the Prairieland case as the first in which people the Trump administration believes are affiliated with antifa have been charged with terror-related offenses.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last fall designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Legal experts note, however, that no domestic equivalent exists to the State Department’s official list of foreign terrorist organizations, which raises questions about the legal standing of such a designation.
Civil liberties advocates have raised alarms that this case could set a broad precedent affecting protest rights across the country, since organizations operating within the United States are generally protected under First Amendment free-speech guarantees.
The term antifa is short for “anti-fascists” and does not refer to a single unified group. Rather, it is an umbrella label applied to various far-left militant factions that confront neo-Nazis and white supremacists at public demonstrations.
The sentencing comes just days after federal prosecutors in Minnesota charged 15 people with obstructing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Prosecutors alleged those individuals were antifa members who conspired to block federal arrests and deportations by erecting barricades around government buildings and hurling chunks of ice at federal vehicles, among other actions.
TUCSON, Ariz. — Fighting back tears on Tuesday, “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie stepped away from her anchor role just long enough to make a heartfelt plea to the public, urging anyone with knowledge of her missing mother’s whereabouts to speak up.
“We are in agony, and we cannot be at peace. … We love our mom. We’ll never stop looking for her,” Guthrie said from the “Today” desk in New York, clutching a tissue in her left hand.
Her mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, was reported missing on February 1 from her home in the Tucson area, where she had been living alone. More than a week after her disappearance, the FBI released footage from a camera mounted outside her front door that showed an unidentified masked individual approaching the home. Investigators also discovered blood on the porch, but the case has yet to be solved.
Several news outlets had previously acknowledged receiving ransom notes in the days following Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance but had held back on reporting the details while the investigation was still in its early stages. Members of the Guthrie family had been informed about the notes.
Tucson television station KOLD reported Monday that it had received two separate notes — one demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin in exchange for Nancy Guthrie’s safe return, and another claiming she had died. CNN also reported on the contents of the notes, citing law enforcement sources.
According to CNN, one of the notes indicated that the individuals responsible for her kidnapping did not intend to kill her, but that she passed away shortly after she was taken.
Savannah Guthrie addressed the situation carefully on Tuesday, noting her separation from the news coverage. “I don’t have any comment on this story. I’m not involved in our coverage,” she said, referring to NBC News. “But I can’t pretend I’m not here. And since I am, I want to just take the opportunity to ask people — really to beg people — to come forward. Somebody knows something.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department directed questions about the ransom notes to the FBI. A request for comment sent by email was not immediately answered.
In the weeks following Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, volunteers and search teams combed through the rugged desert landscape near the area — terrain marked by cactuses, bushes, and large boulders. A search was recently conducted near the Arizona-Mexico border, but her body was not located.
Throughout the ordeal, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have periodically posted videos on social media urging the public to come forward with any tips. She has asked supporters to “raise your prayers with us” and has gently acknowledged the possibility that her mother may now be in heaven, dancing “with our daddy.”
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department sent subpoenas to reporters at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal demanding they appear before a grand jury — then pulled those subpoenas back, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The Washington Post confirmed that one of its reporters was served a subpoena by the Trump administration as part of a wide-reaching crackdown on media leaks. That crackdown had already made headlines in January when FBI agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter and took her electronic devices — an extraordinary and rarely used tactic. Reporters at The Wall Street Journal also received grand jury subpoenas, sources said, a move critics described as a direct threat to press freedom.
The reason the government chose to pull the subpoenas remains unclear, as does the specific news coverage the subpoenas were tied to. The withdrawal was first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday and later confirmed by people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the law enforcement action was not public.
Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray sent a staff email, obtained by The Associated Press, revealing that the subpoena had targeted Ellen Nakashima, a well-known national security reporter who has covered topics including the Iran war and deadly U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea.
A newspaper spokesperson responded with a firm statement: “The unwarranted subpoena of our reporter Ellen Nakashima – a clear violation of constitutionally guaranteed press freedom – was another sign of the government seeking to compel journalists to become instruments of its investigations. We will continue to stand fully behind the journalism of The Washington Post and fight all efforts by any administration that violate our First Amendment rights.”
A spokesperson for The Wall Street Journal did not reply to a request for comment sent Tuesday. The Justice Department also did not immediately respond to an email seeking a statement.
Mark Schoeff Jr., a reporter at CQ Roll Call and president of the National Press Club, described the effort to force reporters into grand jury testimony as “one of the most aggressive actions against a free and independent press in recent memory.”
“Reporters were one step away from being forced to participate in a criminal investigation because they were doing their jobs. That should alarm every American who values a free press,” Schoeff said in a written statement.
The Justice Department has long maintained internal guidelines on how it handles news media leaks, revising those policies over time. While the department has occasionally obtained phone records from individual journalists across different administrations to identify sources for national security stories, compelling a reporter to personally testify before a grand jury is extremely uncommon.
In April, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi reversed a policy from the previous Democratic administration that had shielded journalists from having their phone records secretly obtained during leak investigations — a practice long opposed by news organizations and press freedom advocates.
The reversal restored prosecutors’ ability to use subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to pursue government employees who make unauthorized disclosures to the press. A memo issued alongside the reversal stated that members of the media are “presumptively entitled to advance notice” of such investigative steps, that subpoenas must be “narrowly drawn,” and that search warrants must include safeguards limiting intrusion into materials related to newsgathering.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an attempt to overhaul the way tax foreclosure auctions work, rejecting arguments that would have required governments to ensure homeowners receive more money when their properties are sold to settle unpaid tax debts.
The court ruled against a broad legal argument put forward by a Michigan family whose home was auctioned off for less than half of what it would have sold for on the open real estate market — all to satisfy a tax debt of just over $2,000. The family contended that their rights were violated because the property could have sold for nearly $200,000 through normal real estate channels.
In a unanimous decision, the justices concluded that property owners have no legal entitlement to receive a “hypothetical fair market value” when their homes are sold at tax auctions. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, explained that tax auctions are intended to be a fast method of recovering unpaid taxes, and that forcing local governments to achieve open-market prices could be so burdensome that they would have to abandon the auction process altogether.
“The traditional rule, under which the taxpayer receives only the difference between the auction sale price and unpaid taxes, is ‘just,’” Alito wrote.
However, the court also made clear that the auction process itself must be carried out fairly. The justices sent the Pung family’s case back to lower courts so that the conduct of Isabella County’s auction process could be reviewed more closely.
Larry Salzman, vice president for litigation at the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the family, said the outcome is not a final defeat. “The case isn’t over,” he said. “The Pungs won the right to continue their fight in the lower courts.”
Isabella County had argued that auction prices are inherently lower than open-market sales, partly because buyers at tax auctions are typically required to pay in full with cash rather than financing through a mortgage. The county also warned that requiring foreclosure sales to match open-market prices would effectively eliminate the auction system and make it far more difficult for governments to collect unpaid taxes.
This ruling comes roughly three years after a separate landmark foreclosure decision in which the Supreme Court sided against local governments, finding that counties cannot keep proceeds from tax sales that exceed what the property owner actually owed. That earlier case involved a 94-year-old Minnesota woman whose county kept approximately $40,000 from the sale of her condominium after she failed to pay around $2,300 in property taxes.
Artificial intelligence is getting a lot of buzz in agriculture these days — and for good reason. From developing new seed varieties to guiding sprayers across a field, AI tools are being used in more ways than ever before. But experts say it is important for farmers to understand that not all AI works the same way, and no single tool is right for every operation.
Most people have encountered AI through programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Gemini. These are known as large language models, or LLMs — systems built to respond to questions and produce human-like writing. In farming, however, AI reaches far beyond those kinds of chatbots.
Today, agricultural AI is being applied in areas including seed genetics, crop protection products, farm machinery, weather forecasting, and data analysis. Many companies in the ag industry believe AI can help farmers apply inputs more precisely, cut down on waste, and boost overall productivity. The catch? AI is only as good as the information it is given.
Kyle Courtney, co-founder of AgriData Co-op, put it plainly: “Everybody’s excited about AI in agriculture, but nobody wants to talk about what we’re feeding it. An algorithm doesn’t know good data from bad — it just trusts what it’s given. If the numbers coming off our planters and combines are sloppy or incomplete, the AI will hand us confident, well-formatted nonsense. On my own operation, I’ve learned the hard way that clean data going in is the whole game. Quality at the source isn’t a technical detail. It’s the foundation everything else stands on.”
Eric Muckenhirn, also a co-founder of AgriData Co-op, echoed that concern. He said the unglamorous first step to using AI on the farm is good data hygiene. “Mislabeled field boundaries, uncalibrated yield monitors, inconsistent variety records – decisions hinge on small margins, and a model trained on sloppy records will produce confident, wrong answers,” he said.
One of the most significant applications of AI in agriculture is in plant breeding and genetics. Researchers can now process enormous volumes of plant data at speeds that were not previously possible. Instead of spending years watching how certain traits play out in a field, scientists can use machine learning models to predict which plant combinations are likely to perform well under specific conditions.
For soybean growers, that means AI can help identify traits tied to drought tolerance, disease resistance, and yield potential — before a single trial plot is even planted.
Companies like Corteva Agriscience and Bayer are putting significant resources into AI-driven breeding programs. These systems can simultaneously analyze field results, weather patterns, soil conditions, and genetic data. The goal is to speed up the development of new seed products and help crops perform better across a variety of environments.
AI is also playing a role in advancing gene-editing tools such as CRISPR. Computer models help scientists predict where genetic edits are most likely to succeed while minimizing unintended changes. Some companies, including Inari Agriculture, are using AI to improve existing plant genetics without introducing foreign DNA — looking for ways to increase yields while reducing water and fertilizer use.
On the equipment side, AI is transforming how farm machinery operates. John Deere has made major investments in AI-powered tools and robotics. Its See & Spray technology uses cameras mounted on sprayers to scan fields in real time, distinguishing weeds from crops through computer vision. The system then applies herbicide only where weeds are detected, rather than across an entire field.
This kind of precision technology has the potential to reduce chemical use, lower operating costs, and lessen environmental impact. It also represents a broader shift in farming — moving from decisions made at the field level toward management at the individual plant level.
Modern planters and combines are also gathering huge amounts of data. Sensors monitor planting depth, soil moisture, population spacing, and yield figures. That information can be combined with weather data and satellite imagery to guide better decisions in future seasons.
Still, AI is not a cure-all.
Because AI learns from data, flawed or incomplete information can lead to flawed recommendations. Some AI systems are even known to produce incorrect outputs — a problem sometimes called “hallucinations.” That is why farmers are encouraged to keep relying on their own experience, trusted agronomic advice, and local knowledge alongside any AI tools they use.
Muckenhirn offered a cautionary note: “The failure mode I can see coming is farmers treating an AI model output (planting date, variable-rate seeding application, decision to spray or not to spray) as an oracle and switching off the intuition built over decades of knowledge of their fields. The right mentality: AI is a second opinion that’s only trustworthy once it’s been checked against what you already know works on your ground. A yield model that’s never been corrected against your actual combine data is a confident guess at best. Your job shifts from ‘decide everything’ to ‘audit the machine’s reasoning against your historical knowledge and context.’”
Data ownership and privacy are also growing concerns. As more equipment and software collect information from fields, farmers are increasingly asking who owns that data, how it is stored, and who can access it.
For soybean producers, AI will likely show up in gradual, practical ways before making any dramatic changes. It may come through seed selection recommendations, more targeted spraying, automated crop scouting, or improved weather forecasting. As with any emerging technology, those who adopt it earliest take on the greatest risk.
The bottom line is education. Farmers do not need to become technology experts to benefit from AI. But having a basic understanding of what these tools can and cannot do helps producers ask better questions and make smarter choices. Much like GPS guidance and precision planting before it, AI in agriculture will likely keep evolving.
For now, experts suggest treating AI as one more tool in the toolbox — valuable in certain situations, limited in others, and most effective when combined with solid management practices and real-world farming experience.
Key AI Terms for Farmers to Know:
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computer systems that perform tasks normally requiring human thinking. Machine Learning (ML): AI that learns patterns from data and improves over time. Generative AI: AI that creates new content such as text, images, or code. Large Language Model (LLM): AI trained on large amounts of text to answer questions or write content. Predictive Analytics: Using data and models to forecast future outcomes. Deep Learning: Advanced AI that recognizes complex patterns in massive datasets. Natural Language Processing (NLP): AI that helps computers understand human language. Prompt: The question or instruction given to an AI system. Bias: Errors caused by incomplete or unbalanced data. Hallucination: When AI generates incorrect or misleading information.
This summer, a fresh group of college students will make their way to Washington, D.C., becoming the 10th class to go through the Valent and American Soybean Association (ASA) Ag Voices of the Future program. The initiative is built to introduce young people who have ties to farming or a passion for agriculture to the world of policy and advocacy, with the goal of steering them toward careers that could shape agricultural policy at the state or federal level — whether in government, trade associations, or agribusiness.
Jeffrey Smith, associate director of industry affairs for Valent, explained why the program matters. “Today, legislative and regulatory policymakers at the Federal and state levels are many generations removed from the farm,” he said. “We believe the best way to ensure farmers maintain access to innovative crop protection and yield-enhancing tools is to encourage young leaders with a practical understanding of ag production to consider policy careers based in Washington, D.C. Valent appreciates the opportunity to partner with ASA to identify, develop, and direct these future leaders to have a positive impact on the issues facing soybean farmers and the crop protection industry.”
Smith first came up with the idea for the program back in 2016, working alongside Michelle Hummel on the ASA Industry Relations team to turn the concept into reality. Every year, the program is carried out through a close partnership between the ASA and Valent teams.
Students selected for the program receive close to three full days of training, which includes educational sessions, meetings with government agencies, and visits to Capitol Hill alongside their state soybean organizations. The program runs at the same time as ASA’s summer board meeting, giving students added chances to network through ASA meeting events, a Capitol Hill reception, and a dinner with program graduates who are currently working in Washington.
ASA President Scott Metzger, a farmer from Williamsport, Ohio, stressed the value of the program. “It’s important that young people have an understanding of the significant policy issues that directly impact the productivity and economic well-being of our farms and the soybean industry,” he said. “ASA appreciates Valent’s support of this valuable program that helps cultivate future voices for agriculture.”
ASA works with Agriculture Future of America (AFA), a well-regarded professional development organization for college students pursuing agriculture careers, to promote the program and handle the application process. Students can express interest through the AFA scholarship application. Each year, hundreds of applicants compete for just 10 spots selected by ASA and Valent.
The program’s first full day kicks off with an introduction to ASA — covering the organization’s policy priorities and leadership development opportunities. Valent USA then walks students through pesticide policy and the regulatory steps involved in getting crop protection products registered and approved.
Training continues with a Capitol Hill 101 session that prepares students for their congressional visits, explaining how Capitol Hill is structured and what to expect when sitting down with lawmakers and their staff. Additional guest speakers often include current Hill staff and members of ASA’s Government Affairs team, who share what it’s actually like to live and work in Washington and hold a congressional staff position.
The program also features a writing workshop led by West Wing Writers, a firm whose team includes former White House senior staff and speechwriters. The workshop helps students sharpen their writing abilities and develop strategies for communicating in a clear and persuasive way.
Following the workshop, participants attend a briefing on key ASA policy issues during the Soy Issues Forum portion of the ASA Board of Directors meeting — preparation for joining farmer leaders from their home state soybean associations on Capitol Hill visits the next day.
On the program’s third and final day, students visit USDA headquarters to meet with officials from the Office of Pest Management Policy. They also sit down separately with a representative from EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, gaining a broader understanding of how federal agencies influence agricultural pesticide policy and regulation.
Past participants say they leave the program equipped with knowledge, professional connections, new friendships, and real-world experiences to help guide their career decisions. And the program isn’t all work — students also get to explore D.C.’s monuments, museums, and restaurants when the day’s sessions wrap up.
Before heading home, students are encouraged to set up a LinkedIn profile and join the private Ag Voices of the Future alumni group, which serves as a gateway to internships and entry-level positions with agricultural organizations, agribusiness companies, congressional offices, and government agencies. Those opportunities are shared by ASA and Valent staff, as well as alumni who stay involved in supporting the program.
The 2026 Ag Voices of the Future program is set for July 13–16 in Washington, D.C. More details are available in the Education section of SoyGrowers.com.
Program graduates have gone on to land internships and permanent roles that influence policy across a range of agriculture organizations and companies, as well as professional staff positions for members of Congress and within USDA’s Washington headquarters.
Allie Lock, now a professional staff member for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry under Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, called the program a turning point. “Participating in the Ag Voices of the Future program was a defining experience in my career path,” she said. “The experience showed me the importance of ensuring producers are actively engaged in the policymaking process and sparked my interest in helping bridge the gap between those working in agriculture and those shaping policy. Those perspectives ultimately helped influence my career and continue to guide my work today.”
Clayton Elbel, now a program analyst in the Office of Energy and Environmental Policy, Energy and New Uses, in the Office of the Chief Economist at USDA, said the program opened his eyes. “Ag Voices of the Future really opened my eyes to crop protection and pest management policy and how the American Soybean Association is working to make our agricultural industry stronger,” he said. “The program’s emphasis on regulatory affairs influenced my choice to work for the USDA. Plus, it connected me with other students who were passionate about agricultural policy, and we’re still in touch today, working together in Washington five years later.”
Maria Brockamp, now Senior Manager of Government Relations with the National Milk Producers Federation, said the program helped set her on her career path at a critical moment. “Participating in the Ag Voices of the Future program helped confirm that I was interested in a career in agriculture policy someday at a time where I was at a crossroads in life as I headed into my freshman year of college,” she said. “The foundational advocacy skills I gained from the program still serve my skillset to this day, but of course, the thing I appreciated most was the authentic connections I made with my fellow classmates, the ASA and Valent staff, and the soybean farmers from my state who I joined for Hill visits. I gained lifelong friends, colleagues, and mentors from this program. I highly recommend that any student interested in a career in agriculture policy apply!” Before joining the National Milk Producers Federation, Brockamp spent nearly 18 months working for ASA on the State and Industry Relations team.
More than two centuries after he fell in battle, a Revolutionary War soldier has finally been given back his name — thanks to modern DNA science.
John Pumphrey joined the Continental Army as a teenager in 1777 and went on to fight in several significant engagements during the Revolutionary War. He was ultimately killed in action during fighting against British forces in Camden, South Carolina.
Pumphrey was among a group of unidentified soldiers whose remains were discovered at the site of the Battle of Camden. DNA analysis has now succeeded in identifying him from among those unknown soldiers, and the testing has gone a step further — linking him to living descendants.
The identification marks a remarkable moment for both historians and the families connected to this long-forgotten soldier, bringing a measure of closure to a story that had gone untold for well over 200 years.
The University of Delaware’s Department of Athletics & Campus Recreation is being celebrated on the national stage after earning major honors at a prestigious collegiate marketing conference.
The Blue Hens athletics program received three NACMA Best of Awards along with an honorable mention at the 2026 National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators Convention, which took place in Las Vegas from June 7 through June 10.
The recognition highlights the department’s innovation, creativity, and overall impact within collegiate athletics marketing across the country.
The Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that Mike Babcock will serve as their new head coach, bringing back the controversial figure after the NHL wrapped up an investigation last week and found nothing that would bar him from returning to the league.
Babcock steps into the role tasked with finally delivering a Stanley Cup to star players Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two of the game’s elite talents who have spent a decade chasing that championship without success.
At 63 years old, Babcock does bring proven championship credentials. He led Detroit to a Stanley Cup title in 2008, made two additional trips to the final — with Anaheim in 2003 and again with the Red Wings in 2009, when they fell to Pittsburgh — and coached Canada to back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014.
But his record also comes with significant controversy.
Babcock took the Columbus Blue Jackets head coaching job on July 1, 2023, only to resign before training camp that September without ever coaching a single game. His departure came amid criticism over his practice of asking players to share personal photos as a way of getting acquainted — a move many viewed as an invasion of privacy.
When reports surfaced that Edmonton was eyeing Babcock for the position, the NHL Players’ Association requested that the league take a closer look at what transpired in Columbus three years ago. After completing that review, the NHL issued a statement saying it found nothing that would prevent a team from employing him.
Babcock has not been behind an NHL bench since Toronto let him go 23 games into the 2019-20 season.
Though once regarded as among the best coaches in the sport, a number of former players have come forward over the years to speak out against his methods, which some characterize as outright bullying.
Following his dismissal from Toronto, a report emerged that Babcock had asked forward Mitch Marner to rank his teammates from hardest- to least-hardest working — and then revealed that list to the rest of the locker room. Former Detroit Red Wings player Johan Franzen told a Swedish media outlet that Babcock was the worst person he had ever encountered and that there was a period when he was terrified to go to the arena.
Retired player and long-time Babcock critic Mike Commodore reignited his opposition this spring when word of the potential hiring surfaced.
“I don’t want to hear another word about how important mental health is for us when you literally just paved the way, cleared the way for Mike Babcock to get another opportunity in the NHL and put him in another position of power where he can abuse people,” Commodore said on the “Clearing the Crease” podcast.
Daniel Winnik, who played under Babcock during the 2015-16 season with Toronto, also weighed in last week, calling him “the only guy that’s ever made me hate hockey.”
“I just hated coming to the rink,” Winnik said on TSN 1050 radio in Toronto on Thursday. “He’s just a bully.”
The Oilers’ path to Babcock was shaped partly by a failed attempt to hire another coach. Edmonton sought permission to interview Bruce Cassidy, who guided Vegas to the Stanley Cup in 2023, but the Golden Knights — who dismissed Cassidy on March 30 with eight games remaining in the regular season — refused, as he remains under contract for one more year. News of that pursuit became public while Kris Knoblauch, the coach who led Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025, was still employed. Knoblauch was let go just days afterward.
That chain of events ultimately brought the organization to Babcock, who ranks 12th in NHL history with 700 regular season wins and 10th with 90 playoff victories.
NEW YORK — It’s Washington’s moment. The Wizards hold the top spot in Tuesday night’s NBA draft, and the basketball world is watching to see who they’ll choose with the No. 1 overall pick.
Three names have dominated the pre-draft conversation: AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cameron Boozer — all of whom impressed during their freshman years in college basketball. Dybantsa, a forward, led the entire country in scoring while playing at BYU. Peterson, a guard, showed tremendous talent at Kansas but raised some concerns after sitting out 11 games due to injuries and illness. Boozer, another forward, was named college basketball’s player of the year after his season at Duke.
The draft takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, home of the Nets — just a short distance from where the New York Knicks held their championship parade last week. The Knicks captured their first NBA title since 1973 by defeating the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, ending one of the league’s longest championship droughts.
On the eve of the draft, another major story broke when Milwaukee and Miami reached an agreement on a blockbuster trade that will send two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat — a move that could quickly reshape the Eastern Conference landscape.
Washington hopes its draft pick will eventually put the Wizards in that same conversation. The franchise hasn’t won an NBA championship since 1978, back when the team was still called the Bullets — a drought nearly as long as the one the Knicks just ended.
Dybantsa is already thinking about what hearing his name called would mean, reflecting on everything his family has given up to help him reach this point.
MILWAUKEE — For more than a decade, Giannis Antetokounmpo was the face of the Milwaukee Bucks, lifting the franchise back into prominence and delivering its first championship in 50 years. Now, the Bucks must find a way to move forward without him.
On the eve of Tuesday’s NBA Draft, Milwaukee agreed to trade Antetokounmpo and forward Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat. In return, the Bucks will receive Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and Kasparas Jakucionis, according to a source who spoke to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity, as the deal had not yet received the required league approval.
Milwaukee will also receive the No. 13 pick in Tuesday’s draft, a first-round pick swap in 2030, first-round selections in 2031 and 2033, and a second-round pick in 2033, the source added.
The trade marks the departure of one of the most cherished figures in Wisconsin sports history. Bucks fans watched Antetokounmpo grow over 13 seasons from a lanky 18-year-old from Greece — selected 15th overall in the 2013 draft — into one of the premier players in the world. He leads the Bucks in virtually every major career statistical category, including points, rebounds, assists, blocks, games played, and minutes.
Antetokounmpo claimed MVP honors in both 2019 and 2020. In the 2021 playoffs, he returned from a painful knee hyperextension to put up 50 points in the title-clinching Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns, earning NBA Finals MVP recognition in the process.
The 31-year-old had signed multiple contract extensions to remain in one of the NBA’s smaller markets. His loyalty was celebrated by the city — a mural measuring 53½ feet high and 56½ feet wide was painted on the side of a three-story building in downtown Milwaukee in his honor.
Despite aggressive moves to keep Antetokounmpo surrounded by talent and the team in championship contention, Milwaukee never advanced past the second round of the playoffs after that 2021 title. Injuries to Antetokounmpo and other key contributors played a significant role. The Bucks just finished a 32-50 season — their worst in years — snapping a streak of nine consecutive playoff appearances.
Those bold roster moves to stay competitive will now complicate the rebuilding process. Even after this trade brought back some draft capital, Milwaukee still has no first-round picks in 2027 or 2029.
The franchise gave up multiple first-round selections in the 2020 trade for Jrue Holiday and the 2023 deal that brought Damian Lillard to Milwaukee. Holiday was a key contributor to the 2021 championship before being dealt in the Lillard trade. Lillard was later released after tearing his Achilles in a first-round playoff loss to Indiana in 2025 — a move that freed up money to sign former Pacers center Myles Turner.
With those gaps in their draft pipeline, it becomes critical that the Bucks make the most of their two lottery picks on Tuesday — the 10th and 13th overall selections. The 10th pick is their highest selection since 2016, when they also picked 10th and chose Thon Maker.
Guard Ryan Rollins, who turns 24 next month, is viewed as a potential cornerstone going forward. There’s also hope that a new coaching staff can unlock more from Turner, whose output dipped during his first year in Milwaukee.
New Bucks head coach Taylor Jenkins acknowledged that the possibility of a Giannis trade was part of the conversation when he took the job in April after Doc Rivers’ departure.
“Naturally, we did talk about Giannis, the entire roster, developmental pathways for everyone you know, moving forward,” Jenkins said at his introductory press conference last month. “Because from the coaching lens, I’ve got to start formulating that, what we’re going to do, not just this offseason, but when we hit the ground running, you know, at the start of training camp. So naturally, (we) talked about that. Had great dialogue, full transparency.”
The incoming players offer the Bucks a younger foundation. Herro, 26, is a Milwaukee-area native and 2025 All-Star who has averaged at least 20 points per game in each of the past four seasons, though injuries held him to just 33 games in 2025-26. Jaquez, 25, averaged 15.4 points per game off the bench this past season. Ware is a 22-year-old, 7-foot center. Jakucionis, 20, was selected 20th overall in last year’s draft.
Still, this is a seismic shift for a franchise that had considered itself a genuine title contender as long as a healthy Antetokounmpo was on the court. He finished fourth or higher in MVP voting every year from 2019 through 2025 before injuries limited him to just 36 games this past season — a career low.
The Bucks have endured lean stretches before. They reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2001 but didn’t win another playoff series until returning to that stage in 2019.
Long-tenured Bucks fans also remember the last time a generational superstar left town. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — then known as Lew Alcindor — led Milwaukee to the 1971 NBA title and another conference championship in 1974 before requesting a trade. The Bucks sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 1975, and the franchise wouldn’t reach the NBA Finals again until that 2021 championship run.
Now, the player most responsible for ending that 50-year title drought is also heading out the door.
Long before a single seed goes into the ground, farmers spend months mapping out their plans for the growing season. Running a successful farm demands a wide range of supplies and services — from fertilizer and seed to fuel, equipment, labor, land costs, and taxes. But right now, those costs are climbing fast while soybean prices are moving in the opposite direction.
Global tensions are making things worse. Conflict in the Middle East has disrupted the global fertilizer market, pushing up prices for fertilizer and diesel fuel along with many other goods and services that farmers depend on every day.
Planning and Planting
With production costs more unpredictable than ever, many farmers have been forced to rethink what they plant this season. Illinois farmer and ASA Director Roberta Simpson-Dolbeare, who works the land alongside her husband Eric, says those rising costs are influencing decisions on their operation.
“We stay pretty much to a 50/50 rotation between corn and beans,” she said. “It’s hard to predict what market prices may do, but those do factor into our final decision of how many acres of corn and beans we’ll plant. However, we generally don’t vary a great deal from a fairly balanced rotation.”
Even as some producers consider switching what they grow based on what things cost, Simpson-Dolbeare says the bottom line is what really drives the decision.
“The price of inputs comes into play, certainly, but the expected income and the relative value of the end result is what we focus on,” she said.
Rising Input Costs
The upward pressure on farm expenses has been building for several years now, touching nearly every category — fertilizer, equipment, seed, and fuel. ASA Economist Jacquie Holland explained the trajectory: “Input prices spiked in 2022 to 2023 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and pandemic supply chain issues. Prices came down but remained elevated above pre-pandemic levels leading up to the Iran War.”
One telling sign of how farmers are coping can be seen in their equipment purchases. ASA Chief Economist Scott Gerlt put it plainly: “In good years, farmers buy new equipment, and in bad years, they put it off. Farmers aren’t purchasing much new equipment right now. In the long run, they may start looking at their land. If they have rental agreements, they may have to renegotiate lower prices or let some leases go. Farmers will reevaluate their operation a lot more closely, seeing what is profitable and what isn’t. They can’t do anything speculative.”
Simpson-Dolbeare says her operation has responded by being more careful with maintenance. “We’ve always tried to keep our equipment in good working order, so with rising input costs, I think we are even more diligent about making sure we do necessary maintenance in caring for equipment,” she said.
Crude oil prices have added another layer of pressure. However, Gerlt noted there is a potential upside: “High crude oil prices have driven up all costs, but they have also pulled up soybean oil demand, which creates value. It’s a double-edged sword.”
Fertilizer and Countervailing Duties
Fertilizer costs have been a persistent concern in the soybean industry, but the situation has worsened significantly due to conflict involving Iran and restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Holland described the broader forces at work: “Global dynamics largely shape fertilizer prices both at home and abroad. Reductions and pauses in China’s phosphate export volumes has had a major impact on global pricing. Tariff barriers imposed by the U.S. in the form of countervailing duties and International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs also added extra layers of costs to input pricing.”
Countervailing duties placed on Russia and Morocco — two of the world’s biggest phosphate exporters — have further tightened the fertilizer supply. Despite those duties, the U.S. has continued to import phosphates from Russia because supplies are so constrained. The American Soybean Association has been pushing for those countervailing duties to be eliminated, arguing that importers are simply passing those added costs along to farmers. Holland said removing the duties could bring “unencumbered access to available supplies reducing global scarcity and sending prices lower as a result, all other factors equal.”
Even if the underlying causes of the price surge were resolved today, it would still take months for costs to come down — and potentially years before farmers feel meaningful relief. In the meantime, Simpson-Dolbeare described the tough choices her farm has already made: “We reduced our fertility to nutrient removal level as a cost saving measure. Yet even with these measures, we still spent more on inputs than we typically have in the past. To sum it up, we applied, on average, 1/3 less and paid 50% more.”
The Need for Open Markets
The soybean export market has taken a major blow this year. China, the single largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, has cut its typical purchases in half. That drop in demand has left farmers struggling to generate enough revenue to cover their costs. A 10% tariff China placed on U.S. soybeans has compounded the damage, and many in the industry say policy changes are urgently needed.
Gerlt highlighted China’s outsized importance to the market: “China is by far the largest export concern because the tariff rate has gone up on U.S. soy. Historically, soy has had good market access to other countries. Over the next few years, what China does for U.S. beans will be a big driver for exports.”
Farmers have been speaking out, urging both the administration and Congress to pursue open export markets rather than imposing additional tariffs or simply offering financial assistance. Simpson-Dolbeare summed up the sentiment shared widely across the industry: “From our viewpoint, reducing tariffs will help us the most. Tariffs are hurting demand for U.S. soy, and tariffs are negatively impacting our input costs. Our greatest concern is how our long-term profitability is affected if tariffs stay in place. We don’t want ongoing aid, we want open trade markets.”
The American Soybean Association’s Executive Committee and board have echoed that message over the past year. While farm assistance programs are appreciated, the industry’s preference is to rely on open, competitive markets to keep operations viable. Tariffs have pushed potential soybean buyers toward other countries, adding even more strain on farmers already struggling with rising costs.
The ASA says it will continue advocating on behalf of farmers — pushing to eliminate countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer imports and working to educate policymakers in Washington, D.C., about how these input costs affect American agriculture.
The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch that went into effect at 11:53 AM EDT on June 23 and remains active until 8:00 PM EDT the same evening.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means conditions are favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms in and near the watch area. Residents are urged to remain alert and be ready to take shelter quickly if a warning is issued.
Keep an eye on the latest forecasts and be prepared for the possibility of strong winds, large hail, and heavy rainfall through the evening hours.
MILAN — The spirit of Giorgio Armani was very much present at a recent runway presentation held at the designer’s storied headquarters and personal residence in the center of Milan, where a co-ed fashion show was followed by a relaxed garden dinner attended by celebrities and industry insiders.
The Giorgio Armani Foundation is currently working to fulfill a requirement in the late designer’s will — finding a buyer for a 15% stake in the Armani fashion group within 18 months of his death last September. That backdrop gives every runway show added significance, as the brand must prove that Armani’s creative direction remains both timeless and forward-looking.
“We tried to continue the message that he wanted to convey,” said Silvana Armani, the designer’s niece and head of womenswear design, speaking to reporters after the show, which closed Milan Fashion Week on Monday evening.
The collection — blending Giorgio Armani menswear for next summer with womenswear cruise looks — embodied the relaxed, effortless quality that defined Armani’s work. That signature nonchalance came through not just in the loose silhouettes, but in the way models carried themselves on the runway, one toying with a ring as she approached photographers, another casually draping a jacket over his shoulder.
Silvana Armani and menswear designer Leo Dell’Orco did introduce some subtle updates. Jackets ran slightly longer than the traditional Armani cut, while trousers were trimmed just a bit slimmer to create a balanced look. Observers familiar with the brand noted that the roughly 160 outfits felt grounded and wearable — less like runway fashion and more like what real people might wear on a night out.
“When the models came for their fittings, they were always a bit taken aback,” Dell’Orco said. “It felt as though they could easily just walk out onto the street.”
The collection featured safari jackets and elongated blazers worn over deep shawl-collar vests or paired with shirts and long neckties. Colors drew from the Mediterranean, with sun-faded greens, cobalt blues, and warm sandy tones. Fabrics including linen, cotton, and textured knits gave the collection a breezy summer feel.
The womenswear cruise pieces — the first collection designed by Silvana Armani — were woven naturally throughout the show, featuring jackets, coats, and dresses that fell softly over the body.
“I think he would have applauded,” Dell’Orco said.
Seated in the front row were actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Strong, and Lucy Boynton, as well as pop singer Conan Gray. After the show, guests including film director Paolo Sorrentino and former Gucci CEO and Armani board member Marco Bizzarri moved from the courtyard venue into the adjoining garden for a casual dinner reception.
Under the terms of Armani’s will, his heirs are required to sell the 15% stake in the company — which encompasses the Emporio Armani label, Armani/Casa, and Armani Hotels — within 18 months of his passing last September.
For now, Silvana Armani and Dell’Orco are the driving creative forces behind the brand. Dell’Orco also serves as chairman of the foundation, which acts as the primary governing body for Armani’s business empire, and he holds 40% of the fashion group’s voting rights.
Following the show, Dell’Orco also addressed speculation that Dario Vitale — who departed Versace after just one season — would be taking a role at Emporio Armani. Those reports “are not true,” Dell’Orco told the news agency ANSA.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s health minister issued an order Tuesday to suspend construction of an Ebola quarantine facility designed to house Americans who contract the virus while abroad, one day after being held in contempt of court for allowing the project to continue.
Officials from the Trump administration had announced plans to send Americans exposed to Ebola in foreign countries to the new Kenyan facility rather than bringing them back to the United States.
Back in May, a high court had directed that construction be stopped while judges considered a legal challenge brought by the Law Society of Kenya and the Katiba Institute, a constitutional watchdog group. Those organizations argued that Kenya’s already strained health infrastructure could not safely manage a potential Ebola outbreak.
Despite that court order, construction pressed on. Residents in the area staged multiple protests over the project, and three people died during those demonstrations.
Health Minister Aden Duale was found in contempt on Monday and was required to appear at a sentencing hearing the following day. During that hearing, Duale offered an apology to the court, stating that it was never his intention to “disregard, undermine or act in defiance of the orders of the court.”
The court accepted the apology and chose not to impose any additional punishment on the minister.
Duale also pushed back against fears surrounding the facility, insisting that worries about it endangering nearby communities were not backed by science.
“The fear that the Laikipia facility could serve as a vehicle for Ebola importation into surrounding communities is scientifically unfounded,” Duale said.
The United States has pledged $13.5 million to support Kenya’s efforts to prepare for a potential Ebola outbreak.
State-level biofuel policies are quickly emerging as one of the most powerful forces shaping American agriculture, domestic energy, and efforts to reduce transportation emissions. Low Carbon Fuel Standard programs operating in California, Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico — along with similar clean fuel initiatives taking shape elsewhere — are no longer just regional concerns. Together, they are reshaping national fuel markets and determining the long-term future of soy-based biodiesel and renewable diesel, according to the American Soybean Association’s director of government affairs.
For soybean farmers, these developments bring both real opportunity and serious risk. Soybean oil has risen to become one of the most critical raw materials in biomass-based diesel production, valued for its scalability, domestic availability, and the well-established agricultural supply chain behind it. Biodiesel and renewable diesel produced from soybean oil deliver immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while working within existing engines, fuel systems, and infrastructure. Unlike many emerging clean energy technologies that are still years from widespread commercial use, soy-based biofuels are already cutting emissions in heavy-duty trucking, farming, rail, ports, and other sectors that are difficult to electrify.
State clean fuel programs have helped drive this growth by rewarding fuels based on how much they reduce carbon intensity compared to conventional petroleum. The greater the carbon reduction, the greater the financial incentive. Those market signals have spurred investment in renewable fuel production, soybean crushing capacity, and rural manufacturing across the country — all of which have strengthened domestic markets for soybean oil and created new long-term value for farmers.
However, the policy environment is growing more complicated. A major concern for the soybean industry centers on how indirect land use change — a concept used in lifecycle carbon modeling — is being treated within state clean fuel programs. Many of the assumptions built into these models are outdated and may not reflect modern agricultural realities, including improved crop yields, conservation practices, and advancements in sustainable U.S. soybean production.
Because of this, soy-based biofuels may end up with carbon intensity scores that don’t accurately capture what’s happening on farms today or the environmental benefits of domestic soybean production. If those outdated assumptions aren’t corrected, soybean oil could find itself at a competitive disadvantage compared to other feedstocks that receive more favorable carbon scores — even when those alternatives raise questions about imports, traceability, or inconsistent sustainability oversight.
Other concerns include restrictions on vegetable oil feedstocks, shifting sustainability certification requirements, and uneven global verification standards. Policies that inadvertently limit domestic crop-based feedstocks could hurt rural economies and push the country toward greater dependence on imported fuels or feedstocks with less transparent supply chains.
At the same time, states are beginning to look beyond traditional road transportation for biomass-based diesel opportunities. California ports and marine equipment operators are generating growing interest in low-carbon liquid fuels for commercial marine use. States like Michigan are also examining the role soy-based biodiesel and renewable diesel could play in reducing emissions tied to maritime activity, freight movement, and industrial port operations.
These new markets matter because they represent near-term, scalable demand for low-carbon fuels that can function within infrastructure that already exists. For states pursuing meaningful emissions reductions without sacrificing operational reliability, soy-based biofuels offer a solution that’s ready to deploy right now.
In the end, state biofuel policy has grown into something much larger than an environmental debate. It is now an agricultural issue, an energy security issue, and a rural economic development issue. The policy choices being made today will shape soybean demand, fuel production investment, infrastructure growth, and farm income for generations to come.
Summer Ory always knew farming would be her path. Growing up on a cattle operation in southwest Missouri, she developed a deep connection to the land — one she still carries with her today.
“To this day my favorite place to be is outside,” she said.
After graduating from Iowa State University with a degree in business and management, Ory married her husband Dan and transitioned into full-time farming. Together, the couple operates a five-generation farm in Earlham, Iowa, where they raise soybeans, corn, forage, and cover crops while also bringing up their three children. On top of their crop operation, the Orys run a Pioneer seed and chemical dealership and help Dan’s brother, Joe, manage a cattle herd and custom cut beef business.
It’s a packed schedule by any measure, but Ory said she genuinely thrives in the midst of it all. That same enthusiasm for hard work led her to take on a new challenge: soybean leadership and advocacy.
During 2024-2025, Ory took part in the Iowa Soybean Association’s Grassroots Fellowship, a year-long program designed to give young Iowa soybean farmers a closer look at government, the legislative process, and how to develop their leadership abilities.
“I learned about the importance of current policies and how future policies could positively or negatively affect our farm operations,” she said. The program also showed her how much happens to grain long after it leaves the farm gate.
When the fellowship wrapped up, Ory decided she was ready to take on director positions — one with the Iowa Soybean Association at the state level, and another with the American Soybean Association on the national stage. She believes younger farmers need to step up as veteran leaders move into retirement.
“Farming is both an honor and a privilege, and we want to do it well,” she said. “But the work extends beyond the farm. We must stay engaged with national associations to help shape policies that support long-term farm sustainability. If farms cannot remain successful, rural communities suffer too.”
With farmers dealing with increasingly difficult conditions — including extreme weather, higher input costs, tight profit margins, and restricted market access — Ory said strong leadership and solid partnerships with agricultural allies matter more than ever.
“I believe national directors should not only advocate effectively, but also communicate clearly, collaborate well, and keep the long-term future of agriculture at the center of every decision along with sustainability and profitability,” she said. “Without that trifecta, we face more opposition than success.”
Since joining the American Soybean Association’s board of directors, Ory has been active on multiple fronts — making visits to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and hosting a local roundtable alongside Farmers for Free Trade and her elected representatives. Each experience, she said, deepens her understanding of the soy supply chain, policy landscape, and what effective advocacy really looks like.
For anyone thinking about stepping into a soybean leadership role, Ory offers straightforward advice: don’t sell your personal story short, and make sure you’re listening just as much as you’re talking.
“Your on-farm experience matters. Be concise and solutions-oriented but clearly explain both the challenge and what action you’re asking for,” she said. “And remember that understanding legislators’ perspectives helps build productive conversations.”
She also cautions new leaders against trying to impress — and instead encourages them to focus on being real and well-informed.
“I’d encourage new leaders to ask questions, listen carefully, and build relationships early,” she said. “Advocacy is much more effective when it becomes an ongoing conversation rather than a single meeting. Advocacy is every day on and off the farm.”
For South Dakota farmer and state senator Brandon Wipf, the conversation around monarch butterfly conservation goes beyond protecting a single species. He sees voluntary conservation practices as a way to benefit the environment while also strengthening the financial health of farm operations.
Earlier this year, the South Dakota Legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 605, sponsored by Wipf, acknowledging the significance of monarch butterflies and promoting cooperative, voluntary conservation efforts statewide. Wipf represents District 22 in the South Dakota State Senate, farms soybeans and row crops near Huron, South Dakota, and serves as a director with the American Soybean Association.
The resolution comes at a critical time, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is weighing whether to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. When the resolution was being considered, Wipf stressed that any conservation work should remain voluntary and guided by local communities.
“Monarch butterflies are an important part of our natural heritage and our agricultural landscape,” Wipf said. “This resolution affirms that conservation efforts in South Dakota can and should be voluntary, locally driven, and respectful of private property rights and our state’s strong agricultural tradition.”
Because monarch butterflies depend entirely on milkweed plants for laying eggs and feeding larvae, access to that habitat is essential for the species to survive. The resolution calls on state agencies, local governments, and land managers to protect existing milkweed where feasible and to include pollinator-friendly native seed mixes in restoration and conservation planting projects when appropriate.
Wipf also connected the issue to farm economics, pointing out that low-producing acres can drag down a farm’s overall production history and reduce the revenue guarantees available through federal crop insurance programs.
“Every farm has them,” Wipf said. “The sandy ridge that burns up in July. The low spot that drowns in June. The salty patch that never keeps up.”
Rather than continuing to pour money into acres that rarely turn a profit, Wipf highlighted conservation programs and pollinator habitat as a smarter alternative. Programs like the Conservation Reserve Program can deliver steady conservation payments while cutting input costs on chronically underperforming ground. Meanwhile, perennial habitat plantings can improve soil health, limit erosion, retain moisture, and provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife.
“At the same time, you’re building resilience,” Wipf said. “Pollinator habitat and other perennial covers improve soil structure. It reduces erosion. It helps hold moisture. It supports pollinators and wildlife.”
The resolution also calls on federal agencies — including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — to work alongside producers and landowners by focusing on technical support, flexibility, and voluntary participation rather than imposing new regulatory requirements on the agricultural sector.
Wipf said the path forward depends on cooperation between farmers, landowners, and conservation partners working together toward shared goals.
“Through collaboration and voluntary efforts, our state’s farmers, ranchers, and landowners can support monarch conservation while maintaining the thriving, productive agricultural operations that are the backbone of South Dakota,” he said.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s newest and most capable aircraft carrier passed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry announced, coming just one day after Taiwan launched a five-day military drill focused on responding to a potential Chinese military invasion.
The Fujian carrier had previously made a test run through the narrow waterway that separates China and Taiwan back in September of last year. It then made its first transit through the strait as a fully operational commissioned warship in December.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though the island governs itself independently. China has not taken the option of military force off the table when it comes to bringing Taiwan under its control. In recent years, Chinese military activity near Taiwan has grown increasingly frequent, with naval vessels and warplanes now approaching the island on an almost daily basis.
Taiwan launched its own five-day military exercise on Monday, designed to test and strengthen its ability to respond in the event of a Chinese invasion attempt.
The United States Navy routinely sends warships through the Taiwan Strait, as do some allied nations, as a signal to Beijing that any forceful move to claim the island would not go unchallenged.
The Fujian was officially commissioned in November 2025. According to the U.S. Naval Institute, it holds the distinction of being the world’s largest non-nuclear-powered warship and is regarded as more technologically advanced than China’s two other carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning.
A federal judge has ruled that the government does not have the legal authority to prevent recipients of the nation’s largest food assistance program from spending their benefits on candy, soda, and other sugary beverages.
The ruling, issued Monday, effectively kills restrictions that were already active or in the pipeline across 23 states participating in the federally funded, state-administered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP. The Trump administration has not announced whether it plans to take the matter to a higher court.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, based in Washington and appointed to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama, made clear that her decision was not a judgment on whether the restrictions themselves were a good idea.
In her written opinion, she stated: “The federal defendants and the states may have a genuine desire to improve the health of SNAP households by encouraging healthy choices at the store, and they can take lawful steps to meet those goals. But what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations along the way.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been pushing states to tighten restrictions on what SNAP benefits could purchase, as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative. Their argument was that sodas and candy contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other chronic health problems, and that removing them from the list of eligible purchases would nudge people toward healthier options.
The Agriculture Department had granted permission to 23 states to move forward with such restrictions, some of which were already in effect while others were scheduled to take effect in the coming months and years.
At least one state reversed course before the ruling came down. Colorado’s human services board voted earlier this year to abandon the ban following a March hearing at which SNAP recipients and advocacy groups raised concerns. They argued that people could face embarrassment if they accidentally tried to purchase restricted items, and that the rules were difficult to understand — for example, drinks containing at least 50% fruit or vegetable juice would have been allowed, while those with lower juice content would not.
The specific rules differed from state to state. Some sought to ban both sugary drinks and candy, while others focused only on beverages. In certain states, items like sports drinks were also included in the proposed restrictions.
The legal challenge was brought by SNAP recipients living in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Judge Jackson determined that the core legal problem with the restrictions was that they contradicted how Congress has defined the word “food” under the law. Under current statute, SNAP benefits — formerly called food stamps — may be used for “any food or food product for home consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption.”
While the law does allow for certain requirements to be waived, improving nutrition is not listed as a valid reason to do so. Nevertheless, when states submitted requests to the Agriculture Department to limit purchases, those requests relied on alternate definitions of “food” — a move the judge found legally problematic.
The Agriculture Department has not stated whether it intends to appeal.
This case is one of many legal battles over Trump administration policies that center on whether the executive branch can change programs without first getting approval from Congress.
SNAP is one of the country’s biggest safety net programs, helping nearly 39 million Americans — roughly one in nine — afford groceries. The program has faced unusual scrutiny since President Trump returned to the White House. Under a sweeping tax and policy law signed last year, more SNAP recipients are now subject to work requirements, and states must cover a larger portion of administrative costs. States with high error rates could also be held responsible for benefit costs.
During a government shutdown last year, courts stepped in to block the administration from cutting off benefits entirely. Agriculture Secretary Rollins has also claimed that widespread fraud exists within the program.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have charged a Texas physician with healthcare fraud and conspiracy, accusing him of running an $89 million scheme that involved billing insurance companies for unnecessary cardiovascular screenings performed on college student-athletes.
Jason Finkelstein, 53, is accused of exploiting young athletes’ concerns about dying from sudden cardiac arrest during competition. According to the indictment, students with no pre-existing health conditions who simply wanted medical clearance to play sports were subjected to tests they had no medical need for.
In one particularly troubling case, a patient whose test results actually showed serious heart abnormalities later died after those problems went undetected — because Finkelstein allegedly certified the results as normal without ever properly reviewing them.
The Justice Department plans to spotlight this case Tuesday at a news conference where officials intend to announce what they describe as record-breaking results in a nationwide healthcare fraud enforcement effort — a priority that the Trump administration has pushed hard over the past year.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a trained cardiothoracic surgeon who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, issued a sharp statement about the allegations: “The doctor’s alleged conduct, which ignored a textbook diagnosis of preventable cardiac death, is heinous.” He added that healthcare fraud “doesn’t just steal money, it can steal lives.”
Finkelstein entered a not guilty plea during a brief court appearance in Florida on Monday. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
The alleged scheme ran from 2019 through the end of last year and involved Finkelstein along with two unidentified co-conspirators at a Florida-based cardiovascular testing and treatment practice that he owned and operated.
Prosecutors say the fraud worked in two main ways. First, Finkelstein’s company used deceptive marketing to offer free heart screenings to college students who did not medically need them. Co-conspirators sent emails to athletic trainers at colleges and universities, claiming the screenings could detect life-threatening conditions. They also allegedly offered kickbacks and other incentives to school officials who referred students as potential patients.
Because insurance companies require proof of medical necessity before covering cardiovascular testing, Finkelstein allegedly submitted false diagnoses — such as elevated blood pressure and hypertension — to insurers in order to get reimbursed for tests the athletes did not actually need.
The indictment also quotes Finkelstein telling a co-conspirator: “(T)hese kids could be high risk…(o)ne of them drops dead on a field, they’re coming after both of us.”
The tests themselves were performed by sonographers who lacked the proper credentials, according to prosecutors. Because Finkelstein held medical licenses in all 48 contiguous states, his company was able to submit insurance claims for patients across the country.
Perhaps most alarming, prosecutors say Finkelstein routinely certified cardiac test results as normal without actually looking at them. In one 2024 case cited in the indictment, he reportedly signed off on approximately 63 test result images for a single patient in roughly 11 seconds. Those results actually showed multiple cardiac abnormalities — and that patient later died.
WASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration Tuesday in a significant immigration case examining how much power the federal government holds over lawful permanent residents — commonly known as green card holders — who are accused of criminal activity.
At the heart of the 6-3 decision is a 2012 action by an immigration officer who placed Muk Choi Lau on immigration parole when he arrived back in the country following a brief visit to China. The officer took that step because Lau had faced accusations of a counterfeiting-related offense.
Lau challenged the move, arguing the officer had exceeded his legal authority. He also contended that placing him on parole improperly allowed the Department of Homeland Security to quickly launch deportation proceedings against him — this after he pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit clothing in New Jersey.
The nation’s highest court rejected that argument. In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that “border officers did not have the burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took a sharply different view in her dissent, arguing that placing Lau on immigration parole before any criminal conviction essentially trapped him in what she called “immigration limbo.” She warned that the ruling goes too far in empowering the government. “I worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check,” she wrote. Her dissent was joined by her two fellow liberal justices.
The ruling arrives as the Supreme Court is actively weighing a number of immigration-related disputes connected to President Donald Trump’s broad immigration enforcement efforts — though this particular case predates his current time in office.
The Trump administration had argued that mere suspicion of criminal activity is sufficient grounds to place a green card holder on immigration parole. Federal attorneys pushed the court to interpret executive authority over immigration matters broadly.
Among the other immigration issues currently before the court are challenges to Trump’s effort to eliminate birthright citizenship, a potential revival of a restrictive asylum policy, and a bid to end temporary legal protections for migrants who fled war and natural disasters in their home countries.
NEW YORK (AP) — With supporters cheering and standing at attention, the Rev. Al Sharpton stepped into the newly renovated home of the National Action Network in Harlem recently to make a significant announcement: after more than two decades, his organization has gone from tenant to property owner.
The celebration took place inside a cozy theater at the new headquarters, where NAN board members, local clergy, and close allies had gathered for an invite-only reception.
“I want to make something permanent,” Sharpton told the crowd. “When people see that you’ve bought a building, they say, ‘Wait a minute, they’re not going nowhere.’”
The organization’s new permanent base is located in what was formerly the Faison Firehouse Theater on Hancock Place, near the corner of 124th Street and Manhattan Avenue. The building had been purchased in 1999 by George Faison, a Tony Award-winning choreographer best recognized for his work on the original 1970s Broadway production of “The Wiz,” who converted it into a community theater.
According to Sharpton, when Faison faced the decision of selling the property in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, he chose NAN over a large real estate developer.
Speaking with The Associated Press from his new private office, which features large windows with views of central Harlem, Sharpton explained his reasoning for the multimillion dollar purchase.
“I’m 71 years old — if I was just trying to do it as an Al Sharpton personal fan club, I could just keep renting,” he said. “I’m buying it to show I want this to be an institution. I want it to last beyond me.”
The building’s renovation is structurally finished and its rooms are up and running, though Sharpton said he expects his weekly Saturday rallies to return to the new location this summer.
NAN was founded in 1991 and initially held meetings at P.S. 175, a Manhattan elementary school, during the tenure of the late David Dinkins, New York City’s first Black mayor. The organization later rented space at 125th Street and Madison Avenue, then moved in 2006 to a rented location at 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, which served as its home until January.
That former headquarters had been dubbed the “House of Justice” by Sharpton’s late mentor, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
Working out of Harlem over the years, Sharpton became a prominent voice in direct-action protests on behalf of Black men who were killed, brutalized, or persecuted by New York City police — including Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, the exonerated men once known as the Central Park Five, and Eric Garner, among others.
“Harlem means home,” Sharpton told the AP.
The newly purchased and renovated five-floor building now carries the name “House of Justice Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Workshop.” Sharpton said he plans to invite artists for salons, poetry readings, and jazz nights — a nod to the cultural and intellectual spirit of the Harlem Renaissance.
Reflecting on both NAN’s history and today’s political climate during the reception, Sharpton struck a serious tone.
“We are in trouble,” he said, pointing to redistricting battles sparked by a recent Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act and the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
“We don’t have, in my opinion, the luxury of not nailing down and working together,” he added.
Over the years, the NAN headquarters has become a required stop for Democratic candidates running for offices ranging from the presidency to local positions. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the House of Justice is typically packed wall to wall with dignitaries. And following the 2006 death of James Brown — Sharpton’s childhood hero — the horse-drawn carriage carrying the Godfather of Soul’s golden casket made a stop outside the 145th Street location.
The organization’s Saturday rallies have also provided a platform for families affected by police violence and for celebrities speaking out about inequities in the entertainment world.
Ashley Sharpton, the younger of the reverend’s two daughters, grew up around the House of Justice. She and her older sister, Dominique Sharpton-Bright, were present the day the late pop icon Michael Jackson visited and addressed the crowd at their father’s invitation.
“The magic was palpable,” Ashley recalled.
Today, as founder and director of NAN’s youth initiatives, Ashley said she feels a deeper personal investment in the organization’s future.
“It’s time for us to step in and take ownership, literally, of what is needed to maintain the legacy, and to continue the fight,” she told the AP.
ROME — Italy’s Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti declared Tuesday that holding a national election in April is off the table, saying the government needs more time to push through legislation transferring greater authority to regional governments.
Giorgetti was responding to reports from Italian media outlets and Bloomberg suggesting that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni might call early elections in April — several months ahead of the autumn 2027 deadline for her term to end.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the newspaper La Verita’, Giorgetti was direct: “Let me give you a piece of news … in order to complete the parliamentary passage (of the regional devolution legislation) we cannot vote in April.”
Those who favor holding elections earlier have argued that waiting until September 2027 — the natural end of Meloni’s term — could leave Italy without a fully functioning government during October’s budget season, a critical window when new public finance goals are established.
In additional comments, Giorgetti addressed Italy’s standing with the European Union over its budget deficit, saying the country still has a shot at exiting an EU infringement procedure before the year is out.
Italy’s national statistics agency ISTAT reported in March that the 2025 deficit came in at 3.1% of gross domestic product, just above the EU’s 3% ceiling. That figure has kept Italy locked in a procedure that restricts its fiscal flexibility.
“The match isn’t over yet,” Giorgetti said, pointing out that the 2025 deficit figure could be revised downward at a scheduled review in September. He acknowledged he was doubtful that would happen, but said he hadn’t given up hope entirely.
Giorgetti also confirmed the government will not extend a reduction in excise taxes on fuel past the current July 3 cutoff date, citing recent declines in diesel and gasoline prices.
“It is no longer necessary in the current situation,” he said.
The fuel tax relief measure has been extended and gradually reduced multiple times since it was first put in place in March, following an energy price spike triggered by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
A delegation of Taliban officials met with European Union representatives in Brussels on Tuesday, marking the first time such a meeting has taken place on EU soil — a development that drew immediate backlash from human rights organizations and European politicians.
The EU and its member nations have not formally recognized the Taliban government since the militant group seized control of Afghanistan five years ago, following two decades of conflict against a government supported by a U.S.-led NATO coalition.
Despite that lack of recognition, Brussels has defended its decision to engage in limited talks with what it calls Afghanistan’s “de facto authorities,” saying such dialogue is necessary to facilitate the removal of failed asylum seekers who have committed crimes or are considered a threat.
According to an EU European Commission spokesperson, officials from the Commission and 15 EU member states were present at the Brussels meeting, which served as a follow-up to an earlier gathering held in Kabul back in January.
“The Commission services and Sweden co-chaired a technical-level meeting today in Brussels with technical-level representatives of the de facto authorities of Afghanistan responsible for return and readmission,” the Commission spokesperson stated.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry offered a broader description of what was discussed. A spokesperson for the ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said topics included the possibility of a consular presence within the EU, the resumption of consular services for Afghans living in Europe, and what he called “the need for trust-building measures.”
Balkhi added that the meeting raised “hope to build positive momentum to safeguard consular rights of Afghans residing abroad.”
However, a letter from the Commission addressed to Balkhi — reviewed by Reuters — indicated the talks were specifically focused “on the return and readmission of Afghan nationals without a right to stay in the EU.”
The visit sparked strong opposition from rights organizations and several European elected officials, who warned that engaging with the Taliban could endanger Afghans and contradict the EU’s foundational values.
“Every invitation, every visa and every official meeting sends a political signal. The Taliban are not seeking technical discussions, they are seeking legitimacy,” said Hannah Neumann, a European lawmaker from the Green Party, in a statement co-signed by German parliamentarians and former Afghan lawmakers.
Belgium’s Foreign Ministry took steps to limit the Taliban delegation’s access, issuing visas that permitted the Afghan representatives to enter the country for just one day and confined their movement to Belgian territory, preventing them from traveling freely through the EU’s broader Schengen zone.
Since reclaiming power, the Taliban have progressively rolled back civil rights in Afghanistan — restricting women’s ability to move freely, barring girls from attending school beyond the primary level, and enforcing strict morality laws that limit free expression and access to work.
BERLIN — Porsche’s newly appointed chief executive took to the stage Tuesday to ask shareholders for patience, pledging to unveil a full turnaround plan later this year as pressure mounts to reverse shrinking profit margins and a steep sales decline in China.
CEO Michael Leiters, who joined the Volkswagen-owned automaker at the beginning of the year to lead a major restructuring effort, said investors can expect a detailed roadmap when the company hosts a capital markets day on October 7.
That timeline did little to satisfy many shareholders, who are demanding faster action following a dismal 2025 in which Porsche’s troubles in China deepened and its operating margin fell to just under 1%.
“Developments in China, in particular, make it clear that Porsche’s business model is no longer viable in its current form,” said Hendrik Schmidt, representing shareholder DWS.
Porsche — long defined by its iconic 911 rear-engine sports car — has seen its stock value cut roughly in half since going public in 2022. Over that same period, China has gone from being one of its most lucrative markets to its worst, with sales tumbling 26% in 2025.
Leiters’ plan to rebuild profit margins centers on shifting focus toward higher-end models and making broad cost reductions, on top of 3,900 job cuts already negotiated with labor unions.
German auto industry analyst Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer said the early signs of Leiters’ approach look like a standard restructuring playbook. “In the mid- to long-term, it is not clear where the journey is going,” he noted.
Harald Klein of the DSW association, which represents smaller investors, pointed out that Leiters made no mention of software development or autonomous driving technology — both considered essential for winning over tech-savvy Chinese consumers.
“It’s not just about brand image, quality or engineering expertise, which Porsche no doubt has. In China, massive investments must be made in the software user experience and new business models,” Klein said.
Under Leiters’ strategy, the beloved 911 and an upcoming all-electric version of the Cayenne SUV are expected to anchor Porsche’s future vehicle lineup.
Dudenhoeffer, however, expressed doubt about whether those models will be enough. “The Cayenne will certainly face its own test in China when it comes to value for money,” he said.
Porsche had long thrived in the world’s biggest auto market on the strength of demand for its premium SUVs. But the landscape has shifted significantly, with homegrown brands like Xiaomi now offering feature-packed SUVs at considerably lower price points.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new resolution designed to ensure those who attack UN peacekeepers face justice, as concerns mount over escalating violence and the failure to prosecute offenders.
The action comes in the wake of a string of deadly attacks on UN personnel, including an incident in early March when seven peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were killed following renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Denmark and Pakistan drafted the resolution, which received co-sponsorship from 152 countries before passing without a single dissenting vote.
The resolution calls on nations that host UN peacekeeping forces to take “all necessary measures” to investigate and bring charges against anyone responsible for targeting UN personnel.
The document acknowledges that prosecution rates have remained consistently low and stresses that holding perpetrators accountable is critical to deterring future attacks.
While the resolution reaffirms that host nations carry the primary responsibility for protecting UN personnel within their borders, it also urges all parties involved to cooperate fully with any investigations that take place.
The resolution requests that the UN secretary-general appoint “a senior focal point” within the organization to oversee and coordinate efforts aimed at improving accountability for crimes committed against peacekeepers.
Additionally, the resolution encourages countries that contribute troops and police to UN missions to send investigators — when requested by host nations — to help with inquiries. It also calls for an annual report from the UN detailing progress on investigations and prosecutions.
The Security Council noted that attacks on UN peacekeepers may rise to the level of war crimes and signaled its intention to explore further measures to strengthen accountability going forward.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed ExxonMobil a significant legal victory on Tuesday, ruling that Cuba’s state-owned businesses cannot hide behind a legal shield known as foreign sovereign immunity when facing lawsuits filed under a 1996 federal law.
The 6-3 decision makes it substantially easier for American companies to pursue compensation from Cuba’s government for property that was seized long ago under former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The court’s six conservative justices sided with Exxon, while the three liberal justices disagreed with the outcome.
The ruling centered on Exxon’s 2019 lawsuit against Corporación CIMEX, a Cuban government-owned conglomerate. Exxon accused CIMEX of continuing to operate a refinery and service stations that originally belonged to Standard Oil, the company that eventually became ExxonMobil. Castro’s government confiscated those assets in 1959, a loss Exxon valued at $70 million at the time. With interest and the possibility of enhanced damages, that claim has grown to more than $1 billion today.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion, writing that the law at the center of the case — the Helms-Burton Act — “abrogates the sovereign immunity of Cuban agencies and instrumentalities.”
Kavanaugh added that the Helms-Burton Act “authorizes private suits against Cuban agencies and instrumentalities — suits that would largely be nonstarters if subjected to the FSIA’s requirements,” referring to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976.
The high court overturned a lower court’s 2024 ruling that had allowed CIMEX to use the sovereign immunity defense. The case now goes back to a lower court to weigh CIMEX’s potential financial liability.
The Helms-Burton Act includes a provision known as Title III, which allows lawsuits in U.S. courts against anyone who “traffics” in property taken by Cuba’s communist government following the 1959 revolution. The Trump administration backed Exxon’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
The ruling arrives during a period of sharp tensions between the United States and Cuba. On May 20, the U.S. filed murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, marking a major escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure on Cuba’s government. The U.S. has also effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba by threatening sanctions against nations that supply it with fuel, contributing to widespread power outages and deepening what is described as Cuba’s worst crisis in decades.
According to Exxon, its confiscated assets were transferred to CIMEX, which Cuba’s government describes as its largest state-owned conglomerate. Exxon says CIMEX continues to hold and profit from that property today.
Exxon’s lawsuit was among roughly 40 cases filed under the Helms-Burton Act in 2019 and 2020, following a shift in U.S. policy toward Cuba during President Trump’s first term. The Title III provision had previously been suspended by three different presidents who wanted to avoid diplomatic friction with allies such as Canada and Spain, whose companies have business interests in Cuba. Trump lifted that suspension in 2019.
Lower courts had previously made it difficult for American companies to win such cases, with most lawsuits thrown out on jurisdictional or procedural grounds.
Tuesday’s ruling was one of two Supreme Court decisions this year involving the Helms-Burton Act. In the other case, decided on May 21, the court dealt a setback to four American cruise companies — Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and MSC Cruises — which had been hit with a combined $440 million in judgments. Those judgments were awarded to a company called Havana Docks Corporation, which accused the cruise lines of unlawfully using Cuban docks it had built before they were seized by the Cuban government. The Supreme Court set aside a lower court ruling that had thrown out those judgments and sent the case back for further review.
American soybean farmers are taking an active role in making it cheaper to move their crops from fields to customers — both at home and abroad. The strategy, described by leaders in the industry as “subtraction math,” focuses on reducing the cents-per-bushel cost of transportation at each stage of the supply chain, from farm trucks to ocean-going vessels.
The Soy Transportation Coalition (STC), the American Soybean Association (ASA), and other soybean farmer groups argue that profitability in agriculture isn’t just about growing a good crop and finding buyers for it. The roads, bridges, railroads, waterways, and ports that connect farmers to their customers play an equally important role. Every dollar saved in moving soybeans is a dollar that can go back into the farmer’s pocket.
One ongoing effort to reduce transportation costs involves pushing for more efficient trucking. An amendment introduced by Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-SD) was included in the BUILD America 250 Act — formally known as the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act — that would allow states to voluntarily participate in a pilot program permitting six-axle, 91,000-pound semis to travel on federal interstates. The ASA has long supported this type of heavier truck configuration as a way to move more grain per trip and reduce per-bushel hauling costs.
Rising diesel fuel prices have added further financial pressure on farmers. According to the STC, a farmer working 1,000 acres — split evenly between soybeans and corn — who hauls grain 40 miles to a delivery point is now paying $2,000 more per year in fuel costs alone. A grain elevator handling six million bushels annually with a similar haul distance faces nearly $100,000 in additional fuel expenses each year. These figures underscore how fuel prices ripple through the entire agricultural economy.
Soybean farmer leaders also made a direct investment in port infrastructure to help expand export capacity. On March 31, 2026, those leaders traveled to Milwaukee to present a ceremonial check for $200,000 toward pre-engineering, design, research, and analysis work tied to the Phase II expansion of the Agriculture Maritime Export Facility at Port Milwaukee. The facility, owned and operated by The DeLong Company, first opened in 2023. The Phase II expansion — which increased the port’s ability to ship U.S. soybeans and soybean meal to international buyers — was completed on April 2, 2026.
The ASA and other farmer groups also backed the facility’s application for federal funding through the U.S. Maritime Administration. That support paid off: the Phase II project received a $9.3 million grant through the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP). Industry leaders say investments like this help build a more resilient and diversified export network for American soybeans.
A similar effort took shape on the West Coast. AGP, an Omaha-based cooperative that owns and operates 11 soybean processing plants in the Midwest, announced in March 2022 a major expansion of its export terminal at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen, Washington. The project added storage at AGP’s Terminal 2 and a new ship loader at Terminal 4, boosting the terminal’s annual soybean meal export capacity from 3 million to more than 6 million metric tons.
Soybean farmer leaders contributed $1.3 million toward pre-engineering, design, and site development costs for the Port of Grays Harbor Terminal 4 expansion. They also supported the port’s application for federal assistance, which resulted in a $25.5 million PIDP grant from the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Industry leaders say that while U.S. soybeans are widely regarded as the highest-quality and most dependable supply in the global market, staying competitive ultimately comes down to cost — not just what it takes to grow the crop, but what it takes to deliver it. By working to trim transportation expenses at every point in the supply chain, the STC, ASA, and allied organizations say they are giving American soybean farmers a stronger footing in an increasingly unpredictable marketplace.
A program run by the American Soybean Association is helping businesses in developing and emerging markets around the world become more attractive to investors — and in doing so, building a stronger global customer base for U.S. soybean farmers.
The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health, known as WISHH, works alongside business partners across the supply chain — from feed mills and fisheries companies to food processors and crushers — to help them secure the financing they need to grow. For many of these businesses, landing an investment is a critical first step toward becoming reliable, long-term buyers of U.S. soybeans.
WISHH connects entrepreneurs and business leaders with financial experts and investment advisors who teach them what lenders and investors expect, how to present their businesses effectively, and how to build growth strategies that attract outside funding. The goal is to create financially sound, resilient companies capable of sustaining demand for U.S. soy over the long haul.
In Cambodia, WISHH teamed up with advisory firm LixCap to deliver training aimed at improving access to financing for aquaculture businesses. Participants gained hands-on skills in financial management, business planning, and communicating growth potential to prospective partners. WISHH is also continuing broader efforts to strengthen aquaculture supply chains in the region that can increasingly depend on U.S. soy.
A similar approach is being applied across programs in Africa, where growing poultry, aquaculture, livestock, and food-processing industries are creating new demand for working capital and expansion financing. WISHH’s financial readiness training helps partners learn how to work with lending institutions, put together investment pitches, and manage cash flow. Some of these partners have already purchased U.S. soy, and the training helps them develop solid growth plans that can hold up under market pressures. Feed mills, producers, technical advisers, and crushers are also included in the training sessions, and many of the partners attend buyers’ conferences alongside WISHH.
WISHH Executive Director Gena Perry noted that U.S. soybean growers who support the program often play a direct role in its outcomes.
“We have had WISHH committee members speak directly to some of our partners over the years. Regardless of the sector and country, farmers on both sides understand the value of the dollar and the large undertaking of investment,” Perry said. “That’s why U.S. growers have spoken directly to our partners about their own on-farm management and the importance of smartly scaling-up businesses.”
The underlying logic is straightforward: a business that successfully secures financing can buy more feed ingredients, expand its production capacity, and serve a larger customer base. As those businesses grow, their need for protein-rich soy tends to grow right along with them.
A storied chapter in college lacrosse came to a close on Tuesday when Jim Berkman announced he is stepping down as head coach of Salisbury University’s men’s lacrosse program.
Berkman, who holds the distinction of being the all-time winningest coach in the history of college lacrosse, spent 38 years leading the Sea Gulls — a career that earned him a place in the hall of fame.
The retirement announcement marks the end of a remarkable run for one of the most decorated coaches the sport has ever seen. Berkman’s tenure at Salisbury, Maryland spanned nearly four decades, during which he built the program into a powerhouse recognized across collegiate athletics.
Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund (DSBF) racing headlined the Monday, June 22 program at Harrington Raceway, with three $20,000 divisions for 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings taking the spotlight.
Leading the way was Watch Em Win, guided by driver Jason Thompson, who posted a winning time of 1:53.1 and returned $5.80 to bettors. The victory marked the ninth of the horse’s career.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Headed to Miami in Massive NBA Deal
MIAMI (AP) — In one of the biggest moves in recent NBA history, Giannis Antetokounmpo is being sent to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster trade. Heading to the Milwaukee Bucks in return are Tyler Herro and several other players, along with multiple draft picks. Bobby Portis will also join Antetokounmpo in Miami, while Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and Kasparas Jakucionis are all bound for Milwaukee. The Bucks will also receive three first-round picks, one of which is the 13th overall selection in Tuesday’s draft. The deal gives Miami another marquee superstar as the franchise chases its fourth championship and an eighth NBA Finals appearance since 2006.
Messi Breaks World Cup Scoring Record with Two Goals Against Austria
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Lionel Messi is now the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, having reached 18 career tournament goals after netting twice in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria on Monday in Dallas. Messi struck in the 38th minute and then again in stoppage time, despite missing a penalty kick in the ninth minute. The first goal gave Argentina the lead and broke the previous record of 17, which he had shared entering the match. The milestone came just two days before Messi’s 39th birthday and during a difficult time as he deals with concerns over his ailing father. It marked the sixth straight World Cup match in which Messi has found the back of the net. He had entered play tied with Germany’s Miroslav Klose, whose mark of 16 had previously been matched by France’s Kylian Mbappé.
Messi, Mbappé, and Haaland Steal the Show on Same World Cup Day
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Three of the world’s biggest soccer stars put on a spectacular show on the same day at the World Cup. Erling Haaland scored twice for Norway in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, helping his team defeat Senegal 3-2 on Monday night. Haaland’s big night came after Messi and Mbappé each scored two goals for Argentina and France, respectively, earlier in the day. Combined, the three stars have now accounted for 13 goals in the tournament.
Timberwolves Send Julius Randle to Brooklyn in Three-Team Trade
The Minnesota Timberwolves are dealing Julius Randle and a first-round draft pick to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a three-team arrangement that also involves the Chicago Bulls, according to a source familiar with the deal who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, as the trade has yet to receive official league approval. Minnesota will send the 28th pick in Tuesday’s draft to Brooklyn and will receive the 33rd pick, which will be awarded in the second round on Wednesday night.
Serena Williams Makes Bold Wimbledon Comeback in Singles Draw
Serena Williams is diving headfirst back into competitive tennis by accepting a wild card invitation to compete in singles at Wimbledon — a bold move given she has played only two doubles matches in nearly four years away from the professional game. Williams and her sister Venus have both received wild card invitations for singles and doubles from the All England Club ahead of the grass-court Grand Slam, which begins next week. ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez described the decision as “a sign of confidence,” adding that “if anybody can do it, it’s Serena.” On the men’s side, defending champion Jannik Sinner and seven-time winner Novak Djokovic are considered the top favorites.
Oklahoma Wins College World Series for First Title Since 1994
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Oklahoma captured the College World Series championship with a dominant 13-2 victory over North Carolina in the decisive Game 3 of the finals. The Sooners took advantage of uncharacteristic pitching struggles from the Tar Heels and got a strong relief outing from LJ Mercurius to claim their first national title since 1994. It also marked the Southeastern Conference’s seventh consecutive championship. Oklahoma’s run was especially remarkable given the team finished 11th in the regular season and entered the NCAA Tournament having lost seven of its last nine games. North Carolina, meanwhile, suffered its third runner-up finish since 2006 and now has 13 College World Series appearances without ever winning the title.
MLB Commissioner Says Giants Mishandled Pride Night Cap Policy
NEW YORK (AP) — MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that the San Francisco Giants failed to properly inform their players that they had the option to decline wearing rainbow-themed caps during Pride Night. Some players, including pitcher Landen Roupp, added Bible verses to their caps, which the league deemed a violation of its policies. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley raised concerns about the warning issued to those players, calling it “dubious” and arguing that MLB promotes a political viewpoint through its Pride-themed uniforms. Manfred pushed back, saying the league’s policy includes an opt-out option for players regarding Pride emblems. He acknowledged that the Giants did not communicate this clearly enough but confirmed that no players will face fines or other penalties.
Haaland Scores Twice as Norway Advances at World Cup
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Erling Haaland continued his remarkable goal-scoring form, netting twice to bring his World Cup total to four goals as Norway edged Senegal 3-2 to advance to the round of 32. Marcus Pederson gave Norway the lead in the 43rd minute after coming on as a substitute for an injured teammate, and Haaland extended the advantage with goals in the 48th and 58th minutes to make it 3-1. Haaland has now scored in each of his last 12 international matches, tallying 24 goals in that span, and has 59 total goals across 52 international appearances. Ismaïla Sarr scored both goals for Senegal, which falls to 0-2 in the tournament.
Mbappé Reaches 16 World Cup Goals, Ties for Second All-Time
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — France’s Kylian Mbappé scored twice on Monday to reach 16 career World Cup goals, pulling into a tie for second place in tournament history behind new record-holder Lionel Messi. The 27-year-old Mbappé, competing in his third World Cup, opened the scoring in the 14th minute against Iraq in what was also his 100th international appearance. After a weather delay that stretched halftime to more than two hours, Mbappé struck again in the 54th minute, drawing even with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for second place all-time. Messi had claimed the outright record earlier the same day after scoring twice to reach 18 career World Cup goals.
Motorists traveling southbound on Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, also known as Route 1, should plan for potential slowdowns this afternoon.
A moving operation is underway in the median between Simms Woods Road and the toll plaza as part of ongoing construction activity. The work is expected to remain in place until 3 PM.
Drivers are advised to use caution in the area and allow extra travel time if passing through that stretch of Route 1.
The aroma alone from a freshly brewed cup of herbal tea can be enough to melt away stress — and that experience becomes even more rewarding when the herbs came straight from your own garden.
Herbal teas are not the same as traditional teas like black or green varieties, which are made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Herbal teas can be brewed using either freshly picked or dried herbs, and whether served hot or iced, they offer a calming, satisfying ritual.
Most herbs thrive in a spot that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight each day, though a little afternoon shade is helpful in warmer climates. They do well in containers, raised beds, or garden plots with soil that drains properly. While fertilizer is generally not required, mixing a good amount of compost into the soil before planting will help keep herbs healthy through the growing season.
When planting from seed outdoors, follow the spacing instructions on the seed packet. If the seeds are extremely small — like those of mint varieties — blend them with a little sand before scattering them over the soil. Once seedlings reach about 2 inches in height, thin them out to achieve the proper spacing. Check the “days to maturity” information on the seed packet or plant tag, and keep in mind that seeds are best started in spring. Starter plants purchased later in the season can still be planted, provided there’s enough time before the first frost for them to reach maturity.
Keep the soil lightly moist while plants get established, then shift to watering only when the soil feels dry.
Here are some excellent herbs to consider for your tea garden:
German chamomile: This annual plant produces small, daisy-like flowers that are as pretty in the garden as they are useful in a teacup. Chamomile brews into a gentle, delicate tea that goes beautifully with a touch of honey. Begin applying a flower-boosting fertilizer — such as a 5-10-5 formula — one month after planting, following the package instructions.
Mints: The options are plentiful and delicious, including peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint, lime mint, and apple mint. All mint varieties are perennials that are hardy in zones 3 through 9, but they spread aggressively. It’s strongly recommended to grow them in pots rather than directly in the ground, unless you don’t mind them taking over a large area.
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum): This perennial is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in flower beds and is hardy in zones 3 through 8 or 9. Its highly fragrant leaves produce a tea with a pleasant licorice-like taste. While it is related to mint, it tends to stay in a more compact, mounded shape and doesn’t spread as aggressively. When growing for tea purposes, be sure to plant the straight species — foeniculum — since other varieties of anise hyssop may have different and less desirable flavors.
Lemon balm: Another relative of mint, lemon balm is a perennial hardy in zones 4 through 8. It should be contained to prevent it from spreading too widely. Its mild lemon flavor makes for a refreshing and gentle tea.
Lemon verbena: This perennial shrub is hardy in zones 8 through 11 and grows best in partial shade. It requires more feeding than most herbs, so apply a liquid fertilizer every two to three weeks. It delivers a stronger, more pronounced lemon flavor compared to lemon balm.
The best time to harvest herbs is in the morning, shortly after the dew has evaporated, when the plants’ essential oils are at their peak concentration. Rinse the harvested herbs thoroughly and pat them dry before use.
To brew a fresh cup, heat water to just under boiling and pour 8 ounces over 2 to 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs in a cup. Cover the cup and let it steep for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain. Add a sweetener or mix in other herbs as you like.
To preserve herbs for later use, spread them out on a screen or bundle the stems together and hang them upside down in a spot that is well-ventilated, dark, and dry. Once they become completely dry and crunchy, remove the leaves or flowers from the stems and store them in a sealed glass jar in a cool, dark location such as a kitchen cabinet. Properly stored dried herbs will hold their flavor and fragrance for approximately two years.
Because drying intensifies the flavor of herbs, you’ll need a smaller quantity and shorter steeping time when using dried herbs. Start with just 1 teaspoon and steep for about 5 minutes, then adjust to your taste from there.
The Pentagon has informed U.S. senators that it requires approximately $80 billion in new funding — the bulk of it to pay for the American war against Iran — a request that would pile on top of an already enormous military spending increase sought by President Donald Trump.
While the White House Office of Management and Budget has not yet submitted a formal request to Congress, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making visits to Capitol Hill, including on Monday evening. A senior deputy defense secretary briefed senators on the Iran-related funding request last week, according to two individuals familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the situation.
The request arrives at a politically sensitive time. Many lawmakers remain skeptical of the deal Trump reached with Iran to bring the war to a close and are uncertain about what comes next. The White House has already put forward a staggering $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget — an increase of nearly 50% over the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, discrepancies have surfaced over what exactly was agreed to during high-level peace talks in Switzerland, where Vice President JD Vance led negotiations Monday alongside Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. Technical teams have since been working to nail down the specifics of a deal.
One point of contention involves nuclear inspections. Vance had said the Switzerland talks produced an agreement allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year. But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters Tuesday that no such visits had been scheduled.
Trump has also framed the potential unfreezing of Iranian financial assets as a boon for American agriculture, saying the money would be tied to Iran purchasing U.S.-grown corn, soybeans, and wheat. “These are things that are desperately needed by Iran,” Trump posted on social media. “This is a humanitarian crisis, and I feel it is necessary to help.”
Vance echoed that position, saying unfrozen Iranian funds “would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.”
However, Iran pushed back on that framing. Baghaei said Tehran’s import decisions are based on “prices and quality,” adding: “It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers.”
Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, also disputed Vance’s claim that the U.S. and Qatar would have a say in how Iran spends any unfrozen assets. “Iran is the only country who decides what to do with those assets,” he told reporters.
Experts say a major surge in U.S. agricultural exports to Iran is unlikely. “I don’t expect that trade would be very large in the short run,” said Joseph Glauber, a research fellow emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Glauber noted that Iran already has established food suppliers including Brazil, India, Turkey, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and Argentina, and that pressuring Iran to buy American could “create some hard feelings with some of our competitors.”
On the domestic front, Trump is scheduled to visit a Mack Truck facility in the Allentown area of Pennsylvania on Tuesday — his first significant public appearance outside Washington since signing the interim agreement to end the Iran war. The trip is seen as an effort to shift focus toward the U.S. economy as November midterm elections approach. It marks Trump’s fifth second-term visit to Pennsylvania. The Macungie facility sits in the 7th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie faces Democratic challenger Bob Brooks this fall.
The visit comes as economic concerns grow. About one-third of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a June Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll — consistent with the previous month’s numbers.
In other developments, two more individuals have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot targeting Trump’s UFC cage-fighting event at the White House earlier this month. Law enforcement disrupted the plan several days before the June 14 event. William Lee Spartacus Falkner of Belfair, Washington, was arrested Friday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the Western District of Washington. Jordan W. Rincker, 28, was arrested Sunday on the same charge in the Western District of Missouri. Neither has yet entered a plea.
Separately, a federal judge on Monday blocked a recently updated version of a federal database program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, which was central to the Trump administration’s push to remove noncitizens from state voter rolls. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups who argued the upgraded system improperly consolidated Americans’ sensitive personal data in ways that could lead to eligible voters being wrongly removed. She said Congress had explicitly banned the centralization of such data and that the agencies behind the program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.”
Also, National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police continued patrolling the area around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as the Trump administration races against a self-imposed deadline to repair a troubled renovation before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. The $14 million-plus project has been plagued by a peeling liner and an algae bloom. Trump has said the pool will likely need to be drained again for repairs and has alleged, without offering evidence, that vandals dumped fertilizer in the water and cut the liner with a box cutter. Contractors and federal workers have been using chemicals and ozone nanobubbles to address the algae problem, though a clear repair timeline had not been established as of Monday.
Travelers using Elderon Drive at the Elderon Drive loop should be aware of intermittent lane closures currently in effect due to construction activity in the area.
The lane restrictions are expected to continue until 6:00 PM. Drivers are encouraged to use caution when passing through the construction zone and to budget additional time for their commute.
No further details regarding the nature of the construction work were provided. Updates may be available through local traffic monitoring resources.
A new survey from Bpifrance, a state-backed French investment bank, reveals that generative artificial intelligence has become widespread among mid-sized French companies — but tangible productivity benefits remain hard to come by.
The annual barometer from Bpifrance, which tracks so-called Entreprises de Taille Intermédiaire, or ETIs, found that 77% of 534 company leaders surveyed reported their businesses are now using generative AI. However, just 17% of those firms said they had actually experienced time savings as a result of the technology.
The data paints a picture of adoption racing ahead of results, with many businesses unable to convert new AI tools into practical, measurable efficiency improvements.
Among the report’s key findings, companies using generative AI on a more frequent basis were more likely to report positive outcomes. Some 23% of regular users said they saw productivity gains, compared with only 12% of those who used the technology occasionally.
Despite the current gap between adoption and results, business leaders remain hopeful about AI’s future impact. Roughly 78% of surveyed firms said they believe generative AI will have a positive effect on productivity over time — a figure that rose 11 percentage points compared to the previous year’s survey.
The survey also found that generative AI adoption varied by industry. Service companies, along with industrial and construction firms, were more likely to be using the technology than businesses in commerce, transport, and tourism.
On the broader economic front, weak demand continued to be the biggest obstacle to growth, with 55% of companies pointing to current or anticipated softness in demand as a drag on their operations.
The outlook for cash positions in 2026 slipped two points to a balance of -12, with industrial and construction companies expressing the most pessimism. Meanwhile, the revenue outlook balance climbed eight points to +18, though that figure still falls well short of the long-term average of +29 recorded between 2011 and 2025.
A South African appeals court delivered a ruling Tuesday giving the family of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu the authority to decide where he will be laid to rest, reversing an earlier court order that had sided with the Zambian government’s push for a state funeral.
Lungu served as Zambia’s president from 2015 until 2021 and passed away in South Africa roughly a year ago while undergoing medical treatment. His remains have stayed in South Africa ever since, as a dispute between his family and the Zambian government has dragged on over the proper burial location.
The Zambian government had sought to bring Lungu’s body back to the capital, Lusaka, for burial at a site designated for the country’s former presidents. His family, however, has preferred a private burial in South Africa.
At the heart of the family’s resistance is their belief that Lungu would not have wanted his current successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, present at the funeral. The two men were longstanding political adversaries.
South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal concluded Tuesday that Zambia’s government had not demonstrated any legal standing under South African law to override the family’s preferences regarding the burial arrangements. The court also dismissed Zambia’s claim that a binding agreement had been reached with the family, finding instead that negotiations between the two sides were still ongoing at the time.
Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha told Reuters that while the government did not fully agree with the ruling, it would honor the court’s decision. “We will not exercise our right to appeal to the Constitutional Court. We will not take the matter any further,” Kabesha said.
South Africa’s government had previously stated it felt obligated to respect the family’s wishes, though it also expressed the view that a state burial in Zambia would be the most appropriate send-off for a former head of state.
During his time in office, Lungu oversaw a significant buildup of national debt. Zambia defaulted on its international debt obligations in 2020, a development widely seen as contributing to his defeat at the polls. President Hichilema is now preparing to seek a second five-year term at an election scheduled for August.
TBILISI — The leader of South Ossetia, a small breakaway region of Georgia supported by Russia, announced Tuesday that he is leaving his post to serve as an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement posted to a South Ossetian government website, Alan Gagloyev said his resignation takes effect immediately, and that he will be moving into a role within Russia’s presidential administration. He said his prime minister will take over as president in his place.
Gagloyev explained that his new role will focus on helping carry out a treaty signed between South Ossetia and Russia the previous year. He described the agreement as a step toward what he called a “cherished dream” — the full incorporation of the small territory into Russia.
South Ossetia is home to roughly 50,000 people. The region first separated from Georgia during the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, achieving de facto independence with significant support from Moscow.
A brief but intense war between Russia and Georgia erupted in 2008 over the territory, ending with Georgian forces being pushed out of areas they had previously held within South Ossetia.
In the aftermath of that conflict, Russia and a small number of other nations formally recognized South Ossetia — along with Abkhazia, another Georgian breakaway region — as independent states.
Over the years, various South Ossetian leaders have expressed a desire for the territory to one day become part of Russia. However, neither local officials nor the Kremlin have moved forward with an official vote on annexation.
HELSINKI — Finland could give the green light to Tesla’s self-driving assistance technology sooner than a broader European Union decision anticipated for October, the country’s transport authority announced Tuesday.
In April, the Netherlands became the first nation in Europe to grant provisional approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, known as FSD, marking an initial step toward a possible EU-wide rollout if a qualified majority of member states vote in favor. Estonia and Belgium have since joined the Netherlands in permitting the technology, which enables vehicles to steer themselves — though some regulatory bodies have expressed reservations.
“An EU-wide solution can be expected in October 2026. However, Traficom is prepared to proceed on a faster schedule after the summer if the necessary additional information has been obtained on the key areas of assessment,” the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, known as Traficom, said in an official statement.
Traficom outlined several areas currently under review, including how quickly drivers are able to resume control of the vehicle, how the system handles passing maneuvers in low-visibility conditions on Finnish roads, and a speed offset feature that has drawn concern from neighboring Sweden and Norway.
Despite those open questions, Traficom indicated its general assessment of the system has been favorable. The EU-wide committee vote is set for October, and the next discussion among member states is scheduled for June 30.
Approximately 6,500 vehicles in Finland are already equipped with the FSD system, representing about 0.24% of the country’s 2.7 million passenger cars.
Because Tesla’s FSD still requires a human driver to remain attentive and ready to intervene, it is not classified as fully autonomous. However, Traficom noted that genuinely self-driving vehicles could begin appearing on Finnish roads as early as 2028.
Reuters previously reported in May that Finland was among several European countries Tesla reached out to following the Dutch approval, inquiring whether they would be open to following suit.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A lengthy legal fight over the final resting place of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu may finally be coming to an end. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal issued a ruling Tuesday in favor of Lungu’s family, rejecting the Zambian government’s attempt to take custody of his body and bring it home for burial.
The decision reverses an earlier South African court order that had required the family to turn over Lungu’s remains to Zambian authorities for repatriation.
Lungu passed away in South Africa on June 5, 2025, at the age of 68. The Zambian government had sought to have him buried at a national cemetery reserved for the country’s leaders, while his family chose to lay him to rest in South Africa instead.
The dispute carried with it the weight of a bitter political rivalry between Lungu and current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema — a conflict that, remarkably, continued even after Lungu’s death. His body remained in a mortuary throughout the duration of the court proceedings.
Lungu’s family stated they were carrying out his final wishes, which included that Hichilema have no involvement with his body and not preside over any state funeral held in Zambia.
The conflict erupted last June when a funeral service organized by the family in South Africa was halted after the Zambian government filed an emergency court case. Authorities argued that national customs and protocols required Lungu to be interred at the national cemetery in his home country.
In a majority decision handed down Tuesday, the panel of judges on the Supreme Court of Appeal concluded that “the common law and constitutional rights of family prevail” over the Zambian government’s position.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ranks as South Africa’s second highest court. The Zambian government still has the option to escalate the matter to the Constitutional Court.
Lungu led Zambia as president from 2015 to 2021, defeating Hichilema in two separate elections during that period. While Lungu held power, Hichilema — then the opposition leader — was jailed for four months on treason charges that were eventually dropped.
Lungu ultimately lost the 2021 election to Hichilema and later claimed that he had been effectively placed under house arrest by officials acting under Hichilema’s direction.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Niger has officially departed from the International Criminal Court, with the country’s leadership accusing the tribunal of practicing selective justice.
The west African nation formally submitted a letter to the United Nations triggering its exit from the Rome Statute, which serves as the court’s foundational legal document.
The letter stated, “While the court had raised great hopes among peoples who cherish peace and justice, it has been misused and exploited.”
Niger joins Mali and Burkina Faso, all three of which announced their intentions to withdraw from the court last year. With this departure, Niger becomes only the third nation ever to exit the ICC, following the Philippines and Burundi.
A military coup removed Niger’s democratically elected government in 2023. Since that takeover, the ruling military junta has cut ties with longtime allies and forged new partnerships — including with Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin is himself the subject of an ICC arrest warrant related to the war in Ukraine.
Mali and Burkina Faso have undergone comparable political shifts following their own military takeovers.
The ICC responded to Niger’s departure with disappointment. “We regret any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes,” the court said in an official statement.
Niger’s withdrawal will not take effect until 12 months after the United Nations received the letter. Importantly, any crimes that take place before the withdrawal is finalized will still fall under the court’s authority.
The departure comes amid ongoing violence in the region. Earlier this month, gunmen attacked the main airport in Niger’s capital city of Niamey, killing more than 30 people. It marked the second assault on the airport this year. The facility serves as a critical military hub, housing the ruling junta’s air force base along with the majority of its drones and aircraft. It also serves as headquarters for the regional military alliance uniting forces from Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
The attack reflects a broader and troubling trend of armed groups increasingly setting their sights on cities and populated areas across Africa’s Sahel region.
In a related development, Hungary had also moved to leave the ICC last year, but reversed that decision after Viktor Orbán was removed from the presidency following elections held in April.
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė and her entire cabinet officially stepped down Tuesday, triggered by a realignment of the country’s ruling coalition. The shake-up sets the stage for the Baltic nation’s third prime minister in just two years and a new government that has signaled it wants to pursue a more practical relationship with China after a prolonged period of diplomatic tension.
The government’s fall came after the center-left Social Democrats broke off their coalition agreement earlier this month with the scandal-plagued populist Nemuno Aušra party. The split followed mounting controversy surrounding one of that party’s former leaders, who is facing accusations of antisemitic rhetoric.
That former leader, ex-lawmaker Remigijus Žemaitaitis, was ordered to pay a 5,000 euro fine — roughly $5,800 — by a Lithuanian court last year. The court determined he had incited hatred toward Jewish people, grossly minimized Nazi Germany’s atrocities, and made deeply offensive statements downplaying the Holocaust through social media posts and public remarks made in May and June of 2023. Prosecutors are now seeking a harsher penalty before an appeals court. Žemaitaitis maintains he is not guilty.
Ruginienė’s formal resignation will be delivered to President Gitanas Nausėda, who is widely expected to ask the departing administration to remain in a caretaker role while a new government is assembled.
Before stepping down, Ruginienė — a Social Democrat and former labor union leader — addressed her ministers with words of appreciation. “Despite all the difficulties, we have much to be proud of, and each of you has made a significant contribution to the welfare of our state and the improving lives of its people,” she told them Tuesday.
Under the Lithuanian constitution, the president has 15 days to put forward a prime ministerial candidate to parliament. Based on a coalition agreement signed last week by the new ruling majority, Social Democratic Party leader Mindaugas Sinkevičius is the anticipated nominee for the top government post.
The newly formed coalition, made up of the Social Democrats and two other center-left parties, took shape without the Nemuno Aušra party. Together, the new alliance holds 75 seats in the 141-member Lithuanian parliament, known as the Seimas. The coalition agreement calls for at least four ministerial positions to change hands, though the country’s broader policy directions are expected to stay largely intact.
On foreign policy, the coalition’s governing document indicates a desire to rebuild more stable ties with Beijing. The new partners say they back restoring diplomatic dialogue and growing economic cooperation where it benefits Lithuania, while continuing to honor the country’s obligations to the European Union, NATO, and its strategic partnership with Taiwan.
If the Seimas approves the prime minister-designate, that individual will have up to two weeks to present a new cabinet and governing program — developed in coordination with the president — for parliamentary review and approval.
Authorities in the Philippines announced Tuesday that they are temporarily blocking an online gaming app after discovering that one of two teenage suspects in a deadly school shooting was a frequent user of it. The move is intended to help officials determine whether the app had any influence on the attack.
The shooting took place Monday at San Jose National High School in the central city of Tacloban, where two students — ages 14 and 15, each armed with a handgun — opened fire on their classmates. Three students were killed and 20 others were injured in the attack.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center announced the decision to block the app known as Gorebox, citing an active police investigation that revealed one of the suspects was a heavy user of the platform. Officials said the temporary block would allow them to evaluate “whether the platform played any role in the actions of the suspects.”
The block took effect Tuesday, according to a statement from Undersecretary Aboy Paraiso of the cybercrime center.
“We cannot ignore possible online influences that may have contributed to this tragic incident,” Paraiso said, though he did not indicate how long the restriction would remain in place.
Gorebox, which launched in 2023, has been described in marketing materials as “a physics-driven sandbox game where creativity meets unrestrained destruction,” according to the cybercrime center.
Paraiso did not address what steps might follow if a government review concludes that the app encourages violent behavior among players.
“Beyond this temporary ban, we are reinforcing our monitoring efforts to identify online spaces that may pose risks to young users and to ensure that appropriate interventions are made immediately,” Paraiso said. “Our priority is the safety and well-being of Filipino children exposed to the internet.”
While gun-related crimes are common in the Philippines — in part because of the widespread presence of unlicensed firearms — school shootings remain relatively uncommon in the country.
Regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jason Capoy said the suspects told investigators they carried out the attack in retaliation for being bullied at school. However, Capoy and other police officials noted that a full investigation ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will examine all possibilities, including the potential influence of online groups that encourage rebellion and violent behavior among young people.
One of the suspects obtained a 9 mm pistol from an aunt who works as a police officer and is now under investigation. The other suspect had a .38 caliber revolver that came from a security agency employee. Police said the two were able to bring the weapons onto school grounds because security measures at the campus were insufficient for its 1,600 students.
Video footage of the shooting that was shared online captured students hiding beneath desks inside a locked classroom, crying and screaming as gunshots rang out nearby. Some of the students could be heard calling out for their mothers.
All of the victims — both those killed and those wounded — were students, police confirmed. Investigators recovered at least 40 shell casings from the scene.
Due to their ages, both suspects were expected to be transferred to government welfare officials following the investigation. Under a Philippine law enacted in 2006, the 14-year-old cannot face criminal prosecution. The law sets the minimum age of criminal liability at 15, and only when authorities determine the suspect fully understood the nature of the crime and its consequences.
BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai woman stood before a Myanmar court Tuesday as her trial moved forward on an immigration-related charge connected to accusations that she murdered her former husband, a U.S. diplomat, according to an attorney with knowledge of the case.
Pavinee Supasirivisan faces both an immigration code violation charge and a murder charge stemming from the diplomat’s death in May. However, she is currently being tried first on the immigration violation, which applies to any foreign national who commits a crime in Myanmar. The identity of the diplomat has not been made public.
During the hearing at Kamayut Township Court — the second session in her trial — three prosecution witnesses took the stand, including immigration officers. The attorney who provided this information spoke under the condition of anonymity, citing concerns about potential consequences from Myanmar’s military-controlled government.
The attorney noted that Pavinee had two legal representatives present in court, though further details were unavailable. It also remained unclear whether she had entered a formal plea. A conviction on the immigration charge could result in a sentence of anywhere between six months and five years behind bars.
An official from Kamayut township’s immigration and population department confirmed to The Associated Press that witnesses did testify at the proceeding but declined to elaborate. That official also spoke anonymously, as they were not authorized to speak with members of the press.
It remains unknown how long the current trial will take to conclude, or when proceedings on the murder charge will begin. A murder conviction in Myanmar carries a potential sentence ranging from 10 years in prison up to the death penalty.
Myanmar’s military took control of the country in 2021, overthrowing the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. That power grab triggered widespread protests that have since escalated into a full-scale civil war in the country, also known as Burma.
Authorities in Myanmar have largely refused to engage with the media on this case. Police, the prison where the suspect is believed to be held, and the court where she appeared have all declined to comment. Members of the press are barred from attending court proceedings.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry has acknowledged providing consular assistance to the suspect but has not offered any additional details.
According to the attorney, the diplomat was discovered dead on May 11 at the Sakura Residence & Hotel, a property known to be frequented by diplomats, business travelers, and other international visitors. The hotel is situated approximately 1.5 kilometers — roughly one mile — from the U.S. Embassy. The victim had suffered stab wounds to the head and neck.
The U.S. State Department acknowledged the diplomat’s death but has declined to release further information, including the individual’s name.
Hundreds of Indigenous survivors have wept, laughed, and spoken openly — many for the very first time — about what they endured as children in Native American boarding schools. For decades, those stories stayed buried. Now, a major oral history effort is giving them a place to finally be heard.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition is concluding its oral history project this Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The nonprofit’s team of historians has gathered video testimony from more than 360 Indigenous survivors spread across 19 states. Those recordings are destined for permanent preservation in the Library of Congress.
Iona Mad Plume, a 74-year-old Blackfeet woman who grew up on her tribe’s reservation in Montana, said she “can’t emphasize enough” how much the experience helped her heal. She sat before a video camera last month in Billings and shared her story of attending the Pierre Indian School in South Dakota, where she was sent at just 14 years old.
Since giving her testimony, Mad Plume said she has felt more grounded and has found it easier to release memories that long haunted her — a dusty blue Greyhound bus pulling her away from her parents’ red pickup truck, school staff striking her with a wooden dowel as she huddled on a bunk bed, and meals of cornmeal or cereal crawling with weevil bugs.
“I got a lot out of that, pretty much a lot of closure,” she said. “It was after almost a lifetime of carrying around questions and different things in my mind — so I don’t have to carry that around anymore.”
Another survivor, Gene Bozicic, of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, shared a similar sense of renewal after contributing her testimony in Michigan in 2024. Bozicic, now 81, attended the Catholic-run Holy Childhood School of Jesus in Harbor Springs, Michigan, starting at age 11.
“As we further went along, I started to feel more confident in what I could do and what I have accomplished, almost like more pride to be Native,” Bozicic said about her video interview. “I hate to see it coming to an end, because they have given me my backbone back.”
The project launched in March 2024 as a partnership between the Minnesota-based coalition and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its mission is to document and make public the widespread abuse that boarding school survivors endured under the federal government’s forced assimilation policies — a system that began in the 1800s and continued for more than a century.
Two years before the oral history effort began, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — a Laguna Pueblo member and herself a descendant of boarding school survivors — led the historic Road to Healing listening tour alongside Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community.
Haaland’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative also produced detailed reports on the long-term, multigenerational damage caused by these institutions. The federal government found that nearly 1,000 Native children were buried at 65 different school sites. Reports documented atrocities ranging from physical and sexual abuse to deliberate attempts at cultural erasure.
Over the course of more than two years, the process of collecting in-person testimonies evolved significantly, said Lacey Kinnart, the coalition’s oral history program co-director. At first, a “quiet room” where survivors could decompress with a fellow elder after their interview was optional. Staff later made it a standard part of the process and added a second such room. They also began pairing survivors with a licensed clinical therapist specializing in boarding school trauma and a licensed social worker.
“Our elders don’t want to be a burden,” said Kinnart, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. “But they really do need that extra support.”
Staff also observed that survivors sometimes felt uneasy around the Indigenous photographer, which showed in the portraits taken. In response, an extra half-hour was added to each session so survivors could get comfortable with the person photographing them.
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Department of the Interior are still working out how to present the video interviews publicly. Importantly, survivors retain full ownership of their testimonies and have the sole authority to decide whether their stories are shared with the public. The videos will be stored in a permanent oral history collection at the Library of Congress, with the project’s official end date set for June 2027.
The coalition plans to continue oral history work independently. Staff indicated their next project could cost as much as $13 million — roughly double the $6.2 million received from the Interior Department and the Mellon Foundation for this first effort. Though it would take longer, the next project aims to be even more inclusive.
“We’re just scratching the surface with these stories,” said coalition Oral History Program Co-director Charlee Brissette, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie of Chippewa Indians. “We want to get a more robust picture of the boarding school experience because it does have that intergenerational effect.”
Indigenous people who were not included in this first round of the project may have another chance to participate in the coming years — a prospect welcomed by both survivors and their descendants.
“I’d be interested in doing that, because the whole story needs to be taught,” said Desiray Emerton, 56, a Seminole woman and a descendant of two generations of boarding school survivors. Her relatives attended Goodland Academy and Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma.
Emerton said she has witnessed the generational toll firsthand: her mother, shaped by her own boarding school experiences, struggled to show affection toward her as a child. And her grandmother passed away long before this project ever existed.
“I know time’s running out for those who did go through that personally,” Emerton said, “but I always tell my kids I’m walking on the prayers of our ancestors, and I’m running out of time.”
Dover Police have released the latest Megan’s Law sex offender notifications for the City of Dover.
Residents are encouraged to review the notification images to stay aware of registered sex offenders living in their community.
Anyone who has questions or concerns regarding these notifications is asked to contact the Dover Police Sex Offender Enforcement Unit directly at doverpolice.org.
Financial services firm SoFi announced Tuesday that it has acquired Composer, an artificial intelligence startup designed to give everyday retail investors access to the kind of advanced trading strategies that have traditionally been available only to Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional players.
While commission-free trading has made buying and selling stocks more accessible in recent years, the sophisticated tools used to build and automate complex investment strategies have largely stayed out of reach for ordinary investors. SoFi is now betting that AI technology can help bridge that divide.
The company says its goal is to allow everyday investors — not just financial professionals — to build, test, and automate complex trading strategies without needing any coding background or specialized technical knowledge.
CEO Anthony Noto explained the vision to Reuters: “If you can explain an investment idea in plain English, you can now build, test, and automate it.”
Noto also drew a comparison to how mobile technology reshaped banking, saying, “AI is already a foundational part of investing, and much like how mobile became a foundational part of banking, it will completely transform the industry.”
With the Composer acquisition complete, SoFi says its customers will gain access to thousands of community-built trading strategies and will be able to automate trades all from one platform. The company declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
The San Francisco-based fintech reported strong growth earlier this year, with membership rising 35% to a record 14.7 million in the first quarter. Adjusted revenue jumped 41% over the same period to a record $1.1 billion.
The push to attract retail investors has become increasingly competitive since the pandemic-era trading surge brought millions of new participants into financial markets. With commission-free trading now standard across the industry and product offerings looking more and more alike, brokerages are fighting hard to differentiate themselves.
Last month, brokerage Robinhood announced it would let customers set up dedicated trading accounts and use AI agents to trade stocks on their behalf through its platform.
Commenting on how SoFi’s customers are handling recent market swings, Noto said, “Members are staying engaged through volatility and looking for opportunities rather than retreating from the market.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took to social media Tuesday to assert that Iran has agreed to permit nuclear inspections well into the future, even as Iranian officials contradict that claim.
“Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!)” Trump wrote in an online post. “This will insure ‘Nuclear Honesty.’ If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”
Iran, however, has rejected that characterization, stating that it has not entered into any discussions about its nuclear program and has not agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to return to the country.
Trump also addressed the U.S. military presence in the Strait of Hormuz, saying American ships will remain stationed there in the event a blockade of Iranian ports needs to be reinstated — though he described that scenario as “at this point, highly unlikely.” He noted that 19 million barrels of oil moved through the Hormuz Strait on Monday.
Starting Monday, the United States granted Iran a 60-day sanctions waiver following the first round of talks under an emerging peace agreement between the two nations.
Trump further explained that funds being released by the U.S. Treasury will be held in escrow under American oversight and used solely to purchase food and medical supplies from the United States — specifically naming corn, wheat, and soybeans among the goods.
“These are things that are desperately needed by Iran. This is a humanitarian crisis, and I feel it is necessary to help, NOW, before it is too late,” Trump wrote.
Much of the world is currently sweltering under extreme heat conditions, with Europe, Asia, and parts of the United States all experiencing dangerously high temperatures.
How Does Heat Affect Your Health?
Extreme heat can harm the body in multiple ways. Heat exhaustion — which may bring on dizziness, headaches, shaking, and intense thirst — can strike anyone. It is generally not considered life-threatening as long as the affected person cools down within 30 minutes.
Far more dangerous is heatstroke, which occurs when the body’s core temperature climbs above 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.6 degrees Celsius). This is a medical emergency that can result in lasting organ damage or even death. Warning signs include rapid breathing, confusion, seizures, and nausea.
Who Faces the Greatest Risk?
Certain groups are especially vulnerable, including infants, elderly individuals, homeless people, and those who work or spend extended time outdoors. People living with pre-existing conditions — such as respiratory or cardiovascular disease, or diabetes — face heightened danger, as heat can worsen those conditions.
A 2021 study published in The Lancet estimated that nearly half a million people die worldwide each year due to excessive heat, though data from many lower-income nations remains limited. A separate study examining 854 European cities found that climate change was responsible for 68% of the roughly 24,400 estimated heat-related deaths in 2025, as temperatures rose by as much as 3.6 degrees Celsius.
Professor Liz Stephens, a researcher in climate risk and resilience at Britain’s University of Reading, described the danger in stark terms: “Heat waves are a silent and invisible killer. We don’t often see the impact that they have had on human health until the mortality statistics are published many months later.”
Risks You Might Not Expect
Beyond direct heat exposure, air pollution — particularly smoke from wildfires — presents additional health concerns, including inflammation and tissue damage. Research has also shown that extreme heat can contribute to low birthweight and premature births among pregnant women.
When and Where the Danger Is Greatest
Health experts note that fatalities tend to spike earlier in the summer season, before people’s bodies have had time to adjust to rising temperatures. Geography also plays a role — people in regions unaccustomed to intense heat, such as parts of Europe, are at greater risk.
Still, no one is immune. People across the globe — especially those who perform physical labor outdoors — are at risk during extreme heat events driven by climate change.
Dr. Modi Mwatsama, head of capacity at Wellcome, a London-based global health charity, emphasized the urgency of action: “It is more important than ever that we put in place measures to limit the harm on our health.” She noted that solutions range from providing shade and painting buildings white to building early-warning systems for climate-related infectious diseases such as cholera.
What You Can Do
Several European nations — including Italy, France, and Spain — have already issued public health advisories as temperatures spike across the continent. Spain’s weather agency specifically cautioned that outdoor activity during the hottest parts of the day carries significant health risks, especially for older adults and those with underlying medical conditions.
Scientists are urging outdoor workers to take more frequent rest breaks and dress appropriately for the heat. They also recommend checking in on elderly or isolated neighbors and friends, reminding the public that heatstroke requires immediate medical attention.
AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands has officially signed on to the Pax Silica initiative, a U.S.-backed alliance of allied nations aimed at coordinating AI-related supply chains, according to the Dutch foreign ministry, which made the announcement Tuesday.
The Netherlands joining Pax Silica represents a significant achievement for U.S. technology diplomacy, even as tensions remain between Washington and Amsterdam over export restrictions tied to Dutch chip equipment manufacturer ASML.
The announcement comes as Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma traveled to Washington to push back against the proposed U.S. Match Act, a measure that would require allied nations to fall in line with American export controls targeting China.
Both the U.S. and the Netherlands have reached agreement on blocking ASML from shipping its most advanced chip-making tools to China — the kind used to produce circuitry for AI chips. However, the two governments remain divided on whether ASML should be permitted to sell and provide maintenance for certain older, less-advanced equipment to Chinese buyers.
Sjoerdsma and Jacob Helberg, the U.S. undersecretary of state for economic affairs who oversees the Pax Silica initiative, are expected to present the agreement as a step forward for both trade and economic security. The European Union is anticipated to formally join the alliance at some point in the future.
South Korea and Japan have already become members of Pax Silica. Taiwan, which is home to chipmaker TSMC, has expressed support for the group but has not signed on as a full member.
Drivers traveling along Route 1 in the Middletown area should be aware of an ongoing trash removal operation that could affect traffic this afternoon.
According to transportation officials, a rolling trash removal operation is underway along Route 1 between Wrangler Hill Road, also known as Route 72, and Middletown. The operation is expected to wrap up by 4 p.m.
Motorists in the area are advised to use caution and allow extra travel time while crews complete the work.
Travelers heading southbound on Interstate 95 should slow down and stay alert near the Harvey Road overpass, where litter crews are currently working along the shoulder of the highway.
The crews are expected to remain on the shoulder until 4 p.m. Drivers are encouraged to move over when possible and reduce their speed to ensure the safety of the workers in the area.
Drivers traveling along DuPont Parkway, also known as Route 13, are facing a left shoulder closure due to active construction work in the area.
The closure affects the stretch of roadway between Blackbird Forest Road (Road 471) and Summit Bridge Road (Road 71) and is expected to remain in place until 5:30 PM.
Motorists are encouraged to allow extra travel time and remain alert for construction crews and equipment near the roadway. Drivers should follow any posted signage and merge safely as they pass through the affected zone.
Motorists traveling northbound on Dupont Boulevard (Route 113) should be aware of a right shoulder closure currently in effect between West North Street and Bridgeville Road (Route 404).
The closure is the result of construction activity in the area and is expected to be lifted by 5 p.m. Drivers are encouraged to use caution while passing through the work zone.
Travelers heading in that direction may want to consider alternate routes or allow additional time to reach their destinations.
Northbound travelers on Janice Road are facing a right lane closure this afternoon as construction work is underway in the area.
The closure affects the stretch of Janice Road between Nassau Commons Boulevard and Siham Road. The right lane is expected to remain closed until 5 p.m.
Drivers in the area are encouraged to allow extra travel time or consider alternate routes to avoid delays.
Forty mayors representing cities across the globe have put their names to a new agreement designed to give local leaders more influence over how data centers are built and run in their communities. The pact was announced Tuesday during London Climate Action Week.
The agreement was organized through C40 Cities, an alliance of nearly 100 municipalities working to address climate change. The group says roughly 1,700 data centers already exist within its network of cities, and that number is expected to grow by more than 40% in 50 of those cities.
While many new data centers are heading to rural areas where land is cheaper, C40 says urban areas are also facing enormous pressure from this rapid expansion.
The effort got its start when the mayors of Phoenix and Melbourne, Australia, came together over shared concerns — specifically that data centers were consuming large amounts of electricity and water while also competing with housing developers for available land.
“We found out that the challenges in every region around the world were very similar,” said Cassie Sutherland, a managing director at C40. “Our approach was to say OK, how do we now use a global mayoral voice to come together with the conditions under which they will accept data centers.”
Data centers tend to cluster in cities because businesses using artificial intelligence need systems that respond instantly, and companies want their data infrastructure close to their operations. Andrew Batson, global head of data center research at JLL, noted that data centers moving into rural areas is a more recent trend.
Public and political pushback against data centers has been building due to concerns about power outages, higher electricity costs, and the massive amounts of water these facilities require. Some states have already paused tax incentives or are weighing construction moratoriums.
Roughly half of the mayors who signed the pact are from the United States. American cities include Seattle, Palo Alto and Riverside in California, Phoenix and Albuquerque in the Southwest, Beverly in Massachusetts, Lincoln in Nebraska, Chicago and Cleveland in the Midwest, and Miami in the South.
International participants include cities in Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Montreal in Canada. African cities from Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Kenya also joined, along with Asia-Pacific cities in India and Australia, and Lebanon in the Middle East.
Sutherland said the pact must now be turned into real action, with each city using it as a guide for crafting local regulations or policies. Mayors will need support from other government officials, utility companies, and the private sector to make meaningful changes.
The agreement outlines several key standards: data centers should be built on abandoned or underused land, minimize noise, heat, and air pollution, run on renewable energy and battery storage, cut water use and emissions, and capture waste heat. Mayors also want data centers to create local jobs, purchase goods and services locally, fund their own infrastructure upgrades, and engage with community members.
In the Phoenix area, pending permit requests alone could double electricity demand if all proposed data centers are built. Developers are drawn to the region because of its reliable power supply and consistent weather.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego expressed concern that current data center investments are worsening climate change and failing to serve local residents. She said a united front among mayors will prevent developers from simply seeking out communities that lack the power to negotiate better terms.
“We understand the importance of this innovation, it’s creating great jobs in our community,” Gallego said. “We just want to make sure that we get it right for our local residents and for the health of our planet.”
As of Tuesday, no cities from Southeast Asia had signed the pact. C40 said several cities in that region were unable to join due to national policies or other complications, though discussions are continuing.
Southeast Asia accounts for roughly a quarter of global energy demand growth, driven in part by more than 2,000 data centers operating across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, according to the think tank Ember. The International Energy Agency projects that annual energy demand from those data centers will more than double within five years. Malaysia has been a particular hotspot, drawing major investments from tech giants including Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia.
Melbourne played a central role in shaping the pact. According to the city’s Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece, if Melbourne follows through on all its current plans, data centers there could consume up to 20 billion liters — roughly 5.3 billion gallons — of water annually, equal to about 4% of the city’s drinking water supply. That water supply is already under strain from population growth, longer dry spells, and intensifying heat driven by climate change.
Reece said tighter environmental regulations in Melbourne are unlikely to drive away future investment, noting that data centers ultimately go where there is sufficient power, land, and proximity to markets and companies using artificial intelligence.
“We don’t want to see a race to the bottom between cities where governments, desperate for investment, are chasing data centers on any terms possible,” he said. “We want to see a better framework in place so that the investment rush in data centers can be a win-win — a win for investors and also a win for local communities.”
The European Commission is preparing to step up its investigation into Meta Platforms, with new allegations that the company intentionally designed its social media apps to hook children, according to a Bloomberg News report published Tuesday citing sources with knowledge of the situation.
Meta, which owns both Instagram and Facebook, has faced growing scrutiny over the effects its platforms have on the mental health and safety of younger users.
According to the Bloomberg report, European regulators are drafting preliminary findings that accuse Meta of using design tactics specifically intended to keep young people engaged and coming back to its platforms. No timeline has been set for when those findings will be officially released.
Neither Meta nor the European Commission responded to requests for comment from Reuters, which noted it was unable to independently confirm the Bloomberg report.
Regulators are also weighing restrictions on Meta similar to measures already put in place by the United Kingdom and other nations. Those potential curbs are expected to be considered after an expert panel delivers its recommendations next month.
The European Commission first launched its investigation into Meta in May 2024 under the Digital Services Act, citing concerns that the company had not done enough to protect children on its platforms. Then in April of this year, EU officials formally charged Meta with violating its technology regulations, demanding the company take stronger steps to prevent children under 13 from accessing its social networks.
In the United States, Meta has separately been lobbying Congress to grant the company legal immunity from lawsuits tied to harm caused to children. The company is currently facing thousands of legal claims from young users and their families, according to a Reuters report from last week.
Adding to Meta’s legal troubles, a jury in Los Angeles reached a significant verdict in March, finding both Meta and Alphabet’s Google negligent for building social media platforms that were harmful to young people.
FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank took a significant step forward Tuesday, winning key support from a major parliamentary committee for the creation of a digital euro — an electronic payment system designed to make the euro zone less dependent on U.S.-based credit card companies at a time when transatlantic relations are under strain.
The digital euro would function as an electronic wallet backed by the central bank but distributed through traditional banks or financial technology companies. It would give all euro zone residents the ability to make purchases both online and in person.
The project has been in development for six years, but it has taken on new urgency since Donald Trump returned to the White House, imposing tariffs on longtime trade partners including the European Union. The move has fueled concerns that the U.S. could eventually use its control over major payment networks like Visa and Mastercard as a political tool.
Tuesday’s approval of draft rules by the economic committee of the European Parliament follows three years of back-and-forth between the ECB and the banking industry. Banks had raised concerns about losing deposits and revenue, and pushed to scale back the project’s reach.
The proposed regulation states that the digital euro would “reduce overreliance on non-European providers by becoming a pan-European means of payment and would bring the single currency into the digital era by giving Union citizens the freedom to opt to pay with central bank money in their daily transactions.”
Not everyone was on board. Siegbert Frank Droese, representing the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group in the European Parliament, said his group voted against the measure — raising the possibility that an additional vote may be required when the full Parliament meets in plenary session.
If no objection arises there, lawmakers are expected to begin negotiations with EU governments and the European Commission next month, with the goal of reaching final approval before year’s end.
The ECB is planning a 12-month pilot program beginning in the second half of next year, ahead of a full launch scheduled for 2029.
A top World Health Organization official delivered a sobering assessment Tuesday, stating that the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed every previous African outbreak in terms of confirmed cases recorded within the first month.
The outbreak, which is centered in the Bundibugyo area of eastern Congo, has now infected more than 1,000 people and resulted in 267 deaths. Health experts believe the virus had already been circulating for an extended period before authorities officially declared the outbreak on May 15 — meaning the true timeline of spread is longer than the official record reflects.
WHO’s Abdirahman Mahamud, speaking at a press briefing in Geneva after a visit to Bunia — the epicenter of the outbreak — last week, stressed the urgency of scaling up the response. “The response needs to expand to keep pace with the expanding outbreak — this is beginning to happen,” he said.
The disease has now reached at least three overcrowded displacement camps in eastern Congo. The International Organization for Migration’s Abdoulaye Wone, speaking at the same briefing, confirmed that at least 25 cases have been documented in those camps, with 14 of those individuals dying from the illness.
For historical context, the two deadliest Ebola outbreaks prior to this one occurred in West Africa — specifically in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia — where the disease killed approximately 11,000 people between 2014 and 2016. A separate, less deadly outbreak struck Congo itself in 2018.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that sub-Saharan Africa has experienced more than 20 Ebola outbreaks over the years.
