DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — A 16-year-old Palestinian girl lost her life Monday morning when an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded street in Gaza City as she made her way to school to sit for an exam, according to family members.
The victim, identified by a relative as Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, was on her way to take an 11th grade test when the strike hit the Rimal district, said relative Jameel Ashour.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, stating it was aimed at a Hamas militant. However, the military also said it was aware of reports that an “uninvolved individual was harmed.”
Ashour’s body was transported to Shifa Hospital, where her mother and dozens of other Palestinians gathered to grieve. The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that three additional people suffered injuries in strikes in the same area.
Footage from the scene and its aftermath showed crowds gathering near two vehicles that had been destroyed in the blast, with rescue workers present and blood visible on the ground.
Israel has pressed forward with military strikes in Gaza even after a ceasefire agreement was reached in October. The Israeli military maintains that its operations target Hamas and other armed groups that pose a security threat, and has accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire terms. Nevertheless, civilian casualties have continued to mount.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire took effect. On the Israeli side, five soldiers have died since the truce began.
The conflict traces back to October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched an assault into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages. Israel’s military response in Gaza has since resulted in the deaths of 73,018 Palestinians, including those killed after the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry operates under the Hamas-led government and is run by medical professionals who maintain detailed casualty records. United Nations agencies and independent analysts generally regard its data as credible. The ministry does not separate civilian deaths from militant deaths, though it notes that women and children account for roughly half of all fatalities.
A man who shares the same name and political party as Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan filed a legal challenge Monday, contesting a state elections official’s decision to pull him from the August primary ballot.
Attorneys for the challenger Sullivan argue in the court filing that the ruling by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher violates both state and federal law. They are asking that their client be restored to the ballot. The challenger has insisted all along that he is a legitimate candidate and that elections officials had no legal grounds to remove him.
His entry into the race — filed just days before the June 1 deadline — sparked sharp criticism from Sen. Sullivan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Both called him a sham candidate and accused him of working in concert with Democrats to improve the chances of Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. Peltola’s campaign, state Democrats, and the challenger himself all denied those accusations.
Sen. Sullivan and Peltola rank as the highest-profile candidates in a crowded field of more than a dozen contenders. The race is considered one of the most significant U.S. Senate contests in this year’s midterm elections, with both parties viewing it as critical to controlling the chamber.
On June 15 — one week after Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced an investigation into the challenger’s candidacy — Beecher issued her disqualification ruling. She determined that his declaration of candidacy “was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”
When Dahlstrom launched the investigation, she pointed to what she described as “credible allegations” that the challenger filed his candidacy “in coordination with another candidate and campaign” with the goal of confusing and “manipulating” voters. However, when Beecher ultimately removed him from the ballot, she did not cite any evidence of coordination with Peltola or Democratic officials. The challenger himself, when asked directly whether he had been in contact with Peltola’s campaign, said “zero, none, zilch.”
Beecher said her decision rested on other grounds, including the fact that the challenger was registered to vote under the name Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and changed his party affiliation to Republican only when he entered the race. She also pointed to similarities between his campaign website and the senator’s, as well as his use of a political consultant who has worked with Democratic clients.
Congressional candidates in Alaska fill out a form indicating how they want their name to appear on the ballot and their preferred party affiliation.
Beecher said she acted under a regulation stating that a candidate’s name cannot appear on a ballot “in a manner that is confusing or misleading to voters or compromises the fairness or neutrality of the ballot,” including restrictions on academic or professional titles.
Legislative attorney Andrew Dunmire, responding to questions from Democratic state Rep. Andrew Gray, said the regulation Beecher cited does not actually prohibit placing the challenger’s name on the ballot. He suggested the elections division could instead design the ballot in a way that helps voters tell the two Sullivans apart.
Initially, the challenger had been certified and listed on the state candidate roster as Dan J. Sullivan, while the sitting senator appeared as Dan S. Sullivan with an incumbent designation.
Dunmire further stated his view that the division can only disqualify a congressional candidate if they fail to meet one of the three constitutional requirements for the office — those being age, residency, and citizenship.
Alaska uses an open primary system in which the top four finishers, regardless of party, move on to a ranked choice general election.
All four crew members aboard a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter were injured Monday when the aircraft went down during a training mission in Alaska.
The MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter came down at Harbor Mountain near Sitka. While all four personnel were taken to a hospital, the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. No fatalities were reported.
The Coast Guard addressed the incident on X, stating: “First responders and search and rescue assets are currently responding. The safety, well-being, and rescue of our crew members is our absolute, immediate priority.”
Petty Officer Ashly Murphy confirmed the helicopter had been on a routine training flight at the time of the crash. The Coast Guard has launched an investigation, though the cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
The incident adds to a troubling stretch of aviation accidents this month. A business jet crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas, on Tuesday night, claiming one life. On June 15, a B-52 went down during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing all eight people on board. And on June 14, twelve people lost their lives when a plane carrying skydivers crashed in Missouri.
The U.S. government is pushing back against a proposal to sell dozens of artifacts pulled from the sunken Titanic, adding yet another chapter to one of history’s most captivating maritime stories.
More than 100 years after the ship went down, the Titanic continues to capture the world’s imagination. Below is a look at the major milestones in the vessel’s history — from its first and only voyage to the ongoing legal battles over what remains on the ocean floor:
April 10, 1912 — After more than two years of being built, the Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England. The ship makes stops in France and Ireland before heading toward New York City with approximately 2,200 people aboard.
April 14, 1912 — Even after receiving multiple warnings about ice in the northern Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic collides with an iceberg just before midnight near the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
April 15, 1912 — Within hours of striking the iceberg, the Titanic slips beneath the surface, claiming the lives of roughly 1,500 passengers and crew members.
September 1, 1985 — A joint team of French and American researchers locates the Titanic’s wreck site approximately 2.3 miles — or 3.7 kilometers — below the ocean’s surface. The team confirms the ship broke into two pieces when it sank.
July 1986 — For the first time since the disaster, researchers descend to the Titanic in a submarine, becoming the first humans to lay eyes on the wreck in 74 years. During 11 dives, they photograph and film the debris field. No items are taken from the site.
October 1986 — The United States passes legislation intended to regulate expeditions to the Titanic wreck and safeguard its artifacts. However, the law does little to prevent visits to the site or the removal of items.
July 1987 — An American company called Titanic Ventures teams up with a French research organization to pull the first objects from the wreck, including passenger dishware. Over the following months, the partnership recovers 1,800 artifacts in total. The group committed to keeping the collection together and not selling any of the items.
May 1993 — Titanic Ventures, which led the 1987 recovery effort, transfers its salvage rights to RMS Titanic Inc. Just one month later, RMS Titanic retrieves 800 more artifacts from the wreck. The recovered items include personal belongings such as a watch and suitcases, along with ship items like dishes — and some unexpected finds, including a set of bagpipes and sheet music.
June 1994 — A U.S. federal court grants RMS Titanic exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, though the ruling stops short of declaring the company the outright owner of the artifacts.
March 1999 — A U.S. appeals court determines that RMS Titanic does not have the authority to prevent other companies from visiting or taking photographs at the Titanic site.
February 2000 — The largest public exhibition of Titanic artifacts in the world opens in Chicago. Some museums refuse to participate, arguing that removing objects from archaeological sites amounts to looting.
August 2011 — A U.S. federal court awards RMS Titanic legal title to thousands of artifacts the company recovered between 1993 and 2004. As part of the agreement, the company must keep the collection whole and is prohibited from selling individual items.
May 2017 — The United States puts an international treaty into effect requiring anyone operating under U.S. jurisdiction to receive approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before conducting any research or salvage work that disturbs the wreck.
June 18, 2023 — A small experimental submersible called the Titan implodes while traveling to the Titanic, killing all five people on board. Among the victims was French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who served as director of underwater research for RMS Titanic.
August 2023 — The U.S. government moves to block RMS Titanic from carrying out a planned expedition to retrieve historically significant items from the wreck, pointing to federal law and an international agreement.
July 2024 — RMS Titanic conducts its first visit to the wreck since 2010, traveling to the site to study the condition of the ship and the artifacts that remain.
January 2025 — The U.S. government drops its lawsuit against RMS Titanic, stating that the company no longer has any active dive plans that would violate federal law.
March 2026 — In documents filed with the court, RMS Titanic discloses a plan to auction off 100 lots of artifacts that were brought up from the wreck in 1987. Most specifics about the sale remain under seal, but the company indicates it intends to take the items on a worldwide tour before the auction.
June 2026 — A judge orders the unsealing of court documents revealing that both the U.S. government and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are formally opposing the proposed sale of the Titanic artifacts.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled that a recently overhauled government tool at the center of the Trump administration’s election integrity push is unlawful and cannot continue to be used.
U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups who argued that recent upgrades to the program — known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE — combined Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could lead to eligible voters being improperly removed from voter rolls.
“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan wrote in her order. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
The judge stated that Congress had explicitly forbidden the government from centralizing Americans’ personal identifying information, and that the federal agencies behind the SAVE program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.”
The ruling represents a significant legal blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to use federal agencies to push states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. The updated SAVE system — which critics had called an unlawful centralized federal voter database — had been a cornerstone of the second election-related executive order Trump signed this year. The court’s decision leaves the program’s future in doubt.
James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, responded to the ruling on social media, writing: “It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist.” The department pointed to his post as its official comment on the ruling. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
The SAVE program was originally established under an immigration law requiring the Department of Homeland Security to assist federal, state, and local agencies in preventing government benefits from reaching noncitizens. After the Trump administration significantly expanded the program’s capabilities in April 2025, at least 25 states began using it to review their voter rolls. Since then, more than 67 million voter registrations have been run through the system. Critics have raised concerns that the program could end up stripping legitimate voters of their registration.
The plaintiffs in the case — which included the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and five unnamed U.S. citizens — alleged that the updated SAVE program violated both privacy and voting rights. They also claimed the Trump administration broke federal privacy laws by failing to meet transparency requirements when making changes to the system.
In her written ruling, the judge noted that the agencies involved were “scrambling to comply with an Executive Order aimed at reshaping federal elections,” adding that “they haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”
During an October court hearing, plaintiffs attorney Nikhel Sus argued that naturalized citizens face a heightened risk of being wrongly removed from voter rolls. “They are uniquely vulnerable to errors in the database,” said Sus, who represents Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Following Monday’s ruling, Sus called the decision an “across the board victory” and said the plaintiffs were pleased that the judge reinforced the argument that the federal government does not have implied authority to freely share sensitive personal data between agencies.
HOUSTON — World Cup excitement is taking on a truly international character in Houston, where an estimated one-third of residents were born outside the United States and approximately 145 languages are spoken throughout what is considered one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country.
As the fourth-largest city in the U.S., Houston has thrown itself into full celebration mode for this year’s tournament, with a sprawling downtown fan festival and packed bars and restaurants buzzing with passionate supporters cheering on their home nations.
“We’ve been to the fan festival in East Downtown and it’s been a fantastic experience to see all cultures kind of mesh and have a great time together and celebrate the sport and celebrate humanity as a whole,” said Frank Haces, 27, who watched a recent match alongside family members who traveled to visit him from Mexico.
The presence of Mexico’s national team — known as “El Tri” — is felt strongly across the city. Green jerseys have become a common sight at restaurants, bars, and supermarkets, reflecting the fact that people of Mexican heritage make up roughly a third of Houston’s population.
The downtown fan festival has embraced the city’s diversity with entertainment spanning everything from Tejano to Bollywood performers, according to festival director Patti Smith. She noted that local fans representing a wide range of countries gather to watch their teams compete on large screens. For a recent Egypt match, organizers even set up a prayer room and a foot-washing area to accommodate Muslim supporters. Smith estimated that as many as 20,000 people are attending the festival each day.
“The cultures are all coming out and it’s every single night,” Smith told Reuters. “We see when it’s the Turkish, the Iranians or whoever is playing. People from the community are coming out in droves.”
Houston’s appeal to international residents stems from several factors, including a strong job market driven by the energy and medical industries, relatively affordable living costs, and its geographic closeness to Latin America — all of which have contributed to its large Latino population and drawn people from around the world.
Sae Yang, a 35-year-old South Korean resident, said the opportunity to share different traditions and celebrations is what makes experiencing the World Cup in Houston so meaningful. Meanwhile, Canadian resident Saige Antoine said she enjoys the chance to connect with fellow transplants from other parts of the globe.
“I remember like the first few days of it was huge,” Antoine said. “It was going crazy. People just want to like show off the flags, their accessories, anything to support the culture and what we have here.”
Texas is also home to the largest Czech American population in the United States, and Houston residents Derrick Junek and his wife Jaylen said they plan to honor their heritage in a fitting way — given that the Czech Republic ranks as the top beer-consuming nation per capita in the world.
“I’ll drink some Pilsner beer to celebrate,” Derrick Junek said.
Best Buy announced Monday that its chief financial officer, Matt Bilunas, will be departing the role at the end of next month, with his last day set for July 31.
Bilunas first came aboard at Best Buy back in 2006 and was elevated to the top financial position in 2019, serving in that capacity for several years.
The leadership shake-up follows another recent change at the top of the company. Best Buy tapped Jason Bonfig to serve as its new CEO back in April, taking over from longtime executive Corie Barry.
The electronics retailer, which runs more than 1,000 store locations throughout North America, has been pushing to reignite its growth by leaning into online sales, expanded services, and advertising opportunities as rivalry in the retail space heats up.
Following the announcement, Best Buy’s stock slid roughly 3% during after-hours trading.
Domino’s Pizza announced Monday that Joe Jordan has been selected as its next chief executive officer, with the change set to take effect on October 1.
Jordan currently holds the titles of chief operating officer and president at the pizza giant. Over the course of his 15 years with the company, he has built experience across marketing as well as U.S. and international operations.
Outgoing CEO Russell Weiner will step down after serving as the company’s top executive for just over four years. Rather than leaving the company entirely, Weiner will assume the role of executive chairman designate beginning October 1.
The leadership transition comes as Domino’s faces some headwinds in the marketplace. Back in April, the company projected slower annual growth both domestically and abroad, citing reduced consumer spending and increasing competition in the pizza industry.
Oracle’s workforce shrank by roughly 13% during fiscal year 2026, with the cloud computing giant shedding approximately 21,000 employees as it continues to reshape its business operations.
According to the company’s annual report, released Monday, Oracle employed about 141,000 workers as of May this year — down from approximately 162,000 in May 2025.
The company cited ongoing restructuring efforts as a key driver of the workforce reduction, with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence across its internal operations playing a significant role in the changes.
Oracle did not provide an immediate response when contacted for comment on the workforce figures.
The European Union’s top diplomat in Israel is openly conceding that the relationship between the EU and Israel has deteriorated significantly — and the situation grew even more tense just days after his candid remarks became public.
EU Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann described the relationship as “a bit challenging at the moment” in comments made to The Media Line. Shortly after, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced he was cutting off all communication with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, following reports that during a visit to Mexico, Kallas compared Israel to the apartheid regime that once governed South Africa.
“I am grateful to the many European elected representatives who condemned this grave statement,” Sa’ar said in a statement issued Thursday. “However, to date, no denial, clarification, or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement.” Sa’ar added that ties would remain severed “until [Kallas] retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Mann, who spoke with The Media Line the previous Tuesday, was clear that the EU’s official position does not characterize Israel as an apartheid state.
Mann arrived in Israel in September 2025, shortly following the first Iran war in June of that year, and was present to experience the ballistic missile attacks that came during a second clash in the spring of 2026. Speaking through a Zoom call, he acknowledged that “a problem really has developed” between Israel and the EU since October 7, 2023, during which Israel has been engaged in a two-and-a-half-year, seven-front conflict that includes fighting Hamas in Gaza.
“There was growing public and political concern in European countries about the way the war was being waged in Gaza,” Mann said. “We were of the belief that, as time went on, there was too much collateral damage, too many civilian victims … The relationship has become rather strained as a result of that.”
Around the time Mann — who previously served as ambassador to Iceland — took his post in Israel, the president of the European Commission put forward a series of measures intended to pressure Israel to scale back its Gaza campaign and limit civilian casualties. Many of those proposals have remained on the EU foreign ministers’ agenda ever since but have not been formally adopted.
“We have had a problem in Europe actually agreeing to those measures, but the fact that those measures are on the table has upset the Israeli government,” Mann explained. “There’s a lot of rhetoric flying backward and forward. We see messages coming out from the Israeli government that are extremely critical of certain European countries and of the actions of the European Union.”
Among the proposed measures were recommendations to partially suspend trade-related provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and calls to impose sanctions on specific Israeli ministers described as “extremist.”
Mann noted that as Israel heads toward its October 2026 election period, the language being used by both sides has grown increasingly sharp. He pointed specifically to recent allegations from Israel’s Foreign Ministry claiming the EU is directly funding terrorism — a charge Mann flatly denies.
“We need to try to tone down the rhetoric a little bit and try to find a way out of the impasse,” Mann told The Media Line. “We have so much in common, and we have so many shared interests.”
The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner and second-largest investor. Israel also participates in several EU programs, including Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, which give Israeli students access to study opportunities in Europe. Deep cultural and family ties further connect Israelis and Europeans.
Mann was careful to point out that the EU is made up of 27 countries, and opinions vary widely among them.
“The situations are very different from country to country,” Mann stressed. “There’s a little bit of misunderstanding on both sides. Maybe my job is to try to overcome some of that.”
Even as cooperation continues, new friction points keep emerging. Several EU member states have recently renewed calls to restrict imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The EU’s executive body has faced months of pressure to put forward a formal proposal, but has been deadlocked. Just last week, the European Commission announced it would present options ahead of the next ministerial meeting scheduled for July 13, according to European media reports.
Mann explained that passing such sanctions would require approval from at least 55% of EU member states representing at least 65% of the bloc’s total population.
The Commission has moved slowly on trade-restriction recommendations in part because the Council has been unable to achieve the qualified majority needed to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Despite that, the EU last month did move forward with sanctions against a small number of individuals and groups it deemed to be extremist settlers, including the settler think tank and advocacy organization Regavim and its director-general, Meir Deutsch. Canada enacted similar sanctions the following week.
Mann told The Media Line that the sanctions were mischaracterized as an attack on Israel as a whole.
“It’s not an attack on Israel,” Mann said. “They’re not sanctions on Israel. They are sanctions on individuals and organizations that we believe have been responsible for sponsoring unjustified, illegal, violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. We have a very thorough system for deciding how sanctions are imposed.”
He went on to describe the process: “First, you have to get data from open sources. There’s no intelligence data. It’s all information that is available from open sources. It goes to the lawyers in the European Council of Ministers, who examine whether it is legally watertight, and then, of course, it has to be agreed unanimously by all 27 countries. So there are many checks and balances. Anyone who is subject to sanctions also has the right to challenge them in court.”
Mann also pointed out that the number of Israeli organizations sanctioned is considerably smaller than the EU’s list of Palestinian groups and other terrorist organizations that have faced similar measures.
The ambassador also addressed the EU’s practice of holding Israel to a higher standard than some neighboring countries. He explained that when the EU and Israel signed an association agreement 25 years ago, Article 2 specifically established that respect for human rights and democratic principles is a core element of their partnership.
Because of that framework, Mann said, “there is a framework for our relationship with Israel that you don’t have with countries like Syria, or whatever … We always say that Israel is a country that shares our values, and sometimes … we fear that that is not the case anymore.”
He pushed back on the idea that Israel is unfairly singled out, calling that characterization “not entirely true.”
A recent report from the Jewish People Policy Institute, however, offered a different perspective. An analysis published by Euractiv by JPPI Senior Fellow Sharon Pardo examined more than 24,000 official statements, press releases, and diplomatic communications issued by the European External Action Service between 2017 and April 2026. The analysis found that 4% of those documents concerned Israel — a disproportionately high share.
The JPPI report also found that 38% of EEAS statements about Israel were negative, while only 13% were positive and 49% were neutral. After the October 7 massacre, the share of negative statements climbed from 29% to nearly 46%.
Pardo noted that more than half of all EEAS statements about Israel referenced the two-state solution or the creation of a Palestinian state. Mann confirmed this remains a core disagreement between Israel and the EU. “We are very passionate believers in the two-state solution,” Mann insisted, even as Israel’s Knesset has “firmly rejected” Palestinian statehood and many surveys suggest Palestinians themselves oppose the concept.
“We believe that the only way to ensure peace and security for Israel and also for the Palestinians is to find, in the long term, some sort of solution where there are two states that can live side by side in peace and security,” he said.
Mann acknowledged that while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was once viewed as a self-contained issue, there is growing recognition that any lasting resolution will need to be embedded within a broader regional framework. He pointed to the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain — signed nearly six years ago — as an example of agreements that have held up despite regional turmoil. He also noted that just before October 7, Israel and Saudi Arabia had been exploring normalization, and he believes that possibility is back on the table.
“There is hope and optimism that the two-state solution … can become a reality as part of a kind of regional security arrangement,” Mann told The Media Line.
On the topic of the memorandum of understanding signed between the United States and Iran, Mann said the EU has long been “very concerned” about Iran’s treatment of its own people, as well as its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Mann previously served as chief spokesperson for the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, during the negotiations that produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He said he continues to believe a negotiated agreement is necessary.
“Obviously, the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz had a very damaging effect on the European economy,” Mann said. “So, we are very happy that there has now been an agreement, an initial agreement. We are happy that the war is over, and we just hope that this will lead to an agreement in the end that will tick the boxes.”
He added, however, that the ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still “very much run” Iran, meaning serious challenges remain on that front as well.
With three years remaining in his posting, Mann said he is committed to making headway in rebuilding the relationship between Jerusalem and Brussels.
“I would like to see progress over the next three years,” Mann concluded. “I’m trying to reach out to as much of Israeli society as I possibly can while I’m here, and I’m finding it very fascinating. What an amazing, diverse country you have here, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my job here, despite all the challenges.”
A right lane closure is in effect for southbound Pennsylvania Avenue between Alders Lane and Green Hill Avenue, according to traffic officials.
The lane restriction is expected to remain in place until 5 p.m. Drivers in the area are encouraged to allow extra travel time or consider alternate routes to avoid potential delays.
No additional details regarding the cause of the closure were provided. Motorists should remain alert and follow any posted signs or traffic control instructions in the work zone.
Two Maryland state agencies are teaming up to address a black fly problem along the Potomac River, with a treatment operation planned for later this week.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture, working alongside the Department of Natural Resources, has announced plans to apply treatment to a designated stretch of the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
The treatment is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, with the operation set to begin at 8:00 a.m. The effort is aimed at reducing and controlling black fly populations in that part of the river.
The United States Supreme Court has turned down a request to review the case of a Texas man on death row, a move that clears the way for his execution even though experts on both sides of the case agreed he should not be put to death.
Victor Saldaño had sought the court’s intervention, arguing that he should be protected from execution under laws that prohibit putting individuals with intellectual disabilities to death. However, the justices declined to hear his appeal.
What makes the case particularly striking is that both the defense team and state-appointed experts reached the same conclusion — that Saldaño’s intellectual disability made him ineligible for execution under existing law. Despite that rare agreement between opposing sides, the Supreme Court chose not to step in.
With the high court’s refusal to act, Saldaño now faces the likelihood of being executed, even as legal advocates continue to raise concerns about whether his execution would be lawful given the findings of both sets of experts in the case.
Drivers heading eastbound on Commerce Street should be aware of an active lane restriction currently in place due to construction activity in the area.
The right lane on Commerce Street eastbound, between Brown Street and Elizabeth Avenue, is closed. The closure is expected to last until 6 PM.
Motorists are encouraged to allow extra travel time or consider alternate routes to avoid potential delays in the affected stretch of road.
Drivers heading westbound on Commerce Street should be aware of a right lane closure currently in effect between Brown Street and Elizabeth Avenue.
The lane restriction is the result of construction activity in the area and is scheduled to remain in place until 5 PM.
Motorists traveling through the affected stretch are advised to use caution and allow extra travel time. Alternate routes may help avoid potential delays in the construction zone.
Keith Tkachuk spent more than 15 years after hanging up his skates waiting for the Hockey Hall of Fame to come calling — and when the moment finally arrived, his family had even more reason to raise a glass.
The announcement of Tkachuk’s election to the Hall of Fame came on Monday, barely a day after his two sons found themselves on the same NHL roster. Brady Tkachuk was dealt from Ottawa to Florida, where he now plays alongside his older brother Matthew.
Known by the nickname “Walt,” Tkachuk is joining a Hall of Fame class that features center Patrice Bergeron, a six-time Selke Trophy winner who captured the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011, along with goalies Carey Price from Montreal and Pekka Rinne from Nashville.
Also set to be inducted at the November 9 ceremony in Toronto are U.S. women’s hockey trailblazer Cindy Curley and hockey executive Brian Burke.
Tkachuk was widely considered one of the most dominant power forwards of his generation, competing throughout the 1990s and 2000s as part of the first wave of elite American-born NHL players. Across his career with Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Atlanta, he tallied 1,121 points in 1,290 games including playoff action, and was a member of the U.S. squad that claimed the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
“I was blessed to play in the greatest sports league in the world,” Tkachuk said. “Through good times and bad times, it was always the best experience imaginable.”
Bergeron, who played his entire career in Boston, earned his spot in the first year he was eligible. Price and Rinne were selected in their second year of eligibility, while Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind’Amour were once again passed over.
Price and Bergeron were both part of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Bergeron also won gold at the 2010 Games.
Curley made history by competing in the very first IIHF Women’s World Championship in 1990, where she set single-tournament records that still stand — 11 goals, 12 assists, and 23 points across five games.
Burke earned a Stanley Cup ring as general manager of Anaheim in 2007 and has held numerous front-office roles throughout his career, including serving as the NHL’s director of hockey operations. He has also been a prominent advocate for the women’s game and played a leading role in hockey’s Pride initiatives, including a tenure as executive director of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association.
NEW YORK (AP) — With the NBA draft just hours away, basketball fans were searching for any hint about where top prospect AJ Dybantsa might land — but his Father’s Day social media post turned out to be no clue at all.
Dybantsa posted a tribute to his father, Anicet Dybantsa Sr., known as “Ace,” on X, and one of the photos showed a young AJ being held by his dad in front of the White House. Since Washington holds the No. 1 overall pick in Tuesday night’s draft, many wondered if the image was a subtle hint about his destination.
It wasn’t. Dybantsa explained Monday that the photo choice came down to something much simpler — modesty.
“Actually, it was just a random photo that I found,” Dybantsa said. “I was going to do one and I was a baby, but I was naked, so I didn’t want to do that one. So the next one to the right just happened to be in front of the White House.”
Still, there’s a solid chance Dybantsa is indeed Washington-bound. The 6-foot-9 forward from Boston dominated college basketball in his single season at BYU, leading the entire country with 25.5 points per game. Scouts have compared his combination of size and skill to Kevin Durant — who also happens to be Dybantsa’s favorite player.
Washington could also look at other top-tier one-and-done prospects, including Darryn Peterson of Kansas, college player of the year Cameron Boozer of Duke, or North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson. A talented group of scoring guards rounds out the rest of the top of the draft.
“I think this draft top to bottom is elite. I think you look at guys even outside of the top group, guys in the 16-to-20 range, those are all great players,” Boozer said. “I think our draft is really strong, stronger than a lot of classes that came before us. I guess we’ll see how strong we really are in a couple of years from now, but I am super excited for sure.”
The Utah Jazz hold the second overall pick, followed by the Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls. If all four top forwards are off the board by then, the Los Angeles Clippers at No. 5 would be the first team to choose from a group of guards and other prospects that includes Keaton Wagler of Illinois, Darius Acuff Jr. of Arkansas, Kingston Flemings of Houston, and Mikel Brown Jr. of Louisville.
While Dybantsa’s impressive track record against elite competition makes him a difficult player to pass up, Washington must also weigh the upside of Peterson against what he was actually able to show during his time at Kansas.
A McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school, Peterson averaged 20.2 points per game last season and was one of the highest-profile recruits the Jayhawks have ever signed. However, questions linger about his health. He dealt with full-body cramping before the season that led to a brief hospital stay, and a series of injuries and illnesses caused him to miss 11 games while limiting his performance in several others.
The 6-foot-5 guard said NBA teams have not raised any red flags about his physical condition.
“Not at all,” Peterson said. “Every team’s got my medicals and I’m cleared, so there’s no issues.”
Peterson also says the uncertainty of not knowing his draft destination isn’t rattling him heading into draft night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“Oh, it’s been my life for a while now,” Peterson said. “I went to three different high schools. I’ve been on the move my entire life, so no problem at all. That’s part of the process and I’m embracing it.”
The Brooklyn Nets, who are hosting the draft as the No. 6 pick holders, are hoping to generate some excitement in a city where they’ve felt increasingly overshadowed — especially after the Knicks captured their first NBA championship since 1973.
Dybantsa was actually in the building for Game 4 at Madison Square Garden — the other photo in his Father’s Day post was taken at the NBA Finals — when the Knicks pulled off the largest comeback in Finals history by overcoming a 29-point deficit.
“Craziest game I’ve ever watched in real life,” he said. “Like, it was so loud in there.”
Now Dybantsa is focused on being the one who gets the crowd on its feet. Washington’s championship drought nearly matches the one the Knicks just ended — the franchise last won a title in 1978, when the team was still called the Bullets.
If Washington selects Dybantsa to help rebuild the franchise, he says he’s more than prepared for the weight of those expectations.
“Obviously, it’s going to be a little bit more pressure probably, target on my back,” Dybantsa said. “I mean, I’ve been No. 1 my whole life and people gunning after me, so it’d be a bigger motivation for me going into the league.”
BOGOTA, Colombia — A Trump-endorsed political outsider named Abelardo de la Espriella appears to have captured the Colombian presidency, making that nation the newest addition to a growing list of Latin American countries that have shifted toward conservative leadership.
With nearly all ballots counted as of Monday, de la Espriella held a lead of roughly one percentage point — approximately 251,000 votes — over his opponent Iván Cepeda. No official winner has been declared yet. Cepeda has disputed the results, though a review of the vote is not expected to reverse the outcome.
De la Espriella ran on a law-and-order platform that included scrapping peace negotiations with Colombian rebel factions and constructing large-scale prisons similar to those built in El Salvador. U.S. President Donald Trump backed the lawyer and business owner, who goes by the nickname “The Tiger,” calling him the right person to bring security and order back to Colombia.
Here is a look at other Latin American nations that have recently elected conservative presidents:
Argentina: Javier Milei, an economist and TV personality known as “The Lion,” captured Argentina’s presidency in November 2023 after pledging to dramatically reduce government spending and bring under control the country’s long-running inflation crisis. The libertarian candidate defeated the incumbent Peronist movement. Since taking office, Milei has halted the central bank’s practice of printing money to cover the government’s budget gap, dismissed civil servants, paused public infrastructure investment, and reduced subsidies on utility bills. Argentina’s inflation rate has dropped from 211% in 2023 to 32% in 2025, though critics argue his austerity measures have lowered the quality of life for many Argentines, particularly those working in the public sector.
Ecuador: Daniel Noboa, a member of one of Ecuador’s most prominent wealthy families, was reelected to a four-year term in April 2025 with 56% of the vote. The conservative president has deployed the military to help restore order in coastal cities where drug gangs are battling for control of ports and trafficking routes. Despite this approach, homicide rates have not seen significant improvement, and the government has faced criticism over alleged human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings. Under Noboa, Ecuador’s military has launched joint anti-drug operations with the United States. Noboa also pushed to reopen a U.S. military base in the country, but voters rejected that proposal in a referendum last year.
Honduras: Nasry Asfura, a real estate investor and former city mayor representing the National Party, narrowly won Honduras’s presidential election in November, edging out his closest competitor by less than a percentage point. Asfura belongs to the same political party as former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was pardoned by Trump following a drug trafficking conviction. Trump endorsed Asfura and threatened to withhold aid from Honduras if he was not elected. Since taking office, Asfura’s administration has accepted dozens of deportees from third countries under an agreement signed with the U.S. in early 2025, the majority of whom were Guatemalan nationals.
Chile: In December, José Antonio Kast, a conservative and devout Catholic, won Chile’s presidential election with 58% of the vote, ousting a progressive government that had held power for the previous four years. Kast’s campaign focused heavily on rising crime and a promise to expel migrants from countries such as Venezuela and Haiti who were living in Chile without proper residency documentation. Shortly after taking office, his government extended a trench system along Chile’s borders with Peru and Bolivia, citing efforts to curb drug smuggling and unauthorized migration. His administration has more recently faced public protests over growing unemployment and spending cuts affecting government workers.
Costa Rica: Laura Fernández, who previously served as economy minister under conservative former President Rodrigo Chaves, won Costa Rica’s presidential election in February with 48% of the vote — enough to avoid a runoff by surpassing the required 40% threshold. She defeated her nearest opponent by 15 percentage points. Her campaign included tough crime-fighting proposals such as allowing police to make arrests without warrants and building a large prison modeled after El Salvador’s CECOT facility. Fernández’s government has also accepted multiple flights carrying migrants from third countries deported by the United States, fulfilling an agreement her predecessor signed. In June, one such flight included migrants from China, Vietnam, Colombia, and Azerbaijan.
Millions of honeybees flooded a rural neighborhood in Texas on Sunday after a semitrailer transporting approximately 400 hives overturned, according to emergency officials.
Authorities in Orange County, Texas — a county situated east of Houston along the Louisiana border — closed off roads near the crash site and urged residents to remain inside their homes while workers unloaded the truck and attempted to rescue as many hives as they could.
No bee stings or serious injuries were reported in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Officials have not yet identified who owns the hives.
Christie Ray, owner of the nearby Queen Bee Supply, said volunteers from three or four beekeeping operations in the surrounding area showed up at the crash scene to lend a hand.
“They just help each other, that’s what they do,” Ray said. “The beekeeping community is a great community.”
Chris Moore, who runs Moore Honey, arrived at the scene alongside his son and several of his workers to assist with the recovery effort. However, Moore estimated that only roughly one out of every four of the 408 hives will make it — an outcome that largely hinges on how many queen bees survived the crash.
Moore noted that the financial blow to a beekeeping business depends on its overall size, but the losses go beyond just the hives themselves — the owner is also losing the income those hives would have generated.
“It’s a big loss,” Moore said. “Any time you lose that many in one shot, it’s a big loss.”
Large-scale beekeeping operations routinely transport hives across the country, Moore explained, both to support commercial crop pollination in states like California and to follow blooming seasons through the South and Midwest for honey production.
The hives involved in Sunday’s crash had barely begun their journey — headed for North Dakota — when the truck driver made a wrong turn and ended up on narrow residential roads, Moore said. The trailer toppled over as the driver attempted to navigate a tight corner.
Other beekeepers in the area have set out catch boxes to gather stray bees, but Moore said it will likely be some time before the insects fully disperse from the neighborhood.
This is not the first such incident in recent months. Back in April, a truck loaded with bees was involved in a crash that backed up interstate traffic near Knoxville, Tennessee.
ATLANTA — A bill meant to preserve Georgia’s current ballot-counting system through the upcoming midterm elections is running into fierce opposition from state Democrats, following a weekend move by Republican state senators to add a hand recount requirement to the legislation.
Georgia’s governor, Republican Brian Kemp, called lawmakers into a special session partly to deal with a July 1 deadline that would have banned the QR codes currently used to tally official vote totals. Legislators had set that deadline two years ago but never settled on an alternative vote-counting method.
Some voting rights advocates had already raised concerns that making changes this close to the midterms could cause confusion at the polls. Georgia is considered a political battleground state, with major races for both U.S. Senate and governor on the November ballot.
Last week, state lawmakers appeared close to agreeing on a bill that would push the July 1 deadline back to 2028. However, over the weekend, Republican senators passed an amendment requiring a complete hand recount of the top two races on the ballot — which in November would be the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate contest.
The amended bill cleared the Senate along party lines, but the House did not move to schedule a vote on it Monday.
Georgia Democrats argue that conducting a hand recount in November would create widespread disorder and fuel doubts about the legitimacy of the results. Studies have found that hand-counting ballots is more likely to produce errors, costs more money, and tends to slow down the reporting of results. Despite this, hand counting has gained support among Republican lawmakers in several states, driven in part by President Donald Trump’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“What we are experiencing is a Republican Senate who’s acting extraordinarily irresponsibly with Georgia’s elections and people’s votes,” said state Rep. Saira Draper, a Democrat, on Monday.
Republican state Sen. Max Burns stood behind the Senate’s version of the bill, arguing that manual and machine counts are compatible. “This amendment to a good bill is to strengthen it so that the voters have confidence in election security,” he said, adding that hand counts and machine counts can “coexist and confirm each other’s ultimate results.”
Georgia’s existing election setup prints QR codes on ballots, which machines then scan to record votes. The system has been a target of criticism from Trump, who alleged without evidence that voting machines in Georgia manipulated or erased votes during the 2020 election — a race he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Georgia’s voting machines have also been at the center of various conspiracy theories, which manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems has contested in court. At the same time, some election integrity advocates have raised separate concerns, arguing that the machines could be vulnerable to hacking and that voters have no way to verify their choices since QR codes are not human-readable.
If passed, the Senate bill would extend the current deadline to January 1, 2028, and establish a committee tasked with recommending standards for a new voting system. That committee would have until January 31, 2027, to deliver its findings, with state lawmakers responsible for funding, purchasing, and putting the new system in place in time for the 2028 election cycle.
The special session had also been intended to redraw Georgia’s congressional and legislative district maps ahead of 2028, but those plans were set aside by state lawmakers.
Panama will head into Tuesday’s World Cup Group L showdown against Croatia short-handed, as coach Thomas Christiansen confirmed that midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla will not be available for the critical match.
The 27-year-old has been working his way back from a muscle injury and was limited to bench duty during Panama’s 1-0 defeat to Ghana last week. Although he had been making strides in his recovery, Christiansen said Carrasquilla felt ill during a training session ahead of the Croatia clash.
“It’s a pity not to have (Carrasquilla) with us for such an important match against Croatia,” Christiansen told reporters. “But we have shown that the group is ready to compete.”
Both Panama and Croatia enter Tuesday’s match looking to bounce back after suffering losses in their opening group stage games. For Panama, the stakes are especially high — if they fall to Croatia and England avoid defeat against Ghana, Panama’s tournament will be over.
“This is the most important one,” Christiansen said. “The group (squad) is very excited. They want to remove the thorn from Ghana, where we deserved a lot more.”
Panama’s loss to Ghana was particularly painful, as the African side didn’t break through until the 95th minute. Despite showing promise going forward, Panama left empty-handed and now must tighten up defensively against a seasoned Croatian squad.
Croatia presents a formidable challenge, boasting 40-year-old veteran midfielder Luka Modric alongside Manchester City pair Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol. The Balkan nation finished third at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and brings a wealth of international experience to the pitch.
“They have top qualities on the flanks, their physical condition is really good,” Christiansen acknowledged, noting that Croatia will be eager to prove their 4-2 loss to England was just a stumble.
Still, Panama’s coach hasn’t given up on the idea of pulling off an upset and claiming the country’s first-ever World Cup victory.
“I am ambitious, but I’m also realistic,” Christiansen said. “Because in this World Cup, we’ve seen interesting results where people did not expect these results. So why couldn’t we be one of those teams that surprises in a positive way?”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, known as NASS, has released its latest crop progress and condition estimates.
The report, published by NASS, offers a snapshot of how crops are faring across the nation. These weekly updates are a key resource for farmers, agricultural analysts, and others who follow the growing season closely.
Crop progress and condition reports are issued regularly throughout the growing season to help track developments in the field.
A Notre Dame football legacy is being carried forward by not one, but two sons of a former Fighting Irish star. Both Julius Jones Jr., a 4-star wide receiver, and his brother Andre, a 4-star safety, announced on Monday that they will play college football at Notre Dame.
The brothers made their announcements together during a live appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” creating a memorable moment for the Jones family.
Julius Jones Jr., who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 170 pounds, is ranked No. 75 overall and No. 12 among wide receivers in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2027. He picked Notre Dame after narrowing his choices to Miami and Oregon as finalists, ultimately selecting the Irish from a pool of roughly 44 reported scholarship offers.
His younger brother Andre, listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, plays cornerback and is ranked No. 315 overall and No. 29 among safeties in the 247Sports composite for the Class of 2028.
Both brothers currently play together at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Their father, Julius Jones Sr., was a standout running back who led Notre Dame in rushing three times between 1999 and 2003.
Julius Jr. explained what drew him to South Bend. “It’s just the mystique of Notre Dame — there’s only one in the world,” he said on the show. “When I was up there, I felt it, and it felt different from what they can do for me now to when I’m done with football.”
The younger Jones had a standout junior season in 2025, hauling in 58 catches for 876 yards and 14 touchdowns. He is also a three-time state champion at the high school level.
His father built an impressive resume at Notre Dame as well, totaling 3,018 rushing yards over four seasons in South Bend. His best campaign came in 2003, when he rushed for 1,268 yards, and he currently ranks sixth all-time in school history in rushing yards. The elder Jones went on to play seven seasons in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks, and New Orleans Saints.
Federal safety officials announced Monday they are launching a new special crash investigation into a deadly June 19 incident involving a Tesla Model 3 that drove into a residential home in Katy, Texas, killing a 76-year-old woman. Investigators believe the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system may have been engaged at the time of the crash.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been scrutinizing Tesla’s driver assistance technology for years. Since 2016, the agency has opened more than three dozen special crash investigations involving Tesla vehicles where systems like Autopilot were suspected of being in use. Across those cases, 20 deaths have been reported.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Lionel Messi is now the most prolific goal scorer in World Cup history, but when asked to reflect on the milestone after Monday night’s match, the 38-year-old kept it simple: “I’m very tired.”
Despite his exhaustion, Messi delivered a memorable performance, netting two goals in Argentina’s hard-fought 2-0 win over Austria — though he did miss a penalty kick in the first half. The victory secured Argentina’s place in the tournament’s knockout stage, giving the team six points through two Group J contests.
His first goal came off a low cross from Facundo Medina, which Messi finished cleanly on the first touch. That strike pulled him even with Brazilian legend Marta at 17 World Cup goals, a combined total spanning both the men’s and women’s competitions. A second goal deep in stoppage time pushed him past Marta and gave him sole possession of the all-time record.
“I’m very happy with the win,” Messi said after the match. “It was a hugely important victory, a tough one, and one we worked hard for. It gives us calm for what’s coming.”
Austria made things more difficult after halftime, and Messi acknowledged that his missed penalty could have made the game more manageable. Still, he expressed satisfaction with how the night unfolded.
“The truth is that the way it turned out today was spectacular,” he said. “I had the penalty that could have increased the lead, but I’m happy with the result and with the team’s work.”
Messi, who is set to turn 39 later this week, now has five goals at this World Cup. Argentina advances to the round of 32 with one group stage match still remaining.
A crash at the intersection of US-40 and Delaware Route 72 has forced the closure of eastbound lanes on US-40 and northbound lanes on DE-72, according to Delaware Department of Transportation officials.
Motorists traveling through the area should anticipate significant delays and are encouraged to find alternate routes until the roadway is cleared and lanes are reopened.
No additional details regarding the cause of the crash or any injuries have been released at this time. TV Delmarva will provide updates as more information becomes available.
The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has issued a Flood Watch for the region, effective from the afternoon of June 22 through 6:00 AM EDT on June 23.
The watch means that conditions are favorable for flooding to develop in the affected area. Residents should remain alert and take precautions, as flooding can occur quickly and pose serious risks to life and property.
A Flood Watch differs from a Flood Warning — a watch means flooding is possible, while a warning means flooding is already occurring or is imminent. People in low-lying areas or near bodies of water should be especially cautious.
Authorities recommend that residents avoid driving through flooded roadways, as even shallow water can be dangerous for vehicles. The phrase “turn around, don’t drown” is a key reminder during any flood event.
TV Delmarva will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as conditions develop. Residents are encouraged to check the National Weather Service for the latest information.
The most recent government report on the nation’s poultry industry shows egg production rose 5 percent in May compared to the same period last year.
At the same time, hatchery figures showed a split trend. The number of egg-type chicks hatched fell by 1 percent, while broiler-type chicks — the kind raised for meat — were up 3 percent during the same reporting period.
The data was released by federal agriculture officials as part of their ongoing tracking of the U.S. poultry and egg sector.
A construction project is causing an intermittent lane closure on Frederica Street between Market Street and East David Street.
The lane restriction is expected to remain in place until 4 PM. Drivers in the area should anticipate possible delays and consider using alternate routes to avoid the construction zone.
No additional details about the nature of the construction work were provided. Motorists are encouraged to use caution when traveling through the affected stretch of roadway.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declared his intention to step down as the head of the governing Labour Party, citing mounting internal pressure and eroding political support. He made clear he will continue serving as prime minister until a new leader is selected.
Starmer pledged to manage a smooth handover of power after acknowledging that members of his own parliamentary party had raised serious doubts about his ability to carry Labour into the next general election.
Speaking about his decision, Starmer said: “I have heard the answer from my parliamentary party. I accept that answer with good grace. I will resign as leader of the Labour Party.”
The departure caps a difficult stretch for Starmer and Labour, marked by falling poll numbers, policy reversals, and underwhelming electoral results. Members of his own parliamentary caucus had become increasingly vocal in their criticism of both his leadership style and his policy direction.
The race to replace him is set to formally kick off next month. Candidate nominations are scheduled to open on July 9, 2026, and close on July 16, 2026, ahead of Parliament’s summer recess. Labour is aiming to have a new leader in place by September 2026, before lawmakers return to Parliament.
The announcement is a striking turn of events, coming just two years after Starmer guided Labour to a sweeping election victory in July 2024 that returned the party to power.
In an emotional address, Starmer looked back on his time in office and called becoming prime minister the “proudest moment of my life.”
He also stood by his record, arguing that Britain’s standing on the world stage had improved under his watch, that new investment had been brought in, and that the rights of workers had been expanded.
At the same time, Starmer conceded that doubts had grown within Labour over whether he was the right person to lead the party into the next national vote.
The leadership contest takes shape in the wake of a special election held on June 18, in which Labour’s former Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, claimed a commanding win. That result has elevated Burnham as a leading candidate for the party leadership and, potentially, the role of prime minister.
Labour officials are expected to launch the formal succession process when nominations open on July 9, with the party anticipating a new leader will be in place by September.
Delaware State Police have released the names of two teenagers killed in a deadly hit-and-run crash in Townsend early Saturday morning. The victims have been identified as 17-year-olds Nathan Sinex and Cara Feeley, both residents of Townsend, Delaware.
A man from New Jersey has been arrested in connection with the fatal collision, according to state police. The Delaware State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit is continuing its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash or who has video footage of the incident to reach out to Corporal K. Oakes at (302) 365-8483. Tips can also be submitted by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police or by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
Anyone affected by this tragedy who needs support can contact the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit and Delaware Victim Center, which operates around the clock via a toll-free hotline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461). The unit can also be reached by email at [email protected].
Lionel Messi cemented his legendary status Monday night, breaking the all-time World Cup scoring record during Argentina’s group stage showdown with Austria in Arlington, Texas.
The Argentine superstar found the back of the net for the 17th time in World Cup competition, surpassing the previous record for goals scored by a man in the tournament’s history. The milestone goal sent the crowd into a frenzy — but Messi wasn’t finished.
He went on to score a second goal in the same match, pushing his World Cup total to 18 and making him the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, a distinction that now spans both the men’s and women’s game.
The record-breaking performance came during the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage, with Argentina facing Austria on Monday.
Governor Matt Meyer has officially declared June 22 through June 28 as Delaware Pollinator Week, shining a spotlight on the critical role that pollinators play in both farming and the natural environment.
In the official proclamation, Gov. Meyer emphasized just how important these species are to everyday life. “Pollinator species such as birds and insects are essential partners of farmers and ranchers in producing much of our food supply. … Pollinator species provide significant environmental benefits that are necessary for maintaining healthy, biodiverse ecosystems,” he stated.
The designation draws attention to the connection between pollinated crops and the broader food supply, underscoring why protecting pollinators matters for Delaware’s agricultural community and the environment alike.
A new nationwide poll reveals that most Israelis want to hold onto military buffer zones in key border regions and are firmly against giving up territory unless Israel retains control over its own security arrangements.
The survey was conducted by Lazar Research under Dr. Menachem Lazar on behalf of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA). It included a representative sample of 503 Jewish and Arab Israeli adults and reflects broad concern about the country’s security following the October 7 attack.
When it comes to border safety, 54% of those polled said they believe Israel’s borders are still not secure, while 42% felt current protections are sufficient. A majority — 56% — said the security breakdown on October 7 resulted from a combination of factors rather than any single cause.
Support for maintaining defensive zones was especially strong along the Gaza and Lebanon borders. Sixty-four percent of respondents favored a permanent military buffer zone in Gaza, with another 11% backing a temporary one. On the northern border, 73% supported an Israeli military presence and security zone in southern Lebanon stretching to the Litani River, compared to just 14% who were opposed.
Regarding Syria, 60% of respondents said Israel should either hold onto positions secured after the fall of the Assad regime or expand the existing buffer zone to guard against future threats.
In the West Bank, 57% said Israel’s military should maintain a permanent presence in the Jordan Valley no matter what any future political deal might look like. Only 11% said that presence could be given up.
The poll also revealed low confidence in the ability of international forces to take over border security responsibilities. Sixty-five percent said they do not trust international troops to replace Israeli forces along the country’s borders. Among those skeptics, 40% said only Israel itself can provide adequate defense, while 25% pointed to past failures by international forces as their reason for doubt.
On the question of a West Bank peace deal, 61% said they would oppose any agreement requiring a full Israeli withdrawal if it did not include Israeli-controlled buffer zones or security measures. Just 27% expressed support for such an arrangement.
Dr. Dan Diker, president of JCFA, offered this assessment of what the results reveal: “The Israeli public has drawn a clear lesson from October 7 and the security developments of recent years: national security cannot be based on hopes, international guarantees, or assumptions that have proven inadequate.”
Since October 7, 2023, people in Israel have experienced a significant increase in mental health struggles — and alongside that, a rise in addiction, according to several studies published in recent months.
Now, a research team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health says the issue extends well beyond Israel’s borders. Their latest study examines how news media reminders of collective traumatic events can influence addictive behavior — even long after the event itself has passed.
The researchers point out that people around the world are grappling with ongoing stressors including war, political polarization, terrorism, displacement, and widespread uncertainty. These conditions, they argue, can heighten existential fears that in turn shape patterns of substance use.
According to the study, exposure to collective trauma through news coverage can produce an immediate spike in cravings among people who regularly use cannabis or tobacco. The findings suggest that simply encountering reminders of a traumatic event in the media may be enough to trigger those urges.
Abelardo de la Espriella has claimed victory in Colombia’s presidential runoff election, edging out left-wing rival Iván Cepeda in a close contest. The 47-year-old defense attorney ran on a platform centered on fighting crime, cutting bureaucracy, and strengthening Colombia’s economy.
According to figures released by Colombia’s National Registry, with 99.99% of polling stations reporting, De la Espriella captured 49.66% of the vote, while Cepeda, 63, received 48.7%. Out of more than 41 million eligible voters, roughly 26.3 million ballots were cast in the runoff, with De la Espriella pulling in approximately 12.9 million of those votes.
President Donald Trump had thrown his support behind De la Espriella during the campaign. After the results came in, Trump took to Truth Social to comment on the outcome, writing: “He Won, BIG.”
Celebrations broke out among De la Espriella’s supporters, with some wearing hats styled after those popular at Trump rallies, emblazoned with the phrase “Make Colombia Great Again!”
De la Espriella, who branded himself as the law-and-order candidate and goes by the nickname “El Tigre” — meaning “The Tiger” — marked his victory in Barranquilla alongside vice president-elect José Manuel Restrepo, a former finance minister.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters, De la Espriella declared, “Tonight marks the beginning of a new story for the nation, tonight a new era begins, a change of order.”
He also made a point of pledging unity, saying, “I’m going to govern for all Colombians. For those who voted for me, and for those who chose the other candidate.”
In a written statement, De la Espriella added that “today begins a new stage for our country, a stage built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who chose to believe in a great, safe, prosperous Colombia full of opportunities.”
Cepeda, a close ally of current President Gustavo Petro, had not formally conceded as of Sunday night. While acknowledging the preliminary vote count, he indicated his team was waiting for the process to be completed, stating: “Once the official canvass takes place and its final result is produced, and the corresponding verifications have been carried out, we will recognize the official result that emerges from that structure.”
The official certification of the results was still pending following the release of the preliminary figures.
OMAHA, Nebraska — The final group of eight American passengers held in a specialized quarantine unit in Nebraska has been released, bringing an end to a 42-day isolation period following a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Monday that the quarantine had officially concluded.
“Through close collaboration among federal, state, and local partners, HHS helped protect the American people, contain potential risks, and bring this response effort to a successful conclusion,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard stated in an email.
More than 120 people were evacuated from the MV Hondius in Spain’s Canary Islands early last month, including 18 Americans who were brought to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha. The majority of those evacuated were from other countries.
Beyond those removed by health workers in full protective gear, at least 30 additional passengers had already departed the ship before the outbreak was officially documented — among them seven Americans who were permitted to monitor themselves for symptoms at home. When the vessel eventually arrived in the Netherlands, 25 crew members and two medical staff members on board were also required to quarantine.
The World Health Organization did not immediately respond Monday to inquiries about the status of other individuals quarantined around the world. In total, 13 cases of the virus were identified among people who had been on the ship, including the three who died.
One of the American passengers, Angela Perryman, had been held against her wishes and contrary to the recommendation of a government medical expert. Speaking from her Florida home Monday, she said passengers were informed that the quarantine monitoring period ended Sunday at 2 p.m., and she caught a flight out that same evening.
“We were locked in our rooms until 1:55. And at 2 o’clock, ‘OK, well, everybody walk out and go home,’” Perryman said.
Some passengers stayed the night in Omaha before departing Monday, but Perryman pushed to leave Sunday evening. She noted the government covered the cost of flights home.
Seven of the final eight passengers remained at the facility voluntarily, but Perryman was compelled to stay due to a controversial quarantine order that even some health officials considered unnecessary.
Perryman and seven others spent six weeks at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The 42-day monitoring window was established because hantavirus symptoms have taken up to that long to appear in previous outbreaks. None of the passengers were reported to have developed the illness.
Ten other passengers who had been at the facility were permitted to leave earlier under an agreement requiring close monitoring in their home states.
The MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship, was traveling through the South Atlantic when the hantavirus outbreak occurred. Three people died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first to contract the virus after visiting South America.
Hantaviruses typically spread when people breathe in contaminated particles from rodent droppings. However, the specific strain involved in this outbreak — known as the Andes virus — may in rare instances spread from person to person, according to health officials.
About 25 Americans were aboard the ship. Roughly seven disembarked in April, while 18 remained on board. Sixteen were transported to the Nebraska quarantine unit on May 11, with two more Americans arriving a few days later.
During their stay, Omaha restaurants and food trucks delivered special meals to the passengers nearly every day. Nurses also made Starbucks runs to bring passengers their favorite drinks.
The quarantine rooms were described as resembling hotel accommodations, complete with desks, televisions, internet access, and exercise equipment to help pass the time.
Passenger Jake Rosmarin, a travel blogger, posted a video Monday morning showing him leaving his room, hauling two suitcases and a backpack, and switching off the lights on his way out. Later that day, he shared footage of the Omaha skyline from his plane window as he headed home to his fiancée in Boston.
On Sunday, Rosmarin posted an emotional video thanking the quarantine unit staff and the broader Omaha community while wearing a Nebraska Huskers sweatshirt someone had sent him.
“I want to thank the Omaha, Nebraska, community for welcoming us with open arms and showing us complete kindness and generosity. And a big thanks to all of you who have helped me get through this because I really don’t know if it would have been as easy without the support from strangers,” he said.
Perryman’s perspective was far less positive. She was forced to remain after Florida officials declined a federal request to provide around-the-clock monitoring of her if she returned home — even as travel arrangements for the passengers had reportedly been in the works for weeks.
“Nobody actually expected anybody to get sick at that point,” she said. “Everybody was well aware that we were all going home on commercial flights.”
She described the six-week quarantine as “a political stunt.”
WASHINGTON — Armed with a self-imposed deadline and a troubled renovation project, the Trump administration deployed National Guard service members and U.S. Park Police to patrol the deck surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday. The move comes as officials work to address the fallout from a botched cleaning and renovation effort ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration.
The increased security presence followed the president’s claim, made two days earlier, that authorities had made “multiple arrests” of individuals he blamed for damage to the pool’s peeling coating. The coating was installed as part of a $14 million-plus renovation project. An algae bloom has since overtaken the water, clouding the newly applied liner.
Trump has acknowledged that the pool will likely need to be drained again for liner repairs and promised the situation would be resolved quickly. However, no clear timeline was available Monday, and the administration did not answer questions about plans for a new round of repair work. In recent days, contractors and federal workers have been deploying chemicals and ozone nanobubbles in an effort to beat back the algae.
The president originally promoted the renovation project as a way to clean up and restore a landmark he claimed had been neglected and left in poor condition by previous administrations. He personally selected the “American flag blue” color for the new pool coating, envisioning a gleaming centerpiece along the National Mall. Algae has been a persistent problem at the pool for roughly a century.
Within weeks of Trump declaring the project complete in time for Independence Day, a vivid green algae bloom clouded the water. Last Friday, an approximately four-foot-square section of the liner was observed partially floating in the pool. The Associated Press reported seeing additional loose pieces in the water on Monday.
On social media, the president has pointed the finger at what he called “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!” In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump claimed the damage includes a “300 foot long gash” and alleged that “chemicals have been illegally placed in the water.” The day before, he posted that work to fix the “seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool” would begin right away.
Trump has not provided evidence to back up those claims. Experts note that even if someone deliberately peeled portions of the liner, that would not account for the algae bloom, which appeared more severe than what the pool experienced before the renovation took place.
Images of the struggling project spread rapidly across social media last week, drawing curious crowds to the site. An unknown number of visitors were detained by federal authorities. Among those arrested was David Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland — a former Olympic canoe racer.
Hearn told the Associated Press that he reached into the pool to get a closer look at the peeling coating. He said he briefly touched a piece that was still connected to the pool’s side, then pulled back shortly after a park worker told him to stop. Despite that, he said he was held by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released Friday night.
“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a phone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
The Park Police did not respond Monday to questions from the AP about the total number of arrests or whether any formal charges had been filed. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Monday that it has no involvement in the matter.
It remains unclear what specific criminal or civil law someone would be breaking by reaching into the pool. In one of his Truth Social posts, Trump threatened prison time for those he blamed, citing laws that prohibit defacing federal monuments.
Scientists examining the interstellar comet known as 3I/ATLAS say this cosmic traveler is extraordinarily old — likely formed somewhere between 10 and 12 billion years ago in an ancient planetary system far from our own.
The comet, which measures roughly 1.6 miles (2.6 km) across, is believed to be the oldest known object ever to pass through our solar system. That conclusion comes from Martin Cordiner, a planetary scientist and astrochemist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the research. The study was published Monday in the journal Nature.
3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever observed traveling through our solar system. By studying its chemical composition, researchers were able to piece together clues about the physical and chemical environment where it originally formed.
According to the research team, the comet appears to have originated in a far colder environment — approximately minus-405 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-243 degrees Celsius) — compared to the conditions that gave rise to Earth and other bodies in our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. The comet has since traveled an enormous distance after being somehow ejected from its original planetary system.
“We have never before seen an object like 3I/ATLAS,” Cordiner said.
Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to measure isotope ratios — essentially different versions of chemical elements like hydrogen and carbon — present on the comet. The hydrogen isotopes shed light on the temperature and radiation levels where 3I/ATLAS formed, while the carbon isotopes offered insight into the interstellar gas cloud that gave birth to it and its home planetary system.
One striking finding: the comet’s water contained roughly 30 times more deuterium — a type of hydrogen isotope — than comets found within our own solar system. Its carbon isotope ratios also differed significantly from anything observed in solar system objects or in nearby interstellar clouds and planet-forming disks around young stars.
Cordiner described 3I/ATLAS as most likely a leftover fragment from the process of planet formation around a distant star.
“Our James Webb Space Telescope observations tell us that the planet-forming environment of 3I/ATLAS’s host system was distinct from our own solar system. It was likely colder, and less metal rich, while being more heavily irradiated by UV and cosmic rays,” Cordiner said.
Despite its cold and distant origins, the comet is loaded with organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Cordiner said this “shows that despite a cold and distant origin, the volatile elements for life as we know it were abundant in this distant planet-forming disk.”
The carbon composition suggests 3I/ATLAS may have formed as far back as 12 billion years ago, during a period of intense star formation in its region of space. Given that the universe is estimated to have begun with the Big Bang roughly 13.8 billion years ago, 3I/ATLAS would have formed when the cosmos was only about 13% of its current age.
While researchers believe the comet originated within the Milky Way, its age means they cannot entirely rule out that it came from another galaxy. Cordiner noted that “it could take as little as a billion years for a fast interstellar object to get here from our nearest galactic neighbors, the Magellanic Clouds.”
The comet was likely flung out of its home system through gravitational interactions with planets, though some kind of collision has not been ruled out either.
The two previously observed interstellar objects were comets 1I/’Oumuamua, detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019. 3I/ATLAS is now approaching Saturn’s orbit, with scientists expecting it to pass beyond Pluto’s orbit in 2029 and exit the outer boundary of our solar system around 2035.
Despite some earlier speculation that the object could be an alien spacecraft, researchers are confident it is a naturally occurring comet. “While good scientists always remain open to updating their understanding, we take great care to weigh the evidence for each hypothesis,” Cordiner said. “In this case, the evidence was clear from a very early stage that we were looking at a comet-like object, and over time that interpretation has been confirmed by subsequent observations.”
AI startup Reflection AI announced Monday it has reached an agreement with SpaceX for access to expanded computing resources at the Elon Musk-led company’s Colossus 2 data center.
According to a CNBC report citing materials it reviewed, the open-source AI startup will receive immediate access to Nvidia GB300 chips — advanced processors used to develop and operate AI models. Under the terms of the deal, Reflection has agreed to pay SpaceX $150 million each month starting July 1, 2026, with payments continuing through 2029.
CNBC reported the total payments could reach approximately $6.3 billion if the contract runs its full course. Either party has the option to exit the agreement with 90 days’ notice, but only after the first three months of the deal.
Neither SpaceX nor Reflection responded to requests for comment from Reuters regarding the agreement. However, the Nvidia-backed startup posted a brief statement on LinkedIn, saying: “More compute gives us more room to push the frontier on open models,” without elaborating further.
The Reflection agreement is one of several recent commercial deals for SpaceX. The company has also secured contracts with technology giant Google and AI startup Anthropic. Earlier this month, SpaceX announced that Google would pay the company $920 million per month from October of this year through June 2029, with a reduced fee during a ramp-up period running through September.
SpaceX shares fell roughly 10.6% in afternoon trading on Monday.
Clive Davis, a former corporate attorney who transformed himself into one of the most powerful forces in American music — helping launch and shape the careers of Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, and dozens of other iconic artists — has passed away at 94, according to a statement from his family released Monday.
Davis, widely known throughout the industry as “the man with the golden ear” for his remarkable ability to spot a hit song, died at his home in Manhattan. The New York Times reported he had recently been hospitalized due to respiratory problems.
His family shared a heartfelt tribute on Facebook. “To the world, our father was the iconic music legend whose vision, instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of countless lives,” the statement read. “To his family, Clive was Dad and Granddaddy, the steady presence at the center of our lives, the source of wisdom, strength, encouragement, and unconditional love.”
Throughout his career, Davis proved himself uniquely capable of crossing musical genres and generational boundaries well into his 80s. He discovered Janis Joplin during the 1960s rock era, mentored Sean “P. Diddy” Combs in the hip-hop world of the 1990s, and guided Kelly Clarkson through the pop landscape of the 2000s.
Davis earned four Grammy Awards for producing recordings by Clarkson, Carlos Santana, and Jennifer Hudson, along with a fifth Grammy recognizing his overall contributions to music. His work with Santana produced an album that swept the 2000 Grammy Awards with nine wins. He also helped revive the careers of Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, and Dionne Warwick.
Davis was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on April 4, 1932. As a child, he listened to the radio but felt no particular passion for music and didn’t even collect records the way his friends did.
After earning degrees from New York University and Harvard Law School, Davis worked at private law practices before joining the legal department at Columbia Records — a division of CBS — in the early 1960s. He made an immediate impact by successfully arguing to keep Dylan under contract when the singer’s management attempted to void the deal.
In 1966, Davis was elevated to head of the record label, which had largely been overlooking the growing rock music market, with only a handful of acts like Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Byrds catering to younger audiences.
His career took a decisive turn when record producer Lou Adler brought him to the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967. Davis later described the experience as “the creative turning point in my life.” Captivated by Janis Joplin’s performance, he immediately signed her and her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company.
In the years that followed, Davis built Columbia’s roster into a powerhouse by signing Chicago, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Blood Sweat and Tears, Springsteen, Santana, Billy Joel, Sly and the Family Stone, and Boz Scaggs — all of whom went on to become major stars.
Davis was deeply involved in every aspect of his artists’ work, from studio production to marketing strategy and song selection. When he suggested that Springsteen’s debut album “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” needed a radio-friendly track, Springsteen responded by writing “Spirit in the Night” and “Blinded by the Light,” both of which became signatures of his live performances.
“Talent comes to me because they believe I’ve established a creative haven in which they can flourish,” Davis told Newsweek in an interview. “And talent attracts talent.”
Davis embraced the spotlight that came with his success, and even acknowledged it fed his ego. A well-known joke in music circles held that Davis believed the “CD” format was named after his own initials.
By 1973, however, trouble was brewing at CBS’s record division. According to the book “Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business,” reports surfaced of inappropriate conduct at company gatherings, payments to secure radio airplay, and a Davis subordinate linked to fraud involving a heroin trafficker. Davis himself faced scrutiny over the use of company funds to pay for his son’s bar mitzvah. CBS fired him that year and pursued a $94,000 expense-account lawsuit, which was eventually settled out of court. Davis later pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes on work-related expenses and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
The setback did little to slow him down. By 1974, he had secured funding to launch his own label, which he called Arista. Barry Manilow was among the first artists signed, delivering a run of hit records for the new venture.
At Arista, Davis built a specialty in reviving the careers of artists like Franklin, Warwick, Lou Reed, and the Kinks, who had seen their commercial momentum stall. New talent and comeback acts alike generated strong revenues, Grammy Awards, and gold records for the label.
Not every decision was driven by commercial potential. He signed Patti Smith — widely regarded as the godmother of punk rock — despite her limited mainstream appeal. Smith, who inducted Davis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, later told the Associated Press: “I really felt Clive, whatever his mainstream reputation … does love artists.”
Perhaps his most celebrated move at Arista came in 1983, when he discovered a teenage Whitney Houston and guided her to record-shattering success with a series of No. 1 hits. Davis played a hands-on producer role in Houston’s recording of “I Will Always Love You” — featured in her film “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner — which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 and became one of the best-selling singles in history.
Davis and Houston developed a deep personal bond, and she considered him family. Her descent into drug addiction and her fatal overdose in 2012 left him devastated.
“It rips your heart out, is what it does,” Davis said in a 2013 interview with CNN. “We knew there was no one like her and it is very, very painful that this tragic, tragic talent so prematurely came to an early demise, really.”
Davis also signed saxophonist Kenny G at Arista, helping him become one of the top-selling instrumental artists in music history. He expanded the label’s reach by launching a Nashville division that became home to country music stars Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, and Brad Paisley.
Additionally, Davis helped proteges L.A. Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds establish a label that produced R&B stars including Usher, TLC, and Outkast, and he brought future music mogul Combs in as a partner on a rap label.
Despite all of that success, Arista’s parent company, BMG Entertainment, pushed Davis out in 2000. Undaunted, he founded J Records, where he achieved major success with Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross, and an “American Songbook” series of classic 1930s and 1940s pop standards that helped reignite Rod Stewart’s career.
J Records was eventually absorbed through a series of corporate mergers, and in 2008 Davis was appointed chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment.
In his 2013 memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life,” Davis — who had been married and divorced twice and had four children — publicly revealed that he was bisexual. He disclosed that he had maintained a 13-year relationship with a male doctor and was, at the time of writing, in another long-term relationship with a man.
The Trump administration rolled out a set of proposed rule changes on Monday that would significantly loosen requirements for oil and gas companies operating on federal lands, including a sharp reduction in the financial guarantees drillers must set aside for abandoned wells.
The proposals align with President Donald Trump’s broader push to scale back business regulations and boost domestic fossil fuel production.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the changes in an official statement, saying, “These targeted updates cut through the red tape that has historically deterred investment, ensuring our public lands remain a reliable engine for economic growth and innovation.”
One of the most significant changes involves statewide bonding requirements — financial guarantees used to cover the cost of sealing off abandoned oil and gas wells if a company goes under. The Department of the Interior is proposing to drop that bond amount from $500,000, a figure set during the Biden administration, down to just $25,000 per state.
To put that in perspective, a 2021 analysis by the non-profit organization Resources for the Future estimated that plugging a single abandoned well costs roughly $20,000.
The agency is also proposing to dramatically shorten the public comment period for oil and gas drilling permits — cutting it from 90 days down to just 10 days.
Additionally, the Interior Department wants to walk back certain regulations designed to limit methane leaks from drilling sites and pipelines. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that commonly escapes from those locations. The agency says rolling back those rules would reduce compliance costs for the industry by nearly $17 million annually.
GAZA CITY — As temperatures climb across the Gaza Strip, displaced Palestinians are abandoning their stifling tents and heading to the Mediterranean shoreline to bathe and wash their clothing — even though the water is thick with sewage and waste.
Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been uprooted over two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Most people are now packed into a narrow coastal corridor, living in makeshift tents or damaged buildings with little access to basic necessities.
“The only outlet in the Gaza Strip, from north to south, is the sea,” said Wadie al-Ras, a 36-year-old displaced Palestinian standing along the Gaza City shoreline. “The tents we have been staying in since the war are a torment.”
Before the war erupted in October 2023, Gaza City’s sandy beach was a popular gathering place for residents. Today, it serves as the only escape from cramped, bug-infested shelters where disease runs rampant.
Morning temperatures in Gaza hover between 28 and 31 degrees Celsius, and inside the tents, conditions feel far more extreme.
But the sea provides little real relief. The water is heavily contaminated with sewage and garbage, a direct consequence of the collapse of the infrastructure that once supported a population of more than two million people.
“The seawater is not clean. There’s sewage in it, filled with dirt,” said Shehab al-Suwaireki, a 36-year-old displaced father of six.
With no reliable access to fresh water, however, families feel they have no real alternative.
“We go in and wash (clothes) and bathe then we get out,” Suwaireki added. “In any case, germs are getting to our bodies.”
Husni Muhanna, a spokesperson for the Gaza municipality, explained that Israeli bombardment has knocked out many water pumps, while sewage stations, pumping facilities, and water treatment plants have all sustained severe damage.
“Residents resort to the beach despite all the dangers,” Muhanna said.
The conflict began when Hamas-led militants launched an attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel responded with a sweeping military offensive that has killed at least 73,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-governed territory.
Despite a truce reached in October 2025, Israel has continued conducting deadly strikes in Gaza, saying the operations are aimed at preventing imminent attacks by Hamas and other armed groups. Hamas has so far rejected demands to disarm in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal.
Aid and basic supplies remain critically scarce throughout the territory.
Nahed Hamouda, a 56-year-old father of four who was displaced from Jabalia, north of Gaza City, described the tents as feeling “like an oven.”
“There’s no electricity, no fan, no water, even the food is inedible,” he said, fanning himself with a piece of cardboard as he spoke.
Drivers traveling along Cherry Road between Ivy Lane and Airport Road should be aware of intermittent lane closures currently in effect.
According to traffic officials, the lane restrictions are expected to remain in place until 5:30 PM. The cause of the closures was not specified in the notice.
Motorists in the area are encouraged to allow extra travel time or consider using alternate routes until the closures are lifted.
The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch that went into effect at 2:09 PM EDT on June 22 and is set to expire at 9:00 PM EDT the same evening.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means that conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms to develop in and around the watch area. Residents should remain alert and be ready to take shelter quickly if a Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for their location.
Meteorologists urge people to stay tuned to local weather updates throughout the afternoon and evening hours as the situation continues to develop. Have a safety plan ready and avoid unnecessary outdoor activities until the watch has expired or been cancelled.
Micron Technology announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with Anthropic covering the supply of memory and storage products, along with a strategic investment in the AI company’s most recent funding round.
AI developers are in a race to lock down essential hardware components as the cost of building out data centers continues to climb. Meanwhile, memory manufacturers are eager to capitalize on surging demand for high-bandwidth memory and storage products used in developing and operating advanced AI systems.
Tom Brown, Anthropic’s co-founder and chief compute officer, explained the importance of the partnership: “Our compute strategy depends on getting every layer of the stack right, and memory and storage are central to how efficiently we can train and serve Claude.”
Anthropic has been busy over recent months securing computing capacity through a series of major partnerships, including agreements with CoreWeave, Broadcom, and SpaceX.
As part of the new deal, Micron said it will collaborate with Anthropic to evaluate how memory and storage systems perform across various AI workloads and how they interact with the broader technology infrastructure.
Micron noted that it has already put Anthropic’s Claude models to work internally, using them for coding and automated task applications across engineering, manufacturing, and enterprise operations, with plans to broaden those deployments going forward.
The financial details of both the supply agreement and Micron’s Series H investment in Anthropic were not made public.
Anthropic, the company behind the widely used coding assistant Claude Code, announced on June 1 that it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering. That filing came after the company raised $65 billion in its Series H funding round, which placed its valuation at $965 billion.
A 32-year-old Wilmington man is now in custody after Smyrna police wrapped up an armed robbery investigation tied to a local smoke shop.
The Smyrna Police Department arrested Isaiah Council, of Wilmington, Delaware, in connection with a robbery that took place on Friday, May 22, 2026, at around 3:05 in the afternoon.
Officers were called to Smokiez Smoke Shop, located at 239 N. Dupont Highway, after receiving a report that an armed robbery had just occurred at the business.
According to investigators, Council entered the store wearing a disguise and walked up to an employee to request cigars. The investigation continued from that point, ultimately leading authorities to identify and arrest Council as the suspect responsible for the incident.
Milford police are investigating a fatal single-vehicle crash that took place in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 20, 2026.
According to authorities, at approximately 2:14 a.m., a 2010 Toyota Tacoma was traveling eastbound on Shawn when the crash occurred. The incident proved fatal, and investigators are working to determine the full circumstances of what happened.
The Milford Police Department has not released additional details at this time. The investigation remains ongoing.
It weighs more than 50 tons and is recognized by the Library of Congress as the single largest communal art project ever created — and it was sewn together from grief, love, and the urgent need to be seen.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt grew out of one of the darkest chapters in modern American history. As an epidemic spread and claimed lives, fear and misunderstanding gripped both the public and the government. The communities hit hardest in those early years — men who had sex with men, Haitians, and people living with hemophilia, a rare blood disorder — faced deep stigma and were largely ignored.
The virus did not stay contained. It reached wives and children, crossing every boundary that people imagined might protect them.
As advocates demanded action and patients deteriorated in hospital rooms from infections their weakened immune systems could not fight off, a new kind of memorial took shape. Panel by panel, stitched by hand in the hundreds and eventually the thousands, the quilt began to record the names and lives of those who had been lost.
Activist Cleve Jones came up with the idea, though not everyone was supportive at first. As he once told the BBC, “Everybody told me it was the stupidest thing they’d ever heard of, but I ignored them and kept going and found people who shared the vision.” Jones drew on the tradition of quilts as objects made from scraps and leftovers, transformed into something warm and meaningful. He saw an AIDS quilt as a form of healing.
The dimensions of each panel were deliberate. At three feet by six feet, Jones noted, each one is “the approximate size of a grave.”
The panels are deeply personal. They carry portraits, nicknames, military titles, scraps of clothing, and handwritten words of love and loss: “Friends for life.” “I miss you constantly.” “Brothers. Beloved sons.” Many are decorated with hearts, rainbows, and flowers.
The quilt first appeared publicly on the National Mall in Washington in 1987, six years after AIDS was formally identified. At that point it included nearly 2,000 panels and stretched beyond the length of a football field. People walked through it quietly, many rendered speechless by what they saw.
The mid-1980s were a time of large-scale collective action — “We Are the World,” Hands Across America, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, Farm Aid, and a wave of benefit concerts. The quilt offered a quieter but equally powerful statement.
Its last full display on the National Mall came in 1996. According to the Smithsonian, the quilt stretched an entire mile — from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument — across a lawn that has witnessed generations of American activism. At that time, the quilt held 40,000 panels. Today, that number has grown to nearly 50,000.
The National AIDS Memorial continues to encourage people to create new panels. The effort is also a reminder of an unfinished fight: there is still no cure for AIDS, and recent reductions in U.S. foreign aid have raised new fears about the return of AIDS wards in vulnerable regions such as southern Africa.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Monday that her country intends to resume oil shipments to Cuba in the near future, a development that could offer significant relief to the island nation as its ongoing crises worsen due to a severe shortage of petroleum.
Sheinbaum said her administration plans to route the oil through commercial and privately owned companies, departing from the previous approach of using state-owned enterprises to handle such shipments.
Mexico had stepped up as a critical fuel supplier to Cuba after the United States took action against Venezuela in early January, cutting off vital oil shipments to the island. Those shipments had already been scaled back before being halted entirely after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs against any nation that supplies or sells oil to Cuba.
In the wake of the disruption involving Venezuela, only a single oil delivery has made it to Cuba — a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil, a supply that lasted just one month.
The fuel shortage has intensified an already serious energy crisis on the island. Cuba produces only 40% of the petroleum it requires, and the shortfall has triggered widespread power outages, shortened work schedules, water supply problems, canceled surgeries, and food spoilage.
Sheinbaum said she hopes to take advantage of a set of free-market reforms recently approved by the Cuban government, working through Mexican business owners who are already operating on the island.
“The mechanism would be through private companies that have permits to transport fuel to Cuba,” she said, though she offered no additional specifics. “We hope that commercial transport can resume soon,” she added, without giving a timeline for when that might occur.
The Mexican president also confirmed that her country would continue providing humanitarian assistance to Cuba alongside any resumed fuel deliveries.
The family of a 1-year-old boy who was killed when police opened fire on a moving vehicle in a Mississippi Walmart parking lot is calling on authorities to make all video footage of the incident public. They want the recordings to show whether officers were actually at risk of being struck before one of them pulled the trigger.
Kohen Wiley was in the car with his mother and another woman on June 14 when Senatobia police arrived to respond to a shoplifting call. The family contends they were simply driving away from the scene, while officers claim the vehicle was moving directly toward them.
“I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said at a news conference Monday.
The shooting has ignited anger throughout the small city of Senatobia, where residents say it reflects a troubling pattern of encounters between police and Black community members. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has taken over the inquiry into the child’s death.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump appeared alongside Kohen’s parents and grandparents at a local church Monday, telling reporters that releasing body camera footage, dash camera recordings, and Walmart security video is the only way to establish the truth about whether officers faced any real danger.
“If that is the truth, then show us that,” Crump said. “The longer you delay releasing the video, the more distrustful we become.”
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation declined to say what video evidence investigators have obtained or whether any of it would be made public. Agency spokesperson Bailey Martin said Monday in an emailed statement: “This case has been made a top priority, and we currently have multiple agents working tirelessly to ensure every aspect of the investigation is thoroughly examined.”
Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford did not respond to a phone message left seeking comment Monday.
State investigators released an initial account of the shooting last week, saying officers arrived at the Walmart to find two women and a child getting into a car and leaving. According to the bureau’s statement, “Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”
Kohen’s mother has said the shoplifting call stemmed from a box of diapers that her friend had been carrying — and that she believes her friend had actually paid for them. State investigators declined to address those details.
Crump challenged why officers did not simply let the car leave and record the license plate number instead of escalating the situation.
“They were called over a box of diapers and a family now has to bury their baby,” Crump said. “You cannot put those two things next to each other and call it reasonable policing.”
Crump also announced that the family intends to have an independent autopsy conducted. He noted that while it is not disputed that Kohen was struck by a police bullet, details about the trajectory of the shot could help determine whether the officer fired from directly in front of the vehicle or from the side — which would be key in assessing whether that officer was genuinely in harm’s way.
Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told the Associated Press last week that officers need to understand that “shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,” pointing to the serious risk posed to passengers and bystanders.
A federal judge has put a stop to the Trump administration’s push to subpoena Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and several other state officials, determining that the Justice Department was abusing its investigative authority to punish those who refused to help crack down on illegal immigration.
In a ruling made public Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz concluded that the primary purpose of the subpoenas was to pressure Minnesota officials into helping enforce federal immigration law and to punish them for declining to do so. The judge found the connection between the information being sought and any actual criminal activity to be “extremely weak to nonexistent.”
Tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota’s Democratic leadership had been building since January, when federal immigration officers clashed with protesters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area — particularly following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers.
President Donald Trump had threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to suppress the protests and accused Walz — who served as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024 — along with other officials, of encouraging demonstrators to interfere with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
The subpoenas, issued in January, were part of a probe into whether Walz and other officials had obstructed or interfered with law enforcement. They were directed at the offices of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.
Judge Schiltz wrote that the materials sought in the subpoenas “largely if not entirely relate to constitutionally protected conduct,” and noted that Minnesota has every legal right to decline using its resources to enforce federal immigration law. He concluded that the Justice Department “is not conducting a criminal investigation” but is instead misusing the grand jury process for unlawful purposes.
The judge added that the evidence pointing to an unlawful motive was overwhelming, saying the Justice Department “has struggled — without success — to identify a single plausible investigatory justification” for the subpoenas. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement following the ruling, Walz called it “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy.” He went on to say, “The U.S. Justice Department is pursuing criminal investigations into the President’s political opponents. This case was just one example of that, but we are seeing daily reminders of this administration’s lawlessness — in Minnesota and around the country. We all must continue to seek justice and uphold the rule of law.”
Attorney General Ellison said “it should disturb every American that Donald Trump is weaponizing the criminal justice system against people he disagrees with.”
Mayor Her described the subpoenas as “a politically motivated retaliation against our city for lawfully standing up to ICE and fighting for our residents.”
Mayor Frey said the investigation was “never about justice, law, and order, but the absence of it,” adding that “subpoenaing political opponents because they spoke on behalf of their constituents violates the core tenets of our democracy and human decency.” He also pointed out that criticizing government action is not a crime, saying, “One of the defining strengths of our democracy is the ability to challenge those in power without fear of retribution. Elected officials have both the right and the responsibility to speak honestly about how government decisions affect the people they serve.”
This ruling is part of a broader pattern of federal courts pushing back against the Justice Department’s efforts to aggressively advance the Trump administration’s agenda. Over the past year, judges have dismissed indictments against two high-profile Trump critics — former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James — and grand juries have repeatedly declined to return indictments the Justice Department sought.
Critics argue these developments reflect growing concerns that the Justice Department, which is supposed to operate independently of the White House, has been politicized under the current administration.
Separately, Vice President JD Vance has called on the Justice Department to investigate Walz and Ellison over allegations that they failed to prevent widespread social services fraud. The department has not indicated whether it will open such an investigation. Both Walz and Ellison have dismissed those allegations as politically motivated and defended their anti-fraud efforts in Minnesota.
Legal battles connected to the immigration surge continue on other fronts as well. The federal government has argued that Minnesota prosecutors lack jurisdiction to investigate federal officers. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a lawsuit in March seeking access to evidence in the Good and Pretti killings, accusing the administration of withholding materials from state investigators. Moriarty has also pursued criminal charges against ICE officers in two other incidents, including the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man, and has indicated her office is looking into several additional cases.
Lionel Messi etched his name further into soccer history on Monday, claiming the title of all-time top scorer in men’s World Cup play after finding the net for the 17th time in tournament competition during Argentina’s Group J clash against Austria.
The record-breaking tally moved the Argentina captain past Germany striker Miroslav Klose, who previously held the men’s record. Messi’s 17th goal also pulled him level with Brazilian legend Marta, whose 17 goals in women’s World Cup play had long stood as the overall record across both tournaments.
The historic moment unfolded in Dallas, where Messi helped orchestrate a fluid Argentina attacking move before slipping into the penalty area unmarked. He calmly finished a low cross from Facundo Medina into the bottom corner on his first touch to put Argentina in front.
The strike gave Argentina the lead in their second Group J outing. The South American powerhouse entered the match riding high after a dominant 3-0 opening win over Algeria, with a spot in the knockout round firmly in their sights.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington’s National Mall is being prepared to be drained once more — just weeks after a $14.7 million renovation project was completed — as President Donald Trump issues stern warnings to those accused of vandalizing the historic landmark.
According to Washington-based WTOP Radio, the DC Water authority has issued a permit to drain the 2,000-foot-long rectangular pool. The company that performed the renovation work says it will address the needed repairs under its warranty obligations.
Neither the National Park Service nor DC Water responded to requests for comment.
Peeling paint and algae growth became noticeable in the pool shortly after President Trump announced the renovation complete on June 6. Questions have been raised about the no-bid contract used to recoat the pool ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations scheduled for next month, along with concerns about the ducks that inhabit the water.
Trump has attributed the pool’s deteriorating condition to vandals, though he has not offered evidence to support that claim. On Monday, he reinforced a weekend threat made by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to pursue criminal charges against those accused of attempting to damage the pool.
“Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — Which will be fully enforced!” Trump stated in a social media post.
Trump indicated that multiple arrests have already taken place. Media reports citing an administration official say at least five individuals have been arrested — including a former Olympian who has publicly denied the accusations — while five others received citations. The U.S. Park Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the firm responsible for the renovation, released a statement Sunday saying the sections requiring repair represent “a very small part of the massive 7-acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner.”
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has put a stop to the Trump administration’s plan to use a redesigned immigration database to check the accuracy of voter registration records across the country, delivering a setback to President Donald Trump’s push to expand federal involvement in elections before the November midterms.
The Department of Homeland Security had reworked one of its systems — known as SAVE — last year following a Trump executive order directing state and local governments to be able to verify the immigration and citizenship status of voters. The overhaul allowed users to conduct bulk searches of records, a significant change from how the system previously operated.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued a 75-page ruling Monday, ruling in favor of voting rights and privacy groups who contended that the changes to SAVE made it less reliable and put eligible voters at risk of being wrongly removed from the rolls. Judge Sooknanan was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
The ruling arrives at a politically charged moment, with Trump’s Republican Party fighting hard to hold onto control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections.
Trump and his supporters have repeatedly claimed that states are failing to stop voter fraud — a claim that state-level audits and academic research have consistently found to be unsupported, given how rarely fraud actually occurs. Trump has also continued to falsely claim that fraudulent activity cost him the 2020 presidential election.
Opponents of the voter roll verification push argue that the effort is less about protecting election integrity and more about political strategy — specifically, reducing the number of voters in ways that could disadvantage Democratic-leaning citizens.
California has taken the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to court, filing a lawsuit Monday after the federal agency sent several of the state’s landmark vehicle emissions waivers to the Republican-controlled Congress earlier this month, opening the door to their potential repeal.
The EPA argued that California’s environmental regulation waivers — approved under previous Democratic administrations through the Clean Air Act — were required to be submitted to lawmakers under the Congressional Review Act. California pushed back hard, calling the move unlawful and asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to put a stop to it.
State officials said the EPA was essentially trying to redefine what a waiver is, accusing the agency of attempting to “wave a magic wand” and reclassify the waiver as a rule subject to congressional action.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta condemned the EPA’s decision in strong terms. “These latest illegal actions would mean more pollution, poorer air quality, more market uncertainty, and greater health risks for communities already overburdened by emissions,” Bonta said. He noted that California has received more than 75 such waivers for various environmental measures over the years.
The EPA had not offered any comment in response to the lawsuit as of Monday.
The current administration has pursued multiple strategies to strip California of its authority to mandate cleaner vehicles and push for greater electric vehicle adoption. The EPA has also moved to make it easier for automakers to sell more gasoline-powered vehicles while increasing the financial burden on consumers purchasing electric vehicles.
The four waivers now under congressional scrutiny gave California the power to set its own emissions standards for passenger vehicles, trucks, and lawn and garden equipment. Those standards have pushed manufacturers to develop cleaner, electric alternatives in order to reduce overall emissions.
California’s current vehicle emissions framework was approved in 2022 during the Biden administration. The standards require automakers to progressively increase the share of electric vehicles they sell while meeting tighter restrictions on tailpipe pollution — rules that are considerably more stringent than current federal standards.
The current administration has signaled plans to roll back federal fuel economy requirements. Legislation signed last year overturned California’s goal of phasing out the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. California maintains that the long-term fuel savings for consumers under its rules far outweigh the higher upfront cost of electric vehicles.
Congress moved to cancel California’s authority to ban new gas-powered vehicles after 2035 following lobbying efforts by major automakers including Toyota and GM, who sought relief from the state’s strict emissions rules. That action came after the EPA had already submitted that particular waiver to Congress for review. Many Democratic lawmakers have argued that such waivers are not eligible for review under the Congressional Review Act, and California has separately challenged that waiver submission as well.
WASHINGTON — The late former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who passed away Monday, left behind a legacy that is already shaping the direction of the nation’s central bank under its newest leader, Kevin Warsh.
Warsh, who referenced Greenspan four times during his White House swearing-in ceremony exactly one month ago, appears to be adopting many of the same central banking philosophies that defined Greenspan’s tenure — along with some of the potential pitfalls that came with them.
Greenspan, who led the Federal Reserve for more than 18 years, was known for keeping his public statements vague and trusting financial markets to work things out on their own. That approach helped keep inflation low and economic growth steady for much of his time in office — a period so stable it became known as the “Great Moderation.”
However, that same philosophy led Greenspan to dismiss warning signs of a growing housing bubble, believing that the most sophisticated financial institutions would not systematically misjudge asset values or ignore major risks. When the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis triggered a global financial meltdown shortly after he left office, Greenspan acknowledged during congressional testimony that there was “a flaw” in his belief in rational and efficient markets.
Greenspan, who died at home from complications of Parkinson’s disease at age 100, had a gift for finding meaning in obscure economic data, according to Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Donald Kohn, a longtime top Fed staffer under Greenspan who later became Fed vice chair. In a tribute published Monday, Kohn wrote that Greenspan could “dazzle and puzzle” by “finding insight in often obscure pieces of data, occasionally combining these series in wondrous ways.”
But Kohn also noted that despite recognizing rapid price increases in certain local housing markets, Greenspan “doubted a national bubble across these markets, and he did little with his soapbox or powers over bank regulation to preemptively build resilience.”
In the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, sweeping regulatory reforms — known as Dodd-Frank — required banks to hold larger financial cushions, develop contingency plans, and operate under tighter federal oversight, all to ensure no institution would ever be considered too large to be allowed to fail and require a taxpayer-funded rescue.
Some of those regulations are now being rolled back under Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, and Warsh has stated that reducing the Fed’s overall footprint is among his goals.
Warsh has made no secret of Greenspan’s influence on him, referencing him repeatedly during his May 22 swearing-in and connecting several of his own views on the economy and the Fed’s proper role to positions Greenspan was known for.
One area of alignment is communication. Greenspan was famously guarded and deliberately vague in his public statements, believing that keeping his options open made him better able to respond to unexpected developments. Warsh has similarly expressed concern that the Fed’s current habit of extensive public explanation risks restricting policymakers’ flexibility.
The first policy statement released under Warsh’s leadership last week was noticeably shorter and removed any explicit direction about where interest rates might be headed.
Still, Warsh has shown a willingness to speak about the future when he believes it matters. Before taking office, he pointed to how Greenspan in the mid-1990s correctly identified that rising worker productivity would help hold down inflation — and used that insight to push back against colleagues who favored raising interest rates.
Warsh believes a comparable situation may be unfolding today because of the rapid spread of artificial intelligence, and has directed one of five task forces he created at the start of his chairmanship to study productivity trends.
Broadly, the reforms Warsh is pursuing reflect an idea Greenspan would likely support: that the central bank should stay in its lane, keep its role as limited as possible, and allow households, businesses, and investors to handle the rest.
As Warsh works to scale back policies that grew out of the financial crisis — including the Fed’s large balance sheet and its expanded approach to public communications — he must ultimately decide how far to go in the one area where Greenspan himself admitted he was wrong.
At his first press conference as chairman, Warsh explained his thinking on market communication: “Financial markets perform best when they react to incoming data. I think the financial markets work less efficiently when they ask a question. How will the Federal Reserve react to that incoming information?” He added, “When all the financial markets are doing is reflecting back what we’ve said, then we’re taking the most important source of information and we’re being blind to it. I’d like us to create a system where those blinders come off, where markets are following data that they efficiently think is reliable.”
Delaware State Police have released the identity of the woman who lost her life in a fatal e-bike crash that occurred late Saturday morning in Rehoboth Beach. The victim has been identified as 66-year-old Stephanie Lewis, a resident of Potomac, Maryland.
The Delaware State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit is actively working to piece together the circumstances surrounding the crash. Authorities are urging anyone who may have witnessed the incident to reach out to Sergeant A. Mitchell at (302) 703-3269. Tips can also be submitted by sending a private message to the Delaware State Police on Facebook, or by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
Anyone who has been impacted by a crime, witnessed a crime, or has suffered the sudden loss of a loved one and is in need of support can contact the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit and the Delaware Victim Center. Help is available around the clock through a toll-free hotline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461). You may also reach the Victim Services Unit by email at [email protected].
Wilmington police made an arrest in connection with a burglary in the Woodcrest neighborhood after members of the public stepped forward with information that helped crack the case.
Officers were called to the 600 block of Boxwood Road at around 8:40 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2026, following a report of a burglary that had just taken place.
Investigators determined that the victim had recently finished riding an electric bicycle, commonly known as an e-bike, and had placed it inside an open garage when the theft occurred.
The arrest was ultimately made possible through tips and assistance provided by members of the community, who played a direct role in moving the investigation forward.
Northwestern center Jackson Carsello will be able to suit up for college football in 2026, thanks to a court injunction handed down Monday by a Cook County, Illinois judge.
The NCAA had denied Carsello’s request for a waiver that would have granted him a sixth year of eligibility. The organization’s position was that Carsello should have used his redshirt year back in 2021. During that season, he practiced but never appeared in a game due to an ankle injury. Carsello, however, considered 2022 his redshirt year — a season in which he appeared in four games.
Over the past three seasons, Carsello played in 32 games total, including 13 starts in 2025.
Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen ruled in Carsello’s favor, pointing out that the injury was beyond the player’s control.
“Mr. Carsello didn’t impose a high-ankle sprain on himself in order to dodge the rules of the NCAA,” Cohen stated in his ruling. “… You have his own coach saying, ‘I wouldn’t put him in, he was damaged, it would be unhealthy, it would be a violation,’ — my terms, not his — ‘of the whole purpose of the NCAA, which is to guarantee the safety and health of a student-athlete.’”
The judge also had pointed words for the NCAA, though he stopped short of accusing the organization of acting in bad faith.
“I admire the NCAA, and I thank them for the process they went through, but they got it wrong in this case. I imply no bad faith in their getting it wrong, but they got it really wrong,” Cohen said.
Carsello joins a growing list of college football players who have turned to the courts to secure their eligibility. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke have also received similar injunctions ahead of the upcoming season.
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby received an injunction as well following an NCAA suspension tied to gambling on his own team and other college football programs, though he has since pursued entry into the NFL’s supplemental draft — a route that had also been available to Carsello if the court had not ruled in his favor.
Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk appears to be making it crystal clear where he wants to play next. The San Francisco 49ers pass-catcher took to Instagram on Sunday night to publicly root for the Washington Commanders, shouting in his story, “Go Commanders! Go Commanders! Go Commanders! Raise Hail! Take Command!”
Aiyuk also shared a photo of Washington quarterback Mark Rypien hoisting the Lombardi Trophy following Washington’s Super Bowl XXVI championship victory.
The 28-year-old receiver has been in an uncertain situation this offseason after 49ers general manager John Lynch stated in January that “it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners.” Despite that declaration, San Francisco has neither released Aiyuk nor found a team willing to take him in a trade.
Aiyuk missed the entire 2024 season after suffering tears to his ACL, MCL, and meniscus in October of that year. Since then, he has used his social media platforms to express his frustration with the organization. Earlier this month, he described the team as “dumb” and “stupid” for continuing to pay him, and suggested the franchise was afraid of how effectively he might perform against them if he landed elsewhere.
Part of his interest in Washington may stem from a personal connection — Aiyuk shares a close bond with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, the two having been teammates at Arizona State.
Aiyuk had signed a four-year, $120 million contract back in August 2024. However, the 49ers voided the guaranteed money remaining on the deal last summer and eventually placed him on the reserve/left team list after he stopped reporting to the team facility to rehabilitate his right knee.
Before his injury, Aiyuk was one of the top performers in San Francisco, leading the team with 1,342 receiving yards and seven touchdown receptions in 2023. Across five NFL seasons, the former first-round pick from the 2020 draft has recorded 294 catches for 4,305 yards and 25 touchdowns with the 49ers.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Fresh off a national championship, the University of Michigan basketball program finds itself in an unexpected coaching search.
Dusty May is heading to the NBA, with the 49-year-old coach and the Dallas Mavericks in the final stages of completing a contract agreement, according to a source familiar with the situation who spoke to the Associated Press on Monday. The source requested anonymity since the deal had not yet been officially finalized.
May guided the Wolverines to a national title with a victory over UConn in Indianapolis, delivering Michigan its first championship since 1989.
Just days after the celebration, athletic director Warde Manuel announced he had locked May into a long-term contract extension during a victory rally back in Ann Arbor. Two months later, May is on his way out the door.
He will take over a Dallas squad that includes reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg and nine-time All-Star Kyrie Irving. May steps into the role previously held by Jason Kidd, who was dismissed two weeks after Masai Ujiri came aboard as president of basketball operations and alternate governor.
Whether any of May’s current coaching staff will follow him to Dallas remains unknown at this time.
Manuel could look internally, potentially promoting assistant coach Mike Boynton — a former head coach at Oklahoma State — to lead the program. Two-time national champion coach Billy Donovan has also been mentioned as a possible candidate should he choose to return to the college game. The former Florida head coach stepped down from his position with the Chicago Bulls in April after six seasons there, which followed a five-year stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The coaching departure isn’t the only challenge facing Michigan heading into next season. The program is also expected to lose three players who are projected to be selected in the first round of Tuesday night’s NBA draft.
Manuel had brought May over from Florida Atlantic in 2024, and the coach wasted no time turning around a struggling program. Just two years earlier, Michigan had lost a school-record 24 games — a stretch that ultimately cost former Fab Five player Juwan Howard his job.
May made effective use of the transfer portal during both of his seasons, specifically targeting players who excelled at passing, believing that quality passers tend to be strong teammates. His offensive philosophy centered on floor spacing, while his defensive approach was aggressive and relentless.
Transfers Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, and Morez Johnson Jr. all chose Michigan last season, and the trio helped the Wolverines win a school-record 37 games and claim the program’s second national title, all while boosting their own NBA draft prospects.
May had already been building toward next season, bringing in nine new players — including three from the portal — but those recruits and current roster members will now have the option to seek transfers following his exit.
Manuel had moved quickly to extend May’s contract after the season partly to fend off interest from other programs, including North Carolina, which parted ways with its own coach and hired a former NBA head coach. Keeping May away from an NBA opportunity, however, was likely never a realistic possibility.
France is enduring a brutal heat wave this week, with daytime temperatures climbing above 40 degrees Celsius — that’s 104 degrees Fahrenheit — and nighttime temperatures offering little relief to a population largely without air conditioning.
The country’s national weather service, Meteo France, warned that most of France — the largest nation in the European Union — would be stuck in these oppressive conditions through at least Friday.
Meteo France described the heat wave as exceptionally intense, drawing comparisons to the devastating August 2003 heat wave, though officials noted its duration remains uncertain. That 2003 event prompted France to create a heat watch warning system after the highest temperatures recorded in more than 50 years led to an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them elderly people living in apartments and care homes without air conditioning.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at twice the global average pace since the 1980s. Scientists link human-caused climate change to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, and projections from the United Nations climate agency suggest the next five years will break even more heat records.
Several communities across France hit their all-time temperature highs on Monday. Paris endured its hottest June night on record, with temperatures never dipping below 24.2 degrees Celsius (75.5 degrees Fahrenheit). The French capital also set a new June daytime record of 37.7 degrees Celsius (99.9 degrees Fahrenheit) Monday afternoon.
“This will continue through the end of the week, with heat levels never before recorded across more than three-quarters of the country on Wednesday and Thursday,” Meteo France stated.
The intense heat also worsened air quality in Paris, triggering the formation of ozone that traps pollution. The air quality monitoring agency serving the Paris region warned that pollutant levels were expected to surpass recommended safety thresholds.
With air conditioning uncommon across much of France, residents scrambled to cope. Education minister Edouard Geffray announced that 1,352 schools were shut down Monday because of the heat, while several thousand others adjusted their schedules — releasing students earlier and moving classes into air-conditioned spaces.
More than half of France’s regions were placed under a “red alert” for heat by Monday, covering areas forecast to see highs above 40 degrees Celsius with overnight lows staying above 20 degrees Celsius.
Announcements on the Paris public transit network urged riders to stay hydrated. Medical professionals warned about the dangerous combination of alcohol consumption in extreme heat, and authorities moved to restrict public drinking.
Multiple drowning incidents were also reported as people attempted to cool off in rivers, despite warnings about dangerous currents and other hazards.
Tragically, two young children — ages 2 and 4 — died Monday after being discovered unconscious inside their family’s car in the southern town of Carpentras. According to a statement from the public prosecutor, initial findings indicate the children had locked themselves inside the vehicle. An investigation has been launched under an involuntary manslaughter charge. Government officials urged parents never to leave children unattended in vehicles.
Neighboring United Kingdom also braced for dangerous heat. The British weather office issued a rare “red” weather warning for Wednesday and Thursday, cautioning that temperatures could top 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in the shade and potentially reach 40 degrees Celsius in parts of England and Wales. Officials there also warned that extreme temperatures could cause heat-sensitive infrastructure to fail, including power and mobile phone services.
The World Health Organization’s Europe office reported this month that more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes over the past four years — and that most of those deaths were preventable. Extreme heat can lead to heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.
The EU’s monitoring agency found that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded both in Europe and globally, with the continent seeing its second-highest number of “heat stress” days on record.
Scientists continue to warn that climate change is making heat waves and drought more frequent and more intense — particularly in southeastern Europe — raising the risk of health crises and wildfires. The burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline, oil, and coal, along with deforestation, wildfires, and industrial emissions, releases heat-trapping gases that drive climate change.
MEXICO CITY — A duck dressed in Mexico’s green national soccer jersey and sporting a FIFA tie waddled into a presidential press conference Monday and quickly became the biggest star in the room — upstaging President Claudia Sheinbaum herself.
The duck, named Merlín, has become Mexico’s unofficial mascot for the World Cup. He arrived ahead of the president, settled in facing the gathered reporters, and let his owner do all the talking.
Carla Gómez, who makes her living as a street vendor selling water and soft drinks, spoke on Merlín’s behalf. She introduced her family with evident pride, describing them as a reflection of the countless working-class families across Mexico. “We are the working part” of Mexico, she told those in attendance.
Seated next to the lectern with Merlín front and center were Gómez’s two sons — Carlos, 22, and Cristian, 14. She described Cristian as someone who “doesn’t rest after school” and pitches in daily by selling items and hauling packages.
Carlos described Merlín’s role in their small operation: “He’s the boss of our little business. He’s the one who follows behind us, making sure we’re working and doing things the right way.”
The family takes Merlín’s diet seriously, feeding him small fish and crickets throughout the week, with a special treat of a meat taco reserved for Sundays.
Gómez said she was deeply touched by the outpouring of affection World Cup fans have shown toward Merlín. “It has been the best thing that has happened to us in this life,” she said. She also noted that other ducks the family has raised became well-known in Mexico City’s historic center, including one named Bruna, who was known for wearing tennis shoes.
Gómez believes the family’s story resonated with so many people online because viewers recognized them as “a hard-working family, a family that gets up every day to make ends meet.”
President Sheinbaum eventually had to redirect the briefing back to its original agenda, but not before she attempted to pet Merlín and posed for a photograph alongside the Gómez family.
A federal judge in Washington has turned down a request to remove senior Justice Department officials from the case against a man charged with attempting to kill President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Cole Tomas Allen had argued that having Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro involved in his prosecution posed a conflict of interest, since both were among the administration officials attending the April dinner. Allen’s legal team also pointed to the close personal friendship between Pirro, a former Fox News commentator, and the president as a reason for concern.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden rejected those arguments, ruling that neither the officials’ presence at the dinner nor Pirro’s relationship with the president was sufficient grounds to remove them from the case. McFadden pointed out that Allen is not accused of targeting Blanche or Pirro specifically, and there is no indication he even knew they would be at the event.
“They are unlikely to be trial witnesses, nor do they meet the legal definition of victims,” McFadden wrote in his ruling. McFadden himself was nominated to the federal bench by Trump.
Allen faces a range of serious charges, including assaulting a federal official with a deadly weapon and attempted assassination of the president. He has entered a not guilty plea. If convicted on the attempted assassination charge alone, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors also allege that Allen fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent during the incident, which brought an abrupt and early end to one of Washington’s most prominent annual gatherings. A Secret Service officer who was struck once in a bullet-resistant vest returned fire five times but did not hit anyone. Allen, who is from Torrance, California, was injured during the confrontation but was not shot.
BERLIN — Despite ongoing headwinds in key markets around the world, Porsche is holding firm on its financial targets for the year, according to a speech prepared by the company’s top executive.
The text of a speech by Porsche CEO Michael Leiters, published online Monday, reveals what he plans to tell shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. The remarks acknowledge significant shifts in both the U.S. and Chinese markets, which have created pressure on the 911 sports car manufacturer.
“In the short term, we will not see a return to the targeted margins we have seen in the past,” Leiters is expected to say, according to the published speech text.
Even so, Leiters confirmed that the Volkswagen subsidiary is sticking with its forecast of an operating margin between 5.5% and 7.5% for the current year — and that the company is pressing ahead “despite the environment remaining very challenging.”
KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The spirit of Diego Maradona is everywhere as Argentina’s players, coaches, and fans gear up for their second World Cup Group J showdown against Austria in Dallas on Monday.
The timing carries deep significance. Monday falls exactly 40 years after one of the most talked-about performances in soccer history — Maradona’s two-goal display in Argentina’s 2-1 victory over England during the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium.
On June 22, 1986, Maradona scored both the notorious “Hand of God” goal and the breathtaking “Goal of the Century,” weaving past defender after defender on the English side. In Argentina, that date is officially honored as the Day of the Argentine Footballer.
Even more than five years after his passing, Maradona remains a towering presence among Argentine supporters — the only figure who comes close to rivaling Lionel Messi in terms of devotion and reverence.
When fans gathered last week in Kansas City, which has served as Argentina’s home base during the tournament, massive flags referencing Maradona were on full display throughout the crowd. One banner placed him alongside Messi with just a single word: “simbiosis” — Spanish for symbiosis.
As the team traveled south to Texas, supporters continued the tribute, chanting that “Maradona is greater than Pele” — a pointed jab aimed at their longtime Brazilian rivals.
At a pre-match press conference, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni shared a personal memory of watching that historic 1986 match as a child.
“I think I was at home, at my grandmother’s house, because we all lived there. There were I don’t know how many of us living there, we didn’t have our own home. It was a very small TV,” Scaloni recalled. He was eight years old at the time.
“Emotional. I didn’t know tomorrow was the anniversary of that great goal, so let’s enjoy it. We will see it everywhere tomorrow. We’ll cry a little too,” Scaloni told reporters on Sunday.
Monday’s opponents, Austria, also hold a notable place in Maradona’s story. He delivered his only international hat-trick against them in a 5-1 Argentine victory back in 1980, and the two nations met again in 1990 — both times with Argentina holding the title of reigning world champions.
Maradona passed away on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, following a heart attack while he was recovering from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
Shares of the biggest names in U.S. technology took a sharp dive Monday, with SpaceX extending its losing streak to three straight sessions and major cloud computing companies Alphabet and Amazon on track to shed hundreds of billions of dollars in combined market value — all fueled by growing investor anxiety over the enormous costs of building out artificial intelligence infrastructure.
SpaceX dropped more than 10% following a sharp rally in the days after its initial public offering. The company, led by Elon Musk, announced Monday that it is launching a notes offering.
Alphabet fell 6% — its steepest single-day decline since May 2025 — and appeared set to wipe out more than $256 billion in market capitalization. Adding to the pressure, John Jumper, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind and a Nobel laureate, announced his departure to join AI startup Anthropic, marking another prominent exit from the company.
David Wagner, head of equity and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, described the situation as a broader retreat across the sector. “This is more of a broader sector pullback on ongoing anxiety over tech companies’ massive capital spend on the AI infrastructure,” he said.
Amazon fell 4.8%, while Meta Platforms and Microsoft each slipped roughly 3%. Combined, those three companies were on pace to lose more than $248 billion in market value.
Large cloud and technology firms have poured billions of dollars into expanding their AI capabilities, but investors remain skeptical as clear proof that those investments will generate meaningful returns has yet to materialize.
On the other side of the ledger, most chip-related stocks moved higher. Memory chipmaker Micron Technology led the gains with a 5.8% jump, reaching record highs. Micron also announced a new strategic partnership with Anthropic aimed at advancing next-generation AI infrastructure.
Wagner drew a clear line between the winners and losers in the current market environment. “There’s a distinguishing aspect of this market between those who are receiving the checks, like memory names and those who are writing the checks,” he said.
Micron, along with data storage companies SanDisk and Western Digital, rank among the top performers on the S&P 500 so far this year, emerging as the primary beneficiaries of Wall Street’s optimism around AI-driven demand.
The Edmonton Oilers are set to retain veteran defenseman Connor Murphy, with TSN reporting Monday that the two sides have agreed on a five-year contract extension valued at $20.4 million.
Murphy, who is 33 years old, came to Edmonton via a March 2 trade with Chicago and posted four points across 20 games with his new club. For the full 2025-26 season, he combined for 17 points — five goals and 12 assists — in 80 games split between the two organizations.
Over the course of his NHL career, Murphy has appeared in 825 games, accumulating 177 points (48 goals and 129 assists) along with 560 penalty minutes. His career stops have included the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes from 2013 to 2017, the Blackhawks from 2017 to 2026, and now the Oilers.
The announcement comes just a day after Edmonton also locked up forward Jason Dickinson on a five-year deal worth $20 million, signaling a busy stretch of roster-building for the organization.
A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to compel several Minnesota officials — including the state’s Democratic governor — to turn over information tied to a Justice Department immigration investigation, according to a court order released publicly on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, based in Minnesota, issued the ruling, dealing a significant blow to a federal probe that was launched in January at the peak of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
The Justice Department had issued subpoenas to various state and local government offices in an effort to determine whether Democratic officials had broken the law by publicly opposing and resisting the administration’s large-scale immigration enforcement effort, which involved deploying thousands of agents to detain migrants accused of being in the country illegally.
The investigation centered on whether that public opposition crossed a legal line and amounted to criminal interference with federal immigration enforcement activities.
Active-duty military service members and their families have the opportunity to visit participating museums throughout the United States free of charge this summer through a program called Blue Star Museums.
The program is scheduled to run from May 16 through September 9, 2026, giving military families several months to take advantage of the benefit.
Blue Star Museums is an initiative organized jointly by the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families, working in collaboration with additional partners to make the program possible.
Military families interested in participating can look for museums that are part of the program to enjoy free admission during the designated summer period.
Delaware State Parks is marking a major milestone with a new fundraising event open to everyone. The agency has launched a Virtual 5K Fundraiser in honor of its 75th anniversary.
The event invites participants to walk, run, or roll along trails located within Delaware’s state parks. Participants have until December 1 to complete their 5K at any state park trail of their choosing.
SALISBURY, Md. — The City of Salisbury is keeping the public informed about the ongoing cleanup at 317–325 Lake Street, a property that has been formally designated as a Brownfield by both the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
A Brownfield is defined as a property where the potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants may complicate efforts to expand, redevelop, or reuse the land. At this particular site, petroleum contamination was found in both the soil and groundwater. The main chemical concern is Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, or TPH — compounds that can be carcinogenic, contribute to neurological disorders, and cause respiratory or reproductive health problems. To address the contamination, the City of Salisbury was awarded $1,791,543.00 in federal funding from the USEPA to bring the property up to federal environmental standards.
A Long History of Industrial Use
The two parcels — 317 Lake Street and 325 Lake Street — have a complicated past. From the late 1930s through the mid-1980s, the site functioned as a fuel tank farm, housing 15 aboveground storage tanks of various sizes along with two underground storage tanks. The land sat abandoned until 1990, when 317 Lake Street reopened as a waste oil processing facility. That same year, an aboveground storage tank spilled roughly 12,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil, with an estimated 4,000 gallons flowing into the Wicomico River. The facility went dormant again in 1992 and remained inactive until 2008, when the property owner removed all aboveground storage tanks.
The City of Salisbury purchased both parcels in 2020. In 2023, all remaining structures on the site were demolished down to their foundations. Following a thorough review of cleanup options, city officials selected a plan involving the excavation and removal of two feet of contaminated soil, replacement with a two-foot soil mitigation cap, and then placement of eight inches of clean soil on top to support future plantings.
Public Input Opportunity
The City of Salisbury Department of Infrastructure and Development is inviting community members to attend a public meeting to share their thoughts on the project’s progress. The meeting will be held on Thursday, July 9th, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Government Office Building, located at 125 N. Division Street, Room #306, Salisbury, MD 21801.
SALISBURY, Md. — Cyclists traveling eastbound on West College Avenue in Salisbury will need to find an alternate route next week. The bike lane along that stretch will be closed on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., affecting the section between Smith Street and Lorecrop Drive while scheduled work takes place in the area.
Riders who normally travel through that corridor will be redirected during the closure. Officials say detour signs will be placed along the route, and cyclists are encouraged to follow those posted directions carefully and remain alert while passing through the work zone.
The bike lane is expected to reopen once the work has been completed and conditions are deemed safe for cyclists to return.
Anyone with questions or who needs more information is encouraged to reach out directly to the City of Salisbury.
World Cup tickets are already a major expense. Add in flights, hotel rooms, and then the cost of a stadium beer — and the bill can really start to add up.
Across the North American venues hosting this summer’s World Cup, fans are encountering some truly unique — and at times eye-watering — food and drink options. In Miami, a tray of so-called “Fancy AF Tots” will set you back $75, while a massive five-pound empanada goes for $40. Over in Guadalajara, Mexico, rib-eye tacos are a comparatively modest $8. And in Los Angeles, a $22 item called a “Twinkie cheeseburger” — which has nothing to do with the snack cake — is turning heads.
For American fans accustomed to NFL or college football concession prices, none of this may come as much of a surprise. But for international visitors, the pricing has been a rude awakening — especially when it comes to beer, which can cost more than $20 at some venues.
“It’s unfair. It’s not right. It’s wrong,” said Thomas Schüller, an engineer from Germany who was in Toronto to watch his national team play. He was holding a beer that cost him 24.25 Canadian dollars — roughly $17 or 15 euros. “It’s three times the cost of what I pay in my country.”
That said, the price tag wasn’t enough to stop him from buying it. “Well, no,” Schüller admitted.
The sticker shock is understandable for many European visitors, where a beer at a typical venue might run just 4 or 5 euros — the equivalent of about $5 to $6 in U.S. dollars.
“Never seen anything like it,” said Janine Arbetter, a fan from Austria, as she waited in line for a hot dog, chips, and soda combo in Miami last week. The pre-tip price came to $19.35 — about 17 euros — though that did include a discount for paying with Visa. “It’s a lot of food for a little snack,” she added.
Reactions on social media have been mixed. Some Argentina fans proudly shared photos of their $34 lobster rolls from a match in Kansas City. Meanwhile, a brisket sandwich with chips and a bottled soda in Toronto — priced at nearly 40 Canadian dollars, or about $28 — prompted online commenters to call it “robbery.”
German fan Daniel Feldmann offered a more measured take after watching a match in Vancouver last week: “It’s OK, more or less, for the World Cup.”
FIFA, the organization that governs the sport and runs the tournament, has detailed rules covering nearly every aspect of World Cup operations — and that includes guidelines for food vendors. However, pricing and menu offerings can differ from city to city, meaning the concession experience in one stadium may look and taste completely different from another.
Those $75 “Fancy AF Tots” in Miami? They’re not actually tater tots. The dish consists of three deep-fried hash brown patties topped with caviar, creme fraiche, and chives. For fans who want just the caviar, that option is available for $70. The Los Angeles “Twinkie cheeseburger,” meanwhile, is a burger topped with what’s known as a Texas Twinkie — a bacon-wrapped jalapeño stuffed with brisket and cream cheese.
Many stadiums are also offering locally inspired menu items. In Vancouver, fans can try short rib poutine — a classic Canadian dish of fries topped with beef gravy, pulled short rib, and cheese curds — as well as a maple bacon smokie, a smoked sausage topped with bacon onion jam made with Canadian maple syrup.
Miami’s signature offerings lean into the city’s Cuban heritage, featuring pan con lechon — a Cuban-style sandwich with citrus mojo-marinated pork on a toasted Cuban loaf — along with the “Empanada Mundial,” a five-pound handmade chicken-and-cheese empanada named in honor of the World Cup.
Both Vancouver and Miami are working with Sodexo Live as their food and beverage provider, and standard game-day menus at both stadiums were adjusted to appeal to a soccer-focused crowd.
“We want it to feel like Miami when you’re here,” said Zach Williams, the stadium’s vice president of operations. “Everything we do around the Miami Stadium, we want to make sure everybody understands that when they come here, they’re getting a Miami experience.”
The situation in Mexico City presents a particularly stark contrast. The daily minimum wage there is 315.04 pesos — roughly $18. Yet some beers at Mexico City Stadium were being sold for between 299 and 310 pesos, which is about double what fans would normally pay at that same stadium outside of World Cup events.
On the other end of the spectrum is Atlanta, where the stadium’s owner has long championed affordable concession pricing — and made good on that promise for the World Cup. Pizza slices were available for $3, 32-ounce sodas for $4, cheeseburgers for $5, chicken tenders with fries for $6, and beers starting at just $8.
Jonathan Arango, a 33-year-old from Greenville, South Carolina, attended a match in Atlanta with his wife, daughter, and father. “In total for what we got — three orders of tacos, a slice of pizza, two waters and a Coke — we spent like $50,” he said. “Compared to what we’ve paid at other events … it’s nice after you paid a lot for a ticket.”
Despite the grumbling over prices, Schüller kept things in perspective. The World Cup only comes around every four years, he noted, and it still carries the feeling of a once-in-a-lifetime event. “The entire football world is having fun,” he said. “So cheers to that.”
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan court ruled Monday that Health Minister Aden Duale is in contempt for allowing construction to continue on an Ebola quarantine facility backed by the United States, in direct defiance of existing court orders to stop the work.
The High Court summoned Duale to appear Tuesday to face sentencing. Earlier this month, the minister had publicly supported the project, stating that the facility at Laikipia Air Base would serve both Kenyan citizens and international partners.
The court had previously ordered the government to suspend all construction while a legal challenge brought by the Law Society of Kenya and the Katiba Institute — a constitutional watchdog organization — was being heard. Those filing the lawsuit argued that Kenya’s healthcare system is already under severe strain and may not be equipped to safely manage foreign Ebola patients.
People living in communities near Laikipia Air Base reported seeing U.S. military aircraft arriving at the base even after the court issued its suspension order on May 29.
President William Ruto has stood behind the project, pointing to a long-standing partnership between the U.S. and Kenya on health and security issues. He noted that the Laikipia site is one of 24 preparedness centers created to respond to potential Ebola outbreaks.
Opposition to the facility grew sharply after the U.S. announced it would not bring American Ebola patients back home, opting instead to quarantine them overseas. The United States has committed roughly $13 million to the partnership.
The controversy has sparked widespread protests throughout Kenya, with some demonstrations becoming violent. At least three people were reportedly shot and killed during the unrest.
The U.S. embassy in Kenya stated that the quarantine center posed no danger to local residents, adding that the U.S. was “aware of the court action” and was “actively working with the Kenyan government to resolve any objections.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Clive Davis, the attorney-turned-record executive who became one of the most influential forces in the music business, has passed away at age 94. His family confirmed the news to the New York Times. Davis was known for discovering or reigniting the careers of legendary artists including Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, and Alicia Keys.
Davis had been hospitalized earlier this year after experiencing an upper respiratory illness, though he was discharged within a few days. He passed away at his apartment in Manhattan, the Times reported. Attempts to reach representatives for Davis on Monday were not immediately successful.
While many record industry heavyweights saw their power diminish with age, Davis seemed to only grow more influential as the decades passed. His career stretched across more than 50 years, crossing multiple musical genres and record labels. Well into his 80s, he was still steering the careers of artists ranging from Barry Manilow to “American Idol” champions Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.
Among his greatest accomplishments — and most heartbreaking stories — was his relationship with Whitney Houston. Davis signed her to his Arista Records label when she was still a teenager, transforming her into one of America’s most celebrated pop stars. She accumulated numerous No. 1 hits and became one of the best-selling recording artists in history, before substance abuse issues derailed her career. Houston died in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2012, just hours before she was scheduled to appear at Davis’s annual pre-Grammy Awards party. Davis had believed she was getting her life back on track.
“Maybe I should have been more skeptical,” Davis wrote in his 2013 memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life,” “but I’ve always been optimistic, and I felt hopeful. It felt like old times.”
Davis also helped launch the career of multiplatinum, Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys, and took pride in having signed other legendary names including Joplin, Billy Joel, Blood Sweat & Tears, and others he frequently called “all-timers.”
“I signed Patti Smith, the great Renaissance woman … I signed Lou Reed … I signed the Grateful Dead,” he said proudly during a 1999 interview with The Associated Press.
Davis had a gift not only for spotting fresh talent but also for keeping established artists relevant long after their peak years. Aretha Franklin, who built her legend at Atlantic Records, found continued success later in her career at Arista Records. Similarly, Luther Vandross recorded his final albums for another Davis-run label, J Records.
Davis was also the creative force behind the 1999 album “Supernatural,” which brought guitar legend Santana together with some of that era’s most popular artists. The album tied a record by winning eight Grammy Awards and gave Santana a level of commercial success that surpassed anything he had achieved in his long career.
He also convinced veteran rock star Rod Stewart to step away from his classic rock catalog and record standards from “The Great American Songbook.” That album, released in 2003, sold millions of copies and was so well received that it led to four volumes in total.
Davis was not without missteps. He passed on the opportunity to sign Meatloaf, a decision he later acknowledged. He also clashed with producer David Foster over the musical arrangement for Houston’s iconic cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time. Manilow, meanwhile, strongly resisted recording “I Write the Songs” — a track written by Bruce Johnston, not Manilow himself — before it became one of his signature hits. Manilow went on to enjoy similar late-career success drawing from music of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.
“He’s just brilliant at picking ideas he thinks the public will connect,” Manilow said of Davis, having worked with him since his early days as a singer at Columbia Records.
Davis’s career was not without controversy. He joined Columbia Records in 1960 as a lawyer and rose to become its president in 1967. But by 1973, he was fired following accusations of financial mismanagement. Although Davis maintained he was later cleared, his troubles continued — he was later indicted on tax evasion charges, pleaded guilty to one count, and paid a $10,000 fine.
Davis ultimately claimed a measure of vindication: he said Columbia provided him with the funding to launch Arista Records as part of a settlement, and the new label became a major success with artists including country stars Brooks & Dunn, R&B group TLC, Babyface, Houston, Franklin, and many others.
Arista scored an immediate hit with its debut act, Milli Vanilli — but the duo became one of the music industry’s biggest scandals when it was revealed, after they had already won a Grammy, that they had not actually performed the vocals on their recordings. Davis attributed the situation to the label’s European division, which he said was responsible for signing them. The group was ultimately stripped of their best new artist Grammy.
In 1999, as Arista marked its 25th anniversary, Davis faced a new challenge: the label’s parent company at the time, BMG Entertainment — a division of the German media giant Bertelsmann — wanted him to retire, as most of its executives were pushed out around age 60, and Davis was in his mid-60s.
In 2000, despite vocal support from his high-profile roster of artists, the company removed Davis and replaced him with producer and songwriter Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who later became chairman of Island/Def Jam.
Rather than cutting ties entirely, BMG helped Davis establish J Records in what the company described as the largest record label startup ever undertaken. Vandross was among his first signings, along with other acts including the boy band O-Town.
J Records quickly proved successful, and its standing grew considerably with the signing of a young artist named Alicia Keys — a singer, songwriter, and pianist whose powerful voice and compelling R&B material drove her albums to multi-million sales figures and multiple Grammy wins.
Davis’s reach expanded further when he was chosen to lead BMG’s U.S. division. He became a major force behind the careers of “American Idol” winners, guiding many of their albums to platinum status through a partnership between Sony BMG and 19 Recordings Unlimited, the label run by “Idol” creator Simon Fuller.
In 2007, Davis clashed with Clarkson over the direction of her album “My December,” and she publicly voiced her frustration with him. The album underperformed commercially, and Clarkson later apologized.
In 2008, Sony BMG transitioned Davis out of his role as chairman and chief executive officer of the BMG label group, giving him the title of chief creative officer instead.
Davis was born on April 4, 1932, and is survived by four children. In his memoir, he confirmed longstanding speculation that he was bisexual and had been in a relationship with a man in his later years.
“Do I feel I could have been similarly attracted to a woman?” Davis wrote. “The answer is yes.”
BERLIN — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped down Monday following a sharp drop in his approval ratings, but leaders across Europe were quick to offer kind words for a leader many had found far more cooperative than those who came before him.
Starmer made history as the first non-Conservative prime minister since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. While he firmly ruled out any possibility of the UK rejoining the 27-nation bloc, he worked actively to repair the strained relationship that followed the painful Brexit process.
He also kept Britain firmly committed to supporting Ukraine, working alongside fellow “E3” partners French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz throughout his tenure.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took to the social media platform X to honor his service. “It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years,” she wrote. “European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.”
Starmer first took office in 2024, defeating a deeply unpopular government that had overseen a struggling economy and a country still fractured by the divisive Brexit debate. But much like other European leaders of his era, he found himself unable to hold onto voters who had grown frustrated with mainstream political parties and were increasingly turning to anti-establishment movements promising dramatic change.
While critics at home often described him as lacking charisma and conviction, those qualities seemed to weigh less heavily on the international stage, where he was seen as a steady and dependable partner.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin issued a formal statement praising Starmer’s diplomatic efforts. “I want to acknowledge the significant role Keir played in resetting the Irish-British relationship as well as relations between the UK and the European Union during his time as prime minister,” Martin said.
Starmer continued the strong pro-Ukraine stance established by Conservative predecessors, including Boris Johnson, who threw Britain’s support behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy following Russia’s attack on Kyiv in 2022.
Zelenskiy personally thanked Starmer on X, saying he was grateful “for always being in touch, always engaged, and always striving to do what is needed.” He added that their conversations had always been “filled with real substance” and extended an open invitation: “Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.”
A spokesperson for the German government described Starmer as “a reliable and close partner,” though German Chancellor Merz — himself dealing with record-low approval ratings and growing speculation about his political future — did not issue a personal statement.
The reaction from across the Atlantic was far less generous. U.S. President Donald Trump had actually announced Starmer’s departure a day before it was made official, and said the outgoing prime minister had “failed badly” on immigration and energy — two areas where Trump has sharply disagreed with British policy.
Russia, which views Britain as one of its chief adversaries largely due to its backing of Ukraine, went even further. A post on X from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev claimed responsibility for Starmer’s exit. “We did this jointly,” the post read, “by exposing Starmer’s warmongering and consistently wrong policies on immigration, crime, energy and economy.”
The Utah Mammoth made a series of coaching commitments on Monday, inking head coach Andre Tourigny and assistant coach Blaine Forsythe to new multi-year contracts.
The organization also announced the addition of two-time Stanley Cup champion defenseman Adam Foote, who signed a multi-year deal to join the coaching staff as an assistant. The financial details of all three agreements were kept private.
Tourigny is coming off his second season leading the Mammoth, during which the team posted a 43-33-6 record and earned a playoff berth in 2025-26. The run ended in the first round when Utah fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games.
General manager Bill Armstrong praised all three additions. “Andre and Blaine have both been instrumental in building the foundation for our organization and will be critical in our continued success and leadership moving forward,” Armstrong said. “Andre is an excellent leader, communicator, and person, who is extremely well respected by our players and our staff. Blaine’s an experienced, knowledgeable, and Stanley Cup-winning coach who has a strong body of work running the power play.”
Armstrong also expressed enthusiasm about landing Foote. “We are also thrilled to have Adam, a two-time Stanley Cup champion and 2002 Olympic gold medalist right here in Salt Lake, join the organization and bring a fresh perspective to our room backed by years of experience as both a player and coach. This is another exciting day for the organization.”
Tourigny, 52, has compiled an overall head coaching record of 170-195-45, dating back to his time with the then-Arizona Coyotes from 2021 to 2024 before moving with the franchise to Utah.
The coach expressed gratitude for the renewed commitment. “I am grateful to the organization and feel fortunate to work alongside such an exceptional coaching staff and dedicated group of players, whose collective hard work and commitment to each other have fostered a culture we can be proud of,” Tourigny said. “My family and I love being in Utah and look forward to deepening our roots here.”
Forsythe earned a Stanley Cup ring in 2018 as an assistant with the Washington Capitals and came aboard with the Coyotes organization in July 2023.
Foote spent 17 of his 19 NHL seasons with the Colorado Avalanche, capturing Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001. Most recently, he served as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, going 25-49-8 last season.
Indian technology manufacturer Tata Electronics has acknowledged a recent cybersecurity breach after security researchers revealed that a ransomware group known as World Leaks published what appear to be confidential component designs and specification documents belonging to Apple and Tesla — both of whom are customers of the Indian company.
The ransomware group has made more than 200,000 files available on the dark web, according to security researchers who spoke with Reuters.
In a statement, Tata Electronics said: “A few weeks ago, Tata Electronics identified a cybersecurity incident on some of our systems. Our response protocols were deployed immediately, and the incident has had no impact on our operations across businesses, which remain unaffected.”
A source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that Apple is currently looking into the breach and that a “full analysis was going on.” The same source confirmed that Tata had received a ransom demand tied to the incident. Apple did not respond to media requests for comment, and Tata Electronics declined to address questions about the ransom demand.
This breach adds to a series of difficulties facing Apple’s supply chain operations in India, where Tata has also faced scrutiny over alleged contamination of farmland near one of its iPhone component factories. Tata has been growing into one of Apple’s most significant manufacturing partners outside of China — a development that aligns with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of turning India into a global hub for electronics manufacturing.
This is not the first time Tata has been targeted by cybercriminals. The company’s British Jaguar Land Rover division was hit by a cyberattack last year, which caused a six-week halt in production. India’s Computer Emergency Response Team, which operates under the country’s IT ministry and monitors cyber incidents, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
World Leaks, which has previously claimed involvement in a breach of Nike, announced on its dark web site that it was releasing stolen data from Tata Electronics. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the data or reach World Leaks for a response.
According to the World Leaks website, the Tata data includes more than 200,000 files totaling over 630 gigabytes. The site’s database displays numerous purported Apple files and folders, some labeled “com.apple.factorydata,” along with documents referencing “material specification.”
Indian cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia, who examined the Tata files on World Leaks on behalf of Reuters, said the data also contains emails, event logs going back several years, and passport copies of employees — including foreign nationals. Rajaharia has previously assisted Indian law enforcement on cyber-related cases.
The dark web site is not accessible through standard search engines and requires special software to reach. A second security researcher, Rakesh Krishnan, told Reuters the data has been available on the dark web since at least June 10.
Tata also manufactures parts for Tesla, according to industry sources. One folder in the World Leaks database was labeled “NV36 Chargeport Controller — North America,” apparently referring to components used in an upgraded version of Tesla’s Model Y SUV. Another document from 2023, marked “TRADE SECRET,” contained drawings tied to Tesla’s internal project called Highland — a publicly known codename for a redesigned version of the Model 3 sedan. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Rajaharia also provided a screen recording of his file review. It showed that searching for “Apple” returned 181 files and folders, while a search for “Tesla” brought up files that appeared to include manufacturing specifications and an assembly document dated May 2025.
Some of the published files carried footers stating, “This document contains proprietary and confidential information of Apple Inc.” and “information contained herein is deemed confidential, proprietary, and a trade secret of Tesla Inc.”
Among the leaked materials was a 52-page document bearing Apple’s proprietary markings, which reportedly details quality inspection standards for iPhone circuit board parts. Additionally, 33 files and folders were associated with the search term “Hosur” — the location of Tata’s primary iPhone assembly facility in Tamil Nadu state.
Tata notified certain employees at its iPhone assembly operations about the data breach last week, a second industry source confirmed. The company currently handles approximately one-third of Apple’s iPhone production in India, with the remainder produced by Foxconn.
Disney-owned ABC announced Monday that it is rolling out an on-air campaign asking viewers to stand with the network as it navigates two separate disputes with the U.S. government.
The Federal Communications Commission moved in April to require ABC to undergo an early review of the broadcast licenses for its eight company-owned television stations. That action came after President Donald Trump pushed the regulatory agency to act against the network.
In a separate matter, the FCC has also opened an investigation into ABC’s daytime talk program “The View,” after determining that the show falls under federal equal time rules that apply to political candidates.
The Dallas Mavericks are close to finalizing an agreement to bring in Michigan head coach Dusty May as their next head coach, according to reports published Monday by ESPN and The Athletic.
May, 49, wrapped up a remarkable second season with the Wolverines in 2025-26, steering the program to a 37-3 record and an NCAA Tournament championship — a stunning turnaround for a program that had struggled before his arrival.
He steps into the role left vacant by Jason Kidd, who parted ways with Dallas on May 19 following five seasons as head coach. The Mavericks finished last season with a 26-56 record, their worst performance since the 2017-18 campaign.
May has no prior NBA coaching experience but will take the reins of a Dallas squad that features Cooper Flagg, the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year.
By leaving Michigan, May walks away from a program he had built into a powerhouse. His 2026 recruiting class was ranked second in the country by 247Sports, featuring five-star point guard Brandon McCoy Jr. along with four four-star prospects — forwards Quinn Costello, Malachi Brown, and Lincoln Cosby, and guard Joseph Hartman. The Wolverines had also added three transfer players: center Moustapha Thiam from Cincinnati, forward Jalen Reed from LSU, and forward J.P. Estrella from Tennessee.
According to ESPN, May becomes the first college head coach to make the jump to an NBA job since former Michigan coach John Beilein took over the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2019. The last coach to move directly from winning an NCAA title to an NBA head coaching position was Larry Brown of Kansas, who became head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 1988.
One of May’s first tasks in Dallas will be the NBA draft, which gets underway Tuesday. The Mavericks hold the 9th and 30th picks in the first round.
May’s impact at Michigan was immediate. In two seasons, he went 64-13 with the Wolverines after inheriting a program that had gone just 8-24 the year before he arrived. Shortly after Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 in the national title game on April 6, May agreed to a contract extension with the university.
Prior to his time in Ann Arbor, May spent six seasons at Florida Atlantic from 2018 to 2024, compiling a 126-69 record and making national headlines with an unexpected run to the Final Four in 2023. He left Florida Atlantic to replace Juwan Howard at Michigan.
As for the man he’s replacing, Jason Kidd had a mixed tenure in Dallas. He led the team to 50 or more wins on two occasions and guided the Mavericks to a Western Conference title in 2023-24, though that run ended in a five-game NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics. He also endured three losing seasons during his time there.
Kidd, 53, finished his Dallas tenure with a 205-205 regular season record and a 22-18 playoff mark. His overall head coaching record stands at 388-395, with a 31-33 record in the postseason.
DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks are putting the finishing touches on an agreement to bring college basketball’s hottest coach to the NBA, according to a source familiar with the situation who spoke to the Associated Press on Monday. The source requested anonymity since the deal had not yet been officially completed.
The coach in question is Dusty May, who just guided Michigan to an NCAA national title — the program’s first since 1989 — with a 69-63 win over UConn in April, capping a remarkable 34-3 season. The Wolverines also made history at the start of that NCAA Tournament run by becoming the first team ever to score 90 or more points in five straight tournament games.
May’s rise to national prominence actually began a few years earlier, when he took Florida Atlantic to its only Final Four appearance. The Owls returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 before May departed for Michigan.
Now 49 years old, May steps into the role vacated by Jason Kidd, who was dismissed two weeks after Masai Ujiri came on board as president of basketball operations and alternate governor of the Mavericks.
The opportunity ahead of May is significant. He’ll have the chance to develop Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and reigning Rookie of the Year. Veteran guard Kyrie Irving is also on the roster, though he missed the entire 2025-26 season after tearing his ACL in March of last year.
May’s coaching journey began as a college assistant at Murray State in 2005-06. He went on to work on staffs at UAB, Louisiana Tech, and Florida before landing his first head coaching position at Florida Atlantic.
His tenure at FAU peaked during the 2022-23 season, when the Owls went 35-4 and made their magical Final Four run — only to fall 72-71 to San Diego State when Lamont Butler hit a buzzer-beater in the national semifinals.
At last month’s NBA draft combine, Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg — who played under May and is projected to be a lottery pick in Thursday night’s first round — spoke glowingly about his former coach.
Shohei Ohtani has already collected four MVP awards throughout his career, and now he’s mounting a serious push for an honor that has never been his: the Cy Young Award. But the competition in the National League this season may be too fierce to overcome.
Through 12 starts with the Los Angeles Dodgers — who are approaching the midpoint of their schedule — Ohtani sits at 7-2 with a sparkling 1.47 ERA across 73 2/3 innings pitched. His career bests in both categories came back in 2022, when he made 28 starts and threw 166 innings for the Los Angeles Angels, going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and finishing fourth in the American League Cy Young voting.
Ohtani’s bat has historically been more consistent than his arm from season to season. He didn’t take the mound at all in 2019 or 2024, and his teams have carefully managed how much he pitches. He’s currently a few innings short of officially qualifying for the ERA title, but with a mark well under 2.00, there’s no question he ranks among the best starters in the game right now.
Despite those impressive numbers, oddsmakers still view him as an unlikely Cy Young winner. Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski leads the pack at 8-3 with a 1.45 ERA over 15 starts, while Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez is close behind at 9-3 with a 1.80 ERA — and he recently wrapped up a stretch of 50 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
On the offensive side, Ohtani remains the overwhelming favorite to take home yet another MVP. His home run and stolen base totals aren’t at the jaw-dropping levels he’s reached before, but he tops the National League in on-base percentage. When you add in his contributions on the pitching side, it’s difficult to argue that anyone else deserves the award.
A bit of Dodgers history: the very first Cy Young Award was handed to a Brooklyn Dodger. In 1956, when the award covered both leagues under a single honor, Don Newcombe claimed it. Since the franchise relocated to Los Angeles, seven Dodgers pitchers have taken home the Cy Young — Sandy Koufax three times, Clayton Kershaw three times, Don Drysdale, Mike Marshall, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, and Eric Gagne.
The 2026 baseball season has already produced two hitting for the cycle moments. Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs completed the single-double-triple-home run sequence on Monday during a victory over Colorado. Then, this past Saturday, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper accomplished the same feat during a lopsided win over the New York Mets. One small footnote: Crow-Armstrong was picked off first base right after the single that completed his cycle, giving Harper a slight edge in the comparison.
Worth noting alongside Harper’s big day: teammate Kyle Schwarber launched three home runs in that same game. The last time two players on the same team each hit for the cycle or went deep multiple times in one game was June 3, 1932, when Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees slugged four home runs while Tony Lazzeri hit for the cycle. The Yankees topped the Philadelphia Athletics 20-13 that afternoon.
Friday night brought one of the more stunning comebacks of the season, as the Athletics rallied from a seven-run deficit in the sixth inning to defeat the Los Angeles Angels 12-11 in 10 innings. The A’s had jumped out to a 4-0 lead before allowing 11 straight runs. By the bottom of the seventh inning, Baseball Savant had the Angels’ win probability sitting at 99 percent.
The rally started a frame earlier when Zack Gelof singled home a run to trim the gap to 11-5. Then, with two outs in the seventh, Tyler Soderstrom drew a walk and Jacob Wilson followed with a two-run homer to make it 11-7. Max Muncy added a two-run shot in the eighth to pull the A’s within two. With their last out looming in the ninth, Jonah Heim connected on a tying two-run homer to force extra innings. In the 10th, Muncy — playing third base — threw out a runner at the plate, and the Athletics ultimately won when Nick Kurtz worked a bases-loaded walk in the bottom half.
Despite now carrying the worst run differential in the American League at minus-54, the Athletics stand at 38-40 and trail first place in the AL West by just one and a half games.
BERLIN (AP) — A German journalist whose fate had been a mystery for months following her detention in Syria is now free, according to her lawyer, who made the announcement Monday.
Eva Maria Michelmann walked out of a Damascus prison on Friday and made it back to Berlin that same day, her attorney Roland Meister confirmed in a written statement.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” Meister said, while cautioning that “this cautious wording is not an all-clear as to the physical and psychological consequences of her detention.”
The 36-year-old journalist, along with a Kurdish-Turkish colleague, was taken into custody by Syrian government forces back in January. The arrests came during the takeover of Raqqa, following military operations against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
For a period of time, no one knew where Michelmann was being held. It wasn’t until the Syrian government confirmed her detention that her situation became clearer. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for her release in April, and international pressure on her behalf continued to grow.
Her colleague, Kurdish-Turkish reporter Ahmet Polad, has not been released, and his current whereabouts remain unknown.
Meister called on authorities to immediately and unconditionally free Polad, and also demanded that doctors, lawyers, and his family be given unrestricted access to him.
Michelmann, who grew up in the western German city of Cologne, had been working as a reporter in Syria since 2022. She and Polad both worked for the Istanbul-based Etkin News Agency ETHA and Özgür TV, a broadcaster with operations across multiple European cities, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Her lawyer expressed gratitude toward staff at the German Foreign Ministry and the German embassies in Damascus and Beirut for their role in securing her release.
Martin Giese, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Office, told reporters: “The federal government is, of course, very relieved that Ms. Michelmann has been released. From the very first day we learned of her arrest, we have worked very, very hard to secure her release.”
Her family responded with great relief. Her brother, Antonius Michelmann, said: “I am immensely relieved that my sister is now free. This was only possible because of the tremendous solidarity shown to Eva and Ahmet and to both our families.”
He also made clear that the fight isn’t over: “It is now high time for Ahmet to be released as well.”
WASHINGTON — For decades, the Federal Reserve gradually evolved from a secretive government institution into a more open one, willing to explain its decision-making process and share its economic outlook with the public. Now, that trend appears to be going into reverse.
During his first press conference last Wednesday, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh began rolling back some of that transparency. Like a number of economists, Warsh believes financial markets have grown overly reliant on the Fed’s guidance, and that such direction works best during financial emergencies or economic slumps.
The communications changes Warsh is making echo the more guarded style of former chair Alan Greenspan, who passed away at the age of 100 on Monday. Greenspan was the only former Fed chair Warsh singled out for praise at his swearing-in ceremony last month.
Since taking over, Warsh has moved quickly to trim the Fed’s communications footprint. He significantly shortened the statement the central bank releases after its policy meetings and made clear at his press conference that the Fed will no longer offer the kind of forward-looking interest rate signals it once routinely provided to markets. Analysts caution, however, that this approach could lead to sharper swings in stock and bond prices — and ultimately higher borrowing costs for everyday consumers and businesses.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X bounced back Monday after a widespread outage left tens of thousands of users unable to access the service, according to outage-tracking site Downdetector.com.
The trouble started at approximately 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with reports of problems surging to more than 25,000 in the United States at its worst point. By the time the platform had largely recovered, U.S. reports had dropped to around 620, according to Downdetector, which compiles outage data from user-submitted reports across multiple sources.
Users in other countries were also affected. In Canada, problem reports climbed above 3,400 before falling to roughly 30, while the United Kingdom saw reports exceed 9,000 earlier in the day before those numbers also came down significantly.
It’s worth noting that the figures from Downdetector reflect user-submitted reports, so the true number of people impacted by the outage could be different from what the data shows.
SpaceX, which owns X, had not responded to a request for comment regarding the cause of the outage at the time of reporting.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is embarking on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East this week, visiting the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain from Tuesday through Thursday to make the case for the Trump administration’s preliminary agreement with Iran directly to Gulf Arab leaders.
While in Bahrain, Rubio is also scheduled to meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council — known as the GCC — a bloc of six Sunni-led monarchies that also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed the trip on Monday.
Although GCC member nations have generally backed efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, many of those same leaders are uneasy about the specifics of the memorandum of understanding that President Donald Trump signed last week.
A major sticking point for regional officials is a provision that could establish a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Tehran. Gulf leaders fear Iran would use that money to rebuild its military and continue bankrolling proxy groups throughout the region. Adding to their anxiety is the deal’s silence on Iran’s ballistic missile program — a particularly sensitive issue for nations that have faced Iranian missile and drone attacks in recent months.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar all host American military installations, which form the foundation of U.S. military presence in the Middle East. Any shift — even a minor one — in how those countries approach their security relationship with Washington could carry significant consequences for U.S. strategy in the region.
Rubio’s visit is part of a broader wave of Iran-focused diplomacy. Trump signed the Iran memorandum of understanding on Wednesday during a visit with French President Emmanuel Macron at Versailles. The agreement starts a 60-day countdown for the United States and Iran to finalize a more comprehensive deal.
Over the weekend, a U.S. negotiating team led by Vice President JD Vance participated in talks in Switzerland, facilitated by Qatari and Pakistani mediators. The first phase of those discussions wrapped up Monday, with technical-level negotiations set to continue throughout the week.
The specific schedule for Rubio’s stops in each country, along with the full list of officials he plans to meet, had not been released as of Monday. In his statement, Pigott said Rubio — who also serves as the White House national security advisor — would “discuss a range of regional priorities including the memorandum of understanding with Iran, efforts to secure full and free safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and the importance of peace and stability in the region.”
BOSTON, Massachusetts — The Boston Red Sox are singing the praises of Scotland’s famous traveling supporters, known as the Tartan Army, after their remarkable visit to Fenway Park during the FIFA World Cup.
Thousands of Scotland supporters, in Boston for the tournament, took a break from football on June 14 to march through the city to the iconic baseball stadium, where the Red Sox were hosting the Texas Rangers that evening.
The march was accompanied by the sounds of more than a dozen bagpipers, with fans dressed in kilts and waving Scottish flags making their way to the ballpark just one day after Scotland celebrated their first World Cup victory since 1990 — a 1-0 defeat of Haiti.
Once at Fenway Park, the Scottish supporters belted out rousing songs, including the national team’s beloved anthem “Flower of Scotland,” for Red Sox fans gathered both outside and inside the stadium, before joining the crowd to watch the baseball game.
Red Sox President Sam Kennedy captured the excitement in a letter addressed to the Scottish FA. “What happened at Fenway Park on June 14th was something none of us will forget. We knew the Tartan Army was coming. We did not fully understand what that meant until we saw it,” Kennedy wrote.
Kennedy went on to describe the scene in vivid detail. “Hundreds of Scotland supporters gathered at the foot of a statue of Robert Burns in the Back Bay and marched all the way to Lansdowne Street to the sound of bagpipes. Kilts and Scottish flags filled our ballpark with a spirit that has no equivalent in American sport,” he wrote. “The Tartan Army treated our home like their own, and we are better for it.”
Beyond the ballpark, Scotland’s fans have become one of the most talked-about feel-good stories of this World Cup, taking over bars, restaurants, pubs, and public parks throughout Boston. Their celebrations stretched on for days, and reports indicate the festivities even strained the city’s beer supplies as Scotland played their first two group stage matches there.
Scotland’s next challenge comes Wednesday in Miami, where they face Brazil in a group match that could clinch their spot in the next round of the tournament.
The United States Supreme Court moved Monday to reinstate the 2017 murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez, the man found guilty of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose 1979 disappearance in New York City became one of the most haunting missing-child cases in American history.
By a 6-3 vote, the court’s conservative majority sided with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, reversing a lower appellate court’s decision that had thrown out the jury’s guilty verdict against Hernandez, a former worker at a local delicatessen in New York’s Soho neighborhood.
The ruling was unsigned and spanned 10 pages. The three liberal justices on the court voted against the decision.
District Attorney Bragg released a statement following the ruling: “Today the Supreme Court agreed with the findings of multiple lower courts and upheld the trial conviction of Pedro Hernandez for the horrific murder of Etan Patz, which changed a generation of New Yorkers. This office has remained steadfast in its pursuit of justice for Etan and the Patz family, and will continue to stand by this important conviction.”
Young Etan vanished in 1979 while walking alone for the very first time to a school bus stop in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood. He was never found. His case gained national attention and helped give rise to the now-iconic practice of printing missing children’s photographs on the sides of milk cartons in an effort to generate public tips.
Hernandez was not arrested until 2012, when investigators received information that he had confessed to the crime years earlier during a church group gathering. After his arrest, Hernandez admitted to police that he lured Patz into the basement of the Soho deli where he was employed, strangled him, and disposed of his body in a nearby alley.
His defense attorneys have maintained that Hernandez suffers from mental illness and that his confession was obtained through police coercion. The defense also attempted to shift blame onto Jose Ramos, a man who had been romantically involved with a babysitter for the Patz family and was long considered the primary suspect in the case. Ramos, who passed away in March of this year, had previously served a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing boys.
Hernandez, now in his mid-60s, faced his first trial in 2015, which ended without a verdict after a single juror refused to convict due to doubts about his guilt. At a second trial two years later, in 2017, a jury found him guilty of both kidnapping and murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
That conviction was later overturned in 2025 by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which determined that the trial judge had given the jury improper instructions that unfairly influenced the outcome against Hernandez.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 2nd Circuit’s decision violated a 1996 federal law that restricts the ability of federal courts to provide relief to individuals convicted in state courts.
The legal dispute centered on how the jury was instructed regarding Hernandez’s confessions. He initially admitted to the crime before being read his Miranda rights — the legal protections that inform suspects of their right to remain silent and to have an attorney present. After being informed of those rights and agreeing to waive them, Hernandez was recorded on video making two additional confessions.
During deliberations at the 2017 trial, jurors sent a note to Justice Maxwell Wiley, the presiding judge, asking whether they were required to disregard the two videotaped confessions if they found the original, un-Mirandized admission to be involuntary. The judge responded simply: “The answer is, no” — a response the 2nd Circuit later called improper and “manifestly prejudicial.”
The anniversary of Etan Patz’s disappearance, May 25, continues to be observed nationally as National Missing Children’s Day.
A Maryland Department of Natural Resources initiative focused on climate adaptation along the Eastern Shore has approved seven grants worth more than $4.5 million to safeguard large areas of saltmarsh habitat through living shoreline construction.
The funded projects are designed to shield coastal areas and islands from shoreline erosion, creating a protective buffer for nearby communities while preserving habitat for migratory birds such as the saltmarsh sparrow and other vulnerable wildlife. Among the projects, one will specifically help protect an important roadway, and another will support an outdoor space dedicated to veterans.
Together, these efforts contribute to the Roots for Resilience program’s goal of protecting 400 acres of high-quality marsh habitat by 2029.
A living shoreline relies on nature-based methods — including marsh plantings, coir logs, sills, and breakwaters — to hold shorelines in place while keeping natural coastal processes intact. This approach helps reduce flooding and erosion, shields infrastructure, lowers long-term costs, supports working waterfronts, and strengthens communities against rising sea levels.
DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz highlighted the importance of the work: “These projects are ideally suited for the Roots for Resilience initiative, designed for the vulnerable communities of the Eastern Shore. The shared goals of protecting people and habitats are vitally connected. These living shoreline projects demonstrate how solutions work best when we work with nature to benefit local communities.”
Roots for Resilience launched in May 2026 and is backed by $42.5 million in federal grant funding. The program channels that money into nature-based climate solutions such as tree plantings, sustainable forest management, coastal wetland restoration, and living shoreline projects.
Funding comes through a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, awarded to the Atlantic Conservation Coalition — a group made up of The Nature Conservancy and agencies from four coastal states, including DNR and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Eastern Shore saltmarshes face growing threats from rising sea levels and gradual land sinking, putting these low-lying coastal wetlands at serious risk of being swallowed by open water. These habitats serve a vital role by filtering pollutants, storing carbon in plant roots and soil, and protecting shorelines from erosion and storm surges.
Grant recipients include Maryland counties and nonprofit organizations, chosen through a formal Request for Proposals process. One project is already cleared for construction, while six others will receive funding to complete their designs before becoming eligible for construction money. The total funding available through this program for living shoreline restoration is approximately $17 million.
All projects will take place in Dorchester and Somerset counties between 2026 and 2029, with additional funds and in-kind contributions coming from project partners. The seven project locations are as follows:
Wroten Island — Green Trust Alliance received a grant for a shovel-ready, permitted living shoreline at Wroten Island that will reduce erosion and protect more than 150 acres of marsh habitat. Construction is expected to get underway in fall 2026.
Pocomoke Sound — The Lower Shore Land Trust will use its grant to design a living shoreline on conservation-easement property along the Pocomoke Sound shoreline, aiming to protect more than 200 acres of healthy salt marsh for sensitive species including the eastern diamondback terrapin and saltmarsh sparrow.
Smith Island — Ducks Unlimited will design a living shoreline within the Martin National Wildlife Refuge on Smith Island, protecting 118 acres of marsh habitat that migrating waterfowl depend on.
Deal Island — The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay will design a living shoreline within the Deal Island Wildlife Management Area at Little Deal Island, protecting 78 acres of marsh by curbing erosion along the island’s southwestern side.
Franks Island — Somerset County received a grant to design a living shoreline that will protect 72 acres of marsh from erosion, strengthen Franks Island’s ability to withstand storm impacts, and shield the Deal Island Causeway.
Fishing Bay — Dorchester County will use its grant to design a living shoreline at the Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area, reducing erosion and protecting 116 acres of marsh that supports a variety of birds and aquatic species.
Taylors Island — The Military Bowl Foundation received funding to design a living shoreline at Patriot Point, an outdoor retreat for veterans. The project aims to protect 100 acres of marsh habitat along migratory routes used by birds and other wildlife.
In addition to the living shoreline grants, DNR is currently reviewing applications from nonprofits that will partner with county governments to conduct community outreach on enhanced forestry management and help identify contractors to meet the program’s forest management goals. Additional funding opportunities are listed on the Roots for Resilience open solicitations website.
BOSTON (AP) — Which wine goes best with Shark Week? Can a pinot noir hold up against the mud and sweat of a Tough Mudder obstacle race? And is a wine simply called SEX too bold — or not bold enough?
As strange as those questions might seem, they reflect the very real challenges facing wine marketers today. Sales are down, younger drinkers are harder to reach, and an industry long associated with snobbery and stuffiness is scrambling to reinvent itself for 2026 and beyond.
“That self-important way that wine can refer to itself — we’re really trying to tip that on its head,” said Helen Kurtz, chief of marketing for The Wine Group, which is hoping its easy-drinking Cupcake Vineyards line can appeal to a generation raised on Frappuccinos and gas station BuzzBallz. “It’s about being less serious about ourselves, because that’s what this consumer is demanding,” she added.
That philosophy has led The Wine Group to tie its MD 20/20 brand to World Wrestling Entertainment events under the tagline “Mad Dog Enters the Ring,” and to launch Fuel by Franzia — a boxed wine line aimed squarely at NASCAR fans under the slogan “Full Throttle Flavor.”
The broader picture is one of declining alcohol consumption across the board, a trend that picked up speed after the pandemic. An aging Baby Boomer generation is gravitating toward healthier lifestyles, Gen Z drinkers are reaching for low- and no-alcohol options, and marijuana has become a more widely available alternative. The U.S. alcohol industry, valued at roughly $560 billion, is responding in different ways — hard liquor, for instance, has found a growth area in ready-to-drink canned cocktails. But wine faces a particularly steep climb.
“You’ve got a bunch of things, what you might call friction points, with wine, that are particularly salient to younger consumers,” including cost and drinkability, said Christian Miller, director of research for the Wine Market Council.
Wine has long carried an air of pretension — from the flowery language used to describe it (“notes of asphalt and barnyard,” anyone?) to the price tags that come with many bottles. Styles have historically skewed toward high-alcohol, high-tannin options that don’t exactly appeal to someone used to sipping a hard seltzer. And according to a trends report by the British household products company Lakeland, fewer than a third of Gen Z households even own a corkscrew.
A growing number of wineries are pushing back against all of that, trading the formal façade for a more approachable, even irreverent personality. Price still matters — the sweet spot appears to be between $8 and $20 a bottle — but the message matters more.
“My mantra is always to communicate the language of wine to everyone because not everyone speaks wine. The wine should be a reflection of the consumer who is going to buy it,” said Charles Smith, founder of House of Smith, the company behind brands like Kung Fu Girl Riesling and SEX Rosé.
Bogle Family Wine Collection has taken a similarly bold approach with its Juggernaut Wines line. The bottles feature striking labels depicting powerful predators — a shark, a grizzly bear, an orca, a lion, and an aggressive bird of prey — a sharp contrast to the pastoral scenes and elegant imagery that dominate most wine shelves.
The strategy also involves placing those bottles in unexpected settings, said Jessica LaBounty, the company’s marketing director. For two years, Juggernaut has sponsored Tough Mudder obstacle races under the slogan “Adventure awaits.” The brand has also appeared at zoo events where attendees can name dead rodents and insects after former romantic partners before feeding them to the animals.
This year, Juggernaut has partnered with Discovery network’s Shark Week. Its chardonnay label features a particularly fierce great white shark and the tagline “just the right amount of bite.”
“The viewer base of Shark Week lines up really, really nicely with who we know our consumer to be,” LaBounty said. “It’s another way to meet them where they are already versus kind of asking them to come to us.”
The goal is to close a generational gap that wine largely missed. Younger drinkers simply don’t talk about wine the way their older counterparts do. A popular social media meme illustrates the divide perfectly: a Millennial marketing team pitches wine by discussing terroir and full-bodied flavors at length, while the Gen Z version cuts straight to the point — “it’s giving… yummy.”
Bread & Butter Wines has leaned fully into that casual mindset with its tagline, “Don’t overthink it.” The brand suggests pairing its red blend with a candy charcuterie board, its pinot noir with a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich, and its prosecco with french fries.
“The No. 1 goal is to disrupt the shelf because it is so crowded,” said Caitlin Ward, the brand’s digital and marketing director. “Sassiness is a way to do that.”
Motorists traveling northbound on B Street should be aware of a left shoulder closure currently in effect between Newcastle Avenue, also known as Route 9, and Townsend Street.
The closure is the result of ongoing construction activity in the area. Drivers are advised to use caution as they pass through the affected stretch of roadway.
The left shoulder is expected to remain closed until 3:00 PM. No further details about the nature of the construction were provided.
Delaware Route 24 westbound is currently closed at Mulberry Knoll Road following a crash, according to state transportation officials.
Motorists traveling in the area are advised to avoid the roadway and plan for alternate routes until the road is reopened. No further details regarding the crash have been made available at this time.
Drivers should use caution in the surrounding area and allow for extra travel time. Updates are expected as more information becomes available.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted that Iran would have developed a nuclear weapon and deployed it against Israel had it not been for two recent military campaigns — but that claim is not backed by any publicly available evidence and contradicts findings from U.S. intelligence agencies and the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Netanyahu has spent decades warning about the dangers of Iran’s disputed nuclear program, most notably during dramatic presentations at the United Nations. His rhetoric has intensified following a recent interim peace deal reached between the U.S. and Iran, and with Israeli elections scheduled later this year.
Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear activities are intended for peaceful purposes, even as it has enriched uranium to near-weapons-grade levels well beyond what civilian energy programs require. The United States and other nations say Iran operated a nuclear weapons program until 2003, when it was reportedly abandoned.
Even before the recent conflicts damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the country was still months or years away from producing a functional atomic weapon — and there was no evidence it had made the decision to build one. Israel itself is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons.
Speaking Sunday at the JNS International Policy Summit, Netanyahu delivered remarks in English: “We have prevented Iran from carrying out a plan to annihilate us, and today they would have had a nuclear weapon, an atomic bomb to do so. Had we not acted in Operation Rising Lion and then in Operation Roaring Lion, Iran would have had atomic bombs. And let me tell you something, they would have used them.”
Iran and Israel have been bitter adversaries since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian leaders have repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction, while Netanyahu has made confronting Iran’s nuclear ambitions a defining mission since the 1990s, consistently warning that Tehran was on the verge of obtaining a bomb.
When U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement — a deal Netanyahu had long opposed — the United States reimposed and expanded severe economic sanctions on Iran that had been eased under the accord. Iran reacted by ramping up uranium enrichment to 60%, which is technically just one step below weapons-grade.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear oversight body, has pointed out that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons that enriches uranium to that level. The IAEA’s director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium could potentially be used to construct as many as 10 nuclear bombs, if Iran chose to pursue that path.
Despite this, there is no publicly available evidence that Iran has maintained an active nuclear weapons program since 2003, when the IAEA, the U.S., and others say Tehran shut down the effort as U.S. forces invaded Iraq. IAEA inspections, though increasingly restricted in recent years, have not uncovered any evidence of a weapons program.
To produce a deployable weapon, Iran would need to enrich uranium to 90% purity, construct an actual bomb, and likely miniaturize it for use on a ballistic missile. That entire process would require months or years and would carry a significant risk of detection by Israeli or American intelligence.
A 2025 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates all U.S. intelligence agencies, stated plainly: “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
Israel launched a 12-day military campaign against Iran in June 2025, known as Operation Rising Lion. During that conflict, the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities, destroying centrifuges and halting uranium enrichment. That enrichment activity has not been known to resume, and the bombing is believed to have buried Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium underground. Iran has since prevented IAEA inspectors from accessing the bombed locations.
Following that conflict, Netanyahu boasted that Israel had sent Iran’s nuclear program “to oblivion.” The U.S. and Israel then carried out a surprise military operation on February 28, which Israel has named Operation Roaring Lion.
The initial strikes in that operation killed Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who held ultimate authority over the country’s nuclear decisions. Iranian diplomats say he had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, prohibiting nuclear weapons.
His son and successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is believed to have been wounded in those strikes and has not made any public appearances since assuming leadership. He is regarded as a more hardline figure than his father and has not issued any statements regarding Iran’s nuclear intentions.
Some other Iranian officials have suggested the country should consider pursuing nuclear weapons if its survival is at stake.
MILAN (AP) — As the world grapples with economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, Milan’s fashion designers responded by stripping things down — at least in terms of silhouette, if not always in fabric choice.
During a sweltering Milan Fashion Week, designers largely opted for cleaner lines and simplified looks ahead of next summer’s season. Prada set the tone early, with co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons championing simplicity and familiar wardrobe staples reimagined through new proportions and fabrication choices.
That said, dressing for warm weather was far from simple on Milan’s runways. Leather and knitwear featured prominently in the Spring-Summer 2027 collections, raising the question of whether fashion’s elite will need air-conditioned spaces, mountain retreats, or cooler climates to pull off some of these looks.
The menswear collections, which concluded Monday, highlighted several key trends: a love of luxury materials, creative approaches to ventilation, and more relaxed tailoring — though a handful of designers threw restraint out the window entirely in favor of full-on glamour.
One of the season’s most unexpected themes was the staying power of leather. Prada drew inspiration from the everyday appeal of denim, creating slim five-pocket trousers paired with cropped, flat-pocketed jackets worn in place of shirts. Other houses used woven and perforated leather techniques to add breathability, even as the heat outside continued to rise.
After several seasons dominated by oversized, boxy fits, menswear appears to be moving back toward the body. Designers widely agreed that the well-dressed man still reaches for a suit — the question was simply how to make one wearable in the heat.
The answer, for many, was ventilation. Dress shirts were left unbuttoned, made sheer, or eliminated altogether. Long trousers stayed dominant, but cuts moved closer to the body. Dolce & Gabbana pushed this idea to the extreme with microshorts that put muscular legs on full display, while other brands left torsos uncovered.
Tailoring remained a cornerstone of the Milan collections, though it appeared in softer, more relaxed forms. Designers loosened construction, opened up necklines, and explored fabrics that allowed for better airflow. The overall effect was formal dressing adapted for a warming world.
The message was unmistakable: the suit isn’t disappearing, but it is evolving.
Not everyone got the memo on minimalism, however. Philipp Plein unveiled a crystal-covered denim outfit that requires days of painstaking handwork to produce. Dolce & Gabbana also leaned into decoration, incorporating beaded details reminiscent of coral.
Where Prada offered reduction, these designers delivered unapologetic excess and spectacle.
A less crowded Milan schedule gave newer designers room to shine alongside established powerhouses. Martin Quad made his Milan debut, bringing the inventive tailoring techniques that first earned him recognition in his home city of Copenhagen. Domenico Orefice presented a co-ed collection rooted in leather and richly textured woven fabrics.
Japanese designer Shinya Kozuka also made his Milan debut with what many considered one of the season’s most poetic and warm-weather-appropriate collections, highlighted by a bare-chested model in a flowing sheer teal coat styled over baggy white trousers.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he is resigning, making him the sixth leader in ten years to deliver a farewell address outside 10 Downing Street — a remarkable streak of political instability in the United Kingdom.
Starmer rode into office in 2024 on a sweeping Labour Party election victory, promising to bring order after years of Conservative-led turmoil, grow the economy, and deliver on a pledge to “rebuild Britain.” Less than two years into his tenure, his approval ratings collapsed and his government fell short of those ambitious goals, ultimately forcing him out.
Here is a look at how six prime ministers have cycled through Britain’s top office since 2016:
Cameron won a parliamentary majority in 2015, but resigned in June 2016 — the day after British voters chose to leave the European Union in a historic referendum that he had strongly opposed. Ironically, it was Cameron himself who called the referendum, hoping to put to rest long-running divisions within his party over Britain’s ties to Europe.
May governed from 2016 until May 2019, spending three largely unsuccessful years trying to steer Britain through its departure from the EU. She managed to reach a withdrawal agreement with the bloc, but her own Conservative colleagues repeatedly blocked it. Parliament rejected the deal three times — opposed by pro-EU lawmakers on one side and Brexit-hardliners on the other, who felt the agreement kept Britain too tightly linked to Europe. “I have done my best,” she said upon her exit.
Johnson, a polarizing and larger-than-life figure, guided Britain through its formal EU exit and led the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. But a mounting pile of ethics controversies ultimately ended his time in office. Accusations included being too cozy with party donors, shielding allies from misconduct allegations, and misleading Parliament about social gatherings held at government offices during pandemic lockdowns. After dozens of officials and close supporters walked away from his administration, Johnson had no choice but to go.
Truss holds the record as Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, stepping down in October 2022 after just six weeks on the job. She came in promising to shake up the economy with bold free-market reforms, but her sweeping tax cut plan triggered financial and political chaos, gutting her support within the Conservative Party almost immediately.
Sunak took over from Truss in 2022 after earning the backing of his Conservative colleagues. He pledged to bring down inflation, clear a massive backlog in the public healthcare system, and crack down on illegal migration. Despite those promises, he was unable to reverse his party’s sliding poll numbers, and in 2024 he led the Conservatives to their worst electoral defeat in two hundred years of party history.
Starmer arrived at Downing Street in 2024 as the first Labour prime minister in 14 years, promising to repair the economy, restore crumbling public services, and renew public confidence in government. But close to two years later, he acknowledged that members of his own party no longer believe he is “best placed to lead us into the next general election” — and announced he would step aside.
LONDON (AP) — Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist political party, was found guilty Monday of rape and sexual abuse charges stemming from crimes committed against two girls over the course of several decades.
The 63-year-old was convicted at Newry Crown Court on one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency, and 13 counts of indecent assault. The offenses involved two girls and took place between 1985 and 2008.
Donaldson’s arrest two years ago effectively ended his prominent political career, during which he had been one of the most recognizable voices in Northern Ireland advocating for maintaining close ties with the United Kingdom. Following his arrest, he stepped down as leader of the conservative Democratic Unionist Party, known as the DUP, and relinquished his seat in the U.K. Parliament.
During the trial, Donaldson took the stand over two days and denied every allegation brought against him. At times visibly emotional, he insisted he was “crystal clear” that he had not raped one of the girls when she was a child. “It just didn’t happen, I am absolutely crystal clear about that,” he testified. “It is not something I would ever have done, it is just simply not true.”
Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, was determined to have aided and abetted her husband by witnessing the abuse and failing to intervene. However, due to mental health concerns, she underwent only a fact-finding hearing, a process that does not allow for a criminal conviction.
The two victims, who testified that the abuse began when they were around primary school age, described being groped by Donaldson. The older of the two, referred to throughout the proceedings as Complainant B, stated that he raped her.
Complainant B also recalled a meeting that took place in the 1990s at a Christian center, where she had been staying while dealing with drug-related issues. She said that during that encounter, Donaldson apologized “for what had happened in the past.” Donaldson, however, claimed the apology was only for making her feel uncomfortable at the meeting itself.
In a separate written communication, Donaldson sent a letter to Complainant A in 2020 expressing regret for “hurt, pain and distress” he said he had caused. He maintained the letter had nothing to do with sexual abuse allegations and referred instead to other conduct. In the letter, he wrote, “I know how deep the wounds are caused by my sinful and selfish actions,” and expressed hope that God would “lift a sinner out of the deep pit of sin.”
WASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court has restored the murder conviction of the man found guilty in connection with the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, the New York City boy whose case helped launch the nationwide missing children’s awareness movement.
In a 6-3 decision handed down Monday, the justices sided with New York prosecutors who had asked the high court to reverse a federal appeals ruling that had thrown out the conviction. The court’s three liberal justices voted in dissent.
The defendant, Pedro Hernandez, had already been tried twice. His first trial in 2015 ended without a verdict after jurors deadlocked. A second jury convicted him in 2017. That conviction was later overturned by a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found fault with how the trial judge responded to a question from deliberating jurors. Prosecutors had been gearing up for a third trial before Monday’s ruling.
During the 2017 deliberations, jurors posed a complex question to the judge: if they determined that Hernandez had not confessed voluntarily before being read his rights, were they required to throw out his other confessions as well? The judge’s response was brief — simply, “the answer is no” — and the jury proceeded to convict. The appeals court later ruled that jurors deserved a more thorough explanation, one that included the option of disregarding all of the confessions.
The Supreme Court disagreed with that reasoning. In an unsigned opinion, the justices said federal courts should not override state court decisions under a 1996 federal law specifically designed to limit federal oversight of state criminal proceedings. “The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,” the court wrote.
Manhattan’s top prosecutor had previously criticized the basis for overturning the conviction as “a slender reed” that effectively dismissed a five-month trial involving 66 witnesses.
Hernandez admitted to the crime during police questioning, though his attorneys have long argued the confession was false, the product of a mental illness that at times caused him to experience hallucinations. Defense lawyers also pointed out that officers questioned him for roughly seven hours before advising him of his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape at least two more times.
Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, while making his way to a downtown Manhattan school bus stop. Hernandez, who lived in Maple Shade, New Jersey, was working at a nearby convenience store at the time but did not come under suspicion until 2012.
Etan Patz was among the very first missing children to have his face printed on milk cartons, and the date of his disappearance has since been recognized as National Missing Children’s Day.
Hernandez, now 64 years old, remains in prison serving a sentence of 25 years to life.
