We want to hear from you for a New York Times Magazine feature about how much of Americas family wealth is tied up in parents homes.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is looking back at the groundbreaking role that helped shape his career, and LGBTQ+ representation on television. On a recent episode of his podcast Dinners On Me, the actor opened up about what it meant to portray Mitchell Pritchett on ABCs Modern Family for 11 seasons, and the responsibility he felt to authentically represent a gay character in the primetime spotlight.Ferguson, 49, explained that the timing of his role closely paralleled his real-life advocacy for marriage equality. As marriage rights were gaining momentum in the U.S., Modern Family was helping normalize the image of two gay men raising a child on national television.Socially, things lined up, Ferguson said. I was in the trenches fighting for marriage equality, and I felt so lucky to be part of a pop culture touchstone that was part of that same fight.Holding the Weight of RepresentationFerguson didnt take the opportunity lightly. He admitted that he felt an immense amount of pressurenot just from Hollywood, but from the LGBTQ+ community itself.I felt a responsibility when I was given a role like the one I had on Modern Family to get it right and to do it with care and precision, he said. In the early seasons, we were really put on a pedestal. We were the gay couple on network television. There was this unspoken expectation to represent the community perfectly.But the actor said that kind of pressure could feel overwhelming, especially when opinions clashed about what perfect even meant.Public Displays, Private BattlesFerguson recalled one early episode that stirred criticism among LGBTQ+ viewers. His character, Mitchell, was uncomfortable showing affection to his partner, Cameron, in public. Some fans were outraged, demanding to know why the couple wasnt allowed to kiss like their straight counterparts on the show.What those critics may have missed, Ferguson said, was the emotional truth behind the moment. It wasnt about avoiding affectionit was about telling a deeper story, he explained. Mitchells discomfort came from childhood trauma, from being teased, from growing up in a world where being gay wasnt safe. Thats why it resonated. Thats what made it real.Still, the backlash was tough to navigate. I had to tune out the noise, Ferguson said. There were people who wanted me to portray the character correctlywhatever that meant. But I wanted to bring nuance, to show layers and vulnerability.A Mirror, Not a MonolithAs the show grew in popularity, so did the debate about how it portrayed gay relationships. Ferguson revealed that the loudest criticism often came from within the LGBTQ+ community itself.I heard people say, Thats not how I see a gay couple, or Hes too stereotypical, Ferguson shared. But I never claimed to represent everyone. I was playing someone I knewme.He described Mitchell as a shade of who I was, adding with a laugh, If it was stereotypical, I guess Im guilty as charged. I was basically playing myself.That authenticity, Ferguson believes, is what gave the character staying power, and helped millions of viewers, queer and otherwise, feel seen.The Unexpected Armor of VisibilityInterestingly, Ferguson said the shows success offered him a layer of unexpected protection. There was a time when Id get heckled in public, or people would say things under their breath, he said. After Modern Family, that kind of faded. People saw me as part of something they loved. It gave me a coat of armor.But even with that protection, he admits the journey wasnt always easy. The desire to please everyoneaudiences, critics, the LGBTQ+ community, often left him feeling stuck.There was no way to satisfy both camps. You had one group wanting perfection, and another wanting truth. I tried to bring both, but it wasnt always possible.A Lasting LegacyModern Family ended in 2020, but Fergusons portrayal of Mitchell Pritchett remains a cultural touchstone. Alongside Eric Stonestreets Cameron Tucker, the couple offered mainstream audiences a vision of queer love, parenting, and partnership that was rarely shown with such consistency and heart.It wasnt perfect, but it was real. And for Ferguson, thats what mattered most.Theres always going to be criticism, he said. But if even one kid saw Mitchell and thought, That could be me, then I did my job.Source

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Susan Monarez was said to have refused to adopt Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s stance on vaccination policy.

Benito Skinner, better known as Benny Drama, is adding another gig to his already stacked summer. The comedian and actor has teamed up with Heineken to front its new 0.0 Reasons, 0.0 Judgment campaign, launched alongside the return of Heinekens non-alcoholic L0VE.L0VE cans.The campaign, which coincides with the U.S. Open, promotes moderation and inclusion in social settings. For Skinner, its about creating space where people can sip, laugh, and celebrate without pressure.A Match Made in Benny HeavenSkinner may be riding high from his hit podcast Ride with Mary Beth Barone and his role on Prime Videos Overcompensating, but he still found time to bring his humor and flair to Heinekens latest push. The brand tapped him not only for his star power but also for his ability to make audiences feel seen.Im not a day drinker, Skinner admitted when talking about why Heineken 0.0 fits his lifestyle. I want the taste, but I dont want to fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. This way, I still get the vibe without the crash.Bennys U.S. Open Survival KitWhen asked what hes bringing to the tennis tournament, Skinner didnt hold back. His essentials include a cold Heineken 0.0, sunscreen, sunglasses, gum, a travel-sized fragrance, and, in true Benny fashion, about 12 lip balms.Hes also riding for something more personal: bestie dates. Im taking Mary Beth [Barone] to The Open, he shared. We work together all the time, but its special to have those little play dates outside of work. Thats what Im riding for: intimate, fun moments with your best friend.Style, Humor, and Zero JudgmentThe campaign also gives fans a glimpse into Skinners ever-playful sense of style. Recently, hes been racking up vintage finds on Grailed, including distressed Abercrombie jeans and a Polo Sport cutoff that, according to a friend, gave him Masshole energy.Even his glam reflects the effortless Benny vibe. For Heinekens Grand Central shoot, makeup artist Katie Jane Hughes kept his look light with a touch of powder, proving that even in the summer heat, Bennys shine comes from personality, not sweat.Cheers to a New Kind of SummerFor Heineken, the collaboration underscores a growing movement toward moderation and choice in social spaces. By enlisting Skinner, the brand leans into humor and a message that resonates far beyond the tennis courts: enjoy the moment, no judgment needed.With Heineken 0.0 on hand and Benny Drama at the helm, this years U.S. Open isnt just about the matches, its about making space for good times and balance.Source

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With President Trumps trade moves, war in Ukraine and wildfires, it was a busy month for the European Union. But not in Brussels.

People gather at a vigil at Lynnhurst Park after a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)2025-08-28T04:42:49Z RICHFIELD, Minn. (AP) Just hours after a shooter opened fire through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis, killing two children and wounding 17 people, hundreds crowded inside a nearby schools gym, clutching one another and wiping away tears during a vigil alongside Gov. Tim Walz and clergy members.Speaking to a silent crowd crammed shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday night, while hundreds more waited outside, Archbishop Bernard Hebda described the students trying to shield their classmates as the gunfire erupted.In the midst of that there was courage, there was bravery, but most especially there was love, he said at the Academy of Holy Angels, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) south of the shooting, in the suburb of Richfield.Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, 23-year-old Robin Westman shot dozens of rounds Wednesday morning toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian OHara said at news conferences. The shooter then died by suicide, he said. The children who died were 8 and 10. Fourteen other kids and three octogenarian parishioners were wounded but expected to survive, the chief said. Rev. Dennis Zehren, who was inside the church with the nearly 200 children, said they were almost to the end of the Responsorial Psalm, which speaks about light in the darkness. Thats when he heard someone yell, Down down, everybody down, and the gunshots started. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. Fifth-grader Weston Halsne told reporters he ducked for the pews, covering his head, shielded by a friend who was lying on top of him. His friend was hit, he said.I was super scared for him, but I think now hes OK, the 10-year-old said. Police investigate motive for the shootingFBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. OHara said police hadnt yet found any relationship between the shooter and the church, nor determined a motive for the bloodshed. The chief said, however, that investigators were examining a social media post that appeared to show the shooter at the scene.OHara, who gave the wounded youngsters ages as 6 to 15, said a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors, and that authorities found a smoke bomb at the scene.On a YouTube channel titled Robin W, the alleged shooter released at least two videos before the channel was taken down Wednesday. In one, the alleged shooter shows a cache of weapons and ammunition, some with such phrases as kill Donald Trump and Where is your God? written on them. A second video shows the alleged shooter pointing to two outside windows in what appears to be a drawing of the church, and then stabbing it with a long knife. Westmans uncle, former Kentucky state lawmaker Bob Heleringer, said he did not know the accused shooter well and was confounded by the unspeakable tragedy.The police chief said Westman did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone.Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at our transgender community. Westmans gender identity wasnt clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westmans mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification. Police chief says officers rescued children who hidThe police chief said officers immediately responded to reports of the shooting, entered the church, rendered first aid and rescued some of the children.Annunciations principal Matt DeBoer said teachers and children, too, responded heroically. Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children, he said.Vincent Francoual said his 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, survived the shooting by running downstairs to hide in a room with a table pressed against the door. But he still isnt sure exactly how she escaped because she is struggling to communicate clearly about the traumatizing scene. She told us today that she thought she was going to die, he said.Walz lamented that children just starting the school year were met with evil and horror and death. He and President Donald Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on state and federal buildings, respectively, and the White House said the two men spoke. The governor was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in last years election against Trumps running mate, now Vice President JD Vance, a Republican.From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram of condolences. The Chicago-born Leo, historys first American pope, said he was praying for relatives of the dead.Monday had been the first day of the school year at Annunciation, a 102-year-old school in a leafy residential and commercial neighborhood about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis. Karin Cebulla, who said she had worked as a learning specialist at Annuciation and sent her two now-college-aged daughters there, described the school as an accepting, caring community.___Karnowski and Vancleave reported from Minneapolis and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Will Weissert and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Nicole Winfield in Vatican City; and Steve Peoples in Minneapolis contributed to this report. GIOVANNA DELLORTO DellOrto is a multimedia reporter with The APs Global Religion team. She has reported across the United States, Europe and Latin America, covering events and issues ranging from the conclave to the Olympics, from immigration to the intersection of Indigenous spirituality and the environment. STEVE KARNOWSKI Karnowski covers politics and government from Minnesota for The Associated Press. He also covers the ongoing fallout from the murder of George Floyd, courts and the environment, among other topics. twitter mailto

People gather at a vigil at Lynnhurst Park after a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)2025-08-28T03:58:55Z MINNEAPOLIS (AP) In the vaulted church of a Catholic school in Minneapolis, the pews were packed with teachers, parents and schoolchildren listening to a psalm on the third day of the new school year. For you darkness itself is not dark, and night shines as the day, a church member read to some 200 students Wednesday morning as sun streamed through stained glass windows. Just before the congregants were to proclaim Alleluia, bullets blasted through the windows.Down! Everybody down! someone shouted as children ducked for cover behind wooden pews from a barrage of gunfire. One student threw himself on top of a friend and was shot in the back. A youth minister called her husband to say goodbye as bullets flew. People used a wood plank to barricade a door and fled to a gymnasium. Sixth grader Chloe Francoual raced down a set of stairs and left behind a classmate in the rush before hiding in a room with a table barricading the door. Shed later tell her father that she thought she was going to die. The shooting went on for several minutes, according to a man living near the church, who said he heard as many as 50 shots. Two children, 8 and 10, were killed in the latest horrific school shooting in the United States, this time inside a church emblazoned with the words This is the house of God and the Gate of Heaven. Seventeen others were wounded, including kids as young as 6 and parishioners in their 80s.Dozens of law enforcement officers soon arrived to the school. Police said the suspect, Robin Westman, 23, was found dead by suicide behind the church. Westmans mother once worked there, but the shooter had no other known connection to the church. No motive has not been revealed. Saved by a friendThe student whose friend had shielded him, fifth grader Weston Halsne, told reporters in the aftermath outside the church that he sat just a few feet from the windows shattered by the blasts. My friend Victor, like, saved me, though, because he laid on top of me, the 10-year-old said. Hes really brave, and I hope hes good in the hospital.His mother met him outside, wrapping him in a hug.Fourteen of the wounded victims were kids, ranging in age from 6 to 15. Police said all are expected to survive.Vincent Francoual said his daughter still struggles to communicate clearly about the traumatizing scene, her father said.Its too much to process, he said.Outside the church and school was a milling of emotion. Parents embraced children and other parents. Heavily armored law enforcement officers walked around as police cordoned off the crime scene. A close community shaken by violenceMany knew each other well. Its a tight-knit community built around the century-old Catholic school and parish, a city suburb better described as a small town. Its towering belfry rings over the neighborhood of tidy homes and grass lawns, as it did after the shooting Wednesday.God wasnt far from peoples minds. Some had questions, others sought peace and healing.Im just asking (God), Why right now? Its little kids, said Aubrey Pannhoff, 16, a student at a nearby Catholic school who stood at the edge of the police cordon. Historys first American Pope, Leo XIV, said he was praying for the families of those dead and injured in the terrible tragedy.The Rev. Dennis Zehren was to give a sermon to the congregation that Wednesday. At the vigil held later that night, his face and eyes were red against his white vestments.When asked what he planned to tell the students on their first week of school, emotion choked his voice.At the vigil, Archbishop Bernard Hebda addressed some 2,000 people, where psalms were sung and the silences burrowed deep in the wide room.I can understand why someone could resonate with the Psalmists question: Why, oh God, have you forgotten me? Hebda said. The example of Mary, a mother and a disciple who knew great suffering in her own life, should give each of us courage and hope. JESSE BEDAYN Bedayn is a statehouse reporter for The Associated Press based in Denver. He is a Report for America corps member. mailto GIOVANNA DELLORTO DellOrto is a multimedia reporter with The APs Global Religion team. She has reported across the United States, Europe and Latin America, covering events and issues ranging from the conclave to the Olympics, from immigration to the intersection of Indigenous spirituality and the environment.

Firefighters work on the site of a burning building after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)2025-08-28T03:08:31Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) A mass Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraines capital, including a rare strike in the center of the city, early Thursday killed at least eight people and wounded 45, local authorities said.It was the first major Russian combined attack on Kyiv in weeks as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggled to gain traction. Among the dead were two children, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said, citing preliminary information. The numbers are expected to rise. Rescue teams were on site to pull people trapped underneath the rubble. Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X following the attack. We expect a response from everyone in the world who has called for peace but now more often stays silent rather than taking principled positions. Russia launched decoy drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyivs city administration. At least 20 locations across seven districts of Kyiv had impacts. Nearly 100 buildings were damaged, including a shopping mall in the city center, and thousands of windows were shattered, he said. Russian strikes hit the central part of Kyiv, one of the few times Russian attacks have reached the heart of the Ukrainian capital since the start of the full-scale invasion. Residents cleared shattered glass and debris from damaged buildings. Smoke billowed from the crumbled column of a five-story residential building in the Darnytskyi district, which suffered a direct hit. An acrid stench of burning material wafted in the air as firefighters worked to contain the blaze. Amid the destruction, emergency responders searched for survivors and pulled out bodies. Crowds of residents stood nearby, waiting for relatives to retrieved from the rubble. Among them was a man still waiting for information about his wife and son. Bodies in black bags were placed to the side of the building. Residents in the neighborhood said it was not the first time their district was targeted. Oleksandr Khilko arrived at the scene after a missile hit the residential building where his sister lives. He heard screams from people who were trapped under the rubble and pulled out three survivors, including a boy. Its inhuman, striking civilians, he said, his clothes covered in dust and the tips of his fingers black with soot. With every cell of my body I want this war to end as soon as possible. I wait, but every time the air raid alarm sounds, I am afraid.Ukraines national railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported damage to its infrastructure in the Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions, causing delays and requiring trains to use alternative routes. Thursdays attack is the first major combined Russian mass drone and missile attack to strike Kyiv since U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska earlier this month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. While a diplomatic push to end the war appeared to gain momentum shortly after that meeting, few details have emerged about the next steps. Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoiding serious negotiations while Russian troops move deeper into Ukraine. This week, Ukrainian military leaders conceded Russian forces have broken into an eighth region of Ukraine seeking to capture more ground. Zelenskyy hopes for harsher U.S. sanctions to cripple the Russian economy if Putin does not demonstrate seriousness about ending the war. He reiterated those demands following Thursdays attack. All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined, Zelenskyy said. Trump bristled this week at Putins stalling on an American proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy. Trump said Friday he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks arent scheduled.___Associated Press journalist Yehor Konovalov contributed to this report. HANNA ARHIROVA Arhirova is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine. She is based in Kyiv. twitter instagram mailto SAMYA KULLAB Kullab is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine since June 2023. Before that, she covered Iraq and the wider Middle East from her base in Baghdad since joining the AP in 2019. twitter instagram mailto

Dodgers' two-way star Shohei Ohtani completed five innings for the first time this season, holding the Reds to one run to earn his first win of the season Wednesday night.

The strikes on Ukraines capital early Thursday injured at least 22 people and left others trapped under rubble, officials said.

Το λογισμικό Core HR αποτελεί τον θεμέλιο λίθο στη σύγχρονη διαχείριση...

Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise is attracting attention from PSG and Liverpool. Transfer Talk has the latest news, gossip and rumors.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at a meeting held during Dec. 23 until Dec. 27, 2024, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)2025-08-28T02:21:31Z BEIJING (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesdays parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and Chinas resistance against Japans wartime aggressions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events, Hong Lei, Chinas assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government. DPRK refers to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, North Koreas official name. North Koreas state news agency, KCNA, said Kim will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the wars end. It gave no further details, including how long he will stay in China and whether he will hold an official meeting with Xi, Putin or other leaders visiting China. Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from the United States or other major Western European countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of Chinas newest weaponry and a speech by Xi. Stay up to date with similar stories by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. If Kims trip is realized, it would be his first trip to China since 2019. Since inheriting power upon his fathers death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others, but all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasnt attended any multilateral events involving foreign leaders. In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi. China has long been North Koreas biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. North Korea has been focusing on expanding cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.But many observers say North Korea is expected to take steps to improve ties with China to revive its troubled economy, because there is a limit to what it can get from Russia and its also unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after the Ukraine war ends. In 2023, about 97% of North Koreas external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.Kims visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks. North Korea has so far dismissed Trumps outreach, but many analysts say North Korea would return to talks if it believes the U.S. would make greater concessions. Pyongyangs illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as Chinas political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime, said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. To re-engage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that, Easley said.During a meeting with Lee in Washington this week, Trump spoke of his past summits with Kim, including one at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.During Trumps first term, he met Kim three times from 2018-19, but their high-stakes summit eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim has since conducted weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.__Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. HYUNG-JIN KIM Hyung-jin is an Associated Press reporter in Seoul, South Korea. He reports on security, political and other general news on the Korean Peninsula. twitter mailto KEN MORITSUGU Moritsugu covers political, economic and social issues from Beijing for The Associated Press. He has also reported from New Delhi, Bangkok and Tokyo and is the APs former news director for Greater China and for Japan and the Koreas. twitter

A Burmese python is held during a safe capture demonstration on June 16, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)2025-08-28T04:06:28Z WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) They look, move and even smell like the kind of furry Everglades marsh rabbit a Burmese python would love to eat. But these bunnies are robots meant to lure the giant invasive snakes out of their hiding spots.Its the latest effort by the South Florida Water Management District to eliminate as many pythons as possible from the Everglades, where they are decimating native species with their voracious appetites. In Everglades National Park, officials say the snakes have eliminated 95% of small mammals as well as thousands of birds.Removing them is fairly simple. Its detection. Were having a really hard time finding them, said Mike Kirkland, lead invasive animal biologist for the water district. Theyre so well camouflaged in the field.The water district and University of Florida researchers deployed 120 robot rabbits this summer as an experiment. Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. The robots are simple toy rabbits, but retrofitted to emit heat, a smell and to make natural movements to appear like any other regular rabbit. They look like a real rabbit, Kirkland said.. They are solar powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby. Then I can deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python, Kirkland said. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added. Pythons are not native to Florida, but have become established in the swampy, subtropical Everglades by escaping from homes or by people releasing them when they become overgrown pets. A female python can lay between 50 and 100 eggs at a time with a gestation period of 60-90 days, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Its not easy to find definite estimates of the number of pythons in Florida. The U.S. Geological Survey recently reported a ballpark number of tens of thousands, while other official estimates run as high as 300,000 snakes. They have few natural enemies, although there are occasional confrontations with alligators, and other predators, such as bobcats and coyotes, will eat their eggs.Since 2000, more than 23,000 of the snakes have been removed from the wild, the wildlife commission says. The robot rabbits are the latest attempt to tackle snakes that average between 10 and 16 feet (3 to 5 meters) in length when fully grown.Every invasive python that is removed makes a difference for Floridas environment and its native wildlife, said Ron Bergeron, a member of the water district governing board.Pythons can be humanely killed year-round on private lands and on lands managed by the wildlife commission across the state.Each year the commission holds a Florida Python Challenge that carries cash prizes for most pythons caught, the longest snake and so forth. This year, 934 people from 30 states took part in the effort in July, capturing 294 pythons with a top prize of $10,000 to a participant who bagged 60 of the reptiles. Its too early to determine how successful the robot rabbit project will be, but officials say initial results are a cause for optimism.This part of the project is in its infancy, Kirkland said. We are confident, though, that this will work once we are given enough time to work out some of these details._____Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.

by Jennifer Berry Hawes ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. In the fall of 2016, as wind-stoked wildfires raced across parched forest and threatened lives around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, state and local officials went back and forth about blasting an evacuation order over the federal governments emergency alert system. As they consulted one another, a critical 15 minutes slipped away. Cell service and electricity failed. Many people in the fires path could no longer receive the alert ultimately sent out. More than a dozen people died.A few months later, across the country, torrential storms drenched the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, flooding the area around San Joses Coyote Creek. Local officials there didnt send alerts over the federal system, which can, among other things, sound a blaring alarm with evacuation orders on cellphones in geotargeted areas.There was a general lack of institutional knowledge on how to utilize these communications technologies, a review of the disaster later concluded.Fast-forward seven years and myriad disasters later. Last September, when Hurricane Helene barreled north from the Gulf of Mexico, very few officials in all of Western North Carolina sent alerts over the federal system ahead of the massive storms arrival to warn people of risks or suggest what they do. As ProPublica reported in May, emergency managers actions varied considerably across the region. Some hadnt become authorized to use the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. Others werent confident in using it. More than 100 people in North Carolina died.The threats have changed, as have the places. But over the past decade, the same story has played out over and over. The problem isnt that there is no way to alert residents. Its that officials too often dont use it. ProPublica identified at least 15 federally declared major disasters since 2016 in which officials in the most-harmed communities failed to send alerts over IPAWS or sent them only after people were already in the throes of deadly flooding, wildfires or mudslides.Formal reviews after disasters have repeatedly faulted local authorities for not being prepared to send targeted IPAWS alerts which can broadcast to cellphones, weather radios, and radio and TV stations or sending them too late or with inadequate guidance. In 2023, a CBS News investigation similarly found that emergency alerts came too late or not at all. Yet the same problems have persisted during recent catastrophic disasters, Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the flash floods in Texas among them.Each time these failures occur, journalists and others examining what went wrong tend to treat it as though its a new problem, said Hamilton Bean, a University of Colorado Denver professor who is among the countrys top researchers of public alert and warning systems. In fact, it is the same problem weve seen again and again since at least 2017.Local emergency managers sit at the center of alerting decisions. They are supposed to prepare their communities for disasters and guide the response when they hit. But some fear sending too many alerts to a weary public. Many are busy juggling myriad other duties in small, resource-strapped offices. More than a few face political headwinds.There is a certain reluctance to send emergency messages out, said Steven Kuhr, former emergency management director for New York state who now runs a crisis management consulting firm. Counterparts in the profession have lost their jobs and faced public backlash for sounding alarms, only to see the predicted disaster fizzle. You dont want to get it wrong.Perhaps no major disaster in recent years underscores whats at stake more than the July 4 flooding in Central Texas. Officials in Kerr County failed to adequately alert residents, tourists and the hundreds of children slumbering in summer camp cabins about raging flash floodwaters barrelling down the Guadalupe River. They sent no emergency alerts over IPAWS warning people of the threat or suggesting what they do until hours into the disaster. Instead, as people awoke to flash floods encircling their homes and to children shrieking in terror, key county leaders were asleep or out of town. Even once roused, they sent no IPAWS alerts of their own. More than 100 people a third of them children died.Kelly McKinney is a former deputy commissioner at New York Citys emergency management office, where he led the citys response to Hurricane Sandy, among other disasters. To him, skipping alerts indicates a lack of training and planning. As a profession, we have to get our act together, McKinney said. We have to emerge from our complacency. Failure to Initiate Terrie Burns stands in the middle of her destroyed home in Santa Rosa, California, during the Sonoma County wildfires in 2017. The state conducted an audit of the countys response to the fires and found local officials did not issue IPAWS phone alerts due to limited understanding of how to use the system. (Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP) Flash back eight years to 2017, when wildfires threatened Sonoma County in Northern California. Officials sent no alerts to cellphones via IPAWS telling residents what was happening or what actions to take. They feared people outside of an intended evacuation area might get the alert, causing traffic congestion. Two dozen people died. The local sheriff conceded, In hindsight, we should have used every tool we had. California conducted an audit of Sonoma Countys response to the fires and found local officials did not issue IPAWS phone alerts due to limited understanding of how to use the system. Its the type of mistake repeated across the country.Among the 15 major disasters ProPublica identified, reviews of local officials actions have been completed for 11. Nine of them identified a lack of training or planning or both in sending alerts as a key problem. Some, like Sonoma officials, have taken those critical lessons and made big changes. The county expanded its emergency management office from five to 20 full- and part-time employees, including one whose job is to focus on alerting the public. That isnt possible in many lower-resourced communities. But by the end of 2020, Sonoma had so improved its approach to alerts that it was among the counties that sent the most 59 of them during that dangerous wildfire season. Its two major wildfires that year, while fast and destructive, werent as swift-moving through densely populated areas as the worst of 2017s wildfires. With the new protocol and staff, nobody in Sonoma died in them either. Firefighters keep a close watch on a wildfire in Santa Rosa, California. Massive wildfires ripped through Napa and Sonoma counties, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses in 2017. (Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP) Jorge Rodriguez is the countys current alert coordinator. He described the litany of training and exercises required of employees, including creating templates of emergency messages ahead of time. We really prepare to push the button, he said.Thats not true in many places.Art Botterell, who retired in 2018 from the California Governors Office of Emergency Services as senior emergency services coordinator, calls the nations alert system a moth-eaten patchwork quilt. Officials in different places can try to get emergency messages to the public through IPAWS, their local alert programs, social media, email, phone calls, press conferences, flyers, door knocking, sirens, bullhorns and so on. Or they can do none of those things. But if officials tap too few of them, or wait too long as danger closes in, then the tools become useless.The most common mode of warning system failure, Botterell said, is failure to initiate warnings in the first place.Tragedy in Texas A law enforcement officer prays during a joint hearing of the Texas Senate and Texas House on disaster preparedness and flooding following the July 4 floods that left more than 100 people dead. (Scott Stephen Ball for The Washington Post via Getty Images) Last month, along the hills of Kerr County in Central Texas, visitors settled into RVs, residents slumbered in homes and summer campers dreamed of fun in the cabins that lace the Guadalupe River. But at 1:14 a.m., a blaring alarm punctured that calm, for those who received it. A National Weather Service alert sounded over weather radios and mobile devices in the area that had service not a guarantee in this rural stretch with a flash flood warning. The weather service can, and often does, send its most pressing messages over IPAWS. But those alerts can lack important information for high-risk locations, including evacuation orders. Local officials can use the system to blast alerts that go to more specific areas a few streets, a neighborhood, a river along with directions for what people in those places should do to protect themselves. It was July 4. Kerr Countys top elected official was asleep at his lake house 100 miles away. The sheriff was at home dozing, too. The emergency manager was sick in bed. Thats what each later said at a Texas legislative hearing. The weather service forecasts theyd heard the day before hadnt struck them as particularly worrisome.Farther up the Guadalupe River, around the town of Hunt, rain was falling. It fell and fell, pummeling the area so ferociously that children at camps along the river woke in fear and teenage counselors tried to soothe them. But the rain still poured and the power failed and the river rose. By 3 a.m., the two 911 dispatchers toiling overnight were overwhelmed with the most horrifying of calls. A deputy heard children screaming in the river. Deputies and volunteer firefighters rushed to pound on doors and rouse people as the river hauled entire homes away, occupants trapped inside. The weather service posted on X, A very dangerous flash flooding event is ongoing. At 3:57 a.m., someone called 911 from Camp Mystic in Hunt, where hundreds of children were attending Christian summer camp in cabins along the waterways. They climbed through windows, fought floodwaters and cowered under darkness along hillsides. The flood swept many away. At least 27 campers and counselors would die.At 4:03 a.m., the weather service intensified its messaging for south-central Kerr County to a rare flash flood emergency its most dire flood alert which again blasted out over IPAWS to any cellphone that could receive it: This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!The county judge, who as the top elected official heads emergency management, still slept, as did the emergency management coordinator. The sheriff didnt wake until 4:20 a.m. Forty minutes later, Kerr County sent out an emergency message but not over IPAWS. Instead, officials opted for CodeRed, their local alerting system. Using software by companies like Everbridge and Smart911, systems like these are not nearly as far reaching as IPAWS. Residents have to sign up in advance to receive the local alerts, and not many typically do. In comparison, IPAWS is designed to reach any cellphone within a selected geographic area unless a person has turned off its notifications, has the phone turned off or in airplane mode, or isnt connected to a working cell site broadcasting the alert. The emergency management coordinator later told Texas legislators that he had helped incorporate IPAWS into Kerr Countys emergency response plans in 2020 partly to help ensure that its large seasonal population receives alerts while in town. But when he was finally woken during the floods that morning, he didnt use it. He said the weather service had issued more than a dozen alerts already, and he thought that was enough.By then, more than four hours had passed since the weather service blasted out its first IPAWS alert that day, during which local officials could have started sending their own messages telling people whether to evacuate or otherwise move out of harms way. Almost a third of those who died were camping or staying at campgrounds, the Houston Chronicle found.As Texas state Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican, said at a legislative hearing last month: We have to find a way to give the locals more tools and more confidence to make critical calls about issuing alerts quickly. It cannot be when you see the river cresting. Roberto Marquez, left, created and installed crosses in Guadalupe Park in Kerrville, Texas, to honor the victims of the devastating flash flood along the Guadalupe River. (Desiree Rios for The Washington Post via Getty Images) Lack of ConsistencyNo federal policy tells local officials how to send emergency alerts in disasters or whether to send them at all. Nor are there requirements of what alerts should say or who should get them. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which operates IPAWS, outlines best practices but deems alerting decisions a matter of local emergency official communications plans, governance, policies and procedures, a FEMA spokesperson said. Nor do local authorities have to learn a lot about IPAWS alerts to become authorized to send them. They must complete an online FEMA training module that goes over the basics, then apply for public alerting permission and sign an agreement. You do have to demonstrate that you have the software to utilize IPAWS, but you dont have to demonstrate that youre good at it, said Jeannette Sutton, a University at Albany professor and key researcher of public alert messaging. FEMA offers alert guidance and 24/7 technical help, but using them isnt mandatory. Its IPAWS division also will review local plans for sending alerts and suggest improvements but local officials must request this help. The biggest hurdle to accessing IPAWS isnt training or testing. It is money. Local governments must pay a third-party vendor for software that can interface with IPAWS an expense of potentially tens of thousands of dollars that rural and lower-income counties struggle to afford. A study released in July by a team at Argonne National Laboratory found that 82% of local emergency managers cited a lack of funding as their main barrier to adopting more technology. More than half cited a lack of expertise or training.In late 2019, Congress required FEMA to create a training and recertification process that IPAWS users would have to complete each year, but that remains in the works. Although FEMA was pursuing a contract to create the program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, its parent agency, did not approve the funding for it, a FEMA spokesperson said.Despite this, FEMA continues to lean forward to launch the program, the spokesperson said in an email. Using IPAWS also can be daunting. Some of the software systems that local governments purchase to interface with it are confusing and require practice, Sutton said. With a disaster looming or upon them, officials face a blank white text box. They must write the alert, code it correctly and get whatever permissions their policies require.In the back of an emergency managers mind is that nagging question: What if I send out this alert and the threat turns out to be a big dud? Then theyre going to get a lot of people who are really mad, Sutton said.Sending alerts also doesnt always go perfectly. In 2018, Hawaiis Emergency Management Agency mistakenly sent an alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, the message said, before being corrected 38 minutes later. The employee who sent it was later fired, although his attorney argued he was made a scapegoat.Other times, software and other technical problems play a role. In January, a wildfire evacuation order sent to cellphones over IPAWS was intended for a specific area in Los Angeles County but instead blasted to all of its 10 million residents. The error stemmed from location data failing to save properly in the IPAWS system, likely due to its software vendors technical glitch, according to a recent congressional report.A few months earlier, in September, an emergency manager in North Carolina hesitated to send IPAWS alerts as Hurricane Helene closed in on his county because a past experience had left him reluctant to try again. A water line stains the side of an antique store in Yancey County four months after Hurricane Helene hit the mountainous region of Western North Carolina in September. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) Jeff Howell was the emergency manager in Yancey County, a rural expanse of mountainous beauty that Helene would soon decimate. A few years earlier, when hed sent an IPAWS alert, the message blasted to cellphones in a neighboring county and to Johnson City, Tennessee. He fielded an angry phone call from a counterpart displeased that residents in his county had received it. Howell, who has since retired, said was told the areas mountainous topography played a role in the message casting too far. He didnt want that to happen with Helene approaching.Although the weather service warned almost 24 hours before Helenes devastating floodwaters hit that the storm would be among the regions worst weather events in the modern era, Yancey County sent no IPAWS alerts giving warnings or directions to people living along its rivers and creeks, which ferry water down steep mountains. In the end, 11 people died there, more per capita than in any other county.In hindsight, Howell said he wished hed tried harder to send an IPAWS alert before the unprecedented flash flooding and deadly landslides tore down the mountains. But hed often fielded complaints from residents who told him they turned off weather notifications because they got so many of them. Few other county or city governments across the wide swath of Western North Carolina inundated by Helenes rainfall issued any of their own alerts over IPAWS before the storm knocked out cell service and electricity. Most used only their local systems or social media accounts, although ProPublica found wide variations across the region. Some made more aggressive efforts to warn residents, including rounds of door knocking. One county distributed flyers; another issued a dire video warning. But most residents remained in their homes, largely unaware that catastrophic danger approached. The vast majority of deaths in North Carolina were flood-related. IPAWS asked Sutton to assess the warning messages sent during Helene. She wasnt impressed: There was a total lack of consistency. Hurricane Helene destroyed areas of Swannanoa, North Carolina, first image, as well as Micaville, where a massive fuel tank remained on its side four months after the storm hit. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) We Need to Bring Some CoherenceDuring his first weeks as a new congressman in 2023, Rep. Kevin Mullins district in Northern California faced flooding that left one person dead. A Democrat from the San Francisco area, he began doing research. He read about incidents in other areas where alerts were confusing, delayed or not sent, leading to terrible consequences. This is really at the core of what government needs to get right protecting public health and safety, protecting lives, Mullin said. The emergency alert is quite literally the front line of public interface.He also was looking for potentially bipartisan issues to work on. He hopes hes found one. Mullin and his staff are crafting a bill that would authorize $30 million a year for a decade to help FEMA provide technical assistance to authorities who send alerts. The money would fund things like live testing, field training and community-based exercises that can identify weaknesses in disaster plans and alert systems. These can be tough for local governments with fewer resources to afford. FEMA also would develop metrics for assessing alerts effectiveness.Mullin, who expects to introduce the bill in the coming days, also supports creating basic standard operating procedures for alerts and templates for messages. We need to bring some coherence to the way this infrastructure is set up, he said. U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin of California and his staff are crafting a bill that would require FEMA to provide more technical and financial assistance to local authorities who send emergency alerts. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) The template piece is out there. In 2021, FEMA hired Suttons team at the University at Albany to create the Message Design Dashboard. The new online toolkit walks message writers through a series of prompts to more quickly create an alert that includes content that social scientists have found best reduces the time people delay before taking action. By giving that tool to emergency managers, its a game changer, Sutton said. Theyre not staring at that blank box anymore. Before her teams contract ended in May, they trained 500 emergency managers to use the software, which is now free and publicly available through FEMA. But thousands more still need to be trained. And nothing requires emergency managers to learn to use it. That is up to them, and they still ultimately must decide for themselves whether to push that button. Mollie Simon contributed research.

Trumps budget law effectively undoes much of the good that the Affordable Care Act did in reducing opioid deaths.

The theme-park operator, like so many other companies, is abandoning Americas middle class.

Subscribe nowLast week, Joo Lucas Reis da Silva became the first openly gay male athlete to compete in one of tenniss four Grand Slam tournaments when he played at the U.S. Open qualifying event in New York City. While the 25-year-old Brazilian lost the match, the moment represented a breakthrough in mens tennis, a sport where openly gay men have been nonexistent at the highest level.That lack of representation in mens sports is an epidemic that Uncloseted documented in an investigation earlier this summer. Today, there are zero active openly gay or bisexual players in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and PGA.The United States Tennis Association, to its credit, has been a leader in the space. Theyve held numerous events celebrating LGBTQ people, and the associations president, Brian Vahaly, is openly gay and has said as recently as last week that he want[s] people to know and see that this is a safe place for them.Despite this, there are still so many push factors discouraging boys from trying to go all the way in pro sports. I remember when I made the Canadian Under-14 Nationals in tennis, where I was invited to compete alongside the 63 other top young boys in the country. It was a massive accomplishment. But as a closeted tween, I worried about bro culture, homophobia from my provincial teammates, and other microaggressions that are so insidious in boys sports that its hard to describe them in words (but IYKYK).In part because of these fears, I declined the offer to participate in nationals (which is very uncommon) and never qualified for the prestigious tournament again.To neutralize the factors driving gay boys away, leagues and associations should implement pull factors beyond just pride nights.One way Grand Slam tennis could do this is by giving Reis da Silva a wild card entry, which is a special invitation to play in the main draw for players who dont meet the ranking requirements. Wild cards may be given for a variety of reasons, including past performance (which is in part why Venus Williams was granted a wild card to this year's U.S. Open despite being ranked outside the top 600), collegiate success, or because their name would bring buzz to the tournament.Giving Reis da Silva a wild card would be a meaningful step in signaling to young players around the world that the ATP Tour doesnt just support the LGBTQ community, but they want queer players on center stage. And with one in five Gen Z adults now identifying as LGBTQ, this representation would benefit the tour. I truly believe the buzz surrounding a gay player in the main draw would be real andfor the most partpositive.I hope Reis da Silva will soar in the rankings over the next year. But if he isnt able to qualify, one of the Big Four tournaments should raise their hand ASAP and make history as the first Grand Slam that features an openly gay man in the main draw.Subscribe for LGBTQ-focused, accountability journalism.Subscribe nowSpecial thanks to Ben Land, who sent over the idea for this weeks newsletter :). 187 congressional Dems ask Supreme Court to protect bans against cruel conversion therapy (LGBTQ Nation)A Christian counselor says the bans violate her free speech. That's bunk, the Democrats say.Snoop Dogg Criticizes LGBTQ Representation in Kids' Movies: 'We Have to Show That at This Age?' (Complex)Snoop said his grandson had questions about the same-sex relationship in 'Lightyear' that "threw [him] for a loop."This iconic queer term has officially been added to the Cambridge Dictionary (LGBTQ Nation)The queer slang term, Lewk, has officially been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, which defines it as a particular style, fashion, or outfit especially one that is unusual and impressive.Dad accused of killing daughter because she was getting bullied, allegedly wrapped her in pride flag to 'honor' her (People Magazine)Hope "Onyx" Cornish was found dead by police after they were alerted by her teen brotherTexas constable tells legislators Were not interested in being the potty police at bathroom bill hearing (The Advocate)The father of a transgender child said that in nine years of working near a court bathroom, he has gotten zero complaints about people using it.Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting: When parents of LGBTQ kids turn to Google for answers, what do they find? A new Uncloseted Media investigation reveals that the worlds most trusted search engine is regularly pointing vulnerable families to far-right religious organizationssome that promote conversion therapy and label queerness a sin. In a time when nearly 40% of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered suicide, why is Google upranking hate? Candace Owens went from mocking Trump and the Tea Party to becoming one of the most extreme voices on the American right. Over the years, attacked LGBTQ people and spread antisemitic conspiracies. Now facing a defamation lawsuit from French President Emmanuel Macron, Owens long trail of hate is catching up with her. Look out for her full track record next Tuesday. Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas! Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief spencer@unclosetedmedia.comIf objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted Media

by Lauren McGaughy, The Texas Newsroom, and Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published.This article is co-published with The Texas Newsroom, the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded in Texas. The devastating flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed dozens of people, inundated hundreds of thousands of homes and left the community desperate for a solution. Since then, local flood experts have extensively studied the possibility of a multibillion-dollar tunnel system across Harris County, where Houston is located. Studies have focused on the construction of pipelines, 30 to 40 feet in diameter, that could ferry massive amounts of water out to the Gulf in the event of a storm.Now, after years of research and discussion, Elon Musk wants a piece of the project.An investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle has found that the billionaire, in partnership with Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt, has spent months aggressively pushing state and local officials to hire Musks Boring Co. to build two narrower, 12-foot tunnels around one major watershed. That could be a potentially cheaper, but, at least one expert said, less effective solution to the regions historic flooding woes.Hunts team has said the Boring project would cost $760 million and involve the company getting 15% of the cost up front from state and local coffers.Within two months of this push, the Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to study a pilot program that included a look at smaller tunnels, with specifications similar to what Boring had pitched. The commissioners court, made up of five elected members including a county judge, oversees the countys budget.Both Musk and Hunt stand to benefit should Boring be selected to build any part of the project. Hunt is reportedly considering a challenge to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in next years Republican Senate primary. And landing a job like this would also be a significant win for Boring, which has not completed a major public project in Texas and faces criticisms for its ventures elsewhere.The discussions about the Boring pitch have happened mostly out of the public eye. Hunt mentioned the project in passing at a town hall in Houston in February. Since then, he has refused to answer the newsrooms questions about when Musk sold him on the idea and why he became its pitchman.Efforts to reach Musk and representatives with Boring were not returned.Experts and some local officials question whether Musk and his company are the right pick for the job. The Boring Co. has focused on transportation tunnels, not flood mitigation. If you build a smaller tunnel, OK, itll be cheaper, but it can carry less water, said Larry Dunbar, a veteran water resources engineer who has advised Houston-area governmental agencies on drainage issues. So what have you saved? Have you reduced the flooding upstream by an inch? And are you going to spend multimillions of dollars to do that? Well, maybe thats not worth it. In response to the newsrooms questions, state and local officials said no public money has been allocated to Boring. County officials added that they have not chosen a tunnel contractor and any process to do so would follow normal procurement rules. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose staff met with Hunts team during the legislative session to discuss the proposal, remains open to the idea. As president of the Texas Senate with close ties to President Donald Trump, he is a powerful ally.If Elon Musk and the Boring Company, or any other company, can build two massive tunnels under the Houston bayous in a few years to save the city from flooding, I am always going to be interested to listen, Patrick, a Republican, told the newsrooms. The truth is, Elon Musk is one of the only people in the world who could accomplish this. Then-candidate Wesley Hunt, now a Republican representative, speaks with volunteers before they campaign on his behalf in 2020. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle) The Pitch Process BeginsIn 2022, the Harris County Flood Control District released findings from its yearslong tunnel study, which has so far cost nearly $3 million in local and federal funds.The idea was to build eight tunnels, totalling around 130 miles in length, according to the report. The tunnels would be huge, wide enough for a container ship, and buried 40 to 140 feet underground, depending on the location. Austin and San Antonio have similar systems, although on a smaller scale.The Buffalo Bayou segment of the Houston project which Boring has proposed to build is a centerpiece of the design and would run through the citys core and some of its most developed neighborhoods. The county estimated it would cost $4.6 billion.The total cost for the system was projected to be $30 billion, funded by a potential mix of federal, state and local dollars, and the timeline was 10 to 15 years to complete construction. Given the scope and complexity of the project, the Army Corps of Engineers has been involved in discussions about the tunnels since the beginning. The corps also has jurisdiction over the two federal reservoirs in the area.Eight years after Harvey, however, the tunnel project has not broken ground. Hunt has accused the Army Corps of dragging their feet a little bit because its study of the tunnel system has been delayed. In December, Congress ordered the Corps to finish the analysis. Hunt hailed the decision, but to date the Army Corps has not completed the study. Just two months later, however, his staffers and Musks team started shopping Borings proposal to politicians across the state.Emails, text messages and policy memos the newsrooms obtained through public records requests show Hunts chief of staff, James Kyrkanides, repeatedly attempted to obtain public money on behalf of Boring. The documents, which have not been released previously to the public, also lay out how Hunt worked to secure Musk access to lawmakers and other officials ahead of the formal bidding process.Kyrkanides declined to comment for this story.In February, Boring pitched its proposal to elected officials in Harris County as an innovative and cost-effective solution.We are confident in our ability to execute this project successfully to bring peace of mind to residents of Harris County and the greater Houston area during future flood events, Jim Fitzgerald, Borings global head of business development, wrote in a two-page memo about the proposal addressed to Kyrkanides and shared with local officials.That same month, Hunt spoke at a town hall meeting about his involvement.I talked to him Musk about Hurricane Harvey and how we need tunnels, Hunt said, according to Community Impact. He told me, I can do that at a fraction of the cost the Army Corps of Engineers would do it.A few days later, the head of a local nonprofit wrote to a county commissioner saying shed heard Hunt and Musk were shopping the proposal around and that the idea may have been discussed on board the presidents jet.I hear that Congressman Hunt talked to Elon Musk about his boring company while on a trip on Airforce 1, Colleen Gilbert, executive director of the Greens Bayou Coalition, emailed. Its unclear if Trump was on board or took part in the discussions. The presidents spokespeople didnt answer questions about the apparent meeting.In April, Kyrkanides made a detailed pitch in an email to Patricks staff. He passed along Borings proposal and suggested that $60 million be set aside in the state budget that will be matched with another $60 million from the Harris County Flood Control District as a down payment for the $760 million project Elon pitched Wesley. I believe the Lt. Gov. spoke with Elon and the Boring Company this week, Kyrkanides emailed in May, a month before the regular legislative session wrapped up. Wesley also spoke with Elon, and everything seems on track!Kyrkanides followed up once more mid-month: Anything you need from us? Pushing for Smaller TunnelsAs they pushed the idea to state lawmakers, Hunts team repeatedly lobbied Harris County officials, reaching out to at least two commissioners, the countys legislative liaison and flood control experts.Early on, Houston officials had concerns about what Boring proposed.The two-page letter from Boring said its tunnels would be no shallower than 15 feet to 30 feet below ground surface, while the countys previous research proposed a much deeper range for the Buffalo Bayou segment.An engineering expert in County Commissioner Tom Ramseys office warned that Borings shallower plan could interfere with bridge foundations, utility lines and existing easements.It discusses that the tunnel would be much shallower then anticipated, Eric Heppen, Ramseys director of engineering, wrote in an email to other staffers in his office on Feb. 17. I would quickly confirm if it can be deeper or if that becomes a load challenge for the system.Boring said in its pitch that the tunnel depth is flexible, but the company did not respond to the newsrooms question about whether it can build to the standards outlined in the countys study.Volume was another concern. A single 40-foot-wide tunnel can move about 12,000 cubic feet of water every second, county studies show. Two 12-foot-wide tunnels, laid side by side, as Boring proposed, might struggle to keep pace in a flood emergency, according to Dunbar, the veteran water resources engineer.One would need eleven 12-foot diameter tunnels to provide the same flow capacity as one 40-foot diameter tunnel, he told the newsrooms. Providing only two 12-foot diameter tunnels does not provide the flow capacity that Harris County or the Corps of Engineers are seeking. Boring Co.s Proposed Tunnels Would be Narrower and Shallower Than County Plan Calls for (Sources: Harris County Flood Control District study; Boring Co. tunnel pitch. Graphic: Ken Ellis, Houston Chronicle.) The county continued to engage with the company despite these concerns. In March, Scott Elmer, whos overseen the tunnel study for the past few years at the countys flood control district, reached out to Boring executives to set up a meeting. In the following weeks, he and other flood control officials met with Boring engineers at least twice to discuss the specifics of Borings capabilities.During one of the meetings, flood control officials pressed Boring representatives on whether the company could build tunnels that are at least 20 feet wide, according to an agenda shared with attendees via email.The company was reportedly studying how to make tunnels as wide as 21 feet several years ago. But its unclear if Boring ever developed that capability or what it told county officials about its potential to make bigger tunnels. On its website, Boring notes it maintains the same tunnel design for all projects to avoid reinventing the wheel for every tunnel. An April 10 commissioners court meeting in Houston was a turning point. That appears to be the first time county officials brought up in public the fact that Hunt had been pitching them on a smaller-scale version of the flood plan theyd studied for years. They referred to this idea as a pilot program that would focus on just a few sections of a larger, countywide tunnel system.Ramsey, the panels only Republican, specifically mentioned the pilot program tunnels could be narrower in diameter, as small as 12 feet, and shallower specifications that would fit the kind of tunnel Boring has typically built.Commissioner Lesley Briones, a Democrat, said a pilot project may help kick-start a huge, expensive project that the county has struggled to get off the ground.No one mentioned Boring or Musk explicitly until Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, said hed gotten wind that the tech billionaire might be involved.Ive heard all of the stories about Elon Musk having a tunneling company, Ellis said. Ive got pretty good ears. Ive got good Republican friends, too, now.He questioned the pitch, saying he was worried it would take the county off track.However, Ellis and all of the commissioners unanimously voted to produce a white paper studying the idea of a scaled-down pilot project. They also voted to ask the state for flood mitigation funds. The vote didnt require the county to commit to a specific project.Later that month, records show the countys legislative liaison reached out to staff for state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, to indicate the countys support for a $60 million budget rider for underground flood risk reduction systems in Harris County. A two-page memo explaining the pilot project included with the request did not mention Musk or Boring and still referenced the larger 30- to 40-foot tunnels. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, points to a Texas- and Tesla-themed belt buckle as he answers a question about operating his business in Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle) Whats in It for Musks AlliesHunt has been a leading voice on the need for flood mitigation during his short time in Congress.Last year, he partnered with Democratic U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher to order the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the underground tunnel study. The effort was applauded as a bipartisan victory. But Fletcher, a Democrat, said she was not involved in Hunts work with Musk on the Boring proposal and has not heard from anyone advocating for it. She said shes worked with Army Corps of Engineers and local communities on a transparent, informed, community-driven effort to address water conveyance and flood control in our region.A West Point graduate and former Army captain, Hunt has shaped a political brand that appeals to both GOP insiders and MAGA-leaning voters. He was a regular at Trump campaign events in and outside Texas and secured a prime-time speaking slot at the 2024 Republican National Convention. He is the only Black Republican in the Texas congressional delegation. But if Hunt enters the U.S. Senate race against Cornyn, he will likely need a high-profile political win to stand out, according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, as incumbent senators in Texas have won nearly every primary over the past few decades.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also challenging Cornyn in the primary. Given the volatile dynamic between Trump and Musk, aligning with the latter carries political risk but also the potential for major reward, Rottinghaus said.Hunt certainly is well-known enough as a member in his district, but the problem is that when youre in Congress running for a statewide office, your base support can sometimes be very provincial, Rottinghaus said. To partner with Musk would provide for a kind of national profile that Hunt would need to be successful.Musk has tapped local politicians when pursuing similar big projects elsewhere. In Tennessee, Republican leaders recently announced that Boring would build a transit tunnel for cars from downtown Nashville to the nearby airport. The citys mayor and other Democratic leaders have raised questions about a lack of transparency, competitive bidding and environmental planning. At a public meeting in early August, a Boring official said the company would seek public input for the project but did not answer reporters questions about why they had not yet done so, according to the Nashville Banner. In Las Vegas, where Boring built a transit tunnel system, the company was able to avoid many of the lengthy governmental reviews typical of these kinds of projects because it is privately operated and receives no federal funding, ProPublica previously reported. In 2022, Bloomberg reported the company had pitched eight projects to Texas officials. Two were water drainage projects in Austin and Houston. Neither appears to have been built. If Boring secures part of the Houston job, it would appear to be the companys first public flood control project. The company lists only transportation-related projects on its website.Texas law requires county governments to open large public projects to competitive bidding and give all potential contractors an equal shot under the same conditions.While the law does not explicitly bar local officials from discussing projects with individual companies ahead of time, that kind of early outreach though common in some places hasnt been expressly authorized by state courts or the attorney general, according to legal guidance from the Texas Municipal League, which provides legal guidance to local government officials.Emily Woodell, the spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Control District, said the agency has not shared any sensitive information with Boring about the Houston project and only met with the company to understand its capabilities.Ramsey, the county commissioner, told the newsrooms he believes theres nothing wrong with officials entertaining private pitches before the formal bidding process begins.All companies that might have an interest in it, that might understand and offer us information, certainly wed be open to listening, Ramsey said. Whats NextThe future of the project, and Musks involvement, are still up in the air. The state never granted Boring the $60 million it wanted for the project. Huffman, the senator overseeing the finance committee, confirmed the rider was never placed in the state budget and told the newsrooms she had nothing to do with the proposal.The only involvement my office had with this proposal was when Rep. Hunts chief of staff reached out to my scheduler to arrange a meeting between Rep. Hunt and me, but it never took place, she said in a statement.County officials also told the newsrooms that they havent provided any public money to Musk.However, in June, the Harris County Flood Control District produced the pilot project report that commissioners voted for in the spring, looking at a scaled-back version of the original tunnel design. This white paper proposed focusing on only a few segments of the countywide tunnel system and considered tunnels as small as 10 feet in diameter as a real option well within Borings ability to construct.The white paper also floated the idea of a public-private partnership allowing a private firm to design, build and even run the system afterward, just as Boring has done elsewhere. It does not appear that this report has been released to the public. The flood control district provided it to the newsrooms upon request. Carlos Gomez, acting public affairs chief for the Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District, told the newsrooms he had not heard about the pilot project potentially involving The Boring Co. and could not say if his agency would be interested.After the newsrooms presented them with the findings of this investigation, Briones and Ramsey emphasized they are not committed to one particular company and that all solutions would be subject to due diligence. Ellis told the newsrooms that Musk should not be involved, calling him someone who has shown blatant disregard for democratic institutions and environmental protections.Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia, both Democrats, declined to comment.Woodell, with the flood control district, said there have been no further discussions with Boring in months. She said the county has looked at smaller tunnels before but acknowledged that engineering analyses found large-diameter tunnels would be the most effective option for a countywide system. Woodell added the county might still consider smaller tunnels in specific locations.There will never be a single solution to flooding in Harris County, she said.If Harris County moves forward with a smaller-scale project like the one Hunt wants, which doesnt rely on federal funding, the process to design and build it could still take up to a decade.Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice Universitys Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center, said Musks slimmer tunnels might still prove useful. But he warned against handing a project of this magnitude to a private company without proper vetting.The scale of the problem we have really demands, I think, all of us to be open-minded about ideas, Blackburn told the newsrooms. Invite them in. Just dont give them the contract tomorrow. Lauren McGaughy is an investigative reporter and editor with The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration among NPR and the public radio stations in Texas. She is based at KUT News in Austin. Reach her at lmcgaughy@kut.org. Yilun Cheng is an investigative reporter with the Houston Chronicle. Reach her at yilun.cheng@houstonchronicle.com.

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2025-08-28T10:10:55Z KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) Seven migrants were transferred from the United States to Rwanda in August under a deportation agreement with the U.S., authorities in the East African country said Thursday.Rwanda said earlier in August it would accept up to 250 deportees from the U.S.Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, said in a statement that the first group of seven vetted migrants arrived in Rwanda in mid-August.Rwanda is one of four African countries that have reached deportation agreements with Washington, The others are Uganda, Eswatini and South Sudan. No information was provided about the identities of the deportees sent to Rwanda this month. They have been accommodated by an international organization with visits by the International Organization for Migration, as well as representatives of Rwandan social services, Makolo said. Three of the individuals have expressed a desire to return to their home countries, while four wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda, Makolo said.In addition to accommodation, those approved for settlement in Rwanda will receive workforce training and health care, she said. The Trump administration has come under scrutiny for the African countries it has entered into secretive deals with to take deportees. It sent eight men from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in early July after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for their deportations. The U.S. also deported five men who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini, where the government said they will be held in solitary confinement in prison for an undetermined period of time.Uganda has also agreed to a deal with the U.S. to take deported migrants as long as they dont have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors. U.S. officials have said they want to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a high-profile detainee, to Uganda.

A resident retrieves belongings from his flooded home due to rising water level in Ravi River after torrential rains at a low-lying area on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)2025-08-28T09:28:16Z NAROWAL, Pakistan (AP) Rescuers in boats raced to reach stranded families in Pakistans populous eastern Punjab province Thursday, after three major rivers burst their banks because of heavy rain and the release of water from overflowing dams in neighboring India. The floods displaced nearly 250,000 people and officials said more than 1 million people were affected, with crops and businesses destroyed and many unable to leave their homes.At least 15 people were killed a day earlier in Gujranwala district and nearby villages, according to police. Forecasters said more rain was expected Friday, after a two-day pause, and could continue into next week. Provincial minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said floods hit 1,432 villages located along the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab rivers, affecting about 1.2 million people and displacing 248,000 others. Nearly 700 relief and 265 medical camps have been set up in the flood-hit areas, she said, adding that food and other essential supplies are being delivered to flood-hit areas.Floods have killed more than 800 people in Pakistan since late June. In Indian-controlled Kashmirs Jammu region, some of the heaviest rains in decades for the month of August have wrought havoc, triggering flash floods and landslides that also hit two Hindu pilgrimage routes in the Himalayan areas. Homes have been submerged and roads and bridges damaged, forcing Indian authorities to evacuate thousands of people living in flooded areas. At least 115 people have been killed and scores injured. Stay up to date with similar stories by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. In Pakistan, it is also the first time in 38 years that the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab rivers have been in high flood simultaneously, forcing rescue workers to intensify operations across multiple districts, according to the provincial irrigation department. Some families said they were still waiting for government help.My family on the rooftop of our house waited for two days for the arrival of a boat, said Zainab Bibi, 54, as she sat along a road surrounded by floodwater in Narowal district. She admitted to ignoring an earlier government alert because she thought floods would never hit her village, located kilometers (miles) away from the river. Farmer Mohammad Saleem, 47, said floods from across the Indian border swept away his home and belongings before his family could escape their village in Narowal district. His 38-year-old wife, Kaneez Bibi, said the floods swept away the dowry she had prepared for their eldest daughters wedding planned for November. In Pakistans Punjab province, mass evacuations began earlier this week after heavier-than-usual monsoon rains and the release of water from overflowing dams in India triggered flash floods in low-lying border regions. In a statement, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif credited timely evacuations with saving lives. She said advance preparations and the demolition of illegally-built structures along waterways had helped prevent large-scale casualties in what officials describe as the provinces worst flood emergency in decades. No displaced person should be without food and medical help in the flood-hit areas, she told officials during a meeting to review the situation. Try your best to prevent the spread of water-borne disease among the flood-affected people, she warned.Pakistans Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, on a visit to the flood-hit city of Narowal, accused India of deliberately releasing excessive amounts of water from its dams without timely warnings. He said New Delhi violated a key water treaty that it suspended earlier this year after the killing of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack, an accusation Islamabad denied.Iqbal said The release of water in such an enormous volume amounts to water aggression, and India did it, and we are seeing flood devastations. There was no immediate comment from New Delhi. Floods in Narowal also submerged the shrine of Guru Nanak, located near the Indian border, but rescuers evacuated the staff and pilgrims quickly.In 2022, catastrophic floods linked to climate change killed nearly 1,700 people in Pakistan.___Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, and Ishfaq Hussain in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

A street money exchanger poses for a photo without showing his face as he counts Iranian banknotes at a commercial district in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)2025-08-28T08:22:56Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Irans rial currency fell to near-record lows Thursday as concerns grew in Tehran that European nations will start a process to reimpose United Nations sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, further squeezing the countrys ailing economy. The move, termed the snapback mechanism by the diplomats who negotiated it into Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof before the world body and would be likely to go into effect after a 30-day window. If implemented, the measure would again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalizes any development of its ballistic missile program, among other measures. In Tehran on Thursday, the rial traded at over 1 million to $1. At the time of the 2015 accord, it traded at 32,000 to $1, showing the currencys precipitous collapse in the time since. The rial hit its lowest point ever in April at 1,043,000 rials to $1. France, Germany and the United Kingdom warned Aug. 8 that Iran could trigger snapback when it halted inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency after Israeli strikes at the start of the two countries 12-day war in June. Israeli attacks then killed Tehrans top military leaders and saw Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei go into hiding. Seeking to use the snapback mechanism likely will raise tensions further between Iran and the West in a Mideast still burning over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. and its European partners see invoking the snapback as a means of keeping Iran strategically weak and unable to reconstitute the nuclear program damaged by the U.S. and Israeli strikes, the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said Thursday. Iranian leaders perceive a sanctions snapback as a Western effort to weaken Irans economy indefinitely and perhaps stimulate sufficient popular unrest to unseat Irans regime. Iran appears resignedIran initially downplayed the threat of renewed sanctions and engaged in little visible diplomacy for weeks after Europes warning, but has engaged in a brief diplomatic push in recent days, highlighting the chaos gripping its theocracy.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking last week, signaled Irans fatalistic view of its diplomacy with the West, particularly as the Israelis started the war just as a sixth round of negotiations with the United States were due to take place.Werent we in the talks when the war happened? So, negotiation alone cannot prevent war, Araghchi told the state-run IRNA news agency. Sometimes war is inevitable and diplomacy alone is not able to prevent it. At issue is Irans nuclear enrichmentBefore the war in June, Iran was enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. It also built a stockpile containing enough highly enriched uranium to build multiple atomic bombs, should it choose to do so.Iran long has insisted its program is peaceful, though Western nations and the IAEA assess Tehran had an active nuclear weapons program up until 2003.It remains unclear just how much the Israel and U.S. strikes on nuclear sites during the war disrupted Irans program.Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to allow the IAEA even greater access to its nuclear program than those the agency has in other member nations. That included permanently installing cameras and sensors at nuclear sites. Other devices, known as online enrichment monitors, measured the uranium enrichment level at Irans Natanz nuclear facility.The IAEA also regularly sent inspectors into Iranian sites to conduct surveys, sometimes collecting environmental samples with cotton clothes and swabs that would be tested at IAEA labs back in Austria. Others monitor Iranian sites via satellite images.But IAEA inspectors, who faced increasing restrictions on their activities since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from Irans nuclear deal in 2018, have yet to access those sites. Meanwhile, Iran has said it moved uranium and other equipment out prior to the strikes possibly to new, undeclared sites that raise the risk that monitors could lose track of the programs status. On Wednesday, IAEA inspectors were on hand to watch a fuel replacement at Irans Bushehr nuclear reactor, which is run with Russian technical assistance. European nations set deadlineIn their Aug. 8 letter, the three European nations warned Iran they would proceed with snapback by the end of August if Tehran didnt reach a satisfactory solution to the nuclear issues. Thats left little time for Iran to likely reach any agreement with the Europeans, who have grown increasingly skeptical of Iran over years of inconclusive negotiations over its nuclear program. The deals snapback mechanism would expire Oct. 18, which put the three European nations in a situation where they likely feel now is the time to act. Under snapback, any party to the deal can find Iran in noncompliance, triggering renewed sanctions. After it expires, any sanctions effort would face a veto from U.N. Security Council members China and Russia, nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past but stayed out of the June war. China as well has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, something that could be affected in snapback happens.Russia in recent days has floated a proposal to extend the life of the U.N. resolution granting the snapback power. Russia also is due to take the presidency of the U.N. Security Council in October, likely putting additional pressure on the Europeans to act. ___Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. ___The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.___Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/ JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)2025-08-28T05:09:29Z MANILA, Philippines (AP) World shares were mixed Thursday after modest gains on Wall Street lifted the S&P 500 to another all-time high ahead of computer chipmaker Nvidias highly anticipated earnings report. The future for S&P 500 rose 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. Meanwhile, oil prices declined. In early European trading, Germanys DAX climbed 0.4% to 24,144.65 while Britains FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% to 9,240.75. In Paris, the CAC 40 jumped 1.1% to 7,825.28.In China, shares in computer chipmaker Cambricon Technologies soared 15.7% to 1,587.91 yuan ($222), becoming the priciest stock on Shanghais exchange as it surpassed Kweichou Moutais stock, which slipped to 1,446 yuan ($202) a share. Cambricons shares have jumped after it reported its revenue and profit expanded many fold in the first half of the year, helped by the Chinese governments support for domestic semiconductor makers. The Shanghai Composite index surged 1.1% to 3,843.60. It has been trading near decade-high levels on heavy buying by institutional investors.Hong Kongs Hang Seng dropped 0.8% to 24,998.82, led by losses for technology companies like food delivery company Meituan. Its shares dropped 10.3% while e-commerce giant JD.com declined 5%. Such companies have seen demand sag as Chinese consumers cut back on spending. Japans Nikkei 225 added 0.7% to 42,828.79. It has been trading near record levels, despite friction with Washington over a preliminary trade agreement that has yet to be finalized. Top trade envoy Ryohei Akazawa abruptly postponed a trip to the U.S. capital planned for Thursday in the latest sign of trouble over the deal setting tariffs on Japanese exports at 15%, a policy that has yet to come into effect. South Koreas Kospi climbed 0.3% to 3,196.32 after the Bank of Korea kept its policy rate unchanged at 2.5% for the second review in a row. Australias S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher to 8,980.00. Indias BSE Sensex fell 0.9%, reopening following a public holiday after higher U.S. tariffs on the countrys exports took effect on Wednesday. Taiwans TAIEX shed 1.2%.On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, nudging past the record high it set two weeks ago to close at 6,481.40. The Dow industrials rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% higher at 21,590.14.Technology companies led the way higher, outweighing declines in communication services and other sectors.After the market closed, Nvidias quarterly report showed its earnings and revenue topped Wall Street analysts forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. The stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading after having slipped 0.1% during the regular session.Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market. In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude dropped 48 cents to $63.67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 47 cents to $66.97 per barrel.The dollar fell to 147.24 Japanese yen, down from 147.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1639 from $1.1640.

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