Texas parents frantically posted photos of their young daughters on social media with pleas for information as more than 20 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for Friday after floods tore through the state's south-central region.

At least 13 people were dead Friday and dozens missing after months worth of heavy rain fell in a matter of hours on Texas Hill Country, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. The flood-prone region is dotted with century-old summer camps that draw thousands of kids annually from across the Lone Star State.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said about 23 girls attending Camp Mystic, a Christian camp along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, were unaccounted for Friday afternoon. Search teams were working to conduct helicopter and boat rescues in the fast-moving floodwaters.

Im asking the people of Texas, do some serious praying this afternoon on-your-knees kind of praying that we find these young girls, Patrick said.

Dozens of families shared in local Facebook groups that they received devastating phone calls from safety officials informing them that their daughters had not yet been located among the washed-away camp cabins and downed trees. Some were waiting to hear if their children could be evacuated by helicopter. Nine rescue teams, 14 helicopters and 12 drones were being used in the search, Patrick said.

Camp Mystic said in an email to parents that if they have not been contacted directly, their child is accounted for. Safety officials said there were roughly 750 campers.

At an elementary school in nearby Ingram that was being used as a reunification center, more than a hundred people milled around a courtyard with hopes of seeing their loved one step out of buses dropping off those who had been evacuated. One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother's arms as she rubbed her hands together and watched the buses arrive.

Many families hoped to see loved ones who had been at campgrounds and mobile home parks in the area.

Camp Mystic sits on a strip known as flash flood alley, said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, a charitable endowment that is collecting donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.

When it rains, water doesnt soak into the soil, Dickson said. It rushes down the hill.

Decades prior, floodwaters engulfed a bus of teenage campers from another Christian camp along the Guadalupe River during devastating summer storms in 1987. A total of 10 campers from Pot O Gold Christian camp drowned after their bus was unable to evacuate in time from a site near Comfort, 33 miles (53 kilometers) east of Hunt.

Leaders at Camp Mystic said they are without power, Wi-Fi and running water, and the highway leading to the camp has washed away.

Two other camps on the river, Camp Waldemar and Camp La Junta, said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff there were safe.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico hadn't previously arrested boxer Julio Csar Chvez Jr. on a 2023 arrest order, because he had been mostly been in the United States since.

Sheinbaum spoke a day after U.S. authorities announced the boxers arrest in California for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application. He was being processed for expedited removal, according to U.S. authorities.

The hope is that he will be deported and serve the sentence in Mexico, Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Friday, referring to charges that he faces for arms and drug trafficking.

The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City near Hollywood.

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The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California.

He split his time between both countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Chvez for overstaying a tourist visa that he entered the U.S. with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The agency also said Chvez submitted multiple fraudulent statements when he applied for permanent residency on April 2, 2024, based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, Frida Muoz. She is the mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.

U.S. officials said that he's believed to have ties to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which is blamed for a significant portion of Mexicos drug violence.

The Fourth of July holiday, also known as Independence Day, celebrates the Second Continental Congress unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

A year later, according to the Library of Congress, a spontaneous celebration in Philadelphia marked the anniversary of American independence.

But observations werent commonplace until after the War of 1812, when they quickly took off. Congress was late to the party, finally passing a law making Independence Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1870.

Heres what is open and closed this year on the Fourth of July:

Government buildings

Government offices, post offices, courts and schools are closed.

Banks and the stock market

U.S. stock markets and banks are closed Friday. Most FedEx and UPS pickup and delivery services will also not be available.

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Retailers

Warehouse membership club Costco is closed on July Fourth. Most other major national retailers such as Target and Walmart will be open, with some offering promotional sales to lure customers. Most grocery stores are also open. Hours may vary by location, so check your local store.

Travel

Millions of Americans are expected to hit the road, taking advantage of the Fourth of July falling on a Friday this year.

Spokeswoman Adrienne Woodland said AAA is forecasting that a record 72.2 million Americans will travel domestically between June 28 and July 6, an increase of 1.7 million over last year and 7 million more than in 2019. AAA estimates 61.6 million Americans will drive and 5.8 million travelers will fly.

Woodland recommended that anyone traveling over the holiday should consider taking precautions, including a pre-trip inspection of their vehicle to avoid issues such as dead batteries, flat tires and empty gas tanks.

Waves of drone and missile attacks targeted Kyiv overnight into Friday in the largest aerial assault since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began more than three years ago, officials said, amid a renewed Russian push to capture more of its neighbor's land.

The barrage injured at least 23 people and inflicted severe damage across multiple districts of the capital in a seven-hour onslaught. Blasts lit up the night sky and echoed across the city as air raid sirens wailed. The blue lights of emergency vehicles reflected off high-rise buildings, and debris blocked city streets.

It was a harsh, sleepless night, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities. Less than a week ago Russia launched what was then the largest aerial assault of the war. That strategy has coincided with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure.

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Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine during the night, the countrys air force said. The majority were Shahed drones, but Russia also launched 11 missiles in the attack.

Alya Shahlai, a 23-year-old Kyiv wedding photographer, said her home was destroyed in the attack.

We were all in the (basement) shelter because it was so loud, staying home would have been suicidal, she told The Associated Press. We went down 10 minutes before and then there was a loud explosion and the lights went out in the shelter, people were panicking.

Trump not happy with Russia's attacks

The attack on Kyiv began the same day a phone call took place between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy called the timing of the strikes a deliberate signal that Moscow has no intention of ending the war.

Trump said he would call Zelenskyy on Friday. U.S.-led international peace efforts have been fruitless so far. Recent direct peace talks have led only to sporadic exchanges of prisoners of war, wounded troops and the bodies of fallen soldiers. No date has been set for further negotiations.

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Ukrainian officials and the Russian Defense Ministry said another prisoner swap took place Friday, though neither side said how many soldiers were involved. Zelenskyy said most of the Ukrainians had been in Russian captivity since 2022. The Ukrainian soldiers were classified as wounded and seriously ill.

When asked if he made any progress during his call with Putin on a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine, Trump said: No, I didnt make any progress with him today at all.

Im very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin because I dont think hes there. I dont think hes looking to stop (the fighting), and thats too bad, Trump said.

According to Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign affairs adviser, the Russian leader emphasized that Moscow will seek to achieve its goals in Ukraine and remove the root causes of the conflict.

Russia will not back down from these goals, Ushakov told reporters after the call.

Russias army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO. Zelenskyy has repeatedly called out Russian disinformation efforts.

Pentagon halts deliveries of air defense missiles

The U.S. has paused some shipments of military aid to Ukraine, including crucial air defense missiles. Ukraines main European backers are considering how they can help pick up the slack. Zelenskyy says plans are afoot to build up Ukraine's domestic arms industry, but scaling up will take time.

The Ukrainian response needs to be speedy as Russia escalates its aerial attacks. Russia launched 5,438 drones at Ukraine in June, a new monthly record, according to official data collated by The Associated Press. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said earlier this week that Russia also launched more than 330 missiles, including nearly 80 ballistic missiles, at Ukrainian towns and cities that month.

Throughout the night, AP journalists in Kyiv heard the constant buzzing of drones overhead and the sound of explosions and intense machine gun fire as Ukrainian forces tried to intercept the aerial assault.

Absolutely horrible and sleepless night in Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on social media platform X. One of the worst so far.

Ukraines Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko described families running into metro stations, basements, underground parking garages, mass destruction in the heart of our capital.

What Kyiv endured last night, cannot be called anything but a deliberate act of terror, she wrote on X.

Kyiv was the primary target of the countrywide attack. At least 14 people were hospitalized, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Zelenskyy called the Kyiv attack cynical. In Moscow, the Defense Ministry claimed its forces targeted factories producing drones and other military equipment in Kyiv.

Russia strikes 5 Ukrainian regions

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 270 targets, including two cruise missiles. Another 208 targets were lost from radar and presumed jammed.

Russia successfully hit eight locations with nine missiles and 63 drones. Debris from intercepted drones fell across at least 33 sites.

In addition to the capital, the Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions also sustained damage, Zelenskyy said.

Emergency services reported damage in at least five of Kyiv's 10 districts.

Republicans muscled President Donald Trump's tax and spending cut bill through the House on Thursday, the final step necessary to get the bill to his desk by the GOP's self-imposed deadline of July 4th.

At nearly 900 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

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Democrats united against the legislation, but were powerless to stop it as long as Republicans stayed united. The Senate passed the bill, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. The House passed an earlier iteration of the bill in May with just one vote to spare. It passed the final version 218-214.

Here's the latest on what's in the bill.

Tax cuts are the priority

Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill, solidifying the tax cuts approved in Trump's first term.

It would temporarily add new tax deductions on tip, overtime and auto loans. There's also a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year, a nod to his pledge to end taxes on Social Security benefits.

It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200. Millions of families at lower income levels would not get the full credit.

A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years.

There are scores of business-related tax cuts, including allowing businesses to immediately write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research. Proponents say this will boost economic growth.

The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, and the bill would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version.

Money for deportations, a border wall and the Golden Dome

The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year.

To help pay for it, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections.

For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security.

How to pay for it? Cuts to Medicaid and other programs

To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back on Medicaid and food assistance for people below the poverty line .

Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse.

The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the programs work requirements.

There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services.

More than 71 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.

Republicans are looking to have states pick up some of the cost for SNAP benefits. Currently, the federal government funds all benefit costs. Under the bill, states beginning in 2028 will be required to contribute a set percentage of those costs if their payment error rate exceeds 6%. Payment errors include both underpayments and overpayments.

But the Senate bill temporarily delays the start date of that cost-sharing for states with the highest SNAP error rates. Alaska has the highest error rate in the nation at nearly 25%, according to Department of Agriculture data. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, had fought for the exception. She was a decisive vote in getting the bill through the Senate.

A death sentence for clean energy?

Republicans are proposing to dramatically roll back tax breaks designed to boost clean energy projects fueled by renewable sources such as energy and wind. The tax breaks were a central component of President Joe Biden's 2022 landmark bill focused on addressing climate change and lowering health care costs.

Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden went so far as to call the GOP provisions a death sentence for Americas wind and solar industries and an inevitable hike in utility bills.

A tax break for people who buy new or used electric vehicles would expire on Sept. 30 of this year, instead of at the end of 2032 under current law.

Meanwhile, a tax credit for the production of critical materials will be expanded to include metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.

Trump savings accounts and so, so much more

A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities.

The bill creates a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury.

The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trumps long-sought National Garden of American Heroes.

There's a new excise tax on university endowments and a new tax on remittances, or transfers of money that people in the U.S. send abroad. The tax is equal to 1% of the transfer.

A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated.

One provision bars for one year Medicaid payments to family planning providers that provide abortions, namely Planned Parenthood.

Another section expands the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a hard-fought provision from GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, for those impacted by nuclear development and testing.

Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for the exploration of Mars, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee.

Additionally, a provision would increase the nation's debt limit, by $5 trillion, to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills.

Last-minute changes

The Senate overwhelmingly revolted against a proposal meant to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence. Republican governors across the country asked for the moratorium to be removed and the Senate voted to do so with a resounding 99-1 vote.

A provision was thrown in at the final hours that will provide $10 billion annually to rural hospitals for five years, or $50 billion in total. The Senate bill had originally provided $25 billion for the program, but that number was upped to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that reduced Medicaid provider taxes would hurt rural hospitals.

The amended bill also stripped out a new tax on wind and solar projects that use a certain percentage of components from China.

What's the final cost?

Altogether, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would increase federal deficits over the next 10 years by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034.

Or not, depending on how one does the math.

Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already current policy. Republican senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach.

Under the alternative Senate GOP view, the bill would reduce deficits by almost half a trillion dollars over the coming decade, the CBO said.

Democrats say this is magic math that obscures the true costs of the tax breaks. Some nonpartisan groups worried about the country's fiscal trajectory are siding with Democrats in that regard. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Senate Republicans were employing an accounting gimmick that would make Enron executives blush.

Nissan is recalling more than 480,000 of its vehicles across the U.S. and Canada due to potential manufacturing defects that could cause engine failure.

The recall covers certain Nissan Rogues between 2021-2024 model years and 2019-2020 Altimas as well as a number of 2019-2022 Infiniti QX50s and 2022 Infiniti QX55s sold under the automaker's luxury brand, according to Nissan and documents published by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week.

The vehicles impacted carry specific "VC-Turbo" engines that may have manufacturing defects in their bearings, the NHTSA's recall report notes. This may cause engine damage and possibly lead to engine failure while driving, the regulator warns increasing crash risks.

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Engine bearing failures "are not typically instantaneous and tend to progress over time," the NHTSA's recall report notes. That means effected drivers may see multiple warning signs to look out for including abnormal noises or malfunction indicator lights.

In the U.S., 443,899 vehicles are covered in this recall, per NHTSA documents. And in Canada, 37,837 are affected, a Nissan spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday.

As a remedy, the NHSTA's recall report notes, Nissan and Infiniti dealers will inspect the engine pan of these-now recalled cars and repair or replace the engine if necessary. The recall covers vehicles with either 3-cylinder 1.5L or 4-cylinder 2.0L VC-Turbo engines. Potential repairs which will be performed free of charge will depend on the engine and whether or not debris is detected during the inspection.

In an emailed statement, Nissan said it initiated this recall as part of its "ongoing commitment to customer safety." And in late August, the company added, notification letters will be mailed out to affected owners "with instructions to bring their vehicle to a Nissan dealer or INFINITI retailer for inspection and repair if necessary."

In the meantime, drivers can also confirm if their specific vehicle is included in this recall and find more information using the NHTSA site or Nissan's recall lookup.

Michael Madsen, whose menacing characters in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Kill Bill" made him a standout in Quentin Tarantino's films, has died. He was 66.

Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes, and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager, Ron Smith, said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause.

Madsen's career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget films. But his most memorable screen moment may have been the sadistic torture of a captured police officer while dancing to Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You" as Mr. Blonde in 1992's "Reservoir Dogs."

He would become a Tarantino regular, appearing in the "Kill Bill" films and "The Hateful Eight."

"In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films 'Resurrection Road,' 'Concessions and 'Cookbook for Southern Housewives,' and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life," his managers Smith and Susan Ferris and publicist Liz Rodriguez said in a statement. They added that he "was one of Hollywood's most iconic actors, who will be missed by many."

During a handprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in November 2020, Madsen reflected on his first visit to Hollywood in the early 1980s.

"I got out and I walked around and I looked and I wondered if there were someday some way that that was going to be a part of me. And I didn't know because I didn't know what I was going to do at that point with myself," he said. "I could have been a bricklayer. I could have been an architect. I could have been a garbage man. I could have been nothing. But I got lucky. I got lucky as an actor."

The first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.

"People are there," Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he didn't immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.

"Next stop: back to where they came from," Uthmeier said on the X social media platform on Wednesday. He's been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal.

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"Stood up in record time under @GovRonDeSantis ' leadership & in coordination with @DHSgov & @ICEgov, Florida is proud to help facilitate @realDonaldTrump 's mission to enforce immigration law," the account for the Florida Division of Emergency Management posted to the social media site X on Thursday. Requests for additional information from the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and FDEM, which is building the site, were not returned early Thursday afternoon.

The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.

Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under the federal government's 287(g) program will be taken to the facility, according to an official in President Donald Trump's administration. The program is led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows police officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.

The facility is expected to be expanded in 500-bed increments until it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July.

A group of Florida Democratic state lawmakers headed to the facility Thursday to conduct "an official legislative site visit," citing concerns about conditions for detainees and the awarding of millions of dollars in state contracts for the construction.

"As lawmakers, we have both the legal right and moral responsibility to inspect this site, demand answers, and expose this abuse before it becomes the national blueprint," the legislators said in a joint statement ahead of the visit.

Federal agencies signaled their opposition Thursday to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups seeking to halt operations at the detention center. Though Trump applauded the center during an official tour earlier this week, the filing on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security seemed to try to distance his administration from the facility, and said no federal money to date has been spent on it.

"DHS has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida's temporary detention center. Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions," the U.S. filing says.

Human rights advocates and Native American tribes have also protested against the center, contending it is a threat to the fragile Everglades system, would be cruel to detainees because of heat and mosquitoes, and is on land the tribes consider sacred.

It's also located at a place prone to frequent heavy rains, which caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during a visit by President Donald Trump to mark its opening. State officials say the complex can withstand a Category 2 hurricane, which packs winds of between 96 and 110 mph (154 and 177 kph), and that contractors worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.

According to images shared with the AP, overnight Wednesday, workers put up new signs labeled "Alligator Alcatraz" along the sole highway leading to the site and outside the entrance of the airfield that has been known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. State officials seized the county-owned land where the facility is located using emergency powers authorized by an executive order issued by the governor.

DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the rugged and remote Florida Everglades is meant as a deterrent and naming it after the notorious federal prison of Alcatraz, an island fortress known for its brutal conditions, is meant to send a message. It's another sign of how the Trump administration and its allies are relying on scare tactics to try to persuade people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.

State and federal officials have touted the plans on social media and conservative airwaves, sharing a meme of a compound ringed with barbed wire and "guarded" by alligators wearing hats labeled "ICE" for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Republican Party of Florida has taken to fundraising off the detention center, selling branded T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with the facility's name.

The governments top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday.

The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agencys vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.

Both vaccines were approved by the FDA in May after months of analysis by rank-and-file FDA reviewers.

But internal correspondence shows Prasad disagreed with staffers who planned to approve the shots for everyone 12 and older, similar to previous COVID vaccines. The scientists had concluded the benefit from the vaccines and the risk of COVID-19 outweighed the risk of possible side effects, which are rare.

Instead Prasad decided the shots should be limited to those who face special risks from the virus seniors or children and adults with underlying medical issues.

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Prasad explained that the COVID vaccine benefits must be reconsidered in light of falling rates of death and hospitalization and the possibility for vaccine side effects. Its the latest in a series of vaccine restrictions imposed by officials working under Kennedy, who has long questioned the benefits of vaccines.

Even rare vaccination related harms both known and unknown now have higher chance of outweighing potential benefits Prasad wrote in a five-page memo explaining his decision.

COVID-19 remains a public health threat, resulting in 32,000 to 51,000 U.S. deaths and more than 250,000 hospitalizations since last fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most at risk for hospitalization are seniors and children under 2 especially infants under 6 months.

Top FDA leaders are typically not involved in the review of individual products. Officials like Prasad can overrule staffers, but such cases are rare and often controversial.

News of the FDA documents was first reported by the New York Times.

Prasad was hired to lead the FDAs vaccine center in May, after the previous director, Dr. Peter Marks, was forced to resign over disagreements with Kennedy. An academic researcher specializing in cancer therapies, Prasad came to prominence during the pandemic for criticizing public health measures, including the FDAs approval of COVID boosters for healthy adults and children.

Since arriving at the agency he has worked with FDA Commissioner Mark Makary on new guidelines that will limit approvals of future COVID boosters to higher-risk Americans, mainly seniors and those with medical conditions like asthma and obesity.

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Those limits match the terms FDA recently approved for Novavaxs shot, Nuvaxovid and Modernas mNexspike. Novavaxs vaccine is the only protein-based coronavirus vaccine available in the U.S. Modernas vaccine is an updated, lower-dose version of its existing mRNA-based vaccine.

The review team for the Novavax vaccine pointed to data from a study in 30,000 adults, concluding that the risk-benefit assessment for this vaccine technology remains favorable.

FDA staff reached a similar conclusion for the Moderna vaccine, deeming it similar in safety and effectiveness to the companys original shot.

Last week, the FDA finalized new warning labeling about the risk of myocarditis, a rare form of heart inflammation, on shots from Moderna and Pfizer, the other maker of an mRNA-based shot for COVID.

In his override memo, reversing FDA staffs decision on the Moderna shot, Prasad pointed to the ongoing risk of myocarditis and questions about its frequency. The agency ordered Moderna to conduct further studies of the risk as a condition for the approving its updated shot.

A spokesman for the administration said Prasad has raised serious concerns about the issue.

We will not ignore these risks and will ensure that the gold standard of science is used for any decisions, said Andrew Nixon, in an emailed statement.

Outside researchers have noted that cases of the heart condition tend to resolve quickly and are less severe than those associated with COVID infection itself, which can also cause myocarditis.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he suffered severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation and psychological torture in the notorious El Salvador prison the Trump administration had deported him to in March, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

He said he was kicked and hit so often after arrival that by the following day, he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. He said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night long and guards hit anyone who fell.

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and became a flashpoint in President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown. The new details of Abrego Garcias incarceration in El Salvador were added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcias wife filed in Maryland federal court after he was deported.

The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is now moot because the government returned him to the United States as ordered by the court.

A U.S. immigration judge in 2019 had barred Abrego Garcia from being deported back to his native El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs who had terrorized him and his family. The Trump administration deported him there despite the judges 2019 order and later described it as an administrative error. Trump and other officials have since doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang.

On March 15, Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador and sent to the countrys mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

In the new court documents, Abrego Garcia said detainees at CECOT were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.

He said prison officials told him repeatedly that they would transfer him to cells with people who were gang members who would tear him apart. Abrego Garcia said he saw others in nearby cells violently harm each other and heard screams from people throughout the night.

His condition deteriorated and he lost more than 30 pounds in his first two weeks there, he said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador in April. The senator said Abrego Garcia reported hed been moved from the mega-prison to a detention center with better conditions.

RELATED STORY | Justice Department says it intends to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on smuggling charges

The Trump administration continued to face mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order to return him to the United States. When the U.S. government brought back Abrego Garcia last month, it was to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of Abrego Garcias return that this is what American justice looks like. But Abrego Garcias attorneys called the charges preposterous and an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion.

A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release -- under certain conditions -- as he awaits trial on the criminal charges in Tennessee. But she has kept him in jail for now at the request of his own attorneys over fears that he would be deported again upon release.

Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press last month that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him again.

Separately, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland last month that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country that isnt El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans. But Abrego Garcias attorneys cited Guynns comments as a reason to fear he would be deported immediately.

The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case over state restrictions on which school sports teams transgender students can join.

Just two weeks after upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the justices said they will review lower court rulings in favor of transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia.

The nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in girls' sports teams has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

RELATED STORY | UPenn to ban transgender athletes, feds say, ending civil rights case focused on swimmer Lia Thomas

More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.

At the federal level, the Trump administration has filed lawsuits and launched investigations over state and school policies that have allowed transgender athletes to compete freely. This week, the University of Pennsylvania modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes "disadvantaged" by her participation on the women's swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.

Republican President Donald Trump also has acted aggressively in other areas involving transgender people, including removing transgender troops from military service. In May, the Supreme Court allowed the ouster of transgender service members to proceed, reversing lower courts that had blocked it.

The new case will be argued in the fall.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | NCAA changes transgender sports participation policy following Trump executive order

West Virginia is appealing a lower-court ruling that found the ban violates the rights of Becky Pepper-Jackson, who has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade. Pepper-Jackson sued the state when she was in middle school because she wanted to compete on the cross country and track teams.

This past school year, Pepper-Jackson qualified for the West Virginia girls high school state track meet, finishing third in the discus throw and eighth in the shot put in the Class AAA division.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Pepper-Jackson in two areas, under the Constitution's equal protection clause and the landmark federal law known as Title IX that forbids sex discrimination in education.

Idaho in 2020 became the first state in the nation to ban transgender women and girls from playing on women's sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the women's rights group Legal Voice sued Idaho on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, who hoped to run for Boise State University.

The state asked for Supreme Court review after lower courts blocked the state's ban while the lawsuit continues.

The justices did not act on a third case from Arizona that raises the same issue.

U.S. employers added 147,000 jobs in June as the American labor market continues to show surprising resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump's economic policies. The unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Hiring rose modestly from a revised 144,000 in May and beat economists' expectations of fewer than 118,000 new jobs and a rise in the unemployment rate

The U.S. job market has cooled considerably from red-hot days of 2021-2023 when the economy bounced back with unexpected strength from COVID-19 lockdowns and companies were desperate for workers. So far this year, employers have added an average of 130,000 jobs a month, down from 168,000 in 2024 and an average of 400,000 from 2021 through 2023.

But the June numbers were surprisingly strong. State governments added 47,000 workers and healthcare companies 39,000. But manufacturers shed 7,000 jobs.

Labor Department revisions added 16,000 jobs to April and June payrolls. The number of unemployed people fell by 222,000.

Average hourly wages rose 0.2% from May and 3.7% from a year earlier, inching close to the 3.5% year-over-year number considered consistent with the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation target.

Hiring decelerated after the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. But the economy did not collapse, defying widespread predictions that the higher borrowing costs would cause a recession. Companies kept hiring, just at a more modest pace.

Employers are now contending with fallout from Trump's policies, especially his aggressive use of import taxes tariffs.

Mainstream economists say that tariffs raise prices for businesses and consumers alike and make the economy less efficient by reducing competition. They also invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries, hurting U.S. exporters.

The erratic way that Trump has rolled out his tariffs announcing and then suspending them, then coming up with new ones has left businesses bewildered.

Manufacturers responding to a survey released this week by the Institute for Supply Management complained that they and their customers were reluctant to make decisions until they understood where Trump's tariffs would end up. "That whiplash has to stop and it has to stay stopped," said Susan Spence, chair of the ISM's manufacturing survey committee.

Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother were killed in a car accident in Spain when the Lamborghini they were in veered off a road and burst into flames, police said Thursday.

The Spanish Civil Guard confirmed to The Associated Press that the 28-year-old Jota and his 25-year-old brother, Andr Silva, were found dead near the northwestern city of Zamora.

The accident occurred past midnight local time. Police said they were investigating the causes and the bodies were undergoing forensic analysis.

Jota and Silva, both Portuguese soccer players, were the only ones in the car, according to police.

It was not immediately clear who was driving but police have been looking into the possibility that the accident happened as a result of a blown tire while the car tried to overtake another vehicle.

The brothers were driving eastward along an isolated stretch of highway, about an hour west of Zamora, when the accident took place.

The car was incinerated, and they died inside, Spanish government official ngel Blanco said.

Spanish media have published video images of the crashs aftermath. They show tire marks veering off the road toward damaged guardrails, while the burnt-up car can be seen several meters away.

Firefighters were called in as flames from the crash spread into nearby vegetation, authorities said.

Jotas death comes weeks after he married Rute Cardoso and in a social media post wrote, Yes to forever. They had three children, the youngest born last year.

Jota also played for Portugals national team and helped it win the Nations League last month.

Silva played with Portuguese club Penafiel in the lower divisions.

Liverpool said the club was devastated by the tragic passing.

Liverpool FC will be making no further comment at this time and request the privacy of Diogo and Andres family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss. We will continue to provide them with our full support.

Jota joined Liverpool from Wolves in 2020 and won three major trophies with the Merseyside club including the Premier League title last season.

The Portuguese soccer federation released a statement lamenting the deaths. Federation president Pedro Proena said Portuguese soccer was completely devastated.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | How Hispanics are fueling the popularity of soccer in the US

More than a fantastic player, with almost 50 appearances for the national team, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, respected by all his colleagues and opponents. He had a contagious joy and was a reference in his community, Proena said in the statement.

The Portuguese federation said it has requested a minute of silence before Thursday's match between Portugal and Spain at the Women's European Championship being played in Switzerland.

We lost two champions, Proena said. "Their deaths represent an irreparable loss for Portuguese soccer and we will all do our best to honor their legacy daily.

Portugals Prime Minister Lus Montenegro commented on the unexpected and tragic deaths. He said Jota was an athlete who greatly honored Portugals name.

I extend my deepest condolences to their family, he said. It is a sad day for soccer and for national and international sports.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer talked about the devastating news.

I am sure I speak for everyone in saying our first thoughts are going to be with his family and his friends in particular, he said. "There are millions of Liverpool fans but also football fans and non-fans who will also be shocked by this. It is devastating and really important we bear in mind just how difficult a period this will be for his friends and for his family.

Reaction also started pouring in from across the world, including from non-soccer players such as NBA star Lebron James a minority owner at Liverpool and tennis legend Rafael Nadal.

It doesn't make any sense, Jota's Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo said. Just now we were together in the national team, just now you had gotten married. My condolences to your family, to your wife and to your children. I wish them all the strength in the world. I know that you will always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and Andr. We will all miss you.

Former club Porto and former teammates lamented the deaths and sent condolences, as did other clubs, federations and leagues.

The Premier League said it was shocked and devastated.

Our sincerest condolences go to Diogos family, friends, Liverpool FC, and all their supporters at this heartbreaking time, it said. Football has lost a champion who will be forever missed. We will continue to support our friends and colleagues at the club.

UEFA said its thoughts were with relatives, friends and teammates affected by this heartbreaking loss. It said a moment of silence will be observed at Euro 2025 matches on Thursday and Friday.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israel has agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and warned Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.

Trump announced the development as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House on Monday. The U.S. leader has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War, Trump wrote, saying the Qataris and Egyptians would deliver the final proposal.

I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE, he said.

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer was in Washington on Tuesday for talks with senior administration officials to discuss a potential Gaza ceasefire, Iran and other matters. Dermer was expected to meet with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

RELATED STORY | Netanyahu to visit Washington as Trump presses for a ceasefire in Gaza

The development came as over 150 international charities and humanitarian groups called Tuesday for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of chaos and deadly violence against Palestinians seeking food at its sites.

The joint statement by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International followed the killings of at least 10 Palestinians who were seeking desperately needed food, witnesses and health officials said. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 in southern Gazas Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital.

Tents, tents they are hitting with two missiles? asked Um Seif Abu Leda, whose son was killed in the strikes. Mourners threw flowers on the body bags.

Before Trump's announcement, Israels defense minister, Israel Katz, had warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile the military said originated from Yemen. Sirens sounded across parts of Israel, alerting residents to the attack and the launch of two projectiles from Gaza. All were intercepted by Israeli defense systems.

The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the end of the 12-day war initiated by Israel with Iran. Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran.

Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, vowed on social media that Yemen will not stop its support for Gaza ... unless the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.

Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu did not elaborate on plans for his visit to Washington next week, except to say he will discuss a trade deal. Iran is also expected to be a main topic of discussion in Washington after Trump brokered a ceasefire between it and Israel.

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its womens sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case that found the school violated the rights of female athletes.

The U.S. Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.

Its part of the Trump administrations broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls and womens sports.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING | Trump admin claims Penn violated Title IX over transgender athlete policy

Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas, the Education Department said. Penn also agreed to send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers.

It wasnt immediately clear whether Thomas would be stripped of her awards and honors at Penn.

The university must also announce that it will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs and it must adopt biology-based definitions of male and female, the department said.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls.

The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IXs proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law, McMahon said in a statement.

The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the schools federal funding.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | NCAA changes transgender sports participation policy following Trump executive order

In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.

The most obvious target at the college level was in womens swimming, where Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.

The NCAA has updated its record books when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, but the organization, like the NFSHSA, has not responded to the federal government's request. Determining which events had a transgender athlete participating years later would be challenging.

A 20-year-old mans life appeared to have begun to unravel in the months before authorities say he fatally shot two firefighters and severely wounded a third as they responded to a wildfire near Coeur dAlene, Idaho.

Wess Roley was living out of his vehicle and his former roommate, T.J. Franks Jr., said he shaved off his long hair and started to "kind of go downhill. The two lived together for about six months in Sandpoint, Idaho, until Roley moved out in January, Franks said Monday.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | A violent ambush in Idaho leaves 2 firefighters dead and 1 injured. What to know about the attack

Roley, who authorities say took his own life after Sunday's shootings, is suspected of killing two battalion chiefs whose firefighting careers in Idaho spanned nearly half a century combined. The deaths of Frank Harwood, 42, with Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, and John Morrison, 52, with the Coeur dAlene Fire Department, have left their colleagues reeling, resulting in their departments adding law enforcement to every call, no matter how routine.

I dont know that were ever going to be able to guarantee peoples peace of mind, at least for a while after an incident like this, Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way said. But we are taking every measure we can to ensure safety of our responders.

Roley had set a fire using flint at Canfield Mountain, a popular recreation area, according to authorities. The firefighters who rushed to the scene found themselves under fire and took cover behind fire trucks.

There was an interaction with the firefighters, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. It has something to do with his vehicle being parked where it was.

Two helicopters converged on the area, armed with snipers ready to take out the suspect if needed, while the FBI used his cellphone data to track him and the sheriff ordered residents to shelter in place. They eventually found Roley's body in the mountains, his firearm beside him. He had killed himself, the sheriff said.

Roley had once aspired to be a firefighter and had only a handful of minor contacts with area police, Norris said. A motive was still unknown, he said.

He had ties to California and Arizona and was living in Idaho for the better part of 2024, although it was unclear why he was there, Norris said.

When Roley was living with Franks, his apartment cameras caught Roley throwing gang signs at them, which worried Franks to the point that he called police.

The landlord also called Franks one morning because neighbors reported that Roleys vehicle had been left running for about 12 hours. Franks said Roley was asleep in his room and said he forgot about the vehicle.

Hours after Sunday's shooting, people gathered along Interstate 90 holding American flags to pay their respects as the two fallen firefighters bodies were taken to the medical examiners office in Spokane, Washington, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Coeur dAlene.

On Tuesday, a procession of police and fire vehicles accompanied a hearse as onlookers along a quiet street held flags and in some cases saluted as the vehicles got underway. People dotted an overpass, where a fire truck bearing a large U.S. flag stood, as the procession passed on the interstate below.

Gov. Brad Little ordered U.S. and Idaho state flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor the firefighters until the day after their memorial service.

All our public safety officers, especially our firefighters, bravely confront danger on a daily basis but we have never seen a heinous act of violence like this on our firefighters before, he said in a statement.

Harwood, one of the victims of the shooting, had been with the county fire department for 17 years, Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way said during a news conference Monday. Harwood was married and had two children, and he also was a veteran of the Army National Guard.

Morrison, who was also killed, started his career with the Coeur dAlene Fire Department in 1996 and had also worked as a paramedic.

Coeur dAlene Fire Department Fire Engineer David Tysdal, 47, sustained gunshot wounds and was in critical condition. Authorities said he had two successful surgeries.

We still are in shock and are struggling to understand why someone would target unarmed, selfless public servants, Coeur dAlene Mayor Woody McEvers said.

By Monday afternoon, the fire was reasonably contained, and responders had stopped significant forward progress," Way said. The Idaho Department of Lands said it had burned about 26 acres.

Lululemon has filed a lawsuit against Costco that accuses the wholesale club operator of selling lower-priced duplicates of some of its popular athleisure clothing.

Lululemon Athletica claims in its lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that Costco has unlawfully traded on its reputation, goodwill and sweat equity by selling unauthorized and unlicensed apparel that uses knockoff, infringing versions of its patents.

Lululemon alleges that Costco is known to use manufacturers of popular branded products for its private label Kirkland brand, but that the company and the manufacturers don't tell consumers of the connection between them for many of the Kirkland-branded products. Because of this, Lululemon claims this leads at least some shoppers to believe that Kirkland-branded products are made by the authentic supplier of the original products. Lululemon claims Costco doesn't try to dispel the ambiguity.

RELATED STORY | Costco begins offering early shopping hours for executive members

As an innovation-led company that invests significantly in the research, development, and design of our products, we take the responsibility of protecting and enforcing our intellectual property rights very seriously and pursue the appropriate legal action when necessary," a Lululemon company spokesperson said in a statement.

Some of the products Lululemon says Costco is making duplicates of include its popular Scuba hoodies, Define jackets, and ABC pants.

Lululemon claims one of the duplicates that Costco sells is the Hi-Tec Men's Scuba Full Zip, with the lawsuit showing a screenshot image of Costco's website showing the item priced at $19.97. Lululemon sells several men's jackets that cost more than $100 each.

Costco, based in Issaquah, Washington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Lululemon is requesting a jury trial and wants Costco to stop selling the products that it considers to be duplicates. It is also seeking an unspecified amount in monetary damages.

Lulemon was in a similar legal dispute with Peloton in 2021. Two years later the companies announced a five-year partnership that included Lululemon becoming the primary athletic apparel partner to Peloton.

Zohran Mamdani has won New York Citys Democratic mayoral primary, a new vote count confirmed Tuesday, cementing his stunning upset of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and sending him to the general election.

The Associated Press called the race after the results of the citys ranked choice voting tabulation were released and showed Mamdani beating Cuomo by 12 percentage points.

Mamdanis win had been widely expected since he took a commanding lead after the polls closed a week ago, falling just short of the 50% of the vote needed to avoid another count under the citys ranked choice voting model. The system allows voters other preferences to be counted if their top candidate falls out of the running.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Cuomo concedes in NYC mayoral primary, Mamdani poised for upset victory

Mamdani, who declared victory the night of the June 24 primary, will face a general election field that includes incumbent Mayor Eric Adams as well as independent candidate Jim Walden and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Cuomo conceded defeat on the night of the June 24 primary but is contemplating whether to run in the general election on an independent ballot line.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state Assembly, was virtually unknown when he launched his candidacy centered on a bold slate of populist ideas. But he built an energetic campaign that ran circles around Cuomo as the older, more moderate Democrat tried to come back from the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation four years ago.

The results, even before they were finalized, sent a shockwave through the political world.

Mamdanis campaign, which was focused on lowering the cost of living, claims it has found a new blueprint for Democrats who have at times appeared rudderless during President Donald Trump's climb back to power.

The Democratic establishment has approached Mamdani with caution. Many of its big players applauded his campaign but don't seem ready to throw their full support behind the young progressive, whose past criticisms of law enforcement, use of the word genocide to describe the Israeli governments actions in Gaza and democratic socialist label amount to landmines for some in the party.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING | New York City is using ranked choice voting in its Democratic mayoral primary. Here's how it works

If elected, Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim mayor and its first of Indian American decent. He would also be one of its youngest.

For Republicans, Mamdani has already provided a new angle for attack. Trump and others in the GOP have begun to launch broadsides at him, moving to cast Mamdani as the epitome of leftist excess ahead of consequential elections elsewhere this year and next.

If Im a Republican, I want this guy to win, said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University. Because I want to be able to compare and contrast my campaign as a Republican, in a national election, to the idea of, This is where the Democratic party is.

New York City's ranked choice voting model allows voters to list up to five candidates on their ballots in order of preference. If a single candidate is the first choice of more than 50% of voters, then that person wins the race outright. Since no candidate cleared that bar on the night of the primary, the ranked choice voting process kicked in. The board is scheduled to certify the election on July 15.

Mamdani has been a member of the state Assembly since 2021, and has characterized his inexperience as a potential asset. His campaign promised free city buses, free child care, a rent freeze for people living in rent-stabilized apartment, government-run grocery stores and more, all paid for with taxes on the wealthy. Critics have slammed his agenda as politically unrealistic.

EARLIER THIS YEAR | Justice Department announces investigation into former New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo ran a campaign centered on his extensive experience, casting himself as the only candidate capable of saving a city he said had spun out of control. During the campaign, he focused heavily on combating antisemitism and leaned on his name recognition and juggernaut fundraising operation rather than mingling with voters.

Confronted with the sexual harassment allegations that ended his tenure as governor, he denied wrongdoing, maintaining that the scandal was driven by politics and that voters were ready to move on.

Cuomo did not remove his name from the November ballot last week, ahead of a procedural deadline to do so, and has said he is still considering whether to mount an actual campaign for the office.

Adams, while still a Democrat, is running in the November election as an independent. He dropped out of the Democratic primary in April after he was severely wounded by his now-dismissed federal bribery case. Though he had done little in the way of campaigning since then, he reignited his reelection operation in the days after Mamdani declared victory, calling it a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a silver spoon.

Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war.

Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraines air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

The onslaught was the most massive airstrike on the country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraines air force, told The Associated Press. The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, far from the front line.

Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the country's air force said.

RELATED STORY | Trump meets with Zelenskyy at NATO summit, weighs sending Ukraine more Patriots

One person died in a drone strike in the Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said, while another was killed when a drone hit a car in the Kharkiv region, according to its Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Six people were wounded in Cherkasy, including a child, according to regional Gov. Ihor Taburets.

In the far-western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also cut electricity to parts of the city.

Ukraines air force said one of its F-16 warplanes supplied by its Western partners crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets. The pilot died.

Attacks continued during the day. Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Serhii Lysak said a 72-year-old man was killed when a drone hit his car.

Russian troops reportedly advance in Donetsk

Russia's Defense Ministry said it had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight.

Two people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Bryansk in western Russia, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Sunday morning, adding that seven more Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.

Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor.

In other developments, Russias foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, said he had spoken on the phone with his U.S. counterpart, CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

I had a phone call with my American counterpart and we reserved for each other the possibility to call at any time and discuss issues of interest to us, Naryshkin said in remarks to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Sunday's attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putins comments two days ago that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. Two recent rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.

Zelenskyy withdraws Ukraine from an anti-land mine pact

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines, a Ukrainian lawmaker said Sunday. The move follows similar recent steps by the Baltic states and Poland.

The 1997 treaty prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines in an effort to protect civilians from explosives that can maim or kill long after fighting ends.

This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded, said Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence. He noted that Russia is not a party to the convention "and is massively using mines against our military and civilians.