Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Associated Press

  • FDA’s e-cigarette authorization: Fruity vapes not significantly better than tobacco ones

    WASHINGTON — Fruit-flavored e-cigarettes recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration were not significantly better at helping smokers quit than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, according to a new memo that’s likely to stir more questions about the agency’s decision.

    The FDA last month gave its first OK to fruit-flavored vapes — essentially endorsing them as a less-harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes. The decision came despite the agency’s longstanding position that such flavors appeal to children and must show extra health benefits to warrant approval for adults.

    Health groups and Washington lawmakers quickly condemned the decision and have called for an explanation.

    A six-page FDA memo released this week provides more details about the agency’s rationale. In it, FDA regulators appear to sidestep previous statements about the risks of sweet vaping flavors while acknowledging shortcomings in the data submitted by vape manufacturer Glas Inc.

    To meet federal standards, companies must show that their products benefit public health. In practice, that means demonstrating that their vapes help adult smokers switch or quit cigarettes, while not attracting underage use by teens.

    Smokers who tried Glas vapes were much more likely to completely switch from cigarettes over the course of a three-month study, according to the memo.

    But the data did not show “statistically significant differences” between adults using the company’s mango and blueberry flavors and those using a tobacco-flavored e-cigarette.

    That means the new vapes failed to meet the same bar as a handful of other flavored products previously sanctioned by the FDA, including menthol-flavored vapes from Juul and NJOY. Those companies showed that adults who used menthol were significantly more likely to cut down or quit cigarettes compared with those vaping tobacco flavors.

    Elsewhere, FDA regulators explained that the Glas flavored vapes “did not have to demonstrate added adult benefit,” because young people were unlikely to use them. Glas requires users to unlock each e-cigarette with an age-verifying cellphone app.

    The agency’s authorization also runs counter to recent FDA guidelines advising companies that fruit and dessert flavors would have to meet “a high evidentiary burden” for adult use, given their risks to children. Tobacco-flavored products are not popular with teens and generally face lower regulatory hurdles at the FDA.

    The FDA document is also unusual in its brevity.

    Previous FDA memos on new vaping products typically run dozens of pages. For example, last year’s document authorizing Juul’s menthol e-cigarettes was more than 90 pages and included detailed scientific data from research involving 50,000 people.

    The short memo on Glas does not include key details, such as how many smokers the firm studied.

    Previously, the FDA almost always posted such memos immediately after announcing an authorization. The document on Glas appeared on the agency’s website more than a month after regulators OK’d the products.

    The agency has faced questions from members of Congress about the decision. Last month, 10 Democratic senators sent a letter to the agency requesting more information about the authorization, calling it a “shortsighted and reckless decision.”

    The application from Glas, which also included menthol and tobacco-flavored vapes, followed a winding path to authorization. The small, Los Angeles-based company submitted a marketing request to the FDA in 2021.

    In February, FDA scientists authorized several of the flavors. But that decision was blocked by a senior official reporting to then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, according to internal memos later released by the agency.

    The mango- and blueberry-flavored products were finally OK’d during Makary’s last full week leading the agency. He resigned the post after months of criticisms from industry stakeholders, including tobacco companies that have lobbied President Donald Trump’s Republican White House for looser regulations on vaping flavors.

    A spokesperson for the company could not immediately provide comment when reached Thursday morning.

  • Trump sticks with Pulte for intel job as risk grows of lapse in spy powers

    WASHINGTON — A lapse in a law that allows the U.S. to gather intelligence abroad grew more likely on Wednesday as President Donald Trump resisted calls from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to immediately name a permanent head of the nation’s intelligence agencies.

    Trump has doubled down on his temporary pick for director of national intelligence, federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, even though he has little experience for the job. Democrats say they won’t support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, unless he withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

    The impasse could soon result in limitations on what intelligence the U.S. government can collect abroad just as World Cup games begin in cities around the country and ahead of celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The law expires on Friday at midnight.

    Trump on Wednesday asked Congress for a short-term extension of the law to “provide time for the selection and confirmation” of a permanent director.” But he stuck with Pulte as the acting head and said he wants to begin downsizing intelligence agencies.

    “We can’t let them extort us,” Trump said of Democrats.

    Senate Republicans floated a two-week extension of the law after Trump’s request, but it was immediately rejected by Democrats who argued that it’s up to the president to replace Pulte.

    As the bill stalled in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House would hold a vote Thursday on a two-week stopgap even as the chances of passage appeared slim.

    “We’re going to ask every member here to do the right thing,” Johnson said. “We cannot allow that to go dark.”

    House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said if Trump wants a shot at a short-term extension, he needs to pull the Pulte appointment. Pulte is a “disgraceful individual” and a “partisan political hack” who is deeply unqualified for the job, Jeffries said.

    GOP leaders lobby the White House, to no avail

    Congressional Republicans have lobbied Trump all week to quickly nominate a permanent replacement. But he said he needs more time to do so.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said Wednesday that Republican leaders have “made our views known” to the White House about the easiest way to get the bill passed, and “we’re just doing what we can here to ensure that the White House understands what will be necessary in order to make that happen.”

    Trump said on Friday that he is interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently and that all have a national security background.

    “It’s an important position and one that I think will be filled by a highly qualified person,” said Johnson, who met with Trump twice this week to talk about the FISA impasse.

    Trump made it very clear, Johnson said, that Pulte will serve a “very short term — a sort of renovation role” to help the Office of the Director of National Intelligence be “renovated and downsized.”

    To unlock votes for FISA, the pick would have to be soon — and Trump’s choice would have to satisfy both Republicans and Democrats.

    One of several possible replacements could be Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The White House has reached out to Hoekstra about the job and conversations are ongoing, according to a person familiar with the outreach who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

    FISA will lapse at midnight Friday

    Section 702 of FISA allows agencies such as the CIA, National Security Agency, and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.

    While members of both parties who cite privacy issues have long wanted to limit the authority, there was broad bipartisan support to renew it, especially after Republicans and Democrats recently worked out a compromise bill.

    Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has worked with Republicans on the compromise legislation to renew the authority. But he called Pulte’s appointment to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard “a live hand grenade” as they were trying to pass it. Republican leaders tried to start the process last week, but seven Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in blocking a long-term extension after Pulte was appointed.

    Warner said Wednesday that the only way he’ll support a short-term extension of the surveillance law is if the principal deputy director of national intelligence, Aaron Lukas, is the acting leader during the duration of that extension.

    Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have warned the administration that the spy tool is likely to lapse.

    The administration should prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection,” they wrote in a letter.

    Trump doesn’t back down on Pulte

    After bipartisan pushback to Pulte’s temporary appointment, Trump said last week that he would not permanently nominate him to the position. But Democrats, and some Republicans, want his appointment pulled immediately and for Trump to nominate a replacement that can be confirmed by the Senate.

    On Tuesday, though, Trump announced that Pulte would not only take over as acting director — he’d also start earlier than expected, on June 19.

    And he stuck with Pulte on Wednesday, posting that he needed more time to find a permanent replacement and telling reporters that the agencies need to be downsized.

    Both Republican and Democratic senators skeptical of Pulte have pointed to his lack of intelligence experience and also his record at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In the position, the Trump loyalist has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.); and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve.

  • Pope honors Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia as masterpiece of stone, color, and light on Gaudí centenary

    BARCELONA, Spain — Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Sagrada Familia Basilica as a masterpiece of “stones, colors, and light,” as he marked the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí, with a Mass on Wednesday to inaugurate its final soaring sandcastle spire.

    Leo called Gaudí’s unfinished temple, one of the world’s most visited monuments, a “sign of unity and harmony for all of Spain,” an ongoing building project like the lifelong journey all Christians make to find God.

    “We are all the living stones of this edifice,” Leo said from the altar of the basilica, with Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia sitting to his side and a hundreds-strong choir filling the basilica with song.

    The service marked the highlight of Leo’s weeklong visit to Spain, the first by a pope in 15 years to the once staunchly Catholic European country that, like many others, has experienced secularizing trends.

    The trip, though, has underscored how the country of 50 million people, which experienced a religious crisis after its 20th century dictatorship ended, still has plenty of faithful Catholics who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope.

    An estimated 120,000 people lined the streets around Sagrada Familia for the event, with streets closed to traffic and a heavy police presence, given the attendance of the royal couple and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The crowds remained after Mass to watch as Leo inaugurated the basilica’s final Tower of Jesus Christ that has made it the world’s tallest church.

    Speaking in Catalan and Spanish, Leo blessed the tower and its illuminated ceramic cross from outside the basilica, surrounded by bishops craning their mitre-capped heads to look up. An angelic boy’s choir sang as a spectacular light show lit up the basilica’s stained glass windows from the inside and fireworks shot off its facade.

    Honoring Catalonia’s Christian traditions

    Earlier Wednesday, Leo celebrated a more ancient sacred monument, traveling to Montserrat, a mountain complex outside the city that is dear to many Catalans. The complex, which includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey and a 16th-century basilica, is revered for its Black Madonna statue and is home to a boys choir that has existed since the 13th century and is Europe’s oldest.

    Thousands of faithful arrived early at the monastery, with groups of nuns and schoolchildren singing and waving signs and photographs of the pope outside the basilica. Bells rang out over the spire-like rock formations that top Montserrat and the valley below as Leo arrived in a golf cart.

    In recent years, the Montserrat abbey has faced numerous accusations from survivors of clergy sexual abuse and was included in the Spanish ombudsman’s 800-page report on the crisis in 2023. The report found 15 victims and three alleged perpetrators linked to the abbey.

    “It’s very painful because there are members of the church who committed errors,” said the Rev. Cesario Escarda, a Toledo priest, as he waited for Leo at the abbey. “What the pope wants to do is shine a light on the truth and ask forgiveness and bring in the victims and listen to them and accompany them.”

    The Bible carved in stone

    The highlight of Leo’s visit, though, was his Mass at Sagrada Familia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of its famed Catalan designer, Gaudí, who died at age 73, three days after he was hit by a tram.

    A century after construction began during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII, the basilica has become one of the world’s most visited but unfinished monuments, annually drawing upward of 5 million visitors a year.

    Commemorating Gaudí’s death, Leo said he wanted to give thanks to all the supporters, artists, and workers who “cooperated in the construction of an architectural masterpiece, which is also an eloquent catechesis made of stones, colors, and light.”

    Gaudí, who is on the path to possible sainthood, spent four decades designing and building the temple as the summary of the Christian faith carved in stone. The most important stories of Jesus’ life, the Nativity and Passion, are etched into the basilica’s east and west facades. A third facade facing south, the Glory, will serve as the basilica’s main entrance when finished.

    The temple is an architectural and geometrical masterpiece inside and out, an art nouveau celebration in form and symbol of Christianity and God’s creation through stone and light.

    “Much more than a monument, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia remains a work in progress today, reminding us that the Christian life is always a journey, because it is a project that God is carrying out,” Leo said in his homily.

    A total of 18 sandcastle spires rise up from the top and pierce Barcelona’s skyline: 12 to symbolize Christ’s 12 apostles, four for each of the four Evangelists who recorded Christ’s life in the Gospels, one topped with a star over the apse honoring the Virgin Mary and, tallest among them, the Tower of Jesus Christ.

    When the final Christ tower was finished last year at a height of 564 feet, it made Sagrada Familia the world’s tallest church.

    “The entire structure of the Sagrada Familia is striking,” said Laura Rincón, who was on hand outside along with two friends for the Mass, after she finished work in a nearby shop. She said that she was sure the pope would be impressed by the church she marvels at every time she passes by.

    “If you look at it just for its architecture, it is amazing,” she said. “Inside, its columns make you feel like you are inside a forest.”

    An interior that looks like a forest

    The cross-shaped interior, with the altar at the apse, is an homage to light and nature. Treelike columns soar to the sky, colored by constantly changing light filtered through stained glass windows like the sun poking through leaves in a forest.

    “Nature is my teacher,” Gaudí once said. “Everything comes from the great book of nature, always open that we must read.”

    The colors of the window glass have meaning: The blues and greens of the eastern portal windows, where the facade depicts Christ’s birth, look more joyful and are most brilliant when the sun rises and light passes through. The coarser shades of red and orange, illuminated by the setting sun on the western portals, color the side of the basilica that depicts Christ’s Passion. Behind the altar and above the cross are yellows and gold that glimmer in the noonday sun.

    Historian Mònica Santín, who leads tours of the basilica, said that in designing Sagrada Familia, Gaudí was guided by two books: the Gospels and nature.

    “The way he lets in the natural light is also an invitation to the Christian mystery,” she said, citing the three facades depicting Christ’s birth, death, and glory.

    “And when you enter inside, it is all light,” Santín said. “What is that the symbol of? We can’t see God, but we perceive his light all around us. I think that is how you can read this message, and it is fascinating.”

  • Texas Tech defends playing QB Brendan Sorsby amid gambling addiction, says ‘it’s not murder’

    HOUSTON — Sports leadership at Texas Tech on Wednesday defended their plans to play quarterback Brendan Sorsby next season while he treats his gambling addiction, insisting they are not trying to “engineer his eligibility” through the courts and dismissing widespread criticism that includes the president of the NCAA.

    Speaking to the Houston Touchdown Club, coach Joey McGuire acknowledged the “rage” surrounding the situation, with athletic directors across college football saying that the NCAA ban on players who gamble should remain sacrosanct and a court order won this week by Sorsby crossed a line that should never be crossed.

    “For some reason, as a society, we’ve been OK with other things that happen and allowing players to play, and this has been the one thing that has united people, that they were against,” McGuire said. “It’s crazy because it’s not murder, it’s not beating somebody — so there’s a lot of things that we’re working through. None of this is OK.”

    Athletic director Kirby Hocutt also released a statement to “offer a few facts that seem to be getting lost in the noise” and noting the school is not part of Sorsby’s lawsuit against the NCAA.

    “A young man in treatment for a clinically diagnosed addiction exercised his legal right to seek a remedy in court and a judge agreed with him,” Hocutt said. “Our role has been to support his recover, not to engineer his eligibility.”

    Under the court order, Sorsby will be suspended for the first two games of the season. The NCAA plans to appeal the ruling, with President Charlie Baker telling reporters in Las Vegas that the case illustrated “a new low” in college sports.

    McGuire likened Sorsby recovering from his addiction to fellow Texas Tech quarterback Will Hammond’s recovery from knee surgery.

    “He’s recovering,” McGuire said. “I’ve sat down with this young man multiple times and the things that he is going through and what he’s been through, it’s serious.”

    “And I have a number of people in my family that were addicted to different stuff and so I’ve seen what addiction does to people,” he said. ”And so, us even saying to the point before we get to the legal part, that he could be ready in Week 3 against Houston is still a stretch because guess what, he’s still recovering.”

    McGuire added that Sorsby was “back in the building” after spending some time away from the facilities while he was dealing with his issues.

  • David Briscoe, AP journalist who chronicled Philippines’ democratic revolution, dies at 82

    David Briscoe, a journalist for the Associated Press who chronicled the collapse of dictatorship and the rebirth of democracy during a dramatic period of upheaval in the Philippines, has died, his family said. He was 82.

    Mr. Briscoe died Sunday at an assisted living facility in Kapolei, Hawaii, said his wife, Leonor Briscoe. He was diagnosed in April with amyloidosis, a disorder in which protein buildup can lead to organ damage.

    In a career spanning decades and continents, Mr. Briscoe brought a reporter’s curiosity to his native Utah, to Washington and to Hawaii. But it was his perch in Manila that put him at the center of his biggest story.

    Taking the helm as bureau chief in 1980, Mr. Briscoe charted the waning years of Ferdinand Marcos’ authoritarian regime and the turmoil unleashed by the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. He and his staff fanned out across the country in chartered planes, rented jeeps, and, at least once, a horse-drawn cart. They covered a relentless stretch of investigations, hearings and a presidential campaign so improbable it seemed scripted, with a reluctant widow thrust by tragedy to the forefront of a democratic movement.

    That thrilling conclusion, with Corazon Aquino ascending to the presidency and Marcos dramatically driven into exile, would stay with Mr. Briscoe forever. He recalled searing images “of nuns kneeling in front of military tanks” and “soldiers and civilians crying in each other’s arms.”

    “I expect to witness or cover no greater event in my life,” he wrote in AP World, an in-house magazine, in 1986, recounting his coverage of the upheaval.

    A love affair with the Philippines

    David Chesley Briscoe was born July 30, 1943, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a union steward father and a homemaker mother who raised her two sons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew interested in journalism at the University of Utah, writing for the student paper and eventually getting hired at the Deseret News, where editors handed him obituary assignments and pieces on standout local students.

    After two years there, Mr. Briscoe signed up for the Peace Corps and was assigned to Paracale, and then Naga City, in the Philippines, where he taught English. For a young man who had scarcely left Utah in his youth, every corner seemed to be a revelation, of water buffalo shimmering from mud baths and children running down dirt roads.

    He was smitten with his new home. When his Peace Corps tour ended, Mr. Briscoe bristled at the idea of leaving. He found work at a local newspaper, and while staffing an event in which Marcos was to speak, he met the former Leonor Aureus, editor of a rival paper. The two were soon walking down an aisle they lined with copies of The Naga Times and the Bicol Mail.

    A dramatic revolution unfolds

    Mr. Briscoe was hired by the AP in Manila in 1970, covering a deadly earthquake that rocked the capital, an assassination attempt on Pope Paul VI and the hijacking of a plane. By the next year, though, AP said he’d have to spend some time working in the U.S. He returned to Salt Lake, hoping fate might someday bring him back to the Philippines.

    In his hometown, he found ties with his faith were fraying. His wife says he was disciplined by the church after discussing its exclusion of Black men from its priesthood in a class he taught. Mr. Briscoe opposed the ban. The church later lifted the restriction.

    He also found himself at odds with the church over a three-part series he wrote with a colleague, Bill Beecham, examining its intricate web of business interests and tithing by its members that the reporters estimated brought in more than $1 billion a year. No Utah newspaper dared to run the stories, the pair said.

    Mr. Briscoe spent nine years in Salt Lake before his bosses dangled a chance to return to Manila as bureau chief. He rushed to phone his wife with the news.

    “Noree, are you sitting down?” she remembered him asking.

    From Washington back to the Pacific

    After his six-year stint running the AP’s office in the Philippines, Mr. Briscoe moved in 1986 to Washington, where he focused on international affairs. He was bureau chief in Honolulu from 2001 until retiring in 2009.

    There, dressed in aloha shirts and bathed in a tropical sun, Mr. Briscoe could again call a Pacific island home. He spoke of being “halfway back.”

    To his final days, he cherished his time in the Philippines. As the end neared, his family gathered around him and prayed. He grabbed his wife’s hand, told her he loved her, and asked her to let him go.

    The family plans to hire a boat and scatter Mr. Briscoe’s ashes in the waters of the Pacific, hoping the currents take his remains back to his adopted home.

    “The land that David learned to love,” his wife said, “and where he met the love of his life.”

  • Carson Hocevar accused of ‘creating a lot of enemies’ in NASCAR after 9-car crash at Michigan

    Carson Hocevar sat on the Michigan International Speedway pit wall with a blank look and calmly waited as Bubba Wallace laid into him with an animated lecture.

    As Wallace did nearly all the talking, Hocevar nodded and offered a few smiles. The one-sided conversation ended with Hocevar patting Wallace on the shoulder — defusing the tension while offering little remorse.

    The third-year Cup Series driver, whose aggression has earned him the nickname of “The Hurricane” in rubbing the NASCAR establishment the wrong way, left a trail of wreckage in his wake Sunday at Michigan.

    With a fifth place in the No. 77 Chevrolet, the Portage, Mich., native earned his best career Cup finish at his home-state track. He also triggered a nine-car crash on a midrace restart by bumping John Hunter Nemechek as the cars ahead of him were slowing down.

    “I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to do that,’” Hocevar said. “I obviously feel bad that I wrecked them and everything, but my intention wasn’t to wreck anybody, really. So next time I’ll know what to do a little differently.”

    Many of his peers believe the Spire Motorsports driver should be doing everything differently.

    “Well, you can count on Hocevar to always do dumb [stuff],” Nemechek radioed his team. Josh Berry jokingly referred to Hocevar as “The Intimidator,” the moniker of seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

    “I hope at some point [Hocevar] figures it out, but I know I’m not going to show anything to him for a long time,” said Austin Dillon, who finished 36th after his No. 3 Chevy was trashed in the wreck.

    In their pit-wall discussion, Wallace told Hocevar he was jealous of his speed.

    “He’s one of the fastest in the field, and that’s his natural ability,” Wallace said. “I’ve got to give respect to it. But at the same time, Kevin Harvick told me four or five years ago, ‘Stop hitting [stuff], and your finishes will show.’ And that’s what I simply tried to tell [Hocevar], man. He’s going for every move, every second. Not worth it.

    “He’s creating a lot of enemies. I just told him, ’You’re fast. A lot of us are jealous of what you’re able to do. But we’re beating you because we can put a race together better than you.”

    An unfazed Hocevar essentially shrugged when asked about Wallace’s criticism.

    “I get his point and everything,” he said. “I’m just racing really hard, and there were times where I tried to make a move and get two spots when I probably should have just got one, and it cost me.”

    The 23-year-old upstart did show some acquiescence toward the end of the race when he waved by the faster cars of Wallace, Erik Jones and Kyle Larson.

    But there’s an incentive to stick to his hard-charging ways.

    It’s a NASCAR rite of passage for the old guard to scold young stars who threaten their results, and it’s been effective in blunting their progress. Three years ago, Ross Chastain dramatically tailed off after being targeted for scorn from several veterans who tangled with him.

    If he shows restraint, Hocevar might lose his grip on a top-16 spot in the Chase (he is ranked seventh with 11 races left in the regular season). Yet his recalcitrance also runs the risk of costly retribution.

    Amazon Prime analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes Hocevar should stay the course for his own good — and for NASCAR, which thrives on colorful personalities and rivalries.

    “I don’t want him to really change what he’s doing,” Earnhardt said of Hocevar on the postrace show. “As a fan and as a broadcaster, what he did today made this race unique. If he cleans it up, I’m not sure I’m going to like what I’m going to see. I kind of like the drama that he brings. He’s got a hat to wear, and he wears it well. He doesn’t seem interested in changing, and I don’t want him to change.”

    Hamlin ponders future

    With his second consecutive victory and third this season, Denny Hamlin now trails Tyler Reddick by only 51 points, chopping 78 points off the margin in the past three seasons. Team owner Joe Gibbs is still hoping Hamlin will reconsider his decision to retire from full-time driving after the 2027 season.

    Hamlin left the door slightly open (“I told (Gibbs) just check with me in six months”) but said he wants to go out on top before his skills diminish.

    “I feel as though there’s three things that happen,” Hamlin said. “You lose your eyesight. You lose your reaction. And your body hurts. The body hurts are there during the week. I’m not recovering as quick. But the other two things are still sharp. So I want to go out like this.”

    In-Season Challenge

    Sunday at Pocono Raceway will set the field for the second year of the In-Season Challenge. The top 32 drivers in the points standings will complete for $1 million in a bracket-style tournament contested over five races (Sonoma Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway).

    Connor Zilisch is unlikely to be eligible. The Trackhouse Racing rookie is ranked 34th in the standings (two spots behind Alex Bowman, who missed four races) after becoming the sixth driver in NASCAR history with three consecutive last-place finishes.

  • Somali referee denied entry to the U.S. for World Cup is welcomed home as a hero

    MOGADISHU, Somalia — A leading soccer referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the United States for the World Cup tournament was warmly received by a crowd of supporters and officials on Wednesday as he arrived home.

    Omar Artan, who was named as Africa’s best male referee in 2025, said he plans to be at the next World Cup and urged Somali youth to be proud of their country.

    Artan was set to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making FIFA’s final list for the tournament.

    He was denied entry to the U.S. at Miami International Airport on Saturday over unspecified “vetting concerns,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, without giving details of the concerns. FIFA subsequently cut him from the tournament’s referee list.

    Artan was issued a visa to travel to the U.S. last week, according to the Somalia Embassy in Kenya, which processed it. The U.S. is co-hosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada, and Artan was due to meet up with other World Cup referees at their training base in Miami.

    Arriving in the capital, Mogadishu, he thanked the Somali government and public as well as FIFA for their support.

    “I promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,” he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved Somali flags. “I want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.”

    Later on Wednesday, thousands of soccer fans packed the stadium in Mogadishu for a welcome ceremony for Artan, with patriotic songs echoing through the arena as supporters waved the nation’s flag and cheered him on.

    Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre also hosted Artan, writing in a post on X that the referee had “already won the hearts of millions and secured his place in history.”

    “He devoted himself to ensuring that football was decided by merit, yet fate denied him the stage he so richly deserved,” Barre said.

    The U.S.’s highly unusual move to deny a FIFA-appointed match official permission to enter a World Cup host country drew outrage across the world and raised questions among some fans about America’s capacity to host the competition.

    Somalia is one of nearly 40 countries subject to new travel restrictions under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

    On Wednesday, the United Nations’ top human rights official called for a “massive rethink” of immigration policies especially in the United States around the World Cup.

    Hundreds of supporters, government officials and members of Somalia’s football community gathered hours before Artan arrived at Aden Adde International Airport.

    As he disembarked, supporters waving Somali flags crowded around him before draping him in the flag.

    He was then escorted by police officers to the airport’s VIP terminal, where he was welcomed by Somalia’s sports minister and other dignitaries, and spoke to journalists.

    “It is up to all of us to defend the Somali name,” Artan said. “Somalia belongs to us, whether it is in a bad state or a good state. That flag belongs to us, and that passport belongs to us.”

    In a country where decades of war and the rise of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremist group have limited the potential of many in Somalia, Artan’s denial brought disappointment but reminded people what is possible if they chase their dreams.

    Artan’s expected milestone at this year’s World Cup “stands no matter what,” the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — from neighboring Ethiopia — wrote Tuesday on X. “You reached the summit of your profession and inspired a generation back home just by getting there, and being kept off the pitch you earned doesn’t change that.”

  • Police zero in on 2 suspects after shooting at a festival in Toledo, Ohio

    TOLEDO, Ohio — Police in Ohio were searching for a 20-year-old man in connection with a shooting between two rival groups that wounded 12 people at a crowded neighborhood festival, while authorities asked for help identifying a person they called a “second shooter.”

    Ka Nye Taylor is wanted on 11 counts of felonious assault, the Toledo Police Department said Wednesday, four days after the shooting in a park filled with event tents, a music stage, and food trucks.

    Police on Wednesday released a photo of a second male suspect dressed in all black at the festival. Phone numbers for Taylor or his family members were not immediately available or found in online directories.

    The shooting erupted after someone was tackled and assaulted at the festival, leading one person to open fire and a second to respond with more gunshots, Toledo Police Chief Michael Troendle said at a news conference Tuesday.

    Three of the 12 people shot were involved in the altercation, authorities said, while the rest were bystanders. The wounded ranged in age from teenagers to one person in their 60s. All but three had been released from the hospital by Tuesday.

    The police chief and other city officials praised officers and good Samaritans who quickly helped the victims.

    “We saw strangers who were shocked and frightened by the violence they just saw, they jumped into action,” said Chief of Fire and Rescue Allison Armstrong. “They helped others by placing tourniquets, dressing wounds, applying pressure and comforting those victims until additional help could arrive.”

    Half the victims arrived at hospitals with tourniquets applied by either police or bystanders, Armstrong said.

    Hundreds of people were at the Old West End Festival, an annual two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that covers several city blocks and features live music, vendors, and home tours.

    The remainder of the festival was canceled Sunday. Organizers said it would not have been “compassionate, responsible or possible” to continue through he weekend.

  • Paraguay fans are eager for their long-awaited World Cup return, in the country they now call home

    When the first World Cup match in the U.S. kicks off, most eyes will be on the host country’s team. But for the small community of Paraguayans living in the U.S., it’s a moment in the spotlight for their own treasured team, returning to the tournament after a 16-year absence.

    Paraguayan fans across the United States have been planning barbecues and get-togethers to watch the team’s group stage matches. While many balked at the prices for Friday’s match against the U.S., with seats selling for more than $1,000 each, some have already bought tickets to later matches.

    Santiago Araujo is among them. His family owns one of the few Paraguayan restaurants in the U.S., in the seaside town of Pacific Grove, Calif. He and his brother scored tickets to see the team face Australia in Santa Clara, Calif., about 80 miles away.

    “Every Paraguayan I know wants to go,” said Araujo, who moved to California with his family when he was 11. “It’s not like there’s seasons of any other sports in Paraguay. I used to sleep with a soccer ball as my toy.”

    A long wait for the small, but dedicated, Paraguayan community

    There are some 37,000 Paraguayans living in the U.S., according to Census estimates, and they’re eager for the team’s long-awaited return to FIFA’s prized tournament. It’s the first time Paraguay has clinched a World Cup spot since 2010, when it had its best performance, reaching the quarterfinals. The team, which FIFA currently ranks 40th in the world, is making its ninth World Cup appearance.

    The U.S. and Paraguay are joined in Group D by Turkey and Australia, which Paraguay will respectively face on June 19 and June 25 in Santa Clara.

    One of Paraguay’s veteran players, midfielder Miguel Almirón, plays for the MLS’ Atlanta United. At 32, he remembers watching that 2010 World Cup as a kid with hopes that someday he, too, would have the opportunity to play on soccer’s biggest stage.

    It’s been a long wait.

    “It’s going to be something beautiful in that moment, not just for me, but also for my family and for all the Paraguayan fans, and for anyone who’s been with us through all the tough moments,” Almirón said recently, thinking ahead to the first match. “There are going to be a lot of emotions at that moment. We take it on with responsibility, because we know so many people are depending on us.”

    How fans are celebrating in the US and Paraguay

    Paraguay is among South America’s less populous countries, with about 7 million people. Landlocked, it’s surrounded by Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil and known for vast savannas, lush landscapes and the indigenous Guarani culture. In the U.S., more concentrated Paraguayan communities can be found in New York and the affluent town of Bernardsville, N.J., which Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña visited in 2024.

    To cheer on the team, Paraguay fans will don its red-and-white jerseys and tubular top hats. In Northern California, Cafe Guarani, which Araujo’s family owns, is hosting a celebration to bring together Paraguayan fans between the games with traditional dishes that include manioc empanadas and iced yerba mate. In the Queens borough of New York, they’ll gather at the I Love Paraguay restaurant to watch the games.

    Ana Di Sessa, of New Jersey, said she’d love to attend the matches in California but it’s too much of a trip.

    “It is not only the tickets — you have to pay your hotel, the flights,” she said. “A lot of people are not going to be able to go there.”

    Zoraida Pereira, a travel agent in Bernardsville, said she has sold packages to fans heading to Santa Clara, but not the opening game because of ticket prices. The 43-year-old, who was born in Paraguay but has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, said it’s tough to choose between the two countries on the pitch.

    “I am rooting for Paraguay this time around,” she said. “They’ve been out for so long.”

    The frenzy is also underway more than 5,000 miles away in Paraguay, where the documentary film “El Renacer Albirrojo” was released about La Albirroja’s yearslong journey to return to the World Cup. The team was sent off to the United States with a fanfare of fireworks, and some community members in the U.S. said they have friends and family flying in from Paraguay to attend the matches.

    Rodrigo Valdez, a computer engineer in San Diego, is planning to travel more than 450 miles to Santa Clara to see the team play. Born in the U.S., the 34-year-old spent his childhood in Paraguay and relishes the attention the team is getting.

    He said he’ll watch Friday’s game with family and friends in San Diego. Despite having a 4-month-old baby, his wife encouraged him to buy himself a ticket to the match with Australia as a gift for his first Father’s Day.

    “It was a unique opportunity for us that we are living in California,” Valdez said. “It will be very meaningful.”

  • U.S. households, businesses stung by higher energy prices that have pushed inflation above 4%

    WASHINGTON — Rising gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years last month, a headache for the Federal Reserve and a potential political challenge for the Trump administration as midterm elections near.

    Consumer prices rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.8% in April and the third straight monthly increase. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.5% last month, after big gains of 0.6% in April and 0.9% in March.

    Prices have now risen faster than wages for several months, pressuring many Americans’ finances and causing consumers to take a decidedly dim view of the economy. Families are dipping into savings to maintain their spending, and more people are falling behind on their credit card bills. Large retailers say they have also noticed changes in customer behavior, like buying smaller amounts of gas during visits to the pump.

    Inflation is now well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, which it has surpassed for more than five years. New Fed chair Kevin Warsh will preside over his first policy meeting next week, when the central bank is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged. But the Fed is also likely to change the statement it issues after each meeting to remove a suggestion that its next move could be to lower rates. With inflation proving stubborn, financial markets expect the Fed could instead raise rates by the end of the year.

    When the Fed lifts rates, over time it can make mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing more expensive.

    Outside energy costs, price increases last month were not as dramatic, a sign that sharply higher inflation hasn’t yet spread throughout the economy. Should the Iran war end and oil and gas prices decline, headline inflation could begin to cool. Gas prices have fallen this month, though they remain elevated.

    Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose at a more modest pace. On a monthly basis, they climbed just 0.2%, down from a 0.4% gain in April. Compared with a year ago, they have rise 2.9%, up from 2.8% in April.

    Still, many goods and services rose in price last month: Clothing costs increased 0.3% and are 4.8% more expensive than a year ago. Airline fares, pushed higher by pricier jet fuel, jumped 2.7% just in May and are nearly 27% higher than a year ago. Electricity prices rose 0.6% in May and are up 5.9% in the past year.

    Grocery prices were tamer in May compared with previous months, rising just 0.1% from April. Still, they are up 2.7% from a year ago and have risen sharply since the pandemic.

    “I don’t think we’re anywhere near out of the woods yet,” Omair Sharif, chief economist at Inflation Insights, said. Price increases “were stronger under the hood.”

    Sharif and other economists point out that the cost of services, including childcare, home healthcare, and dental services are still rising much more quickly than is consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target.

    Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, attributed some of the gain to a crackdown on immigration, which has likely forced many employers in those industries to raise wages.

    Inflation had been cooling before President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in April 2025, which lifted the costs of many goods. Prices have since surged after the Iran war made oil and gas more expensive, making affordability a key political issue.

    Small businesses are struggling with higher costs, some of which they are passing on in the form of higher prices. Others have slowed hiring or even cut jobs.

    Beth Benike, the founder of Oronoco, Minn.-based Busy Baby, said her small company was hit hard by tariffs last year and is now struggling with higher shipping costs stemming from more expensive fuel. The company sells silicon place mats and toys that attach to high chairs and strollers.

    Sales have declined as inflation has worsened, and Benike recently reduced one full-time employee to part-time hours. She said that more of her customers are now grandparents of newborns, rather than the parents.

    “Grandparents have a little more disposable income than the generation that’s having babies,” she said.

    Gas prices rose in May because of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked off about a fifth of the world’s oil supply. Prices at the pump rose, on average, from about $4.04 in mid-April to $4.49 in mid-May, according to the Energy Information Administration.

    They have since fallen back to $4.16 on average nationwide, according to AAA, which could lead to a cooler inflation reading in June. That doesn’t mean gas prices are not prominent in the minds of most Americans. A gallon of gas has hovered above $4 a gallon since March.

    Major retail chains have discounted prices to accommodate customers who are watching their spending more closely.

    Dollar General is expanding the number of items that cost $1 or less, including frozen food. The shift has come with shoppers swapping out favored retailers for dollar stores.

    “When that [gas] price hits that $4 mark and then crosses it and then sustains for a while, you start to see that trade-in come in and you start to see that our core customer needs us most,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said this month.

    Amber Greenwell, executive director of the America First Credit Union’s charitable foundation, based in Ogden, Utah, says the cost of gas, housing, and groceries have risen sharply in her state and much of the west in the past year. Her organization organizes food and diaper drives in the six states where the credit union operates.

    “There is substantial growth in families who need more food resources as well as diaper resources,” she said.

    Stubbornly high inflation has shifted the debate among Fed policymakers, who had signaled at the start of the year that they were inclined to cut their key rate twice more this year. Now, more officials are saying they expect the Fed’s next move will likely be a hike rather than a cut.

    Despite higher inflation, the job market appears to be improving, with hiring increasing to a healthy level in May, and the economy is still growing. These positive signs suggest the Fed doesn’t need to cut rates to stimulate growth and hiring. They also signal that the Fed’s rate isn’t so high that it is weighing on the economy. Yet some officials want rates to cool growth a bit, because that can bring down inflation.

    Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this article.