WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he had finally had enough of the man who was championed by the mob that stormed the pillar of American democracy: President Donald Trump.

“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president,” an emotional Graham said once authorities cleared the rioters and allowed senators to reclaim their chamber. “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”

It wasn’t, of course.

Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died unexpectedly on Saturday night at age 71, realized that his party’s future was inextricably tied to Trump and quickly reverted back to being a staunch defender. The shift made what had once seemed like a final rupture into just another twist in the topsy-turvy relationship between the powerful senator and the president who came to dominate their party.

“Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said in May 2021, just four months after the Jan. 6 attack. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”

Trump, who called Graham a “true American Patriot” in a social media post Sunday, appeared shocked by the lawmaker’s sudden passing.

“I just can’t believe it,” the president told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He was like a member of the family.”

Graham often advised Trump on foreign affairs, particularly on matters pertaining to Israel, Ukraine and Iran. He was a frequent visitor at the White House.

“At the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: ‘I’ve never had this much fun in my life,’” deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. He said such gatherings “were filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter.”

Trump recalled that during his last conversation with Graham, he told his friend, “We’ll see you soon, come over anytime you want.”

The senator and Trump first clashed while competing for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Graham described Trump as “unfit for office,” and was angered when Trump denigrated the military service of Graham’s close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Trump suggested, “I like people that weren’t captured” when talking about McCain’s years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Trump got mad enough at Graham to release the senator’s personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. He smashed one with a meat cleaver and another with a golf club, then used lighter fluid, a blender and toaster oven to pulverize others before tossing one off the roof.

Graham eventually likened Trump’s winning the nomination to “being shot in the head” and said he refused to vote for Trump that November. But the pair later bonded over golf and what Graham described as a mutual and irreverent sense of humor.

Trump and Graham began so frequently hitting the links together that the senator started seeing it as something of a career builder, leaning heavily into the kind of over-the-top flattery Trump relishes. In 2017, Graham joked that Trump had beaten him “like a drum” on the course — even worse than in the presidential primary.

“Their true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told ABC’s “This Week.” Scott said that relationship was forged as political adversaries but also strengthened by spending 100-plus hours golfing together.

During Trump’s first term, Graham helped advance Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court, lent credibility to the White House’s legislative agenda and even at times became part of the president’s inner circle. He frequently said Trump was maturing in politics and growing on the job.

Graham’s political divergence with McCain, who died in 2018, was never more clear than in 2017, when McCain voted against a Trump-backed plan to overturn Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. The effort had been co-sponsored by Graham.

In his floor speech after the Capitol attack, Graham said “he’d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country.” But the break with Trump ended quickly.

Weeks later, Trump invited Graham for golf and dinner at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reigniting their alliance. During Trump’s 2024 campaign, Graham was a frequent Trump surrogate on television, promoting U.S. military strength that he said would advance “America First” policies.

Graham never shed his more traditional Republican foreign policy views, including outspoken support for Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He was also a leading voice pushing the White House to more fully embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and take a harder line against Iran.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Graham remained hawkish, staunchly defending the action and working to counter many in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base who thought “America First” meant avoiding such military conflicts.

“To those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles,” Graham posted on social media June 19.

But Graham’s admiration for Trump went far beyond Iran. When Graham clinched the South Carolina Republican primary last month, he suggested the president was just short of a deity.

“I want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,” Graham laughed. “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re gonna start with him.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has set a plea and sentencing hearing later this month for a teenager accused of killing four people in a September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded not guilty to charges including murder in the shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school northeast of Atlanta.

In a court filing Friday, the judge overseeing his case set a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Hearing” to begin July 24. The judge had previously said that if Gray wanted to plead guilty ahead of trial, he must notify the state and court by this coming Wednesday.

A non-negotiated plea means that the state and the defense have not reached an agreement on a sentence. Unlike a negotiated plea, or plea deal, where a defendant reaches an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty in exchange for an agreed upon sentence and possibly reduced charges, this leaves sentencing entirely up to the judge who makes a decision after giving each side a chance to present a summary of the case and a sentencing recommendation.

Colt Gray’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

Gray’s trial had been set to begin in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Barrow County where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request to change the venue.

Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted by a jury in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he gave his teenage son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school. The elder Gray is set to be sentenced later this month.

The Sept. 4, 2024, shooting killed teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder, cruelty to children and 25 counts of aggravated assault.

Investigators testified that Colt Gray carried the rifle given to him by his father onto the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They said the teenager left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle, shooting people in a classroom and hallway.

Investigators have said the teenager carefully plotted the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the boy left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step instructions and a diagram to prepare for the assault, including an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others.

Colt and Colin Gray were interviewed by sheriff’s deputies about an online threat linked to Colt Gray in May 2023. Colt Gray denied making the threat at the time. He skipped 8th grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year began, and then skipped multiple days of school.

Family members had been seeking psychological help for Colt Gray before the shooting, but it appeared he never saw a counselor.

Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with Colin Gray weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict Colt’s access. Instead, over time, he bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.

Colt Gray even created a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors said.

During his senior year of high school on the Puyallup Reservation, Gerald Dillon traded much of his academic coursework for career training. When he walked into the second grade classroom where he worked as a teaching assistant, students would rush from their seats for a fist bump or a hug.

The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and put in only enough effort to pass, found renewed purpose to come to school everyday.

“It motivates me. I like making connections with the kids, I like helping them,” Dillon said.

It began in his junior year when he enrolled in career training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college for a teaching degree.

Administrators at the school say a shift in focus to technical training and career readiness is paying off, with more students not only staying in school but graduating on time.

Those gains are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 primary and secondary schools serving over 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high schoolers at BIE schools graduated within four years. That number soared to a record high of 79% by 2025.

Some BIE educators attribute that surge to local innovations. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. In addition, the way graduation rates are reported across BIE schools was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed the numbers.

But concerns loom that changes reshaping the BIE under the Trump administration — including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and continued fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE — could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.

The surge in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting rather than a sudden leap in student academic improvement, according to agency officials.

For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.

“We had to come to a consensus and set an accountability framework for our schools,” said Carmelia Becenti, the agency’s chief academic officer.

Beginning in 2018, BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since, Becenti said, the data has painted a more accurate and encouraging picture.

An AP analysis of BIE data found that graduation rates across the system are up 55% since new reporting standards began rolling out, with nine of its secondary schools reporting 100% growth or higher.

Less than one-third of BIE schools are operated by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. At some of those, educators say data collection is only part of the story.

Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a “disconnect” between the high school’s previous laser focus on getting students ready for college and many students’ goals of finding a job upon graduation.

“We devalued the trades. That was a mistake,” Brummett said.

The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who might otherwise have dropped out instead enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.

Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training was a better match for his learning style.

“It was kind of the first time I felt excited to go to school,” said Dillon, reflecting on his time helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.

Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates rose from 53% to 87%.

A focus on trades is just one of the ways tribal-controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, administrators said a COVID-era experiment in virtual learning contributed to a surge in graduation rates from roughly 70% to 93%.

“For certain kids that have more responsibilities at home, kids that need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and an opportunity to earn their diploma,” said principal Alaric Keams.

When pandemic lockdowns lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high schoolers.

But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these kinds of programs or take over management of BIE schools.

Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school serving his community is chronically understaffed and crumbling under a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sinking walls and a rodent infestation. It has reported graduating fewer than 60% of students on time in recent years.

“If we were able to, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,” said Lengkeek. “We have to rely on the government to fulfill its treaty promise.”

From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to DOGE reductions that swept out longtime staffers, as well as repeated threats of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress that has been made could be undermined.

In November 2025, the Department of Education began handing off oversight of dozens of programs that serve Native students to BIE.

At a tribal consultation session in February in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke in opposition, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and stretched BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility to seek their input before moving forward.

“We are here too late,” said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “The ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were ever notified. That should never, ever happen.”

Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said turmoil at the agency’s Washington office trickles down to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that aimed to turn the BIE into a school choice system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.

“That caused some delays and disruptions to services,” Dropik said. “When drastic changes go into motion without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.”

Lengkeek worries the BIE could be consumed by political upheaval while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.

“This system holds the future of our nations in its hands,” Lengkeek said. “We need stability. We need increased funding. We need infrastructure.”

——

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

By Rory Carroll

INGLEWOOD, California, July 12 (Reuters) – After a month of World Cup crowds, a temporary grass pitch and heightened security around politically sensitive matches, SoFi Stadium is turning towards its next mega-events with greater confidence, a senior venue executive said.

The $5 billion Inglewood stadium hosted eight World Cup games, including the United States’ opening game and two involving Iran, without major incident.

It was an experience that Otto Benedict, senior vice president of facility and campus operations at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, said validated years of planning.

“From a public safety perspective, I think that went very, very well,” Benedict told Reuters in an interview. 

“The number of matches, the size of our matches, having two matches with Iran … all of our law enforcement partners, our federal assets and even our local assets worked collaboratively to create a very safe environment.”

The run served as a high-profile test for a venue that will host February’s Super Bowl, as well as swimming and the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Benedict said the stadium’s systems for ticketing, crowd movement, food and beverage service and entering and exiting the arena held up well under repeated World Cup conditions, when many fans were visiting the venue for the first time.

“At no point as we walked around did we see areas where we thought, ‘Hey, we’re actually too tight here, there’s not enough space here,'” he said. “We saw everything flowing very well.”

Benedict said soccer crowds created a different operational pattern than those at NFL games, with more fans leaving their seats at halftime and putting pressure on concourses, concessions and restrooms at the same time.

The stadium handled those surges, he added, giving staff useful information for future events.

The venue also drew praise for the temporary natural grass surface installed for the tournament.

Benedict said the pitch exceeded expectations and was improving in vitality as the event went on, though he added that keeping grass permanently was not realistic for a stadium that hosts two NFL teams, concerts and other events.

“It just wouldn’t be a feasible operation,” he said, citing the stadium’s depth below ground, canopy structure and year-round event schedule.

While Benedict said SoFi definitely should have hosted a semi-final or final, he noted that the World Cup nevertheless proved the stadium was ready for another Super Bowl, after also hosting the NFL championship game in 2022, and LA28.

“It gives us the ability to say to anybody coming in, and even for our own operations, that what we’re doing is the right consistency,” he said. “Let’s keep moving these items forward.”

(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Ken Ferris)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress who traveled the globe to advocate for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, has died after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said. He was 71.

The statement posted on social media early Sunday said his family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period.” It did not provide any additional details about the circumstances surrounding the Saturday night death of the South Carolina Republican, a former Air Force lawyer who served in Congress for three decades.

Trump said Graham was “like a member of the family. It’s very tough.” The president said Graham called him on Saturday night after returning from a trip to Ukraine. “He sounded a little bit tired, but perfect,” Trump told NBC’s ”Meet the Press.”

A noted hawk, Graham was one of the most influential figures in Washington on foreign affairs and he advised Trump on matters such as the Iran war and Russia. On Friday, Graham had announced an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions.

As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Graham had a central role during Trump’s second term as Republicans pushed major legislation on party-line votes while holding a narrow 53-47 majority in the chamber.

Under South Carolina law, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster will appoint a temporary replacement for Graham, who was seeking a fifth term in November.

Graham, elected to the Senate in 2002 after serving in the House, long promoted a policy of robust U.S. military interventionism and strong national defense that in later years would put him at odds with the growing isolationist wing of his party.

Over time, Graham became well-known for his close ties with Trump, whom the senator briefly ran against for the presidential nomination in 2016.

Their relationship would begin on a rough note, with Graham calling the then-New York businessman “unfit for office.” Graham used a profanity to describe Trump after Trump made disparaging comments about Arizona Republican John McCain, Graham’s best friend in the Senate and a Vietnam War veteran. McCain and Graham, along with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., were known as the “Three Amigos” and frequently traveled together to promote their foreign policy views around the globe.

During a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump read out Graham’s personal cellphone number and continued to belittle him throughout the 2016 race as Graham made it clear he would not support Trump.

Graham, however, shifted significantly once Trump won the White House. He emerged as one of Trump’s top allies — speaking with him frequently and becoming a regular presence on the golf course alongside the president — even as McCain remained a critic.

In a 2018 interview with The Associated Press, Graham explained his pivot by saying McCain taught him that the country must move forward after elections and that meant “you have an obligation” to help the president. McCain ran twice for the White House.

“And I’ve tried to be helpful where I could because I think he needs all the help he can get,” Graham said of Trump. “You can be a better critic when people understand that you’re trying to help them be successful.”

Graham was a prominent defender of Trump during the president’s two impeachments. That was a reversal from Graham’s role as a House prosecutor during Democratic President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. Both presidents were eventually acquitted.

Graham had appeared to break with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying in a dramatic speech on the Senate floor that night, “Count me out. Enough is enough.” But the senator soon returned to Trump’s side and the two remained close during Trump’s second term.

Graham had just been in Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the senator visited his country 10 times during the years since Russia invaded in February 2022. “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Zelenskyy said.

Graham’s travels made him a familiar face to dozens of world leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Graham understood that the security of Israel and the United States was inseparable.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Netanyahu said.

As Budget Committee chairman, Graham helped oversee a Senate procedure that allowed Republicans to pass significant policies such as last year’s tax law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

He had previously led the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020. The senator was in line to regain that gavel if the party kept its majority after the midterm elections and he pledged to confirm “as many conservative judges as possible.”

Graham was a key player in the Senate’s efforts to craft a massive immigration overhaul in 2013 as a member of a bipartisan group. The legislation passed the Senate with 68 votes but was never taken up by the House, so it did not become law.

But Graham’s views on immigration, particularly an endorsement of a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. without legal status, put him at odds with some Republican factions.

He sometimes faced primary challenges in his home state of South Carolina, but he won the nomination outright in June.

The senator addressed the president in his victory speech last month, saying, “I’m going to help you change this world and change this country.”

Graham was known for his influence not only on Trump, but also with his fellow Republicans who were aware of his ability to sometimes move the president’s thinking — as well as for his relationships with world leaders.

He was also known for his sense of humor, often deployed to diffuse tensions. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican, said Graham will be missed for his “quick wit and infectious laughter.”

McMaster said in a statement that Graham was “irreplaceable.”

Graham often worked across the aisle, even as he remained fiercely loyal to Trump. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, said in a statement that “personal relationships often mattered more to him than the political disagreements of the day.”

To Democrat Jaime Harrison, a former national and state party chairman who challenged Graham in 2020, even in their “fiercest political battles” the two men “could still share a conversation, a laugh, and a mutual respect for South Carolina.”

Graham spoke about his humble roots, growing up in the back of a South Carolina bar and helping to raise his sister after his parents died at a young age. Graham was not married and did not have children. His closest living relative is sister Darline Graham Nordone, whom he helped raise.

Graham won 57% of the GOP vote in the primary and was up against Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, and several minor party and independent candidates in November.

After McMaster appoints a replacement, South Carolina law requires a special primary for voters to select a new nominee within weeks of a vacancy. The general election winner will take office January, beginning a full six-year term.

A number of Republican names began circulating as possible replacements to serve out the rest of Graham’s term, including Reps. Nancy Mace and Russell Fry.

The brief statement by Graham’s office did not explain the circumstances of his death, which came at a time when there has been some concern about a lack of transparency about the heath of some members of Congress.

Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., was absent without explanation for months before recently returning to Congress and disclosing he had been diagnosed with depression.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican leader, was hospitalized weeks ago for undisclosed health reasons.

___

Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C., Associated Press writers Christopher Megerian in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Brian P. D. Hannon in Bangkok and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

By Gabriel Araujo

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, July 11 (Reuters) – The idea that soccer is not popular in the U.S. is “a little bit overstated” and the World Cup has helped prove it, “Ted Lasso” co-creator and star Brendan Hunt said, acknowledging the Emmy-winning comedy may have helped draw new fans to the sport.

Speaking to reporters in Kansas City ahead of the quarter-final between Argentina and Switzerland on Saturday, Hunt said he had heard anecdotal evidence that viewers who once ignored soccer became interested through the Apple TV series.

The comedy, which follows a U.S. coach unexpectedly hired to manage an English soccer club, became a breakout hit during its three-season run from 2020 to 2023, winning 13 Emmy Awards, including two for best comedy series.

Asked whether he credited the show with helping boost soccer’s popularity in the U.S., co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis joked: “I do within my own home.”

“It’s made it more popular,” he added, before deferring to Hunt, who plays Coach Beard.

Hunt joked that the show’s creators had “tricked” some reluctant viewers into embracing the sport. Still, he argued soccer’s growth in the world’s No.1 economy predates the series and is often underestimated.

The U.S. is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada, more than three decades after staging the 1994 tournament.

While that event helped spark a rise in the sport’s popularity, with Major League Soccer launching two years later, soccer remains far from dominant there despite the likes of Pele, David Beckham and now Lionel Messi having played in the country.

Hunt said U.S. fans were far more prepared for this World Cup than in 1994, when awareness of the tournament was lower.

“We’re not as far behind in terms of the sport’s popularity as is made out to be, and I think this World Cup has shown that,” he said.

“The stuff about soccer being not popular here is a little bit overstated … It’s getting there.

“Now, because every World Cup gets bandwagon fans in every country, whether some of them stick around a little bit more remains to be seen,” he added.

The future of “Ted Lasso” had long been uncertain after its creators said they originally envisioned a three-season run, but a fourth season was announced in March 2025.

It premieres on Apple TV on August 5, with Ted returning to Richmond to coach a second-division women’s team.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Ken Ferris)

By Iain Axon

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, July 11 (Reuters) – As Kansas City prepared to bring the curtain down on its World Cup on Saturday, local organisers were already reflecting on a month that put the Midwestern city on the global stage.

Kansas City has been host to six games including a round-of-16 match and Saturday’s quarter-final between Argentina and Switzerland at Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs.

But the tournament’s legacy will be measured as much by the supporters who adopted the city as their temporary home.

The city welcomed large followings from several nations, including Algeria, whose fans spilled across neighbouring Lawrence, Kansas, where the North African team made their base camp.

A sea of Netherlands orange marched through downtown streets before turning parts of the city centre into a Dutch carnival.

Supporters from Argentina, Switzerland, Colombia and others packed fan zones, bars and public squares over the past month, transforming the self-styled “Soccer Capital of America” into a meeting place for the world and giving residents a rare chance to experience the World Cup’s unique blend of sport, culture and community on their own doorstep.

“The last month has been very special for Kansas City to have a chance to be on the international stage,” Clark Hunt, honorary co-chair of the KC 2026 board and chairman and CEO of the Chiefs, told reporters.

“Getting to see fans from all around the world coming to Kansas City to cheer on their teams … has been amazing.”

Hunt said he hoped the city would have the chance to welcome the tournament back one day.

“If we have the opportunity to bid, we’ll do it,” he said.

For KC 2026 Chief Executive Pam Kramer, the tournament’s legacy will extend beyond football.

“We’ve proven we can handle the biggest sporting competition in the world,” she said, adding that the World Cup had showcased Kansas City as a destination for business, investment and new residents.

SPIRIT OF KANSAS CITY’S WORLD CUP

Asked what she would remember most, Kramer recalled a chance conversation with an elderly gentleman that captured the spirit of Kansas City’s World Cup.

“(He) said, ‘You know, I didn’t know much about soccer before and, I have to tell you, I thought it was maybe going to be overblown, it seemed like much to do about nothing,'” Kramer said.

“But what seems to have happened is that people put aside their differences and cheered for the teams for a couple of weeks, and I thought that was so insightful to what has happened here … that will stick with me,” Kramer added.

Author and longtime soccer commentator Nate Bukaty said he will remember the spirit of connection.

“Everything I loved about what the game of soccer does has been here for the past month,” he said of Kansas City. “And that’s the part, I think, more than the soccer itself, that I will cherish. I’m already kind of nostalgic about it and a little sad that it’s almost over.”

For years, Kansas City wondered how the world would view the city. After a month of packed stadiums, Bukaty believes it got its emphatic answer.

“The question I heard over and over was, ‘What’s the world going to think of us when they get here?'” he said. “My response was, ‘Is the world ready for Kansas City?’ … I feel like everybody’s been pleasantly surprised with this place. And I think we’ve acquitted ourselves very well.”

Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria held their base camps in Kansas City.

Kramer said more than 310,000 fans, from more than 150 nations, had attended the city’s FIFA Fan Fest Kansas City, with thousands more expected for Saturday’s quarter-final.

The 36,000 supporters who participated in the Netherlands’ “Oranje Fanwalk” were the largest Dutch turnout in the U.S.

(Writing by Lori Ewing, reporting by Iain Axon; Editing by Ken Ferris)

A Democratic senator on Saturday alleged that whistleblowers have detailed several problems stemming from rushed or improper reconstruction of the Kennedy Center, adding a new layer to the travails of the arts complex as President Donald Trump tried to seize control of it and its name.

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said in a release on Saturday that he had received a whistleblower disclosure from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection group, alleging that “the Center rushed a series of renovations driven by the President’s aesthetic whims and his desire to star in a series of televised events in December.”

“The Center’s subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices have resulted in steel columns that are rusting through fresh paint, a reflecting pool that may have to be torn out and rebuilt, and a brand-new bathroom floor torn out over an offending tile color,” Whitehouse continued. “This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump seized control of the arts and culture venue, named after former President John F. Kennedy, at the beginning of his second term. Trump ousted the center’s prior leadership and replaced it with a Board of Trustees that named him chairman and added his name to the building.

Democrats sued to remove it and a federal judge ruled Trump’s name must come off the venue, which had been wracked with boycotts by artists during the turmoil. He tried to close the center for two years, only to be ordered to keep it open by the court because only Congress could change its name.

Whitehouse released a letter he wrote to the center’s executive director, Matt Floca, demanding answers by July 23. He said the whistleblower report included “firsthand accounts of multiple former Center project managers, supported by contemporaneous documents and photographs.” He also included an 83-page appendix full of internal center documents, emails and photos of apparently shoddy construction.

The allegations include that the center rushed work before it was authorized by Congress because it wanted it to be complete for Trump to accept the new FIFA Peace Prize that the soccer federation awarded him. In doing so, the letter alleges the center didn’t follow required contracting guidelines and wasted money replacing a bathroom because the president didn’t like the color and inking no-bid contracts. One $8 million contract to replace the concert hall’s floor went to a firm with no experience in concert halls, Whitehouse contended.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna said Saturday that he was detained by settlers and the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and released only after calls to the American Embassy in Jerusalem. The Israeli Defense Forces denied detaining any visitors in the incident, the latest example of escalating political tensions involving Israel and its ally’s Democratic Party.

A representative for Khanna, a California Democrat who is an outspoken progressive, said the confrontation occurred Wednesday in the middle of a three-day tour of the West Bank. As the congressman visited a Palestinian village that had been abandoned after settler attacks, masked men with guns stopped his group and refused to let them leave.

The New York Times said the incident was witnessed by one of its photographers. Khanna’s office said it occurred in the town of Khirbet Zanuta.

Khanna said that when Israeli soldiers arrived he was dispirited to see them interact in a friendly manner with the settlers and block the exit for the congressman’s party. Not until the U.S. Embassy and Israeli police were called was Khanna’s group allowed to proceed.

“If this can happen to an American member of Congress, imagine what life is like for Palestinians who have no smartphones, no security, and no national platform,” Khanna, who is exploring a presidential bid in 2028, said in a fundraising email he sent out shortly after his post Saturday about the incident.

In a statement, the IDF said it received a report of Israeli citizens blocking foreign nationals and media in Khirbet Zanuta.

“Upon receiving the report, IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road,” the military said in a statement. “The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road.”

Democratic politicians from the United States have stepped up their criticism of Israel amid a sharp turn against the country by the party’s voters since the war in Gaza began. This past week, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose father was born in Jerusalem and fought in Israel’s war of independence, gave a blistering speech last week in Tel Aviv in which he said Israel has become a “territorial pariah.” Emanuel also is a potential White House contender.

In a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 58% of Democrats said the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israelis.

Also Saturday, the Israeli military said it detained four suspects who were attacking foreign journalists traveling to Sinjil, another West Bank community. The assailants blocked the journalists’ vehicle and damaged it and were armed with clubs and knives, according to the military’s statement.

CNN reported that it had a team among the journalists who were attacked. The network said the journalists were there to cover the one-year anniversary of the killing of a Palestinian-American man who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.

The West Bank has seen a surge of settlement construction, and settler violence against Palestinians, in the past few years. Israeli officials have condemned particularly grave violence by settlers but tend to describe the incidents as exceptions, and attackers are rarely punished.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal. Israel’s government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under heavy criticism from Palestinians and rights groups for accelerating settlement expansion, which they say is aimed at preventing the establishment of a future Palestinian state there.

Israel views the West Bank as disputed territory and says its final status is subject to negotiations. Key Cabinet ministers have pushed for formal annexation of the territory.

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) – The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service will raise the price of stamps for mailing a first-class letter to ‌82 cents from 78 cents, effective Sunday.

Here are the details:

• USPS, which has warned it could run out of cash early next year, announced in April it would raise mailing costs by 4.8%.

• U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress last month the agency, which has had net losses of about $120 billion since 2007, has a broken ​business model and needs help from lawmakers to turn around ‌its operations.

• The volume of first-class mail, its most profitable product, has dropped to 1960s levels as communication has largely gone digital. Yet the agency must maintain ​costly nationwide delivery ​operations.

• Steiner thinks Americans ​would be willing to pay 90 or 95 cents per letter, when much of ​the world pays $2 or more.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)