By DANIEL WALTERS/InvestigateWest

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The first time Denys’s children heard fireworks go off in Spokane, Washington, they were terrified. His kids had grown up about 20 miles from the Russian border, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and they knew too well the booms of Russian missile attacks and screeching sounds of Ukrainian air defenses.

In 2023, after Russians attacked the hospital where his youngest daughter, Olivia, had recently been born, Denys knew he needed a way out, and fast.

That’s when a former neighbor, living in an American city on the other side of the world, offered him an escape:

“He called me and said, ‘We have a nice program — Uniting for Ukraine,’” Denys recalled. “If you want to come, grab your family and move.”

Denys, who asked his last name not be used, leapt at the opportunity. He’s stayed in Spokane for the past three years, getting used to a place where explosions are simply celebrations of freedom. He’d spent a half year learning English, and then drawing on his Ukrainian experience making boilers, he swiftly got a job welding construction beams at Metals Fabrication Co.

Like so many of the 240,000 Ukrainians who have immigrated to this country through the Uniting for Ukraine program, his future here is precarious.

Launched by former President Joe Biden in 2022, Uniting for Ukraine is a “humanitarian parole” program. It allowed Ukrainian immigrants to temporarily stay and work in America, two years at a time, so long as they found an American sponsor willing to help support them.

In June, however, Denys lost his job — not because he did anything wrong, but because the federal government failed to reauthorize his right to work. Under Donald Trump’s administration, which is targeting humanitarian parole programs affecting nearly 1.8 million migrants, renewals have ground to a halt.

“I’m very worried about my family,” Denys said. “I need to buy food. I have three kids.”

Along with freezing the Biden-era parole programs for Ukrainian refugees, the administration completely withdrew parole protections for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and over 9,000 from Afghanistan.

Many Ukrainians are taking notice of what’s happening to other refugees. In Spokane, two Venezuelan immigrants who had come here legally through humanitarian parole programs were jailed and slated for deportation, despite applying for asylum. When they showed up for a scheduled meeting in June with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they were arrested by ICE and carted off to Tacoma’s immigration detention center. A mass protest resulted in 30 arrests, federal charges for nine demonstrators, and national media attention.

Unlike Latin American, Haitian and Afghan immigrants, most Ukrainians don’t have to worry about racial profiling. They haven’t been tarred with wild falsehoods about eating pets from the presidential debate stage. But while Ukrainians were never the primary target of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Biden’s immigration legacy, they’ve been caught in the crossfire. At the mercy of a rapidly changing and dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, many are paralyzed by the uncertainty — faced with a choice of waiting for a government response, working illegally, surviving on charity, or leaving America entirely.

“There’s this no man’s land,” said Spokane immigration attorney Sam Smith. “There’s this in-between that they’re stuck in. There’s no good solution for them.”

Frozen in place

Whether because of its climate or its people, Spokane, a mid-sized Washington city on the Idaho border, has been a hub for Ukrainian immigration since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine brought a new surge of nearly 3,000 Ukrainians, many who quickly got to work establishing their new lives.

At a coffee stop started by another Ukrainian immigrant, Maksym Bedenko proudly hands InvestigateWest the business card for The Old Preacher, a small barbershop business he started in 2023. He was lucky enough to re-enroll in the Uniting for Ukraine program in August of last year, when it was still easy to get re-approval. But he knows a slew of other people, including Amazon workers, factory workers and caregivers, who have all lost their jobs.

The second Trump administration had launched with a salvo against nearly every aspect of the immigration system. Executive orders banned new refugees, severed contracts with refugee resettlement organizations and put any renewals of those with programs like Uniting for Ukraine on hold.

During the campaign, Trump had demonized Biden’s humanitarian parole programs, which had resulted in a surge of immigrants into some cities. On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order to “terminate all categorical parole programs” that were contrary to his policies.

Three days later, a freeze order went out from the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Stop processing all Uniting for Ukraine applications, including from those trying to renew their parole status. No parole status, no new rights to work.

Spokane Slavic Association Vice President Zhanna Oberemok, who immigrated to Spokane shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, said drivers for her husband’s trucking company recently started seeing some of their workers lose their commercial driver’s licenses as their work authorizations expired.

“Within the next week or so, we’re going to be losing about seven drivers because their driver license just became inactive,” Oberemok said.

Employers were frustrated to have to let perfectly good workers go.

Sara Weaver-Lundberg, vice president for Metals Fabrication Co., said by email that Denys had been a “gilded unicorn,” the rare, impossible-to-find experienced worker, and losing him “put a strain on our production.”

He was dependable, she said, always willing to work overtime when they needed it. She reached out to her corporate attorney and contacted her congressman to find help for Denys, but so far, neither route has been effective.

“I cannot imagine having to leave my country because it was no longer safe for me and my family,” Weaver-Lundberg said. “Denys did just that — he left Ukraine and entered this country legally. … Now, because of a pause in the program or backlog, he is living in this country with no job.”

Every two weeks, Denys had been sending money to his mother — still in Ukraine, where the prices of groceries and utilities have skyrocketed because of the war. He had been hoping to bring her to the United States through Uniting for Ukraine. Now, that’s out of the question, too.

Without a job, he’s been relying on the generosity of his sponsor — his former neighbor — to pay for food and rent for himself, his wife and his three kids. He’s waiting for a phone call from the state government to see if he’s eligible for unemployment benefits. He noted how he’d been turned from someone contributing to tax revenue through his work into someone costing the government money.

At a table at the Spokane refugee resettlement nonprofit Thrive International, Denys speaks through a translator, a woman who herself came here through the Uniting for Ukraine program.

“I know some families, they got mortgages,” Denys said. “They have loans for their cars. They have huge bills every single month.”

They’re left with an ugly decision: Provide for their family or follow the law. It’s a choice Denys hasn’t made and doesn’t want to.

“I should probably find some job and work under the table, but I don’t want to do that,” Denys said. “But it’s like the government pushes us to do that. We don’t want to do that. We want to work legally and follow the law.”

Pushing back

Elsewhere in Spokane, a local doctor has been fighting for months for a remedy in federal court. In February, Kyle Varner, an activist who spent a month along the Ukrainian border caring for refugees and who’d sponsored nearly 50 Venezuelan immigrants, joined a lawsuit to challenge the new policies, writing that he feels “that there is something fundamentally and morally wrong with treating people differently and giving them fewer rights simply because they were not born in this country.”

Along with immigrants from Ukraine, Nicaragua, Haiti and Afghanistan, he asked the court to force the Trump administration to start processing humanitarian parole applications again.

So far, the verdict has been mixed: New parole applications remain frozen, and in May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to order a half-million Latin American immigrants to leave the country, a decision that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned could lead to “social and economic chaos.”

But thanks to a lower court ruling, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent out a memo on June 9, officially lifting the freeze on processing parole renewals. In theory, Ukrainian immigrants like Denys would begin to see their right to work restored. So far, few have.

“We’ve seen some cases denied. And some cases be asked for additional evidence,” said Matthew Soerens, the policy director for World Relief, a national refugee resettlement organization. “But at least the folks that we’re helping, we are not aware of cases being approved for humanitarian parole renewal from Ukraine.”

Smith, the local immigration attorney, says the parole system remains functionally frozen. He suspects it’s a matter of priorities, that the Trump administration is dumping more resources into enforcement and kicking people out instead of helping people to stay.

“It’s pretty clear what the administration thinks about … immigrants and immigration generally,” Smith said.

Alternate routes

Many Ukrainian immigrants have lit upon another strategy, one that uses the glacial pace of the federal immigration bureaucracy to their advantage. Some are filing for asylum — arguing they have a well-founded fear of political, racial or religious persecution from their home country.

And while an asylum application can sometimes take five to 10 years to process, immigrants can get work authorization while they wait.

There’s just one big hitch: It still takes six months, once you apply for asylum, to get work permits. Even if Denys applied today, he wouldn’t be able to get the right to work again until March.

Even then, Smith, the attorney, hesitates to offer any kind of certainty. Lately, federal policy has been chaotic enough that it’s hard to provide long-term assurances.

Often, the government hasn’t formally communicated at all about changes in policy, and when it has, it’s sometimes been a mistake. In April, according to The Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security had emailed many Ukrainians across the country telling them that their humanitarian parole had been canceled, and threatening that if they didn’t leave the United States, “the federal government will find you.” The message was an error, but it was sent out so broadly that even Smith — an attorney, not an immigrant — got the email.

“There’s a lack of clarity all throughout the system, which makes an already difficult system to navigate even more difficult and perilous,” Smith said. “It paralyzes the system, but it also paralyzes people.”

Appealing to Trump

In Congress, there have been a handful of stabs at trying to make things easier for Ukrainian immigrants — a Senate bill proposes letting Ukrainians on humanitarian parole continue to work, while a bill in the U.S. House would give the Ukrainian parolees a way to become permanent residents. But while both bills have bipartisan supporters, neither has gotten much traction. The Republican Party has been starkly divided on Ukraine, the traditional anti-Russian wing in conflict with a growing isolationist wing.

Spokane’s Republican congressman, U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, embodies that tension. In February, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was booted from the White House following a combative meeting with Trump, Baumgartner called for Zelenskyy’s resignation.

But in April, he also co-authored a bipartisan letter calling for the Trump administration to continue to offer Ukrainian immigrants protection.

“Many of them have found employment, pay taxes, have their children enrolled in school, and are positively contributing to their new communities,” the letter states. “Revoking their protections and sending them back to a war-torn country before peace is secured would be devastating for both them and their families.”

Baumgartner said he did not get a response from the administration.

Still, he stressed to InvestigateWest that “the Ukrainian population have really been model immigrants. They’re hard-working folks, they are entrepreneurs, small business owners.” He was hopeful that Trump could use his tough-on-immigration reputation as a way to bring about reform of a broken system.

In a dark way, Oberemok with the Spokane Slavic Association finds a reason for optimism in the recent news about the stabbing of a young Ukrainian refugee woman in North Carolina. Trump, in his social media post calling for the death penalty for the “animal” who murdered her, had characterized her as a “beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety.”

“It’s already giving us hope that he’s not planning on sending us back home,” Oberemok said.

So far, Trump has shown little sign of making it easier for immigrants. In an interview this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow declared that the administration plans to make it even harder, and more expensive, for immigrants to get work authorization. He accused the Biden administration of using work permits as a magnet to attract droves of foreigners to the United States.

“To the extent that we can shut off work authorization once we terminate these paroles, we’ve done that,” Edlow said. “You may be eligible for a work permit, but that doesn’t mean anymore that that’s going to result in you being able to remain in this country.”

For now, Ukrainian immigrants continue living under what Mariia Chava, Denys’s sponsor and former neighbor, calls “the big question mark.”

“What will be tomorrow?” she said. “Nobody knows.”

Denys knows he can’t return to Ukraine, where war is still raging and where many see those who left as traitors.

He loves the beauty of nature in Spokane, driving on America’s wide open roads. But he can’t live in a place where he has to fear deportation, where he’s not allowed to provide for his family without breaking the law, where he has no clear path to becoming legal.

“I love this country,” Denys said. “Just give me a chance to work.”

This story was originally published in InvestigateWest and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A veteran water expert from Arizona says the Trump administration withdrew his nomination to lead the federal agency that oversees water management in the western U.S., leaving the Bureau of Reclamation without permanent leadership this year.

Ted Cooke told The Associated Press late Wednesday that he was preparing for a Senate confirmation hearing early this month but his name was removed from the agenda. He wasn’t told until this week that there was an unspecified issue with his background check. Cooke said the White House didn’t offer any details and asked only that he withdraw himself from consideration.

“The real story here is that I’ve been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency because of party politics and maybe Colorado River basin intrigues,” Cooke said, adding that he believes he was given a fabricated excuse “to avoid having any discussion on what the real issue is.”

Cooke said he didn’t know what the issue was.

The shift comes as the bureau and seven states face a deadline to decide how to share the Colorado River amid ongoing drought and shrinking water supplies.

The Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, referred questions about Cooke to the White House, which did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.

Trump’s announcement in June that he had tapped Cooke, the former general manager of the Central Arizona Project, drew praise from many who said Cooke’s experience delivering water to the state’s most populous communities would be a plus for the bureau.

Still, officials in other Western states had concerns that Cooke would give deference to his home state as negotiations over the future of the Colorado River come to a head. Water managers have been grappling with the prospect of painful cuts in water supplies as the river dwindles.

The Colorado River is a critical lifeline to seven U.S. states, more than 20 Native American tribes, and two Mexican states. It provides electricity to millions of homes and businesses, irrigates vast stretches of desert farmland and reaches faucets in cities throughout the Southwest, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

In Mesa, Arizona, Mayor Mark Freeman had celebrated Cooke’s nomination back in June in a social media post. On Wednesday, the Republican told the AP he was disappointed to learn the nomination wouldn’t move forward.

“Mr. Cooke has dedicated his career to managing Arizona’s water resources, and his deep knowledge of the Colorado River system would have provided valuable insight during this critical time. Although his nomination was not confirmed, the challenges before us remain,” Freeman said, highlighting the need to ensure reliable water supplies.

Anne Castle, former chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission, said in an email that withdrawal of the nomination “looks like backroom politics at a time when what we really need is straightforward leadership on western water issues.”

Cooke said he heard from some people that his knack for being fair and even-handed might have worked against him. He theorized that some officials might have been pushing to find a “more ruthless” nominee since Colorado River negotiations have been anything but easy.

Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, said that while Cooke’s withdrawal is a lost opportunity to have a highly qualified person in the job, it’s not likely to disrupt ongoing negotiations. She said the bureau’s acting leadership has been working assiduously to figure out a way forward for river management.

She also doubted that having Cooke lead the bureau would have given Arizona a leg up, saying “there are too many other decision-makers and significant stakeholders involved for that to ever be a real possibility. And they know that Ted would have tried hard to rise above all that.”

It’s unclear whether the Trump administration is considering other candidates for the top post at the bureau.

Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca in New York City, Matthew Daly in Washington, D.C., and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By AAMER MADHANI and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban’s hands.

Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the U.K. and tied it to the need for the U.S. to counter its top rival, China.

“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While Trump described his call for the U.S. military to reestablish a position in Afghanistan as “breaking news,” the Republican president has previously raised the idea. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether it or the Pentagon has done any planning around returning to the sprawling air base, which was central to America’s longest war.

Trump has seized on the U.S. withdrawal under Biden

During his first presidency, Trump set the terms for the U.S. withdrawal by negotiating a deal with the Taliban. The 20-year conflict came to an end in disquieting fashion under President Joe Biden: The U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 U.S. troops and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul’s airport in search of a way out before the final U.S. aircraft departed over the Hindu Kush.

The Afghanistan debacle was a major setback just eight months into Biden’s Democratic presidency that he struggled to recover from.

Biden’s Republican detractors, including Trump, seized on it as a signal moment in a failed presidency. Those criticisms have persisted into the present day, including as recently as last week, when Trump claimed the move emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022.

“He would have never done what he did, except that he didn’t respect the leadership of the United States,” Trump said, speaking of Putin. “They just went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever. We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity. We were going to keep Bagram Air Base — one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.”

Asked again about the proposal hours later on Air Force One, Trump offered no details but again bashed Biden for “gross incompetence” and said the base should have “never been given back.”

“It’s one of the most powerful bases in the world in terms of runway strength and length,” he said. “You can land anything on there. You can land a planet on top of it.”

No clarity if there have been discussions with the Taliban about Bagram

It is unclear if the U.S. has any new direct or indirect conversations with the Taliban government about returning to the country. But Trump hinted that the Taliban, who have struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal rifts and rival militant groups since their return to power in 2021, could be game to allow the U.S. military to return.

“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump said of the Taliban.

The president repeated his view that a U.S. presence at Bagram is of value because of its proximity to China, the most significant economic and military competitor to the United States.

“But one of the reasons we want that base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “So a lot of things are happening.”

While the U.S. and the Taliban have no formal diplomatic ties, the sides have had hostage conversations. An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist was released by the Taliban in March.

Last week, the Taliban also said they reached an agreement with U.S. envoys on an exchange of prisoners as part of an effort to normalize relations between the United States and Afghanistan.

The Taliban gave no details of a detainee swap, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in a Taliban statement. The Taliban released photographs from their talks, showing their foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Trump’s special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.

Officials at U.S. Central Command in the Middle East and the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office, referred questions about reestablishing a presence at Bagram to the White House.

By ISABELLA VOLMERT and OBED LAMY, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rallied Democrats against redistricting in his home state of Indiana Thursday as pressure grows on Republican state lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

Buttigieg — a contender to represent Democrats aiming to win back the presidency in 2028 — was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, before he launched into the national political scene by running for president in 2020 and emerged victorious from the Iowa caucus that year.

Indiana Republicans have been hesitant to redistrict so far compared to other states where the GOP holds control. But Democrats have little power to stop the move if Republican leaders choose to create a new map.

“Indiana Republicans are being pressured by Washington Republicans to do something that they know in their hearts is wrong,” Buttigieg said.

Typically, states redraw their congressional districts every 10 years with the census. But President Donald Trump wants to give his party an advantage in the 2026 election in order to keep majority control in the House of Representatives, as midterms tend to favor the party out of power. Republicans in Texas and Missouri have moved to create advantageous new seats while California Democrats have countered with their own new proposal.

Indiana lawmakers however have not yet answered the redistricting call and have kept their cards close, emblematic of the state’s independent streak and its more measured approach to politics.

But pressure from Trump to redraw House districts has been mounting on Republicans in the state he won by 19 percentage points in 2024. First-term Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, said Tuesday that a legislative session on redistricting probably will happen, and it could come as soon as November. But he doesn’t want to call a special session unless there will be a successful outcome.

“I’ve been very clear. I want it to be organic,” he said in a video reported by WRTV in Indianapolis.

A large crowd gathered inside the statehouse in Indianapolis Thursday afternoon to see Buttigieg speak.

“It’s an issue of fairness,” said Judy Jessup, an Indianapolis resident. “The voters should get to choose politicians, not the other way around.”

Buttigieg is the biggest Democratic voice to come out of Indiana in recent memory. Following the 2020 election, Buttigieg and his family moved to Traverse City, Michigan, and he served as Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration.

In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Kamala Harris said that Buttigieg was her first pick for 2024 running mate, but she said running with Buttigieg, who is openly gay, was too risky. He didn’t address the comments on Thursday.

Braun could call a special session, but it would be up to lawmakers to create a new map. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers in Indiana, meaning Democrats could not stop or delay a special session by refusing to attend, like their peers in Texas briefly did. Republicans also outnumber Democrats in Indiana’s congressional delegation 7-2. Some Republicans see an opportunity to gain all nine seats in the state.

The GOP would likely target Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold encompassing Gary and other cities near Chicago. Three-term Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan won reelection in 2022 and easily retained the seat in 2024 even after Republicans redrew the district to be slightly more favorable to the GOP.

Republicans could also zero in on the 7th Congressional District, composed entirely of Marion County and the Democratic stronghold of Indianapolis, but they would invite more controversy by slicing up Indiana’s largest city and diluting Black voters’ influence.

“Both of those districts are filled with Black voters,” state Sen. Andrea Hunley, who represents Indianapolis, said at the rally. “This is a racist power grab to silence voters who look like me.”

Texas passed a new map that would help Republicans win up to five new seats, and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, is expected to sign legislation soon that would help Republicans win seven of the state’s eight districts. Meanwhile, California Democrats are launching a campaign to build support ahead of a Nov. 4 referendum on new U.S. House districts that were made to offset wins made by Texas Republicans.

Utah and Ohio may soon have new congressional district maps, and elected leaders in other states also are considering mid-decade redistricting, including Republicans in Florida and Kansas and Democrats in Maryland and New York.

Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved Thursday to shut down a Miami organ donation group, calling it “failing” because of underperformance, unsafe practices and paperwork errors.

The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, nonprofit agencies around the country that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant waiting list.

The administration cited an investigation that found a 2024 case where an unspecified mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting surgery.

In a news briefing, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said problems included would-be donations that went unrecovered, sending some donated organs to the wrong place and a lack of staff.

Life Alliance, a division of the University of Miami Health System, can appeal the decision. If it is shut down, it would mark the first time the federal government has decertified an OPO.

Life Alliance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 100,000 Americans are on the transplant list and thousands die waiting because there aren’t enough donations to go around. Last year there were more than 48,000 transplants, a record, the vast majority from deceased donors.

Changes to the transplant system have been underway for years to increase donations, reduce waste of potentially usable organs and address other concerns. They include some new safeguards after complaints last year that a different OPO didn’t stop donation preparations quickly enough when some patients showed signs of life, prompting some people to opt out of donor registries. Organ donation can proceed only after a hospital has declared someone dead — and by law, OPOs cannot be involved in that decision.

On Thursday, Oz sought to reassure would-be donors.

“Congress has thoughtfully and aggressively pursued some horrifying stories that have chilled some Americans’ enthusiasm for donating organs. We are here today to tell you this system is safe. It’s rigorously being addressed,” he said, adding later, “I want to applaud the OPOs that are doing a great job because most are.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MARIA SHERMAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah McLachlan’s first album in over a decade was supposed to be her last.

At least, it felt that way to her for a short while. Out Friday, the release, titled “Better Broken,” has been many years in the making. “It had been so long since I’d made a record,” she told The Associated Press. “I kind of thought, maybe this is my last one.” But working with a new team of collaborators reignited her enthusiasm for music discovery in the studio. These 11 tracks are the result — but they’re not a swan song.

“Some of these songs are 14 years old. Some of them were written last year,” she said. “I was a dance mom for a bunch of years, and I was also the principal fundraiser for my music schools … Music took a backseat. So that’s why it took 11 years.”

Now, music has clutched the steering wheel. In November, she’ll tour “Better Broken” across nine U.S. cities, beginning in Washington on Nov. 16 at The Anthem and ending Nov. 29 at Los Angeles’ The Orpheum Theatre. She’ll hit Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco as well. General ticket sales begin Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. local time.

“Music is very healing, and it has healed me over and over and over again,” she said. With the “Better Broken” album and tour, she hopes her music can heal listeners, too, “in some small way. I hope it can lift them and connect them to their emotional worlds.”

In an interview with the AP, McLachlan discussed her new album, a forthcoming Lilith Fair documentary and yes, that ASPCA commercial.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: What’s the process of revisiting older material? Did it feel relevant to who you are — still?

MCLACHLAN: ‘Better Broken’ is the oldest song. And it actually became the title track for the record as well, just because of that sentiment of resiliency, and reclamation of self, and picking up the pieces after things fall apart and rebuilding yourself. You know, figuring out a new way forward, which seemed like a great, sort of recurring theme on the record.

AP: There’s a sense of hope that exists throughout the album.

MCLACHLAN: I’m glad to hear you say that because I don’t have a lot of objectivity about it. I mean, I feel hopeful after hearing it, even though there’s some more heavy and intense subject matter. For me, music has always been this beautiful outlet, this therapy. It’s so cathartic to write and be able to find a place to put it. I feel so much better after it. It’s like medicine. So, I hope there’s some hope in it.

AP: I hear it in songs like “Rise,” and the line about a woman’s right to choose. It makes me wonder: Is this an exercise in humanity, or are you naturally an optimistic person?

MCLACHLAN: I’m very optimistic. That optimism has been challenged a lot lately. But I believe in humanity. I believe in the good in people. And I believe in continuing to seek out the good in people. And I think if you stay open and curious in that manner, I think there’s a lot of positive shifts that can continue to happen.

AP: In addition to a new album and tour, you founded the legendary, all-women ‘90s festival Lilith Fair. A new documentary “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story” details the tour. Several decades on, how do you view Lilith Fair’s legacy?

MCLACHLAN: We changed attitudes within the music business. We dispelled any myth that you can’t put two women back-to-back on the radio or on stage. Clearly, we got rid of that idea. I think we created an amazing community for us, as women in the music business. I think we helped to create a safe space for fans.

And to show that when you lift each other up instead of tear each other down, you can create something beautiful. I think that’s a really lasting legacy. And I think a really important message, perhaps even more important today.

And now I look at, you know, artists like Brandi Carlile, who are constantly championing women. Or Taylor Swift having women open up for her — Phoebe Bridgers and Boygenius and there are all these bands that, you know, are working together and supporting other women. I love that, and I feel like maybe we had a small hand in that.

AP: What would it take to revive Lilith Fair for the current moment? Could it exist in 2025?

MCLACHLAN: I think it could. I think it’d be very dangerous. I think we’d have a target on our backs. And I think it would need to look different.

It would need to be championed by someone who was coming up today. …. It needs some youthful energy.

AP: In addition to Lilith Fair, for a certain population, you are inextricably connected to the ASPCA for its continued use of your song “Angel” in their commercials. What do you make of that reputation?

MCLACHLAN: I’m grateful I did it. … But that’s my song. I retain ownership of that song. But yeah, I’m definitely aware that it brought me to a whole new fan base and changed the face of fundraising.

AP: I wonder if people think of you as saintly.

MCLACHLAN: I try and dispel any weirdness about that stuff. I’m just a normal person with a crazy job who has opportunities like that come across her desk. And, you know, I like feeling purposeful. I like being of service. It makes me feel good to think that I’m using my platform to do something good.

AP: “Angel” is almost 30 years old. Has your relationship to it changed?

MCLACHLAN: I think because of the many associations, not just the ASPCA, but I’ve had so many people over the years tell me really intense stories about that song helping them through the loss of a parent, the loss of a child, contemplating suicide, pulling them back from the edge. And it is really intense periods in people’s lives where my music has been a part of it. And it’s helped them in some small way. So, for me, again, that’s the best validation in the world as an artist.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops who need an exemption from shaving their facial hair for longer than a year should get kicked out of the service.

While commanders are still able to issue service members exemptions from shaving — a policy that has existed for decades — they will now have to come with a medical treatment plan, Hegseth said in an Aug. 20 memo made public Monday. Troops who still need treatment after a year will be separated from service, the memo says.

“The Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos,” Hegseth wrote in his memo.

Most shaving waivers are for troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hair curls back into the skin after shaving and causes irritation. It is a condition that disproportionately affects Black men.

The memo is silent on what treatments the military would offer for troops affected by the new policy or if it will front the cost for those treatments.

It is also unclear if policies like broad exemptions from shaving for special forces troops who are in operational settings or soldiers stationed in the Arctic climates of Alaska where shaving can pose a medical hazard in the extreme cold will be affected by the change.

The announcement applies to all the military services. The Army this week announced its own grooming standard update, which significantly changes acceptable appearance standards for soldiers, especially for women, including revisions for nails, hairstyles, earrings and makeup.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, questioning whether Americans understand the difference between a king and a president, told a New York Law School crowd Tuesday that improved civic education across the country would help people make better decisions.

Sotomayor, speaking at a panel discussion during a “Constitution and Citizenship Day Summit,” did not make comments that were overtly political and did not directly address any controversies of the moment. President Donald Trump was not mentioned.

At one point, though, she raised doubts about how much Americans are being taught about civics in schools.

“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president? And I think if people understood these things from the beginning, they would be more informed as to what would be important in a democracy in terms of what people can or shouldn’t do,” she said.

She decried the lack of education about civics and how democracy works, even giving her version of Ben Franklin’s famous anecdote at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when he was asked whether the nation would have a republic or a monarchy.

“We have a republic, madam, if we can keep it,” she recalled that Franklin said.

Sotomayor called social media “one of the largest causes of misinformation on the internet.”

“If you are only hearing one side of the story, you are not making an informed decision,” Sotomayor said. “The world is a complex place and issues are always difficult.”

The Bronx-born justice said she became interested in civics in grammar school, where she began debating issues, and improved those skills when she learned to debate both sides of a single issue.

At the end of her remarks, she urged students who watched in a large auditorium or saw her on video screens in overflow rooms to think about everything in the world that is wrong and “everything that’s happening in the United States” and realize ”we adults have really messed this up.”

She said she’s counting on today’s students to find solutions.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump formally extended the deadline to keep the social media app TikTok available in the United States until Dec. 16, giving time to complete the framework of the deal announced Monday after talks between American and Chinese government officials.

The executive order signed on Tuesday by Trump was the fourth time he has bypassed federal law to prolong the deadline for the China-associated TikTok to sell its assets to an American company or face a ban. The original deadline was Jan. 19 of this year, a day before Trump took the oath of office for his second term.

Trump was asked Tuesday about the framework deal he announced a day earlier and repeated that he would discuss TikTok with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. He has said there are companies that want to buy the social media app owned by ByteDance and that details about its potential suitors would be announced soon.

“I hate to see value like that thrown out the window,” Trump said as he departed the White House, with his wife, first lady Melania Trump, for a state visit to the United Kingdom.

The framework came out of a meeting in Madrid that concluded Monday between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, among other officials.

Bessent told reporters that the goal was to switch TikTok’s assets to U.S. ownership for its operations in America, though he declined to discuss the details of the framework.

Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, told reporters the sides have reached “basic framework consensus” to cooperatively resolve TikTok-related issues, reduce investment barriers and promote related economic and trade cooperation.

The U.S. president warmed to TikTok and the prospect of keeping it alive under the belief that it helped him to win younger voters in the 2024 presidential election. Still, the law mandating its sale in the U.S. was premised on the possible security risks the app poses in its collection of data.

The prolonged negotiations between the U.S. and China over TikTok might ultimately mean little as its novelty has “slowly faded,” said Syracuse University political science professor Dimitar Gueorguiev in a statement.

“The U.S.–China deal on TikTok may look like a breakthrough, but it risks being a Pyrrhic victory,” Gueorguiev said. “Its famous algorithm, once seen as uniquely powerful, has lost much of its mystique—copycat efforts show that the secret was not the code itself but TikTok’s early-mover advantage and network effects. Any U.S. buyer is therefore purchasing market share and user base, not transformative technology.”

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders lashed out Tuesday at a short-term spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month, warning Republicans they will not support a measure that doesn’t address their concerns on the soaring cost of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

House Republicans unveiled the spending bill Tuesday. It would keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 21, buying lawmakers more time to work out their differences on spending levels and policy for the coming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Republicans said that they were providing exactly what Democrats have insisted upon in past government shutdown battles — a clean funding bill free of partisan policy riders.

“It’ll be a clean, short-term continuing resolution, end of story,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “And it’s interesting to me that some of the same Democrats who decried government shutdowns under President Biden appear to have no heartache whatsoever at walking our nation off that cliff right now. I hope they don’t.”

The bill would generally fund agencies at current levels, with a few limited exceptions, including an extra $88 million to boost security for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and the executive branch. The proposed boost comes as lawmakers face an increasing number of personal threats, with their concerns heightened by last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have been asking their Republican counterparts for weeks for a meeting to negotiate on the bill, but they say that Republicans have refused. Any bill needs help from at least seven Democrats in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and advance to a final vote.

The two Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday after Republicans unveiled the short-term funding bill, saying that by “refusing to work with Democrats, Republicans are steering our country toward a shutdown.”

“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” Schumer and Jeffries said. “At a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.”

The House is expected to vote on the measure by Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would prefer the Senate take it up this week as well. But any bill will need some Democratic support and it’s unclear whether that will happen.

In past budget battles, it has generally been Republicans who’ve been willing to engage in shutdown threats as a way to focus attention on their priority demands. That was the situation during the nation’s longest shutdown in the winter of 2018-19, when President Donald Trump insisted on money to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. A 16-day shutdown in 2013 occurred as Republicans demanded significant changes to then-President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in exchange for funding the government and permitting Treasury the borrowing latitude to pay the nation’s bills.

This time, however, Democrats are facing intense pressure from their base of supporters to stand up to Trump. They have particularly focused on the potential for skyrocketing health care premiums for millions of Americans if Congress fails to extend enhanced subsidies, which many people use to buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange. Those subsidies were put in place during the COVID crisis, but are set to expire.

Some people have already received notices that their premiums — the monthly fee paid for insurance coverage — are poised to spike next year. Insurers have sent out notices in nearly every state, with some proposing premium increases of as much as 50%. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the number of people without insurance would rise by 2.2 million in 2026, and by 3.7 million the following year, if Congress does not extend the enhanced tax credits.

Johnson called the debate over health insurance tax credits a December policy issue, not something that needs to be solved in September. And Thune said that almost every Democratic lawmaker voted for the short-term continuing resolutions when Joe Biden was president and Schumer was majority leader.

“I’m sure you’re all asking the question, are we or are we not going to have a Schumer shutdown?” Thune asked reporters Tuesday. “And it sounds like, from what he is indicating, that very well may happen.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Amazon Prime Video will stream two hours of coverage during the first and second rounds of the Masters beginning next year.

The Masters will stream on Prime Video from 1-3 p.m. ET daily on April 9 and 10, leading into ESPN’s coverage both days from 3-7:30 p.m.

“Working alongside Amazon in this capacity is an exciting opportunity for the Masters Tournament and its fans,” Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, said in a statement. “We are proud of our longstanding partnerships with CBS Sports and ESPN, who have set the highest standard for broadcast coverage of the Masters. The addition of Amazon will only further our abilities to expand and enhance how the Tournament is presented and enjoyed.”

Paramount+ will stream the third and fourth rounds on April 11 and 12 from noon-2 p.m. ET before CBS takes over beginning at 2 p.m.

With the addition of Prime Video, primary broadcast and streaming coverage of the Masters will be at least 27 hours, up from 18 hours last year.

“It’s an honor for all of us at Amazon to become a broadcast partner of the Masters Tournament and to provide fans additional hours of live coverage of this treasured event,” Jay Marine, head of Prime Video U.S. and Global Sports, said in a statement. “We are humbled and proud to begin our relationship with Augusta National Golf Club, and we cannot wait to get started.”

By GARY FIELDS and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force, in what he suggested could come in response to the city’s mayor’s stated refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Trump’s emergency order, which took over the local police force, expired last week. Hours before it elapsed, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city would not cooperate with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement in their continued operations in the nation’s capital. Earlier, she had said the city would work with other federal agencies even after the emergency order expired.

In an early-morning social media post on Monday, Trump said his intervention into the D.C.’s law enforcement had improved crime in the city, a claim Bowser has backed up, though, data shows crime was already falling in Washington before the law enforcement surge began.

Trump said crime could increase if cooperation on immigration enforcement ceases, in which case he would “call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”

The mayor’s office declined to comment.

The White House did not say if Trump would follow through on his threat. It also did not say whether the president had considered trying to extend his previous order that placed the city’s police force under federal control. The order was not renewed by Congress and lapsed Sept. 11.

Bowser issued an order Sept. 2, setting up how the local police will continue working with the federal law enforcement agencies that continue working in the city. The order listed a number of federal agencies she anticipated working cooperatively with the MPD, the local police, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service, among other agencies. Absent was ICE.

Speaking Sept. 10 at a ribbon cutting ceremony, the mayor said “immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” referring to the local police department. She added that when the emergency order ends, “it won’t be what MPD does in the future.”

Data analyzed by the Associated Press during the emergency period showed that more than 40% of arrests were immigration related, highlighting that the Trump administration continued to advance its hardline immigration policies as it sought to fight crime in the nation’s capital.

Federal law enforcement agencies and National Guard units from D.C. and seven states are continuing operations in the city.

Trump’s threat comes the same day that the House Committee on Rules is taking up several D.C.-related bills, including a proposal to lower the age at which juveniles can be tried to 14 from 16 for certain serious crimes, as well as restricting the district’s authority over its sentencing laws and its role in selecting judges.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a similar hearing last week.

The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C council.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Monday hosted the radio program of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who was assassinated last week, telling listeners that the best way he knows how to honor his friend is to be a better husband and father.

Vance hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” from his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. The livestream of the two-hour program was broadcast in the White House press briefing room and featured a series of appearances by White House and administration officials who knew the 31-year-old Kirk.

Vance, who transported Kirk’s body home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two last week, opened by saying he was “filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’ll do my best.”

The Republican vice president, 41, was especially close to Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations with chapters on high school and college campuses. The two began a friendship nearly a decade ago, and Kirk advocated for Vance to be Republican Donald Trump’s choice for vice president last year.

Vance spoke Monday about sitting with Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and being at a loss for words. But he said she told him something he’ll never forget, which was that her husband had never raised his voice to her and was never “cross or mean-spirited to her.”

Vance allowed that he could not say the same about himself.

“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” the vice president said on the program, which was streamed on Rumble. “That is the way I’m going to honor my friend.”

After Kirk was fatally shot last Wednesday at Utah Valley University, Vance tore up his schedule for the next day — he was scheduled Thursday to attend the 24th annual observance in New York of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — to fly instead to Orem, Utah, with his wife, second lady Usha Vance.

The two accompanied Erika Kirk and Charlie Kirk’s casket to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

NEW YORK (AP) — Serena and Venus Williams are taking a swing at podcasting.

The two sisters and tennis stars — Serena finished her career at the 2022 U.S. Open; Venus just competed at that tournament in singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — will launch their podcast on X with a debut episode Wednesday.

The podcast is called “Stockton Street,” named for where their home was in Compton, California. It is set to air every other week on Wednesdays and will be distributed on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

The first episode was filmed at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main arena for the U.S. Open, where Serena won six of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles, and Venus collected two of her seven.

The 45-year-old Venus just became the oldest singles entrant at the U.S. Open since 1981. She returned to the tennis tour in July after a 16-month absence.

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sued the U.S. government Monday to get her job back, saying her firing was for political reasons and was unconstitutional.

Her lawsuit in Manhattan federal court blamed the firing on the fact that her father is James Comey, a former F.B.I. director, “or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”

Comey is seeking to be reinstated as well as a declaration that her firing was unlawful and a violation of the “Separation of Powers” clause in the U.S. Constitution.

“Defendants have not provided any explanation whatsoever for terminating Ms. Comey. In truth, there is no legitimate explanation,” the lawsuit said.

Comey, who successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases since becoming an assistant U.S. attorney in 2015, was notified of her dismissal in an email with an attachment saying she was being fired “(p)ursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” the lawsuit said.

James Comey was fired as FBI director by President Donald Trump in 2017. The lawsuit noted that he has since written a memoir critical of Trump and has continued to publicly criticize Trump and his administration, including a social media post in May that Trump and others perceived as threatening.

The lawsuit noted that Maurene Comey’s firing in July came the day after her supervisors had asked her to take the lead on a major public corruption case and three months after she’d received her latest “Outstanding” review.

“The politically motivated termination of Ms. Comey — ostensibly under ‘Article II of the Constitution’ — upends bedrock principles of our democracy and justice system,” the lawsuit said. “Assistant United States Attorneys like Ms. Comey must do their jobs without fearing or favoring any political party or perspective, guided solely by the law, the facts, and the pursuit of justice.”

Named as defendants in the lawsuit were, among others, the Justice Department, the Executive Office of the President, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the Office of Personnel Management and the United States.

A message for comment from the Justice Department was not immediately returned.

Comey’s July 16 firing came amid a spate of dismissals of prosecutors by the Justice Department without explanation, raising alarm that civil service protections meant to prevent terminations for political reasons were being overlooked.

Comey’s lawsuit noted that she was employed with protections under the Civil Service Reform Act governing how and why she could be terminated, including specific prohibitions against termination for discriminatory reasons such as political affiliation.

“Her termination violated every one of those protections,” the lawsuit said.

The Justice Department also has fired some prosecutors who worked on cases that have provoked Trump’s ire, including some who handled U.S. Capitol riot cases and lawyers and support staff who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump.

She became a rising star in her office for her work on the case against financier Jeffrey Epstein and his onetime girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and the recent prosecution of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her December 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.

Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Combs is awaiting sentencing next month after his conviction on prostitution-related charges after he was exonerated in July of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.

By MARK KENNEDY

The Emmy Awards weren’t all about Seth Rogen walking up the aisle in his burnt brown tux to collect yet another award. It just sometimes seemed that way.

Rogen’s “The Studio” won a total of 13 Emmys, breaking the all-time record for most wins for a comedy series. Rogen himself won four, tying the record for most Emmys won by a single individual in one night.

“I’m legitimately embarrassed,” Rogen admitted at one point.

But behind the undeniable march of “The Studio” were some other pieces of Emmy history. The youngest male actor ever was crowned for the series “Adolescence” and “Severance” star Tramell Tillman became the first Black actor to win in his category. And the up and down year of Stephen Colbert hit a high.

An adolescent makes history

Owen Cooper, 15, shattered the Emmy record for youngest male acting winner.

The “Adolescence” star won best supporting actor in a limited or anthology series. The Netflix four-part series which traces the emotional fallout after a U.K. teenage stabbing, became a sensation, a sort of 2025 version of last year’s “Baby Reindeer.”

In his acceptance speech, Cooper revealed he only started acting classes a few years ago and encouraged those watching to step out of their comfort zones.

“A couple years back I didn’t expect to be in the United States, let alone here. Tonight proves if you listen, you focus and you step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life. I was nothing three years ago. I’m here now,” he said.

The record for youngest male actor had previously been held by Scott Jacoby, who was 16 when he won in the supporting drama actor trophy for “That Certain Summer” in 1973. The youngest Emmy winner ever is Roxana Zal, who won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series in 1984 at age 14.

Cooper beat Javier Bardem, Bill Camp, Rob Delaney, Peter Sarsgaard and his “Adolescence” co-star Ashley Walters.

Stephen Colbert going out with a bang

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” won the award for best talk series for the first time, just months after learning it was being canceled.

In July, CBS announced it was ending the show, attributing the cause to financial reasons. The series will go off the air in May 2026.

Colbert, who has hosted his show since 2015, was gracious, thanking CBS for his shot and quoting from Prince’s hit “Let’s Go Crazy”: “If the elevator tries to bring you down/Go crazy, punch a higher floor.”

Earlier in the night, he turned his time as award presenter into a job ad, getting a standing ovation as he approached the microphone to announce the winner of lead actor in a comedy series.

“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring? Because I’ve got 200 very well-qualified candidates with me here tonight. We’ll be available in June,” he said.

He then pulled out a resume and an old headshot but realized he only had the one copy. “Harrison Ford, could you get this to Spielberg?” He ran over to Ford, who seemed to promise he would.

Tramell Tillman charms

Tramell Tillman made history, but he made it all about his mom.

The “Severance” star became the first Black actor to win best supporting actor in a drama playing the creepy, unnerving Seth Milchick.

Tillman thanked his first acting coach — his mother, who was also his date.

“You remember what you want to remember. You make time for what you want to make for. Do the work. Show up. And most importantly, for the love of God, don’t embarrass me in public,” he said. “My first acting coach was tough, y’all, but all great mothers are.”

Tillman, holding the statuette high, added: “This is for you. I am full, I am humbled, I am honored.”

A fake ER worker honors the real ones

Noah Wyle’s narrative was just too powerful to deny. After getting five nominations without a win for “ER,” the actor came back to don scrubs 30 years later and won his first Emmy for playing another emergency doctor on “The Pitt.”

Wyle thanked HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television for allowing “the conditions to exist for lightning to strike in my life twice.”

And then he dedicated his award to those in the health care field.

“To anybody who’s going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job. This is for you,” Wyle said.

A little politics

CBS is likely wiping its network forehead that a bitterly divided nation didn’t make the Emmys a divisive place.

Yes, Javier Bardem wore a kaffiyeh in support of Palestinians and Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego criticized Congress for voting to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk were never mentioned on the broadcast and even Stephen Colbert — never shy to mock the powerful — stayed apolitical.

The most explosive it got was when “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder ended her acceptance speech win with vocal support for the Philadelphia Eagles, an expletive aimed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and a call to “free Palestine.”

Speeches that cost a lot

At the last Emmys, host Anthony Anderson turned to his mother to enforce shorter acceptance speeches. This year host Nate Bargatze used guilt.

He revealed he would pledge $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America but that donation would shrink by $1,000 for every second a winner exceeded their 45-second speech limit.

Some winners went too long — like Einbinder, who promised to pay the difference — and some went purposely fast — like John Oliver and Rogen — to take advantage of a new rule Bargatze proposed: Every second saved from the 45-second limit would get back $1,000.

In the end, Bargatze promised to still donate not just the original amount, but — when adding CBS’ contribution — came out to be a full $350,000.

“Go to heaven a-shoutin’”

Phylicia Rashad introduced the in memoriam section, highlighting the loss of her TV son, Malcolm Jamal Warner, the “Cosby Show” star who died in July. “Like all our friends and colleagues who transitioned this past year, Malcolm Jamal Warner remains in our hearts.”

Then Lainey Wilson and Vince Gill sang a tender “Go Rest High on That Mountain” during the tribute, which included Teri Garr, Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Woolery, Loni Anderson, Bill Moyers, George Wendt, Loretta Swit. Maggie Smith, David Lynch, Richard Chamberlain, Linda Lavin, Anne Burrell, Michelle Trachtenberg and Quincy Jones. Notable absences were Hulk Hogan and Polly Holliday.

Tributes, tributes, tributes

The Emmys looked back by celebrating the anniversary of several shows, including having Reba McEntire, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman performing the theme song of “The Golden Girls” for its 40th anniversary.

Jeff Probst was on hand to celebrate the 50th season of “Survivor,” presenting the award for scripted variety series as if it was a tribal council meeting.

Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham stood in a replica of their Connecticut home set to celebrate “Gilmore Girls,” a coming-of-age story, blending wittiness with relatable family dynamics that celebrated its debut 25 years ago.

Additional tributes honored “Law & Order’s” 35th anniversary, featuring Ice-T, Tony Goldwyn, Mariska Hargitay, S. Epatha Merkerson and Christopher Meloni.

“Grey’s Anatomy” — the longest-running prime-time medical drama in American television history — was supposed to mark its 20th anniversary with appearances by Eric Dane and Jesse Williams. Only Williams was there; Dane revealed his ALS diagnosis in April.

Ray Romano and Brad Garrett had a mini-reunion of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It was one of the night’s funniest bits, with both men sad about how long it had taken them to be back at the Emmys. Garrett wondered if he’d make the in memoriam section after he died. “If it’s a slow year, no doubt,” Romano told him.

This story corrects the title of “Baby Reindeer.”

For more coverage of this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards

Seth Rogen and The Studio turned the Emmys into a wrap party, winning best comedy series Sunday and breaking a comedy record for victories in a season with 13, while Noah Wyle and The Pitt took the top drama prize.

The evening also brought meaningful wins for Jean Smart, Stephen Colbert and 15-year-old Owen Cooper, whose Netflix series Adolescence dominated the limited series categories.

Im legitimately embarrassed by how happy this makes me, The Studio co-creator Rogen said with his signature giggle, surrounded by cast and crew from the Apple TV+ movie-business romp after it won best comedy at the Peacock Theater in a show hosted by Nate Bargatze that aired on CBS. Rogen personally won four, including best actor.

The Pitt from HBO Max completed a sentimental journey with its win for best drama series. The character-driven medical drama won over viewers and gained emotional momentum during a season whose biggest drama prizes once seemed destined to be swept by Severance.

Wyle won best actor in a drama for playing a grizzled, warm-but-worn-down supervising doctor, getting his first Emmy after five nominations with no victories in the 1990s for playing a scrubbed young cub doctor on ER.

What a dream this has been, Wyle said. Oh my goodness.

Katherine LaNasa, whose nurse is perhaps the show's most beloved character, was a surprise winner of best supporting actress in a drama over three women of The White Lotus on a night when every acting Emmy but one went to a first-time victor.

The first-timers included Britt Lower, who won best actress in a drama, and Tramell Tillman, who won best supporting actor, in the night's two biggest moments for Severance.

Along with its creative arts wins, the Orwellian workplace satire ended up with eight for its acclaimed second season. Star Adam Scott lost out to Wyle for best actor.

The show's losses kept the evening from being a total triumph for Apple TV+, which has still never won a best drama prize, though it has now won best comedy three times between The Studio and Ted Lasso.

Lowers win was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for Matlock.

Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for The Penguin.

Jean Smart bucked the rookie trend, winning her fourth Emmy for best actress in a comedy for Hacks and her seventh Emmy overall. At 73, she extended her record for oldest winner in the category.

Netflixs widely acclaimed Adolescence, the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, won six times, including the Emmy for best limited series. Co-creator Stephen Graham won for lead acting and writing while Cooper won best supporting actor and became the youngest Emmy winner in over 40 years.

Cooper said in his acceptance that he was nothing three years ago.

Its just so surreal, Cooper said. Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didnt expect to be even in the United States, never mind here.

Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four Adolescence episodes was filmed in a single shot.

The Studio came into the evening having won nine Emmys already during last weekend's Creative Arts ceremony. On Sunday night, it added four more, which all went to Rogen. Along with the comedy series award, he won best directing with his co-creator and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg, and best writing with Goldberg and others.

The show brought blockbuster buzz for its first season from the start and the Emmys ate it up, whether because of Hollywood's love for stories about itself (with A-list guest stars) or the television industry's love for stories that mock the self-importance of movie people.

Backstage, Rogen clumsily tried to hold up all four Emmys at once. Asked whether the night will be fodder for season two, he said no.

This is, like, far too good a thing to have happen on our show, he said. Our show is generally based on stress and disappointment and right now, were all very happy.

Smart's castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons of Hacks but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.

She said she had become committed to a long-term bit where it was cooler to lose.

But this is cool too! she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying Free Palestine! Political sentiments from the stage were otherwise rare.

In perhaps the night's biggest upset, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for Somebody Somewhere, over Ike Barinholtz of The Studio and others.

Colbert may have been the night's most popular winner, taking best talk series for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert for the first time. He got huge ovations both when he took the stage to present the first award and when he won.

The win may have been the result of a protest vote and a desire to pay tribute to its host, weeks after its cancellation by CBS. Jimmy Kimmel, who was among his competitors, campaigned for Colbert to win.

Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it, Colbert said in his acceptance.

Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.

Colbert showed no bitterness to CBS, thanking the network, which telecast the Emmys and aired a commercial celebrating his win, for letting him be part of the late-night tradition.

Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.

The show opened with a sketch where Saturday Night Live stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.

Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will one day be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, Why, CBS of course.

Jos Urquidy got four outs in his return from Tommy John surgery, combining with three other pitchers to lead Detroit over the Miami Marlins 2-0 Sunday as the Tigers tied Pittsburgh for the major league lead with their 17th shutout this season.

Detroit took advantage of three errors by Miami on a single ball in the second inning, scoring both runs and going to on stop a three-game losing streak.

Urquidy, a 30-year-old right-hander, had Tommy John surgery for the second time in June 2024 and signed a $1 million, one-year contract with the Tigers in March following five seasons with Houston.

He relieved Keider Montero (5-3) started the sixth and worked around Agustn Ramrez's two-out single. Eric Wagaman singled leading off the seventh and Tommy Kahnle followed with one out. Urquidy threw 25 pitches, averaging 93 mph with his fastball.

Wil Vest followed Kahnle, who got five outs, and finished for his 21st save in 27 chances. After a single and walk put two on with out out, Vest retired Joey Wiener on a flyout and fell behind Javier Sanoja 3-1 before throwing a pair of called strikes with fastballs at the outside corner.

AL Central-leading Detroit, closing on its first division title since 2014, was outhit 7-4.

Montero allowed three hits in five innings.

Miami made three errors in the second as Detroit scored twice. With Spencer Torkelson on first, Colt Keith's grounder to first went off Wagaman for the first error. Second baseman Mximo Acosta retrieved the ball in foul territory and threw wildly past third.

Left fielder Troy Johnston tried to run down the ball but it bounced off a fence, through his legs and past as Keith reached third. Keith scored on Dillon Dinglers single.

Adam Mazur (0-4) allowed two unearned runs and one hit over six innings, retiring his final 11 batters.

Kahnle inherited two runners with one out in the seventh, when he retired Victor Mesa Jr. on a flyout and Javier Sanoja on a groundout.

Montero pitched his longest outing since throwing six innings against Tampa Bay on July 7.

Tigers: RHP Casey Mize (14-5, 3.83) starts Tuesday's series opener against Cleveland and LHP Joey Cantillo (5-3, 3.36).

Marlins: RHP Eury Prez (6-5, 4.67) starts Tuesday's series opener at Colorado, which starts LHP Kyle Freeland (4-15, 4.97).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Jared Goff threw for 334 yards and matched a career high with five touchdown passes, including a career-high three scores to Amon-Ra St. Brown, to help the Detroit Lions bounce back with a 52-21 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

The Lions (1-1) dropped the opener at Green Bay and responded as they have consistently under coach Dan Campbell, avoiding consecutive losses in the regular season over the last 2 1/2 years.

The Bears (0-2) turned the ball over twice in the first half, leading to a 28-14 deficit that was too large to overcome in coach Ben Johnson's return to the city where he became an offensive coordinator and one of the NFL's top coaching candidates.

Chicago also turned it over on downs in each half, had eight penalties and gave up four sacks.

The Lions were three points from matching a franchise record for points in a game, and the Bears were three points from tying the most they've allowed.

Chicagos Caleb Williams was 19 of 30 for 207 yards with two touchdowns to Rome Odunze, a 28-yard pass to answer Detroits game-opening touchdown and a 6-yard throw to make it 21-14 late in the first half.

Williams, selected No. 1 overall last year when the NFL draft was in Detroit, also threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted and was taken out midway through the fourth quarter.

Goff, who completed 23 of 28 passes, also watched the final minutes from the sideline after helping last year's highest-scoring team get back on track.

With offensive coordinator John Morton calling plays, Goff got the ball to Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery in the running game and St. Brown and Jameson Williams through the air.

The Lions took advantage of a break late in the first half when 6 seconds were put on the clock after they appeared to run out of time, leading to Johnson waving his team off the field only to have them return for another snap.

Goff threw a 4-yard pass to St. Brown to give Detroit a 14-point lead just before halftime and connected with him for scores in the third and fourth quarter.

St. Brown finished with nine catches for 115 yards. Williams had two catches for 108 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.

Gibbs and Montgomery combined for 151 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Bears: Starting DB Kyler Gordon (hamstring) was inactive. Starting LB T.J. Edwards (hamstring) and DB Jaylon Johnson (groin) left the game with injuries.

Lions: DE Marcus Davenport, who had the team's first sack this season in the third quarter, left the game with ankle and shoulder injuries. Backup TE Shane Zylstra (ankle) was hurt during the game.

Bears: Host Dallas on Sept. 21.

Lions: Play at Baltimore on Sept. 22.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl