AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Tennessee voters oust Trump-backed congressman, set fall matchup for redrawn Memphis-area House seat

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher defeated U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in a Republican primary Thursday for a significantly reshaped congressional district — marking a rare rejection of a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Voters also picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in another vastly reconfigured U.S. House district. Trump-backed state Sen. Brent Taylor will face Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson, who gained national prominence when he was expelled from the Tennessee House for protesting in support of gun control measures.

The primaries provided the first test of a new U.S. House map that was redrawn in May by Republican state lawmakers after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. Trump cheered along the redistricting as part of a broader national plan to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the midterm elections.

Republicans already hold eight of the state’s nine congressional seats and will be going for a clean sweep of the districts in November.

The previously compact 9th Congressional District, based in Memphis, had a majority Black population and is represented by a Democrat. But it was cracked apart by Republicans this year, causing a ripple of changes that also reconfigured Ogles’ 5th District.

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Man charged with arson in Spokane, Washington, told police he planned wildfire for weeks

A man charged with starting one of the wildfires in Spokane, Washington, that have destroyed hundreds of buildings planned the crime for weeks and researched when the weather would be best for igniting it, police said.

In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth,” Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate and many still can’t return home. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Farinacci is also charged in connection with four smaller fires ignited in the summer of 2025 and last month.

He was scheduled to be arraigned on five first-degree arson charges Thursday, but his lawyer asked for a competency evaluation before he enters a plea. Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt said he would review that request. He set bond for $2 million, ruling that Farinacci was a risk to community safety, a flight risk and that there was potential for a violent offense.

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Court orders Instagram and Facebook’s Meta to pay $567M to address kids’ mental health online

A New Mexico court has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The total amount Meta is responsible for — $942 million — is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Investors seemed to shrug off the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading Thursday, sending Meta’s stock down less than half a percent to $589.44.

Still, the ruling is another setback for Meta, which faces an avalanche of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media.

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Senate committee votes to hold Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer COVID questions

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee voted along party lines Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, setting up a referral to the Justice Department for potential investigation over whether the country’s longtime top infectious disease official properly exercised his constitutional rights.

A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the department had received the contempt referral, is “reviewing it and will work with the Senate accordingly.”

The vote approving the contempt resolution came a week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an episode that raised fresh legal questions about the ability of Congress to compel testimony from a previously pardoned witness.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

“Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution,” Paul said at the outset of Thursday’s vote. “All he had to do was tell the truth.”

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Fauci contempt vote reflects the enduring politics of COVID

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci is sitting before Congress, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on TV debating COVID lockdowns and Americans can’t agree on what science to trust.

You might think it’s 2020 again.

Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they’ve returned its familiar political arguments to center stage for new scrutiny, demanding accountability for the scientists and media figures whom they feel deceived and mistreated Americans years ago.

The efforts ramped up last week, when a Republican-led Senate committee chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul subpoenaed the now-retired, 85-year-old Fauci to testify about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The former National Institutes of Health immunologist repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, after accusing the lawmakers of trying to coerce him to perjure himself to justify criminal charges. In response to his choice, on Thursday, the committee passed a vote to hold Fauci in contempt, a stunning move that could motivate the Justice Department to initiate an investigation.

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Possible Strait of Hormuz deal, a large attack in Yemen and other Mideast news

Iran says it’s in the final stage of drafting an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz waterway with Oman, while two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Thursday. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, has said an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, which lies on the other side of the waterway, is in the “final stage” of drafting. Speaking Wednesday, he said a joint statement will be issued “if certain parties do not obstruct this process,” apparently referring to the U.S.

The agreement is likely to be contingent on the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said Thursday that any temporary routes through the Strait of Hormuz will not have impediments such as approvals, permissions, tolls or charges.

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FACT FOCUS: A look at Trump’s false and misleading claims about the Reflecting Pool

In April, President Donald Trump announced that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was being renovated to address long-standing cosmetic and structural issues. He initially promised a gleaming blue pool that would be fixed in a week at a cost of $1.5 million, much less than what previous administrations had paid for work on the national landmark.

But four months later the results of the project have not lived up to Trump’s rhetoric, which has in some cases become increasingly hyperbolic.

Here’s a look at his many claims and the facts around them.

TRUMP, on April 23 at an Oval Office event: “Our job will take one week and will cost about a million and a half dollars.”

THE FACTS: Work is ongoing 15 weeks later. The pool was drained for a second time in mid-July to address returning algae blooms and issues with a new coating that was peeling. Trump’s estimates of the project’s cost have increased as work has progressed, to “less than $20 million.” Records show that more than $16 million worth of contracts have been awarded for the project so far.

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FACT FOCUS: Trump boasts about the economy but there’s more to the story

President Donald Trump has been extolling his economic accomplishments on social media and at events like a rally at a Las Vegas resort Wednesday. He touts recent record stock market highs and claims a boom in hiring, manufacturing and investment. Some of the claims are clearly true, some exaggerated, some unclear.

Ahead of Nov. 3 midterm that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party will retain full control of Congress, voters are frustrated with the economy and the high cost of living.

Only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in an AP-NORC poll conducted in late July. The same poll found that 69% of Americans characterized the economy as “poor.” Many said the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and gas was a “major” source of stress in their lives.

Here’s a look at the facts.

TRUMP: “More Americans are working in the United States right now than at any point in the history of our country.”

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Trump administration moves forward with Head Start overhaul, proposing to eliminate regulations

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration said Thursday it plans to overhaul Head Start, tossing out many of the regulations that are the hallmark of the early education program for the nation’s neediest children.

Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally funded preschool program, said the proposed changes would encourage more local decision-making. But the proposal has sparked alarm across the Head Start community, where advocates say it threatens the backbone of the antipoverty initiative. Head Start centers serve around 700,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care or disabled.

The Associated Press previously reported on the proposed rule, which became public Thursday when it was posted online. Americans have 60 days to weigh in before it goes into effect, though it could face legal challenges that might delay implementation.

Alex J. Adams, an assistant secretary at Health and Human Services, said the department is hoping to give Head Start centers flexibility to change the way they operate by eliminating most of the program’s regulations, such as standards for low staff-to-student ratios.

“Federal mandates can certainly hinder local decision-making, drive up costs and limit the program’s reach,” Adams said on a call with reporters.

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New kind of flu shot is on the way as the FDA approves Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new kind of flu vaccine for older people, the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturer Moderna said.

The shot, named mFlusiva, is intended for adults age 50 or older. Other brands of flu shots already have begun arriving in pharmacies ahead of fall vaccination season, and Moderna said late Wednesday that it expects some of its new version to be available soon at select retailers.

While there already are multiple flu vaccine options in the U.S., including three specifically recommended for people age 65 or older, tens of thousands of Americans die from influenza every year and older adults are among the most vulnerable.

Flu vaccines must be updated annually to best match circulating strains of the virus. Vaccines made with the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology are faster to manufacturer than other types, and experts say this additional option might help if the shape-shifting flu virus mutates in a way that requires suddenly brewing new doses.

Moderna said the FDA granted full approval for mFlusiva’s use in people ages 50 to 64, based on a study of 40,000 people that found 27% fewer flu cases among people who got the new shot compared with those who got a different common flu vaccine brand. For people 65 or older, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based manufacturer said the FDA granted what’s called accelerated approval for the shot — based on a smaller study showing it generated a strong immune response compared with an existing high-dose vaccine for seniors – while it conducts an additional study.