Traffic Through The Strait Of Hormuz Has Fallen Sharply

NASSAU - A small plane crashed in the Bahamas on Friday, killing several people and turning the country’s independence celebration into a day of mourning. Officials said the Cessna 402 had left Nassau for San Andros when it went down on North Andros. Ten people were listed on the manifest. The government temporarily grounded Flamingo Air flights while investigators sort out what happened.

TOKYO - Typhoon Bavi has killed at least 15 people in landslides in the southern Philippines and is now hammering Japan’s Okinawa islands with strong wind and rain. Taiwan has evacuated more than 14,000 people, canceled hundreds of flights and shut schools and offices as the storm nears. Officials across the region are warning of more flooding, and the worst may still be ahead.

LONDON - The Bayeux Tapestry arrived at the British Museum on Friday after a secret overnight journey from France, its first trip back to Britain in nearly 1,000 years. The 70-metre medieval embroidery, which shows the Norman conquest of England, was moved in a metal case with shock protection and climate controls. It goes on display in September. The museum says 100,000 tickets are already sold.

WASHINGTON - President Trump said Friday he will not sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill, calling it a protest over the Senate’s failure to pass his SAVE America Act voting measure. He did not say he would veto the housing bill, which is set to become law overnight into Saturday if he does nothing. The White House, for now, is just the Truth Social post.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has removed the last three members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the bipartisan agency without a quorum just months before the midterms. The two Democratic commissioners were fired by email, and the Republican member was asked to resign, according to people familiar with the moves. The commission helps states run elections and certify voting systems. Voting-rights groups called the dismantling reckless. The White House said Trump can remove officials not aligned with securing elections.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Friday agreed to dismiss the convictions of four Proud Boys members for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, after the Justice Department moved to drop the case. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said President Trump's views on Jan. 6 are based on "fiction," but said he had little room to block the dismissal. Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola had all been convicted in 2023.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lifted the suspensions of eight South Carolina Army National Guard Apache pilots Friday after their low flyover over a beach on July 4, the Pentagon said. The move came after backlash online and questions over why the pilots were sidelined in the first place. The Guard had called the suspension a routine safety measure. The pilots are back in good standing, which is probably not the scandal anyone expected.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets to help build its own consumer hardware.

The complaint says OpenAI encouraged Apple employees to share information, components and drawings about upcoming products. Apple also named two former employees, including OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, who once led product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. OpenAI has not responded publicly yet. The case lands in federal court, where the fight is now about evidence, not hype.

BRUSSELS - Meta has pulled a new Instagram AI feature after criticism that it let people generate images from public accounts without clear consent. The tool, Muse Image, was rolled out Tuesday and quickly drew blowback from talent agencies and SAG-AFTRA. Meta said the feature “missed the mark” and is no longer available. The company had planned to expand similar tools to other apps.

INGLEWOOD - Spain beat Belgium 2-1 on Friday to reach the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 2010. Fabián Ruiz opened the scoring in the 30th minute, Charles De Ketelaere equalized before halftime, and Mikel Merino finished the job in the 88th after Belgium keeper Senne Lammens spilled a shot when Thibaut Courtois went off injured. France waits next.

MIAMI - England gets Norway in the World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday, and the assignment is obvious: find a way to keep Erling Haaland quiet. The Manchester City striker has seven goals in four matches, Norway are in their first quarterfinal since 1998, and Haaland keeps saying the pressure is on England. He was born in Leeds. That only makes it stranger.

LOS ANGELES - Netflix’s new "Little House on the Prairie" remake is leaning hard into the comfort of the original, with a bigger scale and a little more genre polish. Rebecca Sonnenshine, who has wanted to adapt Laura Ingalls Wilder since she was 10, said she pitched the streamer on a version that could keep the family story intact without feeling dusty. Episode 2 even brings back Alison Arngrim, now playing a grim stranger named Ida. It is still prairie TV, just with sharper edges.

LOS ANGELES - Donald Iwerks, the Disney camera technician and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment, died July 9 at 96. He spent more than six decades on projection systems, 3D filmmaking, giant-screen theaters, and motion-simulator rides that helped define modern theme-park storytelling.

He was also the model for the hands of the Abraham Lincoln Audio-Animatronics figure in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, a detail Disney fans never forgot. Those casts became the "Iwerks Hands," which is a pretty good legacy if you ask anyone who likes a park with a little engineering in it.

LOS ANGELES - Jack White offered Satanic duo Twin Temple an opening slot at his Hollywood Palladium show on September 29, after Charley Crockett dropped them from his tour. White posted the invite on Instagram and signed off, "Get in front of me Satan!" Twin Temple answered fast: "Unholy hell.... Sir Jack, you have no idea what this means to us." The whole thing is, apparently, a booking dispute with horns on it.