suspends

Atlanta Falcons edge rusher James Pearce Jr. will be suspended for the first eight games of the 2026 season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, the league announced Friday.

Pearce was arrested in February following a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend and WNBA player, Rickea Jackson. The incident took place in Doral, Fla.

Pearce’s charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing police and resisting arrest, and misdemeanor stalking could be dropped if he cooperates in a pretrial intervention program requiring random drug tests, distance from Jackson and staying out of legal trouble for one year.

Pearce will be available to participate in preseason games and all team activities until the suspension takes effect on Sunday, Aug. 30.

The second-year defensive end can be reinstated on Monday, Nov. 2, following Atlanta’s Week 8 road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Falcons are set to play the Cincinnati Bengals in Madrid, Spain, the following week.

The Falcons’ pass rush has taken a hit recently following Jalon Walker’s season-ending ACL tear. The group is left with Christian Harris, JD Bertrand, Samson Ebukam, Kendal Daniels and Bralen Trice. The Falcons also added Cameron Sample after Walker’s injury.

Atlanta traded back to the No. 26 pick in the first round of the 2025 draft to select Pearce. The former Tennessee Volunteer has played a substantial role in transforming the Falcons’ pass rush, leading the team with 10½ sacks during his rookie season.

Other suspensions

Pearce was one of four suspensions the NFL handed out on Friday.

The NFL also suspended Commanders edge rusher Dorance Armstrong, Tennessee Titans safety Nazeeh Johnson and Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis.

Armstrong was suspended one game for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. He will miss the Commanders season-opening game against Philadelphia on Sept. 13.

Armstrong opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list, but has since been activated to resume practicing. He was limited to playing seven games last season before tearing a knee ligament.

He’s entering his ninth NFL season, and third with Washington.

Johnson was suspended six games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancers. Mathis was issued a three-game suspension for violating the league’s substances of abuse policy.

Under league rules, the players are allowed to practice and play with their respective teams through Aug. 30, when NFL teams are required to set their 53-player rosters.

Johnson is eligible to return for the Titans’ home game against Cleveland on Oct. 25. Mathis can return for Buffalo’s home game against New England on Oct. 4.

Johnson has three previous seasons of NFL experience, all with the Kansas City Chiefs, and signed with the Titans on July 27, just before the opening of training camp.

The 28-year-old had six starts in 29 NFL games with the Chiefs since being selected by Kansas City in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. A shoulder injury limited Johnson to appearing in just two games last season. He also missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL in his right knee.

The 28-year-old Mathis appeared in six games with the Bills last season. He spent his first three NFL seasons appearing in 23 games with Washington.

Carey writes for the Associated Press.

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An Indian police officer has been suspended after firing an AK-47 rifle at students protesting over leaked exam papers. The protests, which led to the education minister’s resignation, have sparked accusations of excessive police force.

The NFL has suspended Arizona Cardinals personnel executive Ryan Gold indefinitely for violating the league’s gambling policy.

The league said Friday that its investigation determined that Gold provided confidential, non-public inside information regarding 2026 draft selections by the Cardinals before the picks were announced, and Gold also participated in parlay bets on NFL and college games. The league didn’t say who Gold had provided with the information.

“The Gambling Policy, which is annually reviewed with all NFL personnel, strictly prohibits anyone in the NFL from participating in or facilitating any form of sports gambling, and from providing third parties non-public information,” the NFL said in a statement. “Although there is no reason to believe the integrity of any NFL game was affected, the League takes any violation of the Gambling Policy with the utmost seriousness.”

The Cardinals also issued a statement, saying: “The NFL’s policies and expectations for all employees are clear, comprehensive, and consistently communicated. We fully support the league’s decision in this matter, which involves a single employee. Our focus remains on preparing for the start of training camp next week and the 2026 season.”

Gold, who is in his 13th season with the Cardinals, was promoted to director of college scouting in June 2025. He spent the previous three years (2022-24) as the assistant director of college scouting after working for four seasons (2018-21) as a college scouting coordinator.

Gold has the right to appeal the suspension. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The NFL has strict gambling policies for players and club and league personnel. The league has also dedicated significant resources to its gambling education program, reaching more than 20,000 people associated with the league.

The policy says players must not:

• Place any bet on NFL football;
• Throw or fix any NFL game or event, or otherwise manipulate or attempt to manipulate any play or other aspect of an NFL game;
• Share confidential, non-public information regarding any NFL game, player or event with any third party.

NFL players — but not league or club staff — are allowed to legally place bets on other sports as long as they are off club property or not traveling with the team. They also are allowed to take part in traditional fantasy football leagues (prize money cannot exceed $250) and legally gamble at casinos on personal time.

The NFL said the Cardinals fully cooperated with the investigation and the league has seen no indication that any other member of the organization, coach or player was aware of or involved in this activity. The league also said there was no indication that any play or game was affected by this activity.

The NFL’s review included interviews with relevant people and an examination of electronic records.

At least 15 players have been suspended by the league for gambling violations since 1963, including several in recent years, but none since Isaiah Rodgers (then with the Indianapolis Colts) was suspended indefinitely in June 2023.

Maaddi writes for the Associated Press.

AN airline has temporarily axed one of its routes until the end of August.

Skybus has announced there will be no services between Newquay and St Mary’s Airport on the Scilly Isles with existing customers being rerouted.

Passengers received the news yesterday of the cancellations with Skybus.

The airline explained the route has been suspended due to “a combination of a shortage of both aircraft and qualified pilots”.

Skybus continued to say: “We have explored every available option to maintain the Newquay service, but with a limited fleet and crew availability, we would be unable to operate the route reliably throughout the remainder of the summer.

“Our priority is to provide certainty for our passengers.

“We want to assure passengers booked to travel between Newquay and St Mary’s, you will be transferred onto a Skybus flight departing from Land’s End Airport on the same date.”

They said that by “concentrating” available aircraft and crews on services from Land’s End they can “provide greater reliability and reduce the risk of further disruption during the peak travel period.”

Customers will be contacted soon with dates for alternative flights.

They will also be offered free parking at Land’s End Airport, a refund of any fare difference between their original and revised flights, and a voucher to spend at the airport café.

Skybus operates year-round to the Isles of Scilly, but only from Land’s End Airport – and flights take about 20 minutes.

Flights from Newquay and Exeter usually operate seasonally between late March to October.

The Exeter route will continue as normal.

A FAMOUS UK pier that is loved by families has had to close one of its popular attractions.

Southend Pier in Southend-on-Sea is known for being the world’s longest pier, stretching over 1.3 miles long.

And on the pier is a unique railway attraction that runs up and down the pier.

However, over the weekend the train had to be suspended due to technical difficulties.

Everything else on the pier, including the museum and gift shop, is still open, but to get to them tourists will have to walk along the pier.

The pier’s website states: “The Pier train is currently out of service and is expected to remain unavailable until at least later this week.

​”The pier remains open as normal, and visitors are still very welcome to enjoy a walk along the world’s longest pleasure pier and visit the Pier Head.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

The railway is less than a metre wide, and runs for 1.25miles of the pier.

Services take place every half hour, from 10:30am each day.

The first transport on the pier was a horse tramway, which opened in 1872.

The horse tramway was then replaced by a single electric railway in 1890, marking the first pier railway in the country.

The following year, the pier railway was running the full length of the pier.

Later in the 1930s, the railway was expanded with four trains, each made up of seven carriages.

Today, the current carriages have been running since 2021.

U.S. Navy airmen prepare an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter for flight as part of recovery operations for NASA’s Orion Capsule prior to splashdown after a successful uncrewed Artemis I Moon Mission off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on Dec. 11, 2022. A Navy aircrewman remains missing after a MH-60S Seahawk he was aboard crash landed in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday. File Pool Photo by Mario Tama/UPI | License Photo

July 5 (UPI) — The U.S. military suspended its search Sunday for a missing Naval aircrewman who went missing Wednesday following an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command announced the suspension of the search in a statement on social media after more than 102 hours.

“The efforts concluded following an extensive search by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility,” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement. “The Sailor’s name is benign withheld until at least 24 hours after next-of-kin notification is complete in accordance with Navy policy.”

The search spanned more than 14,000 square miles. The military utilized multiple helicopters and other U.S. Air Force aircraft, aircraft carriers and guided-missile to canvas the region.

The missing crewman was aboard a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter when it crash landed at about 3:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. There were four people in the helicopter. The other three crewmembers were recovered and listed in stable condition.

The helicopter was on a routine patrol when it went down.

U.S. officials said the helicopter’s crash landing was not the result of hostile fire.

NEW YORK — The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would freeze federal funding for New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, a state agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting fraud in the safety-net government healthcare program.

In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30.

The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration, and part of a barrage of anti-fraud actions it has aggressively promoted in the healthcare sector. They have included the creation of a new task force, targeted investigations, funding deferrals and demands for revalidation of healthcare providers that have touched all states but are focused largely on Democratic ones.

The pulled funding also comes after the administration admitted a glaring error in figures meant to help justify a fraud inquiry into New York’s Medicaid program this year, a mistake critics said revealed a Trumpian tendency to attack first and verify the facts later.

New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, a Democrat, immediately vowed to fight Tuesday’s funding freeze.

“During my time as Attorney General, my office has recovered over $627 million for Medicaid and was recognized by this very administration for leading the nation in anti-fraud efforts,” she wrote. “We are considering all legal options to stop this outrageous action.”

Letter accuses New York of low performance compared to other states

Bell’s letter to James and New York Medicare Fraud Control Unit Director Amy Held argues that the unit is moving too slowly on cases and amassing too few indictments and convictions for wrongdoing in the Medicaid system. It notes that compared with four similarly sized units in other states, it secured the lowest number of criminal fraud convictions between 2023 and 2025.

The letter acknowledges that one reason the state has fewer criminal convictions than others is that it made a deliberate choice to focus on “high impact, complex fraud cases” rather than smaller-scale individual cases, but says that trade-off didn’t produce sufficient results.

“Enough is enough,” Bell wrote. “The New York MFCU has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of its MFCU grant award.”

Bell said in the letter that the funding suspension could be lifted before Sept. 30 if New York takes corrective action, “showing it has remediated concerns that formed the basis for this suspension.” He said if the state doesn’t fix the problems, the freeze will continue.

New York officials dispute the Trump administration’s claims

New York’s attorney general’s office said in a statement that it has “long been recognized as a national leader in effectively investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud schemes,” including by the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office. A 2025 report from the office notes that New York is one of four states that made up half the total civil recoveries in that year.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said most of the unit’s criminal convictions focus on company owners, executives and corporations that would return large amounts to Medicaid.

“This administration’s unprecedented attack on New York is another political distraction,” James said in a statement.

The funding cutoff follows a similar move in Hawaii. In early June, Bell told Hawaii officials that Medicaid fraud funding would be cut off there, saying that it had a three-year stretch without a Medicaid fraud indictment or conviction.

Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said there’s an irony in the federal government cutting off money intended for prosecuting fraud when its stated goal is to do just that.

“If you want to fight fraud, don’t take away money from states’ fraud control units,” she said. “I chalk this up to more political theater to distract voters from historic Medicaid cuts before the midterms.”

Move follows months of federal warnings and deferrals

For months, the Trump administration has contended that states — especially some Democratic-led ones — have been lax about fraud in social safety-net programs, including Medicaid.

It has demanded that at least five states, four of them governed by Democrats, share information about how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.

The federal government has also withheld some Medicaid funding from Minnesota and California over fraud concerns. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, accused President Trump of making cuts because of retribution.

The fraud-busting efforts have also targeted Medicare programs. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a six-month moratorium on new enrollments for providers of hospice and home care nationally.

Swenson and Mulvihill write for the Associated Press. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J. AP writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has frequently accused US allies of failing to live up to mutual defence obligations.

The United States has said it will not take part in a joint board for continental defence with Canada, depicting the country as failing to live up to its defence obligations.

On Monday, US Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby wrote on social media that his department would halt its involvement in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense to “reassess” the forum’s benefits.

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The board dates back to World War II and has served as a forum for regional security. But relations with Canada have grown strained since US President Donald Trump returned to office for a second term in 2025.

“A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all. Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments,” Colby wrote on X.

“We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality. Real powers must sustain our rhetoric with shared defense and security responsibilities.”

The announcement is the latest instance of the Trump administration chiding Western allies for what the president believes is an overreliance on US military power.

Allied countries have largely refuted his claims, arguing that they are ramping up military spending and taking steps to take greater control over regional security.

Just last year, at a NATO summit in The Hague, nearly every member state agreed to increase defence spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP). Spain petitioned to be excluded from the agreement, though.

Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, was among the countries committing to the increased spending.

Of the 5 percent earmarked for defence, 3.5 percent would go to bolstering Canada’s “core military capabilities”, Carney’s government said. The rest would go to security-related expenses, including port improvements, emergency preparedness and other resources.

Since taking office as prime minister in March 2025, Carney has been an outspoken supporter of lessening Canada’s dependence on the US’s military and economy.

In a speech this year, he outlined a vision in which “middle powers” like Canada banded together to sidestep the current “era of great power rivalry”, a veiled reference to countries like the US, Russia and China.

While the US and Canada are neighbours, Trump’s second presidency has resulted in fraying bonds between the two countries, even beyond matters of security.

Trump has accused Canada of pursuing unfair trade policies and failing to crack down on the illicit traffic of people and drugs across the border, though critics have questioned the legitimacy of these claims.

To force Canada to comply with his policies, the US president has pursued an aggressive tariff regimen to tax cross-border imports.

Trump has suggested in the past that Canada could avoid such penalties by ceding its sovereignty and becoming the US’s 51st state.

“Cooler and wiser brains are needed to preserve a close alliance w/ our neighbor,” US Republican Representative Don Bacon said in a social media post on Monday, criticising the decision to pull out of the defence forum with Canada.

“This all started w/ taunts of ‘Canada will be the 51st state’ and ‘their Prime Minister will be the 51st governor’. The insults gained us nothing but animosity that cost us economically and now militarily.”

The US, Canada and Mexico are set to negotiate an updated version of a regional free trade agreement, known as the USMCA, later this year.