The Washington Wizards are on the clock with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft
BYU forward AJ Dybantsa celebrates his three-pointer in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Baylor, Feb. 10, 2026, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
2026-06-23T14:57:13Z
NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Wizards are on the clock as the next team to make news in a busy June around the NBA.
The Wizards have the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on Tuesday night, with AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer among the options after strong freshman seasons in college.
The buzz is just winding down in New York after the Knicks won their first championship since 1973 by beating the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. The team’s championship parade was held last week, a few miles from where the draft takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the home of the Nets.
And on the eve of the draft, Milwaukee and Miami agreed to a blockbuster deal that will send two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat, perhaps instantly creating another challenger for the Knicks.
The Wizards hope they can pick a player that will help them become one.
Washington’s NBA title drought is almost as long as the Knicks’ was, having last won in 1978 when the team was still known as the Bullets. The Wizards could go for Dybantsa, a forward who led the nation in scoring at BYU; or Peterson, a guard with tons of talent but some question marks after missing 11 games at Kansas with injuries and illness; or Boozer, a forward who was college basketball’s player of the year at Duke.
Dybantsa hopes he’s the choice, already picturing how he will feel after the sacrifices he said his family made to get him this far.
“Who knows, I might cry,” Dybantsa said.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:53:01 +0000
US eases restriction on Iran’s World Cup team, allowing travel 2 days before next match
2026-06-23T18:15:49Z
The U.S. is easing its restrictions on Iran’s World Cup team, allowing the squad to travel into the country two days before its next match, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
The team will still be required to leave after Friday’s match in Seattle, a department spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the Iran Football Federation confirmed that the team will leave its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday for Seattle.
“This was planned on our end,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, told The Associated Press. “We were going to look at how the first two movements went, and if they went smoothly, we would extend the extra day in light of the longer travel time.”
The policy change was first reported by NBC News and comes as officials from both countries negotiate over how to end the war in Iran.
Iran’s squad has complained about the travel restrictions levied on the team, and the challenges it has faced since the outbreak of war. Iran originally sought to move its group stage matches to Mexico, with whom it has diplomatic ties. The team’s base camp was relocated from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana. Several team officials and members of the support staff have been barred from traveling into the U.S. with the team.
For the first two matches, in Los Angeles, the team was not permitted to travel until the day before, which Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei repeatedly said put the team at a disadvantage. The team had less than 24 hours on the ground before its noon match Sunday. “Right now we need recovery more than anything,” Ghalenoei said through a translator after the 0-0 draw against Belgium. “The conditions have been extremely hard for us.”
It’s not uncommon for teams to travel a day before the match, and it’s in line with FIFA regulations, which state that “each team shall travel from its team base camp to the match venue one day before matchday (MD‑1) and in exceptional cases on MD‑2, and shall return to their team base camp after the match (on MD/MD+1).”
But Iran had asked for more time to acclimate to host cities and recover after matches, especially for the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) trip to Seattle. The team has scheduled a Thursday training at the University of Washington.
“We don’t ask for much. We just ask for the same procedure as for all the other 47 teams,” Iran national team player Alireza Jahanbakhsh said Sunday. “Hopefully we can bring everyone who is involved and help us with us.”
The Iran team has also said it experienced difficulties entering and exiting the U.S. each time it made the 127-mile (204-kilometer) flight between Tijuana and Los Angeles. The typically short trip took five hours the day before its first match against New Zealand, team captain Mehdi Taremi said.
Hours before Sunday’s match against Belgium, U.S. Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told Fox News the Iranians had “tried to get somebody in yesterday” who had direct ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. In a statement, the soccer federation vociferously pushed back, calling the claim “an outright and undeniable lie.”
It’s unclear whether Iran’s upcoming opponent, Egypt, will also be allowed to arrive in Seattle two days early. After its 3-1 victory against New Zealand in Vancouver Sunday, Egypt asked to fly directly to Seattle. FIFA denied that request, citing a lack of security resources to accommodate the last-minute demand. Egypt returned to its base camp in Spokane, Washington, a 45-minute flight from Seattle.
Egypt’s national team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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AP Sports Writer John Marshall contributed reporting. AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:53:02 +0000
Federal appeals court allows the Trump administration to resume expanded use of speedy deportations
2026-06-23T18:47:14Z
A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants throughout the United States, not just near the border.
A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s expanded use of expedited removal. The ruling was a big victory for the Republican administration, which views the expansion of so-called expedited removal as a key tool for carrying out its mass deportation policy.
An attorney for the plaintiffs said the ruling “undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them.”
“The Trump administration’s push for fast-track deportations will subject people to an unfair and error-prone system,” Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.
Trump appointed the two judges in the majority in Tuesday’s decision. The third was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
The plaintiffs had not “shown that the expedited-removal process denies its members notice and an opportunity to be heard,” Judge Justin R. Walker, one of the Trump appointees, wrote.
Expedited removal — quick deportation without a chance to appear before a judge — has previously been applied to migrants arriving by sea or caught at or near the border shortly after crossing.
In January, Trump expanded its use to undocumented migrants all over the US. Immigration agents began whisking migrants away from courthouses where they had gone for immigration proceedings and then removing them from the country within days.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled in August that plaintiffs challenging the expansion had made a “strong showing” that it was trampling on people’s due process rights, and she issued a stay order putting the policy on hold. Cobb was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Many migrants living deep in the U.S. have been in the country for more than 2 years, making them ineligible for expedited removal under federal law. Cobb said the administration had not developed procedures to ensure they and other groups of migrants were not wrongly deported under the expedited process.
The plaintiffs had put forward “substantial evidence” that the expedited removal process, on the contrary, carried a high risk of error when applied more broadly, Cobb said. The ruling cited examples of people who had lived in the U.S. for far longer than two years but were still ordered to be removed in expedited proceedings.
The Trump administration appealed, arguing in a court filing that its expansion was legal, and protections were in place to prevent arbitrary removal.
Cobb’s ruling was an “egregious error” that was depriving the administration of an “essential tool to combat the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration over the past few years” and efficiently deport potentially millions of people, Justice Department attorneys argued in the October filing.
Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:53:01 +0000
Senate is set to vote again on a war powers resolution to halt the Iran conflict
2026-06-23T17:37:03Z
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the 10th time, the Senate will vote on a war powers resolution to block U.S. military action against Iran as lawmakers warily watch President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve a conflict that the administration launched on its own and now needs Congress to fund.
The outcome Tuesday is not expected to be much different from the previous Senate efforts, which have all failed. But a growing number of Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have expressed their concerns over both the war and the deal Trump struck with Iran to end it. Democrats are daring the Republicans to join them in standing up to the Trump administration.
“Why is this vote different?” asked Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democrat from Virginia who has led his party’s efforts.
Kaine said the pause in fighting, as Trump’s team works to shore up a fragile ceasefire, provides the perfect time for Congress to step back and assess “what should the next chapter be.”
The vote also comes as the Pentagon is seeking $80 billion from Congress mostly for the Iran war as it backfills munitions and stockpiles.
Trump to meet senators as Republicans balk at Iran deal
Trump himself is headed to the Capitol this week to meet with GOP senators as Vice President JD Vance has been overseas working to negotiate with Iran to end that country’s nuclear ambitions — which had been among the stated rationales for the war.
The president is not pleased with the Republicans who have been critical of the deal he struck with Iran, according to one GOP senator granted anonymity to discuss the private dynamics.
The terms of the Iran deal are spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding that Trump signed last week, starting a 60-day clock for the sides to reach a broader agreement over ending Iran’s nuclear program.
But Republicans have particularly objected to the $300 billion fund to help Iran rebuild, which is far greater than the $1.7 billion then-President Barack Obama refunded the country under his administration’s 2015 Iran deal.
“I believe President Trump is getting very poor advice on Iran,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week on his podcast after the deal was made public.
Democrats have repeatedly forced Iran votes
Over and again, Democrats have been forcing votes on the Iran war, almost since the U.S. and Israel launched missile strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
Nearly each week they’re in session, the Senate Democrats have put forward war powers resolutions, but they have failed to amass the majority needed for passage in the narrowly split chamber, where Trump’s Republican Party holds the majority.
The House pushed its own version to passage earlier this month, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in approving the war powers resolution, over the objections of House Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP leadership.
It’s that House resolution that the Senate will consider Tuesday. While such resolutions do not go to the president for his signature or carry the force of law, passage would stand as a powerful, if symbolic, statement from Congress and a rebuke of the administration’s military actions.
In the past, as many as four GOP senators have voted for the war powers resolutions — Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has typically voted against.
Hegseth seeks $80 billion from Congress for the Iran war
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also on Capitol Hill this week, seeking roughly $80 billion in supplemental funding to shore up defense supplies in the aftermath of the Iran war, which is drawing scrutiny when many Americans are reeling from high gas prices and costs of living.
The Pentagon early on had estimated the war cost $11.3 billion during its first week, and experts have put the overall price tag at close to $100 billion.
The Defense Department’s funding request is part of a broader beef-up of military money the White House wants as part of its budget request this year.
The Trump administration is seeking $1.5 trillion in defense funding this year — a 50% increase — including $350 billion that it wants in a so-called budget reconciliation package. Johnson and GOP leaders are working to pass that package on their own, over the objections of Democrats, much the way they approved Trump’s big tax cuts bill last year.
The 2025 tax cuts package also included a sizable plus-up of about $175 billion for the military.
Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:53:02 +0000