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  • Merlier wins crash-marred 12th stage of the Tour de France, Pogacar retains overall lead


    CHALON-SUR-SAONE, France (AP) — Belgian rider Tim Merlier earned another stage win at the Tour de France while several riders fell as they sprinted to the line Thursday.

    Defending champion Tadej Pogacar avoided the crash and kept his significant overall lead over second-place Jonas Vingegaard after 12 stages.

    It was Merlier’s third stage win on this year’s Tour and sixth of his career. Dutch rider Olav Kooij finished second and Jasper Philipsen of Belgium was third.

    With riders fighting for position on the home straight, Colombian Fernando Gaviria went down after clipping the wheel of another cyclist and fell to his left, bringing Norwegian rider Soeren Waerenskjold — Wednesday’s stage winner — down with him. Just behind them, four other riders had no room to swerve around them and flew over their handlebars.

    None of the riders appeared seriously injured and, after a few minutes of recovery, Gaviria crossed the line with the help of a teammate. Gaviria’s left knee was heavily bloodied and his left arm appeared hurt as he held it close to his body.

    Four-time Tour champion Pogacar remains 3 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of two-time champion Vingegaard and 4:06 ahead of Remco Evenepoel in third place.

    Pogacar had extended his overall lead Tuesday after another trademark attack in the 10th stage.

    Stage 12 was a mostly flat 179-kilometer (111-mile) route starting from the Magny-Cours track, which once hosted Formula 1 races, and ending in Chalon-sur-Saône in eastern France.

    Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer forged ahead on his own until he was caught by a group of 14 riders heading into the last 30 kilometers. They were caught by the hard-chasing peloton soon after, and just before the third of three minor climbs.

    With teams looking to place their sprinters into the best position to attack it was a nervy approach to the finish line.

    Philipsen’s Alpecin-Premier Tech team put three riders at the front to help him but they attacked too soon, as they did in previous stages, and Philipsen is still looking for his first victory at this year’s race.

    Merlier said having his wife and young son at the race “gave me a lot of motivation.”

    “Winning for them is special,” Merlier said. “I managed to find the opening, I had to stay calm and wait. It was a finale and a finish that suited me very well.”

    Friday’s 13th stage is the longest of this year’s race at 206 kilometers and features a sharp Category 1 climb — the second-hardest category in the Tour — toward the end.

    The race concludes with its traditional finish in Paris on July 26. ___

    AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports


  • Trump administration revives rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits


    MIAMI (AP) — he Trump administration is reviving a rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits that could include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and others.

    The policy, known as “public charge,” appeared on Thursday in the Federal Register and will be formally published on July 20.


  • US designates 2 new Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations


    MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government has designated two new Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

    They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government’s gazette, published the designation on Thursday.

    They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

    President Donald Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both criminal groups either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

    The measure represents a further increase in pressure on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the controversies about U.S. operations in Mexico.

    Higher pressure on the Texas border

    Juarez Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, which for decades has controlled a key crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-U.S. border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas.

    Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling massive drug shipments by light aircraft in the 1990s — and the brothers and sons who succeeded him, turned the trafficking of tons of drugs into a multimillion-dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its allied gangs maintained control of a vast infrastructure for smuggling illegal shipments into the U.S..

    According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the designation is key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border, where two other groups both located at the eastern end of the border with Texas — the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel — were declared terrorist organizations in February 2025.

    The US again targets Michoacan

    Los Viagras is a local cartel in the western state of Michoacan, which is already home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

    Los Viagras emerged following the 2013–2014 armed uprising led by farmers who succeeded in driving out many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones.

    The cartel is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, who faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

    The group has shifted its loyalties and alliances to consolidate its regional control of the territory through extortion. It also produces synthetic drugs, which sells to other cartels that traffic them into the United States.


  • 2 of 8 men charged in alleged plot to attack the White House UFC event plead not guilty


    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two of the eight men indicted in an alleged drone and sniper plot to attack President Donald Trump’s UFC cage-fighting show on the White House lawn pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal conspiracy charges.

    Clothed in jail garb and shackled, Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Ohio, where the case has been consolidated. They and the other six defendants are each charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

    Sargus scheduled their trial to begin Sept. 14.

    It remains unclear from the court record how close the would-be attackers were to being able to carry out the plan they are alleged to have hatched.

    Scaggs’ attorney, Eric Brehm, said in a statement that his office is only in the early stages of reviewing the case, “but one issue is already clear: there appears to be a significant disconnect between the severity of the alleged offenses and Mr. Scaggs’ naivety, lack of sophistication, and judgment.” The first charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison; the second could mean prison for life.

    In detailing the group’s July 9 indictments last week, U.S. Attorney Dominick Gerace II was asked how close the alleged plot came to fruition.

    “What would have happened or could have happened, that’s never going to be clear, because, thank God, there was an intervention here and this thing was disrupted,” he said. “But, in my view, when I look at what’s been alleged there, it seems pretty likely that someone or multiple people were driving to Washington, D.C., to do something.”

    Proper’s lawyer had no immediate comment.

    According to the indictment, the plot began in May. Members of the group — citing grievances about government corruption, water-guzzling data centers and the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files — began amassing money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical equipment, communications equipment and other items.

    The attack was planned to take place at the cage-fighting show dubbed UFC Freedom 250, which was held on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary. Law enforcement officials said they learned of the possible threat four days before the event was scheduled to take place.

    One of the defendants told investigators that they planned to fly explosive-laden drones into the event and then shoot panicked crowd members as they fled, according to a federal affidavit.

    The Justice Department announced charges against seven people from across the country last month, including from Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska and California. Officials said the suspects harbored fringe conspiracy theories and hoped the attack would destabilize the government.

    Four alleged conspirators charged in Missouri, Nebraska and California the weekend of the event and two more charged about a week later in Washington and Missouri are still in the process of being moved to Ohio to face charges. They are likely to be tried as a group.

    Scaggs was arrested separately later, but was brought to Ohio ahead of the other out-of-state defendants.


  • UK urges FIFA to investigate Argentina over Falklands banner at World Cup


    LONDON (AP) — The British government on Thursday urged FIFA to investigate Argentina’s team after players celebrating their 2-1 win over England in the World Cup semifinals posed with a banner that claimed sovereignty over the contested Falkland Islands.

    During post-match celebrations Wednesday in Atlanta, Argentine players held a banner handed over by fans, reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” — “The Malvinas are Argentine.”

    Argentina refers to the Falkland Islands as Islas Malvinas. They were invaded in 1982 under orders from Argentina’s then-military dictatorship, triggering a 10-week war won by Britain.

    “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday. “Self-determination rests with the islanders and our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.”

    Starmer supported calls for FIFA to investigate, the spokesperson said, after U.K. Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the players’ behavior was “entirely inappropriate.”

    FIFA can prosecute Argentina’s players and soccer federation because its disciplinary code prohibits at stadiums any “message that is not appropriate for a sports event” including those of “a political, ideological, religious or offensive nature.”

    The FIFA fines for political messaging range from around $5,000 to $20,000. FIFA was approached for comment Thursday.

    Argentine President Javier Milei described the players’ celebration with the banner as “perfectly valid,” saying the message “reflects a sentiment shared by all Argentines.” But he said he expected FIFA to sanction the team with a fine.

    “What the players do is understandable; they get carried away by their emotions, they act on impulse, and that will likely lead to discussions about a fine,” Milei told a local Buenos Aires radio station.

    Vice President Victoria Villarruel was more vocal in her support, posting a photo on social media of the players raising the banner with the caption: “The Malvinas are Argentine! They banned us from bringing (signs) into the stadium, forgetting that we carry them in our blood and in our hearts.”

    A FIFA disciplinary case under previous leadership banned a South Korea player for two 2014 World Cup qualifying games because he held up a similar banner about a territorial claim against Japan at the 2012 London Olympics. Park Jong-woo took a fan banner with the slogan “Dokdo is our territory” after South Korea beat Japan in the men’s bronze medal game.

    On Wednesday, Argentina player Lisandro Martínez was asked if the banner could have stirred deep emotions for veterans of the conflict.

    “We couldn’t let the Argentine people down” said Martínez, who has played in England for the past four years with Manchester United.

    Argentina-England soccer rivalry

    The sporting rivalry between the two countries is heightened by political tensions over the South Atlantic archipelago. It is a British overseas territory with a population of around 3,500 people located about 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) from the U.K. and 300 miles (480 kilometers) from Argentina.

    Argentina argues the islands were illegally taken from it in 1833. Britain, which says its territorial claim dates to 1765, sent a warship to the islands in 1833 to expel Argentine forces who sought to establish sovereignty over the territory.

    The war in 1982 killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service personnel and three islanders.

    That conflict ended during the 1982 World Cup in Spain where Argentina, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland all played. British television networks declined to broadcast Argentina playing in the tournament’s opening game, when the defending champion lost to Belgium.

    “Sadly, it is a sad part of our history,” Argentina player Leandro Paredes said in Atlanta about the banner, “for everyone involved in that chapter of, I repeat, our history. And it hurts. We knew we were playing for them, too.”

    Politics in soccer

    British government minister Kyle told the BBC “politics needs to be separate from football.”

    “In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,” he said. “That is now a matter for FIFA.”

    FIFA’s statutory political neutrality has been questioned at this World Cup after its president, Gianni Infantino, and disciplinary process — which could now judge Argentina — seemed to cave to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump in allowing United States forward Folarin Balogun to play Belgium in the round of 16.

    Balogun was shown a red card in the previous round and FIFA disciplinary rules mandated he should be banned from his team’s next game. FIFA deferred that suspension for one year of probation, provoking an all-time controversy in modern World Cup history. Belgium beat the U.S. 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.

    Infantino is expected to sit with Trump at the World Cup final Sunday. Argentina plays Spain in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

    Previous cases

    Argentina players showed the same “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” slogan at a warm-up game in June 2014 in Buenos Aires for the World Cup that started days later in Brazil.

    FIFA’s disciplinary panel ruling in that case was published after the tournament finished and fined the Argentina federation 30,000 Swiss francs ($37,000).

    In the 2012 London Olympics case, FIFA’s ruling said the conduct of the South Korea player “cannot be tolerated.”

    At the 2022 World Cup, FIFA fined the Serbia federation 20,000 Swiss francs ($24,800) for hanging a political banner about neighboring independent state Kosovo in the locker room before playing Brazil. It showed a map of Serbia that included the territory of Kosovo, which has been an independent state since 2008, and the slogan “No Surrender.”

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    Dunbar contributed from Geneva. Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

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    See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here


  • Patricia Lockwood wins $10,000 Gabe Hudson Prize for a dark, comic COVID-19 novel


    NEW YORK (AP) — Acclaimed author Patricia Lockwood is this year’s winner of the Gabe Hudson Prize, a $10,000 honor named for the late author, educator and editor and given for fiction that demonstrates “humor, pathos, and a deep understanding of contemporary America.”

    Lockwood was cited for “Will There Ever Be Another You,” a dark and comic novel about a woman’s breakdown amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Sentences and passages flash us with beauty or leave us reeling with laughter,” the judges’ citation reads in part. “There is so much pain in the book and yet there is no self-pity, instead there is a marvelous self-awareness as to how ridiculous it is to be human.”

    The Hudson prize was established in 2024 by his mother, Sanchia Semere, and is administered by the publisher McSweeney’s. Hudson, who died in 2023 at age 52, was known and admired for such fiction as “Dear Mr. President,” for his work as an editor at large at McSweeney’s and for his years as a teacher at Yonsei University in Korea, among other schools.

    Lockwood’s other books include “Priestdaddy,” winner in 2018 of the James Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the novel “No One Is Talking About This,” shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021. In a statement Thursday, Lockwood noted that she felt a kinship with Hudson, even though they never met.

    “He was a truly generous literary citizen with a rich trajectory: a writer of funny, gut-punching stories, an inventive novelist, a cheerleader for others,” she said. “He was a Marine, like my brother, and a teacher in South Korea, in the same neighborhood where my husband grew up.”


  • Retail sales up just 0.2% in June, but excluding business at the gas pump, shoppers are resilient


    NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers slowed their spending in June from May, as they spent less to fill their gas tank because of falling gas prices.

    But the report, released by the Commerce Department on Thursday, showed consumers’ continued resilience despite ongoing economic uncertainty as they bought cars and took advantage of summer sales events.

    Retail sales rose 0.2% in June, after being up a revised 1% in May, according to the report.

    Outside of gas stations, retail sales rose a solid 0.7%, according to the report.

    The government figures aren’t adjusted for inflation so last month’s decline in gas prices pulled down gas station sales and thus the overall retail sales figure.

    Business at gas stations fell 5.3% last month. Meanwhile, sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers rose 1.9%, helped by aggressive manufacturers’ incentives, according to the report.

    Elsewhere, shoppers were selective in their buying, given their worries about the economy and fading benefits of generous government tax benefits, which propelled spending earlier in the spring.

    Business at clothing and accessories stores as well as at miscellaneous retailers both posted small declines, And sales at retailers that sell big-ticket items were mixed, with business at furniture and home furnishings merchants flat, while electronics and appliance stores showing a small increase for June.

    World Cup boost

    Among the bright spots: online sales rose 1.9%, fueled by spending surrounding Amazon’s Prime Day event, which was held from June 23 through June 26. Business at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores was up 1.3%, likely helped by spending around the World Cup tournament.

    The data offers only a snapshot of consumer spending and doesn’t include activities like travel and hotel stays. The lone services category – restaurants – registered a slim 0.1% increase.

    The so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth—rose a solid 0.5%.

    The report comes as U.S. inflation cooled last month as the cost of gas, clothes, and used cars fell, offering some relief to consumers, while underlying price pressures also slowed more than anticipated.

    Gas prices fell to $3.94 per gallon on Thursday, down from $4.04 a month ago, according to motor club AAA.

    “Falling fuel prices weighed on headline sales data, but a smaller bill at the pump was a source of relief for consumers and provided at least a little more cushion in household spending budgets,” Jim Baird, chief investment officer with Plante Moran Financial Advisors, wrote in a report published Thursday.

    But Baird noted the June report suggests consumers are “perhaps taking a more discerning approach to where they’re spending and how they’re prioritizing their choices.”

    The Labor Department said Tuesday that consumer prices dropped 0.4% from May to June, the largest monthly drop in four years, after increasing 0.5% in the previous month. On a yearly basis, inflation declined to 3.5%, down from a year-over-year gain of 4.2% in May and lower than many economists expected.

    Muted impact at the gas pump

    The core inflation figures suggest that the gas price spike from the Iran war, while it pushed up airfares and some other costs, hasn’t so far led to broad-based, sustained inflation, according to economists. But the United States renewed attacks on Iran and President Donald Trump announced a new blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for about one-fifth of the world’s oil. The increase threatens to unravel at least some of the progress that occurred last month.

    Next month, major retailers including Walmart, Target and Macy’s, are slated to announce their second-quarter earnings results, which will offer some insight into shopping behavior.

    A report last month from the Conference Board showed that Americans’ attitudes toward the economy improved slightly this month as gas prices declined, but their outlook is still mostly negative by historical standards.

    Sara Williamson, a 27-year-old software support engineer in Raleigh, North Carolina, said that over the last year or so, she’s more conscious of how she spends her money. She feels financially secure given her stable job, but increasing costs of food and gas are making her pull back on frivolous spending.

    “I shop less overall as a hobby,” she said.

    Williamson noted that at the supermarket, she avoids buying pre-cut fruits like cantaloupe, which tend to be more expensive than buying the whole cantaloupe, to save money, and is careful about buying clothing for herself.

    Brian Reynolds, CEO and founder of Just For Teens, a skincare collection aimed at preteens and teens, noted that his low-price products, which include $5 pimple patches, are aimed at families on a budget and are in the sweet spot of retailing right now.

    By October, his brand will be expanded to 10,000 Dollar General stores, up from about 4,000 late last year. He said sales have been decent so far, but he expects that business will see more of a momentum for the back-to-school selling season.

    “There’s a lot of space for products that are everyday essentials that are value-priced,” he said.


  • Need for speed? Driving above the speed limit costs you — and doesn’t actually save much time


    Speeding in your car to work, to pick up your children from school, or go from one errand to the next not only wastes money in gas and sends harmful emissions into the air, it barely saves you time, new research says.

    It is something to think about as gas prices stay elevated throughout the summer months and add pain to day-to-day driving and seasonal road tripping.

    Instead, abiding by posted speed limits can save U.S. drivers millions of dollars at the gas pump and eliminate millions of gallons of fuel each day, according to a study published Thursday in the Nature journal Communications Sustainability. That is fuel that, when burned, emits planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. To top it all off, changing driving habits wouldn’t even add a full minute to a driver’s commute.

    University of Minnesota researchers analyzed 120 million vehicle trips across the United States from four Wednesdays in 2021 using driving data on national road networks, speed limits and U.S. Geological Survey elevation data. The analysis included roads with speed limits of 45 mph (72 kph) and higher.

    More than 43% of the studied trips included at least one instance of speeding, and drivers spent nearly 12% of their driving time going faster than the speed limit.

    They found that if drivers of light-duty, conventional internal combustion engine vehicles actually drove at posted speed limits, it could save an average of $22 million, based on fuel costs at the time, 6.7 million gallons of fuel and 57,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide every day. The researchers said that is comparable to taking about 5.5 million passenger vehicles off the road.

    And while drivers say that speeding saves them precious time, researchers found that is not really the case. With an average daily driving distance of 28.6 miles (46.03 kilometers), driving at or below the posted limit corresponds only to about 54 seconds longer per day.

    “If your goal is to shave one minute off your time, then you’ve got to drive fast. If your objective is to get to your destination safely and to save fuel, then you might drive slower than the speed limit,” said William Northrop, mechanical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota and study co-author.

    The research considered battery-electric vehicle efficiency only in California given the level of EV adoption in the U.S. at that time. Based on the California modeling, “We find that driving slower is beneficial for EVs as well,” he said.

    Interestingly, the study found differences among states. Nevada saw elevated speeding prevalence as well as high speed excess. There was high speeding prevalence in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, though those states did not necessarily exhibit high speed excess. Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota showed both low speeding prevalence and speed excess.

    The cost of faster driving today

    Driving faster increases a vehicle’s energy use and the emissions from its engine, as well as reduces efficiency. Vehicle engines have become increasingly more efficient over the past several decades even as vehicles have gotten bigger and more powerful. But speed limits have also climbed since the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act was implemented, which mandated 55 mph national speed limits amid the 1970s energy crisis.

    Accounting for the average cost of gas today and more vehicle miles traveled, that increases to roughly $26 million and 7.2 million gallons of fuel that Americans collectively could save each day this year just by not putting the pedal to the metal.

    One limitation of the research is that slower driving could impact traffic patterns, which could play a role in efficiency.

    However, it is especially timely as U.S. drivers remain price-sensitive to volatile gas prices as the war in Iran has sent the cost for a gallon of fuel above $4 this year. Experts have said there are a number of ways to improve one’s gas mileage, including something as simple as slowing down. Less fuel needing to be purchased because of better efficiency could influence oil market demand, which in turn could impact pricing.

    Rob Middleton, associate research scientist of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the research, said the study was well-done. But he also noted that the fuel saved from driving more slowly still only represents a fraction of daily gasoline consumption in the U.S., which is about 375 million gallons daily.

    “It’s a big number, but it’s a small fraction,” Middleton said. “This is a ‘freebie’ in that it doesn’t really cost anyone anything to do.”

    “The market penetration of selling EVs is still small, so we still need fuel, we still need ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, we’re still going to have them for a very long time,” he added. “Things that we can do to either make the new ones better or to improve our fuel supply, we need to do.”

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    Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

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    Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


  • Trump officials want to make testosterone drugs easier to prescribe. Is that a good idea?


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials under President Donald Trump want to make it easier for men to get a prescription for testosterone, the latest shift in a decades-long debate over the benefits and risks of replacing the hormone that affects sex drive, mood and other health factors.

    The move, backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top officials, aligns with the advice of many online influencers and podcasters, including men’s health gurus who tout the hormone as a way to boost muscle and energy. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military would begin screening for low testosterone and offering the hormone as a way to help troops operate at their “absolute best.”

    The notion of testosterone as an all-purpose elixir for strength and vitality is not supported by the science. But medical experts say a decade of new research has bolstered the case for testosterone’s benefits for sexual health while allaying concerns about its impact on the heart.

    “Many providers have been trained for years that these were real issues, and they were scared to get a testosterone reading from a patient or offer them testosterone therapy,” said Dr. Justin Dubin, a urologist at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute.

    Last year, the Food and Drug Administration removed a bold safety warning about possible heart risks with testosterone pills, gels, injections and patches, based on recent data that showed no increase in those problems.

    Last month, the agency proposed rewriting prescribing instructions to clear the way for using testosterone against age-related symptoms, such as low libido and erectile dysfunction. Currently the label emphasizes that the hormone is only approved for abnormally low testosterone levels caused by serious medical conditions or injury.

    But experts who prescribe the drug say those patients are a small segment of people seeking help.

    “The majority of people we see in our office are regular men complaining of these common symptoms because they’re dramatically affecting their quality of life,” said Dr. Helen Bernie, a urologist and director of sexual health at Indiana University.

    Testosterone use has evolved over decades

    Testosterone was first approved in the 1950s to treat hypogonadism, a condition defined by low testosterone levels caused by medical problems affecting the testes or other organs.

    Testosterone declines naturally with age and can effect sexual function, mood, bone density and other measures. The question of how to diagnose and treat men with those issues has long been debated by researchers.

    “These symptoms overlap with symptoms of human aging in men, so there’s a high risk of misdiagnosis and that’s led to the controversy” said Dr. Shalender Bhasin, of Harvard Medical School, who has co-authored several recent testosterone studies and guidelines.

    Bhasin says increased willingness to prescribe testosterone reflects growing acceptance of the seriousness of men’s sexual health problems, beginning with the introduction of Viagra for erectile dysfunction in the 1990s.

    Bhasin helped write the Endocrine Society’s current guidelines for testosterone, which recommend discussing testosterone with men who have documented symptoms and two blood test results confirming low hormone levels. One recent study by Michigan researchers found that just 12% of men getting a prescription met that criteria.

    Prescriptions previously soared, despite little evidence

    The potential for overprescribing testosterone is real and helped lead to current restrictions.

    In the early 2010s, drugmakers spent millions on TV ads for gels, patches and other products promising relief from “low T,” including a laundry list of symptoms like fatigue, muscle loss, brain fog and weight gain.

    By 2013, the drugs were generating more than $2 billion in sales annually, despite lacking FDA approval for most of the issues described. Doctors remain free to prescribe drugs off-label, or for unapproved uses, and many men today continue taking testosterone because they believe it improves energy, mood and appearance.

    In 2015, the FDA hit drugmakers with a double whammy: They had to clarify that their drugs weren’t approved for routine problems and also add a boxed warning about possible heart risks.

    FDA scrutiny led to new research

    The FDA now says updated data warrants relaxing the restrictions.

    An FDA-mandated study published in 2023 followed 5,000 men with a history of heart disease, with half receiving daily testosterone gel and the other half getting a sham drug. After two years there was no difference in heart attack, stroke and related problems between the two groups.

    A series of studies by the National Institutes of Health also clarified the benefits of the hormone. Results from nearly 800 older men showed testosterone therapy improved erectile dysfunction, libido and other sexual measures and had a small effect on mood. There was little or no improvement in other measures like fatigue, memory or overall well-being.

    The recent testosterone studies are the largest ever conducted, but Bhasin — who helped lead both efforts — says more research is needed on longer-term effects.

    “I think FDA’s label changes are very welcome and they are bringing us a big step forward,” said Bhasin, who also co-authored the Endocrine Society’s guidelines. “But I think there’s a lot more to be done to better define the safety and efficacy.”

    In recent comments submitted to the FDA, the Endocrine Society recommended studies of 15 to 20 years to assess conditions that evolve slowly, including prostate cancer, which remains a concern when prescribing testosterone.

    Some men should not get testosterone

    Experts agree that men who are hoping to have children in the near future shouldn’t take the hormone. Getting testosterone from a pill or gel shuts off the body’s natural process for making the hormone.

    “It can stop the signal from your brain to your testicles to make testosterone, and so you stop making sperm,” Dubin said. “That can compromise fertility.”

    Most guidelines also recommend careful consideration for men who have had prostate cancer or are at risk of the disease, given lingering questions about whether hormone therapy hastens tumor growth. But guidelines may soon change.

    The FDA has proposed new language that would only suggest that men whose prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body should avoid testosterone.

    Be wary of online promotions

    Dietary supplements promoted online to boost testosterone should be avoided because they aren’t FDA approved and probably don’t work.

    FDA-approved testosterone drugs come in a variety of forms. Gels and pills generally need to be used daily. Injections, patches and implantable pellets can last for weeks or several months.

    Many of these medications are available through telehealth services, though accessing them that way can have risks.

    A 2022 paper by Dubin found that only 1 in 7 online prescribing companies asked basic screening questions, including whether men planned to have children. And most of the companies did not have a testing threshold for whether patients actually had low testosterone.

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    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.


  • Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch movie ‘Ink’ to open Venice Film Festival


    A new film about the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and “The Sun” editor Larry Lamb has been selected to open the Venice International Film Festival, organizers said Thursday. Directed by “Trainspotting” filmmaker Danny Boyle, “Ink” is an adaptation of James Graham’s acclaimed play, which dramatizes Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition of the daily newspaper “The Sun.”

    Guy Pearce plays Murdoch and Jack O’Connell plays Lamb in the film about how they turned the paper into Britain’s most influential tabloid. Claire Foy also co-stars.

    “Long before Fox News, click bait, and Truth Social; decades before Twitter, Facebook, Google (and) Only Fans, these (two) men created a new tabloid which against all the odds became the biggest selling newspaper in the world,” Boyle said in a statement. The paper, he added, “challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era.”

    Boyle said it was a huge honor to be selected, noting that, “I’ve been to the Biennale many times, but this is my baptism at the film festival.”

    “Ink” will be playing in competition at the 83rd edition of the festival, which kicks off on September 2. The full slate of films vying for the Golden Lion is expected to be revealed next week.

    The play opened in London in 2017, and went to Broadway in 2019, where it was nominated for, and won, multiple Tony Awards.

    “I started writing this way before Trump, way before Brexit,” Graham told The Associated Press in 2017. “But I knew I wanted to capture what was clearly in the air about populism.”