By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of people diagnosed with tuberculosis worldwide rose again last year, eclipsing 2023’s record total, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday.

About 8.3 million people across the globe were reported as newly diagnosed with TB in 2024. Not all infections are diagnosed and the new numbers represent 78% of the estimated number of people who actually fell ill last year, the WHO noted.

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WHO officials see the increase as an indication that screening and treatment are improving after health care disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the number of deaths caused by TB fell in 2024 to 1.23 million, down from 1.25 million the year before.

U.S. tuberculosis cases continued to rise last year — reaching the highest level in more than a dozen years, according to preliminary data released earlier this year. The vast majority of U.S. TB cases are diagnosed in people born in other countries.

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that attack the lungs, and is spread through the air when an infectious person coughs or sneezes. Roughly a quarter of the global population is estimated to have TB, but only a fraction develop symptoms. It can be fatal if not treated, and is one of the top causes of death worldwide.

The WHO releases a TB report every year. The latest is based on data from 184 countries. Funding for fighting the disease was already stagnating, and experts worry about a possible backslide in the battle following recent spending cuts by the U.S. government and other funders.

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.

Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey has orchestrated four game-tying or game-winning drives in the fourth quarter of Big Ten games this season.

Not bad for a redshirt freshman.

Lindsey led two such drives against Michigan State and one apiece versus Rutgers and Purdue. His leadership in those clutch wins has made Minnesota bowl eligible at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play going into Friday night’s game against No. 8 Oregon.

Against Michigan State on Nov. 1, Lindsey took the field training 17-10 with 1 minute and 52 seconds remaining.

“We gotta go!” Lindsey told his team on the sideline before that two-minute drill.

Lindsey completed 6 of 7 passes for 39 yards and capped the nine-play, 65-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. Then, in overtime, he sealed the game with a 3-yard TD run on a naked bootleg — in which he had to stiff-arm a defender in the backfield to avoid a 7-yard loss — on 3rd-and-goal for a 23-20 win.

“There were some really, really good (moments) and there were some really tough (times),” head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday about the Spartans win. “… He’s done that a lot this year. He’s played really well, and then maybe inconsistent at times. And then bang, when we needed him the most, he was there.”

Minnesota Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey (5) gives his wrist bands to a fan after the Gophers 23-20 overtime win agains the Michigan State Spartans after a NCAA football game at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Against Purdue on Oct. 11, Lindsey led a 14-play, 70-yard drive to tie the game at 20-20. Lindsey went 5 for 10 for 44 yards and a two-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Geers on the drive.

On the next play from scrimmage, safety Koi Perich’s 27-yard interception return for a touchdown helped seal the comeback win over the Boilermakers.

Versus Rutgers on Sept. 27, Lindsey marched Minnesota down the field on a seven-play, 72-yard drive. He completed 6 of 7 for 72 yards, with a touchdown to Javon Tracy to win it 31-28.

Before he can lead others in those vital moments, Lindsey takes a minute to himself. Then he turns his attention outward.

“He just stays really calm, collected,” receiver Jalen Smith said Tuesday. “I think that helps everybody else on the offense remain that way when you see your quarterback is level-headed.”

Defensive end Anthony Smith isn’t on the field at the same time as Lindsey, but can feel his presence.

“You root for those guys that are such positive impacts on you,” Smith said. “Again, going from the offseason and seeing the person he’s become. When we get to Saturdays, he is preforming the way we knew he could perform. It’s just really exciting.”

Fleck often points to Lindsey’s championship pedigree in putting his high school team on his back to win a state title in Fayetteville, Ark., during his senior season.

“The fight he has,” Fleck said. “He’s scrappy.”

Before the Michigan State comeback, things had grown bleak, with four straight drives ending in punts. That led to a blunt comment from offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh. Over the player phone on the sideline, he told his QB: “We have no choice” but to score a TD.

Lindsey delivered.

“That’s just who he is,” Harbaugh said Tuesday. “He’s had his back against the wall a couple of times.”

Lindsey’s lowest moment this season came in the 41-3 loss to Iowa on Oct. 25. In only his eighth start, he threw three interceptions and was sacked four times in the rivalry game beatdown. That came after other tough times at Ohio State and at California.

And like Ohio State and Iowa, Oregon has a top-five defense and more challenges are expected for Lindsey in Eugene, Ore.

Lindsey said he has learned from each of his road games. He admitted he wasn’t comfortable in his first road test at California, but felt better at No. 1 Ohio State and said he felt good going into No. 21 Iowa.

Fleck, unprompted after the Iowa loss, said he was going to stand by Lindsey as his starting quarterback going into Michigan State.

“I think when you make a decision to play a freshman, you’ve already made a decision you aren’t going to overreact,” Fleck told the Pioneer Press. “We know that this is a journey and a process. We are going to commit to the process. That doesn’t mean that everything is going to go perfect and that doesn’t mean everything is going to go wrong.”

“But there are things that are going to be really good and there are going to be things that aren’t very good. The peaks and valleys are farther apart than they will be as more experienced he gets.”

In nine games this season, Lindsey is 171 for 275 (63%) for 1,743 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. His completion percentage, yardage and touchdown totals are just outside the top 10 in the 18-team conference.

Lindsey has limited sacks, taking only 15 through nine games, and has added four rushing touchdowns.

In those three comebacks, Lindsey has had success when the offense goes into an up-tempo speed; his predecessor, Max Bosmer, had success in that style, too.

Harbaugh said the amount of times his offense will go up-tempo depends on the state of the game. How is the Gophers’ defense handling the other team’s offense? How is the U offensive line doing against a foe’s defensive front?

“It comes done to situationally being able to use it, so it helps our football team,” Harbaugh said. “But then secondly, sometimes you’ve just got to have it and you’ve got to be able to do it.”

Lindsey said success in clutch situations can come down to throwing some passes that might have been ill-advised earlier in the game.

Lindsey mentioned a 13-yard completion to Le’Meke Brockington on the game-tying drive against Michigan State. Lindsey threaded it into Brockington on third down. If they didn’t get a conversion in that moment, they faced a 4th and 4.

“You have to have confidence in all your guys,” Lindsey said. “But you also might have to make a throw that you might have not made or would have checked down in the first quarter.”

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By JILL COLVIN and LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Approval of the way President Donald Trump is managing the government has dropped sharply since early in his second term, according to a new AP-NORC poll, with much of the rising discontent coming from fellow Republicans.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted after Democrats’ recent victories in off-year elections but before Congress took major steps to try to end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. It shows that only 33% of U.S. adults approve of the way the Republican president is managing the government, down from 43% in an AP-NORC poll from March.

That was driven in large part by a decline in approval among Republicans and independents. According to the survey, only about two-thirds of Republicans, 68%, said they approve of Trump’s government management, down from 81% in March. Independents’ approval dropped from 38% to 25%.

The results highlight the risks posed by the shutdown, which Trump and his administration have tried to pin squarely on Democrats, even as U.S. adults have cast blame on both parties as the funding lapse has snarled air traffic, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks and comprised food aid for some of the most vulnerable Americans. But it could also indicate broader discontent with Trump’s other dramatic — and polarizing — changes to the federal government in recent months, including gutting agencies and directing waves of mass layoffs.

Trump’s approval on government management erodes among Republicans

Republicans have generally been steadfast in their support for the president, making their growing displeasure particularly notable.

“I’m thoroughly disturbed by the government shutdown for 40-something days,” said Beverly Lucas, 78, a Republican and retired educator who lives in Ormond Beach, Florida, and compared Trump’s second term to “having a petulant child in the White House, with unmitigated power.”

“When people are hungry, he had a party,” she said, referring to a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “I thought he seems callous.”

The survey found an overwhelming majority of Democrats, 95%, continue to disapprove of Trump’s management of the federal government, compared with 89% in March.

Trump’s overall approval holds steady

Even with the decline in support for his management of the government, Trump’s overall approval rating has remained steady in the new poll. About one-third of U.S. adults, 36%, approve of his overall handling of the presidency, roughly in line with 37% in an October AP-NORC poll. Approval of his handling of key issues like immigration and the economy have also barely changed since last month.

Health care emerged as a key issue in the shutdown debate as Democrats demanded that Republicans negotiate with them to extend tax credits that expire Jan. 1. But Trump’s approval on the issue, which was already fairly low, has barely changed.

About one-third, 34%, of Americans said they approved of Trump’s handling of health care in the November poll, compared with 31% in October.

And many of his supporters are still behind him. Susan McDuffie, 74, a Republican who lives in Carson City, Nevada, and retired several years ago, said she has “great confidence in Trump” and thinks the country is on the right track. She blames Democrats for the shutdown and the suffering it’s caused.

“I just don’t understand how the Democrats can care so little about the people,” she said, scoffing at the idea that Democrats were trying to use the shutdown to force Republicans to address soon-to-skyrocket health care costs.

“I don’t have any patience for the Democrats and their lame excuses,” she said, arguing that people who are scared about SNAP benefits expiring and struggling to put food on the table are a more pressing issue.

Plenty of blame to go around

When it comes to the shutdown, there is still plenty of blame to go around. Recent polls have indicated that while Republicans may be taking slightly more heat, many think Democrats are at fault, too.

“I truly do believe it’s everybody. Everybody is being stubborn,” said Nora Bailey, 33, a moderate who lives in the Batesville area in Arkansas and does not align with either party.

After recently giving birth, she said, she faced delays in getting a breast pump through a government program that helps new mothers while her son was in intensive care. And she is worried about her disabled parents, who rely on SNAP food stamp benefits.

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Overall, she said she is mixed on Trump’s handling of the job and disapproves of his management of the federal government because she believes he has not gone far enough to tackle waste.

“I don’t see enough being done yet to tell me we have downsized the federal government instead of having all these excess people,” she said.

It’s possible that Trump’s approval on handling the federal government will rebound if the government reopens. But the showdown could have a more lasting impact on perceptions of the president, whose approval on the economy and immigration has eroded slightly since the spring.

Lucas, the Florida Republican, said shutdowns in which civilians aren’t paid are the wrong way to address ideological disagreement.

“Air traffic controllers? Really? You want to not pay the people in whose hands your lives are every day?” she said. “We need to be addressing these conflicts like intelligent people and not thugs and bullies on the playground.”

Colvin reported from New York.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,143 adults was conducted Nov. 6-10 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

By EDDIE PELLS, Associated Press

It will be a busy opening day of action at the Los Angeles Olympics for the fastest women in the world.

As part of a seismic schedule change for the 2028 Games, track and field, and not swimming, will lead off the Olympics. In releasing the detailed schedule Wednesday, organizers revealed that the first day at the LA Coliseum, July 15, will include all three rounds of the women’s 100 meters.

Sprinters normally run a maximum of two races in a day at a major event. It’s a change the men will not have to deal with, but that a women’s field that could include the last two world champions, Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, and Olympic champ Julien Alfred are being given nearly three years to prepare for.

“To be the pre-eminent event on the first night of competition in the historic LA Memorial Coliseum, I think when we presented it to the athletes that way, there was excitement,” said Janet Evans, the gold-medal swimmer serving as chief athlete officer for the Los Angeles Games. “A majority of athletes said to me, ‘Just let me know. Let me know early, and I’ll start training to run three 100s in one day.”

FILE – Julien Alfred, of Saint Lucia, 4th left, crosses the finish line ahead of Sha’carri Richardson, of the United States, and Melissa Jefferson, of the United States, to win the women’s 100 meters final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, file)

Swimming to take place at SoFi

Swimming has traditionally kicked off the Summer Games, but because the opening ceremony is taking place at SoFi Stadium, same as the swim meet, organizers decided to make the swap. It was not feasible to set up the pool in the stadium so quickly after the ceremony.

Evans, who won four Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992, said the prospect of swimming in what is largely considered LA’s best new stadium in front of 38,000 fans is an opportunity her sport embraced. Also, swimmers are often forced to miss the opening because they compete the very next day.

“I could probably name on my two hands the swimmers I know who have actually been to opening ceremonies,” Evans said.

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Schedule not set up for McLaughlin-Levrone double

The schedule also makes it virtually impossible for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to try to double in both the 400 meters and the 400 hurdles.

McLaughlin-Levrone is the world-record holder and two-time defending champion in the hurdles. She took a year off from that to run in the 400 sprint this year, where at the world championships she became the first runner since 1985 to run the lap in less than 48 seconds (47.78). (Second-place finisher Marileidy Paulino also broke 48.)

McLaughlin-Levrone’s coach, Bobby Kersee, had hinted at the possibility she might go for the double. In the past — most notably in 1996 when Michael Johnson won the 200 and 400 — organizers have tailored the Olympic schedule to allow marquee track athletes to try for extra medals.

Not this time, though. The 400 hurdles semifinals and 400-meter final are each scheduled for July 20.

Chief of Sport and Games Delivery Shana Ferguson said LA consulted with World Athletics in designing the schedule.

“I can’t speak directly to any particular athlete’s schedule or how he or she is approaching the Games but we are arm and arm in the development of a contest schedule,” Ferguson said