By BEATRICE DUPUY, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — With his calm and cool demeanor, fashion disruptor and multi-hyphenate Virgil Abloh artfully challenged the fashion industry’s traditions to leave his mark as a Black creative, despite his short-lived career.

In the years since his 2021 death at just 41, his vision and image still linger. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robin Givhan sheds new light on how Abloh ascended the ranks of one of the top luxury fashion houses and captivated the masses with her latest book, “Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh.”

In the book out Tuesday, Givhan documents Abloh’s early life growing up as the son of Ghanaian immigrants in Rockford, Illinois, his days as graduate student studying architecture and his working relationship and friendship with Kanye West.

Before taking the helm of Louis Vuitton as the house’s first Black menswear creative director, Abloh threw himself into his creative pursuits including fine art, architecture, DJing and design. Abloh remixed his interests with his marketing genius and channeled it into fashion with streetwear labels like Been Trill and Pyrex Vision.

These endeavors were the launchpad for his luxury streetwear label Off-White, known for its white diagonal lines, quotation marks, red zip ties and clean typeface. Off-White led to Abloh’s collaboration with Ikea, where he designed a rug with “KEEP OFF” in all-white letters and also with Nike where he deconstructed and reenvisioned 10 of Nike’s famous shoe silhouettes.

Throughout his ventures, Abloh built a following of sneakerheads and so-called hypebeasts who liked his posts, bought into his brands and showed up in droves outside his fashion shows. Social media made Abloh accessible to his fans and he tapped into that.

Off-White had built a loyal following and some critics. Givhan, a Washington Post senior critic-at-large, openly admits that she was among the latter early on. Givhan said she was fascinated that Abloh’s popularity was more than his fashion.

“For me, there was something of a disconnect really,” she said. “That here was this person who had clearly had an enormous impact within the fashion industry and outside of the fashion industry, and yet it wasn’t really about the clothing. It was about something else.”

For her latest project, Givhan spoke with The Associated Press on how she approached each of Abloh’s creative undertakings and his legacy during a period of heightened racial tension in America. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Tell me why you felt it was important to include the context of what was happening at the time Abloh was growing up as well as on his rise up through the fashion industry, with him ultimately ending up at Louis Vuitton.

GIVHAN: Fashion doesn’t just sort of happen in a vacuum. People are the product of their parents, their family, their environment, their timing, their interests, all of those things.

I always like to see, what is swirling around people when they make certain decisions? What is sort of in the water that you’re absorbing, that you are not even conscious that you’re absorbing it.

AP: Can you talk about the process of writing about all of his creative endeavors and how they shaped his career?

GIVHAN: The skater culture — in part because it was such a sort of subculture that also had a very specific aesthetic and was such a deep part of the whole world of streetwear — and then the DJing part intrigued me because so much of his work as a designer seems to reflect a kind of DJ ethos, where you’re not creating the melody and you’re not creating the lyrics. You’re taking these things that already exist and you’re remixing them and you’re responding to the crowd and the crowd is informing you. And so much of that, to me, could also be used to describe the way that he thought about fashion and the way that he designed.

AP: What role would you say that Virgil has had in the fashion industry today?

GIVHAN: He certainly raised the question within the industry of what is the role of the creative director? How much more expansive is that role? … And I do think he has really forced the question of how are we defining luxury? Like what is a luxury brand? And is it something that is meant to sort of have this lasting impact? Is it supposed to be this beautifully crafted item? Or is it really just a way of thinking about value and beauty and desirability? And if it’s those things, then really it becomes something that is quite sort of quite personal and can be quite based on the community in which you live.

AP: How did he use social media to his advantage and to help catapult his career?

GIVHAN: He really used social media as a way of connecting with people as opposed to just sort of using it as kind of a one-way broadcast. He was telling his side of things, but he was also listening to other people. He was listening to that feedback.

That’s also what made him this larger-than-life person for a lot of people, because not only was he this creative person who was in conversation with fans and contemporaries, but he was this creative person inside. He was this creative person at the very top of the fashion industry. For a lot of people, the idea that you could ostensibly have a conversation with someone at that level, and they would seemingly pull back the curtain and be transparent about things — that was really quite powerful.

AP: You write about his relationship to Kanye in the book. Were you able to get any input from him on their relationship for the book?

GIVHAN: Their individual ambitions, aesthetic ideas and curiosity kind of propelled them forward in separate directions. I did reach out to Kanye after a lot of the reporting because he obviously is this thread that is woven throughout the book. And, ultimately, he elected not to engage.

But I was lucky enough to get access to an unpublished conversation that Virgil had had around, I think it was 2016-ish, where he talked at length about his working relationship with Kanye and sort of the differences between them and the similarities and the ways in which … Kanye inspired him and sort of the jet fuel that he got from that relationship.

More than anything, because Virgil’s personality was in so many ways kind of the opposite of Kanye’s, that for every door that Kanye was kind of pounding on, Virgil was able to politely sort of walk through.

AP: Why do you think his legacy continues to persist?

GIVHAN: For one, he had such an enormous output of work. I think there’s a lot of it to consider. Also, sadly, because his career was cut so short that there is this sense of someone who sort of stops speaking mid-sentence.

I’ve been thinking about how Virgil might have responded, how his creativity might have responded to this moment because so much shifted post-George Floyd that like this is another inflection point and it makes me wonder, “OK, how would he have responded today?” And with the person who said, “I’m not a rebel and I’m not a flame thrower,” would he have picked up some matches? I don’t know.

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 44, witnesses and hospitals said, as health authorities announced the number of Palestinians killed in the war has risen above 56,000.

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The new food distribution sites run by an American contractor, with U.S. and Israeli government support, have been plagued by scenes of violence and chaos since opening last month.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading to the sites for desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner while going to the sites.

In central Gaza, three witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire as people advanced east toward aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza.

“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, “even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded.”

Hossam Abu Shahada said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward. He described a “chaotic and bloody” scene as people tried to escape.

He said he saw at least three people lying motionless and many others wounded.

Israel’s military said it was reviewing the incident, which took place near the Netzarim corridor, a road that separates northern and southern Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians live in a tent camp in Gaza City, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were wounded. It said 62 were in critical condition and transferred to other hospitals.

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people from the same incident.

In the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach another food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

At least 19 were killed and 50 others wounded, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Two witnesses said Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed at the Shakoush area, several hundred meters (yards) from the distribution site.

The Israeli military did not immediately return a request for comment.

Salem Ismail was in the crowd and was shot in a leg. He said he saw forces firing towards the crowd who were moving north toward the site.

Ayman Abu Joda said he saw heavy gunfire from Israeli tanks and that many people were shot. He said he helped evacuate three wounded people, one hit in the chest and two in the legs.

“It was the same tragedy every day: We seek food and the occupation opens fire and kills many,” he said.

Hamam Al-Farani, sits along with other family members as the body of his father, Alaa, killed in an Israeli army strike that also injured the boy, is prepared for burial at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The casualty toll was confirmed to The Associated Press by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry’s records department.

The GHF said on social media its hub there opened Tuesday at 10 a.m. and closed after finishing food distribution. It called on people not to head to the hub.

Israel wants the GHF to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Along with the United States, it accuses Hamas of stealing aid, without offering evidence. The U.N. denies there is systematic diversion of aid.

The GHF sites are in Israeli military zones where independent media have no access.

Death toll in Gaza over 56,000

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israel’s 21-month military operation in Gaza has killed 56,077 people. The war was sparked by Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage. Many have been released by ceasefire or other agreements.

The death toll is by far the highest in any round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The ministry said the dead include 5,759 who have been killed since Israel resumed fighting on March 18, shattering a two-month ceasefire.

The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children.

Israel says it only targets combatants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, which operates in heavily populated areas. Israel says over 20,000 Hamas fighters have been killed, though it has provided no evidence to support that claim. Hamas — which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union — has not commented on its casualties.

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season got its first named storm of the year, even though the National Hurricane Center says it will be short-lived.

The NHC began advisories on Tropical Storm Andrea after 10 a.m. located about 1,205 miles west of the Azores moving east-northeast at 17 mph with sustained winds of 40 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend out 45 miles.

“Little change in strength is expected today. Weakening is expected to begin tonight, with Andrea dissipating by Wednesday night,” forecasters said.

The next advisory won’t be until 5 p.m. ET.

The system had looked like it would die out without formation as it moved east in the central subtropical Atlantic 900 miles east-northeast of Bermuda, but then the NHC said in a special 8:30 a.m. tropical outlook that the small gale-force low-pressure system was becoming more organized.

In most years, the Atlantic hurricane season has generated at least one storm by this time, more than three weeks into hurricane season. It’s the latest since 2014 that tropical activity hasn’t bred a tracked system. That year, the first tropical depression didn’t form until June 30.

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Between 2015 to 2024, though, the first tracked system had already formed by June 1, the first official day of hurricane season.

Despite the late start, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is predicted to be above-normal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The agency predicts 13 to 19 named storms, of which 6-10 will become hurricanes. Three to five of those would grow into major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher.

Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

By VALERIE GONZALEZ

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Immigration arrests seen on video are showing an emerging trend: More Border Patrol agents are doing their jobs far from the borders with Mexico or Canada.

A Border Patrol agent was seen hitting a Southern California landscaper on the head and neck as he was pinned to the ground during an arrest Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security said the man swung his weed trimmer at agents. The man’s son, Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran, said his father was scared but did not attack anyone.

With border arrests at the lowest levels in about 60 years, the roughly 20,000 Border Patrol agents are showing up elsewhere.

Here are things to know about the trend:

Why is the Border Patrol working away from the border?

President Donald Trump’s House-approved “big, beautiful bill” proposes $8 billion to increase U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff by 10,000 people. Until then, the agency primarily responsible for interior enforcement is relying on other federal agencies as it struggles to meet a daily arrest target of at least 3,000 set by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of immigration policy.

ICE, with only about 6,000 deportation officers, has found a ready partner in the Border Patrol, which is also part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It comes at a time when border arrests plunged to an average of 282 a day in May after peaking at more than 8,000 a day in December 2023.

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Agents in the Border Patrol’s Yuma, Arizona, sector assisted ICE officers last week in Philadelphia, Justin De La Torre, the sector chief, said in a social media post. His sector averaged only four arrests a day on the Arizona border last month after peaking at more than 1,100 a day in May 2023.

Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, sector, appeared alongside U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a news conference this month in Los Angeles during which U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcefully removed, pushed to the ground and handcuffed.

“We’re here and not going away,” Bovino said, introducing himself to reporters as his agency’s top representative during ICE-led operations in Los Angeles.

Few see any reason to doubt the Border Patrol will remain.

“So long as the border remains relatively quiet, we will continue to see the Border Patrol deployed to act almost as if they are ICE agents,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group.

What is the 100-mile border zone?

Agents are granted by federal law the ability to stop and question people within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border, including the coasts. They have heightened authority to board and search buses, trains and vessels without a warrant within the zone.

That encompasses vast swaths of the country that include about two-thirds of the U.S. population, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Los Angeles is well within 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean.

Beyond that zone, agents are still authorized to work within the United States.

“The Border Patrol can still operate fully in the interior. It’s just that they have less authority to stop and question people,” said Reichlin-Melnick.

What can the Border Patrol do beyond the 100 miles?

Past the 100-mile enforcement zone, Border Patrol agents, like officers working for ICE or the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations, are classified as immigration officers who are authorized to carry out arrests and detain people on suspicion of violating immigration law. There are some limits.

“They could only search somebody’s car on probable cause that the person has violated the law,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “And so people have somewhat heightened rights against search and seizure outside of the 100-mile zone than they do inside of the 100-mile zone. But each individual case will vary depending on the specific circumstances.”