Today is Friday, June 20, the 171st day of 2025. There are 194 days left in the year. Summer begins today.

Today in history:

On June 20, 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted and was sentenced to five years in prison. (Ali’s conviction would ultimately be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court).

Also on this date:

In 1782, the Continental Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, featuring the emblem of the bald eagle.

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In 1837, Queen Victoria acceded to the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV.

In 1893, a jury in New Bedford, Massachusetts, found Lizzie Borden not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.

In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were sent in by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths.

In 1947, gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, California, home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, likely at the order of mob associates.

In 1972, three days after the arrest of the Watergate burglars, President Richard Nixon met at the White House with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman; the secretly made tape recording of this meeting ended up with a notorious 18 1/2-minute gap.

In 2002, in the case Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that executing people with intellectual disabilities qualified as cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore in violation of the Eight Amendment.

Today’s Birthdays:

Filmmaker Stephen Frears is 84.
Musician-songwriter Brian Wilson is 83.
Singer Anne Murray is 80.
TV personality Bob Vila is 79.
Musician Lionel Richie is 76.
Actor John Goodman is 73.
Rock bassist Michael Anthony (Van Halen) is 71.
Rock bassist John Taylor (Duran Duran) is 65.
Actor Nicole Kidman is 58.
Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is 57.
Actor Josh Lucas is 54.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is 50.
Actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse is 36.

The St. Paul and Minneapolis skylines, including Allianz Field, will light up in gold-medal gold Friday evening to mark the one-year countdown for the 2026 Special Olympics, which will be hosted in Minnesota.

Next June, more than 3,000 athletes from across the United States will compete in 16 Olympic-style team and individual sports at the University of Minnesota and the National Sports Center in Blaine.

There are 75,000 to 100,00 people expected to visit Minnesota for the event, said Christine Sovereign, CEO for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

“It is a celebration of human potential,” Sovereign said. “And it is Minnesota on a national stage where all the athletes that will come to compete are seen, respected and cheered for.”

The 2026 games will be the first time Minnesota has held a Special Olympics event of this size since it hosted the Special Olympics World Games in 1991, according to Sovereign.

“The year-out milestone is more than just a countdown,” Sovereign said. “It really is a call to action to embrace inclusive mindsets … because more inclusive mindsets in our schools and in our communities leave us all in a better place.”

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By EVELYNE MUSAMBI

KAKUMA, Kenya (AP) — Martin Komol sighs as he inspects his cracked, mud-walled house that is one rain away from fully collapsing. Nothing seems to last for him and 300,000 other refugees in this remote Kakuma camp in Kenya — now, not even food rations.

Funding for the U.N. World Food Program has dropped after the Trump administration paused support in March, part of the widespread dismantling of foreign aid by the United States, once the world’s biggest donor.

That means Komol, a widowed father of five from Uganda, has been living on handouts from neighbors since his latest monthly ration ran out two weeks ago. He said he survives on one meal a day, sometimes a meal every two days.

“When we can’t find anyone to help us, we become sick, but when we go to the hospital, they say it’s just hunger and tell us to go back home,” the 59-year-old said. His wife is buried here. He is reluctant to return to Uganda, one of the more than 20 home countries of Kakuma’s refugees.

Food rations have been halved. Previous ration cuts led to protests in March. Monthly cash transfers that refugees used to buy proteins and vegetables to supplement the rice, lentils and cooking oil distributed by WFP have ended this month.

Each refugee now receives 3 kilograms (6 pounds) of rice per month, far below the 9 kilograms recommended by the U.N. for optimal nutrition. WFP hopes to receive the next donation of rice by August. That’s along with 1 kilogram of lentils and 500 milliliters of cooking oil per person.

“Come August, we are likely to see a more difficult scenario. If WFP doesn’t receive any funding between now and then, it means only a fraction of the refugees will be able to get assistance. It means only the most extremely vulnerable will be targeted,” said Colin Buleti, WFP’s head in Kakuma. WFP is seeking help from other donors.

As dust swirls along paths between the camp’s makeshift houses, the youngest children run and play, largely unaware of their parents’ fears.

But they can’t escape hunger. Komol’s 10-year-old daughter immerses herself in schoolbooks when there’s nothing to eat.

“When she was younger she used to cry, but now she tries to ask for food from the neighbors, and when she can’t get any she just sleeps hungry,” Komol said. In recent weeks, they have drunk water to try to feel full.

The shrinking rations have led to rising cases of malnutrition among children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

At Kakuma’s largest hospital, run by the International Rescue Committee, children with malnutrition are given fortified formula milk.

Nutrition officer Sammy Nyang’a said some children are brought in too late and die within the first few hours of admission. The 30-bed stabilization ward admitted 58 children in March, 146 in April and 106 in May. Fifteen children died in April, up from the monthly average of five. He worries they will see more this month.

“Now with the cash transfers gone, we expect more women and children to be unable to afford a balanced diet,” Nyang’a said.

The hospital had been providing nutrient-dense porridge for children and mothers, but the flour has run out after stocks, mostly from the U.S., were depleted in March. A fortified peanut paste given to children who have been discharged is also running out, with current supplies available until August.

In the ward of whimpering children, Susan Martine from South Sudan cares for her 2-year-old daughter, who has sores after swelling caused by severe malnutrition.

The mother of three said her family often sleeps hungry, but her older children still receive hot lunches from a WFP school feeding program. For some children in the camp, it’s their only meal. The program also faces pressure from the aid cuts.

“I don’t know how we will survive with the little food we have received this month,” Martine said.

The funding cuts are felt beyond Kakuma’s refugee community. Businessman Chol Jook recorded monthly sales of 700,000 Kenyan shillings ($5,400) from the WFP cash transfer program and now faces losses.

Those who are hungry could slip into debt as they buy on credit, he said.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids.

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The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor’s permission since 1965.

In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard.

It said that while presidents don’t have unfettered power to seize control of a state’s guard, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters.

“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects’ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van’s windows,” the court wrote. “The federal government’s interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.”

It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president’s order.

The California governor’s office and the White House didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted an emergency temporary restraining to stop President Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard, Thursday, June 12, 2025, at the California State Supreme Court building in San Francisco. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

The court case could have wider implications on the president’s power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities.

Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down.

Two judges on the appeals panel were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in.

The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump’s command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.

Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said only allows presidents can take control during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”

“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’” wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can’t second guess the president’s decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court.

The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold.