SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor has signed a bill that prohibits hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from activists in the largely conservative U.S. territory.

The law approved late Wednesday applies to those younger than 21 and calls for 15 years in prison for any violators, as well as a $50,000 penalty and the revocation of all licenses and permits of medical staff.

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“Minors, having not yet reached the necessary emotional, cognitive, and physical maturity, are particularly vulnerable to making decisions that can have irreversible consequences,” the law reads. “Therefore, it is the State’s duty to ensure their comprehensive well-being.”

It also states that public funds cannot be used for such purposes.

Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ Federation criticized the law in a statement Thursday.

“Let there be no doubt: We will go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the governor’s cruel and inhumane signing of a law that criminalizes health professionals for caring for trans minors,” said Justin Jesús Santiago, the federation’s director.

Puerto Rico associations that represent physicians, surgeons, psychologists, social workers, lawyers and other professionals had urged the governor to veto the bill.

Roughly two dozen U.S. states have similar laws.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Two days of heavy downpours in South Korea have killed at least four people and forced more than 1,300 others to evacuate, officials said Thursday.

One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain on Wednesday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

A village area is flooded due to heavy rain in Yesan, South Korea, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Yoo Hyung-seok/Yonhap via AP)

Three other people were separately found dead Thursday in a submerged car, a stream, and a flooded basement in southern regions. Ministry officials said they were still investigating whether those deaths were directly caused by heavy rain.

The heavy rain has forced the evacuation of 1,382 people from their homes, the ministry said in a statement, adding 46 flights have been cancelled.

Parts of southern South Chungcheong province have received up to 16.5 inches of rain since Wednesday, according to the ministry.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is hanging near its records on Thursday following some better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading and just a bit below its all-time high set a week before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 105 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.1% to its record set the day before.

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Trading was calmer than Wednesday’s, when President Donald Trump jolted financial markets by saying he had discussed the “concept” of firing the chair of the Federal Reserve but was unlikely to do so. Such a move could help Wall Street get the lower interest rates it loves but would also risk a weakened Fed unable to make the unpopular moves needed to keep inflation under control.

PepsiCo jumped 6.6% after delivering revenue and profit that topped Wall Street’s expectations. The drink and snack giant stood by its financial forecasts given in April, which projected lower full-year profit than previous forecasts due to increased costs from tariffs and a pullback in consumer spending.

United Airlines flew 6.4% higher after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it’s seen an acceleration in demand from customers that began in early July, and it’s expecting less uncertainty about the economy to hurt its business in the second half of this year.

Lucid Group’s stock surged 25.3% after it said Uber is aiming to use 20,000 or more of its vehicles over six years in a robotaxi program. Using an autonomy system by Nuro, it expects to launch “later next year in a major US city.”

Uber, which plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro, saw its stock edge down by 0.1%.

A strong profit report from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. helped tech stocks, and its net income soared nearly 61% in the last quarter from a year earlier. The chip maker said it’s seeing strong demand from artificial-intelligence and other customers, and its stock that trades in the United States rose 2.2%.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Abbott, which fell 6.1% despite delivering results for the latest quarter that edged past analysts’ expectations. The health care company cut the top end of its forecasted range for revenue growth over 2025.

Elevance Health dropped 9.2% after reporting a weaker profit than analysts expected. It cut its forecast for profit in 2025 because of rising medical cost trends in its Affordable Care Act business, along with other factors.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed following several better-than-expected reports on the economy.

One said that shoppers upped their spending at U.S. retailers by more last month than economists expected. Such spending, along with a relatively solid jobs market, has helped keep the U.S. economy out of a recession.

A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could be a signal of limited layoffs. A third suggested unexpectedly strong growth in manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region.

Such solid data could keep the Federal Reserve on pause when it comes to interest rates. The Fed has been keeping rates steady this year, after cutting them at the end of last year. The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has been insisting that he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move.

That’s because while lower interest rates could goose the economy and prices for investments, they would also give inflation more fuel when prices may already be starting to feel the upward effects of tariffs.

Thursday’s strong economic helped push the two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, up to 3.89% from 3.88% late Wednesday.

Longer-term Treasury yields, though, eased a bit, and the 10-year yield edged down to 4.44% from 4.46%. The Fed has less influence over these yields, where investors in the bond market carry more sway.

Bond investors had briefly driven longer-term yields higher on Wednesday, when fears were high that Trump may fire Powell. The president has been angrily calling for Powell to cut interest rates, and a less independent Fed may end up keeping short-term rates low in the near term and allowing inflation to run higher in future years. Longer-term yields then relaxed after Trump said he was unlikely to fire Powell.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

By WAFAA SHURAFA and MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli shell slammed into the compound of Gaza’s only Catholic church on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding several others, according to witnesses and church officials. Among the injured was the parish’s priest, who became a close friend of Pope Francis in the final months of the late pontiff’s life.

The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the war.

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in response to the attack.

In a telegram of condolences for the victims sent by the Vatican’s No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Leo expressed “his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region.” The pope was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack,″ and expressed his closeness to the parish priest, the Rev. Gabriele Romanelli and the entire parish.

Romanelli was very close to the late Pope Francis and the two spoke often during the war in Gaza.

Hundreds of people sheltered at the church

The church compound was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the fatalities and people injured.

FILE – Palestinian Christians wait to pray at the midnight Christmas Eve mass out side the Deir Al Latin Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, Dec. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, file)

The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish’s 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were killed in the attack. Parish priest Romanelli was lightly injured.

The Israeli military said it was aware of the damage caused at the church and is investigating. The Israeli military said it “makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.” Israel accuses Hamas of operating from civilians areas.

In a rare move, the Israeli Foreign Ministry posted an apology on social media. “Israel expresses deep sorrow over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and over any civilian casualty,” the ministry said.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the strike on the church. “The attacks on the civilian population that Israel has been demonstrating for months are unacceptable. No military action can justify such an attitude,” she said.

The church is just a stone’s throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Naem said, noting that the area around both the church and the hospital has been repeatedly struck for over a week.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which also has a church in Gaza that previously sustained damage from Israeli strikes, said the Holy Family Church was sheltering 600 displaced people, including many children, and 54 people with disabilities. It said the building suffered significant damage.

Targeting a holy site “is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war,” the Church said in a statement.

Separately, another person was killed and 17 injured Thursday in a strike against two schools sheltering displaced people in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.

Pope Francis spoke almost daily with Gaza church

In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

Last year, he told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he calls a priest daily at 7 p.m. at the Holy Family Church to hear what was happening to the nearly 600 people sheltering at the facility.

Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the U.S. State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2024. The report says the majority of Palestinian Christians are Greek Orthodox but they also include other Christians, including Roman Catholics.

Ceasefire negotiations continuing

The strikes come as Israel and Hamas continue talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, though little progress has been made.

According to an Israeli official familiar with the details, Israel is showing “flexibility” on some of the issues that have challenged negotiators, including Israeli presence in some of the security corridors the military has carved into the Gaza Strip.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing ongoing negotiations, said Israel has shown some willingness to compromise on the Morag Corridor, which cuts across southern Gaza. However, other issues remain, including the list of prisoners to be freed and commitments to end the war.

The official says there are signs of optimism but there won’t be a deal immediately.

The war began with Hamas’ cross-border terrorists attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Colleen Barry in Milan, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed.