By ELÉONORE HUGHES

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian Catholic worshippers laid down an eco-friendly carpet in front of the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and called for the protection of the environment ahead of UN climate talks in the Amazon.

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Tapestries are a fixture of the Corpus Christi religious feast when Catholics celebrate what they believe is the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

This year, the colorful carpet was made from approximately 1,014 pounds of recycled plastic caps. Over the past few years the Christ the Redeemer sanctuary has increasingly used the attention the iconic statue generates to spotlight environmental concerns.

“These caps could be polluting the environment. Today they’re here as a carpet,” said Marcos Martins, environmental manager and educator at the sanctuary. “It’s the circular economy: we take the material, we’re reusing it here and then we’re going to reuse it again with an exhibition.”

People pray before the start of a Mass celebrating the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi a tthe Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, June 19, 2025 (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Just after day break and before the first flock of tourists arrived Thursday, Cardinal Orani João Tempesta led celebrations at the site overlooking Guanabara Bay and Rio’s famed Sugarloaf mountain.

The caps are “a good reminder of our co-responsibility with ecology, of our concern for the environment, which are very characteristic of Christ the Redeemer,” Rio’s archbishop told journalists.

Thursday’s celebration also paid homage to the late Pope Francis and his Laudato Si’, a landmark environmental encyclical in which he cast care for the environment in stark moral terms. In the papal letter Francis called for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he said was a “structurally perverse” economic system in which the rich exploited the poor, turning Earth into a pile of “filth” in the process.

A woman puts the last touches on a rug made from plastic bottle caps for a Mass celebrating the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi near the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, June 19, 2025 (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

“The COP30 is coming up and we’ve just had the U.N. Ocean Conference. Nothing makes more sense than Christ being a great spokesperson for this issue,” said Carlos Lins, the sanctuary’s marketing director.

Earlier this month, the sanctuary held workshops, discussion groups and actions focusing on environmental preservation. The statue — perched on the Corcovado mountain — is itself located in the Tijuca National Park.

Brazil has been hit by a series of environmental disasters in recent years, including severe droughts in the Amazon, wildfires in the Pantanal and flooding in the south.

Rugs made from plastic bottle caps line the walkway to the Christ the Redeemer statue during a Mass celebrating the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

This week heavy rains killed at least two people in the southern region Rio Grande do Sul, just over a year after it was hit by the worst flooding on record.

Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.

The Christ the Redeemer statue stands over Rio de Janeiro before a morning Mass celebrating the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi is held at the statue, Thursday, June 19, 2025 (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

More than 10,000 gleaming street rods, muscle cars and vintage rides will cruise into the Minnesota State Fairgrounds this weekend — and then 130 of them will take off in a hurry for the legendary Hemmings Great Race to South Carolina.

The nine-day, 2,300-mile rally will take the antique, vintage and collector cars to Irmo, S.C., departing Saturday from the 51st annual Back to the ’50s Weekend. The newest cars will be from 1974 and the oldest in this year’s race is a 1913 Chevrolet truck.

Two Minnesotans will compete: Craig Amundson in a 1973 BMW 2002 and Jerome Reinan in a 1918 American LaFrance. The two men say the race is a family event, more of a rolling family reunion about making memories.

Reinan, who grew up outside of Fergus Falls, Minn., and now lives on Lake Lida near Vergas, drove a 1949 Plymouth in high school and since then has always owned at least one older car.

In college, he first heard about the rally and was determined to compete in the race one day. After law school, working on his career and raising a family, he entered his first race in 2013 driving a wood-paneled 1931 Rolls Royce Shooting Brake.

Jerome Reinan, right, and his cousin, Chris Brungardt, with their 1918 LaFrance Speedster at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 2016. The two will drive the car in the 2025 Hemmings Motor News Great Race, a nine-day vintage car rally, that will start from MSRA’s Back to the Fifties rally at the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights on June 21, 2025. The race, which will finish in Irmo, South Carolina on June 29, is known for its time-speed-distance format, where precise navigation and timing, not speed, are key. (Courtesy of Jerome Reinan)

His team, the Wandering Troubadours of Finland, is named partly for his mother’s Finnish heritage and partly for “a popular acronym that by itself is not family friendly.” They have competed every year since 2013 except one.

The members of the team sometimes change, as well as the cars that race, but normally it consists of Reinan, his two brothers, two cousins, a lawyer friend, his father, his uncle and his brothers-in-law, he said.

“That group of jolly, liver-challenged knuckleheads travels behind the rally in an old tandem diesel school bus that has been converted to an RV,” he said. “Since we have no real fear of winning the race, the race is more of a family gathering than an actual competition. We have also come to see our Great Race competitors as extended family as well.”

He said they most often compete with the 1918 American LaFrance.

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“It usually is the most primitive car on the rally, even if it is not necessarily the oldest,” he said. “It has only rear brakes, which are activated by a handle instead of a foot pedal. It is a dual chain drive, and the chains are about 10 times the size of a normal bicycle chain. It has wood spoked wheels and a huge 9.5 liter, four-cylinder T-head engine.”

For perspective on that engine, the largest V-8s in today’s pickups range from 6.2 to 7.3 liters.

The LaFrance has proven to be very reliable, Reinan said, and he has put more than 30,000 miles on it, “none of them even remotely comfortable.”

For car enthusiasts, the rally is the ultimate gathering, he said.

“You get to see the best part of our beautiful country through the windshield of an old car — provided you have a windshield. You get to use your mechanical skills, your survival skills, your interpersonal skills and your skills as an ambassador for the hobby,” Reinan said.

A ‘young’ 1973 BMW

Craig Amundson, left, and his son-in-law Jeff Mischke with a 1973 BMW 2002 they will drive in the 2025 Hemmings Motor News Great Race, a nine-day vintage car rally that will start from MSRA’s Back to the Fifties rally at the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights on June 21, 2025. The race, which will finish in Irmo, South Carolina on June 29, is known for its time-speed-distance format, where precise navigation and timing, not speed, are key. (Courtesy of Craig Amundson)

Several years ago, Amundson, of Eden Prairie, put his name on the wait list to compete in the Great Race after hearing about it from an acquaintance. In 2022, he was offered a spot, but didn’t have a car that would qualify so he began to look around.

“My wife, Kris, spotted the 1973 BMW 2002 sitting on the street, with a for-sale sign,” he said.

The car required some work before it was ready to race but had been a competitive vehicle.

The BMW, named Emily Re-Tyred, was initially restored by Paul Wegweiser in Pittsburgh as a 2002ti Alpina tribute car, with European esthetics. Emily has competed in multiple rallies, most associated with the Great Race, he said.

Amundson drives the car while his son-in-law, Jeff Mischke, of Hopkins, navigates.

“It has an interesting history and is a known car within the BMW 2002 world,” he said. “The only drawback is that it is young — 52 years old — and its age does not help in scoring calculations.”

Involvement in the race has been “an exceptional experience,” Amundson said. “For us, it is a family event” as his children and their partners follow along on the race as crew members.

“We try to arrange vacation times to meet at the finish line location for some family time,” he said. “Universally, the people involved in the race are friendly and supportive, even though the race is intense and competitive. Each day of the race includes community-supported lunch stops and end of day celebrations. The crowds are surprisingly large with plenty of old car stories. Almost everyone likes old cars.”

Organizers say the race is a “competitive, controlled-speed endurance road rally on public highways” and is not a test of top speeds but “rather a test of the teams’ and drivers’ ability to follow precise course instructions and … ability to endure on a cross-country trip.”

Enthusiasts gather for a vintage car preview at the MSRA Back to the Fifties Weekend Kickoff Rally at Mancini’s Char House in St. Paul on Thursday, June 19, 2025. The 51st Minnesota Street Rod Association’s “Back to the Fifties Weekend” will bring some 10,000 street rods, custom and classic cars and restored vehicles, all dating from 1964 and earlier, to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights from June 20-22, 2025. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

Saturday starting ceremony

An 11:45 a.m. Saturday ceremony will precede the noon official start time for the race, which will begin at the Fairgrounds main gate at Dan Patch and Snelling avenues.

The racers make their first stop in Rochester, Minn., for the night and then make 16 more stops in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The race takes a different route each year and drivers compete for the $160,000 prize, split among five classes. The biggest winner takes home $50,000.

Each stop is open to the public and people can visit with the drivers and have a look at the cars.

“It is common for racers to allow kids to climb in the cars for a first-hand look,” said Houston Gibson, race coordinator for this year’s oldest vehicle, the 1913 Chevrolet truck.

The most popular vehicles in the races tend to be classic 1960s Mustangs, Gibson said.

“When the Great Race pulls into a city it becomes an instant festival,” says Jeff Stumb, director of the race. “Last year, we had several overnight stops with more than 10,000 spectators.”

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The race will end Sunday, June 29, in Irmo, S.C., near Lake Murray.

The Minnesota Street Rod Association’s Back to the ’50s Weekend will feature more than 200 vendors inside and outside at the Fairgrounds. Wally Burchill, a board member, said the association is proud to have been selected for the second time as the location for the start of the Great Race. (The first time was in 2013.)

Admission to the Back to the ’50s Weekend is $15 for those over 15; children 15 and under are free with each paid adult. Advance discount tickets with $2 off are available at participating NAPA auto parts stores.

For more information to go to msrabacktothe50s.com and greatrace.com.

Students at the University of Minnesota will face the largest tuition hike in more than a decade despite leaner operations this fall across all of the school’s campuses and colleges.

Meanwhile, a flurry of long-awaited maintenance and construction projects will include new suicide prevention barriers along the Washington Avenue bridge in Minneapolis.

A 6.5% tuition hike for state residents enrolled in the Twin Cities campuses will arrive hand-in-hand with a 7% spending cut, or “scope reduction,” to both academic and non-academic programs across the University’s school and colleges, according to U president Rebecca Cunningham, who presented the final 2026 budget this week to the University’s Board of Regents.

In-state students will now pay $16,132 per year, up from about $15,100, while non-resident undergraduates will see tuition grow 7.5% and pay $39,018 per year. Tuition increases at the Duluth campus will be milder. U officials said inflation and federal funding cuts necessitated the hikes, which are the largest tuition increases since 2011.

The University will not receive any new state funding for general operations “for the first time in decades,” Cunningham said, even as more than $40 million in cuts “and rising” are being handed down from the federal government.

“We can all agree there are no easy choices this year,” she said, addressing the board. “Higher education is truly facing unprecedented challenges. The University of Minnesota is not immune, and therefore we have to make difficult decisions.”

Financial aid kicks in

Despite the tuition increase, the state’s North Star Promise program and other sources of financial aid will heavily buffer the impact for families earning less than $110,000, U officials said.

As a result, families earning less than $80,000 may not see a net increase at all in both tuition and fees.

Once other sources of aid are exhausted, the state-funded North Star Promise aims to cover “last dollar” gaps in tuition assistance for low-income students enrolled in Minnesota state colleges and universities, tribal colleges and the University of Minnesota.

“Our least-resourced students will not see this tuition increase in their tuition bill,” Cunningham said. “Our students … are paying 3% less in real dollars than they were paying a decade ago. … We do not have run-away tuition, as we do in many other parts of the country.”

Regents vote on budget, tuition hike

Expressing concern over what they described as an unprecedented fiscal climate, the Board of Regents voted 9-3 to approve the 2026 operating budget of $5.1 billion on Wednesday, as well as funding for $194.6 million in capital improvements.

The U will dip into its central reserves for $60 million to support a Strategic Investment Fund, while leaving programmatic “scope reductions” to the individual deans and leaders of each school, college and unit.

“The new strategic plan isn’t done yet,” said Regent James Farnsworth, in an interview. He cast a dissenting vote after expressing concern about the tuition hikes, as well as cuts disproportionately impacting academic programs rather than administrative spending, and what he deemed a lack of “collaboration and communication” with impacted units.

“My biggest concern is about the proposed tuition increase, and what that means for families who may already be stretched thin,” said Regent Bo Thao-Urabe, who also cast one of the three dissenting votes. “Certainly, I know this is a very complex moment for the University, with no easy choices.”

Regent Mary Turner noted that demands for student services, including disability services, have ballooned over the decades, as have the University’s contributions to cutting-edge medical and scientific research, even as state support has dropped with time.

“In the late ’70s, ’80s … our state government funded us up to 60%,” said Turner, who voted to support the new budget. “What did we get this year? Nothing.”

Construction on campus

Also approved this week, the University’s capital improvement budget relies on $60 million from the recently-approved $700 million state bonding bill for facility work, as well as another $8 million from Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council for permanent suicide prevention barriers along the Washington Avenue bridge.

The state funding will allow the U to complete long-deferred maintenance across all of its campuses, said Gregg Goldman, the executive vice president for Finance and Operations, addressing the board.

Otherwise, “we’re asking every campus, college and unit to do more with less,” he said.

Major construction projects in the capital improvement budget include:

• Solar panels across multiple locations on the Twin Cities campus ($25.4 million).

• Betty’s Apple House, a new apple house at the Landscape Arboretum, funded entirely by philanthropic gifts ($23.4 million).

• Safety railings on the Washington Avenue bridge, funded by Hennepin County and the Met Council ($8 million).

Strategic planning initiatives

Despite overall cost-cutting, Cunningham said the new budget sets aside “modest” one-time funding for strategic planning initiatives, which are still being developed.

Three likely examples, she said, include investments in artificial intelligence, “the revitalization of the St. Paul campus” and student wellbeing.

“One cannot cut toward the future,” Cunningham said. “While we make cuts, we must also make investments toward the future.”

The U also plans to take steps toward growing student recruitment online and nationally while preparing for its next capital campaign, Goldman said.

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Twins starting pitcher Chris Paddack had a message for all lending an ear after Minnesota’s 12-5 win in Cincinnati on Thursday afternoon.

“Make sure y’all vote Buck for the All-Star game,” he told reporters.

Byron Buxton’s current play certainly deserves such a stage.

The Twins’ center fielder homered in each of the first two innings to help snap Minnesota’s six-game losing streak and bring the club back to .500 on the year (37-37). For the second straight game, Buxton opened the proceedings with a leadoff home run.

And for the second straight game, Minnesota’s starting pitcher relinquished the 1-0 advantage by surrendering a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. That spelled doom for the Twins on Wednesday, as the offense outside dried up in a 4-2, rain-shortened defeat.

But as Paddack returned to the dugout after giving up those runs on Thursday, Buxton came over and told him, “Keep us right there, and we’ll be just fine.”

He wasn’t lying.

Kody Clemens turned hard on a ball and kept it inside the right field foul pole to put Minnesota back up 3-2 in the second frame. Next up was Buxton. He delivered the same result, and suddenly it was 4-2 Twins.

There was no slowing down the Minnesota bats on this occasion. The Twins chased Reds starter Nick Martinez midway through the third frame, putting seven earned runs on his ledger before his exit.

Minnesota scored multiple runs in the second, third and fourth innings, and led 9-4 through three and a half frames.

“Guys were seeing it well, a lot of crooked numbers there in the first four innings,” Paddack said. “So, definitely getting some run support early as a starter, it takes a little stress off your shoulders where you can go out there, compete, be aggressive in the zone.”

Paddack noted Thursday was perhaps the most fatigued he’d been all season, calling it a “grinding” start. He said Cincinnati features a low-sloped mound that makes it feel as though “we’re throwing on flat ground.” So, he didn’t have the same velocity and bite on his stuff.

But he and catcher Ryan Jeffers adjusted and devised a plan to be aggressive early in counts against the Reds’ patient hitters and pound the lower half of the zone. Paddack (3-6) threw scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth innings to earn the win.

“Walking off the mound with Rocco shaking my hand,” Paddack said, “it definitely was a positive.”

As was the entire day for a team that’s struggled so mightily of late. Minnesota had dropped 10 of its last 12 contests entering Thursday’s bout, effectively erasing its previous hot stretch of play.

Frustrations were seemingly let out with each swing in the matinee. The Twins tallied a whopping 17 hits. Everyone who stepped to the plate for Minnesota on Thursday recorded at least one. Carlos Correa went 3 for 5. Jeffers — who also homered — Clemens and Ty France also had multi-hit outings.

“We were relentless early in the game, and then we stayed on it and had some good at bats throughout the game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters. “We continued to put ourselves in a good position to score a bunch of runs. Great day for the offense and, overall, just a lot of positives.”

It was Buxton leading the charge.

He tacked on a double to go with his two home runs as his torrid pace at the plate continues to pair beautifully with his heroics in the outfield.

“He’s been in a good, relaxed place. You might call it ‘the zone,’” Baldelli said. “Whatever you want to call it, he’s playing great. Seeing the ball good. Had another good day at the plate. Swinging at good pitches, really attacking and barreling them up. Just another incredible effort.”

Buxton has homered in each of his last three games. Over the last 10 days, his batting average has spiked from .258 to .280.

“He’s played a lot of games where he’s just taking over the game. He’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and he likes it. I think it fires him up. His teammates are fired up, too, watching it,” Baldelli said. “But he’s exuding a lot of confidence right now. It takes a lot for him to do that, because he’s kind of a reserved guy in some ways, but I think he’s loving the way he’s playing right now, and I’m loving the way he’s playing right now.”

Buxton is breathing life into a Twins’ team that was in major need of a jolt. He provided one. Now, the challenge is to keep the electricity pumping as Minnesota returns home for a seven-game homestand, which opens Friday against Milwaukee.

“We played some tight ballgames on the trip. I’m fine grabbing the win today, getting on the “Overall, some things that we want to do better, something that we did well. We’ve got some guys playing well right now,” Baldelli said. “We should just ride today’s momentum into tomorrow and get back to work.”

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