By ILLIA NOVIKOV

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit a Ukrainian army training ground, killing three soldiers and wounding 18 others, authorities said, targeting Ukraine’s efforts to make up a severe manpower shortage in the nearly 3½-year war.

The Russian Defense Ministry asserted that the strike killed or wounded about 200 Ukrainian troops. The ministry said Ukraine’s 169th training center near Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region was hit with two Iskander missiles, one armed with multiple submunitions and another with high explosives.

Meanwhile, Russia continued its stepped-up aerial campaign against Ukrainian civilian targets, launching 78 attack drones overnight, including up to eight newly developed jet-powered drones, Ukraine’s air force said. At least five people were wounded.

In this photo, provided by the Kharkiv regional military administration, on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, a building burns after Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Kharkiv regional military administration via AP)

More civilians are being killed

The U.N. mission in Ukraine notes a worsening trend in civilian casualties from Russian attacks this year, with 6,754 civilians killed or injured in the first half of 2025 — a 54% increase from the same period in 2024.

Since Russia launched an all-out invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, at least 13,580 Ukrainian civilians, including 716 children, have been killed, according to the U.N.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — until Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs. Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in U.S.-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.

Attacks on Ukrainian military facilities

Ukrainian forces are mostly hanging on against a grinding summer push by Russia’s bigger army, though the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed recent small advances along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Ukrainian ground forces acknowledged the Russian strike on a military training ground in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, but its casualty report differed widely from Moscow’s.

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A Russian Defense Ministry video showed multiple small explosions apparently caused by a missile with a shrapnel warhead, followed by one big blast, apparently from the other one armed with a high-explosive warhead.

A similar Russian strike occurred last September, when two ballistic missiles blasted a Ukrainian military academy and nearby hospital, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Ukrainian authorities said a commission led by the head of the Military Law Enforcement Service has been formed to determine whether negligence or misconduct by officials contributed to the casualties in Chernihiv.

The attack was the fourth deadly strike in five months on Ukrainian military facilities. The previous three killed at least 46 soldiers and wounded more than 160, according to official reports.

Russia also has been trying disrupt Ukrainian military recruitment by hitting regional buildings coordinating the call-up.

On Wednesday, Russian forces targeted a regional military administration building in the northern Sumy region, injuring a 75-year-old woman, the administration said. It said they struck the same building with drones last Friday and Saturday.

Ukraine badly needs more troops

Though Ukraine has more than 1 million people in uniform, including the National Guard and other units, it badly needs more.

There have been questions about how Kyiv is managing the war, from a flawed mobilization drive to the overstretching and hollowing-out of front-line units through soldiers going AWOL.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bill Tuesday that allows Ukrainian men over the age of 60 to voluntarily sign contracts with the armed forces. The law allows those who want to contribute their experience and skills, particularly in noncombat or specialized roles.

In February, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry began offering new financial and other benefits that it hopes will attract men between the ages of 18 and 24 to military service. Men in that age group are exempt from the country’s draft, which covers men between 25 and 60 years old.

Ukraine has lowered its conscription age from 27 to 25, but that has failed to replenish ranks or replace battlefield losses.

By JENNIFER PELTZ, CEDAR ATTANASIO, DAVE COLLINS and JOHN SEEWER

NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators on Wednesday were looking into how a former high school football player who blamed the game for his mental health problems carried out a deadly attack on an office building that is home to the NFL.

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Shane Tamura, 27, killed four people on Monday before killing himself, spraying the skyscraper’s lobby with bullets and then continuing his rampage on the 33rd floor, authorities said.

In a handwritten note found in his wallet after the attack, Tamura claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, and accused the NFL of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports, investigators said.

Detectives on Wednesday were digging into the Las Vegas casino worker’s background and motivations. They planned to question a man who supplied gun parts for the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack, including the weapon’s lower receiver, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a video statement.

Among the dead were a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building. An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.

Tamura, a surveillance worker for the Horseshoe Las Vegas, had meant to target the NFL’s headquarters in the building but took the wrong elevator, authorities said.

It’s unclear whether he showed symptoms of CTE, which can be diagnosed only by examining a brain after death.

Tamura, who played high school football in California a decade ago but never played in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said without giving details. In the three-page note found on his body, he accused the NFL of concealing the dangers to players’ brains for profit. The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports such as football.

At a Tuesday night vigil for those killed in the shooting, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and other faith leaders delivered prayers at a park about a dozen blocks from where the shooting took place.

Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke of the need for stronger gun laws.

“We cannot respond to senseless gun laws through vigils,” Adams said.

NFL boss calls shooting ‘unspeakable’

Tamura’s note repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE.

The NFL long denied the link between football and CTE, but it acknowledged the connection in 2016 testimony before Congress and has paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who works out of the offices, called the shooting “an unspeakable act of violence.”

The shooting happened at a skyscraper on Park Avenue, one of the nation’s most recognized streets, just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It is less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over what he saw as corporate greed.

The map above highlights confirmed travels of the gunman who carried out a deadly shooting in a midtown Manhattan office building. (AP Graphic)

Video shows the gunman stroll into the building

Tamura drove across the country in the days before the attack and into New York City, Tisch said. Surveillance video showed him exit his BMW outside the building at about 6:30 p.m. Monday wearing a button-down shirt and jacket with the rifle at his side.

Once inside the lobby, he opened fire and killed Islam and Wesley LePatner, a real estate executive at the investment firm Blackstone, which occupies much of the building. Tamura then made his way toward the elevator bank, shooting the NFL employee and an unarmed security guard, Aland Etienne, who helped control access to the upper floors.

Tamura waited for the next elevator to arrive in the lobby, let a woman walk safely out of the elevator, then rode it up to the 33rd-floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Management. He killed a worker for that company before killing himself, officials said.

Friends and family mourn killed officer

Officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was guarding the building on a paid security job when he was killed, had served as a police officer in New York City for over three years. He was an immigrant from Bangladesh and was working a department-approved building security job when he was shot.

Islam leaves a pregnant wife and two children. Friends and family stopped by their Bronx home on Tuesday to drop off food and pay their respects.

“He was a very friendly guy and a hardworking guy,” said Tanjim Talukdar, who knew him best from Friday prayers. “Whenever I see him or he sees me, he says, ’How are you, my brother?’”

Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo, Philip Marcelo and Julie Walker in New York; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Rob Maaddi in Tampa, Florida; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

By AMANDA SEITZ

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pushing an initiative for millions of Americans to upload personal health data and medical records on new apps and systems run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness.

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Leaders from more than 60 companies, including major tech companies such as Google and Amazon, as well as prominent hospital systems like the Cleveland Clinic, will convene at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss what the administration is calling a “digital health ecosystem.” The new system will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications.

The initiative, spearheaded by an administration that has already freely shared highly personal data about Americans in ways that have tested legal bounds, could put patients’ desires for more convenience at their doctor’s office on a collision course with their expectations that their medical information be kept private.

“There are enormous ethical and legal concerns,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in public health. “Patients across America should be very worried that their medical records are going to be used in ways that harm them and their families.”

Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in charge of maintaining the system, have said patients will need to opt in for the sharing of their medical records and data, which will be kept secure.

Officials say patients will benefit from a system that lets them quickly call up their own records without the hallmark difficulties, such as requiring the use of fax machines to share documents, that have prevented them from doing so in the past.

“We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for CMS, said in a statement Wednesday.

Once the system is set up, popular weight loss and fitness subscription service Noom, which has signed onto the initiative, will be able to pull medical records, including labs or tests, of its users into its AI-driven analysis of what might help users lose weight, CEO Geoff Cook told The Associated Press.

“Right now you have a lot of siloed data,” Cook said.

Patients who travel across the country for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic often have a hard time obtaining all their medical records from various providers, said the hospital system’s CEO, Tomislav Mihaljevic. He said the new system would eliminate that barrier, which sometimes delays treatment or prevents doctors from making an accurate diagnosis because they do not have a full view of a patient’s medical history.

Having seamless access to health app data, such as what patients are eating or how much they are exercising, will also help doctors manage obesity and other chronic diseases, Mihaljevic said.

“These apps give us insight about what’s happening with the patient’s health outside of the physician’s office,” he said.

CMS will also recommend a list of apps on Medicare.gov that are designed to help people manage chronic diseases, as well as help them select health care providers and insurance plans.

Digital privacy advocates are skeptical that patients will be able to count on their data being stored securely.

The federal government has done little to regulate health apps or telehealth programs, said Jeffrey Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and those within his circle have pushed for more technology in health care, advocating for wearable devices that monitor wellness and telehealth.

Kennedy also sought to collect more data from Americans’ medical records, which he has previously said he wants to use to study autism and vaccine safety. Kennedy has filled the agency with staffers who have a history of working at or running health technology startups and businesses.

“This scheme is an open door for the further use and monetization of sensitive and personal health information,” Chester said.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is freezing $108 million in research funding to Duke University as the federal government accuses the school of racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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The National Institutes of Health halted the funding to the private university in North Carolina, said the person who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department sent a joint letter alleging racial preferences in Duke’s hiring and admissions.

Duke is the latest institution to have its federal funding held up as the government investigates allegations of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies the administration says are unlawful. It follows other probes including at Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell.

Duke did not immediately comment.

In Monday’s letter to Duke, leaders of HHS and the Education Department accused the university of “vile racism.” It alludes to allegations of racial preferences at Duke, its medical school and its health system that, if substantiated, would make Duke “unfit for any further financial relationship with the federal government.”

The letter accuses Duke of providing racial preferences in recruiting, admissions, scholarships, hiring and more. It refers to allegations of discrimination without offering specific examples.

“Racism is a scourge when practiced by individuals, but it is especially corrosive when enshrined in the nation’s most eminent and respected institutions,” according to the letter, signed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

It’s part of a broader campaign to eradicate DEI practices the Trump administration describes as discrimination against white and Asian American people.

In their letter, the agencies order Duke to end any practices at its health system that give “benefits or advantages” based on race.

Saying Duke is unlikely to be capable of an “honest and trustworthy review,” the letter takes the unusual step of requesting a new Merit and Civil Rights Committee that would be approved by the government and authorized by the school’s board of trustees. The panel would be tasked with identifying and ending any racial preferences. If problems remained after six months, the administration would pursue legal enforcement, the letter said.

The Education Department separately opened an investigation into the Duke Law Journal on Monday over allegations that it gave advantages to prospective editors from underrepresented groups.

The Trump administration has used federal research funding as leverage in its effort to reshape universities that President Donald Trump has described as hotbeds of liberalism. It has presented a crisis for universities that rely on federal grants as a major source of revenue, spurring some to take on debt and find other ways to self-fund research.

Duke University spent $1.5 billion on research last year, with nearly 60% coming from federal sources, according to the university’s website.

Even before the latest funding freeze, Duke faced financial turmoil. Last week, university leaders said almost 600 employees had accepted voluntary buyouts but that layoffs would still be needed. Officials said they needed to reduce costs amid uncertainty around federal research funding and a hike to the university’s federal endowment tax.

The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on universities in hopes of striking deals like one that Columbia University signed last week. The Ivy League school agreed to pay $200 million and make changes to admissions, hiring, student discipline and more in exchange for regaining access to federal funding. The administration has described it as a template for other universities including Harvard, which has been in talks with the administration even as it battles the White House in court.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.