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Severe storms brought damaging tornadoes to parts of the central US Thursday and Friday, shredding buildings into piles of debris and killing at least eight people.

In southwestern Michigan Friday afternoon, four people were killed and others injured as severe thunderstorm activity kicked up a destructive tornado.

Three were killed and 12 others injured when the tornado ripped through the Union Lake area, the Branch County Sheriff's Office told The Associated Press. Several people were sent to the hospital, the AP said, although the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

Another person was killed and several others injured after the tornado touched down in nearby Cass County, officials said in anews release. Several large structures were damaged and a local state of emergency was enacted, they added.

The tornado was fueled by a lonesupercellthunderstorm and was tagged with a rare "particularly dangerous situation" designation by the National Weather Service as it tracked near Three Rivers, Michigan.

The State Emergency Operations Center was activated after damage was reported in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties,Michigan State Police said.

A tornado in the Three Rivers area launched fragments of buildings into the air and peeled large sections of the roof off a storage facility, video shows. It's unclear if anyone was injured. CNN has reached out for more information.

In Union City, east of Union Lake, video shows massive pieces of debris flying in the air as someone in the background says, "There goes a house."

The Michigan fatalities follow reports of a deadly tornado striking Oklahoma overnight Thursday, killing a mother and daughter.

On Friday, another round of dangerous storms killed two people in Beggs, Oklahoma, theOkmulgee County Sheriff's Officesaid.

As of late Friday, "all persons are accounted for and there are no more missing persons," Sheriff Eddy Rice said in a statement.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he had spoken with Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols and Beggs Mayor Roger Merrill following tornadoes in their communities.

"We are committed to assist with their recovery efforts," he said onFacebook, adding state agencies "remain engaged across Green Country this evening" and urging residents to "continue to stay weather-aware as storms persist into the night."

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The most significant threat for dangerous storms peaked Friday afternoon and evening in parts of the Plains and Mississippi Valley.

Storm threat stretches from Texas to Wisconsin

A broad area from Wisconsin to as far south as Texas was under the threat of severe storms through Friday evening.

The most significant storms were most likely in a Level 3 of 5 risk area for parts of seven states in the Central US, including Kansas City; Springfield, Missouri; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The storms are being fueled by unusually warm air for early March along with a surge of energy from a shift in the jet stream. Record high temperatures were possible in dozens of cities on Friday from Chicago into the Southeast.

The ingredients fueling Friday's threat will lose a bit of their steam on Saturday. Still, there could be at least a smattering of severe storms, especially from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley and in the eastern Great Lakes.

Wind capable of knocking down trees or power lines is the main concern for all threatened areas Saturday, including Houston and Buffalo, New York. The chance of a tornado is low, but we can't completely rule an isolated one out. Texas could also see isolated large hail.

Thursday's deadly tornado

A mother and daughter were killed Thursday night in western Oklahoma when their vehicle was struck by a tornado at the start of the two-day outbreak of severe storms underway in the Plains and Midwest.

The two were traveling near State Highway 60 and 243 Road west of Fairview, Oklahoma, when they were hit by the tornado, Major County Sheriff Tony Robinson told CNN.

Atornado warningwas in effect for part of Major County between 8 and 9 p.m. CT. The storms also blew over a semi-trailer in the county, which is about 80 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, according to a report from theNational Weather Service.

Thursday night's storms spawned a total of seven tornado reports from the Texas Panhandle to south-central Kansas. Hail the size of golf balls or larger also pelted the region.

In Grant County, Oklahoma, a reported tornado downed trees, power lines and damaged structures, according to reports from theWeather Service.

CNN's Ruben Correa, Taylor Romine, Hanna Park and Meteorologist Briana Waxman contributed to this report.

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least seven people were killed and 10 others, including three children, were wounded on Saturday by a Russian missile that hit a five-story residential building in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, officials said.

Russia Ukraine War

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called for an international response. He said that Russia struck Ukraine overnight with 29 missiles and 480 drones, targeting energy facilities in Kyiv and other central regions and with damage reported in at least seven other locations across the country.

According to preliminary data, air defense systems downed 19 missiles and 453 drones with hits from 9 missiles and 26 strike drones recorded at 22 locations.

In Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, emergency workers were combing the rubble, looking for survivors.

In the Kyiv region, damage from debris was reported in three districts, according to local authorities. In the southern Odesa region, 80 firefighters were called in to help battle massive fires at infrastructure facilities following an attack with multiple drones. Ukraine's state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said damage to the rail infrastructure forced changes to a number of routes in the center-west of the country.

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"There must be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life," Zelenskyy said in a post on X. "Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine's residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support must continue. We count on active work with the European Union to guarantee greater protection for our people. I am grateful to everyone who helps strengthen our protection."

Russia has fired tens of thousands of Iranian-designed Shahed drones at Ukraine since itinvaded its neighborjust over four years. It has launched a large-scale domestic production of them and battered Ukraine with hundreds of drones in a single night — more than were used during some entire months in 2024.

Iran has responded to joint U.S.-Israeli strikes by launching the same type of drones at countries in the Middle East.

Zelenskyy said he had received a U.S. request for support to defend against the Iranian drones in the Middle East and had given the order for equipment to be provided along with Ukrainian experts.

The war in the Middle East has drawn international attention away from Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, and forced the postponement of a new round ofU. S.-brokered talksbetween Russia and Ukraine planned for this week.

Inside the Oval Office this week, after a crowd of jostling reporters departed into the Rose Garden, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to get an answer fromPresident Donald Trump: how, exactly, did he envision thewar with Iranending?

Despite some pressing by the chancellor, the answer from the president — as it has been since the conflict began a week ago — wasn't quite clear, according to a person familiar.

As the US military operation against Iran shifts into a new phase following last Saturday's opening salvo, how the war ends remainsthe top questionfor many officials, lawmakers and US allies.

In briefings with lawmakers and congressional staff in recent days, Pentagon officials have leaned into the US military mission being narrowly focused on destroying Iran's ballistic missile launchers, people who attended the briefings said, rather than on targeting Iranian nuclear facilities or taking out regime figures or military personnel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has spoken dismissively of repeating the "nation building" exercises of past administrations.

At the same time, Trump has offered far more expansive goals that appear to extend beyond the military's stated remit. On Friday, he lumped in the "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" of Iran's current regime as an additional requirement for the war to conclude.

The apparent disconnect has only fueled questions about where the conflict, which is alreadybroadly unpopularamong Americans, is headed. In conversations with their US counterparts, Arab and European officials say they haven't detected what exactly Trump's endgame looks like, or if it exists at all.

Emerging from briefings with senior administration officials this week, lawmakers similarly professed little understanding of how Trump will know he has achieved all his goals in Iran, or whether he has a plan for what comes afterward. Some lawmakers also appeared unnerved by the fact that Hegseth would not rule out putting US troops on the ground in Iran.

Who will take over?

The US has so far rejected Iranian overtures to begin talks that could suss out ways to end the conflict. Iranian intelligence sent word this week to the US it could be prepared to open talks on how to endthe war, according to people familiar with the indirect messages, but US officials say there were no negotiations underway and that potential "off-ramps" are unlikely to materialize in the near term.

"Since this thing went kinetic, we've had a number of reach-outs," a senior Trump administration official said this week, putting the number of nations at nearly a dozen. "It's not dissimilar to what we had before, people wanting to see if they can help solve it, and we've talked to them."

To date, that has not resulted in any robust exchange of messages between the United States and Iran. "We're not using anyone as an interlocutor. This is a military action, and it's got to run its course," the official said.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump alone would determine when Iran was in a state of "unconditional surrender."

"What the president means is that when he, as commander in chief of the US Armed Forces, determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goals of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not," she told reporters on Friday in the White House driveway.

"Frankly," she went on, "they don't have a lot of people to say that for them, because the United States and the state of Israel have completely wiped out near more than 50 leaders of the former terrorist regime, including the supreme leader himself."

Trump said he expects to be heavily involved in choosing Iran's next leader. But US intelligence agencies have long warned it is difficult to assess the outcome of a regime change scenario, and some US and European officials do not see a clear option for replacing the current regime.

Multiple sources said Trump appears content with allowing an Iranian government led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a similar model to what the administration used in Venezuela in replacing Nicolás Maduro with his Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

"It's gonna work very easily. It's going to work like did in Venezuela," Trumptold CNN's Dana Bashin a brief phone interview on Friday.

But that option risks installing a potentially more extreme power center — something Trump suggested earlier this week would amount to the "worst case scenario." US and foreign officials have also cast doubt on the viability of establishing some kind of coalition government, believing that option could quickly turn Iran into a failed state akin to Iraq in the early 2000s, sources said.

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"We've heard…mixed messages about what the strategy is here, what the endgame is here, and how we're going to get out of Iran," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said this week. "No one in the free world misses the ayatollah," the New Hampshire Democrat said. "But what is not clear is how long this is going to go on, the extent to which it's escalating."

And across the board, the Trump administration has not clearly articulated an end game or an off-ramp, according to four sources from allied countries.

"We have no idea what they actually want to accomplish when this war is over. It doesn't seem like Trump even knows," said one European diplomat.

That has fed concerns the war could drag on for weeks or months — a timeline the president, in many telephone calls to news outlets this week, hasn't explicitly shrugged off.

Instead, Trump has focused on the immediate successes, including degrading Iran's missile capabilities, sinking its ships and taking out its senior leaders.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Wednesday that as the war enters a new phase, the US will begin "striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and (create) additional freedom of maneuver for US forces."

Caine also claimed that Iran's ballistic missile launches have plummeted by 86% since the operation began, and that their one-way attack drone launches are down 73%. One person familiar with the matter, however, said those drops can largely be attributed to the US' destruction of Iranian command and control centers in the opening hours of the war.

But while the US military is narrowly focused, there is also an increasing recognition among military planners that destroying Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need to produce a nuclear weapon, would require US forces on the ground to find, exfiltrate and destroy it since it is buried so deeply underground — out of reach even of US bunker-buster bombs, sources said.

There are no plans for that right now, so sources said the administration has steered clear of discussing it.

Kurdish involvement

At the same time, the Trump administration has quietly tried to enlist the help of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish opposition groups. For months, the CIA has been in discussions with multiple Iranian Kurdish groups about carrying out a potential ground offensive intended to help foment a popular uprising inside the country, multiple sources told CNN.

The CIA is working to arm some of those groups and the US has discussed providing air-support for Kurdish ground forces if they were to launch an offensive,CNN previously reported.

Discussions between the CIA and Iranian Kurdish groups have also included political proposals for if the regime ultimately does collapse, according to Amir Karimi, co-chair of the PJAK, which is one of the Kurdish groups in talks with the US.

PJAK is supportive of the US-Israeli operations but has reinforced to the CIA that overthrowing the regime can't be done by military force alone, Karimi told CNN in an interview this week. The group has also told the CIA it wants a political relationship with the US and Trump administration — which includes having a say in who would ultimately become Iran's next leader.

"We believe it is a legitimate war, however we want support for forces on the ground who are fighting for democracy in Iran. This is not something that can be done by bombardment alone," Karimi said, adding that the US could help unite Kurdish groups so they can fight the regime together.

Trump appears to be working to do that, holding multiple calls with the leaders of Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish groups in recent days. But during at least two recent calls, he's grown frustrated with the Iraqi Kurdish leaders — who are keenly aware that participating in a US-backed offensive carries significant risks — telling them to "pick a side," according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Karimi also said his group has made clear to the Trump administration they do not believe anyone from outside Iran should be "helicoptered in to lead this fight," and voiced strong opposition to any efforts that involve backing exiled Iranian activist Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah, in the short or long term.

Trump himself downplayed him as an option earlier this week, saying, "It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate."

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HOUSTON — Baseball is rarely easy to predict, and so Lucas Ramirez has made a habit of the next best thing.

In the months leading up to hisWorld Baseball Classicdebut forTeam Brazil against Team USA, the outfielder ritually practiced affirmations and visualizations to prepare for his entry onto baseball's international scene.

"Ever since the (WBC) qualifiers, I was envisioning that first at-bat bomb," Ramirez said. "And it's crazy that it actually happened. For five months, I've been – every time before I go to bed after I pray, I visualize it. And it happened."

So when Ramirez rounded the bases at Daikin Park on Friday night after he delivered a leadoff home run in Brazil's first at-bat of the tournament – one of two solo home runs he hit in the game – he screamed, "I told you!"

"I say go out there with confidence (and) you can do anything you speak," Ramirez said later. "If you say it out loud, it'll happen. I'm telling you. It will happen."

Although Team USA broke the game open in the late innings for a 15-5 win over Brazil, two of Brazil's youngest players provided the team's brightest moments.

At 20 years and 49 days old, Ramirez is the youngest player in WBC history with a multi-homer game. His teammate, Brazil pitcher Joseph Contreras, the youngest player in the tournament at 17 years and 291 days old, got USA captain Aaron Judge toground into an inning-ending double playwith the bases loaded.

All the electric moments from USA-Brazil World Baseball Classic game

When asked how that moment ranked in his career, Contreras, a senior at Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in the Atlanta suburbs, said, "That has to be up there. That's definitely like a top two moment. I would say the first one obviously was winning the state championship back home. There's nothing better than winning it all."

Both players represent Brazil because of their mothers' heritage and are the sons of MLB legends. Ramirez's father Manny won two World Series titles with the Red Sox and was a 12-time All-Star. Contreras' father José was a World Series champion with the White Sox in 2005 and an All-Star in 2006.

Both fathers were in the stands at Daikin Park on Friday to watch their sons' WBC debuts. The performances the sons delivered were proof that they can create their own legacies.

"Having Manny Ramirez as my father is obviously a good thing and a bad thing," Lucas Ramirez said. "It's a little hard. Everybody expects so much. That's why, maybe, I visualize and say things, I guess – because I got to paint my own picture. I got to be Lucas Ramirez, and I got my own path."

He wasted little time. Judge's two-run shot in the top of the first inning gave the USA an early 2-0 lead that was halved a short time later.

Leading off the game for Brazil against San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb, Ramirez deposited a low inside-corner fastball over the wall in right-center field. Feet from where the ball landed, the Brazilian contingent in the home bullpen went berserk, with one reliever even hanging over the fence.

Besides thinking about hitting a bomb, Ramirez said another thought crossed his mind right before he went up to the plate.

"I'm gonna go out there and give it my all, and I'm just gonna have fun," he said. "Too many people work on the field and they make baseball their whole life. They have a bad game, and they're going to have a bad attitude the whole rest of their day. Like, this is temporary. We're here temporarily, and we're gonna go out there and have fun and be in life."

In the top of the second inning, Contreras took over for Brazil starter Bo Takahashi and exacted revenge against Judge, but not before getting into a jam.

After retiring the first batter he faced, Contreras gave up a hard-hit double to Brice Turang and surrendered back-to-back walks to Bobby Witt Jr. and Bryce Harper to load the bases for Team USA's captain.

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Contreras got to a 1-1 count against Judge and threw a two-seamer on the inside of the plate. Judge grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Osvaldo Carvalho, Brazil's first baseman, pumped his fist wildly while Contreras walked to the dugout and collected high-fives and pats on the back.

"It was just a surreal experience," Contreras said. "I tried to visualize on that and make sure keep breathing, but as soon as the lights came on and I was on the mound, it was like 'Alright, now you got to face Byron Buxton. OK, now it's real.' Game sped up on me a little bit but now I know for the next time."

Following his scoreless frame, Contreras allowed two of the next three batters he faced to reach base before Kyle Schwarber scored on a wild pitch and knocked the teenager out of the game with Brazil trailing 3-1. Still, Team USA came away impressed by Contreras' outing.

"Impressive. I know I wasn't doing that at that age, that's for sure," Judge said. "Just great stuff. I know he had some poise on the mound. He's throwing up to 100 miles an hour. He's facing Team USA, a lot of guys he has seen on TV or different things like that. It was just impressive seeing him control himself out there and get out of a big jam."

In the eighth inning, Ramirez blasted another home run on a one-out pitch from USA reliever Gabe Speier, making the score 8-5.

When Ramirez and Team Brazil manager Yuichi Matsumoto exited the interview room after the game, a Team USA contingent was waiting in the hallway for their turn. USA manager Mark DeRosa told Ramirez, "Way to swing the bat!" Judge shook hands with Ramirez, who in turn asked the three-time American League MVP to take a selfie with him.

Ramirez plays in the Los Angeles Angels organization and spent the 2025 season at the High-A level. Contreras will graduate from high school this spring and is committed to play college ball at Vanderbilt, if he is not drafted by an MLB organization.

Neither has made it to the majors yet, though each inherited certain traits from their dads.

Ramirez mirrors his father's swing mechanics, though he was taught to hit lefty instead of righthanded. The 20-year-old was drafted in the 17th round in 2024 and last March helped Brazil qualify for the WBC.

The first pitch Contreras learned how to throw was his father's infamous forkball. The son is 6-foot-4, tall and lanky like his father, and possesses the same quiet confidence.

"Oh man, that kid is something special," Ramirez said. "Obviously, he comes from a father who plays baseball as well, so that's been great. That kid's going to be lights out one day."

Ramirez regularly takes Christmastime trips to Brazil to visit his grandmother and grandfather, who own a livestock farm there. He said playing for Team Brazil has only strengthened his connection to the country. Ramirez, who speaks fluent Spanish as well as some Portuguese, has asked older players about Brazil's lone prior WBC appearance in 2013 and been taught by some teammates how to dance to Brazilian funk music.

Friday night's loss to the USA in pool play left Brazil still searching for its first WBC win after going 0-3 in the 2013 tournament. Brazil is scheduled to play remaining pool games against Italy, Mexico and Great Britain in Houston.

The final scoreline could have been worse, but Team USA's offense was more junk than juggernaut. Despite Brazil's pitchers walking 17 batters, hitting two more batters and incurring three pitch clock violations, the Americans hit 5-for-21 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 baserunners.

What most fans will remember about the night, however, is how two burgeoning stars stole the spotlight from the tournament favorite.

Certainly, Ramirez and Contreras will never forget it. And next time Ramirez goes to visualize his success, he can close his eyes and picture those moments again and again.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Manny Ramirez's son a star for Brazil in WBC game vs USA

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Taiwan defeated Vietnam 1-0 on Saturday to move into second place in Group C at theWomen's Asian Cupwith one match remaining.

Women's Asian Cup Soccer Taiwan Vietnam

Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Saki Matsunaga's shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of its three Asian Cup titles in 1981.

It was a deserved victory for Taiwan,2-0 losers to Japanon Wednesday, which created several chances to extend its lead.

Vietnam, the 2022 quarterfinalist, beat India in its opener but struggled to threaten the Taiwan defense and failed to record a shot on target. Thi Duyen Tran came closest with a first-half chance that went wide from inside the area.

Both teams now have three points from two games. Taiwan sits ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, which faced India later Saturday. India is still seeking its first point in the tournament.

Record attendance continues

Australian organizers said Saturday that the tournament had sold 250,000 tickets. The milestone follows the tournament already breaking the all-time total attendance record, with 92,795 fans at the first 10 matches.

That surpassed the previous record of 59,910 for the 2010 edition in China.

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State of play

The top two teams in each of the three groups advance to the quarterfinals along with the two best third-place teams.

In Group A, Australia,which beat Iran 4-0on Thursday, and South Korea have already qualified. Australia and South Korea will meet in Sydney on Sunday to determine top spot in the group, where another record crowd is expected.

After back-to-back losses, Iran needs a big win over the Philippines (0-2) on Sunday to have any chance of advancing to the quarterfinals and qualifying for next year's Women's World Cup in Brazil.

In Group B, defending champions China and three-time winners North Korea are through to the quarterfinals after theirsecond consecutive winsin group matches Friday. In opening matches on Tuesday, Myong Yu Jong had a first-half hat trick inNorth Korea's 3-0 win over Uzbekistanand China beat Bangladesh 2-0.

Group B play concludes Monday in Sydney when North Korea plays China in a match that will decide first place in the group, and Bangladesh takes on Uzbekistan.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Hundreds of barking dogs will take over downtown Anchorage on Saturday for the ceremonial start of the world's most famous sled dog race. The event, catered to fans who hope to see and cheer on their favorite mushers, takes place a day before the competitive start.

Iditarod What to Know Racing

Here's what to know about the 54th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which features a new amateur category and financial support from a Norwegian billionaire.

What is the Iditarod?

The Iditarod was conceived by co-founders Dorothy Page and Joe Redington Sr. as a long-distance sled dog race to honor both Alaska's mushing tradition and the Iditarod Trail. That was a 938-mile (1,510-kilometer) freight and mail route that ran from Seward on Alaska's southern coast to Nome, on the Bering Sea on Alaska's western coast.

The start of the race was placed in the Anchorage area to energize residents of the state's largest city. The lateHoward Farleywas instrumental in making Nome, about 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) away, the finish line.

Thirty-four mushers started the 1973 race, but only 22 finished.

Dick Wilmarth won it in 20 days. He never raced again. When asked why, he once said, "Cause I won."

Since then, mushers have become faster and faster, with winners reaching the finish line a block off the Bering Sea in about 10 days.

It's a small field of competitive mushers

The number of mushers jostling to be the first to Nome has varied over the years, but the retirements of many longtime mushers and thehigh cost of supplies, such as dog food, have kept the fields small this decade.

The largest field was 96 mushers starting the race in 2008. Over the race's first five decades, about 60 competed on average. Just 33 started the race in 2023 and 2025 — the fewest ever.

This year, 34 mushers are competing, matching the number who started in 1973. They will glide their sleds over 11 miles (18 kilometers) of trails in Anchorage past cheering fans on Saturday. The competitive 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) race starts Sunday on a frozen lake about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

A Norwegian billionaire provides financial backing

There actually are 37 mushers in this year's race, but three are not eligible for the championship or prize money. The Iditarod has started a new Iditarod Expedition Musher Program, which allows people to race in the honorary category.

Participating this year will be Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke, who now lives in Switzerland, and Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis. Unlike Iditarod contestants, they are allowed outside help.

Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner, whowon the 2020 Iditarodand then famously was stuck in Alaska for three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will provide support for Rokke running a dog team. Four-time champion Jeff King will aid Curtis on a snowmachine.

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Rokke is providing financial support to the race, including boosting the race purse by $100,000 to a total of $650,000 and providing $170,000 in support for the 17 Alaska Native villages that serve as checkpoints.

Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said Rokke's donation to the purse should raise the payouts to competitors, with the winner getting about $80,000, well above the nearly $57,000 paid to the top musher last year.

"I believe it is healthy for the sport to evolve and look at new opportunities," Waerner told The Associated Press in an interview conducted by private message. "The cost of running a competitive kennel has increased significantly over the years, and this initiative is an attempt to explore more sustainable ways to finance both a racing kennel and the race itself — while maintaining high standards for dog care, training, competition, and overall quality."

Curtis, whose addition was only announced three days before the ceremonial start, was also expected to provide financial support to the Iditarod, but details were not immediately available.

This year's field includes four competitive mushers from other countries: two from Canada, one from Norway and one from Denmark.

Three former champions

Even though Waerner is ineligible to win, the field includes three other former champions all looking for their second title:defending champion Jessie Holmes, 2023 championRyan Redingtonand 2019 winnerPete Kaiser.

Holmes, a former reality television star on National Geographic's "Life Below Zero," is trying to join former champions Susan Butcher andLance Mackeyas the only mushers to win their second title the year after winning their first.

Both Butcher and Mackey went on to win four championships apiece. Each died from cancer, Butcher in 2006 and Mackey in 2022.

Redington is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., the race's co-founder, and Kaiser was the fist Yup'ik to win the race.

Over the mountains and through the snow

Deep snow should greet mushers along much of the 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) trek to the state's western coast.

The route takes mushers over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and treacherous Bering Sea ice before ending on Front Street in Nome.

The finish line is near City Hall, built on the former site of The Dexter, a bar that was owned by Wyatt Earp — he of the Gunfight-at-the-OK-Corral fame — during Nome's heady gold rush days.

The winner is expected to reach Nome early the week of March 16.

Drew Careyis remembering how he didn't initially realize he was having a heart attack back in 2001, causing him to ignore his symptoms and head to work.

The comic, 67, appeared onTed Danson's podcast,Where Everybody Knows Your Name,on Wednesday, March 4, and recalled how he had a heart attack as he was filming his sitcom,The Drew Carey Show.

He explained that at the time, he knew he was headed back to set in the coming days and decided he wanted to start jogging. "I was really overweight," Carey explained, noting he had a heart monitor on when he was jogging. As he made his way down the street, his "heart rate went up to something really crazy," and his shoulder "felt numb," and he was feeling "all the things that I read were heart attack symptoms."

Still, Carey says he didn't believe he was having a heart attack. "I thought if you had a heart attack, you would go and fall down, like in a cartoon," he said.

Carey shared that he was so unaware of the heart attack he was experiencing that he waited for his heart rate to go down before he continued jogging. Eventually, he decided it was time to head home, and he told his then-girlfriend what happened, again not properly identifying the medical incident, calling it the "weirdest thing," where he had "all these like heart attack-like symptoms."

His girlfriend then offered to help him out, but Carey told Danson that he wanted to go for dinner at Bob's Big Boy. There, he had a plate of chili spaghetti and iced tea and agreed to call the doctor in the morning.

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However, the next day was the first day back to set onThe Drew Carey Show, and Carey didn't call his doctor as he'd planned. He spent the day doing rehearsal and felt okay, but by the end of the day, he went to the writer's room, and that's when things felt off.

"I felt something in my chest again tighten up. I went, 'Oh, I'll be right back. Let me go to my trailer.' " But after he struggled to take the stairs to the trailer, he called a producer and asked them to call for an ambulance, saying, "I think I'm having a heart attack."As he waited for the ambulance, he said bye to his friend, Sam Simon, who was on set directing, "because I didn't know what was going to happen."

Once he made it to the hospital, he was there for two nights and received a stent in one of his arteries.

In 2001, he was also diagnosed with heart disease and had to undergo an angioplasty, perParade. Nine years later, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At the time, his doctor warned him that if he didn't change his lifestyle, his life was "going to be shorter" and that he would have "bad things to look forward to,"Carey told PEOPLE in March 2024.

That year, he lost 80 lbs., increased his cardio and, by August 2010, Carey ran his first 10K in nearly 25 years. He also shared that his health improved so much that he was able to reverse his type 2 diabetes and no longer needs medication.

Read the original article onPeople