California town devastated by fire turns to football to heal

A high school football team in a Northern California town that was mostly destroyed by a wildfire is a year ago is playing its first game since the blaze.

The Paradise High School Bobcats are scheduled to play Williams High School on Friday. It's their first time back since a wildfire destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings and killed 86 people in November 2018.

Head Coach Rick Prinz said the team has 35 players, down from 56 last year as the school has lost nearly half of its students who were forced to move away.

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, the Paradise High School football team practices kickoffs in preparation for the teams first game of the season in Paradise, Calif. Paradise’s game against Williams High School on Friday will be the first game for the team since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

School officials said they expect about 5,000 people to attend the game. The team will enter the field through the home stands, led by last year's seniors who never got to play in their final game.

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, former Paradise High School football player Jeff Maehl, who played in the NFL, talks to the team after practice in Paradise, Calif. Paradise’s game against Williams High School on Friday will be the first game for the team since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2018, file photo, a home burns during a wildfire in Paradise, Calif. Paradise High School, in the Northern California town that was mostly destroyed by a wildfire in November 2018, is scheduled to play its first football game Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. The team will enter the field through the home stands, led by last year’s seniors who never got to play in their final game. (AP PhotoNoah Berger, File)

FILE - This Nov. 15, 2018, file photo, shows the remains of residences leveled by a wildfire in Paradise, Calif. Paradise High School, in a Northern California town that was mostly destroyed by a wildfire in November 2018, is scheduled to play its first football game Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. The team will enter the field through the home stands, led by last year’s seniors who never got to play in their final game. (AP PhotoNoah Berger, File)

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, Rick Prinz, center, coach of the Paradise High School football team, meets with his players after practice in Paradise, Calif. Paradise’s game against Williams High School on Friday will be the first game for the team since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. Prinz said the team has 35 players, down from 56 last year as the school has lost nearly half of its students who moved away. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, Paul Orlando, right, the defensive coordinator for the Paradise High School football team, paints the numbers on the field in preparation for the teams first game of the season in Paradise, Calif. Paradise's game against Williams High School Friday night, Aug. 23, will be the first game for the team since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, former Paradise High School football player Jeff Maehl, left, who played in the NFL, gives some advice to Lukas Hartley, who plays both fullback and safety, for this year's team after practice in Paradise, Calif. Paradise's game against Williams High School on Friday will be the first game for the team since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, photo, Paradise High School cheerleaders practice in preparation for the football team's first game of the season in Paradise, Calif. Paradise's game against Williams High School on Friday will be the first game since a wildfire nearly destroyed the foothill community last year. (AP PhotoRich Pedroncelli)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)