Business Sentiment
Sentiment Legend:
Negative < 44
Mixed 46-54
Positive > 56
US health department's new food pyramid places red meat and cheese high in saturated fats over plant-based proteins
The new food pyramid rolled out in US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) places animal-based proteins, including cheese and red meats high in saturated fats, above plant-based proteins, which has raised alarm bells among health and environmental experts.
This rejiggered food pyramid is in line with Kennedy's previous signals that he will recommend increasing saturated fat in US diets as part of the “Make America healthy again” movement.
Dr Cheryl Anderson, an American Heart Association board member and professor at the University of California San Diego, said she was eager to read the new guidelines because “they came out much later than they were supposed to. Typically, the guidelines are released within six months of the secretaries receiving the dietary guidelines advisory committee's report,” which should have meant they were released over the summer.
Anderson said she was pleased to see that some things appeared to be in line with the DGA committee's report, including an emphasis on eating “real food”, decreasing the amount of processed food in the diet, and decreasing added sugars. But she “grew concerned” when she saw the visual of the food pyramid with images of steak and cheese higher, larger and overall much more prominent than images of plant-based proteins like nuts. This visual contradicts the written guidelines on saturated fats.
“I think it will be a challenge to keep saturated fat intake within 10% of overall kilocalories. Now, that, to me, is a confusing message for the American public,” Anderson said.
Chloë Waterman – a senior program manager at Friends of the Earth who focuses on school lunches as well as the connection between diet and the environment – also said that the guidelines are contradictory and lack clarity. She suspects the confusion stems from an attempt to “please all stakeholders” – both public health experts and the Maha movement.
Waterman said the guidelines are unclear because of the contradiction between the text and the visuals and also because “previous iterations of the guidelines were hundreds of pages long, and these guidelines are 10 pages. So, there's only so much clarity you can fit into 10 pages.”
Increased meat consumption would negatively impact the environment as well, Waterman added.
“Americans already eat more protein than is recommended, and we're one of the highest meat-consuming countries in the world. That level of meat consumption has a disastrous impact on the planet, because industrial animal agriculture is extremely resource intensive,” Waterman said.
“When we are getting our calories from animal products, we are getting along with that a bunch of deforestation,” to create space to grow animal feed, as well as “emissions from the animals themselves. Beef and lamb especially have really high methane emissions,” Waterman added. Methane emanates from the poop, burps and farts of cows and other animals, and is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
If Americans would consume more plant-based foods and proteins and less meat, Waterman said it would accomplish two goals at once.
“We're fortunate that those things actually align with each other, that if we shift our diets toward more plant-based foods, that's going to be better for the environment and for health,” she said, noting that the new guidelines move in the opposite direction.
It's unclear how big an impact the guidelines will have on US adults' behavior. Waterman said Americans have tended to ignore past iterations of the DGA that encourage more fruit and vegetable consumption, but “this could be different in the sense that people want to eat more meat and dairy”.
Waterman is most concerned about how the guidelines will affect school lunches, as children who consume them don't have control over whether to follow the guidelines or not. She said that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) must create rules to bring school lunches in compliance with the DGA. However, that process can take years, and Waterman imagines that it would be difficult to increase the amount of meat in school lunches, which are already “dominated by animal products” without also going above the 10% calories from saturated fat limit.
If the USDA does somehow interpret the guidelines so that school lunches contain even more meat, “we're going to see a devastating increase in diet-related chronic diseases for children,” like diabetes and metabolic syndrome, Waterman said. Kennedy has said that fighting childhood obesity is a major component of his Maha initiative. But, Waterman continued: “Promoting full-fat dairy and red meat, as depicted in the food pyramid, is going to have the opposite effect on childhood obesity as Kennedy intends.”
President said 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland will begin on 1 February and increase to 25% on 1 June
Donald Trump threatened a 25% tariff on a slew of European countries including Denmark, Germany, France and the UK – until the US is allowed to purchase Greenland, in an extraordinary escalation of the president's bid to claim the autonomous Danish territory.
In a lengthy post on Saturday on Truth Social, Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland beginning 1 February, “on any and all goods sent to the United States of America”.
He said the tariff will increase to 25% on 1 June.
“This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump said.
The president's interest in Greenland intensified following the US raid that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro earlier in January. While he has claimed the Arctic territory's current status poses a national security threat to the US, this has been disputed by US allies, including Denmark.
In the Saturday morning post, Trump said Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland “have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown”. It was an apparent reference to Nato allies deploying troops in Greenland on Thursday in response to Trump's threats to forcefully take the Arctic island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump suggested, incorrectly, that residents of Greenland “currently have two dogsleds as protection” – and claimed “China and Russia want Greenland” to the detriment of the US. “Nobody will touch this sacred piece of land, especially since the national security of the United States, and the world at large, is at stake,” Trump wrote.
His latest tariff threat comes just eight months after Trump announced that he had struck a trade pact with the UK – and six months after he announced a pact with the European Union.
The UK would have protection against future US tariffs “because I like them”, Trump declared in the summer. He described the pact with the EU as a “powerful deal” and an “important” partnership.
His threat to impose tariffs within days on a string of European allies is set to challenge relations. In the UK, senior political figures including Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, swiftly rebuked the move.
“These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable,” Trump claimed in his post. “Therefore, it is imperative that, in order to protect Global Peace and Security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly, and without question.”
The president has repeatedly turned to tariffs in a bid to force countries to bend to his will – with some success. Days after returning to office for his second term in early 2025, Colombia agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants after Trump threatened steep duties on the country's exports to the US.
Trump, who has previously extolled the benefits of tariffs as a negotiating tool, stressed on Saturday that the US was “immediately open to negotiation” with Denmark and any of the countries it was threatening to hit with these new tariffs.
His aggressive global trade strategy has raised fears for the US economy, which analysts and policymakers have warned could face significant damage from sweeping tariffs on the world.
While the White House has played down such concerns, a vast wave of tariffs unveiled by Trump last spring – when he proclaimed the start of a new era for the US economy – was quickly reversed as global markets fell sharply.
But his administration's erratic rollout of other tariffs nevertheless significantly strained US trade ties with the world. Americans now face an overall average effective tariff rate of 16.8%, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, the highest level since 1935.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said recently that Greenland's defence is a “common concern” for the whole of Nato. The Guardian reported that European troops had deployed to Greenland, in part, to establish what a more sustained ground deployment on the territory could look like, and partly to reassure the US that European Nato members were serious about Arctic security.
Fewer than one in five of Americans approve of Trump's efforts to acquire Greenland, a poll published on Thursday by Reuters/Ipsos found. Both Democrats and Republicans oppose the effort, and only 4% of Americans think the US should take Greenland using military force.
Much of Trump's wider trade strategy is currently in the hands of the US supreme court, which is mulling whether the imposition of many of his tariffs was legal. A decision could be announced as early as next week.
Work starts around sunrise for the federal officers carrying out the immigration crackdown in and around the Twin Cities, with hundreds of people in tactical gear streaming out of a bland office building near the main airport.
Within minutes, hulking SUVs, pickup trucks and minivans begin leaving, forming the unmarked convoys that have quickly become feared and common sights in the streets of Minnesota's Minneapolis, Saint Paul and their suburbs.
Protesters also arrive early, braving the cold to stand across the street from the fenced-in federal compound, which houses an immigration court and government offices.
Photo: Getty Images via AFP
“Go home!” they shout as convoys roar past. “ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out!”
Things often turn uglier after nightfall, when the convoys return and the protesters sometimes grow angrier, shaking fences and occasionally smacking passing cars. Eventually, the federal officers march toward them, firing tear gas and flash grenades before hauling away at least a few people.
“We're not going anywhere!” a woman shouted on a recent morning. “We're here until you leave.”
Photo: Reuters
This is the daily rhythm of Operation Metro Surge, US President Donald Trump's latest and biggest crackdown yet, with more than 2,000 officers taking part. The surge has pitted city and state officials against the federal government, sparked daily clashes between activists and immigration officers in the deeply liberal cities, and left a mother of three dead.
The crackdown is barely noticeable in some areas, particularly in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods and suburbs, where convoys and tear gas are rare. Even in neighborhoods where masked immigration officers are common, they often move with ghostlike quickness, making arrests and disappearing before protesters can gather in force.
Still, the surge can be felt across broad swaths of the Twin Cities area, which is home to more than 3 million people.
“We don't use the word ‘invasion' lightly,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, told reporters this week, adding that his police force has just 600 officers. “What we are seeing is thousands — plural, thousands — of federal agents coming into our city.”
Those agents have an outsized presence in a small city.
So as worry ripples through the region, children are skipping school or learning remotely, families are avoiding religious services and many businesses, especially in immigrant neighborhoods, have closed temporarily.
Drive down Lake Street, an immigrant hub since the days when newcomers came to Minneapolis from Norway and Sweden, and the sidewalks now seem crowded only with activists standing watch, ready to blow warning whistles at the first sign of a convoy.
At La Michoacana Purepecha, where customers can order ice cream, chocolate-covered bananas and pork rinds, the door is locked and staff let in people one at a time. Nearby, at Taqueria Los Ocampo, a sign in English and Spanish says the restaurant is temporarily closed because of “current conditions.”
A dozen blocks away at the Karmel Mall, where the city's large Somali community goes for everything from food and coffee to tax preparation, signs on the doors warn: “No ICE enter without court order.”
It has been nearly six years since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, but the scars from that killing remain raw.
Floyd was killed just blocks from where an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, during a Jan. 7 confrontation after she stopped to help neighbors during an enforcement operation.
Federal officials say the officer fired in self-defense after Good “weaponized” her vehicle. City and state officials dismiss those explanations, and point to multiple bystander videos of the confrontation.
For Twin Cities residents, the crackdown can feel overwhelming.
“Enough is enough,” said Johan Baumeister, who came to the scene of Good's death soon after the shooting to lay flowers.
He said he did not want to see the violent protests that shook Minneapolis after Floyd's death, but this city has a long history of activism and protests, and he had no doubt there would be more.
“I think they'll see Minneapolis show our rage again,” he said.
He was right.
In the days since, there have been repeated confrontations between activists and immigration officers. Most amounted to little more than shouted insults and taunting, with destruction mostly limited to broken windows, graffiti and some badly damaged federal vehicles.
The most serious force comes from immigration officers, who have broken car windows, pepper-sprayed protesters and warned observers not to follow them through the streets. Immigrants and citizens have been yanked from cars and homes and detained, sometimes for days. Most clashes end in tear gas.
Drivers can now stumble across intersections blocked by men in body armor and gas masks, with helicopters clattering overhead and the air filled with the shriek of protesters' whistles.
In a state that prides itself on its decency, there's something particularly Minnesotan about the protests.
Soon after Good was shot, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat and regular Trump target, repeatedly said he was angry but also urged people to find ways to help their communities.
“It might be shoveling your neighbor's walk,” he said. “It might mean being at a food bank. It might be pausing to talk to someone you haven't talked to before.”
He and other leaders have pleaded with protesters to remain peaceful, warning that the White House was looking for a chance to crack down harder.
When protests do become clashes, residents often spill from their homes, handing out bottled water so people can flush tear gas from their eyes.
Residents stand watch at schools to warn immigrant parents if convoys approach while they are picking up their children. They take care packages to people too afraid to go out, and arrange rides for them to work and doctor's visits.
On Thursday, in the basement of a Lutheran church in Saint Paul, the group Open Market MN assembled food packs for more than a hundred families staying home. Colin Anderson, the group's outreach director, said the group has seen a surge in requests.
Sometimes, people do not even understand what has happened to them.
Like Christian Molina from suburban Coon Rapids, who was driving through a Minneapolis neighborhood on a recent day, taking his car to a mechanic, when immigration officers began following him. He wonders if it is because he looks Hispanic.
They turned on their siren, but Molina kept driving, unsure who they were.
Eventually, the officers sped up, hit his rear bumper and both cars stopped. Two emerged and asked Molina for his papers. He refused, saying he would wait for the police. Crowds began to gather and a clash soon broke out, ending with tear gas.
So the officers left.
They left behind an angry, worried man who suddenly owned a sedan with a mangled rear fender.
Long after the officers were gone he had one final question: “Who's going to pay for my car?”
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images.
The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk's social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.
Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT:
To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam's political structure more closely to China's, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state.
Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state.
Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea.
The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels.
Tarriela's Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
ICE DISPUTE:
The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,' insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city's streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump.
Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump's effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
Minneapolis has seen tense demonstrations against the Trump administration's deployment of federal agents to the city for an immigration crackdown, raising questions about what these officers can do on the ground and how President Donald Trump can respond.
As protests escalated following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, the Trump administration defended the agent and doubled down on its efforts in the Minneapolis area, sending in more resources.
Trump has also threatened to the extreme step of invoking the Insurrection Act to clamp down on the protests and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has suggested people may be asked to “validate their identity” in some cases.
Here are some of the most common questions, answered.
The law that Trump is threatening to invoke would allow him to deploy active-duty US troops to Minnesota as “necessary to enforce (US) laws or to suppress the rebellion.”
The law says the president can send troops to control situations they consider to be “unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States.”
A state governor or legislature can also request troops — as was the case the last time the law was invoked in 1992 — but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has openly rebuked the surge of federal activity in Minneapolis.
There is precedent of a president invoking the act without the support of a governor.
Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy both invoked the Insurrection Act against the wishes of governors in order to facilitate school integration after the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
On Friday, Trump said there's no reason to use the Insurrection Act “right now,” but that he'd invoke the law if he felt it were necessary.
“I don't think there's any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I'd use it. It's very powerful,” the president told reporters.
Read CNN's Zachary B. Wolf's analysis of the Insurrection Act here.
Immigration agents can use deadly force against someone who poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury, according to a DHS policy. Historically, federal law enforcement agencies have spent weeks or even months conducting exhaustive investigations before deciding whether an agent's use of force was appropriate.
But Trump administration officials have rushed to offer full-throated defenses of immigration agents after high-profile use of force, raising questions about whether mechanisms meant to hold law enforcement accountable for wrongdoing have been abandoned in Trump's second term, writes CNN's Josh Campbell.
The administration has argued agents are immune to prosecution by state or local officials. And any federal prosecutions seem unlikely, Campbell writes, due to Trump's installation of political loyalists atop the Justice Department and FBI.
In August, during the federal takeover of the Washington, DC, police department, Trump effectively gave law enforcement a green light to use force that may far outpace the severity of the circumstances, according to Campbell.
While lamenting images he claimed to have seen showing protesters spitting on officers, Trump said in August, “I said, ‘You tell them, “You spit, and we hit,”' and they can hit real hard,” Trump said. “And they're standing there, and people are spitting in their face, and they're not allowed to do anything.”
“But now,” he added, “they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”
A similar carte blanche signal is being sent to ICE officers and other federal agencies assisting in Trump's immigration crackdown, DOJ insiders have told CNN.
Read more of Campbell's analysis on federal agents' powers here.
Noem said Thursday that federal agents may also ask people around someone they're targeting to “validate their identity.”
“If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they're there, and having them validate their identity,” Noem said. “That's what we've always done.”
Is this legal? CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig said, “It's illegal and it's unconstitutional to require people to show their citizenship papers without some other basis to make a stop.”
“What you cannot do is just go arbitrarily up to people or set up a checkpoint or go door to door and say, ‘Hey, you need to prove to us that you're a US citizen,'” Honig added. “The immigration officer needs to have some reasonable suspicion. You cannot just arbitrarily approach people and make them prove that they are in fact here legally.”
Cori Alonso-Yoder, an associate professor at University of Maryland law school, told CNN federal agents can ask for proof of citizenship, but people can resist showing their documents under the Fifth Amendment.
“ICE certainly can ask and then the question is, then, how does an individual in that circumstance respond,” Yoder, who is also the director of the law school's immigration clinic, said. “Because there are protections under the Fifth Amendment, regardless of immigration status, to not incriminate oneself or to again assert one's right to remain silent when engaging with law enforcement.”
On Monday, Minnesota filed a lawsuit seeking to curb the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown in the state, arguing that it violates the 10th Amendment.
Illinois has also filed a similar lawsuit.
Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, told CNN the 10th Amendment established that states retain sovereign power to make local laws and govern within their borders, and the federal government cannot impose its will over a state, unless that authority has been granted by Congress or the Constitution.
In its lawsuit, Minnesota emphasized strains on local police resources, asserting that Minneapolis and Saint Paul have been forced to divert officers from their usual duties to respond to incidents involving federal immigration enforcement, undermining local efforts to protect the community.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said earlier this week that the state's lawsuit is aimed squarely at what he described as unlawful federal overreach, not at blocking immigration enforcement itself.
Read why Honig says Minnesota and Illinois' cases “are close to completely meritless” here.
CNN's Zachary B. Wolf, Josh Campbell, Michael Williams, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Chelsea Bailey, Danya Gainor, and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.
© 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States will impose new tariffs on several European countries unless a deal is reached for the purchase of Greenland, escalating his long-running push for US control of the Arctic territory.
Trump said Saturday he will impose a 10% tariff on “on any and all goods” from Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and other countries starting February 1, increasing to 25% on June 1, until an agreement is reached.
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back World Peace is at stake!”
Trump argued that Greenland is central to US and global security and said Denmark's defenses were insufficient, warning that the nations deploying small numbers of military personnel to Greenland amounted to “a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet.”
The president added that the US has sought to acquire Greenland for more than 150 years, and argued that modern weapons systems and missile defense projects, including the “Golden Dome,” make control of the territory especially important.
His repeated statements have strained diplomatic relations between the US and Denmark, which owns the territory but gives the local population the right to self-determination, while also prompting condemnation from NATO's European member states.
Meanwhile Saturday, protesters demonstrated in Greenland and Denmark against Trump's threats to take over the Arctic island, and demanded that its citizens should be allowed to determine its own future.
In Denmark, thousands turned out in the cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense to stand in solidarity with the Greenlandic population.
A protest kicked off later in Greenland's capital of Nuuk. Just before 2p.m. local time there was an estimated crowd of 5,000 – a large proportion of the island's population of 56,000. People waved banners including “Yankee go home,” and “Greenland is already great.”
In Copenhagen many waved banners with slogans including “Hands off Greenland” alongside the territory's red and white flag, according to Reuters. The protests across Denmark were organized by Greenlandic organizations in cooperation with the NGO ActionAid Denmark. A statement from ActionAid said the unrest was planned to coincide with a visit of US senators to Denmark.
“We are demonstrating against American statements and ambitions to annex Greenland,” Camilla Siezing, Chair of the Joint Association Inuit – one of the Greenlandic organizations involved in planning the protests – said.
“We demand respect for the Danish Realm and for Greenland's right to self-determination. Hopefully, we can show that we are many who support Greenland.”
In Greenland on Saturday, protesters were similarly defiant. Asked what her message to the US president was, one female protester in Nuuk, who didn't give her name, told CNN, “We are not for sale.”
Another protester named Patricia said, “We have seen what he (Trump) does in Venezuela and Iran. He doesn't respect anything, he just takes what he thinks is his… He misuses his power.”
A male protester, who didn't give his name, said, “We do not accept this kind of aggression,” referring to Trump's threats on Greenland.
“My biggest fear is that the US military come here and try to take over our country. But I don't think it will happen.”
Amid the escalating situation, a US delegation of bipartisan lawmakers were sent to Copenhagen to meet with leaders from Denmark and Greenland.
In a press conference on Saturday, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who is leading the delegation, said the Trump administration's “tempo of statements” around Greenland's potential acquisition was not constructive.
Senator Coons also expressed his respect to the indigenous people of Greenland, telling journalists that it was a “remote and difficult place to live, and that the population of Greenland has managed to carve out of an exceptionally difficult environment, a culture and an approach to living that is worthy of deep respect.”
The US lawmaker sought to highlight the partnership between the US and Denmark, including in the military sphere, saying that the delegation would visit a cemetery later Saturday to lay a wreath for Danish soldiers who fell fighting alongside American troops in conflicts such as the war in Afghanistan.
Reporting from Greenland's capital of Nook, CNN's International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson said the visit by the US lawmakers was intended to signal how much Denmark's military partnership with the US is appreciated. “The visit to that cemetery today to lay a wreath, really for them, will sort of encapsulate how much the United States has valued that partnership, valued the lives laid down by Denmark, by Danish troops,” he said.
Kit Maher and Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting.
© 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
Mark Davis, running in Florida, says he bought domain because Republican party had gone ‘full fascist'
A Florida congressional candidate says he bought the online domain nazis.us and set it up to redirect visitors to the US Department of Homeland Security, under whom federal agents have been carrying out brutal immigration crackdowns at the behest of the Trump administration.
Mark Davis, who is running for Republican Vern Buchanan's US House seat in November's midterms, took responsibility for the ploy in a Friday X post – as polling showed most Americans believe the killing of Minneapolis woman Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent demonstrated problems with the way ICE has been operating.
“I'm a nobody. A dad in [conservative] Florida,” Davis wrote. “And I'm the one who bought nazis.us because [Trump's Republican party] went full fascist and … not a soul in power thought to actually raise hell. So I did.”
Davis, who lists no party affiliation, added that if establishment figures “won't fight Nazis, then a nobody fucking will”.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told TMZ after it first reported on nazis.us that her agency, which houses ICE, had “successfully blocked the redirect” by Thursday morning. However, as of late Saturday, typing nazis.us into a web browser led users to the Homeland Security website at dhs.gov.
Good was killed in one of numerous violent encounters seeing federal officers including ICE agents descend on community members during protests across the US over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Many who oppose the tactics used by federal agents have likened them to the Gestapo, the secret police of white supremacist Nazi Germany. Notably, after endorsing Trump's victorious run for a second presidency in 2024, podcast host Joe Rogan compared ICE to the Gestapo in the wake of Good's killing.
Trump, for his part, has made it clear that it bothers him when people refer to his administration as Nazis.
“Look, they call me a Nazi all the time – I'm not a Nazi,” Trump said on the CBS News program 60 Minutes in November. “I'm the opposite. I'm somebody that's saving our country, but they call me Nazi.”
Meanwhile, the Intercept news website noted that the DHS's official Instagram account recently published a recruitment post touting “We'll Have Our Home Again”, attaching a song with that title.
The song is popular in neo-Nazi spaces and features lyrics about recapturing “our home” by “blood or sweat,” echoing themes invoked by white supremacists when they call for race wars, according to the Intercept.
Records from GoDaddy'sWHOIS database say nazis.us was registered on 13 January by a user with a Florida mailing address.
Davis received mixed reactions online after claiming responsibility for the nazis.us redirect, with some applauding him as principled and courageous – while others mocked him and promised to help defeat him.
On Friday, he posted a message on the social media platform Threads that he suggested was an answer for numerous media outlets trying to contact him to ask about the redirect.
“I shouldn't have to do this,” Davis said. “But I watched elected leaders stay silent while this country goes with fascism.”
This article was amended on 17 January 2026. An earlier version stated that Mark Davis had said he was running for the Democrats. Davis, in fact, has no party affiliation.
Syrian government forces have taken over a number of towns and villages in the Aleppo region after the command of Kurdish-led fighters said it would evacuate the area.
Army units took control of the town of Maskanah on Saturday, according to the military, and were continuing to advance.
There have been several confrontations between the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian military since the Islamist-led government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa came to power just over a year ago.
Sharaa has pledged to unify the country after 14 years of civil war, but the Kurds want guarantees of their autonomy.
The SDF's commander, Mazloum Abdi, pledged on Friday that his troops would begin withdrawing from positions east of Aleppo on Saturday, as part of a broader settlement that was agreed in principle last March.
“Based on calls from friendly countries and mediators, and as a sign of our goodwill to complete the integration process and to adhere to implementing the provisions of the March 10 agreement, we have decided to withdraw our forces … and to redeploy to areas east of the Euphrates,” Abdi said.
Part of the winding river, which flows south from the Turkish border, is now a de facto line between the two sides.
The Kurds' withdrawal followed a visit to the area by a delegation of the US-led international coalition that maintains a presence in northern Syria.
The Syrian military moved into the town of Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers east of Aleppo, on Saturday, according to geolocated video.
“Thank God it happened with the least amount of losses,” one resident, Hussein al-Khalaf, told Reuters. “There's been enough blood in this country. … We have sacrificed and lost enough. People are tired of it.”
However, fighting continued Saturday in several areas. The SDF said its forces were engaged in intense clashes with government troops in the Thawra oil field area south of Tabqa, “which was outside the scope of the agreement,” it claimed.
The United States urged restraint on the part of Syrian troops.
“We welcome ongoing efforts by all parties in Syria to prevent escalation and pursue Resolution through dialogue,” US Central Command said in a statement Saturday. “We also urge Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa.”
The military has taken control of Thawra and another oil field in the region, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The SDF accused Syrian government forces of entering towns before its fighters had completed their withdrawal, calling it a breach of the agreement. It said some of its fighters were under siege in Deir Hafer “as a result of the Damascus government's treachery.”
In turn, the Syrian military accused Kurdish fighters of firing on a Syrian army patrol near Maskanah, killing two soldiers.
The Syrian military also accused Kurdish units of planting explosives on a bridge on the road east to Raqqa, which remains under Kurdish control.
“Blowing up the bridge would disrupt the agreement, and there would be very severe consequences,” the Syrian army said in a statement Saturday.
The Kurdish-led authority in Raqqa, which is largely populated by Arabs, later declared a curfew in the region.
The violence has raged on despite a decree issued by Sharaa on Friday assuring the legal status and cultural rights of Syrian Kurdish citizens.
The Syrian presidency provided CNN with the text, which promises full citizenship rights for Kurds, thousands of whom — as well as their descendants — have been denied papers for 60 years. The decree also recognizes Kurdish as a “national language” and permits its teaching in public and private schools in areas where Kurds form a notable share of the population.
Syrian army launches new strikes in Aleppo as fighting with Kurdish-led SDF intensifies
Whether the president's decree and the SDF's withdrawal can lead to a broader agreement and end the frequent bouts of clashes remains an open question.
Analysts say the SDF's withdrawal from areas east of Aleppo appears to stem from a desire to avoid what could have become a losing battle. Kurdish units were driven out of several neighborhoods inside Aleppo earlier this month.
Kurdish-led authorities established a semi-autonomous administration in much of Syria's north and east during the civil war and have resisted fully integrating into the Islamist-led government that took power after former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in late 2024.
Damascus reached a deal with the SDF last year that envisaged full integration of Kurdish fighters in the new Syrian army by the end of 2025, but progress has been limited, with both sides blaming the other.
The US envoy to the region, Tom Barrack, has been involved with efforts to seal a deal between the government and SDF.
© 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
Yuliia Tymoshenko, head of the Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction, attends a court hearing at the High Anti-Corruption Court in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 16, 2026. (Oleksandr Magula / Suspilne Ukraine / JSC “UA:PBC” / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
It's hard to imagine Ukraine's political scene without Yulia Tymoshenko.
A veteran politician, Tymoshenko has held a variety of government posts, serving as the country's prime minister twice, being defeated in a presidential runoff back in 2010, and leading the country's opposition at different times.
On Jan. 14, Tymoshenko was charged with bribery — the third trial of her tumultuous 30-year political career.
Tymoshenko, now the 65-year-old leader of the Batkivshchyna party represented by 25 lawmakers in parliament, has been recorded by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) allegedly offering bribes to members of parliament.
Just like 15 years ago, during her previous trial, Tymoshenko denied the accusations and portrayed the case as political.
For her supporters, now few in numbers, Tymoshenko remains a democratic firebrand and a hero of the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
Others, however, accuse her of corruption and view her as a relic of the post-Soviet old guard and an irresponsible populist who has shifted her political leanings to stay afloat.
"She's not the kind of figure you can judge in a linear way, or paint entirely in white or black tones," political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told the Kyiv Independent. "She is definitely one of the most prominent figures in Ukrainian politics. She is a very striking figure and at the same time a very controversial one."
Oleksiy Haran, a politics professor at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, argued that Tymoshenko has a natural "talent for politics."
"She truly had a gift — she knew how to maneuver," he added. "She had charisma. But over time, that gradually faded when people saw that she was playing the same games she used to accuse everyone else of playing."
In the 1990s, Tymoshenko, together with her husband, founded the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, the country's biggest natural gas importer. Success in business propelled her onto the political stage.
Her meteoric rise to fame was driven by Pavlo Lazarenko, the country's prime minister from 1996 to 1997, who saw Tymoshenko as his protege.
Lazarenko fled Ukraine amid a corruption investigation in 1999. In 2004, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud charges in the U.S.
Tymoshenko was elected as a member of parliament in 1996 and co-founded the Batkivshchyna party in 1999 following Lazarenko's escape. The party has been elected to every Ukrainian parliament since 2002.
From 1999 to 2001, she was a deputy of then Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and spearheaded a reform in the energy sector.
In 2001, Tymoshenko was one of the key opponents of President Leonid Kuchma. She and her husband were arrested on charges of smuggling Russian gas in what was widely seen as a political reprisal by Kuchma.
She spent 42 days in a detention facility, but the case collapsed, and she was released from jail, boosting her popularity.
“If we didn't have Yulia, we would have seen Leonid (Kuchma) morph into (Belarusian dictator Aleksander) Lukashenko a long time ago,” Serhiy Taruta, a businessman, lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna party, and longtime friend of Tymoshenko, told the Kyiv Independent.
Tymoshenko played a pivotal role in the 2004 Orange Revolution, which was sparked by voting fraud in favor of Kuchma-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych during a presidential election. The results of the election were annulled, and Tymoshenko's ally Yushchenko was elected as president.
"If it hadn't been for her powerful role back then, in 2004, it's still unclear how everything would have ended," Fesenko said. "They could have lost. Tymoshenko (and her protege Oleksandr Turchynov) held (Yushchenko's) election campaign together.”
Following the Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko twice served as prime minister — in 2005 and from 2007 to 2010. During her time in office, she fell out with Yushchenko — a rift that became one of the biggest political stories of the late 2000s.
As prime minister, she pursued a populist policy.
Her government supported increasing social spending, confiscating assets privatized with violations and re-privatizing them, imposing price controls, and intervening in the markets to push prices down.
Since then, Tymoshenko has developed a unique brand of populism targeting mostly the poor and elderly. Retired women have been her core support group ever since.
Tymoshenko has opposed farmland sales and liberalization of utility tariffs. She has also attacked the pro-Western rule of law and free-market reforms, claiming that they restrict Ukraine's sovereignty through the influence of foreign experts on appointments to state jobs.
"She was essentially the founding figure of Ukrainian populism," Fesenko said. "In fact, she was the grandmaster and genius of Ukrainian populism."
Political analyst Oleksiy Kovzhun told the Kyiv Independent he had stopped working as a consultant for Tymoshenko in 2008 when he "realized that she was shifting from a progressive politician to a reactionary one" and bet on "impoverished older women."
During her premiership, Tymoshenko met Russian President Vladimir Putin several times and enjoyed an apparently good relationship with the Kremlin, prompting her critics to claim that she was pro-Russian.
Fesenko said, however, that reality is more complicated and that he would not describe Tymoshenko's relationship with Putin as friendly.
"It's a well-known story where both sides try to deceive their opponent, to use them for their own benefit," Fesenko said. "It seems to me that they are both extremely cynical, and that helped them reach agreements."
In 2010, Tymoshenko was the leading pro-Western candidate. She ran in a presidential election but lost to her political archenemy, the pro-Russian politician Yanukovych, receiving 45.5% in the runoff.
Under Yanukovych, several criminal cases were opened against Tymoshenko in what was widely seen as a political vendetta.
In 2011, a court sentenced her to seven years in jail for allegedly abusing her power while signing the 2009 contract to buy natural gas from Russia.
In 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Tymoshenko's detention was arbitrary and unlawful and likely was politically motivated.
After spending three years in prison, she was released from prison following the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, which overthrew Yanukovych.
Her political capital had evaporated by then.
Kovzhun said that, when she spoke to EuroMaidan protesters in a wheelchair after being released from jail, it was clear she had lost touch with the people.
"These were people who smelled like smoke, who had stood for months on the Maidan under police batons, under bullets — they'd been scorched by fire," he said. "And then a lady shows up saying, 'I'll protect you from injustice.' Their question was 'Who are you?' That's when she lost her connection to the people."
Fesenko argued that EuroMaidan supporters "saw Tymoshenko as an outsider."
"They wanted a different, new kind of politics," he added. "And there were many people there who were disillusioned with what had happened after the Orange Revolution. They no longer believed in Yulia. The Maidan moved forward, but Yulia remained in the past."
Tymoshenko was the runner-up in the 2014 presidential election with a mere 13% of the vote, while her competitor, Petro Poroshenko, won in a landslide with 55.5%.
"We see that trust in her was declining, and her electoral results were poor," Haran said. "She didn't believe at all that she could lose to Poroshenko. But she did lose. In other words, her star was on the decline."
In the 2019 presidential election, Tymoshenko came third with 13.6% of the vote, losing to both Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky, who won the election.
“We remember when the 2019 elections were held, and when Zelensky did not launch his campaign, if Zelensky had not run, she would definitely be president,” Taruta said.
Fesenko said that there was a popular desire for new faces, and Tymoshenko was not one of them.
"In 2019, people wanted renewal, because they were disillusioned with Poroshenko and with others — both those who were from the EuroMaidan camp and those who weren't," Fesenko said. "At that point, there was a desire to cast aside everyone who had been part of the old politics."
Kovzhun argued that Tymoshenko "was pushed to the political fringe."
Her current support rate balances between four and six percent, depending on the poll.
Both under Poroshenko and Zelensky, Tymoshenko and her party presented themselves as part of the opposition but often supported the administration's initiatives.
In July 2025, Tymoshenko supported a law, initiated by the Zelensky administration, that eliminated the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). She virulently attacked the anti-corruption agencies, accusing them of being a tool of foreign governments.
The law was later overturned under public and Western pressure.
But in recent weeks, Tymoshenko apparently decided to move against the incumbent administration.
According to the NABU, she allegedly offered bribes to lawmakers for rejecting the appointment of ministers and sought to "take down" Zelensky's majority in parliament.
One possible explanation is that she wanted to provoke the creation of a new Cabinet and get government jobs for her party, according to Fesenko.
Tymoshenko's actions were likely inspired by the weakening of Zelensky's grip on parliament amid a large-scale corruption investigation targeting his inner circle, which led to the resignation of President's Office Head Andriy Yermak in November, he added.
"Since the 2000s, she has essentially always worked using other people's money," Fesenko said. "She knew how to find that money — she's one of the grandmasters of fundraising. The corruption case may damage or even bury (Tymoshenko's political career). Yulia may become toxic for sponsors, and she won't make it without money."
Reporter
Politics Reporter
Supreme leader blames US for death toll and calls Donald Trump a criminal for support of demonstrations
The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has acknowledged for the first time that thousands of people were killed during the protests that rocked Iran over the last two weeks.
In a speech on Thursday, Khamenei said that thousands of people had been killed, “some in an inhuman, savage manner”, and blamed the US for the death toll. The supreme leader railed against the US president, Donald Trump, whom he called a “criminal” for his support of demonstrations, and called for strict punishment of protesters.
Khamenei said: “By God's grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition.”
Iranian authorities also released a compilation of footage on Saturday that purported to show armed individuals carrying guns and knives alongside regular protesters – evidence, they said, of foreign saboteurs.
Another senior Iranian cleric demanded the execution of protesters, demanding that “armed hypocrites should be put to death”.
He described protesters as “butlers” and “soldiers” of Israel and the US, vowing that neither country should “expect peace”.
Khatami, a member of the Guardian Council and a senior member of the Assembly of Experts, which appoints the supreme leader, is a hardline, influential cleric in Iran.
The speech was in striking contrast to statements from Trump, this week, who appeared to postpone a military strike in Iran, telling reporters that Iranian authorities had agreed to halt the executions of protesters.
On Friday night, Trump thanked Iran for stopping the execution of what he said was 800 protesters, though it was unclear where he was drawing those figures from.
Rights groups have said the repression of protesters is continuing, with more than 3,090 people killed in the unrest and nearly 4,000 more cases still waiting to be reviewed, according to the Human Rights Activists news agency. More than 22,100 people have been arrested in protests, leading to fears of mistreatment of detainees.
The two-and-a-half weeks of protests started on 28 December when traders took to the streets in Tehran in response to a sudden dip in the value of the rial. Protests spread and demands expanded to include calls for an end to the country's government, creating the most serious, and deadliest unrest the country has seen since the 1979 revolution.
The brutal quashing of demonstrations by authorities, which Human Rights Watch said on Friday included the “mass killings of protesters”, has largely driven people off the streets.
With the immediate unrest addressed, authorities were making a public show of punishing those involved in the action, which they had styled as a foreign-backed plot to destabilise the country.
Khatami, in his Friday sermon, claimed 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other places of worship had been damaged by protesters. He also said 400 hospitals, 106 ambulances, 71 fire trucks and 50 other emergency vehicles had been damaged.
It was unclear what the fallout of the protest movement will be, or if it will reignite in the coming days. Iran continues to be cut off from the rest of the world, as authorities maintain the more than week-long internet shutdown.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran who had become a prominent opposition voice during the protests, continued to call for the overthrow of the government on Friday and urged Trump to intervene.
“I believe the president is a man of his word,” Pahlavi said, adding that “regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice to carry on the fight”.
Ukraine needs to ramp up electricity imports as new Russian attacks leaves tens of thousands without power during the country's coldest winter of the full-scale invasion, President Volodymy Zelensky said following an emergency energy meeting on Jan. 17. Russian forces launched overnight attacks on Jan. 16-17 across Ukraine, hitting energy infrastructure, including substations, in Odesa and Kyiv oblasts, triggering emergency power outages, authorities reported. There are also reports of energy instability in Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Dnipro oblasts, Zelensky added. "We need to accelerate as much as possible the increase in electricity imports and the provision of additional equipment from partners. All decisions for this are already in place, and the increase in imports must proceed without delay," he wrote. Ukraine can only meet 60% of its energy generation needs, Zelensky previously said on Jan. 16 . The country can only produce 11 gigawatts of electricity but needs 18 gigawatts. Ukraine has ramped up electricity imports, but it is limited by a maximum capability of 2.3 gigawatts. Prices are also sky-high, meaning cash-strapped Ukraine often imports less than that. Rolling blackouts are occurring across the country, even in Western regions, to balance the grid – typically 16 hours without power and eight hours with. Hours after the meeting, a heavy Russian strike seriously damaged critical infrastructure in Kharkiv and injured one person, the city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, wrote on Telegram. Each attack makes it harder to repair damage and provide heating and power to citizens, he said. "This is not a case of patch it up a bit and move on," he said. "The energy sector is now in very poor condition — reserves are not unlimited, the load is at its peak, and any new damage immediately 'eats up' the capacity needed for stabilization," he added. In Odesa Oblast, around 16,000 consumers were left without power in the morning, Ukrenergo CEO Vitaliy Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent. In the Bucha region, Kyiv Oblast, where Russia carried out one of the worst massacres during the war, some 56,000 families didn't have power in the morning after overnight attacks, private energy firm DTEK reported on Jan 17. The icy conditions are complicating repair works, the company added. Energy repair workers hope to connect both regions by the evening, Zaichenko said. Russian troops also hit gas infrastructure, damaging equipment used for extraction, Serhii Koretskyi, CEO of Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas giant, Naftogaz, wrote on Facebook. Over the last week alone, Russia struck six different gas facilities, he added. "Taking advantage of abnormal weather conditions, the enemy intensifies strikes on civilian infrastructure, trying to deprive us of heat, creating unbearable living conditions," he wrote. President Volodymyr Zelensky declared a state of emergency in Ukraine's energy sector earlier this week as citizens struggled through bitingly cold conditions without heating and power, with temperatures dropping to -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) at night. A task force, led by newly appointed Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, has been set up in Kyiv to manage the crisis.Allies have stepped up support, with Germany sending a 60 million euro ($69.6 million) winter support package. "This assistance will help keep our people warm and protected by strengthening heating and heat supply systems – with a particular focus on frontline regions," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on social media on Jan. 16. The situation in frontline regions is the most difficult as active hostilities impede repairs, the Energy Ministry said. Russians have been known to hunt energy workers in frontline regions, killing and injuring hundreds during the war. The U.K. also announced £20 million ($26.7 million) in aid to repair and bolster Ukraine's energy security on the first anniversary of the two countries' 100 Year Partnership on Jan. 16.
Business Reporter
So far, Claudia Sheinbaum has urged her country to play it cool. Trump's actions in Latin America are making industries nervous
In the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump's raid of Venezuela and capture of its then president, the possible implications for their country were not lost on Mexico's political and business class.
“I'm not saying that Mexico is Venezuela,” Juan Carlos Baker, a former undersecretary for foreign trade and director-general for North America for the Mexican government, said over breakfast in Mexico City. “I don't think that the U.S. is going to replicate those measures. But clearly, they will feel more confident in pushing crazy ideas.”
Many of those would-be scenarios were itemized in interviews with Mexican economic leaders, industry representatives and government veterans this week.
Most prominent are worries about Mr. Trump sending the U.S. military into Mexico to take on its drug cartels, which he has been openly threatening. Nearly as top of mind are concerns about economic demands he could make, while feeling emboldened as the North American free trade pact (known in Canada as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA) is up for review this year. Then there are newly plausible guesses of how he could lash out, such as cutting off exports of Texas-produced natural gas on which Mexico heavily relies.
It all seemingly points toward an anxiety level, around the neighbouring superpower's volatile behaviour, that is by now unpleasantly familiar to Canadians even if specific concerns are different.
But even post-Venezuela, there remains a sanguineness to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's response that starkly contrasts with the more urgent, sometimes panicked reaction by Canadian politicians since Mr. Trump returned to the White House.
It's a strategy of de-escalation with Mr. Trump behind which most Mexicans have fallen in line, and even commentators critical of other government policies give her credit for cool-headedness. But it is at some risk of fraying if she's seen to surrender sovereignty in return for peace, or if she fails to stop the U.S. President from exacting a further toll on an already troubled Mexican economy.
And it could make for an uneasy – or complementary – combination of styles and tactics between the Mexican and Canadian governments, which have recently showed renewed determination to work together to manage the shared threat.
Ms. Sheinbaum and Prime Minister Mark Carney – who joined Mr. Trump for last month's FIFA World Cup draw – each have their own approaches for dealing with the mercurial U.S. President.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Ms. Sheinbaum's strategy of playing down Mr. Trump's provocations was on display this week, when she said at her daily news conference (one of the ways she maintains calm control over government messaging) that the risk of American military strikes against the drug cartels had been mitigated by a “good conversation” with the U.S. President. It was the latest instance of her “very serene and cold-blooded approach,” as Gerardo Esquivel – a former deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico who advised Ms. Sheinbaum's 2024 election campaign – put it.
While having frequent calls with Mr. Trump and avoiding the theatrics of public meetings, she has continually talked up her ability to work with him. And she has rarely gone as far as Prime Minister Mark Carney – let alone former PM Justin Trudeau – in publicly suggesting that the United States is no longer a reliable partner. Nor is there nearly as much messaging, from Ms. Sheinbaum or anyone else, about the need for Mexico to carve out its own economic path to reduce its U.S. dependence.
The red eagle labels at this Mexico City Walmart flag products that are 'hecho en Mexico' – made in Mexico.Henry Romero/Reuters
There have been some efforts to foster greater self-reliance, highlighted by the revival of an old Made in Mexico branding campaign to promote Mexican consumption of domestic products, and some relatively quiet attempts at market diversification, including modernization of a trade agreement with Europe.
But the resources behind these efforts have been relatively limited.
Some of this, at least on the rhetorical side, tends to be chalked up to personality. Ms. Sheinbaum's populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, might have taken a fierier anti-U.S. stance. Despite leading the Morena party that Mr. López Obrador founded, and sharing its left-of-centre ideals, Ms. Sheinbaum is much more technocratic.
But other, deeper-running dynamics are also at play.
One of them is realism about Mexico's alternatives. It has long been even more economically dependent than Canada on the U.S., which accounts for over 80 per cent of its exports. It has fewer natural resources that are in global demand, despite some export growth potential around sectors such as agriculture and mining. Much of its trade revolves around low-cost manufacturing – that is, low-cost for the U.S. market, not relative to many other countries, including seemingly natural trade partners around Latin America.
That helps explain, for instance, why analysts here see little prospect of Ms. Sheinbaum following Mr. Carney's lead by warming relations with China, after Mexico recently imposed new tariffs on China at Mr. Trump's behest. Not only do they point toward greater perceived danger for Mexico in antagonizing the U.S., they also see China as more of a manufacturing competitor than a reciprocal trade partner.
The National Guard – whose forces keep watch at the Los Pinos complex in Mexico City – are a more militarized force than in decades past, highly involved in patrolling the border and combating cartels.
At the same time, nearly all conversations also turn to another form of realism around the U.S. relationship.
A complicated history, involving military conflicts as recently as the early 20th century and frequent recent tensions around issues such as immigration and the drug trade, means volatility has come as less of a shock than in Canada. There has been less personal offence taken at Mr. Trump's hostility, less feeling of betrayal by a close friend, less sense that the world has been upended.
But that history is a double-edged sword for Ms. Sheinbaum, due to heightened sovereignty sensitivities.
Those exist most obviously around potential action to combat the drug cartels.
Their brutal impact on the country, including effective control of entire states, is undeniable, and Ms. Sheinbaum has adopted a more aggressive approach to combatting them than did Mr. López Obrador. She has also walked a fine line trying to satisfy Mr. Trump's desire to engage in the crackdown, including transferring alleged cartel members to face justice in the U.S.
But even among people who believe action to date has been insufficient, a common view is that the U.S. military directly striking the cartels within Mexico would cross a red line, unless Ms. Sheinbaum were credibly able to present it as a joint effort she'd requested (and perhaps even then).
Economist Valeria Moy thinks curbing trade with China to appease Mr. Trump goes too far.
The sovereignty concerns are also frequently invoked around potential economic concessions.
Valeria Moy, a free-market economist who heads the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, described herself in an interview as no fan of Chinese trade policies. But she expressed discomfort with trying to appease Mr. Trump by restricting Chinese imports or investment. And she feels similarly about possibly giving in to his recent demands to cut Mexico's (fairly modest) oil exports to Cuba, or curbing relations with other countries in his crosshairs.
“For me that's sovereignty – being able to talk to whoever you want to talk to,” Ms. Moy said.
There are various theories around what other possible sovereignty compromises Mr. Trump could demand as part of the looming trade-deal review, from U.S. access to Mexico's energy market to new rules of origin that could compromise Mexico's manufacturing. But there are also cautions about making further concessions before the CUSMA review even begins in earnest.
“My advice is don't keep feeding the dragon every day,” said Ildefonso Guajardo, who as economy minister under then president Enrique Peña Nieto was at the forefront of trade negotiations during Mr. Trump's first term, “because the dragon will not be satisfied.”
Tariffs have brought a year of uncertainty to border crossings such as Zaragoza-Ysleta in Ciudad Juárez, where trucks queue to bring goods to and from the United States.
As for what Ms. Sheinbaum might be able to get in return, even just by way of relief from punitive measures already taken by Mr. Trump, expectations are limited.
Although Mexican officials are fond of pointing out that Mexico (like Canada) is currently subjected to fewer U.S. tariffs than most other countries, it's also (like Canada) suffering from unusually high 25-per-cent tariffs on specific sectors such as steel and automotive.
Meeting at his office, Rogelio Arzate – who leads the association representing Mexico's significant truck-manufacturing industry – pointed to charts showing his members' production down about 35 per cent in 2025.
Any continuing tariffs, he suggested, will impact that output. But “realistically, the tariffs are probably here to stay,” and his best hope is for them to be significantly lowered. The word out of the Mexican government is that it will settle for those sectors paying lower tariffs than overseas competitors.
The Mexican steel industry has had to adapt to U.S. tariffs as the country tries to attract new manufacturing to its shores.Eduardo Verdugo/The Associated Press
Meanwhile, the uncertainty around CUSMA's future is making it difficult to attract domestic investment – including as part of Ms. Sheinbaum's signature economic strategy, Plan Mexico, which is aimed partly at attracting advanced and traditional manufacturing.
That contributed to Mexico's dismal 0.5-per-cent economic growth in 2025, although most economists also point to domestic missteps. (Top among those are extremely controversial changes to the judiciary initiated by Mr. López Obrador, which have undermined investor confidence in the rule of law.)
Still, the prospect of CUSMA collapsing or being dramatically altered is treated by most voices here as a remote one, mostly because of pressure from the U.S. private sector to keep it in place.
Adding a little to that confidence are improvements in Canada-Mexico relations.
At the start of Mr. Trump's return to office, there was a feeling that then prime minister Trudeau was neglecting the relationship. And Mexicans were rankled by suggestions, made particularly undiplomatically by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, that Canada should approach the U.S. separately and let Mexico fend for itself.
Now, Mexico is set to receive its largest Canadian trade delegation in memory next month, led by senior cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc.
While that will be aimed at strengthening sectoral ties, ranging from financial services to auto parts to agriculture, Mexican observers drew encouragement from a visit this past fall by Mr. Carney, where he and Ms. Sheinbaum seemed to be on the same page about dealing with Mr. Trump.
That united front has been maintained through subsequent meetings between the two leaders. The hope, on both sides, is that it will continue to withstand challenges from the U.S. President, and from divergent domestic strategies for contending with him.
Donald Trump shows little patience for those who say he's violating international law. But how is the rules-based order supposed to work? Researcher Michael Byers spoke with The Decibel about the treaties that govern foreign affairs, and what countries can and can't do to wrongdoers. Subscribe for more episodes.
Trump's threats raise thorny questions for Greenland, Denmark
Cubans brace for tougher times as Trump says he'll cut off Venezuelan oil
David Shribman: Despite Trump's push for isolation, the U.S. is now more engaged overseas
Report an editorial error
Report a technical issue
Editorial code of conduct
Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.
© Copyright 2026 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.
Andrew Saunders, President and CEO
MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 99 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"During the night, on-duty air defense capabilities eliminated and intercepted 99 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, including 29 drones over the Belgorod Region, 12 drones over the Kursk Region, four drones over each of the Rostov and Astrakhan regions, two drones over the Republic of Crimea, 47 drones were destroyed over the waters of the Black Sea, and one drone over the waters of the Sea of Azov," the Defense Ministry said.
BERLIN, January 17. /TASS/. Former NATO Secretary General (in office from 2014 to 2024) Jens Stoltenberg has called on Western countries to "talk to Russia as a neighbor."
"We need to discuss ending the fighting in Ukraine with Russia just as we, the United States, and other countries are doing. <...> We need to talk to Russia as a neighbor," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.
A return to dialogue with Russia is necessary, among other things, for the discussion of arms control, Stoltenberg noted. "Even during the Cold War, we managed to limit nuclear weapons, but that architecture no longer exists," he said.
Gov. Tim Walz called reports of a federal investigation into his recent public statements encouraging Minnesotans to take action against federal immigration agents in the state an “authoritarian tactic.”
Germany turned away a Russian-linked oil tanker from entering its territorial waters in the Baltic Sea this week, marking the first known instance of a European country blocking a vessel in Moscow's shadow fleet, Bloomberg reported Jan. 16.
The Aframax-class tanker, identified by the name Arcusat, abruptly changed course earlier this week as it neared German waters, instead rerouting north toward Russia's Arctic coast, according to Bloomberg and other outlets.The ship was reportedly sailing through the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden and had signaled a destination in the Gulf of Finland before reversing direction. German media reported that federal police forced the vessel to turn away, citing irregularities in its documentation and identity.
According to open source databases, as well as shipping industry insiders, the Arcusat is listed as having "never existed." A ship registry maintained by the International Maritime Organization likewise shows no matching record for the vessel's IMO identification number.
Shipping records indicate the tanker was delivered last year from a Chinese shipyard, though databases disagree on the flag it is sailing under, with some listing Tanzania and others Cameroon. The vessel also reportedly appeared under a provisional name before disappearing from maritime registries.
Germany's decision to turn away the tanker may signal a shift in how European countries address Russia's shadow fleet, a network of aging and opaque vessels used by the Kremlin to circumvent Western sanctions on its oil exports.
In recent months, the United States has seized several tankers linked to Russian and Venezuelan shipments, while European governments have signaled plans to step up enforcement against vessels operating as part of the shadow fleet.
News Editor
"Our country reminds the world before the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics that sport is not outside of politics. After all, the sanctioned individuals openly support aggression, war crimes, and occupation, thus destroying the principles and values of the Olympic movement."
Disconnecting Ukraine's nuclear power plants would take the crisis one step further — Ukrainians would be fully cut off from electricity and heating in subzero temperatures.
The delegation consists of the recently appointed President's Office head Kyrylo Budanov, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, and the parliamentary leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia.
Russian forces launched overnight attacks on Jan. 16-17 across Ukraine, hitting energy infrastructure, including substations, in Odesa and Kyiv oblasts, triggering emergency power outages, authorities reported
The motorcade had been moving at a high speed before encountering an obstacle, leading to a mass accident and a number of victims.
The number includes 1,130 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Polish authorities have charged five men in an alleged Russia-orchestrated plot to send out parcels with explosives to various Western countries, Poland's National Prosecutor's Office announced on Jan. 16.
American officials have put forward the idea of expanding the Gaza 'Board of Peace' to include other countries affected by war and conflicts, including Ukraine and Venezuela, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Jan. 16.
Germany turned away a Russian-linked oil tanker from entering its territorial waters in the Baltic Sea this week, marking the first known instance of a European country blocking a vessel in Moscow's shadow fleet, Bloomberg reported Jan. 16.
Ukraine hopes to gain more clarity on "documents that we have actually drafted with the American side, and regarding Russia's response to all this diplomatic work," Zelensky said.
Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal agency responsible for monitoring mass media and telecommunications, has imposed new restrictions on the Telegram messaging app, Moscow 24 reported Jan. 16.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller discusses President Donald Trump's maneuvering to take control of Greenland on ‘Hannity.'
A bipartisan, bicameral group of U.S. lawmakers set off to Denmark to reassure the NATO ally amid President Donald Trump's push for a takeover of Greenland.
The group was mostly made of Democrats, but included two Republicans: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Murkowski, Tillis, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., were among those who traveled to Europe for meetings with Danish and Greenlandic officials. Some members of the delegation are expected to go to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week.
"The trip will highlight bipartisan support for our allies in the Kingdom of Denmark and discuss how to deepen this partnership in line with our shared principles of sovereignty and self-determination, and in the face of growing challenges around the world, especially bolstering Arctic security and promoting stronger trade relations between the two countries," a statement Shaheen issued prior to the visit read.
TRUMP AFFIRMS US 'WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR NATO,' WHILE EXPRESSING DOUBTS ABOUT ALLIANCE
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., speaks during a press conference with the American delegation, consisting of senators and members of the House of Representatives, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Coons, who led the delegation, underscored the lawmakers' desire to "reaffirm Congress' commitment" to Denmark, calling it one of the U.S.'s "oldest, strongest NATO allies."
"A great day leading our bipartisan delegation to Copenhagen meeting with Danish and Greenlandic officials to reaffirm Congress' commitment to one of our oldest, strongest NATO allies. In an increasingly unstable world In which our adversaries are cooperating, our alliances are more important than ever," he wrote in a post on X.
The visit comes as Trump's renewed push for the U.S. to takeover Greenland continues to draw criticism from both sides of the aisle and some of America's allies.
"That rhetoric doesn't just undermine our bilateral relationship, it undermines the NATO alliance at a time when our adversaries seek to benefit from division," Shaheen said during a speech at the University of Copenhagen.
People take part in the "Hands Off Greenland" protest, held under the slogans "Hands Off Greenland" and "Greenland for Greenlanders", after the White House said that the U.S. was considering a range of options to acquire Greenland, including the use of military force, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ritzau Scanpix/Emil Helms/via Reuters)
TRUMP'S GREENLAND TAKEOVER WOULD LIKELY ENTAIL ENORMOUS PRICE TAG: REPORT
The trip began before Trump announced on Saturday planned tariffs for Denmark and several European nations in a bid to force a deal for the U.S. purchase of Greenland.
While the lawmakers were visiting, Denmark saw massive protests of crowds voicing their opposition to the U.S. taking the semiautonomous Danish territory. Thousands gathered across the country to show their solidarity with Greenland. The crowds chanted "Greenland is not for sale" and held banners with slogans such as "Hands off Greenland," according to Reuters.
"I am very grateful for the huge support we as Greenlanders receive... we are also sending a message to the world that you all must wake up," Julie Rademacher, chair of Uagut, an organization for Greenlanders in Denmark, told Reuters.
"Greenland and the Greenlanders have involuntarily become the front in the fight for democracy and human rights," she added.
A "Make America Go Away" baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
TRUMP EYES ACTION ON GREENLAND, SETTING UP WHITE HOUSE FACE-OFF WITH DENMARK
Trump has insisted that the U.S. needs Greenland for purposes of national security, saying that Russia and China were eyeing the island.
During her speech at the University of Copenhagen, Shaheen argued that Trump's approach is unnecessary, saying the U.S. already has pathways to secure its interests in the Arctic.
"Anything the president might want — whether it is U.S. bases to defend against Arctic threats or critical minerals deals — the leaders of Denmark and Greenland have made clear they are happy to partner with us. So, the threats are not only unnecessary, they are also counterproductive, and they risk undermining the broader NATO Alliance in the process," Shaheen added.
Protesters take part in a demonstration to show support for Greenland in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jan. 17, 2026. (Tom Little/Reuters)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker pushed back against growing European backlash over Washington's focus on Greenland after France announced new military exercises with Denmark, saying Arctic security is a core American defense interest and that Europe "has a tendency to overreact."
Americans appear divided on the idea, however, with 86% of voters nationwide saying they would oppose military action to take over Greenland, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. The survey found that voters opposed any U.S. effort to buy Greenland by a 55%–37% margin, suggesting the idea has yet to gain broad support among American voters.
Fox News Digital's Efrat Lachter and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino, from left, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, European Council President Antonio Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Paraguay's President Santiago Pena, Argentina's President Javier Milei, Uruguay's President Yamandu Orsi and Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, pose for a group photo during a meeting to sign a free trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Economic Security Maros Sefcovic, left front, and Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira greet each other during a meeting to sign a free trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Meeting to sign a free trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz speaks during a meeting to sign a free trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, left, greets Paraguay's President Santiago Pena during a meeting to sign a free trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.
The signing ceremony in Paraguay's humid capital of Asunción marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc's foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing.
It also sends a message that South America keeps diverse trade and diplomatic relations even as U.S. President Donald Trump declares dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who head's the EU's executive branch, said “the geopolitical importance of this agreement cannot be overstated” amid revived skepticism about the benefits of free trade. As the ceremony got underway, Trump announced 10% tariffs on eight European nations over their opposition to American control of Greenland.
“We choose fair trade over tariffs. We choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” von der Leyen declared at the ceremony attended by the presidents of Mercosur members Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and by the foreign minister of the trading bloc's biggest economy, Brazil.
“We will join forces like never before, because we believe that this is the best way to make our people and our countries prosper.”
Pushed by South America's renowned cattle-raising countries and Europe's industrial sectors craving new markets for cars and machines, the accord creates one of the world's largest free trade zones and makes shopping cheaper for more than 700 million consumers.
After decades of delay, the politically explosive deal still must clear one final hurdle: ratification by the European Parliament.
Powerful protectionist lobbies on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly European farmers scared of the possible dumping of cheap South American agricultural imports, have long sought to scupper the agreement. Tractor drivers clogged the streets in outrage across the continent in recent weeks and could still stall the deal's implementation.
Although the accord eliminates more than 90% tariffs on goods and services between the European and Mercosur markets, some tariffs will progressively be cut over 10-15 years and key farm products like beef will be limited by strict quotas in a bid to assuage European farmers' fears.
Those limits, as well as safeguard measures and generous EU subsidies to cash-strapped farmers, pushed agricultural powerhouse Italy across the line earlier this month.
France, however, remains opposed to the accord, with President Emmanuel Macron worrying that farmers' frustration with the EU could drive more voters to the country's far right in the 2027 presidential election.
“Everything will depend on the political appetite of the European Parliament,” said João Paulo Cavalcanti, a Brazilian lawyer specializing in international trade. “That could clearly create an obstacle to approval.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
ADDS IDENTIFICATION - Aliya Rahman is detained by federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Law enforcement officers stand amid tear gas at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
President Donald Trump walks to Marine One for departure from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
As its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis intensifies, the Trump administration is leaning into messaging that borrows from phrases, images and music about national identity that have become popular among right-wing groups.
On Jan. 9, two days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent's shooting of Renee Good sent tensions in Minneapolis to a fever pitch, the Department of Homeland Security posted to social media an image of a man on a horse riding through a snowy, mountainous landscape with the words “We'll have our home again.” That's the chorus to a song about ousting a foreign presence by a self-described “folk-punk” band that the Proud Boys and other far-right and white supremacist groups have used.
The next day, the Department of Labor posted on X: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.” Several Trump critics on the social media site drew a parallel to a notorious Nazi slogan, “One People, One Realm, One Leader.”
And this past week, as President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure campaign to claim Greenland, the White House posted an image on X that showed a dog sled facing a fork in the trail, one that leads to an American flag and the White House and another that leads to the Russian and Chinese flags. Above the image was the phrase, “Which way, Greenland Man?”
The post refers to a meme that riffs off the title of a notorious white supremacist book titled “Which Way Western Man?” The administration had already used the framing in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruiting post last year, which asked, “Which way, American Man?”
The flurry of posts has renewed criticism about a recurring pattern in Trump's second term — the sometimes cryptic use of imagery popular with the far right and white supremacists in the administration's campaign to rally the nation behind its immigration crackdown, which it frames as a battle to preserve Western civilization.
The administration says it's tired of criticism that its messaging is framed around white supremacy or Nazi slogans.
“It seems that the mainstream media has become a meme of their own: The deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike must be Nazi propaganda,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “This line of attack is boring and tired. Get a grip.”
Referring to the “We'll Have Our Home Again” post, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said it “was a reference to 20-plus million illegal aliens invading the country.”
“I don't know where you guys are getting this stuff,” she added, “but it is absurd.”
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, said the administration's references are a choice.
“You don't have to dip into white supremacist sloganeering to promote immigration regulation,” he said, noting that former President Bill Clinton signed two bills toughening penalties on immigrants who were in the country illegally in the 1990s without doing so.
He added that the administration seems to calibrate its references.
“The imagery is not simply a reproduction of common white supremacist imagery or text, but a play on that imagery — and that gives them the breathing room they want,” Garcia Hernández said.
Trump won his second term with robust support from Latino voters and increased his backing among both Black and Asian voters, all while running on pledges of tough border enforcement and mass deportations.
Still, Trump for years has created enthusiasm among white supremacist groups, who see his nationalist and anti-immigrant stance as validating their own.
The president has complained that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and spoken favorably about white immigrants compared to other immigrants. In his first term, he bemoaned the number of immigrants coming from what he called “shithole countries” such as Haiti or ones in Africa, while wondering why the U.S. doesn't draw more people from Norway. Last month, he called Somali immigrants “garbage.”
Trump changed immigration policy to favor whites in one area by shutting down the admission of refugees except for white South Africans, whom he contends, against evidence, are being discriminated against in their home country.
Some of Trump's most prominent supporters have openly embraced the cause of white nationalists.
Elon Musk, who was Trump's biggest donor during the 2024 presidential campaign and ran the president's Department of Government Efficiency for the first part of last year, recirculated a user post on X, the social platform he owns, that called for “white solidarity” to prevent the mass murder of white men and added a “100” emoji indicating agreement.
The administration's history has led to claims that it's using white supremacist language even when there is no evidence for it.
In the aftermath of the Good shooting in Minnesota, a sign that appeared on Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's lectern during a news conference — reading “One Of Ours, All Of Yours” — drew widespread attention on social media, with many commentators suggesting it was a Nazi phrase. The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, could not trace the words to any Nazi slogan.
McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman, said it was a reference to the subject of the press conference: “a CBP officer who was shot — he was one of our officers and all of the country's federal law enforcement officer,” she wrote in an email.
Hannah Gais, a senior researcher with the SPLC, has long tracked white supremacist groups and said she thinks the administration knows what it's doing with its messaging slogans.
“They know their base is this overly online right-winger who they know will go nuts if they say ‘Which Way, Western Man?'” Gais said. “I don't think it's a tenable strategy for the long term because the stuff is incomprehensible to most people. And if it is comprehensible, people don't like it.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Cars make their way onto the recently converted two-way portion of Michigan Street in Indianapolis, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Cars make their way onto the recently converted two-way portion of Michigan Street in Indianapolis, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A passenger awaits the arrival of an IndyGo bus on the recently converted two-way portion of Michigan Street in Indianapolis, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Excessive speeding was so common on parallel one-way streets passing a massive electronics plant that Indianapolis residents used to refer to the pair as a “racetrack” akin to the city's famous Motor Speedway a few miles west.
Originally two-way thoroughfares, Michigan and New York streets switched to opposite one-way routes in the 1970s to help thousands of RCA workers swiftly travel to and from their shifts building televisions or pressing vinyl records. But after the RCA plant closed in 1995, the suddenly barren roads grew even more enticing for lead-footed drivers — until last year, when city officials finally converted them back to two-way streets.
“The opening and conversion of those streets has just been transformative for how people think about that corridor,” said James Taylor, who runs a nearby community center.
Embracing the oft-repeated slogan that “paint is cheap,” transportation planners across the U.S. — particularly in midsize cities — have been turning their unidirectional streets back to multidirectional ones. They view the step as one of the easiest ways to improve safety and make downtowns more alluring to shoppers, restaurant patrons and would-be residents.
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
Dave Amos, an assistant professor of city and regional planning at California Polytechnic State University, said almost no major streets in the U.S. originated as one-way routes. Two-way streets were the standard, before mass migration to the suburbs prioritized faster commutes over downtown walkability.
“One-way streets are designed for moving cars quickly and efficiently,” Amos said. “So when you have that as your goal, pedestrians and cyclists almost by design are secondary, which makes them more vulnerable.”
But the propensity to speed isn't the only reason one-way streets are viewed as less safe.
Wade Walker, an engineer with Kittelson & Associates who has worked on street conversion projects in Lakeland, Florida; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Chattanooga, Tennessee, said there is a misperception that one-way streets are safer because people on foot only have to look one direction to see the incoming traffic. The confusion arises when one-way streets combine with two-way streets to form a city grid, he said.
Pedestrians crossing a signalized intersection of two-way streets can expect to encounter vehicles in a certain sequence: those turning left on green, traveling straight, and turning right on red. But when one-way streets are included, there are 16 potential sequences depending on the type and direction of the roads that intersect, Walker said.
“It's not the number of conflicts, it's the way those conflicts occur,” he said.
Louisville, Kentucky, about two hours south of Indianapolis, has been restoring one-way streets to their original two-way footprints. The state is leading an ongoing project to reconvert a stretch along Main Street that passes such landmarks as the Louisville Slugger Museum, the KFC Yum! Center arena, and a minor-league baseball stadium.
One of the city's biggest redesigns is happening this year in the predominantly Black western part of the city, where many roads changed to one-way routes in the 1970s to feed a new interstate bridge over the Ohio River. However, it decimated neighborhoods and cut off the once-thriving community from downtown.
“All those mom-and-pop shops and local businesses over time kind of faded because that connectivity got taken away,” said Michael King, the city's assistant director of transportation planning. “It just feels more like, ‘This is a road to get me through here pretty quickly.'”
Within three years after some of Chattanooga's two-way streets were transformed into unidirectional ones, business vacancies skyrocketed and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga became “landlocked” to prevent students from having to cross a dangerous road, Walker said.
In 2022, almost two decades after the road was redesigned, he returned to find the college campus had expanded across it and business construction had surged.
When Lynchburg, Virginia launched a long-discussed plan to change its downtown Main Street back to two ways, Rodney Taylor voiced concerns that it would doom his restaurant by blocking delivery vehicles. After the city completed the section in 2021, he acknowledged the fears were unfounded.
“An important thing to do is to admit when you're wrong,” he said. “And I was just flat-out wrong.”
Many residents also changed their tune in Austin, Texas, when the city began reconverting some of the one-way streets in its urban core, said Adam Greenfield, executive director with Safe Streets Austin.
“It just worked,” said Greenfield, who is now lobbying the city to do away with all its one-way streets. “That's what you'll find with these conversions — they'll be done and then instantly people will be like, ‘Why didn't we do this 20 years ago?'”
After Chicago went the opposite direction last year and suddenly changed some of its two-way streets to one-way in the busy West Loop restaurant district, a politician representing an adjacent area got numerous calls from confused constituents.
“Even if this was the right move to make these streets one-way, it certainly doesn't make sense to not ask the opinion of the neighbors,” Alderman Bill Conway said.
Now that Indianapolis has finished the redesigns for Michigan and New York streets, there are 10 other conversions on tap next, said Mark St. John, chief engineer for the city's Department of Public Works. The total cost for those projects is estimated at $60 million, with around $25 million of that from a 2023 federal grant.
James Taylor, who runs the community center near the old RCA plant, said it is too early to know the full impact. Some business owners, however, have signaled construction plans along the redesigned streets, which Taylor says still feel a little strange.
“I've been driving around that neighborhood for 30 years,” he said. “It's all kind of familiar, but you're coming at it from a whole different perspective.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
Henry Winkler says the older generation holds wisdom, and that's how he learned a lot of lessons too.
Henry Winkler is speaking his truth.
While attending the AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards, the veteran actor, 80, shared his thoughts with Fox News Digital about how the older generation is treated in the U.S. versus other countries.
"Well, you know, only in America is the more mature generation not completely embraced. And that's where the wisdom comes from, I think. That's who I learned from," he said.
Winkler also touched on his friendship with fellow actor Adam Sandler and how they became friends.
While attending the AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards, the veteran actor, 80, shared his thoughts on how the older generation is treated in the U.S. versus other countries. (Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images)
LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
"It started when I called him to thank him for making me a lyric in his ‘Chanukah Song.' And then he invited me to be in 'The Waterboy.' And then I did four or five other movies with him," Winkler said.
WATCH: HENRY WINKLER SAYS AMERICA DOESN'T EMBRACE THE MORE MATURE GENERATION
"You know what comes to mind? I have to talk to him. I'm so sorry. He hasn't asked me since," he joked, pretending to walk away to go ask him.
Winkler also touched on his friendship with fellow actor Adam Sandler and how they became friends (pictured: Jackie Sandler, Adam Sandler, Henry Winkler) (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AARP)
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Winkler revealed why their friendship has lasted so long.
"You know what it is, who Adam is. Adam is truly, in his soul, all-encompassing. And he is a man of the universe. You cannot tamp him down," Winkler noted.
WATCH: HENRY WINKLER REVEALS HOW HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH ADAM SANDLER FORMED
Sandler also spoke with Fox News Digital on the AARP's Movies for Grownups red carpet, revealing his one rule in the house to keep his kids grounded.
"Oh man, I got no idea, but we made them clean the counter right before I left, I know that," he joked, referring to his children, daughters Sunny and Sadie Sandler, both of whom he shares with wife Jackie.
WATCH: ADAM SANDLER SHARES THE NUMBER ONE FAMILY RULE TO KEEP HIS KIDS GROUNDED
AARP honored the 2026 Movies for Grownups winners, and celebrated Adam Sandler.
"It started when I called him to thank him for making me a lyric in his ‘Chanukah Song.' And then he invited me to be in 'The Waterboy.' And then I did four or five other movies with him," Winkler said. (Robin L Marshall/Getty Images)
Winkler and Sandler starred together in two projects: "The Waterboy" and "Click."
Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay for "The Waterboy," played the character Bobby Boucher.
Winkler played the role of Coach Klein.
In "Click," which was released in 2006, Sandler plays Michael Newman. Sandler also produced the film.
Winkler starred as Ted Newman, Michael's dad.
Winkler also made appearances in the 2000 film "Little Nicky," the 2008 film "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," and the 2017 film "Sandy Wexler."
Henry Winkler and Adam Sandler in "The Waterboy." (Getty Images)
Winkler's career in Hollywood began in 1973, after appearing in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
He starred in the hit series "Happy Days," from 1974 until 1984, "Arrested Development" from 2000 until 2003, "Royal Pains" from 2010 until 2016, "Parks and Recreation" from 2013 until 2015 and "Barry" from 2018 until 2023.
Film-wise, he starred in "Night Shift," "Cop and a Half," "Scream," "Down to You," and "Holes."
Winkler is currently filming the movie "Rolling Loud," written and directed by Jeremy Garelick. The movie also stars Owen Wilson.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Sarah Sotoodeh is an associate entertainment editor for Fox News Digital.
Get a daily look at the top news in music, movies, television and more in the entertainment industry.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A protest was held in Denmark's capital Copenhagen on Saturday in support of Greenland, amid US President Donald Trump's insistence that the U.S. should control the self-governing island.
There is “no such thing as a better colonizer” the leader of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Greenland said on Friday as she responded to U.S. President Donald Trump demands to own the Arctic island. (AP Video: Kwiyeon Ha)
People march during a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
People march during a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Senator Chris Coons from the Democratic Party speaks during a press conference with the American delegation, consisting of senators and members of the House of Representatives, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
A patch of the Joint Arctic Command is seen on o jacket of Major General Søren Andersen standing onboard a military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy docked in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland.
Trump said in a social media post that Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would face the tariff and that it would climb to 25% on June 1 if a deal is not in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States.
The threat of tariffs was a drastic and potentially dangerous escalation of a showdown between Trump and NATO allies, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. The Republican president has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others such as China, Brazil and India.
It was unclear how Trump could impose the tariffs under U.S. law, though he could cite economic emergency powers that are currently subject to a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.
Trump said in his Truth Social post that his tariffs were retaliation for recent trips to Greenland by representatives from Britain, the Netherlands and Finland and for general opposition to his efforts to purchase the semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. He has Greenland is essential for the “Golden Dome” missile defense system for the U.S., and has argued that Russia and China might try to take over the island.
Resistance has steadily built in Europe to Trump's ambitions, even as several countries on the continent agreed to his 15% tariffs last year in order to preserve an economic and security relationship with Washington.
Earlier Saturday, hundreds of people in Greenland's capital braved near-freezing temperatures, rain and icy streets to march in a rally in support of their own self-governance.
The Greenlanders waved their red-and-white national flags and listened to traditional songs as they walked through Nuuk's small downtown. Some carried signs with messages like “We shape our future,” “Greenland is not for sale” and “Greenland is already GREAT.” They were joined by thousands of others in rallies across the Danish kingdom.
The rallies occurred hours after a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation in Copenhagen sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland of their support.
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the current rhetoric around Greenland was causing concern across the Danish kingdom and that he wanted to de-escalate the situation.
“I hope that the people of the Kingdom of Denmark do not abandon their faith in the American people,” he said in Copenhagen, adding that the U.S. has respect for Denmark and NATO “for all we've done together.”
Danish Maj. Gen. Søren Andersen, leader of the Joint Arctic Command, told The Associated Press that Denmark doesn't expect the U.S. military to attack Greenland, or any other NATO ally, and that European troops were recently deployed to Nuuk for Arctic defense training.
He said that the goal isn't to send a message to the Trump administration, even through the White House hasn't ruled out taking the territory by force.
“I will not go into the political part, but I will say that I would never expect a NATO country to attack another NATO country,” he told the AP on Saturday aboard a Danish military vessel docked in Nuuk. “For us, for me, it's not about signaling. It is actually about training military units, working together with allies.”
The Danish military organized a planning meeting Friday in Greenland with NATO allies, including the U.S., to discuss Arctic security on the alliance's northern flank in the face of a potential Russian threat. The Americans were also invited to participate in Operation Arctic Endurance in Greenland in the coming days, Andersen said.
In his 2½ years as a commander in Greenland, Andersen said that he hasn't seen any Chinese or Russian combat vessels or warships, despite Trump saying that they were off the island's coast.
But in the unlikely event of American troops using force on Danish soil, Andersen confirmed a Cold War-era law governing Danish rules of engagement.
“But you are right that it is Danish law that a Danish soldier, if attacked, has the obligation to fight back,” he said.
Thousands of people marched through Copenhagen, many of them carrying Greenland's flag. Others held signs with slogans like “Make America Smart Again” and “Hands Off.”
“This is important for the whole world,” Danish protester Elise Riechie told the AP as she held Danish and Greenlandic flags. “There are many small countries. None of them are for sale.”
Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly saying that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.
“There are no current security threats to Greenland,” Coons said.
Trump has insisted for months that the U.S. should control Greenland, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
“I may do that for Greenland, too,” Trump said.
He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.
Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington with Trump's vice president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
That encounter didn't resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.
European leaders have said that it's only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
“There is almost no better ally to the United States than Denmark,” Coons said. “If we do things that cause Danes to question whether we can be counted on as a NATO ally, why would any other country seek to be our ally or believe in our representations?”
___
Niemann reported from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Boak from West Palm Beach, Fla. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller discusses President Donald Trump's maneuvering to take control of Greenland on ‘Hannity.'
President Donald Trump announced the United States would impose 10% tariffs on multiple European countries unless Denmark agrees to the "complete and total purchase of Greenland," warning that global security and U.S. national defense were at stake.
Trump made the announcement in a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday, arguing that the U.S. has subsidized Denmark and other European Union nations for decades by failing to charge tariffs and providing what he described as "maximum protection."
"We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration," Trump wrote.
TRUMP TAPS REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR TO SERVE AS SPECIAL ENVOY TO GREENLAND
President Donald Trump has announced the United States would impose 10% tariffs on multiple European countries unless Denmark agrees to a purchase. President Trump is seen in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
"Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!"
Trump wrote that both China and Russia want Greenland and he said there was "not a thing that Denmark can do about it."
"They currently have two dogsleds as protection, one added recently. Only the United States of America, under PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play in this game, and very successfully, at that!" Trump wrote.
"Nobody will touch this sacred piece of Land, especially since the National Security of the United States, and the World at large, is at stake."
Trump said that Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland have "journeyed" to Greenland, for "purposes unknown," posing a very dangerous situation for the safety, security and survival of our planet.
EUROPEAN ALLIES WORKING ON PLAN IF US ACTS ON ACQUIRING GREENLAND: REPORT
President Donald Trump announced the United States would impose 10% tariffs on multiple European countries unless Denmark agrees to the purchase of Greenland. (Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"All of the above-mentioned Countries… will be charged a 10% Tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America," Trump wrote.
On June 1, 2026, the tariff will be increased to 25%, he said.
"This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland."
In recent weeks, Trump has zeroed in on Greenland, the world's largest island at a strategic crossroads in the Arctic, and floated the idea of tariffs being imposed on Friday.
A semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, Greenland is home to a crucial U.S. military base and has taken on growing strategic importance as melting ice opens new shipping lanes and access to a wealth of natural resources.
Ice covers the water in the harbor in Ilulissat, Greenland, on March 8, 2025. (Joe Raedle/Getty)
In his Saturday post, Trump said the United States has tried to purchase Greenland for more than 150 years but that Denmark has repeatedly refused.
He tied the push to modern weapons systems and the "Golden Dome," saying hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on related security programs and that the system can only work at maximum efficiency if Greenland is included.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
"The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them, including maximum protection, over so many decades," Trump wrote. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Trump's remarks come as his administration awaits a Supreme Court ruling on whether some of the tariffs he imposed in 2025 were legal.
Fox News' Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world."
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
Sam Darnold is expected to play vs. the 49ers despite having an oblique injury. Jason McIntyre asks if Darnold can lead the 49ers to a victory despite his injury.
The Seattle Seahawks are set to enter their NFC Divisional Round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers with a major question mark: the health of star quarterback Sam Darnold.
Darnold said he felt something in his oblique while throwing passes during Thursday's practice and stopped throwing. The 28-year-old has not thrown a football since, and the Seahawks believe — but don't know — that he will be ready to start Saturday's game, according to ESPN.
Backup quarterback Drew Lock took Darnold's place and received the first-team reps the last two days and will start if Darnold can't go.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) warms up before the game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Dec. 28, 2025. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
"Didn't want to push it," Darnold said Thursday. "Wasn't the day to push it. That was it. Just came inside, got some rehab. Feel like I'll be ready to go for Saturday."
Darnold said it was the first time he has dealt with an oblique issue and that he would be getting treatment on it leading into the game. He remained confident that he would play.
When asked about his chances of sitting out, Darnold said, "Very low percentage. Probably closer to zero."
FOX SUPER 6 CONTEST: CHRIS 'THE BEAR' FALLICA'S NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND PREDICTIONS
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) passes the ball during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders in Landover, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Darnold has been great for the Seahawks in his first season with the team, leading them to a 14-3 record, an NFC West Division title and the No. 1 seed in the NFC. In 17 games, Darnold has completed 67.7% of his passes for 4,048 yards with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, earning his second straight Pro Bowl selection.
If Darnold cannot play against the 49ers, it would be a major blow. Lock has appeared in five games this season, throwing just three passes.
Lock started five games for the New York Giants last season, going 1-4 with a 59.1% completion percentage and throwing for 1,071 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. He has started 28 games in his career, going 10-18.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
NFL fans can play FOX Super 6 and win cash prizes. (FOX Sports)
"Drew's been really impressive throughout OTAs and training camp and in his role," offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said. "A lot of confidence in Drew. Brought him here for a reason."
The top-seeded Seahawks play the No. 6-seeded 49ers at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Ryan Canfield is a digital production assistant for Fox News Digital.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.
Days before No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami face off in South Florida for the national championship, governors Mike Braun and Ron DeSantis are putting their money — or food — where their mouths are.
The two governors — Braun of Indiana and DeSantis of Florida — agreed to a "friendly wager" pitched by Braun on Friday.
The loser will send local food items to the winning governor.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
(Left) Indiana Gov. Mike Braun speaks during a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about ongoing immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago and its suburbs in Gary, Indiana, on Oct. 30, 2025. (Right) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at Palm Beach State College, west of Lake Worth, Florida, on Aug. 20, 2025. (Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images;Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Image)
"Hey @GovRonDeSantis, how about a friendly wager on the national championship?" Braun asked.
"If IU loses, I'll send you some pork from [Fischer Farms], which is in my neck of the woods in Dubois County, plus some pies from the famous [Wicks Pies], including a sugar cream pie (an Indiana favorite). Pork and pie for bragging rights. You in?"
"Mike — I am happy to oblige and am impressed with IU's turnaround (thanks in part to a Miami kid at QB). But I am all-in for The U," DeSantis responded. "If Indiana wins, I'll send stone crabs and key lime pie from [Joe's Stone Crab]. I will just drop them off in Naples or Marco Island since that's basically Indiana south this time of year."
Carson Beck of the Miami Hurricanes passes the ball against the Ole Miss Rebels in the first quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 8, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. (Chris Coduto/Getty Images)
NCAA PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO INTEGRITY CONCERNS AFTER ALLEGED POINT-SHAVING SCHEME LEADS TO DOZENS OF ARRESTS
The Hoosiers are 8.5-point favorites, so Gov. Braun certainly has the advantage as Indiana aims to become just the third team in NCAA history to go 16-0, joining Yale in 1894 and FCS' North Dakota State seven years ago.
Indiana walloped No. 5 Oregon 56-22 in the semifinal last week, while Miami earned a trip to its own home stadium after taking down No. 6 Ole Miss in a thriller where Carson Beck scored the game-winning touchdown with 18 seconds left.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza throws before an NCAA college football game against Wisconsin, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Bloomington, Indiana. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The game kicks off Monday from Hard Rock Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aircraft carrying 11 people lost contact with ground control Saturday while approaching a mountainous region between Indonesia's main island of Java and Sulawesi island, officials said. A search and rescue operation has been launched.
The turboprop ATR 42-500 operated by the Indonesia Air Transport was on its way from Yogyakarta to the capital city of South Sulawesi when it vanished from radar, said Endah Purnama Sari, a spokesperson for the Transportation Ministry. The plane was last tracked at 01:17 p.m. (0517 GMT) in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous district of South Sulawesi province.
Multiple search and rescue teams, supported by air force helicopters, drones and ground units have been deployed, Sari said in a statement.
Hopes for locating the wreckage grew after hikers on Mount Bulusaraung reported finding scattered debris, a logo consistent with Indonesia Air Transport markings, and small fires still burning at the scene.
“The sightings were reported to authorities and are being verified by rescue teams attempting to reach the area,” said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the South Sulawesi's Hasanuddin military commander.
Sari said the plane disappeared shortly after being instructed by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment. “After the last ATC instructions, radio contact was lost and controllers declared the emergency distress phase.”
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
She said rescue teams focused their search on the mountains where the aircraft, with eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry aboard, was believed to have deviated from its approach to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport.
Weather conditions at the time indicated clouds and 8-kilometer (nearly 5-mile) visibility, Sari said.
Steep terrain at Bulusaraung National Park linking Maros and Pangkep districts complicated the search efforts, Nawoko said.
Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono told a news conference late Saturday that three employees of his ministry were aboard the flight as part of an airborne maritime surveillance mission supporting Indonesia's fisheries management operations.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation with more than 280 million people, relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its over 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asia country has been plagued by transportation accidents on land, sea and air in recent years because of poorly enforced safety standards.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the centuries-old law amid anti-ICE demonstrations in Minnesota.
President Donald Trump responded to unrest in Minnesota this week by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, which critics said would amount to federal overreach and unnecessarily militarize cities.
Trump's potential use of the Insurrection Act would be the latest in a list of several instances of presidents using it and would allow active-duty U.S. military troops to conduct law enforcement within the state.
The statute authorizes the president to take the extraordinary step of deploying the military in the country under certain circumstances, including, according to the text of the law, when "unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion" make it "impracticable to enforce the laws."
TRUMP THREATENS TO INVOKE INSURRECTION ACT IN MINNESOTA IF AGITATORS KEEP ATTACKING FEDERAL OFFICERS
Federal immigration officers stand outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, on Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (John Locher/AP)
The powerful law allows the president to "take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress [an] insurrection" when state officials are unwilling or unable to. The law functions as an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which says the military cannot be used as a domestic police force, and it allows the president to bypass Congress.
Trump seeks to stop ‘professional agitators'
Trump framed the possible use of the Insurrection Act as a means of addressing what he said were failures by Minnesota's Democratic leadership.
"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT," he wrote.
On Friday, he told reporters he did not plan to use it, for now, but that he has not ruled it out.
"It has been used by 48% of the presidents as of this moment," Trump said, adding, "If I needed it, I'd use it. I don't think there's any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I'd use it."
His remarks come as protests and instances of vandalism and violence continue to rock Minneapolis. Tensions skyrocketed this month after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who had an altercation with ICE that the FBI is now investigating as a possible assault on the agent.
DHS ARRESTS ARMED MAN WITH EXTRA AMMUNITION FOR ASSAULTING FEDERAL OFFICER AT LATE-NIGHT MINNEAPOLIS RIOT
A picture of Renee Good is displayed near a makeshift memorial for Good, who was shot and killed at point-blank range on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent as she apparently tried to drive away from agents who were crowding around her car in Minneapolis on Jan. 8, 2026. (Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
The shooting came as DHS has deployed thousands of ICE agents to Minnesota in recent weeks as part of what it dubbed "Operation Metro Surge," which has led to at least 2,000 arrests, according to court papers filed as part of a lawsuit Minnesota's leaders brought against the administration over the crackdown.
A federal judge recently denied Minnesota's request for an emergency order that would have paused ICE's work.
Minnesota's leaders, openly at odds with the administration, argued the Insurrection Act would improperly militarize a domestic conflict that should be handled by the state.
"Minnesota needs ICE to leave, not an escalation that brings additional federal troops beyond the 3,000 [ICE agents] already here," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote on X. "My priority is keeping local law enforcement focused on public safety, not diverted by federal overreach."
Gov. Tim Walz responded to Trump's call by asking him to "turn the temperature down."
Asked about what would justify the use of the Insurrection Act, Chad Wolf, America First Policy Institute's chair of Homeland Security and Immigration, told Fox News Digital the president could have "little choice" but to invoke the Insurrection Act.
"If the situation on the ground in Minneapolis continues to grow violent, with ICE officers being targeted and injured as well as other violent acts, and Governor Walz and Mayor Frey continue to restrict local law enforcement from doing their job and encouraging their residents to resist ICE, President Trump will have little choice," Wolf, former acting secretary of DHS, said. "Local leadership is currently taking all the wrong steps and making the situation worse. I hope commonsense will eventually prevail."
What could the military do in Minnesota?
There are few restrictions on how Trump could use the military in Minnesota if he were to do so under the Insurrection Act, which legal experts say is lacking in specifics and gives the president wide latitude.
The Trump administration would first draft an order outlining which military forces would be used and how.
MIKE DAVIS: WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MINNESOTA IS WHY WE HAVE THE INSURRECTION ACT
A confrontation between protesters and an ICE supporter during a demonstration outside the Bishop Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 15, 2026. (Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
The president could then direct the troops to carry out numerous tasks, such as enforcing federal laws, breaking up protests, or otherwise suppressing what Trump deems to be rebellious activity.
What else have presidents used it for?
The Insurrection Act dates back to 1807, and although it has been used several times, Trump would be the first to invoke it since President George H.W. Bush used it to quell Los Angeles riots in 1992.
President Abraham Lincoln used what amounted to Insurrection Act powers to respond to a rebellion within the Confederacy in the Civil War era.
In the 1940s, President Franklin Roosevelt deployed 6,000 Army troops to Detroit in response to race riots under the Insurrection Act.
President Dwight Eisenhower used the law to deploy the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, in the 1950s to enforce civil rights laws in the face of resistance from the state. President John F. Kennedy later used the military for similar purposes in Alabama.
Would the Insurrection Act stand up in court?
Trump federalized the National Guard under Title 10, a separate statute, to respond to anti-ICE activity in Illinois and Oregon, but the Supreme Court recently halted those deployments.
Trump would be testing out an alternative by invoking the Insurrection Act, which has faced minimal scrutiny in the courts.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital he hoped the use of the Insurrection Act could be avoided but that Trump would have a solid legal argument if it were challenged in court.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"The rhetoric of the mayor and the governor has only strengthened the case for the Administration in fueling the rage and protests," Turley said. "The relative lack of support from local police is analogous to the conditions used by prior presidents to invoke the Act. While the Justice Department has one internal opinion emphasizing the need for a breakdown of law and order, the Act itself is highly permissive and generally worded."
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
Board-certified rheumatologist Dr. Mahsa Tehrani joins ‘America Reports' to break down a new study on the connection between the artificial sweetener Splenda and hunger.
Scientists say they've developed a new way to produce a sugar alternative that may be healthier, taste more like the real thing and perform better in baked goods.
Many artificial sweeteners are known for aftertastes or digestive side effects, and some have raised consumer health concerns. Researchers at Tufts University say a new, rare type of sugar could offer a potential middle ground, according to findings published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science in December.
The sugar, known as tagatose, occurs naturally in small amounts in fruits and dairy products.
6 HEALTHY FOODS THAT COULD SECRETLY SPIKE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR, AND WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD
It tastes similar to table sugar but contains significantly fewer calories and has a smaller impact on blood sugar than sucrose, according to the researchers.
Tagatose delivers about 92% of the sweetness of regular sugar with roughly 60% fewer calories, the study found. Producing it at scale, however, has historically been difficult and costly.
Tagatose browns like real sugar, helping baked goods turn out as expected, scientists say. (iStock)
"There are established processes to produce tagatose, but they are inefficient and expensive," Nikhil Nair, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Tufts, said in a statement.
"We developed a way to produce tagatose by engineering the bacteria Escherichia coli to work as tiny factories, loaded with the right enzymes to process abundant amounts of glucose into tagatose."
BELOVED COOKIE BRAND LAUNCHES SUGAR-FREE PRODUCT, BUT NOT EVERYONE IS SWEET ON IT
In 2019, the team demonstrated a bacterial production method using galactose, a sugar that is less readily available and more expensive. The latest advance came from adding a newly identified enzyme, Nair said, that allows the bacteria to use glucose instead.
"People with sensitivities to poorly absorbed carbohydrates … may experience digestive discomfort at higher doses."
Researchers say the approach could eventually make tagatose more accessible for use in food products, though they caution that additional testing and optimization are still required before it can be widely manufactured.
Tagatose has minimal impact on blood sugar and insulin levels, according to the scientists, making it a potential option for people trying to limit sugar intake or for people with diabetes.
Experts note that, like other low-calorie sugars, tagatose may cause mild digestive discomfort in some people. (iStock)
"Clinical studies show that tagatose raises blood glucose and insulin much less than conventional sugar, making it metabolically closer to low-glycemic sweeteners than to sucrose," Lakelyn Lumpkin, a Florida-based registered dietitian at Top Nutrition Coaching, told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
Like other low-calorie sugars, tagatose may cause minor gastrointestinal discomfort in some people, experts say, particularly at higher intakes, since it's not fully absorbed in the small intestine.
Unlike some sugar substitutes, tagatose also behaves more like sugar in cooking and baking.
"People with sensitivities to poorly absorbed carbohydrates … may experience digestive discomfort at higher doses," Lumpkin added.
Unlike some sugar substitutes, tagatose also behaves more like sugar in cooking and baking. Researchers say it browns when heated and produces a similar flavor and texture, characteristics often difficult to replicate with sugar substitutes.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES
Some studies suggest tagatose does not promote tooth decay in the same way as sucrose and may influence gut bacteria because it is fermented in the colon rather than fully absorbed.
The rare sugar may be easier on blood sugar levels, researchers say. (iStock)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified tagatose as "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, allowing it to be used as an ingredient in consumer foods.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
While some consumers remain cautious about genetically modified food production, Nair said the final tagatose product would be purified and would not contain the bacteria used in manufacturing.
He added that, chemically, the sugar would be indistinguishable from tagatose derived from natural sources.
Researchers say further testing and development are needed before tagatose can be produced on a large scale. (iStock)
Despite the promising results, researchers emphasized that significant work remains.
"There still needs to be significant optimization for productivity, scale-up and purification before it's ready for widespread manufacturing and distribution," Nair said.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
While replacing some added sugars with alternatives like tagatose could help reduce caloric intake, overall dietary patterns remain critical, Lumpkin noted.
"Moderation of total sweetness, portion control and whole-diet quality remain central to public health recommendations," she said.
Deirdre Bardolf is a lifestyle writer with Fox News Digital.
A look at the top-trending stories in food, relationships, great outdoors and more.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.
After weeks of mounting backlash and public outrage, the Salem City Council voted to remove Kyle Hedquist — a man convicted of murdering a teenager — from boards advising the Oregon city's police and fire departments, undoing a controversial reappointment approved just weeks earlier.
The council voted 6 to 2 during a special meeting to revoke Hedquist's appointments to the Community Police Review Board and the Civil Service Commission, according to the Salem Statesman Journal.
The decision overturned a narrow 5 to 4 vote on Dec. 8 that reappointed Hedquist to multiple public safety-related boards despite a recommendation from the Boards and Commissions Appointments Committee to leave the police review board position vacant.
Hedquist was convicted in 1995 of murdering 19-year-old Nikki Thrasher. He later said he feared Thrasher would report him to police for hiding stolen property at her home. Hedquist served nearly 28 years in prison before then-Gov. Kate Brown commuted his sentence, citing rehabilitation and good behavior.
BACKLASH ERUPTS AFTER CITY COUNCIL APPOINTS POLICE REVIEW BOARD MEMBER WITH MURDER CONVICTION
Salem City Councilor Deanna Gwyn shows a picture of Nikki Thrasher, who was murdered in 1995 by Kyle Hedquist, during a special meeting to reconsider the reappointment of Hedquist to two public safety commissions on Jan. 7, 2025. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Since his release, Hedquist became a policy associate for the Oregon Justice Resource Center and advocated for criminal justice reform at the Oregon Legislature. He told the Statesman Journal he joined Salem's advisory boards to continue serving his community.
His role on the police review board came under renewed scrutiny after city staff acknowledged background checks had not been conducted on board and commission members — meaning the council was not explicitly informed of Hedquist's criminal history or given clear standards for how such history should factor into appointment decisions.
Kyle Hedquist, right, attends the special Salem City Council meeting to reconsider his reappointment to two public safety commissions on Jan. 7, 2025. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Meeting records show council members were not provided guidance on which types of criminal convictions could disqualify applicants, how much time must pass following a conviction, or whether additional vetting was required for sensitive public safety oversight roles.
The controversy escalated after the Dec. 8 vote, prompting outrage from the Salem Police Employees Union and Salem Professional Fire Fighters Local 314. The unions accused city leaders of creating a "credibility crisis" by appointing and reappointing a convicted murderer to boards advising police and fire leadership and launched a public pressure campaign urging residents to contact councilors.
CONVICTED KILLER KEPT IN POLICE OVERSIGHT ROLE AS CITY COUNCIL DISMISSES CONCERNS OVER PUBLIC SAFETY
Kyle Hedquist gives testimony during the special Salem City Council meeting to reconsider his reappointment to two public safety commissions on Jan. 7, 2025. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
During the Jan. 7 meeting, emotions ran high as hundreds of written testimonies were submitted and residents addressed the council during public comment. Councilor Deanna Gwyn said she never would have supported Hedquist's appointment had she known about his murder conviction. She held up a photo of Thrasher and read a note from the victim's high school best friend.
Hedquist addressed the council through tears, describing the lasting weight of his crime and his efforts at rehabilitation.
"For 11,364 days, I have carried the weight of the worst decision of my life," he said. "The death of Nikki Thrasher is the gravity that pulls at everything I do."
His wife told councilors their family had received death threats after the controversy went national. Other speakers both condemned and defended Hedquist, highlighting deep divisions within the community over rehabilitation, accountability and public safety.
Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke speaks during the special meeting to reconsider the reappointment of Kyle Hedquist from two commissions designed to advise the fire and police departments on Jan. 7, 2025. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, who is running for mayor against Mayor Julie Hoy, initially voted to reappoint Hedquist in December but later called for the council to revisit the decision after hearing from police and fire unions and members of the public. She later acknowledged she was wrong, telling the Statesman Journal she wished she had heard public testimony before the Dec. 8 vote.
The Jan. 7 meeting also resulted in sweeping changes to the city's rules governing boards and commissions.
Under the newly adopted standards, applicants to the Community Police Review Board and the Civil Service Commission must now complete criminal background checks. Anyone convicted of a violent felony is automatically disqualified from serving on those boards.
PROGRESSIVE-BACKED CANDIDATE CONVICTED IN MAN'S KILLING WINS CITY COUNCIL ELECTION
Salem City Council holds a special meeting to reconsider the reappointment of Kyle Hedquist from two commissions designed to advise the fire and police departments on Jan. 7, 2025. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The council also voted to reserve at least one seat on the Community Police Review Board for someone with personal experience as a victim of a felony crime, a move supporters said would help ensure victim perspectives are represented in police oversight.
In addition, the council expanded background check requirements to all city boards and commissions, mandating that members undergo the same vetting process required of other city volunteers and employees.
As part of the action taken that night, the council formally withdrew Hedquist's reappointment, leaving open positions on both the Community Police Review Board and the Civil Service Commission.
Hoy, who voted against Hedquist's reappointment in December and supported revoking it in January, said in a Facebook post that her position throughout the controversy was rooted in governance and public trust rather than politics.
"Wednesday night's meeting reflected the level of concern many in our community feel about this issue," Hoy wrote. "My vote was based on process, governance, and public trust, not ideology or personalities."
Kyle Hedquist sought reappointment to the Community Police Review Board after facing scrutiny over a recent request for a police ride-along. He was convicted of murder and had his sentence commuted by former Gov. Kate Brown in 2022. (Kevin Neri/Statesman Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Hoy said the committee tasked with reviewing the appointment considered the information available at the time and made a recommendation to the full council, adding that respecting that process is essential to maintaining public confidence and supporting city staff.
"We serve in a political environment, but city council does its best work when decisions are grounded in good governance, not politics," she wrote.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Councilor Brad Brown criticized the death threats received by councilors and a website created to target those who voted in favor of the appointment, calling the episode a low point for civic discourse.
"I thought we were better than this," Brown said.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
LSEG.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A man holds a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a funeral ceremony for a group of security forces, who were killed during anti-government protests, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday branded U.S. President Donald Trump a “criminal” for supporting protesters in Iran, and blamed demonstrators for causing thousands of deaths.
In a speech broadcast by state television, Khamenei said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead — the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began Dec. 28 and led to a bloody crackdown.
“In this revolt, the U.S. president made remarks in person, encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said: ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily,'” said Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. He reiterated an accusation that the U.S. seeks domination over Iran's economic and political resources.
“We do consider the U.S. president a criminal, because of casualties and damages, because of accusations against the Iranian nation,” he said. He described the protesters as “foot soldiers” of the United States and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centers. “Through hurting people, they killed several thousand of them,” he said.
His comments come a day after Trump sounded a conciliatory tone, saying that “Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” and adding that “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled.” He did not clarify whom he spoke to in Iran to confirm the state of any planned executions. His comments were a sign he may be backing away from a military strike.
The official IRNA news agency reported that Tehran Prosecutor Gen. Ali Salehi, referring to Trump's remarks about the cancellation of the death sentence of 800 protesters, said: “Trump always makes futile and irrelevant statements. Our attitude is severe, preventive and fast.” He did not elaborate.
In recent days, Trump had told protesting Iranians that “ help is on the way ” and that his administration would “act accordingly” if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.
In his speech, Khamenei said rioters were armed with live ammunition that was imported from abroad, without naming any countries.
“We do not plan, we do not take the country toward war. But we do not release domestic offenders, worse than domestic offenders, there are international offenders. We do not let them alone either,” he said, and urged officials to pursue the cases.
Iran has returned to an uneasy calm after harsh repression of protests that began Dec. 28 over Iran's ailing economy. The crackdown has left at least 3,095 people dead, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, exceeding that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalling the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution.
The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities. The AP has been unable to independently confirm the toll.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country. On Friday, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the U.S. and Israel of meddling in the unrest.
There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to outward normality, and Iranian state media has not reported on any new unrest.
During the protests, authorities blocked all internet access on Jan. 8. On Saturday, text messaging and very limited internet services began functioning again briefly in parts of Iran, witnesses said.
Cellphone text messaging began operating overnight, while users were able to access local websites through a domestic internet service. Some also reported limited access to international internet services via use of a virtual private network, or VPN.
The extent of access and what was behind it wasn't immediately clear. It was possible that officials were turning on some systems for the start of the Iranian working week, as the outage has affected businesses, particularly banks in the country trying to handle transactions.
Internet traffic monitoring service Cloudflare and internet access advocacy group NetBlocks reported very slight increases in connectivity Saturday morning, while Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency also reported limited internet access. It did not offer an explanation.
A call by Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday did not appear to have been heeded by Saturday afternoon.
Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, enjoys support from die-hard monarchists in the diaspora but has struggled to gain wider appeal within Iran. However, that has not stopped him from presenting himself as the transitional leader of Iran if the government were to fall.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.
C'mon, be honest. When scrolling through social media on your phone or when visiting a site online, how often do you read beyond the headline?
According to a study by Columbia University and Microsoft, only 20% of news consumers read past the headline, albeit not always, while the other 4 out of 5 quickly absorb what they believe is the main crux of a story and move on, almost always. This isn't exactly surprising in an increasingly ADD and instant-gratification culture, especially during a Trump presidency, where the news cycle moves so fast that there's no time to stop and consider the historical impact of major and even unprecedented events.
Take the bold bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, flawlessly executed by the U.S. military in June 2025, as an example. Going back decades, Republican and Democratic presidents have promised to “do something” about Iran's nuclear program, yet did essentially nothing. Trump, without any American casualties, took out their capabilities without one American casualty, with a mission that took real brass to greenlight.
But the headlines following Operation Midnight Hammer were profoundly negative, with some questioning if any damage was done to the nuclear sites at all. Meanwhile, others played the fear card by warning of an expanded war in the Middle East and possibly World War III.
None of that happened. But no matter, because legacy media had a negative narrative to push in what should have been one of Trump's finest hours of any presidency.
CNN headline: Exclusive Early U.S. intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say
Those “sources” were all anonymous, of course, as is the case with any Trump-related “bombshell.” And almost every other news outlet ran with this exclusive and presented it as an absolute fact.
It was later confirmed that the facilities were severely damaged. Iran even confirmed this week that it has no plans to attempt to rebuild the sites that were bombed.
The same situation happened with the capture of narco-terrorist and illegitimate then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Again, this was a highly complex and daring mission for the U.S. military to execute by going into what was essentially a military compound to extract Maduro under heavily armed security.
Much like Iran's nuclear program, Republican and Democratic U.S. presidents of the past had vowed to “do something” about Maduro, with President Joe Biden even putting a $25 million bounty on his capture. But when Trump finally did something, the reflexive criticism from legacy media was laughable.
Topline premise: “[Arresting Maduro] risks undercutting Trump's push to regain Americans' trust on the economy by handing Democrats a new line for the midterm elections: namely, that Trump and Republicans are fixated on oil and American imperialism rather than on the checking accounts of rank-and-file U.S. citizens.”
In other words, taking Maduro out of power, which was overwhelmingly cheered by every country in the region and the eight million people who fled the country, is supposedly bad for the Red Team… as is freeing up Venezuela's oil reserves. Again, these are all good developments, even economically, but Trump and the GOP apparently will be hurt because they're not focusing on the checking accounts of “rank-and-file U.S. citizens.”
There are multiple other examples, but you get the point. Arresting a despot, much like Manuel Noriega was back in 1989, is illegal and a “war” for oil because Maduro once said it could be.
Fast forward to the present day, multiple attacks on ICE agents have occurred in the past 10 days, including one officer who was struck by an SUV driven by 37-year-old activist Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed. Per cellphone video from the officer, Good was instructed on multiple occasions to exit her parked vehicle after attempting to block traffic near an ICE staging area, but refused before accelerating into the officer, who, in self-defense, fired his weapon, killing Good.
DHS later confirmed the officer was treated for internal bleeding in his torso. And this is the same officer who had been dragged 100 feet by another illegal he was attempting to apprehend last June, injuring him to the point where 33 stitches were required.
Tensions have soared in Minneapolis despite the facts of what occurred between the ICE agent and Good via video evidence. Legacy media, which thrives on violent protests and division, has portrayed Good as an innocent victim, as have prominent Democrats, who have claimed that she was “just trying to get home” or “was just trying to leave” after ICE approached her vehicle and ordered her to exit her vehicle.
On Wednesday night, there was another shooting where an ICE agent was ambushed by three people, with one swinging a shovel in an effort to hurt or kill the officer. Similar to the Renee Nicole Good situation, the officer acted in self-defense, shooting the attacker in the leg. Both men were sent to the hospital.
Again, these are the facts. But here's how the New York Times chose to paint the story in its headline:
Breaking News: A federal agent shot an immigrant in the leg in Minneapolis, federal officials said, one week after an ICE officer killed Renee Good in the city.
The omissions here were blatant and intentional. The “immigrant” is here illegally, yet “illegal” is left out of the headline to portray ICE as an agency targeting legal U.S. citizens. There is no mention that the suspect attacked a federal agent with a potentially deadly weapon, which is why the “immigrant” got shot. Additionally, the story fails to mention Renee Good hitting an ICE officer with her SUV, prompting his justified reaction.
The Times would go on to update its piece four times, but still somehow landed on this beauty:
“Federal Agent Shoots Man in Minneapolis, Prompting Tense Protests.”
There are no words.
At the Washington Post, where Democracy, apparently, dies in darkness, the publication decided to wait until the 19th paragraph to share a very crucial tidbit: “As an officer caught up with the suspect, two other people came out of a nearby property and began attacking the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, according to DHS.
Yes, 19 whole paragraphs into a story, where this information should have been in the opening paragraph.
THE OFFICER AND THE ACTIVIST
News organizations have two choices: Push a false narrative through the bias of omission and diminish whatever is left of the media's credibility, or begin to write accurate headlines and include the most crucial facts.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This Aug. 7, 2025, satellite image shows construction of large white tents for a new immigrant detention center at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base outside El Paso, Texas. (Planet Labs via AP, File)
This undated photo provided by Jeanette Pagan-Lopez shows Geraldo Lunas Campos with his three children. Lunas Campos died Jan. 3, 2026, at an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. (Jeanette Pagan-Lopez via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Cuban immigrant died in a Texas immigration detention facility earlier this month during an altercation with guards, and the local medical examiner has indicated that his death will likely be classified as a homicide.
The federal government has provided a differing account surrounding the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, saying the detainee was attempting suicide and staff tried to save him.
A witness told The Associated Press that Lunas Campos died after he was handcuffed, tackled by guards and placed in a chokehold until he lost consciousness. The immigrant's family was told by the El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office on Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy report said the death was a homicide resulting from asphyxia from chest and neck compression, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the AP.
The death and conflicting accounts have intensified scrutiny into the conditions of immigration jails at a time when the government has been rounding up immigrants in large numbers around the country and detaining them at facilities like the one in El Paso where Lunas Campos died.
This Aug. 7, 2025, satellite image shows construction of large white tents for a new immigrant detention center at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base outside El Paso, Texas. (Planet Labs via AP, File)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is legally required to issue public notification of detainee deaths. Last week, it said Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four and registered sex offender, had died at Camp East Montana, but made no mention of him being involved in an altercation with staff immediately before his death.
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
In response to questions from the AP, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, on Thursday amended its account of Lunas Campos' death, saying he tried to kill himself.
“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
In an interview before DHS updated its account, detainee Santos Jesús Flores, 47, from El Salvador, said he witnessed the incident through the window of his cell in the special housing unit, where detainees are held in isolation for disciplinary infractions.
“He didn't want to enter the cell where they were going to put him,” Flores told the AP on Thursday, speaking in Spanish from a phone in the facility. “The last thing he said was that he couldn't breathe.”
Camp Montana East is a sprawling tent facility hastily constructed in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base. The AP reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility, expected to become the largest detention facility in the United States, was being built and operated by a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no prior experience running a corrections facility.
It was not immediately clear whether the guards present when Lunas Campos died were government employees or those of the private contractor. Emails seeking comment on Thursday from Acquisition Logistics executives received no response.
Lunas Campos was among the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East, arriving in September after ICE arrested him in Rochester, New York, where he lived for more than two decades. He was legally admitted to the U.S. in 1996, part of a wave of Cuban immigrants seeking to reach Florida by boat.
ICE said he was picked up in July as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation due to criminal convictions that made him eligible for removal.
New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact with an individual under 11, a felony for which he was sentenced to one year in jail and placed on the state's sex offender registry.
Lunas Campos was also sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervision in 2009 after being convicted of attempting to sell a controlled substance, according to the New York corrections records. He completed the sentence in January 2017.
Lunas Campos' adult daughter said the child sexual abuse accusation was false, made as part of a contentious custody battle.
“My father was not a child molester,” said Kary Lunas, 25. “He was a good dad. He was a human being.”
On the day he died, according to ICE, Lunas Campos became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was then taken to the segregation block.
“While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance,” the agency said in its Jan. 9 release. “Medical staff responded, initiated lifesaving measures, and requested emergency medical services.”
Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.
Flores said that account omitted key details — Lunas Campos was already handcuffed when at least five guards pinned him to the floor, and at least one squeezed his arm around the detainee's neck.
Within about five minutes, Flores said, Lunas Campos was no longer moving.
“After he stopped breathing, they removed the handcuffs,” Flores said.
Flores is not represented by a lawyer and said he has already consented to deportation to his home country. Though he acknowledged he was taking a risk by speaking to the AP, Flores said he wanted to highlight that “in this place, guards abuse people a lot.”
He said multiple detainees in the unit witnessed the altercation, and security cameras there should have captured the events. Flores also said investigators had not interviewed him.
DHS did not respond to questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed when they say he attempted suicide, or exactly how he had tried to kill himself.
“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming.”
DHS wouldn't say whether other agencies were investigating. The El Paso medical examiner's office confirmed Thursday that it conducted an autopsy, but declined further comment.
A final determination of homicide by the medical examiner would typically be critical in determining whether any guards are held criminally or civilly liable. When such deaths are ruled accidental or something other than homicide, they are less likely to trigger criminal investigations, while civil wrongful death lawsuits become harder to prove.
The fact that Lunas Campos died on an Army base could also limit state and local officials' legal jurisdiction to investigate. An El Paso County District Attorney's Office spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on whether it was involved in an investigation.
The deaths of inmates and other detainees after officers hold them face down and put pressure on their backs and necks to restrain them have been a problem in law enforcement for decades. A 2024 AP investigation documented hundreds of deaths during police encounters in which people were restrained in a prone position. Many uttered “I can't breathe” before suffocating, according to scores of body camera and bystander videos. Authorities often attempt to shift the blame for such deaths to preexisting medical conditions or drug use.
Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist who has studied prone restraint deaths, said the preliminary autopsy ruling of homicide indicates guards' actions caused Lunas Campos' death, but does not mean they intended to kill. He said the medical examiner's office could come under pressure to stop short of calling it a homicide, but will probably “stick to its guns.”
“This probably passes the ‘but for' test. ‘But for' the actions of the officers, he would not have died. For us, that's generally a homicide,” he said.
Jeanette Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos' two youngest children, said the day after he died the medical examiner's office called to inform her that his body was at the county morgue. She immediately called ICE to find out what happened.
Pagan-Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said the assistant director of the El Paso ICE field office eventually called her back. She said the official told her the cause of death was still pending and that they were awaiting toxicology report results. He also told her the only way Lunas Campos' body could be returned to Rochester free of charge was if she consented to his being cremated, she said.
Pagan-Lopez declined and is now seeking help from family and friends to raise the money needed to ship his body home and pay for a funeral.
After failing to get details about the circumstances surrounding his death from ICE, Pagan-Lopez said she got a call from a detainee at Camp Montana East who then put her in touch with Flores, who first told her about the altercation with guards.
Since then, she said she has repeatedly called ICE, but is no longer getting a response. Pagan-Lopez, who is a U.S. citizen, said she also twice called the FBI, where an agent took her information and then hung up.
Pagan-Lopez said she and Lunas Campos were together about 15 years before breaking up eight years ago. She described him as an attentive father who, until his detention, had worked in a minimum-wage job at a furniture store, the only employment she said he could find due to his criminal record.
She said that in the family's last phone call the week after Christmas, Lunas Campos talked to his kids about his expected deportation back to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island, so that he could stay in their lives.
“He wasn't a bad guy,” Pagan-Lopez said. “I just want justice, and his body here. That's all I want.”
___
Attanasio reported from Seattle, and Foley from Iowa City.
___
Contact the AP's global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters. At Vox, our mission is to help you make sense of the world — and that work has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own.
We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?
Satellites are our only insight into the ongoing conflict — and worth protecting.
It's difficult to know exactly what is happening in Iran since the government shut down the internet on January 8, plunging a nation of more than 90 million people into digital darkness.
Crackdowns against anti-government protesters have led to at least 2,600 deaths, although some estimates put the death toll at upward of 20,000. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, more than 18,000 protesters have been arrested.
The protests began in late December in response to dire economic conditions and took on a broader anti-government character as people demanded the end of Ali Khamenei's rule. The Iranian rial is now the least valuable currency in the world. The country has an inflation rate of about 40 percent, making necessities unaffordable for most people. Iran is struggling through a long-lasting economic crisis, driven by sanctions, government austerity measures, and last year's war with Israel. Many parts of the country, including the capital of Tehran, face severe and unrelenting drought, as I reported in November.
Explore the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them. Sent twice a week.
The government also cut phone lines on January 8. While the government eased some of these restrictions on Tuesday, allowing some Iranians to make international calls out of the country this week, many reasonably fear government surveillance. People outside the country remain unable to call Iranians. Several people in Tehran called the Associated Press on Tuesday, saying that text messaging services remain down and that internet users could connect to local government-approved websites but not to international ones.
So Elon Musk's Starlink — which provides high-speed internet access in difficult-to-reach places via satellites that receive radio signals from user terminals on the ground — has become a lifeline for Iranians trying to share what is happening on the ground. SpaceX has made Starlink free for its tens of thousands of Iranian users, but since the Iranian government criminalized the use of satellite internet services like Starlink last year, they face substantial risk in accessing it illegally.
And yet many Iranians are using it anyway.
If satellites are in jeopardy, so is the truth itself.
According to Iranian internet rights group Filter.Watch, the government has attempted to jam signals from Starlink satellites and is actively hunting down people they believe to be using the service.
New updates to the Starlink terminals thwarted some of the government's efforts to jam the signal. Since Starlink launched in 2022, activists have smuggled terminals into the country, and there are now about 50,000 hidden in the country. Developers have created tools to share Starlink connections beyond a single terminal.
“A big problem with Starlink is that ultimately it represents a single point of failure for communications,” Steve Feldstein, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me over email. Despite this, Starlink is the best option Iranians have. “No other tool provides as much scalability and affordability to Iranian citizens,” Feldstein said.
At a time when disinformation and intentional obfuscation can downplay the scale of death or hide that atrocities are occurring at all, satellites — and not just Starlink's — are proving their place in uncovering humanitarian crises. Without them, the world will be left in the dark.
Satellites are effectively the only way to follow humanitarian crises during information blackouts or when no one can get in or out. In November, my colleague Sara Herschander reported on the Sudanese civil war, in which the violence is so severe the bloodshed is visible from space. Only satellite imagery and geolocated social media posts provided evidence of the atrocities due to a communication blackout.
Around 15,000 satellites currently orbit the Earth; the number has rocketed up in recent years as companies launch large satellite networks called megaconstellations to provide broadband internet access. Most of them are in low Earth orbit, up to 1,200 miles above the Earth's surface. More than two-thirds of active satellites in low Earth orbit belong to the Starlink megaconstellation.
Bear with me for a second, but if you care about what's happening on Earth, there's one thing we have to worry about: space traffic.
By 2040, there will be more than 560,000 satellites in orbit. The more satellites we send up, the greater the risk that they will collide into one another or bits of space junk. This could lead to massive service disruptions, or in the worst case, lead to a phenomenon known as Kessler syndrome. That's when a cascade of new collisions happens in a chain reaction, potentially rendering low Earth orbit unusable — meaning no more satellite launches, an end to our space exploration ambitions, and the severe disruption of technologies like GPS, weather alerts, and satellite internet.
But that's a worst-case scenario, and SpaceX is aware of it. The company announced on January 1 that it plans to lower 4,400 of their satellites from 342 to 298 miles above the Earth's surface over the course of the year to reduce collision risks.
In 2023, the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union estimated that 2.6 billion people — a third of humanity — lack internet connectivity. The UN considers internet access to be a human right. An underappreciated consequence of low Earth orbit becoming increasingly unusable is losing satellite internet access and imagery that allows us to see past rhetoric.
Satellite imagery is how we know what is happening in conflict zones like Ukraine and Sudan. If satellites are in jeopardy, so is the truth itself.
You've read 1 article in the last month
Here at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.
Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.
We rely on readers like you — join us.
Swati Sharma
Vox Editor-in-Chief
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
If cost is a barrier, we'd still love for you to be a Vox Member. Apply here to receive a free annual Membership, made possible by another reader.
Explore the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them. Sent twice a week.
This is the title for the native ad
The AI coworker is making tech people lose their minds. Here's what it actually is.
Astronauts rarely come back early for medical reasons. They did today.
Here's what ChatGPT Health can actually tell you — and what it can't.
We're finally making progress toward a universal flu vaccine.
A system built to stop government from doing harm stopped it from doing anything.
The line between medically necessary and elective surrogacy isn't as tidy as people assume.
This is the title for the native ad
© 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved
The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.
Magaña shows him how to maneuver the blade around a thick trunk, as the foreman kicks it loose.
It takes several times to cut down a branch and even longer to conquer a three-pronged tree trunk, as the men struggle to cut the thick tree down.
“Timber!” yells Derpetrossian as a tree comes down.
Derpetrossian and Magaña are working in the Sepulveda Basin, near the Los Angeles River, under shaded trees that they are working to take down. The area is prone to brush fires, thanks to thick vegetation and the presence of homeless encampments.
The men are part of Crew 4, the Los Angeles Fire Department's first full-time paid wildland hand crew aiming to protect the City of Angels from another Palisades Fire, the historic firestorm disaster that decimated the Pacific Palisades area in January 2025.
The blaze was part of 12 fires that broke out in the Los Angeles area, killing 31 people in the Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities and destroying thousands of homes and structures. The Eaton and Palisades fires have left permanent marks in history by joining the top 10 deadliest wildfires in California.
The crew's purpose is to beef up the city's emergency response as well as vegetation management throughout Los Angeles to prevent brush fires from spreading out of control, the team's superintendent Capt. Travis Humpherys said. A large portion of the city lies in a what is known as a “very high fire hazard zone.”
During active fires, the crew digs lines and removes brush out ahead of the fire or along the fire's edge to help extinguish the blaze.
But before a fire even starts, their goal is to remove invasive trees and brush, so when a blaze ignites and the infamous Santa Ana winds are blowing, embers don't fly into tree canopies or dry vegetation and spread the fire more rapidly.
While Derpetrossian and Magaña are conquering the tough tree, it takes several crew members to cut, pull, drag and carry heavy branches to a woodchipper, which shreds branches and trunks and spits out chips in a matter of seconds.
When Derpetrossian finally sees sunlight through the trees' canopy, he thinks “I just did that, I didn't know I could do that,” he says, his face covered in woodchips and dripping with sweat.
The addition of Crew 4 to the LAFD's firefighting toolbox comes as wildfire disasters in California are becoming significantly larger, more destructive and deadlier.
The area burned by wildfires and the number of large wildfires in California have increased over the past decades, largely influenced by “changes in land use, fire management practices, and the impact of climate change,” according to the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
Additionally, the annual average area burned in the state between 2020 and 2024 was about three times higher compared to the 2010s, the agency reported.
The crew is preparing for fire season, which in Southern California typically runs from late spring to October, except fires can now happen any time in the region thanks to changes in climate conditions, dry vegetation and gusty winds.
“We can always have those high winds. We have the little fuel moisture and the very dry vegetation,” LAFD Chief Adam VanGerpen said. “There's no such thing as fire season, because it's year-round …The fires are going to come, unfortunately, but we're here and ready to protect the citizens of LA.”
As an example, the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and became the third-most destructive wildfire in California history after destroying thousands of structures and burning more than 23,000 acres, began January 7, 2025, outside the typical window for wildfires.
Crew 4 members graduated in June 2025, after five weeks of rigorous training. They continue to train daily and build a lasting comradery, members told CNN.
The team trains by going on runs or hikes in difficult terrains throughout Los Angeles County and by doing brush clearance several times a week.
They work out of Fire Station 88 in the San Fernando Valley which doubles as a training facility. The team is becoming a main trainer for the LAFD for all wildland fire training, Humpherys said.
Crew 4 is made of more than 20 wildland fire technicians, who are civilians, three foremen, who are sworn LAFD members, and the superintendent.
A volunteer program started in 2006, and officials pushed for a paid crew ever since then, firefighter foreman Paul Wingate said.
The paid hand crew is a “huge benefit” to the LAFD, according to Wingate.
“We only had that one volunteer crew, which (was) only staffed maybe twice a week. Now, we have a full-time paid crew to staff four times a week, and that's going to add to the resources to help out on these fires, and they're not going to stop,” Wingate said. “The more resources and boots on the ground we have, it's going to help when we do have that next event like the Palisades Fire.”
VanGerpen, Wingate and others are confident that the team is ready for the next fire disaster.
“This crew is 100% ready to respond to and assist on a fire,” Humpherys said.
“They've gone through a rigorous training academy, and we've trained nonstop from when we first started back in late May, early June. So, if the response comes out, we're ready to go, and we're prepared to attack the fire in any way we can.”
The safety of residents remains the top priority for the LAFD, Chief Jamie Moore said in a statement on the anniversary of the Palisades Fire.
“The lessons from the Palisades Fire are shaping how we train, prepare, deploy resources, and how we work alongside the communities we serve. These changes are driven by a shared goal: protecting lives, homes, and the sense of security every family deserves,” Moore said.
Crew 4's mission is crucial in keeping residents safe, Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement to CNN.
“Keeping Angelenos safe means investing in prevention, not just response,” Bass said. “LAFD's Crew 4 plays a critical role in brush clearance and vegetation management, while also responding to fires and all-hazard incidents. I'm grateful for this team's dedication and the work they continue to do to protect our communities.”
Derpetrossian was working with a hot shot crew with the Angeles National Forest when he got called down to help fight fires that were popping up around Los Angeles while the Palisades Fire wreaked havoc on the city's Westside.
Other members worked with the volunteer crew before joining Crew 4. Some were influenced to work in public safety from a young age, while others are the first in their family to join the fire service.
They come from all walks of life and with different levels of experience, Magaña said.
“The beauty of it is (our) diversity and trying to build the best team,” he said.
Jesus Vivas got an up-close view of what Los Angeles paramedics do from a young age. His childhood friend was shot when he was young, then years later his father suffered cardiac arrest. Both times, paramedics were there to assist.
Vivas knew he wanted to be a role model for his family and community someday, like those paramedics.
“It's that long thread that has continued this ambition of trying to become a city of Los Angeles firefighter,” Vivas said.
A few years ago, he heard about the volunteer program, and he signed up to join. After his success with that team, he was able to join Crew 4.
He has wildfire experience, as he responded to multiple blazes that ignited last January throughout the city he still calls home.
His training kicked in, which he says, prepares him for the unknown.
“I didn't get nervous, I just relied on my training, relied on my hand crew, on my members, on my foreman, and we were able to do the job fully, completely,” Vivas said. “We know our city, and we understand its topography … We're learning every day. This is our city, and we're here to protect it.”
Similarly, Pedro Rodriguez got a text saying the volunteer crew he was a part of was getting activated to help combat the fires. He immediately went to work.
“Just seeing houses and the city burning, it just inspired me to be a part of this paid crew,” Rodriguez said. “Mother Nature, it's going to do its thing when it wants to. All we could do is prepare for what it's going to do and try to combat it the best way we can.”
Rodriguez said another benefit of the LAFD having its own hand crew is that it doesn't have to borrow resources from neighboring departments to fight their own fires.
“Now, when a call goes out, our crew is ready … The firefighters know that we're coming and we're going to help them out with whatever they need. We're there to help and support on that fire,” Rodriguez said.
Justin Treiber had just graduated from an academy at a community college when the Palisades Fire started.
He was anxious to be part of a team battling the catastrophic blaze. On day 4 of the fire fight, he had his first interview to be part of Crew 4, and he let his interviewer know he was able and ready.
Treiber didn't have any experience in wildland firefighting but he wanted to be a role model for his younger siblings.
“I've been dedicated to this crew ever since, and I absolutely love it every single day here,” he said.
He said a hand crew is essential in battling wildfires in an urban landscape, and Crew 4 has an advantage because they are familiar with the terrain of the city.
“We already know the environment, because we've either been training in it, we've been working through it … and so we know the fire has done this in this area last time,” Treiber said. “We already kind of have an idea of how this fire might go or how it responds, and it gives us an upper hand on fighting these fires, so they don't get out of control.”
© 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
In a major reversal, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen said he “felt compelled and coerced” by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to testify against President Donald Trump.
In a post on his Substack, Cohen clarified that his purpose wasn't to defend Trump, but rather to criticize the way the justice system works in the U.S.
Cohen said said that, from his first interaction with prosecutors in 2019, he felt “pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government's desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump.”
By Cohen's account, he was first approached three months into his three-year prison sentence, and all of his actions revolved around his desire to do anything to lessen his prison sentence.
“As later came out during President Trump's criminal trial, one of the very first questions I asked those prosecutors was how I would benefit from cooperating. The reason was simple: I wanted to do whatever I could to obtain my Rule 35(b) motion, return home to my family and resume my fractured life,” he wrote.
This strategy paid off, and even when he was out of prison, he sought to do all he could to lessen his home confinement and supervised release. He alleged that prosecutors behaved inappropriately in their quest to skewer Trump.
“During my time with prosecutors, both in preparation for and during the trials, it was clear they were interested only in testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump. When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative,” Cohen wrote.
The same dynamics played out in Bragg's and James's case, he argued, whether or not they were coordinating this.
“Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook. Both used their platforms to elevate their profiles, to claim the mantle of the officials who ‘took down Trump.' In doing so, they blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered,” Cohen wrote.
SUPREME COURT DENIES MICHAEL COHEN'S ATTEMPT TO SUE TRUMP FOR RETALIATION
Trump latched on to the article. He shared a report on Cohen's bombshell article on his Truth Social, demanding those who pressured Cohen pay a “big price” in response.
“These horrible Radical Left people, doing everything possible to destroy our Country, should pay a big price for this! It was a SET UP from the beginning. New York Courts, with many fair and wonderful Judges, are embarrassed by what has happened! We cannot let this pass,” Trump wrote.
Eight NATO members' goods sent to the U.S. will face escalating tariffs "until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland," President Donald Trump announced Saturday.
The tariffs targeting Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland will start at 10% on Feb. 1, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The tariffs will shoot up to 25% on June 1, the president said.
His post suggested that the new tariffs on the European allies were being imposed in response to them moving troops to Greenland. They took that step as the Trump administration has floated utilizing the U.S. military as part of its ramped-up efforts to acquire the Danish territory.
The eight countries "have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown," Trump wrote. "This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet."
A day earlier, Trump hinted that he may pursue a tariff strategy on Greenland similar to the one he used to force foreign countries to change their drug prices.
"I may do that for Greenland too. I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security," he said at the White House on Friday.
Trump's latest move puts further strain on NATO, the 32-member military alliance established in the aftermath of World War II. The cornerstone of the alliance is an agreement that an attack on any single member is considered an attack on them all.
European leaders have warned that any attempt by the U.S. to take Greenland by force could spell the end of NATO.
Trump's tariff announcement could mean he is dropping the threat of using the military to achieve his longtime goal of taking over the island. But it nevertheless ratchets up pressure on Denmark and the rest of Europe, which have flatly stated that Greenland is not for sale.
Trump is an enthusiastic fan of using tariffs as a tool for gaining political leverage over other countries. He has greatly expanded the government's use of the levies over the past year, in large part through the unusual invocation of a law granting the president some powers in an economic emergency.
The Supreme Court could rule as soon as next week on whether to strike down the tariffs imposed under that law.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
To learn more about the CNBC CFO Council, visit cnbccouncils.com/cfo
Led by Texas and New Hampshire, U.S. states across the national map, both red and blue in political stripes, are developing bitcoin strategic reserves and bringing cryptocurrencies onto their books through additional state finance and budgeting measures.
Texas recently became the first state to purchase bitcoin after a legislative effort that began in 2024, but numerous states have joined the "Reserve Race" to pass legislation that will allow them to ultimately buy cryptocurrencies.
New Hampshire passed its crypto strategic reserve law last May, even before Texas, giving the state treasurer the authority to invest up to 5% of the state funds in crypto ETFs, though precious metals such as gold are also authorized for purchase. Arizona passed similar legislation, while Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Dakota have legislation at various stages of committee review.
Despite much of the legislation being largely sponsored or co-sponsored by Republicans, the adoption of crypto at the state level is not expected to strictly fall along party lines. The 2024 election cycle was the first time that the cryptocurrency industry played a major role in lobbying in both state and national elections. In fact, it was the largest corporate donor in an election cycle, with support given to candidates on both sides. It is already amassing a war chest for the 2026 midterms.
Congress is currently debating a crypto market structure bill, and state-level politicians are as much out to prove that they, and their states, won't be left out of the digital assets boom. Justin Marlowe, a public policy professor at the University of Chicago, sees the state-level trend as largely one of signaling at present. "If you're a governor and you want to broadcast that you are amenable to innovative business development in the digital economy, these are relatively low-cost, low-risk ways to send that signal. That's why we've seen leaders across the ideological spectrum and all over the country take tangible steps in this direction," he said.
Where the state-level crypto efforts can be described as "bigger steps" — Marlowe cited Texas, Arizona, and Florida, as examples — he said it has helped to acknowledge the growing political power of crypto advocates in these states.
Similarities in the actions taken across states to date include include authorizing the state treasurer or other investment official to allow the investment of a limited amount of public funds in crypto and building out the governance structure needed to invest in crypto. This often will involve more frequent reporting requirements and stronger custodial agreements compared to traditional asset classes. The seeding of the reserve can take the form of utilizing cash or government-seized crypto, as in the recent case of the federal government. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve last March, but limited the authorization to seized crypto in an effort to show taxpayers would bear no financial burden.
It is no surprise that Texas was the first state to fund a crypto reserve. Texas has been a crypto hub for years through its role in bitcoin mining. The state's affordable and flexible power, as well as a political environment that has largely been pro-crypto, led Texas in recent years to a sizable position in not just the national, but global bitcoin hashing market.
"Texas has spent the last few years becoming one of the key centers of bitcoin activity, especially on the mining side," said Christian Catalini, founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, seeing this move as one that early branded the state as "open for business" when it comes to digital assets.
"Once you've made that bet on infrastructure and industry, adding some Bitcoin exposure at the treasury level is a natural next step," Catalini said. Such a move essentially makes the state's balance sheet one that is explicitly aligned with the ecosystem it aims to attract.
Texas also has a long history with bitcoin's traditional market competitor: gold.
"Texas has proven to be a bedrock of government adoption of bitcoin, starting with laws that allow for legal custody arrangements akin to gold storage laws that are well established there," said Nik Bhatia, founder of The Bitcoin Layer.
When it comes to storing physical gold, Texas has clear rules on storage and ownership, and even the language invoked – vaults, custodians – helps grease the wheels for crypto assets at the state level. The Texas Bullion Depository of 2015, which allowed for state-level depository of bullion and precious metals, was specifically adapted to apply to digital assets like bitcoin. The Texas Bullion Depositary was the first state-administered precious metals depository in the nation.
Texas has not purchased any on-chain bitcoin. After passing the legislation to create a strategic bitcoin reserve that gave authorization to the state comptroller to hold the cryptocurrency, Texas purchased a stake in a bitcoin ETF — roughly $5 million in the largest bitcoin ETF, the BlackRock iShares' Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which since its launch in January 2024 has grown to over $72 billion in assets under management.
The Comptroller's office made its purchase on the morning of November 20, 2025, when the price of a single bitcoin was $91,336. As of Saturday morning, bitcoin was trading at a little over $95,000.
Bhatia said the approval of bitcoin ETFs by the SEC was crucial to the state plans to be comfortable with the holdings under current U.S. securities law. "Using ETFs is a very clean and safe way to invest in bitcoin, minimizing storage logistical risk and opting for security law protection," Bhatia said.
Texas state officials have described this purchase — which deployed only half of the $10 million set aside by the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — as a "placeholder" while security and storage for raw bitcoin can be put into place.
In addition to the concept of reserve funds, states are bringing crypto into core finance functions, with an approach that balances the inherent trepidation of venturing into new terrain with a desire to be a part of the fast-moving crypto realm.
New Hampshire, for example, became the first state to approve the issuance of a bitcoin-backed municipal bond last November, a $100 million issuance that would mark the first time cryptocurrency is used as collateral in the U.S. municipal bond market. The deal has not taken place yet, though plans are for the issuance to occur this year. "The idea is they'll use bitcoin to back a municipal bond issue, the proceeds of which will then be divvied up into loans to smaller governments for economic development projects across the state," Marlowe said. Repayment of these loans will recapitalize the fund.
It is a creative evolution in state finances, but like many of the mechanisms for crypto development at the state level, it utilizes existing financial structures and state goals, according to Marlowe, with similar public bonds in prior decades used for projects like clean water, school upgrades, and other infrastructure. "What's different here is it's bitcoin rather than taxpayer dollars as the collateral," he said.
In numerous states, including, Colorada, Utah, and Louisiana, crypto is now accepted as payment for taxes and other state business. As more state public finance crypto efforts develop, the shift represents a change in a core philosophy of safety and liquidity that has dominated the investing of state and local funds for centuries.
In recent decades, assets including real estate and private equity expanded the investment approach of public funds, but crypto represents not only the most recent addition, but the most volatile.
"For many in the state/local investing industry, crypto-backed assets are still far too speculative and volatile for public money," Marlowe said. "But others, and I think there's a sort of generational shift in the works, see it as a reasonable store of value that is actually stronger on many other public sector values like transparency and asset integrity," he added.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Artificial intelligence is no longer a narrow technology trade. It is reshaping energy markets, infrastructure spending, and portfolio construction. Investors who focus only on chips and software risk missing where the next phase of value is occurring, according to investing experts on this week's episode of CNBC's "ETF Edge."
Some of the trends and innovations driving the market, and the rapid scaling of companies, are tied to AI's physical requirements. Power, cooling, grid stability, and data center efficiency have become binding constraints. Just look at the stock price of Bloom Energy, which for years after its 2018 IPO struggled to eke out a return above its IPO price. Since last year, when its onsite fuel cells began being ordered furiously for data centers, Bloom has seen its shares shoot up over 500% and the company reached a market cap above $30 billion.
Many opportunities are being created in small- and mid-cap companies for investors. Firms that once sat outside the market's focus are now "very quickly moving up the cap table," TCW Group global head of distribution Jennifer Grancio said on "ETF Edge" on Monday. In many cases, these companies operate in narrow segments with limited competition, allowing fundamentals to improve faster than investor awareness.
Energy reliability is the central issue. In recent years, as the cost of renewable energy sources came down and became competitive with fossil fuel sources, the market debated "How much regularity could we get out of wind, or could we get out of solar?" Grancio said. But AI has shifted the conversation since data centers cannot tolerate intermittency, requiring a constant supply of power to avoid unintended downtime.
That reality has driven "a huge shift towards nuclear," according to Grancio, including renewed investment in servicing existing plants and developing small modular reactors. These projects are spawning new suppliers and accelerating growth for specialized players that sit upstream of utilities and hyperscalers.
Efficiency inside the data center is equally critical. As AI workloads expand, cooling and power management have become the chokepoints. Investors are increasingly drawn to companies that are "one or two in their field" and "the best at a certain technology" particularly where alternatives are limited, Grancio said.
The structure of these markets matters. In some cases, there are "only a few providers" bordering on oligopolies, Grancio said. That concentration creates operating leverage, but it also means missteps can be costly.
Actively managed ETFs are gaining traction as a result. While passive indices can capture broad market returns and the indexes do add new companies as components as they scale, active strategies aim to identify them earlier and hold them through multiple phases of growth.
But the risks can be significant. Some parts of the AI-powered ecosystems include "small, financially weak companies" that are leveraged to electricity demand, VanEck CEO Jan van Eck. "That also means you get a lot of volatility along the way," he said on "ETF Edge."
As a result, he said no single AI theme should dominate an investor's asset allocation. "You don't want to overweight them in your portfolio," Van Eck said.
He described Van Eck's nuclear ETF as having traded at "nosebleed levels" last year before it came down to a more reasonable entry point for new investors.
The ETF experts said that as investors bring the AI theme into their portfolio construction in a more targeted way in 2026, active rebalancing and clear risk expectations will allow investors to stay invested without chasing peaks or panicking at drawdowns.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Related Stories
Warren Buffett is used to giving advice.
For decades, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman has sat before a packed arena during his company's annual shareholder meetings, fielding investor questions on everything from artificial intelligence to the ins and outs of the insurance business to marriage advice.
In "Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy," which airs on Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. E.T. on CNBC, Becky Quick asks the Oracle of Omaha about some of the toughest questions and best advice he's ever given. Buffett eventually arrives at a challenge he used to pose to college students.
Buffett would ask the students to consider a scenario in which, given a class of 300 or so of their peers, they could receive 10% of the lifetime earnings of five of them. Who would they choose — and why? And who would they sell short? The people you chose, he says, wouldn't necessarily be the best looking or the smartest or the most athletic.
"Of course, I explained at the end, you can be the person that you would buy," Buffett says. "There is nothing impossible. Because it isn't whether you can throw a football 60 yards, and it … isn't the one with the highest IQ. You can be one of the five."
So what could get you on the list of someone with high expected lifetime earnings?
"It's luck, a lot of it. If you choose the right parents, you're rich when you come out," Buffett says. "You've won the lottery — the ovarian lottery."
But Buffett told students they could still be one of the people in the room their classmates should bet on.
"You can do it by being a good person, by reading a lot, by spending less than you take in," he says. "I just told them you can spend 110% of what you earn once, and then you used it up. The rest of your life you're underwater."
Buffett makes sure to emphasize the latter point. While certain types of loans, such as a mortgage, may make sense in some instances, you generally want to avoid going into debt, Buffett says.
"Beyond a certain point, if you get in a hole or anything, it is difficult to dig out," he says. "It isn't that it's impossible, and I give credit to people to do it. But do it the easy way."
Of course, you're not going to end up being one of the top earners among your peers if you don't work hard and focus on self-improvement, Buffett says. He recalls longtime partner Charlie Munger's habit of "selling himself" his most productive hour of the day — spending one hour each morning focusing exclusively on improving his mind and selling the rest of his working ours to clients.
"That's not crazy," Buffett says. "Your future is your future, and you can't expect anybody else to do it."
Want to get ahead at work with AI? Sign up for CNBC's new online course, Beyond the Basics: How to Use AI to Supercharge Your Work. Learn advanced AI skills like building custom GPTs and using AI agents to boost your productivity today. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 25% off. Offer valid from Jan. 5 to Jan. 19, 2026. Terms apply.
CNBC Select is editorially independent and may earn a commission from affiliate partners on links.
Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox
Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company
In this article
(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.)
Warren Buffett and Becky Quick covered too many topics in the interviews that aired in a two-hour special on CNBC Tuesday evening for me to write a cogent summary.
"Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy" included discussions about his inability to find a big company to purchase for Berkshire Hathaway as its cash pile moves toward $400 billion, new CEO Greg Abel, his company's future and past, the difficulty of giving away billions of dollars, and the invaluable role of luck in his success. That's not a comprehensive list.
Here, however, are some brief clips and quotes that caught my attention.
"Being a director. I mean, it's the best job in the world. You get 250, 300, even up to 500 thousand dollars a year for doing something that's quite pleasant. Usually they give you the transportation, and they have cars waiting to take you around everything. And everybody's polite. And everybody'd love that job. I mean, who wouldn't?"
"Everything I wanted to have happen has worked out... Doesn't mean that everything we've done has worked out. But I couldn't imagine more fun than I've had running Berkshire. And Charlie and I would have more fun out of the things that didn't work a lot of times than (if they) did."
"You should be wiser in the second half of your life than the first half. And if you've -- if things have worked well for you, you should be a better person in the second half of your life."
Even though the special was two hours long, there was more interview than time, forcing the producer to make some difficult decisions.
Here for Warren Buffett Watch readers is a clip that she wanted to get into the final cut. Buffett explains why he hasn't been speaking out on politics in recent years:
BECKY QUICK: You haven't commented as much publicly lately, either. You basically save it for the annual meeting when all the shareholders come into town.
WARREN BUFFETT: Right.
BECKY QUICK: Why is that?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, for one thing, I made the statement a few years ago — maybe, I don't know, five or six years ago — somebody asked about taking a political stance. And I said that you don't put your citizenship in a blind trust. But —
BECKY QUICK: As a CEO.
WARREN BUFFETT: And — as a CEO, yeah.
You have three or four hundred thousand employees, and you have millions of shareholders, but nevertheless you were entitled — I took the position — to speak out.
But I think — I've revisited that opinion in my mind, because people will have — gotten so tribal. We saw it on our gifts program at one time.
But there's no reason why somebody that's answering a phone at GEICO or waiting on a customer at the Nebraska Furniture Mart should be dealing with people who have a negative opinion of the company because of something I've said.
And, you know, here I am — if I want to speak as a private citizen, I should resign from Berkshire.
But I don't really want — I've got identified so much with Berkshire that I — as long as I'm speaking at the annual meeting or anything like that, people will associate it with the voice of Berkshire to some extent.
And the employees don't deserve that. The companies don't deserve it. And so I backed away from that.
Buffett has given his three adult children the extremely difficult talk of unanimously deciding how to give away his enormous net worth after he dies.
When she was in Omaha to interview their father, Becky sat down with Howard, Susan, and Peter Buffett to talk about that assignment, their own philanthropic efforts, and what it was like growing up in Buffett's famously unassuming house.
An extensive portion aired in the special, but this is the entire conversation:
In this excerpt, they remember how their father got "clever" about giving them an allowance:
HOWARD BUFFETT: You know, we'd earn this allowance for cleaning out gutters and cutting the lawn and raking leaves and stuff. But he — but Warren got pretty clever and he started giving it to us in quarters. And then he bought a slot —
SUSAN BUFFETT: Dimes!
HOWARD BUFFETT: Yeah.
SUSAN BUFFETT: It was a dime slot machine.
HOWARD BUFFETT: Yeah. And then he bought —
SUSAN BUFFETT: He got it all back.
HOWARD BUFFETT: And then he bought the slot machine, so he would get most of his allowance back. At least with me, he got a lot of it back.
In his Inside Wealth report on Wednesday's "Squawk Box," Robert Frank explained why Buffett's children may have the most difficult job in philanthropy:
"Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy" will be shown again on CNBC this coming Sunday, January 18 at 3 PM ET and Monday, January 19 at 7 AM ET.
The program is also available on demand for CNBC Pro and CNBC+ subscribers.
CNBC Squawk Pod has an audio-only version.
It is also, I'm told, under "CNBC Originals" in the CNBC app on several streaming platforms. You will need to authenticate with an existing cable or streaming subscription.
Some links may require a subscription:
Four weeks
Twelve months
BRK.A stock price: $740,750
BRK.B stock price: $493.29
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.78
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,064,618,103,867
Berkshire Cash as of September 30: $381.7 billion (Up 10.9% from June 30)
Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $354.3 billion (Up 4.3% from June 30)
No Berkshire stock repurchases since May 2024.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise indicated)
Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on November 14, 2025, except for:
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.
Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.
-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
As you gauge how much income you'll need to pay for your living expenses in retirement, don't forget to consider how you'll cover unexpected costs.
More than 8 in 10 retiree households — 83% — will face unplanned outlays in any given year, according to new research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Among households that do experience unexpected expenses, the average annual amount spent across retirement is $6,000. Measured another way, the typical household will spend an amount equivalent to 10% of its yearly income.
Yet many households don't have that available in emergency savings, according to the research. While roughly 58% have enough cash to cover unplanned costs for a single year, around 16% would have to tap their 401(k) or other retirement accounts and the rest — about 27% — would fall short even after using all their cash and retirement assets.
"About 40% of [retired] households do not have enough cash to cover even a single year [of unplanned expenses], let alone their whole retirement," the research notes.
The research uses data from 3,427 retired households that have been part of the 2000-2020 Health and Retirement Study and the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey, both from the University of Michigan.
While experts generally recommend nonretirees have three to six months of living expenses set aside as emergency savings in case of job loss or other financial shocks, that amount may look different for retirees — who must figure out how to stretch their savings across what may be a decades-long retirement.
As many retirees struggle to keep up with prices that continue to rise, considering unexpected expenses is an important part of evaluating retirement readiness.
"That helps you plan for liquidity versus your income needs," said Anqi Chen, co-author of the report and associate director of savings and household finance at the Center for Retirement Research.
While some households may struggle to set aside money, "even small amounts of savings will help provide some sort of buffer for when these events occur," Chen said.
Expenses are separated into three categories in the research:
The Center for Retirement Research estimated that 60% of all retiree households will face a rainy day shock; 29% will have an unexpected family-related expense; and 58% will confront an unexpected health-care expense.
Higher-income retirees experience these unexpected expenses at a greater rate than those with lower incomes, according to the research. For example, about 45% of households with less than $50,000 in income face a rainy day or health-care shock in a given year, compared with 80% of those with $100,000 or more in income.
"This finding highlights the fact that households have some control over when and how much they spend," the report notes.
So how much should you have set aside? Depending on a retiree's individual situation, financial advisors may recommend anywhere from three or six months' worth of expenses to a couple of years — or a variation of those parameters. Much of it will depend on your individual situation.
"What we usually tell clients is to think less in terms of months of expenses and more in terms of access to cash for surprises — health-care costs, home repairs or family needs," said certified financial planner Joon Um, a tax advisor with Secure Tax & Accounting in Beverly Hills, California.
"For many retirees, that ends up being one year of core expenses, adjusted for guaranteed income like Social Security or pensions," Um said.
The right amount depends on health, housing, income stability and how flexible other assets are, Um said.
"Retirees with steady income and liquid portfolios may need less cash, while those with higher medical risk or less flexibility need more," Um said. "The goal isn't to maximize cash. It's to have enough on hand to avoid selling long-term investments at the wrong time."
In other words, if you don't have enough cash set aside, you could be put in a position of selling investments when the market is down.
However, having too much in cash comes with its own risks, said Peter Lazaroff, a chartered financial analyst and CFP, and the chief investment officer at Plancorp in St. Louis.
"Any time a retiree has more than two years of expenses in cash, it's too much," Lazaroff said. "From purely a mathematical standpoint, you're giving up too much of a return."
The biggest risk to your cash is inflation, he said. The latest reading of the consumer price index showed an annual inflation rate of 2.7% in December.
"Your cash just becomes less valuable every year," he said. "You're putting your purchasing power at risk."
He recommends stashing your cash in a high-yield savings account — which right now generally earns more than 3% in interest, according to Bankrate — to help minimize the impact of inflation.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Every time Allie publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Enter your email
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
The disappearance of Affordable Care Act subsidies has millions of households feeling health insurance sticker shock.
A report published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid found that there are 1.4 million fewer people enrolled in insurance through ACA marketplaces this month compared to January 2025. States like Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia saw the most significant dips.
"People have less access to care, and that tends to translate into worse health outcomes," said Matthew Fiedler, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. He added that many households' financial security is at risk: "People will face big bills that they either can't pay, and that hurts their credit. Or they do pay, but it requires them to skimp in other areas."
Business Insider broke down the enrollment changes by state — and spoke with experts about why this CMS data doesn't yet tell the whole story of marketplace enrollment in 2026.
Do you have a healthcare story to share? Reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com or fill out this quick survey.
The number of marketplace enrollees declined most significantly in the South and Southeast, though the majority of states reported a downswing. Florida saw enrollment dive by more than 260,000 people. Registration in a few states, like Texas and California, increased.
Every time Allie publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Allie and get more of their work as it publishes.
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
People might opt for a marketplace plan if their employer doesn't offer coverage, if they're self-employed, if they lose their job, or if their income is too high to qualify for Medicaid. In context, the 1.4 million dip this year is notable: Marketplace enrollment had jumped from 11 to over 24 million between 2015 and 2025.
The enhanced ACA subsidies — which were passed in 2021 and expired on December 31 — made health insurance more affordable for lower- and middle-income Americans. They allowed people with incomes up to 400% of the poverty line (which is $128,600 annually for a family of four) to claim relief on healthcare costs.
A KFF estimate found that, without these credits in place, Americans in the marketplace could see their out-of-pocket premium costs more than double compared to last year.
White House Spokesperson Kush Desai told Business Insider that "ACA enrollment declined by 3.5 percent between 2025 and 2026 — entirely a result of the Trump administration's commonsense measures to cut waste, fraud, and abuse and remove people who were improperly enrolled on highly-subsidized ACA plans."
Efforts to renew these credits were a point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, contributing to the latest government shutdown. Lawmakers opted not to renew the subsidies in December, and the latest ACA vote is stalled in the Senate until late January.
Republicans have said they aim to reach a compromise healthcare strategy, but a plan President Donald Trump released on January 15 does not mention subsidies. The plan lays out the administration's goals to lower drug prices and insurance premiums, implement cost-sharing programs, and increase cost transparency.
"The basic contour of the plan is contradictory," said Gideon Lukens, senior fellow and director of research and data analysis at the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities. "Much less the question of how this would work, who would get what, and why this is better than directly covering people's premiums to prevent the spikes millions of people are facing right now."
Policy analysts told Business Insider they expect a steeper decline in ACA enrollment over the next few months. The January report is a snapshot of the marketplace landscape, but comes with caveats.
The latest data shows how many Americans selected a marketplace plan during open enrollment or were automatically renewed for their existing ACA coverage. It doesn't capture how many people have paid their health insurance premiums, meaning that more people are likely to drop coverage once they start receiving bills. A recent Congressional Budget Office report estimates that nearly 4 million Americans will lose or drop insurance over the next decade.
"Many likely signed up when the premiums they would end up facing were uncertain and then waited to see what they would have to pay," said Matthew Buettgens, a senior fellow at The Urban Institute.
For the few states where enrollment spiked, Fielder theorized that local healthcare policy is a factor. California offers its own ACA subsidies, for example, so residents are less vulnerable to the federal changes.
Besides the direct impact on patients, Fielder also said the lapse of ACA credits could put more pressure on hospitals, because providers could see an influx of uninsured patients, and people would be less likely to seek care in the first place.
"There will be facilities that were already financially fragile for whom this is the straw that breaks the camel's back," he said.
Jump to
Related Stories
The founders of some of the world's most successful startups have been young: Think Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom were just 19 when they launched their ventures.
But with the rise of billion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) startups comes a new trend: their founders, on average, appear to be getting younger.
A new report released by global early-stage venture capital firm Antler, found that the age of founders of AI unicorns has fallen from a peak age of 40 in 2021 to 29-years-old in 2024. Antler analyzed 1,629 unicorns and 3,512 founders globally for this report.
However, in other industries, founder age is actually rising. In 2014, the average unicorn founder was 30 at the time of launch, compared with 34 for those who reached unicorn status between 2022 and 2024.
Several AI startups with young founders have been in the spotlight in the past year. Alexandr Wang, co-founder of $29 billion AI data labelling company Scale AI, is only 29-years-old. Wang was poached by Meta in June, in a $14.3 billion deal with the startup, to head up the tech giant's new AI research unit called TBD Labs.
In fact, Meta's former generative AI team, which was headed up by 65-year-old AI godfather Yann LeCun, was reorganized after its LLama4 AI model didn't perform well.
This saw Wang become LeCun's manager and signaled Zuckerberg's desire to bring on a scrappier and more entrepreneurial AI lead, so that Meta could move faster in the AI space.
Meanwhile, Mercor, an AI-powered talent and recruitment platform, was also co-founded by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, all of whom are currently age 22. It was recently valued at over $10 billion.
AnySphere, an AI-assisted coding and developer platform, valued at over $1 billion, is also headed up by 20-something-year-olds.
Fridtjof Berge, co-founder and chief business officer at Antler, told CNBC Make It that the key qualities in founders have shifted to being able to "move fast and break things," and "continuously iterate and test and improve."
Berge said: "It's perhaps even more important now to experiment ... while other things which are still important but less important now is having been in an industry for a long time or learn the playbooks for how to traditionally think about scaling a new company."
Fridtjof explained that the expectations for industry experience in founders is now seen as less pivotal than being scrappy and entrepreneurial.
"I think that as I've been reflecting on this ... the willingness and ability to experiment in the age of AI probably counts as more important than traditional corporate experience or corporate tenure," he said.
Fridjtoff added that it "matters less" to have lots of experience in traditional company building and that it can, in fact, backfire. "You might not think with a blank-slate state," he said.
"I think that to be technically fluent with a lot of the really emerging latest and greatest technology, it sometimes helps to be young, because that's what you've learned recently in your training," he added.
In fact, Antler's report found that AI startups are indeed scaling two years faster than all other industries, reaching unicorn status in an average of 4.7 years. Examples of rapidly scaling AI startups in 2025 were Mistral, Lovable, and Suno AI.
And as Zuckerberg's own example proves, executing on a wild idea in a college dorm room can lead to phenomenal success.
"He was extremely young, and definitely has adapted, adjusted, and is now scaling one of the biggest companies in the world," Berge said.
Venture Capital firm Leonis, released its Leonis AI 100 report in November, and also found that AI startup founders were a median age of 29 at founding. Most founders are in their mid-to late-20s, often coming straight from academia or research labs rather than corporate careers.
Berge noted that while 20-somethings have qualities that allow companies to move quickly, leadership can often change hands as the firm matures.
"I guess it's nothing new that early or young founders start companies ... but it doesn't guarantee that all of the ones creating unicorns now will be the ones leading those companies in five to 10 years," He added.
Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox
Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company
Every time Thibault publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Enter your email
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
As companies rush to adopt AI to boost productivity and cut costs, they may be setting themselves up for a new problem: losing what makes them different.
Mehdi Paryavi, CEO of the International Data Center Authority, said widespread reliance on the same AI tools risks flattening competitive advantage across industries, because firms increasingly rely on identical systems to think, write, and decide for them.
Paryavi said that as AI tools become cheaper, more powerful, and more widely deployed, companies risk outsourcing the very thinking that once differentiated them.
While AI can boost efficiency in the short term, he said, relying on shared models and standardized systems could leave businesses competing on cost and speed alone — eroding originality, strategic depth, and long-term advantage.
"If you and your competitor are all using the same service, you have no edge over each other," Paryavi told Business Insider.
Every time Thibault publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Thibault and get more of their work as it publishes.
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
"Their AI and your AI against each other — I don't know who's going to win."
As generative AI becomes embedded across workplaces, Paryavi warned that the biggest risk isn't automation — it's uniformity.
When companies rely on the same large language models trained on the same data, decision-making, writing, and problem-solving can start to converge, shrinking the space for creative divergence.
That concern echoes warnings from researchers and academics who say AI can produce polished output at scale, but also flips human thinking by delivering fluent answers before understanding, creating an illusion of expertise that weakens judgment and depth.
When everyone relies on the same models trained on the same data, Paryavi said, creative divergence shrinks.
"The beauty of our world is that we have different choices because we think differently," he said. "That's where innovation comes from."
It's not just a question of companies all thinking the same — Paryavi warned that treating AI as a shortcut to efficiency can quietly hollow out human judgment, expertise, and control, leaving businesses faster in the short term but more fragile over time.
Over time, Paryavi said, that shift can erode internal expertise and decision-making capacity.
"What they don't think about is that initially it might sound more efficient and more productive and cheaper," he said. "But this is going to be very expensive down the line."
One risk, Paryavi said, is dependency. As firms replace employees with AI subscriptions, they become increasingly reliant on external vendors to function effectively.
Paryavi compared the AI boom to the early 2000s rush to cloud computing, when many companies initially adopted third-party infrastructure but later repatriated workloads in-house as costs, complexity, and vendor lock-in became concerns — a trend commonly referred to in tech as cloud repatriation.
The same dynamic could play out with AI, Paryavi said — except with even higher stakes. As companies downsize human teams, they also lose institutional knowledge and the ability to operate without automation, he said.
"You've killed all your chances of ever becoming independent as an organization," he said. "You've fired your manpower. You've made them no good."
AI, he said, is not inherently harmful. In fields such as medicine, scientific research, and disaster prediction, it can significantly accelerate progress.
But without clear guardrails, companies risk trading long-term resilience for short-term speed.
"It's a very powerful tool," Paryavi said, comparing AI to an atomic bomb. "If that [an atomic bomb] can eliminate an entire population physically, this [AI] can eliminate humanity cognitively."
Jump to
The Environmental Protection Agency closed a loophole this week that Elon Musk's xAI had exploited to rapidly stand up its first data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Musk's artificial intelligence startup created a kind of off-grid power plant for its Colossus facility by using a cluster of gas-burning turbines. The company was able to avoid air pollution permitting by classifying the turbines, which were mounted on trailers, as "non-road engines."
The EPA's updated rule clarifies that those kinds of turbines can't be designated as non-road engines and companies must also obtain Clean Air Act permits before installing them, particularly if their aggregate emissions will go above "major source thresholds" of pollution.
The Shelby County Health Department in Memphis previously allowed xAI to designate its turbines as non-road engines, and to start using them without any public comment and environmental impact review, as would have been required in a standard permitting process.
Representatives from the county's health department and xAI didn't respond to requests for comment.
The move by the federal regulator could slow xAI's expansion in the Memphis area as it builds out facilities, packed with Nvidia's graphics processing units, to develop AI models and services in a booming generative AI market currently led by OpenAI and Google.
At the Memphis data center, which first opened in 2024, xAI conducts inference and training for its Grok models and apps, including a chatbot and image generator tightly integrated into the company's social network X.
While xAI had previously told Memphis regulators that its turbines would include state-of-the-art pollution controls, known as selective catalytic reduction technology, its supplier, Solaris Energy Infrastructure told CNBC in June that it did not install such controls in xAI's "temporary" turbines.
SEI, a Houston-based energy services provider, has seen its stock price soar in recent months, partly due to xAI's expansion plans. SEI didn't respond to a request for comment.
Pollution from the turbines has been a major source of local contention.
Last year, residents in the majority-Black community of Boxtown in South Memphis testified at public hearings about a rotten egg-like stench in the air, and the impact of worsening smog on their heart and lung health.
Research by scientists at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville also found that xAI's turbine use added to air pollution woes around Memphis.
Environmental advocates, including the NAACP, said they would sue to stop xAI's unpermitted use of the turbines. However, they didn't file a complaint after the county allowed xAI to treat the turbines as temporary, non-road engines, and issued them permits.
Amanda Garcia, an attorney with the Southern Environment Law Center, which is representing the NAACP, said in an email that her firm will monitor xAI operations to ensure they aren't violating terms of their permits, and are operating within the bounds of current EPA rules at forthcoming facilities in nearby Mississippi.
XAI, which recently raised $20 billion from investors including Nvidia and Cisco, is currently being investigated in multiple jurisdictions after its Grok and X apps let users easily create and distribute deepfake violent and sexualized images of women and even children.
WATCH: xAI closes $20 billion funding round
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Share
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
As markets turn selective, Bitcoin consolidates while capital shifts from Cardano toward PayFi projects like Remittix.
The top altcoin to buy debate has shifted in recent weeks as market sentiment across the crypto market becomes more selective. Bitcoin continues consolidating within a clearly structured range, while most altcoins still fail to overcome the barrier toward renewed growth.
As this is the case, investors start to pay closer attention to projects that demonstrate real-world utility and visible product delivery. Cardano has been one of the leading blockchain projects for quite some time now; however, growing interest in PayFi-focused platforms such as Remittix (RTX) starts to reshape the way capital is allocated across digital assets.
Cardano is currently priced around $0.3960, down by almost 5.33%, with a market cap of $14.24 billion and a 24-hour volume of $741.92 million, down 23.14%. In the analysis of the crypto market, ADA is still being pressurized below the descending trend line and has been repeatedly rejected around the 50-day EMA of $0.4158.
However, Price has retreated to just above an important area of support at $0.3826, corresponding to its January 3 bottom. A daily close below this area could signal a further fall to $0.3294, although this would be indicative of deteriorating market sentiment and not a further bull rally in the crypto market.
This is because momentum indicators also suggest that this is not a strong moment in the market; otherwise, a breakout to the upside would be seen.
A short-term rally towards the 50-day EMA may occur if ADA can hold above support. Still, many traders no longer view Cardano as the clear top altcoin to buy, especially as newer platforms demonstrate faster execution and clearer use cases within decentralized finance and payments.
As attention shifts, Remittix is gaining visibility as a utility-driven cryptocurrency built around payments and crypto adoption. The RTX token is currently priced at $0.123, with over $28.8 million raised through private funding and more than 701.4 million tokens sold.
Unlike many altcoins still focused on future roadmaps, Remittix already has a working product, with its wallet now live on the Apple App Store.
This progress places Remittix in a different category within the crypto market. Rather than competing on hype, the project is focused on solving real payment challenges by bridging crypto and traditional finance through its PayFi model, with a full platform launch scheduled for 9 February 2026, as announced in this official update from the Remittix team.
Remittix's rise as a potential top altcoin to buy is tied to execution, security, and utility rather than speculation.
Security, transparency, and other factors have become big drivers in crypto regulation expectations, meaning third-party audits have become an important factor in this arena. Remittix has been fully audited by CertiK and has become #1 in CertiK for pre-launch tokens in crypto, which is an unusual position to have in today's crypto market environment.
This degree of validation further enhances the element of trust, particularly when many altcoins face a lack of confidence, thus reinforcing the reasons many are reassessing the top altcoin to purchase in the market cycle.
Cardano remains a major name in blockchain technology, yet its recent technical weakness highlights how quickly the altcoin hierarchy can change. As crypto adoption continues to favor usable products, platforms like Remittix are drawing attention for tangible progress rather than long-term narratives.
For investors tracking the top altcoin to buy, the contrast between ADA's consolidation and Remittix's steady rollout reflects a broader shift toward execution-led projects as the market prepares for its next phase.
For more information, visit the official website or socials.
There is no single answer, but projects showing real utility, audits, and live products are gaining stronger attention in the current crypto market.
Market volatility has pushed crypto investors to focus on execution, adoption, and working products rather than long-term promises alone.
Cryptocurrencies that solve practical problems, such as payments and transfers, tend to align better with long-term adoption trends.
Disclosure: This content is provided by a third party. Neither crypto.news nor the author of this article endorses any product mentioned on this page. Users should conduct their own research before taking any action related to the company.
Read more about
Best crypto platforms
Jan 2026
Deep Dives
AI bots are betting billions on the future, but (no one knows if) they're cheating | Opinion
Stop calling everything a “stablecoin” | Opinion
Wash trading and illiquidity inflate crypto valuations | Opinion
Stablecoin agentic payments are the UAE's next differentiator | Opinion
Institutional crypto needs adoption to scale beyond speculation | Opinion
Why can't companies stop social engineering attacks? | Opinion
DeFi's promised to replace TradFi, not sit on top of them | Opinion
Tennessee orders prediction platforms to cease operations, BNY launches tokenized deposits, OKX restructures institutional team | Weekly Recap
Taking Jensen Huang's quantum risk warning to digital industries | Opinion
The death of crypto marketing: Why founders became the product interface | Opinion
Related News
XRP charts signal bullish divergence can; Ripple aims to reignite market confidence and lead a new altcoin cycle
Trump hinted that XRP's price could rise to $100 once the risks subside
TokensCloud announces strategic alliance progress for U.S. cloud mining expansion in 2026
Get crypto market analysis and curated news delivered right to your inbox every week.
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
Home » ETH
Share:
Share:
Ethereum is slowly grinding higher after December's recovery, but it's now pressing into a heavy multi-month resistance cluster around $3.3–$3.5K.
The price structure is constructive, and on-chain activity via active addresses is breaking higher, which is a positive backdrop. Yet, ETH is doing all of this right under resistance, so the next few days should decide whether we get a clean breakout or another rejection back into the range.
On the daily chart, ETH has bounced cleanly from the green demand zone around $2.7K mark and pushed back into the key supply area at $3.3–$3.5K. This zone lines up with the 100-day moving average, while the 200-day moving average is sitting higher as the next dynamic resistance.
As long as the price holds above the $3K area, the structure remains a series of higher lows pointing to accumulation rather than distribution. A decisive daily close above the $3.5K mark would also open the door toward the psychological $4K level, while losing the $3K zone would likely send ETH back toward the $2.7K support block.
On the 4H, ETH has been trading within a symmetrical triangle, formed by higher lows and lower highs. However, it has recently broken the pattern to the upside, and is now testing the blue resistance band around $3.3–$3.4K. The last push into that zone came with an overbought RSI signal, which explains the current sideways/pullback behavior.
In the short-term, the local support around the $3K zone and the rising trendline just below, near the $2.9K level, should be watched. As long as those hold, buyers can still stage another breakout attempt above $3.4K. On the other hand, a clean break below the lower trendline would shift momentum back to sellers and put the $2.5K zone back on the table as downside targets.
The 30-day moving average of Ethereum active addresses has been trending up since the beginning of this year and has now pushed above the highs of the past year, while the price is still below its prior peaks.
This massive surge in active addresses usually points to improving organic usage and network demand, which often supports uptrends after periods of consolidation. At the same time, spikes in activity right under resistance have occasionally coincided with local tops when price fails to follow through.
So if active addresses stay elevated or keep rising while ETH finally clears $3.5K, it would strongly support a new leg higher; if activity rolls over while price keeps stalling here, it would argue for a deeper cool-off back into the lower support zones.
Full-time on-chain Data Analyst and Python Programmer. Passionate about Bitcoin and DataVisualization.
Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. Full disclaimer
Something went wrong
The market shows renewed appetite for risk, as Bitcoin (BTCUSD) climbed above $95,000 and reached $97,000 this week. After a period of underperformance, cryptocurrencies are once again on the rise. This rally has coincided with cooling U.S. inflation signals, stable employment figures, and strong inflows into crypto ETFs.
Bitcoin treasury and analytics company MicroStrategy, now operating as Strategy (MSTR), is pouring money into the cryptocurrency, showing robust optimism in digital assets. In fact, MSTR CEO Michael Saylor expects Bitcoin prices to reach $1 million by 2029.
Intel Reports Earnings on January 22. Here Is Where Options Data Says INTC Stock Could Be Trading Next.
NAND Demand Stays Strong as Chip Sales Slump. Is Sandisk or Western Digital Stock a Better Buy in January 2026?
Super Micro Computer Is One of the Most Shorted Stocks. Could a Squeeze Take It Higher in 2026?
Our exclusive Barchart Brief newsletter is your FREE midday guide to what's moving stocks, sectors, and investor sentiment - delivered right when you need the info most. Subscribe today!
At this juncture, should you buy, sell, or hold MSTR stock?
Headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, Strategy is the world's first and largest Bitcoin treasury company. Originally focused on enterprise analytics software since its 1989 founding, the company strategically pivoted to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, building substantial holdings.
This shift positions Strategy to offer investors exposure to Bitcoin through a range of securities while advancing analytics innovation. The company has a market capitalization of $49.1 billion.
As Bitcoin was going through a tough period, Strategy's stock also felt its impact. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has declined 52.67%, and over the past six months, 61.9%. Just for comparison, the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has increased by 16.89% and 10.8% over the same periods, respectively.
It had reached a 52-week high of $457.22 in July 2025, but is down 62% from that level. However, as Bitcoin has resurged following the “crypto winter,” the stock has gained 10.4% over the past five days. It is up by 16% from its 52-week low of $149.75 reached on Jan. 2, 2026.
MSTR's stock is trading at a discount to its peers. Its price-to-earnings ratio of 6.25x is considerably lower than the industry average of 32.73x.
On Oct. 30, Strategy reported its third-quarter results for fiscal 2025. The company's total revenue increased 10.9% year-over-year (YOY) to $128.69 million, exceeding Wall Street analysts' estimate of $117.10 million. This was based on Strategy's total product licenses and subscription services revenue, which grew 62.9% annually to $63.35 million.
Strategy's income from operations surged, turning a $432.58 million loss in Q3 2024 into a $3.89 billion profit in Q3 2025, which included an unrealized gain on the company's digital assets of $3.90 billion. Its bottom line shifted from a $1.72 loss per share to an $8.42 EPS.
Following its results, the company announced it had established a U.S. dollar reserve of $1.44 billion. The reserve would be used to pay the dividends of its preferred stock and interest on its outstanding indebtedness. It was funded by the proceeds of a sale of Class A common stock.
Wall Street analysts have a tepid view about Strategy's bottom line trajectory. For the fourth quarter, its loss per share is expected to increase significantly YOY to $18.06. For fiscal 2025, its loss per share is also expected to grow considerably YOY to $30.86. However, loss per share for fiscal 2026 is projected to decrease by 32.4% annually to $20.87.
Last month, Citi analyst Peter Christiansen reiterated a “Buy” rating on the stock but lowered the price target from $485 to $325. The analyst noted that the price target was reduced due to the firm's updated outlook on digital asset valuation. However, Christiansen expects legislative reforms to serve as a catalyst for the stock's growth heading into 2026.
In the same month, analysts at Bernstein lowered the firm's price target from $600 to $450, while maintaining an “Outperform” rating on the stock. Yet, analysts maintained that concerns about Strategy's financial stability were overstated. Bernstein experts believe that the company is rapidly transforming into a Bitcoin-reserved financial operating business that can offer fixed-income yields and savings products to investors.
Cantor Fitzgerald analysts lowered the stock's price target from $560 to $229 but maintained a bullish “Overweight” rating. Analysts cited a recalculation of the company's Bitcoin holdings as the reason for this reduction, but they maintain a long-term bullish view on Bitcoin and remain optimistic about MSTR.
In November, analysts at Monness, Crespi, Hardt upgraded the stock from “Sell” to “Neutral.” The analysts cited a lower premium relative to MSTR's Bitcoin holdings and reduced downside risk.
MSTR has become a popular stock on Wall Street, with analysts awarding it a consensus “Strong Buy” rating. Of the 16 analysts rating the stock, a majority of 13 analysts have rated it a “Strong Buy,” one analyst suggests a “Moderate Buy,” while two analysts are playing it safe with a “Hold” rating. The consensus price target of $473.79 represents a 172.8% upside from current levels. The Street-high price target of $705 indicates a 305.9% upside.
The fate of Strategy largely depends on the volatility of Bitcoin, a volatile asset. The stock faces downside risk, especially if crypto enters a prolonged downturn. However, analysts remain bullish on the stock, expecting significant upside. Therefore, investors may wish to consider it in hopes of significant gains.
On the date of publication, Anushka Dutta did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
Every year, workers around the globe send approximately $900 billion to their families back home and, when it comes to helping them send that money, the market is suddenly up for grabs. The reason is the recent momentum behind stablecoins, which offer an easy way to move money across borders—and for a far cheaper price than legacy transfer systems, whose fees can reach as high as 6%.
Stablecoins, which are backed by reserves designed to peg their value to a fiat currency like the dollar, were long used by experienced crypto traders. Today, millions of ordinary people are using them too via digital wallets. All of this raises an intriguing business question: What companies are best poised to capitalize on the new stablecoin trend?
Will it be a legacy remittance player, like a Western Union or MoneyGram? Or will it be a crypto-native company, like a Kraken or Coinbase, or instead PayPal or one of the growing number of fintechs entering the stablecoin space?
While the emerging stablecoin industry is there for the taking, experts say that both legacy remittance players and newer entrants each possess their own set of advantages and challenges.
When people send money across borders, fees are steep. The World Bank found in a report earlier this year that the average fee for sending remittances was more than 6%. That cost can be grating over time, especially for low-income immigrants sending money back to developing countries.
“People are spending extraordinary sums to send money abroad,” said Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in financial regulation. “This impacts how much the most cash-strapped and vulnerable people have in their pocket because some middle person is taking money for no good reason.”
This is where stablecoins could step in. Thanks to blockchain technology, these digital tokens can make international payments faster and at lower costs. The International Monetary Fund recently published an article about how this digital currency could improve payments and global finance.
Stablecoins have also become a priority in the financial world since President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act in July. The legislation established a regulatory framework for the digital currency. Since then, major remittance players, like Western Union and PayPal, have developed their stablecoin offerings.
When it comes to widespread adoption of stablecoins for remittances, traditional players, like Western Union, have the advantage of an existing customer base around the world. This type of company already has established regulation in different countries. That's according to Nate Svensson, a senior equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank, who says that a company like Western Union has developed compliance internationally for decades, if not centuries.
“I think [Western Union] has a lot of built in advantages relative to these nascent crypto players,” he said.
Another analyst, Brett Horn from Morningstar, likewise suggested traditional remittance brands may hold the advantage in the race, citing their long history with clients. When asked about crypto startups who solely focus on remittances using stablecoins, he said, “A lot of times it sounds really good, but I think, frankly, [these startups] are waving away some real difficulties that they might have.”
On the other hand, crypto-native companies have an advantage in their familiarity with the technology and their ability to be nimble. The likes of Western Union, in contrast, may find it hard to move away from long-standing business practices that both the company and their customers know well. When it incorporates stablecoin transfers for remittances alongside its existing fiat transfer system, it essentially has two arms of its business competing with one another.
“They're competing with themselves, and that's just a natural disincentive for things to change,” said Jessica Wachter, a professor of finance at The Wharton School, about legacy remittance players. “A startup would be basically all in on [stablecoins], whereas I'm not sure a [Western Union] would be all in on it.”
Besides legacy financial institutions and crypto startups, another kind of company is vying to win this fight—the bigger crypto companies. Kraken, for example, has an app where users can send and receive funds across more than a hundred countries.
Regulation for this digital currency is still relatively new, as the Genius Act was only signed into law in July, and the development of the technology is still in its early stages. Yesha Yadav, the law professor at Vanderbilt University, thinks that stablecoins will become even more popular this year, as their consumer protection rules get firmed up.
“I think stablecoins have an enormous runway to expand their footprint,” she said.
© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
Every time Jennifer publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Enter your email
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
A longtime crypto bull is ditching bitcoin for gold.
Christopher Wood, the global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, said he just cut bitcoin out of his firm's long-term model portfolio, where the token has accounted for around 5%-10% of the portfolio's allocation for the last five years.
That's because the price of the crypto has likely peaked, but also because there's an existential threat he sees jeopardizing the bitcoin ecosystem: quantum computing.
In a recent note to clients, Wood pointed specifically to CRQCs, or cryptographically relevant quantum computers — supercomputers that could potentially "steal" bitcoin from circulation, he said.
Bitcoin transactions are secured with cryptography, a coding system where transactions are encrypted with public keys, and access to the bitcoin itself is controlled by a private key. It would take supercomputers today "trillions of years" to derive a private key from a public one, given how complex the computations are, Wood said. But CRQCs could potentially reduce that time to something like several hours to several days, he speculated.
CRQCs don't yet exist, but chatter about the potential risks is already spreading across the bitcoin community, Wood said, pointing to a report from ChainCode Labs that estimated as much as 10 million tokens, or 50% of all bitcoin in circulation, could be accessed by a CRQC.
Some in the crypto community are arguing that the risk from CRQCs means "vulnerable coins" in the bitcoin ecosystem should be burned, Wood bited.
"While GREED & fear does not believe that the quantum issue is about to hit the Bitcoin price dramatically in the near term, the store of value concept is clearly on less solid foundation from the standpoint of a long-term pension portfolio," Wood said of his recent portfolio change. He added that he believed bitcoin reached its peak in the post-halving cycle at $126,000 last year.
Wood's team has replaced the allocation to bitcoin in the model portfolio with a 10% allocation to gold and gold mining stocks. The portfolio now has a total 45% allocation to physical gold, a 25% allocation to gold mining stocks, and a 30% allocation to Asian equities, excluding Japan.
"Meanwhile, the existential issue raised by quantum as regards Bitcoin can only be long-term positive for gold since it remains the historically stress tested store of value. Meanwhile, gold is also the best hedge, if not the only one, on the ever-rising geopolitical risks," Wood said.
It's been a rough few months for bitcoin, with the crypto tumbling into a bear market in late 2025 amid a broader risk-off move that was exacerbated by weak liquidity and concerns about the yen-carry trade.
Meanwhile, the case for owning gold has only grown stronger since its stunning rally in 2025. The metal saw its best performance since 1979 and continues to hover near a record high as investors seek protection from geopolitical conflict and inflationary pressures.
Check out Business Insider's picks for best cryptocurrency exchanges
Check out Business Insider's picks for best cryptocurrency exchanges
Get the latest Gold price here.
Jump to
In a stunning revelation from early 2018, documents show Elon Musk briefly championed a revolutionary $10 billion OpenAI ICO before his dramatic departure from the company. This pivotal moment, reported by CoinDesk in January 2025, illuminates a crucial crossroads where artificial intelligence development nearly intersected with blockchain fundraising at an unprecedented scale. The proposal emerged during cryptocurrency's peak frenzy, offering a fascinating glimpse into alternative funding paths for transformative technologies.
Internal documents from January 2018 reveal specific parameters for the proposed OpenAI initial coin offering. Elon Musk and OpenAI founders discussed creating a token that would grant holders access to future AI services or computing resources. The $10 billion target would have dwarfed most traditional venture capital rounds, potentially distributing tokens to thousands of global investors. This approach mirrored contemporary blockchain projects that promised utility rather than equity.
Historical context clarifies why this method gained consideration. The 2017-2018 period witnessed extraordinary ICO activity, with projects like Filecoin raising $257 million and Telegram securing $1.7 billion through private token sales. Regulatory frameworks remained ambiguous globally, creating a window for innovative fundraising. Meanwhile, OpenAI faced substantial computational costs for training advanced models, estimated at millions monthly for cloud infrastructure.
Elon Musk withdrew his support within weeks of the initial proposal. Multiple factors likely influenced this reversal. First, regulatory scrutiny intensified dramatically in early 2018 as the SEC began classifying certain tokens as securities. Second, Tesla's own challenges demanded increased attention, particularly regarding Model 3 production and Autopilot development. Third, Musk expressed growing concerns about AI safety and commercialization timelines.
His subsequent resignation from the OpenAI board in February 2018 created significant organizational shifts. Musk cited potential future conflicts with Tesla's AI work as the primary reason. This departure occurred just as OpenAI transitioned from a non-profit to a “capped-profit” structure, a move that would eventually enable Microsoft's $1 billion investment in 2019. The abandoned ICO proposal represents a road not taken in the organization's funding evolution.
Blockchain analysts note the proposal's timing coincided with peak ICO enthusiasm but increasing regulatory pressure. “The first quarter of 2018 saw both record fundraising and mounting SEC warnings,” explains Dr. Sarah Chen, cryptocurrency historian at Stanford University. “Projects began facing legal challenges for unregistered securities offerings, creating substantial risk for high-profile initiatives.”
Several key developments shaped this period:
The abandoned OpenAI ICO proposal highlights fundamental questions about financing transformative technologies. Traditional venture capital, while substantial, often imposes different constraints and expectations than token-based fundraising. ICOs theoretically enable broader participation and align incentives through utility tokens rather than equity. However, they also introduce regulatory complexity and market volatility.
OpenAI ultimately pursued hybrid funding approaches. The organization secured:
This diversified strategy contrasts sharply with the single massive ICO initially contemplated. Each approach carries distinct advantages regarding control, regulatory exposure, and community building. The ICO model might have created a decentralized ecosystem of developers and users invested in the platform's success through token ownership.
Elon Musk's redirected focus toward Tesla's artificial intelligence initiatives proved prescient. Tesla began developing custom AI chips in 2018, leading to the Full Self-Driving computer's 2019 deployment. The company's Dojo supercomputer project, announced in 2021, represents another massive AI infrastructure investment. These parallel developments suggest Musk channeled his AI ambitions toward vertically integrated applications rather than general research platforms.
Financial analysts note Tesla's market capitalization grew from approximately $60 billion in early 2018 to over $800 billion by 2025. This valuation increase provided resources far exceeding the proposed ICO's $10 billion target. However, the funding mechanisms differ fundamentally—public market equity versus token sales—with implications for investor rights, liquidity, and regulatory oversight.
The revealed OpenAI ICO discussions gain new relevance amid 2025's AI and blockchain convergence. Modern decentralized AI projects like Bittensor and SingularityNET employ token-based models for coordinating distributed computation. These initiatives face similar questions about governance, incentive alignment, and regulatory compliance that the 2018 proposal encountered.
Several key differences distinguish current approaches:
The proposal's $10 billion scale remains extraordinary by contemporary standards. For comparison, the largest cryptocurrency venture rounds in 2024 reached approximately $500 million. This magnitude reflects both the period's exuberance and AI infrastructure's substantial capital requirements. Training advanced models like GPT-4 reportedly cost over $100 million, with future generations requiring exponentially more resources.
The Elon Musk OpenAI ICO proposal represents a fascinating historical footnote with enduring implications. This $10 billion fundraising plan, briefly supported then abandoned, highlights critical moments in both artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency evolution. The decision to pursue traditional investment instead shaped OpenAI's development path and governance structure significantly. Meanwhile, Musk's redirected focus toward Tesla's AI ambitions produced substantial autonomous driving advancements. As AI and blockchain technologies continue converging, this revealed proposal offers valuable perspective on funding mechanisms for transformative technologies. The Elon Musk OpenAI ICO consideration ultimately demonstrates how financing choices can redirect technological trajectories in profound ways.
Q1: What was the proposed purpose of the OpenAI ICO tokens?The documents suggest tokens would provide access to future AI services or computing resources, creating a utility-based ecosystem rather than equity ownership.
Q2: Why did Elon Musk withdraw support for the ICO?Multiple factors likely contributed, including increasing regulatory scrutiny of token sales, Tesla's growing AI priorities, and concerns about AI safety and commercialization timelines.
Q3: How does this proposal compare to modern AI crypto projects?Current decentralized AI initiatives employ more sophisticated token economics and operate under clearer regulatory frameworks, but share similar goals of democratizing access and aligning incentives.
Q4: What fundraising path did OpenAI ultimately pursue?The organization secured traditional venture funding, including Microsoft's $1 billion investment, alongside revenue from API access and strategic partnerships.
Q5: How might AI development differ if the ICO had proceeded?A token-based model might have created more decentralized governance and broader community participation, potentially accelerating certain applications while introducing different regulatory challenges.
Disclaimer: The information provided is not trading advice, Bitcoinworld.co.in holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.
Copyright © 2026 BitcoinWorld | Powered by BitcoinWorld
The Chen Zhi arrest might push bitcoin prices down temporarily, but analysts said other factors will have greater sway in the long term
The seizure of enormous cryptocurrency caches in two high-profile criminal cases in China – a former head of the central bank's digital currency research institute accused of corruption, and an alleged scam centre kingpin linked to about US$15 billion in bitcoin – have sparked questions in the country about the safety and future of virtual money.
But analysts said the long-term trend for the assets, especially bitcoin, depended on institutional capital, interest rate expectations and the likelihood of the United States' Digital Asset Market Clarity Act being signed into law this year.
“While Chen is accused of crypto fraud and probably some element of coercion to scam investors, that is a separate issue to bitcoin's price drop at the start of 2026, which is now at about 30 per cent lower than its all-time high,” said Sanjeev Aaron Williams, a Hong Kong-based lawyer who writes on geopolitical risk and the digital economy.
The trading of crypto assets has been banned for years in mainland China. The Chinese central bank, which has doubled down on efforts to promote the digital yuan, pledged a further crackdown on virtual money in October despite market calls for the introduction of yuan stablecoins.
Hong Kong, however, aims to become a global hub for crypto businesses.
By closely tracking swarms of extremely small earthquakes, scientists are gaining new insight into a dangerous and complicated region off the Northern California coast. This area marks the meeting point of the San Andreas fault and the Cascadia subduction zone, a place capable of producing powerful and destructive earthquakes. The research was carried out by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Boulder, and was published Jan. 15 in Science.
"If we don't understand the underlying tectonic processes, it's hard to predict the seismic hazard," said coauthor Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis.
A Seismic Crossroads Beneath the Coast
The Mendocino Triple Junction lies offshore from Humboldt County, where three major tectonic plates converge. South of this junction, the Pacific plate moves roughly northwest alongside the North American plate, creating the San Andreas fault. To the north, the Gorda (or Juan de Fuca) plate moves northeast and sinks beneath the North American plate, descending into the Earth's mantle in a process known as subduction.
Although this arrangement may appear simple on a map, scientists say the real structure below the surface is far more complicated. One striking example came from a large (magnitude 7.2) earthquake in 1992 that struck at a much shallower depth than expected.
Looking Below the Surface
First author David Shelly of the USGS Geologic Hazards Center in Golden, Colo., said the challenge is similar to studying an iceberg.
"You can see a bit at the surface, but you have to figure out what is the configuration underneath," Shelly said.
To uncover that hidden structure, Shelly and his colleagues used a dense network of seismometers across the Pacific Northwest. The instruments recorded extremely small "low-frequency" earthquakes that occur where tectonic plates slowly slide against or over one another. These tiny events are thousands of times weaker than earthquakes people can feel at the surface.
The team tested their underground model by examining how these small earthquakes respond to tidal forces. Just as the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon affects ocean tides, it also places subtle stress on tectonic plates. When those forces line up with the natural direction of plate movement, the number of small earthquakes increases, Thomas said.
Five Moving Pieces Beneath Northern California
The researchers found that the region involves five moving pieces rather than just three major plates, with two of them hidden deep below the surface.
At the southern end of the Cascadia subduction zone, the team discovered that a portion of the North American plate has broken away and is being dragged downward along with the Gorda plate as it sinks beneath North America.
South of the triple junction, the Pacific plate is pulling a mass of rock known as the Pioneer fragment beneath the North American plate as it moves northwards. The fault separating the Pioneer fragment from the North American plate lies nearly flat and cannot be seen at the surface.
The Pioneer fragment was once part of the Farallon plate, an ancient tectonic plate that once extended along the California coastline and has since mostly disappeared.
Explaining a Puzzling Earthquake
This updated model helps explain why the 1992 earthquake occurred at such a shallow depth. According to Materna, the surface being pushed beneath North America is not as deep as scientists previously believed.
"It had been assumed that faults follow the leading edge of the subducting slab, but this example deviates from that," Materna said. "The plate boundary seems not to be where we thought it was."
The work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of California - Davis. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Cite This Page:
Patients Once “Paralyzed by Life” Show Lasting Recovery With Implanted Nerve Therapy
Using These Common Painkillers After Surgery May Be Slowing Recovery, New Study Finds
Could a Tomato Nutrient Help Prevent Severe Gum Disease in Older Adults?
A Hidden Climate Rhythm Is Driving Extreme Floods and Droughts Worldwide
Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader:
Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:
Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?
January 17, 2026
5 min read
The next AI revolution could start with world models
Why today's AI systems struggle with consistency, and how emerging world models aim to give machines a steady grasp of space and time
By Deni Ellis Béchard edited by Eric Sullivan
liulolo
You've probably seen an artificial intelligence system go off track. You ask for a video of a dog, and as the dog runs behind the love seat, its collar disappears. Then, as the camera pans back, the love seat becomes a sofa.
Part of the problem lies in the predictive nature of many AI models. Like the models that power ChatGPT, which are trained to predict text, video generation models predict what is statistically most plausible to look right next. In neither case does the AI hold a clearly defined model of the world that it continuously updates to make more informed decisions.
But that's starting to change as researchers across many AI domains work on creating “world models,” with implications that extend beyond video generation and chatbot use to augmented reality, robotics, autonomous vehicles and even humanlike intelligence—or artificial general intelligence (AGI).
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
A simple way to understand world modeling is through four-dimensional, or 4D, models (three dimensions plus time). To do this, let's think back to 2012, when Titanic, 15 years after its theatrical release, was painstakingly converted into stereoscopic 3D. If you were to freeze any frame, you would have an impression of distance between characters and objects on the ship. But if Leonardo DiCaprio had his back to the camera, you wouldn't be able to walk around him to see his face. Cinema's illusion of 3D is made using stereoscopy—two slightly different images often projected in rapid alternation, one for the left eye and one for the right. Everyone in the cinema sees the same pair of images and thus a similar perspective.
Multiple perspectives are, however, increasingly possible thanks to the past decade of research. Imagine realizing you should have shot a photo from a different angle and then having AI make that adjustment, giving the same scene with a new perspective. Starting in 2020, NeRF (neural radiance field) algorithms offered a path to create “photorealistic novel views” but required combining many photos so that an AI system could generate a 3D representation. Other 3D approaches use AI to fill in missing information predictively, deviating more from reality.
Now, imagine that every frame in Titanic were represented in 3D so that the movie existed in 4D. You could scroll through time to see different moments or scroll through space to watch it from different perspectives. You could also generate new versions of it. For instance, a recent preprint, “NeoVerse: Enhancing 4D World Model with in-the-Wild Monocular Videos,” describes one way of turning videos into 4D models to generate new videos from different perspectives.
But 4D techniques can also help generate new video content. Another recent preprint, “TeleWorld: Towards Dynamic Multimodal Synthesis with a 4D World Model,” applies to the scenario with which we began: the dog running behind the love seat. The authors argue that the stability of AI video systems improves when a continuously updated 4D world model guides generation. The system's 4D model would help to prevent the love seat from becoming a couch and the dog from losing its collar.
These are early results, but they hint at a broader trend: models that update an internal scene map as they generate. Yet 4D modeling has applications far beyond video generation. For augmented reality (AR)—think Meta's Orion prototype glasses—a 4D world model is an evolving map of the user's world over time. It allows AR systems to keep virtual objects stable, to make lighting and perspective believable and to have a spatial memory of what recently happened. It also allows for occlusions—when digital objects disappear behind real ones. A 2023 paper puts the requirement bluntly: “To achieve occlusion, a 3D model of the physical environment is required.”
Being able to rapidly convert videos into 4D also provides rich data for training robots and autonomous vehicles on how the real world works. And by generating 4D models of the space they're in, robots could navigate it better and predict what might happen next. Today's general-purpose vision-language AI models—which understand images and text but do not generate clearly defined world models—often make errors; a benchmark paper presented at a 2025 conference reports “striking limitations” in their basic world-modeling abilities, including “near-random accuracy when distinguishing motion trajectories.”
Here's the catch: “world model” means much more to those pursuing AGI. For instance, today's leading large language models (LLMs), such as those powering ChatGPT, have an implicit sense of the world from their training data. “In a way, I would say that the LLM already has a very good world model; it's just we don't really understand how it's doing it,” says Angjoo Kanazawa, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at University of California, Berkeley. These conceptual models, though, aren't a real-time physical understanding of the world because LLMs can't update their training data in real time. Even OpenAI's technical report notes that, once deployed, its model GPT-4 “does not learn from experience.”
“How do you develop an intelligent LLM vision system that can actually have streaming input and update its understanding of the world and act accordingly?” Kanazawa says. “That's a big open problem. I think AGI is not possible without actually solving this problem.”
Though researchers debate whether LLMs could ever attain AGI, many see LLMs as a component of future AI systems. The LLM would act as the layer for “language and common sense to communicate,” Kanazawa says; it would serve as an “interface,” whereas a more clearly defined underlying world model would provide the necessary “spatial temporal memory” that current LLMs lack.
In recent years a number of prominent AI researchers have turned toward world models. In 2024 Fei Fei Li founded World Labs, which recently launched its Marble software to create 3D worlds from “text, images, video, or coarse 3D layouts,” according to the start-up's promotional material. And last November AI researcher Yann LeCun announced on LinkedIn that he was leaving Meta to launch a start-up, now called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs), to build “systems that understand the physical world, have persistent memory, can reason, and can plan complex action sequences.” He seeded these ideas in a 2022 position paper in which he asked why humans can act well in situations they've never encountered and argued the answer “may lie in the ability... to learn world models, internal models of how the world works.” Research increasingly shows the benefits of internal models. An April 2025 Nature paper reported results on DreamerV3, an AI agent that, by learning a world model, can improve its behavior by “imagining” future scenarios.
So while in the context of AGI, “world model” refers more closely to an internal model of how reality works, not just 4D reconstructions, advances in 4D modeling could provide components that help with understanding viewpoints, memory and even short-term prediction. And meanwhile, on the path to AGI, 4D models can provide rich simulations of reality in which to test AIs to ensure that when we do let them operate in the real world, they know how to exist in it.
Deni Ellis Béchard is Scientific American's senior writer for technology. He is author of 10 books and has received a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, a Midwest Book Award and a Nautilus Book Award for investigative journalism. He holds two master's degrees in literature, as well as a master's degree in biology from Harvard University. His most recent novel, We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine, explores the ways that artificial intelligence could transform humanity. You can follow him on X, Instagram and Bluesky @denibechard
If you enjoyed this article, I'd like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I've been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you'll support us in that mission.
Thank you,
David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American
Subscribe to Scientific American to learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today.
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
© 2025 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF SPRINGER NATURE AMERICA, INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
For a long time, endocrinologist Leigh Perreault, MD, felt uneasy about how weight management was handled in routine medical care. Too often, patients were sent home with the same advice to eat better and exercise more, even when it clearly was not enough.
"There was a moment I put my face in my hands and thought, 'What am I doing?' I would write a lot of prescriptions for patients' diabetes, their blood pressure, their lipids and all these other conditions," says Perreault, a professor of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine who practices in Westminster alongside primary care physicians.
She realized that many of those medications addressed symptoms rather than the root problem. "None of these people want to be on these medications and I thought if I could just help them with their weight, many of these health concerns would probably go away," she says.
That realization set the stage for a new approach that would soon reshape how weight care could work in primary care settings.
A New System Called PATHWEIGH
Perreault and her colleagues created PATHWEIGH, a structured process that helps patients and primary care teams focus directly on weight management. The program introduces dedicated clinic visits where providers can concentrate specifically on weight related care instead of squeezing it into a standard appointment.
With funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), PATHWEIGH was rolled out across UCHealth's 56 primary care clinics throughout Colorado to evaluate its impact. The pilot included 274,182 patients, making it one of the largest randomized trials ever conducted in this area.
Results published by Perreault and her team in Nature Medicine showed that the program reduced population weight gain by 0.58 kg over 18 months and shifted the overall trend from steady gain to weight loss -- an outcome with major implications for public health.
The program also made patients more likely to receive help for weight issues. Participation increased the chances of receiving weight related care by 23%.
"With PATHWEIGH, we showed that we absolutely eliminated population weight gain across all of our primary care, which has never been done previously," Perreault says.
As a result, obesity specialists are now pointing to PATHWEIGH as a possible standard of care, and several health systems around the country are exploring how to adopt it.
Building a Clear Path to Weight Care
Perreault describes PATHWEIGH as a way to align patients and clinicians around a shared plan.
"If you think about weight loss medicine or surgery or a weight loss program, those are all vehicles to weight loss," she says. "We built a highway that we could put all the vehicles on, so there's actually a process for people to receive weight related care if they wanted it."
The process began with something simple. Clinics posted signs letting patients know they could request an appointment focused entirely on weight management by asking at the front desk.
That request automatically activated a workflow in the electronic health record. Patients received a survey, and once completed, their responses flowed directly into the clinician's notes. This allowed visits to focus less on background information and more on practical next steps.
"It made the whole process really efficient, and then effectively turned our note template into a menu of anything that we might do," Perreault says. "It really made it extremely time efficient and consolidated everything we might do for a patient into one interface."
Removing Barriers and Awkward Conversations
Data collected over 18 months showed that about one in four eligible patients received some form of weight related care at least once during the trial. Most of that care involved lifestyle counseling, but prescriptions for anti-obesity medications doubled during the intervention.
Unlike many one-size-fits-all weight loss programs, PATHWEIGH allowed treatment to be customized to each patient. It also reduced the discomfort that often surrounds conversations about weight in medical settings.
"Most people who want or need weight related care never get it. Either they don't ask for it or the providers don't bring it up, and if they do, the patient usually gets told to go home and eat less and exercise more, and then nothing happens," Perreault says. "The person gets frustrated and they learn to not ask for help anymore, because it's kind of embarrassing and it doesn't help. This was a safe space to say, 'Hey, if you would like medical assistance with your weight, we actually have a process for you to receive that now.'"
Why Small Changes Matter at Scale
Experts estimate that rising obesity rates are driven by an average population weight gain of about .5kg per year. Stopping that increase and turning it into even modest weight loss could make a meaningful difference in slowing the obesity epidemic.
"While it's not a significant difference on an individual patient level, it's a huge deal on a population and public health level," Perreault says.
Researchers also found that patients who received clear weight related care through PATHWEIGH experienced greater weight loss. Even patients who did not receive direct interventions saw reduced weight gain compared with what would normally be expected.
Expanding Beyond Colorado
Perreault says the program's success has opened the door to wider adoption. Plans are underway to expand PATHWEIGH beyond Colorado. The Obesity Association, which is developing its first standards of care for obesity, is highlighting the program as a recommended care process.
Five health systems across seven states are also considering PATHWEIGH as its creators work toward licensing the model.
"I'm really proud that PATHWEIGH was home-grown and built and tested here in Colorado," Perreault says. "This is the blueprint that moves us forward."
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Colorado School of Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Cite This Page:
Patients Once “Paralyzed by Life” Show Lasting Recovery With Implanted Nerve Therapy
Using These Common Painkillers After Surgery May Be Slowing Recovery, New Study Finds
Could a Tomato Nutrient Help Prevent Severe Gum Disease in Older Adults?
A Hidden Climate Rhythm Is Driving Extreme Floods and Droughts Worldwide
Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader:
Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:
Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?
What happens here matters everywhere
by Alan Boyle on Jan 17, 2026 at 9:26 amJanuary 17, 2026 at 10:04 am
NASA's massive Space Launch System rocket crept toward its Florida launch pad today at a top speed of about 1 mph, marking the first step in a journey that will eventually send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
The 4-mile trek to Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center began at 7 a.m. ET (4 a.m. PT) and was expected to take about 12 hours. Because the rocket and its mobile launcher stand more than 300 feet tall and weigh more than 10 million pounds, the trip requires the use of a crawler-transporter — the same vehicle used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs, now upgraded for NASA's Artemis moon program.
Liftoff for the Artemis 2 mission could come as early as Feb. 6, but there's lots to be done in the weeks ahead. After today's rollout, the mission team will conduct a thorough checkout of the Space Launch System and its Orion crew spacecraft. Then there'll be a “wet dress rehearsal,” during which the launch team will fuel the rocket and count down to T-minus 29 seconds.
“We have, I think, zero intention of communicating an actual launch date until we get through wet dress,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters.
Artemis 2 is slated to send three NASA astronauts and one Canadian astronaut on a 10-day journey tracing a figure-8 route around the moon. The trip will take them as far as 4,800 miles beyond the lunar far side — farther out than any human has gone before.
One of the crew members, Christina Koch, recalled an exchange she had with Apollo 13's Fred Haise at a commemorative event. “Before I even said, ‘Hello, sir, great to see you,' he goes, ‘I heard you're going to break our record,'” she said.
Mission commander Reid Wiseman said he's already seeing the moon in a different light.
“One of the most magical things for me in this experience is, when I looked out a few mornings ago, there was a beautiful crescent in the morning sunrise, and I truly just see the far side,” he said. “You just think about all the landmarks we've been studying on that far side, and how amazing that will look. And seeing Earthrise, just flipping the moon over and seeing it from the other perspective, is what I think when I look out right now.”
Good morning, Moon. See you next month? pic.twitter.com/1FwBmxMEyZ
Although Artemis 2 will be historic in its own right, the mission's main purpose is to prepare the way for Artemis 3, which will put humans on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. That mission is officially set for no earlier than mid-2027, but industry experts expect the schedule to slip.
During today's news briefing, Isaacman took an even longer view. “This is the start of a very long journey,” he said. “I hope someday my kids are going to be watching, maybe decades into the future, the Artemis 100 mission.”
Isaacman, who served as the billionaire CEO of the Shift4 payment processing company before becoming NASA's chief last month, said that America's space effort is sending humans back to the moon “to figure out the orbital and lunar economy, for all of the science and discovery possibilities that are out there, to inspire my kids, your kids, kids all around the world, to want to grow up and contribute to this unbelievable endeavor that we're on right now.”
Several companies with a presence in the Seattle area are already part of that lunar economy. For example, L3Harris' facility in Redmond has been building thrusters for NASA's Orion spacecraft. Seattle-based Interlune is planning to bring helium-3 and other lunar resources back to Earth. And Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, headquartered in Kent, is building a Blue Moon lander that's meant to put Artemis crews on the lunar surface starting in 2030.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is expected to send an uncrewed cargo version of the Blue Moon lander to the moon sometime in the next few months. Isaacman hinted that Blue Origin could be in for a bigger role in the lunar economy as the Artemis program hits its stride.
“I will say I did meet with both Blue Origin and SpaceX on their acceleration plans. These are both very good plans,” he said. “If we are on track, we should be watching an awful lot of New Glenns and Starships launch in the years ahead.”
GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories.
Explore the series now.
Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire.
Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline
Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know.
Year in Space: Get ready for moon missions to take center stage in 2026
NASA takes a trip to Seattle area to thank suppliers for work on the next moonshot
Blue Origin puts a lunar spin on suborbital research flight of New Shepard rocket ship
Rocketdyne redux: Seattle area's oldest rocket factory to get new ownership under old name
Catch every headline in your inbox
Latest
AI
Amazon
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
Gadgets
Gaming
Google
Government & Policy
Hardware
Instagram
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
Staff
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Newsletters
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Anahita Laverack was set on becoming an aerospace engineer, but her career took a different turn after a realization at an autonomous robotics challenge inspired her to launch Oshen, a company that builds fleets of robots that collect ocean data.
In 2021, Laverack, a storied sailor, decided to build and enter a robot in the Microtransat Challenge, a competition where participants build and send autonomous sail-powered micro-robots across the Atlantic Ocean. She, like everyone else that has tried this challenge, was unsuccessful.
“I realized half the reason that all of these attempts were failing is, number one, obviously it's hard to make micro-robots survive on the ocean,” Laverack told TechCrunch. “But number two, they don't have enough data on the ocean to know what the weather is or even know what the ocean conditions are like.”
Laverack set out for different conferences, like Oceanology International, to find this missing ocean data. She quickly realized that no one had really figured out a good way to collect it yet. Instead, she found people asking if they could pay her to try to collect the data herself. She figured that if people were willing to pay her for this data, she could try to build a way to capture it.
Those conversations were the basis for Oshen, which Laverack founded alongside Ciaran Dowds, an electrical engineer, in April 2022.
The company now builds fleets of autonomous micro-robots, called C-Stars, that can survive in the ocean for 100 days straight and are deployed in swarms to collect ocean data.
But Oshen started small. Laverack said she and Dowds chose not to pursue venture capital right away when launching the company. Instead, they combined their savings to buy a 25-foot sailboat, lived at the cheapest marina in the United Kingdom, and used the vessel as their testing platform while getting the company off the ground.
For two years, Oshen would iterate on the bots on shore and immediately take them out on the water to test them.
“In the summer, that's not too bad,” Laverack said. “The problem is you really need your boats to work in all seasons. When your robot breaks, [and] it's a winter storm that's raging, a 25-foot sailboat shouldn't really be going out in those conditions. So, that led to some adventure, which I wouldn't say any more about, but there were certainly some interesting events there.”
Getting the tech just right was difficult, Laverack said, because it's not as easy as just taking an existing larger robot and shrinking it down. These bots needed to be mass deployable and cheap despite also needing to be technologically advanced enough to operate and collect data for long periods of time on their own.
Many other companies have successfully gotten two of the three correct, Laverack said. Oshen's ability to get all three started to attract customers across defense and government organizations.
The company caught the attention of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) two years ago, but Laverack said that their tech just wasn't ready to be deployed reliably yet. The organization reached back out two months before the 2025 hurricane season after Oshen had successfully deployed the robots into winter storms in the U.K. This time, Oshen jumped at the chance and quickly built and sent over 15 C-Stars.
Five of these C-Stars were thrown overboard and made their way into position by the U.S. Virgin Islands where NOAA predicted Hurricane Humberto was headed.
Laverack said they were expecting the bots to just collect data leading up to the storm, but instead, three of the bots were able to weather the entire storm — minus a few missing parts — and collected data the whole time, becoming, she says, the first ocean robot to collect data through a Category 5 hurricane.
Now, the company has moved to a hub for marine tech companies in Plymouth, England, and has started racking up contracts with customers, including the U.K. government, for both weather and defense operations.
Laverack said the company plans to raise venture capital soon to keep up with demand.
Topics
Senior Reporter, Venture
Becca is a senior writer at TechCrunch that covers venture capital trends and startups. She previously covered the same beat for Forbes and the Venture Capital Journal.
You can contact or verify outreach from Becca by emailing rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates.
Parloa triples its valuation in 8 months to $3B with $350M raise
Mira Murati's startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is losing two of its co-founders to OpenAI
AI models are starting to crack high-level math problems
Digg launches its new Reddit rival to the public
Anthropic's new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code
Google co-founders may be leaving California
Google announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents
© 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC.
What happens here matters everywhere
by Todd Bishop & John Cook on Jan 17, 2026 at 7:37 amJanuary 17, 2026 at 7:38 am
Someone listening to last week's GeekWire Podcast caught something we missed: a misleading comment by Alexa during our voice ordering demo — illustrating the challenges of ordering by voice vs. screen. We followed up with Amazon, which says it has fixed the underlying bug.
On this week's show, we play the audio of the order again. Can you catch it?
Plus, Microsoft announces a “community first” approach to AI data centers after backlash over power and water usage — and President Trump scooped us on the story. We discuss the larger issues and play a highlight from our interview with Microsoft President Brad Smith.
Also: the technology capturing images of every fan at Lumen Field, UK police blame Copilot for a hallucinated soccer match, and Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman departs six months after the company's acquisition by Rocket.
Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Audio editing by Curt Milton.
Does Compute, presented by Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and GeekWire Studios, is a podcast exploring the ways that computer science is reshaping our world through building useful stuff that works.
Check out Does Compute to hear from experts about topics like artificial intelligence and robotics to ethics, policy, and culture.
Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire.
GeekWire Podcast: Alexa's next act, Microsoft's retail play, Google's AI Inbox, and a smart bird feeder fail
GeekWire Podcast: Silver lining for Seattle in DJI ban, and a verdict on the 2007 Camry tech retrofit
The stories that defined 2025: AI dreams, brutal realities, and Seattle tech at a turning point
GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories.
Explore the series now.
Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire.
Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline
Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know.
What Alexa's AI upgrade means for Amazon's business and Alexa users
GeekWire Podcast: Alexa's next act, Microsoft's retail play, Google's AI Inbox, and a smart bird feeder fail
Claude meets Alexa: Amazon will reportedly use Anthropic's AI to help power its voice assistant
Alexa+ in the real world: How I'm using Amazon's new assistant, and where it could still improve
Catch every headline in your inbox
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
The KTC H27E6 leaves out a few minor bits but provides a superb image and premium video processing for an addictive gaming experience. It delivers impressively high performance for the price.
Higher than average brightness and contrast
Larger than average color gamut
Accurate color with calibration
HDR calibration capability
Premium video processing with low input lag
Unique styling with white accents
LED lighting and solid build quality+
No USB ports or internal speakers
Needs calibration for best picture
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
One of the great things about competition among the best gaming monitors is that more product choices ensure better performance for all. It's hard to find a bad display, especially in a hot category like 27-inch QHD. These panels are the bread-and-butter tool of choice, whether you're a casual player or a professional competitor.
Most of these products come from a handful of companies, many of which begin with the letter ‘A'. But once in a while, a new player comes along. I'm checking one out here with my first review of a monitor from KTC, which stands for “Key To Combat.” It's called the H27E6, and it's a 27-inch QHD IPS panel with a 300 Hz refresh rate (320 Hz with overclock), Adaptive-Sync, HDR400, and wide gamut color. What of the value part? It costs $270. Let's take a look.
Panel Type / Backlight
IPS / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size / Aspect Ratio
27 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution and Refresh Rate
2560x1440 @ 300 Hz
320 Hz w/overclock
FreeSync and G-Sync Compatible
Native Color Depth and Gamut
8-bit / DCI-P3
Response Time (GTG)
1ms
Brightness (mfr)
450 nits
Contrast (mfr)
1,000:1
Speakers
None
Video Inputs
2x DisplayPort 1.4
2x HDMI 2.1
Audio
3.5mm headphone output
USB
1x service port
Power Consumption
24w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions
WxHxD w/base
24.3 x 15.8-20.9 x 8.4 inches
(616 x 401-531 x 213mm)
Panel Thickness
2.4 inches (61mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.3 inch (8mm)
Bottom: 0.9 inch (23mm)
Weight
13.2 pounds (6kg)
Warranty
3 years
The H27E6 is well-appointed with performance tech. Resolution is QHD 2560x1440, and the native refresh rate is 300 Hz. That already puts it ahead of nearly every other monitor at a similar price. And a reliable overclock bumps the refresh rate up to 320 Hz. Adaptive-Sync is also included with faultless operation on both AMD and Nvidia platforms. HDMI 2.1 means consoles can join the VRR party too.
The color gamut is also wide. Though there are no Quantum Dots, the H27E6 covers over 101% of DCI-P3, which also puts it ahead of many other screens. I got decent accuracy from my sample after a calibration, more on that later. The picture is very dynamic too, thanks to a class-leading contrast ratio of 1,500:1. Though that isn't quite in VA or OLED territory, it is higher than nearly all the other IPS panels you can buy.
Features and styling have not been skimped on. You get the usual suite of gaming aids, including aiming points, a timer, and a frame counter. There's a three-level overdrive with a dynamic option that changes the compensation with the refresh rate. And you get MPRT backlight strobing as an alternative to G-Sync or FreeSync.
The H27E6 sets itself apart from others with white elements on the back, base, and upright, and you get a solid stand with full ergonomics. A handy joystick controls all functions, and there's LED lighting that you can control from the OSD. The only things left out here are speakers and USB ports.
For $270, the H27E6 offers a lot on paper and looks like a winner. But the proof is in the performance, so for that score, please read on.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
The H27E6 arrives packed securely in crumbly foam and assembles without tools. If you'd rather use your own arm or bracket, there's a 100mm VESA mount in back, but you'll need to source your own fasteners. A small external power supply is provided along with a DisplayPort cable.
White displays always stand out, and the H27E6 manages to look different without screaming for attention. From the front, the base is the only obvious white part with a crosshatch pattern molded onto the black upright. In the back, the panel is completely white, as is the back of the stand. Inset around the mount point is more of the crosshatch texture ringed by LED lights. The KTC logo lights up as well. The only other thing in the back is the OSD joystick, which sits in the lower corner.
The stand is of decent quality with just a little wobble, but firm movements that maintain position. You get 5/20 degrees tilt and 45-degree swivel, along with a 90-degree portrait mode and a 5.1-inch height adjustment.
The input panel is under the center of the panel and includes two HDMI 2.1 and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports. G-Sync works only through DisplayPort, but FreeSync will operate over any input. The HDMIs support VRR for consoles as well. You can see a USB port in the photo, but it's just for firmware updates. There are no internal speakers, but you get a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The H27E6's OSD is text-based with a KTC logo as the only graphic. It's the first one I've seen with selectable color schemes, there are four to choose from. Pressing the joystick brings it up.
In the Display menu, you'll find the H27E6's seven picture modes. User is the default, and it makes all image controls available. Calibration options are all in the Color menu where you get four fixed color temps and five gamma presets. You can also adjust hue and saturation for all six colors and engage a low blue light mode. The user color temp has a single set of RGB sliders to dial in the white balance.
Gaming Setup has the video processing features with a FreeSync/G-Sync toggle, gaming aids, overdrive and MPRT. The aids include crosshairs (two shapes in five colors), a timer and an FPS counter. The overdrive has three fixed levels and a dynamic option. I found it worked without artifacts at the Standard setting. Dynamic showed slight ghosting, but it stayed consistent with changes in frame rate. You also get MPRT (backlight strobing) that works up to 320 Hz and retains the overdrive. However, you can't use it with Adaptive-Sync. But it is one of the better examples I've seen with only a slight phasing artifact.
The H27E6 supports HDR10 signals with an automatic switch as long as HDR is set to Auto. I saw that I could calibrate white balance in HDR mode, which is something I rarely see. More on that later. Advanced Settings also has the overclock toggle. Turn it on for 320 Hz. My sample ran reliably at that speed for the duration of the review.
My H27E6 sample needed a bit of tweaking for the best picture. Initial measurements showed that gamma was too light and the color temp was a bit blue. The warm preset was too red, so I worked the RGB sliders to make things right. Light gamma means a washed-out image, so I upped the preset to 2.4, which made a significant difference. My settings are below, and you'll notice the RGB values for HDR as well. This is one of the only monitors I've encountered that includes HDR calibration, and it too makes a positive difference.
Picture Mode
User
Brightness 200 nits
38
Brightness 120 nits
21
Brightness 100 nits
16
Brightness 80 nits
12
Brightness 50 nits
6 (min. 25 nits)
Contrast
2.4
Gamma
2.4
SDR Color Temp User
Red 50, Green 49, Blue 50
HDR Color Temp User
Red 50, Green 50, Blue 51
Playing games on the H27E6 showed me quickly that KTC has gotten the formula right. The image is superb once calibrated and gaming feel is on par with any premium display I've encountered.
The picture is superb for SDR and HDR. It needs calibration to get there, but if you're reading this review, you have the information you need. It's the only monitor I've seen that leaves the RGB sliders active for HDR, so I used them to make a visible improvement in both color accuracy and perceived contrast. It doesn't have any dynamic dimming for HDR, but the IPS panel renders around 1,500:1, which is 50% better than the class average. If the H27E6 had a Mini LED backlight, it would be a giant slayer.
It also has superb video processing. Panel response is super quick and smooth at 320 Hz, which ran reliably for the entirety of my review. You can set the overclock once and forget it. My test PC, with its GeForce RTX 4090, had no trouble maintaining 320 fps at QHD resolution with Doom Eternal's detail set to max. Input lag was a non-factor as well. 180-degree turns were instantaneous, literally as fast as I could move the mouse. And it took no time for me to commit those movements to muscle memory so I could stop where I wanted. The H27E6 is a competitor's weapon for sure.
If you don't have a high-performance video card, the MPRT feature works very well, as does the overdrive. MPRT cancels out Adaptive-Sync but still lets you use the overclock to 320 Hz. It also retains the overdrive, so you can get excellent motion resolution at lower framerates. If you can keep it above 200 fps, though, stick with AS and overdrive on the Standard setting for tear-free operation.
As a 27-inch flat QHD monitor, it is ideally suited for day-to-day use, with 109 ppi pixel density and a sharp picture. The screen's anti-glare layer works as advertised without imparting any grain or artifacts. Color is vivid and bright with just the right balance. The native gamut covers 101% of DCI-P3, which makes it a little oversaturated for SDR but pleasing, nonetheless. I tried out the sRGB mode and found its gamma too light, which flattened the image. The gamma presets were grayed out, but I could calibrate grayscale in this mode, which is a standout feature. Most monitors gray out all picture options in their alternate gamut modes.
I enjoyed the H27E6's styling very much, mainly because its white accents set it apart from the sea of black displays that come across my desk. The white back, base, and stand have just enough black parts to keep it from screaming for attention while still making a nice statement. Physical details are just enough to maintain elegance without becoming gaudy. And finding a lighting feature at this price point is a rarity. The LEDs backlight a half ring and the KTC logo in back. The only things left out here are USB ports and internal speakers.
Takeaway: The H27E6 is an early-effort product with all the refinement of a seasoned model line. It combines excellent picture quality with premium video processing and mature styling. You'd never expect its price to be so low, but it truly delivers a lot for the money. With a bright and colorful picture, and addictive gameplay, it's sure to have a wide appeal.
MORE: Best Gaming Monitors
MORE: How We Test PC Monitors
MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor
Current page:
Features and Specifications
Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
How long can AMD put the shield up against the pricing chaos?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
AMD has committed to keeping its Radeon products, among the best graphics cards available, affordable for everyday consumers, not just for enthusiasts with deep pockets. As graphics card prices have already spiraled out of control due to the DRAM shortage, David McAfee, Vice President and General Manager of Ryzen and Radeon, told Gizmodo that the chipmaker aims to keep the price hikes within reasonable limits.
AMD has cultivated long-term relationships with DRAM suppliers to ensure consistent memory availability for its Radeon graphics cards, McAfee explained. While the chipmaker continues collaborating with AIC partners to maintain competitive pricing, sustaining these efforts amid the ongoing shortage remains unrealistic. Pricing for Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50-series (codename Blackwell) graphics cards has already gone through the roof, so the situation presents a potential opportunity for AMD. The chipmaker could gain some market share if it can keep price increases moderate, even though RDNA 4 doesn't have an answer for Nvidia's top-end models, such as the GeForce RTX 5080 and above.
The Radeon RX 9000 series has seen price increases of 10% to 17% across the lineup. The flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT saw the largest price increase, up 17%, while the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB saw a more modest 10% increase. The Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB landed in the middle at 14%, since it has twice the memory capacity of the standard 8GB model.
Graphics Card
Price Variation
Architecture
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Up to 17%
RDNA 4
Radeon RX 9070
Up to 15%
RDNA 4
Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB
Up to 14%
RDNA 4
Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB
Up to 10%
RDNA 4
Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Up to 10%
RDNA 3
Radeon RX 7900 XT
Up to 4%
RDNA 3
Radeon RX 7800 XT
Up to 6%
RDNA 3
Radeon RX 7600 XT
Up to 13%
RDNA 3
AMD's previous-generation Radeon RX 7000 series didn't escape the price increases, either. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX now costs up to 10% more than it did three months ago, while Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT prices have risen by 4% and 6%, respectively. Surprisingly, the budget-oriented Radeon RX 7600 XT saw the steepest hike at 13%.
Retailers confirmed to Tom's Hardware last month that AMD had raised Radeon RX 9000-series prices by $10 per 8GB of memory, typically translating to a 3% to 5% increase depending on the model. However, the larger markups we're seeing today may reflect retailers adjusting prices to align with market conditions. Then again, our sources had indicated another price hike for Radeon RX 9000-series graphics cards is likely this month, so that could be the culprit as well.
Consumers who survived the COVID-era graphics card shortage know the best strategy is to wait it out until prices return to normal. Fortunately, that previous shortage lasted just two years. The current AI-driven crisis may last substantially longer. Some industry experts predict the NAND and DRAM shortage could persist until 2028 or even stretch to a full decade.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom's Hardware. Although he loves everything that's hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
I'm a huge fan of the Kitchen Confidential subreddit and have been since I first read Anthony Bourdain's book of the same name back in 2013. The community is full of snarky line cooks, stressed-out front-of-house staff, and dishwashers quietly holding the whole operation together (much like they do in real life).
If you scroll Reddit often, you might be familiar with this subreddit because of its surge in popularity when a user called F1exican started posting a pile of cut chives every day until the subreddit deemed them perfect. (It finally happened a few weeks ago, technically after 69 days, because of course it did.) There were cats. There were brand controversies. There were endless hand-drawn planes and hearts. It was maybe my favorite internet phenomenon since Vine was still a thing.
Left bereft of its Chivelord and his daily posting, the subreddit quickly moved on to a new meme: Paris Hilton cookware. While scrolling, it dawned on me that I happened to have a few pieces of this very cookware in my never-ending “to test” pile of gear. There are sharpeners, Dutch ovens, knife sets, thermometers, and more, but I had a knife block and some nonstick pots and pans. So here I am to share my thoughts, from one humble home-chef-Reddit-scroller to the internet at large. (I come in peace!)
Paris Hilton
Amazon
It feels important here to note that I generally love Paris Hilton. I love her bimbo-fied accent, I love her hit single “Stars Are Blind,” and I love her perfume. I also think it's important to point out that I am the resident WIRED Reviews team “color pink” enthusiast. But I am sorry to say that her knife block is not it.
The Paris Hilton cleaver has been out of stock since I started looking for it, but this knife block is still available, as are several other iterations with slightly fancier bases or different inclusions. My set came with an 8-inch chef's knife, a 5-inch utility knife, a 5-inch Santoku knife, a 3.5-inch paring knife, and six serrated steak knives, as well as a pair of shears with a built-in bottle opener. The blades are “high-carbon stainless steel.”
Fitting the steak knives into their dedicated slots in the rubberwood knife block was a master class in overcoming my sensory difficulties. As the serrated teeth of each blade bit into the soft, pliable wood of the block, I wondered out loud to myself whether I was placing them correctly. They wiggled around with abandon, barely seated unless I babied each one home. We were off to an excellent start.
The steak and paring knives were perfectly plasticized, with a slippery grip and short, lightweight handles that made me fear I would stab myself at any given moment. I'm not a professional line cook, but I am an adept home chef, and these knives made me nervous. When it was time to hand-wash and “dry immediately” per the manufacturer's instructions, I could look forward to finagling them with utmost care to their dedicated slots along the bottom of the knife block, where at least one serrated tooth would inevitably catch and be just inconvenient enough to elicit a sigh.
The paring and utility knives were not much better, with their powdery, soft-touch handles and awkward finger guards. If I were slicing the daintiest and firmest of fruits, perhaps they'd do. Perhaps. They were cute—and that is about it.
I was really looking forward to testing the chef's and Santoku knives, and of course, I used them to cut chives in my best impression of my favorite chef on Reddit.
On the Santoku knife, the bolster (where the blade meets the handle) seemed barely seated, and the handle was too short for even my small hands to feel comfortable. I'm used to the Kiwi cleaver, which feels like an extension of myself. Nevertheless, I persisted, having bought my local rural grocery store out of chives (meaning three tiny, slightly sad packages).
In use, the Santoku knife is fine. I guess. Nothing to write home about, but not the worst knife I've ever used. The short blade would make quick work of things like fingerling potatoes or carrots, though it lost its edge quickly, particularly near the bolster. The small design makes it hard to scoop up your prepped ingredients, furthering the impression that these are children's toys. (Legal disclaimer: These are not children's toys.)
The chef's knife is better, which admittedly is not saying much. It's very rocky and lightweight. I prefer a heavier knife, especially considering how slippery the handle feels. But I was able to slice through my pile of chives, plus garlic and onions. That's the best assessment I can give: I was able to use this knife to cut things. Did I mention that my beloved Kiwi cleaver costs $15?
One Reddit user mentioned that the knives leach color, which I'm not surprised about, given my aforementioned “these are basically children's toys” note. (Chefs on the subreddit have echoed my sentiments.)
Paris Hilton
Walmart
Amazon
This Paris Hilton cookware set would've been the perfect gift for me when I got my first apartment. Unfortunately, that was 10 years ago. (Stay tuned for our buying guide for nonstick pans, which will be published soon!)
The exact set that I tested is no longer available online, but a very similar version exists that includes the same main pots and pans. (Which is probably a good thing, because my set came with nylon tools that were not as heat-safe as they should be, and the new set includes silicone versions.)
The pots and pans are very, very cute, with a glittery ceramic nonstick coating, a pink body, and gold, heart-shaped handles on the lids. The nonstick performed well. (The manufacturer recommends using low or medium heat, but I tested on high, too.) Eggs released without a trace, and melted American cheese was easy to scrape away.
I did notice some scuffing on the bottom of the pan after shuffling it around my gas stove burner, but the finish stayed intact.
The handles stayed cool to the touch, but they're a little hard to grip. Every pan is on the lightweight side, and they aren't oven-safe. The product page advertises that they're easy to clean in the dishwasher, but you shouldn't put nonstick pans through the dishwasher! Hand-clean and dry them to preserve the coating for as long as possible. According to the manufacturer, the pans are made "without PFAS, PFOA, PFOS & PTFE.”
Overall, I think they're fine? They're fine. But it's not my favorite nonstick Our Place Always Pan, and I think it's better to invest in one or two really good pans than an entire set of just OK options. If this is your very first cookware set, and you really want something pink and girly, go for it. Just be aware that you'll likely be investing in another set within a couple of years—I don't have faith that these would hold up well over time, especially with daily use.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Dutch oven to order. (And some chive chopping skills to finesse.)
Exclusive 10% Off Squarespace Promo Code
Buy an eligible French Door Refrigerator and get a free Single Door Refrigerator (up to $515 value)!
10% off Dell Coupon Code for New Customers
Samsung Promo Code: 10% off TVs
10% off Canon promo code with upgrade
$25 off $25+ DoorDash Promo Code for New Customers
© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
32GB of used DDR3 can be had for as little as $50-$80 on eBay
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
With DDR5 pricing increasing seemingly daily, some gamers are flocking to older platforms that support older memory types to escape the DRAM shortage, even going as far back as rebuilding old DDR3-supported platforms. RandomGaminginHD, aware of this problem, published a video benchmarking Intel's now ancient Core i7-4790K paired with 32GB of DDR3 memory, to see how a system like this would perform in 2026. Despite its age, he found the old Haswell quad-core was capable of playing several modern AAA games today at 60 FPS.
The full system included an i7-4790K overclocked to 4.6GHz, 32GB of DDR3 running at 1866 MHz, an Asus Z97 motherboard, and an RTX 2060 Super. The YouTuber claimed that he bought 32GB of DDR3 RAM for just $40 worth, which is almost a third of the price compared to what a single 4800MT/s 8GB DDR5 stick costs today.
The YouTuber ran the i7-4790K powered setup in eight modern titles: Baldur's Gate 3, Battlefield 6, Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, GTA 5 Enhanced, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Baldur's Gate 3 ran at 57.9 FPS average, Battlefield 6 - 69.7 FPS average, Counter-Strike 2 - 117.9 FPS average, Cyberpunk 2077 - 59.8 FPS average, Fortnite - 115.2 FPS average, GTA 5 Enhanced - 69.6 FPS average, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - 72.2 FPS average, Red Dead Redemption 2 - 72.3 FPS average. All games were benchmarked at medium settings and 1080p resolution, except for a couple of the lighter games (such as GTA V Enhanced), which were run at higher settings. DLAA was also engaged for most of the games to take advantage of the extra GPU headroom available since the 4790K was bottlenecking the 2060 Super.
Games
FPS (avg)
FPS (1% lows)
Graphics Settings, Resolution
Baldur's Gate 3
57.9
31.7
High, 1080p, DLAA
Battlefield 6
69.7
46.2
Medium, 1080p DLAA
Counter-Strike 2
117.9
50.4
High, 1080p, 4x MSAA
Cyberpunk 2077
59.8
35.4
High preset, high textures, medium crowds, 1080p
Fortnite
115.2
41
Medium, 1080p, TAA
GTA V Enhanced
69.6
50
Very High RT, 1080p, DLAA
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
72.2
43.4
High, 1080p, SMAA 2TX
Red Dead Redemption 2
72.3
51.7
Ultra Textures, all else medium, TAA medium, 1080p
RandomGamingInHD's benchmarks prove that hardware from 12 years ago can still provide a playable gaming experience, even on modern AAA games, as long as you have an adequate GPU installed. Granted, the 1% lows leave much to be desired, but lowering graphics settings further would help alleviate this problem (at least partially).
The best part is that a system like this is relatively affordable given today's memory pricing. If you want to build a system with these specs, you can find used i7-14790Ks for as little as $60-$80, and a lower-trim RTX 2060 Super 8GB for as little as $150 on eBay. Used DDR3 memory is also ridiculously cheap on eBay, with a set of four 8GB sticks (32GB total) costing around $70 - $120. Counting a Z97 motherboard, cheap SSD, case, and PSU, you likely could build a full-blown 4790K/2060 Super gaming PC from scratch for less than $600 using used parts. For perspective, that's less money than what a 64GB DDR5 dual-channel kit costs today.
A system like this might be the only way many PC gamers on a strict budget can get into the PC gaming world if they don't already own a decent system. DDR5 prices aren't expected to go down until 2028, and even then, prices aren't guaranteed to drop quickly.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
This week at the Brussels Motor Show, Kia unveiled its most important EV for 2026, the diminutive EV2, a shrunken version of its supersized SUV, the EV9. Kia has managed to make the boxy design endearing, making the electric vehicle appear ready for any urban adventure you wish to throw at it.
Being an entry-level electric car, the EV2 will apparently retail somewhere around $32,000, but don't be fooled by the price or small size (it's barely more than 13 feet long)—the top-spec version will have a 61-kWh battery that should be good for just shy of 280 miles. Meanwhile, the 400-volt e‑GMP platform lets you recharge in 30 minutes from 10 to 80 percent.
This is a city car, so adjust your performance expectations accordingly. Still, the EV2 is good for 144 horsepower, a zero to 60 mph time of 8.6 seconds, and a top speed of 99 mph—more than enough for school and supermarket runs, as well as freeway missions.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and the quality interior continues with USB-C charging ports alongside a domestic plug socket, lots of storage, a triple‑screen infotainment setup, seating available in four‑ or five‑seat layouts, and a maximum of 403 liters of trunk space. With all this in such a small package, the EV2 should do very well for Kia. —Jeremy White
Fujifilm has announced two new Instax instant cameras and printers: the Mini Link+, a printer, and the Mini Evo Cinema hybrid instant camera, which looks something like a Super 8 film camera from the 1970s.
The Mini Link+ is a straightforward update to the Mini Link smartphone-to-printer line, with many of the same features, including the ability to add text, graphics, illustrations, and more to your images, along with different frame options. The outer design is different in the Link+, though, with a boxy look reminiscent of some external hard drive cases I've used.
The Mini Evo Cinema is far more interesting, bringing video to the Instax line. It can shoot up to 15-second clips, which you can then share via a QR code printed on an Instax print. The same process has been around for a while with other Instax cameras, like the recently released Mini LiPlay+, though until now, these have only relied on audio or videos made from stills. Fujifilm says the design is based on the Fujica Single-8 camera. A particularly nice touch is the way the Instax logo has been done to mimic the old cine camera logos.
The Mini Evo has what Fujifilm is calling an “Eras Dial” that lets you style your images to look like the 1930s, '40s, '50s, and so on up through 2020. Depending on your age, you will likely find this appealing or cringe-inducing. I tend toward the latter camp, but some of these are actually quite well done based on the prints Fujifilm has shared. The 1930s setting does a nice job of mimicking the soft black and white look of cinema in that era (if you're not familiar, watch Angels with Dirty Faces).
The Mini Evo Cinema camera will be available in early February 2026 for $410. You can preorder it right now. —Scott Gilbertson
Ricoh unveiled a new Monochrome GR IV camera, which comes on the heels of the new, full-color GR IV released late last year. Aside from Leica, Ricoh is the only other company making black-and-white cameras, like the monochrome version of the Pentax K-3.
It might seem strange to buy a camera that can only shoot black-and-white when you can take the output of a color sensor and convert it to black and white afterward. But having shot with both the K-3 monochrome and the Leica M10 Monochrome, I can vouch that there is definitely a better tonal range from a monochrome sensor compared to converting in post. If you're a dedicated black-and-white shooter, it's worth considering. I really like the idea of a pocketable monochrome camera that doesn't have a Leica price attached to it.
All the top gear news of the week in one place. Here's more you may have missed this week:
The GR IV monochrome is essentially the same camera as the GR IV—same lens, same internals aside from the sensor. Inside the GR IV is a 26-megapixel sensor with no color filter array. Based on my experience with other monochrome sensors, you can expect marginally less shadow noise and slightly better high ISO performance compared to the color version. I especially like that there will be an optional built-in red filter for upping contrast.
The big downside is that the monochrome GR IV costs $2,200, a full $700 more than the color version. You can preorder one today, and the camera should ship around the middle of February. —Scott Gilbertson
Big news for guitarists and fans of home recording: After having purchased PreSonus in 2021, Fender has decided to rebrand the music production software previously known as PreSonus Studio One as Fender Studio Pro.
The move comes in addition to several native amplifier and effects pedal models that are now included in the re-skinned app, as well as a few other features that should keep longtime Studio One users (like yours truly) happy. I am very excited about the new timeline view at the top of the screen, for example, which makes it easier to track where I am in the context of the overall track when recording overdubs.
The name makes everything easier to understand for Fender users, who can use the Fender Studio app (akin to GarageBand) on their tablets and mobile devices, then easily export it to Fender Studio Pro for more in-depth recording. It also makes Fender the only major instrument manufacturer that owns its own top-tier recording software.
I have been testing a preview version of the software for several weeks and have been impressed with the update's streamlined looks and added functionality, though admittedly, I am not the biggest power user out there. —Parker Hall
After the much-admired white-dial Speedmaster Professional in 2024, Omega clearly feels that now is the time to give its most iconic wristwatch a new “reverse-panda” makeover. Instead of a classic “panda” design of white dial and black sub-dials, the aesthetic is switched (hence the name), and it's just the sort of style tweak that makes collectors come running.
Landing in 18-karat yellow gold ($49,300) and a more attainable steel version ($10,400), these two new Speedys are essentially identical to Omega's current Moonwatch models, apart from ceramic bezels and those reverse-panda dials, which actually consist of two layers. This means that the recessed sub-dials are now positioned slightly deeper in the dial. The dial also has a glossy, varnished, and lacquered (with more than 20 layers) finish to create a sheen. Both have the caliber 3861 inside, offering up resistance to magnetic fields of up to 15,000 gauss and a 50-hour power reserve.
Yes, this certainly isn't a radical redesign from Omega, but, with the Rolex Daytona firmly in its sights, releases such as this further the brand's more upmarket ambitions—the lower cost reverse-panda, after all, marks a steel Moonwatch stepping over the $10K threshold for the very first time. —Jeremy White
In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories
The ‘super flu' is spreading
Big Interview: Margaret Atwood wants to keep up with the latest doom
The age of the all-access AI agent Is here
Livestream AMA: Welcome to the Chinese century
Exclusive 10% Off Squarespace Promo Code
Buy an eligible French Door Refrigerator and get a free Single Door Refrigerator (up to $515 value)!
10% off Dell Coupon Code for New Customers
Samsung Promo Code: 10% off TVs
10% off Canon promo code with upgrade
$25 off $25+ DoorDash Promo Code for New Customers
© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
Leaders at Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab confronted the startup's cofounder and former CTO, Barret Zoph, over an alleged relationship with another employee last summer, WIRED has learned.
That relationship was likely the alleged “misconduct” that has been mentioned in prior reporting, including by WIRED.
To protect the privacy of the individuals involved, WIRED is not naming the employee in question. The individual, who worked in a different department than Zoph and was in a leadership role, is no longer at the lab.
Murati approached Zoph to discuss the relationship, sources say. The cofounders' working relationship broke down in the months following that conversation, according to multiple sources, and Zoph started speaking to competitors about other opportunities.
Before Zoph left the company, he was in conversation with leaders from Meta Superintelligence Labs, according to a source familiar with the matter. Zoph was ultimately hired by OpenAI. OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, said the hiring had been in the works for weeks. Simo also noted that she did not share Thinking Machines' concerns over Zoph's ethics.
Zoph and OpenAI declined to comment for this story.
This week, a third Thinking Machines cofounder, Luke Metz, and at least three other researchers from Murati's startup also departed for OpenAI. In October, the startup's cofounder Andrew Tulloch left for Meta.
While tensions between Murati and Zoph came to a head in recent days, they do not entirely explain the broader exodus of Thinking Machines employees.
WIRED previously reported that there was misalignment within Thinking Machines about what the startup should build.
In November, Murati's startup was reportedly looking to raise capital at a $50 billion valuation, up from its current valuation of $12 billion.
Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment for this story.
In your inbox: Maxwell Zeff's dispatch from the heart of the AI world
Welcome to the future of noise canceling
Big Story: Cashing in on the apocalypse
So long, GPT-5. Hello, Qwen
Livestream AMA: Welcome to the Chinese century
© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
What happens here matters everywhere
by Taylor Soper on Jan 16, 2026 at 4:29 pmJanuary 16, 2026 at 4:33 pm
Washington Sen. Patty Murray believes the future of artificial intelligence shouldn't be dictated solely by billionaires and shareholders.
The longtime lawmaker toured research facilities at the University of Washington on Friday after securing $10 million in federal funding that will allow the UW to expand the infrastructure needed for data-intensive AI workloads.
Sen. Murray said the funding will help provide a counterweight to AI development driven primarily by private capital.
“If just billionaires are creating and using AI for their own projects that make money, then we lose out on most of the benefits of AI,” Murray told GeekWire.
Universities play a critical role in ensuring AI advances serve public needs, Murray said, pointing to applications ranging from healthcare and environmental research to workforce training and job creation.
The new funding, which comes through Congressionally Directed Spending in the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, will support Tillicum, the UW's next-generation computing platform that launched in October.
University leaders say the investment will enable faster research cycles and broader access — while reducing reliance on commercial cloud providers.
“This allows us to stay at the cutting edge of AI and AI research,” said Andrew Connolly, director of the eScience Institute.
Unlike private companies that ultimately answer to shareholders, public universities answer to taxpayers, said Magdalena Balazinska, director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “That means our goal is to do what's best for society,” she said.
Universities nationwide have struggled to keep pace with the rapid growth of AI computing demands, as private companies dominate access to large-scale infrastructure.
Balazinska called the new funding a “very significant amount,” saying that even relatively modest investments can be transformative in an academic setting. She added that access to computing resources is often the first question prospective faculty ask when considering whether they can be successful at the UW.
Murray on Friday visited the UW's eScience Institute, a data science and AI research hub for the university, and spoke with students about their work. A recurring theme during the tour was the importance of keeping sensitive data on campus.
Several students demonstrated AI projects that rely on large volumes of personal or scientific data, including a health-focused system that uses voice input and AI analysis to track symptoms and generate summaries for doctors. Researchers said developing such tools on UW-owned infrastructure avoids sending sensitive data to third-party cloud providers. Having in-house compute also allows students and faculty to iterate more quickly.
Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, framed the funding as foundational infrastructure and key to the economy in her home state.
“If you don't have the computers, if you don't have the basic infrastructure, you're stymied,” she said. “So this benefits everybody — whether it's creating jobs, whether it's creating better healthcare, whether it's creating more innovators who come here to Washington state to be able to create jobs for the future and make a better way of life for all of us.”
Murray also helped secure an additional $3 million for new fan blades at the UW's Kirsten Wind Tunnel, and $1.5 million for improvements to UW's Radiocarbon Lab. The broader federal spending bill boosts funding for other scientific agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, pushing back on proposals from President Trump to sharply cut federal research spending.
Microsoft's mission: empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
Learn how Microsoft is thinking about responsible artificial intelligence, regulation, sustainability, and fundamental rights. See the latest news and updates on these and other issues that matter the most at Microsoft on the Issues.
Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire.
What Microsoft has learned about housing, and why it's urging the state to unlock commercial land
Big tech takes a backseat to big science in Washington governor's annual address
5 new proposals to regulate AI in Washington state, from classrooms to digital companions
GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories.
Explore the series now.
Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire.
Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline
Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know.
Trump's mega bill blasted by Washington leaders: Clean energy cuts threaten AI boom, hike costs
Landmark women's health study led by Fred Hutch is targeted for cancellation by feds
UW lands $50M from National Science Foundation to lead new center for research security
Feds may reinstate cancelled funding for signature women's health study led by Fred Hutch
Catch every headline in your inbox
As another new year gets under way many of us will be looking for a way of boosting how we feel but is it better to hit the gym or mediate in nature? Now new research by Swansea experts has provided the largest ever comparison of wellbeing-focused interventions delivered to adults.
The team reviewed 183 randomized controlled trials, representing almost 23,000 participants, and evaluated 12 categories of interventions ranging from psychological, physical, mind–body, and nature-based approaches to find out more. Their research was the first interdisciplinary comparison carried out across psychological, physical, mind-body and environmental interventions.
The study, which has just been published Nature Human Behaviour, gives an integrated view of how different disciplines contribute to wellbeing. By focusing on general adult samples rather than clinical groups, it provides evidence that will be relevant to developing public health, education, workplace wellbeing, and community programmes.
The researchers' key findings were:
First author Dr Lowri Wilkie, from the School of Psychology, said: "Our analysis shows that there is no single route to improving wellbeing. Mindfulness, compassion-based approaches, yoga, exercise and positive psychology interventions all showed moderate benefits compared with control groups, and combining physical activity with psychological interventions appeared particularly promising.
"By using network meta-analysis, we were able to compare very different interventions from different disciplines within one framework, giving policymakers and practitioners a much clearer view of the range of effective options available for building wellbeing in the general population."
Because interventions were tested in general populations, the evidence is directly relevant to population wellbeing strategies, including efforts to enhance resilience and support mental health before problems escalate. The study's results complement the Swansea-led GENIAL framework, which emphasises wellbeing as being grounded by connection to self, to others, and to nature.
Senior author Professor Andrew Kemp added: "What this study makes clear is that wellbeing can be supported through multiple, evidence-based pathways. Psychological interventions, exercise and mind–body practices all perform well, which means services and policymakers have real flexibility to design programmes that fit different settings and preferences.
"For us, this paper also marks an important milestone in a long-running collaboration between Swansea University and Swansea Bay University Health Board, and it highlights how rigorous, interdisciplinary research can inform population-level approaches to mental health and wellbeing."
Co-author Dr Zoe Fisher, a consultant clinical psychologist with SBUHB, said: "For practitioners and services, these findings are extremely useful. The study shows that a range of interventions can reliably improve wellbeing, which means we can tailor support according to the needs and preferences of different communities.
"Having evidence of this breadth and quality strengthens the foundation for developing accessible, flexible wellbeing programmes across Swansea Bay and beyond."
Swansea University
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02369-1
Posted in: Medical Research News | Healthcare News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
A multidisciplinary team has uncovered a key mechanism that allows the human bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae-responsible for atypical pneumonia and other respiratory infections-to obtain cholesterol and other essential lipids directly from the human body. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, was co-led by Dr. Noemí Rotllan, from the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) and the Center for Biomedical Research in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders (CIBERDEM); Dr. Marina Marcos, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB); and Dr. David Vizarraga, from the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona of the Spanish National Research Council (IBMB-CSIC) and the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG). Overall coordination was led by Dr. Joan Carles Escolà-Gil, from IR Sant Pau and CIBERDEM; Dr. Jaume Piñol, from UAB; and Dr. Ignacio Fita, from IBMB-CSIC. The study also involved collaboration from the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the UAB (IBB-UAB), the Center for Biomedical Research in Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV), and other leading institutions.
Dr. Joan Carles Escolà-Gil explains that "the bacterium uses the P116 protein as a highly effective tool to capture cholesterol and other essential lipids from the host, a mechanism that allows it to survive and colonize tissues beyond the lung." He adds that "understanding this process opens new avenues to block its growth and to explore biotechnological applications based on its affinity for lipid-rich tissues."
This discovery is particularly relevant because Mycoplasma pneumoniae is primarily known as a respiratory bacterium, yet several studies-including this one-show that it can reach other tissues in the body, especially those with a lipid-rich environment. Understanding how it achieves this extra respiratory colonization helps explain clinical manifestations outside the lung and provides clues about its potential contribution to systemic inflammatory processes.
Unlike other bacteria, Mycoplasma pneumoniae cannot synthesize many lipids that are essential for the integrity of its membrane, including cholesterol, and therefore depends entirely on the host to survive. In this context, the new study demonstrates that the P116 protein acts as a highly efficient lipid uptake system, capable of extracting cholesterol and other lipid species from both human lipoproteins-including LDL and HDL-and different cell types.
Experiments conducted by the team show that P116 rapidly incorporates cholesterol from LDL and HDL but can also capture phosphatidylcholines, sphingomyelins, and triacylglycerols. This ability to recognize and absorb multiple types of lipids makes P116 an essential mechanism for the survival of the microorganism. By supplying its membrane with components obtained directly from the host, Mycoplasma pneumoniae can adapt to different environments in the body and colonize tissues with a high lipid content beyond the respiratory system.
Dr. Noemí Rotllan highlights the biological significance of this finding: "P116 acts as a lipid entry gate for the bacterium, an extraordinarily versatile system that allows it to incorporate cholesterol, phospholipids, and sphingolipids from the host." She adds that "this broad lipid uptake capacity largely explains why Mycoplasma pneumoniae can survive in such diverse environments and localize to tissues where other bacteria would not be able to thrive."
The study also reveals that a monoclonal antibody specifically directed against the C-terminal domain of P116 markedly blocks cholesterol uptake by the bacterium, a process essential for its survival.
By preventing P116 from functioning as a lipid entry system, the antibody significantly reduces the growth of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in cell cultures and limits its ability to adhere to human atherosclerotic lesions in ex vivo samples. This dual action-slowing bacterial proliferation and preventing its presence in vulnerable areas of the cardiovascular system-represents a major advance in understanding the pathogenic and extra respiratory role of this microorganism."
Dr. Marina Marcos, researcher at UAB
The researchers emphasize that preventing this adhesion is particularly relevant because the presence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in vulnerable plaques could promote local inflammation and compromise lesion stability. Unstable plaques are more prone to rupture, a process that can trigger serious cardiovascular events.
Dr. Joan Carles Escolà-Gil underscores its potential: "The antibody targets the bacterium's key point, which is its ability to capture cholesterol. By blocking P116, we slow its growth and prevent it from adhering to atherosclerotic lesions." He adds that "this is relevant because the presence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in vulnerable plaques could contribute to inflammation and compromise their stability. Preventing this adhesion offers an opportunity to further protect tissues affected by atherosclerosis."
The researchers have also used a modified and harmless form of the bacterium, designed to serve as a biotechnological tool to study how it distributes within the body. This version of the microorganism retains its natural ability to localize to lipid-rich tissues but has been adapted so that it does not cause disease. In experiments with hypercholesterolemic mice, the modified bacterium selectively accumulates in the liver and in atherosclerotic plaques, making it a potential vehicle for delivering therapeutic molecules or diagnostic agents precisely to the tissues where they are most needed.
This capacity for specific targeting opens a promising avenue in an emerging area of biotechnology: the use of modified living microorganisms as systems for targeted delivery of therapeutic molecules. In the case of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, its minimalist metabolism and dependence on host lipids make it particularly attractive as a manipulable and safe platform.
Dr. Noemí Rotllan summarizes it as follows: "The modified version of Mycoplasma pneumoniae shows a natural tropism toward the liver and atherosclerotic lesions, making it a promising biotechnological platform for the study and treatment of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases." She adds that "leveraging the biology of this microorganism in a controlled way allows us to envision targeted therapeutic strategies that are more precise and potentially more effective for acting on tissues affected by atherosclerosis or fatty liver disease."
Beyond its biomedical relevance, the study provides a conceptual advance in understanding Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a pathogen with one of the smallest known bacterial genomes, which depends heavily on the host to obtain essential lipids. Identifying P116 as a fundamental mechanism of lipid uptake opens new avenues for the development of antimicrobial therapies and vaccines.
Scientists from the Joint Electron Microscopy Center at the ALBA Synchrotron, the University of Navarra Clinic, and the Navarra Health Research Institute (IdiSNA) also participated in the research. They contributed to the structural characterization of P116, the analysis of its interaction with antibodies, and imaging and biodistribution studies in animal models.
The work strengthens a multidisciplinary scientific collaboration among leading centers in structural biology, microbiology, cardiometabolism, and biomedical imaging. It places this line of research at the forefront of the design of new biotechnological tools based on modified microorganisms to study and intervene in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau)
Vizarraga, D., et al. (2025). Sources of essential lipids for Mycoplasma pneumoniae via P116 to target liver and atherosclerotic lesions. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-66129-5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66129-5
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Novel hybrid polymer nanocarriers enable effective vaccine delivery in the lungs and the targeted activation of immune cells.
An LMU research team led by Professor Olivia M. Merkel, Chair of Drug Delivery at LMU, have developed a new delivery system for inhalable mRNA vaccines. Published in the journal Cell Biomaterials, the study presents a novel combination of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(β-amino esters) (PBAEs) designed to overcome key biological barriers in the lungs.
"Effective mucosal vaccination via inhalation requires carrier systems that can penetrate airway mucus while protecting the fragile RNA molecules they carry," explains Merkel. Once the lung barrier is overcome, the nanocarriers have to escape from the tiny vesicles (endosomes) that are transporting them and efficiently introduce (transfect) the mRNA into immune cells, which then present the corresponding antigens on their surface.
LMU team engineered a system that achieves these goals through a spatiotemporally coordinated mechanism. The researchers demonstrated that their hybrid nanoparticles efficiently transfect the targeted immune system cells, a critical requirement for robust immune activation, and support both antigen presentation and immune cell maturation. Moreover, the particles successfully crossed the mucus barrier and enabled mRNA expression in ex vivo human precision-cut lung slices, a highly relevant human lung model.
"A major advantage of the new system is its robustness during aerosolization," says Merkel. After vibrating-mesh nebulization, the PLGA/PBAE nanocarriers retained higher transfection efficiency than clinically approved lipid nanoparticles, highlighting their suitability for inhaled vaccine applications. "Our findings show that data-driven polymer design can address multiple delivery barriers simultaneously. This hybrid platform offers a promising alternative to lipid nanoparticles for next-generation pulmonary mRNA vaccines."
The study was supported by the Bavarian Research Foundation and the European Research Council (ERC). According to the authors, it makes an important contribution to the development of safe, effective, and patient-friendly mucosal vaccines.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050562325003022
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have revealed how the popular, low-carb ketogenic diet protects against epilepsy seizures and possibly neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Keto, as the diet is commonly known, has been used to reduce seizures in patients with medication-resistant epilepsy since the 1920s. Doctors, however, have been uncertain exactly how the diet does this, even as they identified potential benefits for other brain disorders.
A team led by UVA's Jaideep Kapur, MBBS, PhD, co-director of UVA's Brain Institute, has found answers. This discovery could eventually allow patients to reap the benefits of the keto diet without the highly restrictive eating – almost devoid of sweet treats and comforting carbohydrates – necessary to stay "in keto."
The body converts the keto diet to a ketone body called β-hydroxybutyrate. We discovered that HCAR2 helps β-hydroxybutyrate reduce seizures by regulating the activity and communication of brain cells. Many individuals are unable to tolerate the keto diet due to high fat content and side effects. This discovery helps find drugs that have the beneficial effects of the keto diet. Niacin, an FDA-approved lipid-lowering drug, also works on HCAR2."
Jaideep Kapur, MBBS, PhD, an epileptologist (epilepsy expert) at UVA Health and the School of Medicine's Department of Neurology and Neuroscience
The keto diet aims to encourage our bodies to burn fat instead of carbohydrates for fuel. This can provide obvious benefits for those trying to lose weight, but it also causes unseen changes in the body, and many people cannot tolerate such a high-fat diet. Keto prompts our livers to produce molecules called ketones (ketosis), which replace easily burned carbohydrates as fuel for our brain cells.
Kapur, researcher Soudabeh Naderi and their colleagues found that one of the most common of these ketones, β-hydroxybutyrate, interacts with a specific cellular receptor to reduce seizures in lab mice. It does this by calming nerve cells called neurons, the scientists found. When neurons become too excitable, they can trigger seizures. Hyperactive neurons are also seen in early Alzheimer's and in other conditions, such as autism.
As part of their research, Kapur and his team mapped out the receptor's presence in the hippocampus, the portion of the brain where seizures often begin. They found the receptor, hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 2, was concentrated in a particular cell type already linked to seizures. The receptor was also common in immune cells called microglia that patrol and protect the brain.
The researchers' work suggests that it may be possible to develop drugs to give patients the brain benefits of the ketogenic diet without being on the highly restrictive diet, which can come with unwanted side effects such as gastrointestinal distress. For example, the scientists' early work in lab mice suggests that niacin – vitamin B3 – may provide at least some benefit, though more research would be needed to determine if this benefit holds true in people.
"We are now exploring how this receptor modulates brain immune responses through microglia," Kapur said. "These studies would allow us to come up with novel therapies for drug-resistant epilepsy and potentially other disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease."
Finding better ways to treat epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and other neurological diseases is a core mission of UVA's new Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. That institute works together with UVA's Brain Institute to bring top experts across UVA to speed up the transformation of basic scientific discoveries into new treatments and cures that will help patients across Virginia and around the world.
Kapur and his colleagues have published their new findings in the scientific journal Annals of Neurology. The research team consisted of Soudabeh Naderi, John Williamson, Huayu Sun, Suchitra Joshi, Rachel Jane Spera, Savaira Zaib, Supriya Sharma, Chengsan Sun, Andrey Brodovskiy, Ifrah Zawar and Kapur. The scientists have no financial interest in the work.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, grants R01NS120945 and R37NS119012, and the UVA Brain Institute.
University of Virginia Health System
Naderi, S., et al. (2025). Hydroxycarboxylic Acid Receptor 2 Mediates β‐hydroxybutyrate's Antiseizure Effect in Mice. Annals of Neurology. DOI: 10.1002/ana.78098. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.78098
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
When agitated dementia patients wander or shout through the night, families and caregivers understandably feel the need to treat this frightening and potentially dangerous behavior. Antipsychotic medications are often resorted to with such patients, contributing to increases in antipsychotic treatment rates among older people.
Indeed, a research letter by Rutgers and Columbia University researchers in JAMA Psychiatry shows those prescriptions are becoming more common in the United States, even though antipsychotic drugs do little for dementia and carry a black-box warning on their labels stating they increase the risk of death in senior patients.
Using a national prescription-claims database that captures more than 90% of retail pharmacy fills, researchers tracked antipsychotic use among adults 65 and older from 2015 through 2024 and found that the annual rate of any antipsychotic use increased nearly 52% to 4.05 per 100 from 2015 to 2024. Long-term use, defined as at least 120 days a year, rose 65% to 2.45 per 100 older adults. Rates were highest among people 75 and older, rising from 3.42 to 5.12 per 100.
The trend is striking because antipsychotics have limited proven effectiveness in people 65 and older and serious risks, including falls, fractures, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, pulmonary embolism and death. Antipsychotics may be used as a last resort to manage severe behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, such as aggression, agitation, hallucinations, or delusions, especially when these symptoms pose a risk to the safety of the individual or others. However, such use carries substantial risk and should be avoided in most cases and limited to short-term use whenever possible.
"The evidence is pretty solid on the risks," said Stephen Crystal, the letter's co-author and director of the Center for Health Services Research at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.
The claims data don't include diagnoses, so the researchers couldn't determine why each prescription was written or whether it was appropriate. Antipsychotics remain essential for some people, including those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis or other severe psychiatric illnesses.
However, Crystal noted those conditions aren't common enough in older populations to explain the surging number of antipsychotic prescriptions.
"We think that conditions like schizophrenia that have FDA-approved indications for antipsychotic treatment are unlikely to account for the majority of the rates of use that we observed," he said.
The biggest concern for the researchers is using antipsychotics for the behavioral and psychological symptoms that can accompany dementia: agitation, wandering, acting out behavior and shouting. In many cases, the medications are used to "damp down" behaviors that are distressing to caregivers and disruptive to facilities, said Crystal, who also holds endowed professorships at the Institute for Health and Rutgers School of Social Work.
Because the drugs can be highly sedating, they reduce the tendency to roam and act out, but that sedation comes with a steep tradeoff for frail patients, increasing fall risk and reducing physical activity.
The study also reveals a shift in who manages cases. Among patients who took an antipsychotic in a given year, the share with at least one prescription from a psychiatrist fell from 30% in 2015 to 20% in 2024. Over the same period, the share who filled an antipsychotic from a pharmacy in a long-term care facility rose from 14% to 21%.
Crystal said the decline in psychiatrist involvement matters because optimal care for behavioral symptoms in dementia often starts with careful evaluation rather than a quick prescription. Clinicians may need to confirm the diagnosis and look for treatable causes that can mimic or worsen confusion, including medication interactions, infections, depression and unmanaged pain. Even when dementia is the main driver, nondrug approaches can work, but they require training, staffing and time.
This can look like managing symptoms. Which is common because it's so much easier to write a prescription than do the work of addressing the underlying condition, particularly at nursing home and assisted living facilities that are dangerously short-staffed."
Stephen Crystal, director, Center for Health Services Research at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
There was one potentially encouraging sign in the data: the use of first-generation antipsychotics, which are associated with higher mortality risk in older patients than second-generation medications, declined from 22% to 14%.
Still, the overall rise in use and the growth in long-term prescribing suggest a system leaning more heavily on medication to solve problems that are often social, environmental and staffing-related. The authors have called for renewed efforts to evaluate and spread nonpharmacological interventions that can reduce reliance on antipsychotics in older adults.
For families contending with a new prescription, the study's lead author, Mark Olfson of the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, said that it is reasonable to ask what problem the drug is meant to address and what other steps have been tried. Just as important is what happens next: whether the clinician has a plan to reassess, taper and stop the medication once a crisis has passed.
"These are high-stakes decisions," he said.
Rutgers University
Olfson, M., et al. (2025). Antipsychotic Medication Use by Older Adults. JAMA Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.3658. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2842203
Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Healthcare News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Oncologists have achieved some immune system responses in patients with pancreatic cancers using various combinations of vaccines and immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs, but it's not always clear which therapy is inducing what type of response. To help drive further study, investigators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have made public a free, web-based atlas of mass cytometry profiles from patients with metastatic pancreatic cancers. The work was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The atlas contains information from 260 cytometry profiles (of markers on immune cells) from blood samples from 64 patients who participated in three clinical trials of two pancreatic cancer vaccines and two checkpoint inhibitors in different permutations, explains Won Jin Ho, M.D., an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and associate director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center's Convergence Institute.
We have a platform for immune profiling based on 40-plus protein level markers to understand immune system responses. We also study patients before and after treatment so that we can understand longitudinal responses, or how cancer treatments induce changes in the immune system."
Won Jin Ho, M.D., associate professor of oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
A description of the atlas was published in the Jan. 12 issue of Cancer Immunology Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research. The resource, available online through SciServer at sciserver.org/datasets/biomed/cytof_atlas, houses fully annotated cytometry data from three trials. Enabled by collaboration with the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science at Johns Hopkins, the atlas' user interface and built-in tools simplify comparisons of cell types and expression levels. Researchers plan to add to the atlas over time, including information from tumor tissue analyses, Ho says.
"Pancreatic cancer is such a lethal disease, which was our motivation to make this public," Ho says. The five-year survival rate is just 13%, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. "Our group has done a lot of investigational immunotherapy trials. These are early-phase trials of smaller groups of patients but have been very informative, even if the clinical outcomes have not met what we wanted."
Researchers applied new cytometry techniques to blood samples collected in previously completed trials to build the atlas, to help inform development of new therapies. Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Ph.D., a computational cancer immunologist at Johns Hopkins, co-led the cross-trial integration of the data, finding immune signatures in blood that are distinct to specific immunotherapies and that can be projected onto tumor tissues, demonstrating the utility of the atlas. "What we're hoping is that scientists can go to this repository, explore the data and generate hypotheses to carry out new studies," says Ho.
Ho and colleagues have made additional data available from their studies: Raw protein expression data are shared in files available on zenodo (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13937090). Analysis code is available on the GitHub repository (github.com/wjhlab/Immunotherapy-Atlas).
In the same issue of the journal, Ho and colleagues also reported results of a new phase II study of 57 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whose disease progressed while on chemotherapy. The trial, led by Dung Le, M.D., the Bloomberg~Kimmel Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy, and Katie Bever, M.D., an assistant professor of oncology, randomized patients to one of two treatment groups: the vaccine CRS-207 plus the immunotherapies anti-PD1 nivolumab and anti-CTLA4 ipilimumab, with or without the vaccine GVAX, during six 21-day cycles.
While response rates were not significantly different between the groups, in-depth immunologic studies co-led by Amanda Huff, Ph.D., an assistant professor of oncology, observed that the vaccine-based regimens could generate T-cell clones specific to the antigen mesothelin and the mutation KRAS, and that those clones infiltrated the tumors. These findings, communicated as companion publications, are complementary in determining the effects of key immunotherapeutic agents. Adding anti-CTLA4 to the immunotherapy backbone significantly increases the infiltration of antigen-experienced T cells and "is going to be an important part of future immunotherapy backbones," Ho says.
Co-authors of the atlas study were Dimitrios N. Sidiropoulos, Zhehao Zhang, Jennifer N. Durham, Soren Charmsaz, Nicole E. Gross, Jae W. Lee, Yanyi Sun, Susheel Perikala, Joseph A. Tandurella, Dmitrijs Lvovs, Arik Mitschang, Gerard Lemson, Sarah M. Shin, Alexei G. Hernandez, Sarah Mitchell, James M. Leatherman, Ludmila Danilova, Hao Wang, Elana J. Fertig, Elizabeth M. Jaffee, Katherine M. Bever and Dung T. Le of Johns Hopkins.
The work was supported by a grant from the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research; the National Institutes of Health (grants P01-CA247886-01A1, U01CA212007 and U01CA253403); the National Cancer Institute (grants R50 CA243627, F31CA268724-01, R21CA264004 and S10OD034407); SU2C/AACR grant DT-14-14; the Emerson Cancer Research Fund; an Allegheny Health Network grant; the JHU Discovery Award; and SPORE GI P50CA062924-24A1.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Sidiropoulos, D. N., et al. (2026). Cytometric Atlas of Combination Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer: Blood-Based Signatures Reveal Vaccine and Checkpoint Inhibitor Responses. Cancer Immunology Research. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-25-1126. https://aacrjournals.org/cancerimmunolres/article-abstract/doi/10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-25-1126/771704/Cytometric-Atlas-of-Combination-Immunotherapy-in
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
In an important new study, Chinese researchers have discovered the previously unrecognized role of alternative splicing of the DOC2A gene in schizophrenia.
The research was conducted by scientists led by LI Ming from the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published in Science Advances on January 16.
Splicing is a process in which RNA is cut and recombined into the final RNA strand that determines how a protein-encoded by DNA-is formed. Different splicing signals for the same RNA strand can generate protein isoforms that function differently. The varied splicing signals may be generated by very small genetic variants in DNA-such as synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)-that alter a single nucleotide without changing the encoded amino acid sequence.
Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of variants associated with schizophrenia, the biological functions related to most of these statistical associations are poorly understood.
To address this problem, the researchers sought to understand how different variants affect splicing and thus produce different protein isoforms.
Using splicing quantitative trait locus (sQTL) analyses of human postmortem brain tissues, the researchers identified more than 17,000 schizophrenia-associated sQTLs across the genome. Among them, the SNP rs3935873 showed the strongest prediction for disrupting DOC2A splicing. Experimental validation confirmed that this variant promotes the expression of a truncated protein isoform, DOC2A△Val217–Pro218, while leaving the full-length transcript unaffected. The isoform was previously unannotated (undocumented).
In murine models, overexpression of this isoform in the hippocampus recapitulated schizophrenia-like behaviors, including anxiety, impaired sensorimotor gating, and anhedonia. These phenotypes were absent in control mice or in mice that expressed full-length DOC2A.
Electrophysiological recordings further revealed enhanced excitatory synaptic transmission, and interactome profiling highlighted distinct molecular pathways, such as myosin II complex enrichment, suggesting altered synaptic functions.
These findings integrate genetic, transcriptomic, and behavioral evidence to underscore the critical role of alternative splicing in the genetic regulation of schizophrenia. They also provide a framework for investigating unannotated isoforms in disease pathogenesis. The study not only describes the functional impact of a specific risk variant but also highlights the significance of isoform-specific mechanisms, suggesting potential avenues for targeted therapeutic strategies.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhou, D., et al. (2026). A causal coding variant regulating alternative splicing of DOC2A at 16p.11.2 GWAS locus influences susceptibility to schizophrenia. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw7667. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw7667
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men.
About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and the risk varies depending on age and race.
Prostate cancer is primarily screened by the levels of prostate-specific antigen in the blood.
Although an estimated 10 million PSA tests are performed annually, there are few tools available to interpret the results and help patients decide what course of action to take.
University of Michigan researchers have developed a model that can help doctors and patients understand their PSA results and what they mean for patient life expectancy.
Current tools don't take into account how long someone may live or the benefit a patient may receive from treatment.
Our model is the first to incorporate all these factors and help people understand whether they need further screening or treatment."
Kristian Stensland, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., Assistant Professor of Urology
Existing risk calculators are less accurate or predict prostate cancer risk through biopsy-based tests based on biopsy, which requires tissue samples and extra processing time.
In a previous study, the researchers showed that PSA scores can impact both doctor and patient behavior, leading to biopsy referrals even when the risk of harm from prostate cancer is low.
With this model, they hope that only patients who might benefit from further screening and treatment will receive referrals.
The new model relies on PSA scores and was developed using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which recruited more than 33,000 patients aged 55 to 74 years from 1993 to 2001.
The researchers also took family history of prostate cancer, race, age, body mass index, smoking status and a history of hypertension, diabetes or stroke into account.
After building the model, they tested it using PSA scores from more than 200,000 patients who received care in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in the same age range from 2002 to 2006.
The model was able to predict the risk for prostate cancer-specific mortality and highlight which patients would benefit from further treatment.
"It is important to remember that we created and tested the model using data from two decades ago and a lot has changed since then," Stensland said.
"Even though prostate cancer treatment is different now, our model improves on previous tools and can be used to decide how we do PSA screens."
The researchers are now working to implement their model in clinical settings.
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Lewicki, P., et al. (2026) Predicting Long-Term Risk for Prostate Cancer Mortality Following a Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening Test: Prognostic Model Development and External Validation. Annals of Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-25-02036. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-02036
Posted in: Men's Health News | Medical Science News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has been selected as a recipient of an American Medical Association (AMA) grant to use artificial intelligence to advance physician training through personalized learning.
The college will receive a $1.1 million AMA Transforming Lifelong Learning Through Precision Education grant in the next four years to fund its project, "Ambient AI for precision feedback: Augmenting clinical reasoning and communication using real-time feedback".
The AMA chose 11 team recipients from among nearly 200 applicants. The College of Medicine distinguished itself as an innovator and leader in precision education, advancing efforts to strengthen the physician workforce and support high-quality patient care.
Precision education models use data and technology, including augmented intelligence, to tailor learning to each learner's needs. These models help medical students, residents and physicians focus on developing the skills and competencies that matter most in diagnosing, communicating with and caring for patients.
Medical trainees face insufficient high-quality feedback to inform their continued development in clinical settings. The College of Medicine's project will use data collected through systems and devices in their environment, like eyeglasses and smartphones, to capture interactions and provide personalized feedback on their clinical reasoning and communication skills, allowing trainees to refine how they connect with patients and think through complex diagnoses.
To achieve this, UC investigators will extend use of their 2-Sigma AI platform, which has been providing on-demand, adaptive AI simulations to provide personalized learning experiences and feedback on clinical skills to medical students.
The grant's principal investigator Laurah Turner, PhD, and her team will develop AI algorithms for feedback delivery via smartphone app and through heads-up display in AI glasses, which will project crucial information in users' line of sight. The team will test it with approximately 600 trainees, both medical students and residents, at two sites. They then will scale from simulation to authentic patient encounters.
Just as data analytics transformed professional sports, precision education is poised to transform how we train physicians. Medical trainees spend thousands of hours in clinical settings but receive feedback on only a fraction of their patient encounters. We're moving to a model where every patient encounter becomes a learning opportunity. That's the promise of precision education."
Laurah Turner, PhD, the College of Medicine's associate dean of artificial intelligence and educational informatics
"Being selected as a recipient of this grant is a significant milestone for the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine," said Gregory Postel, MD, dean of the College of Medicine, Christian R. Holmes professor, executive vice president for health affairs at UC and chair of the UC Health Board of Directors. "Dr. Laurah Turner's pioneering work with ambient AI represents the next frontier in medical training. By leveraging real-time data to deliver personalized feedback, we can optimize learning for our students and residents while ensuring the next generation of physicians is prepared to deliver high-quality, precision-based care to our patients and community."
The College of Medicine will collaborate with Arizona State University's School of Medicine and Medical Engineering and HonorHealth, a large health care system in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
UC's project directly advances the AMA's precision education goals through tech-enabled assessment, personalizing training experiences and deploying new learning models across undergraduate and graduate medical education.
"Technology and AI have the potential to reshape how physicians learn, practice and care for their patients, and these grants will help bring that potential to life," said AMA CEO John Whyte, MD. "As new tools emerge, we have an opportunity to build learning environments that are more engaging, more adaptable and better aligned with the realities of practicing medicine. Our goal is to ensure that innovation strengthens the physician experience and creates a future where every physician is fully equipped to meet the needs of patients."
The AMA's $12 million investment will expand access to cutting-edge technology and systems that make learning more efficient, effective, and focused on optimal patient care. The Transforming Lifelong Learning Through Precision Education Grant Program was developed with national experts in augmented intelligence, assessment and medical education and follows more than a decade of AMA leadership through its ChangeMedEd® Initiative, which has invested nearly $50 million in reimagining medical education.
University of Cincinnati
Posted in: Medical Science News | Healthcare News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Durotomy is a common neurosurgical complication involving a tear in the dura mater, the protective membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Damage can cause cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage, leading to delayed healing, headaches, and infection, making a reliable watertight dural closure essential.
Tissue adhesives are increasingly explored as alternatives to suturing for dural closure because they offer simpler and faster application. However, many existing glue-based sealants suffer from excessive swelling, leading to mass effect and unwanted tissue adhesion, which can lead to postoperative complications. To address these limitations, researchers have investigated Janus tissue patches, which feature two distinct surfaces-one that adheres strongly to tissue and another that prevents unwanted adhesion. Unfortunately, most existing Janus patches rely on multiple materials and complex, multi-step fabrication processes, limiting their practical use.
In a breakthrough study, a research team from South Korea led by Professor Seung Yun Yang from the Department of Biomaterials Science at Pusan National University has developed an innovative light-responsive, monolithic Janus dural patch using photocurable hyaluronic acid (HA) through a simple approach. "Made from natural biopolymer hyaluronic acid, our dural patch provides strong wet adhesion, along with a lubricating surface that prevents unwanted tissue adhesion, after exposure to non-toxic visible light," explains Prof. Yang. Their study was made available online on December 16, 2025, and published in Volume 527 of Chemical Engineering Journal on January 01, 2026.
The researchers selected HA because of its excellent biocompatibility as well as its intrinsic anti-adhesive and lubricating properties. To enable light activation, HA was chemically modified with photocrosslinkable groups-methacrylate (MA) and 4-pentenoate (PA). The resulting HA-based solution was then lyophilized to form a patch with two distinct surfaces: a dense surface with a high polymer concentration and a porous surface with a lower polymer concentration. To further enhance conformal adhesion to wet tissues, the patch was compressed to a thickness of approximately 0.2 mm.
Laboratory tests showed that the patch could fully seal the wounds within five seconds using low-energy visible light. The dense outer surface exhibited strong wet adhesion, achieving high burst pressure and approximately 50% lower friction than conventional dural sealants. Notably, the adhesion strength was up to ten times higher than that of commercially available tissue adhesives. Meanwhile, the porous surface efficiently absorbed fluids and helped prevent unintended tissue adhesion. The patch also demonstrated minimal swelling and a reduced mass effect-less than 200% swelling and an approximately 0.1 g increase in weight-along with high stretchability, flexibility, and excellent biocompatibility.
The team also tested the developed patch in a rabbit durotomy model, where it achieved rapid and effective dural closure without causing damage to the surrounding skull, dura mater, or brain tissue. The photocurable dural patch has been transferred to biotech company SNvia, which has established large-scale manufacturing facilities for photocrosslinkable hyaluronic acid. Nonclinical studies are expected to conclude in the first half of 2026, with a medical device clinical trial application to South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety planned for the same year.
Prof. Yang notes that the technology enables rapid wound sealing, reducing the risk of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Importantly, the study provides practical evidence supporting the clinical safety and applicability of photocrosslinkable hyaluronic acid (HAMA-PA). Its strong adhesion to wet tissues also suggests broader potential for drug-delivery patches, cell-laden constructs, and artificial tissues.
Overall, this innovative dural patch holds great potential for use in diverse applications requiring rapid, watertight sealing.
Pusan National University
Kang, S., et al. (2025). A monolithic Janus dural sealant with adhesive and lubricant surfaces activated by non-toxic visible light exposure. Chemical Engineering Journal. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2025.171881. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894725127289?via%3Dihub
Posted in: Device / Technology News | Medical Procedure News | Medical Science News
Cancel reply to comment
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 17 Jan 2026
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Liverpool were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by relegation-threatened Burnley after Dominik Szoboszlai missed a penalty in a match where Arne Slot's side squandered countless opportunities. Florian Wirtz fired the Reds in front, but it was a brilliantly taken strike from Marcus Edwards that earned the second bottom side a precious point.
Liverpool enjoyed the vast majority of possession in the opening stages, but Slot's side could only manage a few half-chances until they were awarded a penalty on the half-hour mark after Florentino hacked down Cody Gakpo. Szoboszlai stepped up to take it, but thrashed his effort onto the crossbar, his miss coming just five days after a poor error against Barnsley in the FA Cup.
The Reds continued to press and were well worth their lead when the deadlock was broken 12 minutes after the missed penalty, courtesy of a fine finish from Wirtz. Hugo Ekitike broke down the left before Curtis Jones neatly found the German to thrash home from just inside the penalty area.
Liverpool would have expected to make their dominance pay, but Burnley had an excellent chance to bring the match level just after the restart when Edwards curled his shot just wide of Alisson's goal. He didn't have long to wait to bring the visitor's level, though, as the former Sporting CP winger did brilliantly to cut into the box and fire low across Alisson to send the travelling fans wild in a season which has offered so few moments of joy for Scott Parker's side.
The home fans voiced their displeasure at the final whistle after watching their side drop more points at home, as the draw means all three newly-promoted sides have taken a point on their visits to Anfield this season.
GOAL rates Liverpool's players from Anfield...
Alisson Becker (6/10):
Barely had anything to do until Burnley's first shot on target. Will be disappointed that Edwards' shot squeezed underneath his dive.
Jeremie Frimpong (7/10):
Played very high up the pitch and had an excellent chance to score in the second half.
Ibrahima Konate (6/10):
Didn't have much to do throughout, was a solid if uninspiring performance.
Virgil van Dijk (7/10):
Had little to do and was one of just two Liverpool players whose average position was in his own half.
Milos Kerkez (8/10):
Had an early chance to fire the Reds in front, his low cross was cleared off the line and away for a corner. Booked for an untidy lunge on Anthony. Subbed off with ten minutes to go.
Dominik Szoboszlai (6/10):
A strange afternoon as he played well, but smashed his penalty against the Burnley crossbar. He'll be glad to see the back of January following that mistake against Barnsley.
Ryan Gravenberch (6/10):
Saw lots of the ball in the middle of midfield, but became sloppy with his passing as the second half progressed and was subbed off for Mac Allister.
Curtis Jones (8/10):
An industrious afternoon and was at the heart of so much Liverpool did well. Provided the assist for Wirtz's goal.
Florian Wirtz (8/10):
Took his goal very well, showing once again the undoubted quality he has, but didn't do enough aside from that.
Cody Gakpo (6/10):
Was a lively presence on the left for Liverpool and was chief creator for the majority of the match. Had a couple of half-chances which went begging. Hooked off for Ngumoha with a few minutes left.
Hugo Ekitike (7/10):
Was a constant thorn in Burnley's side, but wasted a couple of golden opportunities, including an excellent header in the first half.
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
Andy Robertson (6/10):
Had very little to do when he came on. Enjoyed a few touches as Liverpool pressed for the winner.
Alex Mac Allister (6/10):
Brought on with only a handful of minutes remaining and wasted a golden chance when he fired high over the bar.
Rio Ngumoha (6/10):
A lively presence when he came on, but had too few chances to make an impact.
Federico Chiesa (N/A):
Brought on with only a few seconds remaining.
Arne Slot (5/10):
Another disappointing result. Another below-par performance at home, despite the missed penalty and a host of chances. He really should've made changes earlier in the match.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Read our AI Policy.
When it comes to base camps at the 2026 World Cup, Kansas City is the belle of the ball.
As previously reported by The Star, Argentina's preferred spot for a base camp is Kansas City. While there are three options for base camps in this area, Argentina is said to favor either the Compass Mineral Sporting Fields, where Sporting Kansas City practices, or the KC Women's Soccer Training Complex, which is for the KC Current.
Reports from England said that country's Football Association had started scouting other base-camp locations because of interest from Argentina and the Netherlands, which plays a group-stage match at Arrowhead Stadium.
However, both The Times and The Daily Mail reported Friday that England still hopes to set up its base camp in Kansas City and officially made an official request to FIFA.
This is from the Daily Mail: “FA officials have lodged their bid with FIFA to stay in Kansas City for the tournament itself. The thinking is that the Midwest city will prove ideal thanks to its location, in that it is not too far away from many of the potential venues.
“The Netherlands and Argentina are also looking to base themselves in the Missouri city, which has a wealth of training complexes.”
The third official FIFA base-camp option is at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence and the University of Kansas' facilities.
The Times said England is waiting for word from FIFA.
“Argentina and the Netherlands are also keen to use Kansas City,” that story said, “favored because it is no more than five hours from the majority of tournament venues, with a decision expected by the end of the month.”
The good news for England, Argentina and the Netherlands: There is room for all three in Kansas City, should FIFA allow it.
Another Daily Mail story noted England could be neighbors with Argentina, which opens defense of its World Cup title at Arrowhead Stadium.
“FIFA's rules dictate that countries whose matches are close to cities are given first choice on the facilities with them,” the Daily Mail reported. “And there are two seeded teams who have a stronger case than England based on logistics. One of those is the Netherlands, who play one match in Kansas City and two in Texas, in Houston and Dallas. The other is Argentina.
“However, there are a number of hotels and training facilities in Kansas City which fit the bill. The city is home to a number of universities with practice complexes, along with NFL powerhouse the Kansas City Chiefs and MLS side Sporting Kansas City. As many as three nations could be based there, with England in the same city as Lionel Messi.”
Get in-depth, sideline coverage of Kansas City area sports - only $1 a month
Part of the McClatchy Media Network
Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham were booed by a section of Real Madrid fans before and during their clash with Levante. Following Xabi Alonso's sacking and Los Blancos' Copa del Rey humiliation at the hands of second-tier side Albacete, the Santiago Bernabeu faithful turned their ire towards the attacking duo and club president Florentino Perez.
Following Madrid's Spanish Super Cup final loss to Barcelona last weekend, Alonso's reign in charge came to an end, with the Spaniard ostensibly leaving by "mutual consent".
The Spanish giants said in a statement: "Real Madrid CF announces that, by mutual agreement between the club and Xabi Alonso, it has been decided to end his time as first team coach. Xabi Alonso will always have the affection and admiration of all Madrid fans because he is a Real Madrid legend and has always represented the values of our club. Real Madrid will always be his home. Our club thanks Xabi Alonso and his entire technical team for their work and dedication during this time, and wishes them the best of luck in this new stage of their lives."
While this would have been a bitter disappointment for the former Madrid player, Alonso released a classy statement after his departure.
He wrote on Instagram: "This professional stage concludes, and it has not turned out as we would have liked. Coaching Real Madrid has been an honour and a responsibility. I thank the club, the players, and above all the fans and Madrid fans for their trust and support. I leave with respect, gratitude, and pride that I did my best."
The club's B team manager, Alvaro Arbeloa, was swiftly announced as his successor but the former Liverpool man got off to the worst possible start when they lost in the cup to lower league opposition.
Madrid's top scorer Kylian Mbappe was one of the first Los Blancos stars to pay tribute to Alonso following his exit. Team-mate Bellingham was a bit slower in sending his best wishes to the Spaniard, something he was branded a 'snake' over. But the former Borussia Dortmund star - who said on social media to Alonso, "Thank you, Mister. It was a pleasure, all the very best for the future!" - hit back at reports he did not support Alonso when he was in the dugout.
This week, he wrote: "Until now l've let far too many of these slide, always hoping the truth will come to light in its own time. But honestly... What a load of sh*t. Truly feel sorry for the people that hang onto the every word of these clowns and their 'sources'. Do not believe everything you read, every now and then these lot need to be held accountable for spreading this kind of damaging misinformation for clicks and added controversy."
Perhaps in light of this, and rumours that Vinicius Jr was not a big fan of Alonso's management style, Madrid fans booed their names when they were announced before the Levante encounter in La Liga on Saturday. Club president Perez was also on the receiving end of some criticism from the supporters, with some calling for his resignation. Vinicius Jr was later seen being consoled by his team-mates as he took the extra loud boos to heart. And during the game, the boos were extremely loud for the Brazil international.
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
In the end, Madrid went on to win the game 2-0, a result that saw them close to within one point of La Liga leaders Barcelona. Hansi Flick's men can extend that gap to four points if they beat Real Sociedad on Sunday but this Madrid victory may quieten the naysayers for a short while.
Real Madrid turned an unconvincing first half into a clinical second, with Kylian Mbappe leading the charge as they saw off Levante, 2-0. Los Blancos were initially languid under new manager Alvaro Arbeloa, but clicked into gear once the deadlock was broken, and were ultimately good value for the victory - even if some questions about individuals remain.
Madrid rather struggled throughout the opening half as the boos rained down in the first home game since Xabi Alonso's sacking and the subsequent exit from the Copa del Rey at Albacete. The hosts failed to create chances, and looked a step slow against a well-drilled Levante side. On the few occasions the away side broke out, meanwhile, Los Blancos looked uneasy. Mbappe did go close after 32 minutes, racing onto Raul Asencio's long ball - but he smashed wide.
The second half was much better from Arbeloa's side as the introduction of Arda Guler offered more midfield creativity. Mbappe was the first beneficiary when he was dragged down in the box, which allowed him to convert from the penalty spot. Asencio then sealed victory by rising to meet a corner to head home.
There were still some nervy moments when Levante hit on the break, and Madrid weren't exactly fluid. Still, wins matter, and this was three points gained.
GOAL rates Madrid's players from the Bernabeu...
Thibaut Courtois (7/10):
Didn't really have a save to make, despite Levante's attacking intent in the first half.
Federico Valverde (5/10):
Deployed at right-back, a position he openly dislikes, and Levante exposed his wing.
Raul Asencio (6/10):
Took his header wonderfully to make it 2-0 after a poor first half.
Dean Huijsen (7/10):
The better of the two centre-backs on the day. Composed for the most part.
Alvaro Carreras (6/10):
Played the shielding role and made a lot of selfless runs to open up spaces.
Aurelien Tchouameni (5/10):
Missed a few tackles and didn't move the ball quickly enough. No point having him and Camavinga in the team against this level of opposition.
Eduardo Camavinga (5/10):
Misplaced some passes and made some silly fouls. Hooked at half-time after a miserable 45 minutes.
Jude Bellingham (6/10):
Had a real nightmare in the first half. Gave the ball away loads and played some aimless passes. Much better when the spaces opened up in the second.
Gonzalo Garcia (6/10):
Deployed on the right of a front three - a rather unfamiliar position for him - and didn't get involved much.
Kylian Mbappe (8/10):
A bit sloppy in the first half but took his penalty wonderfully in the second. Could have had more goals, too.
Vinicius Jr (6/10):
Booed relentlessly - and rather unnecessarily - by the Madrid faithful. Sloppy at first but much much more effective when spaces opened up.
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
Arda Guler (8/10):
His introduction truly changed the game. Assisted the second goal and offered plenty of attacking quality.
Franco Mastantuono (7/10):
Gave Madrid an extra option out wide. A solid shift.
Dani Ceballos (6/10):
Controlled the tempo more effectively than either starting central midfielder.
David Alaba (N/A):
A late run out.
Alvaro Arbeloa (6/10):
Went back to the 4-3-3 that Alonso was never able to figure out. Madrid were woeful for the first half and much better in the second. A win? Sure. A good performance? No way.
Antonio Conte has slammed sacked Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim's “arrogant” handling of Rasmus Hojlund, accusing the Portuguese of failing to “adapt” his rigid methods to the striker's qualities. The Denmark international has been in fine form since swapping Old Trafford for Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, scoring nine goals in all competitions for the Serie A side.
After struggling to find consistency in front of goal under Amorim's stewardship, Hojlund was told he was surplus to requirements at United last summer.
The 22-year-old - who scored just 10 goals in 52 appearances in 2024-25 - was keen to stay and fight for his place at the Red Devils, only to be pushed closer to the exit door.
But after joining Italian champions Napoli on loan with an obligation to buy in September, Hojlund has not looked back after flourishing under Conte's tutelage.
The former Atalanta striker has scored six goals in 16 appearances in the league this season, while he has netted twice in five Champions League games and once in the Supercoppa Italiana, which the Partenopei won following their 2-0 victory over Bologna in December.
While Hojlund has been thriving in Naples, Amorim was dismissed by United at the start of January. The ex-Sporting CP boss was relieved of his duties after a breakdown in relations with the club's hierarchy, with the 40-year-old's preferred 3-4-3 system reportedly drawing criticism from the boardroom.
United - who have since named former player Michael Carrick as their caretaker manager until the end of the season - said in a statement after Amorim's sacking: “With Manchester United sitting sixth in the Premier League, the club's leadership has reluctantly made the decision that it is the right time to make a change.
“This will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish. The club would like to thank Ruben for his contribution to the club and wishes him well for the future.”
And following his departure from United, Amorim's treatment of Hojlund has been greeted with a scathing attack by Conte.
Speaking ahead of Napoli's home clash against Sassuolo in the league on Saturday, the former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager said: “Some young coaches nowadays are arrogant and don't want to adapt. They see a young striker struggling, and instead of training him, they blame him.
“They always complain and blame everyone but themselves, because everything is handed to them on a silver platter.”
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
While Hojlund, Conte and Napoli try to keep pace with Serie A leaders Inter Milan by beating Sassuolo this weekend, United - on the other hand - will look to secure a morale-boosting victory over rivals Manchester City in Saturday's derby in the Premier League.
Speaking ahead of his first game in charge since replacing Amorim, Carrick - who represented the club as a player between 2006 and 2018 - said: “Listen, I'm here because I enjoy the role and I wanted to do it and I'm hugely privileged to be in this position. So that's kind of where I am. It doesn't change whatever the term, whatever the length, I'm here to do my best. Hopefully, I've got a lot of experience of what it takes and where we need to get to and I'll try and help with that.”
Inheriting a United side who are low on confidence following their FA Cup third round loss against Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend, Carrick says his arrival is a “fresh start” for his players, who are currently seventh in the league and just three points behind fourth-placed Liverpool in the race for Champions League qualification.
“I've got a lot of belief in that, and as I've just said, confidence and a feeling, and things can go in a different direction very quickly, and I've got a lot of belief in the boys,” former Middlesborough manager Carrick added. “I'm not going to tell you everything about how we're going to do it because I'd be a bit silly to do that, but I think tactically and as a team, what we want to look like and things that we feel can help us and be hugely positive in what we can achieve.”
Claim $200 in Bonus Bets at bet365! Use promo code GOALBET and dive into NBA, NFL Playoffs, and EPL action beginning January 17 at 7:30 AM ET.
In the evening, the NBA heats up with the Boston Celtics facing the Atlanta Hawks at 7:30 PM ET, followed by an NFL clash under the lights as the San Francisco 49ers battle the Seattle Seahawks at 8:00 PM ET.
Note: Bonus bets are not withdrawable as cash and must be used within seven days.
With bet365's alternate welcome bonus, you can bet worry‑free—your first wager is fully covered. If it doesn't land, your stake is returned as bonus funds up to $1,000. Use those bonus bets across NBA, NHL, and EPL matchups to keep the excitement going with every play.
Available to players in the following states: AZ, CO, DC, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV.
Seattle (-330) has the top-ranked scoring defense in the entire NFL, led by defensive lineman Leonard Williams, and will look to keep the 49ers offense quiet just as they did in their last meeting in the regular season, which Seattle won 13-3. Expect a low-scoring game in this one, and lean under 45.0 (-110) on the total game points.
After losing six-time Pro Bowler George Kittle to a season-ending Achilles rupture, the 49ers (+265) will look to continue their season and reach the NFC championship game. Expect Brock Purdy to spread the wealth all around without the star tightening. Sam Darnold, the Seahawks QB, is also questionable with an oblique injury.
The Celtics (25-15) enter as heavy favorites against the Hawks (20-23), while the total points line is typically in the O/U 238.5 range, setting the stage for both pace and defense angles.
Key player props include Jaylen Brown Over 28.5 points, reflecting his usage and matchup advantage, Derrick White Over 23.5 points, and Nemias Queeta Over 10.5 rebounds, given Boston's need for interior boards.
For Atlanta, Jalen Johnson Over 26.5 points and Nickeil Alexander-Walker Over 18.5 points are popular, while Hawks team assists Over ~21.5can capture their ball-movement tempo. Game props like first-quarter points Over ~57.5 and Celtics margin Over 8.5 reflect expectations of a fast start by Boston, and alternate lines on three-pointers made for both squads offer value depending on how lineups are deployed.
Manchester United host Manchester City in a high-stakes Manchester Derby, with City entering as deserved favorites thanks to superior form and depth. Pep Guardiola's side continues to dominate possession and chance creation, making a City win the most logical angle, while United's inconsistency and defensive lapses remain a concern despite the home-field boost at Old Trafford.
Goals markets are appealing in this fixture—Over 2.5 goals and Both Teams to Score both carry value given City's attacking firepower and United's tendency to find chances in big matches.
Player props also stand out, particularly Erling Haaland anytime goal or shots on target, while Bruno Fernandes shots or goal involvement could appeal if backing a United response. Overall, City to win with goals on the board shapes up as the strongest betting lean in this derby.
We have $1000s more in bonus bets available with other other online betting sites and DFS sites.
* The bonus code GOALBET can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way.
GOALBET
Home> Football> Football News
Luke Davies
An official from the US State Department has reportedly spoken out about how Donald Trump's visa bans may impact fans travelling to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico, is just 145 days away, but there are still widespread concerns among fans about whether the US is fit to host such an event.
Ahead of the tournament, US foreign policy has been a controversial topic, with the US having taken military action in both Venezuela and Nigeria recently, while also suggesting operations could happen in Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, and Iran soon.
This led to 23 UK MPs from four parties – Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and Plaid Cymru – to sign a motion in parliament calling on international sporting bodies to consider expelling the US from major international competitions, including the World Cup, according to the BBC.
Advert
Some have even suggested that the US should be stripped of the right to co-host the tournament.
This comes after the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions, either blocking or heavily restricting citizens of 12 countries from travelling to the US in June 2025.
Since then, several other nations have been added to the list, including Senegal and the Ivory Coast, who will both compete at this summer's World Cup.
Advert
Haiti and Iran are also on the full restriction ban list, which came into effect on January 1, with both nations' fans wondering whether they will be allowed to travel to see their respective teams play at the tournament.
Then, on Wednesday (January 14), the Trump administration announced that it has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing from 75 countries.
The list includes eight World Cup nations - Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Uruguay.
Advert
This added to the confusion among hopeful supporters from the aforementioned nations, but a US State Department official has now shed some light on the situation when speaking to the Mirror.
The official insisted that the visa ban will not affect the World Cup, with some fans wondering if they could be turned away at the border.
The official said that the "ban applies to the issuance of immigrant visas only, and does not apply to non-immigrant visas, such as those for tourists, athletes and their families, and media professionals intending to travel for the World Cup".
Shortly after the move was announced, Tommy Pigott, Principal Deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, explained that the reason for the visa freeze was to "prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits”.
Advert
The US State Department had earlier stated that the decision was to bring "an end to the abuse" of the system “by those who would extract wealth from the American people" via benefits paid by US taxpayers. The freeze will be enforced from January 21.
Afghanistan
Albania
Advert
Algeria
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Myanmar
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Colombia
Côte d'Ivoire
Cuba
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dominica
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Fiji
The Gambia
Georgia
Ghana
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Liberia
Libya
North Macedonia
Moldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Nepal
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Republic of the Congo
Russia
Rwanda
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Syria
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Yemen
Topics: Donald Trump, FIFA, Football
Journalist with expertise covering football - both in England and abroad - as well as combat sports.
@lukedaviesmedia
Advert
Advert
Advert
Home> News> US News
Gerrard Kaonga
A US official has issued a statement after the country caused a stir by announcing a massive visa ban ahead of the World Cup.
The World Cup is one of the most anticipated sporting events, and for good reason.
Basically, every corner of the globe plays soccer and if nothing else, it is just brilliant to watch nations compete on the biggest stage in the world.
For many, going to watch any game at the FIFA World Cup is a dream come true, but a wrench was recently thrown in a number of fans' plans.
Advert
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced that there was an indefinite immigrant visa suspension on a whopping 75 countries.
This comes only a few months ahead of the tournament being held across the US, Canada and Mexico.
The Department of Homeland Security tweeted on January 14: "The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people."
Advert
The 75 countries include the likes of Brazil, Colombia, Ghana and Morocco - all of whom have qualified for the tournament.
This has caused much fear and confusion for those wishing to travel to the US to attend the games and soak up the atmosphere.
Luckily, the suspension will not apply to non-immigrant, temporary tourist, or business visas, though. However, some people have still been put off by the ban and admitted to feeling unwelcome in the country.
The US has now clarified its position on the matter.
Advert
Speaking to the Mirror, a US State Department official insisted that the visa ban won't impact those trying to visit the country for the World Cup.
They said the ‘ban applies to the issuance of immigrant visas only, and does not apply to nonimmigrant visas, such as those for tourists, athletes and their families, and media professionals intending to travel for the World Cup'.
In addition, FIFA has issued a statement, echoing this point.
Advert
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: "America welcomes the World. We have always said that this will be the greatest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup in history – and the FIFA PASS service is a very concrete example of that."
As well as non-immigrant visas still being available, FIFA has recently announced the FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System (FIFA PASS).
Those who have a valid World Cup ticket can apply for a FIFA PASS, which will give them access to priority visa interview appointments ahead of the tournament.
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Sport
Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news.
He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.
Advert
Advert
Advert
Barcelona are reportedly set to lose La Masia academy star Dro Fernandez during the January transfer window. The talented midfielder has been making inroads into Hansi Flick's first-team squad this season but it is said he has activated his own €6 million release clause to seal an exit. This comes at a time when he has been linked with Manchester City, Chelsea, and more.
In December, Barca boss Flick was open to the idea of the club needing defensive reinforcements in light of Andreas Christensen's knee injury. While Ronald Araujo is now back from his break in a bid to improve his mental health, the German still wanted more backup.
"Defender in the January transfer window? We'll see. I'll talk to Deco, maybe tomorrow, not today. For me, first and foremost, the important thing is that Andreas (Christensen) returns in good shape," he said.
Then, at the start of January, when the severity of Christensen's injury came to light, he sent a crystal clear message to the board.
He added: "I spoke with my staff, and with Deco we speak a lot. And we think that when Ronald [Araujo] is back we have good alternatives at centre-back. Joao can play on both sides, he can give us good options. But in the end, until now, it's not done, but I'd be happy if it goes through. He's another option for the offence. We talked about signing a centre-back, but I think it makes more sense, I think it is a good option, and a high quality player.
"We've had a situation these past two years where we have to be smart about the players we sign. It's not like the other clubs, who can play hundreds of millions on players. But I think it's good, you can see our players are progressing. Our young players are developing, and we have faith in them. Now we have the opportunity to bring in a veteran. I'd appreciate it if he comes."
Sure enough, Barca delivered, this time with the loan deal of full-back Joao Cancelo from Al-Hilal.
But it seems they will lose one exciting Barca prospect in Fernandez. Both Spanish outlets Sport and Mundo Deportivo claim the 18-year-old will leave La Liga's leaders this month as he seeks more first-team opportunities. While he has played five times for the first team this season, it seems the teenager has his sights set on accruing more minutes elsewhere. Barcelona's director of football, Deco, is said to have been attempting to renew his contract, which expires in the summer of 2027, but Fernandez has reportedly told the club he will leave. According to journalist Ben Jacobs, City, Chelsea, and Borussia Dortmund are in the running to sign the youngster but Paris Saint-Germain are the frontrunners. He adds that there have been positive talks but nothing has been signed yet. Incidentally, Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo are ahead of him in the number 10 pecking order at the Catalan outfit, ergo, there is no clear pathway to game time under Flick for now.
In light of these reports, Flick is said to be furious that Fernandez will be leaving Barca. The former Bayern Munich manager has reportedly taken a special liking to the midfielder and appreciated his talent. He took Fernandez on Barca's pre-season tour to Japan and South Korea last summer and handed him his debut this season, so this turn of events is a 'big disappointment' for the Blaugrana manager. Moreover, Flick feels the club are letting an exciting talent leave the club.
Speaking in a press conference on Saturday, the German tactician pointedly said: "If you want to play for Barca, you have to give everything... 100%. That's what I want to say to everyone who is with us now or could be with us in the future. Same applies for La Masia youngsters training with the first team. They have to be here 100%. These colours must be defended, that's what I want to see. As for the rest, I don't want them."
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
It remains to be seen if Barca will be able to keep hold of Fernandez or if he will indeed make a January exit. Following this update on his future, it will be interesting to see if he plays any part in their upcoming games against Real Sociedad on Sunday, away at Slavia Prague in the Champions League in midweek, or at home to Oviedo in the league next Sunday.
Didi Hamann has urged Manchester United to target Thomas Tuchel as their next manager, with the club set to choose a long-term successor to Michael Carrick at season's end.
Despite the Germany being busy leading England at the World Cup, Hamann believes United should make him their priority over PSG-linked Luis Enrique.
Tuchel's England contract runs until the 2026 World Cup, but speculation over his future is natural with the Red Devils' role opening next summer. Hamann insists the Old Trafford job would be Tuchel's “dream role.”
“I wouldn't worry, because I've said all along that the Premier League needs a strong Manchester United. Even as a former Liverpool and City player, I want United to do better because the league benefits from it. It's been far too long for them to be in the doldrums,” he said.
“Enrique has been very successful, but obviously, he would be new to the league. There is talk about Thomas Tuchel, depending on what happens in the World Cup. But obviously, you need to make a decision probably before the World Cup.
“I think Tuchel would be somebody who would be able to turn things around. He doesn't care about names; he doesn't care about anything other than success for the club.
“They need someone who goes in there now and cuts all ties with whoever is talking and whoever is having a say in the background. You need a strong man who follows his beliefs, and I think Tuchel showed in the past that he can do that.”
Explore GOAL Betting with
Jurgen Klopp gave a hilarious reaction to an interviewer's cheeky remark about Real Madrid as the German continues to be linked with the Bernabeu hotseat. The former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund manager has seen his name crop up among the list of reported candidates to succeed Xabi Alonso, who was sacked after less than eight months in charge of the Spanish giants.
Following months of intense speculation surrounding his future, Alonso left his position as Real head coach on Monday. While the club announced the decision was by “mutual consent”, it has been widely reported that the Spaniard - who represented Los Blancos as a player between 2009 and 2014 - was dismissed on the back of the club's 3-2 Spanish Super Cup final defeat against Clasico rivals Barcelona.
Real said in a statement: "Xabi Alonso will always have the affection and admiration of all Madrid fans because he is a Real Madrid legend and has always represented the values of our club. Real Madrid will always be his home.
“Our club thanks Xabi Alonso and his entire coaching staff for their work and dedication throughout this time, and wishes them the best of luck in this new stage of their lives.”
Alonso was named as Carlo Ancelotti's successor at Real in June 2025, having earned rave reviews for his work at Bayer Leverkusen, whom he led to the Bundesliga and German Cup double in 2023-24.
The 44-year-old has since been replaced by Alvaro Arbeloa, but his former Liverpool team-mate's tenure got off to a nightmare start as Real were beaten 3-2 by second division side Albacete in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
With the length of Arbeloa's contract undisclosed, there is mounting speculation that Real are planning to keep their options open as they weigh up the perfect long-term replacement for Alonso.
Looking for smarter football bets? Get expert previews, data-driven predictions & winning insights with GOAL Tips on Telegram. Join our growing community now!
One man who has been strongly linked with making a blockbuster move to Real is Klopp, who has been out of work since leaving Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 Premier League season.
The 58-year-old is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of his generation, having led the Reds to numerous honours including the 2019-20 Premier League title - the club's first league crown for 30 years.
Before spending nine years in the Anfield dugout, Klopp managed Borussia Dortmund, whom he steered to back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 2010-11 and 2011-12 during a trophy-laden seven-year spell in his homeland.
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
And with speculation rife over a possible switch to Real, Klopp had to negotiate a brazen question from one reporter while enjoying a spot of basketball this week.
Stopping for a quick interview with ESPN Netherlands while attending the NBA showdown between the Orlando Magic and the Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, the tactician was told that “they really love basketball at Real Madrid as well” - a nod to Real Madrid Baloncesto, who are known as one of Europe's best basketball teams.
As custom, Klopp belted out his trademark laugh in response to the remark, before politely adding: “Yeah, it's great. Maybe some of them [at Real] watched the game tonight.”
Jürgen Klopp lacht Real Madrid-geruchten weg 👀😂 #klopp #realmadrid #nbaberlingame
While it remains up in the air as to whether Real would like to install Klopp as their next manager, the Spanish heavyweights will be hoping to return to winning ways when they entertain Levante at the Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon.
Arbeloa's side - who are currently four points behind fierce rivals Barcelona in the table - will then return to Champions League action when they play host to Monaco on Tuesday, with the 15-time champions currently seventh in the standings and on course to automatically qualify for the last-16 stage.
Ahead of the game against Levante, new manager Arbeloa pleaded with the club's fanbase to back his players, telling a pre-match press conference: “I understand Madrid fans are hurt and upset with us. But I ask for their support for the players. I ask the fans that despite the disappointment they feel, they're on our side.”
Explore GOAL Betting with
FIFA has reminded fans that 2026 World Cup tickets don't guarantee entry into the United States – a warning issued in the wake of new visa policies introduced under President Donald Trump.
FIFA shared the reminder while announcing record-breaking demand for tournament tickets. With millions of fans expected to travel, FIFA stressed that entry into host nations is subject to each country's immigration and visa regulations.
The warning comes as the US government rolls out fresh travel restrictions, prompting FIFA to advise fans to apply for visas early and stay up to date with local entry requirements.
In its official press release, FIFA confirmed that fans from all 211 of its member nations submitted ticket requests during the Random Selection Draw phase between December 11 and January 13.
The organisation said it received an average of 15 million requests per day – a figure it described as a new record for global football demand.
Among the most popular matches are Colombia vs Portugal in Miami, Mexico vs South Korea in Guadalajara, and the World Cup final in New York–New Jersey.
The 2026 tournament will feature 104 matches across 16 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
However, FIFA noted that a valid match ticket does not automatically grant entry into any of the three host nations.
Each fan must still meet national immigration criteria and obtain the appropriate visa before travelling to attend games.
The reminder follows recent US visa changes introduced under President Trump, which have created additional requirements for several countries – including some with national teams qualified for the World Cup.
While players and officials are unaffected, fans from certain regions may face longer processing times or extra screening.
FIFA said it is working with local authorities to support international fans with their travel planning and documentation.
The new FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System (FIFA PASS) is designed to help approved ticket holders secure US visa appointments ahead of the tournament.
Although tourist visas remain valid, the combination of unprecedented ticket demand and changing travel policies means fans could face greater challenges in arranging their trips to the 2026 World Cup.
Read More: How Donald Trump's latest visa ban impacts 2026 World Cup countries and fans
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
Privacy policy
FC Bayern's sensation is back just six months after a devastating injury.
Jamal Musiala is back after a gruesome injury, and for Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany, that was never in doubt.
Musiala suffered a ghastly broken leg on the field at last summer's Club World Cup. And while his return to the side is expected to be gradual, it is a triumph that he is on the training pitch at all so soon after the injury.
“I had complete confidence that he would recover. You always have to trust the lads, that it's not a step backwards, but sometimes a step forwards,” Kompany stated in comments captured by @iMiaSanMia. “I'm always there for the players, as are all of us – whether it's Christoph Freund, Max Eberl or one of my assistants. That's very important for us.
“As a player, I often got injured at the start of the season. You want to be back in contention for the trophies at the end. That's a huge motivation for them, and we're only just getting started. These players can make a difference.”
Of course, it's hard to pick and choose the timing of an injury, but Bayern can try to make the most of what has happened so far.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
Sign up for a user account and get:
A daily roundup of Bayern Munich news
This is the title for the native ad
At FC Bayern, you must be ready when called upon.
FC Bayern interested in a Bundesliga transfer?
FC Bayern will get some familiar faces back in the squad.
RB Leipzig is hoping for the best vs. FC Bayern.
FC Bayern is all set for the summer!
FC Bayern has a tough match ahead.
This is the title for the native ad
© 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537). Hope is here. GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call (800) 327-5050 for 24/7 support (MA). Visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). Call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 21+ (18+ D.C.) and present in select states (for KS, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino). Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT) or visit FanDuel.com/RG.
Michael Zheng will take five courses this spring semester at Columbia University in New York, where he is a senior. The 21-year-old is soon to graduate from the Ivy League institution, one of the most prestigious schools in the world.
But even though school begins on 20 January, that will not be his focus this week. Instead, the student-athlete is on the other side of the world competing in a major main draw for the first time at the Australian Open.
“Right now, I'm really excited,” Zheng, a qualifier, told ATPTour.com. “And relieved to get through that and get the chance to play my first main draw.”
A year ago, that was more than improbable. Zheng was the reigning NCAA men's singles champion, but still outside the Top 700 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Yet he has balanced a rigorous education — earning Academic All-American honours as well as the Rafael Osuna National Sportsmanship Award in 2025 — and college tennis with proving he can compete with the best players in the world.
Zheng has long shown ability, dating back to when his father, Joe, decided to introduce Michael and his older sister by two years, Amy, to the sport at their local high school. Joe, who moved to the United States from China, fell in love with the sport upon his arrival and passed it along to his children.
Growing up in New Jersey, Zheng spent three days a week during middle school training at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open. And by the end of his junior career, the American reached the 2022 Wimbledon boys' singles final, beating Coleman Wong and Martin Landaluce along the way.
“I had some talent, so he wanted to see how far he could take it,” Zheng said of his father. “And now we're here playing my first main draw [of a major]. It's been quite a tournament.”
But it has been an atypical one. Zheng is an active college student who in the coming days has to prepare for psychology courses in the New York winter. Instead, he is heating up in the Australian summer. The humble student does not make a big deal of it, but Ivy League coursework is difficult enough on its own.
"The academic rigour has helped Michael in many ways, especially mentally,” said Howard Endelman, the head coach of men's tennis at Columbia. “The schoolwork is complementary; It allows Michael to focus and develop aspects of his life outside of tennis. Although it might be counter-intuitive, this combination has helped Michael develop as a complete person which has actually helped his tennis."
According to Zheng, Endelman emphasises this message consistently.
“You learn how to manage your time and in the pressure moments, I think you can manage a little bit better, because you put all that work in and at the same time, you're balancing school,” Zheng said. “I think it just gives you that little bit of a mental edge, that you're doing maybe a little bit more than these other guys, and at the same time, your level is there.”
According to Zheng, Endelman emphasises this message consistently.
“You learn how to manage your time and in the pressure moments, I think you can manage a little bit better, because you put all that work in and at the same time, you're balancing school,” Zheng said. “I think it just gives you that little bit of a mental edge, that you're doing maybe a little bit more than these other guys, and at the same time, your level is there.”
What makes his moment in the spotlight Sunday against Sebastian Korda at Melbourne Park more impressive is how he got there. Not only did he work his way through a tough qualifying draw, but made a big run to earn his place in qualifying in the first place.
In early June, Zheng was still outside the world's Top 700. But a run to the ATP Challenger final in Little Rock began a huge surge, with titles in Chicago, Columbus and Tiburon showing it was no fluke.
"Right after winning the Tiburon Challenger final in October, Michael took a Sunday night red-eye flight so he could take an in-person exam Monday morning in New York City,” Endelman said. “He just takes it all in stride."
The latter two tournament victories came while Zheng was taking five classes, before successfully defending his NCAA singles crown.
“Definitely not easy. At the same time, I think people tend to overestimate the studies. I think you can make it as hard or as easy as you want it to be,” Zheng, a Psychology major, said. “I'm travelling, missing quite a bit of class, so I'm not going to do anything too crazy, like neuroscience, biology or something like that. But at the same time, you can sign up for whatever classes you want to take.”
Entering college, Zheng had not planned to study psychology, but economics. The 21-year-old has found it interesting, even if he does not believe that there is a firm link between his studies and psychology on the tennis court.
Zheng's memorable run nearly came to an end in the final round of qualifying against Lukas Klein, against whom he faced a match point in the final-set tie-break. But the Columbia Lion dealt with that pressure the same way he does school: successfully.
"Nothing seems to bother Michael — on or off the court — especially when things go wrong,” Endelman said. “Michael lost the lead after being up 7/1 and 9/7 in the final-set tiebreaker, then all of a sudden was serving down 9/10. With no emotion, he calmly goes up to the line and saves match point with an ace wide."
Although Zheng's tennis career is only beginning, the future is bright both on and off the court for the college standout. But the World No. 174 is not too concerned about what will come with his Psychology degree at the moment.
“I'm not thinking too longterm right now,” Zheng said. “I'm just focussing on seeing how far I can take the tennis and giving 100 per cent focus on that at least.”
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
Matteo Berrettini has withdrawn from the Australian Open. The Italian announced the news on Saturday.
“I'm really sorry to have to withdraw from the tournament,” Berrettini said. “I have always enjoyed being and playing here and feeling your incredible support. Thank you to the tournament for their fantastic organisation and I hope to see all of you again very soon.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Australian Open (@australianopen)
The former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings was scheduled to face sixth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur in the first round but will now be replaced in the draw by Mackenzie McDonald. Berrettini reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2022.
Read More News
View All News
View Related Videos
View All Videos
A post shared by Australian Open (@australianopen)
The former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings was scheduled to face sixth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur in the first round but will now be replaced in the draw by Mackenzie McDonald. Berrettini reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2022.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
Gabriel Diallo has not practised with or competed against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev, who has been a presence at the top of the ATP Tour since before the Canadian was in college. But the 24-year-old is flying higher than ever and excited to step on the court inside Rod Laver Arena Sunday to take on the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion.
“I'm very grateful that I'm in this position to play in a Slam, one of the biggest courts against one of the best players in the world. So it's all a bonus,” Diallo told ATPTour.com. “We train hard and we work hard to position ourselves to play in those kind of matches. We start playing tennis, to play those kind of matches. So I'm really excited and looking forward to playing.”
One year ago, Zverev made the final at Melbourne Park for the first time after reaching the semi-finals on two previous occasions. The German has failed to reach the fourth round just once since 2019.
“He's very consistent. First of all, just from the back and in terms of a performance standpoint, he's been in the Top 10 for I don't know how many years. And then, obviously in terms of his game, he's got a great serve, great backhand, solid forehand,” Diallo said. “So I'm going to have to get creative. I'm going to have to take it to him if I want to give myself some chances to win. At the end of the day, I think for me it's another match, it's another learning experience.”
Diallo is currently doing plenty of learning. He split with longtime coach Martin Laurendeau and began working with Jonas Bjorkman and Johan Ortegren.
“I've got the full Swedish delegation now,” Diallo said, cracking a laugh. “I'm excited to see where that's going to take me, and very grateful for the past five years I had with Marty. We had an amazing run since I was in college, all the way to now. Someone that will always stay very close to me and that has a special place in my heart.”
While Ortegren was also a professional tennis player, Bjorkman stands out for his efforts reaching No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings and No. 1 in doubles.
“It's been very good. He just came to Adelaide, so it was the first time I saw him there. But yeah, so far it's been very good. Learning a lot,” Diallo said. “He has a lot of expertise and as a player, he was where I aspire to be. So just a great opportunity to learn from him and work with him and excited to see where it's going to take me.”
The World No. 1 is on a good path. A year ago he was No. 86 and competing in the Australian Open main draw for the first time. Now Diallo is one of the most dangerous unseeded players in Melbourne, fresh off a season in which he lifted the trophy in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and made his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Madrid.
“The goal was to finish inside the Top 50, and I managed to accomplish that. I had some very good results. Won my first title, big quarters in the Masters,” Diallo said. “So just [want to] keep building on this, carrying this momentum throughout 2026, keep improving. We flagged the things that I need to improve in order to make the next jump and the details and the margins are getting smaller and smaller, but those are the things that are going to make a big difference.”
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
Andreeva first borrowed the catchphrase from Snoop Dogg, and brought it back after a decisive win over Victoria Mboko on Saturday.ByDavid KanePublished Jan 17, 2026 copy_link
Published Jan 17, 2026
Fresh off winning her first title of the 2026 season, Mirra Andreeva unveiled a stylish surprise at the Adelaide International, donning a sweatshirt with what has become her signature post-win catchphrase, “I would like to thank myself.”Andreeva didn't directly acknowledge the sweatshirt after defeating Victoria Mboko in Saturday's final, but she jokingly leaned into the theme all the same in her victory speech.“I guess my team comes next,” she said after thanking her opponent and the tournament's staff and sponsors and physios. “But I do feel like it was all me. I don't know what I can say. I've been practicing a lot. I've been working, sweating and I don't even know why you're here, honestly!”The 18-year-old explained the genesis of the catchphrase in her post-match press conference.
Andreeva didn't directly acknowledge the sweatshirt after defeating Victoria Mboko in Saturday's final, but she jokingly leaned into the theme all the same in her victory speech.“I guess my team comes next,” she said after thanking her opponent and the tournament's staff and sponsors and physios. “But I do feel like it was all me. I don't know what I can say. I've been practicing a lot. I've been working, sweating and I don't even know why you're here, honestly!”The 18-year-old explained the genesis of the catchphrase in her post-match press conference.
“I guess my team comes next,” she said after thanking her opponent and the tournament's staff and sponsors and physios. “But I do feel like it was all me. I don't know what I can say. I've been practicing a lot. I've been working, sweating and I don't even know why you're here, honestly!”The 18-year-old explained the genesis of the catchphrase in her post-match press conference.
The 18-year-old explained the genesis of the catchphrase in her post-match press conference.
“Well, it started when I first said that sentence,” she said. “It was when I won my first tournament in Romania, in Iasi, 250 WTA tournament. Since then, every time I win and I get to have a speech, I get to have, I get to say something on the court after I win, I always say thanks to myself.“But it's not my thing. I stole it from Snoop Dogg. Because I saw him saying that on some kind of interview when he said, "I want to thank me." And then his song was playing on the background. So I stole it from him.“Since then, like people love that, when I say that thing. I said it in Dubai. I said it in Indian Wells. And then, yeah, after that it kind of became the thing that I say on the speech.”Andreeva hadn't had occasion to bring back the catchphrase since Indian Wells, having not reached a final since last March. The teenager ended that drought in style this week in Adelaide, breezing through the field without dropping a set—culminating with a 6-3, 6-1 win over a talented, but physically compromised Mboko.
“But it's not my thing. I stole it from Snoop Dogg. Because I saw him saying that on some kind of interview when he said, "I want to thank me." And then his song was playing on the background. So I stole it from him.“Since then, like people love that, when I say that thing. I said it in Dubai. I said it in Indian Wells. And then, yeah, after that it kind of became the thing that I say on the speech.”Andreeva hadn't had occasion to bring back the catchphrase since Indian Wells, having not reached a final since last March. The teenager ended that drought in style this week in Adelaide, breezing through the field without dropping a set—culminating with a 6-3, 6-1 win over a talented, but physically compromised Mboko.
“Since then, like people love that, when I say that thing. I said it in Dubai. I said it in Indian Wells. And then, yeah, after that it kind of became the thing that I say on the speech.”Andreeva hadn't had occasion to bring back the catchphrase since Indian Wells, having not reached a final since last March. The teenager ended that drought in style this week in Adelaide, breezing through the field without dropping a set—culminating with a 6-3, 6-1 win over a talented, but physically compromised Mboko.
Andreeva hadn't had occasion to bring back the catchphrase since Indian Wells, having not reached a final since last March. The teenager ended that drought in style this week in Adelaide, breezing through the field without dropping a set—culminating with a 6-3, 6-1 win over a talented, but physically compromised Mboko.
“Of course, it's a great preparation to go into Melbourne and to play in the Australian Open,” said Andreeva, who will be the eighth seed at the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. “You know, of course it gives me a lot of confidence to see myself play well on the court, and it's just, in two days basically I'm going to play another match in Melbourne.“I just have to bring the same level of my game and the same mindset into Melbourne. I think I'm going to play well there as well. Obviously, I feel more confident after this win. Also winning a title is super special to me as well. So, yeah, I just have to kind of, maybe today and tomorrow I relax a little bit, we practice, and then we have to get to work again.”To earn more gratitude, Andreeva will get to work against Donna Vekic in the first round of the Australian Open, the pair scheduled to face off on Margaret Court Arena Monday evening.
“I just have to bring the same level of my game and the same mindset into Melbourne. I think I'm going to play well there as well. Obviously, I feel more confident after this win. Also winning a title is super special to me as well. So, yeah, I just have to kind of, maybe today and tomorrow I relax a little bit, we practice, and then we have to get to work again.”To earn more gratitude, Andreeva will get to work against Donna Vekic in the first round of the Australian Open, the pair scheduled to face off on Margaret Court Arena Monday evening.
To earn more gratitude, Andreeva will get to work against Donna Vekic in the first round of the Australian Open, the pair scheduled to face off on Margaret Court Arena Monday evening.
Does Novak Djokovic believe he can beat Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz in best-of-five set matches at the Grand Slams?
Based on the 24-time major winner's pre-Australian Open press conference Saturday, the answer remains a little unclear.
The Serbian took down Alcaraz in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park just 12 months ago, but then lost to Sinner in the semi-finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon and Alcaraz at the US Open. After his defeat at Flushing Meadows, he candidly expressed doubt that he could still stay with Sinner or Alcaraz at the majors.
But with a fresh season upon him, Djokovic told media that there's a chance.
“I know that when I'm healthy, when I'm able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together on a given day, I feel like I can beat anybody. If I don't have that self-belief and confidence in myself, I wouldn't be sitting here and talking to you guys or competing,” Djokovic said.
“I understand that Sinner and Alcaraz are playing on a different level right now… but that doesn't mean that nobody else has a chance. So I like my chances always, in any tournament, particularly here.”
Later in his presser, however, the 10-time Australian Open champion, seemed to temper talk of potentially going through both Sinner [in the semi-finals] and top seed Alcaraz [in the final] to take the title.
“I'm missing a little bit of juice in my legs, to be honest, to be able to compete with these guys at the later stages of a Grand Slam,” said Djokovic, who withdrew from this week's Adelaide International, saying that his body wasn't quite ready to return to competition. “But I'm definitely giving my best as I have in '25, and I think I have done very well and challenged them on their route to the title.
“I lost three out of four slams against either Sinner or Alcaraz… We know how good they are, and they absolutely deserve to be where they are. They are the dominant forces of the men's tennis at the moment. I'm still trying to be in the mix.”
Djokovic, 38, is attempting to win his 13th major after the age of 30. For context, Pete Sampras won 14 Grand Slams throughout his career.
Fifth-seeded Djokovic opens his 21st Australian Open campaign against Spaniard Pedro Martinez. He is seeded to meet Brandon Nakashima in the third round and Jakub Mensik in the fourth round, which would be a rematch of the 2025 ATP Masters 1000 final in Miami, won by the Czech.
Did You Know?
Information courtesy ITF
Aged 38 years 255 days, Djokovic is bidding to become the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam men's singles title and the first man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title aged 38 or older. Ken Rosewall is the only man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title aged 37 or older, at the 1972 Australian Open. (NB ages calculated at the end of the tournament)
Should he reach the final here, Djokovic will become the 2nd man in the Open Era to reach multiple Grand Slam finals after turning 37, after Rosewall, who contested 3 Grand Slam finals after his 37th birthday. He would also become the 2nd man in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final after turning 38, after Rosewall, who contested 2 Grand Slam finals aged 39.
Djokovic is also bidding to win his 13th Grand Slam title since turning 30 and extend his record for most Grand Slam singles titles won after the age of 30 in the Open Era. He claimed sole ownership of the record by winning his 11th Grand Slam title since turning 30 at 2023 Roland Garros, moving ahead of Serena Williams. Djokovic is bidding to win his 5th Australian Open title since turning 30.
Djokovic is bidding to win the title here 18 years after winning his first Grand Slam title here in 2008 and claim the Open Era record for longest gap between first and most-recent Grand Slam singles titles.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
No matching videos found. Please use different search term.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
The American hopes her hair color is the only change we'll see after a breakout 2025 season.ByDavid KanePublished Jan 17, 2026 copy_link
Published Jan 17, 2026
MELBOURNE, Australia—After a year like Amanda Anisimova's, few would be eager to change a thing.The 24-year-old is fresh off a breakthrough season, one in which she captured two WTA 1000 titles and reached two Grand Slam finals, and arrives Down Under at a career-high ranking of No. 4.When you're that close to the top, it's all about small tweaks, and Anisimova opted to make just one before the first major of the season.“Well, it's like pretty personal,” Anisimova joked of her decision to go back to blonde after a winning season as a brunette.
The 24-year-old is fresh off a breakthrough season, one in which she captured two WTA 1000 titles and reached two Grand Slam finals, and arrives Down Under at a career-high ranking of No. 4.When you're that close to the top, it's all about small tweaks, and Anisimova opted to make just one before the first major of the season.“Well, it's like pretty personal,” Anisimova joked of her decision to go back to blonde after a winning season as a brunette.
When you're that close to the top, it's all about small tweaks, and Anisimova opted to make just one before the first major of the season.“Well, it's like pretty personal,” Anisimova joked of her decision to go back to blonde after a winning season as a brunette.
“Well, it's like pretty personal,” Anisimova joked of her decision to go back to blonde after a winning season as a brunette.
“So, like, I would go dark and I really liked it. But then after like a month it would look really bad. Either my roots would grow out or it would look orange. Didn't really suit me.“I was just tired of, yeah, the maintenance. I'm someone who likes to keep changing things up. So I wouldn't be surprised if I went dark again in a year. We'll see how it goes.”So far, Anisimova hasn't seen a major dip in form: her 2026 debut came at the Brisbane International, where she won a round but fell to eventual finalist Marta Kostyuk. Despite ending the season with plenty of momentum—culminating with a semifinal finish at the WTA Finals—the perennially unbothered New Jersey native was relieved for the chance to slow down and retool in the off-season.“It's good to have a chunk of time when you're just able to be at home and relax a bit,” she said dryly of her “productive” time off. “I think that's also really healthy for us.“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”
“I was just tired of, yeah, the maintenance. I'm someone who likes to keep changing things up. So I wouldn't be surprised if I went dark again in a year. We'll see how it goes.”So far, Anisimova hasn't seen a major dip in form: her 2026 debut came at the Brisbane International, where she won a round but fell to eventual finalist Marta Kostyuk. Despite ending the season with plenty of momentum—culminating with a semifinal finish at the WTA Finals—the perennially unbothered New Jersey native was relieved for the chance to slow down and retool in the off-season.“It's good to have a chunk of time when you're just able to be at home and relax a bit,” she said dryly of her “productive” time off. “I think that's also really healthy for us.“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”
So far, Anisimova hasn't seen a major dip in form: her 2026 debut came at the Brisbane International, where she won a round but fell to eventual finalist Marta Kostyuk. Despite ending the season with plenty of momentum—culminating with a semifinal finish at the WTA Finals—the perennially unbothered New Jersey native was relieved for the chance to slow down and retool in the off-season.“It's good to have a chunk of time when you're just able to be at home and relax a bit,” she said dryly of her “productive” time off. “I think that's also really healthy for us.“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”
“It's good to have a chunk of time when you're just able to be at home and relax a bit,” she said dryly of her “productive” time off. “I think that's also really healthy for us.“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”
“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”
In the same quarter of the draw as fellow Americans Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys—the latter serving as defending champion—Anisimova could face a stern test as early as the third round against 2020 winner Sofia Kenin, but will aim to draw from her own Grand Slam experience to go far at the only major tournament where she is yet to reach the semifinals.“Just being in those positions for the first time, I think the second time around is always going to be a little easier. At least I have been in those spots that I kind of know what to expect.“At the same time, it's a new Grand Slam. I'm just really taking it one match at a time. Yeah, everyone is going to be very difficult to face here, but I'm looking forward to it.”Poised to prove whether blondes indeed have more fun, Anisimova will play her first round against Switzerland's Simona Waltert.
“Just being in those positions for the first time, I think the second time around is always going to be a little easier. At least I have been in those spots that I kind of know what to expect.“At the same time, it's a new Grand Slam. I'm just really taking it one match at a time. Yeah, everyone is going to be very difficult to face here, but I'm looking forward to it.”Poised to prove whether blondes indeed have more fun, Anisimova will play her first round against Switzerland's Simona Waltert.
“At the same time, it's a new Grand Slam. I'm just really taking it one match at a time. Yeah, everyone is going to be very difficult to face here, but I'm looking forward to it.”Poised to prove whether blondes indeed have more fun, Anisimova will play her first round against Switzerland's Simona Waltert.
Poised to prove whether blondes indeed have more fun, Anisimova will play her first round against Switzerland's Simona Waltert.
“I want to be surprised after every match,” insisted the former world No. 1 as she aims to complete a Career Grand Slam in Melbourne.ByDavid KanePublished Jan 16, 2026 copy_link
Published Jan 16, 2026
MELBOURNE, Australia—Iga Swiatek's Media Day press conference got off to an uncomfortable start at the 2026 Australian Open when a journalist spoiled her projected path to a Career Grand Slam.The former world No. 1 is seeded second in the women's draw and was not happy to learn that both Naomi Osaka and Elena Rybakina landed in her quarter, employing a fairly spectacular eye roll before shutting down the topic entirely.“I'm not looking at the draw,” said Swiatek who, like many players, prefers not to see the full bracket. “So thanks for the heads-up.”“It's not a joke,” she added firmly. “I'm literally not doing that. So please don't spoil it for me. I want to be surprised after every match. No, because I didn't know. That's it.”The six-time Grand Slam champion has no problem going head-to-head with the media, taking umbrage with the premise of a question about her energy levels last summer after a US Open defeat.
The former world No. 1 is seeded second in the women's draw and was not happy to learn that both Naomi Osaka and Elena Rybakina landed in her quarter, employing a fairly spectacular eye roll before shutting down the topic entirely.“I'm not looking at the draw,” said Swiatek who, like many players, prefers not to see the full bracket. “So thanks for the heads-up.”“It's not a joke,” she added firmly. “I'm literally not doing that. So please don't spoil it for me. I want to be surprised after every match. No, because I didn't know. That's it.”The six-time Grand Slam champion has no problem going head-to-head with the media, taking umbrage with the premise of a question about her energy levels last summer after a US Open defeat.
“I'm not looking at the draw,” said Swiatek who, like many players, prefers not to see the full bracket. “So thanks for the heads-up.”“It's not a joke,” she added firmly. “I'm literally not doing that. So please don't spoil it for me. I want to be surprised after every match. No, because I didn't know. That's it.”The six-time Grand Slam champion has no problem going head-to-head with the media, taking umbrage with the premise of a question about her energy levels last summer after a US Open defeat.
“It's not a joke,” she added firmly. “I'm literally not doing that. So please don't spoil it for me. I want to be surprised after every match. No, because I didn't know. That's it.”The six-time Grand Slam champion has no problem going head-to-head with the media, taking umbrage with the premise of a question about her energy levels last summer after a US Open defeat.
The six-time Grand Slam champion has no problem going head-to-head with the media, taking umbrage with the premise of a question about her energy levels last summer after a US Open defeat.
Swiatek was nonetheless able to rebound for the very next question, which was about her successful run at the One Point Slam.“It was great,” smiled Swiatek. “I think it was so much fun. Honestly, like, everybody was watching. Like also off the court, everybody said they were so, like, emotional about it, you know?”The reigning Wimbledon champion was able to score wins over ATP players Frances Tiafoe and Flavio Cobolli, outrallying the latter to reach the quarterfinals.“It's fun. It's something new, refreshing. I think this is what tennis sometimes needs, to put the events out like that. Yeah, playing against Flavio was super fun. Honestly, I like to play against guys. I already could do that in some mixed doubles. Here, I felt like I need to really push him. When he would have a chance to open the court, I would be nowhere there.“Half of the players I think took it seriously; half of them didn't. I was, like, warming up, I was ready. I really wanted to play a backhand cross-court rally with Frances, but didn't get a chance!”
“It was great,” smiled Swiatek. “I think it was so much fun. Honestly, like, everybody was watching. Like also off the court, everybody said they were so, like, emotional about it, you know?”The reigning Wimbledon champion was able to score wins over ATP players Frances Tiafoe and Flavio Cobolli, outrallying the latter to reach the quarterfinals.“It's fun. It's something new, refreshing. I think this is what tennis sometimes needs, to put the events out like that. Yeah, playing against Flavio was super fun. Honestly, I like to play against guys. I already could do that in some mixed doubles. Here, I felt like I need to really push him. When he would have a chance to open the court, I would be nowhere there.“Half of the players I think took it seriously; half of them didn't. I was, like, warming up, I was ready. I really wanted to play a backhand cross-court rally with Frances, but didn't get a chance!”
The reigning Wimbledon champion was able to score wins over ATP players Frances Tiafoe and Flavio Cobolli, outrallying the latter to reach the quarterfinals.“It's fun. It's something new, refreshing. I think this is what tennis sometimes needs, to put the events out like that. Yeah, playing against Flavio was super fun. Honestly, I like to play against guys. I already could do that in some mixed doubles. Here, I felt like I need to really push him. When he would have a chance to open the court, I would be nowhere there.“Half of the players I think took it seriously; half of them didn't. I was, like, warming up, I was ready. I really wanted to play a backhand cross-court rally with Frances, but didn't get a chance!”
“It's fun. It's something new, refreshing. I think this is what tennis sometimes needs, to put the events out like that. Yeah, playing against Flavio was super fun. Honestly, I like to play against guys. I already could do that in some mixed doubles. Here, I felt like I need to really push him. When he would have a chance to open the court, I would be nowhere there.“Half of the players I think took it seriously; half of them didn't. I was, like, warming up, I was ready. I really wanted to play a backhand cross-court rally with Frances, but didn't get a chance!”
“Half of the players I think took it seriously; half of them didn't. I was, like, warming up, I was ready. I really wanted to play a backhand cross-court rally with Frances, but didn't get a chance!”
At 24 years old Swiatek, who began the year with a win for Poland at the United Cup, is part of a trio that includes Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner of active players with victories at three of the four major tournaments. But that's a narrative Swiatek insists she's not thinking too much about.“I think you guys are thinking more about it,” she said through another awkward—but decidedly less tense—exchange. “Since the beginning of the year, there are many people coming to me and talking to me about it. I'm really just focusing on, like, day-by-day work. This is how it's always been for me. This is how I actually was able to achieve the success that I already have, just focusing really on grinding, match by match.Winning a Grand Slam is tough. Like a lot of things have to come together to do that. Yeah, it's a tough tournament. So, I have, like, no expectations. Obviously, it would be a dream come true. This is not, like, my clear goal that I wake up with. I'm thinking more about how I want to play, what I want to improve, like, day by day.”That day by day process will begin on Monday against Yuan Yue—an opponent about whom Swiatek will no doubt be duly informed.
“I think you guys are thinking more about it,” she said through another awkward—but decidedly less tense—exchange. “Since the beginning of the year, there are many people coming to me and talking to me about it. I'm really just focusing on, like, day-by-day work. This is how it's always been for me. This is how I actually was able to achieve the success that I already have, just focusing really on grinding, match by match.Winning a Grand Slam is tough. Like a lot of things have to come together to do that. Yeah, it's a tough tournament. So, I have, like, no expectations. Obviously, it would be a dream come true. This is not, like, my clear goal that I wake up with. I'm thinking more about how I want to play, what I want to improve, like, day by day.”That day by day process will begin on Monday against Yuan Yue—an opponent about whom Swiatek will no doubt be duly informed.
Winning a Grand Slam is tough. Like a lot of things have to come together to do that. Yeah, it's a tough tournament. So, I have, like, no expectations. Obviously, it would be a dream come true. This is not, like, my clear goal that I wake up with. I'm thinking more about how I want to play, what I want to improve, like, day by day.”That day by day process will begin on Monday against Yuan Yue—an opponent about whom Swiatek will no doubt be duly informed.
That day by day process will begin on Monday against Yuan Yue—an opponent about whom Swiatek will no doubt be duly informed.
There is no shortage of compelling narratives at this year's Australian Open, where Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic all arrive with history firmly in their sights.
Alcaraz, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, is bidding for a maiden crown at the hard-court major — a triumph with which he would complete the Career Grand Slam. Two-time defending champion Sinner and record 10-time winner Djokovic stand among a deep field of contenders eager to halt the Spaniard's charge.
ATPTour.com highlights 10 storylines to follow at the 2026 Australian Open.
1) Alcaraz chases Career Grand Slam: Alcaraz has yet to progress beyond the quarter-finals in four previous appearances at the Australian Open, but he has made no secret of his ambition to lift the title in Melbourne. Should he triumph, the World No. 1 will become just the sixth man in the Open Era to win at least one major title at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
2) Can Sinner complete hat-trick? The two-time defending champion is attempting to join Djokovic as the only man in the Open Era to win three straight Australian Open titles. Sinner owns a 22-4 record at the event, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, with his most recent loss coming against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round in 2023.
A post shared by ATP Tour (@atptour)
3) Djokovic returns to stomping ground:
After being forced to retire injured from his semi-final against Alexander Zverev last year, Djokovic is back at his most successful major with renewed motivation. The 38-year-old claimed his 101st tour-level title in Athens in November and is chasing a 25th Grand Slam trophy, which would move him clear of Margaret Court on the all-time list.
4) Zverev pushes on in bid for maiden Slam:
A three-time major finalist, Zverev continues to feature prominently in the latter stages of the biggest tournaments, but the elusive breakthrough remains. The German, runner-up to Sinner last year, begins his campaign against powerful Canadian Gabriel Diallo.
5) Resurgent Medvedev:
Following a strong close to the 2025 season and a title run in Brisbane to open 2026, Daniil Medvedev appears revitalised after managing just one major match win last year. A former World No. 1 and three-time Melbourne finalist, Medvedev could meet longtime rival Zverev in the quarter-finals. He leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 14-8.
{{player.PlayerFirstName}}
{{player.PlayerLastName}}
{{player.PlayerCountryCode}}
{{player.PlayerLastName}}
{{player.PartnerLastName}}
{{player.Record}}
Vswins
{{opponent.Record}}
Show H2H Detail
{{opponent.PlayerFirstName}}
{{opponent.PlayerLastName}}
{{opponent.PlayerCountryCode}}
{{ opponent.PlayerLastName }}
{{opponent.PartnerLastName}}
{{player.Ranking}}
Rank
{{opponent.Ranking}}
{{player.Age ? player.Age : '-'}}
Age
{{opponent.Age ? opponent.Age : '-'}}
6) Aussie hopes on home soil:
At a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Alex de Minaur spearheads the local charge. The 26-year-old, a competitor at the past two Nitto ATP Finals, is joined in the main draw by fellow Australians Alexei Popyrin, Adam Walton — who opens against Alcaraz — and James Duckworth, while Jason Kubler advanced through qualifying.
7) #NextGen talents take centre stage:
Recent Next Gen ATP Finals champions Learner Tien and Joao Fonseca return as the 25th and 28th seeds, respectively. Tien stunned Medvedev en route to the fourth round last year, while Fonseca claimed a notable win over Andrey Rublev. They are joined by 2025 Jeddah competitors Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, Rafael Jodar, Nishesh Basavareddy and Dino Prizmic, as well as 19-year-old Rei Sakamoto.
You May Also Like: Tien turns promise into proof in Jeddah: 'I pulled it off'
8) Wawrinka headlines wild cards:
Stan Wawrinka, who plans to retire at the end of the 2026 season, captured the first of his three major titles in Melbourne in 2014 and returns this year as a wild card. Australian Jordan Thompson also enters via wild card, having not played a tour-level match since October in Shanghai.
9) First-round popcorn clashes:
De Minaur faces an immediate challenge against former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini. World No. 8 Ben Shelton, a semi-finalist last year, opens against Adelaide finalist Ugo Humbert, while Grigor Dimitrov versus Tomas Machac adds to a trio of must-watch opening-round encounters.
10) Kokkinakis/Kyrgios feature in doubles:
Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool arrive as the top seeds after finishing 2025 by claiming Year-End ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by PIF honours. The doubles field also includes 2022 Australian Open champions Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios, adding further intrigue to the competition.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
While many Star Wars fans hope to see Rian Johnson revisit a galaxy far, far away, fear is not a factor in taking on another chapter.
Following Kathleen Kennedy‘s Lucasfilm exit interview with Deadline, in which she explained that “he got spooked” from returning to the franchise, Johnson denied that was what held him back after directing Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), the penultimate in the Skywalker trilogy.
“Lol zero spooked, sorry,” wrote Johnson on X.
Watch on Deadline
Kennedy, who has handed the reins over to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, recently spoke to Deadline about the possibility of Johnson returning after The Last Jedi grossed $1.3B globally for Disney.
“Once he made the Netflix deal and went off to start doing the Knives Out films, that has occupied a huge amount of his time,” she noted. “That's the other thing that happens here. After Shawn [Levy] and I started talking about Star Wars, Stranger Things kicks in and he was completely consumed for a while by that. That's what happened with Rian.”
lol zero spooked, sorry https://t.co/1gWREzKxAO
Meanwhile, Levy recently wrapped filming on his highly-anticipated Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling in the cockpit.
Kennedy added of Johnson, “And then I do believe he got spooked by the online negativity. I think Rian made one of the best Star Wars movies. He's a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked. This is the rough part. When people come into this space, I have every filmmaker and actors say to me, ‘What's going to happen?' They're a little scared.”
With Star Wars: Starfighter scheduled to hit theaters on May 28, 2027, Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is currently available to stream on Netflix, and he's currently conceiving the fourth film in the franchise.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
It's a shame that any legitimate criticism of his lone Star Wars movie gets dismissed as “toxic fandom”…
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Former Nickelodeon star Angelique Bates publicly urged people to help fellow actor Kianna Underwood more than a year before Underwood passed away in a hit-and-run in Brooklyn, a renewed point of reflection following Underwood's death at age 33.
Underwood, best known for her work on “All That” and as the voice of Fuchsia Glover on “Little Bill,” passed away on Jan. 16 after a vehicle struck her while she crossed a street in the Brownsville neighborhood, according to People. Authorities said the driver fled the scene, and the investigation remains ongoing.
In a resurfaced Instagram video from November 2023, Bates addressed Underwood's situation directly, urging the entertainment community and the public to offer help and compassion. Bates said Underwood was struggling and needed support, emphasizing that former child actors deserve care long after their time in the spotlight.
Bates, who starred on “All That” during its early Nickelodeon years, said she felt compelled to speak out after learning about Underwood's circumstances. In the video, Bates asked viewers to reach out, help connect Underwood with resources, and recognize her humanity beyond her childhood fame.
“She needs help,” Bates said in the video. Bates added that she wanted Underwood to receive support rather than judgment.
At the time, Bates did not accuse specific individuals or organizations of wrongdoing. Instead, she framed her message as a call for empathy and collective responsibility, particularly for performers whose early success does not guarantee long-term stability.
Underwood began acting as a child and built a résumé that extended beyond television. In addition to her Nickelodeon work, she appeared in films such as “The 24-Hour Woman” and “Santa, Baby!” and performed in stage productions like “Hairspray.”
Friends and fans have since shared tributes online, remembering Underwood as a talented performer with a warm presence and a passion for the arts. Many noted her versatility and commitment to acting across different media.
Police said officers responded to a 911 call shortly before 7 a.m. and found Underwood unconscious in the roadway. Emergency responders pronounced her dead at the scene. According to authorities, surveillance footage and witness accounts suggest the vehicle dragged her for a short distance before the driver fled.
As news of Underwood's death spread, Bates' earlier plea gained renewed attention. For some, it highlighted the importance of listening when artists speak up for one another. For others, it underscored the need for stronger support systems for former child performers as they navigate adulthood.
Underwood's legacy now includes both her on-screen work and the conversations her story has sparked. As tributes continue, many hope her life will be remembered not only for its tragic ending but for the joy and creativity she brought to audiences, and for the reminder that compassion can make a lasting difference.
Comment
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Δ
Previous
Like EntertainmentNow?
Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2026 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
As Heated Rivalry takes the world by storm, including parts of the actual NHL, François Arnaud hopes it leads to actual change.
The actor, who plays gay hockey star Scott Hunter on the Crave/HBO Max series, noted that the league is “actually really good at capitalizing” on the success of the Jacob Tierney-created gay hockey romance, but hopes they start to “back it up” with meaningful LGBTQ support.
“Their sales are going up apparently, and the Boston Bruins tagged us in different clips online, and it's getting incredible traction,” he noted on SiriusXM's Radio Andy. “I'm just hoping that it's backed up by actual openness to diversity.”
Watch on Deadline
Arnaud added, “I think they banned [players] from wearing a Pride band a few years ago. So like, if you're gonna use our name, back it up with real-life sh*t.”
Before the adaptation of Rachel Reid's Game Changer book series was renewed for Season 2, Arnaud spoke to Deadline about the show's sudden success across multiple audiences.
“It's the kind of thing that I'm already like, my cortisol levels are pretty high naturally. So, I like to keep it at arm's length, but I mean, I'm aware of the reaction, and it's insane,” he explained. “And I always believed in the show from the moment I read it, I knew that it would find an audience. I had to convince people that I was working with to let me do this, because I was like, ‘No, no, this is not just a small Canadian show. There's nothing like it, and for sure it'll be like a brush fire.'”
Arnaud continued, “I did not expect it, even though I believed that, I did not expect it to go this fast overnight.”
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are reportedly going through the “first real test” in their relationship as his potential NFL retirement looms amid their wedding planning.
A source claimed the pop star, 36, has been focused more on lifting Kelce's “defeated” spirits following the Kansas City Chiefs' losing season than on making wedding arrangements, reports Daily Mail.
“Taylor is trying to put him in a better mood by spending more time with him and not bombarding him with wedding plans,” the insider said.
Advertisement
“She would want him to focus on [the wedding] after he makes his career decision because she knows how important that is to him.”
Advertisement
The source added that the “Fortnight” singer is looking at the rough patch as the pair's “first real test of their relationship.”
“They have been together and in love and have enjoyed the success of her tour and career and his Super Bowls and his career. Travis hasn't been in this position before where he is staring at his future with complete 20/20 vision,” they said.
Kelce, 36, has been left feeling “a bit defeated” as retirement rumors hang in the air following the Chiefs' losing 2025-26 season.
The professional tight end was previously rumored to be considering retirement after the 2024-25 season. However, he ultimately decided to try for one more Super Bowl ring before he officially called it quits.
Advertisement
Sign up for Page Swift
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want more celebrity and pop culture news?
“He is used to still be playing, and he is missing not being on the field, which might bode well for his fans and the Chiefs if he decides to play another year,” the insider said of Kelce's potential career plans, adding that the NFL star will “make the Chiefs well aware of his future plans by early March.”
Advertisement
“We will know a few weeks after the Super Bowl if he will be returning or not. That is his timeline that he has set to make a decision to play one more year or not,” they added.
Still, Kelce has a bright future ahead with his soon-to-be wife at his side and career opportunities.
Last month, Page Six exclusively reported that Swift and the “New Heights” podcast co-host have their post-NFL life planned out with different projects.
“Things are changing; he is getting to the end of what he has known all his life and dealing with potential retirement, marriage and a future family with sprinkles of a whole new life in TV,” the insider told Daily Mail, seemingly confirming Page Six's reporting.
Swift is coping with the challenging moment by “focusing on positivity right now,” per the source.
“But she wants him to be in a place where he is happy because at the end of the day, that will make them happy,' the source added.
Advertisement
Reps for Swift and Kelce did not immediately respond to Page Six's requests for comment.
Advertisement
As we previously reported, the couple — who announced their engagement in August — originally planned to host an intimate wedding in Rhode Island next summer.
However, those plans appear to have changed. Sources exclusively told Page Six that the pair are now looking at another venue in Tennessee to host an additional ceremony after giving a second look to their potential guest list.
They're also considering hosting a destination wedding event on a private island.
By
Daniel Kreps
Lawyers for Timothy Busfield said in an opposition filing Friday that an independent investigation into the accusation against the actor undermines New Mexico's child sex abuse case, and that Busfield should be released from jail.
On Wednesday, Busfield faced a judge for the first time since turning himself in on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse; the actor did not enter a plea at the hearing, and the judge ordered that Busfield be held without bond until his next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, January 20.
Busfield's lawyers argued for Busfield's release in court filings Friday, stating that the actor previously passed a polygraph test and that Warner Bros.' independent investigation into the accusations by twin child actors on the series The Cleaning Lady found the allegations unfounded, ABC News reports.
The filing also cited that the child actors' parents both had a history of fraud, and that the father had admitted to “conspiracy to commit wire fraud” and was disbarred.
Popular on Rolling Stone
“The State offers no reliable proof—only allegations advanced by witnesses with documented histories of fraud and financial exploitation, contradicted by a comprehensive studio investigation, and refuted by witnesses and objective risk assessments,” Busfield's lawyers wrote.
“For all of these reasons—the independent investigation that undermined the State's allegations at every turn, the affirmative findings of the polygraph and ABEL assessment, the overwhelming evidence of character and community support, and the absence of any reliable proof of dangerousness—the State cannot meet its burden of clear and convincing evidence that no conditions of release will reasonably protect the community.”
The filing was also accompanied by letters of support for Busfield written by his wife Melissa Gilbert as well as his Thirtysomething cast mates Peter Horton and Ken Olin. “I know in the very bottom of my heart that Timothy would never do anything to cruelly exploit or harm anyone, let alone a child,” Olin wrote.
Editor's picks
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
Busfield said in a video statement prior to turning himself in, “I'm going to confront these lies. They're horrible, they're all lies, and I did not do anything to those little boys. I'm going to fight it with a great team, and I'm going to be exonerated. I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies.”
Prosecutors alleged in a pre-detention filing that after news of Busfield's arrest went public, another victim's father, Colin Swift, reported to law enforcement that his 16-year-old daughter was abused by Busfield “several years ago” at an audition in Sacramento, California.
Trending Stories
Apollonia Says Prince ‘Would Be Appalled' by Estate Effort to Control Her Name
Ludacris Drops Off MAGA-Adjacent Rock the Country Tour
Trump Says U.S. ‘Shouldn't Even Have an Election' as He Threatens Insurrection Act
Morrissey Has Canceled 19 Percent of His Planned 2026 Tour Dates
“[Busfield] begged the family to not report to law enforcement if he received therapy,” the pretrial detention motion alleges. “Colin Swift, a therapist himself, thought at the time that was the best thing to do.” Prosecutors also cited two other incidents where Busfield was accused of sexual assault, once in 1994 and a second incident in 2012, though neither incident resulted in criminal charges.
Following the charges against Busfield, the actor was dropped from his longtime agency Innovative Artists.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Dominic Patten
Executive Editor, Legal, Labor & Politics
With strong support from the cast of thirtysomething and others, Timothy Busfield has come out forcefully tonight against the child sex abuse charges against him, as well as attempts by prosecutors to keep him behind bars.
“The State's attempt to transform responsible self-surrender into aggravating conduct only underscores the absence of genuine evidence of dangerousness,” declares an opposition filing just placed in the New Mexico courts seeking to blunt pre-trial efforts by prosecutors to keep the currently in custody Busfield imprisoned up to and during a trial on the felony claims.
Related Stories
Legal
Timothy Busfield Dropped By Innovative Artists As Child Sex Abuse Case Moves Forward In Courts
Legal
Timothy Busfield Enters No Plea In First Court Appearance On Child Sex Abuse Charges
“The Motion asks the Court to imprison a man based on a story that has already collapsed under independent scrutiny,” the exhibit-heavy document from Albuquerque attorneys Amber Fayerberg and Christopher Dodd says. “The State offers no reliable proof—only allegations advanced by witnesses with documented histories of fraud and financial exploitation, contradicted by a comprehensive studio investigation, and refuted by witnesses and objective risk assessments. The Constitution does not allow liberty to be forfeited on such a foundation. The State's Motion should be denied.”
Watch on Deadline
The lawyers assert: “For all of these reasons—the independent investigation that undermined the State's allegations at every turn, the affirmative findings of the polygraph and ABEL assessment, the overwhelming evidence of character and community support, and the absence of any reliable proof of dangerousness—the State cannot meet its burden of clear and convincing evidence that no conditions of release will reasonably protect the community. The Constitution requires release under appropriate conditions.”
Busfield is looking at possibly a decade in state prison if found guilty on two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and child abuse.
With at least one new claim emerging in the days after he was charged, the 68-year old Busfield is accused of misconduct with two 2014-born brothers who were actors on episodes of the Albuquerque-filmed The Cleaning Lady that the Emmy winner directed.
Not long after the U.S. Marshals were called in last week, Busfield arrived in Albuquerque and turned himself in to authorities on January 13, five days after an arrest warrant was issued for him. Being held without bond at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center after being arrested and booked, Busfield appeared briefly in Judge Felicia Blea-Rivera's courtroom remotely on January 14. The same day, as Deadline exclusively reported, Busfield was dropped by his longtime agency Innovative Artists.
In addition to taking swipes at the personal, professional and legal history (father admitted to “conspiracy to commit wire fraud” and was disbarred) of the boys' parents, tonight's filing ahead of a pre-trial detention hearing next week contains a slew of letters from his wife Melissa Gilbert, director Edward Zwick and fellow actors extolling Busfield's virtues.
“Timothy is my friend, so no doubt I'm biased,” says thirtysomething cast member Ken Olin in a letter included. “But I know him well, through many years and many changing life circumstances, and he has always been a man who cares about other people – old and young. And I know in the very bottom of my heart that Timothy would never do anything to cruelly exploit or harm anyone, let alone a child.”
Fellow thirtysomething castmates Peter Horton and Patricia Wellig Olin offered similar sentiments.
As well, a January 15 clinical assessment of Busfield concludes: “Given Mr. Busfield did not have any static or dynamic risk factors identified through the assessment and psychometric tools, it is highly likely that he would abide by any supervision requirements placed on him, if he was released from custody.”
Despite vehemently declaring his innocence on January 13 and insisting, “I did not do anything to those little boys,” Busfield did not enter a plea at that appearance. The actor, his lawyers (who have noted their client successfully passed a polygraph examination on the claims) and Bernalillo County DA Sam Bergman's office are all expected in District Court in person on January 20 for an early afternoon hearing on the pre-trial detention motion.
Depending on how that goes, Busfield could walk out on bail or stew in a Land of Enchantment cell for months.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
If he's guilty, I hope the prosecution is able to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.
If he's innocent, I hope the prosecution can't prove he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
That's really the only position any of us have to have here.
Believe Women and Believe Children!!!!! These men in Hollywood have gotten away with it for far too long.
What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?
Free Busfield
Yes – finally we hearing some of the facts that will show this whole thing to be a bogus pile of lies.
Before anyone passes judgement, remember this is the same place where a District Attorney went after another high-profile Hollywood person in order to advance her career by winning a “big” case. In that one, the DA ended up resigning from the case (which was ultimately dismissed) and getting sanctioned by the State Supreme Court of New Mexico.
Meaning what?
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Jennifer Garner laid bare ex-husband Ben Affleck's obsession with Beyoncé's music in candid new comments.
“Do you guys do this? Do you listen to a song over and over again?” the “Alias” alum asked the audience during an appearance at Diesel, A Bookstore on Thursday.
“I just want to tell you something. I've survived this. I have lived through it,” she said.
Advertisement
The “13 Going on 30” actress, 53, then recalled supporting Affleck, also 53, as he filmed “The Town” back in 2009.
Advertisement
“Ben Affleck listens to a song over and over,” she said, according to People.
“I had a three-month-old and a three-year-old living in a rental in Cambridge, Mass., while he was shooting ‘The Town,'” she shared. “And he listened to Beyoncé‘s ‘Halo,' and I would be nursing.”
Affleck directed, co-wrote and starred in the 2010 crime thriller, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival that year and went on to nab a Producers Guild of America nomination for best film — as well as two wins from the National Board of Review.
“The Last Thing He Told Me” author Laura Dave — who appeared at the Los Angeles event alongside Garner and Rita Wilson — sympathized.
Advertisement
“I love that because the only other person now besides Ben that I've heard that does that was [screenwriter] Tom Stoppard,” Dave — who admitted she indulges in the same practice — said.
“And when I heard that, I thought, okay, I'm in some good company.”
Advertisement
Garner and Affleck married in 2005 and parted ways in 2015, and share kids Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13.
Despite Affleck's marriage to Jennifer Lopez — which lasted from 2022 to 2025 — they've continued a close co-parenting relationship.
Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want celebrity news as it breaks?
Affleck spent Thanksgiving at Garner's Brentwood, Calif., home in November with their kids, and the exes met up the following month for a theater outing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre with Seraphina — though he was also spotted stepping out with Lopez, 56, and Samuel for shopping and lunch the same day.
“Even though Ben and Jen have been split for a while now, he feels a certain level of comfort with her,” an insider exclusively told Page Six of Garner in November.
Earlier this month, the mom of three made a rare comment on the most difficult aspect of her divorce from “The Rip” actor, which was finalized in 2018.
Advertisement
“The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard,” she told Marie Claire. “Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard.”
Advertisement
However, the actress explained that eventually, it became easier to envision a peaceful co-parenting relationship with her ex.
“Time is the opportunity to heal,” she said. “Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends.”
If there was one working director, on the entire planet, who you'd think could worry less about his budgets versus his box office profits, it would presumably be James Cameron. There's nothing new in noting that Cameron is the most fiscally successful film director of all time; even without worrying about inflation, adding up the tallies of all the films the man's written and directed over the years puts his haul somewhere in the $10 billion range, a number that no other filmmaker on Earth has ever even come close to scratching. Cameron has a billion-dollar ($1.23 billion, if you want to get specific about it) movie, Avatar: Fire And Ash, in theaters at this very moment. All of which makes it kind of wild to hear him talking about worries that he's just got to get his costs down if he's ever actually going to make Avatars 4 and 5.
This is per IGN, which was in turn quoting an interview Cameron gave to Taiwan's TVBS News, in which he will not, no matter how hard he's asked, confirm that he's actually making those two long-announced sequels as of yet. It's not precisely clear when Cameron filmed the interview, i.e., whether he knew Fire And Ash was going to wind up with a box office haul that, yes, clocked in at a bit more than half of 2022's Avatar: Way Of Water—but which still made it the third-biggest worldwide box office performer of 2025. “We have to do well to continue,” he tells reporters, noting that the box office is “depressed.” “We have to do well and we need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue.”
Budgets for Way Of Water and Fire And Ash are a bit tricky to separate out, given that Cameron filmed the two movies simultaneously, but sources usually quote numbers as high as $460 million. (Cameron himself won't confirm exact numbers, simply calling the budgets “a metric fuckton of money,” meaning the resulting films need to make “two metric fucktons of money to make a profit.”) Given that Cameron owns Avatar—with distribution rights and merch owned by Disney—and that these last two movies have taken seven years of his and a whole lot of other people's lives to make and get into theaters, it makes a certain sense that he might still be feeling a little commitment-phobic.
Indeed, “If I make them” has been a common refrain from Cameron throughout the press tour for Fire And Ash. Even as he's confirmed that Michelle Yeoh will appear in those new films—hypothetically—he's also made statements promising that, in the absence of the last two movies, he'll hold a press conference to just tell people how they would have ended. In a different director, it'd read as a lack of confidence, but this is, well, James Cameron—a man who will happily hijack an anniversary special just so he can semi-definitively tell people complaining about that door at the end of Titanic to fuck off. If he says the way he makes Avatar movies has to change for them to make Avatar 4 and 5 make fiscal sense, he's the man in the position to know.
Recommended for You1Ben Affleck and Matt Damon put on their best grimaces for Joe Carnahan's best film in years2Pam Anderson reminds Seth Rogen he still owes her an apology for Pam & Tommy3'70s spy thriller Ponies hits a sweet spot between The Americans and Burn Notice4The board game Iliad turns a 10-year war into a 30-minute duel5A showstopping Ralph Fiennes keeps the offbeat horror of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple alive
© 2026 Paste Media Group. All Rights Reserved
By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
NBC is truly bringing back pilot season. In addition to the barrage of January pilot orders — six over the past four days — the network also has revived another forgotten pilot season tradition: Friday night greenlights.
Getting pilot orders tonight are dramas Puzzled, from former Charmed showrunner Joey Falco, and What the Dead Know, from Dick Wolf‘s Wolf Entertainment and writer Beth Rinehart (FBI: Most Wanted).
Both projects are crime/cop procedurals based on books, Danielle Trussoni's novel The Puzzle Master and former New York City medical examiner Barbara Butcher's memoir What the Dead Know, respectively. Both are produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
In Puzzled, written by Falco who executive produces with Jordan Cerf, after barely escaping a tragic fire, once-promising college athlete Mike Brink is transformed by a traumatic brain injury that gives him the unique ability to see the world in an unexpected way and helps him solve crimes with local police.
Watch on Deadline
Trussoni serves as producer.
Written by Rinehart, What the Dead Know centers on death Investigator Ava Ledger who is really good with dead bodies. It's the living that give her trouble. The series follows Ava as she teams with the NYPD to solve their toughest cases.
Rinehart executive produces with Wolf Entertainment's Dick Wolf, Tom Thayer, Peter Jankowski and Anastasia Puglisi. Kevin Plunkett, Rebecca McGill and Butcher co-executive produce.
NBC had been expected to pick up a sizable number of pilots by today's standards this pilot season — about four dramas and four comedies. The network is already overdelivering on its goal with five drama pilots — The Rockford Files reboot, Protection, the untitled Georgaris/Fox project, Puzzled and What the Dead Know. Interestingly, all are in the crime genre and most are procedurals, indicating a clear programming focus for the network this season. (Tonally, Puzzled is believed to be lighter than the others.)
Even the sole NBC comedy pilot so far this cycle, the untitled Goor/Del Tredici project, is set in the world of crime, revolving around a private detective. With NBC ordering five drama pilots, it is unclear whether the network would stick with four comedy pickups or do fewer.
Falco previously created and executive produced the 2023 ABC legal drama pilot Judgement starring Sarah Shahi. His series credits also include Sleepy Hollow and Heroes Reborn. In addition to FBI: Most Wanted, Rinehart worked on Wolf Entertainment's Law & Order: SVU and Chicago Justice. Her series credits also include NCIS: New Orleans.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
Yes! Welcome back PILOT SEASON!
Beth is an immensely gifted writer whose talent is only eclipsed by the size of her heart. I love seeing good thing happen to deserving people!
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Williams made his catwalk model debut in Milan.
By
Katie Atkinson
Executive Digital Director, West Coast
Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams made his catwalk model debut Friday (Jan. 16), opening the Dsquared2 fall 2026 runway show in Milan to an A.I. reworking of Carly Simon's “Let the River Run.”
Ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics — which are taking place in both Milan and Cortina, Italy, starting next month — the Dsquared2 presentation was themed around winter sports and closed the first day of Milan Fashion Week Men's Fall/Winter 2026.
The soundtrack of the 15-minute runway show largely consisted of a mash-up of reworkings of “Let the River Run,” with the opening two minutes scored by an orchestral-rock interpretation of the Academy Award-winning song. On streaming services, the song is credited as “Running on the Water” and is billed to such artist names as Kradex (on Apple Music) or Da Soul Orchestra (on YouTube and Deezer). Notably, on Deezer, the track carries an “AI-generated content” label, which indicates the release is “detected as AI-generated” by the service. Further, on Da Soul Orchestra's YouTube channel, the act's bio notes “we use AI technology to rework iconic tracks in fresh styles.”
Simon's “Let the River Run” was written for the 1988 film Working Girl, starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith. The film's opening sequence and end credits are soundtracked by “Let the River Run.” The track would go on to win Simon the Oscar for best original song and the Grammy Award for best song written specifically for a motion picture or television. The single climbed to No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 11 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart.
Milan Fashion Week continues through Jan. 20. Could Williams' Heated Rivalry co-star Connor Storrie hit the fashion slopes in Milan? W magazine noted rumblings of Storrie possibly making his runway debut for Dolce & Gabbana on Saturday, but the outlet said the actor's publicists denied the rumor.
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox
Your email address will not be published.
Required fields are marked *
Post Comment
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By Denise Petski
Senior Managing Editor
UPDATED with additional details: Kianna Underwood, a former child actor who appeared on Nickelodeon‘s All That and Little Bill, among others, was killed Friday morning in a hit-and-run in Brooklyn, NY. She was 33.
Underwood was struck by a black Ford Explorer SUV as she attempted to cross the street in a marked crosswalk at Pitkin Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard in the Brownsville neighborhood at around 6:45 am, the New York Police Department confirmed to Deadline. She was then “subsequently struck by a black and gray sedan,” police said, and according to witnesses, became lodged under the vehicle and was dragged for two blocks. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The drivers of both vehicles fled the scene. “There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad,” the NYPD said.
Underwood was regular performer in Nickelodeon's All That, a live-action sketch comedy show created by Brian Robbins and Michael Tollin, which aired from 1994-2020. She appeared in seven episodes during 2004-05. Underwood also voiced the role of Fuchsia Glover in Little Bill, an animated children's series created by Bill Cosby that aired from 1999-2004 on Nick. She also appeared as Tanessha Labelle in comedy feature The 24 Hour Woman (1999), starring Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Patti LuPone, and in the 2001 Rankin/Bass holiday toon Santa, Baby!
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
There has to be video of this…the perpetrator will be caught.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By
Nancy Dillon
Apollonia says Prince never meant to cause her any sorrow, so his estate shouldn't either.
In a new declaration filed in her federal court lawsuit on Friday, the model and actress known as Apollonia claims Prince was “adamant” during a face-to-face meeting two months before his death that she should keep using and performing under the name he gave her to play his love interest in the iconic 1984 movie, Purple Rain.
Apollonia, 66, says that Susan Moonsie, another member of the girl group Apollonia 6 that Prince formed after the film's release, was with her for the Feb. 28, 2016, meeting that took place immediately after Prince's Piano and a Microphone concert in Oakland, California.
“During our conversations that evening, Prince was adamant that we continue with our ventures such as musical performances, merchandising, and audiovisual projects, and that he wanted us both to use our Apollonia and Apollonia 6 trademarks in order to be able to earn a living, stay creative, and be financially secure in our later years,” Apollonia, born Patricia Kotero, wrote.
Kotero, who's now suing the estate, says Prince never trademarked the name while he was alive, so the estate's Paisley Park Enterprises was out of line when it assumed control of the Apollonia trademark last June and sought to cancel her other registrations and applications in a proceeding with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Kotero is now asking the court to reject the estate's request that her lawsuit be dismissed.
“The truth is none of this litigation would have occurred if Prince were still alive,” she wrote in her declaration filed Friday. “He would be appalled by the unbecoming conduct of PPE and the efforts by PPE to usurp his wishes. I do not trust PPE, and I am afraid that if PPE is able to accomplish its goal of taking the Apollonia Marks from me, my identity will be lost, my rights will be diminished, my business will be interrupted, and I will be unable to use the Apollonia marks without repercussion from PPE.”
Editor's picks
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
Kotero first filed her lawsuit in August, saying she “famously starred” in Purple Rain, and Prince “consented to and encouraged” her use of her character's name before his accidental fentanyl overdose in April 2016 at age 57. She claimed it was “highly likely” that the estate would sue her for trademark infringement if it prevailed in its efforts with the trademark office, so she asked the court for a judicial declaration confirming she's entitled to her name and marks.
In a statement posted on the official Prince Instagram account last August, the estate said the estate had the right to “protect and preserve Prince's assets and legacy.” The statement said the estate has repeatedly attempted to resolve the dispute privately and also claimed it offered Kotero multiple opportunities to perform at Paisley Park.
In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed Oct. 13, the estate doubled down on the claim it has no intention of blocking Kotero from using the name. “Defendant has never threatened to sue plaintiff, never asked her to cease using her adopted stage name, nor ever asked her to cease any of her business activities,” the motion, obtained by Rolling Stone, said. The estate argued that the question of ownership should be resolved by the trademark office, not the court.
In an amended complaint, Kotero said she believed the estate was attempting to secure control of Apollonia for ventures such as the Purple Rain musical staged at the State Theater in Minneapolis, ahead of a possible Broadway run. She cited a promotional image from the production that showed actress Rachel Webb with the name “APOLLONIA” printed prominently. Kotero said the image violated her right of publicity. “Defendants do not have the authority to allow a third party to use plaintiff's name, image, voice, likeness or other indicia of identity, including plaintiff's likeness from the original film,” her filing said.
Related Content
Court Dismisses Salt-N-Pepa Lawsuit Accusing UMG of Violating Copyright Act
'Stranger Things' Creators Explain How They Got Two Prince Classics Into the Finale
Watch Phish Ring In the New Year by Playing Prince's ‘Cream' for the First Time
Mickey Rourke Sued for $59,100 in Unpaid Rent, Facing Eviction
The estate countered that the use of the name beneath a photograph of another actress in advertising materials was insufficient to support a legal claim. “Plaintiff has only alleged that defendant has used the name of a character from Purple Rain, a film in which plaintiff previously appeared,” the estate argued in its dismissal motion.
“We are very confident that Apollonia will prevail in protecting her name,” Kotero's lawyer, Daniel M. Cislo, tells Rolling Stone. Lawyers for the estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. A hearing on the estate's motion to dismiss is scheduled for Feb. 13.
Trending Stories
Apollonia Says Prince ‘Would Be Appalled' by Estate Effort to Control Her Name
Ludacris Drops Off MAGA-Adjacent Rock the Country Tour
Trump Says U.S. ‘Shouldn't Even Have an Election' as He Threatens Insurrection Act
Morrissey Has Canceled 19 Percent of His Planned 2026 Tour Dates
After rising to fame in Purple Rain, Kotero toured internationally to promote the film and her hit song “Sex Shooter.” She and Prince became “lifelong friends,” her lawsuit said, and she co-wrote the Bangles' 1986 hit “Manic Monday” with him. She also provided vocals on Prince's song “Take Me With You,” using her stage name. In 1985, she became a regular on the television series Falcon Crest, again using the name Apollonia. Her self-titled solo album was released in 1988.
Prince had no will and no children when he died, leading to a messy battle over his assets. His six siblings ultimately inherited equal interests in his estate.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
EXCLUSIVE: Tia Napolitano is stepping down as showrunner of CBS‘ popular drama series Fire Country after four seasons. She will be leaving at the end of the current season and plans to focus on her own development under the overall deal she has with Fire Country producer CBS Studios. A search for a new showrunner will commence soon.
Napolitano joined Fire Country, created/executive produced by series star Max Thieriot and writers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, right after the pilot as executive producer and showrunner and has steered the firefighter drama since.
Fire Country got off to a hot start, ranking as the No. 1 most-watched new series for the season it launched in, 2022-2023, and was quickly identified by CBS brass as a show with franchise potential.
Watch on Deadline
Now in its fourth season, Fire Country still regularly wins its Friday time period, averaging 8.1 million Live+35 multi-platform viewers to date. It also helped launch spinoff Sheriff Country, which is on track to repeat Fire Country's feat of being the most watched new series in its freshman season.
“Tia has been instrumental in helping both build and steer Fire Country, which not only became a top series, but is also the foundation of a growing universe,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf said in a joint statement. “We're grateful for all her contributions and tireless work, and look forward to collaborating with her on future projects.”
Napolitano, whose first TV job was as a writers assistant working for then-Grey's Anatomy showrunners Phelan and Rater, was approached for the Fire Country showrunner job early on, before the pilot was picked up to series. She has been at the helm as the series navigated the writers strike, the L.A. fires and, most recently, the departure of original cast members Billy Burke and Stephanie Arcila at the end of last season.
“I am beyond proud of the past four seasons of Fire Country,” Napolitano said. “All of my gratitude to our cast, crew, writers, producers, fans, and of course CBS and CBS Studios. It's been a beautiful ride!”
Before joining Fire Country, Napolitano served as executive producer and showrunner on Freeform's Cruel Summer. Her writing-producing credits also include Grey's Anatomy and spinoff Station 19.
Fire Country Season 4 returns with new episodes February 27.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Billboard's Friday Music Guide also featured new songs by Wizkid & Asake, Megan Moroney and Mitski.
By
Katie Atkinson
Executive Digital Director, West Coast
This week's Friday Music Guide brought a trio of albums and a trio of songs that Billboard editors will have in our headphones all weekend — but which of the half-dozen selections is your favorite new music of the week?
Starting with the albums, we had the long-awaited A$AP Rocky project Don't Be Dumb — his first album since 2018's Testing. We heard lead singles “Punk Rocky” and “Helicopter” first, but Friday's (Jan. 16) release brought 15 tracks on the standard album plus two digital bonuses.
ENHYPEN (Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon and Ni-Ki) dropped the 11-track EP The Sin: Vanish on Friday, highlighted by lead single “Knife.” The vampire-themed release is the first in the seven-member K-pop group's expected The Sin series.
Finally, Madison Beer put out her third album locket, which follows 2023's Silence Between Songs. We all know the 2024-released single “Make You Mine” — a top 10 hit on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart — and the album was also preceded by the songs “Yes Baby” and “Bittersweet” (Beer's first Billboard Hot 100 hit).
On the song front, we got new tunes from Nigerian superstars Wizkid and Asake (“Jogodo”), country crooner Megan Moroney (“Wish I Didn't”) and indie-pop singer/songwriter Mitski (“Where's My Phone?”).
But which was your favorite of the week? Below, you can vote for one of our half-dozen Friday Music Guide selections or write in your own in our poll. We'll close the poll on Sunday and share the results so fans can see which album or song wears the weekly crown.
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox
Your email address will not be published.
Required fields are marked *
Post Comment
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Winfrey and Gayle King shared wisdom, jokes and more during an appearance at New York's 92Y on Tuesday. Winfrey drew cheers when she copped to emerging as a winning drinker during Santa Barbara's Fiesta.
By
Chris Gardner
In a mostly earnest, insightful and educational conversation about health, food noise, GLP-1s and the dangers of not recognizing obesity as a disease, Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King delivered some moments of levity as only best friends can do during a special appearance at 92nd Street Y.
The two appeared at New York's cultural and community center Tuesday with King acting as moderator for a conversation that featured Winfrey and Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff discussing their new book, Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It's Like to Be Free. As King noted at the top of the hourlong chat, 2026 marks a milestone 50th anniversary of meeting as friends in Baltimore, Maryland back in 1976. “We were 21 and 22, now we're 71 and 71. [Oprah] is turning 72 soon.”
Related Stories
Lifestyle
Beyoncé to Return to Met Gala After 10 Year Absence as Co-Chair Alongside Anna Wintour
Lifestyle
Oprah's Favorite Things 2025 List Revealed: Chic Balaclavas, Stain Remover and Everything in Between
Winfrey, whose birthday is Jan. 29, drew laughs, cheers and gasps when she revealed just how many shots she downed in order to win a drinking contest in Santa Barbara, not far from her estate in Montecito. The topic of conversation came up after King recalled being at a Golden Globes party last weekend when she asked the bartender for a Shirley Temple. “The person next to me said, ‘Seriously?' I go, ‘Seriously with extra cherries.' I just don't drink but you don't drink now either.”
Related Video
Winfrey confirmed that she's off the sauce even though she “used to be a tequila girl.” King then prodded her to cite the number of shots she downed in one sitting. “There's something in Santa Barbara called the Fiesta festival. People are out in the streets, and you're drinking and having a good time. That's the whole point. One night we had a drinking contest and I won with 17 shots,” Winfrey confirmed. While she didn't name names of who she drank under the table, King did have more to say: “Don't applaud that. That's terrible.”
King praised her best friend at other times during the revelatory chat. “This is the most open and honest conversation I've ever heard her have about her weight, which, by the way, is nobody's business,” King said of Winfrey, who generated countless headlines when she revealed she turned to GLP-1s to help with a nearly lifelong battle with obesity.
“The bottom line is this, no amount of fame, wealth, success, attention can substitute for your biology,” Winfrey said. “I'm here now telling you there is a pill. There are medications. You can opt to use them or not use them. If you don't use them or don't want to use them, that's really fine. But just know that the struggle doesn't have to be the struggle that you've had, and if you are going to choose to lose weight by eating healthily and working out and the weight comes back, understand why it always comes back.”
Winfrey's movie career came up when she recalled the promotional cycle for Jonathan Demme's 1998 film in which she starred opposite Danny Glover. “I was promoting this movie, Beloved, which y'all did not go to see. One person went to see it in this room,” she said jokingly. “Anna Wintour wanted to do a cover. I remember just as she was walking out, she goes, ‘You know, you have to lose 20 pounds.' I said, ‘OK, I'm gonna do it.' And I felt really great losing that 20 pounds. I'm telling you, when they brought me the first Polaroid of that Vogue cover, I cried. I cried because I thought the very idea that somebody who had suffered so much from all the weight issues would be on the cover of Vogue.”
King said she still recalled the cover line: “A Major Movie, An Amazing Makeover.”
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
The line between internet memes and things that actually matter has gotten increasingly fuzzy over the last few years, with the GameStop “stonks” story standing as an obvious example of the way something that started as a silly joke, bubbling up from the depths of an internet message board, can have a binding communal impact that ends up actually altering people's lives. The current online furor over Disney's Cory In The House for the Nintendo DS has not reached the level where Craig Gillespie is likely to make a movie about it, and, if there is a loving god, it never will. But it is causing some pretty serious money to change hands, as IGN reports that copies of what would otherwise be a completely inessential and forgotten Disney Channel tie-in handheld game are now trading for hundreds of dollars, all in service of a raging meme.
If literally no words in that preceding paragraph made sense, we both sympathize, and will now try to break it down for you: See, Cory In The House was a short-lived spin-off of the Disney Channel's That's So Raven, in which Kyle Massey played the son of the White House executive chef, getting up to various money-making shenanigans while occasionally getting life advice from the POTUS. (The show was apparently killed off by a combination of the 2007 Writer's Strike and Massey's family getting litigious after he was injured performing a stunt on the show; such are the means by which Cory becomes no longer in The House.) In 2008, Disney Interactive Studios tapped developer Handheld Games—the minds behind That's So Raven: Psychic On The Scene, natch—to make a Cory In The House game for Nintendo's twin-screened handheld, a stealth adventure in which the playable Cory sneaks around the White House, foiling a plot involving mind controlling bobbleheads. It was, by all accounts, not a very good video game, with critics criticizing its clunky controls and general Cory In The House-ness. But, the internet being what it is, the idea of a licensed game for a barely remembered TV series struck a chord in a certain kind of online person, and memes about Cory In The House for the Nintendo DS began picking up periodic bursts of the internet's eternally scattered attention.
Cut to this month, when a new fascination with the game bubbled up on 4chan—and then managed to metastasize to Metacritic, where user reviews (glowingly declaring that the game “changed my life”) were soon taking off. (Cory In The House for the Nintendo DS is currently the sixth-ranked game of all time on the site's user rankings, nestled in alongside games like The Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater.) And while those simply wanting to catch CITHFTNDS Fever could just pirate the game, or watch a longplay on YouTube (Hard+100%+Bonus), the urge to actually touch a physical copy of the game (or make money off of those who do) is apparently very powerful. Which is to say, it's now hit a point where Ebay listings for the game have started cropping up with prices that start around $150, and then grow from there. And while no one has yet bit on, say, alexg2205's “Cory in the House Nintendo DS Promotional Poster drawn by the Anime Creators rea”—which appears, to our untrained eyes, to be very similar to a hand-drawn picture of the game's box art done in pencil—for $600, Ebay does have records of the game actually being sold this week for as much as $400. Which, we have to assume, is more money spent on a joke than Disney spent for any of the individual gags in the actual series, because when the internet hyper-fixates on something, it inevitably winds up doing so in ways where very silly amounts of money start getting moved around.
Recommended for You1Ben Affleck and Matt Damon put on their best grimaces for Joe Carnahan's best film in years2Pam Anderson reminds Seth Rogen he still owes her an apology for Pam & Tommy3'70s spy thriller Ponies hits a sweet spot between The Americans and Burn Notice4The board game Iliad turns a 10-year war into a 30-minute duel5A showstopping Ralph Fiennes keeps the offbeat horror of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple alive
© 2026 Paste Media Group. All Rights Reserved
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The eighth installment of the franchise hails from producer James Wan and director Ian Tuason
By
Aaron Couch
Film Editor
Paramount is keeping May spooky, and will release the next Paranormal Activity movie on May 21, 2027.
The untitled feature is produced by franchise newcomer James Wan and directed by Ian Tuason, with plot details kept under wraps.
This will be the eighth film in the franchise that began life with Oren Peli's ultra low-budget, 2007 film that grossed $194.2 million and is considered one of the most profitable movies of all time. Originally shot for just $15,000, Jason Blum discovered the feature and injected additional funds into the film before releasing it and turning it into a sleeper hit that helped popularize the found footage genre.
Related Stories
Business
Paramount Loses Bid to Fast Track Warner Bros. Discovery Disclosures on Netflix Deal
Business
The Fight for Warner Bros. May Get Uglier
Blum will produce for his and Wan's Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, while Peli produces for his Solana Films. Paramount is co-producing and co-financing with Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.
Related Video
May has become a surprise strong month for scares, with New Line's Final Destination: Bloodlines earning $315.9 million globally after opening May 16 last year. This year, Focus Features has the Toronto sensation Obsession bowing May 15.
In addition to the original film, the Paranormal franchise entries include Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), Paranormal Activity 4 (2012), The Marked Ones (2014), The Ghost Dimension (2015), and Next of Kin (2021). In all, they have grossed a combined $900 million globally.
“I've been a huge admirer of Paranormal Activity since the brilliant first movie, with its creeping slow burn and subtle ability to make the unseen terrifying. I'm looking forward to expanding on its legacy and helping shape the next evolution of this scary found-footage franchise,” Wan last month when the film was announced.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The pair will head to France for filming on the HBO series.
By
Rick Porter
Television Business Editor
HBO has booked two more guests for the fourth season of The White Lotus.
Steve Coogan and Caleb Jonte Edwards have joined the show for the coming season, which is set to film in France. As with most things related to The White Lotus, details of who they'll be playing are being kept quiet. Series creator Mike White is currently writing the new season.
Coogan and Edwards are the third and fourth members of the cast for the coming season, joining Alexander Ludwig and AJ Michalka.
Related Stories
TV
John Oliver Says Warner Bros. Acquisition "Very Hard to Justify Legally," But "We're Not Going to Change"
TV
Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers to Compose Score for HBO's 'Harry Potter' Series
Coogan is best known for his long-running Alan Partridge character; he's played the hapless British TV presenter in several series dating back to the 1990s. He's also a two-time Oscar nominee as a writer and producer of Philomena; his other credits include The Trip films and TV series with Rob Brydon, In the Loop and voice work in the Despicable Me movies.
Edwards is a relative newcomer to the business; he appeared in an episode of the Australian drama series Black Snow last year and a short film called The Man and the Woman.
HBO confirmed in November that season four of The White Lotus will take place in France. A hotel in Saint-Tropez, the Château de la Messardière, will be the primary location for the season, with shooting in other parts of France also likely.
White writes and directs The White Lotus and executive produces with David Bernad and Mark Kamine.
Coogan is repped by CAA and Independent Talent Group. Edwards is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment and Eaton Management.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
By
Jonathan Zavaleta
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
Bruno Mars is heading on a massive world tour in 2026, his first full global headlining tour since the 24K Magic World Tour, which began in 2017. He has already added 30 dates to the tour since it was first announced earlier this month. When tickets went on sale on Jan. 15, they quickly sold out in many cities.
The Romantic tour will be in support of his album of the same name, which will be released on Feb. 27. Fans got their first taste of the new album with “I Just Might,” a 1970s-inspired throwback jam. Mars' Silk Sonic collaborator Anderson .Paak will dust off his DJ Pee .Wee alter-ego for The Romantic tour, while Leon Thomas, Victoria Monét, and RAYE will also support Mars on select dates of the tour.
$27.98
Release Date: 02/27/2026
The U.S. leg of the tour kicks off in April in Las Vegas and runs through May, before he heads to Canada, Europe, and the U.K. The Romantic tour will then return to New Jersey in August, with further dates in New Orleans, Miami, and Los Angeles. He'll then close out the tour in Vancouver, Canada, in October.
Since many dates have sold out on general sale, fans looking to buy tickets will likely have to turn to the resale market. Here's where you can buy tickets for Bruno Mars' The Romantic tour.
Tickets for Mars' first stop at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas start at under $170 on StubHub as of this writing. Meanwhile, tickets for his Arizona stop start at around $150.
Tickets for Bruno Mars' Glendale, Arizona date start at around $130, as of this writing, while the first Vegas date is similarly priced for the upper, off-center sections. The sections in front of the stage start at around $840.
SeatGeek is another resale option for concert tickets, with prices starting at $134 for Mars' second Vegas date, $127 for his Columbus, OH stop, and $184 for his second Miami stop.
Tickets for Bruno Mars' first Atlanta date start at around $245, as of this writing, while his first date in Las Vegas starts at around $160. You can get get $150 off orders over $500 with code RS150 or $300 off orders of $1,000+ with code RS300.
You can see the full list of Bruno Mars' tour dates below.
Apr 10 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium*#Apr 11 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium*#Apr 14 — Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium*#Apr 15 — Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium*# Apr 18 — Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field*#Apr 19 — Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field*#Apr 22 — Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium*#Apr 25 — Atlanta, GA @ Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field*#Apr 26 — Atlanta, GA @ Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field*#Apr 29 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium*#May 2 — Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium*#May 3 — Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium*#May 6 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium*#May 9 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field*#May 10 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field*# May 13 — Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium*#May 16 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field*#May 17 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field*#May 20 — Columbus, OH @ Ohio Stadium*#May 23 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*#May 24 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*#May 27 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*#May 28 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*#Jun 18 — Paris, FR @ Stade de France*^Jun 20 — Paris, FR @ Stade de France*^Jun 21 — Paris, FR @ Stade de France*^Jun 26 — Berlin, DE @ Olympiastadion*^Jun 28 — Berlin, DE @ Olympiastadion*^Jul 2 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff ArenA*^Jul 4 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff ArenA*^Jul 5 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff ArenA*^Jul 7 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff ArenA*^Jul 10 — Madrid, ES @ Riyadh Air Metropolitano*^Jul 14 — Milan, IT @ Stadio San Siro*^Jul 15 — Milan, IT @ Stadio San Siro*^Jul 18 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^Jul 19 — London, UK —@Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^ Jul 22 — London, UK — Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^ Jul 24 — London, UK — Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^ Jul 25— London, UK — Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^ Jul 28 — London, UK — Wembley Stadium Connected by EE*^Aug 21 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium*@Aug 22 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium*@Aug 25 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium*@ Aug 26 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium*@ Aug 29 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Acrisure Stadium*Sep 1 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field*@Sep 2 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field*@ Sep 5 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium*@Sep 6 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium*@ Sep 9 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium*@ Sep 12 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium*@Sep 13 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium*@ Sep 16 — New Orleans, LA @ Caesars Superdome*@ Sep 19 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium*@Sep 20 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium*@ Sep 23 — San Antonio, TX @ Alamodome*@ Sep 26 — Air Force Academy, CO @ Falcon Stadium at the United States Air Force Academy*@Sep 27 — Air Force Academy, CO @ Falcon Stadium at the United States Air Force Academy*@ Oct 2 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium*@ Oct 3 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium*@Oct 6 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium*@ Oct 7 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium*@ Oct 10 — Santa Clara, CA @ Levi's Stadium*@Oct 11 — Santa Clara, CA @ Levi's Stadium*@ Oct 14 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place*@Oct 16 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place*@ Oct 17 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place*@
* with Anderson .Paak as DJ Pee .Wee# with Leon Thomas^ with Victoria Monét@ with RAYE
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER
Published: 12:20 EST, 17 January 2026 | Updated: 12:20 EST, 17 January 2026
3
View comments
Delanie Walker has fueled conspiracy theories that an electrical substation beside the 49ers training facility is to blame for San Francisco's injury crisis, with the former tight end claiming there were even concerns it could cause cancer.
George Kittle became the latest 49ers star to be sidelined after he tore his Achilles tendon against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Over the past decade, San Francisco has been plagued by injuries and there are theories that electromagnetic field (EMF) waves are affecting players.
The Silicon Valley Power Mission Substation sits next to the 49ers' Santa Clara base and it's claimed the EMF waves can damage tendons and cause soft-tissue damage.
The theory has gathered momentum in the wake of Kittle's Achilles injury and now Walker has poured fuel on the fire.
The tight end was drafted by the 49ers 2006 and remained in San Francisco until 2012. He claims there were concerns over the substation back then.
The 49ers electrical sub station conspiracy has been going on for years now pic.twitter.com/hNpmRScIp9
San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle tore his Achilles tendon against the Philadelphia Eagles
Low-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage at levels regulators call "safe."We have a real world case study proving this:An NFL team whose practice facility sits next to a massive electrical substation.THREAD 🧵… pic.twitter.com/fOVvrVTu5I
'That's been an issue since I've been there - they talked about moving that electrical substation because when I was there,' he told the Bussin' With The Boys podcast.
'It was said that it was giving people cancer... so then they pushed it back a little bit and just took some of it away.'
He added: 'You can even feel it sometimes - I don't know what it is - you can feel the energy. And then a transformer exploded one day we were at practice.
'That s*** sounded like a f***ing bomb went off. I was like: 'This is dangerous" but they're not going to move it.'
There are trees near the substation and Walker this week insisted: 'Everything dies where the power station is.'
The retired tight end, 41, claimed that research was done into the possible impact of the site but that players were given guarantees that the practice facility is safe.
'They would start telling us: this may cause cancer, this is a study they're doing. They had doctors coming up there,' he said.
'We may have signed something, I'm going to be honest,' Walker continued. 'I heard they were like: "Oh it may make your ligaments weak" and I'm like: 'God Damn, that's crazy.' And then when I saw the picture I thought: We practiced right there too. that's the craziest s*** ever.'
Share what you think
The comments below have not been moderated.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.
Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?
Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual.
Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?
Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual
We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We'll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.
You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.
The SETI@home project's final 100 signals could mark the most promising, or the most haunting, silence in the search for alien intelligence.
The SETI@home project, after decades of data collection, is approaching the end of its massive search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have narrowed their focus to the final 100 unexplained radio signals, marking one of the most exhaustive analyses in the history of the project. This culmination was formally presented in two papers published in 2025 in The Astronomical Journal, one focusing on data acquisition and processing, and the other on data analysis and findings.
The SETI@home initiative, founded in 1999, turned millions of home computers into a distributed scientific instrument, each one helping to sift through the torrent of radio data gathered by the Arecibo Observatory. For years, signals piled up faster than researchers could interpret them.
“Until about 2016, we didn't really know what we were going to do with these detections that we'd accumulated,” said David Anderson, computer scientist at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the project. “We hadn't figured out how to do the whole second part of the analysis.”
The 2025 papers finally bridge that gap. They detail how researchers systematically examined the billions of candidate detections for patterns that might indicate intelligent origin. “These signals appeared as ‘momentary blips of energy at a particular frequency coming from a particular point in the sky,'” Anderson explained. The team developed new algorithms to flag signals that could not be attributed to satellites, radar, or other Earth-based interference.
Despite this immense progress, the challenge of processing such an enormous dataset remains formidable. As Berkeley astronomer Eric Korpela noted, “There's no way that you can do a full investigation of every possible signal that you detect, because doing that still requires a person and eyeballs.”
The first paper, published in the Astronomical Journal, focusing on data acquisition and processing, details the sophisticated filtering systems and distributed computing techniques that made SETI@home unique. The second, published in the same journal, centered on data analysis and findings, lays out how those refined methods led to the isolation of roughly 100 promising signals. Both papers stress transparency and reproducibility, offering open datasets and refined code to allow other researchers to continue the search independently.
As Anderson emphasized,
“If we don't find ET, what we can say is that we have established a new sensitivity level. If there were a signal above a certain power, we would have found it.”
The authors report that the project now represents the most sensitive narrowband search across large portions of the sky ever completed.
Despite their achievements, the team admits to mixed emotions. “We are, without doubt, the most sensitive narrowband search of large portions of the sky, so we had the best chance of finding something,” Korpela reflected. “So yeah, there's a little disappointment that we didn't see anything.”
But that disappointment is tempered by scientific realism. Anderson acknowledged that early choices in data handling, driven by the limits of computing power in the late 1990s, may have led to potential oversights.
“We have to do a better job of measuring what we're excluding,” he said. “Are we throwing out the baby with the bath water? I don't think we know for most SETI searches… In a world where I had the money, I would reanalyze it the right way. And we did make some mistakes. These were conscious choices because of how fast computers were in 1999.”
Even now, there remains an air of mystery around the dataset. The team's latest filtering may not have caught everything. As Anderson hinted,
“There's still the potential that ET is in that data and we missed it just by a hair.”
That lingering uncertainty fuels both scientific rigor and imagination, a reminder that, even after decades, the search for extraterrestrial life continues to balance between data and hope.
Korpela and Anderson's work not only defines the cutting edge of radio astronomy but also sets a foundation for the next generation of SETI projects, from machine-learning-assisted signal recognition to expanded telescope networks. The legacy of SETI@home will endure as a bridge between human curiosity and cosmic possibility.
Kouceila is a journalist and digital content writer with a Master's degree in Journalism from the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences (University of Algiers 3 – ITFC), earned in 2018. He began his journey in web writing in 2017, with a strong focus on social and financial topics. Over the years, he has worked with several media outlets, communication agencies, and advertising firms. In January 2025, he joined the Daily Galaxy team.
The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel is an independent media. Support us by adding us to your Google News favorites:
Comment
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
© 2026 | Daily Galaxy | All rights reserved
[Adobe Stock]
A new comprehensive analysis suggests that while conspiracy beliefs are deeply entrenched, they are not entirely resistant to change. The findings indicate that specific intervention strategies, particularly those involving direct fact-checking and alternative explanations, can achieve modest reductions in these beliefs. This meta-analysis was published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
Conspiracy theories often serve as alleged explanations for complex events, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to geopolitical conflicts. Believing in these narratives can lead to tangible negative consequences, such as vaccine hesitancy or disregard for democratic norms.
Lukasz Stasielowicz, a researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Salzburg, undertook this study to move beyond individual experiments and provide a systematic overview of what actually works. While many scientists have tested various persuasion techniques, there has been a lack of clarity regarding which methods consistently yield results and which factors moderate their success. Stasielowicz aimed to quantify the average impact of these interventions and identify the specific characteristics that enhance their effectiveness.
“Conspiracy theories play a role in everyday situations, such as deciding whether to get vaccinated after reading alarming statements in a messaging app, arguing with relatives about political news during a meal, and reading social media posts questioning medical advice from health professionals,” Stasielowicz told PsyPost. “However, there is surprisingly little solid evidence on what actually helps people believe less in harmful conspiracy theories.”
“Many research teams have tested various interventions, but these strategies have not yet been compared to determine what works, for whom, and under what circumstances. This study aimed to systematically compare the available interventions and identify features that make interventions most effective.”
To accomplish this, the researcher conducted a systematic literature search using databases such as Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria required studies to measure conspiracy beliefs following an intervention and to employ a control group for comparison. Stasielowicz identified 56 independent samples that met these standards. These samples represented a total of 27,996 participants. The studies were primarily conducted in Western nations, with a significant number originating from the United States and Europe.
The analysis utilized a Bayesian three-level meta-analytic model. This statistical approach allowed the researcher to account for the fact that single studies often report multiple outcomes, such as measuring beliefs about several different conspiracy theories simultaneously. The dataset included 273 distinct effect sizes. Stasielowicz examined a wide range of variables to explain differences in outcomes, including the design of the intervention, the demographics of the participants, and the specific nature of the conspiracy beliefs being challenged.
Stasielowicz found that the average intervention effect was small but positive. This suggests that it is possible to reduce conspiracy beliefs, though the typical impact is akin to dimming a light rather than flipping a switch. The overall effect size was estimated at 0.16, which indicates a modest shift in belief rather than a transformative change. However, the data revealed substantial variability between different studies, implying that the quality and type of intervention matter significantly.
“One of the most striking findings was how different the results were across studies,” Stasielowicz said. “Some interventions worked quite well, whereas others barely changed beliefs or even seemed to strengthen conspiracy thinking. Thus, designing and deploying interventions needs to be done carefully to avoid backfiring and pushing people deeper into conspiratorial rabbit holes full of implausible narratives. A bad intervention can be worse than no intervention at all.”
Interventions that included fact-checking of specific conspiracy claims tended to be more effective than other approaches. The analysis suggests that scrutinizing details such as dates, timelines, and numbers directly associated with a conspiracy theory yields better results than general attempts to promote skepticism.
Similarly, the data indicates that providing alternative explanations for the events in question can enhance the persuasive power of the message. This suggests that simply debunking a claim is often insufficient unless a factual narrative replaces the conspiratorial one.
The degree to which the intervention content matched the outcome measure also played a role. Stasielowicz found that effects were larger when the arguments presented in the intervention directly addressed the specific beliefs measured in the questionnaire. For example, countering myths about vaccines proved effective for reducing vaccine-related conspiracy beliefs but would likely have little impact on beliefs regarding government surveillance. This finding supports the idea that belief change is often domain-specific rather than a general shift in mindset.
“The main takeaway is that it is possible to reduce conspiracy beliefs, but the average impact of current interventions is modest rather than transformative,” Stasielowicz explained. “Approaches that directly fact-check specific conspiracy claims and carefully examine dates, timelines, quotations, numbers, and internal contradictions tend to be more effective than approaches such as ridicule or the teaching of general scepticism rules.”
“However, we must be careful. Since not every conspiracy theory is necessarily wrong, public institutions, influencers, and researchers need to avoid automatically dismissing discussions as conspiracy theorizing and instead focus on clearly documenting what is and is not supported by evidence.”
The characteristics of the sample population appeared to influence susceptibility to these interventions. The results showed that interventions tended to be more effective among students compared to the general population. Younger participants also appeared more willing to revise their beliefs than older individuals.
Additionally, the analysis provided some evidence that samples with a lower proportion of college graduates showed larger reductions in conspiracy beliefs. This might suggest that individuals with higher levels of formal education hold their non-standard beliefs more rigidly, or perhaps that the specific interventions used were better suited for general audiences.
The measurement tools used by researchers also affected the observed outcomes. Studies that employed longer questionnaires with multiple items to assess conspiracy beliefs tended to detect larger effects than those relying on single-item measures. This implies that nuanced changes in attitude might be missed by overly simplistic survey instruments. The analysis also indicated that interventions were slightly more effective when the baseline level of conspiracy belief was moderate to high, rather than low.
“As we know from everyday experiences, belief change is hard, and conspiracy beliefs are no exception,” Stasielowicz told PsyPost. “Interventions work like dimming a light rather than completely switching it on and off; they facilitate belief change rather than completely transforming people's minds. They are unlikely to fully convince firm believers to completely reject conspiracy theories, but even slightly lowering beliefs in implausible conspiracy theories may matter at the population level for outcomes like vaccine uptake or peaceful transfer of power after elections. Still, these modest effects highlight how much room there is to improve interventions.”
Stasielowicz identified several limitations within the existing body of research. A significant portion of the included studies were classified as having a high risk of bias. This is largely because it is difficult to blind participants to the purpose of an intervention when they are being presented with arguments against specific conspiracy theories. If participants guess the goal of the study, they may alter their responses.
The meta-analysis also highlighted that many studies were underpowered, meaning they did not include enough participants to reliably detect small effects. This lack of statistical power can lead to an overestimation of effects in published literature.
Additionally, the vast majority of studies only measured immediate changes in belief. There is a scarcity of data regarding whether these reductions in conspiracy thinking persist over days, weeks, or months. The researcher notes that without longitudinal data, it is difficult to determine if these interventions provide lasting benefits or merely temporary shifts in opinion.
“A common misunderstanding is to treat the ‘average effect' as if it describes every study, when in reality, some interventions helped more effectively than others,” Stasielowicz noted. “Many existing studies focus on short-term impact, are often underpowered, and are at high risk of bias. More high-quality, long-term studies are needed, especially on specific design features that so far have been examined only in a handful of experiments, such as the use of LLM chatbots to reduce conspiracy beliefs.”
“A key long-term goal is to identify which specific intervention components actually drive belief change so that future interventions can be shorter, less costly, and more tailored. By combining this meta-analysis with my review of the characteristics of people who believe in conspiracy theories, it should be possible to test whether certain groups benefit more from particular intervention strategies and whether personalization adds value.”
“The article is open access, so anyone – including practitioners, journalists, and interested readers – can read the comprehensive results for free,” the researcher added. “The study offers concrete guidance on how to design the most promising interventions, for example, by tailoring messages to specific conspiracy claims.”
The study, “The Effectiveness of Interventions Addressing Conspiracy Beliefs: A Meta-Analysis,” was authored by Lukasz Stasielowicz.
Login to your account below
Remember Me
Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.
- Select Visibility -PublicPrivate
Trump's calls for a takeover of Greenland puts open scientific collaboration that is helping our understanding of the threat of global sea-level rise at risk.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
A 30-minute stroll across New York's Central Park separates Trump Tower from the American Museum of Natural History. If the US president ever found himself inside the museum he could see the Cape York meteorite: a 58-tonne mass of iron taken from northwest Greenland and sold in 1897 by the explorer Robert Peary, with the help of local Inuit guides.
For centuries before Danish colonisation, the people of Greenland had used fragments of the meteorite to make tools and hunting equipment. Peary removed that resource from local control, ultimately selling the meteorite for an amount equivalent to just US$1.5 million today. It was a transaction as one-sided as anything the president may now be contemplating.
But Donald Trump is now eyeing a prize much larger than a meteorite. His advocacy of the US taking control of Greenland, possibly by force, signals a shift from dealmaking to dominance. The scientific cost would be severe. A unilateral US takeover threatens to disrupt the open scientific collaboration that is helping us understand the threat of global sea-level rise.
Greenland is sovereign in everything other than defence and foreign policy, but by being part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it is included within Nato. As with any nation, access to its land and coastal waters is tightly controlled through permits that specify where work may take place and what activities are allowed.
Over many decades, Greenland has granted international scientists access to help unlock the environmental secrets preserved within its ice, rocks and seabed. US researchers have been among the main beneficiaries, drilling deep into the ice to explain the historic link between carbon dioxide and temperatures, or flying repeated Nasa missions to map the land beneath the ice sheet.
The whole world owes a huge debt of thanks to both Greenland and the US, very often in collaboration with other nations, for this scientific progress conducted openly and fairly. It is essential that such work continues.
Research shows that around 80% of Greenland is covered by a colossal ice sheet which, if fully melted, would raise sea level globally by about 7 metres (the height of a two storey house). That ice is melting at an accelerating rate as the world warms, releasing vast amounts of freshwater into the North Atlantic, potentially disrupting the ocean circulation that moderates the climate across the northern hemisphere.
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
The remaining 20% of Greenland is still roughly the size of Germany. Geological surveys have revealed a wealth of minerals, but economics dictates that these will most likely be used to power the green transition rather than prolong the fossil fuel era.
While coal deposits exist, they are currently too expensive to extract and sell, and no major oil fields have been discovered. Instead, the commercial focus is on "critical minerals": high-value materials used in renewable technologies from wind turbines to electric car batteries. Greenland therefore holds both scientific knowledge and materials that can help guide us away from climate disaster.
Trump has shown little interest in climate action, however. Having already started to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement for a second time, he announced in January 2026 the country would also leave the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the global scientific body that assesses the impacts of continued fossil-fuel burning. His rhetoric to date has been about acquiring Greenland for "security" purposes, with some indications of accessing its mineral wealth, but without mention of vital climate research.
Under the 1951 Greenland defence agreement with Denmark, the US already has a remote military base at Pituffik in northern Greenland, now focused on space activities. While both countries remain in Nato, the agreement already allows the US to expand its military presence if required. Seeking to guarantee US security in Greenland outside Nato would undermine the existing pact, while a unilateral takeover would risk scientists in the rest of the world losing access to one of the most important climate research sites.
Greenland's sovereign status and its governance is different to some other notable polar research locations. For example, Antarctica has, for more than 60 years, been governed through an international treaty ensuring the continent remains a place of peace and science, and protecting it from mining and other environmental damage.
Svalbard, on the other hand, has Norwegian sovereignty courtesy of the 1920 Svalbard treaty but operates a largely visafree system that allows citizens of nearly 50 countries to live and work on the archipelago, as long as they abide by Norwegian law. Interestingly, Norway claims that scientific activities are not covered by the treaty, to almost universal disagreement among other parties. Russia has a permanent station at Barentsburg, Svalbard's second-largest settlement, from which small levels of coal are mined.
Unlike Antarctica or Svalbard, Greenland has no treaty that explicitly protects access for international scientists. Its openness to research therefore depends not on international law, but on Greenland's continued political stability and openness – all of which may be threatened by US control.
If it is minded to take a radical approach, Greenland could develop its own treaty-style approach with selected partner states through Nato, enabling security cooperation, mineral assessment and scientific research to be carried out collaboratively under Greenlandic regulations.
—Greenland is twisting, tensing and shrinking due to the 'ghosts' of melted ice sheets
—Huge ice dome in Greenland vanished 7,000 years ago — melting at temperatures we're racing toward today
—Catastrophic tipping point in Greenland reached as crystal blue lakes turn brown, belch out carbon dioxide
The future for Greenland should lie with Greenlanders and with Denmark. The future of climate science, and the transition to a safe prosperous future worldwide, relies on continued access to the island on terms set by the people that live there. The Cape York meteorite – taken from a site just 60 miles away from the US Pituffik Space Base – is a reminder of how easily that control can be lost.
This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Prof. Martin Siegert FRSE is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter and Chair of The UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnerships committee. Previously he was a Professor at Imperial College London and Co-Director of the Grantham Institute since May 2014, where he now holds a visiting professorship. Before that he was Head of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, where he is now an honorary Professor. Martin led the Lake Ellsworth Consortium – a UK-NERC funded programme that designed an experiment to explore a large subglacial lake beneath the ice of West Antarctica and is the UK PI on the International ICECAP programme that has deployed medium range geophysical flights in Antarctica since 2008.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Please login or signup to comment
Please wait...
A high-profile UAP whistleblower known as Gerb has detonated a political bombshell by accusing a powerful 'secret club' of running America's UFO cover-up from behind closed doors, linking the Pentagon's anomaly office to one of the most influential science laboratories in the world.
According to Gerb, a mysterious metallic object recovered in Ohio and handed to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2024 was not treated as neutral scientific evidence, but instead became part of a tightly controlled system designed to sanitise uncomfortable truths about unidentified aerial phenomena.
His claims suggest that senior defence figures, corporate contractors and federal scientists have been rotating between the same elite institutions, raising explosive questions about whether the American public is being deliberately kept in the dark about possible non-human technology.
In 2024, AARO, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, contracted Oak Ridge National Laboratory to examine a peculiar metallic specimen recovered from private land in Ohio.
The material was reported to have unusual properties that did not align neatly with known earthly alloys, sparking intense interest among UAP researchers. Instead of transparent findings, AARO later issued a brief statement suggesting the sample was likely ordinary. Gerb blasted this conclusion as rushed and politically motivated, arguing that Oak Ridge had been chosen precisely because of its close ties to defence contractors rather than its independence.
Gerb's most damaging claim centres on former AARO chief Sean Kirkpatrick, who left his government role in December 2023 to become Chief Technology Officer for Defence and Intelligence Programs at Oak Ridge. Gerb argues this creates an obvious conflict of interest, since Kirkpatrick had previously overseen which materials AARO sent for analysis, including the Ohio specimen.
The controversy deepened when Oak Ridge quietly removed a webpage celebrating Kirkpatrick's appointment, while he failed to list the senior position on his public CV. To Gerb, this is not coincidence, but evidence of image management and hidden alliances.
Gerb also pointed to former Undersecretary of Defence for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, who deleted his past position on Battelle's board from his official biography. This is crucial because Oak Ridge is operated by UT-Battelle, a subsidiary of Battelle itself. In Gerb's view, this means the same corporate ecosystem effectively oversees both the investigation of UAP evidence and the Pentagon office meant to scrutinise it. He describes this as a 'closed loop of power' where the same players control funding, research, and public narratives.
UAP advocates have rallied behind Gerb, accusing AARO of acting more like a disinformation machine than a truth-seeking body. Supporters online have hailed him as a legend for exposing what they see as a coordinated effort to downplay anomalies and label everything mundane. One commenter claimed AARO will never address this for reasons that should be obvious, while others argued taxpayers are being misled while paying for secrecy.
Defenders of AARO insist that movement between government, academia and defence labs is normal in national security work, and that Oak Ridge remains one of the most capable scientific facilities in the world. Yet the deleted webpages, altered CVs and tight control over findings have only fuelled suspicion.
For now, the Ohio specimen remains shrouded in classification, and the full Oak Ridge analysis has never been released to the public. What Gerb has achieved, however, is far more significant than a single metal sample. He has shifted the UFO debate away from blurry skies and towards the corridors of power, where influence, secrecy and corporate ties collide.
© Copyright IBTimes 2025. All rights reserved.
Shambhala is a Telugu supernatural horror film that unfolds in a remote village during the 1980s.
Shambhala online on Aha Video from January 22, 2026
Photo Credit: Aha
Telugu film Shambhala is soon reaching your home through OTT! It was released on December 25, 2025 and has made a good collection at the box office in terms of the budget invested in it. It is a supernatural horror movie set in the 1980s, where a meteor crashes near a village, Shambhala. After that, many disturbing moments have happened that affect the village due to the illness caused by the plague. There is a scientist who comes to investigate the situation to examine the reason.
You can see Shambhala online on Aha Video from January 22, 2026, if you missed watching it in the theatre.
The movie is about a spooky incident happening in a village named Shambhala, where a meteor crashed. Villagers start suffering from plague, and a scientist, named Vikram, comes to investigate the situation and finds the reason behind it. The villagers behave in a different way. Some of them hurt themselves, while many kill themselves in a very aggressive way. Villagers are superstitious, while Vikram only believes in Science. They say that it could be some evil force. Further, he finds the secret,s and it's interesting to know what it is.
Shambhala has Aadi Saikumar as Vikram, Archana Iyer as Devi, Swasika as Vasantha, Ravi Varma as Ramulu, Ramaraju as Priest, Shiju AR as Village President and others. It has been written and directed by Ugandhar Muni.
The movie has received many recognitions with an IMDb rating of 8.1. The movie is a battle between science and superstition, so it was well accepted by viewers.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.
The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. more
A giant alien statue in New Mexico is shown in this picture. Alien Con promises speakers, vendors, and alien-themed fun at the Prestige Event Center this April.
HEBER — The Imperial Valley is set to experience the first-ever Alien Con UFO & Extraterrestrial Conference on April 18 at the Prestige Event Center in Heber. The event is bringing together authors, experiencers, military veterans, and speakers from across the country to discuss extraterrestrial encounters and unidentified flying objects.
The event is organized by Pedro Leon, a lifelong Imperial Valley resident and author of “My UFO Diaries,” who said the idea originated from conversations he had while attending Comic-Con events.
“I asked everyone, 'What do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said.
Leon said his interest in UFOs stems from what he describes as multiple first encounters, beginning in the early 2000s.
“I had a close encounter, probably encounters, and I mean, people are coming out of the closet now,” he said. “People are telling me the stories now.”
According to Leon, the panelists for the Alien Con will share firsthand experiences. One speaker, he said, is a former pilot who witnessed unexplained objects while flying.
“All this stuff they show on TV,” Leon told the Imperial Valley Press. “She has seen it while she was a pilot.”
Aside from the speakers, the conference will feature vendor booths, children's activities, face painting, a tattoo artist, and themed attractions, such as customized golf carts converted to resemble UFOs.
Leon said he has witnessed multiple UFOs and believes there is a portal near Tecate, Mexico.
Leon partnered with the Prestige Event Center owner, Jason Heisel, whom he has known for years through community events.
“I said. ‘Hey, what do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said, stating that Heisel proposed to host the event at Prestige Event Center.
He hopes the event appeals not only to believers but also to skeptics. He believes public attitudes towards UFOs have shifted. He also addressed the criticism he has received online.
“They call me a demon or say that I'm crazy and stuff like that. I hate to say this, but I have to say it in my defense. People believe in a God they've never seen,” Leon countered.
“Aliens are in the Bible; they're known as Fallen Angels,” Leon continued. “They didn't know what else to call them.“
Leon said there is no way for humans to be the only life force in a huge galaxy with millions of stars and planets.
“Impossible for us to be the only ones. You're not seeing them. I've seen a little green man,” he said.
Leon shared an account of an experience he had in 2004, which he said involved paralysis and seeing a small figure in his bedroom.
“My body went into this, like a tingling sensation. It was crazy. And then my body froze. I couldn't move my body, but I could move my eyes, so I've been through this before,” he said.
“He was at the edge of my feet. He's about three or four feet tall. He's just standing there,” Leon recalled. “We just looked at each other. For how long? I don't know. And then all I know is that I wake up in the morning.”
Leon believes extraterrestrial encounters may follow his family lines and referenced indigenous rock art and ancestral stories as possible evidence of long-standing contact. “I've seen the drawings on the wall, in the mountains,” he said, noting that he belongs to the Apache Tribe.
Leon hopes the event will become a yearly gathering in the Valley.
“I hope from here to eternity. I'm not around. Maybe somebody else will pick up the torch,” he said.
Leon told the Imperial Valley Press he is also trying to organize a monthly UFO club in Imperial Valley.
Alien Con tickets are available online or at the door, and a family package is offered. Vendor spaces are available as well.
“Someday you will see something that will change your mind,” Leon said.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Abundant sunshine. High 82F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
A few passing clouds. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Partly cloudy skies. High 79F. Winds light and variable.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Keep in touch with the events going on in our community.
Imported List: Today's Headlines
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
A giant alien statue in New Mexico is shown in this picture. Alien Con promises speakers, vendors, and alien-themed fun at the Prestige Event Center this April.
HEBER — The Imperial Valley is set to experience the first-ever Alien Con UFO & Extraterrestrial Conference on April 18 at the Prestige Event Center in Heber. The event is bringing together authors, experiencers, military veterans, and speakers from across the country to discuss extraterrestrial encounters and unidentified flying objects.
The event is organized by Pedro Leon, a lifelong Imperial Valley resident and author of “My UFO Diaries,” who said the idea originated from conversations he had while attending Comic-Con events.
“I asked everyone, 'What do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said.
Leon said his interest in UFOs stems from what he describes as multiple first encounters, beginning in the early 2000s.
“I had a close encounter, probably encounters, and I mean, people are coming out of the closet now,” he said. “People are telling me the stories now.”
According to Leon, the panelists for the Alien Con will share firsthand experiences. One speaker, he said, is a former pilot who witnessed unexplained objects while flying.
“All this stuff they show on TV,” Leon told the Imperial Valley Press. “She has seen it while she was a pilot.”
Aside from the speakers, the conference will feature vendor booths, children's activities, face painting, a tattoo artist, and themed attractions, such as customized golf carts converted to resemble UFOs.
Leon said he has witnessed multiple UFOs and believes there is a portal near Tecate, Mexico.
Leon partnered with the Prestige Event Center owner, Jason Heisel, whom he has known for years through community events.
“I said. ‘Hey, what do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said, stating that Heisel proposed to host the event at Prestige Event Center.
He hopes the event appeals not only to believers but also to skeptics. He believes public attitudes towards UFOs have shifted. He also addressed the criticism he has received online.
“They call me a demon or say that I'm crazy and stuff like that. I hate to say this, but I have to say it in my defense. People believe in a God they've never seen,” Leon countered.
“Aliens are in the Bible; they're known as Fallen Angels,” Leon continued. “They didn't know what else to call them.“
Leon said there is no way for humans to be the only life force in a huge galaxy with millions of stars and planets.
“Impossible for us to be the only ones. You're not seeing them. I've seen a little green man,” he said.
Leon shared an account of an experience he had in 2004, which he said involved paralysis and seeing a small figure in his bedroom.
“My body went into this, like a tingling sensation. It was crazy. And then my body froze. I couldn't move my body, but I could move my eyes, so I've been through this before,” he said.
“He was at the edge of my feet. He's about three or four feet tall. He's just standing there,” Leon recalled. “We just looked at each other. For how long? I don't know. And then all I know is that I wake up in the morning.”
Leon believes extraterrestrial encounters may follow his family lines and referenced indigenous rock art and ancestral stories as possible evidence of long-standing contact. “I've seen the drawings on the wall, in the mountains,” he said, noting that he belongs to the Apache Tribe.
Leon hopes the event will become a yearly gathering in the Valley.
“I hope from here to eternity. I'm not around. Maybe somebody else will pick up the torch,” he said.
Leon told the Imperial Valley Press he is also trying to organize a monthly UFO club in Imperial Valley.
Alien Con tickets are available online or at the door, and a family package is offered. Vendor spaces are available as well.
“Someday you will see something that will change your mind,” Leon said.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Abundant sunshine. High 82F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
A few passing clouds. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Partly cloudy skies. High 79F. Winds light and variable.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Keep in touch with the events going on in our community.
Imported List: Today's Headlines
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
A giant alien statue in New Mexico is shown in this picture. Alien Con promises speakers, vendors, and alien-themed fun at the Prestige Event Center this April.
HEBER — The Imperial Valley is set to experience the first-ever Alien Con UFO & Extraterrestrial Conference on April 18 at the Prestige Event Center in Heber. The event is bringing together authors, experiencers, military veterans, and speakers from across the country to discuss extraterrestrial encounters and unidentified flying objects.
The event is organized by Pedro Leon, a lifelong Imperial Valley resident and author of “My UFO Diaries,” who said the idea originated from conversations he had while attending Comic-Con events.
“I asked everyone, 'What do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said.
Leon said his interest in UFOs stems from what he describes as multiple first encounters, beginning in the early 2000s.
“I had a close encounter, probably encounters, and I mean, people are coming out of the closet now,” he said. “People are telling me the stories now.”
According to Leon, the panelists for the Alien Con will share firsthand experiences. One speaker, he said, is a former pilot who witnessed unexplained objects while flying.
“All this stuff they show on TV,” Leon told the Imperial Valley Press. “She has seen it while she was a pilot.”
Aside from the speakers, the conference will feature vendor booths, children's activities, face painting, a tattoo artist, and themed attractions, such as customized golf carts converted to resemble UFOs.
Leon said he has witnessed multiple UFOs and believes there is a portal near Tecate, Mexico.
Leon partnered with the Prestige Event Center owner, Jason Heisel, whom he has known for years through community events.
“I said. ‘Hey, what do you think about the Alien Con?'” Leon said, stating that Heisel proposed to host the event at Prestige Event Center.
He hopes the event appeals not only to believers but also to skeptics. He believes public attitudes towards UFOs have shifted. He also addressed the criticism he has received online.
“They call me a demon or say that I'm crazy and stuff like that. I hate to say this, but I have to say it in my defense. People believe in a God they've never seen,” Leon countered.
“Aliens are in the Bible; they're known as Fallen Angels,” Leon continued. “They didn't know what else to call them.“
Leon said there is no way for humans to be the only life force in a huge galaxy with millions of stars and planets.
“Impossible for us to be the only ones. You're not seeing them. I've seen a little green man,” he said.
Leon shared an account of an experience he had in 2004, which he said involved paralysis and seeing a small figure in his bedroom.
“My body went into this, like a tingling sensation. It was crazy. And then my body froze. I couldn't move my body, but I could move my eyes, so I've been through this before,” he said.
“He was at the edge of my feet. He's about three or four feet tall. He's just standing there,” Leon recalled. “We just looked at each other. For how long? I don't know. And then all I know is that I wake up in the morning.”
Leon believes extraterrestrial encounters may follow his family lines and referenced indigenous rock art and ancestral stories as possible evidence of long-standing contact. “I've seen the drawings on the wall, in the mountains,” he said, noting that he belongs to the Apache Tribe.
Leon hopes the event will become a yearly gathering in the Valley.
“I hope from here to eternity. I'm not around. Maybe somebody else will pick up the torch,” he said.
Leon told the Imperial Valley Press he is also trying to organize a monthly UFO club in Imperial Valley.
Alien Con tickets are available online or at the door, and a family package is offered. Vendor spaces are available as well.
“Someday you will see something that will change your mind,” Leon said.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Abundant sunshine. High 82F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
A few passing clouds. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Partly cloudy skies. High 79F. Winds light and variable.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Keep in touch with the events going on in our community.
Imported List: Today's Headlines
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: